{"id":13406,"date":"2014-08-08T01:00:50","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T05:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=13406"},"modified":"2014-08-01T20:59:23","modified_gmt":"2014-08-02T00:59:23","slug":"blowin-wind-with-skid-rows-rachel-bolan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=13406","title":{"rendered":"Blowin’ Wind with Skid Row’s Rachel Bolan: “With Rise of the Damnation Army I\u2019m just so damn proud of those songs. I think we really stepped it up.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rb01\"Skid Row is a band that, as you all know, I\u2019m a huge fan of. Ever since hearing them in 1988 I\u2019ve been a fan through thick and thin. Last year Skid Row made quite a triumphant comeback with United World Rebellion Chapter I. It was their first new collection of music in nearly six years and saw them returning to form and channeling their roots to put out a spectacular release.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Skid Row is back again and they have another new release to be proud about. Part II of their three part United World Rebellion trilogy \u201cRise of the Damnation Army\u201d will be released on August 5 and I recently had the chance to talk to founding member\/bassist\/songwriter Rachel Bolan while on a tour stop. It was great to reconnect with him and talk about the new album and all kinds of other random bullshit. I love talking to this guy and I hope you\u2019ll enjoy this one! Enjoy!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rachel, thanks for taking the time out to talk to me dude.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No worries, Don. How are you man?<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m great. Just being awesome. How about you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] The same. [laughs]<\/p>\n

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So where are ya calling from this afternoon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are in Wisconsin today. The bus just pulled in.<\/p>\n

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You guys have been really hitting it hard this last year and half.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah man. Right now were at 103 shows for the year. This is probably been our busiest year in a long time. We started in April and in 8 months we will have played 103 shows and there\u2019s a few more that we haven\u2019t confirmed yet. It\u2019s pretty hardcore man.<\/p>\n

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It couldn\u2019t happen to a better band. I\u2019m just so glad you guys are still out there doing it and doing it well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks, Don. Yeah, it\u2019s pretty amazing that 25 years into our career we can still do this and people still want to come see us [laughs]. It\u2019s pretty cool.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s crazy to think that Skid Row has been at this for over 25 years. I mean, in reality, you are my generation\u2019s classic rock. Is it kind of a heavy thought to realize that you\u2019re music eventually became the sound track to many young people\u2019s lives much like the music of your heroes were for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, how crazy is that? [laughs]. When Skid Row came out I didn\u2019t know how long this was going to last. I noticed that something was really special about the band to people when the band and broke up. We all got inundated with emails from fans. I mean, we thought that grunge music had put us out of business for good but when we got back together, now over 14 years ago when Johnny joined the band, I really didn\u2019t see Skid Row as being that band that would have this kind of staying power and it\u2019s a really good feeling. Like when you talk about it and other people talk about what an impact we had on them it freaks me out sometimes [laughs]. I just can\u2019t believe how long people have stuck with us and it\u2019s awesome and it really makes you feel really good. It makes you feel that no matter how much money you make at it, your band is successful because you touched so many people over the years.<\/p>\n

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I think it\u2019s cool that you\u2019ve been able to gauge Skid Row\u2019s success that way but I also think it\u2019s cool that instead of just becoming a straight up nostalgia act, Skid Row is still putting out some really great music.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thanks, man. That\u2019s the whole thing with us. The nostalgia part is great and that\u2019s all well and good but I personally would go crazy if we didn\u2019t create new music and do more than rely on our past success. I would go nuts. It\u2019s just really cool to get in a small room and write some songs and just our chops going again.<\/p>\n

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You guys are about to release United World Rebellion Part II.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have you heard it yet?<\/p>\n

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Yeah, and I fucking love it man. It totally exceeded my expectations especially coming off the heals of Part I which was fucking killer. I\u2019ll be honest, I\u2019m always a little shaky when I hear an old favorite band is putting out new music but you guys nailed it once again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] Thanks man. I hear ya. You always want to love it when a band puts out new music but sometimes, you just don\u2019t love it [laughs]. We\u2019re really proud of this one. It was such a cool process and being the 2nd<\/sup> out the three EPs we feel like we\u2019re getting our legs back so to speak. With Part I we were just regrouping and trying to figure out who the guys were who wrote the first 2 or 3 records. Retracing the steps to your roots is not as easy as it sounds. It took a while and then the flood gates just opened. Everything just feel into place really quick.<\/p>\n

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This has been Skid Row\u2019s most solid line up in years. I\u2019m so glad that you found a drummer (Rob Hammersmith) who wouldn\u2019t spontaneously combust or die and a tragic gardening accident.<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] Yeah, without a doubt. I\u2019ve known Rob for years and I produced Rockets To Ruin (Rob\u2019s former band) and I just knew he was a really solid drummer. When he came in he was incredibly prepared and it just felt right. He\u2019s a creative guy and a rock solid drummer who comes up with great parts. It just made things flow so much easier having him in the band. Everything just got better and you know him, he\u2019s a great, friendly guy and it\u2019s just been great.<\/p>\n

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Was having Rob Hammersmith complete this lineup what made you feel comfortable enough to create again?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah. When you know someone\u2019s feel and style really well, while creating we would be like, \u201cOk, Rob could do that thing here, that special thing\u201d and we\u2019d know what Scotty might do and what Johnny would do. I always tell people that even though Snake and I write the bulk of the songs, it\u2019s never truly a Skid Row song until we get into rehearsal. Sometimes Snake and I will write something that we think is the next \u201cStairway to Heaven\u201d and we\u2019ll get to rehearsal and everyone will just shrug their shoulders and say, \u201cmeh\u201d [laughs]. We\u2019ll all work on it until either it becomes great or it\u2019s just beating a dead horse so we\u2019ll put it away for a while.<\/p>\n

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Not all songwriters are generally that open to putting their songs out there to their band like that. How important is it to Skid Row to have that kind of openness with the rest of the band?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s important. There are five guys in this band and it\u2019s not a dictatorship. There\u2019s nothing worse than going up and playing a song that you don\u2019t like playing. There\u2019s songs that we have from our past that I don\u2019t even like people saying the name of the song yet alone having to play it [laughs]. If five guys aren\u2019t completely into it, you\u2019re gonna have someone not putting their all into it so you just rewrite it, you re-approach it, you throw new ideas at it. That\u2019s how we work together.<\/p>\n

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With Thickskin and RPM, it seemed like Skid Row someone gravitated away from its old formula of writing and playing but with these new releases you guys just re-connected with that sound that became your own imprint of sorts. Was returning to this formula a conscious thing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, that\u2019s what I was saying about retracing our steps. With Chapter 1, for about a year before making that one we realized it had been about six years since our last album. I personally didn\u2019t listen to any commercial radio and I purposely only listened to the older stuff that influenced me. I was trying to get back to that mindset. When Thickskin came out we were worried too much about sounding too much like how we used to sound. When Revolutions Per Minute came out, that was just totally experimental. We just threw anything up in the air and said, \u201cEverybody\u2019s got to make one of these records in their career.\u201d When it came time to record United World Rebellion Part I we made a conscious effort to get back those guys that used to write riffs that we used to write. Once those floodgates opened it came really easy. Being in that same mindset for the next 8-9 months, writing the Part II came a lot easier and I hope it\u2019ll carry over to Part III as well.<\/p>\n

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Last time we talked we talked about Revolutions Per Minute and how it was a really misunderstood album. Is it safe to say that Revolutions Per Minute is Skid Row\u2019s \u201cMusic From the Elder?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

[laughs] It could be. It very well could be. That\u2019s an awesome analogy [laughs]. You know, it was just something where we said, \u201cLet\u2019s just do whatever we want. Let\u2019s just not do a ballad.\u201d So we did and you know, people either dug it or they didn\u2019t. Sometimes there are people who see things for what they are. They\u2019re experimenting. Like on \u201cThe Elder\u201d, I thought, \u201cOk, they\u2019re experimenting.\u201d There are a few great songs on The Elder. As for Revolutions Per Minute, I like each song but I don\u2019t love those songs. I\u2019m glad we did that album because I think we inadvertently were helping our process of clearing out heads and just blowing out all the cobwebs and all the distractions. I think in a weird way it kind of helped us to get to that point to be able to write United World Rebellion.<\/p>\n