Furyrocks.com spoke with RATT guitarist Warren DeMartini recently about a number of topics including the band's first studio album in 11 years, Infestation. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Furyrocks.com: Is there any sort of relationship with Juan (Croucier - former bassist) and was he offered a shot to be a part of this comeback?

DeMartini: "He was. We had a lot of conference calls with him when Stephen came back. We did try and at the end of the day and it just didn’t work out. He decided not to participate and we had to respect that. It wasn’t a negative thing, because Robbie Crane had been playing bass in the band for a decade and I guess it worked out better for Juan and for Ratt."

Furyrocks.com: What does Carlos bring to the band?

DeMartini: "With Carlos, he has been a real energizer. We have this sort of telepathy going on. We are both coming from the same place with the same guitar heroes and have similar views on music. Our ideas literally gel."

Furyrocks.com: I think you did a great job in writing songs that capture your signature sound from the '80s. Was it difficult to match the sound to your earlier LPs and was it intentional?

DeMartini: "No and No (laughing). Having said that, we did loosely want to revisit that energy, the color and tempo that the band was producing during Out of the Cellar and Invasion. Without too much emphasizes, we wanted something that could be like Invasion or something that would have come out right after it. We don’t want to keep making the same record over and over. We had stuff that drifts one way or another but on this CD; it wasn’t real ridged yet loosely getting back to that type of sound without spending too much time on it."

Furyrocks.com: You teamed up with the SCORPIONS for a tour. It really seems like a great match and a hot ticket, how did it come about?

DeMartini: "We did a show with the Scorpions last summer in Michigan. After the shows we spoke to them about what a great time we had and how great it would be to do more dates. That seems to resonate with them. It was a perfect evening, at a venue right on the water, great weather, fantastic energy, and playing with our all time heroes. It’s a dream come true. We used to wear out their records, literally. I could remember staying up all night with Jake E Lee trying to figure out Catch a Train. We had the vinyl so we would put it on the 16 speed. I think we got pretty close (laughing)."

Read the entire interview here.