SEBASTIAN BACH Is 'Tired' Of Being Asked About SKID ROW

Mnica Castedo-Lpez of Rocktopia recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW frontman Sebastian Bach. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Rocktopia: I really like the ["Kicking & Screaming"] album and think the cover artwork reflects very well the music. What is your view on the overall product?

Bach: The title is very appropriate for me because the way I write songs I'm always looking for words or little catch phrases that catch my eye. I write them down in my cell phone and then I have them all in my computer. When we need lyrics, a song title or a song idea, I just go through all the stuff that I collected over the years. Bob [Marlette, producer] and Nick [Sterling, guitarist] wrote that song, "Kicking & Screaming", musically, and they played me the music. I went through all my ideas and it said "kicking and screaming," and I go. "That sounds exactly like kicking and screaming!" so that's what we wrote it about. The song has to do with two things: it says "in the night we'll be kicking and screaming," that's actually "fuck it!," but it also means going out and partying too, like going out to a show and having a good time. With regards to the cover, I just got divorced from my wife of 19 years and I've always been called a bad boy, which is a clich that I think is funny and hilarious. But the cover is me being dragged into hell and I'm fighting, kicking and screaming to not be dragged into hell. That has to do with relationships and the girl is slitting my throat, which is what I've been feeling like. So that is what it's about.

Rocktopia: I know you always like to perform very heavy tracks and this album has a lot of that. Would you ever consider going to the early SKID ROW days and writing something a bit more melodic for the fans of that generation?

Bach: I actually think that this album is very melodic with songs like "I'm Alive", "Dream Forever" and "Wishing", the three ballads. A lot of the singing I'm doing on this record is very clean and clear singing. "My Own Worst Enemy" is a very heavy and fast song, but I'm singing it as clean, clear and pure as possible. I always liked that sound. On "Angel Down" we had a song called "You Don't Understand" that was very heavy, but I'm singing it very clean. On "Kicking & Screaming" there's a song called "Caught In A Dream" that I totally think could have been on the first SKID ROW record, especially the chorus. I'm not trying to clone anything that I did before, but there's definitely lots of ballads here. The first song I'm screaming my ass off and Bob Marlette said my voice sounds incredible! I like it, too, and my voice has a lot of different sounds. I can sound one way in one verse and another way in the next verse. Another real melodic song is "As Long As I Got The Music". To me, that is like a good time, party-rock anthem song. It's like KISS or DEF LEPPARD to me, arena rock. But I think that there is a lot of melody on this record.

Rocktopia: Do you have any kind of contact with any of the SKID ROW guys?

Bach: No.

Rocktopia: And you don't want to?

Bach: If you got fired from a job, would you be going back to the job and say, "Hey, man, what's going on?" You'd be like, "Fuck your fucking stupid job!" I mean, if you got fired from this magazine, would you be calling the magazine all the time? I'm a human being if you don't want me in your band, I'm not going to beg you to be in your band; I'll just create my own band!

Rocktopia: Fair enough, but do you keep any good memories of your time with SKID ROW?

Bach: It's a double-edged sword, because I want to go on tour so bad with my solo band that it puts a bad flavor in my brain about all of that; it's kind of like a trap, almost. Maybe it's the wrong time to ask me that question! [laughs] I mean, I do, of course, have good memories of it, but it doesn't exist anymore, so it's frustrating having this all put in my face. It's like Slash always gets asked about GUNS N' ROSES and he's tired of it. The same with Duff McKagan and it's the same with me. But Slash is able to go on tour as Slash, and I just have to get to that point.

Rad the entire interview from Rocktopia.