Kiss lead guitarist Tommy Thayer has a new band, Shogun Mojo – but he’s not trying to compete with the legendary hottest band in the world. “I’m not starting Shogun Mojo thinking, ‘How do we compete with that?”’ he says. “You can’t.”
Their debut single single, Under the Gun, will be followed by their self-titled album on November 6. But that’s not the only new music Thayer has had a hand in, as rumors of Kiss working on tunes have been circulating. “We did record a great new song that Paul wrote,” he reports. “That’s probably about as much as I can tell you right now.”
He continues: “Kiss may have stopped touring, but that doesn’t mean things have stopped happening. There’s still a lot going on and a lot of new things developing.” He’ll take part in Kiss’ second annual Land Locked in Vegas event in the fall, and then Shogun Mojo will embark on a short tour.
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“More than anything, I want this to be fun,” he says. “I want to make records I’m proud of, play some great shows and keep creating. At this point in my life that’s much more important than anything else.”
How did Shogun Mojo form?
It happened pretty organically. I’ve been spending a lot of time in Prague the last couple of years because my daughter lives there. Dan Reed has been there for almost 15 years; he and I go way back to Portland in the early ’80s, when Black ’N Blue was getting started, and Dan was playing in bands around town.
We’d lost touch for a long time, but when I started spending more time in Prague, we got together, had coffee, and he invited me over to his home studio. We started messing around with some ideas, really just for fun. There was no big plan.
But we realized we had something really good happening, and that’s what eventually became Shogun Mojo. And it feels great! It’s exciting to walk into a room without any preconceived idea of what something has to sound like.
You’re known for Kiss and also Black ’N Blue. How did those bands inform your sound and guitar objectives?
Those things are always going to be part of me. Black ‘N Blue was where I really developed as a guitar player and songwriter, and then obviously being in Kiss for over 20 years has had a huge impact on me. You don’t spend that amount of time playing those songs and with those guys without learning a lot about what makes a great rock ’n’ roll song.
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I’ve always been a song guy first. I love playing guitar, but I’m not interested in putting 100 notes into something just because you can. The riff is everything, the solo has to be memorable – and most importantly, the song has to be great.
With Shogun Mojo Dan brings the rhythmic, funky influence that he’s always been known for, and I’m coming more from a straight-ahead hard rock world. Dan’s actually a Van Halen nut! There’s a lot of common ground between us, so the combination feels very natural.
Tell us about the first songs you wrote.
The first things came from Dan and me throwing ideas around in Prague. Gonna Raise Hell was one of the first ones. One of us would have a riff or a chord progression or a groove, then we’d start building on it. It wasn’t like one of us showed up with finished songs.
That’s part of why I think the record has the personality it does. Dan and I were in a room together developing the songs, and then with [bandmates] Bengt and Ikiz, you get this incredible rhythm section. That’s important, because this isn’t supposed to be straight-ahead hard rock all the time. There’s a cool funk element to it.
Under the Gun is a good example; there’s a big rock guitar sound and a strong chorus, but underneath it there’s this groove going on.
How will you balance Shogun Mojo with your ongoing activities with Kiss?
That won’t be difficult. The schedule is obviously very different to when we were doing 100 or however many shows a year. There are still Kiss things happening, and I’m very much part of the Kiss family, but that leaves me time to do other things. The idea is for Shogun Mojo to do selected shows, probably in Europe, and make them special.
There’s been chatter about new Kiss music for some time. If there was a new Kiss album, what might that look like in the modern age?
Think about it – you’re a kid listening to your records, dreaming, and years later you’re in the band playing those songs
That’s a good question, because the record business is completely different now. When Kiss started, and even when I started, an album was the centerpiece of everything. You made the album then you toured behind it for a year or two.
Today people consume music completely differently – for the most part, they aren’t buying music anymore. It’s a bummer. It’s really hurt that side of the business, particularly for the people creating music. The royalty structure for artists and songwriters hasn’t caught up with the streaming business, and it needs to. I know there’s legislation in Congress that will hopefully help address some of that.
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But Kiss has always believed in making things an event. So whatever new music comes, it has to feel special and have a reason for existing. You don’t make another Kiss record just because you’re supposed to make another Kiss record.
How are you preparing for the next Kiss Landlocked in Vegas? Is it like riding a bike?
It really is! I’ve played those songs thousands of times, so they’re pretty deeply embedded in me at this point. Once the four of us get together and start playing, everything comes back very quickly. That doesn’t mean you don’t prepare. Kiss has always had a high standard. If we’re going to get up there together, it has to be great.
But there’s also something different about doing this event in Vegas now. We’re not in the middle of a huge world tour. It becomes more of a celebration, with fans coming together from all over the world, and I think we can enjoy it from that perspective too.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Destroyer. As a fan, and someone who played many of those songs for many years, what does that record mean to you?
Destroyer is one of those records that’s almost bigger than an album at this point. When I was in high school I never imagined I’d be standing onstage playing Detroit Rock City with Kiss. Think about that – you’re a kid listening to your records, dreaming, looking at the album covers, and years later you’re in the band playing those songs all around the world. Crazy!
Bob Ezrin took Kiss somewhere different on that record. He produced these massive rock songs. But then you have something like Beth, with an arrangement and production that was much more ambitious than anything the band had done up to that point.
Now, 50 years later, you hear that opening to Detroit Rock City and everybody knows exactly what’s coming. It’s bombastic, it’s larger than life, and to me that’s the definition of a classic Kiss record.
What are your plans for Shogun Mojo?
Kiss is still Kiss – just because the touring chapter ended doesn’t mean everything stopped
Now Under the Gun is out, people can finally hear what we’ve been talking about. We definitely want to play live. I’m not interested in touring extensively – I’ve done plenty of that in my life. But getting together and doing a short run of shows sounds great. Europe probably makes most sense initially, because we’re already connected there. So doing some selected European dates in the spring is something we’re looking at.
Any upcoming surprises you can tease us with?
I’m continuing to spend a lot of time in Europe and getting more involved creatively there. I’ll be the featured guest at the Kiss 50 Years in Germany fan event in Düsseldorf on October 30. And Kiss is still Kiss – just because the touring chapter ended doesn’t mean everything stopped.
There are things happening there and I think the next few years are going to be very interesting. But as far as surprises, if I told you, they wouldn’t be surprises, would they? Let’s just say I’m enjoying having the freedom to follow things that excite me creatively right now. There’s definitely more coming.
