Speaking with Spin’s Dan Weiss, members of Aerosmith reflect on their classic album, Toys In The Attic, on it’s 40th anniversary. The album spawned major hit singles in “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion”.

 

 

Tom Hamilton, bassist: “We wanted to do something that we felt could hold up. Toys In The Attic was the first record where we felt like, this record is truly amazing. It’s the album where the band first felt like stars and learned how to make a record, how to use the studio. The relationship between the band and Jack as a producer… back in those days you couldn’t go to university and learn how to be a band and write rock songs and stuff. So anything we did was just from whatever knowledge we could scrape together from the bands that we loved as teenagers: Zeppelin, the Stones, the Beatles, the Byrds, Jefferson Airplane.”

Joe Perry, lead guitarist / singer: “We were having fun in the studio, coming up with different songs that got us off. We changed things up a little bit to keep us from getting bored, at least that’s how we felt then. We couldn’t really be pigeonholed as playing a certain kind of rock ’n’ roll.”

Joey Kramer, drummer: “We always listened to Deep Purple and Jeff Beck and Led Zeppelin… to be classified in the same category as them today is super-flattering. I’ve never considered us a band on that kind of level, but evidently we are. I still listen to them.”

Brad Whitford, rhythm guitarist: “We were getting into a little bit of a groove that we hadn’t experienced before. Jack Douglas was pretty instrumental in that and came up with our own formula for putting the stuff together, and it felt like we were hitting a good, positive stride. The juices were flowing and stuff was happening the way you wanted it to – on the fly. Put it up and if it works, great, and if it doesn’t, just move on.”

Read more at Spin.com.