Now former member of Mötley Crüe, Mick Mars finally released his debut solo single right at the very end of October this year. However, the much-anticipated solo record that his fans have been expecting for many years now seems that it won’t go in a blues rock direction as many have thought. Speaking to Eddie Trunk at his “Trunk Nation” podcast recently, Mars addressed the matter, saying that he kind of wanted to surprise everyone.
After Trunk reminded Mars of how the first, and by far the only single, titled “Loyal to the Lie,” is a modern metal song, he was then asked if this was his intention. The guitar legend replied (transcribed by Killer Guitar Rigs):
“Yes. Exactly. Exactly right. Because I love the blues. I love jazz. I love blues. I love all that stuff. And I was pretty sure that the Mars-listening audience would expect that.”
“And I didn’t want it to be predictable. So I wanted to get the big, thick, heavy stuff that sometimes I couldn’t do.”
“I mean, I could always do it. But yeah, I think that everybody was thinking more that it was going to be a little bit more bluesy and that kind of stuff. So I went in the opposite direction.”
This decision is probably why he decided to give this album a clever title, “The Other Side of Mars.” And sharing more details behind his new album, Mick explained that songs which we’re yet to hear as of this moment are going “even further” into this direction.
“And there’s also some stuff on there, like ‘Undone’, which is like even further off the old beaten path,” he said. “I’m trying to go a little bit left on that with ‘Undone’ — it’s kind of like a direction, and maybe I’m going to go a little bit further in that direction as far as changing my style and reinventing myself again.”
“Because I get stagnant and stale,” Mars added. “No, I don’t want to do that. I want to move on and keep doing unexpected stuff. So that is a direction I want to, with this new album, kind of hint around in those two songs that Brion [Gamboa, vocalist] sang on.”
“And just to kind of feel around and hear what fans think of it. They might go like, ‘Oh, that’s hideous.’ Or they might go, ‘Love it’. So I don’t know, I’m doing a little bit of a gamble, but not really.”
During the same interview, Mars also discussed how vocalist Jacob Bunton, who we can hear on the first single, did his parts in one take.
“Most of those songs are pretty much one take,” Mars said. “There’s a couple little things here and there where it’s an easy fix because of Pro Tools and that kind of crap.”
Of course, it’s easy these days to play around with things a little and not even notice that the recording was in any way edited. Mars also added that there was just some slight pitch-shifting involved in certain places, but that’s pretty much a standard procedure these days. He then added:
“First takes, to me, are always the best takes because when they come in with a second take they’re trying too hard. So a lot of those songs are mostly first takes, aside from the harmonizing and that stuff with Jacob [Bunton, vocalist] also did on all the songs, with the exception of ‘Killing Breed’ and ‘Undone.'”
His debut solo record, “The Other Side of Mars,” is expected to arrive on February 23 next year. For this much-anticipated release, Mick collaborated with producer Michael Wagener, who’s worked both as a producer and a mixing engineer with plenty of rock artists, including Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne, Skid Row, Testament, and many others.
Although Mick has been talking about doing a solo record for many years now, he’s only doing it now. But despite being in his 70s and suffering from ankylosing spondylitis — which is why he decided to quit touring with Mötley Crüe before that legal battle commenced — he’s far from over. However, in a recent interview, he addressed this massive delay, as plenty of his fans have been dying to hear some of his solo works for many years now.
“I started writing this stuff during The Final Tour [2014-2015] with Mötley Crüe,” Mars pointed out. “Then that TV show [‘The Dirt’] came out, so we went back to playing. I had a lot of stuff written at that time, but I couldn’t get it finished.”
“Then there was another stumbling block because I gave the record to a distribution company who didn’t distribute, so I had to get it back, and it took me a little while to do that, but it’s okay!”
“I’ve been wanting to do this solo thing for a very long time. First thing’s first, there are always priorities, I had to do stuff with Mötley… now it’s *my* time! In fact, I’m already working on my next album. Why stop the momentum, right?!”
Photo: Shadowgate (Motley Crue 19 (3689109499))
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