In a new interview with “Chris Akin Presents…” , TESLA guitarist Frank Hannon was asked if there are any plans for the band to work on a full-length album following the release of the “Cold Blue Steel” single, which came out last August. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Right now, after we did the ‘Shock’ album [in 2019] and the way things are right now, we’re only gonna concentrate on one song at a time. We’re pushing late 50s, mid 60s in our age, and the bottom line is there’s no need to put the pressure on a deadline of you’ve gotta fabricate 10 songs by the first of June and force it. So, we’re not gonna do that. We’re gonna just write songs as they come and as we feel them, and put ’em out as singles right now. The whole idea of trying to cram an album for the sake of cramming an album doesn’t appeal to us.”
Pressed about whether TESLA will eventually compile all the standalone singles and release them as a full-length CD, Hannon said: “Absolutely. Maybe a box set. Maybe some kind of collection of some sort. We do have a lot of outtakes and some things that we’re gonna work on. But right now I’m just happy doing one song at a time. And at the end of the year, if we’re able to squeeze out eight or 10 of ’em, then we’ll put ’em all together.”
Earlier in the month, TESLA released the official lyric video for “Cold Blue Steel”. The clip, directed by Brandon Gullion and produced by Hannon, is raw and high electric energy that takes fans back to the roots of TESLA.
Hannon stated: “‘Cold Blue Steel’ is influenced by current events of the world, just like our debut single ‘Modern Day Cowboy’ (1986), and touches on the subject fairly and open-minded by asking ‘what’s to blame?’ when it comes to violence in the world. More importantly, the recording and production of the song and video are kept raw and real, just the way TESLA fans want to see and hear us. We are survivors and have been rocking for 35-plus years.”
The 2022 radio remix version of “Cold Blue Steel” is being offered as the version for the airwaves with the guitars and vocals being cranked up louder and with the raw energy being preserved. Frank explained: “Some folks were reluctant to play the track with its explicit lyrics in the verse, so I created a clean version for radio with a bleep. As a bandmember and being the producer, we approve of these changes and really love the remixed audio enhancement for radio play. This is TESLA in real honest form and independently producing our music for the first time as an official release.”
“Cold Blue Steel” is the first TESLA song to ever be produced by the bandmembers themselves.
“Producing ourselves is allowing us to creatively record new music and keep it as raw and real as possible,” Hannon said.
Last December, Hannon told Let’s Rock that the lyrics to “Cold Blue Steel” have been partially misinterpreted by some fans.
“We’ve been getting a lot of flak from people that only hear the couple of verses in the song, thinking it’s about gun control,” he said. “And in a way it is, but, really, it’s so much deeper than that, the lyrics. We try to definitely not take sides and be political but we wanna sing about a situation. Something like what we did with ‘Modern Day Cowboy’ in the ’80s; we sang about foreign lands and terrorist demands and ‘bang bang, shoot ’em up’ and how that attitude was still happening in the world at that time, being a gunfighter, cowboy situation, but we’re not pointing fingers. And that’s the same way with this song, but some people only hear parts of it and have been giving us some shit about it. But if you listen to the lyrics, it’s asking a question, ‘What’s to blame? Let’s get real.’ And the song is really about people that you give ’em an inch, they take a mile — whether it’s a politician, whether it’s a crook, whether it’s a police officer. And we support our police.”
He added: “There’s evil intentions in all parts of life, and that’s what the song is really about — just observing and asking the question, ‘What’s to blame?’ It’s not talking about ‘take away guns’ or any of that shit. But it started off just being a fun poke at Ronnie Van Zant. That last lyric in the song, ‘Just like Ronnie said, ‘Let’s dump ’em to the bottom of the sea,’ that’s where the song started for fun. And then we took it and tried to make it a little bit more serious.”
TESLA has U.S. shows scheduled throughout the spring and summer.
