Todd Kerns of Heroes & Monsters

Todd Kerns

of Heroes & Monsters

Photo by Jack Lue

Todd Kerns presents his new band Heroes & Monsters

Interview by Ken Morton - Live Photo by Jack Lue - Band Photo by Enzo Mazzeo

Heroes & Monsters is a new band who’s power trio of a lineup features bassist/vocalist Todd Kerns (Slash ft Myles Kennedy & The Conspirator, Toque), guitarist Stef Burns (Y&T, Alice Cooper), and drummer Will Hunt (Evanescence). Their Self-Titled debut is now available via Frontiers Music Srl, and the compositions found within present a glorious auditory journey into the throes of modern day classic rock and roll. Highwire Daze recently interviewed Todd Kerns to find out more about this amazing new project! Read on...

How did the Heroes & Monsters project come about?

Will is an old friend of mine. It all just came up because of the lockdown and a lot of us just sitting around. We weren’t the only musicians sitting around not doing much. (Laughs) So he calls up and says “Me and a friend are knocking some stuff around. What do you think?” And I said, “Send the files over.” I was literally on the couch and was like “by all means.” So, one song led to another, and the next thing you know, you’ve got an album on your hands.

And is there any story behind that band name Heroes &

Monsters? It conjures up so much imagery. It’s interesting, I think it was one of those things that was knocked around a little bit. I like the dichotomy between those things, because it seems like in so many ways that one man’s hero is another man’s monster. It could be taken to be the same person – just a different perspective on it. That’s how I kind of took it anyway.

How well this new band compare to the other bands you’ve done such as The Age Of Electric and even your work with Slash and Myles Kennedy?

There’s always kind of a through-line that connects everything in a weird way – it’s funny how that happens. The fact that it was a power trio was exciting to me – it’s the one thing I haven’t done since I was a kid. Just doing it as three guys was fun. Sound wise, I think we play with a lot of different sounds going by. There’s sort of a classic rock thing happening there. We weren’t afraid to dip our toe into some throwback stuff in a very sort of modern sense – coming to production and stuff.

You do have Stef Burns in the band who played with Y&T and Alice Cooper amongst many others. Tell me about how you got to know Stef.

The funny thing is I didn’t know him. I was always very aware of him – and that the very interesting thing about this 21st century way of connecting with people – is the ability to have these connections when you’re writing songs and talking every day. But then you’re like, “we haven’t actually physically met yet.” We didn’t meet until we went to make Raw Power and Let’s Ride It on the same trip. It was like we hadn’t actually physically met, but we connected really well when it came to music and personal stuff. It is bizarre how in any other context that would never really work, other than pen pals back in the day pre-social media I suppose. It’s a very interesting thing to be a part of when you can do stuff like this without actually physically being together.

Let’s talk about Will Hunt from Evanescence, how he became involved and how you met him.

I’ve known Will for a while. I’ve always been a great admirer of his – he’s an amazing talent and a monster drummer. But I learned so much more about him getting

into a project like this as far as a creative individual. He’s a strong writer and a mixer – he has a lot to do with the mixing and recording of the record. It’s impressive! It’s not always – and it almost feels like a bit of a slight – “he’s just a drummer.” You could be “he’s just a guitar player” or “he’s just a singer” as well, I suppose. But yeah, he’s so much more.

What are you looking forward to the most about the upcoming Heroes & Monsters live shows taking place in Italy?

Well, first of all, I’m excited to be going overseas. I haven’t been overseas since 2019 with Slash and the guys. That will be exciting. And just basically the whole being able to attack these songs on the actual performing side. It’s always interesting – when you’re writing and recording a record, you’re somewhat conscious of what the actual lineup is and what the actual playing is, but you’re not really thinking about “how will we present this live?” Until this is sort of thrown into your lap. Like okay, now we have to do this live. There’s things I played on the bass and sang, and I’m like “oh, I never thought about having to do this at the same time. Okay!” So that takes a bit of homework. And then the whole idea of getting everybody on the same page – just to make sure the band’s tight and all that kind of stuff. You don’t want to be the weak link, so you’ve always got to get your game on. I’m looking forward to the whole thing. It’ll be fun!

Will Heroes & Monsters be doing any live shows in support of the album here in the States – or is that something you would like to do?

Oh absolutely, I would love to do it! I don’t know. A lot of it – like most of these things – a lot of these projects I do – everybody’s doing other things. The days of everybody being in one band have kind of fallen by the wayside. Will has Evanescence stuff and Stef has Vasco Rossi stuff, and I have all my stuff. So, it’s just a matter of finding those windows of opportunity to present themselves. I certainly think it’s possible, and I certainly think it would be really cool to be able to do that.

What’s up next for you, your other bands, and Heroes & Monsters?

I always have stuff going on. Toque is very active and has a lot going on this year. The Slash thing sort of bubbles up, but it’s more of a “behind the scenes” kind of thing right now. We probably won’t be doing too much from a live standpoint for a while. I’m not really sure what to make of all of that, but as soon as the world opened, we all ran back to these obligations we made back in 2020 and 2021 that we couldn’t make good on, and we suddenly had to do them all. We will find our way back to each other when the opportunity arrives, but in the meantime, it’s sort of like business as usual. I have all these hundreds of other things that I do, and Toque will take my attention. I do the Raiding The Rock Vault thing in Vegas when I’m home. Lots of solo stuff and lots of other projects on the go. Heroes & Monsters will flare up now and again like a rash (laughter), and we’ll find the moment to do it again.

And do you have any messages for fans who are reading this right now?

Only that I appreciate people still supporting what we do and supporting the music. There’s a lot of my old heroes that have been around forever who just don’t make new music anymore. It sort of one of those things where I don’t feel like I’m done yet. I feel like I want to keep making music, so in the meantime I really appreciate people still being there and still having some sense of interest that we could be making new music and that it would be worth checking out. And in the meantime, I hope to cross paths with everybody when we get out there on the road one way or the other, and I just can’t wait!

https://www.instagram.com/heroesandmonstersband/