Hear New Music From Skid Row’s Rachel Bolan

Skid Row’s Rachel Bolan recently announced his debut solo album, Gargoyle of the Garden State, which will be released June 12.

You can hear “Anything But You,” the latest offering from the upcoming record below. As the bassist tells UCR, the idea to do a solo album came from producer Nick Raskulinecz, who also helmed the most recent Skid Row album, 2022’s The Gang’s All Here.

Known for his past work with a wide array of artists, from Rush to Foo Fighters to Alice in Chains and many others, Bolan says that the producer brings something really important to his process.

“He’s the guy who can pick out what you’re trying to accomplish better than you can,” he explains. “There was so many times during this recording where I wanted to change something. He’s like, ‘No, no, no, no, no. That’s you, leave that. That’s the signature you.”

“And that meant a lot, you know, coming from a guy that has accomplished what he has accomplished [as a producer] — and from a brother’s standpoint, as well. He was my biggest [supporter]. He’d root me on for stuff and get me to to trust in my judgment of my parts.”

What Fans Can Expect From ‘Gargoyle of the Garden State’

Some will remember how Bolan looked back to his punk roots in the ’90s with his band Prunella Scales and Gargoyle of the Garden State has been similarly regarded as being based in that general area stylistically. Advance materials billed the record as being “a raw and energetic punk release” and that’s music to his ears.

“It’s wild, I mean, my background is punk,” he confirms. “I didn’t want to give it any kind of category, you know. But it seems people [are saying] it has a strong punk feel. I’m fine with that. I’m totally down with that. It’s actually a badge of honor.”

Gargoyle of the Garden State features a number of guests, including his longtime Skid Row bandmates — with drummer Rob Hammersmith in particular, handling drum duties for the whole of the album. Bolan himself plays bass, of course, but also handles many of the guitars.

Longtime friend Damon Johnson (Lynyrd Skynyrd, Brother Cane) stepped up to reel off five guitar solos on the album. Extreme’s Nuno Bettencourt, plus Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor are among the others making cameos on the album.

“Everyone I asked to do the record, thankfully said yes — and they’re all friends,” he details. “The reason I thought of them on particular songs is because of the song itself. But I just wanted friends involved with this huge moment in my career.”

Watch Rachel Bolan’s ‘Anything But You’ Video

What’s Happening With Skid Row?

The rockers partnered with Sweetwater earlier this year to find their next lead singer, who will step into the shoes of the previous vocalists the band has worked with over the years. As Bolan told UCR, each time they’ve had to make a previous change, they had tour dates and other commitments on the table that made them fast track the decision.

This time, they found themselves making a change in a moment where things were light on their schedule, so they decided to use the available time to their advantage to carefully evaluate their next move.

According to all involved, they’re making progress and have zeroed in on some serious candidates. As Bolan adds, they’ve got further incentive and things to work on as well.

“Management [reached out the other day and said], ‘We know you don’t have a singer now, but you guys got to get a bunch of songs and get those magic songs in there,'” he shares. “I got off of that phone conversation and I was like, Yeah, I love this kind of pressure. I love having just something to work for.”