KXM, the band featuring drummer Ray Luzier (KoRn), guitarist George Lynch (Lynch Mob, Dokken), and vocalist/bassist dUg Pinnick (King’s X) just released their sophomore effort Scatterbrain on March 17th to rave reviews. The follow up to their 2014 self-titled release, which landed at #31 on the Billboard Top 200, features 13 tracks behind the engineering of Chris “The Wizard” Collier (Flotsam & Jetsam/Prong/Last In Line). Drawing inspiration from prog, punk, metal, and ska, Scatterbrain is sure to take the listener on a musical journey. We had the opportunity to talk with guitarist George Lynch about their journey to KXM’s second record, how this band of three diverse rockers came to be, and yes we did ask the infamous question, what’s next for Dokken?
You just released your sophomore record, Scatterbrain; can you take us through the writing process and how it might differ from some of the other projects you’re involved in?
The philosophy behind KXM, anyone that follows the band pretty much knows it, we do not pre-write 
anything. We are not a band that sits around, lives together, rehearses and goes on the road. We just kind of meet up every couple of years in a recording studio and see what happens. We improvise, and that improvisational effort turns into a record after ten to twelve days.
I’m sure it must be a bit different from some of your other projects. If so, do you like it better this way?
Well it’s not entirely different from my other projects. Lynch Mob did something similar to that when we did the Sound Mountain Sessions. A lot of the Shadowtrain record was written that way as well. Quite honestly, my writing style is pretty much a jam session. The only difference with some of the recent records, when I say recent I mean recent decades, that differentiate those records from KXM would be that after the initial idea, we’ll spend more time arranging. But generally it’s kind of how I write. Basically the seat of my pants, spur of the moment, improvisational writing.
With Scatterbrain, are there one or two songs that you would say have the George Lynch stamp on it?
Ah, I think I’m all over everything. I think the whole point with a KXM record is that it’s not Lynch Mob; it’s not Dokken or anything else. It is its own unique thing. It’s a product of the chemistry between the three of us who are very equal in our contribution to the end result. Whereas most of my projects I’m taking on a bulk of the work on myself because of the fact that I have a guitar in my hands. The guitar player is writing the riffs. But in the case of KXM, that’s not the dynamic. The dynamic is that I’m a third of the creative force. Ray and dUg are equally contributing, and it’s a really interesting dynamic. A different dynamic than what I’m used to. I had to learn to take a little bit of a backseat. So, we have this record that is just not all me, which is wonderful. I was able to learn by getting outside my box a little bit. Reacting to Ray’s crazy tribal syncopated drum patterns and off times is something I normally don’t do. Normally I come up with something that’s a little more pedestrian; then the drummer comes in and matches my riff. Just adventurous as far as the drummer is concerned. KXM, a lot of times that song started with Ray, with some crazy tribal beat (laughing) that I had to adapt to. It was really fun, interesting. So, it was a whole different way of doing a record for me. And the results are quite different from anything I’ve done other than the first KXM record.
In terms of equipment, do you change up what you use with KXM. Are there stylistic differences?
I don’t really change my gear; although, I’ve got to say that my gear selection is pretty wide. In other words, I bring in a lot of options. I’ll bring in a truckload of different speaker cabinets, amplifiers, guitars, and pedal boards. Then I’ll do a lot of mixing and matching, changing up mid-stream with this amp and that amp, different configurations. But it’s nothing out of the ordinary; I just got a big mess of stuff up there (laughing). Whatever is best for that particular song or that day is what I do with most projects.
Obviously those that are familiar with KXM know the story of how you got together. You were attending Ray’s son’s birthday party, and late night the three of you started jamming. KXM came together from that, is that right?
Yeah but that’s a pretty boring story; we need to come up with a better one. Let me think of something here. Sometimes I lie about it and make up this crazy intricate tale about how we heard about this wizard on Mahollow Mountain in Tomacapeek. We had this secret map and made this quest, followed all these clues, and we were able to find this wizard. He doesn’t really accept anybody to get his direction, so we had to pass a series of tests. It’s kind of like the musical Karate Kid (laughing), you know wax on wax off. You know he’s a real wizard, he’s got a white beard, pointy hat, and a wand with special powers. He lives in a cave in a mountain. And we did the record there. So, that’s a better story then I was hanging out at a little kid’s birthday party (laughing).
Where did the name KXM come from?
Oh that’s another boring story; it’s just an amalgamation of our other band titles which is Korn, Lynch Mob, and King’s X. It’s kind of crazy all these different projects I’m involved in and so much creativity involved in them as far as the songwriting and the arrangements. Then at the end of the day, we could never come up with a decent band name; we fell flat on our faces. I have such a block about that; I don’t know why. All these younger bands – alternative bands and metal bands -have these cool creative names, and the only thing we can come up with is our initials.
Video for BREAKOUT
That seems to follow you around from Dokken to Lynch Mob and Sweet/Lynch.
I know T&N, Lynch, Lynch Mob, Lynch this Lynch that, and I’m like wtf? Here’s the problem with that quite honestly for us to do records and to monetize that we have to have record deals. The labels want to call the project something that is identifiable and that is my name or the others on project names to be able to sell it. They don’t want the Invisible Pumpkins; they want the George Lynch and Pilson or Sweet and Lynch or whatever. Something that is identifiable. That’s the problem I’ve had in recent years in coming up with a creative band name. For instance, I did a record in 1999 or 2000 called Smoke This, and actually the band was called “Lynch Mob.” It shouldn’t have never been called “Lynch Mob” as it wasn’t Lynch Mob really; it was a whole different band I got together in Phoenix, AZ, and these guys were more into the rap/metal kind of vibe. That’s kind of what the record was to an extent. The thing is the record company insisted that if they bought the record they would be able to call it “Lynch Mob.” So that’s between a rock and a hard place that I get caught in sometimes. I can stick to my guns and say I’m not calling it that, but guess what? Then we get no record deal. It’s a tough position to be in sometimes.
Your name has built a brand, right?
Yeah, but if a product is really cool, people will find it. If you build something that is valid, they will come. You know the label is important. You want something that really identifies in a cool way. Music is not like a widget; music is a creative endeavor, so we want to have kind of a creative cool label on it. A name on there that is imaginative, trippy and cool and describes it in a creative way rather than just a stale way. It’s one of my biggest frustrations in music actually is this little problem with having the naming thing.
Any tour dates being kicked around?
For KXM, no. Our philosophy on that, we debated this endlessly, is that if we sell enough records, we will be forced to tour. Make us tour basically. If we get to 40,000, which is a big number these days, then we will absolutely find a way to do some meaningful touring. Actually get across the country and hit most markets, which would take about two and a half months out of the year. A couple weeks to prep for it then to get out and hit 15 or 20 cities.
That 40,000 mark should happen as it is an amazing record. RockRevolt gave it our top rating.
Well that’s a big number these days. There’s a lot of internal reasons why that’s difficult. It’s not the 80’s anymore; we’re not on a major label. Major labels own the radio stations, well not actually own them but own access to them. If you’re on an independent record label, you have no access to radio, any kind of mainstream radio. You have college and internet and specialty shows. That’s a big deal because without that access people aren’t aware that you exist. There’s a lot of music coming out every month, thousands of releases, it’s hard to get through. Everybody is struggling to climb over everybody else to get noticed and heard. It’s a tricky tricky business. We do everything we can; I do dozens and dozens of interviews. I never deny an interview. I’ll sit here all afternoon and talk to people about the record. We’ll do anything in our power to make people aware that this record is out there. It’s definitely an uphill battle for all of us out here, new bands, older legacy bands. Name a band from the 80’s. Ratt puts out a new record it gets noticed but not by the same amount of people that bought Out of the Cellar. It’s a tough game.
Did you ever think of what you would be doing if you didn’t make it as a guitar player?
Oh yeah. I never thought in my wildest imagination that I would play guitar for a living. I’ve had every job on the planet, and the concept of doing this, making money at it, seemed ludicrous and never even occurred to me. It was just kind of a thing I fell into almost accidentally. I was playing music obviously but just to enjoy it because I loved being in a band and playing with my friends, writing songs, and playing guitar. I wasn’t trying to be a Rockstar or anything. I still had a job. I was managing fast food restaurants (laughing), worked in warehouses, a factory, I was a teamster truck driver, a plumber’s assistant. Then I was into construction. I’ve done just about everything you can think of. What else did I do? I worked in a furniture factory where I built furniture for a while. I worked in a factory that built toilets for airplanes and boats. I had a lot of weird jobs.
You’ve held down quite a few jobs. Do you recall the moment when you realized playing guitar would be your living?
Yeah, well it wasn’t really a clean transition; it was a couple year transition. In my late twenties, I was a teamster driving a liquor truck, and I actually continued to drive after Dokken signed our first record contract. Even our second record contract I was still driving a truck. In fact, I remember the day I signed the contract. I had to drive my work truck to Hollywood to the record company, go in sign the contract, and then go back to work. I kept working for maybe another year or so. In our experience, it wasn’t we went from one thing to the other immediately. It was a very slow transition. We ramped up. Our first bunch of shows and tours that we did we didn’t make any money. Our records really didn’t make any money. It took a while for that to kick in.
Not to get too much into it, but everyone is always curious about Dokken. It’s well documented the volatility of the relationship between Don (Dokken) and yourself. Do you think with Don being the founder of Dokken and the focal point then when you came in, maybe you took some of the spotlight away from him? Did that create some tension between the two of you? Or was it creative differences?
(long pause) Ah I don’t really want to re-litigate the whole Dokken thing. You know we did the little reunion thing last year. We’re working on a live DVD, a live record with some new studio tracks. Talking about doing an acoustic record. Maybe thinking about doing some more dates in 2018. For us we’re just putting all that garbage in the past and not holding on to old shit. The only reason I ever talk about it is because I do interviews with people, and they bring it up. I’ve got to stop being the unfiltered, open-book guy. I’ve got to learn to start filtering that.
Well I along with many others would love to see the four of you onstage together, so I won’t push the issue any further.
For that to happen, we’ve definitely got to let go of the old bullshit. It’s like the exes getting back together and arguing over why the broke up in the first place.
What about some of the other projects you have going on; is Lynch Mob working on anything at the moment?
That record has been in the can for a while and will be released in June. It’s called The Brotherhood. It’s a great record. Lynch Mob is a solid band; that’s my tour band. Oni (Logan-vocals) and I are the core of the band. Jimmy D’Anda (drums) and Sean McNabb (bass), they were in the band in the early 2000’s. We’re like brothers; this feels like the real band. It’s gelled, and it’s tight – a machine. Our records are consistent; our performances are consistent. That’s really my foundation at this point. So we’ve got a record coming out in June.
What about Sweet & Lynch?
Sweet & Lynch, I just finished writing that. We are in the studio right now on the East Coast tracking the drums with Brian Tichy and bass with James LoMenzo. That will be done probably in the next few weeks. Michael’s got almost all the lyrics and melodies written. That will go to mix soon.
Are you going to tour on it?
That’s always the million dollar question, a tricky one. When you’ve got four guys from four different bands, they are all busy and working. That’s a tough one.
What about your documentary, Shadowtrain: Under A Crooked Sky.
Yeah that’s Shadownation; we changed the name. Shadowtrain is the band; we put a record out a couple/few years ago. Until There’s Justice There Will Be No Peace is that name of the album. It’s an amazing album; it’s a two record, double CD with twenty songs. A very personal record for me. I wrote most of the lyrics and melodies. I’m not saying that to brag; I’m saying that because I’m proud. The subject matter is something very close to my heart. I’m passionate about and spent decades working on. I just felt compelled to express myself. In a less one-dimensional way than I normally do with just the guitar. That’s really a jewel of a personal record, something that might have gone under the radar a little bit. I would like to see the movie come out, but it’s just been a struggle as I’m not really an experienced movie person. I’m learning via the school of Hard Knocks what not to do the hard way. We’re hopefully getting close. The film has been done, but making a film without a plan and without any money is a difficult process. We’re getting there; hopefully this film will be out later this year. We’ve got Tom Morello and Ted Nugent; Serj from System of A Down is in it. I interviewed Noam Chomsky from MIT, a personal hero of mine. John Trudell and I wrote a song on the soundtrack. He passed away recently; we dedicated the film to John. He was a major force in the American-Indian movement. Hopefully Shadownation will be out before the end of the year. I have a few other projects, and I hesitate listing off all my projects because I think it gives people fatigue. They’re like, oh my god we can’t keep track of all this. But I’m just going to throw it out there. I’ve got a project called The Banishment that I’ve been working on for about five years. The singer is Tommy Victor from Prong, and it has an industrial vibe to it. Not pure industrial, but it is industrial like. I’ve always been a big fan of that kind of music. I always thought how awesome that would be to hear a band like that but with what I imagine a guitar doing. Or with Eddie Van Halen in it or something, that kind of feel. And I thought I would love to create that someday because I never heard anything like that before. That’s what we tried to do. Lastly I have this project called Ultrafonics with Corey Glover from Living Colour and the rhythm section from Tower of Power and War. That is basically an extension of Project Nfidelikah, which is a record I put out about two years ago that has a lot of funk elements and trippier elements with the singer from Fishbone, Angelo Moore. On this record we decided to change the name of the band because we got a new singer. It’s an incredibly fun record with all the funk elements but also some of the 70’s hard rock, trippy elements. The way I like to describe it: it sounds like early Chili Peppers meets old Judas Priest meets King Crimson. It’s even got some prog elements to it. A very interesting piece of work. So we’ve got all the music written for that and just finishing up on arrangements. We’ve finished three songs with Corey and another eight songs to finish up vocally. Then we’ll mix it. That will be coming out later in the year.
What do you think of the current political state in the U.S. and the building of the wall on the Mexican border?
Well without alienating any of my fans or potential fans on the right, we’re living in a very scary time potentially. I think people in some sense have lost track; I think really when you get down to it foundationally you have to agree on is the fact that when we take care of each other we are at our best. That form of altruism is why we’ve succeeded as an organism long term. And when we start taking the view that we want to be selfish, fearful, and greedy and pick up the philosophy of “I’ve got mine, fuck you” that’s when things start falling apart. That was the fall of the Roman Empire and the decline of Western civilization. We really need to treat ourselves and the planet that sustains us compassionately and with intelligence and new science based logic to manage ourselves. We need to be an educated society and a compassionate society and work for the greater good.
Well stated, I couldn’t agree more. Any final words for the fans?
I would just like to express my appreciation to you and to the people that read your magazine for tuning in and giving a shit. Keeping rock n roll alive. Music is such an important thing in these trying times. Music is really a sort of medicine for all of us. It’s kind of the wilderness of the mind I like to describe it as. It has that thing that we really can’t completely understand, but it’s so absolutely essential to all of us for our mental health and well being. We’re all creative beings and we share that whether you’re a guitar player or you appreciate music or whatever. We are all on the same wavelength here.
Well I’ve been a fan of yours since the early 80’s, and it’s been an absolute privilege to speak with you today. I look forward to all your projects and of course your new KXM record, out now, which is fantastic. I wish you the best of luck going forward and hopefully will see you on the road with one of your projects in the near future.
We’ll definitely be out there with Lynch Mob. And thank you.
