New Dj interview at LegendaryRockInterviews.com (Sep 2014)

[D-GenerationX]

I agree with Jarmo -- there's no way Shackler's Revenge and Scraped could be considered "A" material.

You don't like either?

I rather like 'Shackler's'

[GypsySoul]

Ron Thal is so right on about needing to jam as a band and write songs together that it isn't even funny. Lyrics aside, it is just a fact of music that the best stuff (like GN'R's previous albums) results from that energy and trying to capture it.

They don't seem to have any problem jamming together during the shows while Axl's offstage to pee or change clothes or whatever.  One would think that they've gotten together to come up with what they're going to play and practice those jams some time before they actually perform them onstage.

If you believe the stories from the early days, even when those guys were living together, they weren't "ALL" jamming and writing songs at the same time/in the same place.  (From the stories, they probably weren't even all conscious at the same time.)  Everything was done in piecemeal.  (The way SCOM was supposedly written comes to mind.)

And isn't this the way GNR (and I'm guessing most bands) does and always have worked?

Again from the stories we've heard, do you really think Buckethead and Robin locked themselves in a room/studio and wrote CD together with the other guys?  I would guess that BH and Brain wrote something... then Brain would bring it to Robin ... then Robin would add something and would bring it to Dizzy... and so on and so forth.

Today the guys, in various combinations, are 'together' quite often (or so it seems from their facebook/twitter posts).  Why is it so hard to imagine that they're sharing their ideas for GNR material with whomever from GNR they're hanging/performing with and then share that when they're with another member of GNR and so on and so forth?

[ice cream sand pig]

The voice is a really complicated instrument. There is no way Axl isn't putting a shit load of work into his voice. There is no way any person could pull off Axl's style of singing without working very hard at it. If you don't believe me, just ask Juan the Beast on youtube. Have you tried to imitate Axl? What does it sound like? Not sure if this is still being argued about or what but that's my two cents on it anyway.

If a guy trained real hard at singing it wouldn't matter if he went to rehearsals or not. It would be like any other practice session for him. He could just put the songs he's going to perform on a CD and sing along with them on his own. I used to do this with my roommate last semester. He would record the guitar part of a song for me and I would sing along with it on my own until I was comfortable enough to sing along with him as he played. I can't see Jarmo making up the whole thing about seeing Axl do rehearsals. I can see him seeing things in a certain light because he knows the band personally but I can't see him just making something up. To each his own though.

Chinese definitely has flow. It flows on different levels. The CD in it's entirety flows like a film, like it's telling some kind of story. As for songs, each one is like a kaleidoscope of different colors (sounds) flowing outwards in different intertwining directions that all weave into one giant intricate pattern. That's what is great about having songs rich with so many layers. The songs have a great way of building up too. The Blues is a perfect example of this. Before I heard the whole song I was wondering "Is Axl really going to be able to pull this one off?". Then when everything is coming to a close, here come's Axl going "What'd I tell ya?". I was like shit Axl, you told me what was gonna happen. I should have known you weren't fucking around. Twat has an epic build too with the solo and Axl's insanely high voice both coming in at the perfect times.

I'm curious, to those of you that do not care for CD, have you ever taken psychedelics and listened to it? It will blow you away, especially on a good sound system. (Yes I realize that just about any album will blow you away on a good sound system under the influence of psychedelics but this one is really something special).

[LongGoneDay]

I agree with Jarmo -- there's no way Shackler's Revenge and Scraped could be considered "A" material.

If there were one GN?R song I could unhear, it would be Shackler?s Revenge.
Probably followed by My World, but at least that?s so bad it?s funny.

When I hear the intro to Scraped, I understand Axl?s hesitation to release Chinese Democracy.

Hoping Axl returns to form on any new potential release. Would love to hear some more inspired lyrics.
Musically, some acoustic arrangements could be refreshing. I?ve often thought you know you have a good song if it works acoustically.
There?s songs on CD I can?t imagine working stripped down.

[D-GenerationX]

Today the guys, in various combinations, are 'together' quite often (or so it seems from their facebook/twitter posts).  Why is it so hard to imagine that they're sharing their ideas for GNR material with whomever from GNR they're hanging/performing with and then share that when they're with another member of GNR and so on and so forth?

Because they have told us themselves this has never happened.  They have yet to work on anything in all this time.

[D-GenerationX]

When I hear the intro to Scraped, I understand Axl?s hesitation to release Chinese Democracy.

Hahahaha

The intro is the goofiest part, I'll grant you.  But after getting through that, I kind of like it.  Not a standout track, in my view, but decent.

[IKnowWhereIAM]

When I hear the intro to Scraped, I understand Axl?s hesitation to release Chinese Democracy.

Hahahaha

The intro is the goofiest part, I'll grant you.  But after getting through that, I kind of like it.  Not a standout track, in my view, but decent.

I call it the "stubbed my toe" intro.  I have heard Scraped played at hockey games, etc...and thankfully whomever controls these things skips the intro. Love the 'rest' of the song.

[D-GenerationX]

When I hear the intro to Scraped, I understand Axl?s hesitation to release Chinese Democracy.

Hahahaha

The intro is the goofiest part, I'll grant you.  But after getting through that, I kind of like it.  Not a standout track, in my view, but decent.

I call it the "stubbed my toe" intro.  I have heard Scraped played at hockey games, etc...and thankfully whomever controls these things skips the intro. Love the 'rest' of the song.

Its a good riff, I think.  And absolutely one of the catchier tunes on the album.

[GeorgeSteele]

Agree with you on both points DX (on Scraped and Shacklers).  While I'm also not crazy about the Scraped intro, overall it's a very solid track.  As for Shacklers... I don't get the hate that song consistently gets from the online community.  It's one of my favorites on the album.  And as far as the criticism of the album in general, I'll never understand that.   Say what you want about all the non-music related blunders this band may have had in the last 20 years, but to me this album stands up to anything released in that period, hands down.  

[JAEBALL]

Agree with you on both points DX (on Scraped and Shacklers).  While I'm also not crazy about the Scraped intro, overall it's a very solid track.  As for Shacklers... I don't get the hate that song consistently gets from the online community.  It's one of my favorites on the album.  And as far as the criticism of the album in general, I'll never understand that.   Say what you want about all the non-music related blunders this band may have had in the last 20 years, but to me this album stands up to anything released in that period, hands down.  

It's probably just that it sounds nothing like any Guns N Roses song prior to it.

Agreed about the music and how its just as good as anything else from that period ... I truly dig some of it and listen almost daily to 3 of the songs, but to this day its hard for me to listen to the album and not think about everything that went in to making it and finally hearing it... the drama of GNR and the GNR name hurts the album imo

I hope if and when the next record comes, some of that has worn off.. even the name Chinese Democracy carries so much drama...hopefully on the next, I can listen to a song from it without thinking of what went in to it

[D-GenerationX]

Agree with you on both points DX (on Scraped and Shacklers).  While I'm also not crazy about the Scraped intro, overall it's a very solid track.  As for Shacklers... I don't get the hate that song consistently gets from the online community.  It's one of my favorites on the album.  And as far as the criticism of the album in general, I'll never understand that.   Say what you want about all the non-music related blunders this band may have had in the last 20 years, but to me this album stands up to anything released in that period, hands down.  

Its the comparison, which was unavoidable.

While I don't get too caught up in how the world is out to get Axl, in a lot of ways, this album was really swimming upstream.  I personally think it was ludicrous to expect a band full of one set people to sound like a whole other group of people, even if they are using the same name.  But face it, people did.

I don't know if people expected AFD 2.0, per se.  But let's be fair, a lot of the songs were pretty drastically different than what people had come to expect from GNR.  Of the countless people I played this stuff for (which I'm sure you guys did too) I didn't find too many enthusiasts.  And one of the more common themes was that it didn't sound like GNR.

Even Axl sounds different, to be fair to that point.  My Dad likes the classic band, so he gave this a listen.  Did not dig it.  He said other than the few lines of 'Sorry' (you got all the answers...you know everything) he barely felt it even sounded like Axl.

[GeorgeSteele]

Agree with you on both points DX (on Scraped and Shacklers).  While I'm also not crazy about the Scraped intro, overall it's a very solid track.  As for Shacklers... I don't get the hate that song consistently gets from the online community.  It's one of my favorites on the album.  And as far as the criticism of the album in general, I'll never understand that.   Say what you want about all the non-music related blunders this band may have had in the last 20 years, but to me this album stands up to anything released in that period, hands down.  

Its the comparison, which was unavoidable.

While I don't get too caught up in how the world is out to get Axl, in a lot of ways, this album was really swimming upstream.  I personally think it was ludicrous to expect a band full of one set people to sound like a whole other group of people, even if they are using the same name.  But face it, people did.

I don't know if people expected AFD 2.0, per se.  But let's be fair, a lot of the songs were pretty drastically different than what people had come to expect from GNR.  Of the countless people I played this stuff for (which I'm sure you guys did too) I didn't find too many enthusiasts.  And one of the more common themes was that it didn't sound like GNR.

Even Axl sounds different, to be fair to that point.  My Dad likes the classic band, so he gave this a listen.  Did not dig it.  He said other than the few lines of 'Sorry' (you got all the answers...you know everything) he barely felt it even sounded like Axl.

But the criticism for the sake of it being different is somewhat disingenuous to me.  For 2 reasons. 

One, the 'it's different' criticism IMO is directly connected to the band being different and all the bitterness and resentment that goes with that.  For example, U2's Achtung Baby was completely embraced by its fans despite being a total departure from its 80s music.  So same band + different music is far more acceptable than different band + different music. 

Second, GNR fans are old.  By the time CD came out, most fans from the classic era reached that point in their lives where you know what you like and that's all you want, anything that deviates from that is shit.  Younger fans, on the other hand, tend to be more open-minded about music.  Obviously, there are exceptions to that, but I find that to be the case in general.

[D-GenerationX]

One, the 'it's different' criticism IMO is directly connected to the band being different and all the bitterness and resentment that goes with that.  For example, U2's Achtung Baby was completely embraced by its fans despite being a total departure from its 80s music.  So same band + different music is far more acceptable than different band + different music.

Not initially.

Few recall that the first single off that album was actually 'The Fly'.  And it scared the shit out of the fans and it tanked.

So they rushed out 'Mysterious Ways' within a few weeks.  Which, really, should have been the first single anyway.  I love 'The Fly', personally, but not as a lead single.

As for comparisons of each album, 'Achtung Baby' is far better than CD is.  We can't just ignore that.

Second, GNR fans are old.  By the time CD came out, most fans from the classic era reached that point in their lives where you know what you like and that's all you want, anything that deviates from that is shit.  Younger fans, on the other hand, tend to be more open-minded about music.  Obviously, there are exceptions to that, but I find that to be the case in general.

Very true.

But, doesn't that put more of an onus on Axl to get off his ass and sell this band to new fans?  Has he done that in any real way?  I'd say no.  Certainly not to the level you'd need to if you wanted to combat what you are talking about.

[LongGoneDay]

Agree with you on both points DX (on Scraped and Shacklers).  While I'm also not crazy about the Scraped intro, overall it's a very solid track.  As for Shacklers... I don't get the hate that song consistently gets from the online community.  It's one of my favorites on the album.  And as far as the criticism of the album in general, I'll never understand that.   Say what you want about all the non-music related blunders this band may have had in the last 20 years, but to me this album stands up to anything released in that period, hands down.  

Its the comparison, which was unavoidable.

While I don't get too caught up in how the world is out to get Axl, in a lot of ways, this album was really swimming upstream.  I personally think it was ludicrous to expect a band full of one set people to sound like a whole other group of people, even if they are using the same name.  But face it, people did.

I don't know if people expected AFD 2.0, per se.  But let's be fair, a lot of the songs were pretty drastically different than what people had come to expect from GNR.  Of the countless people I played this stuff for (which I'm sure you guys did too) I didn't find too many enthusiasts.  And one of the more common themes was that it didn't sound like GNR.

Even Axl sounds different, to be fair to that point.  My Dad likes the classic band, so he gave this a listen.  Did not dig it.  He said other than the few lines of 'Sorry' (you got all the answers...you know everything) he barely felt it even sounded like Axl.

But the criticism for the sake of it being different is somewhat disingenuous to me.  For 2 reasons. 

One, the 'it's different' criticism IMO is directly connected to the band being different and all the bitterness and resentment that goes with that.  For example, U2's Achtung Baby was completely embraced by its fans despite being a total departure from its 80s music.  So same band + different music is far more acceptable than different band + different music. 

Second, GNR fans are old.  By the time CD came out, most fans from the classic era reached that point in their lives where you know what you like and that's all you want, anything that deviates from that is shit.  Younger fans, on the other hand, tend to be more open-minded about music.  Obviously, there are exceptions to that, but I find that to be the case in general.

This probably falls in dead horse territory, but the problem I find with your U2 comparison, is that it was the same band members(I assume? don?t know, not a fan, and too lazy to look up) that chose that new/different direction with Achtung Baby. Whether fans liked the sound or not, at least it was the band?s choice to go the route they did. There?s no case to be made that ?this isn?t U2?. Might not be the sound you love, but it?s same band, and they?ve all agreed in a new musical direction.

In the case of GN?R, the classic lineup couldn?t go along to get along. They couldn?t find that common ground to move forward.
So when Axl and CD era Guns releases a new album, with a new direction, stripped of the elements old fans had come to love, things were going to go one of two ways.

People were going to like what they hear, look past the baggage/drama, and be able to enjoy it for what it is.
or, they were not going to like they hear, and that is where the baggage/resentment really comes into play.

Whether it truly was out of his control or not, Axl made a conscious decision to move this band forward, without crucial members responsible for the success the ?band? had earned.
Regardless of the reasons, it took a ridiculous amount of time to produce one record. The majority of fans were underwhelmed with the new sound.

Guns N? Roses was something much bigger than Axl, or Slash, or any single member. Chinese Democracy is clearly a sound that the classic lineup had no interest/intention of making.
Many fans feel it shouldn?t have been Axl?s choice alone to make in moving in a new direction. And save for a few legal shenanigans it probably wouldn?t have been.

The fact that most fans didn?t find the music of Chinese Democracy to be accessible was just the icing on the cake.
A perfect storm of shit for Axl, whether he deserved it or not. He chose, or stumbled upon a direction that wasn?t popular within his own band, and eventually came to realize it wasn?t a popular sound with (most)old fans.

I myself am not a fan of the music on Chinese Democracy, but not because of the name of the band. I had made my peace with that long before it?s release.
It has it?s moments, but overall the music/lyrics just didn?t resonate with me. My friends grew up on GN?R, and I?ve literally never met a fan of Chinese Democracy in the flesh, so this isn?t uncommon.
I?m glad some people love it. God knows there is much worse music out there today, but it?s not hard for me to understand why people didn?t gravitate towards it.

They can?t all be zingers.

[GeorgeSteele]

^LGD, that was my point, that the criticism of the music is so connected to the break-up baggage, whereas with U2, the music was able to stand on it's own without being weighed down by all that baggage, despite the music being so different from its traditional sound.  In the case of CD, I personally feel that it is an incredibly good album and if it the music were judged on its own merits without all the bullshit (whether or not such bullshit was self-inflicted), then I think it would have been much better received. 

[LongGoneDay]

I?d agree. Outside of the advance money he wouldn?t have received sans the GN?R name, it probably didn?t do Axl many favors in regards to creating/releasing a new album.
I?m not sure a different name would be the cure all. Not sure people would enjoy the music any more, but I?d agree that the animosity towards it would be substantially less.

[EmilyGNR]

The voice is a really complicated instrument. There is no way Axl isn't putting a shit load of work into his voice. There is no way any person could pull off Axl's style of singing without working very hard at it. If you don't believe me, just ask Juan the Beast on youtube. Have you tried to imitate Axl? What does it sound like? Not sure if this is still being argued about or what but that's my two cents on it anyway.

If a guy trained real hard at singing it wouldn't matter if he went to rehearsals or not. It would be like any other practice session for him. He could just put the songs he's going to perform on a CD and sing along with them on his own. I used to do this with my roommate last semester. He would record the guitar part of a song for me and I would sing along with it on my own until I was comfortable enough to sing along with him as he played. I can't see Jarmo making up the whole thing about seeing Axl do rehearsals. I can see him seeing things in a certain light because he knows the band personally but I can't see him just making something up. To each his own though.

Chinese definitely has flow. It flows on different levels. The CD in it's entirety flows like a film, like it's telling some kind of story. As for songs, each one is like a kaleidoscope of different colors (sounds) flowing outwards in different intertwining directions that all weave into one giant intricate pattern. That's what is great about having songs rich with so many layers. The songs have a great way of building up too. The Blues is a perfect example of this. Before I heard the whole song I was wondering "Is Axl really going to be able to pull this one off?". Then when everything is coming to a close, here come's Axl going "What'd I tell ya?". I was like shit Axl, you told me what was gonna happen. I should have known you weren't fucking around. Twat has an epic build too with the solo and Axl's insanely high voice both coming in at the perfect times.

I'm curious, to those of you that do not care for CD, have you ever taken psychedelics and listened to it? It will blow you away, especially on a good sound system. (Yes I realize that just about any album will blow you away on a good sound system under the influence of psychedelics but this one is really something special).

Good post Rudy 

It is very satisfying when Jarmo sets the record straight about some of the lies some like to spin and repeat.

I don't really care about some of the whining about what the band "needs" to do ie: "jam together", "get in a studio together" etc. With today's digital technology you can write and record with someone without being in the same room, or state, or country.

[JAEBALL]

The voice is a really complicated instrument. There is no way Axl isn't putting a shit load of work into his voice. There is no way any person could pull off Axl's style of singing without working very hard at it. If you don't believe me, just ask Juan the Beast on youtube. Have you tried to imitate Axl? What does it sound like? Not sure if this is still being argued about or what but that's my two cents on it anyway.

If a guy trained real hard at singing it wouldn't matter if he went to rehearsals or not. It would be like any other practice session for him. He could just put the songs he's going to perform on a CD and sing along with them on his own. I used to do this with my roommate last semester. He would record the guitar part of a song for me and I would sing along with it on my own until I was comfortable enough to sing along with him as he played. I can't see Jarmo making up the whole thing about seeing Axl do rehearsals. I can see him seeing things in a certain light because he knows the band personally but I can't see him just making something up. To each his own though.

Chinese definitely has flow. It flows on different levels. The CD in it's entirety flows like a film, like it's telling some kind of story. As for songs, each one is like a kaleidoscope of different colors (sounds) flowing outwards in different intertwining directions that all weave into one giant intricate pattern. That's what is great about having songs rich with so many layers. The songs have a great way of building up too. The Blues is a perfect example of this. Before I heard the whole song I was wondering "Is Axl really going to be able to pull this one off?". Then when everything is coming to a close, here come's Axl going "What'd I tell ya?". I was like shit Axl, you told me what was gonna happen. I should have known you weren't fucking around. Twat has an epic build too with the solo and Axl's insanely high voice both coming in at the perfect times.

I'm curious, to those of you that do not care for CD, have you ever taken psychedelics and listened to it? It will blow you away, especially on a good sound system. (Yes I realize that just about any album will blow you away on a good sound system under the influence of psychedelics but this one is really something special).

Good post Rudy 

It is very satisfying when Jarmo sets the record straight about some of the lies some like to spin and repeat.

I don't really care about some of the whining about what the band "needs" to do ie: "jam together", "get in a studio together" etc. With today's digital technology you can write and record with someone without being in the same room, or state, or country.

Great.... then we should never have to hear again the excuse that peoples lives are so busy and it's hard to get everybody in the same room to write and record!

[D-GenerationX]

^LGD, that was my point, that the criticism of the music is so connected to the break-up baggage, whereas with U2, the music was able to stand on it's own without being weighed down by all that baggage, despite the music being so different from its traditional sound.  In the case of CD, I personally feel that it is an incredibly good album and if it the music were judged on its own merits without all the bullshit (whether or not such bullshit was self-inflicted), then I think it would have been much better received. 

I don't know about that.  As the famous line goes, "The A & R man said 'I don't hear a single'."

Because that's the rub with that album.  14 songs, no singles.  And really, not even anything that could be a proper single.  Not every single can be a #1 hit, but bands can release singles that still become radio staples.

For the baggage and bullshit that came along with album, most of that could have been smoothed over if there were so much as one memorable song on the album.

[D-GenerationX]

I don't really care about some of the whining about what the band "needs" to do ie: "jam together", "get in a studio together" etc. With today's digital technology you can write and record with someone without being in the same room, or state, or country.

Yeah, but they don't do that either.

So on your crusade to eradicate disproven talking points, add this one to your list.