Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee will release his new solo album, Andro, on October 16th. 

During a recent interview with Australia's Studio 10, Tommy offered some insight into his newest musical endeavour. An excerpt has been transcribed as follows:

"Half of the body of work I created had all this male energy, and the other half had this female energy," explains Lee. "When trying to sequence the record to listen the best, it wasn't quite working, having them play randomly, the way I thought it would be cool. I separated the two, and put the female energy on one side of the album, and the male energy on the other side of the album. Let them play separately, but yet together. That's kind of how it went down, and that's why the record's called Andro, short for androgyny."

One of the songs on Andro is a cover of Prince's "When You Were Mine", which was originally released in 1980 on the Dirty Mind album. According to Tommy, "I, forever, have been a Prince fan; I've had the opportunity to meet him. I've been a fan of his forever, and this was a really cool opportunity, with my buddy Lukas Rossi (formerly of Rock Star Supernova) to redo a Prince song. But I took a really kind of a happy, boppy — I mean, the tempo of 'When You Were Mine' is really fast, really uptempo. We slowed it down and made it super dark and sexy, and it is a monster. I can't wait for you guys to hear that one."  

In conversation with Tommy Lee about his new music, his abject joy over his new album, Andro, is infectious. The mastermind behind this compelling collection of songs has conquered TikTok amassing 560k followers in the past couple of months, while growing his Instagram audience to over 1 million during quarantine. An audience that eagerly awaits his new opus.

Lee has had a mega-popular Netflix film (The Dirt), starred in and produced three Network TV shows (Tommy Lee Goes To College, Rockstar:Supernova, Battleground Earth: Ludacris vs Tommy Lee), had a NY Times Bestseller (Tommyland) and has appeared on scripted and interview TV shows - most recently, a hilarious appearance as a professor on ABC’s The Goldbergs.

The longtime Mötley Crüe drummer has just spent the last two years writing and recording his new album and it is about to challenge virtually everything you thought you knew about him and his musical proclivities. True, he hinted at some of the complexity behind the chaos, when he formed Methods Of Mayhem and when he toured with Skrillex, Zedd and Deadmaus, but Lee’s new set of tracks seem to truly represent the music that's he was meant to make - and that definitively reveals the depth and range of his musical fascinations. 

The passion is evident right from the start of Andro, as the album opens with the first of his two singles "Knock Me Down", a paint-stripping industrial-metal stormer (as close as Andro gets to what Lee is best known for) featuring the up-and-coming rapper Killvein, who gives a scorching performance.

"I heard his shit on the internet," Lee recalls, "and I thought, this dude is badass, 'Knock Me Down' had his name all over it. He raps like a beast, is super-talented, and actually says something. He's gonna blow up."

Another singularly fierce pairing on the second of his two singles, is with female South African rapper Push Push, who raps like lightning in her unique accent over a cool Afrobeat groove on "Tops". She comes off as someone who you probably don't want to cross. "She's a total troublemaker," Lee jokes, "a maniac!"

With a powerful singing voice that takes listeners by pleasant surprise in between her staccato raps, Push Push has a down-to-earth attitude and the talents to deliver on her enthusiasm for experimental, barrier-breaking projects. Push Push has worked on a recent Pussy Riot single and has performed alongside the likes of Peanut Butter Wolf and Ryan Hemsworth. Her tracks have been featured on Comedy Central’s Broad City.

Both artists’ videos were directed by Lee’s longtime friend, Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit). As alike as the sets are for the videos, that is how different, sonically, both songs are. “Working with Tommy was an incredible opportunity, he made sure that I was in a comfortable space, free to express myself fully and without limits. The video shoot was a dream come true. I felt empowered to show all my true colors without judgement. Honestly that team could’ve made anyone feel like a star,” says Push Push.

“It was great working with Tommy! It’s crazy because I grew up listening to Mötley Crüe so I never imagined I’d end up working with Tommy fucking Lee,” enthuses Killvein. “I was surprised he’d even heard of me but that’s all thanks to our mutual friend, Danny Lohner. Danny showed Tommy my music last year and that’s when Tommy sent me the beat. I recorded half the song in my garage in Sacramento and the other half in his studio in Calabasas. I was like a kid in a candy shop in there - he has everything. The video shoot was surreal. Getting to work with both Tommy and Fred Durst on that was a dream.”

Other features on the record include a Prince cover from Lukas Rossi (Rock Star Supernova), Josh Todd (Buckcherry), Brooke Candy and Mickey Avalon. A pre-order also launches today and can be found here.

(Photo - Myriam Santos)