Many bands take lengthy vacations after a worldwide tour. Others head right back into the studio to get crackin’ on their next album. Aerosmith are combining the best of both worlds. Following their Japanese tour last month, the group flew to Maui, Hawaii, for three weeks with Just Push Play producer and songwriter Marti Frederiksen to scuba dive, catch some rays and begin working on new tunes.
“We’d like to put some new music out by this spring,” Joe Perry said on the band’s official fan club Web site. “So we felt we would take the momentum of playing, of just capturing that feeling at the end of a tour… I know personally my playing is better just from playing live and hearing how the fans reacted to the songs off the record. So we kind of wanted to take some of that energy and sit down and see what we got.”
Aerosmith hope the sessions are productive enough to yield a couple of songs to tag onto an upcoming greatest-hits album, which will likely feature both live and studio recordings, according to the band’s publicist. Aerosmith taped every show from the past year and are currently rooting through the recordings, the publicist added.
“We’re not really sure what form it’s [all] going to take in the next few months,” Perry said. “We’re thinking maybe a greatest-hits record because there hasn’t been a greatest-hits record that’s had the best of both eras – the stuff from the ’70s, ’80s and the ’90s.”
That’s arguable. Since 1978, Aerosmith have released nine live or greatest-hits albums: Live Bootleg (1978), Greatest Hits (1980), Classics Live! (1986), Classics Live! 2 (1987), Gems (1988), Big Ones (1994), A Little South of Sanity (1998), Young Lust: The Aerosmith Anthology (2001) and Classic Aerosmith: The Universal Masters Collection (2001). In addition, Aerosmith have issued two box sets: Pandora’s Box (1991) and Box of Fire (1994).
Aside from material for the upcoming best-of record, Aerosmith are hoping to write a song for the “Spider-Man” soundtrack, though at this point nothing’s been confirmed.
“That’s certainly one that we’ve had some interest in and they’ve had some interest in us doing it,” Perry said. “With movies though, you never know until the last minute.”
Sadly, all Hawaii vacations – even those that involve studio sessions – inevitably come to an end and then it’s time to go back to work. In Aerosmith’s case, that means hitting the road again. Although no additional dates have been booked, Perry said the group will head back out in the fall for a new round of shows.
Of course, they’ll have plenty of sauce to keep them invigorated – no, not booze sauce, barbecue sauce. Perry is marketing bottles of Joe Perry’s Rock Your World Boneyard Brew Hot Sauce and selling them on www.joeperrysrockyourworld.com. The first batch of orders ships in May.
