Alter Bridge’s Myles Kennedy Discusses Putting The Power Of The Riff Into The Band’s New Album (Exclusive)

There’s the popular hook that enters your receptor and ne'er leaves. There’s the slayer verse that elevates a rap way into a hip-hop classic. And there’s the guitar riff that transforms a stone opus into an anthem. For Myles Kennedy – singer, songwriter, and vocalist successful Alter Bridge – the band’s seventh album, Pawns & Kings, is his master’s thesis successful riffology, a enactment that saw him instrumentality his guitarmanship to the adjacent level. “It was absorbing connected this record, for immoderate reason, I conscionable had a batch much [riffs] —  not that I didn’t bring successful dense riffs successful the past,” Myles says erstwhile discussing the medium with HollywoodLife.

“I utilized to person a guitar tech astatine the bottommost of his emails, successful the sign-off, the punctuation was ‘the powerfulness of the riff compels me.’ And I ever thought that was truthful true,” helium adds. “Because a bully riff, there’s thing truthful captivating astir it, right?”

A bully riff tin bash wonders for your health. It tin besides alteration your life, arsenic seen with Myles – who has been traversing the satellite alongside Mark Tremonti (lead & bushed guitar), Bryan Marshall (bass), and Scott Phillips (drums) for astir 20 years. Had it not been for 1 faithful time arsenic a youth, helium whitethorn not person been acceptable upon this way of stone glory.

“The archetypal riff I tin remember,” helium says, “I was a kid, leaving daycare. I get successful the car, and my mom’s got the vigor on, and [Deep Purple’s] ‘Smoke On The Water’s connected the radio. This was a agelong clip ago, caput you, and I conscionable retrieve being truthful like, ‘wow, what is that?’ It conscionable benignant of sucks you in. So, I bash emotion a bully riff, and for immoderate reason, connected this record, it felt similar the good was conscionable brimming with riffs, astatine least, from my angle.”

“But Mark, he’s ever got riffs. He’s a riff master, you know?” says Myles. “So it’s good erstwhile you’ve got each these ideas to wade through. We had plentifulness of riffs to take from.”

Before the merchandise of Pawns & Kings, Mark revealed that “some of the heaviest riffs connected the record” came from Myles (h/t Blabbermouth), portion successful the past, Mark was the dense writer portion Myles was much introspective. “Yeah, I deliberation to immoderate degree,” says Myles astatine this. “Early on, we benignant of had our roles. Each of america had our strengths, and that’s what we would bring creatively. ”

“What’s been absorbing arsenic clip has gone connected — you know, we’ve been unneurotic astir 2 decades —  you commencement to benignant of go 1 surviving breathing unit, and you commencement to assimilate the different writers’ characteristics, you cognize — sonic traits,” helium says. “You benignant of integrate that into what you bash arsenic well.”

This synchronicity betwixt the originative polarities has produced what mightiness beryllium the definitive Alter Bridge album. From the pulse-pounding opener (“This Is War”) to the epic closing track, Pawns & Kings showcases the band’s accomplishment arsenic songwriters. It’s besides a monster of a stone album, bursting with soaring vocals and surging guitarwork.

Chalk this dynamic introduction into the band’s catalog to the elemental enactment of turning connected an amp. “The mode I constitute present is simply a small different,” explains Myles. “The thought of plugging successful erstwhile you’re writing, that was thing I didn’t bash a lot. I would instrumentality my guitar into a edifice country and conscionable like, ‘Oh, I’ll get the idea. As agelong arsenic I’ve got six strings and a guitar pick, and I tin perceive what’s going on.’ But, it is different. Once I’ve started plugging successful more, past I would beryllium successful my workplace and programme grooves to play implicit and over. That started to pass maine differently.”

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

“You perceive this monolithic partition of dependable of what you tin bash with modern technology,” helium explains. “It would pass maine otherwise than erstwhile I would conscionable beryllium determination and plying astir acoustically. I deliberation that was thing that started for maine a fewer years ago. I brought successful a just magnitude of riffs connected Walk the Sky as well, and it was due to the fact that of that process that truly changed however I wrote, which was a bully thing.”

“When Mark, I, and the full set were reasoning astir the benignant of grounds we wanted to make, we did privation to marque it a small little interesting,” Myles says with a caveat. “A small little Phil Spector than it had been successful the past, due to the fact that we had gotten a small spot [complex.] And that’s the happening with multitracking now. You tin bash truthful much. You get into the studio, and past you laic it down, and you’re like, ‘what if we person this melody going here? And what if we bash this present and adhd this texture here?’ And earlier you cognize it, you’ve got this partition of dependable and Phil Spector thing, right?”

While the set didn’t privation to spell the way of the antheral liable for the celebrated “Wall of Sound,” Alter Bridge did find a trusted shaper to helm their caller album. “We decided, ‘let’s rein it in. And we’re not going to fto ourselves get carried away. We got connected the horn with [producer] Michael ‘Elvish’ Baskette, and helium was connected the aforesaid page. So, I deliberation that was it,” says Myles.”

This process of plugging successful besides made songs that are “a small easier to replicate” successful a unrecorded setting, says Myles. “Here’s the occupation for maine arsenic a vocalist and a guitar player. With the songs I brought in, I would found the philharmonic instauration archetypal earlier putting the melodies connected apical of them.” When rehearsing for their upcoming 2023 North American Tour, Myles recovered himself “cursing myself a lot.”

“Even though I’ve tried to portion these [songs] down, I’ve created these guitar parts. It’s similar patting the caput and rubbing the belly astatine the aforesaid time. ‘How are you going to sing it?’ Because I would travel up with the melody aft the fact, erstwhile you’re not sitting down with a guitar; you’re sitting determination with a microphone and singing on with your demos.”

(Olly Stabler/Shutterstock)

While learning however to bash 2 things astatine erstwhile is simply a pain, Myles shares that determination were immoderate “happy accidents” successful the making of Pawns & Kings. “Those are often my favourite moments,” helium says. “To immoderate degree, the past way [“Pawns & Kings”] is absorbing due to the fact that it wasn’t adjacent going to marque the record.”

“That was thing that I’d been messing with for months. I had each these parts and this expansive plan, and it was conscionable fundamentally six minutes’ worthy of whatever. So, aft everyone enactment up their demos, Michael, our producer, was like, ‘Hey Myles, bash you person thing else?’ And I’m definite helium did the aforesaid happening with Mark. ‘Do you person thing I haven’t heard?’ And I sheepishly played him that, and he’s like, ‘Well, we’re gonna get that going. That’s gonna spell connected the record.’ I’m like, really? He’s like, ‘Yeah!’ So, small did I cognize that it would extremity up becoming not lone the archetypal happening that we would merchandise but also, it would punctuate the record. So, that was a blessed mistake successful that sense.”

“And what I’ve learned, clip and clip again, is you get truthful immersed successful the originative process, and you tin either deliberation something’s amended than it really is oregon thing is not up to par. So, it’s bully to person radical that you spot – your bandmates oregon a shaper – that tin say, ‘hey, that’s good’ oregon ‘hey, that’s bad. It’s similar there’s nary ‘i’ successful team, right? It’s that teamwork, with everybody weighing successful with their ideas.”

That consciousness of teamwork and humility has already resulted successful a palmy European tour. The set wrapped up a sojourn overseas with Halestorm and Mammoth WVH. The radical begins its 30-city North American circuit with Mammoth WVH connected Jan. 25, with Red playing the archetypal limb and Pistols At Dawn on the second. Tickets are connected merchantability now.

Pawns & Kings is disposable connected streaming services and successful stores.

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