New single "Perhaps" to be released in August [UPDATE: radio premiere on August 17]

There's been no official announcement yet, but there is a link to a draft page that has a countdown timer and prompts users to pre-save the song on digital platforms. I suppose the link will be shared when the pre-save function is activated.

https://preview.mira.umusic.com/page-preview/draft/9138a71f5227422888c7a1c83f1c85a9

https://blabbermouth.net/news/new-guns-n-roses-single-perhaps-to-be-released-next-friday

Really curious to see how this song has changed. Obviously, it will contain new lead guitar and bass track, and from the sound check video we know the overall structure of the song is the same, but is the chorus less crowded and has Axl's done anything new with vocals and vocal melodies?

According to an Italian music site claiming to have "internal sources", the release has been postponed to August 18:

https://radiorock.it/guns-n-roses-posticipata-al-18-agosto-luscita-del-nuovo-singolo-perhaps/

Auto-translation:

Guns N' Roses Delay Release of New Single 'Perhaps' to August 18th

Contrary to what was reported by various music information sites, and by some of the main US message boards dedicated to the group, Radio Rock has learned from internal sources, in the last few hours, that the release initially scheduled for this Friday, August 11th of "Perhaps" – new single from Guns N' Roses – was yesterday postponed to next week. The song – whose release does not seem to be in doubt anyway – has not yet been officially announced by the band.

When the new Guns N' Roses single comes out

Initially scheduled for this Friday 11th, the release of "Perhaps" by Guns N' Roses will instead take place the following weekend: more specifically on August 18th. The song, dating back to the studio sessions of the latest "Chinese Democracy", 2008, saw - as for the previous "ABSUЯD" and "Hard Skool" - the contribution of Slash on guitar and Duff McKagan on bass: back in lineup in 2016, having exited the group almost twenty years earlier. The unpublished - anticipated by a private link found online by some fans of the American band - will represent the first official publication of Axl Rose and his companions from 2021.

Oh well.

Nothing in NZ yet so likely not today.

I updated the thread title to reflect it likely won't be released today but likely later this month.

A few hours ago, some mygnrforum members discovered that Perhaps came up in the search results on a phone app called TouchTunes Jukeboxes, which is a streaming service that plays music in bar juke boxes (I guess UMG either forgot about this service or just didn't mind it, because a release is imminent). So people drove to bars near them, had the song played and recorded it on their phones, and it has now leaked, even if it's a low quality phone recording with background noise.

Crazy stuff, worthy of the history of the band and its fans

is it good?

just listened to it

ludurigan wrote:is it good?

Sounds good, yes, but it's very similar to the old leak.

yeah just listened to it

ludurigan wrote:yeah just listened to it

The cell phone recording or the old leak?

And what do you think?

Seems to be new vocal track, or at least partly new. That's good. I hope the chorus will sound less muddled now, hard to tell from the phone recording.

With Hard Skool I didn't like the new lead guitar. With Perhaps I like it, at least the new solo. I think it is good. But I believe the soundcheck lead guitar from Tel Aviv was more distinct, I could hear Slash adding some new riff to the song. Listening to the pub leak I can't really hear anything new with the lead guitar except the solo. That's strange.

Blabbermouth:
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GUNS N' ROSES' Imminent New Single 'Perhaps' Is Reportedly Already Available On TouchTunes

August 13, 2023

The new GUNS N' ROSES single "Perhaps" has apparently been leaked via TouchTunes.

A number of GN'R fans have reported that the shelved "Chinese Democracy"-era song which was originally expected to be officially released this past Friday (August 11) populated on TouchTunes machines at bars and other locations across the United States. As the fans showed up at their favorite watering hole and went to play a GN'R song, they noticed the new selection in their catalog. The track came with what is apparently the official single cover art, and was attributed to Geffen Records, which is the band's longtime record label home owned by Universal Music Group.

This is not the first time that there have been reports of songs prematurely appearing on TouchTunes. In April, fans of the American country band TURNPIKE TROUBADOURS were surprised to see a previously unreleased track called "Mean Old Sun" on the entertainment platform with 65,000 connected jukeboxes.

Last week, a link to pre-save "Perhaps" on Spotify and Apple Music was briefly shared via the Universal Music web site, along with a release date of August 11, but there has been no official announcement from the band yet regarding the song's imminent arrival.

GUNS N' ROSES reportedly soundchecked "Perhaps" ahead of the band's concert in Tel Aviv, Israel on June 5 but ended up not performing it at the gig. However, astute fans who stood outside the venue during soundcheck were quick to bust out their phones and record the rehearsal, with low-quality clips surfacing online immediately thereafter.

Like GUNS N' ROSES' 2021 single "Hard Skool", "Perhaps" was originally written and recorded during the sessions for "Chinese Democracy", and a rough demo version of the song had previously been leaked and uploaded to YouTube.

Last month, GUNS N' ROSES' longtime production manager Tom Mayhue confirmed that a new single from the band was coming soon.

Mayhue discussed the Axl Rose-fronted outfit's future plans while speaking to the media ahead of GUNS N' ROSES' July 13 concert in Paris, France. Noting that GN'R will finish the North American leg of its tour in mid-October, he added: "And I know that the band's gonna start working on new music. They've got a bunch of stuff recorded already. So there will be new GUNS N' ROSES music very soon. In fact, I think they're trying to get a single out any day now, so you may hear something very, very soon."

Regarding what the new GUNS N' ROSES material sounds like, Mayhue said: "It sounds great. It's a lot more kind of 'Appetite [For Destruction]'-orientated. They had a lot of songs. When the band went in originally and recorded 'Appetite For Destruction', I think they recorded, like, 29 songs. So there's a bunch of other music that was left over that didn't make the first record. I think there's only 11 songs on the first record."

This past June, Oslo's Urban Sound Studios shared a new photo of Rose and GUNS N' ROSES guitarist Slash, apparently taken the day after the band's performance at the Tons Of Rock festival in Norway's capital city. The picture was posted on the Urban Sound Studios Instagram account along with the following message: "We got to hang out with these 2 rock legends in the studio today. Really cool guys! (The two in the middle...). The band wanted a nice studio with a variety of speakers and headphones to listen to new mixes before they head for Glastonbury. It sounds awesome!"

During an October 2022 appearance on SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" show, Slash was asked about GUNS N' ROSES' plans for new music in the coming months. He said: "I wanna go in and cut a whole brand new record at some point, probably sooner than later. But other than that, we have stuff that we've still got to come out. So that's gonna be coming out piecemeal over the next — I don't know — over the next few months or something like that. So that's basically it. We have one more tour left to do next summer, and then that'll free us up to be able to go in and work on a new record."

GUNS N' ROSES' most recent release was a four-song EP, "Hard Skool", which came out in February 2022. The effort, which was exclusive to the GUNS N' ROSES' official store, contained the two new songs the band released in 2021 — the title track and "Absurd" (stylized as "ABSUЯD") — as well as live versions of "Don't Cry" and "You're Crazy".

In September 2021, the guitarist and his bandmates dropped "Hard Skool", which came more than a month after their performance and subsequent official release of "Absurd", a reworking of GUNS N' ROSES previously unreleased "Silkworms".

According to Slash, several other older GUNS N' ROSES tracks have also been reworked during the pandemic. "There's a handful of those songs that we actually fixed up and did when we were in lockdown," he explained to "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk". "So those have yet to be released. So those are gonna come out. They're really good, too. So I'm excited for those. We're just gonna put out like one or two songs, and another one or two songs. And I think that's gonna be pretty much all of 'em. I'm not sure exactly how many we did in total."

When host Eddie Trunk noted that "Hard Skool" in particular was a strong cut, Slash said: "These other ones, they don't have the same kind of amount of history, 'cause I know 'Hard Skool' seriously has… [it] goes way back. But there's a couple of epic ones coming out, so I'm excited about that." [...]

https://blabbermouth.net/news/guns-n-roses-imminent-new-single-perhaps-is-reportedly-already-available-on-touchtunes

Rolling Stone:
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Guns N’ Roses’ New Song ‘Perhaps’ Accidentally Leaks Via Digital Jukeboxes in Bars
Re-recorded Chinese Democracy-era track's imminent arrival spoiled by TouchTunes machines

By Daniel Kreps

A new Guns N’ Roses song, titled “Perhaps,” accidentally leaked this weekend via those digital jukeboxes found in bars.

“Perhaps,” which dates back to the Chinese Democracy sessions, was previously played by the reunited GN’R during a soundtrack before their Tel Aviv concert in June 2023, with low-quality recordings spreading on the internet; a rough demo version has also circulated for years.

In recent weeks, pre-save pages for the track briefly appeared on streaming services heralding an Aug. 11 release date, but Friday came and went without the song’s arrival. However, TouchTunes machines across America apparently did not get the memo about the song’s postponement, as “Perhaps” appeared on the digital jukeboxes, complete with its potential artwork, Blabbermouth reports.

Guns N’ Roses’ reps did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment. No release date for “Perhaps” has officially been announced.

“Perhaps” would mark Guns N’ Roses’ first “new” music since the 2021 singles “Hard Skool” and “Absurd,” a pair of Chinese Democracy-era outtakes that were updated by the band’s current, semi-reunited lineup. Both tracks are now staples of the band’s “Not in This Lifetime” tour.

Back in 2019, bassist Duff McKagan hinted that GN’R were at work on their first album together since 1993’s The Spaghetti Incident?

“Oh, it’s real, but the fun part and the cool part about Guns N’ Roses is we don’t really talk about it, and what happens next just happens,” McKagan said of a new album.

“It’s never been that band that there’s a direct schedule of how we do things. I’ve heard some magnificent stuff that Axl has, really cool stuff he’s been working on. So I’m excited about the possibilities with that, of course. I don’t mean to get anybody rabid. Our day will happen when it happens, that’s for sure.”

Slash previously stated, “Axl, Duff, myself and Richard [Fortus] have all talked about [it]… there’s material and stuff going on already for a new record. It’s just, with Guns N’ Roses, you don’t go, ‘Oh, there is a plan, and it’s gonna be like this,’ because that’s not how it works. So, basically, the only real answer to give is we’re hoping to put a new record out, and we’ll just see what happens when it happens.”

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/guns-n-roses-new-song-perhaps-leaks-jukeboxes-1234806235/

Consequence:
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New Guns N’ Roses Song “Perhaps” Accidentally Leaks Via Bar Jukeboxes

Patrons at bars were able to play the song via TouchTunes' digital jukeboxes

By Spencer Kaufman

Whoops! A new Guns N’ Roses song titled “Perhaps” accidentally leaked over the weekend via TouchTunes’ digital jukeboxes in bars across the United States and beyond.

The track had apparently been slated to be officially unveiled on Friday (August 11th), as pre-save information was briefly posted last week for Spotify and Apple Music. However, that info was taken down, signaling a delay in the release. While it didn’t make it onto those streaming services, the song somehow became playable on TouchTunes’ machines, where it appeared along with its single artwork.

Like Guns N’ Roses’ other recent songs “Hard Skool” and “ABSUЯD,”, “Perhaps” is not entirely new. It’s believed to be a new recording of a Chinese Democracy-era cut that was never released. In fact, a rough demo version made its way onto YouTube a while back, and Guns N’ Roses soundchecked it before a show in Israel earlier this year.

According to various message boards, word is that Robin Finck and/or Queen’s Brian May played guitar on the demo.

Audio recordings of the jukebox leak have been posted online, but quickly removed by Universal Music. It can be assumed that an official release via streaming services is imminent.

In the meantime, fans can catch Guns N’ Roses on their recently launched 2023 North American tour., which runs until mid October. Tickets for the band’s upcoming shows are available here.

https://consequence.net/2023/08/guns-n-roses-song-perhaps-jukebox-leak/

Blackstar wrote:

ludurigan wrote:yeah just listened to it

The cell phone recording or the old leak?

And what do you think?

I listened to the cell phone link and I must have listened to the old leak some years ago.

The quality of the cell phone leak is kinda bad but good enough to allow me to say that to my ears and to my brain and to my heart it sounds a lot like the other Axl tracks from Chinese Democracy era and that Axl sounds much like Axl from that era as well

That era and that Axl, to my ears and to my brain and to my heart, have nothing to do with the Guns n Roses music that i love so much!

The song has been pulled from TouchTunes.

But according to various sources, it premieres on US radio tomorrow, 10 AM USA EST. It will probably have already been released in certain time zones (New Zealand and Australia) by then.

Update: the radio premiere takes place earlier, at midnight US EST

Can listen live here: https://www.iheart.com/live/q1043-1465/
Needs to be in the US or use VPN.