Dean DeLeo interviewed about recording process of new album

[andrew]

I dunno if this has been posted before. I did a search but couldn't come up with anything. It was apparently posted on September 17th, and we're usually good at finding this kind of stuff by now, but I dunno.


http://lubbockonline.com/entertainment/2010-09-17/stone-temple-pilots-swagger-back-spotlight-sixth-cd


Stone Temple Pilots swagger back into spotlight with sixth CD





By ALAN SCULLEY FOR THE AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

“It was interesting, when we were making this record, it seemed like the press really wanted to make us seem fragmented.”

That was Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean DeLeo’s observation on how his band and its inner workings during the writing and recording of its recently released self-titled studio CD have been portrayed.

The unspoken inference in that statement was obvious. The press has been looking for signs of discord and separation within Stone Temple Pilots, a group that reunited in 2008 after enduring a stormy breakup six years earlier. And because the band members were not all in the same room together during large parts of the writing and recording process for the new CD, this was surely a sign that Stone Temple Pilots operates as a band in name only.

But as DeLeo explained, making music in Stone Temple Pilots has always been a mix of individual and group efforts, tailored to the likes, dislikes and talents of each band member.

“We all have our thing to do in the band, and we respect one another’s thing,” he said.

For instance, DeLeo and his brother, bassist Robert DeLeo, as on all Stone Temple Pilots albums, each wrote music for the self-titled CD separately, while singer Scott Weiland was left alone to come up with lyrics and vocal melodies for the songs.

And when it came to recording, certain parts of the process were very much an individual process. Weiland recorded the vocals in his own studio without his bandmates being present, while Dean DeLeo took a similar solitary approach to recording some of his guitar parts.

“When I was doing a lot of my guitar work, I just very pleasantly and kindly asked that no one be around,” DeLeo said. “It’s a drag when I’m trying to let my freak flag fly and somebody’s like ‘Hey, try that guitar. Use this amp. Do this, hey, try this.’ I’m like ‘I haven’t even gotten a chance to try my idea yet, man.’ And Scott, he likes working alone, because you know what, what I just told you, I’d be the first guy to be like ‘Hey Scott, try this.’ I’m so hypocritical right now, because I would be the first guy to say ‘Try this, do that. Hey, maybe we should try this mic.’ And he’d be like ‘Dude, let me just try my thing first.’”

Where the group effort comes into play is at a crucial point in the entire process. After the DeLeo brothers have each written the music for a group of songs, they get together with Weiland and the band’s fourth member, drummer Eric Kretz. And this is where a Stone Temple Pilots CD is truly born.

“There’s one thing that really is kind of a blueprint for us,” Dean DeLeo said. “We sit down with an acoustic guitar and play the song. It seems that everything starts there for us.”

This approach worked well on the “Stone Temple Pilots” CD. It’s a highly entertaining album filled with swaggering big-riffed rock songs like “Between The Lines,” “Huckleberry Crumble” and “Hickory Dichotomy.” In other words, the latest CD is very much in the mold of the group’s previous five albums, all of which enjoyed considerable success.

But while Stone Temple Pilots enjoyed major success with each album, it was far from a smooth ride, as Weiland’s much-publicized drug addiction resulted in multiple arrests and trips to rehab, and these problems also caused lucrative tours to be cut short before the band split in 2002.

The fact that the “Stone Temple Pilots” CD sounds very much like the band’s previous albums makes sense considering that DeLeo said the six years apart had little effect on how the four band members worked together.

“Really, everything just kind of picked up right where it left off for us,” he said.

DeLeo said the band has been enjoying its current tour — the first run of dates Stone Temple Pilots has played in the states since the release of the self-titled CD. And the band is bringing out a big show on the tour.

“We spent a fair amount of time gearing up for this tour, really delving into the actual look of the stage as well as the light show and the programming of the lights for each song,” he said.

“We really, really wanted to have a different look from what we’ve been doing. We increased the size of this lighting wall that’s behind us. It kind of brought us some new imagery and stuff. That’s on the visual forefront, and then as far as the audio side of things, we’ve worked up some material we haven’t played in awhile, some stuff we’ve actually never played live. We’re doing over five things off of the new record…We’re doing about 19 or 20 songs,” DeLeo said.

[Shangri]

Finally a view from the other side! Good reading. Dean gives good interviews, doesn't he?

There's one thing that really is kind of a blueprint for us,” Dean DeLeo said. “We sit down with an acoustic guitar and play the song. It seems that everything starts there for us.”

I'd pay to see those moments