SMITH / KOTZEN - Taking My Chances (single) + Album (26 mars 2021)

Les rumeurs disaient vrai, la collaboration entre Adrian Smith et Richie Kotzen est confirmée. Un premier morceau est à écouter.



ADRIAN SMITH And RICHIE KOTZEN Officially Announce Collaboration; First Single 'Taking My Chances' Now Available

BMG has announced that two of rock's most admired musicians have joined forces for an exciting new side-project. SMITH/KOTZEN is the electrifying collaboration between guitarists and vocalists Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen. Part-time Los Angeles neighbors, full time friends with a healthy mutual respect. Both artists are seasoned performers on the global stage, having honed their skills throughout their careers to create their own unique musical sound.

Debut track "Taking My Chances" sets the tone for this brand new partnership between two rock music trail-blazers. Recorded in Turks & Caicos at the start of 2020, the song is evocative of the classic rock bands of the 1970s, brought bang up to date with punchy hooks, harmonies and sheer guitar virtuosity.

Smith is best known as one of IRON MAIDEN's principal guitarists, having also enjoyed success as a solo artist. Kotzen is the frontman for THE WINERY DOGS as well as having been the guitarist for both MR. BIG and POISON during his long and acclaimed career, which has to date seen him release more than 20 solo albums. Both artists are also prolific songwriters.

Adrian comments, "I think Richie and I complement each other really well. He's a virtuoso guitarist but he's got a great sense of melody — the whole thing just felt very natural."


Richie adds: "We found common ground in classic and blues-based rock — we both come from that mentality. We've been writing and recording together for the past year and I'm ecstatic with the results."

As the gloriously heavy and brilliantly catchy "Taking My Chances" shows, rock fans around the globe will be delighted at the first taste of this marriage-made-in-guitar-and-vocal heaven.

Stay tuned for more news to come from SMITH/KOTZEN early in 2021.

Kotzen alluded to his project with Smith during a February 2020 interview with the "Another FN Podcast". At the time, he said: "I don't like talking about things until they're finished, but if you look at the photographs [on my Instagram] and who I'm with, and that sort of thing, you could assume that there may be a collaboration in the works."

He added: "It's very surreal, because it's a band that I grew up with; it was one of my favorite bands forever, and one of my first hard rock concerts. So it's very surreal. Very cool. [I'm] very excited."

Smith is currently promoting his memoir, "Monsters Of River & Rock", which was released on September 3 via Virgin Books.

This past February, Kotzen released his 22nd solo album, "50 For 50", via his own custom label, Headroom-Inc. The three-disc collection is just what the title implies: a collection of 50 previously unreleased compositions produced, performed and written by Kotzen in honor of his birthday. It's the follow-up to his critically acclaimed "Salting Earth" album, which came out in April 2017 via Headroom-Inc.

Tout le monde s'en fout mais ça sort le 26 mars.



SMITH/KOTZEN, the electrifying collaboration between guitarists and vocalists Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen, will release its self-titled debut album on March 26 via BMG. Part-time Los Angeles neighbors, full time friends with a healthy mutual respect. Both artists are seasoned performers on the global stage, having honed their skills throughout their careers to create their own unique musical sound.

Track listing:

01. Taking My Chances
02. Running
03. Scars
04. Some People
05. Glory Road
06. Solar Fire
07. You Don't Know Me
08. I Wanna Stay
09. 'Til Tomorrow

Debut track "Taking My Chances" sets the tone for this brand new partnership between two rock music trail-blazers. Recorded in Turks & Caicos at the start of 2020, the song is evocative of the classic rock bands of the 1970s, brought bang up to date with punchy hooks, harmonies and sheer guitar virtuosity.

Smith is best known as one of IRON MAIDEN's principal guitarists, having also enjoyed success as a solo artist. Kotzen is the frontman for THE WINERY DOGS as well as having been the guitarist for both MR. BIG and POISON during his long and acclaimed career, which has to date seen him release more than 20 solo albums. Both artists are also prolific songwriters.

Adrian comments, "I think Richie and I complement each other really well. He's a virtuoso guitarist but he's got a great sense of melody — the whole thing just felt very natural."

Richie adds: "We found common ground in classic and blues-based rock — we both come from that mentality. We've been writing and recording together for the past year and I'm ecstatic with the results."

As the gloriously heavy and brilliantly catchy "Taking My Chances" shows, rock fans around the globe will be delighted at the first taste of this marriage-made-in-guitar-and-vocal heaven.

Kotzen alluded to his project with Smith during a February 2020 interview with the "Another FN Podcast". At the time, he said: "I don't like talking about things until they're finished, but if you look at the photographs [on my Instagram] and who I'm with, and that sort of thing, you could assume that there may be a collaboration in the works."

He added: "It's very surreal, because it's a band that I grew up with; it was one of my favorite bands forever, and one of my first hard rock concerts. So it's very surreal. Very cool. [I'm] very excited."

Smith is currently promoting his memoir, "Monsters Of River & Rock", which was released in September via Virgin Books.

Last February, Kotzen released his 22nd solo album, "50 For 50", via his own custom label, Headroom-Inc. The three-disc collection is just what the title implies: a collection of 50 previously unreleased compositions produced, performed and written by Kotzen in honor of his birthday. It's the follow-up to his critically acclaimed "Salting Earth" album, which came out in April 2017 via Headroom-Inc.

Ça m'intrigue, cette affaire. De toute façon, Smith ne pourra jamais faire pire que ce qu'il avait fait avec Asap (quel nom de groupe à la con, déjà ).

Le clip du morceau déja sorti :



Recorded on the Turks & Caicos Islands in February 2020, produced by Richie and Adrian and mixed by Kevin "Caveman" Shirley, this nine-track opus is a consummate collaboration between these two highly respected musicians who co-wrote all the songs and also share lead vocals and trade off on guitar and bass duties throughout the record.

Exploding with powerful melodies and harmonies, the album embodies the spirited attitude of 1970s classic rock with a melting-pot of influences ranging from blues, hard rock, traditional R&B and more, blending the pair's backgrounds and life experiences to result in a thoroughly contemporary sound.

Track listing:

01. Taking My Chances
02. Running
03. Scars
04. Some People
05. Glory Road
06. Solar Fire
07. You Don't Know Me
08. I Wanna Stay
09. 'Til Tomorrow

The record features special guest performances by Adrian's IRON MAIDEN bandmate Nicko McBrain on drums for the track "Solar Fire", and Richie's longstanding friend and touring partner Tal Bergman on drums for "You Don't Know Me", "I Wanna Stay" and "'Til Tomorrow", with Richie picking up the sticks on the other five songs.

Smith comments: "Richie and I started working together a couple of years ago. We'd been jamming as we'd been friends for a few years before that. We both share a love for classic rock and bluesy rock, so we decided to get together and start writing some songs and it went from there. Pretty much everything on the album is handled between Richie and myself, including the production. We had developed a really strong idea of how we wanted it to sound, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. There's a lot of cool songs on there that we are really happy with.”

Kotzen adds: "We had a very fluid process in writing. Sometimes Adrian would send me a riff and I would immediately hear some kind of melody or a vocal idea. And sometimes it was the other way round, so it was a kind of circular motion. We'd get together whenever we could and throw some ideas around and it just evolved, which was great because there was no pressure and nothing other than just a natural course and I think the record really speaks for that."

The album will be available in these formats:

* Digipack CD
* 12" black vinyl with embossed sleeve
* Digital (streaming and download)
* Limited-edition 12" red-and-black-smoke-effect-colored vinyl

Smith is best known as one of IRON MAIDEN's principal guitarists, having also enjoyed success as a solo artist. Kotzen is the frontman for THE WINERY DOGS as well as having been the guitarist for both MR. BIG and POISON during his long and acclaimed career, which has to date seen him release more than 20 solo albums. Both artists are also prolific songwriters.

Adrian comments, "I think Richie and I complement each other really well. He's a virtuoso guitarist but he's got a great sense of melody — the whole thing just felt very natural."

Richie adds: "We found common ground in classic and blues-based rock — we both come from that mentality. We've been writing and recording together for the past year and I'm ecstatic with the results."

Nouveau morceau, nouveau clip :

Nouvel extrait:

L'album en entier (il sort aujourd'hui):

Première écoute plutôt positive. C'est mega classique comme hard rock tendance bluesy, c'est calibré pour le fan de Witesnake du début des 80s Tous les morceaux ne sont sans doute pas du même niveau mais il y en a de très bons, avec du bon riff et quelques solos qui montent bien en sauce. J'y reviendrai, c'est sûr.

Tout pareil, et Kotzen est de plus en plus un clone vocal de Glenn Hughes !

Ecouté
pas le public cible, je le précise
Heureusement car j'ai trouvé ça sans grand intérêt, bien foutu, c'est tout.

MFF a dit les mots magiques pour que j'écoute cet album, donc va falloir jeter une oreille.

Bon, en fait c'est un honnête album de Hard Rock de Papy, mais c'est pas trop pour moi.

C'est un peu plus que ça je trouve, il y a une certaine "modernité" dans leur son pour un style très classique.

Même avis que Pietro. L'esprit des compos est vintage mais le son est plutôt actuel.

C'est du metal de vieux comme le sont les derniers MSG en fait. Je sais pas trop ce que vous trouvez actuel dans le son, perso ce que j'ai aimé dans cet album c'est certaines passe d'armes guitaristiques bien prenantes. Un peu déçu par le chant. Je connais pas la carrière de Kotzen qui ne m'a jamais intéressé et pour l'instant ce n'est pas cet album qui va me donner envie de m'y mettre. Habituellement j'aime bien la voix de Smith et ses compos hors maiden mais là je suis un peu déçu quand même.

Après plusieurs écoutes attentives, je ne peux que me ranger à ton avis.

C'est plus un album solo de Kotzen avec Smith en guest discret.

Dark S. a écrit: Habituellement j'aime bien la voix de Smith et ses compos hors maiden

C'est toi, le fan d'Asap ?

Nouveau titre tiré d'un EP à venir :

Le groupe a donné son premier concert au Whisky A Gogo à LA. Au menu: l'album et le EP en intégralité, plus un morceau de Kotzen et... Wasted Years de Maiden !

Je ne sais pas si c'est un problème de réglage, mais on dirait que Smith chante mieux que Kotzen. Ca la fout mal.
Et Steve Harris est super sexy.

Nouvel extrait d'un mini album live qui vient de sortir :