Ten years after the release of the band's third album, the critically acclaimed Pull, Winger are back in business with a new studio album in the shape of 'IV' released through Frontiers and a headline appearance at the third installment of the Firefest festival. With all this in mind it seemed the ideal time to catch up with Kip Winger to find out more about why now was the right time for the return of Winger, and if course the new album...

Kip Winger

Hi Kip, to start off with could you introduce Winger to any of our readers who may be unfamiliar with the band?

Hi, I'm Kip Winger, oh and there's Reb Beach, hey whada ya know..there's Rod...oh and John Roth...hey John , did you bring your guitar this time?...hey ..where's Cenk Eroglu ?....Ceeeennnk.....Ceeeeennnnkk....um..that's really weird , I don't see Cenk.... oh right ...couldn't get the work Visa for the Turk...go Figure....

Who are your personal heroes and influences?

All of the 70's guys...English rock bands...Plus American ones like James Gang...Grand Funk, Rush...

Before we discuss Winger and your solo work, I would like ask you some personnel questions if that's OK:-

is this a question?

Back in the day I used to see the names Paul and Nate Winger on many albums credited as backing vocalists, are they any relation to your self?

My brothers...we used to be in a band together with another guy named Peter Fletcher who now is in the Pigmy Love Circus.. it was the 4 of us then Paul left and it was the three of us...BLACKWOOD CREEK....low and behold, we've reformed and have a killer record almost finished  so watch out...

Your famous as a bass player, how do play the bass with a pick or fingers?

Me famous ?....how cool is that.... I use both and thumb, depending on the sound I want to produce....very versatile no?

You also renowned as a very talented musician, are you classically trained or is it all self taught?

Me talented ?...why thank you.... Truthfully I've worked for every crumb...I'm not one of these pick up an instrument and off to the races... I can find my way round easy enough but..for example , I couldn't play a solo to save my life.... It took my years to understand how my talent worked and how to work with that for the best result. Americans don't get taught "how to learn" so first I had to learn how to learn..then what, then how... Now I'm feeling pretty good about it all....

Winger 2006

Winger was formed in 9187, what were musical experiences before that?

Well considering that I died around 2061 , I missed out on seven thousand one hundred and twenty six years... but before that I was following the trends and picking what I thought to be the best stuff.. Peter Gabriel, Sting, Phil Collins...King Krimson...also a lot of Debussy and Ravel... But like I said , I was heavily influenced by the 70s

(editor's note our interviewer obviously has a dyslexic keyboard, but Kip's answer was rather good so we let it stand)

So How did Winger get together originally?

I met Reb beach at Atlantic studios in 1986 working on Fiona Flannigan's CD.. We wrote a bit...then I got into Alice cooper.. met Paul Taylor...then quit Alice Cooper to form what became Winger Rod came last, but not least!

I made the comment in my review of the new album, that the first two albums were written with a specific market in mind and that Beau Hill had a large input into those albums. Would you agree/disagree?

Actually no...the real story is...long story short....If I played you the demos...there isn't a note different. In fact the first two records aren't as good as the demos in some cases...My Brother...Blackwood Creek , well actually we had changed our name to WINGERZ, were the first band Beau every produced outside of his own band...I'm talking 1977, I was 16....anyway I had done YEARS of work with him in the studio...so when we got signed, and I must credit him for that, I knew exactly how to record this stuff.... we worked together but Beau was really just pushing the record button when he wasn't on the phone....

The bands third album Pull is regarded as a bit of classic, how did the song writing and recording of this album differs from that of the first two winger albums?

The song writing was exactly the same, generally  Reb and I sit down with a Guitar , Bass , some Keys and a Drum machine...Reb is unusually talented at coming up with Brilliant riffs on the spot...sometimes, I'll push record without telling him, then go have a spot of tea in the next room...all the while recording...come back and he's just writing the seeds to 3 or 4 songs. My job then is to write the rest of the sections and arrange the stuff into workable solutions... As for recording...well we worked with Mike Shipley on Pull and this is when I really learned how to record. I hold Mike in the Highest regard. Absolute tops! He has incredible ears....this was the way I wanted the band to sound all along....the process was similar but with the right tweaking the result is a world of difference.

And then you called it a day in 1993, why?

"Smells like teen spirit"  end of story. At that time I couldn't get arrested.

It then took you four years to release your debut solo album, 'This Conversation Seems Like A Dream', what had you been up to in the intervening years?

Well I moved to Santa Fe to build a recording studio in the hills.. that took about 8 months.. then I work for about a year on it.. unfortunately I had to deal with some very rough personal stuff.

Both 'This Conversation' and its follow up 'Songs From The Ocean Floor' were real departures from the Winger sound, why this deliberate or just Kip Winger showing his own style?

My personal musical journey is much different then a band experience. My personal goals are to push the limits of my musical knowledge and abilities. I hate to repeat myself, there is no art in that. I have a world of sound images in my soul and they cant be limited to one style of music.... If I forgo the commerce of it all, I can be true and pure to the soul of music within me, which in my case isn't very normal. For better of for worse my brain work like a Classical composer, I'm not much of a jammer, I actually write out  much of what I'm doing on paper. The ideas tell me what they want to be, I'll work an idea until it sits perfectly in my chest...then I'll know I've brought it all the way it want to come.

Whose idea was the re-recording of the Winger tracks acoustically for the Made By Hand/Down Incognito album?  It always struck me that a live solo acoustic performance would have been a better release as the two times I saw such shows the performances were breathtaking.

Thank you, I will do that at some point. When I made that record, It was a split second decision, I just went for it.. It was all done in a month,

Winger, the band reformed in 2002 for a Greatest Hits album and tour. What brought this about and why did you not record a new album at that point in time?

There simply wasn't enough time.. and the label was releasing a WINGER greatest hits.. I wanted it to be good, so I got involved to the project...

The next album I saw that had your name on it was the excellent Xcarnation album, how did your involvement in that project come about?

Cenk had emailed me as a fan. But when he sent me his music , I became a fan of him. So I went to Istanbul to write..5 different times, We were going to be Xcarnation, we wrote about 8 songs.. and on my last visit we realized that what we had done was write parts of 2 different records.  So he used the songs you hear that I'm credited for on Xcarnation, I have yet to release the one I'm using for my next solo record. One of the songs has the same musical chorus interestingly....his version and my version...at some point we will probably do a whole record together.

Upon hearing the new album I thought it had definite link to the Xcarnation record, albeit in a Winger style and I thought that Cenk had some input to the song writing, however he claims not to have any input at all. Do you agree with comparisons and if so what do you but that down to?

No, WINGER IV is very pure Kip/Reb collaboration....What your hearing on Xcarnation is that Cenk being a masterful producer in his own write was writing for WINGER on songs like "Desperately Sad"  ...

Speaking of Winger IV, which are your favourite tracks on that album?

I'm no good at that part...I write them the you write about them,,,

OK but how would describe the overall sound of the album then?

This record is the next step after "Pull" Musically more sophisticated and progressive...a bit more raw with an in your face sound....

What sort of set can we expect from Winger at the Firefest III

All the hits plus some new stuff...

What's next for Kip Winger after Firefest, a solo album, the Blackwood Creek album, anything else?

Just keep trying to get better... Hopefully early next year for the solo and shortly after the BWC. They are both close to being finished

And finally, the standard HardRockHouse question, is there anything further you would like to mention that we haven't covered so far?

Nope, we're good , Thanks.

Kip

Dougie

To find out more about Winger then you can visit the following websites:

www.kipwinger.com
www.rebbeach.com
www.rodmorgenstein.com
www.johnroth.com