Richard Fortus On What the New Guns N' Roses Album Could Sound Like

[sidman69]

One of our awesome subscribers went to one of Richard Fortus' recent appearances in Chicago and sent me a summary of what happened. He asked Richard about the new album and it's summarized below. Richard also talked about how Melissa joined the group (she dated brain) and more!

– I asked him if the new GnR album would sound more like a classic GnR album, something closer to a Chinese Democracy sound, or if it’s even evolved into a more modern sound than that. Fortus said the sound will be even different and more evolved than Chinese Democracy.

https://gnrcentral.com/2019/06/12/duff-mckagan-talks-punk-guns-n-roses-favourite-tracks-more/

[Drexl]

Makes perfect sense. They can't recreate Appetite sound without Izzy and Stevie. Move along, gentlemen.

[rocknroll41]

Interested to hear how that turns out.

[RussTCB]

37 minutes ago, sidman69 said:

One of our awesome subscribers went to one of Richard Fortus' recent appearances in Chicago and sent me a summary of what happened. He asked Richard about the new album and it's summarized below. Richard also talked about how Melissa joined the group (she dated brain) and more!

– I asked him if the new GnR album would sound more like a classic GnR album, something closer to a Chinese Democracy sound, or if it’s even evolved into a more modern sound than that. Fortus said the sound will be even different and more evolved than Chinese Democracy.

https://gnrcentral.com/2019/06/12/duff-mckagan-talks-punk-guns-n-roses-favourite-tracks-more/

Works for me! 

[default_]

I wonder what "evolved" means regarding CD lol

[Tom-Ass]

Just now, default_ said:

I wonder what "evolved" means regarding CD lol

That is what I was thinking

[todreamofwolves]

Is there anyone here who doesn't take what Richard has to say with a huge grain of salt? I got a $50 bill that says he doesn't know what this pie-in-the-sky new album will sound like.

Also, how else would he respond to such a question? "Umm, yeah, it will sound just like Chinese Democracy". If there is barely any interest in a new GNR album as it is, a comment like that would be the nail in the coffin. Oh, and no shit they aren't writing another AFD. As if they could if they even wanted to.

[Rovim]

Fortus is in the band so my guess is he at least heard a lot of the unreleased material and probably/maybe recorded some parts of it.

I have no idea if what he says is legit but it will make sense that it will be an evolution of Chinese cause Axl said he enjoys playing the Chinese material the most live which means he's still into that sort of style and he did play Slash and Duff some or a lot of the vault tunes.

"Even different and more evolved than Chinese" could mean a bunch of different things but every Guns record was different to the one before it until now. Who knows how it will sound like, but when I try to picture it maybe it could be more sprawling and just as detailed as Chinese Democracy, still with the layers but maybe more balanced: some tunes will be more dominant by Slash's riffs while only some of the material will be centered around Axl's lyrics and melodies.

I have no idea what it would sound like obviously but I hope they will work on a double album so there is room for what Axl got and also the new stuff and not just a taste of each era.

I want it to be consistent in quality but all over the place stylistically speaking with Slash and Duff adding their ideas to old material and bringing in new tunes for Axl to work with plus new songs that start with Axl lyrics that the band worked on. The rockers/ballad ratio could be different as well, perhaps a more hard rocking record but still with a lot of piano epics and some new influences we've never heard in Guns music, not even on Chinese with Slash's playing to anchor Axl's taste for visions.

Exciting to think what they can do with all that talent in the band, the resources they have, and the zillion tunes Axl had already recorded. Richard said Axl got 4 albums of original material. Impossible to predict how it will sound but I trust Axl to release only great albums and I trust Slash (and Duff) to make it sound more Gn'R.

 

 

[AxlRoseCDII]

There will never be another album on the level of appetite in terms of rock, so I’d rather they focus on evolving the Guns sound. Slash and Duff can do their rock and other basic tracks with their solo work, and Guns can be their outlet to do more grandiose tracks.

[EvanG]

I can't see Slash doing something shockingly different, though. He's kinda like Izzy, a one-trick pony.

[rocknroll41]

22 minutes ago, AxlRoseCDII said:

There will never be another album on the level of appetite in terms of rock, so I’d rather they focus on evolving the Guns sound. Slash and Duff can do their rock and other basic tracks with their solo work, and Guns can be their outlet to do more grandiose tracks.

Upon further thought, I agree that this is the right approach, yeah. At this point each of the vault songs, like each of the ChiDem songs, is nodoubetdly layered with lots of stuff recorded from 1998 to now, so might as well embrace that layered nature and let Slash, Duff, and  Melissa throw their own licks into the melting pot of each of those songs.

the general public might respond negatively to it, like they did with ChiDem, but so be it. Artists are supposed to just do what they want anyways, rather than trying to appeal to what other people want.

the only blocker I can kinda see tho is the record label. I can see them wanting to push for a more classic rock sounding album. Then again, they might be okay with just releasing anything just as long as they can market it as “the first Guns N’ Roses studio album of original material with Slash and Duff since 1991.”

Edited June 12, 2019 by rocknroll41

[MaskingApathy]

I don't think it's going to sound like CD, it's going to be a more classic sounding record, simply because Slash is involved with it. And I hope it's more new ideas than Chinese leftovers.

[BadApples87]

Fortus is an "additional musician" on Axl's payroll.  I doubt he has much say in the material that Axl, Slash, and Duff will put together.  I am hoping, and what I think will happen, is that it is a reasonable facsimile of the Use Your Illusions.  I think it will likely sound like the material on the second half of Use Your Illusion 2.

[DieselDaisy]

Should have just described a vacuum.

[Popcorn crew]

2 hours ago, default_ said:

I wonder what "evolved" means regarding CD lol

Yep exactly. It can evolve like Pokemon or like Ebola. But GnR have pokemon trainer Mellisa so I dont worry about evolving. 

Regarding sound I agree it would be more SMKC than CD.

[rocknroll41]

If they take pre-existing songs but re-record them all from scratch (sans the vocals, probably) than it would probably end up sounding more like UYI/SMKC than CD, yeah. Depends if that’s the route they wanna go or not, though.

[Rovim]

On 6/12/2019 at 10:21 PM, EvanG said:

I can't see Slash doing something shockingly different, though. He's kinda like Izzy, a one-trick pony.

Axl and Slash balance each other imo. Axl is more ambitious, versatile, and interested in making a musical statement every decade and a half and Slash is deeply rooted in Rock when it comes to his own music.

But... one trick ponies? Slash has worked with countless musicians as a session musician, he can adapt stylistically to many different genres and his guitar playing doesn't sound generic especially if someone else wrote the song so it's possible it will be different depends on the context I guess. Besides, even Contraband sounded different to Snakepit and more recently you could detect some new old influences in living the dream like Gary Moore and more ZZ top. I guess I'm trying to say that inside Slash's bag of tricks there are a lot of ingredients that make the whole, and Izzy isn't a one trick pony either imo, he's just rooted in rock n' roll like Kieth Richards but also did reggae for example.

Back to Slash... every solo on UYI sounds like a song within a song and different from one another as well. He's versatile in his own genre when there is someone to push him like say... Axl and how he did it with November Rain and Estranged. Slash also wrote Coma which has some metal in it so it's more than just one trick he was influenced by a lot of guitar players and you can detect all of them in his playing.

 

Edited August 9, 2019 by Rovim

[EvanG]

4 minutes ago, Rovim said:

Axl and Slash balance each other imo. Axl is more ambitious, versatile, and interested in making a musical statement every decade and a half and Slash is deeply rooted in Rock when it comes to his own music.

But... one trick ponies? Slash has worked with countless musicians as a session musician, he can adapt stylistically to many different genres and his guitar playing doesn't sound generic especially if someone else wrote the song so it's possible it will be different depends on the context I guess. Besides, even Contraband sounded different to Snakepit and more recently you could detect some new old influences in living the dream like Gary Moore and more ZZ top. I guess I'm trying to say that inside Slash's bag of tricks there are a lot of ingredients that makes the whole, and Izzy isn't a one trick pony either imo, he's just rooted in rock n' roll like Kieth Richards but also did reggae for example.

Back to Slash... every solo on UYI sounds like a song within a song and different from one another as well. He's versatile in his own genre when there is someone to push him like say... Axl and how he did it with November Rain and Estranged. Slash also wrote Coma which has some metal in it so it's more than just one trick he was influenced by a lot of guitar players and you can detect all of them in his playing.

Well, in the grand scheme of things, when you look at his own music, he hasn't really done much else than hard rock, right? And there's nothing wrong with that! He's one of my favourite guitar players of all time. Same as Izzy... all his records sound, more or less, the same. They sure stay true to their original sound! But yeah... maybe in combination with someone like Axl he will be pushed towards some different sounds.

Duff is more adventurous musically speaking. He's done his solo stuff, Walking Papers, Jane's Addiction, and now this mellow, acoustic record that is different from his previous solo efforts.

 

[Rovim]

17 minutes ago, EvanG said:

Well, in the grand scheme of things, when you look at his own music, he hasn't really done much else than hard rock, right? And there's nothing wrong with that! He's one of my favourite guitar players of all time. Same as Izzy... all his records sound, more or less, the same. They sure stay true to their original sound! But yeah... maybe in combination with someone like Axl he will be pushed towards some different sounds.

Duff is more adventurous musically speaking. He's done his solo stuff, Walking Papers, Jane's Addiction, and now this mellow, acoustic record that is different from his previous solo efforts.

 

Axl and Duff are the most adventurous when it comes to their own music, I agree, but Slash is actually a very versatile guitar player inside his genre: you've got spanish influence, Megadave offering Slash to work with him on metal material, blues influence though he is not really a blues player, country influence all of these influences we're used to just call "Slash's guitar playing" you know what I mean? his greatest talent is his riffs and solos but when you look at his body of work, in "the grand scheme of things" it's only been generic with the Conspirators, he is far more versatile compared to other hard rock players I think.

He did that Slash and Friends album as well which had pop, metal, rock, and other shit in there on one album.

He did say he doesn't strays too far from Rock cause then it becomes something else and that's not what he's interested in doing but listening to his work outside of Guns and his own solo career you do get the sense he dabbles in a lot of different genres so the potential is there.

perhaps not playing on Shackler's Revenge but things like Better he had no problem of adapting to it even if he couldn't quite top Robin's work imo in that particular track. In the studio Slash now will have the chance, time, and conditions to work with material that will hopefully challenge him more but I think you're possibly selling him kinda short when you label him as a one trick pony. You can't have his vocabulary as a player and only know how to do one thing. It sounds like one thing cause his style of playing is so well formed but it is unique thanks to the high number of influences and the particular way he combines them in his playing.

Edited June 12, 2019 by Rovim

[EvanG]

1 minute ago, Rovim said:

Axl and Duff are the most adventurous when it comes to their own music, I agree, but Slash is actually a very versatile guitar player inside his genre: you've got spanish influence, Megadave offering Slash to work with him on metal material, blues influence though he is no really a blues player, country influence all of these influences we're used to just call "Slash's guitar playing" you know what I mean? his greatest talent is his riffs and solos but when you look at his body of work, in "the grand scheme of things" it's only been generic with the Conspirators, he is far more versatile compared to other hard rock players I think.

He did that Slash and Friends album as well which had pop, metal, rock, and other shit in there on one album.

He did say he doesn't strays too far from Rock cause then it becomes something else and that's not what he's interested in doing but listening to his work outside of Guns and his own solo career you do get the sense he dabbles in a lot of different genres so the potential is there.

perhaps not playing on Shackler's Revenge but things like Better he had no problem of adapting to it even if he couldn't quite top Robin's work imo in that particular track. In the studio Slash now will have the chance, time, and conditions to work with material that will hopefully challenge him more but I think you're possibly selling him kinda short when you label him as a one trick pony. You can't have his vocabulary as a player and only know how to do one thing. It sounds like one thing cause his style of playing is so well formed.

To be fair, he's kind of a pentatonic/blues scale guy, but of course he can throw some different influences in his guitar playing. Most guys at that level can. That is not what I am talking about though. Compared to many other bands/artists, who drastically changed genre or sound, he nor Izzy have done that throughout their career and that is why I referred to them as ''one-trick ponies''. It's not criticism. Therefore I can't really see Slash doing something very different from what he has been doing since the 80's when it comes down to the type of music he is playing. And when it comes down to GnR, I don't know if I would want that.

[Len Cnut]

3 hours ago, default_ said:

I wonder what "evolved" means regarding CD lol

An attempt by old men to make a contemporary album to reflect a time and a musical landscape that they are out of step with and scarcely understand.  Possibly a noble pursuit but unlikely to be rewarding for the audience.

Edited June 12, 2019 by Len Cnut

[Thorbear]

I hope this is true. I don't want a bland attempt to recreate AfD or UYI. 

[Towelie]

21 minutes ago, Len Cnut said:

An attempt by old men to make a contemporary album to reflect a time and a musical landscape that they are out of step with and scarcely understand.  Possibly a noble pursuit but unlikely to be rewarding for the audience.

If the 2019 musical landscape is what they are out of step with, wouldn't you say that would likely also be the case for the vast majority of their audience? I mean, we're mostly blokes in our 30s and 40s on a GNR forum, I doubt any of us are really hip to the cutting edge music tastes of 2019...

Some of us jizzed in our pants when we first heard Shacklers Revenge in 2008, as if nu-metal wasn't almost ten years past being considered fashionable at that time.

If old man Axl is out of touch, it doesn't really matter much, because we are too.

Edited June 12, 2019 by Towelie

[Rovim]

19 minutes ago, Len Cnut said:

An attempt by old men to make a contemporary album to reflect a time and a musical landscape that they are out of step with and scarcely understand.  Possibly a noble pursuit but unlikely to be rewarding for the audience.

doesn't matter that they're old, doesn't matter that their peak is behind them. I don't think the goal here is to reflect the current musical landscape, my guess is the goal is to reflect musically what Axl envisions in his head which is Gn'R plus maybe a few more musical influences he is into and lyrically to reflect his feelings which are really thoughts about what he has always been into perhaps more socially aware. The "evolution" is making a new musical salad which sounds like Gn'R. Just a guess, no jokes allowed.

[Ant]

More evolved than Chinese Democracy.

 

Harpsichords.