Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt was recently interviewed by, one and only, Andrew Daly for Metal Edge Mag. He talked a lot about the band’s new album Six that is going to be released on June 9.
Daly asked the famous guitarist about the long layover between the last album Saudades De Rock and new Six. Nuno explained:
“I had one thing on my mind, and one thing only: break Guns N’ Roses’ record for how long it took to make Chinese Democracy. [laughs] I was going to call it Portuguese Democracy, but the guys wouldn’t go for it. But in all seriousness, it wasn’t a wait or hold-up per se; we had three or four albums’ worth of material. But the thing is, I’m not going to release anything that we’re not completely passionate about.
For us to make an album, we all need to be hungry for it to the point that we’re kept up all night over it. But with these songs, you’ll hear on Six, we’re hungry, we’re passionate, and we can’t wait to share them with the world. We’re proud and excited about this one. Unfortunately, it took 15 years to get here. But actually, it was 12 years… we had this done a few years ago for the most part, but the pandemic delayed the release.”
They also talked about the “Rise” solo and why it affected people so much. If you remember, we also wrote an opinion about this matter. Here is what Nuno said:
“Fuck, yeah! It is gratifying; people were hitting me up saying, “Thank you for bringing rock ‘n’ roll like that. We haven’t heard that kind of fire in a long time.” So, my takeaway is that, yeah, it’s a decent solo, but it’s more about the emotional impact of watching a guitar player do what they do. And it’s about the physical, too. It’s not just sitting in a chair playing the notes; this really does mean something to me.
I grew up watching Edward Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Page, and Brian May. And when you look back at videos of these guys playing at Madison Square Garden, you’re not just paying attention to the guitar, the notes, or what the scale is; you’re embedded in the culture of it. You want it all, man. You want everything that fucking comes with it.
That’s why people loved the “Rise” solo, but they were starving for more than a solo. It’s not about raising the bar; it’s about seeing a guitar player up there with fire and passion. I’m telling you – it’s the passion that’s often missing in these guitar videos. It’s the performance aspect of it because the mythology and the history are there. That’s what people crave. It’s what I crave. It drives me.”
It is a very informative and interesting interview, like all of them coming from Andrew Daly, so we strongly encourage you to read it on Metal Edge Mag website.
As we were writing this news article, Extreme released the fourth single from the upcoming album.
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