Cheap Trick's Robin Zander on his band releasing second album since 2016: “It's almost like the '70s again”

Big Machine Label GroupCheap Trick‘s latest album, We’re All Alright!, hits stores Friday, less than 15 months after the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers put out their previous studio effort, Bang, Zoom, Crazy…Hello.

“It’s almost like the ’70s again when we put two records out every year,” lead singer Robin Zander tells ABC Radio. Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen recently explained to Billboard that the support of the group’s new label Big Machine has helped rekindle the band’s enthusiasm for making new music.

According to Zander, about half of the songs on We’re All Alright! are brand new, while the other half are tunes Cheap Trick put aside while making Bang, Zoom, Crazy…Hello or “that had been laying around for a few years that we just never got a chance to record.”

As Robin explains to ABC Radio, “Every record that we do we usually record 15 to 20 tracks and then knock it down after they’re recorded to see which [are] the best performances…So, some of those songs…didn’t make the record not because they weren’t any good but just because they just didn’t fit for some reason.”

We’re All Alright! features a variety of tunes that showcase Cheap Trick’s classic power-pop sound while also paying tribute to bands that have influenced and inspired them, including The Kinks, AC/DC, Aerosmith and The Move. One example of this is the album’s hard-driving lead single, “Long Time Coming.”

“I’ve never been one to hide my influences,” Zander admits, “and if we steal anything it’s only from the best.”

Cheap Trick is supporting We’re All Alright! with a 2017 world tour that includes a previously announced joint U.S. trek with Foreigner that kicks off July 11 in Syracuse, New York.

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