Todd Kerns Interview

Sin City Sinners frontman and Slash's bassist; Todd Kerns (TK) is probably one of the hardest working musicians in rock, but he found time in his busy schedule to chat to Room Thirteen,

R13:How and when did you discover music?
TK:It has always been there. I think about that sometimes, being a little boy and never having any interest in sport or cars, and I still don't, I just always had a fascination with music and guitars. My father played guitar, and showed me a couple of chords and it went from there. By the time I was 11, I was mucking around on guitars, and at around 13, I was playing with friends in basements in terrible bands.
Then I started playing with older people, I think it's good to play with people who are further advanced than you. It forces you to catch up, you pick things up a lot quicker. For me, music was never a hobby, it just felt right and was all I wanted to do, and its been that way ever since. My parents wanted to keep me focused on my art, but one day I picked up a guitar and art went out the window.

R13:Do you remember the first song you learned to play on guitar?
TK:It's funny, my friends and I got into guitar at the same time, there was never any real learning of songs, we'd learn a couple of chords and make up songs. Beginning to learn songs was incredible hard actually, but now I'm the guy people look to when they ask "Do you know that song?" as I have a giant catalogue of songs in my head. I'd said 'Satisfaction' by the Rolling Stones would have been there early on. Once you crack that first nut you're on your way, and you're suddenly learning Beatles songs, Who songs, Stones songs.
The first Ramones album was a big one for me, it took me away from that jangly acoustic guitar sound. Once you had that first Ramones album down, you could easily learn things like 'Back In Black' by AC/DC. I was never very muso minded, I was always very punk rock, classic rock, glam rock. I was never interested in playing Rush songs, and I'm still not, plus my patience and ADD would never allow me to sit down and learn that kind of stuff.

R13:You've recently recorded the new Slash album; 'Apocalyptic Love' what can we expect to hear on that record?
TK:It's a very driven rock record; it's pretty aggressive. That's the funny thing about Slash; we were recently looking for a rhythm guitar player and I was the one who said "It's a lot more complicated than you think". When you think about Slash or Guns N' Roses, there's a certain amount of punk rock, heavy metal and classic rock in there, so we were auditioning guitar players and these total heavy metals heads would come in and they weren't quite right. Another guy would come in and he had the right attitude, but he'd be too punk rock and lack the technical ability. Slash has a pretty diverse range of music that he draws from, and there are elements of them all in there. I think that's very much who he is, and who I am.
This record has all the classic elements that you'd expect from a member of Guns N' Roses, but there are a few surprises in there. A guy like Myles brings a different element, which I also get as we both came up in the nineties when the alternative music thing was going on. When Slash and Myles decide to get more intimate, the songs take a change of path. I'm not going to use the word ballad, but there are a couple of songs on there that get pretty quiet, and have delicate moments that are very real.

R13:Apocalyptic Love was recorded straight to tape, what was that experience like and did you feel pressure not to be the guy who stuffs up the take?
TK:It's funny because we were just in Toronto and Slash said on radio that I was the only one who didn't mess up.
R13:Well done, you!
TK:Thanks, I'm certainly going to try and keep that myth going! I'm sure I messed up something here and there. For me it was great, when I first started playing and recording music, it wasn't long before the two-inch analogue world was dying but I resisted it every step of the way. With everything I was doing we would record analogue and onto two-inch tape, and slowly we just started to record drums on tape before going completely digital.
With this album we were initially talking about taking the songs to an audience before we went into the studio, which would have been super exciting, but our schedules didn't work out. However, we wanted to retain that live feeling so all the guitar, drums and bass were recorded together rather than the normal method of starting with the drum track. For us, it was more about trying to capture the music collectively. The cool thing about the record is that we retained a little bit of talking between songs, the count-ins; the sort of things that are normally cut out.
R13:Excellent, I love hearing stuff like that.
TK:I can appreciate that because I'm the same way. It is always fascinating to me that we live in a day and age of special monitors and in-ears and it's all like "Oh my god, I can't hear myself", then you look back on things like The Beatles at Shay Stadium and they're all singing in harmony together when they can't hear a thing. It's a lost art to be able to play your fucking instrument. As I said, I'm not a Rush prog rock kind of musician but I attack my instrument with confidence, knowing that we don't have click tracks on stage or recorded vocals and keyboards on stage, we are just a rock band. We're basically a dirty club band in a larger situation. I don't really understand the idea of doing it any other way. My world is, I play my instrument, sing my part and we all play together.

R13:What's it like working with Slash?
TK:First of all, he is an amazing guy - a kind, soft-spoken man. He is very driven and knows exactly what he wants. You get used to seeing him with a guitar in his hands at all time, that's why he is a guitar hero because he works very, very hard at it. It's his passion; all he wants to do is play guitar. It is very inspiring, you get turned on by the idea of being as into your game as he is his. When I joined his world I didn't know if it was for a couple of months, but two years later we're here putting out a new record and he wanted to give it a band name. I was surprised when the live album came out and there were photos of us all inside, it was really cool. He very much feeds off of the band mentality and energy and I'm glad to be a part of it. He was one of my heroes too, now he's just some guy I know... Just kidding. He's a great guy, he deserve every accolade he receives.
I actually met Slash in '91 believe it or not, at the Rainbow in LA which sounds like the biggest cliche, but I was doing the LA Strip thing with my band. We were just sitting at our table and Slash comes over like the ambassador of the Rainbow, he's hammered and having the time of his like, he was very kind and friendly even back then when I was just some guy having a beer. Then you fast-forward 20 years and I'm playing with him. I've told him that story; he doesn't remember it.

R13:Has there been any major change since Slash featuring Myles Kennedy evolved into a band project?
TK:It doesn't feel different to me, because it always felt very communal. Initially, we came in and it was Slash and the audience loved Slash, Myles comes from a very successful outfit too. On my part, I felt like I had to live up and play up to the level of expectation that comes from being with these people on stage. I am confident in my own ability and what I can bring to the table, but I'm not going to try and out-Slash Slash. Myles and Slash are the key people in the situation and our job is to catch everything else. I never felt like no-one gave a shit about us.

R13:Bobby has now left Slash's touring band, how is Frank fitting in and how did he become part of the bill?
TK:Frank's awesome. He's young, but he doesn't seem completely out of touch with us. He's funny, he's capable, he's the right guy. Brent and I tried out a lot of people.
R13:How did you end up with that responsibility?
TK:It was kind of delegated to us. We saw some great guys. It's one those weird unspoken things where you're in a room with somebody and you just know they're the right person. It's almost romantic, it's like you can see a girl and think "Well, she's pretty, but I don't have any feelings for her" and the next person walks in and you're like "I love her!". Sometimes with music you find someone who vibrates at the same frequency as you, and you really connect but sometimes you play with someone and there's no connection. Frank is part of the family now.
R13:He certainly looks like it.
TK:Yeah, I think that was part of it too although that's not part of Slash's world, he's not that worried about how someone looks, but Frank looks like one of us. We didn't consciously look for someone with dark hair, it just worked out that way and, bang, we are suddenly a band.

R13:As well as working with Slash, you also have your own band; Sin City Sinners, can you tell us a bit about that?
TK:Sin City Sinners started as a fun, Camp Freddy kind of thing. We started in a punk rock club in Vegas and we'd get guests to come and jam with us. In Vegas it's all built on show rooms with show room bands who do dance moves and all that nonsense. We're this rock and roll band that started playing a bunch of cover songs and wrote some crappy punk rock, and the next thing you know casinos are offering us gigs. So, we started doing that and now the Sin City Sinners have been around for five years. They do it without me, there has been a revolving cast in my absence, its certainly grown in my absence rather than being effected negatively. I don't know how long this will carry on for, but that's music in general. I'm always happy to come home, play with my friends and make a bunch of racket!

R13:Are there any plans to take Sin City Sinners on the road?
TK:I don't think so. Again, it began as fun. It started in a club bar playing MC5, Misfits and it grew into something a little different; we started playing original songs and then we made a couple of CDs. We've been to LA a couple of times. The money is ridiculous in Vegas, and the schedule is so full in Vegas, we're booked solid all the time. But, if there was a gap for a couple of months we'd definitely look at touring.
R13:I guess that means I will just have to take a trip to Vegas!
TK:Yeah, and that's the cool thing, anyone who comes to Vegas can come down. That's the fun part of it. I come back to Vegas and slip right back into seeing the guys and having a laugh. Brent from Faster Pussycat is in it, the drummer played in Raging Slab, and currently we have the bass player from LA Guns. Jimmy Crespo from Aerosmith was in it at one point. The next year of my life will be wrapped up in planet Slash, so we'll see what happens after that. Ultimately, I am always good to go in terms of recording music. I'm a bit like a shark - I can't stop, otherwise I'll die. There was a time where I owned a studio, I was working on all kinds of projects and I started to lose focus on what I was trying to do with my life. That's how I ended up in Vegas, I came down to play music with friends and never really left.
R13:Isn't Vegas like mini Canada anyway?
TK:Well, there are a hell of a lot of Canadians here! Celine Dion is here, Cirque Du Soleil is here.
R13:You need to get Celine Dion to do a guest spot!
TK:I know, right! We know a lot of the guys in her band, but Celine is her own entity. I don't really get that whole thing, it's a whole other animal! There are a lot of Canadians here and that is how I ended up down here, my friends kept telling me to come down.

R13:Going back to Sin City Sinners, how did the idea of having guests jamming with you come about?
TK:That was through Brent Muscat, he'd tell us who was in town and we'd invite them up. I think it started with Phil Lewis from LA Guns, we got him up and learnt a couple of their songs. Then it was George Lynch from Dokken, Sylvain Sylvain from the New York Dolls, Slim Jim Phantom from the Stray Cats, whoever was here we'd ask them and eventually we just started bring them on our own. There are a lot of guys in Vegas too so we can just keep it rolling. Muscat brought up the idea of starting a cool night where musicians could come and jam and have fun. In Vegas the budgets are bigger so we can fly in the likes of Sebastian Bach. Before I was with Slash we had DJ Ashba and Dizzy Reed from Guns N' Roses. I have played with many members of Guns N' Roses now!
R13:But no Axl Rose!
TK:No Axl, but you never know. Never say never! I haven't seen the new Guns N' Roses, but Axl is one of the quintessential greatest front men of all time and he should be seen. I was playing in the same building as him on New Year's but we never got around to seeing him.

R13:Has being in Sin City Sinners and having a regular gig brought a lot of Age Of Electric and Static In Stereo fans out of the woodwork?
TK:It has actually. It's the weirdest thing, it was kind of refreshing for me to come down here and get away from things that had been pseudo successful in Canada. I got down here and no-one expected anything of me, because no-one knew who I was. Then we started playing some of my old songs and they became popular in our little world, we recorded some of them as Sin City Sinners. It was weird for me to be in a Las Vegas setting and have people come up to me with things they'd bought on eBay for me to sign. It still happens. It is a body of work. Right now, and for the last thousand years I've been talking about recording an acoustic album. I'm a huge Johnny Cash guy, and was a big supporter of the American recordings that he did. I want to make music, record it and put it out and have this catalogue of work when I die. My music is pretty diverse now, but there's always a common thread whether it's an acoustic track, alternative song or a song on 'Apocalyptic Love'.

R13:Do you have really dedicated fans who are out every Friday?
TK:Oh yeah! It makes me laugh, I'm always like "Don't these people have jobs?", "Isn't there anything better to do?" but we're all extremely appreciative. That audience has grown, and continues to grow. It's funny to me when someone says "I've never seen you before." It's like "Really? Where have you been? We've been out here for five years!". The audiences have been great. We've recorded one CD of original material and recorded an acoustic EP while I was away. Then we did a Christmas CD, it started in my absence and has Slim Jim Phantom and who bunch of people on it. At some point, I am sure we will record again but at the moment it's pretty much impossible due to the daunting behemoth which is about to unfold! There's a real calm before the storm thing going on with me right now. I'm enjoying these quiet moments.

R13:You've toured the world, are there any particular places that really stand out?
TK:The Roman Coliseum, Moscow was amazing. Paris is fascinating to me because I'd never been there before and now we're there all the time it has become familiar. I fucking love England, I have a lot of friends there. Australia is fucking rad, the people are amazing, it has Canadian familiarities to it. South America is crazy, people down there live, eat, drink music. They are religious about rock and roll.
England for me is a big deal because so many bands I love come from there. New York is constantly fascinating for me as I love a lot of music from there, and Los Angeles has no shortage of elements too. Japan and Asia are mind-blowing.

R13:Am I right in thinking you managed to detach a retina while on tour? How did that happen?
TK:Yes I did. I could almost be a doctor in this now, you just learn so much. I had what they call a vitreous haemorrhage, which is a tear in the retinal wall. Of course, I had no idea what it was. It wasn't a big deal at first and then my vision went in that eye. I had two weeks of the tour left and it got really bad in the last two days. I got to Moscow, we were there for a day before we had to play, and was told I had to go home. So, I sat on a plane and the next day I was in surgery, which sucked, then I was laid up for a month, my family came down. The band went out on a leg of the tour with Tony Montana and I came back shortly thereafter.

R13:Has it healed up without any ill effect?
TK:I'm going in for another laser surgery. There are all these complications. I was told "When the surgery happens, this may happen." Well, guess what, it happened! So you fix that, everything that may happen has happened, which has been everything from having a cataract, then the surgery for that caused some kind of cloudy membrane issue. This is supposed to be the last little thing they need to do. Then I should be as good as new. Better than new actually, once this is completed my vision in that eye will be better than it ever was. My vision was never that good anyway, I'm near sighted so wear glasses but I was never blind. At one point, I thought an eye patch could look pretty cool, but it turns out, I'm not going to need one.
There was a time when I couldn't fly for an entire tour due to the pressure in the cabin, and then they had concerns about me going to Denver because of the altitude. It's weird when these things happen on the road, there's not a lot you can do about it, other than just roll with it.

R13:What can we expect to see from you for the rest of 2012?
TK:Everything Slash, you'll see an exhausted young man playing rock and roll across the country and across the world. It's the US in May, then Europe in June, then I think we're back in Canada for July.
R13:Aren't you playing Europe with Motley Crue?
TK:Yes, we are. I've never played with Motley Crue, I think it will be fascinating. I've met them a few times and it's not lost on me as they were a big deal when I was a kid. I think it will be really cool to play with them. They always put on a really good show; they are legends.

R13:I'm sure it will be great. Thank you very much for your time, and I'll see you in June.