Former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick is no stranger to Australian shores. Having toured here with Kiss as well as with Union, the Eric Singer Project [ESP] and three times on the strength of his solo albums courtesy of a strong Kiss fan base, he came back again as a member of ESP. He is also a long standing touring guitarist in influential American band Grand Funk Railroad. Prior to his ESP jaunt to Australia, Bruce chatted to Australian Guitar about what he’s been up to of late from his home in Los Angeles.
AG: Returning to Australia again for a tour with ESP aka Eric Singer Project. What’s the story with this gig?
BK: Well, I’ve been trying to make it over there for the last couple of years and have been there when Eric and I twice before. One time we would up doing master classes and jamming amongst other things for a drum company. Then what made more sense next time was for us to jam as a band or in this case ESP. It was quite a while ago but lately we’ve had a lot of fun. We went to Europe last year in the spring with John Corabi [vocals/gtr] and Chuck Garric [bass]. Then we went to Mexico in December and then just recently to Japan. We really have been having fun. The set list is always changeable and sometime it is Kiss heavy, sometimes it is not. We’re prepared to do the appropriate show for the Australian crowd. It’s been too long. I know Eric had chance to get down there more recently than me with Alice Cooper and Kiss.
AG: Yeah, he played a gig at a Sydney venue with other band mates on a tour night off. The good thing about it is that you see professional players doing covers but at the same time doing them as rehearsed with the actual original artists.
BK: Yeah, I know what you mean. Eric and I try to keep the Kiss stuff connected to the songs we used to play with Kiss that people may know us from, if you know what I mean. We’ve all covered some Kiss songs and when I’ve been to Australia with the Australian backing band I got pretty deep into the Kiss catalogue. That was specific to me because I thought that would be a cool thing for the fans and it wen over well. We have a wealth of material obviously and I’m never positive as to what the set-list will be. But, it’s fun with ESP as we have Motley songs from John; a couple of Union things, Kiss songs, and some songs form the ESP disc from seven years ago.
AG: How are John Corabi’s [one time Motley vocalist] vocals holding up?
BK: That’s the thing in this gig. In Union he has to carry all the weight of the lead vocals, just about. In ESP, bassist Chuck sings really well, especially when we throw a Kiss Gene Simmons style of Motorhead song at him. Obviously drummer Eric chimes in on some of the Kiss songs as well because people enjoy hearing that. It’’ fun for John and is not as much stress so we all get a chance to get featured. It’s not as though someone has to front this band but John will basically be introducing songs and so on. We all ha a good time with it, it’s not so much of a lead singer kind of vibe, we all get the chance to be a team player too.
AG: Recently you contributed to Paul Stanley’s [Kiss] solo record. Can you tell us about that?
BK: Well, you know, it was kind of unusual how I got involved. First of all Paul was doing the album, I guess, over the course of say a year and a half. At the very beginning it started off with just the demos. He got me involved actually to play bass, to just be there and go over the arrangements with the drummer and everything. A few of those never really got used due to covers and publishing. But he keeps getting more serious about his record and I didn’t hear from him every time he cut a track. But once in while, all of a sudden, he’d give me call saying, ’hey, I want you to play bass’. Ironically, I mean, I’ll always mention to him, even though I’m happy to play the bass a lot of people aren’t aware the through my Kiss years I got to play a bass on particularly more a Paul song than a Gene song. I would be upset if Gene asked me to play bass on one of his songs, you know, ‘hey, you wrote it, play the bass, don’t be lazy’. But I used to do a lot of the demo stuff with Paul so it was easy for me to jump in and do it in the studio after we already had a shape of the song. So the same thing happened here where he just felt like, ‘I like the way Bruce plays bass so let’s bring him in’. I think, you know, I haven’t heard the whole record but I guess I’m on about five tracks where I play the bass guitar. I’d hit him up and say, ‘let me play some lead guitar’ and he’d say, ‘yeah, we’ll get to that’, but it never really happened because I was busy and he worked with a lot of different people. In fact I’m not even sure of all the people that he was involved with but everything I heard though. I really like. I think he’s going to have a really strong record. I know he’s looking at getting it out sooner than later this year, that’s for sure.
AG: What did you think of Gene’s recent solo album?
BK: Well Gene’s was…well, you know, what’s interesting about Gene, [typically] like Gene, he has a strong personality and point of view. But on this record, ironically enough, I think he was all over the map. So, he’d have stuff that was heavy as songs from Kiss album ‘Carnival of Souls’ and then he’d have like a syrupy ballad with pedal steel on it. It was very unusual. Some of the some I like but it was a bit of a mess, yeah and I’m not sure…I guess, you know, with him there’s no rules. Paul’s solo album will be much more defined and much more where a Kiss fan with be very pleased with it.
AG: In terms of signature guitars, isn’t ironic that your band that’s touring is called ESP?
BK: (laughs) Yeah, I know, I know. That was very much a coincidence and every time I’m up at ESP Guitars I always say, ‘hey ESP are going to Japan this summer and then we’re going to Australia’, you know and it really…. I’ll tell you how that name came up. John and I had the band Union right after Kiss and then when Eric and I had opportunities to work together and even though John was going to be involved or even if he wouldn’t have been involved, I wanted another name for that. Some band name that wasn’t too serious and so we realised the use of Eric’s name and so we called it the Eric Singer Project which is a bit of a cop out but it had a ring to it especially when you take the initials. So, hey, ESP. We were pretty shocked that no other band was user that or took it so we just ran with it and it worked out easy. Obviously I try to play ESP guitars [endorsement] though this time with my current gig as guitarist in Grand Funk Railroad I obviously play ESPs but I’ll always have a Gibson Les Paul to grab. What is great is that lately ESP is so good that when we went to Japan none of us had to bring a guitar along. I’m trying to work that out with the Australian distributor to do that so I don’t even have to take a guitar with me. The airlines are not too friendly, as you know, the friendly skies are no longer okay. I already know buddy of mine has got a guitar I could use that’s a great model and the distributor is holding another model for me over there and I told the other guys in the band too, I don’t think you really need to bring anything, we’ll probably be taken care of by ESP and Marshall’. So that’s kind of good. But the quality of the ESP guitars including the Korean LTD model I find to be excellent and I am quite pleased with my relationship with them through all these years. As much as I don’t have a written contract with them, I’m always representing their guitars throughout anything I do and it’s great because they make great gear so it’s always a good situation to be in.
AG: It’s good that they kept you on board too with regards to no longer being a member of Kiss. They could have just said, ‘thanks, bye’.
BK: Sure, the only tragic thing about that whole relationship with Kiss was that with ESP guitars I just had a signature model come out. I played the prototypes on the Kiss album of ‘Carnival of Souls’ [before returning to the seventies makeup era concert tours] on a couple of songs, that’s how late it got in and heard. I had this idea for an SG and BC Rich Eagle hybrid-looking guitar. Yeah, you’ve seen it.
By the time it was ready for sale I wasn’t in Kiss anymore. Bad timing, that’s all I can say. But I always feel, and I’m not exactly taking credit for it, but I certainly pushed ESP to do something with an SG style guitar. So, the Viper ESP model came out and that is a huge selling guitar for them. I actually play with the Vipers more than my signature model with them because my signature model is not going to get out there; you know what I’m saying. It went out of print as it were and there’s some other reasons with that but it kind of made them rare which is kind of a cool thing too.
AG: You were using Vintage Plus Strat model ESP on tours?
BK: Yeah and they actually don’t make that anymore and ironically, as another sidebar for their equipment stuff, at one time…obviously the American headquarters being only fifteen minutes from where I live in Los Angeles I’m always over there and I’m close with everybody that works there. Next thing I know, I see this guitar sitting there and I say’ what’s that?’ because it reminded me of a Vintage Plus but it didn’t have a Floyd Rose [locking tremolo arm] but it was a Strat style, bolt-on neck, hum bucker in the bridge and two single coils. They hadn’t made anything in the Strat style for quite a few years now. They said, ‘it’s an extra one from Japan and it’s called ‘The Snapper’ guitar’, which is kind of funny as it’s a fish name obviously. But they said, ‘why don’t you check it out’ and my buddy there Matt always knew that I would be into it. With Grand Funk Railroad there’s two backline companies [live sound hire gear] that carry our gear so I can have four or five guitars on each coast [of the States], which is great. So I took it out [on the road] and then it became one of my favourite guitars and then I took it to Europe with Union and I also took it to Mexico and now have it back out on the road with Grand Funk again. So even though they don’t make a Vintage Plus now I’m using a Japanese model. But they don’t mind that because they recognise that people are asking for that model and they’re working on it. They’ll get it but probably Australia doesn’t have that model either. But in Japan they market their own gear and models. I just think is interesting as when I went to Japan recently and my brother [Bob Kulick] came along to jam on a couple of songs with ESP, I knew we needed a guitar with a Floyd Rose fitted for Bob to use and they had a model called ‘The Jerk’ which is kind of a funny name. It was like a Van Halen copy, you know, one pick-up, bolt on, hockey stick headstock. It was really retro when you think about it. The pointy guitar age. It sounded great to, I thought, ’damn this sounds great’ this version reminded me of the ones I used in Kiss.
AG: Well, it doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as it works and sound good.
BK: Absolutely.
AG: The ESP Viper models are more for metal bands I would have thought. A lot of those players would string them with heavy gauges and tune them down.
BK: Yeah, well, sure but I just find and am pleased with the consistency of the equipment these days, which has come a long way.
AG: How do you get your smooth but grunt distorted sound? Does your finger techniques help as well as the amplifier?
BK: Yeah, I do feel that your hand has a certain quality of how you play which is unique to each person. Not only the fretting hand but the strumming hand as well. All things being equal and saying your touch our approach on a guitar as being similar to mine for example then I look at it as being…. well, first of all I love Marshall amplifiers and am most familiar with the 900 and TSL2000 series. I’m not a big fan of the JCM800 series but I have played through a few great ones. But for the most part I can make a 900 series of 2000 series really work for me. The idea is just to get your gain structure right. So, when I really want to ‘go for it’ as on [the Kiss album] ‘Revenge’ or on Union records or even if you see me playing live, I do us the Boss Overdrive pedal. I just know how to work that into where it belongs and then take it to the next level. My favourite Marshall head is the Triple Lead but even with that I generally don’t use the solo lead channel. I keep it on the ‘crunch’, which is their regular distortion channel, and just be more into using the overdrive pedal. This way I can adjust the tone and work with it. I do like analogue pedals and the connections. I don’t think I do it any unusual way but if I really want to get some wild sounds then maybe I’ll put a chorus on the signal going through the wah-wah. When the distortion is going through that you’re going to get that crazy sound like in the end of the song ‘Domino’ from ‘Revenge’. That’s really overdriven guitars that are just going for it. A lot of it is just going crazy with the pedals and then just digging in [with your fingers].
AG: Speaking of ‘Domino’, I know you’ve just put out an instructional DVD of both yourself and Bob going through a selection of songs. How did that come about?
BK: Oh right the ‘Kiss Forever’ instructional DVD. What happened was I got approached at a recent NAMM show [industry gear exhibition] to do an instructional video. I hadn’t done one since 1986 so it was a bit of a challenge. The whole approach was with the Kiss songs and Bob would d five songs between ‘Alive’, ‘Killers…’record and Paul’s solo record and then I would choose five. It wasn’t too hard to pick the songs, even though there are many I would like to show, it was kind of fun. It didn’t take long and I really explained every part. I went through all of the solos and basic rhythm things, it’s a pretty casual way of teaching because I’m not doing a lot of really technical stuff with notes and charts although apparently if you go online you can you can see tablature of what I did which part of the selling point of the DVD. For me, it was more about, ‘hey this is the bass line, this is how I play this, this is the intro’ and it was great to do. Fortunately I could do the songs I was very familiar with that I’ve been playing live for a long time and some I hadn’t played recently but it was still fun to show how to play the solo in ‘Forever’ and so on. It just was released about a month ago.
AG: Would you say some of it comes down to feel so that you might play something differently every night you play live?
BK: True but I’m a bit meticulous when it comes to figuring out my own stuff and even though on even just a ‘go for it’ solo it may take me a while but generally once I figure it out I kind of know where my fingers lay on the fretboard. It’s interesting that some of my friends that are players who have watched the DVD end up saying, ‘you know, I played that part but I played it in a totally different place so it sounds much better now in the position that you use’ (laughs). I’ve always…every time I’ve been involved with what is known as ‘Fantasy Camps’ [see kulick.net] where I am a counsellor and I get to pay with the counsellor band which consists of all of these terrific players, we get guest artists to come in and I’ll also get to see them play and say to myself,’ oh, that’s how they play that great riff’. I get a chance to jam with these people but I didn’t realise they exact way they did it. So, I know that feeling of the revelation of, ‘oh I get it now, it wasn’t on the fret, it’s over there’, you know. I realise that I’m giving away a lot of secrets but I’m happy to share my knowledge of the songs. I was there doing them anyway, you know what I mean. (laughs)
AG: Did Roger Daltrey [singer in The Who] give you a hard time about vocals or playing riffs the right way?
BK: You know, the first year, he came down to rehearsal and he didn’t know all of the counsellors and there was a plan to back him up and play some of his songs, you know, have the house of blues. All he knew was, ‘oh, we get this guitarist who was in Kiss’. I think, yeah, he gave me that look of, ‘can he be talented enough to make this work?’ and I was a little unprepared at the first rehearsal because I wasn’t even sure if we were going to work on the blues songs, that day but, man, I studied and I got my ass together for that one. So I very much earned his respect and I was so thrilled. That was such a thrill that I’ll never forget, jamming a couple of couple of classics with Daltrey singing and actually Elliot Easton [Cars] played the acoustic guitar so I was really the electric guitar player for that set doing ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ and so on. I just had goose bumps; I was out of my mind doing that set.
AG: Speaking of ‘Fantasy Camp’ you also got to meet original Grand Funk Railroad guitarist Mark Farner. That would have been amusing given your status as a hired guitarist in that same band. You’d never met him before right? Wouldn’t that be weird?
BK: Absolutely. See I knew the guy who runs the ‘Fantasy Camp’, David Fishoff, I know he was a big fan of Mark and was familiar with Mark from doing the Ringo Starr All Star Band and at one time he managed Grand Funk during the reunion tour in 1998. So when Jack Blades [Night Ranger/Damn Yankees] who is the main leader of the counsellor band and incidentally is a very talented and energetic guy, when Jack brought me in and in the first year I got involved he said,’ look I don’t know what’s happening with Fishoff’. He told me, ‘I called him and asked why hadn’t heard back about arrangements’, and apparently I should call him and talk to him because there was a problem, ‘something to do with Mark Farner and Grand Funk’. (laughs) So I’m like, ‘what?’, you know ‘cos if I’m involved with this camp it’s because I was in Kiss for twelve years, not because of playing with Grand Funk. So I spoke to Dave and we straightened it out and it was all cool and then ironically enough of course, here we are in the second year and he tells me, ‘look, Mark is going to be one of the counsellors’. So I said, ‘I’m cool with that, I don’t have a problem with Mark’. If I could do ‘Unplugged’ with Ace [Frehley – ex Kiss] why can’t I play onstage with Mark. I will admit that the first time I met Mark it was a little awkward even though I introduced myself. But we have a lot more in common than this whole Grand Funk thing. My brother played on Mark’s first solo record years ago when Grand Funk starting doing their own thing. So I brought that up to him and sent my regards, you know, then next thing you know I’m helping him back up the band. I knew the arrangements better than the other guys in the band of course, if you follow what I mean. But he saw that I was there to help, not to try to shine on his songs. It was really ironic too because this year, as I just came back from rehearsal in Michigan and those guys still have business doings that they have to speak to each other so it’s not all lawyers and so on, you know, it’s the Grand Funk name and it’s those guys. Mark’s doing his own thing and Don and Mel obviously have this version of Grand Funk going now. I know Mark went to some meeting of theirs and told them the stories about how he was working with me, which was kind of funny. So, I earned his respect as well and it was wonderful to jam with him and he saw that it was only a benefit and some of the ways that the old Grand Funk did songs was another point of rehearsing, besides putting a few songs into the set, was to do some of the things that were a little closer to some of the old arrangements. It was great coming to see Mark ‘cos I got to cop [learn] onto some of what he was doing so it was an interesting circle that came around instead of me just looking at Mark as being, you know, ‘alright, he’s that original guy and issues with Grand Funk and him is not my business’. But he earned my respect and I his just to work together. Everyone’s egos have to be checked in at the door when you do that camp counsellor thing. You can’t be running around with that because it just doesn’t work in that environment. But, you know, it was really thrilling to be doing some of those Grand Funk classics with him on stage. To think that I was doing that was kind of weird. Mostly I played acoustic guitar, which made more sense so it was great, I had a good time.
AG: I noticed a recent documentary called ‘Metal: Louder than Life’ includes some interview footage from yourself amongst others such as Geezer Butler and Ronnie James Dio. It was interesting to hear on the DVD commentary that the director and producer were not necessarily aware of the impact that Grand Funk Railroad had on the beginnings of metal.
BK: Right, that’s true. I tell you, when I run into people and tell them I work with Grand Funk…I ran into this guy flying home today…you’ve heard of The Melvins?
AG: Oh yeah, with Buzz up front.
BK: They’re huge Kiss fans and supposedly one of Nirvana’s biggest influences. A quirky Seattle band. Buzz Melvin looks like Sideshow Bob from The Simpson except fat, okay. I met him ten years ago and being big Kiss fans Th Melvins used to put out records that looked like the solo Kiss albums with the logo and the faces and everything. I hadn’t seen him in years or spoken to him in years. They were doing a gig in the mid West so I said, ‘hey, how you doing? I’m just playing with Grand Funk now and this is my sixth year with them’. They responded, ‘No kidding, I love that ban’ and then one of his band members came over and wanted to know about it. So, I do find that really interesting and you’ve got to remember Van Halen talking about Grand Funk. Back then [seventies] they were like…you know there was the British invasion of that power trio and that heavy thing and Mark didn’t have that Clapton or Beck tone. But, Mel sounded amazing on the bass with that really overdriven bass and as for Don, you don’t get much better as a drummer than that. That is what everybody responds to. Eric Singer has come to see us a half a dozen times already and loves the band. Yeah, I’m very blessed to become a part of it, even though the band had all these pop hits too, you know what I mean. But in the beginning of their era is best represented with ‘Inside Looking Out’ and I get a chance to just go off and rip which is kind of funny because this is the same band that does ‘Locomotion’. Than again, Kiss has a very varied set-list as well. I don’t think that’s really a problem. So, yeah, Grand Funk are a very influential band and I’m proud to be a part of it. I always find it ironic when people say to me, ‘Oh my God, I love Grand Funk. What’s Mel like, what’s Don like?’, you know, that kind of thing. So, it’s cool.