Aerosmith May Sing The Blues On Next Album
AEROSMITH MAY SING THE BLUES ON NEXT ALBUM:
The Aerosmith touring machine, which rolls into Camden, N.J., tomorrow (Sept. 7) with Run-D.M.C. and Kid Rock, is once again flying high in support of the recently released Columbia greatest hits package “O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits.” While happy to be back on the road, the band is already looking forward to its next studio project. Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton tells Billboard.com it will be a back-to-basics affair that will challenge its members and, they hope, inspire longtime fans.
“We’re going to delve back into our musical roots and try recording some blues songs and maybe some blues-based rock riffs,” says Hamilton. “So, everybody is turning back inward toward their individual instruments with that in mind. It’s funny because I’ve been doing it on my own but now when we get on stage together, I see everybody else doing it.”
A bluesy rock album would return Aerosmith’s focus to the exact inspiration that brought it together in the first place. In fact, for this high-powered quintet, such an adventure will be like traveling back in time, including recording the album to tape (“I’m sure we’ll wind up using a combination of tape and hard disk,” says Hamilton) as well as utilizing another antiquated studio technique.
“We want to really try to get everybody in a room at the same time,” Hamilton says. “It’s funny because it triggers all of the competition and uncomfortableness that we’ve always had going into the studio, and it’s going to mean everybody is going to have to be open, vulnerable, and brave, and go in there and do that process like we used to do it.”
As Hamilton told Billboard.com this spring, “the band definitely is interested in getting into projects that are not the once-every-two-years, blockbuster, career making or breaking album-type mode that we’ve been in.” As such, this upcoming album could be viewed as a rejuvenation of Aerosmith’s spirit. “We’re probably going to take a bunch of blues songs, cover them, learn to play them together, and see about using stuff like that,” he says. “But I think in that process, it’s going to generate new ideas. We’ve been calling it a blues album but really it’s just going to be an Aerosmith rock album and maybe a lot of blues.”
Aerosmith’s current tour, originally scheduled to end in November, is going to be extended through the end of December, which means the band hopes to start recording by the first of the year. “The way we want to do it, it will probably be out in the spring,” says Hamilton. “But no promises.”
John Benson courtesy of Billboard