SKID ROW Bassist On New Album: 'We Weren't Writing For The Record Company'

George Dionne of Rock Is Life recently conducted an interview with SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Rock Is Life: I'm really digging the new SKID ROW record "Revolutions Per Minute". Stylistically and compositionally, it's more of a mixed-bag than your previous records. What musical statement is SKID ROW trying to make with this record?

Rachel: The only thing that was agreed upon was that there would be no ballads. Other than that, it was a free-for-all, convention aside. We weren't writing for radio, and we weren't writing for the record company. We were writing songs that we like, no matter what style or no matter how hard of a left turn they took. If the band liked it, the song was going on the record. That was our mindset throughout the whole writing and recording process.

Rock Is Life: As I listen to it, I hear a conscious effort to not sound like the old SKID ROW and that's admirable. "Revolutions Per Minute" sounds new and it's full of energy, yet it still has the band's trademarks of dynamic songs and straight-ahead guitar sound. How do you think the new material will be received by "old-school" SKID ROW fans?

Rachel: It's funny because some fans have said it sounds like something totally new and others say it brings them back to the first album or to "Slave To The Grind". Nothing was intentional, so whatever happened just happened by accident. Everybody has his own take on it, but it's being received by new fans and old fans really well.

Rock Is Life: Talk about SKID ROW's songwriting process on "Revolutions Per Minute" since it's obvious that vocalist Johnny Solinger puts his "stamp" on a few of the songs.

Rachel: Scotti and I wrote one song, Snake and I wrote a couple, but I wrote most of the record on my own. "Strength" is a cover of an ALARM song. What Johnny brings to the table is his take on a song. What I mean by that is he brings his own feeling into it. I could write all of the songs in the world, but it's not a SKID ROW song until we all put our own feeling into it. Johnny does little melody changes here and there, and he puts his personality into it.

Rock Is Life: This is my only question on Sebastian Bach. I promise. I don't watch reality TV shows but Baz is part of the VH1 show "SuperGroup". Its premise, essentially, was to lock five musicians in a house for a few days and get them to create new music. My first thought was SKID ROW had him locked on a tour bus for months at a time and he couldn't write a song. What's he going to accomplish in a few short days?

Rachel: Yeah, you're right. I saw some of the show and it was pretty funny. I felt sorry for the other guys because when I looked at them, I never saw four guys so miserable in my life. Then I thought, "Oh yeah, I have!"

Read the entire interview at www.rock-is-life.com.