I didn't want to do an electro-class album or complex rap album. I wanted to do something that was kind of like a political statement, but also club jams. I wanted it to be dancy, but intelligent at the same time.
I think with the 'Get Weird' album, it was the hardest album we've ever made so we had no idea what sound we wanted to go for, we didn't really know what we wanted to write about... and so it took a lot of time.
I got a chance to have my dream come true, and I wanted to make sure I made the decision as to when I dropped my last album. If I don't feel like this album is an incredible piece of work, then I'm cool with the albums I've done. I don't have to put out another album.
If I have a rap album I'm dropping, then I want it to be the best rap album.
I always wanted to make an album, but I knew that I didn't want it to be a musical theater album. It's not that I don't love them - I own every musical theater album ever made - but it just didn't seem right for me.
The reason I stopped doing the band is that I wanted to do something different... Yes had become like 'Groundhog Day' for me. I loved being in the band, but it was album-tour, album-tour, different album-different tour.
The first album I was given when I was quite young was the 'Whoa, Nelly!' album by Nelly Furtado. After, I also got the 'Missundaztood' album by Pink. That's when I was like, 'Oh my God, I want to be just like them!'
When Alcatrazz played in Japan in early '84, the record label offered me the opportunity to do a solo album while continuing to play in the band. I wanted the whole album to have vocals, but the record company didn't want that. Initially, the album was released solely in Japan.
I've been following battle rap for a long time. Me and Daylyt are real cool. We battled on my album, he's on my album. We did a one round battle on my album and that was just me capturing These Days.
We really wanted to create an album that had no boundary or limit to it. There's nothing to say that we couldn't release a song that belongs on 'The Stage' 20 years into our career. We want it to be an album that constantly grows with what we want to do, and that's what we did.
I guess it was this over-riding feeling I wanted people to get from the album - a kind of positivity. On the one hand it's quite a sad record, but I wanted the songs in essence to be about pulling yourself out of a difficult time. So I thought that the idea of day after a really long, difficult night, would be pretty appropriate... I think the album's about contrasts too - contrasts of emotion - so I thought the comparison was appropriate.
I thought I'd go away and make one album, but it was extended. The album did so well, and they wanted another album. I was on a high. You make hay while the sun shines, and I was doing it, and you think about yourself; that's what you do.
So many times nowadays it's about having two good songs on an album and a bunch of filler, and I wanted to make something that I felt every song on the album was fun for everybody.
There seems to be something pure in pulling from a place in time that's "innocent" and untouched by outward opinion. I wanted this album to have threads of my past to enrich the topics I wanted to address about aging.
I wanted something different. I'd been using the C+ amps for a long time, and I love them - they're one of my favorite amps ever. But on this album [Road Kings] I wanted - there were a couple reasons, actually. One is that I wanted a more aggressive sound, some more teeth and hair.
I've never got the vibe that they would do a gospel song. 'Cause when they talking about doing another Geto Boys album I said I would do it if I could rap like I'm rapping on my gospel album, I didn't get a whole lot of cosigning on that from all the political parties concerned.
With 'Torches,' I wanted to make a great pop record; I wanted every song to be exciting, not to have too much space, no long pieces of music without vocals. I kind of wanted to write the perfect pop album.