EXTREME Guitarist Says The Band Is Disappointed For Not Releasing New Music Since 2008

Ahead of the upcoming Australian tour, EXTREME guitarist Nuno Bettencourt was interviewed by Heavy Magazine. Here are some excerpts (via Blabbermouth):

On whether he had any idea that “More Than Words” would become such a big hit:

Nuno: “To be honest, the ego in you believes of course [it can]. As you’re doing it, especially with songs like ‘More Than Words’ and ‘Hole Hearted’, you think, ‘Man, these could be hits.’ They’re great songs, but they only become hits when the public says they’re hits. When the public says they’re great, they become hits. You don’t really write a hit song — you write a great song, and then if they public decides it’s a hit, they take over from there. The song becomes its own monster. When we were doing that, there was no acoustic stuff out at the time. It was kind of a bit of a risk to do an acoustic song. There was nothing out like that. Radio wasn’t playing [similar songs] — all the ballads were big, produced power ballads of the ’80s. When we were doing the acoustic stuff, the label and radio stations were like, ‘What are we supposed to do with this? Where do we play it? What format?’ A lot of people didn’t weren’t sure it was going to be able to be heard.”

On whether having success with uncharacteristic singles led to any “fan confusion”:

Nuno: “Without a doubt. There were people coming to our shows, seeing us live, in the front row [and] looking at their ticket and making sure they were at the right concert that night. When you buy a ticket to come see ‘More Than Words’ and you open with, like, ‘Decadence Dance’ or ‘Li’l Jack Horny’, they kind of go, ‘Wait, what just happened?'”

On whether the band felt pressure to write similar songs that would replicate the success of their acoustic hits:

Nuno: “We’ve never written anything to have success with it. We’ve written songs that we love. We didn’t write that song to be a hit, and we weren’t about to chase it trying to write another one like it. We just wrote, and we always stuck to that. We still stick to that.”

On EXTREME’s longevity:

Nuno: “We split up for a bit, and we didn’t play for a good eight to ten years. It’s not always roses. It’s hard being in a band. It’s hard being in a relationship like that. But at the end of the day, when you have great fans, as corny as that sounds, if the fans show up and the passion that they have, they’re the ones that make us want to keep going. We can play all we want, but if nobody’s there, if nobody feels anything with what we’re playing, then what’s the purpose?”

On when to expect new music from the group, who haven’t released an album since 2008’s “Saudades De Rock”:

Nuno: “You should have already seen another album — at least two by now, if not three. We’re kind of disappointed in ourselves that we haven’t released something yet, because we have so much material, and we’ve been going back and forth… I’m happy to say that we have a good actual vision right now of what we want to do. We have a good 20, 25 songs that we’re almost wrapped up with. My goal is that by the fall, we have a new album out.”