ACE FREHLEY On Upcoming Solo Album, Sobriety And KISS

Patrick Douglas of The Culture Shock conducted an interview with original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley earlier this week. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

The Culture Shock: Tell me a little about where you got this current lineup as far as your band mates.

Frehley: The bass player, Anthony Esposito, I hooked up with about a year and a half ago through a mutual friend, 'cause I was looking for sober musicians. We started working on solo material and me and Anton Fig got together in my studio and did some pre-production and we started tracking last year for the new record and the new record's just about finished. Got some finishing touches and then gotta mix it. Shootin' for a late May release.

The Culture Shock: So you've got it tracked and you're waiting to mix it, do you have a nearby studio?

Frehley: I have my own studio.

The Culture Shock: How killer is that to have one at your fingertips whenever you get the urge to record something?

Frehley: It's great having your own studio. It's not the first studio I've owned. I'm currently fine-tuning the studio. It's a work in progress. I was the architect. Basically I bought some property with like three houses on it and one of them I renovated into a studio. It's got 4,000 square feet.

The Culture Shock: That's huge.

Frehley: Yeah. Originally I had a room downstairs with a brick floor and a fireplace, with an 18-foot ceiling that I was using as a recreation, hang out room and I realized that if I put drums down there we'd probably get a huge drum sound and we did that last November and we tracked several new songs in that room now. It's got a great drum sound. That's now the drum room instead of the upstairs studio.

The Culture Shock: As an artist, how exciting is it to think about getting back into that process of making an album? Including everything from, obviously you've already written the music, but also coming up with artwork, and having another chapter of your career come out on a CD.

Frehley: It's crazy. I'm really getting off on it. This is such a long-awaited CD and I wanna make sure that it's just right. I think everybody's gonna like it. It's got all the elements, or a lot of the elements that my first CD had, "New York Groove". Most people cite that as being a favorite Ace Frehley record, so I'm trying to get into that mindset.

The Culture Shock: You were talking about being sober. Is there more of a reward for you from the perspective of writing music and putting together an album that you haven't had in a long time?

Frehley: You know, for years I always thought I needed substances to be creative and lo and behold, I realized last year that I actually function a lot better without all that stuff (laughs). It took me 40 years to figure it out, but better late than never right?

The Culture Shock: Musicians all have a different perspective of the crowd and reasons for climbing up on that stage and performing, what feelings do you have when you're up there ripping a solo and you look out at all the faces and is it different then it was when you were younger?

Frehley: It's different then when I was younger and it's because I have a huge fan base now and when I was younger I didn't have that. It's almost like somebody said to me "Ah, you're becoming one of the elder statesman of rock and roll," and I don't know how to take that (laughs). It's almost like I can go up there and do no wrong as long as I'm playing my ass off. It's kind of nice. I feel really comfortable onstage and I'm always having a good time. I feel like I'm alive when I'm onstage, you know. It's a special place. I don't know why I waited so long to hit the road. It's been over five years.

The Culture Shock: A lot lately has been made of the constantly changing recording industry and it's never been more public than now. It seems to be all over the place with downloading and the Internet. How do you see the changes from the perspective of someone who's been involved in it for the better part of four decades?

Frehley: I guess it's a good change. Music is a lot more accessible now with the Internet. I guess the downside is all the illegal downloading. We may be missing out on revenue but it's a lot easier to access an artists music with the help of the Internet. It's kind of a double-edged sword. With the advent of YouTube, you automatically get built-in, free publicity because every show I'm performing there's kids with camera phones, recording songs in the set and downloading it to YouTube. I think it's probably good. You've gotta make the adjustments.

The Culture Shock: Obviously more bands can get their names out there. You don't even have to be able to play. You can essentially fart in a microphone, record it, build a MySpace page and say you're a band. So you can get your name out there. Do you think it's more difficult these days for a band to break through and become a mega-band like KISS then it was back in the day?

Frehley: Probably. Probably because there's just so many bands. When we were out touring, there wasn't as many bands as there are today. It seems like everybody's in a band. It's really just the law of averages. Supply and demand. There's very few groups today that have ever attained the success that KISS had or has. We were just really lucky. We were in the right place at the right time and the gimmick caught on. We did tour extensively for several years (laughs). We played everywhere, more than once (laughs). There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that paid off. I get the feeling today that some of the newer groups maybe don't wanna put as much work into it. They want it almost handed to 'em. More so than back in the '70s when you knew you needed to go out and hit the pavement.

The Culture Shock: I do have the one obligatory KISS question. I know you get plenty of these. I was just reading today where Paul stated that he believes there'll come a time when the band will continue without him and without all of the original band members. What do you think about if you hear the idea that there'll be a day when KISS will be playing and the four original guys won't even be involved in it?

Frehley: (long pause) I think it's kind of shitty, you know. KISS was the four of us. I think he's just trying to make light. The fact that it's only half of the original members now and the other two guys are just dressed up like me and Peter, I think that's how he's trying to rationalize what he's doing today. Saying maybe there maybe won't be any original members anymore, well, you know, that wouldn't be KISS either, you know. It'd be somebody dressed up with the makeup that we all designed back in the '70s and it's all different people. I don't understand that train of thought. I don't know where he's coming from on that. KISS was Paul, Gene, Peter and Ace. That was KISS. If they wanna call it KISS, makeup somebody else wearing the same makeup, I designed that Spaceman cat, I wrote all those guitar solos, they're dear to my heart and now you've got somebody else wearing the makeup I designed and playing my guitar solos and trying to come off like me. I think it's bullshit (laughs).

Read the entire interview at www.thecultureshock.com.