Led by Alice Cooper’s bassist Chuck Garric, and Alice Cooper’s daughter Calico Cooper, Beasto Blanco thrives on blood, sweat, and gasoline. The untamed and multi-faceted rock band has just released their new album, Kinetica, via COP International.

Kinetica is album number five for Beasto Blanco; that’s quite an accomplishment. Chuck, who plays guitar and sings lead vocals in Beasto agrees that his band has come a long way since the release of their debut record in 2013, yet this journey had been somewhat planned since the beginning.  “When Beasto Blanco started, it was definitely a vision I had as long-term. But as you progress and move forward in your career, you grow musically, you grow artistically, here we are on album number five; studio record number four. For me, I go back and listen to the first record to where we are right now with Kinetica, it’s a really amazing process. It’s a real joy to listen to, because you can really hear the growth of the band.”

Kinetica is not the name of a song. If you look up kinetic, it’s defined as, “pertaining to motion, or characterized by movement.” Chuck reveals the inspiration behind the album title. “Exactly that – kinetic energy. We thought it really was fitting to what this band has been through, we’ve never stopped moving. And there’s always been one faith that would sort of put us into motion. Whether it be one particular show, or cruise, or something that we were doing to build on top of that. It’s just the process that Beasto Blanco has gone through. We’ve always bene evolving, we’ve always been moving. We thought it was a real fitting name, so we just added a little bit of femininity to it for a little nod to Calico – Kinetica.”

Chuck and Calico both live in The United States. “Calico’s in Los Angeles, California, and I’m in Nashville, Tennessee.” Yet, Kinetica was recorded in Hamburg, Germany at Chamelon Studios. That was due largely to the fact that Chris Harms from Lord Of The Lost, who produced the album, resides in Germany. “Exactly, yeah. We were in Germany. We did a couple of shows in Frankfurt and a friend of mine, Eric Burton from Schubert Music, came and saw us play. He instantly thought that Chris Harms would be a great producer. So, Chris and I connected. We had a couple video chats, and we started sending each other songs. I think the first song we worked on was ‘Run For Your Life’, and I knew immediately that this guy got it. He also had a very clear vision of what he wanted the band to be. He wanted to take us in a little bit of a different direction, still keeping the Beasto Blanco credo and the roots that we’re so known for, but also just give us a little bit of a hard turn to the right and left if you will, with different melodies and arrangements and lyrical content.”

Furthermore, Chris Harms from Lord Of The Lost makes a guest appearance on the song “Unreal”. Chuck recalls that experience, saying, “It was interesting because it was the first time we’ve done that. It’s usually Calico and I both sharing vocals, or her taking the full song, or myself. It sounded to me, when it was being written… Harms had sung the bridge. As it started to progress – we had the ‘blah blah’ lyrics where we sing nonsense to get the melody. We did that and Calico wrote her lyrics and went in and sang her part. The sound of the song, just the whole suggestion of it… Chris being just so talented, and I love the sound of his voice. It seemed really fitting for us to turn it over to Chris. It was actually my suggestion. I thought, ‘This would be a good song for Chris Harms to be on.’ I really loved the idea of him singing it, and he jumped right on it. He knocked it out of the ballpark. He really added a flavor that I thought the record needed.”

That flavor is one of many tasty morsels found on Kinetica. The album is chock-full of diversity. Just look at the first two videos – “Run For Your Life” is a sci-fi Star Wars / Battlestar Galactica themed clip, whereas “Lowlands” is an erotic vampire-based piece. Naming another band that’s released two completely opposite videos back-to-back is nearly impossible. “Yeah, wait ‘til you see the third one (‘Diamond In The Dirt’, which was released after this interview was conducted). Calico called me up one day and she said, ‘Do you think the record company would allow us to do a video for every song?’ She had the whole entire idea in her head for every song. So, we talked to our record label. With Calico owning a production company, it would be easy for us to get the gear that we needed, and with her writing the storylines, they okayed it. And we did a video for every single song off of this record. You’re going to be taken on a completely different journey. It’s not just one collective. ‘Run For Your Life’ tells the story of where the Beasto Blanco characters come from. But as the story progresses, they tap into all kinds of different worlds.”

The credits for “Lowlands” list former Buckcherry guitarist Keith Nelson as a co-writer on that song. “Yeah, during the pandemic I did a couple of… we would invite all types of different people in on some Nashville songwriting on Zoom. My buddy Marti Frederiksen was hosting one, and Keith was on. I thought, ‘Oh man, I’ve known Keith for many years, I’d love to write a song with him.’ So, we put together some time, and we wrote three songs with Keith. And two of them made Kinetica. ‘Lowlands’ being one that we were really proud of; Calico had a great melody and a great concept for that particular song. Chris Harms really put the cherry on top with the production and adding to the bridge.”

The other song co-written with Keith Nelson is “Fight”, the final track on the album. The way it begins with “Let me hear you!”, that’s bound to go over incredibly well live. “A couple of tours ago, we would open with it. Nobody had heard it at the time, but it was a fun song to play. It will absolutely be in there at some point in our set. There’s so much material now, I used to crack up, being in Alice Cooper’s band, ‘Why are we always playing these same songs? You’ve got all this great material.’ Now we’re in the same situation.”

The credits on “Skull Rider” list Freese as a co-writer. Is that drummer Josh Freese (Foo Fighters, A Perfect Circle, Guns N’ Roses)? “Oh, I wish it was Josh Freese,” admits Chuck. “No, as hilarious as it was, this gentleman was another recording engineer next to Chris Harms’ booth, so they kind of shared the same live room. Across the way, in the next room over, was this other guy – a producer, songwriter, mixer. He came over one day and was listening to a couple of our songs, and he said, ‘I’ve got a track I think is right up your alley. I’ve been listening to Beasto for the last couple of years. I’ve got this song that I call “Skull Rider”. I think it would be perfect for you guys.’ We said, ‘Yeah, bring it over.’ We are a very open-minded group of people. He played it for us and immediately I already had the lyrics done. We already had these lyrics floating around, we just needed to add a few things here and there. We were able to write the song pretty quickly with already having the concept of the title and the lyrics that we had previously, had been written by our other writer, Lindsay Garric (Chuck’s wife). We decided that these would fit, we just needed to kind of weave them in and out and make it work. That’s one of my favorite songs on that album.”

“Kill Us Off With A Smile” undeniably stands out from the rest of the album as it has pop elements to it. The potential for other artists to cover this song is endless. It’s easy to imagine a country version, an R&B version. It certainly adds variety to the album. “What happened was, we were testing the waters if you will. We’ve got three albums of really American, hard, blues-based pentatonic kind of sounding rock and roll, which is very easy for us to write. As we started moving down the river of Kinetica, Chris Harms was bringing us all kinds of different material. He had brought in that song at one point, and he thought that I should sing it. But as I kept listening to it, I thought, ‘That is a Calico song lyrically. Her voice is going to really lend itself to it.’ So, we had her sing the song, and immediately we realized it was way too low for her. We spent a couple of days getting it back up, we pitched it up a couple of keys for her to sing, and she knocked it out in a day. I’m really proud of that song. It was something completely different than what Beasto is used to. It’s a song that, I agree with you; it really shows just how good at writing songs we are or collaborating with other artists. It was such a differential from what we’ve been used to doing in the past. It goes to show that this band has zero fear! We will try anything and when it works, we’ll crush it.”

Lyrically, “Heavy Is The Head” sticks out. Especially the last verse: “Castle built of could, A metal Robin Hood, Create instead of take, And the world outside never knows that I work like hell for what I make.” Very well written. “Thank you so much. If you think about the lyrics that were written with ‘Grind’ – ‘I may not been born with a crown on my head, But mom gave me muscles and knuckles instead.’ It’s a play on that. Beasto Blanco is blue collar. I come from a very unique family background, and what I have I’ve earned. It’s taken a lot for me to get there as well. So, the writer for ‘Grind’, Lindsay Garric as well, wrote those lyrics and she understands the Beasto credo.”

There’s so many misconceptions out there about the music business and what it truly takes to be in a band. A lot of fans still think it’s the ‘80s lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. That verse from “Heavy Is The Head” spotlights the truth. “Definitely. The drugs are the rock ‘n roll. The drug is getting to do what we get to do, and becoming addicted to what we love to do our entire life. Still going to band practice is phenomenal. It still has been drugs and rock ‘n roll, but I think the sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll – that was what defined the rock icon, the rock star status of the ‘60s and ‘70s; just different times.”

“Bad Thoughts” allows the listener to come up with their own version of whatever that could be. Again, it adds to the variety on Kinetica. It’s easy to decipher what some songs are about; others are left to your imagination. “Well, that’s why I wrote that lyric; I thought the same thing. I didn’t want to be too definitive. I wanted to leave it up to the listener, cause as we all know, our bad thoughts can kind of just be waves of different ones constantly, or different emotions that are going on. It depends on the situation that’s happening in your life at the time. For me, I wanted it to be… leave it up to the listener and have them decide. The one line I love is, ‘You can’t silence me.’ I like that because even though you’re having these bad thoughts rushing through your head. As long as you don’t act on anything that’s too violent, you don’t want to be silenced either. A bad thought actually can be something like you’re just taking a little bit of a stand on something that’s not the right situation for you as well.”

Alice Cooper is the ultimate shock rocker. Given the previously mentioned band and family connections, how do you feel about the term “shock rock” being used to describe Beasto Blanco? “I think it’s an honor,” states Chuck. “Anytime we can be mentioned alongside the legends of rock ‘n roll. I’ve had the pleasure of playing with Alice for over 20 years; I played with Ronnie James Dio before that. To be just thrown into the mix is a true honor. We’ll take whatever comes our way. We’ve been influenced by some mighty, mighty musicians out there. It’s hard not to hear where those influences come from. The way we look at it is, we’re not going to shy away from who we are or where we come from. So, we’ll take any of those mentions whatsoever.”

Speaking of influence, Beasto Blanco’s label, COP International, is describing Kinetica as: “A sound inspired by Rob Zombie, Ministry, and Glenn Danzig.” It’s easy to hear Rob Zombie and Ministry, yet you have to listen a little more closely to catch Glenn Danzig’s influence. Specifically, Glenn Danzig, not Danzig. “There you go, exactly. I don’t know where that actually came from as far as the Danzig reference,” admits Chuck. “Other than maybe just the aggressive vocal tone and the power behind it. Glenn’s got such a unique, powerful voice and some great lyrics behind his writing as well. So, for me, comparing us to Danzig, is maybe just about how serious we take ourselves and what we’re doing onstage.”

Onstage, Beasto Blanco is very theatrical. This isn’t grunge. Chuck, Calico, and co. aren’t up there in beat-up old jeans and ratty sweaters. Everybody’s a character. There’s a lot of imagery, a lot to look at. But nothing is being stolen or even borrowed from Alice Cooper or Rob Zombie; Beasto Blanco does their own thing. “Yeah, we’re not a horror-based band. If anything, we’re more time bandits, more sci-fi. We do take the entertainment side of it seriously. I like to have our audience check out for a minute and not compare ourselves to the guy standing next to them at the concert. We’ve created visuals that are supposed to deliver and excite your imagination. We don’t want to come out as average Joes. We want to entertain our fans.”

Might Beasto Blanco pull a little bit from Mad Max? “Yeah, I think at some point we were kind of knocking on that door a little bit with this apocalyptic wasteland of future events. We look at ourselves as, we’re for the people. Our fans call themselves Loyal Beasts. We’re gathering up our forces as we travel through this wonderful universe. But at the same time, we’re not necessarily criminals as much as we are mercenaries. We’re gathering up the ones that believe in the rock ‘n roll that we’re producing. As time went on and we developed our characters of really who we are, what happened was we developed more of a time travel Avengers if you will. You know, Guardians Of The Galaxy.”

In November, Beasto Blanco will be supporting The Dead Daisies across Europe. An unusual pairing, but it works. Fans of both bands will be introduced to an incredible new musical experience. “Yeah, I think that’s exactly what we’re doing here. We’ve never toured together before. Those guys were in Nashville recording their last record and the conversation came up, ‘How come Beasto Blanco and The Dead Daisies haven’t toured together yet?’ Everybody sort of scratched their heads like, ‘Yeah, that seems like an instant smash.’ We got on the phone with our agents, and they made it happen instantaneously. We’re really excited for that one as well. It’ll be a good way to travel through Europe with our friends. They’re great musicians, a great band. We’re really looking forward to it.”

(Photos courtesy of Jed Williams)