This is the cover for the upcoming Velvet Revolver album LIBERTAD which is a follow-up to their debut album CONTRABAND (2004). LIBERTAD is scheduled for a June 2007 release. The clock's tickin and I'm already liberated!!
Here's an excerpt from Revolver Magazine, Weiland doing the talking....
SCOTT WEILAND AND FRIENDS PREP "A REAL MEAN ROCK-AND-ROLL RECORD"
To help ensure that their second album lives up to their double platinum debut, 2004's Contraband, Velvet Revolver hired legendary producer Rick Rubin, whose most recent credits include the Red Hot Chili Pepper's Grammy-nominated disc Stadium Arcadium. But after three months of preproduction and little input from Rubin, the bandmates were bickering and banging their heads against the wall- and not in a good way. So they severed ties with Rubin and brought in Brendan O' Brien, who had worked with Weiland in his Stone Temple Pilots days. The switch was just what Velver Revolver needed. "We've gotten more done in the first two weeks with him than we had with Rick in the past two months". says Weiland, who filled us in on the latest.
What Happened with Rick Rubin?
He's got a great resume, but he wasn't jibing with us. After we started working with him, he was never around. We saw him maybe one or two times, and all of a sudden it's two and a half months later and we're stuck in the mud. We're showing up to practice every day and working, but we're going over the same things over and over and running into the same problems because there's a lot of strong personalities in the band and we need someone to come in and kick our asses a little bit.
Why was Brendan O' Brien the man for the job?
He rocks things forward at a crazy pace. There's a whole new vibe, and it's been contagious.
How much material do you have for the record?
We wrote 40 songs, and we've whittled it down to 25, We'll probably cut that down to 13 or 14. I think we'll be here with Brendan for another month, and then we'll have about two weeks of recording. So the record should be out in spring.
How will this album differ from Contraband?
When the band first got together, we were sort of like shipwreck victims reaching for a life raft. We were so excited to be making a record that we laid down a lot of tracks because we didn't want to let go. Now we've known each other a long time and done hundreds of shows, so this one will be more simple and display the band as it sounds right now whitout lots of layers.
Are there any different influences at play?
I don't like much new stuff. I've been listening to a lot of the Who and Pink Floyd, and you might be able to hear some of that. But also you're gonna hear other people's influences. Like, I know Duff's favorite artist is Iggy Pop, and I always hear the Stooges in his writing.
You've said this would be a concept record. Is that still the case?
I had been working on a concept that I had put a lot of time into, but i shot that all to hell because in the last 12 months there have been innumerous alleged concept albums that have been released by innumerous schlock rock bands that i despise. And to put out a concept album in a marketplace that is already littered with trite bullshit would be a disservice to rock fans. So instead we decided to write a real mean rock and roll record.
