2007.06.DD - Guitarist Magazine - Re-Loaded (Slash)

RE-LOADED

By Rob Laing

Rock's premier supergroup are back. Such is the pedigree in Velvet Revolver, the weight of expectation is always heavy - never more so than now, with the fast-approaching July release of new album Libertad and a UK tour. With frontman and ex-Stone Temple Pilot Scott Weiland finally overcoming the demons of drug addiction that have plagued him, and bonding with Dave Kushner and the former Gunners Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum and Slash after 18 months of touring first album Contraband, the scene is set for Velvet Revolver to truly transcend the hype. Before Libertad rocks our world, Guitarist caught up with a guitar legend to find out how he approached the second album challenge, second time around...

WHAT CAN WE expect from you on Libertad?

Slash: "I actually spent from August to when the record was finished listening to nothing but old blues records. That was it. I rediscovered the old blues players and it had an effect on the way I played. I wasn't sitting down and learning shit off the records but I was in that zone.

"When I got in the studio I deviated from the normal path and used a Strat on one song and a Gretsch on another. But after that I just fell into the Les Paul/Marshall thing! A couple of times I wanted something really small sounding so I used a little tiny Vox combo. Other than that I was using the same Les Paul I've been using for years and a couple of Marshall heads. It didn't really get too out there with regards to what sounds I was going for on this album. But there's a lot of wah wah on this record - more so than usual."

WHAT ABOUT YOUR approach to solos?

"There are different approaches but it's more bluesy, spontaneous stuff rather than playing everything really, really fast. I didn't feel like I needed to prove myself to anyone so I just played what I felt like playing. I usually took the first or second take of pretty much every solo: 75-80 per cent are the first take and then there are a couple that are from the first two or three. The solos aren't as precise as they usually are with me - it's more like, oh this isn't exactly the note I planned on playing but it feels good. There are mistakes on the record that had a lot of character so I just left them. I think people will be able to notice it when they hear the album."

WHAT SONGS CAN we expect to hear?

"As you listen to the album, there are plenty of in your face moments but there are also departures from the fast and heavy. There's a song called Let It Roll, which is the most aggressive on the record. She Builds Quick Machines is another aggressive one and I think that will be the first single. Spay is pretty aggressive too. There are mellower songs: This Fight (Could Be The Last Fight) - which I used the Gretsch [6120 Setzer model] on - and Grave Dancers, but that still has an aggressive blues solo at the end. American Man has a slow, melodic solo that's very trademark Slash in the way it's reminiscent of old stuff I've done in the past. There's also a song that we tried to make as aggressive as we possibly could - a cover of Electric Light Orchestra's Can't Get It Out Of My Head. Our producer [Brendan O'Brien] suggested it. I love the song but I wasn't so sure. But I bit the bullet and we recorded tracks of drums and acoustic guitars and I still wasn't sure, but when we put electric guitars on it actually became very cool."

DID YOU USE any effects pedals?

"I used an MXR Boost/Overdrive pedal most and that's on every loud solo on the record. I've also been using the Slash Wah pedal [Dunlop SW-95] which has a boost inbuilt and that sounds amazing - there are some tracks where you know it's a wah wah but it's got so much output that it sounds really intense. There's a track that's not on the record but will come out that shows that wah wah in all its gritty screaming glory! I also used a Dunlop Crybaby Q-Zone, you press it facing towards you for that real nasally sound and I use that on Let It Roll - it sounds really good. I've got an Octavian as well - Chicago Iron puts it out - which is the remade version of what Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page used back in the day. And I even used a voicebox on one song."

HAS YOUR PLAYING relationship with Dave changed much on this album?

"That's a big difference to the last record in that I'm very aware of where Dave's guitar parts are - they've become key. We do a lot of interfacing guitar- wise on this record and this is the first time I've realised that I'm really paying a lot of attention to where Dave's parts are and how they affect mine because a lot of them are almost like vocal parts. But there's nothing too complex going on - we're not trying to reinvent the wheel here or make the breakthrough guitar instrumentation record. We're just trying to make things sound interesting."

SCOTT HAS SAID that he wanted this album to stand up with the classic rock albums of the past - is that where you were coming from too?

"The conversation that we had as a band was let's make a record that stands up to, and is as good or better than, the other records that we've been involved with - which are some really great records. It had a subconscious effect and when we were putting together the arrangements, there was a natural lean towards taking the time to get the best possible approach. There was no pressure but that early conversation where we all nodded our heads in agreement was always at the backs of our minds I think."

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