Fifteen years after his last solo release, Tommyland: The Ride, back in 2005, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee is unleashing his latest blending of rap, hip hop and R & B, Andro, on October 16.
Never one to conform to life's - let alone musical - expectations, Lee has spent the last couple of years crafting a body of work that highlights perfectly the musical enigma that gives him voice.
"I would assume people would expect this record from me," he laughed, "because I'm always coming at things at such a fucken crazy... genre-wise it's all over the place, that's just who I am. I don't just do one thing so I think - more so with this record than any of the past Methods Of Mayhem stuff - this one has two distinct sides to it. There's the all-female side to the record and an all-male side and when I say side I mean energy-wise. I feel like there's... I dunno... I just feel like there's something for everybody on the tracks no matter what your thing is. Unless you're a country music fan, then don't get my record (laughs)."
To date Lee has released two singles from Andro, 'Knock Me Down' and 'Tops', both of which he feels epitomise the overall feel of the album as a whole.
"They are a very good representation," he nodded. "It's right down the middle and it goes bonkers from there. If you love that, boy, there's all kinds of that stuff on there. It's insane. I can't wait. I've been working on this thing for two years and it's really rare that when you work on something that long and you've heard it that many times and you've recorded it and all those times that you've been in it and around it and on top of it. Typically, I would probably be over it by now but I still listen to it and I still love it which is rare. I'm very proud of it and I'm excited for everybody to hear it because I've worked my friggin ass off on it (laughs)."
Both of the film clips to the singles were directed by none other than Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, with Lee admitting Durst was his first, second and last choice.
"The songs were already done but as far as the influence on the videos goes, when it was time to find a director my manager and I were talking and thinking 'who can we get to do these that gets it'?" Lee mused. "These are two very different singles and Fred Durst came into the conversation and I was like 'that's it, we don't even need to talk to anybody else' because of all people on the planet I don't know anyone else that gets it more than Fred. Fred gets the heavy shit and he also gets the funky shit so he was the guy. We didn't even consider another director. He heard both songs and said 'oh man, let me at this shit dude' and that was all I needed to hear."
Andro is a beast of a record, utilising a slew of guest artists such as Killvein, Push Push, Lukas Rossi and Brooke Candy on vocals, which begs the question of what Lee's actual role was in bringing this solo project to life.
"First of all, thank you for calling it a beast of a record," he smiled. "My role in the whole thing is pretty much writing, producing, recording, mixing - I do everything - and in the process, I don't really have a go-to way that I go about things every time. Usually, the music is written first and then I'll sit around and it will either take a second or it will come to me right away like 'oh my God, this person will murder that track' and I will reach out to them and within a couple of days we're in the studio cutting vocals. I guess... I dunno what role you would call that... the fucken Master of Ceremonies?" (laughs)
One single that grabbed my attention was 'Hot Fudge Sundae', a short but sweet vocal interlude that seems to be discussing the virtues of the aforementioned sundae. It stands out from the other 12 songs not only for it's short running time but also for the vocalist performing the song.
(laughing) "That's just a fucked up...," Lee began. "My friend Josh (Todd) is the singer from Buck Cherry and we have this...