THE WINERY DOGS‘ May 27 performance at Teatro Cariola in Santiago, Chile will be professionally filmed and recorded for an upcoming DVD and Blu-ray.
THE WINERY DOGS is the power trio featuring drummer Mike Portnoy (DREAM THEATER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ADRENALINE MOB), legendary bassist Billy Sheehan (MR. BIG, TALAS, DAVID LEE ROTH) and guitarist/vocalist Richie Kotzen (MR. BIG, POISON).
The band’s sophomore album, “Hot Streak”, debuted at No. 30 on The Billboard 200 chart, having shifted 13,000 equivalent album units in the week ending October 8, 2015. The CD was released in North America on Loud & Proud Records via RED (a division of Sony Music Entertainment) and in the rest of the world via earMUSIC.
Asked by HNGN if THE WINERY DOGS made a conscious effort to branch out a little more on the second album, Sheehan said: “Not really. We put very little conscious effort into anything of a planned angle or strategy, if you will. We just kind of get in and start writing, and what happens happens, and that’s kind of what we did on the first record. And now that we’ve played together for a while — going into the second record we had done over a hundred shows and played around the world, literally — we just have a lot more experience with each other and we’re more aware of each other as players. So for some reason, this group of songs came out like that. I don’t know exactly why it did, but I’m glad about it, I’m pleased about it. But we didn’t really plan it that way. I’m pleased there is more variety on this record, because I think the safe and easy thing, and most lucrative thing, would be to do the first record over again. I think a lot of bands do that, and I’m glad we didn’t do that. There is some variation here, and my thought on that is we already have the first record, that’s there, that’s done, so now let’s move onto something else instead of staying painted in the same corner.”
Regarding when the members of THE WINERY DOGS commited to the band not being a one-off, Sheehan said: “When we started working on the first record, the idea was that if we’re going to do this we should do a band, and if we do a band, it should be a real band and we should plan this out for many years and look forward to our sixth record and all of that. And I was totally into that, because as a fan — and I’m a big fan of a lot of music and I’ve got a huge iTunes collection — I invest emotionally when I get into a record or a band. They become part of me; music is the most important thing in my life, so when I find a new band I like, in a way I’m invested emotionally, and I’m sure other fans do the same thing, and I know how heartbroken I am when a band puts out a record and then they don’t tour or they put out a second record and they have a different guy in the band or I found out later that they all hate each other. It breaks my heart. [Laughs] A lot of bands I found out later that they hated each other, they had separate tour buses, they didn’t talk to each other, and here I was thinking they’re all friends and happy and when I listen to their music I imagine them all hanging out together and having a good time. So right from the beginning we said if we’re going to do it we should do it for real. Because if people are going to invest in us, we don’t want to scam them and let them think it’s something that it’s not — it’s either really a band and we’re really doing this or it would just be another side project, and none of us wanted that.”
Source: Blabbermouth
