WARRIOR SOUL's KORY CLARKE Explains Delay In Completing New Album 'Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em'

In a new interview with Dawn Osborne of TotalRock, WARRIOR SOUL frontman Kory Clarke spoke about the status of the recording sessions for the band's new album, tentatively titled "Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em". The upcoming LP will be the follow-up to "Out On Bail", which arrived in March 2022 via Livewire/Cargo Records UK. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I got married. I've been busy. But it's going well."

Asked if the new LP has been completed now, Kory said: "No, but there is a song being featured in Newcastle that they asked if they could play a track. And so I sent them the track. It's not mastered or anything, but it's a pretty cool track. [They're gonna play it on] Thursday."

After Osborne noted that it would be particularly timely now to release a previously announced new WARRIOR SOUL song about artificial intelligence, Kory concurred. "I agree," he said. "It's called 'The New Gods', and it's, as you can imagine, highly critical of greedy dickwad billionaires. [Laughs]"

Circling back to why it is taking so long to complete "Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em", Clarke said: "It's hard to record the way we're doing it because everybody's all over the place. And I'm a little bit of a perfectionist these days, so I'm trying to make it sound really, really good. I'm playing a lot of the drums on it. But it's coming out good, man. I'm pretty happy with the stuff. And I got a song called 'Slab City', which is about an illegal town. It's, like, where you can just live, and it's kind of like no laws. It's a pretty transient culture, but I thought it was really cool that people could do that, so I wrote a song called 'Slab City'."

Asked if a new song about U.S. president Donald Trump will make it to the album, Kory said: "Not specifically Trump. I did that on the last album, a song called 'Hip Hip Hurray'… Well, it's not about Trump per se. It's just about his wanker of Republican people and MAGA. There are smatterings of anti-MAGA in it."

After Osborne pointed out that Trump's approval ratings in the U.S. have sunk to new lows in several recent polls, driven by declining GOP support, Kory said: "Definitely if you look at the polls, the tide has certainly changed, but it needs to change a lot more, I think."

Asked if he would vote for Trump if the U.S. president went ahead with his plan of distributing $5,000 "dividend" checks to Americans if the midterms go Republicans' way, Kory said: "No. I'm not gonna fucking vote for that asshole."

Shortly before its arrival, "Out On Bail" was described in a press release as "a statement of considerable intent" from Clarke, who is "one of rock 'n' roll's most prolific, prophetic and controversial songwriters." The LP was produced by Clarke, with additional production by Dennis Post. It was mixed and mastered by Rune Buck.

WARRIOR SOUL released a trio of albums on the Geffen major label during the '90s, beginning with its classic 1990 debut, "Last Decade Dead Century".

Having initially split in 1995 following the release of "The Space Age Playboys", WARRIOR SOUL was resurrected in 2007 by Clarke, who has issued several albums since: "Destroy The War Machine" (2008),"Stiff Middle Finger" (2012),"Back On The Lash" (2017),"Rock 'N' Roll Disease" (2019),"Cocaine And Other Good Stuff" (2020) and "Out On Bail".