BSR will make 'proper album' with Joe Elliott

Black Star Riders guitarist Scott Gorham has insisted the band's experience of making their first album in 12 days was a positive one – but he's looking forward to spending three times as long on the follow-up.

The Thin Lizzy offshoot outfit found it a challenge to work to producer Kevin Shirley’s one-song-a-day deadline, and Gorham has previously said he’d never work the same way again.

But he tells Rock Guitar Daily: “Recording with Kevin was good – he’s a great record producer. The only thing that threw me for a loop was to do it all in 12 days. I’d never done an album like that before. It was fun; it was different.”

Gorham reports BSR will spend around 10 days rehearsing their new material before recording over three and a half weeks. Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott will be at the helm, alongside co-producer Ronan McHugh. The team previously worked together on a set of Thin Lizzy remasters.

“Iif it hadn’t been for Joe I would have gone a lot crazier,” says the guitarist. “My idea was to experiment with the songs, just to see what would happen if we went nuts. Joe’s going, ‘No, no, no – let’s keep it more to the original.’ It was a lot more solid. We got a few more parts into the songs that weren’t there the first time round.”

Gorham hopes taking more time over their second instalment will make the results more cohesive. “We’ll be working out guitar parts, harmonies, drum parts. I felt bad for drummer Jimmy DeGrasso on the last one – there’s a couple of songs he was hearing for the first time in the studio.”

He reflects: “We want to get away from the 12-day thing, just to see what we can do given the chance to go in and make a proper album, the way we’re used to making albums.”

BSR start work in the autumn, with former Ratt bassist Robbie Crane joining the band in place of Marco Mendoza.

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.