Winger’s new release, Seven, is the band’s seventh studio album and is available on Frontier Records May 5.

The powerhouse band remains the same as it was in 1988 with Reb Beach on guitar, Rod Morgenstein on drums, Paul Taylor on guitar and keyboards, John Roth on guitar (not an original member, but still a veteran of the band), and of course, Kip Winger on lead vocals and bass.

We recently had the opportunity to chat with Kip about the new album in between gigs at his home in Nashville.

Thanks for your time today, Kip. Like many people, I love your early stuff, but I also really connected with “Better Days Comin.” I’ve been waiting for a follow-up since that came out in 2014. Why is it important to continue recording new music and not just rest on your laurels as a nostalgia act?

“Because first and foremost, I’m an artist and I just keep creating music of all kinds. Winger’s not my only thing. I’ve got solo albums, classical, I wrote a musical. I just wanted to make one more Winger album before it’s too late. We’re all getting up there and who knows what’s going to happen? I just wanted to bring everyone together and make the best album I could. It was good timing. Reb had a break with Whitesnake and we just put everything together.”

As a band, Winger is a unicorn…all original members, plus the addition of John. That’s unheard of these days. How have you guys managed to stick it out so long together?

“We’re friends. We just like each other. We like to hang. We care about each other. It’s fun. We never got in any fights. It’s a great bunch of dudes and we just have a great time playing. We’ve just been lucky that enough people want us to keep going and play shows. Actually, the shows have gotten better and better over the last 10 years. Even when we weren’t making records, we were still doing shows. We’re just friends. That’s the answer to that – plain and simple. I wouldn’t be doing it if we weren’t. There’s just too many other things to do.”

Winger is known as one of the most technically proficient and skilled bands of the genre. Talk about how talented your bandmates are.

“It’s freakish. Being on stage with Rod Morgenstein every night is a surreal experience. Plus, he’s one of my best friends. His ability to change time and play weird, sick stuff is amazing. He’s capable of doing so much more than what he does in this band, but he just loves to rock. It’s an honor to be on stage with him.

Reb Beach is just a genius. It’s incredible to witness night after night. He’s been my writing partner for so long. We’ve spent many days in the studio where I go, “Oh my God…where did that come from?”

Paul just has a special gift. He’s always been a great writer. He’s as good of a guitar player as he is a keyboardist. He actually has a guitar solo on the new album in the song “Broken Glass,” which he’s never done on a Winger album. 

And then John is our secret weapon. He can sing his ass off. Few people can hang with John’s musicianship and singing. He sings a lot like I do, so it’s great to have him on stage. When it’s the five of us, it’s a remarkable experience. 

On stage, I’m the weak link in the chain because I don’t focus on my bass playing. I’m trying to keep the vocals going. My strong point is the writing.”

Congratulations on your new album, Seven. It’s what I want and expect from Winger. Talk about the epic closer, “It All Comes Back Around.” I know you like to do something a little different on each album…and this song definitely qualifies.

“It’s really like Headed for a Heartbreak 2.0. I wrote the song myself. I had that keyboard riff floating around for a while. It reminded me of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. It has a certain feeling to it and I wanted to make that feeling come to life. And I wanted another song that Reb could do a gigantor, epic solo because it’s a trademark of the band to have a really long, epic solo at the end of every record.

The song kind of came by accident. I was working in a studio and I had gotten a phone call from an acquaintance of mine to apologize for a long-lost karma debt and it was like, it all comes back around.

I have a recording of the second I wrote the song on my iPhone. The instant it was born.”

When asked if something like that gives him chills, Kip responded:

“No. I still don’t think I’ve made it. I don’t have a perspective on anything I’ve done in my career because of all the things I see before me. I still feel like I’ve never gotten anywhere. Having said that, it’s really awesome to hear people say they like my work and I do feel acknowledged for that. Once I do an album, I really just move away from it and I don’t go back to listen to it.”

If someone could only listen to only one song on Seven, which one would you suggest and why?

“I can’t really answer that. It’s like which one of your children is the one who stands out. That’s a cliché answer on my part, but to be honest, I probably would say “It All Comes Back Around,” but I would feel guilty because I wrote it myself and the sound of Winger is really me and Reb. But what I would say in my defense is that his solo is so outstanding and incredible that it might be my favorite solo that he’s ever done. From an emotional maturity point of view, it’s by far the best solo he’s ever done in my mind. Talk about goosebumps! Definitively speaking, that song has all the elements of what Winger is all about.”

I’m a fan of all music, so I’m blown away by your classical compositions as well. How do you balance that world with your rock and roll life? Who influenced you the most?

“There’s never one person. I grew up in a band with my brothers and I was inundated with the 70’s stuff, so Jethro Tull, YES, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk. I played my first professional gig at eight years old, so the 70’s influenced me the most for rock. 

My portal into the classical world was the Impressionist Period. Ravel and Honegger are really influential to me. My composition teacher, Richard Danielpour, is hugely influential. I like to listen to current composers who are alive right now because they’re the ones who are battling it out to push music to where it’s going next. John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, there’s a million of them. When people talk about classical music, they think of Beethoven and Mozart. I’m Impressionistic Period forward. Impressionism was the early 1900’s. It’s much more interesting harmonically. Most of it is unbelievably cool. I could talk about this stuff for hours!

One of the best shows I’ve ever seen was Cinderella, Winger and Bullet Boys in 1987or ‘88. Was that period of your life really as much fun as it seemed to the rest of us?

YES! Every bit and more. It was everything you could have imagined and then some…except I never did drugs. It was THE moment I was riding the rock star wave. That was a great tour. Six months long.  

It’s so cool that you regularly bring a fan up onstage for a jam at the end of your shows these days. Any memorable performances you can remember?

“Yes. A lot of them. And thanks for saying that! My band’s been saying we should stop doing it. I’m totally into it. We had one kid who was about ten years old and just killed it on bass. The crowd goes crazy. People love this. People love “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love.” It’s one of the greatest rock songs of all time. 

Anything else you’d like to add about the new album?

“It’s the definitive album of every one of us playing on every single song. I really went out of my way to get the vocals better than I’ve ever done before and the songwriting in general. I tried to keep it as tight as possible to take everybody on somewhat of a journey. What I tried to do is get the inspiration of the first album married with the depth of the latest stuff. I hope people dig it.”

I’m Music Magazine Writer Steve Pawlowski