CHEWING THE FAT WITH
SKINNY MMOLLY ‘HAYWIRE RIOT’
ABOUT THE BAND AND
Hey Mike, Lets talk about Skinny
Molly. So tell me when and how you guys got this band together. We started the band in 2004. It was sup-
posed to be a one off tour of Europe. My band Brave New South wasn't killing it, and I wanted to play some rock and roll. Dave Hlubek called me looking for something to
IKE ESTES TALKS
By Randy Joe Galloway Mike Estes has been a fixture on the South-
ern Rock scene for many years now, from his work as a member of Lynyrd Skynyrd, to his tenure as guitarist and singer for Blackfoot and all the bands in between. We caught up with Estes during a brief break in the action for this KUDZOO exclusive.
do, so we finished out a few BNS gigs and hauled it for Europe as Skinny Molly.
You guys just released a new album,
Haywire Riot. All the songs are rock- ing too by the way. How do y’all choose the songs for your album? Thats always been the hardest part of an album pro- duction for me. Mostly I write songs for an album. In other
words, I normally don't bring in a lot songs I've had laying around - you know, homeless ones. Only maybe one of those per album. For instance I had "After You" laying around for- ever before Haywire Riot was recorded. But mostly I write 12 songs or so and cut one or two off the album in the end. I'm basically turning life experience into songs, and I'm lucky that I've had a hell of a lot of life experi- ences. (Laughs) For me, the big deal isn't a matter of choosing which songs, but arrang- ing the songs I have how I hear them in my head so I can sing them. I learned how to do this years ago by paying close attention to one of the best arrangers in the business, Ed King. He was my teacher, and I paid my dues by checking my ego at the door and working re- ally hard at learning how to arrange parts from him. He would always listen to my ideas, and use only the good ones, of which at that time, weren't many. (Laughs) But he told me I had the natural ability, and and he could see that I wanted to learn. It was time really well spent for me, because I can't get the song across as a singer if the parts don't feel right to me.
I think the most important part of writing
and recording is the communication of the song, which comes from the singer. This is true for any band in my mind. From my view, as a the singer and writer, the parts have to be arranged to really support the lead vocal, in order for me to nail the vocal and communi-
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