After twenty years, legendary guitarist Ace Frehley finally emerges with a brand new solo album titled Anomaly. As one of the most beloved personalities in rock ‘n’ roll, Frehley’s the man behind not only Kiss’ iconic logo, but also the all-time stadium anthem "New York Groove" which came off Frehley’s first self-titled solo album in 1978. Anomaly is a super charged outing that sees Frehley pumping out the thunderous guitar riffs on the album’s first single "Outer Space" to stamping his own mark upon a cover of Sweet’s 1975 classic "Fox On The Run." All in all, Anomaly includes several nods to his long distinguished career where the pickup acrobatics of "Fractured Quantum" and the Wah-Wah scourge of "Genghis Khan" (featuring backup vocals from Meat Loaf’s daughter Pearl Aday) are true signature Ace Frehley through and through. On the eve of the album’s release, Joe Matera spoke to Ace Frehley about his new album, sobriety and of course, Kiss.
UG: Anomaly sees you return in fine form, you must be very happy with the result?
Ace Frehley: Absolutely, I’m really happy with how the record has turned out. It was a labor of love for me. I may have taken a long time to put it all together, but hopefully it will be worth the wait. I believe this record will be another landmark in my career. And I really think everybody is going to be very happy with it…well, I hope they are, because it is really the best I could do at this point in my life.
How did the songwriting process evolve considering it took so long to make this album?
Most of the songs were written between 2004 to the present. There is one track called “Sister” which I wrote back in the mid-1990s and "Foxy & Free" is another from that period, but everything else was pretty much written after 2004.
You produced the album but Marti Frederiksen produced the Sweet cover, why did you decide he should produce that track?
Because the record was already produced when I first brought it to Marti and while he and Anthony Focx were mixing it, we pretty much decided it would be a good idea to have a cover song on the record. Marti played bass and sang background harmonies on the cover and he programmed all the drums. Basically the only thing we did subsequently to that day was that I just redid the guitar solo once and we added live drums.
"My most prized possession is my Gibson Les Paul 001 signature model."
A friend of mine came up with the idea and so I just ran with it. Everybody I mentioned it to, all liked the idea and said it was a great song to cover. So I tracked it one afternoon with Marti while we were mixing the record out in Los Angeles and the whole thing just came together in four and a half hours.
Being both the producer and the artist on this album, was it hard to be objective with what you were trying to achieve?
It was and if I would have hired a producer, and kind of backed off a little bit, I am sure the album would have been finished sooner. But you know I couldn’t let it go because it was my first studio album in 20 years. So I wanted to make sure it was right even if it meant taking an extra year to put it together. But I used good engineers whose opinions I trusted and I would always play rough mixes to friends and family and people whose opinions I respected. So I got my feedback from them that way.
The album release date of September 15th also coincides with the third anniversary of you being sober. It must certainly make a huge difference to how you now feel personally and professionally?
Yeah the mornings are really nice now without the hangovers. When I was younger I always thought I needed that junk in order to perform and to be creative but now when I look back, I realize I am a lot more creative and more focus without it. That is one of the fallacies that a lot of musicians feel that they need something to depend on like a crutch. But once you get past that, and realize it mentally, you are much better off without it.
Did the drinking problem first come about as a result of the pressures you felt from being in such a successful rock group as KISS?
The touring schedule with KISS was really so hectic back then and so I needed something to help take the edge off the day. Well, at least I thought I did. When I toured last year I was completely sober, and it was a joy. When you start drinking young and you depend on it, your brain tells you, you need it to relax, you need it to do this or that, you need it to perform, yet it’s really just your brain telling you this fallacy. But it is still your life.
How did the approach you used making this record compare to the way you made your previous recordings?
This is the first album that I made totally digitally. And I really had to get a crash course in Pro Tools in order to keep up with everybody who worked with me on it. So I took some lessons from some Pro Tools teachers and some good engineers and I also picked up a lot of stuff over the last two years. And I’m at the point now where I can do whatever I need to do with Pro Tools when I’m by myself in my studio. But I don’t want to do that really because like I said, I like having an objective ear and somebody to bounce ideas off.
Because Pro Tools gives you so much at your disposal, do you find it less satisfying than when you worked with analog technology?
The possibilities it gives you, in editing is unbelievable. And it is really a God send because I remember the days when we used to do guitar solos and we had to cut the tape to edit. While Marti and Anthony were mixing the songs, I was in my hotel room cutting and pasting sound bites on “Outer Space” and “Genghis Khan”. The flexibility of cut and paste and moving things around is so easy in Pro Tools, it is like effortless.
"I believe this record will be another landmark in my career."
Yes. I recorded about sixteen tracks all together so there are an extra four songs lying around which may go on my next studio album or may even end up being bonus tracks or whatever. We’ll wait and see what happens.
Is there any specific method, gear wise, you like using when it comes to recording?
Whenever I record I usually cut a basic track with a Gibson Les Paul through a Marshall amp. And that is usually what comprises the bed track of any type of hard rock record I make. Then, what I usually do is overdub the rhythm parts with Fender guitars to give a wider spectrum of sounds. Sometimes I even put in acoustics on there too. The Fenders are from a bunch of Strats and Teles that I’ve had over the years. I used this same technique on my first solo album in 1978, though not so much with Kiss because Paul [Stanley] played a lot of the rhythm parts. I would just do my part on a Les Paul and then double it. I didn’t use Fenders very much on any KISS record. In the studio aside from my Marshall, I will also use old Fender amps and old Vox amps [for the doubling] as I like combining newer sounds with older sounds, and combining newer guitars with older guitars. I have a lot of fun blending stuff together. Sometimes I will even re-string guitars with weird tunings like I did on the beginning of “Genghis Khan”. It is a lot of fun to experiment.
What about when it comes to your approach capturing your guitar tones in the studio?
When I’m tracking rhythm guitar tracks, I will use a Shure SM-57 and a Royer, which is a ribbon mike, and I blend those two together. It gives you two different sounds and it gives you more flexibility in blending the two together too. Also, I will use a room mike such as an AKG 414 or a Neumann U87 as a room mike to get some ambience. It’ll also give me some bounce off the floor or off the glass. I normally use the 900 series Marshall heads but I have used some older ones for KISS that have been reworked and beefed up. I have this old Fender Harvard with a 10” speaker that sounds amazing. I find that when you blend different size speakers together on the same track, you get a thicker sound. I usually like to record clean without any special effects on my guitars too but if I think it needs something extra, I’ll add it on later.
How many Les Pauls have you got in your collection these days?
I have about 25 of them. All together I have around 70 guitars in my collection. My most prized possession is my Gibson Les Paul 001 signature model. I have a number of favorites such as a couple of prototypes that were made for me for the KISS reunion tour, a couple of reissued 1959 Les Paul Standards and this one guitar that I bought three years ago after I saw it hanging in a music store in Westchester, New York. It reminded me so much of a 1959 Les Paul that I used to own and it looked like it so much, but obviously it wasn’t, but it sounded great though.
Gibson have recently created a second Ace Frehley Signature Les Paul model, so what can we expect of this newer version compared to the earlier model?
The first one was released in 1997 and it was a signature model that came in Cherry Sunburst but this one is going to be in Blue Burst with custom pickups made by Gibson custom speed knobs. We’re just tweaking the final prototype at the moment and it should be released in September sometime.
Gene has stated in numerous interviews over the years that you didn’t actually play on some KISS tracks and that the band actually brought in studio players at times to play and record some of your guitar parts?
I’m sure it happened because I remember as early back as the Destroyer album, I had come in and done a solo for “Sweet Pain” but when I later listened back to the final mix of the album, there was somebody else [Dick Wagner] playing the solo on the song. It was stuff like that where they would switch my solos without telling me, which probably led me to eventually leave the group.
"I am what I am. I’ve never been anything but just a wide eyed kid from The Bronx who got lucky enough to be in one of the biggest rock groups in the world."
Sure. Just like everything else.
Another album that proved to be an unsatisfying affair for you was Psycho Circus.
I had to really struggle just to get one song on that record. Even half way through that album, they had accepted the song but then it was rejected and I had to fight tooth and nail just to get that one song on there. And I had submitted three songs. But there was always a lot of competition between Gene and Paul, him and myself and Peter.
Are you still good friends with any of the KISS guys?
I’m friends with all of them. I don’t have any animosity … personally. We had some great times together years ago and they decided to take a different path and I decided to take a different path, so let bygones be bygones.
Finally, how would you like to be remembered?
I am what I am. I’ve never been anything but just a wide eyed kid from The Bronx who got lucky enough to be in one of the biggest rock groups in the world. I’m just happy I can give people enjoyment to those who listen to my music. It’s all about rock and roll to me…
Interview by Joe Matera
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