JUDAS PRIEST's RICHIE FAULKNER Has 'Tons' Of Riff Ideas For Possible Follow-up To 'Redeemer Of Souls'

Amber Lee of WYDR The Drive 94.3 FM conducted an interview with JUDAS PRIEST guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner before the band's July 16 appearance at Rock USA festival in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. You can now listen to the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether they prefer the older days when JUDAS PRIEST was recording to tape or if they like the convenience of Pro Tools:

Glenn: "I like Pro Tools. You've gotta move on with the times. Pro Tools offers you the chance to rearrange songs easily, if you only do it on a rough basis and then go and record it live, so to speak. On the new album, we used Pro Tools, but we tried to make everything live sounding: we mic'ed the cabs up, there's no processed drums, there's very, very little… I'm not saying we went into the studio and played the songs there and then, but we tried to [capture] the live atmosphere. If you use it in the right way, Pro Tools is the way to go. But, you know, it's crossed my mind, and I'm sure everybody in the band, that it would be nice to just rehearse a new album, and go and play it, and just see what happens."

On whether JUDAS PRIEST is thinking about going back to the studio to work on the follow-up to last year's "Redeemer Of Souls" album:

Richie: "We seem to be working quite a lot at the moment on the touring circuit. We keep getting offers in, so it keeps extending. But at the same time, we are talking about what the next album's gonna be, what it's gonna sound like, what it could incorporate, where we could go from 'Redeemer'. It is a time-consuming process, so we'll see what happens. I think we end around Christmas with this tour, and then we'll see what happens next year. We might go into the studio and start putting down some ideas, or we might get some more offers and go back out. We don't know what the future holds. But we are talking about all different types of possibilities."

On whether he stores riff ideas on his phone:

Richie: "Always. Yeah, guitar riffs and whistles and singing, although I wouldn't show you them. When you're in your hotel room and you come up with an idea and you sing it into the phone; I've got loads of 'em, I've got tons. But it's great to see it happen before. You might come up with a little idea or a melody in a kitchen or your bathroom or whatever, and all of a sudden it gets to the stage where Rob's [Halford] putting vocal melodies over it, or it becomes more than just an idea; it becomes a song. And then it becomes… You know, in the live format, it goes from that initial spark of an idea to signing with the fans, so it's quite special thing to see it transform from an idea into that."

"Redeemer Of Souls" was released in July 2014. The follow-up to 2008's double-disc concept album "Nostradamus" was billed as a return to JUDAS PRIEST's heavy-metal roots.

"Redeemer Of Souls" sold around 32,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 6 on The Billboard 200 chart.