New Tesla album 'Shock' will be a more polished production, 80's sound- Guitarist Frank Hannon
Jimmy Kay from Canada's The Metal Voice (www.facebook.com/themetalvoice) recently spoke to Tesla's guitarist Frank Hannon about his new solo album of covers called "From One Place To Another Vol. 2" which wass released on May 2019 as well as the musical style on the upcoming new Tesla album called Shock that will be produced by Def Leppard's Phil Collen and released in February 2019
When asked about how many cover solo albums he is planning on releasing in the near future
"I'm a fly by the seat of my pants artist this whole thing wasn't even planned to be a series. I was just recording songs for fun and for a challenging exercise to develop my singing voice. I learned to play guitar by learning from the old masters Jimi Hendrix, Check Berry, Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads, you learn guitar from learning from your elders. So I said I really want to learn to sing better, so I started recording. Then one of my business associates said hey man you should put this out, there was so much material we had to spread it out over time. I don't know if there will be more albums in this series because I do have some original songs that i am writing for my solo projects coupled with the fact that Tesla has a new album coming out in February of this year 2019. So I don't know what is going to happen in the future. Keep in mind not only do i have these cover albums but I also have 6 solo albums."
When asked about the intricacies of singing and playing guitar on this covers album
"There are different approaches of playing guitar you can noodle, you can play fast, shred or you can play melodies. I like to shred and I like simple melodies that make you feel a certain way that you remember. So I think actually singing actually makes you a better guitar player cause it can make think more about the song in general then just noodling on the guitar."
When asked about him covering Black Sabbath's song Sweet Leaf on his covers album Vol 2
"I like punk music, I like Metal, I would like to cover Judas Priest the Ripper. There is a song that Judas Priest does called Running Wild I love that song and would love to do that. I love all the spectrum's everything from the Grateful Dead to Iron Maiden to Black Sabbath. I love it all so why not? "
When asked about his new video and song covering Deep Purple Hush and what he brings to that classic song
"The melody is what you keep from the original, it's the melody that lives forever so you pull that and then what I did I got rid of the 3/3 organ stuff that Deep Purple did and I put in Randy Hansen to play some funky Jimi Hendrix style guitar and percussion. You keep the melody the same but you crank up the guitar and put different kind of sounds to it. "
When asked about what Phil Collen will be bringing to the table producing the new Tesla album Shock
"Phil really helped us, Phil had a bunch of song ideas and a lot of the writing on the new album is co-written by Collen he interjected a lot of positive energy into us. Phil is bringing production quality and details that we would have not done and haven't done in the past. Some fans may not like it, some fans are gonna love it. This is something that we wanted to try we never worked like this before. Mutt Lang is a producer that really has techniques that are very detailed in the studio and Phil Collen obviously has experience with all that and he brought that type of approach to making the Tesla record which we never done before. the sound on this new album is really powerful."
When asked about the musical direction of the new Tesla album:
"It definitely has an 80's kind of polished production but there really is no direction we don't really put ourselves into one sound we got elements of metal, country etc..
This new album has the big production but every song sounds different, you are going to hear some slide guitar riffs there and then there is also hear some Queen, Beatles, big Beatles vocals type influences on it. You are going to hear some Def Leppard style influences and there is some of that big back vocals too. We are going to be on tour in February playing new songs off the new album and if you buy a ticket to the show in February 2019 it gets you a copy of the new album in advance. So February March 2019 the new Tesla album Shock."
Hannon's "From One Place... To Another Vol. 2" was released on May 18, just four months after the initial installment in what is planned to be an ongoing series of solo cover albums.
"From One Place To Another Vol. 2" track listing:
01. Hush (featuring Randy Hansen)
02. Lord Of The Thighs (featuring Graham Whitford)
03. You Can't Always Get What You Want (featuring Duane Betts)
