Chuck Shute Podcast

Phil Lewis (L.A. Guns)

April 11, 2023 Phil Lewis Season 4 Episode 331
Chuck Shute Podcast
Phil Lewis (L.A. Guns)
Show Notes Transcript

Phil Lewis is an English singer and musician, best known as the vocalist and occasional guitarist for the American hard rock band L.A. Guns. The band has a new album out April 14th titled “Black Diamonds.” The new album is an eclectic mix of Zeppelin & punk influenced songs with a classic L.A. Guns sound. We discuss the new album, concert set lists, potential tour packages, meeting fans and more! 

00:00 - Intro 
00:31 - Playing New Songs Live & Set List 
04:55 - New Album "Black Diamonds" Breakdown
08:25 - New Single "Diamonds" & Playing It Live 
15:15 - New Song "Gonna Lose" & Vocals 
20:18 - Package Tour? 
21:02 - Backing Vocals & Tracks 
22:25 - Tracii Guns Side Projects 
24:30 - Art World & Meeting Fans 
26:40 - Social Media 
28:54 - Outro 

L.A. Guns website:
http://www.lagunsmusic.com/

L.A. Kitten Rescue website:
https://kittenrescue.org/

Chuck Shute website:
https://chuckshute.com/

Support the show

Thanks for Listening & Shute for the Moon!

Chuck Shute:

All right, Phil Lewis is back on the show. Phil, of course is the lead singer of La guns and they have a new album out April 14 called Black Diamonds. It's a great album. very eclectic something for everybody. And we're going to discuss that album plus playing songs, live voice tips, potential tour plans and so much more. Stay right there welcome, Phil Lewis. Thank you. Hi, guns. How you doing?

Phil Lewis:

Doing great. Fantastic. Thanks.

Chuck Shute:

Glad to hear you. I think my dad has that same background. The exact same one.

Phil Lewis:

The Harry Potter background not gonna get the broom. Oh, okay. The splendid broom.

Chuck Shute:

Are you a Harry Potter fan? No. All right, so new album, Black Diamonds comes out April 14. Yeah, I mean, you guys just keep pumping out the album's and they're all good. So I think the biggest problem I would say is trying to figure out what songs to play live. Right. That's gotta be a challenge.

Phil Lewis:

A big time. Yeah, that really is a problem. And well, first of all, the problem is picking out which ones to do off a new record. Because, you know, in a record, like the one we just put out, it's so varied, you know, there's so many different styles. So just that alone picking say two or three new ones. And then the hard part, the really hard part is where to put them. Because we've only got a limited amount of time. We are somewhat obligated to we have to play the old hair. So we've got to play Jane we've got to pay electric gypsy we've got to do that. So it the challenges is where to put the stuff. And also it's a little bit heartbreaking because you know the the the golden nuggets, if you will, you know the like the ballot or Jane electric gypsy Sex Action. They're evergreens, they're always there. But if we're going to be adding new songs of this new album, it means we've got a clip other new songs from prior albums. So that's, that's that's always it's like, killing puppies.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. This is the fourth one since the reunion. They've all been magnificent. So it's gonna Yeah, it's gonna be tough to pick unless you can you how long of the set? Can you do like, vocally singing? I mean, because your voice has to give out at some point, right? Well, I

Phil Lewis:

mean, you know, we can we could play for two hours, three, two and a half hours providing I wasn't singing all the time. You know, there's, there's all kinds of things we could do, you know, jams and stuff we could do. But in terms of, you know, like, song after song after song. I'm, I'm, I'm kind of bored with it after 90 minutes to be honest with you. It is you know it, I can do it. But it's like, it's, it's that point, it becomes a chore.

Chuck Shute:

Okay, yeah, I mean, as a fan, I'm like, I'm a pretty hardcore fan. So I could listen to it for three hours, but because there's so many songs, I want to hear it. It'd be fun to hear all the old ones but I get as a performer in 90 minutes. Yeah, it starts to

Phil Lewis:

Yeah, tire. Yeah. And some people, some bands they on the cruise, last cruise that we did, a lot of the bands, were doing two sets. I just couldn't do that. I just, I don't have the equipment to do that my voice after I sing for an hour, hour and a half, 90 minutes. It closes up and it starts to heal. And the last thing I want to do is go out and blow it out again. So yeah, I mean yeah, 90 minutes is about as good as you're gonna get.

Chuck Shute:

Well, you're in Vegas now. Have you guys ever thought of doing like a residency there and then mix it up and play different new songs every night?

Phil Lewis:

Well, it's not exactly a residency but we've got a favorite venue that we play here a place called Vamped. Danny from Calvin carves, it's his place, and we've been playing there for years. And it's a great venue and we they generally book us two nights in a row. And then that's great. Then we can really experiment with new stuff and see what works and yeah, but we will still, even on two nights even we will still have to play play the nuggets, and that's okay. That's for sure got us here in the first place. Absolutely. Well,

Chuck Shute:

yeah, the new stuff though. Got I mean, there really isn't a bad song. It's like you said though, it's so varied. It's so eclectic. I feel like the first half is kind of more Zeppelin stuff and then kind of the later half of the album was more like the fun like punk kind of fast old school la guns. Like I think one of my favorite songs probably lowlife actually.

Phil Lewis:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And it is, you're right about that it does start off like heavies abalone immigrant song. And towards the end, it does, like now it becomes more of a sort of the power pot and sort of sing along. La guns that I think people are familiar with. Another issue is, you know, when you release an album, is Song placement. You know, that's, that's, that's also also really tricky. We're old school, you know, me and Tracy, we were out, you know, kids of the of the of the LP. And, you know, what's the opening track? What's the third track? What's the last track on the first side? What's the opening song of the second side? That stuff's important to us. And we spend a lot of time thinking about that. And we're just different from other bands that are happy to put out a song here and there, we tend to do the, you know, the old school, the full, full length album.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, how do you what is the strategy with the song or I've always wondered that.

Phil Lewis:

You know, it's just the Andy Johns taught us how to do it. What you do, is you write every song title, and you put it on a table or on the floor, and you look at it. And it generally comes to you, as opposed to listening, just seeing the titles, and seeing what goes where it falls into place pretty good. It's not always it's not a failsafe way of doing it. But that's, that's how we we've done it a lot in the past.

Chuck Shute:

Is there ever disagreements and where you guys say, No, this one needs to be the first song or?

Phil Lewis:

Wait, I tend to, to avoid disagreements, to be honest with you. You know, I I like it all. So I don't really care that much. It's certainly not don't care enough to for it to become a squabble or an issue. I have my suggestions. Sure. And I'm pretty vocal in what I got what I think is good, and what I think is bad too. But if it's, if it looks good, it's fine. I'm just at this stage in my life, I just, I'm, like, I want to, I want the easy life. I don't want to, I've been through so many battles, and especially with him, you know, we've had our ridiculous 15 year feud. I don't really don't want to mess with it. Unless it's something I'm really incredibly passionate about. And I feel strongly about and in which case, yeah, but those are few and far between.

Chuck Shute:

That's good to hear. I like it. So the song your latest single diamonds, which I think that one's out now. Yeah, kind of a ballad. Talk about the lyrics of that, because essentially, it says, I know we're broken but we shine like a diamond. So yeah, it's it's a we instead of an eye so are you guys referring to the band or just people in general? Or

Phil Lewis:

will it mean for a start, let's give give diamond the credit. It what it is, is a power ballad. And it's a big old fucking 80s style power ballad. And there hasn't been one of those in a long fucking time. I think you might be able to assist me here. The last power ballad I can think of that was a big deal was the flame by cheap trick.

Chuck Shute:

That's a great song.

Phil Lewis:

It is a great song. And that is the epitome of a power ballad, isn't it? Yeah. I feel that this is in that same category. And it's it's a style that a lot of bands have been reluctant to do because it is. It's old school. I mean, it's kind of a an old style, way of writing and performing. And I really loved that. And if you think about it, can you think of any other recent power balance? lot of bands are shy to do that.

Chuck Shute:

We're not very many that have gotten any AirPlay or wrecked by,

Phil Lewis:

by and, you know, I'm not saying they don't have any and, you know, I'm not sure that, you know, they might I mean, I, I'd like to be proved otherwise. But for me, I haven't heard any other bands, doing stuff like that in a very, very long time. And I'm proud of us for doing that. And being able to do that and not being shy about it. But to the lyrics. You know, it's, somebody was complaining that it's a song that doesn't have a lot of depth, it was just like, what is that it, you know, they felt a bit gypped lyrically. And I, you know, I think they're missing the point is, it's really, it's the whole thing's a metaphor. And a good one too, and especially, you know, like, for people fuck ups, you know, that simple for their own, and sometimes no fault of their own, you know, they they find themselves broken. And it's a song for the broken, it's a song, you know, for those that, you know, it shattered. But there's other aspects that can do it, it won't hold, it won't hold anything, but it will shine like a fucking diamond. And I think it's very inspirational. And no, it doesn't have a great deal of depth. It's hardly a Peter Gabriel lyric. It's, you know, pretty basic. But that's one of the songs that we're going to be doing live. And I'm, I'm curious. So that's, that's how that's gonna go down how that's gonna sound. This This album is is very there's a lot going on. Technically, a lot going on sonically. That on the record that is going to be it's going to be needed for if we're going to do these new songs. Another discussion we're having at the moment. Yeah. But because, you know, like the, you got to admit that the vocals on diamonds are recorded, absolutely pristine. And that has to sound that good life. So a lot of a lot of backing vocals on there that I'm absolutely completely 100% dependent on. So we haven't actually rehearsed yet. We've got we've got the gig, the first gig on Wednesday. But you know, we're confident we know it, and this is what we do. But yeah, we're going to we're going to attempt to do three we're going to try and do you betray. We're going to try and do diamonds. And then I think the boys are wrong about you got it wrong. Yeah, no, not got it wrong wrong about you. Got it wrong. Don't get me get me got it wrong. That's that's a different one. wrong about you is the

Chuck Shute:

oh, that's the second one. Yeah, yeah. That's what sounds kind of like fast way meets Led Zeppelin. That's what I that's what I put on my notes for them.

Phil Lewis:

Lots of lots of that in there. Yeah, sure. If that's, you know, a good sing along typical style la guns. The other two, we will see, see, I'm looking forward to it. There's definitely definitely a challenge this this time,

Chuck Shute:

or this thing going along, and I'll have my lighter or my cell phone for,

Phil Lewis:

right. Well, you know, this, this is section in diamonds that I really could do with some audience participation. There's just there's just like these two lines in the middle. That, you know, I do my verse and then we do the choruses and verse, the band and me singing, but that's a bit in the middle of it. We can shine. We can shine, we can shine, we can shine. I really really want the crowd to do specifically those four lines of no shine shine with me. Share with me, you know those four, that's got to be crowd participation and then the roof will collapse. It will be so fucking brilliant.

Chuck Shute:

I can't wait. I'm coming to the Friday show. That's a mesa. So it's like the Mesa music festival or something. That should be fun.

Phil Lewis:

Okay, that's the second one. Yeah. So we're gonna be playing San Diego on Wednesday and then Mesa on Friday and then the whiskey on Saturday.

Chuck Shute:

Oh, that's a great three shows that'll be amazing. And the song, I was gonna ask you about this one, obviously, you're not doing it live, because I would think the song gonna lose would be a hard one. Is that hard to sing? Because you're really on that one? Luck? Yeah.

Phil Lewis:

It's very hard to sing. I, I'm surprised that I could sing it. I did sing it. And it's mean, it's not like auto tune or anything like that. But it is. I've never sung like that before. I gotta give Mitch that. Mitch are my my producer, the vocal does record my vocals. Good. He's a good coach. And, you know, when we worked on that part, I was like, I don't know if I can get that I mentioned he goes, you know, think about it, you know, try it. And we tried it first time, at the end of the day, like we were recording, like two or three songs a day. And at the end of like, the second or third day, we just put it out and see what it sounded like see if I could get anywhere near. And I could do the verse, All right. But when that chorus kicked in, it was like I couldn't I was nowhere near it. I couldn't touch it come through mile. But I you know, I didn't let it freaking out. I did. We're just like, what you do in a situation like that is you got to rewrite it, you just rewrite it in a different key. But I didn't want to do that, because I thought it was just such a great part. So I slept on it. I went back to the hotel, and I just chilled that night. And I just, you know, listened to a bunch of times and took it easy and went in the next day. And I nailed it. And it was like the first song we put up. And it was like, wow, but even then, even like fresh first in the morning. It was still it took a few took a few runs, you know? But you know that? Honestly, I remember never enough being difficult to sing. When we first wrote it when we first started performing it. You get used to it after a while. But no, that's not one that I would be insisting that we play.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, well, you learn some of tricks from Sebastian Bach. I heard you say that, like he told me Hey, thanks for your voice.

Phil Lewis:

Yeah, you know, we have a mutual soul. We had a mutual singing coach, a guy in New York called Don Lawrence, who was also Jon Bon Jovi's vocal coach. And that's the connection with Sebastien and John and Don Lawrence. I worked with Don a long time ago, I didn't have it's kind of customary every time you go to a vocal coach that you you bring a recording device and you record the session. And I was I was curious, Sebastian had any of those from his his work with Don. And he made me sign an official disclosure a nondisclosure. He said he would send it to me, but I was I'm forbidden to play it to anyone. Wow. Well, you know, just as singers making these funny, you know, la la la noises right? Yeah. And, but it works. And it it works for me. It works for him. It works for me. You know, some people don't need it. Like Robin zander. He smokes a cigarette. That's his warm up and goes out and sounds like a bird. So go figure. But you know, yeah, but that's him. He's is just genius. Yeah, you had

Chuck Shute:

it because you used to smoke right and you had to quit because it was hurting your voice? No, I've never smoked. Or you've never smoked because that's one thing that helps you is not smoking Yeah, no,

Phil Lewis:

no, I might as well smoke from the secondhand smoke I have to deal with some Tracy guns myself No, I don't.

Chuck Shute:

But you drink does that does that ever affect it?

Phil Lewis:

Oh yeah. Makes me makes me sound so much better. Better. Oh, yeah. The more I drink the better I sound

Chuck Shute:

you're into why your wine guy right Oh, yeah, yeah,

Phil Lewis:

no. Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, I I don't drink anywhere near as much as I used to. I just you know, I polish up a wine, a bottle of wine. Without even realizing it, you know, just goes down that easy. But no, you know, it's I have a glass of wine a couple of glasses of wine after the show. But now it's it's it hurts too much in the morning. You know, the next day. It's like, I hate hangover.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah. Would you guys do any would you do a package like with Sebastian Bach or any other band? No, you did. The last one was Tom Kiefer. And faster. Yeah. Yeah. Like that again, or?

Phil Lewis:

I hope so. I would like to do go out with Sebastian, you know, we, Steven Pierce, he's in Vegas as well. And the three of us get together. We're like old maids? No, it's just like, and we always, you know, talk about doing that. That three, three band tour that Sebastiaan and La guns be a lot of fun. Yeah, absolutely. or anything like that. Wow, that

Chuck Shute:

would be a great package. I totally,

Phil Lewis:

wouldn't it Yeah. And we will get on so well. So fantastic.

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, so you were saying the backing vocals so you guys don't use any elegans doesn't use any tracks or anything like that. It's all 100% Live.

Phil Lewis:

Yeah, yeah. You know, I don't think we have the, I don't know, we wouldn't know how to do that. Like I guess it all starts with the drums and you have to play to a drum track. So you know, you there goes your whole live vied because you're playing with the drum machine. So, so that, you know, works for Def Leppard. And good luck to him. But we need a little bit more of a an oscillation, if you will, in the dynamic. And

Chuck Shute:

yeah, when you guys are live, who does the backing vocals? Do they does everyone chime in? Or?

Phil Lewis:

They do? They do. Tracy is not much of a singer. He'll be the first to admit. But the Johnny and Ace they fancy themselves as being decent singers. Tracy will do stuff, you know, like lower stuff and. And he does it enthusiastically. And he's gotten a lot better. Let's just leave it at that.

Chuck Shute:

Okay, let's see if he's still la guns. 100% is he doesn't have any side projects right now that he's working.

Phil Lewis:

He's always got side projects. He's always doing other stuff. i It's in his nature. I would be surprised if he didn't. He he's he's got this thing with frontiers. And he's he just wrote and produced a lot of the Todd Kerns record. You know, Todd is

Chuck Shute:

Yeah, I had him on the show slashes bass player and yeah,

Phil Lewis:

singer to always great. It's just a fantastic, all round guy and just a brilliant, brilliant musician that can do anything. It's our bass saying anything. A lot of those kinds of people here in Vegas. I like that. You know, it's a good scene. It's a lot healthier than the LA scene that I left. lever to right. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Much, much cheaper. And you know, no big deal. We can get to LA in two or three hours. It's easy to get to. So yeah, it's fine. But yeah, Tracy's. So he's got that Tod cut. I don't know when that's coming out. So you'll be hearing stuff about it. It should be soon. I think he might be doing another son bomb. thing with Michael suite. Microsoft, you know, I don't? I don't really? I don't get involved. You know, I don't I don't I certainly don't take it personally, that he feels he needs to do other stuff. Because he's always been that way. I certainly wouldn't. Like it doesn't piss me off. It would if he wasn't paying attention, or if he wasn't devoting the time to the band. But that's not the case at all.

Chuck Shute:

No, because he's already writing for the next like guns to write the probably. Yeah, that's crazy. So what do you do? Do you have other things that you're involved with other music things? Or do you do a take a break from music you have other interests or anything?

Phil Lewis:

I do. I mean, they're not music related at all. And, you know, my wife's an artist and so it's there's always a lot going on. She She does a lot of conventions and basically her roadie and when when I'm Not doing music. It's great. You know, being around the art world and her work is just so incredible. And being around those kinds of people is, it's nice. And they don't know. They don't know who I am. It's great. They just completely anonymous.

Chuck Shute:

Is that okay? Do you prefer that? Or is it kind of nice sometimes to get recognized? Like you ever just walked down the street in Vegas? And people are like, hey, it's Phil Lewis, sir.

Phil Lewis:

Well, yeah, there's that that can be nice. Both are nice. I mean, I'm always nice. It's always nice when when people are nice about it, and like coming out. Hey, are you and I'm like, Yeah, of course. And can we take a picture? Always? Yeah, you bet. You know, other times, you know, when when, when there's, there's alcohol involved. It can be a bit more of a challenge. And, like, particularly on these cruises, people are really nice and polite and just sweet. In the mornings, in the afternoons, but you know, at nighttime, when the boat starts rocking. It's really good time to start locking your doors. It gets pretty wild. Yeah, I've never been walking, walking the gauntlet from you know, the stage. Back up to your to your room. Yeah, sometimes. I mean, I'm not big on like, you know, having security walked me around, but on a cruise at night, after a show. Yeah, definitely.

Chuck Shute:

Okay, gotcha. Am I crazy? Or did you delete and restart your social media, your Instagram or something? Like I felt like I was looking for and it was? Oh, is that what happened? Okay, go ahead.

Phil Lewis:

I you know, I never really be honest, I never really wanted to do it. But Tracy was like, oh, yeah, do it. It's good for the band. And you should do it. So I did it. And I suppose the object was to, to garnish as many followers as possible. And I was doing pretty good. I got up to about 15 16,000 people, and I'm told that's respectable. And then something happened, it got hacked, I couldn't access it. And the people Instagram was just utterly useless. I mean, you can't even get hold hold of them to it. You can't talk to a person. They've got it so sewn up. And, and I tried for a few days to get it back. And, and then it just occurred to me what a fucking huge waste of time it is. And that, you know, trying to get it back was was excruciating. And then, you know, I thought about, you know, if I don't have it, and all of a sudden, I've got so much more time on my hands. And my objective is to try and step away from the phone as much as I can and go back to reading like reading a newspaper and reading a book and, you know, taking pictures with a camera and not a phone. And that's, that's, that's my objective.

Chuck Shute:

That's a great goal to have. Yeah. So do you have to get going to have another one of these or?

Phil Lewis:

Yeah, I do. I do. I've got three in a row. I'm gonna go talk to you and grab a cup of tea. It's been great talking to you, man. I appreciate the questions. Good. Yep, absolutely. Halogen questions. appreciate the support and you know, you know, the records, you know, the songs and where are you calling from?

Chuck Shute:

Scottsdale, Arizona. Oh, wait, yes. Wait, you're gonna I'm gonna see. We'll see you next week. Yeah, he said, I could be as special guests, whatever that. Oh, you bet. You bet. Yeah. Okay, I'll see you in a few days. All right. Bye. Phil Lewis, always a treat to have him on the show. Great conversation. I'm sure he'll be back again. And the album is called Black Diamonds. It's available April 14 everywhere. I want to thank Phil and his PR team for setting this interview up. And make sure to support Phil and the band by streaming or buying the new album, seeing his show buying merch or at least following and sharing their stuff on social media. Of course, you can help the show out the same way by liking, commenting, sharing the episodes on YouTube and social media. And of course, make sure you're subscribed wherever you watch or listen. If you want to go above and beyond you can give us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify. I appreciate your support. Have a great day and shoot for the moon.