Stephen Pearcy‘s upcoming sixth solo album will include a few songs which were originally written “with RATT in mind.”
Tentatively due in 2021, the follow-up to 2018’s “View To A Thrill” will feature 13 tracks which were composed as a collaboration between Pearcy and his longtime guitarist Erik Ferentinos.
On Tuesday (October 20), Pearcy tweeted: “New Stephen Pearcy (his 6th) solo record due 2021 TBA with co-writer, lead guitarist Erik Ferentinos. With all (13) songs written by the pair, Pearcy is finishing working on lyrics. A few songs were written with @theRATTpack in mind.”
This past July, Ferentinos, who has played with Pearcy for nearly two decades, told All Music/All Bands about the musical direction of Stephen‘s next album: “The new record will have the ’80s rock sound that fans have come to expect from us with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. There are some heavy bangers on there that the RATT fans will love. I try to keep it edgy, but I want us to have a hit. I’m always trying to top what we’ve done so far, with catchier riffs and melodies to get more fans interested in our music.”
Stephen‘s most recent release was the “All That I Want” solo single, He told Marci Wiser of the 95.5 KLOS radio station: “I didn’t know where that song was gonna end up — a RATT song or solo — so I decided it’s just gonna be put out there.”
Asked if the track will appear on a full-length album at some point in the future, Pearcy said: “No. It’s just a song. That’s all I do is write with Erik Ferentinos, a co-writer friend of mine, been in my band forever, solo band. And it’s all good. We just write and if we feel it fits to be heard, we put it out.”
As for the lyrical inspiration for “All That I Want”, Pearcy said: “It’s a relationship song, and it just felt right for the times. Everybody’s locked up, and what’s really important to you? Your partner — somebody close to you, somebody to dig, love.”
This past March, Pearcy released another new solo song called “Making Crazy”.
Pearcy‘s fifth solo LP, “View To A Thrill”, came out in November 2018 via Frontiers Music Srl. The follow-up to 2017’s “Smash” was produced by Matt Thorne and Pearcy and was mixed and mastered by Thorne and Ferentinos.
Pearcy and bassist Juan Croucier are the sole remaining original members in RATT‘s current lineup, which made its live debut in July 2018 in Mulvane, Kansas. Joining them in the band are drummer Pete Holmes (BLACK ‘N BLUE, RATT’S JUAN CROUCIER) and guitarist Jordan Ziff (RAZER).
Pearcy told Sleaze Roxx that Erik was briefly considered for a position in RATT before Ziff and now-former RATT guitarist Chris Sanders (BRITNY FOX, KNIGHT FURY) came along. “He’s literally been in my band for years, in my solo band,” he said. “He’s a big part of my life, my solo records, the mixing, the engineering, just everything. I mean, we’re like a team when I go in to do my solo records with Matt Thorne in the studio, and Erik and myself. We get in there and there is no stopping us, so I wanted to keep that a little separate, but he’s always ready to go at any moment. He’s a total professional.”
RATT hasn’t released any new music since 2010’s “Infestation” album.
