WINGER Is Working On New Music Remotely

WINGER frontman Kip Winger spoke to Marci Wiser of the 95.5 KLOS radio station about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's new studio album. The disc will be the follow-up to "Better Days Comin'", which came out in 2014.

"It's very interesting, 'cause I was never into doing albums through the mail, file sharing and that," Kip said (hear audio below). "But in this case, we kind of have to. So I'm writing some things and sending 'em to Reb [Beach, guitar], and he's adding some stuff and bringing it back. Before the pandemic, Reb came to Nashville and we wrote about four songs together, and then the pandemic happened, so we've been doing some file sharing. He's been actually planning on coming to Nashville sooner than later, and we'll sit down and keep trying to finish it."

He continued: "I've set the bar as high as I can for this, and we've thrown out quite a few ideas already, just trying to pick the cream of the crop. So it's really just depending upon our schedules. We usually write in 10-day stretches — we'll be 10 days on, take a little break for 10 days. The good news is that the chemistry between Reb and I is as good as ever. Something special happens when we sit down.

"Reb is the kind of person, you can just put on a drum machine and he'll just write a cool riff," Kip added. "He's always been very inspired. And I like to arrange. So the partnership between us works really well, because what he can't do, I can, and what I can't do, he can."

Kip also revealed that he has five songs written for a new solo album which has been in the works for "many years." He explained: "I'll be at a solo gig and I'll get ideas in the dressing room and turn on my iPhone recorder, and I'm just kind of putting together the best ideas."

WINGER recently invited artists, friends and fans — including Alice Cooper and members of SCORPIONS, STEELHEART and WARRANT — to sing along to "Better Days Comin'", the title track of the band's sixth studio album. An official music video for the new version of the song was made available in late April.

WINGER formed in the late 1980s and soared to immediate success with its 1988 self-titled release. The album spawned the hit singles "Seventeen" and "Headed For A Heartbreak" and achieved platinum sales status. "Winger" also stayed on The Billboard 200 chart for over 60 weeks where it peaked at #21. Their next album, "In The Heart Of The Young", also achieved platinum status behind the singles "Can't Get Enuff" and "Miles Away". The change in musical climate of the mid-'90s, compounded with unprovoked ridicule on MTV's popular "Beavis And Butt-Head" show, led the band to go on hiatus in 1994. In 2001, WINGER reunited and has not looked back since. Kip also earned a 2016 Grammy nomination for the classical album "C.F. Kip Winger: Conversations With Nijinsky", recorded with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra.