Don Dokken spoke to Canada’s The Metal Voice about the progress of the songwriting sessions for Dokken‘s new album.

Don said:

“Lucky for us, before I lost the use of my hand to play guitar [in a late 2019 neck and spine surgery], we wrote, like, 17 songs for ‘Broken Bones’. So many of those songs didn’t make it on to the record, so I dug out all my hard drives, and Jon [Levin, guitar] did. Jon‘s a great guitar player. He had a ton of ideas; I’ve had a ton of ideas.

And so Jon‘s just doing the guitar work, and I’m doing the lyrics. Actually, I found three songs I play guitar on that we’re going to keep for the record. We’re working over the Internet, like a lot of people. You get on Zoom or Skype. Jon has a studio in L.A., and I have a studio up here [in New Mexico], and we just exchange ideas. We’re about half done with the record. We’ve got about seven songs so far.”

About the new album musical direction, Don said:

“We’re kind of going retro. I mean, look, you write what you write as a musician — your life changes, the world changes, you write what you write. You’re influenced by new bands and other music. But I know where my bread is buttered as far as the classic Dokken sound, and Jon‘s really good at doing that. And so I said, ‘I think we should write a record between the lines of ‘Tooth And Nail’ [1984] and ‘Under Lock And Key’ [1985].’ And that’s kind of the direction I’m writing in right now.”