SEBASTIAN BACH Still Loves To Make Albums

The AU Review recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The AU Review: Listening to the ["Kicking & Screaming"] album, the sound is very thick and energetic, yet it was composed as a trio. Is this your smallest ensemble to date?

Sebastian: Yes, yes. This is the only record I've ever done as a trio, but that's because of my guitar player, Nick Sterling. He came into the band at the age of 19 and this is his first big worldwide release. But, you know, it's like they say you have your whole life to write your first album, well he's been working on these songs his short life. He just came into this with so many great ideas that he just crushed me with ideas, and that's an amazing opportunity for him and for me. He plays the bass on it, because the demos he would show me he would play all the instruments drums, too. So I got Bobby [Jarzombek], he's like the best drummer in the world, and I let Nick play all the bass and all the guitars, because if another bass player came in, I'd just tell him, "Just play what Nick played." I think it adds to the tightness of the record. When you listen to VAN HALEN, Eddie and Alex are brothers and you can kinda tell when they play together, they're very tight together. Like PANTERA with Dimebag and Vinnie [Paul Abbott], they're very, very, very tight cause they're family members. Nick's like playing with his own self, not playing with himself but [laughs] But it's a very tight record, the performances are, like, super-tight. I listened to it twice again today and was like, "Damn! That's a good album!"

The AU Review: The album starts off with a hard-rock track, "Kicking & Screaming", but finishes with softer and moving "Wishin'". When you are constructing the actual album, do you see an art or a formula in the actual placement of the tracks?

Sebastian: Well, people these days don't care about sequencing, I really do. I am one of the last guys that I know that loves to make albums. Like, I keep reading on Blabbermouth that Tommy Lee doesn't wanna make albums.

The AU Review: Yeah, I don't understand that myself.

Sebastian: Yeah, well, I want to keep on making records. I don't just listen to singles, I listen to albums. I love the BLACK VEIL BRIDES new album, "Set The World On Fire", it's a great album. I like HELLYEAH when they put out records, I think they put out great albums, and I love putting out albums, for sure. I think I always will. I don't believe in this "just put out a single" thing. I don't know, maybe I'm old school or something, but I want a full album that I can listen to from start to the finish and be entertained by it. I'm still trying to make the perfect album and I totally put tons of time and effort into planning the sequencing of the songs and this album is meant to be listened to in order. Don't press shuffle! [Laughs]

The AU Review: Yeah, I couldn't for this. This album is a true, flowing story.

Sebastian: Yeah, good. They're designed for that. Like the first SKID ROW album [and] "Slave To The Grind", you guys have been listening to those albums for 20 years! So I know what you all expect you expect an album of that caliber and quality. Those weren't fluke albums; I wasn't lucky I made those records, and I'm not trying to put down my old band, but I'm very specific, I'm like a task-master in the studio with musicians because I know what I want to hear. They'll tell you I'm hard to work with, but I'll tell you that I refuse to suck! [Laughs]

The AU Review: Yeah, to be honest, that shows now; they're definitely not as hard-sounding as they were when you were a part of SKID ROW.

Sebastian: No, because that's why they will tell you have I have a big ego or something. It's absolutely ridiculous. My father was a painter, he painted pictures, he was a hard-ass, too. His boss was his art. I don't want to boss anyone around, I get along great with Nick Sterling because we just have a great relationship together but the SKID ROW guys came to the point at the end of the band where they would tell me, "We wrote this song. We are the songwriters, you are the singer, you have to sing it," and I'd go, "But it sucks!" [Laughs] And they'd go, "How dare you say that! You're the singer," and I'd go, "No, no, no, no, no, no. You guys can write a song if you want and if it's good, I'll sing it," but go listen to those albums without me. I wouldn't sing those songs. They're not, and I would say to them, "Dude, this is not '18 And Life', man! Like, I don't know what your hearing or what you're thinking," but I don't know. I think that my records are of the same level of quality as those old SKID ROW albums.

Read the entire interview from The AU Review.