Interview mit Keith Nelson von Buckcherry / Berlin 09.11. 2013 C-Club - English version interview with Keith Nelson - Buckcherry - Berlin 09.11. 2013 C-Club

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Interview with Keith from Buckcherry

Sandra: You guys are currently touring around with Hardcore Superstar and Venrez, how is that going?

Keith: It’s going great. They are a great band and a good matchup, it’s great to be playing with another rock and roll band, and yea things are going really well, the tour is a lot of fun.

Sandra: Are you guys feeling comfortable in Europe? Is it much different for you?

Keith: I mean it’s definitely different than touring in North America for sure, but the fans have been great here. Obviously it’s not our first time here in Europe and it’s going just as we anticipated. There are great rock fans here in Europe.

Sandra: Is such a small club tour more enjoyable than touring with Kiss or ACDC, or do you prefer the real big tours in the States?

Keith: Those big tours are a lot of fun because you get to play to a lot of people. But these tours I think are really important. We really get to connect with our fans. We get to play for an hour and a half. I don’t prefer one over the other, because they both have a lot of good qualities.

Sandra: The current album "Confessions" is a lot more serious than the others and also mentions the seven deadly sins. Did you guys change direction or was it necessary to create an album more serious than the others?

Keith: Well Josh and I had speaking for quite a while about tackling the seven deadly sins as a concept, and initially the idea was to do seven songs, an EP, a short record, and each one of them be one of the sins . As we started to write the record, we pushed Josh to kind of come up with the story behind them, and that story evolved into him writing what became a screen play for "Confessions", and incorporating some other songs and making a full length record. So we knew it would be a little more serious and darker. I don’t think writing about the seven deadly sins necessarily sets you up for a party record. So we knew it would be a little bit darker, and I think that we wanted to take the opportunity to get the sound of the band exploding with a heavier sound, and a little bit of a darker sound too.

Sandra: We personally totally love it at Metaltalks.de. Which of the seven deadly sins would you consider the most deadly?

Keith: I think Lust is the one that gets most people into trouble. Absolutely.

Sandra: Are you collecting new ideas for upcoming albums while you are on tour, or are you completely switching off and the song writing is taking place at home?

Keith: Always collecting ideas. We finish the songs at home and we do that rather quickly. But we are always collecting ideas.

Sandra: But still, the main part is taking place at home?

Keith: Well yea, there is not a very big focus on new material while we are touring, but when we go home, we have a week off and we get together and we write. So we are always working.

Sandra: Your song "Sorry" made it into the top 10. Would you like to write another song like that one or are you happy with the new material?

Keith: I’m really happy with the new material. I feel like we have had a song like "Sorry" on every one of our records, and finally one of those songs got a lot of recognition. I feel like a song like "Sorry" is part of a well-balanced record. And we have always written songs like that and we will continue to write them and if they go top 10, great! If not, well there are plenty of other songs to listen to.

Sandra: Have you learned anything from working with Slash, personally or musically?

Keith: I mean he is a great guitar player. Any chance you have to play with great musicians, you should take it. It was definitely a learning experience and something that I’m really grateful for having that experience.

Sandra: Do you still have your first guitar?

Keith: I don’t have my first guitar.

Sandra: No?

Keith: No I wish I did. I’ve been known to buy and sell and trade and do a lot of that with my gear. So I don’t have my first guitar.

Sandra: Do you still remember which model it was?

Keith: It was a fender telecaster.

Sandra: And did your parents buy it or did you have to spend your own hard earned money?

Keith: I spent my own money. I think it was actually in a drug deal or something like that. A skateboard and a bag of weed for a guitar, or something like that. I’m just guessing.

Sandra: At what point did you guys realize you had what it takes to storm the charts?

Keith: I don’t know if we ever realized that. It isn’t like you wake up one day and you know. I just know that we worked really fucking hard and no matter what kind of success we have had, we always continued to work harder. We have never sat back and say "Oh we made it! How awesome we are!" We have never been like that. We have always been like we have another record to make and we have more songs to write, we have another tour to do. So there isn’t a lot of sitting around and congratulating ourselves on how good we are. It just doesn’t happen. I think that’s the reason why we have managed to stay a band for so long because we don’t sit back and do that.

Sandra: Sloth is the 9th

th track of the newest album, and is a song that is exposing Josh’s soul. Do work on this kind of song together or is it just one of you guys?

Keith: Yea Josh had that chorus. He wanted to write a song that addressed his father’s suicide and he had the chorus, he didn’t have any music for it and he said he wanted it to go like this and he kind of sang me his melody idea and I made all the music for the song based around what he sang to me.

Sandra: Did Josh have difficulties taking about such a personal topic or was it important for him to get it out in the open?

Keith: I think you know, I’ve known josh for a long time and I’ve known that story about his life long before he ever spoke about it in the press. I think it’s something that he felt there was going to be a right time for him to address it and I think he felt like this was the right time. It put a lot of pressure on me as the records producer and as his song writing partner to make sure I was capturing musically what he was saying lyrically and I think it came together really well actually.

Sandra: Is the new album getting released in 2014 or rather do the fans have to prepare for a waiting time of 3 years?

Keith: I don’t really know what we are going to do. We are definitely working on new material now. We may put something out next year. There is some talk about doing and EP and a full length record and I just know that we are really writing a lot of songs right now and we have been recording in spurts at my house so we will see. I think anything can happen.

Sandra: Well that’s it. That was my last question.

Keith: Ok thank you very much!

Sandra: Thank you so much!

Keith: You are welcome.