Chickenfoot Ready To Record New Album This Weekend
Chickenfoot Ready To Record New Album This Weekend
January 26, 2011
Joe Bosso of Musicradar.com reports: That supergroup known as Chickenfoot are ready to cut album number two this weekend.
Chickenfoot begin recording their new album this Friday, but for singer Sammy Hagar, the next 48 hours will feel like an eternity. “I am so ready to make this record,” he says. “I’m beyond ready! The songs we’ve got, the riffs that have been flying around – we’re going deep.”
According to Hagar, “We’ve got stuff planned that we never could have dreamed about when we first got together. We’re talkin’ heavier than ever, bluesier, more emotional – I get goosebumps just thinking about it.”
Chickenfoot (which also includes guitarist Joe Satriani, bassist Michael Anthony and drummer Chad Smith) will track the album at Hagar’s Marin County studio, The Foot Locker, formerly known as Red Rocker. “We did a lot of the first album here,” he says, “and we finished up at Skywalker Studios. This time, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to do the whole thing here. Five of songs on the first album were all tracked here, and they’re some of my favorites.”
Hagar is particularly fond of the drum sounds the live room in The Foot Locker delivers, and he says that recent upgrades to the recording console will result in “drums that will take your head off. I can’t wait to hear my man Chad in this place now. We’ve fine-tuned everything to an unbelievable degree. Unless I’m totally crazy – and, of course, it’s been said that I am – nobody’s going to say we don’t have enough inputs or the board is lacking this or that. This place is built for speed. We’re gonna stay here till this sucker’s done.”
Which won’t be very long, the singer believes. “The last record took us about three months,” he says, “and I think we’ll knock this one out in half that time. We don’t have these laborious sessions where we go over every phrase and suck all the energy out of the songs. Everybody is so musically capable in this band that we’re able to turn on a dime. We’re almost like a jazz band. Somebody says something, and off we go.”
Whereas Chickenfoot’s gold-certified debut was co-produced with the band by veteran boardsman Andy Johns, this time out Mike Fraser, who mixed that album, will serve as engineer and co-producer with the group. “Andy’s great, but he’s a little hit and miss,” says Hagar. “He kind of wings it. Mike’s a different sort of animal. He’s more of a control guy, but in a good way. Believe me, this band can get out there with the constant flow of ideas, so we need a guy to reign us in.”
Hagar estimates that the band is hitting the studio with four numbers fully written – music and lyrics. Of the 14 or song fragments that Satriani has sent the group over the past few months, the singer says, “I have melody and lyrical ideas to about eight of them. We’ll see what all works and what doesn’t. The music and the songwriting is so spontaneous in this band. I’m sure that once we all get in the room together, other songs will happen and some will fall by the wayside.”
Read the entire Sammy Hagar interview at www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/exclusive-sammy-hagar-on-recording-chickenfoots-new-album-361917
Courtesy of www.sleazeroxx.com and www.musicradar.com