The Rides hail studio chemistry as inspiration

The Rides say their “powerful” studio chemistry helps them when they’re writing music.

Guitarist and singer Kenny Wayne Shepherd admits that nobody expected the trio to hit it off so well during their earlier jamming sessions.

He says: “Originally the concept behind this band was, ‘Let’s just throw these three guys in the studio together and see what happens.’ Nobody knew when we got together and started writing songs, that the chemistry would be so powerful that we’d form a band.

“The blues is the common thread between the three of us, but we have all these diverse musical backgrounds so you hear all these different influences. But this was originally going to be a straight-up blues band, so our music is a nod to that original idea. We just had to have a couple of blues songs on the record.”

Guitarist Stephen Stills adds: “To go back to how we originally started playing music – whatever affected us 15 minutes before, we would turn into a song, and run to the little single studio and cut it. That’s how the Beatles started.”

The Rides are currently touring North America in support of their second album Pierced Arrow, which is released today (May 6).

The Rides tour dates 2016

May 06: Ann Arbor, Michigan Theater, MI
May 08: Merrillville Star Plaza Theatre, IN
May 09: Munhall Carnegie Library Music Hall Of Homestead, PA
May 11: Englewood Bergen Performing Arts Center, NJ
May 12: New York Town Hall, NY
May 13: Kingston Ulster Performing Arts Center, NY
May 15: Bethlehem Sands Bethlehem Event Center, PA
May 17: Boston The Wilbur, MA
May 18: Providence Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, RI
Jun 01: San Diego Balboa Theatre, CA
Jun 02: Berkeley UC Theatre, CA
Jun 04: Scottsdale Talking Stick Resort, AZ
Jun 05: Riverside Fox Performing Arts Center, CA

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.