Todd Kerns: Back On Track with
Slash Ft. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators
Interview by Ken Morton - Band Photo by Austin Nelson Todd Kerns photo by Mary West Todd Kerns is a musician for all seasons. Before his taking up bass duties with Slash, Kerns was best known for being a front man within the ranks of The Age Of Electric and Static In Stereo. Even during the pandemic Kerns would find plenty to work on. First a brand new band called Minefield with Matt Starr and Jeremy Asbrock. And then back on track with Slash Ft. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, recording a brand new album entitled 4. Available worldwide via BMG Music on February 11th, 4 finds Slash, Myles Kennedy, Brent Fitz, Todd Kerns and Frank Sidoris delivering their most hard hitting collection of songs to date. In this interview, Todd Kerns discusses the making of 4 in the midst of Covid, working with music icons such as Slash and Myles Kennedy, his new project Minefield, and a whole lot more... How would you compare your work with Four compared to the previous releases you’ve done with Slash? That’s a very good question. You know, what’s funny? Because in a lot of ways, I don’t really sit around listening to us 14
very often. I really don’t sit around listening to anything that I do. It just seems kind of weird to me, but I have had to kind of go back and revisit a bunch of it because of getting ready for this next tour. But it’s really interesting how each record to me has a totally different flavor. Although it’s all cut from the same cloth at the same time. There’s definitely a sound. I definitely feel like we have a sound and a lot of it stems from the guitar riffs, by a very memorable, a very distinct guy. And then with Myles’ voice and melodies and then the harmonies that we throw on top of, it really creates this whole other animal. It doesn’t really sound like Alter Bridge and it doesn’t really sound like Guns N’ Roses or Velvet Revolver. I think it sounds like its own thing. We did Apocalyptic Love almost 10 years ago and that was a very live record as well. We recorded it with the intention of doing it as live as possible - and that’s just Slash’s M.O. I can’t really speak for him, but he definitely likes the in the moment-ness of it all, bouncing off each other and this record is 100% live. When I say 100% is like we did it as live as possible. We had some issues with Covid and what not that prevented some of the vocals to be done live, but January/February 2022
HIGHWIRE DAZE
