With Mötley saying the long, long goodbye, it has become time for Nikki Sixx to treat increasingly seriously his best and most successful side-project Sixx:A.M. Surely, there’s been Brides Of Destruction and 58, but the reason Nikki has been so animated and adamant about Sixx:A.M. over the years has been the presence in the band of ax-wiz DJ Ashba as well as Nikki’s own Myles Kennedy, consummate songwriting pro and vocalist James Michael.

The band is three records in now, with Sixx:A.M. releasing in October its proudest accomplishment, the panoramic rule-breaker that is Modern Vintage, flag-shipped by glam single “Gotta Get It Right,” a clinic in production, which is no surprise, given that Michael is also top-shelf as a knob-twiddler.

Begins James, asked how the music enclosed reflects the label, Modern Vintage, “Really, for the past three records now, we as a band have talked about all of our musical influences, and we always attempted to bring those influences in, whether they be kind of ‘70s rock or pop like 10CC or Bread or Babys, or bands we’re all influenced by, like Queen and really some of the more kind of bold bands of that time. And so over the course of Sixx:A.M.’s history, we set out to incorporate some of those types of influences into the records. And then somewhere along the line, we would kind of start taking a new path—something inspired us, something sent us in a new direction, and we would follow the inspiration. And so by the end of the record, we see how the records turned out, and they really were kind of more of an exploration of something else.”

“And on this record, we decided very early on that we were going to keep our eye on the target and create something that celebrated, you know, even more so the music of the past that has influenced us, and also that reflected our excitement about where music is going in the future. It was a difficult path for us to really stay focused on that throughout the making of the record. But in the end, what we ended up with was exactly what I believe Sixx:A.M. has been trying to accomplish for a while now. We are really pleased that on this record, the modern feel is there, but there’s this real strong vintage feel. I’ve been describing it as though some of the songs on this record were written today, but recorded back in the ‘60s or ‘70s with some of those tones. And then some of it sounds like it was possibly written back then, but recorded in a time that hasn’t even happened yet, in recording history. So we pushed the envelope on some of the sonics of this record.”

As alluded to, James is a top-flight “outside” songwriter in the biz (as well as a producer), and he’s even got Nikki involved in that world as well. Add to that DJ’s weird gig in Guns N’ Roses, and Sixx:A.M. becomes a kind of quiet to mid-volume supergroup.

“Yeah, yeah, I think that the exciting thing about Sixx:A.M. for I think all of us,” agrees James, “is that, in a way, it is our escape from our day job. You know, for Nikki, obviously, what he’s done with Mötley Crüe, obviously it’s been an amazing career. But any career like that has parameters within which you work. So for me, writing and producing other bands, I’m dealing with those parameters that are just laid out first by the music industry. And Sixx:A.M. was this opportunity for all of us to just shed those parameters. Because we never had any expectations of anything happening with Sixx:A.M.. So we have a band like Sixx:A.M. not having to abide by the rules of the industry. You’ve just got this beautiful blank canvas to be able to do anything with. And so when Sixx:A.M. started kind of having some success, all of a sudden we couldn’t really use the excuse of, well, we’re not a band, we can do anything here. Now all of a sudden we are a band, and we then realized how lucky we were.”

“So that doesn’t mean that we can just do a 360 here and there, and confuse everybody,” continues James. “We have a real responsibility when we do kind of take a left turn or go to some new place. We have to be able to give the audience the confidence that we’re not going to abandon them once we get them there. We guarantee we’re going to take them on some pretty different musical journeys, but what they can be confident of is that the people that are taking them there are also lovers of the same kind of music that they grew up on. We’re not going to just take people someplace and abandon them, and say well, here you go, now you’re on your own. And I think that, once the listener realizes that they can trust in that journey, it’s going to be an amazing experience for them. And I have a real feeling that what will happen is that this will open up people’s palette to the fact that rock ‘n’ roll is not just big heavy guitars, a big wall of sound and angst-ridden messages. And that’s important—I think we’re at a time in music where we have to start fresh again.”

Lead single “Gotta Get It Right” is a microcosm and metaphor for what you get with Modern Vintage. The album as a whole is much more of a celebration versus the darkness of This Is Gonna Hurt and The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, and this track stands as the over-arching party anthem of the new lot.

“We have been in a luxurious position of being able to branch out a bit,” muses James, “because that expectation of that very rigid active rock sound from the past has been kind of stripped away. And so, for instance, on a song like ‘Gotta Get It Right,’ I was able to really incorporate big, ambient, kind of ‘60s-style drums, along with a very different, less saturated guitar sound—but a rock sound nonetheless. So what that does is, if you listen to a song like ‘Gotta Get It Right,’ it’s absolutely a rock song, but the listener gets a different flavour of rock. They’re not listening to the same heavy, heavy saturated electric guitars. What I tried to do with Modern Vintage is make it sound aggressive, but use different instruments and arrangements to make it aggressive.”

And yet the darkness of the first two records... James avows that that thread has been maintained. “Yeah, I think all three of us see beauty through darkness. Those are just the glasses that we wear, so you’re never going to… Even on a song like ‘Gotta Get It Right,’ which is clearly a very uplifting, upbeat song, the core of that still comes from a point of brokenness. You know, I think that all of our music... because that’s how life is. Life is never just perfectly painted; it’s always got cracks. And so we just see the beauty in that, and so even when we try to celebrate things, we try to do it in a very real way.”

Enjoy the official video for "Gotta Get It Right", directed by Paul Brown: