In a new interview with Guitar International's Robert Cavuoto, guitarist/producer Richie Wise discusses producing KISS' first two albums with DUST bandmate Kenny Kerner. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Q: You have a huge legacy in KISStory producing their first two albums – KISS and Hotter Than Hell. Tell me a little bit about the link to KISS.

A: "Dust (pictured above) was on Neil Bogart’s label in New York. After we did the second Dust album, which we produced ourselves with Kenny Kerner. They thought it was a well-produced album. With that, they allowed us to start going in with some of their other acts to produce music. Everything we did, the early acts, had chart success. We were really lucky; we had some really big hit records. When Neil Bogart was deciding to start his own label and move out of New York to the West Coast with Casablanca, he was sort of blown away after he heard the KISS demos. It was just like, 'I want that, and I want Richie and Kenny to produce KISS when I start Casablanca.' The connection was 100% Neil Bogart, and KISS was not averse to it. Their demo was by produced by Eddie Kramer and he also mixed the first album."

Q: KISS always sited that their first album doesn’t capture what the band was about live or sonically, what’s your take on that?

A: "The first album was pretty amazing and a great first album. I’m a big fan of it. The second album was a disaster, in a lot of ways. But, it had its moments. Hotter Than Hell was a darker album and I think that was a chance not to be sort of “poppy”, like the first album. I think the first album, in many ways, was right on the mark."

Q: What were some of the issues surrounding the second album?

A: "We went to a number of different studios in L.A., and that was quite erratic. The first album was very organized – one studio, one situation. The second album was just mishmash of looseness and not studio-focused, as it should have been."

Q: Was the looseness related to the songwriting or level of participation by the band members?

A: "I don’t know if anybody, at that time, had enough wherewithal to try to put together something that was a leap forward from the first album."

Read the full interview at this location.

Check out BraveWords new Dust story from Martin Popoff at this location.