Bryan Adams has unveiled a video for his new song, War Machine.
Driven by a prominent bass riff, the rock stomper follows on from Rock And Roll Hell, which the Canadian musician released earlier in August.
Penned by Adams, long-time collaborator Jim Vallance, and KISS’ Gene Simmons originally for the glam-rock icons’ 1982 album ‘Creatures Of The Night’, the song’s anchoring groove formed from a bassline played to Adams by Simmons. Adams explained:
“Here are two songs I co-wrote when I was a 22-year-old struggling songwriter. I got a call out of the blue from producer Michael James Jackson to see if I would like to write for KISS, which I was thrilled to do, and these are a couple of the songs that were the result, written with both Gene Simmons and Jim Vallance.
“While sitting with the band, Gene played me this fantastic bass riff, which ended up being the backbone of War Machine. I was trying to think of a theme that could possibly match the riff and came up with the title. Seeing as the other song we’d written was about hell, War was the obvious theme to coincide with it.
“Rock And Roll Hell was actually Jim’s song that had been released a few years earlier with Bachman Turner Overdrive, and I suggested, that we re-write it for KISS. It’s incredible to think these themes are unfortunately still playing out for real in the world today, but I’m very grateful to the KISS guys for giving me the chance back then.”
On the accompanying War Machine video, he said: “I aimed to create something monumental for the War Machine video, and I’d been collaborating with CGI director Ben Ib on a peace-themed video entitled What If There Were No Sides At All. To contrast the peace message of that video, I proposed to Ben that we develop the War Machine video showcasing chaos and destruction. In the video, the tyrant that is leading the war ultimately faces consequences for his actions.”
Both tracks will feature on a 7″ double a-side single, released exclusively through the singer-songwriter’s webstore via his new independent label, Bad Records, on August 30, when War Machine will also be available on streaming platforms.
Adams released his most recent studio album, ‘So Happy It Hurts’, in 2022. In 2023, he put out a box set ‘Live At The Royal Albert Hall’, which captured his 2022 performances of classic albums ‘Cuts Like A Knife’, ‘Into The Fire’ and ‘Waking Up The Neighbours’ at the London venue.
He has a series of European dates in the diary for the autumn. Head here for details.