Velvet Revolver

The eagerly anticipated release of Velvet Revolver's debut album is finally upon us. After months of delays, scandal and rehab, the 'ultimate' rock super group are ready to face the world. And they have a lot of explaining to do...

Words: Steven Rosen
Pictures: John McMurtrie

TG: 'Contraband' echoes that raucous, running-off-the-rails style of guitar that defined Guns N' Roses, yet at the same time it has a very contemporary feel. It's like a bridge linking the old to the new. There's also a new texture in your playing - something more powerful.

Slash: "The album is pretty aggressive, which came from that thing of us all getting together. It's kind of inexplicable, but I was very passionate about it and as far as the writing was concerned, everything was very spontaneous, and it went on the record that way. By the time we picked the songs we were gonna do, there was only a couple of months before we did the album. It's all first-take stuff."

TG: Was there a different dynamic to how you felt playing guitar behind Axl?

Slash: "Every time you play with someone different, you get a different energy, although there was obviously an underlying familiar core for me: Duff and Matt. I love playing with different people, I always have, but at the same time there's a certain vibe I like, and I don't find it with everyone I jam with.

"Guns N' Roses was way cool when it was in its proper setting - it was killer - but then it went through a lot of crazy changes. AN then Snakepit was just an outlet for me - but I didn't hone in on what makes me tick. It was just good timing, because I think everybody was trying to avoid any sort of combination of the Guns members, we just wanted to get away from that whole thing."

TG: Now you play with Dave. What do you look for in a second guitarist?

Slash: "In the same way that Izzy [Stradlin, GN'R second guitarist] did his own thing, so does Dave. As long as he's got his own thing together, I don't worry about what the other guy's doing and I can concentrate on myself. It's like I had a hard time working with the guitarists in the two Snakepit bands, because those guys were so aware of what I was doing it made me self-conscious. Also, Dave doesn't feel threatened by me telling him what to do, and vice versa. I men, it's not like we're a two-guitar band where we do harmonies. With Izzy it was the same, very rarely did we sit down and have the patience to work out guitar parts. Instead, we just sort of improvised. Dave and Izzy are the only two guitarists I really mesh with."

TG: Dave, how exactly did you see your role in the band?

DAVE: "I bring a lot of pedals to the music, and It's kind of a texture thing. Although you've got to find a balance, use them subtly. It don't want to be like, 'Hey, check me out over here, I've got all these fancy pedals.'I think the key to playing with a guitarist like Slash is knowing what he's playing and then do something completely different. Like, if he's playing open chords, I'll play barres; if he's playing a melody line, I'll play chords. We try to offset each other, so it's not like two guys in stereo. That's what was great about 'Appetite For Destruction' - both guitarists played off of each other, so I came in thinking like that."

This is the most interesting fuckin' record I've done in my career, yet it's the one I've paid the least attention to as far as gear's concerned. I even switched guitars around, which I don't normally do. My regular recording guitar is a handmade Les Paul Standard copy, which I've had since 'Appetite...' There's a guy who made an amazing 1959 copy that's better than anything Gibson can make. Unfortunately, he's no longer alive. But I have a couple of those,
and they're my main guitars.

[Note: In the mid-80s, Alan Nevin, then manager of GN'R contacted friend Jim Foote, owner of the Music Works guitar shop in California, about Slash's problems finding a good sound in the studio. Foote introduced Slash to Kris Derrig, a luthier who built Les Paul replicas. The guitarist experimented with the instrument, and made it his main tool. The custom piece is a replica of a 1958 Les Paul with a mahogany body and neck, a top capped with flame maple, and a fretboard constructed of Brazilian rosewood. Pickups are Seymour Duncan Alnico IIs.]

"I also have a couple of other re-issues, but I didn't pull out any vintage guitars except a 1954 Les Paul. I used it for the beginning of 'Fall To Pieces,' that clean guitar sound, and for the bridge in 'You Got No Right'. I also used a Strat and a Telecaster for a couple sections."

Slash: "No, I don't believe in using that kind of stuff. That's one thing about having two guitarists, you can do it without having to fake it."

DAVE: "When I went in the studio, Slash'd already done his rhythm parts, his solos, which was great because I could then go my own way with it, fill up the holes. In the intro, there's this wall of wah-wah and delay, I used the Line 6 Delay and right where it stops before the verse there's this trail-off and that's the Line 6 Delay. Halfway through the verses you can hear it thicken up. I used a Hyper Fuzz pedal straight into the board, not through an amp, to double my rhythms and in the breakdowns it's like a wah and delay."

DUFF: "We're all playing the same riff in that, the verse riff. That's three fat instruments playing the same thing."

Slash: "For the most part there was a lot of quick experimenting going on. Very rarely did we pick up something and go, 'That doesn't sound right.' Usually I'd think it out first. Mostly I'm playing my Les Paul. All the heavy stuff, with the exception of 'Sucker Train Blues', is basically my Les Paul copy, a Marshall and maybe the AC30."

TG: There are a couple of acoustic tracks on the album, aren't there?

Slash: "Yeah, the tune 'You Got No Right' is played on a Takamine [it's actually a Taylor cutaway, says guitar tech Adam Day] recorded via microphone and pickup. Just to make it sound more electric. That was the only song I wrote on acoustic. The demo we did, I cut with a Les Paul which has a Piezo pickup [see above] and it sounded really interesting. The one thing about electro-acoustics is they tend to have a very synthetic sound, so we mixed it up and made it sound more pure."

TG: How would you compare yourself to today's rock scene?

Slash: "None of us sit around and try to be master musicians, which is what a lot of people do. I'm into making up a really cool riff or rhythm pattern, but it's got to be in a song- not something you'd listen to for technical prowess. There are very few muses who I can get into for more than five minutes. Jeff Beck is one of the few guys where I can sit and listen to a whole record..."

TG: What about the likes of, say, Linkin Park and Korn?

DUFF: "At least Linkin Park can write a chorus that sticks in your head. And Korn are cool - they started a whole thing on their own."

Slash: "I didn't used to like Korn, but I went to see them and I have to give them credit. They're one of the few new bands I've seen with attitude."

DUFF: "But musically, we're a fuckin' rock band and there's no comparison between Limp Bizkit or Korn and us. We're straight-up fuckin' rock."

Slash: "I was listening to The Faces on the way over here - they're a good rock'n'roll band. Duff and I are influenced by different stuff, but it does have a common core..."

DUFF: "Yeah, we could all listen to a Faces record together."

TG: When did the music really take on a definite form?

Slash: "When Scott joined the group. Every singer brings something different to the music. I learned a long time ago that, chances are, a good singer will come up with a better idea than me, unless I want a really strong melody to come across.

There's an interesting chord change on the song 'You Got No Right', and it sounded really simplistic but really interesting when I first wrote it. Then we gave it to Scott to play with - and he wrote this amazing vocal for it. I wouldn't have come up with anything like that. That's one of the great things about being in a band - we all come to this with our own ideas."

Slash: "It's really no big deal. Dave asked to go in after me, and I said yeah. In Guns, I'd do my scratch [guide] tracks with Izzy, and we'd keep Izzy's takes, because they were about as involved as he'd get. We tried to use some of Dave's scratch tracks, but the most part I just listened to myself, the drums and bass, which left a pretty good template for Dave. I try harder when I'm by myself. I came back to hear exactly how that influenced him and if all of a sudden it made my stuff seem too sparse or naked, but it worked out great."

TG: But your solos were put on after everything else was recorded?

Slash: "No, I usually put the solos down before the vocal is recorded. When we did Appetite...I didn't have much experience, but I kinda had it mapped out how each part would sound. I'd put my [rhythm] guitars down, then the harmony, then the solos. We did it like that, because back then Axl hardly sang at rehearsal, we had to play as a band without vocals. When Axl finally put the vocals on, we really didn't know how the songs were gonna turn out. We knew how the song sounded live and that was it. At that point, we'd rehearse really hard to make sure we knew the material without vocals, so we didn't use that as a crutch."

"But it's nice to have vocals to work with, so now we try to get Scott to do scratch vocals, I do the solo, then the real vocals come on afterwards."

TG: Do you have a good idea of what the solo will be before entering the studio?

Slash: "This record was a little different in that respect, because we wrote the material so quickly. When it came to solos, there's either something melodic singing in my head right away or on the first run at the solo, then I'll go back and see if it works, 'Sucker Train Blues' has a one-take whammy bar solo. There are a few songs on this record that don't have any real planned solo. Sometimes I'll play a song through enough times I feel the same exact
thing every time I get to the solo section. But I never went out and played it live, so I had to do a lot of improvising."

TG: The solo on 'Spectacle'?

Slash: "That was definitely made up on the spot! In fact, that was the first song we recorded guitars on. I went to Josh's [Abraham, producer] studio and played in the control room - I hate doing overdubs, so I stand in the control room with huge speakers, crank it up and play like I'm in a live situation. When I got there he had these two little Yamahas [monitors] and that was it. I mean, how can you recreate a rock and roll environment with just these
little NS-10s? We had the NS-10s cranked up as far as they'd go, and I'd brought in a tiny Fender and a distortion box, and we did the solo. That was leftfield for me."

DAVE: "I've worked with Josh since he first started producing, and he has some great ideas. I did a demo with him ages ago with the guys from Orgy, we were in a band together before Orgy [Lit, which later turned into the Lit of 'My Own Worst Enemy' fame]. He's a guitar player too, he understands it all. He gets rock and the modern thing like with Orgy. He gets the balance."

TG: "What about 'Superhuman'? That opening riff sounds similar to your phrase on 'Sweet Child O' Mine', but twisted on acid.

Slash: "That's cool, it just came out of nowhere, I think the 'Sweet Child O' Mine' influence pops up because it's a single-note style of mine, especially when I do this octave thing around a melody. I have to give Axl credit, because if he hadn't recognized it as being great, I wouldn't have used it, I thought it was a joke. It was just me doing a lick with chord changes underneath to give it some movement. Then Axl came in and started singing it. I hated
that song until after '88 or '89. We were touring with Aerosmith, and it was such a huge hit you couldn't ignore it."

TG: Now that it's all done and the record is ready to be released, is Contraband the album you wanted to make?

Slash: "This is the first time I've had a real feeling of being in a band. I had such a blast, and I learned a lot, we're all real comfortable with each other. With us, we're all just so in sync, and there's no real arguing or ego problems. And the ideas just come like that [snaps fingers], we just have a certain kind of energy. So I'm real excited about the record. When I hear the album I find it really compelling, it really makes me want to listen to it."

"I'm just happy we got to do our thing, and do it the way we wanted to. The cool thing about this band is we put it all together, we went through all the fuckin' bullshit, we had no fuckin' support from the very beginning. Everybody thought it was a complete fucking failure waiting to happen. Now we've done it, it's a huge feeling of accomplishment, it reminds me of the old days."

DAVE: "This did end up being a perfect marriage of all the best elements of the Appetite-era Guns N' Roses, early Stone Temple Pilots. I was comfortable with those guys coming in with what they do. We didn't play it safe."

Slash: "The album just sounds so original, so finished, like a real band and a real record. It's just like, 'Wow', you know? I'm blown away by it."

 

[ click here to read an interview with guitar tech Adam Day about VR's gear ]