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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
Tracii Guns and Phil Lewis announced late last year that they
had re-united and would be releasing a new L.A. Guns album. They
played inBelfast earlier this year as part of a tour of the UK and
Ireland (a gig I missed unfortunately as I was unwell at the
time) and on 13th Octoberreleased the album “The Missing Peace”
through Frontiers Music. L.A Guns return to the UK as part of a
European tour in November.
I arranged to speak to singer Phil Lewis by phone on 17th
October just a few hours after the band returned from a successful
trip to Japan. Wespoke about the new album and more and you can
hear what was said, along with four tracks from that album on the
Friday NI Rocks Showfrom 20th Oct 2017. This is available from our
MixCloud site -
https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interview-with-phil-lewis-from-la-guns-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-20th-oct-2017/
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https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interview-with-phil-lewis-from-la-guns-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-20th-oct-2017/https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interview-with-phil-lewis-from-la-guns-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-20th-oct-2017/
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
The interview will be transcribed and posted below soon.
L.A. Guns are Philip Lewis on vocals, Tracii Guns and Michael
Grant on guitars, Johnny Martin on bass and Shane Fitzgibbon on
drums.
Check out the website for more info -
https://www.lagunsmusic.com/
Playlist for The Show
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https://www.lagunsmusic.com/
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
TRUCKER DIABLO – Lets Just Ride
BIGFOOT – Karma
STONE SOUR – Rose Red Violent Blue
TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN – Aftershock
L.A. GUNS – Speed
Interview with Phil Lewis Part 1 (6 min)
L.A. GUNS – The Missing Peace
Interview with Phil Lewis Part 2 (5 min)
L.A. GUNS – The Flood’s The Fault of the Rain
Interview with Phil Lewis Part 3 (8 min)
L.A. GUNS – The Devil Made Me Do It
STONE TRIGGER – Edge of Insanity
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
TYKETTO – Wings (Live)
PINK CREAM 69 – Man of Sorrow
ROSCO’S RIOT – Sweet Midnight
KISS – I Was Made For Lovin’ You (Live)
ALICE COOPER – Love’s A Loaded Gun
RICKY WARWICK – When Patsy Cline Was Crazy and Guy Mitchell Sang
The Blues
CINDERELLA – Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone)
{youtube}WxzNSEyQfAw{/youtube}
4 / 14
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
NI ROCKS – Hi Phil, thanks for taking some time to talk to Rock
Radio NI. The new L.A. Guns album “The Missing Peace” was released
lastFriday and we just played the track “Speed” which was the first
single from the album I think. Tell us something about that
track?
PHIL – That was the first single from the record and it was one
of the first batch of songs that we wrote when we went into
pre-production. Thatwas one of the earliest songs and it was pretty
obvious that it was going to be the first singles. It’s great, it
does exactly what an L.A. Guns songis supposed to do. It comes
right out from gate, at 100mph. It gives a little nod to my
favourite band Deep Purple and it’s a lot of fun.
NI ROCKS – Where was the album recorded and who did you work
with for production, mixing etc?
PHIL – This is a new kind of record – we did it the new way. The
drums were recorded in a big warehouse as they are traditionally
supposed tobe. A lot of it was recorded in Tracii’s garage. Most of
the guitars were recorded at his place. I did a couple of vocals
over at his place – I did“Christine”, “The Devil Made Me Do It” and
“...Knife to a Gunfight” the Michael Grant song at Tracii’s garage.
It’s a nice garage. I did the rest ofthe vocals with Mitch Davis at
Push Studios in New York City over the space of four days. Then we
got all the files and mixed it all together andsent it off for
mastering. It was very fragmented in the way it was recorded but it
all came together nicely. Just as a point of reference – thisalbum
cost less to make than we had on our catering budget for “Hollywood
Vampires” (1991). (Laughs)
NI ROCKS – How long did it take you then from start to
finish?
PHIL – A couple of months. Most of the time was spent composing
the songs and picking out which ones we were going to do. Once
we’dpicked the 10 to 12 songs that we were going to go with it went
pretty quickly. Then we did that in about 8 weeks.
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
NI ROCKS – Were all the tracks written by you and Tracii in the
period after you announced you were getting back together?
PHIL – No, all the tracks were not written by me and Tracii.
It’s very much a band effort. The lyrics for “Christine”, Shane our
drummer wrote.“Sticky Fingers” is a Johnny Martin composition and
“..Knife To A Gunfight” and “The Devil Made Me Do It” are Michael
Grant songs. So it wasvery much a group effort. We all collaborated
and helped each other out. That makes so much a better album.
They’re such good musiciansand they’re all great songwriters in
their own way. I think it was smart to get them involved in the
composition and it’s more fun for them as well.
NI ROCKS – There are 12 tracks on the album – had you written
more than that and have you continued to write new tracks?
PHIL – Oh yeah, there’s more than that. There are several more
than that and good ones too. It was important for this album to be
multifacetedand we didn’t want it to be samey. A couple of the
songs we left off were great, but a little bit the same as
something we already had on there. Alot of band like AC/DC or
Motorhead like that one-dimensional sound and that’s what the fans
like. We’re not like that; we’re more in the DeepPurple, Led
Zeppelin vein of mixing it up - having a folk type song, going into
a full-on Dio metal attack. It keeps it interesting for us
andinteresting for our fans.
NI ROCKS – The album title “The Missing Peace” comes from the
song of the same name. We’ll play that track next. Can you tell us
about thatsong and the relevance of the title?
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
PHIL – Well you’d have to explain to our listeners how “Peace”
is spelt – P.E.A.C.E – that’s a double entendre. For me and Tracii,
we hadn’tseen each other or played in over ten years. We were both
doing alright; we were both playing and making records. But nobody
I have everworked with has the same chemistry or makes me work as
hard as Tracii. If I was an amp, he’d push me to 11. I think that
he feels the sameway about me and it’s just great to bury the
hatchet, to come back together, be mates again and to make such a
refreshing, fun, power record.
NI ROCKS – Your last album with Tracii was “Waking The Dead”
back in 2002. Do you think the new album reflects that album more
closelythat it does perhaps the “LA Guns” or “Cocked and Loaded”
albums?
PHIL – I don’t know. I’m very proud of “Waking The Dead” and we
do play a few songs from that live. It was unfortunate that the
shit hit the fanwhen it did and we didn’t really get the chance to
promote it, because it is a really, really good record. Me and
Tracii took “The Missing Peace”and where “Waking The Dead” ended,
we wanted to pick it up. But, we’re getting a lot of people saying
that it’s like something that would havecome out after “Cocked and
Loaded”. So it has that as well. It’s a new modern record, but it
has that vintage vibe without sounding nostalgic.
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
NI ROCKS – There have been a few LA Guns revivals over the years
involving both you and Tracii. Does this one feel different and in
whatway?
PHIL – Yeah, this is different, because we’ve both been in the
wilderness for a long time and we’ve both grown up a lot since we
were together.We’re better people and better musicians. We’ve
already started talking about the next record. I do see this as
being a solid, long term project;unless of course the Red Hot
Chilli Peppers call him up and ask him to join (laughs). No, it
feels good.
NI ROCKS – You’re playing a few dates in England ahead of a
European tour in November. How many tracks from the new album will
befeatured on that tour?
PHIL – That’s a good question. We usually play 2 or 3 songs from
the new record and of course you’re always taking a chance when you
playnew stuff because you never know how it’s going to go down; but
so far the ones that we have played live have gone down very well.
“Speed”you only need to hear once! We wouldn’t go out and play “The
Missing Peace” because it’s such an epic, almost classical
composition. Whatwe’re doing, because we’ve got two nights in
London, we’re going to be playing 2 or 3 songs from the album each
night, but different ones; sothat we’ll be playing 6 new ones but
over the space of a couple of nights.
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
NI ROCKS – We mentioned the upcoming European tour. What plans
do L.A. Guns have beyond that?
PHIL – The album was supposed to come out in June, but we missed
our deadline. We had a tour built around the supposed release, so
weworked our asses off and toured, even though it didn’t come out.
Then around September we came off the road for a bit. I just got
back fromJapan last night. We played an amazing show over in Tokyo
– the biggest festival Loud Park. We had an amazing 25,000 rabid
fans and lovedevery minute of it. Now that the album is released
we’re trying to do as many shows as we can to promote it before the
new year. We do ourtraditional new year show in The Whiskey on
Sunset. Then we’ve got the Monsters of Rock Cruise and we’re going
to be playing Australia andNew Zealand. We’ve played Australia
before, but we’re going over to New Zealand for the first time
early next year. It’s getting back into a reallyserious touring
regime. I’m looking forward to it!
NI ROCKS – We’ll play another track from the new album now.
Perhaps you’d like to pick one and tell us something about it.
PHIL – We’ll pick “The Flood’s The Fault of the Rain”. It’s a
different kind of song for L.A. Guns. You can clearly hear there’s
an influence, anEric Burdon and The Animals influence. It has a
“House of the Rising Sun” vibe, but obviously it’s not. We gave the
nod to Deep Purple on“Speed” so we’re leaving lots of hints on our
influences on this record. Who doesn’t love “House of the Rising
Sun”, so it’s our homage to TheAnimals.
{youtube} de7RPHnXp-c{/youtube}
9 / 14
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
NI ROCKS – Your first band was Girl in England back in the late
70’s and early 80’s. The original albums still seem to be available
fromAmazon. They were originally released on Jet Records and are
now available through Sanctuary Records I believe. There were
another two livealbums released a few years ago – were you involved
in the release of those?
PHIL – No, not at all. I know nothing whatsoever about that.
“Sheer Greed” (the first Girl album in 1980) I loved and which was
great fun. Therewere different bands that came out at that time,
like Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, and you just knew they were going
to be around forever; theywere going to be epic. If they were
literary, they’d be like a five set novel. Girl was a poem, a one
page poem, and a cheeky, dirty one. It wasnever supposed to be
long-term and “Sheer Greed” really, really captures it. Don Arden
fucked us over so bad by the time of the second record( “Wasted
Youth” 1982). We came out inthat New Wave of British Heavy Metal
and the label, especially Don, were so insistent that we become a
heavy metal band. And we weren’t andit was fucking miserable. For
me it sounds like a heroin, misery-fuelled record and I’m not
terribly proud of it. But that first one is a gem. All thelive
stuff is probably ex-band members trying to make a few bucks.
NI ROCKS – I think there are four different live albums now in
the last ten years or so.
PHIL – Yeah, nothing to do with me. Probably sound like rubbish
too.
NI ROCKS – Sticking with those early days, what singers were
influencing you back then and can you remember what the first gig
that you wentto was?
PHIL – My huge influences were Steve Marriott, who sang like
Aretha Franklin, and my idol who ended up becoming my best mate
Gary Holton
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
from the Heavy Metal Kids. Gary was a really good singer, but a
phenomenal front-man. I got my singing chops from listening to
Steve Marriottsinging “Black Coffee” ( as Humble Pie front-man) and
I got all my cheeky stage patois from Gary Holton.
NI ROCKS – And the first gig that you went to?
PHIL – Yeah, it was Black Sabbath with Uriah Heep opening for
them at the Royal Albert Hall, in around 1972 I think. I lived over
in Bayswaterand I walked across Hyde Park to get to it, then ran
across in the pitch black, and my ears were ringing all the way
home. I got flipped in the eyeby Ozzy’s fringe jacket and it was
the greatest night of my life!
NI ROCKS – And what do you find yourself listening to now? Is it
mainly older stuff or do you check-out some of the younger bands
out there?
PHIL – I’ve gotten back into vinyl and I do a lot of record
shopping. I listen to most things, but when I’m home mostly, 90% of
the time it’s vinyland I really love that ‘70’s stuff – The Doobie
Brothers, Thin Lizzy, Yes, 10CC. I’ve had a lot of fun over the
last few years restocking myselection. I’m up to about 1,000 now
and I always say that’s it I’m done, and I never am. Every time I
go out there’s something I find. When I’mon tour, then it’s a
little different. Then I tend to listen to more modern stuff. It’s
easy now to find new music. It was very hard before the internet.So
a big difference between the styles and types of music I listen to
when I’m at home and when I’m on the road; which is a significant
amountof time.
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
NI ROCKS – Can you remember what the last gig was that you went
to, obviously apart from one of your own?
PHIL – Billy Idol. I saw Billy play the residency in Las Vegas
and it was absolutely amazing. He looked fantastic, he sounded
great. SteveStevens was incredible. He has a great band. It was a
lot of fun. It was very much a Vegas ‘Greatest Hits’ Show, but I
enjoyed it.
NI ROCKS – The new LA Guns album is released through Frontiers.
That label has a reputation for bringing artists together to work
on analbum – Michael Sweet and George Lynch for example – the
priority at the moment is obviously LA Guns, but would you be
interested in doingsomething like that at some point, and is there
anyone in particular you’d like to work with?
PHIL – Before we had the reunion, Tracii already had a deal for
a solo record lined up with Frontiers which morphed into the
reunion and “TheMissing Peace”. They’re a good label and they’ve
been very good to us. I get the feeling that we’re important and
that they’ve really gone out oftheir way for us and this record;
and that’s really nice. It’s maybe not the biggest label and it’s
not going to sell as many copies as “Cocked andLoaded”, but it’s
great to have a label that is enthusiastic and not controlling.
Back in the old days with Polygram it was a nightmare – it was
like‘Spinal Tap’; there were managers, publicists and accountants,
all pushing and pulling and trying to get a piece of the band. All
that is behind usnow and I’ll take this anyday.
NI ROCKS – If they asked you to do a collaboration with another
artist would you think about it?
PHIL – I’d play with Bernie Tormé in a heartbeat. I’d love to do
another record with him
NI ROCKS – Yeah, it’s quite a few years since those two albums
were released (Tormé – “Back to Babylon” 1986 & “Die Pretty,
Die Young”1987 )
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
PHIL – Yeah, I loved it though. It was a great time for me. It
was like going to music university with Bernie. He’s such a clever
guy. He’s so goodin the studio and it was great writing with him.
I’d make another record with him. He’s a great musician and he has
some great stories too.
NI ROCKS – That’s all the questions that I have, thanks for
taking the time to talk to me.
PHIL – It’s my pleasure, thank you for your support. I don’t
know if we have any Irish dates but we’ve got Stone Trigger with
us. Do you knowthose boys?
NI ROCKS – Yes, they’re great guys. We’ll finish with another
track from the new album and again I’ll let you pick one and tell
us somethingabout it.
PHIL – Let’s play “The Devil Made Me Do It”. It’s a great song
and we’re adding it into the set and thinking of making it the
opening song in theset. It’s one of those songs that just hits you
right between the eyes. It’s so powerful that you don’t need to
listen to it a bunch of times to get it,you get it straight away
and it’s one of my favourite songs on the record.
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NI ROCKS Interview with PHIL LEWIS from L.A. GUNS
Written by NI ROCKSThursday, 19 October 2017 00:38 - Last
Updated Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:45
You can find an interview with Tracii Guns from September 2015
on the Rock Radio NI website and on our MixCloud page –
http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/interviews/2196-ni-rocks-interview-with-tracii-guns.html
https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interviews-with-mike-tramp-and-tracii-guns-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-4th-sept-2015/
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interviews/2196-ni-rocks-interview-with-tracii-guns.htmlhttps://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interviews-with-mike-tramp-and-tracii-guns-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-4th-sept-2015/