SLASH Had A 'Hard Time' With 'Everything Sounding Really Rubbish' In Early Days Of Digital Recording

During Slash's February 25 press event with members of the Australian media, the GUNS N' ROSES guitarist was asked what the "biggest adaptation" has been for him in the nearly four decades that he has been involved in the music industry. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I sort of have always just done what it is that I do and it's never really fit in with whatever the industry standard is anyway, so it's always sort of been difficult. But the biggest adaptation has really been getting through that whole digital craze, when it really kicked in with MP3s and Pro Tools first coming around and everybody just going into this sort of phase of, like, 'Look at all the possibilities. It's amazing. It's genius.' Which, technically, it really is — the things that we've been able to achieve are amazing. But then a lot of stuff sort of got kicked to the side when that happened, and a lot of it was the integrity of sound, the integrity of the warmth of what we used to really enjoy about analog. Now with digital, they actually have made it so that they recreated the warmth of analog in digital, which is great. But there was a period there where everything was sounding really rubbish, and I was having a hard time with that one because everybody was on that bandwagon and it was hard to find people that weren't. So, yeah, that was the biggest adaptation for me."

Slash is promoting the new album from SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS, titled "4", which was released on February 11 via Gibson Records in partnership with BMG. "4" is Slash's fifth solo album and fourth overall with his band featuring Myles Kennedy (vocals),Brent Fitz (drums),Todd Kerns (bass, vocals) and Frank Sidoris (guitar, vocals).

Most of "4" was recorded over a 10-day period at Nashville's RCA Studio A in April 2021. The LP was helmed by six-time Grammy-winning country music producer Dave Cobb (Chris Stapleton, Travis Tritt) who shared the band's desire to lay down the tracks live, in the studio including guitar solos and vocals — a first for the group.

"I always wanted to set up the back line in the studio like we would in a club or in a venue and mic everything up and just record," Slash recently explained to Billboard. "Dave Cobb was the only producer I've ever worked with who was okay with that. In fact, he said one of his aspirations was to record a rock 'n' roll band live in the studio. I was, like, 'Eureka! I've been trying to do that my whole career.'"

"I love the way old ROLLING STONES, LED ZEPPELIN, THE WHO and all these classic rock bands sounded when they played together," Cobb added. "Slash was excited to record an album live. And I was excited about it because [my team] and I do it that way a lot."

SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY AND THE CONSPIRATORS kicked off a North American headlining tour on February 8, in Portland, Oregon. The trek will hit 28 major cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Nashville, Dallas, Austin, Houston, and more, before wrapping up March 26 in Orlando, Florida.