WINGER has announced the arrival of their upcoming seventh studio album “Seven”, set to arrive this spring via Frontiers Music Srl
Yesterday (Friday, March 3), the band shared the “Seven” cover art via social media and included the following message: “STAY TUNED!!! #Winger #WingerSeven”.
Earlier this year, the band shot three music videos for songs off the “Seven” album.
Guitarist John Roth spoke to Sam Wall a couple months ago about the band’s upcoming LP: “It’ll be out on Frontiers in May or June; we don’t have a release date yet. [There’s] 12 songs on the album. One song’s a pretty big surprise.
“To me at least, there’s always a song on a WINGER album that comes at you from left field,” he explained. “Like on ‘Karma‘, we did a blues song — Kip [Winger, WINGER frontman] and I co-wrote a song called ‘After All This Time‘. On ‘Better Days Comin’‘, the title track, ‘Better Days Comin”, it’s kind of funky and it’s fun and it’s different for WINGER; WINGER’s a pretty heavier, darker, metal-ish kind of band. So there’s a song on this album that’s very different for the band, which is cool.
“It’s meticulously produced and recorded, [with] tons of layers of background vocals,” he added. “It’s heavier lyrically, maybe. All of WINGER’s records have a heavier overtone, because the guitars are tuned low; it’s just more aggressive. And there’s a little bit of a progressive flair on one of the songs. But I think people are gonna really enjoy the album. I hope it’s well received.”
Roth also spoke about the band’s songwriting process, saying: “Well, Kip and Reb [Beach, guitar] are the primary songwriters of the band; they are the nucleus. But I did co-write one song on this album with Kip.
“With WINGER, it normally starts [as] the musical idea. A lot of people write from lyrics and melodies. Most of the songs I write, I have a melody or a lyric which is like the nucleus or the starting point for a song. But with WINGER, it’s a riff, it’s a musical idea.
“I remember when I was first co-writing with Kip on some songs on ‘Better Days Comin”, we’re not demoing the songs. We’re writing ’em; we’re recording the actual songs,” he explained. “So, I’m looking at him, going, ‘How do you know that you just want one more bar here?’ He’s, like, ‘I hear where I wanna go with the lyrics.’ And I’m, like, ”Cause you’re making a lot of really big-time decisions for the arrangement,’ and we’re recording final guitar parts and the lyrics have to revolve around it.
“So everything starts with the music with WINGER,” Roth added. “But as the songs are being written and the riffs are coming about, the melodies are in Kip’s head. Kip’s the maestro, you know? He’s the maestro of the band. So he’s thinking as we’re writing — what the melodies are gonna [be], how they’re gonna work around the riffs, and inevitably making final judgment calls on the arrangement as we’re cutting the songs. [It] used to be you’d demo songs. You’d demo a song out, and sometimes you couldn’t beat the demo. You’d be, like, ‘There’s a magic on the demo we cannot beat.’ So WINGER really doesn’t have that problem anymore ’cause as we’re writing the songs, we’re cutting the final parts.”
When asked if he enjoys working that way, Roth replied: “I like it. I like it, ’cause stuff moves fast. It’s quick. It’s exciting. Because a song can sit there when you’re layering parts on a song for months at a time. It can get a little bit too thought out, you know what I mean? So when you’re writing and you’re creating the song, the final [album version], when you’re writing [and recording it] instead of coming up with the demo [first], it’s exciting. Things move fast.”
WINGER are set to hit the road with CINDERELLA frontman Tom Keifer and former MÖTLEY CRÜE singer John Corabi for a run of U.S. dates this summer. You can find those show listings below.
Tom Keifer 2023 U.S. tour dates:
June 15 – Buckhead Theatre – Atlanta, Georgia (with WINGER and John Corabi)
June 17 – Blue Note Harrison – Harrison, Ohio (with WINGER and John Corabi)
June 18 – Dr. Pepper Park – Roanoke, Virginia (with WINGER and John Corabi)
June 21 – St. George Theatre – Staten Island, New York (with WINGER and John Corabi)
June 23 – Santander Performing Arts Center – Reading, Pennsylvania (with WINGER and John Corabi)
June 24 – Palladium Ballroom – New York, New York (with WINGER and John Corabi)
June 25 – Budweiser Brewery Experience – Merrimack, New Haven (with WINGER and John Corabi)
June 27 – Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts – Patchogue, New York (with WINGER and John Corabi)
June 28 – Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom – Hampton Beach, New Hampshire (with WINGER and John Corabi)
June 30 – Keswick Theatre – Glenside, Pennsylvania (with WINGER and John Corabi)
July 01 – Mountain View Amphitheater – Cheswick, Pennsylvania (with WINGER and John Corabi)
July 06 – Penn’s Peak – Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania (with WINGER and John Corabi)
July 07 – The Strand Ballroom & Theatre – Providence, Rhode Island (with WINGER and John Corabi)
July 14 – Arcada Theatre – St. Charles, Illinois (with WINGER and John Corabi)
July 15 – The Des Plains Theatre – Des Plaines, Illinois (with WINGER and John Corabi)
July 18 – The Oriental Theater – Denver, Colorado
July 19 – Steelhouse Omaha – Omaha, Nebraska (with L.A. GUNS)
July 21 – Mid Summer Music Fest – Menahga, Minnesota (with L.A. GUNS)
July 22 – Medina Entertainment Center – Hamel, Minnesota (with L.A. GUNS)
July 27 – Granada Theater – Dallas, Texas, USA (with John Corabi)
July 28 – Rise Rooftop – Houston, Texas (with John Corabi)
July 29 – Haute Spot – Cedar Park Texas (with John Corabi)
Aug. 18 – Ryman Auditorium – Nashville, Tennessee (with WINGER and John Corabi)
