antiMusic’s Morley Seaver spoke to BLUE COUPE guitarist Joe Bouchard (ex-BLUE ÖYSTER CULT) about a number of topics. First up in the three-part series is Blue Coupe and their debut record Tornado On The Tracks. Coming soon are instalments on Bouchard’s solo record and also about his days in BÖC.

Here’s an excerpt from the chat:

antiMusic: Congratulations on Tornado On The Tracks. It’s an excellent piece of work. I guess to start with: You’ve got a solo project, among all your other commitments. Dennis is part of a few bands and Albert has been playing with THE BRAIN SURGEONS among other bands. How did Blue Coupe find time to come together?

Bouchard: "Yeah it’s been a lot of fun. We don’t expect to go platinum or anything BUT we’ve got better over the years, I think, and the record was pretty easy to put together. There were no real big snags and we were able to work quite fast. I don’t recall exactly how long it took….a couple of months. But it was a good process. And I know Dennis has been involved in some projects and they go on for years and years and this one, he was amazed how quickly we worked. But Albert and I always did work pretty quick you know? So that’s how it worked out. We got lucky and I had a few demos that they liked and they had some demos and we were able to make them fit within the concept of the album."

antiMusic: Was it really just for fun in the beginning, you know, just playing your hits or did you have a bit of a clue that new recordings were part of the plan?

Bouchard: "Originally we were just playing cover tunes from our previous bands. We didn’t really have a plan. We always had material but it was just a matter of finding the best material for the situation. And Albert is a very unique drummer. And Dennis is, of course, an incredible bass player. So you put those two together and for me, it really gave the tracks a lot of personality. And it’s easy enough to make note-perfect albums these days but it’s not so easy to get personality into the tracks and those guys are just bursting out with that stuff. So it worked out really well."

You can read the whole interview here.