Steve Riley was not one of those guys who thought the grunge scene was not as cool as the L.A. scene

Steve Riley was not one of those guys who thought the grunge scene was not as cool as the L.A. scene

Riley’s L.A. Guns consisting of drummer Steve Riley, bassist Kelly Nickels, guitarist Scott Griffin and frontman Kurt Frohlich are slated to releaser their next single “Rewind” on February 17, 2023. Riley was recently interviewed by Anne Erickson for Audio Ink Radio.

In terms of when Riley’s L.A. Guns‘ sophomore album will be released, Riley indicated: “We released the first single already, ‘Overdrive.’ The second single, ‘Rewind,’ will come out in mid-February. I really can’t wait for everybody to hear that. The song is just stellar. It’s so good. And then the full album is going to be released in mid-May. I know that they’re jostling back and forth about what date to do, but I know it’s going to come out in May, probably mid-May.”

On the idea of playing drums in Nirvana or another grunge band, Riley stated: “Oh, man, I tell you, because I’m a big Nirvana fan, and I’m a big Soundgarden fan and Alice in Chains. I really loved those bands. I thought they had some great, great material, and I would have been thrilled to play with any of those bands, because I wasn’t one of those guys that said, ‘Oh, yeah, no, this is a different scene. It’s not as cool as the L.A. scene.’ I had lived all over the country before I even came to LA and played everywhere in a bunch of different cities and lived in a bunch of different cities trying to get record deals, trying to get something going, but I always knew that, I have to get out to L.A. I have to get to the thick of things where all the labels were, the managements were and the studios were, and I had to get out there at some point, because I had to put my nose into that whole scene.”

With respect to the mantra that “rock is dead” and artists selling their publishing rights, Riley opined: “It’s funny, because a lot of people have sold their publishing under the assumption that you better do it now, because rock is going to disappear. I don’t see that happening at all, because the thing is, first of all, why would the publishing companies want to buy up the rock publishing if it was going to disappear?” he says. “There’s a plan. They know there’s going to be compilations, it has a lot of legs to it and rock isn’t going anywhere.” He added, “I know a lot has changed with rock as far as how you record, the budget you have and the touring opportunities you have. Of course, it’s not going to be like that peak performance that we had in the ’80s where everything was geared towards us, but I don’t see it going anywhere. We’re all going out on tour. You see what happened with The Stadium Tour and other tours that have gone out. I think it’s just fine. I think it’s going to be around for a long, long time.”

You can listen to the interview with Steve Riley via Spotify and/or Audio Ink Radio.