The Culture Shock recently caught up with original KISS guitarist Ace Frehley. The following is an excerpt from the interview:

Q: Tell me a little about where you got this current lineup as far as your band mates.

Ace: "The bass player, Anthony Esposito, I hooked up with about a year and a half ago through a mutual friend, ‘cause I was looking for sober musicians. We started working on solo material and me and Anton Fig got together in my studio and did some pre-production and we started tracking last year for the new record and the new record’s just about finished. Got some finishing touches and then gotta mix it. Shootin’ for a late May release."

Q: As an artist, how exciting is it to think about getting back into that process of making an album? Including everything from, obviously you’ve already written the music, but also coming up with artwork, and having another chapter of your career come out on a CD.

Ace: "It’s crazy. I’m really getting off on it. This is such a long-awaited CD and I wanna make sure that it’s just right. I think everybody’s gonna like it. It’s got all the elements, or a lot of the elements that my first CD had, 'New York Groove'. Most people cite that as being a favorite Ace Frehley record, so I’m trying to get into that mindset."

Q: You were talking about being sober. Is there more of a reward for you from the perspective of writing music and putting together an album that you haven’t had in a long time?

Ace: "You know, for years I always thought I needed substances to be creative and lo and behold, I realized last year that I actually function a lot better without all that stuff (laughs). It took me 40 years to figure it out, but better late than never right?"

Go to this location for the complete interview.