Slated for a September 2nd release, The Essential Richie Kotzen is a thorough introduction to the frontman and guitarist's 18 solo album deep catalog. Kotzen selected all the tracks that are set to appear on the double disc and DVD collection, and also added two brand new songs, those being "War Paint" and "Walk With Me."
The extensive combo perfectly captures his dynamic musicianship, his jaw-dropping guitar solos, and his tangy blend of rock, blues, and soul, and will encourage listeners to discover more os his work -- be it on a solo level, or his work in The Winery Dogs, Mr. Big, or Poison.
In this Arena exclusive, Richie Kotzen talks about his forthcoming release The Essential, what The Winery Dogs have planned for the future, and what song is going to make his next solo album extra special.
Arena: I want to talk about this new Essentialrecord you're about to release, but you just wrapped up the album cycle with The Winery Dogs. How did everything go?
Richie: Everything went great. The tour and the album performed way beyond our expectations, so we're all very satisfied with that. We just shut everything down for the year and I'm off doing my solo thing. I got three months of dates being booked right now. I leave September 3rd for Europe, so The Winery Dogs are taking a break. Our goal is to have a record out at some point next year. Ideally, we'd tour next summer. That's the game plan. In the meantime, I got The Essentialrecord coming out next month, and I got a solo record of all new material that's going to be released in January. So while The Winery Dogs are taking a break, obviously, I'm not. I'm busier than ever.
Arena: I noticed that. The Winery Dogs took you all over the world, especially for the last eight months, and you also worked on new material with the band during that time. You also put together The Essentialcollection and, as you said, finished another solo record. I'm just trying to think when you take time off because it seems like you're always working and hustling. I mean, do you ever take a day off?
Richie: (Laughs) Yeah. I take huge periods of time off. I think just from the outside it appears like I'm always working, but that's really not true. The reality is my last solo album cycle, I released 24 Hours in 2011, did extensive touring on that, and then I did take a pretty good break -- at least for me, what I consider is a pretty good break. Then we started The Winery Dogs tour, but even during the tour we'd go home for three or four weeks. It's all balanced out so that we do have time to re-group and re-charge and get excited to go back out again. Even when it comes to making a record or writing, I write very sporadically over the course of a year so I'm never really thinking about a record as much as I am documenting ideas or writing a song. What usually happens at some point is I'll just end up with a collection of material -- 10, 11, 15 songs -- and once I identify maybe at least half of those I really like, then I start thinking about a record, so that is something that is formulated over a long period of time. But the way that happens, it appears from the outside that I am just constantly locked up working somewhere, which isn't true.
Arena: To me, it always seems like you're doing something.
Richie: Well, it's a balance. For me, I always talk about the whole idea of a balance, and also the idea of input and output -- output meaning putting out a record and supporting it, but at the same time, in order to have ideas and stay fresh, you need input and you need perspective, so to do that, you need to take a break and go in a different direction. There is long [periods] of time that I don't even play the guitar. Now this year has been a lot busier for me; I've been home now for a month and I haven't really played at all. I mean, I did do work. I shot a couple of music videos and I'm recording some material for my daughter in the studio, so there's always stuff that needs to be done. But I don't always have the guitar in my hands (laughs). I always need that time off so I can keep that balance.
Arena: Let's talk about The Essential Richie Kotzen.You had a lot of control over it and were really hands on, whereas some bands who drop these type of compilations are completely out of the loop. For instance, though a different genre, Lance Bass of NSYNC didn't even know there was an Essentialon them coming out. So is it rare for people to have that much control, or is this a special case?
Richie: I don't know. I think it depends on the artist and their level of involvement. There are definitely artists who are very hands-on, like myself. Then there are other artists who are more about the record label, and their brand and their management team making choices for them. I was always more of a direct involvement type of guy, so I don't know if that's unique or not. You're right, I did select the songs, and it's kind of tricky because there's so much material. But the idea of this record is not necessarily a Best Of … or a Greatest Hits [collection]. I never had, what I consider, a hit record. This is just something to answer a question that's been asked a lot to me, and that is "Hey, I remember you back from when you made your first solo record 20 years ago and I didn't realize you had this vast collection of music. [There's] almost 20 albums out there. What do I buy? Where do I start?" And that was the purpose of this record: to be able to answer that question. It's like, "Ok, you're getting into me for the first time, this is a collection of music that'll pretty much define what it is I do and what I've been doing for the last 15 years." That was the main objective in putting it together.
Arena: In addition to a collection of your previous records, there are two new songs on record, "War Paint" and "Walk With Me." Why decide to put those two onThe Essential?
Richie: Really, it came down to timing. I had written those two songs while I was on tour in a hotel room and when I came off tour, I wanted a break. So I did a demo recording and lived with them for two months, and then I came off another break and finished them. Like I said before, that's my writing process. I write songs, I document them, and when I feel like I have enough that I like, it's time to make a record. Well, the timing just worked out where the label approached me about doing thisEssentialcollection, and they wanted two new tracks, so I just happened to have two new tracks and so they appeared on the record. But had I not done this package, then they likely would've lived on what would be the next solo record. So really, it came down to the timing of it.
Arena: I've got a fair question to ask you because you've released so much stuff, not just solo wise, but with The Winery Dogs, Mr. Big, Poison, etc. But do you ever forget the songs you've written over the years? Because there's a lot.
Richie: That's a good question, and I do. It's really kind of funny actually. When we tour, I have an opportunity to meet fans and some people bring up songs that I forgot I wrote. That does happen. I started writing as a teenager. The songs on my first record (self-titled) I wrote when I was 17, and recorded them when I was 18, so it's definitely … [being] 44, yeah, I have definitely forgot material I have released (laughs), or at least forgotten records I've played on, which is fine because I don't want to live in the past, of course. I like forward motion and being in the present times, so I think that's kind of normal. Anyone who has done as many records as me would have to be reminded of the records they've done.
Arena: What can you tell me about the next solo album due out in January?
Richie: Well I'm definitely stretching it out a little bit. There is some production value that is unique to this album that I haven't done in the past. There's a song on the record I'm really excited about that was written by my daughter and I. It's a piano-based song, just piano and voice. The song is called "You." Actually, it originated many years ago. My daughter, she's 17 now, but she must have been 13 or 14 back then, and she was playing this piece on the piano. Every time she sat at the piano, she'd always play this [song]. It's really haunting and really cool, and I asked her once, "What is that you keep playing?" And she said, "I don't know. It's something I wrote." So I said, "Well, let's record it." That lived on my hard drive for many years, and once I started working on the new CD, I went back and listened to some other things that were on the drive that weren't finished, and I found it, and I felt the same way about it as I did back then. So I said, "Now is the time I'm going to write lyrics to it," and I ended up writing lyrics, singing the lead vocal, and that song is going to be on the record. We just shot a music video for it this past weekend, and I'm really excited to share that one with people.