SEBASTIAN BACH Talks Next Solo Album, Upcoming Autobiography

Niclas Müller-Hansen of Sweden's Metalshrine recently conducted an interview with former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metalshrine: What's the plan for a new album then? Are you writing new stuff?

Sebastian: Yeah, I'm doing a new album now and I'm working very hard on it. I'm working with John 5 [ROB ZOMBIE, ex-MARILYN MANSON] that I did this song "TunnelVision" with on "Kicking & Screaming" and I'm also working with Steve Stevens from Billy Idol's band who I met at CAMP FREDDY. I'm also working with Jeff George and he's got some good riffs, but mostly it's Steve Stevens and John 5 on this record. Possibly Nuno Bettencourt [EXTREME], who's playing with Rhianna.

Metalshrine: Are you looking at a release later this year or early next year?

Sebastian: This year! My record company (Frontiers) is very into me putting out a new CD, which is pretty cool. I'm taking them up on their plan.

Metalshrine: Are you working with Bob Marlette once again?

Sebastian: Yeah, I love Bob Marlette's production. He captures my voice really, really well on the last record. I kept asking him, "What buttons are you pushing to make it sound like that?" and he said "That's all you, dude!" [laughs] I really think he did a great job. He captured my voice, for sure.

Metalshrine: Will there be a connection with "Kicking & Screaming"?

Sebastian: It'll be the next record after the first SKID ROW album, "Slave To The Grind", "B-Side Ourselves", "Subhuman Race", "Bring 'Em Bach Alive", "Angel Down", "Kicking & Screaming", "ABachalypse Now"… [laughs] I never say to myself, "Oh, this record is gonna be like…", I've never done that in my whole career. I just try to make music that I wanna do and I want you to listen to. There's no rules. My taste is high-energy rock and roll and I want to put something in there that I feel makes sense. There's not a big plan or anything.

Metalshrine: When are we gonna see the Sebastian Bach book?

Sebastian: Yeah, I'm working on it this now and I have a big offer from a big book company. I'm pretty much the only rock and roller who doesn't have a book. I'm working on it now actually.

Metalshrine: Are you gonna name names and tell all the stories? The truth and nothing but the truth?

Sebastian: Good question. Someone said that it's not proper to put people down in a book and I agree with that. Sometimes when I read books and the author is bitter and wants to put people down, it doesn't come across well in the book, to me. I want it to be a positive book. I don't want to rip people apart or put them down. I don't like that in books.

Metalshrine: Are you writing with someone?

Sebastian: No, actually I'm not. When I first got the deal, they wanted me to use a co-writer and I thought that was bullshit, but at the same time I had proved to them that I was capable of writing a book, so they said, "OK, we'll give you a chance." I wrote, like, 25 pages and they loved it. They loved my writing and they said, "Yeah, Sebastian, you can write it all on your own!" That was extremely important to me and like a milestone. I said, "I can? Wow!". It meant a lot to me, so I'm taking it very seriously and I don't plan on writing just one book over the course of my life. I'd like to write more than one. I love Henry Rollins' books! His books are amazing, like "Black Coffee Blues" and "Get In The Van". He's just a great writer and I love the way he writes. I used to write on my web site all the time and now I'm just kinda taking it off the Internet and putting it into the pages of the book. That's what I'm trying to do.

Metalshrine: Do you have any idea when it will be released? Next year?

Sebastian: Sooner rather than later. I'm quite overwhelmed with my life right now. For some reason I have so many opportunities falling into my lap that it's almost overwhelming, and I'm just trying to deal with it and say yes to things I wanna do. I'm very, very busy and I'm just trying to deal with all that.

Read the entire interview at Metalshrine.