A Conversation with Ace Frehley – HuffPost 8.18.14

Mike Ragogna: Ace! What’s the story behind Space Invader?

Ace Frehley: We came up with the concept after I had recorded the majority of the record. We were talking about a space theme, everybody was kicking around different ideas and somebody came up with the title space invader. I thought it was great. The minute I heard it I said, “That’s got a nice ring to it.” It kind of goes with my spaceman character. Then we started screwing around with ideas of me coming out of a spaceship, whether it was going to be a flying saucer or a rocket. We eventually came up with a couple of artists’ renderings. Then I came up with the idea of bringing Ken Kelly aboard, the guy who painted Love Gun and Destroyer. We sent him the designs and he worked out the cover in about a week. It was just magical.

MR: What inspired the material?

AF: Oh, I don’t know. I just get ideas sometimes. Most of my songs, I’ll start off with a guitar or rhythm riff. A lot of times I’ll write on acoustic, not on electric. “Inside The Vortex” was written on a bass, that’s a heavy riff song. It’s interesting, I noticed that depending on what instrument I have I Write differently, so it’s good to play with different instruments when you’re trying to come up with a song idea because, you know, you get variety.

MR: You have this new single, “Give Me A Feeling,” from Space Invader. How do you think you are evolving as an artist?

AF: I think this record shows growth. I think one of the first things that most people say after they hear the record is that my voice sounds great. People say, “Have you been taking voice lessons?” I say, “No.” “Have you been taking guitar lessons? Do you practice?” I say, “No.” I think I’ve somehow recaptured some of the moments that I did on the ’78 record. There were a couple surprises. “Give Me A Feeling” was co-written by me and my assistant John Ostrosky. “Change” and “Immortal Pleasures” were co-written by me and my fiancé. We never collaborated on songs before. She’s a great lyricist and poet and artist. That was a big surprise, how great those songs came out.

MR: What are your thoughts about this album after listening to it back?

AF: I’ll be honest with you, right now, I’m feeling exactly the way I feel after I did my ’78 solo record. I finished that album and I would listen to that record every day and say, “This is a good record. I think the fans are going to like this.” It was my biggest record, it had my biggest hit, “New York Groove.” I’m kind of feeling like history might repeat itself. I think this record is definitely one of the best things I’ve ever done.

MR: You’re a founding member of KISS, and you were recently inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. What do you think about your contribution to culture as Ace Frehley and also KISS’ contribution as a whole?

AF: We created something really special in the seventies. At the height of our stardom, people could come to a KISS show and for two hours, escape reality. It was like going to a sci-fi movie or a horror show, everything rolled into one. I think that’s one of the reasons we were so popular. It wasn’t just music. The music was good, but the show was spectacular. It was like a rock ‘n’ roll circus almost.

MR: Because of how huge the spectacle became, when you were on stage, were there moments where you might have said to yourself, “Oh my God, what is this?”

AF: The show got real complicated as it evolved over the years. We had to practice where we were going to be and be aware of where bombs were going off and when fire was going to blow up. Pretty much the whole show was kind of choreographed. We had to be at a certain place in certain songs or we could’ve gotten in trouble.

MR: When you were doing those moves, did it ever get a little dicey?

AF: There’s no such thing as perfection live. Sean Delaney, our tour manager in the early seventies, helped us tremendously with perfecting those moves that we did, like the classic move in “Deuce” where the three of us go back and forth. It almost became robotic after a while. It was almost like doing a Broadway show. I really didn’t have to think, I kind of just went on autopilot.

MR: But on the other hand, KISS shows are bigger than a lot of Broadway shows. Like you said before, it was bigger than life. Are you aiming at trying to do anything similar with your live shows now?

AF: No, I could never compete with that show as a solo artist. I’m just more focused on making great music. For me to try to compete with the KISS show is ludicrous. But I still have my guitar effects, I invented the Light Guitar, I invented the Smoking Guitar, I invented the Rocket Guitar, and there are a couple of other ideas that are in the works right now for another special effects guitar that we’ll hopefully have ready for the tour. I’m just being me.

MR: One goofy question: You’re “Space Ace,” so what is your sci-fi history?

AF: I grew up loving sci-fi movies. Science and art were my two favorite subjects. With astronomy, I was fascinated by the whole Gemini and Apollo programs. I followed them extensively. I love sci-fi movies and horror films. I have that in common with Gene.

MR: What are a couple of your favorite sci-fi movies?

AF: Forbidden Planet, The Day The Earth Stood Still, The Quiet Earth… Star Warswas a big leap as far as special effects. My biggest complaint about some of the movies today is that there’s almost too much CGI. In the beginning of “Immortal Pleasures,” I use a sound bite from Forbidden Planet. That movie’s from the fifties but it still holds up. The spaceship landing in the beginning still looks great.

MR: Were you into any sci-fi TV, like Lost In Space or Star Trek?

AF: Oh yeah, I love those shows. Star Trek is a fantastic series. It’s interesting how the films have evolved over the years.

MR: Do you have a favorite Star Trek series or movie?

AF: The Wrath Of Khan, with Ricardo Montalban. [laughs] That was funny.

MR: He was great. It’s said he had a fake breast plate or something to look so ripped.

AF: [laughs] My brother was a big trekkie. I never got that far out there, where I’d want to go to the conventions and stuff. Probably because I was a celebrity, I couldn’t go even if I wanted to, I would’ve been bothered. But I loved all that stuff. I still make appearances at sci-fi and horror conventions sometimes and do book signings and stuff. It’s a great atmosphere.

MR: Getting back to Space Invader, did you use any new techniques or technology on this record that you felt were cutting edge?

AF: I think I broke new ground with some of the songwriting. It shows growth. I think the production is perfect, and I owe part of that to Warren Huart, the guy who mixed the record, assisted by Phil Allen. I think my songwriting has matured, I think my guitar work has improved. Forty years in the business you learn little tricks here and there, working with people like Eddie Kramer and Bob Ezrin. You learn how to put a song together, you learn how to make a record. I don’t think twice about how to do something, it’s just, “How do I want to do it?” I know how to do it, I’ve made so many records and been in so many different studios, it’s become very commonplace and robotic to me in many ways.

MR: Most people know you for your live performances, but would you also consider yourself a studio hound?

AF: Yes and no. I love working in the studio, most of this record was tracked in a studio up in Turlock, California, which is about fifteen minutes south of Modesto where they filmed American Graffiti. He’s this multimillionaire who has chains of stores and a dairy farm and feed mills. We got to be friends over last five years. For years he’s been telling me, “You’ve got to come up and see my studio.” So finally I took him up on it this last summer and I fell in love with the place. It’s a great studio and it’s in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing going on in Turlock, California at night. For a guy who has ADD it’s a dream studio, because there are no distractions.

MR: [laughs] What advice do you have for new artists?

AF: For a musician, practice, practice and more practice. That being said, I would also say follow your dreams. Don’t listen to anybody. When I was sixteen years old, I decided I wanted to be a rock star. It wasn’t in my twenties. I told everybody what I wanted to do with my life and everybody said I was crazy. So if I were to listen to what everybody told me growing up, everybody was saying, “Get a regular job, do this, do that,” and I’d say, “How can I? I’m doing this.” If you have talent and you have perseverance and you have drive, you can achieve greatness. Don’t listen to other people, you’ve got to follow your own heart and your own dreams.

MR: When you guys were putting together KISS, were there moments where you were thinking, “I don’t know about this?”

AF: [laughs] With KISS? Not really. I remember when we were shooting the first album cover, right before we started the photo shoot, we got a phone call from Neil Bogart and he goes, “Are you guys sure you want to wear the makeup for the album cover?” [laughs] Right up until ten minutes before the photo shoot, people were still questioning it, but we really believed in the concept that we had created. I remember some of those early tours, we’d show up at a fifteen hundred seat club somewhere in the South and we’d walk out and people would be looking at us like, “Who the hell are these guys? What are they trying to prove?” But three songs into the set, we’d have everybody up off their feet or definitely by the end of the show when the explosions happen. We’d convert people. We toured so extensively the first three or four years of our careers, we’d win over a lot of people. We were in the trenches.

MR: Personally, I think KISS took a tired glam and reinvented it.

AF: You have to realize, when we started out, the biggest group from New York at the time was the New York Dolls. If you do some research and you look at the very first picture of us in makeup, it’s kind of silly. We’re dressed up in kind of feminine makeup for the most part. I look like Lilly Tomlin in the photo. I’m sure you can find it online. But then we went out to this club in Long Island called The Daisy and we started experimenting with makeup and it evolved quite rapidly into the four designs you know and love today.

MR: Is there anything you would’ve changed about your makeup?

AF: No, I think I nailed it. I like the way my costume evolved over the years, it got a bit more elaborate. I remember at one point I had a Flash Gordon cape. It was just fun. We went full circle. Probably the only look that I regret although I think my look was pretty cool was when we cut our hair for The Elder. Even in those photos I felt like I had a pretty cool jumpsuit with the lightning bolt going across it. I’m not too sure about Paul’s outfit, though. But I was on the way out at that point so it really didn’t matter to me anymore. I’d had a successful solo record, mentally I was out of the band already and planning my own band.

MR: What’s the story behind your hit “New York Groove”?

AF: It’s funny the way that song evolved, because I was initially against doing it. I didn’t think it was heavy enough. Eddie Kramer pushed me to follow through with that song and it turned out to be my biggest hit. Who knew?

MR: What does the future hold for Ace Frehley?

AF: I’m hoping this album will be very well received, I put my heart and soul into it, obviously we’re going to support it with some shows and touring. I’m working on my second book right now, I’ve got a couple of chapters already written. I’d like to start producing other bands, that’s something I’d love to do, take a young group under my wing, bring them into the studio and share all the knowledge that I’ve learned over the last four years. I remember there were certain points in my career in the studio when I felt like producers could’ve handled it differently. In my opinion to be a producer the most important thing is to make the artist comfortable and let them create. If you’re not doing that, you’re not doing your job. I think that’s number one for a producer’s job: make the artist comfortable and allow them to be them. That’s the way I’m going to approach producing in the future. I want to do a couple soundtracks for films, I’ve been talking to a producer of a horror film, of a sci-fi film, but no deals have been struck. I want to do an animation and score that. There are a lot of things that I want to do in the future that I haven’t achieved yet. Always set your sights higher, you know?

Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne