Former Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley is opening up about his little-known songwriting trick.
As he continues his solo career after splitting from the band for the last time in 2022, the guitarist and singer is giving insight to his self-titled debut album that dropped in 1978. Throughout the recording stages, he says he enjoyed playing around with a bass. He notes that switching things up from writing on a guitar changed the process for him.
"I like playing bass; bass is fun," he shared with Goldmine. "Sometimes I'll pick up a bass guitar and sit down and start fooling around, and I'll write a riff that really sounds good on a regular guitar on a bass because you think differently when you're playing a bass than you do with a guitar."
Writing a guitar riff with a bass guitar transported Frehley into processing his songwriting differently. He notes that he was able to come up with different variations of his guitar skills.
"I've written riffs on a bass and then transferred it to the Les Paul. It just puts your head in a different place, and sometimes you come up with things playing on a bass guitar that you wouldn't on an electric guitar."
The "New York Groove" songwriter still exercises those skills today, specifically with the release of his new solo album. Released earlier this year, 10,000 Volts was his eighth solo studio album. While he still used his old tricks in the recording booth, Frehley had to adapt to modern day promotional tactics once it was released.
"They hired a social media guy to help me promote myself on social media," he reveals. "I never knew what TikTok was. My fiancée's stepkids use it all the time; it's more of a young person's format. But since we put that up - it hasn't been more than four weeks - I got over a million views."
A popular profile on TikTok, Frehley frequently shares insight into his personal life on social media. He currently resides in New Jersey, which he frequently jokes is an unexpected place to find him. The "Inside the Vortex" singer is engaged to a school teacher, who is also a mother to two children and a dog. He will typically take to social media to share looks inside his trips to Walmart or the grocery store.
When it comes to his relationship with his former Kiss bandmates, Frehley notes that things are complicated. While they have their arguments, they still look at each other like they are brothers.
"We're just like brothers. Brothers have arguments, brothers have misunderstandings, they curse each other out, and then they make up."
Ace Frehley was a founding member of Kiss in 1973, along with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanely. He departed for the first time in 1982, before returning for six years in 1996. Although he was not featured in their final show at Madison Square Garden, he and Simmons will still collaborate in the studio, with the current Kiss frontman recently writing two songs for him.
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