Dark horse of the L.A. strip metal scene? Glam bandits with more grit than the rest? The deception of simplicity masking some of the best damn songwriting out of L.A. in the late ’80s? All of this applies to the enigma that is L.A. Guns, a band of scoundrels who quietly went about their business flamethrowing old rock ‘n’ roll influences into a scene that needed a good lesson in solid songs, under-stated playing, street rock warfare and the skill and passion necessary for longevity. Drummer Steve Riley knows this all too well, having played in recording bands for 25 years (he calls himself “the old man in the band”), exhibiting an inherent understanding of why this is the best band he’s ever sat behind. “The magic of our sound is the mixture of Tracii’s guitar playing and Phil’s voice. Tracii’s guitar playing is some of the best around. And it’s not just because I play with him. I’ve recorded a lot of albums for a lot of different labels. His playing, if it’s not under-rated, it’s just not quite realized. He’s a super guitar player and he can write just about anything he wants. L.A. Guns starts with his bud that he brings in, and once the band takes hold of his writing session and Phil gets to put his touch on it, that makes up the L.A. Guns sound, and then I drive the beat home. We take a lot of influence from American rock from the ’60s and the early ’70s and there’s a lot of British influence as well. We love straight ahead rock ‘n’ roll; Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, the New York Dolls, and other types of bands like Led Zeppelin and the Beatles. So our sound has always been quite versatile within an album as well. And I think that’s why we stood out in the pack and had a measure of credibility. People never looked at us as a fluff band. We weren’t afraid to mix it up. But yeah, there’s a Johnny Thunders vibe for sure.. Tracii was really good friends with Johnny and always looked up to him and I knew Johnny as well. We definitely have a connection. That was basic, raw rock ‘n’ roll and we absolutely recognize that in us. Again, it wasn’t super-popular but it was stuff we latched onto. If you take something from the New York Dolls and mix it up with something from Led Zeppelin, you can come up in the middle and get a really nice feel for music. We know the Dolls were really sloppy and again they weren’t chartbusters; nobody really knew what they sounded like. But again, if you take a little bit of that influence and mix it with some of the bands who really were big chartbusters you can, again, come in between and get a really nice little feel. That’s where L.A.Guns try to go.”
