Kip Winger, bassist for Platinum selling Hard Rock groups Winger and Alice Cooper.
Kip Winger Interview
Jason Saulnier – Kip Winger what is going on with the career these days.
Kip Winger – I’m working on classical music, I have my project that you can see on KickStarter that I’m finishing and I’m gonna record it in January a 61 piece orchestra I wrote and that’s pretty much it man and that’s been taking most of my time and what about you.
Jason – Well me, I’m doing interviews and keeping busy in this world and it’s very nice to finally have you on the phone with me. Where did this big idea come from, to make this orchestral work.
Kip Winger – Well I’ve been writing classical music now for a while my first piece was ghosts with the San Francisco Ballet, so I’ve just been moving more and more into that and you know I might be making another rock album sometime in the future but Reb’s (Beach) been in Whitesnake for a while so I won’t do it without Reb and the original members. And I don’t really hear that kind of music anymore so when I’m writing with him we power down and be that and most of the time I work on classical.
Jason – Let’s say you’re driving in a car, what’s in your stereo these days.
Kip Winger – Talk radio
J. S. – You don’t listen to music much these days besides orchestral works.
Kip Winger – Yeah pretty much, It doesn’t really do much for me. I like real poppy music like Katy Perry and stuff like that, just listen to pop music. I don’t listen many bands anymore because I just moved on from that in terms of what inspires me. I like a lot of stuff I hear but I don’t go out and try to find it.
Jason – Now Kip, did you go on the internet and participate on stuff like Facebook and the YouTube stuff.
Kip Winger – No, I got rid of my Facebook account, I have a fan page, but I got rid of my just had too many people getting pissed off that I wasn’t getting them befriending them and all that. You know I don’t have time for it.
Jason – It would be kind of hard to friend 5000 people at once.
Kip Winger – Yeah I did actually get at 5000 and deleted everybody and they were all mad. I get 300 or 400 request a day it’s not worth it for me to do that.
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Jason – So Kip for this orchestral work your going to be doing in the studio how long you presume it’s going to take in the studio to do all this because it’s a lot of work to record.
Kip Winger – Well, I mean it took me a little over a year to write it so now it’s all written. It will take one day of rehearsal and one day of recording really so it’s gonna go fast once we get it up and running. It’s just taking up the preparation of it takes a long time. Yeah we used pro tools and there’s a couple other I think he was gonna use possibly a Secuoia or a Sadie system. But you know you edit in pro tools. The guy I’m using is my friend who worked at Telarc for years so he’s going to record it with me and I got a conductor named Scott Yoo, you can see the project on KickStarter. I think we got a good group for it and it’s going to be a really cool project.
Jason – How far are you guys into your KickStarter campaign.
Kip Winger – Well we’re fully funded.
Jason – So it’s fully funded now and that’s a good thing.
Kip Winger – Yeah we got 27 days to go and it’s fully funded so were good.
Jason – The people can still donate I’m sure or does it end when it’s fully funded.
Kip Winger – No, the people can still donate that would be fantastic actually because we left a few things out of the budget cause we didn’t want to over shoot. We wanted to make sure we got funded. We still need money for copyist, lights. I mean you can’t ask for the world we’re really happy we got funded. The money’s gonna go to the students. So it’s gonna be great for them.
Jason – What’s great about KickStarter is as you fund your gonna get stuff in return like autographs and stuff by Kip Winger.
Kip Winger – I guess so, we got a bunch of prizes for that, so that will be good, yeah that’s pretty much it. And I’m gonna write another solo record soon, like I say when Reb gets out of Whitesnake well probably do something I just never know what his schedule is. I got to wait till he’s finished.
Jason – Without all that are you gonna be touring anytime soon. Any 2012 dates as solo.
Kip Winger – Well you know I tour solo I do 4 or 5 shows a month every month . I take gigs as they come I don’t try to go out to find them. They come to me pretty much. I’m not big digging the touring machine anymore but I do play 4 or 5 gigs a month and I would like to come up there (Nova Scotia).
Jason – I think the last time you would’ve came here in Nova Scotia would have been with Alice Cooper.
Kip Winger – Yeah a long time ago man a long time ago.
Jason – It would be quite interesting to see Kip Winger back in Nova Scotia.
Kip Winger – That would be awesome, I would love to come up there. I played Vancouver recently but that’s not anywhere near where you are.
Jason – So Kip are you picking up any new endorsements these days for playing music.
Kip Winger – Not really, I’m possibly gonna use Spector Basses again after a long time. But you know I’m not really a big endorsement guy because then you got to use the gear. So I like to take the gear I like to use. I don’t wanna be anybody’s bitch when it comes to endorsements LOL. You know I use so many different things. Are you a musician.
Jason – Yeah I’m a guitar player and I try to get all the endorsements I can because I am still young in that LOL.
Kip Winger – Yeah, you know I’m pretty much using the same stuff I’ve always used although I might be using Spector Basses again because I do like those and they approached me a little while ago.
Jason – Well great stuff Kip, hope this project goes accordingly to the way you want it. Looks like a great opportunity.
Kip Winger – Well thanks for calling me. I appreciate it.
Jason – You have a great week.
Kip Winger – You too man have a good one.