Former W.A.S.P. Guitarist Talks About Upcoming ANIMAL CD

Brian Rademacher of Rock Eyez recently conducted an interview with former W.A.S.P. and current ANIMAL guitarist Randy Piper. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Rock Eyez: You were telling me during our last interview, that you were getting a new guitar made. It was a 61' Cadillac which has headlights on it and everything. Did that guitar ever get made?

Piper: "No, it's still not done. I took it in to BC Rich and they looked at it and they ended up giving me another new guitar. I will take it to someone who will do it eventually. I want fiber optics in the neck. I'm getting so damn old; it's getting hard to see the neck. I have to do everything by feel (laughing)… I'm kidding."

Rock Eyez: [New ANIMAL guitarist] Chris Laney told me the story about how you met… he ordered the [debut ANIMAL] CD "900lbs Steam" and he didn't like the production on it, and you are one of his guitar heroes, so he wanted the CD to sound a lot better. He was willing to remix the CD for free. Is that true?

Piper: "Yeah!!! I read the interview on Rock Eyez and that is exactly how it went down. He said over there in Sweden they are really big on production. The thing on '900lbs Steam', it was basically the raw tracks. It got fucked up when the masters got lost and we were going to put it in ProTools and fix the drum sounds. We knew it was a shitty production. We got together with Chris Holmes and we were going to redo it and that didn't happen. I said let it go out the way it is and it is what it is. Look at JUDAS PRIEST's 'Rocka Rolla' album it has terrible production but it's still PRIEST."

Rock Eyez: So how did you approach Chris Laney in joining ANIMAL and working on the new CD, "Violent New Breed"?

Piper: "Well, Chris is a great guy. He knows production and he is a bass player by trade, he is a really good guitar player, too. He sent some of his ideas over on sound waves, over the Internet and I said, 'Man, you have a wicked sound on this track and you did this and that.' I told him, 'Fuck this. I want you to player guitar on the CD and we can get another bass player. Come join the band.' And that was it."

Rock Eyez: I don't see anything about a drummer on the new CD?

Piper: "I never met the drummer (laughing). I told you this is pretty bizarre dude. I love the job he did on the album. He is the drummer for ZAN CLAN, Johan Koleberg. I can go with him or I have a line on a couple other drummers. The ultimate drummer would be Vinny Appice — he's the bomb dude.

Rock Eyez: I see Stet Howland is out of W.A.S.P. and he might be available.

Piper: "Oh really. He is from Florida, I think. That would kind of be strange, wouldn't it, having Stet in the band. I know he is a good drummer. You never know what could happen, (laughing) this is a crazy world…"

Read the entire interview at www.rockeyez.com.