2024.05.26 - Gitarist Netherlands - Slash's Blues Party
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2024.05.26 - Gitarist Netherlands - Slash's Blues Party
From the June 2024 issue of the magazine released on May 26th.
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_______________
Slash's blues party
In his already busy schedule, Slash has also found time for a new project. 'Orgy Of The Damned' is a blues cover album on which the guitarist collaborates with several guest singers. During a day off on the tour with the Conspirators, he tells us more about the album.
Words: Kevin Pasman
The roots of 'Orgy Of The Damned' go back to the mid-1990s, when Slash had just left Guns N' Roses and was performing blues covers with some musical friends under the name Slash's Blues Ball for about two years. Bassist Johnny Griparic and keyboardist Teddy Andreadis of Blues Ball are also featured on "Orgy Of The Damned," joined by drummer Michael Jerome and guitarist Tash Neal.
"We selected a few songs from those old setlists," Slash said. "Other than that, there were some songs that we didn't play at the time, but that I really wanted to cover. We started jamming that, and while we were doing that, I started thinking about who would sound good on what song.
"The only song that went differently was the one Iggy Pop sings on. My bass player told me that Iggy had always wanted to record a blues album. When I heard that, I called Iggy. He said it had never come about. I asked him what song he would like to do and without even a second thought he said, Awful Dream by Lightnin' Hopkins.
"We met at my studio in LA, both sat on a stool and recorded the song a few times. It was different from all the other songs on the album, where I already had the songs and then chose who was going to sing on it."
Some of the guest singers Slash works with on "Orgy Of The Damned" are meritorious guitarists in their own right. "With Gary Clark Jr. we did everything completely live in the studio," Slash explains. "He just became part of the band for Crossroads. Billy Gibbons recorded his guitar afterwards on his own in Palm Springs. We were forced to record a lot of vocals after the album was further finished. Recording vocals is pretty tricky when you're working with different guest singers; you're at the mercy of their schedules."
Rehearsal
When we last spoke with Slash (see Guitarist 372, February 2022), we reflected at length on the fact that '4,' his fourth album with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, was recorded entirely live in the studio; a long-held dream. "With 'Orgy Of The Damned,' it went more or less the same way," he explains. "With the only major difference being that the amplifiers were also in the room with us when we recorded '4.' This album we recorded with headphones, but all together live in the studio at the same time.
"A week before we went into the studio we rehearsed all the songs. Then we worked out all the arrangements. Sometimes that went in quite a surprising direction. When we initially played Stormy Monday, which Beth Hart sings on, we did it more or less the way Etta James did that song. When I talked to Beth about it, she said, what if we played it in minor? I thought that was a really cool idea. We started rehearsing that and then we came up with the idea of doing a coda at the end where the song goes back to major.
"A day after we put that together, we went into the studio. We were rehearsing the song when Beth came in and started singing along. That's the only take we did of that song, because she really threw her whole heart and soul into it. As a band, we felt our way through it a little bit, but the vocals were so good that we just left it as it was."
Old school
"There are a few guitars on the album. The most unexpected are probably the old Telecaster from the 1950s that I played Living For The City with and the Strat I use on Oh Well. I haven't used a Strat on stage since my Velvet Revolver days. My go-to guitar for most of this album was my old 1963 Gibson ES-335.
"But you can hear more: on Crossroads a 1958 Les Paul, a 1959 Les Paul on Key To The Highway, a 1950s Goldtop on Papa Was A Rolling Stone and on Bomb Under A Bad Sign a replica of a 1958 Gibson Explorer built by Leo Scala, a great guitar-builder who works a lot with Gibson. For Metal Chestnut, the instrumental track at the end, I used that 1969 Les Paul again.
"Have you ever heard of the company Fraulini? They make great hand-built old school parlor guitars in the style of the 1920s. And baritone guitars with a great sound. It reminds me of that Hendrix video where he's sitting on a stool playing acoustic. That's what I used for Awful Dream. Oh Well is a Martin I had in the studio."
Context
"Because I knew what kind of album we were making, I didn't feel the urge to bring big Marshall stacks and things like that. During pre-production, I used mostly combos. Some Fender Deluxes, an old Fender Twin, a Dumble he made for me right before he died, a 60-watt Marshall.... All cool, old combos.
"One of the combos I had was a Magnatone M-80 I got from Billy Gibbons years ago. I had never used that one before. It's like that sometimes: you get an amp or a pedal, you say thanks, and then you store it away somewhere and never hear it. But thinking I might be able to use it in this context, I pulled it out. In the end, that was the only amp that sounded good on everything.
"I used that for the whole album. It even went so far as to use a top and cabinet version of the same amp for the subsequent Guns N' Roses tour. And that, in turn, culminated in me working with Magnatone to design the amp that I now use for everything: a 100-watt version of that same amp."
Leap
In addition to many blues classics, there are also two soul songs on 'Orgy Of The Damned' with Papa Was A Rolling Stone and Stevie Wonder's Living For The City. Notable choices, as the original version of Papa Was A Rolling Stone contains quite little guitar and that of Living For The City even none.
"Papa Was A Rolling Stone was a song that I had jammed with Johnny Griparic in Slash's Snakepit back in the 1990s," Slash said. "Because of that, we had more or less developed our own arrangement. Because yeah, the original is a bass line, a wakka-wakka thing and vocals. We had to find our own way to play that song. Tash and I came up with some guitar parts and put together the instrumental arrangement. We then presented that to Demi Lovato.
"Living For The City was the biggest leap. I really wanted to do that song because it was my favorite from 'Innervisions' when that album came out, when I was eight or nine years old. With Blues Ball, we did Superstition, but I couldn't see us recording that song. That's been done so many times and anything I could come up with would be a lame rip-off. But I still wanted to do something by Stevie. Tash is a great singer, so I asked him if he would do Living For The City. We worked on the arrangement together."
Reason
Despite his busy touring schedule and the fact that he will be recording another new Conspirators album in the fall, Slash is highly motivated to tour with his blues covers: "I really can't make an album without touring for it. That's really the only reason I make albums. We're doing a blues festival (S.E.R.P.E.N. T. Festival) in July and August this year.
"We have some great other artists joining us: Eric Gales, Warren Haynes, Samantha Fish, Christone 'Kingflsh' Ingram, Keb' Mo'.... With that, we're touring the US. If it goes well, I want to try to do something like that every year and bring it to Europe."
- Transcript (Dutch):
- Het bluesfeest van Slash
In zijn toch al zo drukke schema heeft Slash ook nog tijd gevonden voor een nieuw project. ‘Orgy Of The Damned’ is een bluescoveralbum waarop de gitarist samenwerkt met verschillende gastzangers. Tijdens een vrije dag op de tour met de Conspirators vertelt hij ons meer over het album.
tekst Kevin Pasman
De wortels van ‘Orgy Of The Damned’ gaan terug naar midden jaren negentig, toen Slash net Guns N’ Roses verlaten had en met wat muzikale vrienden onder de naam Slash’s Blues Ball zo’n twee jaar optrad met bluescovers. Bassist Johnny Griparic en toetsenist Teddy Andreadis van Blues Ball zijn ook op ‘Orgy Of The Damned’ te horen, aangevuld met drummer Michael Jerome en gitarist Tash Neal.
“We hebben een paar nummers van die oude setlists geselecteerd”, aldus Slash. “Verder waren er wat nummers die we destijds niet gespeeld hebben, maar die ik wel heel graag wilde coveren. Dat zijn we gaan jammen en terwijl we daarmee bezig waren, begon ik na te denken over wie goed zou klinken op welk nummer.
“Het enige nummer dat anders ging was het nummer waar Iggy Pop op zingt. Mijn bassist vertelde me dat Iggy altijd al een bluesalbum had willen opnemen. Toen ik dat hoorde, belde ik Iggy. Hij zei dat het er nog nooit van gekomen was. Ik vroeg hem welk nummer hij zou willen doen en zonder ook maar een seconde na te denken zei hij: Awful Dream van Lightnin’ Hopkins.
“We spraken af in mijn studio in LA, gingen allebei op een kruk zitten en namen het nummer een paar keer op. Dat was anders dan alle andere nummers op het album, waarbij ik de nummers al had en daarna koos wie erop ging zingen.”
Sommige van de gastzangers waar Slash mee werkt op ‘Orgy Of The Damned’ zijn zelf ook verdienstelijke gitaristen. “Met Gary Clark Jr. hebben we alles volledig live in de studio gedaan”, licht Slash toe. “Hij werd gewoon onderdeel van de band voor Crossroads. Billy Gibbons heeft zijn gitaar achteraf in zijn eentje opgenomen in Palm Springs. We moesten noodgedwongen veel zangers opnemen nadat het album verder af was. Zang opnemen is best lastig als je met verschillende gastzangers werkt; je bent overgeleverd aan hun schema’s.”
Repeteren
Toen wij voor het laatst met Slash spraken (zie Gitarist 372, februari 2022), stonden we uitgebreid stil bij het feit dat ‘4’, zijn vierde album met Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, volledig live in de studio was opgenomen; een lang gekoesterde droom. “Bij ‘Orgy Of The Damned’ is het min of meer hetzelfde gegaan”, legt hij uit. “Met als enige grote verschil dat de versterkers ook bij ons in de ruimte stonden toen we ‘4’ opnamen. Dit album hebben we met koptelefoons opgenomen, maar wel met zijn allen tegelijk live in de studio.
“Een week voor we de studio in gingen hebben we alle nummers gerepeteerd. Toen hebben we alle arrangementen uitgewerkt. Soms ging dat best een verrassende kant op. Toen we Stormy Monday, waar Beth Hart op zingt, aanvankelijk speelden, deden we dat min of meer zoals Etta James dat nummer deed. Toen ik er met Beth over sprak, zei ze: wat als we het in mineur spelen? Dat vond ik een heel cool idee. Dat zijn we gaan repeteren en vervolgens kwamen we met het idee om een coda aan het einde te doen waar het nummer terug naar majeur gaat.
“Een dag nadat we dat in elkaar gezet hadden, gingen we de studio in. We waren het nummer aan het repeteren toen Beth binnenkwam en mee begon te zingen. Dat is de enige take die we van dat nummer gedaan hebben, want ze gooide echt heel haar hart en ziel erin. Als band voelden we onze weg een beetje erdoorheen, maar de zang was zó goed dat we het gewoon hebben gelaten zoals het was.”
Old school
“Er staan een paar gitaren op het album. De meest onverwachte zijn waarschijnlijk de oude Telecaster uit de jaren vijftig waarmee ik Living For The City heb ingespeeld en de Strat die ik op Oh Well gebruik. Sinds mijn Velvet Revolver-dagen heb ik al geen Strat meer op het podium gebruikt. Mijn go-to gitaar voor het grootste deel van dit album was mijn oude Gibson ES-335 uit 1963.
“Maar je hoort nog wel meer: op Crossroads een Les Paul uit 1958, een Les Paul uit 1959 op Key To The Highway, een Goldtop uit de jaren vijftig op Papa Was A Rolling Stone en op Bom Under A Bad Sign een replica van een Gibson Explorer uit 1958 die gebouwd is door Leo Scala, een geweldige gitaar-bouwer die veel met Gibson werkt. Voor Metal Chestnut, het instrumentale nummer aan het einde, heb ik die Les Paul uit 1969 weer gebruikt.
“Heb je wel eens van het bedrijf Fraulini gehoord? Ze maken geweldige hand-gebouwde old school parlorgitaren in de stijl van de jaren twintig van de vorige eeuw. En baritongitaren met een geweldige sound. Het doet me denken aan die Hendrix-video waar hij op een kruk akoestisch zit te spelen. Dat is wat ik gebruikt heb voor Awful Dream. Oh Well is een Martin die ik in de studio had liggen.”
Context
“Omdat ik wist wat voor soort album we maakten, voelde ik niet de aandrang om grote Marshall stacks en dat soort dingen mee te nemen. Tijdens de pre-productie heb ik voornamelijk combo’s gebruikt. Wat Fender Deluxes, een oude Fender Twin, een Dumble die hij vlak voor zijn overlijden voor me gemaakt heeft, een 60-watt Marshall... Allemaal coole, oude combo’s.
“Een van de combo’s die ik had was een Magnatone M-80 die ik jaren geleden van Billy Gibbons gekregen heb. Die had ik nog nooit gebruikt. Zo gaat dat wel eens: je krijg een versterker of een pedaal, je zegt bedankt en dan berg je hem ergens op en hoor je hem nooit. Maar omdat ik dacht dat ik hem in deze context misschien wel kon gebruiken, heb ik hem tevoorschijn gehaald. Uit-eindelijk was dat de enige versterker die op alles goed klonk.
“Die heb ik voor het hele album gebruikt. Het ging zelfs zover dat ik een top- en kabinetversie van dezelfde versterker heb gebruikt voor de daaropvolgende Guns N’ Roses-tour. En dat mondde weer uit in dat ik met Magnatone de versterker heb ontworpen die ik nu voor alles gebruik: een 100-watt versie van diezelfde versterker.”
Sprong
Naast veel bluesklassiekers staan er met Papa Was A Rolling Stone en Stevie Wonders Living For The City ook twee soulnummers op ‘Orgy Of The Damned’. Opvallende keuzes, want de originele versie van Papa Was A Rolling Stone bevat vrij weinig gitaar en die van Living For The City zelfs geen.
“Papa Was A Rolling Stone was een nummer dat ik in de jaren negentig al eens gejamd had met Johnny Griparic in Slash’s Snakepit”, aldus Slash. “Daardoor hadden we min of meer ons eigen arrangement ontwikkeld. Want ja, het origineel is een baslijn, een wakka-wakka-ding en zang. We moesten onze eigen manier vinden om dat nummer te spelen. Tash en ik hebben wat gitaarpartijen bedacht en het instrumentale arrangement in elkaar gezet. Dat hebben we vervolgens aan Demi Lovato voorgeschoteld.
“Living For The City was de grootste sprong. Dat nummer wilde ik graag doen omdat het mijn favoriete nummer van ‘Innervisions’ was toen dat album uitkwam, toen ik acht of negen jaar oud was. Met Blues Ball deden we Superstition, maar dat nummer zag ik ons niet opnemen. Dat is al zó vaak gedaan en alles waar ik op zou kunnen komen zou een slap aftreksel zijn. Maar ik wilde nog wel iets van Stevie doen. Tash is een geweldige zanger, dus ik vroeg hem of hij Living For The City zou willen doen. We hebben samen aan het arrangement gewerkt.”
Reden
Ondanks zijn drukke tourschema en het feit dat hij in het najaar weer een nieuw Conspirators-album gaat opnemen is Slash zeer gemotiveerd om met zijn bluescovers op tour te gaan: “Ik kan echt geen album maken zonder ervoor te touren. Dat is eigenlijk de enige reden waarom ik albums maak. We zijn bezig met een bluesfestival (S.E.R.P.E.N. T. Festival) in juli en augustus dit jaar.
“We hebben een paar fantastische andere artiesten erbij: Eric Gales, Warren Haynes, Samantha Fish, Christone ‘Kingflsh’ Ingram, Keb’ Mo’... Daarmee touren we door de VS. Als het goed gaat, wil ik proberen ieder jaar zoiets te doen en het naar Europa te brengen.”
Auto-translation:
_______________
Slash's blues party
In his already busy schedule, Slash has also found time for a new project. 'Orgy Of The Damned' is a blues cover album on which the guitarist collaborates with several guest singers. During a day off on the tour with the Conspirators, he tells us more about the album.
Words: Kevin Pasman
The roots of 'Orgy Of The Damned' go back to the mid-1990s, when Slash had just left Guns N' Roses and was performing blues covers with some musical friends under the name Slash's Blues Ball for about two years. Bassist Johnny Griparic and keyboardist Teddy Andreadis of Blues Ball are also featured on "Orgy Of The Damned," joined by drummer Michael Jerome and guitarist Tash Neal.
"We selected a few songs from those old setlists," Slash said. "Other than that, there were some songs that we didn't play at the time, but that I really wanted to cover. We started jamming that, and while we were doing that, I started thinking about who would sound good on what song.
"The only song that went differently was the one Iggy Pop sings on. My bass player told me that Iggy had always wanted to record a blues album. When I heard that, I called Iggy. He said it had never come about. I asked him what song he would like to do and without even a second thought he said, Awful Dream by Lightnin' Hopkins.
"We met at my studio in LA, both sat on a stool and recorded the song a few times. It was different from all the other songs on the album, where I already had the songs and then chose who was going to sing on it."
Some of the guest singers Slash works with on "Orgy Of The Damned" are meritorious guitarists in their own right. "With Gary Clark Jr. we did everything completely live in the studio," Slash explains. "He just became part of the band for Crossroads. Billy Gibbons recorded his guitar afterwards on his own in Palm Springs. We were forced to record a lot of vocals after the album was further finished. Recording vocals is pretty tricky when you're working with different guest singers; you're at the mercy of their schedules."
Rehearsal
When we last spoke with Slash (see Guitarist 372, February 2022), we reflected at length on the fact that '4,' his fourth album with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, was recorded entirely live in the studio; a long-held dream. "With 'Orgy Of The Damned,' it went more or less the same way," he explains. "With the only major difference being that the amplifiers were also in the room with us when we recorded '4.' This album we recorded with headphones, but all together live in the studio at the same time.
"A week before we went into the studio we rehearsed all the songs. Then we worked out all the arrangements. Sometimes that went in quite a surprising direction. When we initially played Stormy Monday, which Beth Hart sings on, we did it more or less the way Etta James did that song. When I talked to Beth about it, she said, what if we played it in minor? I thought that was a really cool idea. We started rehearsing that and then we came up with the idea of doing a coda at the end where the song goes back to major.
"A day after we put that together, we went into the studio. We were rehearsing the song when Beth came in and started singing along. That's the only take we did of that song, because she really threw her whole heart and soul into it. As a band, we felt our way through it a little bit, but the vocals were so good that we just left it as it was."
Old school
"There are a few guitars on the album. The most unexpected are probably the old Telecaster from the 1950s that I played Living For The City with and the Strat I use on Oh Well. I haven't used a Strat on stage since my Velvet Revolver days. My go-to guitar for most of this album was my old 1963 Gibson ES-335.
"But you can hear more: on Crossroads a 1958 Les Paul, a 1959 Les Paul on Key To The Highway, a 1950s Goldtop on Papa Was A Rolling Stone and on Bomb Under A Bad Sign a replica of a 1958 Gibson Explorer built by Leo Scala, a great guitar-builder who works a lot with Gibson. For Metal Chestnut, the instrumental track at the end, I used that 1969 Les Paul again.
"Have you ever heard of the company Fraulini? They make great hand-built old school parlor guitars in the style of the 1920s. And baritone guitars with a great sound. It reminds me of that Hendrix video where he's sitting on a stool playing acoustic. That's what I used for Awful Dream. Oh Well is a Martin I had in the studio."
Context
"Because I knew what kind of album we were making, I didn't feel the urge to bring big Marshall stacks and things like that. During pre-production, I used mostly combos. Some Fender Deluxes, an old Fender Twin, a Dumble he made for me right before he died, a 60-watt Marshall.... All cool, old combos.
"One of the combos I had was a Magnatone M-80 I got from Billy Gibbons years ago. I had never used that one before. It's like that sometimes: you get an amp or a pedal, you say thanks, and then you store it away somewhere and never hear it. But thinking I might be able to use it in this context, I pulled it out. In the end, that was the only amp that sounded good on everything.
"I used that for the whole album. It even went so far as to use a top and cabinet version of the same amp for the subsequent Guns N' Roses tour. And that, in turn, culminated in me working with Magnatone to design the amp that I now use for everything: a 100-watt version of that same amp."
Leap
In addition to many blues classics, there are also two soul songs on 'Orgy Of The Damned' with Papa Was A Rolling Stone and Stevie Wonder's Living For The City. Notable choices, as the original version of Papa Was A Rolling Stone contains quite little guitar and that of Living For The City even none.
"Papa Was A Rolling Stone was a song that I had jammed with Johnny Griparic in Slash's Snakepit back in the 1990s," Slash said. "Because of that, we had more or less developed our own arrangement. Because yeah, the original is a bass line, a wakka-wakka thing and vocals. We had to find our own way to play that song. Tash and I came up with some guitar parts and put together the instrumental arrangement. We then presented that to Demi Lovato.
"Living For The City was the biggest leap. I really wanted to do that song because it was my favorite from 'Innervisions' when that album came out, when I was eight or nine years old. With Blues Ball, we did Superstition, but I couldn't see us recording that song. That's been done so many times and anything I could come up with would be a lame rip-off. But I still wanted to do something by Stevie. Tash is a great singer, so I asked him if he would do Living For The City. We worked on the arrangement together."
Reason
Despite his busy touring schedule and the fact that he will be recording another new Conspirators album in the fall, Slash is highly motivated to tour with his blues covers: "I really can't make an album without touring for it. That's really the only reason I make albums. We're doing a blues festival (S.E.R.P.E.N. T. Festival) in July and August this year.
"We have some great other artists joining us: Eric Gales, Warren Haynes, Samantha Fish, Christone 'Kingflsh' Ingram, Keb' Mo'.... With that, we're touring the US. If it goes well, I want to try to do something like that every year and bring it to Europe."
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