L.A. Guns is one of the handful of bands that truly shaped the sound of the Sunset Strip. Since reuniting with Phil Lewis in 2017, Tracii Guns has led L.A. Guns through 5 releases, including their newest Leopard Skin which sees the band sounding as fresh and vibrant as ever.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Tracii Guns Interview –
On the drive to keep creating new music – I think when you’re a musician at a certain level the creativity is such an important part of being a musician. For example, in my case, I’m not great at learning other people’s guitar solos or even chords and songs, so I’m definitely more of a creative guitar player. Basically, that’s just what I do personally, and I guess it’s really considered a hobby when you’re addicted to the thing that you love to do outside of your everyday normal kind of routine. I think that part of the hobby or part of the craft, or whatever, the only thing I hyperfocus on is music. It is always trying to create something interesting, trying not to do the same thing twice, really putting your heart and your time into it. Once I’m committed to doing something it gets a hundred percent of my attention for the couple three months that I’m involved in it.
On creating a different L.A. Guns sound on Leopard Skin – With me as the dominant songwriter, music creator in the band, I can easily go down a road that’s simple for me and that’s within the metal realm. I’m known as a metal guitarist. So, you know, doing metal is already validated and I’m good at it and I can do that. But then there’s a personal thing too. For me personally, I have to validate what I’m doing, not that I haven’t validated the past things, but all the stuff on this record is stuff that I’m equally as into as metal.
We’ve dabbled in all kinds of stuff through all the records, all the records are different. But this one really has a happier, more uptempo, swingy kind of thing about it. Don’t get us wrong, there’s some very depressing music on this record, but overall, it’s really about rock and roll and what rock and roll is and our definition of it. I was really up to the challenge ’cause I was in a great mood when I was writing stuff and had a really good time writing and recording it, there was a lot of challenges in it. That always makes it better for me. Because when something’s challenging, you don’t know what’s going to be recorded 10 minutes later. It’s like, “Oh man, what do I do here?” When you come up with stuff in a challenging kind of way, it’s very satisfying to come up with something cool.
On working with Johnny Martin and Ace Von Johnson – Johnny and Ace, they really inspire me to look at what L.A. Guns is. If they weren’t there, we’re in danger of writing some seriously, kind of drab music that a 59-year-old guy would write. They’re very inspiring to me in a lot of ways. I always make the records for the band. For us. What do we wanna hear? What don’t we have that’s new in our record collections that we need to have? I always consider Johnny and Ace because they’re really more old school L.A. guns, and Phil and I are. There’s no doubt about it. That’s why they’re here. They love the band. They love what the band stands for. It’s just a breath of fresh air as is this album. I really wanted to do something for everybody and like the song “Hit and Run”, that’s Johnny’s music, he brought it in and then I got to whip out all the tools and weird amps and pedals and stuff and kind of go to town. Everybody has a role in this band that makes this band happen.
On using a different production style on Leopard Skin – That’s a real conscious decision too, as were the past records are heavier and when I’m doing metal, when I’m writing metal, it’s not just influences of Randy Rhodes and Judas Priest and Maiden. I love stoner rock. I love Doom metal and stuff like that, which is muddier, it’s thicker and fuzzier on the bottom end. With that big, giant kick drum kind of driving everything. That’s definitely a production mentality that I have when it comes to writing the heavier stuff. I want it to be heavy. I want it to be real heavy. The guitars take up a lot of the space on those records. They’re heavy, they’re thick and, and I mean, even though, in technical terms we do EQ the bottom end out of the guitars, the music’s just written that way, and that’s how it’s recorded. On something like this, where it’s really basic, back to the Telecaster, the Les Paul, a Marshal, that’s it. Then the other stuff you hear on there is even lighter amps, Fender amps, Silver Tone amps. I use all this cool stuff. No distortion pedals. So, you’re really getting the honest sound of the guitars.
What that does is it removes all those distortion pedal frequencies and allows room for everything else that’s going on to really be clear and really be your face and bright. That’s why I think this record’s gonna appeal to a lot more people because it does have this sense of, not everybody’s as dark as my soul is and I realize that. Creating something like this is, it’s a breath of fresh air. It’s like the band’s coming up for air for a minute to say, “Hey, we’re a rock and roll band”.
On the track “The Grinder” – “The grinder”, that’s my personal favorite, because that’s obvious, like we were talking about earlier. It’s muddy, it’s dark, and it’s explosive. The interesting thing about that is it started out as like this really grungy kind of riff with big barre chords and playing a low fifth on top of the chords, which makes things muddy and heavy. But then I played, I overdubbed a slide track over everything. Then I was listening back. I’m going, “Wait, let me double that slide track and do some more slide”. Then I just removed all the rhythm guitars. So, what what’s left is just, these kind of not perfectly aligned slide guitar tracks that make it really greasy and really sleazy sound. Then it’s got the couple little Led Zeppelin style changes in it that really are a throwback to that Zeppelin I , late Yardbirds kind of thing. When I finished recording the guitars on that, I was definitely dancing around the studio going, “Oh yeah”. Because I’ve never heard anything like it. I’ve never heard a slide song done like that ever. Yeah. So it’s amazing. Personal victory.
On the blues track “Runaway Train” – I do often post things like that online. I’ll do 30 seconds of some open tuning or slide or something. What inspired me to create a whole song out of it, normally I wouldn’t, because it’s such a specific, old-time kinda sound. Can you do something original with it? That’s always the question with everything. Can I do something original with this? Can I twist this in a way where it’s personal? I was watching “Reacher”, he loves old blues. Going back to the late twenties and moving forward and that damn Blind Blake song, I think it’s “Policeman Blues” or something. It’s got this really weird tuning, it’s not a typical open blues tuning. I’m like, “Yeah, I, I haven’t heard this song in a long time, what is that tuning?” So, I learned the tuning. I just started messing around with it. I came up with the little choo-choo train part, which is really kind of sounds like “Viva Las Vegas”, moving like that. I’m like, “Yeah, but that’s not what this tuning is all about”. It’s definitely a hook in the song. Then I came up with all those chromatic slide parts behind it, and that’s where it became our personality or my personality, whatever.
I got it to Adam (Hamilton), our, our studio drummer, he went right straight for the snare drum. This is a train song/ Oddly enough, I had recorded these, I don’t know what they’d be considered, like eight scale trains, trains my kid and my little kid in Denmark. We took him to this train place this one day, and those little trains that sounded, I recorded them, it was like three or four years ago, and I had the samples on my phone, and I flew those in there and got everything done. Sent it off to Phil and Mitch Davis, his writing partner. When that those vocals came back, I was like, “Yeah. God dammit, lily-white British guy, man, they do blues good”. He just nailed it and his song really does stick out and I’m glad that I followed through with it. In the beginning, my girlfriend and I just called it “The Fuck Ya Train”. We knew it was gonna go on the record, but doesn’t belong on the record, kind of a thing. Then once the vocals were done, it was obvious, “Wow, this is a great L.A. Guns song”
On working new songs into the set – We’re talking about that right now ’cause we’re getting ready to go. So there will be two. We’re gonna pick two. Every time I put out a record, there’s like seven I wanna do a lot. But it’s impossible without putting an audience completely to sleep. We’re not a band that plays two and a half, three hours, we never were, we never will be. We gotta get to the, the good stuff. We gotta get there because it’s a high energy. But there will be two. I agree with you when you listen to this record, they all sound like live songs. Adam and I are getting real good at that, at making the record sound like it’s a live band. There’s a little sorcery involved in getting that done, but we’re getting better at it.
On the album he thinks is the best representation of L.A. Guns – I think the “Waking the Dead” record. I think “Waking the Dead” is the most spot-on collection of songs that represent all the aspects of L.A. Guns. and the recording is impeccable. Andy John’s produced that, arguably the best rock engineer of all time. T, so the sound is just, my God. You mix the sound with the great songs and riffs that is the one. But on the flip side. I think “Checkered Past” with like songs like “Let You Down” and things like that are really deep. I call ’em kind of suicide ballads, not murder ballads, suicide, we’re good at those too. We don’t do that live though. We played “Let You Down” a few times and the crowd just wanted to cry. That’s not what L.A. Guns is about overall, but we’re good at it. I would have to say “Waking the Dead” is the, the chef’s kiss of our catalog.
On if the competition between Sunset Strip bands made L.A. Guns a better band – The scene growing up, watching Ratt and, and Motley Crue, and W.A.S.P., in particular, right before we started, that was important. It was like they set the bar for what new heavy rock was. I was 15,16 watching it and that was the level of intensity. When you’re that age, 15, 16 years old, you’re able to hyperfocus and you believe in what you’re doing and everybody else is stupid and you’re just 15, 16 years old.
I benefited from that, because there was, nobody ever was gonna tell me what I was gonna do musically at that point. So, I was very focused. Then I met Mick Cripps, and Mick is a little older. He had his slightly different take on what makes music great and he’s the one that really introduced me to heavy doses of Johnny Thunders and some other, the Babysitters and, and some other bands from England that he was really into, Lords of the New Church, stuff like that. He really got me into that stuff. I ended up playing with Johnny Thunders. This is a big part of the end of my teenage years was getting to know these people, understanding that music and incorporating it into all the Randy Rhodes riff.
We have this crazy balance of like, “Wow, I can do this, but I love this”. kind of a thing. Which makes for a unique blend. I just posted some Guns N’ Roses stuff I did live, in like in a rehearsal situation when I heard that it was like, I’d never heard it before. When I heard it for the first time, I really realized how that combination worked between Izzy and I. Actually, I shoulda talked about Izzy before. Where Izzy had this very Andy McCoy, Keith Richards kind of sound going on one side, which was agreed upon that that’s what we were gonna do. But when I was listening to me, it was all Randy Rhodes, man. It was like “Wow, listen to that combination working together”. That’s what set us apart from the competition because you had guys just doing metal, and then you guys had just doing kind of trashy rock. Equally as cool, but why not do both? That was my thought process. Even in Guns N’ Roses in L.A. Guns later, that was always the thought process, one part Joe Perry, one part Gary Moore. How do you put that together? That’s why I believe that musically L.A. Guns and Guns N’ Roses aas really different from everybody else because you couldn’t say, we were like Motley Crue and you couldn’t say we were like the Dolls. They were things that were on their own.
On how long L.A. Guns can continue – Phil will go as long as he’s feeling healthy. As long as he’s banging it out, like he just banged this one out. But I’ve noticed that a lot of my peers that are feeling older they’ve all, there’s not many of ’em, like four or five, have said to me, “Well, get into this place, and then I’m gonna stop”, and this has been going on for 10 years with some people I know. They keep going and they keep coming up with great stuff. The one thing I would say to any aging rock stars that are thinking about not doing it is you’re gonna age really fast when you stop. This is what keeps us young. This is what keeps us vibrant. It keeps our brain active, and with the travel schedules and things like that, it’s putting the juices to work. I don’t make predictions, but I will definitely be doing this, until my number comes up. Why wouldn’t I?
On if he would put any other projects together – I’m always open to putting people together and making music. To what degree, the issue with it is it never plays live. So for me to do something, the next thing that I would do outside L.A. Guns would be to do live. I don’t wanna do anymore albums that only people listen to in headphones. It’s like, okay, it’s cool, it’s fun, it’s creative, I get to do it. But in a band way. I reach out to people from time to time and get their temperature and what they are thinking about doing. You never know, man. I reach out to some cool people.
