MydenRocks.com recently caught up with DOKKEN frontman/founder Don Dokken to discuss the band's From Conception - Live 1981 album and their forthcoming studio album, Lightning Strikes Again. The following is a brief excerpt

MydenRocks: So you literally stumbled across the tapes for the new FROM CONCEPTION LIVE cd?

Don Dokken: "We store all of our master tapes at a vault in Hollywood. They are temperature controlled so they don't go bad. I was down looking for the master tapes from the German recordings of Breakin' The Chains to do a remix for a 25th anniversary. I saw some old faded boxes with 2 inch tapes that just said Dokken Live. I didn't really know what it was because they're were really no other markings on them. So, I took them with me, put them on the machine and found they were old recordings from way back when."

MydenRocks: How much other unreleased material is stored in the Dokken vaults?

Don Dokken: "That's it. We got masters, etc. There's nothing unreleased in there. Everything has been released from what I could see. I actually looked through the tapes, but unfortuantely these new live tapes were it."

MydenRocks: The quality of From Conception is pretty good considering the condition they were in when you first found them. Was it hard to get the sound to come back to life and make it sound so good?

Don Dokken: "It was alot of work, but it really wasn't that hard. Lynn Davis mixed it, who has done alot of Dokken albums in the past. We just transferred it to digital and got rid of all the ticks and pops. It came out sounding good."

MydenRocks: Do you have a target release date for the new studio release Lightning Strikes Again?

Don Dokken: "We wanted to put out in June. But, it doesn't look like we're going to make it. Like all albums they always take longer than you expect. It looks like it will be out late summer or September at the latest. We've already booked the European tour starting in September and then we'll do the U.S. tour right after that."

MydenRocks: Any particular songs stand out to you for the new studio release that you would like to give a little advance on?

Don Dokken: "No song titles yet. I haven't even titled the songs yet. (laughing). I got the music. I got the lyrics. In about a month I should have some pretty concrete titles to throw out there. It's hard to describe the music without matching it up to a song name. So, no one will know what we're talking about anyhow. As far as the sound as a whole for the new material, I would say it's good hard rocking music that is in the vein of the classic Dokken sound."

Go to this location to read the entire interview.