While at Rocklahoma, I had the opportunity to sit down with Kelly LeMieux, bass player for the band. LeMieux hails from Salem, Oregon and is known for his work with MD.45 (Dave Mustaine’s project) and Buckcherry. He has recorded and toured with Paul Gilbert, was a founding member of the Electric Love Hogs, and played in several other bands. He has also taught bass at the Portland chapter of the School of Rock and Paul Gilbert’s Great Guitar Escape. Here is our conversation from Rocklahoma.
Claire: Buckcherry was riding high, opening for some big-named bands following the release of the album 15 then were playing small clubs and venues. What happened?
LeMieux: As the quote from the Big Leboski says “sometimes you eat the bar, and sometimes, the bar eats you. The market dictates what you can do.
Claire: Keith Nelson left the band prior to the album Warpaint was written. He was listed as a co-writer on many Buckcherry tunes. How did that affect the band and album.
LeMieux: Sometimes you have too much, you can use one less chef. Stevie and Josh picked up the slack very well. They did an amazing job and we are much more focused now. I feel Warpaint is the best we’ve done. It’s more focused and we had shit to prove. We all brought our A game and the producer did an amazing job. Most of the music was written before we began recording – we did a lot of writing on the Gen X tour.
Claire: Why did you have something to prove now?
LeMieux: We needed to kick ass and remain relevant. We love what we do and wanted to prove to ourselves that we still kick ass after 20 years as a band. The average band life is like that of an NFL running back – generally 2 – 4 years is it. Heck, we are officially vintage at 20! We don’t stop. We are all grateful to be doing what we love to do. I had leukemia three years ago and now am all clean. I am very grateful for that and to do what I love. I was the bass player for Goldfinger til 2013, when I joined Buckcherry. I also have another band, the DCs, which is an AC/DC cover band with Doug Rappaport from Edgar Winter. We will be opening for Buckcherry at the Portland show.
Claire: What’s next for Buckcherry?
LeMieux: We have a new single and video, Right Now, coming out June 3. We will be touring the U.S. through September, then Australia and Japan in October, the U.K. in November, then possibly South America. We have a show scheduled for Cancun in December and hope to add South American dates after that.
Claire: Great! Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me.
LeMieus: Thank you!
While attending Rocklahoma, I got to sit down and talk to Ashley “Ash” Costello, vocalist for the band New Year’s Day (NYD). While she had just finished the set less than an hour prior, she looked and sounded great and was very courteous.
Claire: Where did the band’s name originate?
Ash: When we first formed the band, it came from wanting to start something fresh. All the members of the band had gone through break-ups, or their bands broke up. We just wanted a fresh start, a new beginning, so we came up with New Year’s Day. It was fine. Little did I know that this would be my career for the rest of my life, I’d have chosen something a little more flashy, more like me. A little more dark, but New Year’s Day works. It’s very broad.
Claire: How does it feel to play Rocklahoma? Isn’t this your first time?
Ash: I’m not quite sure. When you play a lot of festivals with rock in the name, they all kinda seem alike so I don’t know. I think it is our first. I love festival energy, it’s great. If I could play just festivals year around, I’d be happy with that. There’s something, what’s the saying about bigger groups, people are involved more. There’s participation in numbers. – I just made that up! I notice when crowds are bigger, it is much easier. It’s really so much fun. It’s like a mini rock and roll community, you’re all together. It’s much easier to get them to do all the things I ask them to do. It’s so much fun, I just love it – love it so much.
Claire: When did you first get interested in music?
Ash: You know my mom says I started singing at about 3 or 4. She’d have friends over and I’d make them all watch me perform. I always wanted to sing and perform. As far as being in a rock band, I accidentally fell into it when I was about 14 in high school. The local high school rock band lost their girl singer and saw me singing in a play and asked if I would join their band. And I’ve never stopped.. I hit the ground running at 14 everything else took a backseat, I’ve never stopped being in a band. It’s everything.
Claire: How has the band changed and morphed since the beginning? You’ve had a lot of different band members since 2005.
Ash: You know, when you’re a band for that long, and being a band now is harder the last 10 years than it ever has been because the industry is shifting. You don’t really make as much money as maybe bands back in the day did. It’s hard to find people who want to put in the amount of work it takes to be a band with the little amount of pay off it has for a while. And we’re also very specific in our view. We often lose band members for different beliefs and things of that nature. The bank changes as I change. And, I am not the same person I was 15 years ago. I hope I don’t look the same as I did 15 years ago. So, as I change, the band changes.
Claire: Who do you admire musically?
Ash: Gwen Stefani – she changes, talk about evolving with the times. I remember the first time I heard Rock City I hated it. I hated that they went pop. I told my mom to turn it off, I hated it. But, it’s my favorite album, now I see the genius behind what they did.
Claire: That’s about all I have, thank you!
Ash: That was quick and painless.
