Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Learning How To Let Go With MYLES KENNEDY
Transcript
- 0:25Speaker 1: Hey, what's happening.
- 0:25Speaker 2: I'm Miles Kennedy and I have a new solo record
- 0:29Speaker 2: coming out called The Art to Let It Go, and
- 0:32Speaker 2: we're releasing it on October eleventh.
- 0:35Speaker 3: You are indeed my friend. Thanks for joining us today.
- 0:38Speaker 1: My pleasure.
- 0:40Speaker 3: As you say, you release your new and third solo album,
- 0:43Speaker 3: The out Letting Go on October the eleventh, which isn't
- 0:45Speaker 3: far away now, mate, So how are you feeling about it?
- 0:48Speaker 1: Good?
- 0:49Speaker 2: You know, it's like anytime, especially it's getting close enough now,
- 0:54Speaker 2: it's just a few days here. I was like, it's
- 0:57Speaker 2: kind of a trip, you know, in a way that, uh,
- 1:00Speaker 2: your little sonic baby is about to be unleashed into
- 1:03Speaker 2: the world. So but for you know, it's funny. It's
- 1:06Speaker 2: kind of an excuse to just get out and tour.
- 1:09Speaker 3: You know.
- 1:10Speaker 2: I love I love making records, I love creating. I
- 1:12Speaker 2: also love getting to perform and hanging with my mates,
- 1:16Speaker 2: you know. So it's a brotherhood out there, and so
- 1:18Speaker 2: build build new memories.
- 1:22Speaker 3: Tell us a bit more about the album from a
- 1:23Speaker 3: musical point of view and what you've done for this summer.
- 1:25Speaker 2: N Yeah, I wanted this record to be more of
- 1:29Speaker 2: a rock record, you know, with the solo records. When
- 1:33Speaker 2: I first started doing it, it was more about, you know,
- 1:36Speaker 2: acoustic based music. Second record, I to March that was
- 1:41Speaker 2: a little bit of an acoustic element, but awesome more
- 1:43Speaker 2: Americana and Southern rock and country at times.
- 1:47Speaker 1: This one, I just wanted to rock, you know.
- 1:49Speaker 2: I wanted to have it be based on on on
- 1:52Speaker 2: riffs and uh, you know, just have a certain pocket
- 1:56Speaker 2: and a certain groove and and build that way.
- 2:00Speaker 3: And today you've released a single say what you will
- 2:03Speaker 3: miss You when You're Gone, and nothing more to gains.
- 2:04Speaker 3: So I know it's hard to do, but at those
- 2:06Speaker 3: three a good sonic representation and what to expect from
- 2:09Speaker 3: the whole album.
- 2:10Speaker 2: Yeah, I think overall that kind of they kind of
- 2:12Speaker 2: touch on the overall vibe of it. You know, it's
- 2:15Speaker 2: a it's it's a it's a it's a good introduction
- 2:19Speaker 2: into the art of letting go.
- 2:21Speaker 3: Wait, speaking of introductions, Mate, Like the opening and title track,
- 2:25Speaker 3: it kicks off with the media guitar riffer and it
- 2:27Speaker 3: goes into an almost blues like swagger, complete with chance
- 2:31Speaker 3: of hey hey hey, Now if you're looking through a
- 2:34Speaker 3: rock manual, Mate, like those tick pretty much every box
- 2:37Speaker 3: to start off an album, mate, You've got everything covered
- 2:39Speaker 3: there in the first thirty seconds.
- 2:41Speaker 1: Got to have those haze.
- 2:42Speaker 2: It's funny because the hay thing came so initially I
- 2:45Speaker 2: thought it needed something to kind of drive it, like
- 2:48Speaker 2: on the downbeat, and I thought, you know, either a
- 2:51Speaker 2: cow bell or something like, nah, I don't want to
- 2:52Speaker 2: use the cow bell, We'll just do haze.
- 3:01Speaker 3: How much thought and planning actually goes into the first
- 3:04Speaker 3: song on an album they made? What sort of things
- 3:06Speaker 3: do you consider?
- 3:09Speaker 2: I just wanted to grab your attention, you know, I
- 3:11Speaker 2: feel like people's attention spans are pretty short, so you
- 3:14Speaker 2: want to put something out where they're going to be like, okay,
- 3:17Speaker 2: I can this is working for me.
- 3:19Speaker 1: I'll keep you know, listening for a few more songs.
- 3:22Speaker 2: I mean at the end of the You know, it's
- 3:23Speaker 2: funny because you know they say now, like with streaming,
- 3:26Speaker 2: they typically after like seven songs, people's it tends to
- 3:30Speaker 2: drop off. So like, you want to put your best
- 3:33Speaker 2: foot forward at first to keep people's attention because there's
- 3:36Speaker 2: a lot of things, you know, I'll vine for for
- 3:38Speaker 2: your attention, so you you know, you don't want to
- 3:41Speaker 2: start off with your you know, a song that is
- 3:45Speaker 2: going to take, you know, take a lot of time
- 3:47Speaker 2: to get into. You want to just hit them on
- 3:49Speaker 2: the head right out of the gate.
- 3:50Speaker 3: I'm actually surprised at seven songs. I thought it'd be
- 3:53Speaker 3: less and like a song like Brian. Then someone chucks
- 3:57Speaker 3: the CD and impressed the shuffle and it comes in.
- 4:01Speaker 3: It's like, what the fuck did I waste my time?
- 4:03Speaker 1: For good point?
- 4:06Speaker 3: You recorded the album in twenty twenty three, by so
- 4:09Speaker 3: you've been sitting on it for a while. But are
- 4:11Speaker 3: you the type of person to put that album to
- 4:12Speaker 3: bed and move on or do you sort of go
- 4:14Speaker 3: back and agonize and think I should have done this
- 4:16Speaker 3: or I could have done that.
- 4:18Speaker 2: No, I don't really agonize too much of There was
- 4:21Speaker 2: a time when I did, but but I'm at a
- 4:23Speaker 2: point now where it's like, once the record's done, yeah,
- 4:26Speaker 2: I move on. The only the only way I moved
- 4:28Speaker 2: back is is preparing for a tour and rehearsing and
- 4:31Speaker 2: going and revisiting. I generally am always looking forward. I
- 4:35Speaker 2: just I feel that that helps me stay you know it, creatively,
- 4:39Speaker 2: it's the way I like to roll.
- 4:42Speaker 3: I sort of touched on this before, but the out
- 4:44Speaker 3: of letting go is very reef heavy slam of rock
- 4:46Speaker 3: made and your guitar playing on It's gone to the
- 4:48Speaker 3: next level. Bro, Like, how much of an influences slash
- 4:51Speaker 3: Head on your guitar playing moving for all?
- 4:55Speaker 2: I guess yeah, I started as a guitar player, and
- 4:58Speaker 2: I think what I've learn from playing with Slash is
- 5:01Speaker 2: just his work ethic. You know, the guy works harder
- 5:04Speaker 2: than anybody I know so, and which is inspiring for
- 5:08Speaker 2: me because he doesn't have to. You know, he's at
- 5:10Speaker 2: a point in his life where he could just hang
- 5:13Speaker 2: out and tour once in a while, but he still
- 5:16Speaker 2: works as hard as a guy who's you know, coming
- 5:18Speaker 2: up the ranks, trying to making an aim for himself.
- 5:20Speaker 2: It's incredible. So I think that's that's the thing I've
- 5:22Speaker 2: learned more than anything. It's just keeping that hunger alive.
- 5:26Speaker 3: How about from a writing perspective, mine, Like, you're writing
- 5:28Speaker 3: for your solo album, I'm guessing you've just got you
- 5:31Speaker 3: one guitar doing that. But then when you write for
- 5:33Speaker 3: the conspirators, as you and Slash together writing, Like, what's
- 5:36Speaker 3: the different dynamics like writing an album with one guitar
- 5:38Speaker 3: as opposed to.
- 5:41Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's It's interesting because when you know it's
- 5:45Speaker 2: just going to be one guitar, you do think differently.
- 5:48Speaker 2: I think, you know, how is this rift going to be?
- 5:51Speaker 2: How is this core progression going to be? How is
- 5:52Speaker 2: this going to work? When I'm playing it all by
- 5:55Speaker 2: myself as a as a you know, it's a power trio.
- 5:57Speaker 2: So I'm I'm very aware of that. And with Slash,
- 6:02Speaker 2: you know, it's a different writing process because he he'll
- 6:05Speaker 2: he'll send me the riff and the core progression, and
- 6:09Speaker 2: then my job is to come up with the melody
- 6:11Speaker 2: and to come up with the lyric. So it's a
- 6:12Speaker 2: very different type of process.
- 6:15Speaker 3: Which one do you prefer personally? Do you prefer coming
- 6:17Speaker 3: up with a whole lot yourself forward? Do you prefer
- 6:19Speaker 3: what can a lie that.
- 6:21Speaker 2: I to be honest with you, I'm I've got the
- 6:23Speaker 2: best circumstances one could ask for, because it's always changing,
- 6:28Speaker 2: you know, so it's like it never gets redundant. So
- 6:33Speaker 2: you know, it's like when I need when I feel like,
- 6:34Speaker 2: oh now I really want to play guitar and write
- 6:36Speaker 2: riffs and cyclell then it'll be at that point in
- 6:39Speaker 2: the in the kind of the the the rotation of
- 6:43Speaker 2: the bands and the touring cycles and the album cycles,
- 6:45Speaker 2: so it works out really well. And then when I've
- 6:47Speaker 2: gotten that out of my system, then I'll move into
- 6:50Speaker 2: you know, just coming up with the melodies and the
- 6:51Speaker 2: lyrics with Slash and uh, that's that's it's, it's it's
- 6:55Speaker 2: a luxury I don't take for granted.
- 6:58Speaker 3: And the out of letting Go. It's a great title, mate,
- 7:01Speaker 3: But when you were writing the song, we're thinking about
- 7:03Speaker 3: anything specific to let go? Is it more of a generalization.
- 7:08Speaker 1: A generalization.
- 7:09Speaker 2: It's just kind of where I'm at in life now
- 7:10Speaker 2: where I just don't want to.
- 7:14Speaker 1: I just don't you know, I don't want.
- 7:16Speaker 2: To be reactive and stress and I just want to
- 7:20Speaker 2: enjoy enjoy life the best that I can, you know.
- 7:24Speaker 2: And it's something that I'm still learning and working on.
- 7:27Speaker 2: But I figured, you know, titling the record would help
- 7:29Speaker 2: remind me of that.
- 7:32Speaker 3: Just say someone's stumbled upon this interview made and they
- 7:35Speaker 3: don't know too much about Miles Kennedy, give us three
- 7:38Speaker 3: songs from your whole career, any band for them to
- 7:41Speaker 3: listen to get to know you better.
- 7:44Speaker 2: I would say Blackbird by alter Bridge would be one.
- 7:50Speaker 2: Anastasia by Slash and the Conspirators, and then as far
- 7:54Speaker 2: as for the solo stuff, i'd say check out say
- 7:58Speaker 2: what you will.
- 8:00Speaker 3: This album does come out on Tibe the eleventh made.
- 8:03Speaker 3: And you seem to be a man who loves to
- 8:05Speaker 3: be on the road, so I'm guessing you've got a
- 8:06Speaker 3: fair bit coming up after that.
- 8:09Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, lots of touring.
- 8:12Speaker 3: Sids word to go all around the world or.
- 8:15Speaker 2: We're gonna try. Yeah if if you know, if the
- 8:17Speaker 2: rest of the world will have us, we'll go.
- 8:22Speaker 3: There's only about a couple of months ago you were
- 8:23Speaker 3: in Australia was Slash run it?
- 8:25Speaker 2: Yeah that was this spring I believe, yeah, or late winter.
- 8:30Speaker 2: So yeah, times Flying Brisbane.
- 8:32Speaker 3: Show was fantastic, guys, he nailed it.
- 8:35Speaker 1: Thank thank you, thank you very much.
- 8:38Speaker 3: It all. Now I'm starting a new segment called photo Bomb,
- 8:41Speaker 3: where before I chat with you, I go through your
- 8:42Speaker 3: social media and I dig up a few photos and
- 8:45Speaker 3: a little bit more about him. So the first one
- 8:48Speaker 3: I found is this one like you guys on tour
- 8:52Speaker 3: and you said a bird park in New Zealand.
- 8:56Speaker 2: Yes, I haven't seen that in a long time. Amazing
- 9:01Speaker 2: blast from the past. I don't know what Todd's doing.
- 9:03Speaker 2: It looks like he's is he serenading the lizard?
- 9:07Speaker 3: I wondered. He looks like there's something romantic going on there.
- 9:10Speaker 2: Yeah, he's trying to woo the lizard and I'm looking
- 9:13Speaker 2: at like, ah, I don't know.
- 9:17Speaker 1: That's pretty good funny. Actually, do you have things.
- 9:21Speaker 3: Like that in America, like parks where you can go
- 9:23Speaker 3: and check out the animals and stuff like that.
- 9:26Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, we have zoos and whatnot. We don't do
- 9:30Speaker 2: it enough. I wish we did it more. Yeah, that's
- 9:32Speaker 2: that's something that is. That's one of the perks to
- 9:34Speaker 2: get in the tours. You get to do stuff like that,
- 9:36Speaker 2: especially when you know you're with Slash and he loves,
- 9:38Speaker 2: you know, all things animals. So we tend to do
- 9:41Speaker 2: more of that stuff than than we normally would with
- 9:43Speaker 2: other bands, which is cool.
- 9:46Speaker 3: Wait now, but this one as well. It was taken
- 9:49Speaker 3: backstage at the ad Manchester Arena in twenty thirteen. Like
- 9:54Speaker 3: what's when When is he going from your dressing room
- 9:57Speaker 3: to the stage, Like like he's out there like it's
- 10:00Speaker 3: all sort of quiet and reflecting what you're going to
- 10:02Speaker 3: do or you rowdy and pompany show up like what
- 10:04Speaker 3: goes on.
- 10:05Speaker 1: It's pretty mellow.
- 10:07Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very it's very zen. I wish there was
- 10:11Speaker 2: a lot of I wish I could say that's crazy
- 10:13Speaker 2: and it just jumping around and champagne flying. But you know,
- 10:15Speaker 2: we're just we're just kind of getting to that space
- 10:17Speaker 2: and preparing to go out and you know, trying not
- 10:19Speaker 2: to screw up.
- 10:22Speaker 3: I suppose it all started to look like one of
- 10:25Speaker 3: the same after I wouldn't they all these backstage areas
- 10:27Speaker 3: and all these hallways.
- 10:29Speaker 2: Oh, you'd be surprised how much they change. Yeah, it
- 10:31Speaker 2: depends what kind of venue. You know, with those when
- 10:33Speaker 2: you're on an arena tour, which I think we were there,
- 10:35Speaker 2: you know, those are generally very nice. But when you're
- 10:37Speaker 2: playing like some of some some venues, you know, like
- 10:40Speaker 2: theaters and clubs, you can you never know what to expect.
- 10:44Speaker 3: Legend Malla, Thanks very much for your time, bro. It's
- 10:46Speaker 3: been a pleasure speaking with you. Out of Letting Go
- 10:48Speaker 3: is out October the eleventh, and it's an absolute fucking
- 10:51Speaker 3: crack of bro. So best of luck and see you
- 10:53Speaker 3: next time.
- 10:54Speaker 1: You're Thanks brother.
- 11:20Speaker 4: Now you feel the sun about your face if you're
- 11:29Speaker 4: so good. Still you don't draw away.
- 11:34Speaker 5: Another cloud you cannot shake starts raining down.
- 11:42Speaker 4: The ones again.
- 11:44Speaker 5: I'm just saying, I saw wisp uself time mass.
- 11:51Speaker 4: With that, I saw tell the heart I past.
- 11:57Speaker 5: We know it's wrong, but still.
- 12:01Speaker 4: We got mass. We wanted the sky with the side
- 12:11Speaker 4: me God.
- 12:12Speaker 5: It's not cho.
- 12:16Speaker 4: No, rather it's hot.
- 12:18Speaker 5: It's one yours five to take.
- 12:22Speaker 4: We got in time, trial and talk and lots not
- 12:29Speaker 4: thing to gain.
- 12:44Speaker 5: Fool back to the law.
- 12:49Speaker 1: Still free to shoes.
- 12:52Speaker 5: Well you my father, so to you you consent?
- 13:01Speaker 4: Do you think you so much? Till now? When will you.
- 13:12Speaker 5: Which shall come? So you shall by which you stop.
- 13:21Speaker 6: Expect the us when you test Recta, the sacred woods,
- 13:31Speaker 6: the stuff working side God, it's not your rather than
- 13:41Speaker 6: it's hard. It's one you wants.
- 13:43Speaker 4: Fine to tell that in time, try to talk out
- 13:49Speaker 4: as not that tell you.
- 14:22Speaker 5: You're uxious.
- 14:28Speaker 4: To fast change when way.
- 14:41Speaker 5: A time, let the size its be your God, it's
- 14:52Speaker 5: not too late.
- 14:56Speaker 4: That's had. It's one your side to take got it,
- 15:01Speaker 4: Tom turnel and Tom another way you know has not happen.
- 15:09Speaker 4: Wat to join you'll ha, you'll know that's not happen.
- 15:21Speaker 4: Lot to drive