"The band started off British, then it got a little more Americanized, but now we’ve got a good balance."

An exclusive interview with Whitesnake's guitar maestro Doug Aldrich about the long-awaited new full-length studio album by the British hard rock veterans, "Good to Be Bad", scheduled for release on April 21 via SPV/Steamhammer, as well as about the upcoming show by Whitesnake and Def Leppard at the Academic Stadium in Bulgaria's capital Sofia on July 4, 2008...

Vassil Varbanov: Hey, Doug. Hello, how are you?

Doug Aldrich: Good. How are you guys doing?

V. V.: It’s great to have you with us now. You’re about to leave for this “Down Under” leg of your tour. Have you ever been to Australia and New Zealand with this band?

D. A.: No, I have not. I have personally never been there. It’s pretty exciting. I think tomorrow is out last rehearsal. And we’re really, really happy…

V. V.: Well, your album is ready, but it’s going to be actually released in almost a month. Why waiting so much?

D. A.: Well, of course we don’t want to wait. We want it out right now, but, you know, because they have to make a promotion plan and the record company has got schedule in dates and stuff. It’s scheduled for, I believe, around April 20 or 18, something like that…

V. V.: Yeah, РђРїСЂРёР» 21 for Europe.

D. A.: OK, 21st, yeah. But you guys have got some songs and at least you have a little taste of it. It’s a really great record and we are really proud of it.

V. V.: Well, this is the first studio album of Whitesnake for 11 years. Why did it take so long. Ok, we know that you, Doug, joined only in 2002, but still, did you ask David about this?

D. A.: Well, you know, we didn’t want to rush anything.  We were concentrating on live shows for the first two years. David’s always writing songs. I’m always writing songs. We are always working on ideas. We’d be backstage sometimes or in a hotel room and we have ideas and we just started to working on ideas and eventually in the end of 2006 we got together and really kind of started to get serious about writing. It was just very natural, you know? We have never had this thought: “OK, we have to do a record!” What we did was we just started writing some ideas and songs and turned them into a record. It may be was eleven years, but since Whitesnake reformed we’ve really busy, you know, touring and getting our show to be really great and now it was natural for us to start writing and we recorded this record. It took about a year to write it and to record it.

V. V.: Basically this album has been completely co-written by David and you. Is there any particular song on this album that you are particularly proud of?

D. A.: Each song has got its own personality. One of my absolute favourites is the last song on the record “Till The End Of Time”. For me it’s a really beautiful song and it really shows David’s voice. It’s sounds different. May be Whitesnake hasn’t have a song like that on a record. I really like “Till The End Of Time” and also “Lay Down Your Love’. I feel it’s a great combination of classic Whitesnake and also it has got a new flavour too, but it’s very bluesy and it’s heavy and David sounds amazing on it. Those two songs I would say.

V. V.: There have been some amazing guitarists playing in this band for this long period before you joined them. What particular one you were admiring through the years?

D. A.: I love all those guys, you know? I love the bluesy mood of Bernie Marsden and I love the slide playing of Micky Moody, the aggression and metal that John Sykes added to the band and of course I even love the Deep Purple guitar player, Ritchie Blackmore, but you know, my style is… Some of my bigger influences are Jimmy Page and Jimmy Hendrix and then later on I really loved Randy Rhoads and Gary Moore. There are some of them in my style. I’m a fan of Whitesnake as well as a band member of Whitesnake. I had all those things put together, I guess.

V. V.: Basically this tour is going to bring your band again to Bulgaria. It’s been said that you are going to play together, sharing the headlining bill with Def Leppard. Please, tell us, who is going to play first?

D. A.: Well, actually I don’t know, but I think either way it doesn’t matter. It’s going to be an amazing show. I’m so happy to work with Def Leppard for some shows this summer and especially, I can speak for the band, we love Bulgaria, we had a great time there. I think we’ve been there twice so far. Once in Sofia and once in Kavarna. We especially love being near the ocean or the water. We just had a great time in Bulgaria. The people have been very friendly to us and we loved it there. I know I speak for everybody. We are very excited to be there.

V. V.: It’s vice-versa. I mean, we are excited to have you again here. It’s interesting, because your show in Bulgaria will be on July the 4th and we can see that Whitesnake started as all-British band, but now it’s like all-American band. Where do you see the difference if you compare the early days of Whitesnake as a listener and nowadays?

D. A.: I agree with you that it started as a British band. Then later, in the 80’s, Whitesnake looked a little more like the American sounding band, because of MTV and all that stuff, but still whenever you’ve got David Coverdale singing a song, it’s sounds more British to me. Anyway, but this new record has a real British flavour to it, or a European flavour I should say too. It’s mixed in with the parts of American sound of Whitesnake in 1987. Mostly European guitar players, except for Randy Rhoads influenced me. I love the British sound, I love the European guitar players. But I agree with you. It started off British, then it got a little more Americanized, but now we’ve got a good balance I feel.

V. V.: Your show here will be as I said, on 4th of July. Last year we had at this festival here Marilyn Manson and after the show they did something like a humble fireworks thing for celebrating your national holiday. Are you planning to do something like this?

D. A.: With you guys we will. It’s going to be great. Like I said… Actually it’s very special for us to be on that date. You know, Whitesnake has got flavours of the world, so it doesn’t matter if we are in Bulgaria or in China or wherever- we are going to be having a good time.

V. V.: OK, thanks for being with us. One last question, please. When you guys are on stage, who’s deciding the dress code?

D. A.: We just try to be natural and feel good. We take cue from David. David has got an amazing vision and a very natural idea about things. He lets things just happen as they are, so no one really decides the dress code. It’s just how we feel comfortable.

V. V.: OK, we wish you good luck. Can’t wait to see you in town. Say hello to the other boys. 

D. A.: Thank you guys. We can’t wait to be there and really appreciate your support and I know I speak for David. We love Bulgaria. Thank you very much.

V. V.: I’m going to teach you now to say ‘cheers’ in Bulgarian. It’s “nazdrave”.

D. A.: Nazdrave.

V. V.: Nazdrave, Doug!

D. A.: Nazdrave. Thank you man!

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock