Join us at the Siren for an intimate evening with Iron Maiden founder and lead guitarist Adrian Smith along with rock god Richie Kotzen!
Adrian comments,
“It’s always been our intention to take these songs on the road and give them a good kicking about. We’re delighted that we’ve been able to set up this tour around a very hectic 2022 schedule and we both can’t wait to finally get out there and play live.”
Richie adds,
“We’re excited that we can take Smith/Kotzen to the next level and bring our music to the stage. We’re still figuring out which musicians we’ll be bringing with us to deliver the songs in the way we’ve always envisaged to give fans a dynamic live experience. We’re really looking forward to this tour and we’re planning to have a lot of fun!”
Smith/Kotzen’s eponymous debut album S/K was released globally through BMG in March 2021 to media and fan acclaim, charting in the UK Top 20 and also major markets such as Germany, Japan, US and Canada. A follow up EP Better Days featuring four new tracks was released on November 26th in conjunction with International Record Store Day’s Black Friday event. For a taste of what to expect from a live performance by these two world class musicians, watch the video for Better Days here.
THE ALBUM: Recorded on the Turks & Caicos Islands in February 2020, produced by Richie and Adrian and mixed by Kevin “Caveman” Shirley, this nine track opus is a consummate collaboration between these two highly respected musicians who co-wrote all the songs and also share lead vocals and trade off on guitar and bass duties throughout the record.
Exploding with powerful melodies & harmonies, the album embodies the spirited attitude of 70’s classic rock with a melting-pot of influences ranging from blues, hard rock, traditional R&B and more, blending the pair’s backgrounds and life experiences to result in a thoroughly contemporary sound. The full track-listing is:
Taking My Chances
Running
Scars
Some People
Glory Road
Solar Fire
You Don’t Know Me
I Wanna Stay
‘Til Tomorrow
The record features special guest performances by Adrian’s fellow Iron Maiden bandmate Nicko McBrain on drums for the track Solar Fire, and Richie’s longstanding friend and touring partner Tal Bergman on drums for You Don’t Know Me, I Wanna Stay and ‘Til Tomorrow, with Richie picking up the sticks on the other five songs.
Adrian Smith comments, “Richie and I started working together a couple of years ago. We’d been jamming as we’d been friends for a few years before that. We both share a love for classic rock and bluesy rock so we decided to get together and start writing some songs and it went from there. Pretty much everything on the album is handled between Richie and myself including the production. We had developed a really strong idea of how we wanted it to sound and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. There’s a lot of cool songs on there that we are really happy with.”
Richie Kotzen adds “We had a very fluid process in writing. Sometimes Adrian would send me a riff and I would immediately hear some kind of melody or a vocal idea. And sometimes it was the other way round so it was a kind of circular motion. We’d get together whenever we could and throw some ideas around and it just evolved, which was great because there was no pressure and nothing other than just a natural course and I think the record really speaks for that.”
