BUCKCHERRY To Record New Album In October

BUCKCHERRY will enter a Californian studio this fall to begin record its new album for an early 2019 release. The follow-up to 2015's "Rock 'N' Roll" will mark the band's first release since the departures of guitarist Keith Nelson and drummer Xavier Muriel and addition of Sean Winchester and Kevin Roentgen, respectively.

Speaking to Meltdown of Detroit, Michigan's WRIF 101.1 FM radio station, BUCKCHERRY singer Josh Todd said (hear audio below): "We just finished all the songwriting for the next [BUCKCHERRY] record. That was a huge undertaking, and it's just come out so well. So we're gonna record that in October."

According to Todd, BUCKCHERRY will be in the studio "anywhere from three weeks to four weeks" making the new album. "We get all the songs and arrangements done," he explained. "We get everything kind of mapped out before we go in, and then we just record it as live as we can to make it feel like a rock show.

"We can record it in two weeks, honestly," he continued. "We did that with [2005's] '15', and I just did that with [JOSH TODD &] THE CONFLICT record; we did it in 12 days," referring to his side project with BUCKCHERRY guitarist guitarist Stevie Dacanay (a.k.a. Stevie D.). "This time, on this record, I just wanna make sure that we're… I don't wanna rush through it… Not that we rush through any of them, but I was knocking out two songs a day vocally, and I don't wanna do that on this one; I wanna take my time. So we'll see how quick it goes; maybe three weeks."

Todd was also full of praise for BUCKCHERRY's current lineup, saying that the band is "in the best form it's been in. We've got the best players," he said. "We just replaced two guys. [We have] Sean Winchester on the drums. He played with EVERCLEAR and BOW WOW WOW and just the list goes on; he's played with a lot of people. [He's] a really great guy. We actually met him when we made the JOSH TODD & THE CONFLICT record. We needed a guy to come in and record all these songs and learn them in three days and he showed up and did an amazing job, and that's when we met him. And he's just a super-cool dude; I just really liked him. I'm a real rhythmic singer, and I really work off the drums, so I really wanted a great drummer and somebody I [jelled] with, and he was the guy. So I had him on double duty. And then Kevin Roentgen is on the guitar. He is a guy that we've known for a long time. Me and Stevie and Kelly [Lemieux, bass] have known him from the L.A. days when we were banging around here before we got signed. He was in a band called SOUL, and he was also in a signed band called AMERICAN PEARL. [He's] a really great singer, actually, but he plays guitar as well, and he wanted to do it. He's been in the band now… God, it's been over a year. He's just a really great guy and a great player, a great singer — like I said — and it just elevates everybody's game. So it's great."

Last year, Todd told the "Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon" podcast that he "was kind of blindsided" by Nelson and Muriel's decision to leave BUCKCHERRY. He also claimed that for the last three years of the previous lineup's existence, "there was no collective thought" and BUCKCHERRY "just wasn't a band."

Interview (audio):