In a new interview with Scott Penfold of Loaded Radio, Skid Row’s guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo talked about the highly anticipated new album.
He said:
“We’re excited about it, obviously.”
“It’s a record that’s been taking a while to do. But the prospect of working with a guy like Nick Raskulinecz was just something that… You go along in this business and all of a sudden it gives you a gift. And that gift was Nick. And Nick is someone that we had a high regard for before we even met him. His resume speaks for itself. I just never realized how talented of a musician he is, a producer, a songwriter, an engineer. He’s proficient in so many areas. It’s not like he’s a jack of all trades, master of none; he’s a jack of all trades and master of all. It’s pretty wild. And being in a room with a guy like that, he’s constantly challenging you, but not in an abrasive, condescending way at all; more like in a very encouraging way, like, ‘Come on, dude. You got this. Let’s go further. I know you’ve got more in you.’ And you find yourself going, ‘You know what? I do. And we do.’ And we wanna collectively push as far as we can go to make the song and the performance something that he goes, ‘Yeah. That’s it.’ You wanna please the guy. And at this stage of our lives, in our careers, it’s really rare that you get to meet up with somebody like that who has such a positive influence on you. It really shows you — it helps you to see who you are at your core. And that worked for us as individuals as well as collectively.”
Sabo continued:
“Sitting in a room, everybody jamming together and having him walking around the room and listening to everything that we’re doing and then throwing out ideas and trying out ideas, that just spurs creativity; it’s infectious. And all of a sudden everybody’s coming up with [ideas], like, ‘Why don’t we try this?’ And everyone’s involved in the process. And it’s so creatively satisfying when you’re all building toward something that’s greater than the sum of the parts, if you will. And then to hear that come to fruition in the recording of it, everything sounds so good and so fresh to me.
“Everybody says that about their records, though,” Snake added.
“No one’s gonna sit there and go, ‘Wow. We just made a sh*tty record.’ But for me, this process was so valuable. To me, as a creative musician, as a songwriter, as a guitar player, as a person in a band, it was tremendously, like I said, challenging, but really, really satisfying in so many ways. And to have a growth spurt in the 36th year of your band is pretty amazing. Usually all the growth is gone by then. And so this was a well-needed and well-timed collaboration.”