Although it’s only been 18 months since the release of their critically acclaimed ‘reunion’ album The Missing Peace, L.A. Guns have not rested on their laurels, preferring to keep the creative wheels in motion, as much as they have continued to keep their touring wheels in motion. In the interim the band, which features the reunited tandem of guitarist/songwriter Tracii Guns and vocalist/songwriter Phil Lewis, released the Made in Milan live record and found time to write and record another studio album.
The Devil You Know will be released via Frontiers Music on March 29, and there is already a clamour for it from both new and long-time fans. Frontman Lewis said there were many reasons why the band chose not to take a break from touring since he and Guns reunited back in 2016, nor was there any good reason to not continue to write and record. In summation, according to Lewis, “it’s what we do.”
“We were thrilled with the reception for The Missing Peace and that fueled our enthusiasm big time. And it’s also just the way Tracii is. He is leaning on that electric guitar 24/7. He is sitting there all the time with Garage Band and he’s just got one idea after another. And one in every five or 10 ideas is truly fantastic, so we’ve got a good formula going. That’s just what he does: he is probably, as we speak, sitting at home playing electric guitar and tracking ideas. So those are some of the reasons why we decided to keep the momentum of this reunion going,” said Lewis, who initially joined the band in 1987 and was its lead vocalist through the band’s most prolific and commercially successful period, up until his first departure in 1995. After than he played in various incarnations of the band, primarily those co-ordinated by long-time drummer Steve Riley and not including Guns, up until the reunion three years ago. Other members of the current edition of L.A. Guns include bassist Johnny Martin, drummer Shane Fitzgibbon, both of whom signed on in 2016, and newcomer Ace Von Johnson, who came on board as rhythm guitarist in 2018.
Whereas The Missing Peace was infused with more full, lush and layered production, harkening back to the band’s 1980s hair metal heyday, The Devil You Know has a stripped down, gritty, almost feral vibe, exhibiting an attitudinal kinship that leans more towards Johnny Rotten than to Jon Bon Jovi. Lewis has no problem using the word ragged to describe the tone and flavour of the songs and their production.
“Ragged: that’s another version of the work punk. And we’ve heard that about this record. We’ve been told that it has a real punky vibe, and it does. It’s not punk rock music, but it’s got a punk or raggedy feel to it, because that’s the way it was put together. The Missing Peace was lush; it’s dripping with strings and embellishments and It really is just a sonic wonderland and that’s what we wanted for that record,” he said.
“Whereas The Devil You Know is very much grittier and probably more representative of the band, especially live. I can’t see us bringing out a string quartet any time soon. And it was something we were reaching for right from the moment we got back together in 2016. In the early days after the reunion Tracii came over to my house. I am a bit of a vinyl addict and I wanted to play him some stuff and I played him the newest ZZ Top record, La Futura and I played I Gots to Get Paid, the opening track, and it just sounded so f***ing good sonically. It was like cream for the ears.
“And we both said this is what we’ve got to sound like, which is the dirty, gritty, real unfiltered blues-based rock music. So that’s what we went for to some degree on The Missing Peace, and then totally went for it on The Devil You Know. Part of that was because for The Missing Peace, we used a lot of songs that Tracii had lying around long before the reunion and long before we were going to work together again. With The Devil You Know, I have been involved right from its conception, right from the get-go. And it’s been a very bonding experience. For me its more of a personal record than The Missing Peace, which I still love of course. But because we have been on the road now for two or three years and we understand each other’s abilities and nuances even more, it gave it this energy. We recorded it very quickly and we could only have done that with the almost telepathic communications that exist between Tracii and I.”
The proof is in the proverbial pudding as L.A. Guns has managed to concoct a collection of songs that have a timelessness to without sounding the least bit dated. There is a sense of urgency and tension that comes across, much as the band’s earliest recordings did – an indication that they are hungry now as they ever have been.
“We are old school, and we make no apologies for it, man. We are children of the 1970s and that’s just the way we do things. And to be honest, that energy you are feeling is an element of making up for lost time as well. There was a 15-year estrangement between myself and Tracii for stupid reasons that had nothing to do with the fans. So, there’s a little bit of guilt there to be honest, as well as a whole lot of stored up ideas. We wanted to make something that was true to who we were and point people in the direction that we’re going in now, and I think we succeeded,” Lewis said.
“We wrote most of this record on the road. And I remember specifically being in Australia and we had a day off. I decided to go to a nearby animal sanctuary and saw the koalas and kangaroos, while Tracii, Johnny and the rest of the guys were up in the hotel room writing. And that was the day that the wrote the song Rage. So, it was good – they can go see the koalas and kangaroos next time.”
The title track can have multiple meanings. It can refer to couples, teammates, business partners – or more specifically to L.A. Guns, bandmates.
“We wanted to do something a little Black Sabbath-y; something really devil-y. We had a song on the last record called The Devil Made Me Do It, so it’s a good theme to write about. Actually, what happened was the working title of the album at one point was Wasn’t Tomorrow Great, and then it changed to Gravity Is In Control. But then our manager was like ‘can you give me a title I can work with? Something we can use visually and can put on t-shirts, not a f***ing astronaut floating above the planet?’ I said, okay, we’ve got it – The Devil You Know,” Lewis said.
“And that was the kick in the ass we needed to come up with a really strong title track, sonically and thematically and with some cool imagery as well. That was the first song off the record that we started playing live. We have been playing it for three or four months and it goes down gangbusters. But think about it, The Devil You Know – that’s me and Tracii isn’t it? Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t as the expression goes. Like The Missing Peace, it’s a very autobiographical album title. And it’s also the way we approach our music. We’re doing something and we’re doing it the old way – our way. We’re stubborn. We know we’re not going to sell million of records, but this is what we do. We’re artists and it’s in our blood. We can’t help it, nor do we want to help it.”
L.A. Guns will be playing selected tracks from The Devil You Know as well as beloved hits from their back catalogue, such as The Ballad of Jayne, Sex Action, Never Enough, Kiss My Love Goodbye and It’s Over Now, as they set out to tour throughout 2019. Dates are already booked throughout the U.S. in April and some more in June. At present, the only Canadian date is a festival appearance in Welland, Ontario on July 11 for the Rock the Roses/Hair in the Fair event, but Lewis said more shows are being booked all the time.
For more information on the band, tour dates and The Devil You Know, visit https://www.lagunsmusic.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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