GREAT WHITE Is 'Looking Into Studios Right Now' To Record First New Music With Singer BRETT CARLISLE

In a new interview with the Thunder Underground podcast, GREAT WHITE guitarist Mark Kendall confirmed that the band is still working on new music with Brett Carlisle, who was officially named the band's new vocalist in October 2022. Brett joined the group as the replacement for Andrew Freeman (LAST IN LINE),who sang for GREAT WHITE for only five months. Asked if he and his GREAT WHITE bandmates have fully formed new songs ready to be released, Mark said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We've recorded some. And we're looking into studios right now. We're thinking about doing one song at a time — recording a few songs, but just put out a video of one song, because it's gonna be free. I mean, let's face it, the days of selling millions of records or whatever are over. And plus everybody downloads now; it's not like they go to the store and they're reading liner notes. So instead of giving up a bunch of music, we figure just let them lend their attention to one song at a time in a video. So we record a music video and just put out one song at a time. And that way it's fun for us to come up with new stuff. And plus Brett will be on new things. He's not essentially singing in a cover band. But to get him on new music, I think it'll be fun for the fans and us."

Mark continued: "It's been a long time since [we put out 'Full Circle' in] 2017. That's our last album. But we weren't ever totally sure about Mitch [Malloy, former GREAT WHITE singer, who preceded Freeman], so we did a live album, but we didn't wanna do a studio album. We never felt a hundred percent like he's gonna be around forever. So, we ended up never recording new stuff with him. But now it's a different story. This guy really does our stuff good. I think he fits right in. So it's gonna be cool to come out with some rocking new things."

Regarding the musical direction of the new GREAT WHITE music, Mark said: "Well, there's stuff that really rocks, and then kind of mid-tempo stuff, kind of in the FOREIGNER range on a couple things. And then a couple of other things are almost like if our first album [1984's self-titled effort] and [1987's] 'Once Bitten' had a kid. The energy of our first album, but just a new flavor to it. We've got a couple of ballads, but they're more blues-type — real blues with killer hooks. We've got one song that's really cool. But it's not a sappy ballad, like a 'Save Your Love' type ballad. It's more slow blues with a groove or whatever, but I guess you could consider it a ballad. It's just the way the chord structures are. You'll be able to hear a lot of different sides to this guy's voice, which is kind of the idea. But we want it to rock. We wanna show a lot of energy too."

Earlier this month, Carlisle spoke to Seb Di Gatto of The Metal Gods Meltdown about his songwriting chemistry with Kendall and GREAT WHITE rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Michael Lardie. He said: "Me and Mark, we write really well together. I live in Alabama, he lives in California, so there's a bunch of space between us, but he has sent me stuff and we've sent some things back and forth. We have finished three songs in, like, a matter of a few hours before, just writing. We clicked so well. And same with Michael. We work really well together. Me and Michael are better on harmonies. And we've had some really cool ideas as far as layers and feel kind of things. But Mark, he'll come up with a riff and he'll start scat singing over it and just kind of showing me what he's thinking about it. And so I'll take the syllables that he's saying and then turn it into a couple of words and then turn it into a chorus or something like that. And I'm, like, 'Okay, now I gotta make the rest of the song make sense. I've gotta make verses out of this, 'cause we have a chorus, we know what the song's about, so I need to write a song around whatever it is now.' And he just gets so stoked about it. It's cool."

Asked if fans can expect to get a new studio album from GREAT WHITE in 2026, Brett said: "We've recorded a couple of demos, but we haven't been to the 'studio studio' to lay down tracks. We have some songs to do it, and yes, that is the plan, but I can't say confidently any dates or when we will be doing it. But we have the stuff. And I think the hardest part of it is, because we all live so far apart and we play a lot of weekend shows, so we're usually home three or four days at a time, and so it's a lot to coordinate. But, yeah, we all wanna make it happen."

As previously reported, Carlisle auditioned for "American Idol" on the episode broadcast February 9. Carlisle sang GREAT WHITE's classic ballad "House Of Broken Love", backed by his bandmates Kendall on guitar and Lardie on piano.

The 28-year-old Carlisle impressed "Idol" judges Carrie Underwood, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan at the audition — which took place at Nashville's Belmont University — enough to earn him a golden ticket to the long-running TV singing competition's Hollywood round. Richie gushed, telling Carlisle: "Especially when you rock, you're going to be the poster child for this."

Underwood also asked Carlisle, Kendall and Lardie to play a bit of GREAT WHITE's 1989 hit version of "Once Bitten, Twice Shy", a cover of a 1975 song written and originally performed by former MOTT THE HOOPLE frontman Ian Hunter.

With his golden ticket secured, the Alabama native now advances to Hollywood, where he will compete alongside other hopefuls for a chance to continue on the nationally televised singing competition. There the contestants will face more rigorous challenges in hopes of advancing further in the season.

Asked if he and his bandmates were "a little bit apprehensive" about the fact that Carlisle is only 28 years old while GREAT WHITE, as a group, has been in existence more than four decades, Mark told George Dionne of KNAC.COM in an April 2024 interview: "He's in his late 20s, but, believe it or not, he's kind of an old soul in a way. Nothing overwhelms the guy. He just goes out and just totally handles it every night, engages the crowd. He's real good with the interaction. He sings perfect all the time. And he's got really good song sense for a young man. I'm used to feeding people melody ideas when I write a song because that's the way I do it. Everybody has their own way to do it, but I always know that there's a lot of melody available, and he sometimes comes up with something way better than I had. So that's a good sign. And the way he delivers the new stuff, he really has a good handle on the music. And I don't know — I think he was born in the wrong time or something. In other words, we can stand together. It's not like he's standing next to his grandpa or something. It's not like we're CROSBY, STILLS & NASH, and, 'What's that 13-year-old doing there?' When we stand together, it just looks like a band. It doesn't look like we're with a little kid or anything. He's a little better-looking than us, but apart from that…"

Regarding what it has been like working with a singer who wasn't even born when some of GREAT WHITE's classic songs were written, Lardie told Robert Miguel of Uvalde Radio Rocks: "Well, I think he gets what we're trying to do. It's been a godsend to have someone with his youth, but at the same time he has what a lot of people would deem as an older soul. His parents did a great job bringing him up on '70s and '80s rock, so he's pretty well versed in that. And he comes from the South, so he's got a little bit of that blues and gospel edge to him."

Carlisle made his live debut with GREAT WHITE on September 24, 2022 at the Cannery Casino Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

According to Brett, he felt welcomed by his new bandmates and the GREAT WHITE fans from the get-go.

"After meeting [the GREAT WHITE guys], they're all super-cool dudes," he told Kevin McKay of the 99 Rock WKSM FM radio station. "In Vegas, we had a rehearsal the day before, and I already knew half the songs well enough to be able to do it. So I wanted to do the best that I could on 'em. But after we hung out, everybody was cool and stuff. I mean, it's a big crowd. I love big crowds; they're fun."

Carlisle has been playing guitar and singing since the age of eight and counts bands like VAN HALEN, SKID ROW and METALLICA as his main influences.

In May 2022, GREAT WHITE announced that it had parted ways with Malloy and had replaced him with Freeman. Malloy had been in GREAT WHITE for nearly four years, having joined the group in 2018 following the departure of Terry Ilous.

Ilous, frontman of '80s L.A. hard rockers XYZ, joined GREAT WHITE in 2010 after stepping in for touring vocalist Jani Lane (WARRANT).

The Ilous-led GREAT WHITE released two albums, 2012's "Elation" and 2017's "Full Circle", before Terry was dismissed from the group.

GREAT WHITE press photo courtesy of Jeff Klein / Atomic City PR