Aimee Kristi:
MUSICALLY YOU REMIND ME OF A MIX OF IGGY POP,
SEX PISTOLS AND AC/DC-A COMBINATION OF GENRE'S,
THIS IS NOT A TIME IN THE MUSIC INDUSTRY WHEN ANY BANDS ARE BREAKING IN THOSE MUSICAL STYLES...
I'VE READ SOME PRESS THAT SAYS BUCKCHERRY MAY BE INFLUENTIAL IN BRINGING BACK ASS KICKING HARD ROCK...HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT?
Keith Nelson:
If there's anything I hope we can inspire is real music made by real people and not machines.....
the music we've always loved is great bands, not great machines.
Honestly, I don't think that any member of this band or anyone at our record label
thought of us or our music as 'bringing back rock'. When Josh and I started writing it wasn't
with the intention of that at all. It was simply "let's write music that we dig".
We don't call our style rock or anything at all. We just call it BUCKCHERRY.
Aimee Kristi:
I DON'T KNOW IF YOU'LL AGREE WITH ME BUT MOST OF THE BANDS IN THE LAST DECADE
HAVE RELEASED MUSIC THAT'S LACKING THE BASIC SEX, DRUGS, R-N-R ...YOU KNOW,
THE FUN STUFF HAS SORT OF BEEN OBSOLETE REPLACED WITH MORE SERIOUS, GLOOMY OR INAPT MESSAGES.
MAYBE IT'S THAT PEOPLE ARE MORE UPTIGHT ABOUT CERTAIN THINGS...WHY DID YOU, AND YOUR
LABEL CHOOSE "LIT UP" AS THE FIRST SINGLE TO RELEASE? DIDN'T IT SEEM LIKE A CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC?
Keith Nelson:
I think that the 80's brought such fears about sex and aids and the same with drug use.
I'm not a philosopher by any stretch but I think that now people realize if you practice safe
sex it's okay to be comfortable with sex again. I think however that the whole concepts of sex in
music has been put in the background and with us, we're not afraid to embrace or express those ideals.
Aimee Kristi:
WERE YOU SURPRISED BY THE POSITIVE REACTION YOU GOT FROM RADIO AND THE NEGATIVE
ASPECT OF MTV EDITING YOUR VIDEO IN DIRECT REFERENCE TO THE 'COCAINE' LYRIC?
Keith Nelson:
That's funny because when we began thinking of releasing that song as our
first single we ran some type of radio report using Eric Claptons "Cocaine"
and we saw that all classic rock radio has never stopped spinning that song.
We weren't so apprehensive about "Lit Up". As far as MTV we knew that there was a good chance
that they wouldn't air the video so we shot it accordingly. We didn't spend half a million dollars on our video.
We just went and shot it in a club and basically just shot a live show.
Aimee Kristi:
STEVE JONES FORMERLY OF THE SEX PISTOLS CO-PRODUCED YOUR RECORD. HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?
Keith Nelson: -Josh and I knew him somewhat in L.A., He had seen the band at our shows.
We were going through our producer search and had already found Terry and then Josh ran into Steve,
they started talking and Steve expressed interest in working with us. We all just put our heads together
and thought if Terry and Steve could work as a team it could really be something interesting.
Aimee Kristi:
THE BAND DOES HAVE A HINT OF SEX PISTOLS INFLUENCE.
DO YOU THINK THAT STEVE BROUGHT OUT AN ELEMENT IN THE BAND THAT MAY NOT HAVE MANIFESTED ON THE CD WITHOUT HIS INPUT?
Keith Nelson: - Steve has such a great ear. He's so much more than "Never Mind The Bullocks".
I think alot of people hear the name Steve Jones and think he's only about three chords and
The Sex Pistols. That's so not what he's about. He loves pop music, loves blues,
loves stuff that's on the radio. He truly knows how a song should flow. That's what he
brought to the table for us. Terry helped us capture more of the essence of how we perform live.
Aimee Kristi:
HAS THERE BEEN ALOT OF PRESSURE ON THE BAND TO LIVE UP TO THE HYPE THAT PRECEDED
THE BANDS ACTUAL RELEASE OF THE CD. I MEAN YOU GUYS ARE GETTING WRITE-UPS IN SPIN,
ROLLING STONE ETC...MONTHS BEFORE THE CD IS EVEN OUT?
Keith Nelson:
I don't think so...we have the luxury now, especially in L.A.,
of seeing so many bands come and go. We know so many musicians there who have been through it.
And we know all that hype, the press, that awesome review or that shitty review....
all that just rolls off of us.We don't go out there playing a show thinking 'oh god we're so hyped',
no one is thinking about that stuff. Because of the work ethic we have as a band...I mean,
we all had day jobs till the day we got signed. We're still working hard and slugging it out.
That's the thing that stops us from saying "hey, we had a great week of record sales, lets relax..f***that".
You know we're not on a tour bus, we're in a van. It doesn't matter what the hype is...
we're still in a van that we can't even sleep in. We get a reality check every day.
Aimee Kristi:
WHAT DO YOU HOPE PEOPLE TAKE AWAY AFTER HEARING BUCKCHERRY LIVE OR LISTENING TO YOUR CD THE FIRST TIME?
Keith Nelson:
I guess we just want them to know where were coming from and where were going....
Aimee Kristi:
WHICH IS WHERE?
Keith Nelson:
We've come from diverse musical backgrounds. Josh loves punk.
I love Stones, ZZ Top, Aerosmith...our bass player is into Raging Slab...
we've all come from different musical places...Where we're going is not a revival band,
not a rock band that's 12 years too late but a real band in the 90's that's still making music
that's viable, putting out energy. Just a really organic, honest kind of approach towards our music.
Aimee Kristi is the co-host of New Jersey's WDHA and WRAT 70's Radio Show,
The Electric Ballroom.
Her work has been published in Spin, Metal Edge, Faces, Skin Art, High Voltage and Playgirl. When she grows up she'd like to join Buckcherry as a tamborine player.
Link to Keith Nelson from Buckcherry on rockazine.com just cut and paste into your HTML
