“I haven’t really listened to the new album since we finished it,” he admits. “It’s always a process to go back and figure out, ‘What did I do?’ But we have a set picked out. It’s been a while — 2019 is the last time we got on stage together — so we’re looking forward to it.”
The Winery Dogs formed in 2012 when talk show host Eddie Trunk told Kotzen that drummer Mike Portnoy and bassist Billy Sheehan were looking to form a power trio. They had tried to work with singer-guitarist John Sykes, but that band had fizzled. Sheehan knew Kotzen from their Mr. Big days in the late 1990s, so a collaboration certainly had potential.
“We got together at my house in L.A. and talked about the idea of what we would do, and then, we went into my studio and played for awhile,” recalls Kotzen. “I had a couple of songs that would have ended up on a solo record that we used pieces of. From there, it evolved and before we knew it, it had five or six songs we really liked.”
Those tunes would wind up on the band’s self-titled debut, which the band recorded at Kotzen’s home. For the follow-up album, 2015’s Hot Streak, the band recorded drums at a proper studio and then worked on fleshing out the songs at Kotzen’s studio.
“I did not bring in any stuff I had been working on,” says Kotzen. “We did everything from the ground up. It was a little bit of a different approach. There’s some songs on there that sound a little more produced. I did more layering with the guitars and the vocals and that sort of thing. It was the perfect album to follow up the first one.”
Kotzen wrote a couple of songs for III, an album that he says ties together the self-titled debut and Hot Streak, during the lockdown that took place during the height of the COVID pandemic. The band had originally sought to start writing and recording earlier than that, but the pandemic delayed things.
“We went all the way into 2017 and recorded a live video and record,” says Kotzen. “After that, I went and did a solo album and a large tour that went to Japan and Australia and Europe and the United States. Shortly after that, we did another leg in 2019. From there, the plan was to go back and work on new music. Everything got derailed, but it was nice that we had a break from writing. When we finally got into the studio, everything felt brand new and exciting.”
The first new tune that Kotzen put lyrics to is the album’s single, “Xanadu.” The track, which opens with a bit of fusion-y guitar before turning into a Soundgarden-like rocker, finds Kotzen adopting a soulful croon.
“I remember going into the studio and working on the song,” says Kotzen. “The next day, I picked up the guys who were staying at a hotel room and played it in the car, and they really dug it. At that point, I thought I was back on track, and we could relax a little bit.”
The group again took the route of self-producing and enlisted Jay Ruston to master.
“It’s just our process,” says Kotzen. “We’ve all been making records long enough, and we have a certain skill set in the studio. We like the idea of making our own creative decisions. The only reason we do it is because we can. In certain types of situations, bands need a producer to reel them in. With us, we can pull it off. Giving it to Jay to mix gets it out of our hands. That’s where you can get into trouble. If three people are trying to mix the album, it can get a little nutty. We get the creative stuff figured out. I deal with the layering of the vocals and the harmonies. It’s a process that works for us.
Another album highlight, “Mad World,” features a terrific Kotzen vocal performance.
“It’s really difficult for me to dissect lyrics and tell you exactly where it comes from,” says Kotzen when asked about the tune. “I don’t want to ruin it for anyone, but it’s about not getting caught up in the mundane, and there is a situation where if you don’t think a certain way, they want to really give it to you and put in a bad spot. Ultimately, the message is meant to be positive. For me, it has a very Motown feel, which I really like.”
Kotzen, a veteran musician who joined glam rockers Poison in the early ’90s, doesn’t give much credence to the argument that rock ’n’ roll is in decline.
“Thankfully, there is still an audience for what we do,” he says. “We put out two videos for this record, and they have been well-received. Tickets are selling well for our tour. I never really get involved in the conversation about whether rock is dead or alive. It doesn’t spark my interest. The reality is very clear. It’s all fine because that’s the evolution. People don’t live in the past. Thankfully, I’m standing on a street corner somewhere and able to do what I’ve always done, and it’s still interesting and rewarding for me.”
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
This article appears in Feb 8-21, 2023.
