British band, Doogie White & La Paz, return with a brand new studio album entitled Shut Up And Rawk!. Almost immediately after their previous offering, The Dark And The Light (2013) had been released, Chic McSherry and Doogie White started writing new material. A total of 17 ideas were demo’d with 11 of them finally being crafted into songs for a new album. Recording could only be done in stages because of other commitments, but in many ways that extra time allowed the songs to develop and mature into a very powerful rock album, entitled Shut Up And Rawk!, which is due for a worldwide release via Metal Mind Productions on April 8th.

Chic McSherry, the band’s guitarist comments: “The great thing about being in La Paz is that we have been together now for over 30 years and we all know each other extremely well. That helps a lot when writing new songs: we just know what to do. This record was a long time in the making though, mainly due to Doogie and Paul’s touring schedule. The initial demo tracks were actually finished by me in 2013, literally within weeks of the release of The Dark And The Light. It was the same process we always use: I would write what I call a ‘framework’ using a drum machine and the basic guitar parts, send it to Doogie and he would say ‘yeah, I can work with that’ or ‘no, doesn’t work for me’. We started with 17 of these ideas and reduced them to 11 workable songs. Shut Up And Rawk! took a while but it was worth it. Now we can’t wait to get it released!”

The album has been mixed and mastered by Rolf Munkes at Empire Studios in Frankfurt, Germany. Full details to follow soon.

La Paz was formed in Lanarkshire, Scotland in the summer of 1984 by Chic McSherry (guitars), Doogie White (vocals) and Alex Carmichael (bass). At the first rehearsal together they hit it off immediately on a personal level - they also liked the same music and they had the same influences and heroes (Purple, Rainbow, Journey, Gary Moore) so they started to recruit other members to try to form a band and go do some gigs. Andy Mason (keyboards) joined the trio and he fitted in from the start, even though he was still at school when he joined. Drummers were always a problem and, over the life of the band, La Paz went through almost as many as Spinal Tap. Unquestionably the loudest and the most accomplished was/is their current drummer, Paul McManus.

They gigged regularly and played some prestigious venues including the world-famous Marquee Club in London as well as at some festivals in Milton Keynes. They were featured regularly in music magazines of the day, and attracted interest from a number of UK and US record companies, finally agreeing terms with one of them for a three album deal. But it was not to be - for reasons which were never explained by the record label the deal fell through at the very last minute. Sadly the band didn't survive for very long after that. They did their last gig on 15th October 1988 and then Doogie moved to London to join Midnite Blue, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Cornerstone, Yngwie Malmsteen and now Michael Schenker. And then legendary DJ Tom Russell of 96.3 Rock Radio called Doogie and asked him if he would do some acoustic numbers at The Garage in Glasgow for Rock Radio's Birthday Bash in January 2008. Doogie agreed and asked Chic to play guitar.

It was a big ask after 20 years: almost 1000 people, Doogie singing alone and Chic with one flamenco guitar! "We had such a blast though and it woke up so many great memories in both of us that we decided to give it a go with the full band for my 50th birthday" said Chic. And so the full band started to rehearse and it was clear that they could still play a bit. The band just gelled: just like old times and the gigs were a terrific success. And so the idea of re-recording some of the favourites from the set that had never had a proper production job was conceived. The final result can be heard on the album Granite, released in February 2012 on Metal Mind Productions. The band’s second album, The Dark And The Light, was also released on Metal Mind Productions on 27th May 2013 to critical acclaim.

Live appearances are difficult due to Doogie White’s touring schedule with Michael Schenker and Paul McManus’ also being involved with Gun, but the band made a rare appearance as the headline act on the opening night of the 2014 Hard Rock Hell Festival on March 20th. The show was “packed” and well received.

La Paz lineup:

Doogie White - vocal
Chic McSherry - guitar
Alex Carmichael - bass
Andy Mason - keyboards
Paul McManus - drums