KEITH NELSON Says 'Confessions' Is His 'Favorite' BUCKCHERRY Album So Far

Rob Cavuoto of Guitar International recently conducted an interview with guitarist Keith Nelson of Californian rockers BUCKCHERRY. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Guitar International: Tell me about the song writing process for "Confessions", as compared to "15", "Black Butterfly" and "All Night Long"?

Keith Nelson: This CD was done the way we have done all of our previous CDs. We make demos, then pick the songs apart. We'd make another demo and just work the songs until we compiled a whole body of work. The songs change a lot in the process. It allowed us to step back from the body of work and really look at what we have and what we thought was missing.

Guitar International: How has your songwriting evolved since the band's early days?

Keith Nelson: In the early days, if we'd write a song and it wasn't happening, we'd chuck the whole song. Now if we write a song that's not happening, but we really like one part like a chorus or a verse or a great lyric, we'll hang onto it and rework it from there. It's more of a patient, methodical process, as opposed to taking the first 20 songs we write and picking the best 12 for the record.

Guitar International: I'm going put you on the spot and ask you how "Confessions" rates for you personally out of your six CDs.

Keith Nelson: You're not putting me on the spot at all. It's my favorite one so far for many reasons. There is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that people will never know about; personally and professionally that we're dealing with while we're recording the CD. It was a triumph for all of us working together and staying focused on the goal. Josh [Todd, vocals] chose to write lyrics about some intensely personal stuff. He tapped into it and turned it into songs. It's actually pretty fucking awesome. I'm very proud when a band plays and gels together so well; that we've been together for four CDs and played thousands of shows together.

Guitar International: When you hear BUCKCHERRY come on the radio, you instantly recognize your signature sound, even before Josh's voice kicks in. In your opinion, what is that special sound that you guys have?

Keith Nelson: It's kind of a cross section of AC/DC, SEX PISTOLS, with maybe some AEROSMITH and ROLLING STONES. It's a weird intersection where all those influences meet and kind of come out of the filter. A lot of times, the musical ideas will come up first before the lyrical ideas, but not all the time. With the writing process, I want to give Josh something that inspires him to say something really cool. The music has to inspire and make you want to move your ass a little bit or get a reaction. I think that's why our music starts out with the signature idea around it.

Guitar International: Do you consider "Confessions" to be a concept CD?

Keith Nelson: It definitely started out like that. It started out with Josh and I doing an EP about the Seven Deadly Sins. It evolved into Josh writing a story that went along with it and writing the songs from a character's perspective. That is part of it, but I wouldn't say it was a concept record, because you definitely would have to get the concept to get the record. It was always our goal that if you just got the record and didn't know anything about any back story that it would still stand on its own. I believe that we accomplished that.

Read the entire interview from Guitar International.