ALTER BRIDGE and SLASH FEATURING MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS singer Myles Kennedy was recently interviewed by Lunchbox and Promo Brady of Tulsa radio station 97.5 KMOD's DOMKcast podcast. The full chat can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). On whether he approaches singing for ALTER BRIDGE and singing with Slash differently: Myles: "They're very different, which has been cool for me, because it allows me to stretch in different directions as opposed to doing the same thing over and over and it becoming redundant. ALTER BRIDGE is more of an aggressive... I don't want to say metal vibe, but Mark [Tremonti]'s riffs are very heavy, and with Slash and THE CONSPIRATORS, it's more of a blues-based, rock and roll vibe, which I love singing over as well." On whether it's intimidating to be in bands with well-established guitar heroes: Myles: "What you do is you just try and go in there and not overthink it. For me, that's just staying in the moment and staying very present, and when I hear something — like if Slash plays me a riff or a chord progression, the idea is to kind of trust my instincts and go with the first thing I that I hear. When we first started playing together, I remember I really did overthink things, but now after years of doing it, I've learned to trust my initial reaction, and it usually turns out for the better that way." On becoming more involved in the ALTER BRIDGE writing process over the years: Myles: "The first record, a lot of that — I'd say over half of that — was done before I even came into the fold. When I flew down in January of 2004, we would basically sit together and collaborate on the other 40 percent of the tunes. By the time we got to the 'Blackbird' record, the writing dynamic had changed, and we were more of a collaboration and kind of established a new chemistry with the four of us. We've kind of run with that approach ever since." On what attracted him to working with the group in the first place: Myles: "I'd toured with [CREED] with THE MAYFIELD FOUR back in '98, and I remember one day watching the three of them during a soundcheck. I remember really liking just the overall... like the rhythm section, Scott [Phillips, drums] and Brian [Marshall, bass], are very underrated to me, because they have a certain feel that is very special. Then you add Mark's ability as a riff writer into the equation, and that's something for me that, where I come from more of a singer/songwriter approach and I'm very focused on melodies and lyrics and a different kind of guitar playing, but when I heard Mark, I was, like, 'He's got something in his musical DNA that I think would be interesting to mix with what I do.' I think that was probably the main draw for me when he called me five years later, giving that some thought and thinking 'This could be cool, because we come from a different place, and if we meet in the middle, it could be something different.' On the positivity of the group's lyrics: Myles: "We're like the Tony Robbins of rock. [Laughs]" On his upcoming solo album: Myles: "Late last year, I started chasing down what would be the second solo record — or, I guess, technically the first solo record, [since] the one I recorded years ago probably won't be released…. There's something to be said about songs and records having a shelf life to artists, and for me, I kind of felt like that might have expired here." ALTER BRIDGE released "Live At The O2 Arena + Rarities" on September 8 via Napalm. The set was recorded at London's famous O2 Arena on November 26, 2016.
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