Two decades have come and gone for the celebrated American rock band Buckcherry, and time has certainly been on their side. This year has been huge for the group with their eighth studio album “Warpaint” being released, their world-wide tour kicking off and the 20 year anniversary of their self-titled debut album in the midst. But according to Buckcherry’s frontman Josh Todd, the best is yet to come.
The 20th anniversary of Buckcherry’s self-titled debut album is this year, how does it feel to have the band reach that milestone?
It’s really amazing. I don’t look back that often, I’m always moving forward and onto the next thing wondering what’s coming next. So I had to step back and reflect because it is such a milestone—I’m just really grateful, I worked really hard for this. With 8 records, 2 EPs and touring around the world a few times— it’s a dream come true. When I was a kid that’s what I dreamt about, I wanted to be in one band and make a catalog of music and make my mark. So far it’s all working out, so I’m really grateful.
What has been the motivation for Buckcherry to continue to produce albums and tour throughout the past two decades?
Passion first and foremost—- you have to have passion for what you do. I certainly have a lot of it and everybody in this band does. You have to be relentless in your approach and not give up. So many people give up along the way. In Buckcherry’s career, we’ve had so many peaks and valleys, there were so many moments in the timeline where everything on paper looked like we should just pack it in. But we kept believing and kept moving forward and things just happened— I could go down the list, but it’s been pretty incredible. We really haven’t been a mainstream rock band since we’ve started, and that being said to have twenty years through all this is just crazy.
Your latest studio album “Warpaint” was just released a few months ago, what went into making the record?
A lot went into it, Stevie and I wrote pretty much the whole record aside from one song. We were very thorough and it was very reminiscent of the time period before “15”. There had been some lineup changes and it was three years before the last record so we really had to prove ourselves once again. We knew our back was against the wall and that’s when we shine. We were going through a lot of stuff personally and professionally— that always makes for great songwriting. We wrote over 30 songs for an 11 song record, so we were very thorough and it really shows. It’s one of our best records for sure and playing these songs live has been amazing.
You reunited with Mike Plotnikoff for “Warpaint” what sparked the reunion for this album?
We had such a great experience working with him and he’s super talented. He’s made a lot of great active rock records—we wanted that sound and we also just wanted to have a great time making records again. It just hadn’t been as fun prior to that. We got back with him and it was just as if we had picked up from “15”— it was a really great atmosphere. He really loves the band for all of the right reasons, so it was effortless and fun and we made some magic.
Now jumping to your tour, what do you enjoy the most about taking your music on the road?
That’s the big payoff. You write and re-write in your dirty and dark rehearsal room and then you get the compositions together and you finally record them—-you listen to them 100 times before you get to the stage and perform them. Then you get to see how the general public reacts to them— that’s what we live for, the live experience. That’s the best part of this business hands down.
Be sure to catch Buckcherry this Saturday, July 27 at Theatre of the Living Arts at 7 pm
