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Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy on Putting The Riff in ‘Pawns & Kings’ – Hollywood Life


Have a hook that pops into your ear and never comes off. There’s a great verse that elevates a rap track into a hip-hop classic. And there’s the guitar riff that turns a rock song into a national anthem. Because Myles Kennedy – singers, songwriters, and vocalists in replacement bridge – the band’s seventh album, Good & King, was his master’s thesis in riffology, a work that helped him take his guitar playing skills to the next level. “It’s exciting with this record, for whatever reason, I just have more [riffs] — it’s not like I didn’t bring heavy riffs before,” Myles said when discussing the album with hollywood life.

“I used to have a guitar technique at the bottom of his email, in the login the quote was ‘the power of the riff forces me on.’ And I always thought that was very true,” he added. “Because of a good riff, there’s something very charming about it, right?”

A good riff can do wonders for your health. It can also change your life, as seen with Myles, who has traveled the world with Mark Tremonti (main guitar & rhythm)Bryan Marshall (bass) and Scott Phillips (empty) for almost twenty years. Had it not been for a faithful day in his youth, he might not have been set on this rocky path of glory.

He said: “The first thing I can remember, I was a kid, leaving kindergarten. I got in the car, and my mother turned on the radio, and [Deep Purple’s] ‘Smoke On The Water’s on the radio. This was a long time ago, remember, and I just remember being like, ‘wow, what is that?’ It just draws you in. So I really love a good riff, and for whatever reason, on this record, it feels like the well is just overflowing with riffs, at least, from my perspective.

“But Mark, he always had the riffs. He’s a riff master, you know? Myles said. “So it’s good that you have all these ideas to work through. We have a lot of riffs to choose from.”

Before release Good & KingMark revealed that “some of the heaviest riffs on the record” came from Myles (h/t slander), while in the past, Mark was a heavyweight writer while Myles was more introverted. “Yes, I think to some extent,” Myles said now. “From the very beginning, we had our role. Each of us has our strengths and that’s what we will creatively deliver. “

“What’s interesting is that as time goes on — you know, we’ve been together for almost two decades — you start to become a living breathing unit, and you start to assimilate the traits of the houses. other writing, you know — sound characteristics,” he said. “You also integrate that into what you do.”

This syncretism between these creative poles created what could be the definitive Alter Bridge album. From the thrilling opening theme song (“This Is War”) to the epic ending, Good & King show off the band’s skills as musicians. It’s also a monster of a rock album, bursting with soaring vocals and pounding guitars.

Mark this dynamic entry into the band’s catalog with the simple act of turning on the amplifier. Myles explains: “The way I write now is a little bit different. “The idea of ​​plugging in while you’re writing, that’s something I haven’t done a lot of. I would bring my guitar into a hotel room and just say, ‘Oh, I’ll get the point. As long as I have six strings and a guitar pick, and I can hear what’s going on.’ But, it is different. Once I started plugging in more, then I would sit in my studio and program the tracks to play over and over again. That’s starting to tell me otherwise.

Replacement Bridge (Amy Harris/Invision/AP/Shutterstock)

“You hear this huge wall of sound about what you can do with modern technology,” he explains. “It will tell me differently than if I just sat there and listened to the sound. I think that’s what started with me a few years ago. I brought in a fair amount of the above riff Walking in the sky same thing, and precisely because that process has really changed the way I write, which is a good thing.”

“When Mark, me and the whole band were thinking about what kind of record we wanted to make, we wanted to make it a little less interesting,” Myles said. “A little less Phil Spector than before, because we got a little [complex.] And that’s the problem with multitasking nowadays. You can do a lot. You go into the studio, then put it down, and you think, ‘What if we had this tune here? And what if we do this here and add this texture here?’ And before you know it, you’ve got this sound wall and the Phil Spector thing, right?”

Although the band didn’t want to follow the path of the man responsible for the famous “Wall of Sound,” Alter Bridge found a reliable producer to direct their new album. “We decided, ‘let’s hold it back. And we won’t let ourselves get carried away. We were horny with [producer] Michael ‘Elvish’ Baskette, and him are on the same page. So I think that’s it,” Myles said.

This matching process also makes songs “a little easier to copy” in the live setting, says Myles. “This is a problem for me as a singer and as a guitar player. With the songs I put in, I’ll establish the musical foundation first and then put the melody on top.” While rehearsing for their upcoming 2023 North American Tour, Myles found herself “cursing herself a lot”.

“Even though I tried to strip these things off [songs] down, I made these guitar parts. It’s like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. ‘How would you sing it?’ Because I’ll come up with the tune after the fact, when you’re not sitting down with the guitar; you’re sitting there with a microphone and singing along to your performances.

(Olly Stabler/Shutterstock)

While learning how to do two things at once was a difficult thing, Myles shared that there were some “fun accidents” in the making. Good & King. “Those are usually my favorite moments,” he said. “To some extent, the last song [“Pawns & Kings”] it’s interesting because it won’t even set a record.

“It’s something I’ve been struggling with for months. I’ve got all these parts and this big plan, and it’s basically only six minutes long. whatever. So after people put out their demos, Michael, our producer, said, ‘Hey Myles, do you have anything else?’ And I’m sure he did the same thing with Mark. ‘Do you have something I haven’t heard?’ And I shyly played him that, and he said, ‘Well, we’ll make it. That will be on file.’ I love, Actually? He said, ‘Yes!’ So little did I know that it not only became the first thing we released, but also broke records. So it was a happy mistake in that sense.

“And what I have learned, time and time again, is that you get lost in the creative process and you either think something is better than it really is or something is substandard. So it’s nice to have people you trust – your bandmates or producers – who can say, ‘hey, that’s good’ or ‘hey, that’s bad’. It’s like there’s no ‘me’ on the team, right? It’s teamwork, everyone considers their ideas.”

That teamwork and humility led to a successful European tour. The band ended their overseas visit with storm and Mammoth WVH. The group kicked off their 30-city North American tour with Mammoth WVH on January 25, with Red play the first leg and Pistol at dawn on Monday. Tickets are on sale right now.

Good & King available on streaming services and in stores.

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