NEW YORK DOLLS Guitarist On New Album: 'We Knew We'd Be Making An Eclectic Record'

Joe Matera of Ultimate-Guitar.com recently conducted an interview with NEW YORK DOLLS guitarist Steve Conte. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: One thing that is noticeable on the new album is that while the STONES-y vibe still exists and has been a trademark of the band, its also forward looking and fresh sounding, with the band branching out musically and stylistically. Was this a conscious effort in order to stay relevant and not be tied down to being just a nostalgic act?

Steve Conte: No, it's just us doing what we do. The cool thing about this version of the band is that in addition to rock and roll, all of us are into different types of music — dub reggae, soul, flamenco, blues, Latin, jazz, opera, gypsy, African — so we have those sounds in our heads and the grooves in our bodies. We knew we'd be making an eclectic record and we have faith that the DOLLS audience will make the leap with us. If not, at least we're pleasing ourselves. It would be pointless to just repeat what was done 35 years ago. David and Syl have grown musically and they chose a bunch of cats who can bring their own thing to the band. Like David said in an interview, "You can only be an amateur once…"

Ultimate-Guitar.com: How does the songwriting process work within the frame work of the band?

Steve Conte: I'd say in general, one of the "players" presents an idea in rehearsal — a chord progression/melody/riff/groove — and if the band likes it, we present it to David. It's usually pretty instant whether he feels he can get into it for lyrics. Then he'll go away with it for a few weeks and it'll come back with a theme and lyrics that are pure genius Johansen. We've also done it by sending David our individual demos on CD to see if anything sparks him that way. This album was different from "One Day It Will Please Us..." in that we spent a very short amount of time writing and recording it...about six weeks in total. Syl, Sami and I had germs of a few of the tunes kicking around since the summer tour in 2008. After we got off the road, the three of us got together once to work out more ideas. Then we put it together with Delaney on drums and David and worked for a week or so before we went to Hawaii to record with Todd. We were still honing the songs when we got to Todd's house on Kauai, which kept things on the edge — we certainly weren't over-rehearsed. I think that's what makes the record sound fresh; we didn't get into a comfort zone. At some points when I listen to the record, I feel like we just make it by the skin of our teeth. But that's what makes it the DOLLS!

Ultimate-Guitar.com: What did producer Todd Rundgren bring to the recording process?

Steve Conte: Todd had a few nice musical ideas for us but mostly I think he just let the band be the band and play the way we wanted to play. Having been a fan Todd's producing for years — especially XTC's "Skylarking" — I was thinking we’d get a bit more of hands-on approach, but as you can hear, there is none of that kind of lush production on this record. Todd's main concerns were overall style of the song and lyrics. Of course, he and David are very different in their approach to writing so some comments were taken to heart, others weren’t. He didn't have much to say about the chords/melodies/grooves so I figured the music all hit him as being pretty solid. I remember at the start of the record Todd saying, "You don't need to prove anything with this record because the pressure of your 'comeback' album is over... now you can do whatever you want"... which was exactly what we intended to do.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: When you joined the band was there a lot of pressure on you considering you were filling some pretty big shoes of Johnny Thunders?

Steve Conte: Not to me personally because I didn't grow up a Thunders fanatic. The thing is, I was into a lot of the same stuff he was such as Keith Richards, Chuck Berry and the blues so it was an easy fit. The difference between us is that he was more a product of the STOOGES/MC5 school so he had that rough garage band thing about him. I was weaned on the STONES/HENDRIX/THE WHO/JEFF BECK — stuff that was a bit more varied and complex. When learning the material for the first bunch of shows, I copped the lines or solos that I felt were a signature of the song and played them as close as I could to Johnny Thunders' style. The rest of the stuff I just played what I would play. The head that I got into was to just play with maximum balls! I think old-school fans had more of the expectation for me to be like Thunders — but you can't separate the player from the man. Johnny had a knack for style and choice, whether it was his clothes, what songs he covered, what he wrote about or how he lived — it was purely him. I could never be that, I grew up in a different era with a whole other set of circumstances, most notably that I ended my romance with chemical drugs before I was 20, finding my savior in seriously studying music at school. But I grew up playing rock and roll, learning it by ear and by feel so playing the way I do way is a natural thing that not all "schooled" musicians can do.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: How does it feel to be part of NEW YORK DOLLS and to now be part of their legacy?

Steve Conte: I feel blessed. There are very few legendary rock and roll bands that a person can just step into and become a real part of. I've played with other established artists where it's clear that it's "just a gig" but I was always longing to be in a band like this. Ever since the first DOLLS show with Arthur Kane at the Royal Festival Hall when David said to me, "Stevie, just wear what you want to wear and play what you want to play," I felt like I was home. And now five years later after touring the world, making two live albums, two studio albums and co-writing songs with the band there's a real sense of belonging to something. I believe this version of the band has now been together longer than the original version.

Read the entire interview from Ultimate-Guitar.com.