MÖTLEY CRÜE guitarist Mick Mars spoke to Billboard about his upcoming solo album, which he hopes to release in early 2020. The effort is being recorded in Nashville, where Mars has lived for about six years, with producer Michael Wagener at Blackbird Studio. Speaking about the musical direction of his new music, Mars said that it is "not like today's music, which to me is pretty much pop metal and more growly guys. It's all cool and it's all good, and I'm just searching for something that's just a little different than that. I [also] don't want to be living in '85. It's hard to reinvent yourself, but that's what I'm doing now. I'm trying to reinvent the way that I approach music writing. I've got a lot of crap, and I've got a lot of good stuff too." Mars said that he has been working with a vocalist named Jacob on some of his new material. "[He] can be a lot of different voices, and it's pretty amazing," Mick said. "I go, 'I want this kind of voice here,' and he'll pull it straight off." Earlier this year, Mars said that his upcoming album will not feature guest appearances by Andy Biersack (BLACK VEIL BRIDES) and John Corabi (MÖTLEY CRÜE), both of whom have collaborated with the guitarist in recent years. "Those [collaborations] went away," he told "Talking Metal". "I'm looking for a singer that's gonna be with me in the recording studio, and if it blows up, by any chance — which I hope it does — to be on tour. 'Cause how many times have you gone, say, to a concert and it's, like, not the same singer [as on the record]? So it's one of those kind of things. I would like to have a few different singers — different sounds, but musician singers. This is gonna sound crazy — like with THE BEATLES. The three guys sang all these harmonies, and you could have John [Lennon] sing on a song, or Ringo [Starr], or whoever. But that kind of a thing is kind of what I'm going for. I'd like to do it. If it happens, cool, and if it doesn't, that's cool too. Because no matter what, this record ain't going out until I'm really satisfied with it." Asked about the musical direction of his solo material, Mars told "Talking Metal": "Well, I guess it's my own style. It isn't really blues. My playing has a blues element to it, of course, but it isn't what you would call a blues record. It's more of a heavier rock thing, but I don't wanna even try to 'outheavy' the heavies, you know what I mean? It's just something hopefully just a little different than what's going on now. You're not gonna hear a MÖTLEY-flavored song, except for the guitar, [because] that's me. They're gonna be a bit harder than that, but not as hard as the heavies, like MINISTRY and some of those guys." Back in 2016, Mars released snippets of two solo songs, apparently called "Gimme Blood" and "Shake The Cage". The tracks, which were recorded at Blackbird Studio, also featured Corabi, who appeared on CRÜE's 1994 self-titled album. Corabi later said that he didn't contribute to the writing process for the two songs, but that he was open to collaborating with Mars on some brand new material. Last year, MÖTLEY CRÜE completed four songs for "The Dirt Soundtrack" that accompanies the Netflix film "The Dirt", based on The New York Times best-selling 2001 autobiography by CRÜE and Neil Strauss. Exclusive to the film's soundtrack, MÖTLEY CRÜE recorded "The Dirt (Est. 1981) (feat. Machine Gun Kelly)", "Ride With The Devil", "Crash And Burn" and a cover of Madonna's "Like A Virgin".
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