New album ‘Renegades’ from L.A. Guns feat. Steve Riley and Kelly Nickels out before end of the year
New album ‘Renegades’ from L.A. Guns feat. Steve Riley and Kelly Nickels out before end of the year
L.A. Guns (feat. Riley and Nickels) bassist Kelly Nickels was recently interviewed by Rob Loiacano for All Music / All Bands.
Nickels and drummer Steve Riley along with lead guitarist Scott Griffin and lead vocalist / rhythm guitarist Kurt Frohlich were slated to release their new studio album Renegades via Golden Robot Records earlier this year but those plans got pushed back due to the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic.
With respect to details of the upcoming album Renegades, Nickels indicated (with slight edits): “Well, this record was supposed to come out in April of this year but due to the virus, we’ve had to push everything back. Also, the companies that actually print the artwork and make the vinyl and CD’s were closed due to the virus as well, so now we’re on a waiting list but we do have a release date and it will be out before the end of this year. We recorded it in seven days with only two days of pre-production, so we spent a lot of time emailing each other songs back and forth, so we were totally ready when we went into the studio. The big budgets of the ’80s are gone so you really have to be prepared today. So the record does have 10 songs on it, there are two slow songs and the rest are pretty much rockers, and as far as special guests, I’m afraid we didn’t have a time for anything like that unless you count the weed dealer lol.”
Renegades will be the first album for Nickels since L.A. Guns‘ record Vicious Circle back in 1994. In terms of what made him decide to get back to playing music again, Nickels stated: “Well, even though I wasn’t out touring or making records, I’ve still been jamming off and on with friends. I’ve always had a bass and an acoustic guitar laying around. I was also teaching some kids for a while; they even won a battle of the bands they were in. But as of last year, my youngest daughter was going off to college so when Phil [Lewis] and Tracii [Guns] were having their reunion. I thought it might be a good time to see if I could join up with them, but they didn’t want me. So shortly after that I got a call from Steve Riley explaining to me what his situation was, and he asked me to play with him, so the timing was just right, and I was happy to do it.”
You can read the rest of the interview with Kelly Nickels on All Music / All Bands‘ Facebook page.
L.A. Guns‘ (feat. Riley and Nickels) “Renegades” single: