In a new interview with Neil Jones of TotalRock, vocalist Josh Todd of California rock veterans BUCKCHERRY spoke about the band’s knack for releasing consistently strong new albums, including their recently issued eleventh full-length effort, “Roar Like Thunder”. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Yeah, that’s my competitive spirit. I wanna be as great as I can be, and as far as BUCKCHERRY is concerned and what we are and what we mean. And I’m very passionate about this band to this day, and I really care about putting out a quality record.
“I decided a while back that I don’t wanna do anything longer than 10-song records because I don’t want filler or any bullshit,” Josh explained. “I feel like that’s the perfect length. And not a whole lot of people even listen to an entire record anymore. So, the thing for us is to create a record that you can put on and leave on. And the only stipulation on this effort was to not have any ballads or covers. We just wanted a rocking record, and I feel like we accomplished it. And we’ve got a great songwriting chemistry going on with me, Stevie [Dacanay; a.k.a. Stevie D., guitar] and [producer] Marti Frederiksen. The last three BUCKCHERRY records — [2021’s] ‘Hellbound’, [2023’s] ‘Vol. 10’ and this one — have been the best, in my opinion. So, yeah, just riding that wave.”
Elaborating on BUCKCHERRY‘s decision to not have any ballads this time around, Todd said: “Yeah, we have a lot of ballads, not just on [BUCKCHERRY‘s double-platinum 2005 album] ’15’. We’ve always put ’em out on most of our records. We have over a hundred songs out there, so it was fine not to do it on this record. I love slowing it down and having more dynamics in a record for sure, but that’s just what we felt at the time, and it feels good now. And the reviews and everybody’s responses have been really tremendous. And, yeah, so we’re enjoying it.”
As for BUCKCHERRY‘s working relationship with Frederiksen, Josh said: “Yeah, he’s produced a lot of records of ours. It goes all the way back to 2005 when he co-wrote ‘Sorry’ with us on the ’15’ record, and then he produced ‘Black Butterfly’ and so on.
“When we get in the room with him, it’s like he’s just like the sixth bandmember,” Todd explained. “He really brings out the best in us and he understands what’s special about this band and doesn’t wanna ruin that. And he wants to just make it as good as it can be. And the cool part about writing songs with him and Stevie is, like, the best idea wins. And it’s just nice. It’s a lot of fun making records.”
“Roar Like Thunder” was released on June 13.
As with “Vol. 10” and “Hellbound”, “Roar Like Thunder” was recorded in Nashville at Sienna Studios and helmed by Frederiksen, who has previously collaborated with AEROSMITH, DEF LEPPARD, Jonny Lang and Sheryl Crow, among many others. All 10 tracks were written by Todd, Dacanay and Frederiksen.
“Roar Like Thunder” was released in North America by Round Hill Records, in Japan by Sony Japan and in the remainder of the world by Earache Records.
“Vol. 10” came out in June 2023. The 11-song LP featured 10 new BUCKCHERRY originals and, as a bonus track, a cover of the Bryan Adams classic “Summer Of 69”.
In November 2023, BUCKCHERRY released a new holiday song called “Tell ‘Em It’s Christmas”.
BUCKCHERRY previously released another holiday song, “Christmas Is Here”, back in 2010.
In the summer of 2020, BUCKCHERRY recruited JETBOY‘s Billy Rowe as its new guitarist. He joined the group as the replacement for Kevin Roentgen, who left BUCKCHERRY in July of that year.
In 2019, BUCKCHERRY enlisted Francis Ruiz as its new drummer. He joined the group as the replacement for Sean Winchester, who exited BUCKCHERRY after laying down the drum tracks on “Warpaint”.
The 20th-anniversary deluxe edition of the double-platinum BUCKCHERRY album “15” on physical and digital formats arrived on January 17 via Endurance Music Group. Originally released in 2005, the album featured the four-times-platinum single “Crazy Bitch” and the two-times-platinum single “Sorry”. The deluxe edition was issued in North America on a two-vinyl-LP format featuring the album’s 11 original songs as well as four bonus tracks recorded in 2005 and three newly recorded acoustic tracks by Todd and Dacanay.
