Ronan McGreevy of The Irish Times recently conducted an interview with ALTER BRIDGE and SLASH singer Myles Kennedy. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. The Irish Times: "Fortress" is ALTER BRIDGE's first album in three years. It is a lot heavier than its predecessor, "ABIII". Was that deliberate? Myles: It's just the way they fell together. Mark [Tremonti, guitarist] and I started writing together again. There was a surplus of heavy ideas and we decided to put those out and make them work. With that said, there was plenty of those values and those moments when we are trying to have that element of dynamics, to have that journey as part of the sound. Overall, it is probably our heaviest and most intense record in that sense. The Irish Times: It is also your most complicated record. You seem to be messing around with the original verse-chorus-verse-chorus format with complicated time signatures and scale patterns. Myles: That was very important to us. A lot of times, the fun part of the song will be after the second chorus and that is where you can decide where the journey can take a left turn. We did that a few times, like on "Cry of Achilles" and "Fortress" where we would really take some chances and keep it exciting. The Irish Times: You guys have been away doing other things for the past three years. When you've come together again, has that restoked your creativity? Myles: Absolutely. I think we were able to go off and do something completely different. What I did with Slash and the CONSPIRATORS was a very different kind of music. Genre-wise, it is a step in a different direction. When I decided to reconvene with ALTER BRIDGE, I felt I had a lot of ideas that were very different from what I had been doing. It was the same thing with Mark as well. The record came together very quickly because of that. The Irish Times: Slash fans want to know what is he really, really like? Myles: I'm not just saying it, he's one of the coolest people I've had the opportunity to meet and work with. He's a very intelligent, hard-working human being with a very big heart. I consider myself beyond fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him. He's an exceptional person. Read the entire interview at The Irish Times.
More...
More...
