How’s 2016 going for you so far?
Josh Todd
Everything is going good. I’m at home right now. We just finished a bunch of shows in the States and Canada.
We have a little bit of time off before we start this new year with a bang.
SCENEzine
Your newest album Rock n Roll came out last year to a great response from fans. Are you happy with how it turned out?
Josh Todd
I’m very happy man. It’s our first record on our new record label, F bomb records. It’s our own label and this is a record we wanted to make.
We always wanted to make a ten song record. When we were on a major label we had to put twelve sometimes thirteen songs on to meet our contract.
It was never what we wanted to do. We have always been big fans of ten song records or nine song records. I think that’s the perfect length to get people listening from beginning
to end and not over fill it. Rock n Roll was a lot of fun to make. Confessions was a very emotional record and took a long time to make and we toured a lot on it.
We just wanted to have a good time with this one.
SCENEzine
Our favourite track from Rock n Roll is “Wish to carry on”. Lyrically it’s quite positive. Do you like the idea you can effect peoples lives in a positive way through music?
Josh Todd
Yeah it’s hard for me to write songs from that kind of a place sometimes. I don’t know why the other songs come more natural to me. I really like that song too.
I love the melody and I think it came together really well.
SCENEzine
We spoke to Buckcherry guitarist Keith last year and he told us you wrote the ballad “The feeling never dies” with your daughter in mind. Can you tell us how that came about?
Josh Todd
Well this is how the song came about. My nine year old daughter she likes to sing. I wanted to write a chorus that what we could sing to around the house. She could take the high octave and I take the low octave. So I wrote that chorus and kept singing it and singing it then I was like damn this is pretty good I should play this for Keith. I played it for Keith and then the song came together really quickly. Now it’s going to be the next single from the record. That will be really cool.
SCENEzine
Since you are flying the flag for modern day Rock n Roll. How do you feel about the recent news of Guns n Roses reuniting?
Josh Todd
You know what I heard it through the grapevine a long time ago so I kind of knew what was going on. I think it would be cooler if Izzy was in the picture. Even if they got Steven Adler for the first half of the set then finished with Matt Sorum that would be pretty cool. That’s what I thought it was going to be but now it’s just the three of them Slash, Duff and Axl. I don’t know well GnR have been touring for a while now with a different line up but I think this will be cool for the fans.
SCENEzine
It’s no secret that Buckcherry love the ladies. Did the band choose the girls for the “Tight pants” video?
Josh Todd
Oh yeah (laughs) of course we did. We have castings and choose who we want. For “Tight pants” they were sending us these real bony, skinny kind of like malnourished girls at first.
Then we were like we want a chick with an ass man send us a girl with a big ass. So they sent us another girl and we knew she was the one. The video clip is basically a day in the life of a girls ass and we really liked her ass.
SCENEzine
The song “Crazy Bitch” became that huge you guys even released a range of sex toys to celebrate. Does it blow your mind how big that song became?
Josh Todd
Yeah that’s what you work your whole life for to write a hit song. Something that’s going to change your life. That was “Crazy bitch” for us. The first hit we had was “Lit up” and I just remember thinking how are we ever going to top this song. Then we wrote “Crazy bitch” and that was kind of an afterthought for a long time. That song was like three years old before we ever put it on a record. You just never know, it’s all about the right song at the right time.
SCENEzine
The exciting news for Australian Buckcherry fans is you’ll be back in March for a tour. Are you excited to come back?
Josh Todd
Hell yeah we are excited. We are excited to do our own headlining shows. The last time we were there it was like thirty minute sets. So coming all that way to play thirty minute sets we were like fuck this we want to do it our way. So I hope everyone comes out cause it’s going to be a riot. That’s the way it always works with Buckcherry and the right type of audience.
The thing about Australia is you guys love Rock n Roll, you like to drink, you like to party, you like to get rowdy.
SCENEzine
Do you have a favourite touring memory from Australia?
Josh Todd
Oh wow well playing with Aerosmith there was really cool. Sharing the stage with them and Van Halen is something we will never forget. When we first came over there on our first record we had never been there before. I grew up in Southern California surfing and skateboarding. There’s an Australian surfer named Mark Occhilupo known as Occy and I was really into him as a kid. So I thought it would be cool to be there and surf the water there. I always thought about that when I went to Australia.
SCENEzine
Did Australia live up to our expectations?
Josh Todd
I haven’t seen enough of Australia but it reminds me a lot of San Diego. So it’s kind of weird to fly fifteen hours and it just feels like San Diego California. But everybody is super cool.
I really want to go inland Australia to the bush and see all the wildlife I think that would be really cool.
SCENEzine
Going way back in time to the late nineties we first discovered Buckcherry through “Lit up” and “For the movies”. Do you remember if those songs came easy in the writing process?
Josh Todd
Yeah “Lit up” we wrote real fast. I walked into our rehearsal room and Keith was just playing that riff. I remember I just grabbed the microphone and started scatting that melody.
It just felt like a party song to me so I wrote about the first time I ever did cocaine. That’s what the songs about. I used to have this friend and every time we would get fucked up he would say what am I right now. I would say I don’t know what are you then he would say I’m lit up like a fucking light bulb. He always used to say that and I thought it was funny.
So when it came to write that song I had the lyric Lit up in mind and wrote that really quick.
“For the movies” well we lived in Los Angeles and I dated a lot of struggling actresses. So that’s kind of what that songs about.
SCENEzine
In the video for “Say fuck it” you are wearing a NWA hat. Does that mean growing you weren’t just into Rock n Roll?
Josh Todd
Man yeah if you want to know I did everything backwards. My whole foundation is punk rock records like Black Flag. I hadn’t listened to like a major label rock band until I was seventeen.
Led Zeppelin and Metallica were the first things mainstream rock bands I heard. Before that some of my major influences were dirty comedy. I would be down in the basement watching George Carlin videos all the time. His stuff was so cutting edge he is just so clever I though he was incredible. Then I would also sneak into my sisters room and listen to her Prince and Billy Idol records. I am huge Prince fan and Stevie Wonder all that soul shit.
SCENEzine
You have a lot of awesome tattoos in particular your large back piece. Can you tell us the story behind that?
Josh Todd
Yeah it’s a suicide king of hearts. I have a suicide in my family so it means a lot to me. Then it’s got my two favourite words love and desire framing it so I thought that was really cool.
It kind of came to me in a dream. It took about four months to do and it’s one of my favourite pieces for sure.
SCENEzine
The music world recently lost Lemmy and David Bowie. Is it surreal for you to think that Buckcherry songs will live on long after your gone?
Josh Todd
Yeah I think of that sometimes. I like that for my kids sake I want them to be able to hear my voice after I’m gone. That’s cool. For everybody else I love it that something I’ve done on a record might inspire someone one day that’s really cool.
SCENEzine
Did you ever bump into Lemmy at the rainbow or see him around much?
Josh Todd
Yeah I bumped into him a few times at the rainbow. I actually played with him a few times. I played with him in my first band. He was always super cool to me I really loved the guy.
He was the pure essence of Rock n Roll such a fucking good guy.
SCENEzine
Lastly can you leave us with a message for your Australian fans excited for the tour?
Josh Todd
Yeah we love Australia. We can’t wait to get back for these headlining Buckcherry shows. You better get your ass out there cause it going to be unforgettable.
(interview by Christian Ross)
