In celebration of the life of the late, great ERIC CARR, The KISS Roompresents a KISS Mask Flashback.
Back in 1987, Frank Hagan created his KISS Mask fanzine, self publishing the ‘zine which included Frank’s exclusive interviews with Ace Frehley, Peter Criss, Bruce Kulick, Eddie Kramer, Bill Aucoin as well as this interview with the late Eric Carr. This interview has never been heard and we’re bringing it to you straight from Frank’s micro cassette recorder. Recorded on November 9th, 1989.
CANDLEMASS, NAGLFAR, CRAZY LIXX and SISTER SIN are the latest acts confirmed for Sweden Rock Festival 2013, which will take place will take place June 5th – 8th in Sölvesborg, Sweden.
Confirmed acts now include: ACCEPT, AMARANTHE, AMON AMARTH, AUDREY HORNE, AXXIS, BULLET, CANDLEMASS, CIVIL WAR, CRAZY LIXX, DEMON, JON ENGLISH, FIREWIND, HUNTRESS, IHSAHN, KISS, KROKUS, MORGANA LEFAY, LENINGRAD COWBOYS, LEPROUS, MANILLA ROAD, MARTIN PRAHL’S SKELTER WHEEL, NAGLFAR, RAUBTIER, RUSH, SAXON, THE SCAMS, SISTER SIN, SONATA ARCTICA, STATUS QUO, TANKARD, THRESHOLD, UFO, VADER, WITCHCRAFT.
Sweden Rock Festival is a four-day festival with a total of 80 bands performing on five outdoor stages. More info can be found at Swedenrock.com.
In a brand new interview with Revolver magazine KISS members Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons spoke about the making of the band’s latest album, “Monster”, their second in a row to feature a lineup rounded out by guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer.
“We’re so comfortable now, this should have been KISS always: Tommy, Eric, Paul and myself,” Simmons said. “We like each other’s company, we like playing onstage with each other. And the creative process is just second skin. We could have just as easily gone into the studio and done another record.”
He added later in the interview, “I want to go on record: Eric and Tommy have revitalized the band made Paul and myself realize what lucky bastards we are to be in KISS and to have each other. And this should have been the lineup of KISS from the beginning.”
Asked if they are bothered when people complain about founding KISS members Ace Frehley and Peter Criss not being in the band anymore, Simmons said, “Almost nobody does. When you have 3-year-old and 5-year-old fans showing up to our concerts — or even 30-year-old fans — they don’t know about Ace and Peter. I mean, next year is going to be our 40th year. We’ve been touring longer than most of the people who come see us live have been alive. Who’s Ace and Peter? By the way, bless ’em both — what I just said doesn’t mean that Ace and Peter weren’t every bit as important as Paul and myself in the beginning of the band, but not everybody has the same DNA. Some people shouldn’t be in a marathon race. They’re just not designed for it. Some people are good for short runs.”
“Eric‘s been in and out of the band for 20-some-odd years. And Tommy, too,” added Stanley. “The only people who would complain, I think, are people who don’t really follow the band at this point. The myth that sometimes surrounds the original lineup is purely myth. Some of it was of our own doing. The whole projecting the idea that it was four guys giving equally. Quite honestly, it was kind of our take on THE BEATLES: four guys that spend all their time together and run down the street jumping up in the air. But it’s not a reality. And maybe part of the problem was that some of the guys in the band really bought into believing it. The band always had two people who were leading it and the idea that anybody is entitled to having songs on an album is crazy.”
On the topic of why they think they felt like they had to project those myths in the early days, Stanley said, “Well, l think there was a certain amount of truth to it. Just in the sense of you have a band and there’s a certain camaraderie, but there’s also a sensitivity factor to people feeling minimized or left out. So to avoid that, we sometimes gave people more than their due. In those days, Gene and I shared our songwriting l with those guys because we didn’t ever want it to be an issue that anybody was making more money than the other and therefore wanting songs on the album. Well. it obviously didn’t work. [laughs] The only thing l did was give money away. [laughs] But all that being said, I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again — we couldn’t be here today without what Ace and Peter did in the beginning, and we couldn’t be here today if they were still in the band.”
SONATA ARCTICA and TANKARD are the latest acts confirmed for Sweden Rock Festival 2013, which will take place will take place June 5th – 8th in Sölvesborg, Sweden.
Confirmed acts now include: ACCEPT, AMARANTHE, AMON AMARTH, AXXIS, BULLET, DEMON, JON ENGLISH, FIREWIND, HUNTRESS, IHSAHN, KISS, KROKUS, MORGANA LEFAY, LENINGRAD COWBOYS, LEPROUS, MANILLA ROAD, MARTIN PRAHL’S SKELTER WHEEL, RUSH, SAXON, THE SCAMS, SONATA ARCTICA, STATUS QUO, TANKARD, THRESHOLD, UFO, VADER, WITCHCRAFT.
Sweden Rock Festival is a four-day festival with a total of 80 bands performing on five outdoor stages. More info can be found at Swedenrock.com.
Earlier this year, KISSFAQ‘s Tim McPhate conducted a comprehensive interview with producer/engineer RON NEVISON in celebration of the 25th anniversary of KISS‘ Crazy Nights album. Never-before-heard audio from the interview courtesy of the interview’s official trailer is available below:
Acting as a companion piece to their respective fully transcribed interviews, KISSFAQ interview trailers cull audio from the Interview Series archive, offering fans tasty excerpts of the discussion. An excerpt from the transcript is available below:
After recording was completed on Crazy Nights, the band thought they had hit a home run. “Everybody was really excited,” recalls Nevison.
While Crazy Nights would ultimately yield platinum-plus sales, the hit single to catapult the album to multi-platinum status in the United States eluded KISS. The aforementioned ‘Reason To Live’ only managed No. 64 position on the Billboard Hot 100. Fan opinions of Crazy Nights varied across the board, with detractors criticizing Nevison’s polished, keyboard-friendly mix. Even Stanley put on a pair of hindsight headphones. “I think it’s a bit plastic-sounding,” he once remarked. “The material, and what it could have been, was better than what it turned out to be.”
When peppered with questions on Crazy Nights a quarter century later, Nevison stands by the album and offers no apologies. Nor should he. The fact is that Crazy Nights cracked the Top 20 in five countries, hitting No. 4 in the UK, KISS‘ highest-charting album there ever. The title track matched the album’s performance, climbing to No. 4 on the UK singles chart.
As far as Nevison is concerned, he delivered exactly what was asked of him. And the only thing that got in the way of that home run, multi-platinum album was … KISS.
KF: Getting into the album, what was the process of going through the material and deciding what would be recorded or worked on during the sessions?
RN: “Gene just gave me everything. (laughs) He loaded me up with 20, I don’t know, 25 songs. And Paul was much more discerning in terms of what he let me hear. Gene just let me hear everything. And I told him what I liked and what I didn’t like. There were some odd songs – there was one song I remember called ‘I’m Going To Put A Log In Your Fire Place’ (laughs). And Paul, to my recollection, wanted to make a different kind of album. You know, with the success that BON JOVI was having in writing with Desmond Child and other bands – I had taken OZZY down that road with his first hit single in years, if ever, ‘Shot In The Dark’, in 1986. And of course, HEART. I was actually very pleased with the material on Crazy Nights. And I took some heat after that album because of the keyboards.”
KF: Ron, you touched on one of my questions. In 1987 rock acts such as HEART, POISON, DEF LEPPARD, BON JOVI…
RN: “They saw what they were doing with ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ and all that. And I wanted to get KISS that same level of – you know, instead of selling 500,000 to 700,000 records, which is respectable, especially these days – I wanted it to be bigger than that. I was impressed with the stuff that Paul brought in. You know, Gene’s stuff was Gene’s stuff. Gene wrote rock stuff, but not commercial really, but KISS fans love Gene’s songs.”
KF: In terms of the album’s sonics, I think you’ve admitted, in hindsight, that you would have mixed the synthesizers down a bit and that it might be too “slick” or “soft” sounding.
RN: “I wasn’t that happy with the final mix. But I wasn’t that unhappy with it. I have to tell you, Tim, I’m not happy with any mix that I’ve done. I think I could have made it a bit more powerful sounding.”
KF: Some of the album’s detractors have commented that the sonics are too similar to HEART‘s 1985 self-titled album and OZZY‘s “The Ultimate Sin” album.
RN: “There you go. That’s the type of album I make. That’s what I do.”
KF: Exactly. In that sense, you delivered. KISS wanted Ron Nevison. They wanted that sound at the time and you gave it to them.
RN: “Yep. I have to say that I think as time goes on it will be more accepted and more liked because it has great songs. I think, song-wise, it really stands out as one of the best KISS albums ever, song-wise.”
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
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Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
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