Glenn Hughes Discusses New Band California Breed + More

By Andrew Bansal

Following the breakup of supergroup Black Country Communion, the talents of Glenn Hughes and Jason Bonham once again come together to form a new band called California Breed, and along with the efforts of young guitarist Andrew Watt, Hughes and Bonham are setting out to present their musicianship in a raw, unabated, power-trio form. California Breed’s self-titled debut album comes out on May 20th via Frontiers Records, and the band is set to make their live debut at the Whisky-A-Go-Go in West Hollywood CA on May 28th, followed by a show at the Gramercy Theatre in NYC on May 31st. Yesterday on May 8th, I spoke to Glenn Hughes about the formation of this band, among other things. Enjoy the enthusiasm and humbleness of Glenn Hughes through the conversation below.

Glenn, it’s a pleasure to have you on Metal Assault for an interview. I’m going to mainly talk to you about your new band California Breed. First of all, what led to the formation of this band?

Well, you know, when Black Country Communion broke up, it was kind of quiet. Not many people really knew what was going on. Jason and I decided that we were going to continue, but we didn’t particularly wanted to continue as ‘Black Country Communion Part 2’, you know? So we decided we would carry on with somebody new. We didn’t know who that was going to be. And the next thing I knew, I was at Julian Lennon’s party in February 2013, it was the night before the Grammys. I was just about to leave the party and I had a great evening with him, but he said he wanted me to meet somebody, a friend of his from New York. It was this cool-looking younger dude, his name was Andrew Watt and we spoke. I asked Andrew where he lived, and told him I’d be in Minneapolis the week after, asking him to come to my house there. So he came to my house, we started to write, made friends and we wrote two songs ‘Chemical Rain’ and ‘Solo’ (the bonus track for Japan). We wrote those songs in early March and I realized, wait a minute, this could be really interesting with Jason. So I called Jason up, and he happened to be in LA that day. So the day after, we went in and recorded those two songs with Jason, and it turned out really, really well. So I slept on it, woke up the next day and listened to those songs again. I thought it could be a really, really good thing. But we decided to keep it quiet, and once a month we would get together at my place or go down to Jason’s place in Florida to write, practice, learn songs and be friends. So all of last year, we were preparing for the album to be recorded with Dave Cobb in Nashville which was done in December.

That’s great, but obviously you mentioned that Black Country Communion broke up and you wanted to continue with something else, but were you upset with how it went down with BCC, because that band had a lot of promise?

I think because of the age I’m at, and let’s just say that I wasn’t wise when I was 21, I think in this period of my life I’ve become a wiser person and I don’t have any bad feelings or anger or issues like that because I’m a person that really, truly lives for the moment. I think BCC made three wonderful albums and a DVD, but one thing that BCC lacked and which everybody across the globe knows, is that we didn’t play enough. Joe told us 3 or 4 years ago that he was a solo artist, but because BCC turned out to be so good, we all thought that may be Joe would change his mind. But Joe never changed his mind. So, there was a period during the last 15 months of BCC where nothing was happening. We made the last album and there was no plan to tour. So, we decided without going to the press that we would end. The press didn’t know it until 3 months later. But we had already decided to disband. I think the fans were upset. But I need everyone to know that there was no anger. We were upset but I didn’t want it to continue into my real life so I wanted to continue making music and making rock music with Jason.

Right, exactly. And with this band California Breed have you set out with any kind of aim in terms of the musical style or are you just going to write what comes to you?

I think it’s important for me to tell you, if you know anything about me, you know that I’ve never made the same album twice. Even when I worked with Tony Iommi, it was different. I never like to repeat the process. I always like to make rock music for rock fans. I like to make big rock songs. These days I like to make rock music that rock fans understand. But the one thing I wanted to do to take it away from sounding like BCC was, number one, find a guitar player that doesn’t play like Joe, number two, no keyboards. So you can hear that Andrew Watt doesn’t sound like Iommi, Blackmore, Bonamassa, or any of my ex-partners. He sounds different. He’s younger and you know, Angus Young is very right-handed guitar player. Keith Richards is the same, and Pete Townshend, all of these people are considered to be great right-handed guitar players. What we have with Andrew is something similar, and he doesn’t sound like Joe. So the good news for me also was going back to a trio. A long time ago before Deep Purple I was in a band called Trapeze which did really well until I left the band, and I wanted to go back to a trio. I was a really good friend of John Bonham, he played with me in Trapeze and we jammed. And with Jason, we’re both organically trio-orientated. That’s why we kept it as a trio. Some people when they heard about this new band before they heard the music, they were like, “Oh, where’s the keyboard player?” And we said, “Well, there isn’t one!” The Who didn’t need one, Zeppelin didn’t need one, neither did Free, Humble Pie or Hendrix! For me, and this is no disrespect to keyboard players because I’ve played with some of the greatest ones, I find that real rock music speaks to me in a trio form.

I agree with that, and there’s a certain sense of magic to three-piece bands that you cannot really find in bands with more members.

Yeah, I’ve never said this and I’m saying it now in these interviews. I’ve been wanting to get back to a trio for may be 7 or 8 years, you know. Chad Smith, my friend in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, he was recording with me for the last 3 or 4 albums and we were trying to get it in that form. In fact we did make some songs that were very trio-orientated with Dave Navarro. So I wanted to really go back to my roots. When you have just one guitar, one bass and drums, there’s so much energy from those instruments that you don’t need anything else. That’s when you have bigger grooves, you have light and shades. Just look at The Who for example. Can you fucking imagine a hammond organ in The Who? It just wouldn’t work. So I think one of the best things Jason and I did was to agree to keep this as a trio.

That’s awesome. So, when it comes to writing, in this band you’re doing bass and vocals. Are the bass lines written around the vocals or is it the other way round?

I write the vocals first, and let me tell you this, it’s not something I really talk about until somebody asks me this question, may be I’ve written songs in the last 20 years I didn’t realize when I was writing them that they were too hard to play on the bass and sing. But in recent years, when I write a song on the guitar or bass or whatever it is, I always ask myself, can I play this and sing this live? It’s really important because I know a lot of famous people that really have a hard time singing and playing. For me, being the kind of bass player I am, I like to leave holes in the groove and there’s a lot of that. Not many people ask me that question.

I’m glad to have done so, then. But your singing is very highly regarded, specially by people who see you performing live and still talk of you as the best singer going around in rock today. What do you do to keep your vocals in top shape, even at this age?

Well, I don’t smoke, drink or do drugs and that’s been really important for me. Never smoking a cigarette and not drinking whisky for 23 years really has helped me. I think there are singers that have had a long smoking period in their life and you can hear it in their voices. But I’ve been very blessed that I never took up tobacco or pot. And for people who want to know about how I go about singing live, this is going to sound crazy but I make sure I get eight hours of sleep before every show. I don’t do dairy, cheese or milk. It interferes with my throat. And it all depends on how I’m feeling, but I have a 15-45 minute warm-up on my iPod, an exercise from a well-known teacher that I’ve been dealing with for quite some time. So, singers that have 3,4 or 5 octaves in their vocals like I do are like athletes. An athlete who doesn’t warm up is not going to be able to complete a race. It’s really a part of presenting the best Glenn I can do, to prepare for the show, and that means warming up my voice. A good soundcheck is really important.

One aspect you’ve been really good at recently is social media. You’re really active and you interact a lot with fans directly. How important is that in your opinion? A lot of musicians are delusional and don’t know what people are saying about them.

To tell you the truth, I only started doing it last October. And this is crazy, I remember being on a bus with Joe Bonamassa three years ago, and I remember seeing him every day and night talking to people on facebook. I didn’t really know much about how artists were contacting their fans or connecting with them, and then all of a sudden last October I told my webmaster. I knew I had a fan page but I wanted to go in and start connecting with them, not having the webmaster do it but let me do it. For a long time people still thought it was him, even though I’ve been connecting with fans for about seven months now. A lot of people have been checking out the facebook and I have a really good connection with my audience, man. It really warms my heart that they’re contacting me from all over the place. It really is important for me to let them know that I’m really appreciative of what they’ve done for me.

And finally, what plans do you have with California Breed? I believe you have your first shows coming up very soon.

Yeah we do! We’re going to do the two shows in LA and New York, and we’re going to start a tour by doing Europe and America this year in mid-September, so the great news for me and for Jason and Andrew is that we get to play in a band together. It’s a shame that we couldn’t do that in BCC but now it’s a different time and a different place, and we’re all very, very happy.

Purchase tickets for California Breed’s live debut at the Whisky-A-Go-Go at this location.

California Breed links:
CaliforniaBreed.com
facebook.com/CaliforniaBreed
twitter.com/CaliBreedBand
instagram.com/CaliforniaBreedOfficial

Glenn Hughes links:
GlennHughes.com
facebook.com/GlennHughesOnline
twitter.com/Glenn_Hughes
instagram.com/GlennHughesOnline

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