In a new interview with music writer Joel Gausten, Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd discusses a variety of topics including his upcoming album with his new band Josh Todd & The Conflict (Year Of The Tiger) and the recent lineup changes within Buckcherry. An excerpt from the chat appears below:

Joel Gausten: The album’s coming out on Century Media. I’m always curious when I talk to artists who got their careers rolling right when the industry was changing and becoming more digital-based with Napster and what have you. We’re a good 17 years into that, and the industry’s a lot different now than it was when the first Buckcherry album came out. For you, why was it advantageous to go with a label for this as opposed to doing it home-grown using Facebook or any of the other things at your disposal as an independent artist?

Josh Todd: "We kind of did that with the Spraygun War EP, and it fell flat for us. We have big intentions for this, and we want a big machine behind it and a worldwide situation going. We’re touring on this; we’re going to make more records. It’s just a different thing. I’ve got a lot on the plate – I need help. I need somebody who can take over those situations. I can’t get to everything, you know? It becomes a big load for me as an artist to sing and write the songs, record them and coordinate where I’m going to be. That’s when things start falling through the cracks. At the end of the day, you’re like, ‘How did this record cycle get to be so shitty?’ And you’re like, ‘Oh, because you weren’t paying attention to enough things.’ So we wanted a great record label in place that we could have a great relationship with and that could really handle radio and the things that we’re not paying attention to on a daily basis when we’re out working. That’s why you have a label – to help you with kind of stuff and the distribution and all that as well."

Joel Gausten: I want to touch a little bit on Buckcherry, because I know there have been some recent changes internally with the band. For those people who are curious where things are, how would you best characterize the current state of affairs within the band and what you’re hoping to do moving forward?

Josh Todd: "Basically, for the last three years, it just wasn’t really a band. We weren’t connected; we didn’t have any synergy anymore. There wasn’t that magic there. We were just kind of going through the motions, and it sucked, honestly. The changes took place, and they were great changes. I know that a lot of people who were close to the band were kind of bummed out about it. Some people were fine with it, but I got new players. Sean Winchester’s on drums, and we've got Kevin Roentgen on guitar. The band’s got the best players it’s ever had; the live shows are going off. We’ve done a lot of shows with the new lineup, and it’s just in a great place. It’s so weird because I have these two great bands, and I have to be diversified as far as giving Buckcherry a rest and then tending to this other project so that Buckcherry can thrive. I want The Conflict to thrive as well, so you have to get time away for each project so that it can do that."

The complete interview is available at this location.

Josh Todd & The Conflict have released a new music video for “Rain”, which comes off their debut album, Year Of The Tiger, out September 15th via Century Media Records. The conceptual clip was directed by Billy Jayne (Buckcherry) and shot in downtown Los Angeles.

Todd states: “The song ‘Rain' I actually wrote acapella with my voice to start. I had all the lyrics and melodies written when I sang it to Stevie (guitars). I told him that I wanted a 'we will rock you' beat with stomps and hand claps with a signature guitar solo. I left the the track with him and shortly thereafter the song basically wrote itself. Stevie accomplished everything musically that I wanted and wrapped it up with some nice dynamics.

"At that time I wanted the lyrics to reflect my thoughts, and my thoughts at that time were my life is mine, beliefs only have power if you believe in them, how can I describe the outlaw inside me, inside everyone, amends/karma, it means nothing. Simply kill or be killed. That’s the way it is in the animal kingdom and humans are no different, we just think we are. I just started writing and it came very easily. That's when I knew we had something. I think ‘Rain’ has that genuine one-time listen impact and those type of songs are hard to come by.

“I wanted the video to be edgy, so naturally I called upon renowned director Billy Jayne, who shot the Buckcherry videos for ‘Gluttony,' 'Bring it on Back' and 'Say Fuck It' and really understands what we are trying to achieve. We wanted it to be like the movies Heat meets to Live and Die In LA with me coming in and out narrating it with the melody.

"The concept is a bunch of gangsters get robbed by some fake DEA agents and throughout the video the gangsters find out who did it, hunt them down and kill them all. We picked some iconic locations in downtown LA to shoot and being a California native it was very cool for me. Wanted it to look like a short film and Billy captured all that and then some. Enjoy!”

Year Of The Tiger was co-produced by guitarist Stevie Dacanay (Buckcherry) and Stone Temple Pilots drummer Eric Kretz. The disc is available for pre-order now.

- Amazon

- Apple Music

- iTunes

- Google Play

Tracklisting:

“Year Of The Tiger”
“Inside”
“Fucked Up”
“Rain”
“Good Enough”
“The Conflict”
“Story Of My Life”
“Erotic City”
“Push It”
“Atomic”
“Rain”

“Fucked Up” video:

Tracklisting:

“Year Of The Tiger” video:

Josh Todd & The Conflict lineup:

Josh Todd - Vocals
Stevie D - Guitars/Back-Up Vocals
Sean Winchester - Drums
Greg Cash - Bass