THE WINERY DOGS Putting Finishing Touches On Sophomore Album

THE WINERY DOGS, the power trio featuring drummer Mike Portnoy (DREAM THEATER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ADRENALINE MOB),legendary bassist Billy Sheehan (MR. BIG, TALAS, DAVID LEE ROTH) and guitarist/vocalist Richie Kotzen (MR. BIG, POISON),is putting the finishing touches on its sophomore album for a fall release in North America on Loud & Proud via RED (a division of Sony Music Entertainment) and in the rest of the world via earMUSIC.

In a brand new interview with Metal Wani, Portnoy said about the upcoming CD (hear audio below): "We're almost done with the new album. Richie's finishing up his tracks at the moment. And the album, the mixing begins [in July], so we'll deliver the record to the label [very soon]. And the tour is already scheduled to begin at the beginning of October in America. So the plan is to have the album out in time for the tour starting in October. So that's the plan right now. And then once it comes out, we'll begin the tour cycle, which will likely go well through 2016, and we wanna just play as many places as we can."

Kotzen was asked by GetYourRockOut whether he felt any pressure trying to follow up the success of THE WINERY DOGS' self-titled debut album as the group prepared to begin work on its sophomore CD. "Personally, no," Richie said. "With music, I'm one of those people that, like… I don't think about anything other that doing what feels right to me. I mean, I probably could have put myself in situations where a lot more people would know about me, but I don't, because I don't wanna play music that I don't wanna play. I learned that in the past. And so either, personally, I'll play music that I wanna play, that I believe in, or I won't play music at all. And I've done that; that's me. And I think the other guys [in THE WINERY DOGS], I won't speak for them, but making a record with them, and knowing them as well as I do now, I don't think THE WINERY DOGS would make a record that the three of us would put out that we all didn't love."

He continued: "Once you start looking at music like a math equation and you start making choices that are outside the realm of creativity, you put yourself in a situation for a lot of emotional failure. And when you are there, then the music is meaningless and everything suffers and then things fall apart. So, I think, whatever we do, we'll do what feels natural and what the three of us can get behind. Even in the decision-making process, if I make a suggestion and one of the other guys loves it, but the other guy doesn't, we don't do it. We don't move unless all three of us agree to move. And then that way, once you're in a position, at least you know all three of us decided to go here; it's not like we were drug here by… you know what I'm trying to say?! By someone that didn't wanna go there."