Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry says the band have learned lessons from the mixed response to 2012 album Music From Another Dimension.
And he’s hoping they can at least try to record a follow-up next year.
Their 15th record was released after a tumultuous time that saw attempts to replace frontman Steven Tyler after he suffered an alcoholic relapse. It failed to live up to expectations, with a Metacritic average review rating of 54%.
Perry tells AZCentral: “I think I figured out what the fans have been asking for all these years. ‘Why don’t you do another Toys In The Attic or whatever?’
“There are certain things about those songs that you can try and recreate but the reason those songs are so powerful is because they’ve been around so many years. It’s impossible to recreate that – you can write a great song but it’s got to be around for 30 years.”
He believes at least some of the tracks on Another Dimension will stand the test of time. “There were a couple songs in there that if you heard them live, you’d get off on them,” he says. “We didn’t get a chance to tour the record with the kind of emphasis that we did 30 years ago.
“And I think that if some of those songs had come out at a different time, they might have gotten a little more notice.”
Perry thinks things might have been different if Aerosmith had focused on their 10 strongest tracks, rather than releasing 15 plus various bonus titles. He explains “The band needed to get in the studio and really do a record like we used to – and that was, everybody threw in songs.
“So from that point of view, it was just like doing one of the old records. But if we had done that record and then gone out and played those songs for a year, it might have had more of an impact.”
Perry hopes the Boston veterans can find time to record in 2016. “We all have lives outside the band, so we want to balance that off,” he reports.
“But somewhere in there, I’d love to get in the studio and just blow, to see if we can come up with some new stuff. We’ll be touring at the beginning of next year and then taking some more time off, at least from touring, so that opens up some space for another stint in the studio.
“It’s always on our minds – but like I said, everybody’s probably got a shortlist of things they want to do.”
