Even then, there’s no guarantee they’ll make the grade! There’s at least another album’s worth written but in the end, these are the ones we liked the most.” I’m always trying out new things and if they make it past my musical tolerance I’ll share them with Frank. We were writing constantly throughout the spring and summer of 2017. “There’s a lot of songs that didn’t make it onto the record. And as Williamson is only too quick to point out, there’s plenty more in the locker where those came from. Those initial recording sessions kickstarted a prolific spate of writing and recording culminating in ‘Behind The Shade’. So from there we just decided to roll with it.” Then I brought Petra in to see how it would work out and it was magical hearing their two voices together. Once I had four songs ready, I decided to record them and see where we were at that point. He was turning songs around in a day, so we just continued along in that vein. By the same token I also tried Frank (Meyer), and he was very, very prolific. He was in the band Careless Hearts who I first rehearsed with when I was coming back to music in 2009 and he wrote a beautiful song, ‘Destiny Now’ which is on ‘Behind The Shade’. At first I tried with a guy I know called Paul Nelson Kimball. “So I had to find someone I knew that could write lyrics. I’m really awful at it!” concedes Williamson. Then last year I felt like writing some more music. I had her on our album ‘Ready To Die’, had her on ‘Re-Licked’ and made some singles with her so was quite familiar with Petra. I was pretty impressed with his singing and stage performance so kept that in mind, and over the same period of time I’d also worked with Petra Haden quite a bit. When some of them said they would, I then had to find substitutes for the ones who weren’t there and Cheetah Chrome suggested Frank Meyer for one of the songs. When I did have some of the singers in because we were taping for the Carson Daly TV show, I asked if they’d like to play a live show so at least we were able to have some of them involved in one way or another. I played a live show for my previous album ’Re-Licked’ three years ago, and that album had 14 singers on it so it was pretty impossible to tour. Mainly because the audiences over there really appreciate what I do.” It’s refreshing to hear someone with such an illustrious past so excited with the future and when questioned about the beginnings of The Pink Hearts, he’s equally buoyant.Īrctic Monkeys accidentally turfed David Bowie off his VIP table It’s one of my favourite places for touring. “If there’s enough interest in the record we’d like to put together a tour around it later in the year. “I’m so geared up for these live shows” he remarks with the enthusiasm of a teenager. Gigwise caught up with Williamson during rehearsals for The Pink Hearts forthcoming live shows back in California, and found the 69-year-old reenergized and looking forward to taking his band out on the road for his first batch of dates since the final Stooges tour. Having released a number of solo records and collaborated on a number of others, this year has seen him put together a new band called The Pink Hearts, and next week they’ll release their first album, ‘Behind The Shade’. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, Williamson has been a prolific recording artist ever since. Joining the reformed Stooges in 2009, he stayed with the band until the passing of drummer Scott Asheton brought about their reunion to an untimely halt seven years later. After becoming vice president of technical standards for the Sony empire in 1997, another decade would pass before Williamson finally returned to making music. However, by the turn of the next decade he became increasingly disillusioned with the music industry for a career in IT and software development. Although the band broke up the following year, Williamson carried on working with Iggy Pop culminating in 1977’s revered ‘Kill City’. As the guitarist and co-writer of The Stooges seminal classic from 1973 ‘Raw Power’, James Williamson’s status as a rock icon is safely secured.
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