RATT Guitarist Discusses New Album

Chad Bowar of About Heavy Metal recently conducted an interview with RATT guitarist Warren DeMartini. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

About Heavy Metal: Carlos Cavazo (QUIET RIOT) has been with you for about a year now. How did he come to join RATT?

Warren DeMartini: It was an idea I got a couple years before it happened. We were in a situation where it looked like we would need to replace the guitarist, and I thought Carlos would be perfect. That blew over and everything was fine, then a couple of years later we were in the same situation. I saw Vinny Appice at a club in L.A. one night, and he told me had a weekend project he was doing with Carlos, and I got his number. I put it in my phone, and didn't use it for two years. Then when it was for sure we were looking for someone, he was the first person I called.

About Heavy Metal: What's the status of your next studio album?

Warren DeMartini: For this one we decided to do something different than we've ever done in the past. We packed up and went to the East Coast. The producer we decided to go with (Michael "Elvis" Baskette) has a studio on the Chesapeake Bay, and it's really nice. It's a different approach than we've ever done. It's more of a combination of touring and recording, as opposed to recording in your hometown where you go home every night and have the usual barrage of phone calls. With this, everybody went to the studio and stayed, lived there. It was amazing. We're about halfway through. We've got 12 songs recorded. By the time we had to hit pause (to go on tour) we were just about to start the lead and background vocals.

About Heavy Metal: Is there a release date yet?

Warren DeMartini: It's looking like it will be released in either February or March of 2010. You never know how these things are going to turn out, but if the atmosphere is any indication, it should be really good. We've had an incredibly good time making this record.

About Heavy Metal: As an artist, is it important to you to have new material to play live, instead of having to play all old stuff?

Warren DeMartini: It does keep things fresh. It's a different show for the audience every night, but it's the same show for the band. You have to do things to keep it interesting. New material keeps us sharp. On this tour we don't have that problem because we're playing "Out Of The Cellar" in its entirety. We haven't done that since it came out in 1984. That has been just an incredible journey into the past for the band and fans alike.

About Heavy Metal: Were there songs from "Out Of The Cellar" that you hadn't played live before, or in a really long time?

Warren DeMartini: I don't think "She Wants Money" ever made it to the live stage, and if it did it was only for a few weeks on that first tour. "Scene Of The Crime" and "In Your Direction" we haven't played since that 1984 tour. We probably played about 250 dates on that one in 1984 and 1985. It started out as a club tour. Then the "Round And Round" video came out, and it turned into a 250-date experience. It was an unbelievable year.

Read the entire interview from About Heavy Metal.

Video footage of RATT's July 25, 2009 performance on the Toledo Harley Davidson parking lot in Toledo, Ohio can be viewed below (courtesy of "tzf2"). More clips are available at this location.