On April 6th, The Dead Daisies will issue their fourth studio album, Burn It Down. Prior to release date, guitarist Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake, Dio) provided Brave Words scribe Aaron Small with an exclusive track by track breakdown. Before delving into the song by song analysis, Aldrich reflected upon the overall vibe of his band’s exciting new album.

“We had a lot of fun. We were definitely focused and wanted to do something slightly different than the last record; a little more on point,” admits Doug. Burn It Down sounds a little more old school, in the best way possible. “We talked about that… when you have meetings about the direction of the album, it’s really like a focused business. But we’re still artists and players. Guys like me, I can’t really do more than just find riffs and music that I think sounds cool and present it. So, we all did that, and we came up with a batch of songs. But we had a goal that we wanted to be a bit heavier. We found from the last record, Make Some Noise, that the simpler songs were more effective. The simple stuff with big riffs was more immediate for the fans to respond to; especially in live situations at festivals. If it’s a simple riff and it’s big, you kind of get that AC/DC advantage. For example, I love Yngwie (Malmsteen) but sometimes in a festival situation, people can’t hear all those nuances. Keeping it simple is really a good idea, so that’s what we focused on.”

“Resurrected” has a total ‘70s Aerosmith vibe to it. “That was an interesting story because it started off as a song in a different key. It was a little bit more of a slide type of song, it had a greasier feel. Marti Frederiksen, who produced the record, sat down with John (Corabi, vocalist) and they talked about changing the key to make it heavier. John actually picked up a guitar and figured out a couple new parts for it. Basically, the song is a transition song that was maybe not going to make it to the record. It turned out so good, we ended up making it the leadoff track. John’s an extremely talented guitar player, aside from being a great frontman. He really has a feel and a knowledge of guitar that’s an advantage.”

“Rise Up” has Black Sabbath written all over it. “We talked about being heavier and doing some stuff that was ‘70s influenced, and obviously Sabbath is one of the best, greatest heavy metal bands of all time. I had a basic riff that was block chords over a triplet feel and everybody really loved it. We just built a song around the riff. It turned out that… we actually had been writing a song that was specifically more geared towards sports, like licencing. We’ve had songs picked up by the New York Yankees, the Dallas Cowboys, the Arizona Cardinals, and now ‘Rise Up’ by NASCAR. It was just a fun riff and we had a sports radio song we were working on, the sports agent came in, he heard ‘Rise Up’ and said, ‘That’s the one I want!’”

“Burn It Down” is the longest song on the album at almost six minutes. “Live, it’s going to be more like eight or nine minutes actually. We’re doing an extended jam on the end, it’s really cool. (Rhythm guitarist) David Lowy is going to play some lead guitar parts, Marco (Mendoza, bassist) and Deen (Castronovo, drummer) are chucking down a really killer riff in the same tempo, and I’m playing some almost keyboard, ethereal parts; laying a bed down for David so he can play a little bit. Basically, John came up with the main riff, and we decided that would be the chorus. So, how do we start this thing off? Somebody got a groove going with some blues licks, then somehow when we were in the writing sessions, we automatically went to hit these big chords that transitioned back into John’s chorus riff. ‘Burn It Down’, for me, is one of the coolest things because it’s got shades of Black Sabbath and Soundgarden, but it’s also got some blues to it; I really like that a lot. On the last record, we didn’t really have so many shades of light and dark, of heavy and soft. Also, lyrically, it turned out to be very strong. I don’t know what John was writing about; I have nothing to do with the lyrics. But for me, ‘Burn It Down’ is anything that’s holding you back from being the best you can be – just burn it down and get past it. Burn it the fuck down! Then there’s a lot of tie-ins, at that point you can be ‘Resurrected’ and ‘Rise Up’. It was a good choice for a title track.”

“Judgement Day” begins with a very interesting line, that being, “All my life, I’ve wasted so much time.” “The good thing about the way John writes lyrics is everybody can read into it what they want. They can wonder, what was he thinking? What was going on with that? I would think of it one way, you would think of it another way. But I would agree with that, because I have not focused as much as I could in my life; not only in music, but in other things. It’s a goal to not waste time, it’s a goal to be more focused.” Is that something that happens the other side of 50? “No,” chuckles Doug. “It started a long time ago. I’ve been blessed to play guitar my whole life and make a living. But if I was as focused then as I am now, I might even have been able to accomplish more. That’s always something I’m striving for. I’m a perfectionist; nothing’s ever good enough. That lyric is true. Once in a while I get lazy and I just kind of chill out. At this point in my life, in my 50s, I still feel like I’m in my 20s or 30s, but I’ve got kids. And I just love spending time with them. That’s not conducive to my music career, but it sure feels good.”

“What Goes Around” is so far from cliché. “That song is so bad ass live! We’re in New York and we’ve had our second rehearsal, we’ve played that song three or four times already and it kills! That’s a song Marco came up with. When we were writing the record, the engineer who was working with us said, ‘I’ve got this fuzz box I really think you guys would like.’ He brought it out, and for whatever reason Marco plugged into it with his bass, and immediately came up with the basic riff for that song. We wrote around that and fine-tuned it a little bit. It’s one of my favourite songs to play cause it’s dead simple, it’s big and ballsy. Like I was saying, we’ve learned to focus on the big open stuff, rather than the more complicated things, and people seem to respond to that. Again, lyrically, I’m not even sure what it means? It is a cliched saying, but I think John always has an interesting twist on lyrics.”

“Bitch” was originally done by The Rolling Stones, appearing first on their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. “We were experimenting with a few songs, and once we played ‘Bitch’, it became apparent that it was a good fit. It fits John’s vocal; we tried it in some different keys to see how he might shape the vocal for it. We wanted to toughen it up; keep the essence of it, but definitely put The Daisies stamp on it. The funny thing is, a lot of people got the record and didn’t have songwriting credits, and they thought we made a record with no covers. I would say no, we did a cover, ‘Bitch’ by The Rolling Stones. They didn’t even realize it. I guess as time goes on, we’ve got younger fans, and they’re not hip to all that stuff. It’s not one of the mainstream Stones tracks.”

“Set Me Free” brings the tempo down, offering a bit of a breather. “Yeah, and it’s actually expanded upon live a little bit. The guitar is a little more natural and feels more settled, the way we’ve been playing it. This is a song that Marco started playing on piano, he was playing these chords that were just beautiful. We adapted it to acoustic guitars at the time, eventually we ended up jamming it with electric guitars – but clean electric – and it has a little bit of a Hendrix flair in some spots. It’s got a bit of a Bad Company vibe. It’s a great tune, and I’m really glad that on this record we have a proper ballad.”

“Dead And Gone” will go over incredibly well in concert. “It will, and we’re definitely going to play it. It’s actually going to become a single, the main single I think. For me personally, I didn’t realize it at the time, I just found a groove that I liked with the guitar riff. Now, listening back to it, I can see that my influence was AC/DC – ‘Back In Black’. But I didn’t think about that. It was a different twist on how you would play a riff over that groove, then the chorus comes in and it’s straight up AC/DC. At the solo, I did my normal thing, but at the end I put a little tip of the hat to ‘Back In Black’. It’s just a good live rock song, it’s going to be killer!”

“Can’t Take It With You” showcases the backing vocals of new drummer Deen Castronovo. “Yeah, Deen’s a powerhouse in so many ways. He’s so positive, he’s got a great attitude. It’s really cool. Of course, we miss Brian (Tichy), I love Brian; he’s one of my best friends. But Deen’s the perfect choice to move forward with. This song, ‘Can’t Take It With You’ is a riff that John started playing. I immediately liked it and we built the song around that riff. It might be my favourite song on the whole record. We’ve rehearsed it and it sounds super tight. It kicks ass live! I’m not sure how many songs from the new record we’re going to play at once, but I know that we’ll be substituting songs. So, when people come out to see us, one night they might get ‘Can’t Take It With You’, and another night they might get ‘What Goes Around’; we might swap those two out. I never felt good about some situations I’ve been in where the band would lock into a set, and that was the set. Everyday the same thing. It’s nice to mix it up.”

“Leave Me Alone” ends the album as strong as it started. “That was a song David Lowy brought in. He was playing it consistently for probably 30 minutes in front of us. It was like, alright, let’s work on that. It was obviously something that he was feeling a passion for, and we could hear that. When you hear something over and over, you start to get ideas… what if we do this, or that? For me, that’s kind of a sleeper track, cause it’s not maybe the most important, immediate song, but it’s a really cool rock ‘n roll song. After we finished writing it, I tried some different overdubs. In the end, I think (producer) Marti Frederiksen built the best parts that I played; he made it work. But now live, I’ve started to get a real grasp on the song and I think it’s even better. It’s definitely catchy.”

Digipak Bonus Track “Revolution” was originally done by The Beatles, appearing first as the B-side to their 1968 single “Hey Jude”. “We fucking beat that song down and rebuilt it using fuzz boxes; anything we could do to heavy it up. It’s already a super heavy track, so we wanted to try and heavy it up a little more, to put our spin on it. Find some opportunities to expand on the actual original song, which is just so great. It’s perfect. But lyrically, it was something that management suggested to us and offered saying, ‘Why don’t you guys give it a shot?’ It really fits in with a lot of craziness in the world today. Listen to The Dead Daisies version, The Beatles version is still super heavy and great, and think about how that ties in with what’s going on in various countries. We need to revolutionize ourselves back to a place of gratitude and being safe, not causing trouble, blowing up shit and shooting people, and fucking terrorism. We need to get away from that. Props to you guys in Canada, it’s a pretty mellow spot to be, and I like that.”

Order your copy of Burn It Down now at this location.

(Band photos by Danny Jungslund)