Aerosmith’s one-time ‘toxic twins', Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, were in London last night to premiere their first full album in eleven years. The duo, who are older than time and have amazing hair, cracked jokes and answered questions about their career, their time off and fifteenth studio album Music From Another Dimension, released here on November 5th.
Attendees, including music critics, liggers and the odd Soho stripper were treated to a playback of six new songs as well as the worlds first showing of new video ‘What Could Have Been Love’, which being an Aerosmith ballad has sexy young people looking moody in it. The duo took questions on changes in the music industry, Tyler’s spell on American Idol, and how close they really got to splitting up.
“I think we’re seeing the end of an era”, said guitarist Perry, who has a chin so huge it enters rooms a full five minutes before he does, “I don’t think there’s an appetite to watch bands play two and a half hour sets any more, the so-called classic bands can do it, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing the Black Keys play two hour shows in ten years times”.
When asked about his decision to appear as a judge on American Idol frontman Tyler was unapologetic: “It was fun, but it’s not Aerosmith”, he said. “As I told them at the beginning of the second year, ‘you better give me the money I want or I’m gonna go out with the guys I’ve been with for forty years, not the guys who’ve been going for ten years’”, showing an admirable conviction to his bandmates in the event of a TV show not paying him enough.
The duo also scoffed at rumours that they came close to splitting up; “we had to keep ourselves in the press some way without an album”, joked Tyler. “It was actually quite amusing for us to see how we were dealing with our problems in the press” added Perry, “I was reading about how we were looking for a new singer while I was on American Idol playing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Steven. It worked pretty well, it got us in the paper and they spelled our names right”. He rubbished claims that sexy 90s axeman Lenny Kravitz was ever considered a replacement as “not true...and I got the text to prove it”.
The album will be a treat for fans, combining the punchy pop of their 90s work with more of the blues-rock of their 70s heyday. Highlights include ‘Street Jesus’, which references their classic ‘Sweet Emotion’, grand ballad ‘We All Fall Down’ written by Diane ‘Don’t Want To Miss A Thing’ Warren, and ‘Freedom Fighter’ which will satisfy anyone curious as to Joe Perry’s opinion on Joseph Kony, and features Johnny Depp on backing vocals. Fans of Steven Tyler’s lyrics will be pleased to hear that the man who wrote ”Pink, it’s like red but not quite” is on good form with the likes of ”Roses are red/my lips are on you” on ‘Out Go The Lights’.
The band, who are planning to hit these shores as part of a 2013 world tour, have stayed resolutely old-school, proudly announcing that Music From Another Dimension will be available on vinyl as well as new-fangled CD and download. “We’re excited about putting it out on vinyl", announced Perry, "we’d have brought some with us tonight but the test pressing has only just been done and you can’t email it like an MP3. It won’t through the little hole in your computer.”
Look out for the full DiS review of Music From Another Dimension in the coming weeks.
Marc Burrows and Steven Tyler
