King’s X Frontman Hopes New Album is as Good as ‘Dogman’ and ‘Gretchen’
King’s X bassist and vocalist Doug Pinnick has revealed that the band’s next album is currently in the mixing phase, and that he has some lofty expectations and high hopes for what will be the band’s first release in 13 years, citing their beloved, classic records, Dogman (1994) and Gretchen Goes to Nebraska (1989).
Speaking to Laughingmonkeymusic about the progress of the follow-up to XV (2008), Pinnick explained:
“I brought 25 songs in. And Ty [Tabor, guitar] and Jerry [Gaskill, drums] brought a slew of songs in, too. We got 17 songs out of the whole record. We’re not gonna put ’em all on the record, but we have a lot to choose from now. And Michael Parnin, who produced it and engineered it, he’s mixing it right now.”
Pinnick added that the band will wait until touring is possible to release the record, invoking his age (“at our age, this could be our last record,” said the 70-year-old) and a desire to get it right:
“And we wanna do it right. We don’t wanna just put it out there in the middle of the pandemic and hope somebody buys it. We wanna put it out, go on tour and do videos. I mean, do it like we’re supposed to do it. So we’re telling our fans to just kind of be patient with us, because we really, really are hoping that this is as good as [1994’s] ‘Dogman’ and [1989’s] ‘Gretchen [Goes To Nebraska]’, which is what everybody wants. But it’s not a rehash of it. In fact, this record doesn’t sound like either one.
“I think that we worked really, really hard on this record, like we haven’t since the early days — around ‘Gretchen’ and ‘Dogman.’ I can tell it in the songs, how we’re all singing and everybody’s contributing to it. They’re not just doing my songs, and I’m not just doing Ty’s songs. We’re really putting ourselves into it.”
Pinnick cited Meshuggah as a major influence on the music this time around, stating:
“I had some pretty crazy songs, time-change-wise, ’cause I’ve been listening to a lot of Meshuggah and shit like that. It’s not King’s X, but that flavor comes in. Imagine John Bonham playing with Meshuggah… But Ty and Jerry are singing a lot too. I tell people, it’s like from [The Beatles’ classic song] ‘Penny Lane’ to the heaviest Meshuggah — it’s a blend of something in between there. And one song to another almost sounds different, almost to the point where they’re individual pieces themselves, like Pink Floyd used to do. We’ve got violins and other things in it. I’ve got some keyboards and all kinds of things to enhance things — piano. Nothing overboard, but just like [Jimi] Hendrix did and people like that — big things coming in and out that gives it that longevity, I would say. Things that you hear and go, ‘Oh, wow. That’s cool.’ That little thing over there. So it’s taken Michael a long time to mix it, ’cause he’s got a lot of tracks.”
As a massive fan of King’s X and their early material in particular, I’m certainly in the “which is what everyone wants” group with regards to Dogman and Gretchen, although I love a lot of their later material too. What makes me most excited, though, is the time it’s taken the band to write all these songs — tinkering, tinkering, tinkering — and the collaborative effort Pinnick cites. We’ll see in another six months to a year, I suppose!
[via Blabbermouth]
