HardRockHideout.com has issued an interview with TESLA bassist Brian Wheat. The following is an excerpt:

Q: I have seen Tesla live a couple of times in the last year on the Real To Reel Tour. Dave Rude is fitting in well with the band. How did you guys find Dave ?

A: "Frank found Dave on MySpace. It is pretty well documented that we were having problems with Tommy Skeoch. When it came to start looking for someone to replace him, Frank started looking at myspace, and people in the Sacramento area. Dave is from Oakland, California so he was pretty close by."

Q: Do you still keep in touch with Tommy Skeoch?

A: "No, I don’t keep in touch with Tommy at all."

Q: Forever More is the first album with new studio material with Dave Rude. What musical influences does he bring to Tesla?

A: "Dave likes GUNS N' ROSES, Tesla and MÖTLEY CRÜE. A lot of the new stuff out there he listens to as well. He is 30 years old. Frank is 42 years old, I am 44. He brings a younger spark, and a lot of positivity to the band. He is a great guitar player. We all wrote the songs together on this album. He has a positive attitude and money can’t buy that."

Q: What are some of the circumstances the band was going through that inspired the songs on Forever More?

A: "There was a lot going on. People coming to life changing decisions. The general gist is that we didn’t want to put up with any more bullshit. We just wanted to move forward. Just like the song 'I Wanna Live'. I wanna live before I die and I don’t want the world to pass me buy. 'Breaking Free' is we are done with the negativity, lets get on with positivity."

Q: When Tesla prepares to record a new album how many songs do you usually go into the studio with and what happens to the songs that do not make the albums?

A: "We go in with ideas for songs with bits and pieces. We brought in Terry Thomas for this record. Even with the ideas that we had, he stripped them down to their basic form and we rewrote them all. In the end it came out great. While we were doing it there were some growing pains. When it was all said and done the results came out brilliantly. The songs that didn’t make it on the album were ideas that we didn’t finish."

Read the full interview at HardRockHideout.com.