Canadian rock journalist Mitch Lafon of the "One On One With Mitch Lafon" podcast (Facebook page) recently conducted an interview with Richie Kotzen (THE WINERY DOGS, POISON, MR. BIG). You can now listen to the chat using the Spreaker widget below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). On how playing with THE WINERY DOGS is different to the way it was in POISON and MR. BIG: "I've always been a solo artist. Obviously, it's where I started from, and it's probably where I'll end. But THE WINERY DOGS is an interesting situation. Because with the other bands [I was in], I was a bandmember, I was a primary member, I was writing songs in both bands. However, I was coming into a situation that had nothing to do with me. Both bands were already known and they had more success before I was in the band than they did once I got in the band. So it was a situation where I was a contributor to something that already had been established. Whereas with THE WINERY DOGS, this is a situation built from ground zero. And obviously, I have a history with Billy [Sheehan, THE WINERY DOGS and MR. BIG bassist] and working with him. But even taking that into the equation, this is a band that really has no history or track record other than us getting together at my house and writing a bunch of songs and making a record. So I think part of the appeal for me is I'm able to be myself and write the songs that I write and sing the way that I sing and play the way I feel like. And the same goes for the other guys. It's not like we have some kind of previous template that we have to fit into; we're actually kind of writing our own page. And so I think there's a level of honesty in that, and I think that's probably what appeals to people and why that first record got such a great response. I think the second record, now that we've been in our writing sessions, is gonna, musically, even surpass that. I don't know that people are gonna embrace it the same way I hope they do but I feel like because we've spent this time together, we've grown as a band and we understand each better, so I think the foundation is set to make an even stronger record." On the songwriting process for THE WINERY DOGS' forthcoming second album: "The way the band works
And I'll tell you exactly how the first record was made. We got together in a room and we jammed and we threw musical ideas around. Out of the sessions, we ended up with maybe six or seven, what I would call, templates verse, chorus, middle section, solo section. And they were instrumental. From there, I took them and gave them melodies and gave them lyrics. Mike Portnoy [THE WINERY DOGS drummer] took one of them as well and did the same. And then the rest of the record was really made up with material that I had already written that I brought to the band songs like 'I'm No Angel', 'Regret', 'Damaged', 'Elevate' were all pieces that existed prior to my knowledge of THE WINERY DOGS forming. And we took those and added those to the collection, and that's how we made that record. This time, I don't have very much back material, so to speak, so we're writing everything from scratch. We already did our sitdown where we throw our ideas around, so now I've got fifteen or sixteen skeletons of the instrumental music that I'm going to develop write lyrics to, write melodies to. And then once I get them to a point where I'm comfortable with them, I'll send them off to Billy and Mike and I'll listen to their input and thoughts. And, as it was last time, oftentimes they love what I did, and sometimes they question things, and we go back and revisit things. So that's been the process, and that seems to be how this record is going to be written as well." On how writing music for THE WINERY DOGS is different from composing material for his solo albums: "I mean, there's certain things that I can do on a solo record that I would not attempt to do with THE WINERY DOGS, 'cause I understand the foundation of what this band is. Having said that, I definitely do not consciously think of that; it just kind of happens by nature of the way we play together in these writing sessions and these jam sessions. So the thing that's tricky for me, as someone that's been a songwriter writing
Even with a co-writer, I'm there with someone else and we're there with pen and paper, and we're crafting the song. In this situation, we're kind of crafting instrumental skeletons and then I have to write the song to that. So it's a little different of an approach. But I think that approach is what makes THE WINERY DOGS' sound so unique. So you have chord changes or progressions that I normally wouldn't go to or wouldn't do, suddenly I'm writing melodies to that, and in the end, that's kind of carving out the sound of THE WINERY DOGS. So by nature of it, it automatically separates stylistically what I do as a solo artist versus what I do with THE WINERY DOGS. I mean, granted, there's an overlap there. You've got songs
'Regret' is a typical Richie Kotzen-style song, much like my song 'Remember', for example, or a couple of others I could name. But that's on THE WINERY DOGS' record and it works. So there's definitely overlap. But in the end, just by the nature of the way we play together, it just sounds different." On the timetable for THE WINERY DOGS' second album: "I think our plan is to have a record delivered by mid-July, and I think that's completely possible. And then we would start our tour sometime in October."
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