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“Bruce Kulick is coming back to Australia armed with his first new solo album in five years – BK3 – and a brand new live show that promises to delve into the depths of material from his twelve year tenure with KISS and his work in the last thirteen years as a solo artist. BK3 is Kulick’s third solo release, hence the title.
Australian fans will be among the first to hear the album, which will be released ahead of its worldwide debut at the concerts. BK3 features the soaring guitars and signature riffs that Kulick is known for, along with an array of special guests that include former Kiss band mates Gene Simmons and Eric Singer, Knack lead vocalist Doug Fielder, and Nick Simmons (Gene’s son and rising star in his own right) making his vocal recording debut.
Bruce promises the shows will be worth the wait and will feature a plethora of Kiss tunes from the eight albums he recorded with the band between 1984 and 1996. Hits like “God Gave Rock and Roll To You II,” “Crazy Crazy Nights,” “Forever,” and “Tears Are Falling” will be nestled alongside many rarities never performed live by Kiss themselves.
Since departing Kiss in 1996, Bruce has remained active in the music industry, forming the band UNION with former Motley Crue vocalist John Corabi, acting as a camp counsellor at various Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp events, working with both Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons on their solo projects, recording commentaries for the multi platinum retrospective Kissology DVDs, and, since 2001, playing with the legendary “American Band” Grand Funk Railroad as their lead guitarist. In between all of these activities, he recorded two solo albums. BK3 marks yet another milestone for the veteran guitarist, and he is very much looking forward to beginning the journey here in his “second home” of Australia.
We caught up with Bruce in the lead up to his Australian shows and got the lowdown on his new solo album BK3, what’s in store for the Australian shows and a healthy dose of KISS related discussions!
TC - You have been out to Australia a number of times now over the years, you must really love it down here and obviously the fans must respond to you being here, what is it that keep bring you back?
BK - Well you know there were a few years I didn’t make it down and was pretty disappointed about it and was really flattered when I got on the short list of one of the music chains which was what happened in April. Allan’s music was looking for some international players to come down and perform and I was like, this would be a great opportunity because I wasn’t really ready yet with everything with my record so I figured, well let me come down here and that was April. Now I made the plans for December, so for me to come through twice in one year is remarkable actually. But I do like the people, I always feel at home in Australia. I remembered any of the times, it was the big KISS show which was the first actual KISS convention that was done in Australia it was just amazing getting up close with all the fans besides just being in the arenas. I just feel there’s a real affection for my era of KISS as well in Australia which is probably another reason that keeps bringing me back.
TC - and considering Australia is where the KISS army was born!
BK - Yep
TC - Your new album BK3 is due out very soon and for those of us here in Australia we will be able to pick it up from the shows. How would you describe the range of songs on the new album?
BK - Ha ha I’m working on it! Its really stressful because I’m trying to do a worldwide release you know and what’s interesting about this record,...with the first two solo records I actually only wanted to sell them myself and not have any real distribution you know and this record I really want it to be distributed because I have such amazing guest performers on there and I’m trying to work with it. I’m almost going backwards, instead of doing it myself, I want the help of a label and I guess you can imagine that the record industry is not any easier these days. But the record is finished and all the artworks done, you can visit a lot of the photos on my website and everything, but I’m just trying to figure out the positioning for the whole worldwide release right now, it’s a little stressful right now but this is the record that’s worth being careful with. Not only do I feel responsible for Gene to be on there and his son Nick who did such great performances, but that’s real important to me that it’s the best of me and I have some great players on there and I just want to get the best exposure I can.
TC - From a song writing point of view, does BK3 feature songs you have written just recently, or are they from the archives over a number of years?
BK - You know, one of the songs called ‘I’ll Survive’ which had to do with me getting shot back in 2003 on Sunset Blvd which made CNN and everything. Fortunately, of course nothing really horrible happened but still it inspired me writing this song, I probably wrote that in November / December of 2003, you see what I mean. So the song writing process started as far back as then, there are a couple of things that are a little bit more recent, like the first song ‘Fate’ it was actually finished early summer when I recorded a couple of tracks for the record, but it did really span over the course of a number of years from 2003 to now. It’s pretty remarkable but it all makes sense in the big picture.
TC - And the instrumental stuff, do you ever go in and just play and whatever you play is what you record or do you have something in mind?
BK - There is one instrumental on my record, the other two had at least 3 or 4 on each one of the first two solo records. It was kind of unusual, (Jeremy Rubolino is the guy that produced the record for me) when we discussed the recipe of the record shall I say, at one point it came up that there was no instrumental on the record and I did think that was a little odd and I was like, wow, we never even thought about it. I remember at one point we tried writing something that could be an instrumental and I kind of just thought it was a little dark and weird and after that discussion, that weekend I remember just sitting down and jamming on something and turning it into the instrumental. When it comes to the melodies on the instrumental, that is almost something that is slightly planned out and slightly improvised. By the time we got Lukather there to jam along, I left out a lot of what wasn’t completely formulated, I wanted to see, well alright what would you play over these verses, lets jam! It was its own animal in the way it was created and I’m real proud of that track because its really unique in the way that we trade off and its not always obvious, its obvious to me when he’s playing and I’m not playing, but I think a lot of the fans just get off on the energy of it, the ones that have heard the song.
TC - Now you mentioned before Gene Simmons and his son Nick make an appearance on the new album and Steve Lukather but you’ve also got people like John Corabi, Tobias Sammet from Edguy, Eric Singer and Doug Fieger from The Knack. That's an impressive array of special guests. Did you get the opportunity to work with these guys in the studio?
BK - Yeah I mean, Doug I met through the Fantasy Camp and of course when I asked him would he be willing to sing the song, do you want to help co write it, he was like, no I’ll just come and sing it, you finish it and he loved the track and he knew where we were going with it and he was done in like an hour, he’s a real pro. John Corabi and I worked on the track with Jeremy a little bit longer, we wanted it to be the best that John and I have done, we had a lot to live up to, there was a lot of good stuff on the Union records, actually he sang his song twice because he felt like he did a good version the first time we did the vocals but he thought he could do better, so we booked another day in the studio another reason why my record is taking so long ha ha, there was no compromises ok? Tobias I met through Eric of course and we hit it off really well and he happened to be in town to do some shows here in LA and that was a year ago last year and I grabbed him, we got together in a hotel room and worked on some lyrics and the next day taken them to the studio and he’s gonna sing. Nick was a lot of fun too, he got to sing his thing twice as well, Gene was a total pro and we banged that out in an afternoon at Henson, while they were filming for the Family Jewels.
TC - Did you get to be on there?
BK - Yeah, there was an episode that they called ‘Memphis Blues’, really the story had to do about more with Nick actually going to Memphis and starting to record. They almost kinda made the track sound like it was Nick’s song but that was actually Gene’s song and they stuck him in the vocal booth you know what I mean? Reality show with a bit of poetic license of reality. But of course we took Nick in the studio for a different track all together but there were no cameras there for that. Me getting Nick to sing and the people that have heard that track, my friend are really impressed, Nick’s like a young Gene but with a very unique style, I get why his Dad was real excited to have me work with him in the studio.
TC - You mentioned John Corabi above; who we think is one of the most underrated singers in rock which prompts us to ask what the status of Union is. Is Union something that hasn't been totally put to rest and could we ever expect another album at some point?
BK - Well you know there is a certain chemistry that my collaboration with John and I creates that I’m very very proud of and obviously us doing Eric Singer Project together kinda satisfies that hunger a little bit and having him once again on one of my records. I don’t know I would never rule anything out because John and I do work really well together, but I know I captured the best of him on BK3 and you can hear that track on my website. It was on the EP that I was selling, John really sounds terrific on it, so who knows?
TC - Given some of the rock music being released today, in our opinion Union was way ahead of it's time and could easily slot in against some modern bands of today.
BK - Yes they were it was a weird timing. Ahead of the times and it was a weird timing, exactly. Well put1
TC - Asylum was the first Kiss album you appeared on, and were even included in the songwriting for a few songs. What are your memories and thoughts looking back on this album now?
BK - Well there’s a couple of good tracks there. I’m still really proud of ‘Tears Are Falling’, I guess ‘Who Wants To Be Lonely’ is on that one too. My job with them was really to get to learn what it was like to be in the studio with Gene and Paul as they’re both very unique in their approach to how they like to direct the music. I did my job and I was there for them and was very fortunate to hang in there and I didn’t know how long this thing would last and it turned into 12 years which is pretty remarkable.
TC - And through the awesome 80’s hair metal scene, which is our favourite era, so they were good times.
BK - Yeah I run into so many people that say the first KISS that they saw was my KISS. People from Finland, Norway and Argentina and that’s always very flattering to me, you know, I made an impression on them in a version of KISS, the 80’s stuff isn’t necessarily in the foremost of the KISS world, they seem to push the make up stuff the most but I don’t think the fans ever forget it.
TC - Are you annoyed you never got to wear make up?
BK - Um, I don’t regret that I haven’t, I certainly have good skin to show for it ha ha!
TC - As most would already know, you use ESP guitars primarily. What are your favourite models to play at the moment and what will you be bringing out with to Australia?
BK - When I did the photo shoot for the record I really didn’t want to bring a tonne of guitars because I own so many and always a Les Paul style guitar is iconic and very important and some Strat style guitars. On the cover of BK3 is a beautiful vintage plus, which is one of their relic models that I had modified with a Floyd Rose and a humbucker because they’ve been selling it a little more traditionally lately. You know my friend that I work down there with, Paul has a really good ESP that I love and that I’ve used before. I may not even be bringing a guitar, he’s got some good Gibson’s too, I love Gibson’s and ESP’s and I own quite a few PRS’s lately too as I think they’re terrific guitars! You know guitars are really made better and better these days, even the Mexican made Fenders are really great guitars. You know live lately, I don’t know if I mentioned its been 9 years now with Grand Funk, so I use like 5 or 6 guitars a night, its a combination of ESP’s and Gibson’s, I like a lot of their viper shapes for the ESP’s I have a couple of those,. I have a beautiful white one that I’m tempted to bring but I think I may just use Paul’s guitars you know. This way it’ll be a little easier on my luggage ha ha, the airlines are not too kind too, they’re always losing something, you know that.
TC - Taking a trip down memory lane, do you still own any of the guitars you used from the Kiss era such as the yellow ESP you were photographed with for the Crazy Nights album cover?
BK - You know, I still do have that one and when I did my photo shoot for the album art, not only did I do a photo thing with different looks and we took close ups of certain guitars, but I only brought those two that I mentioned, my old Les Paul and the ESP custom. But then I had our photographer Neil Zlozower come to my home and actually we picked out Vintage Guitar magazine is a real popular magazine here its beautiful glossy and loves to show off the instruments, not only the musicians behind them, you know, I probably had him shoot about 25 items but one of the key ones that they might want to talk about is that yellow guitar that you just mentioned that I still have and it photographed nicely so I’m real proud of that. I even collect some basses. I did play bass on some KISS things and I played not all the bass on my record I did, but I got into collecting a couple of vintage Fenders and EP3. I used to use that on some of the KISS albums so took some photos of the basses as well.
TC - For your upcoming shows here in December, what can we expect as far as the set list goes?
BK - Well I like to keep it where a lot of the songs are more my era because that would be the big treat of my fans you know. So there will be more things from ‘Asylum’, ‘Crazy Nights’, ‘Hot In The Shade’ and ‘Revenge’ than obviously than the KISS tour allows, so a combination of some of that stuff and a few of the new things from my solo career. So its always interesting putting together the set. I get there a little early to Melbourne like 2 – 3 days, so I have plenty of time to go over it with the band, so I’m looking forward to it.
TC - Any songs from your Union era?
BK - You know we might do, I mean one of the songs that always goes over well is ‘Love I Don’t Need It Anymore’ maybe we’ll switch that up with ‘Do Your Own Thing’ or something, we’ll see, we’ll do a Union song, yeah.
TC - Taking the previous question one step further and maybe all will be revealed in your shows - however, if you were back in KISS right now, would there be any songs you would push to play live that they usually wouldn’t choose for a tour?
BK - Well you know, I’d love more stuff from ‘Revenge’ for them to play because it would be Eric Singer and me. In one way they’re very aware of that era and when I had some fans ask me to sign these cards that they’ve been selling at Wal-Mart and stuff that have various non make up year photos in there, it’s kind of cool. I just don’t think they do enough of my era, so I would definitely push, I think Revenge is the best non make up album and its right up there in the top couple of KISS albums for sure.
TC - Aside from recording your BK3 album, you have also been busy this year touring with Grand Funk Railroad and being involved with the "Rock N Roll Fantasy Camps", which sure are an interesting concept. What is your involvement with these camps exactly? It sounds like the one in a few weeks will be a reunion of sorts for you, with Meatloaf appearing who you toured with some 30+ years ago, and Ace Frehley!
BK - Well it’s really weird for me, oh by the way , on Meatloaf there’s gonna be a live Meatloaf show coming out that I’m on. Bob my brother and I both played guitar with him back in ’78 and that was my first real big gig you know, and I think it comes out in Australia at the top of November. So to actually be at the camp with Meatloaf will be interesting, Of course having Ace there as one of the guests is fascinating for me as well as I never gigged with him much. Obviously we did the unplugged thing together but to have him at the camp will be really cool.
I love the concept of the camp, its really a chance for people to get to mingle with players like myself and some of the superstars that I’m in awe of too, like for me to jam with a band that I have to whip into shape and have Steven Tyler come in to sing along on Helter Skelter you know its just a thrill. I got to jam with Jack Bruce back in London, I got to record my band at Abbey Road and this camp they’ll take the campers to Capitol Studios which is very famous as well. Its always very exciting and its not cheap, its worth it and a lot of the people we get are lawyers and doctors and professionals and people get a wonderful birthday present from their spouse or something, it changes their lives and its really improved mine. I’ve met some really successful business people who are closet guitar junkies who have so much admiration for me and have said so many kind things to me in a business way that it made me feel better than having gold records on the wall; do you get what I mean? So its real interesting to have some vice president of some giant corporation tell me I’m a leader and you have your shit together and you’re a great business man. Because all the years and hard work I’ve done, you know musicians don’t talk in those terms, its all ‘hey did you get laid last night?’ or ‘look at the tits on that chick’. You’re not talking about what a leader you are, but the truth is, even with Union I had to work really, really hard to get the talent in that band to organise and have some sort of direction. But look at Gene and Paul, that’s why KISS is around all these years, ultimate business men, they’re very bright at it and they do it great and they know how to be good cop, bad cop to each other and look at the success they’ve had. So I’ve learned a lot and had good kind of counselling of my own there.
TC - For those that don’t know your history, you were in a band called ‘Blackjack’ with Michael Bolton and released 2 awesome rock albums. What was it like playing with a young Michael back in the day? Do you still play any of these old tracks?
BK - You know Michael was really very driven and he was very aggressive ‘I’m gonna be a star’ and I knew he had talent and looks and drive and these are things you had to have and then when the opportunity came, as a rocker it didn’t really happen for him but as soon as this other door opened for him, he won a Grammy and became every housewives fantasy you know what I mean. Ironically, one of those songs from that Blackjack group I had with him ended up on a Kanye West album, that first one, ‘College Dropout’ which sold a lot of copies, I was very pleased with that.
TC - Nice for the bank balance?
BK - Yes it was ha ha I was very pleased.
TC - What advice would he give a young guitarist who is starting out in the industry?
BK - I was very fortunate on the street where I grew up in Queensthat there were some other talented people in the neighbourhood, there was a bass player who was really into the same stuff as me, you know The Beatles and Cream and Led Zeppelin. So I always like to tell people, seek out people that are in your area and jam with them, work with them, get together with preferably better people than you because you’ll improve that way. If you’re the best on the block, find a block where there’s someone as good as you or better and go work with them and then start small. In other words, create something unique with some people like that who are like minded and have that talent you never know what you’re going to learn, who’s going to discover something and what you’re going to create. I think that’s the best way to look at it, don’t just stay in your bedroom practising, you’ve gotta get out there.
TC - Who do you think these days is the best up and coming guitarist of the last 5 years or anyone we should be looking out for in the not too distant future?
BK - Hmm... some of these new bands that I like, the guitar playing isn’t really that, you know, its important, if you look at Coldplay there’s interesting guitar work but its not like the Guitar Hero stuff that we talked about. I’ve heard amazing stuff about that Joe Bonamassa, he’s got a signature guitar through Gibson and he’s sold out Royal Albert Hall, Eric Clapton came in and sat in with him you know what I mean, he’s like a great blues player you know? But a lot of the bands, they’ll have a good player but its not about the lead guitar playing, so I don’t have a real answer you know. Probably after I hang up, I’ll go like ‘oh yeah’ but I have to say the guitar players in Radiohead are extremely creative and that’s a really different kind of band from KISS or Motley Crue or whatever, but the guitar work is really creative in some of those bands. The guitarist in Muse has to do different stuff you know what I mean, but you know a lot of the new bands that have hits right now, the guitar is important, its doing something kinda like more closer to what Edge does with U2 than what Eric Clapton did for ‘Sunshine Of Your Love‘. Where there’s a solo that’s as important as the lead vocal.
TC - True, and who has been your biggest influence in music and even now?
BK - Well Jimi Hendrix was definitely my biggest influence I loved of course all the Beatles stuff, but guitar hero wise it was Jimi and Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton with Cream. I was a huge Cream fan, that’s why I was out of my mind when I got to jam with Jack Bruce and I actually played ‘White Room’ and ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’ with Simon Kirke on drums from Bad Company which is not too slouchy there in front of a couple of hundred people and it was a thrill, a compete thrill.
TC – OK, time for some word association can you give us a few words to describe the following people or bands you’ve played with:
Meatloaf – Bat out of hell, a great performer
Michael Bolton – He was always a great front man
Billy Squier – Meticulous and a brilliant songwriter/singer
Grand Funk Railroad – Totally classic, great American band
And of course, Gene Simmons – The consummate, egotistical business man who actually is a puddy cat at heart.
TC - 2009 has been a mega year for Kiss fans with new albums from Kiss, yourself, Ace Frehley as well as each being active touring the globe and Kiss expo's etc. This can only help to ensure that there is are new generations of Kiss fans joining the army. How do you feel to be a part of this legacy?
BK – It’s obviously been an amazing ride for me you know what’s wonderful is that the band continues to be valid and I don’t actually have to wear make up or be on tour with them for people to be aware that I was part of that history so I’m quite fortunate.
TC - Well we’re really looking forward to seeing you down here in December.
BK - See you then.
** Tickets are now on sale for Bruce’s three Australian shows at the following venues, Saturday 12 December 2009, Fowlers Live, Adelaide. Sunday 13 December, 2009, The Gaelic Theatre, Sydney and Monday 14 December 2009, The Corner Hotel, Melbourne.
