Josh Todd of Buckcherry: "We've Always Stuck To Our Guns"...

Buckcherry have a new album release – Roar Like Thunder – imminent. It’s coming out on June 13 through Earache Records. I’ve gotten to take it for a few spins so I could take the opportunity to have a chat with the charismatic frontman, Josh Todd, about the record. Discussing everything from the upcoming album with the challenges of the current music market to the continuing collaboration with Marty Frederikson, we covered a fair amount of ground. Read on to hear it in his own words…

Hey, Josh, how are you going mate? “What’s going on? I’m going good man. And you?”

I’m good man, you guys, with the time difference, probably would have been doing a gig tonight? “No gig tonight. I’m in Canada right now, Ottawa, and we’re out here with Steel Panther, and it’s been amazing. We’ve been in Canada for over a month now, you know. And just winding down, our last show in Canada is tomorrow, and then we go back to the States to rock”.

Sweet, awesome. And it’s been a while since we last talked. I think last time you guys were coming down here, with Fozzy when we had a chat. And yeah, you just had finished recording for Volume 10. “So, it’s been a while, alright. Well, here we are, and we got a new record dropping June 13. Roar Like Thunder, and it’s so good”.

Yeah, man I’ve taken it for a few spins. It’s got a great feel. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth saying again. Listening to a Buckcherry album, it’s like slipping into a favourite pair of jeans, man. “Let’s go! I like that. That’s a good one. I’ll remember that. Yeah, I’m gonna use that, if it’s okay?”

You’re good! Okay, so what are your hopes for this Roar Like Thunder? “Oh, man, you know, it’s already, it’s already doing really well. Like, we’ve been number one now we’re number one for the second week in the UK, you know, with Roar Like Thunder, and that’s a good gauge for us, because there’s not really any rock radio in the states anymore. It’s all streaming and everything, and we’re doing good with the streaming numbers. And you know, all the people that have viewed the videos and everything has been like Roar Like Thunder has been our most viewed video to date, as far as how many people in the short amount of time that we dropped it. And so, this is all a good gauge, and we’re having great reaction from the live experience when people hear the song live. And we’ve already dropped three songs from the record, Roar Like Thunder, Come On and Set It Free, and everybody likes it. So, it’s feeling really good. You know, we’ll see when the actual full LP drops on June 13. But right now, it’s going really good”.

Well, it’s a really different market now. Nowadays, there’s a lot of focus on the singles, focus on the videos. But albums, pure albums, the sales for everywhere across the board seems to be there’s not as much anymore. “Yeah. Somebody told me a while back, you know, eventually music is going to be free, it’s going to stream like water. And I was like, what? When you’re an artist and you’ve been banging it out for years, and you really work hard on your craft and crafting songs, and you don’t want to hear that. But they were right. They were right because we’re here now. You know, it’s hard to take sometimes, but you know, you just kind of shift with the times. And, I mean, you got to be on the road and performing to get the return, for sure”.

That’s what it looks like from outside, and look, if it’s something that you love, something that you get a real good feel from, I guess it makes it a bit easier. The touring, you guys are well known for significant touring, how do you keep yourself up for it? “Yeah. Well, you got to be passionate about it, you know. Or you can’t carry on this long. And I definitely love it to this day, you know, that’s why I got into this. You know, it consistently makes me happy. I really enjoy performing still. So, you know, it’s just really managing, everything else that can be challenging, but, yeah, it’s going well, so no complaints”.

Awesome. So, you’ve worked on the album with Marty Frederikson again and gone back to Nashville. You obviously have got a good feel for both Marty and Nashville, because it shows on the recent albums. What are the things to you that makes it click? “Yeah, Marty Frederikson is… he’s a real talent. I mean, a lot of people know that; he’s written with a lot of artists, not just us. And he goes way back to 2005, we met him on the 15 record. We co-wrote Sorry together and then Black Butterfly and, so on. And we had this little hiatus for whatever reasons. We’ve been together since Hellbound again, so we did Hellbound, Volume 10, and Roar Like Thunder. I always call him like the sixth band member, he really understands what’s great about this band, what makes it special. We have a lot of trust in each other, far as you know, songwriting, is concerned. And that’s a very personal relationship, so I feel like I can talk to him about anything that I want to express in song, and he brings it at me, and we accomplish our goals. You know, that’s why it’s so great”.

This is album number eleven. Speaking about that, last time we talked, I think you said that every song you write, you want to bring a piece of you into it. You are very well practised now; you’re heading up towards twenty seven years. So, after eleven albums, does it get easier? “I mean, Nothing’s easy. But you know, when you do practice something over and over and over again, you start to understand a lot more. You know, what is easier now. I know immediately when something isn’t working, I don’t spend a lot of time on it. You know what I mean? That’s what is. That is what has changed. You know, with experience, you just know when a song isn’t popping, and you don’t spend a lot of time on it. You just make it better. And we’ve done that a lot, you know, we did that with Come On. Come On which was one of those songs that it was the third chorus that we had written for that song, the one that you hear on the record, you know, that song, there was a lot of great things about it, but we just couldn’t get that chorus to pop. And then finally it happened. And there’s a lot of songs like that on previous records too. So, I think that’s what I’ve learned the most about, you know, not putting songs on a record to fill it up”.

I think I first saw you guys back in 2011 or something like that. So yeah, you guys, funnily enough, you were over here with Steel Panther and Fozzy at that time. So, I listened to you guys and that was really my introduction to you guys. “Wow, so, late bloomer!”

Yeah, late bloomer, loved it. I went through all your back catalogue. It was good value. The new album, I’m definitely getting some AC/DC vibes on this. And like we’ve talked about how much AC/DC mean to you. That opening riff for Come On, it could be on an AC/DC album, it makes such a great musical combination. It’s got a really good blend of what I know for Buckcherry, and then those hints are there. So, it comes out sounding really cool. “You know, people bring that up a lot on this record, and it’s like, we have written so many AC/DCish, uh, thumps, you know, from the first record. To me, Lit Up is like, AC/DC, you know, then you got All Night Long and Hellbound. There’s… we have a lot of songs that are in that vein. But, yeah, that (Come On) was a direct result of me saying, where’s my AC/DC track? And we had written all these songs. And then finally, they give me some music that, I love AC/DC. But when you put my voice on it, and we put our melodies on it, it’s Buckcherry. But, yeah, I get it, yeah, absolutely”.

A Buckcherry album. You hear it, you hear your voice, it just bangs, it comes across very clear with the melodies. You talk about the melodies there, that is one of the things that is really strong throughout this new album and your back catalogue. It is very at much at the forefront. It’s a strong part of the writing, it’s great. But have you ever thought about going away from that or a change, or that works for you, and so that’s that. “Going away from melody. Never! I mean, melody is, is everything. If people can’t remember your songs, if they can’t sing them, if they’re not catchy or hooky, I mean, I don’t want anything to do with it, you know. I want… I want to write hit songs. I want to write songs that are timeless, and that people can remember. And the only way to do that is to study hit songs and, and, you know, understand why they’re hits. You know what I mean? And it’s more than just melody, it’s how you craft words into those melodies and all that stuff. But it goes all the way back to my foundation, it was independent Punk Rock Records in Orange County, California. All those bands, they weren’t on rock radio, so they had to write these chanting choruses with hooks to get people in, and so that’s where it all started from. I love those records because they were being honest with the lyrics, you know what I mean? I think that once you get to the major label platform, you got a lot of people kind of putting their two cents in, all of your creative stuff and what you’re putting out there and how to get on the radio. And they try to tame you down, or, you know, to mould you into a product. And Buckcherry has always kind of stayed, you know, we stuck to our guns in that way”.

Yeah, I love that. You’re unapologetic about it. It’s brilliant. “Thank you”.

Now you were talking about the singles you have put out ahead of the album. Have you been incorporating them into the live act, and if so, how they’ve been going down? “Yeah, all of them, we’ve been opening up with Roar Like Thunder, ever since it dropped. Ever since Come On came out, we put that in the set and Set It Free is the one we’re still making sure that we’re tight enough on it before we put it in the set. But that’ll be next”.

And the crowds are responding well to them? “Really well, especially, everybody loves Roar Like Thunder, but like, when we get to Come On later on in the set, it’s such a big moment. And I’m like this is amazing. It’s amazing because a lot of these people that were in front of us haven’t heard it. They hear it for the first time live. You know what I mean? And they’re already, by the second chorus, they’re singing Come On with everybody. So that’s cool”.

It’s got to be a great feeling. You’re someone who needs to keep busy. What else is keeping you on the go these days? “I play a lot of tennis. That’s my hobby, outside of family, work and so today is my day off. I cold-call tennis centres around my area. All my days off I do that, and I managed to pick up a match with this twenty-year-old kid who really gave me a hard time, and he won the match. It was 6-3, 7-5, but it was a battle, and I’m just exhausted, but I needed it, you know, mentally, it was really good for me”.

Yeah, that’s good for the soul. You’re on your way to thirty years as a band, but out of Buckcherry, you’re the last one standing. Do you ever just pinch yourself? That’s some longevity in a really, what’s known as, what is a cutthroat business? “Yeah, you know, it happens. You know, it’s hard to keep a lineup together for decades. And that’s really what it is. This band has had a gruelling touring schedule since we started, and it really wears people out, not only band members, crew members. I’ve seen Buckcherry tours just wreck people, and right in front of me I can see them, you know, whether it be they get a massive drug and alcohol problem, or it’s just too much, you know. But as far as, it took me a while to learn how to take my artist hat off and put my business hat on. Then take my business hat off and put my artist hat on. And now I’m really good at it, but what I’ve learned is that whenever you have a weak link in the band, it’s just not good for the overall success of everything you’re trying to accomplish and you gotta make changes when it happens. So, every time we’ve made those type of changes, and I’m not, I’m not bagging on any of the guys that were in this band previously, it just didn’t work out. And so, it’s like, whenever you make those changes, Buckcherry’s always gotten to a new level with the records and the songwriting and the performing, and so I’m very proud of that. So that’s all that matters to me. I always knew I would be the last one standing, because I was always the youngest person in this band when we started, I started from nothing in my apartment, like writing songs on a four track in my bedroom. So, I just knew that it probably would come to this. I don’t know, you know, it would have been nice to have everything worked out, like that, to be that kind of thing, but it just didn’t happen for us. I didn’t see that coming honestly”.

Yeah, look, everyone changes in different ways. So, it’s interesting. You’re touring with guys that you’ve known for a while, have you been touring with many other, say younger bands. We’ve talked previously about what inspired you, do you get those guys coming up saying how Buckcherry has inspired them? And if you’ve had that, it’s got to be a great feeling? “I mean, I’m not, I don’t really hang out too much because, especially now, it’s all for me to just take care of myself. Do this show I’m done, you know, yeah, but I hear through my band members and crew guys, and you know, the camaraderie that’s going on when we’re on, like, when we were on the boat (ShipRocked). We go on these, we do these rock cruises, and there’s some younger bands on those tours, and you know, they’re very complimentary to Buckcherry, I hear that through the grapevine, and that’s always lovely and and I’m super grateful for that, but I have no idea, like, you know, who I’m inspiring sometimes, because I’m just so far out of that whole realm”.

Yeah, like you said before the longevity, you got to do your things to make sure you keep going. Look, just wanted to say, because I know you got to go into the next interview, thank you very much for your time. The record, I’m loving it. It’s great. “Thank you so much. Yeah, hoping to see you guys down in Australia again”.

I know you guys were only there recently with Rose Tattoo, which probably would have been a great experience, but I’m looking forward to catching you guys when you get back. “Thanks so much, man. And we’re looking forward to coming back. We’re kind of working out the whole worldwide landscape right now, because we just stuff. So, more will be revealed, and we’ll be there soon, hopefully, we love Australia”.