WARRANT Singer Talks About Forthcoming Album In New Interview

Jason Woodbury of the Phoenix New Times' "Up On The Sun" blog recently conducted an interview with WARRANT/ex-LYNCH MOB singer Robert Mason. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Up On The Sun: Have you guys [WARRANT] been working on new material at all or have you been focusing mostly on going out and playing the hits?

Mason: Funny you should ask. There's a record that's just done now, [there's] a brand new WARRANT record [called "Rockaholic"] due out in May. We really took our time, and, through a couple years of doing "fly" dates, we kinda said, well, the band works, we're all doing it for the right reasons, we're all really happy on stage. It's great playing this legacy of music, and the fans love it, so why not [write some new songs] — but we were careful about it. We didn't just throw a record together. We test-marketed a couple of these songs live last summer, just springing them on the audiences. "Hey this is something you've never heard before," and by the end of the song, everyone is singing along, or buying into it. So we figured we should put the record out.

Up On The Sun: Did you feel a lot of pressure with the new material? To live up to the hit songs the band had scored?

Mason: We're just musicians. I'm just a songwriter/singer in a rock band. I was writing songs for this record, and personally, did I feel like they had to fit into an old-school WARRANT mode? To a degree, but I don't really think you write songs like that. The fact that we are all from the same headspace, it kind of worked out that way. Some of these songs sound like a bit of a departure, but there are tracks on this new CD that we played live in the rehearsal room, and they came together through pre-production and shit, for the year prior or so to this record, and they sound like WARRANT songs to us. It's just me singing. My voice is a little different than the original singer, but it's just a thing were you go on, and you write songs. I turned over things I had written, and say, do your thing, play it the WARRANT way, and they could do nothing else, and I would ask nothing else. So, is that the long way of answering yes? (laughs) I didn't feel pressure, or intimidation, but there was a certain responsibility.

Up On The Sun: What are some of the new things you mention? The departures? What is unique to this WARRANT record?

Mason: Well, technology has taken a leap. We're still plugging old-school guitars into old-school amps, but I think it's more about the attitude that everyone grows up a little bit. The old-school WARRANT attitude is about everyone living out on the street on the Sunset Strip, and that sort of behavior isn't what you are like when you're 40. So like I said, everyone grows up, but the spirit is still there, you get together and play those old songs, and it still feels like that. So we brought some elements from the old songs to the new record, that are just, it's a good time. WARRANT, for me, is always about a little male bravado, a little rock star ego. Though, I'm hardly a rock star. I'm a guy who plays in a band. Tell you what: Keith Richards is a rock star. David Bowie is a rock star. I'm a not a rock star. That's a ridiculous word to me, a ridiculous two words. There are rock stars. Am I one of them? Nah. On stage I give my all, and you leave some sweat and a little blood on stage, you never know. You do the best you can, and we are five guys who want to do this and are so thankful to do this for a living. And people appreciate it. And that fans, just give the energy back. You're trying to push all over your energy on to them, and they give it all back.

Up On The Sun: About those audiences, did "Cherry Pie" being included on Guitar Hero bring in a younger element?

Mason: Absolutely. That's one of those technological advances I was talking about. When "Cherry Pie" came out, you know what video games were like in the early '90s. Thanks to Guitar Hero and Rock Band and games like that, we have a new legion of fans, not only do we have older fans bringing their kids and nieces and nephews to the shows, but the demographic is so wide now, because you've got kids rediscovering those songs through video games. [There's] teens, just showing up on their own, cause they want to hear "Uncle Tom's Cabin". That's one of those 'puts a big ass smile on your face' moments. People that lived through it the first time, people who are completely nostalgic and have all these memories, and then you've got these young people, that are coming out for a lot of the same reasons, living through it the first time. I talk to kids at meet-and-greets, and they are like, I play your songs, and I'm like, "Oh, you're in a band?" and they are like, "No, on Guitar Hero or Rock Band," and I give them a hard time. I say, "That's not playing the songs. Pick up a guitar."

Read the entire interview from the Phoenix New Times.

Fan-filmed video footage of WARRANT performing a brand new song, "Sex Ain't Love", on June 17, 2010 at the "Market Block Party" in Syracuse, New York can be viewed below (courtesy of Rokken Randy).