KISS' Paul Stanley - "I've Listened To Sonic Boom From Beginning To End Many Times - I Can't Remember An Album We've Done That's As Consistent"
October 24, 2009, 15 years ago
KISS frontman Paul Stanley spoke with Classic Rock magazine recently about a number of topics including the band's new album, Sonic Boom.
"It wasn't difficult to talk Gene around," the rhythm guitarist/vocalist explains talking partner in crime Gene Simmons into creating a new studio album. "It was interesting that everyone was very, very positive about the idea (of making a new album). The ground-rules were laid down and I have to say that Gene was selfless - which is not characteristic of him. He was a team player and dedicated to putting his all into it. I expected everyone to commit 100 percent. And they did."The result is Sonic Boom, KISS's first studio offering since 1998's Psycho Circus. Stanley is calling it "bar none our best album in 30 years, if not our best album period." A newly enthused Gene Simmons reckons "it may be our best album since Destroyer - it's Rock And Roll Over meets Love Gun." Classics all, indubitably, but these are highly ambitious claims. Aren't KISS setting themselves up for a fall?
"Well," Stanley considers, "I've listened to Sonic Boom from beginning to end many times - as you can imagine, because I produced it - and I can't remember an album we've done that's as consistent. The batteries are fully recharged. "The problem in bands sometimes is that you have to compromise based on issues other than quality of music. You end up trying to satisfy band members' demands for equality. You wind up with hurt feelings. And all that does is weaken an album. Sonic Boom doesn't have that; Sonic Boom has 11 great tracks. If it wasn't great, it didn't get recorded. It literally didn't get past the rehearsal point."Lapsing into his on-stage role as the platform-booted rock 'n' roll preacher, Stanley proclaims: "This wasn't an exercise in pandering, or stroking somebody's insecurities or neuroses, this was about making a great album that is unequivocally KISS."
Of course, the passage of time will determine Sonic Boom's eventual resting place in the KISS kanon. But having heard the new album, the first flush of listening frenzy doesn't give us cause to dispute Stanley's claims. The band promised us a balls-to-the-wall, back-to-their-roots album and that, it appears, is exactly what we've got."
Read the entire Classic Rock cover story here.
