GODSMACK Bassist On '1000hp': 'I Love Everything About This Album'

Jim Barber of Lithium Magazine recently conducted an interview with GODSMACK bassist Robbie Merrill. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On GODSMACK's new album, "1000hp" (One Thousand Horsepower):

Robbie: "I love everything about this album. Usually on an album I may have a couple of pet peeves or some things that I don't necessarily like on a couple of songs. But [vocalist/songwriter] Sully [Erna] nailed it on this album. He really killed it when it came to lyrics and melody lines. I fell in love with the whole album. I love every song on the record — I can't get enough of it."

On writing, rehearsing and recording "1000hp" in GODSMACK's new Boston headquarters:

Robbie: "We just built [the facility] this year. We have been looking to have one big place for a long time. All our equipment has been stored in four or five different places and we wanted to get everything in one room. So we leased out a warehouse for at least five years. We went in there and put up some walls and made a studio and a lounger. We basically have all our stuff in storage at one end and at the other end we have the rehearsal space and we have our studio all set to record, as well as the lounge and a kitchen. It was also great to do this album in our hometown. We are all born and raised in the Boston area and it was good for all of us to just soak up the atmosphere of the town and let it influence our music. You get the sense of closeness and toughness of Boston. We just have strong people here. We all lived in the outskirts as kids where there were a lot of factories and mills and hard-working people. We in Boston are not afraid to work, and we like tough people here — blue-collar people. That's why, with the hockey players, the favorite Bruins tend to be the fighters and tough guys because that's what we appreciate here."

On the songwriting process for "1000hp":

Robbie: "We would send stuff to Sully, and he likes what he likes, and takes stuff out and re-arranges it. There are some songs where he took a part from one and put it into another thing. And it's the same with the stuff that he has been working on. We will all get together in a room and pull all the pieces together, change things up and try to make them the best songs possible. For '1000hp', we came up with the best songs musically and then Sully will start putting the lyrics to them. We work all that stuff out and pretty soon we have them down to the point where we can head right into the studio and record them and still have that energy and intensity in place."

On his expectations for "1000hp":

Robbie: "Our first record sold five million copies. Nowadays if you can sell half a million, the record label is happy. We are going to play and record the best stuff that we can write. There's nothing you can do about the sales, you just hope the music strikes a chord with people and that they will want to buy it. These days, as long as the record label is happy and wants to do another record, then we consider the album a success. With our label [Republic Records], they can't wait for us to come out with a new record. That tells me there is still a big market for rock bands."

Read the entire interview at Lithium Magazine.