LAST IN LINE Uses 'The Exact Same Methodology' As DIO In How To Write The Songs

During an appearance on the "Iron City Rocks" podcast, LAST IN LINE bassist Phil Soussan was asked if he and his bandmates have a "What would DIO do?" kind of mentality when it comes to their songwriting process, a reference to the fact that LAST IN LINE was formed a decade ago by original DIO guitarist Vivian Campbell, drummer Vinny Appice and bassist Jimmy Bain. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's not 'what would DIO do?' because what DIO would do is that they would work with Vivian, Vinny and Jimmy; that's what DIO would have done. And so we have two of those components already here. And what we do is we use the exact same methodology in how to write the songs and put the songs together."

Soussan, who joined LAST IN LINE after Bain unexpectedly died at the age of 68 on January 23, 2016, went on to say that he "got it all wrong" during the initial songwriting process for LAST IN LINE's sophomore album, 2019's "II". "They said, 'Okay, we're gonna get together and we're gonna work on some stuff,'" he recalled. "[And I said], 'Here's my device and I've got a whole bunch of ideas that I've put down. I've got some things and I have some ideas we can work on. We can jam on these.' And Viv said, 'Oh, hold on one second. That's not how we do it.' And I said, 'Well, how do we do it?' He said, 'You come in with nothing, and what we do is we sit in a room and we start coming with ideas all together and we develop them as we come up with them. If we have a riff we like, we work on it. If we have something we don't like, we move on to something else.' And I said, 'Well, that's very organic. In fact, it's very rare that people work like that anymore.' And he said, 'Well, that's how we did it; that's how we've always done it. That's the methodology to it.' And that's exactly how 'II' happened. And for me it was incredibly refreshing to be able to work in that way with people — just to have fun and just to sit there and bang around ideas and really just experiment and see what sounds good. And I've gotta tell you, the strangest things happen 'cause you'll end up with an idea that you think, 'Ah, this isn't gonna work.' And then somebody will say, 'Well, hang on a second. Hold on. Give that a chance. Let's work on this for a little bit.' And you work on it, and eventually it'll turn into something. And you might have dismissed it completely were it not for the fact that somebody else has a slightly different perspective on it. That's the beauty of working collaboratively, is everyone has a different perspective and creates something that's greater than the sum of the parts."

LAST IN LINE will release a new EP, "A Day In The Life", on November 11 via earMUSIC. The title track is described in a press release as "one of the heaviest versions" of THE BEATLES classic "ever recorded." The silver-colored 12-inch vinyl also includes two live tracks and a recently recorded new track, which gives us a first hint of how LAST IN LINE's third album will sound like.

"A Day In The Life" EP track listing:

01. A Day In The Life
02. Hurricane Orlagh
03. Devil In Me (Live)
04. Give Up The Ghost (Live)

Formed in 2012 by Appice, Bain and Campbell — Ronnie James Dio's co-conspirators and co-writers on the "Holy Diver", "Last In Line" and "Sacred Heart" albums — LAST IN LINE's initial intent was to celebrate Ronnie James Dio's early work by reuniting the members of the original DIO lineup. After playing shows that featured a setlist composed exclusively of material from the first three DIO albums, the band decided to move forward and create new music in a similar vein.

LAST IN LINE's debut album, "Heavy Crown", was released in February 2016 via Frontiers Music Srl, landing at No. 1 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. "II" was also made available through Frontiers Music Srl.

Some of the early recording sessions for LAST IN LINE's third album took place in January 2020 at Steakhouse studio in North Hollywood, California.