9 Chambers Guitarists Ed Mundell and Greg Hampton Interview: We’ve Tried To Stay True To What We Were Raised On, Rock!

By: Rob Cavuoto

9 Chambers is a collaboration between two respected hard rock veterans – producer/singer/guitarist Greg Hampton (who has worked with the likes of Alice Cooper, Bootsy Collins, Lita Ford, and recently unearthed Tommy Bolin recordings), and former Monster Magnet guitarist Ed Mundell. They crossed paths when they ran into each other at a flea market buying Mahogany Rush, Free, or Jimi Hendrix bootlegs as well at NAMM.

9 Chambers came together the same way plenty of classic rock bands did way back, naturally, and over the love of similar styles of music. Rounding out the band is the kick ass rhythm sections, comprised of Gov’t Mule virtuoso bassist Jorgen Carlsson and Black Sabbath/Dio/Heaven & Hell drummer Vinny Appice.

I had the chance to speak with the power guitar duo and comedy team of Ed Mundell and Greg Hampton to talk about the band and their collaboration for their hot new CD.

9 Chambers – photo courtesy 9 Chambers mgt.

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Rob Cavuoto: You guys have known each other for a while. What was the impetus to start writing together?

Ed Mundell: Actually I went over to Greg’s house the first time just to throw some guitar stuff down and happened to bring some demos. We ended up listening to a bunch of stuff and talking about records. All of a sudden, one thing led to another and we just didn’t stop working.

Greg Hampton: We had a couple of ideas we sort of tossed around. All of a sudden this part fit nicely with that part, and next thing you know we had half a record’s worth of songs. It felt natural.

Rob: Was it difficult to blend your different styles?

Greg Hampton: It all felt very natural. Normally two guitar players, especially lead players, are both clamoring for the spotlight, but it was a real mutual thing. There was no stress or anything like that. It just sort of came together and whatever made sense is who played on what. There were really no egos involved – I had a couple of things I really didn’t tell Ed though. [Laughing]

Rob: Tell me a little bit about the songwriting process.

Ed Mundell: There were some things where Greg would have a part and I’d have a part. Then, I’d hand the guitar back to him and he’d hand it back off to me and before you know it, we had all this stuff going on and it just kind of happened. Sometimes I had a couple of parts and you threw a chorus down, but a lot of things just kind of happened out of the blue.

Greg Hampton: I would be playing the guitar and I would have it in my lap and I would play one part and, literally right in the middle of recording a part, hand it to him. [Ed Laughing] Literally, we would actually play the same guitar through the same cabinet where I would just literally hand it to him.

We also did that with solos, where there will be like eight bars of me soloing and I’ll hand the guitar right over to him and he’ll play the next eight bars. He’ll hand it right back over to me and I’ll play the next eight bars. We really don’t know who was playing what part on the CD.

Rob: Your music sound like classic rock. How do you guys classify it?

Ed Mundell: I was gonna say heavy metal jazz fusion, but no, that’s not it at all. [Laughing] We sound like our record collections.

Greg Hampton: Definitely seventies related. We were both influenced by Mountain and Free. Vocally I get hit generally with like Ian Gillian, Glenn Hughes, Steven Tyler, Paul Rogers kind of thing. I’m a huge fan of Aerosmith. By the way the new Aerosmith album is completely old school, completely like Rocks and Toys in the Attic. I was just getting a fucking boner talking about it. [Laughs]

Rob: What do you guys think of having the moniker of a “supergroup?”

Greg Hampton: Nah, It seems like it’s been such a spin cliché. For me, I hear that and it’s sort of gratifying. I appreciate the kudos and all that, but I’d much rather just say it’s a band with some great players and we all enjoy it. We’ve obviously been to this rodeo or this sort of party before, so it’s not like we’re young, wet-behind-the-ears kids coming out of the garage jamming. I think to me it’s overused.

Ed Mundell: I like being in a band with you, but I don’t know about a super group. [Laughs]

Rob: How did Vinnie Appice come into the fold to play drums on the CD?

Greg Hampton: I’ve known Vinnie for a long time as well as his brother Carmine, since ’82 or ’83. I’ve done a few records with Carmine as well. He was around because of he had some extra time on his hands with the passing of Ronnie James Dio. We brought him and Jorge in to help, but it’s us that labored over every note for seven or eight months. We have two albums worth of material recorded.

So it’s not like we just came in and recorded twelve songs and that was it.

Ed Mundell: If anything, that was the hardest thing. There was so much material to choose from that was all done and complete. It was like, “What songs fit together the best out of this whole…?” I guess it’s better to have way more material than not enough, but just picking the songs that fit together was somewhat of a to-do. That was the challenge.

Rob: With such great material are you planning to tour?

Greg Hampton: I hope so. Our manager just called me 35 minutes ago. I was on the phone with him and he’s on the phone right now working on that. Vinnie’s involved in other projects and Jorgen’s also in the band Gov’t Mule with our friend, Warren Haynes. That’s certainly a band that’s well-established that’s not going anywhere. We’re huge fans of Warren and those guys in Gov’t Mule.

We loved Vinnie and Jorgen but may bring in a couple of other people to play live.

9 Chambers’ Ed and Greg – photo courtesy: 9 Chambers Mgt.

Rob: In the current environment where there are not a lot of radio stations playing hard rock, no video channel and file sharing how do you measure success with your CD?

Greg Hampton: It’s kind of early to facilitate a real honest answer.

Ed Mundell: I just hope people like it. It was mostly a word-of-mouth thing. People liked it, and then everyone was like, “This rocks!” then the whole world knew. I’d like to hear people say, “This is a really good record,” and if they tell four or five people, maybe one of them will pick it up and say, “Oh that is really good.” Then someone else will pick it up. That’s kind of cool.

Greg Hampton: We’ve tried to really stay true to what we were raised on and just enjoying playing. We’re doing it all on our own terms.

Rob: I speak with a lot of musicians and bands and I can tell by your voice that you’re both excited about the CD. What’s the highlight of launching this band?

Ed Mundell: Every day is a highlight. I really like going in and just handing the guitar back and forth. I think there’s even a video where we’re kind of trading off. We can actually play together, so that’s another reason to look forward to playing live, too.

Greg Hampton: We cut a lot of those solos, literally, just one take live on the floor. We had my rig miced in one isolation room and his rig miced in another isolation room. We will play back and forth and play off each other that way, almost like being onstage, but we’ll cut those studio guitar solos just like that. There’s no shitty little edit point cuts on a lot of that stuff. Some stuff there’s a few edit things here and there, but a lot of it is just live, one take, on the floor, turn it on and turn it off.

Ed Mundell: Yeah, it’s a really nice old rock approach to doing things instead of the digital. That in the digital age we can actually go in there and play at the same time in the same room and look at each other and play off of each other.

Greg Hampton: Instead of doing a cut and paste of eight bars and that eight bars becomes the template for the entire song, and it’s all perfect. There are no little warts on it. I like a little mistake here and there. I like a little thing that shows that there’s true character in it and not some completely anesthetized…it’s just ridiculous.

Rob: What did you use to track the CD?

Greg Hampton: We used about forty-five or fifty guitars. There were a couple of main ones though. Like the Black SG with the P-90 to back up for some rhythms and a Strat.

Ed Mundell: We had a couple of Marshalls and a Vox.

Greg Hampton: We have a couple of secret weapons, like we use some really small little amps, similar to what Jimmy Page used to use. Some of the biggest guitar sounds on the Zeppelin records were only little bitty amps with an 8” speaker. We used that on certain things. I used the same amp that I used on the Alice Cooper, Along Came a Spiderrecord, exact same little bitty amp that hacked out some of the huge sounds on that record is sitting in the corner. It has not been moved in four years. It’s a little amp with an 8” speaker in it.

All these records, Lita Ford, Alice Cooper, god knows what else, have used it on it. It just doesn’t move. It sits there. These two little microphones are on the front of it and it’s just got a sound. It’s a little bitty amp. You wouldn’t know it by looking at it. People laugh at me. [Laughing] It’s shockingly good and it works.

Rob: Greg, I understand you are working on a Tommy Bolin tribute CD.

Greg Hampton: Warren Haynes and I are co-producing. Major stars are actually playing with the Tommy Bolin multi-tracks from the seventies, featuring Steve Lukather, Brad Whitford, Derek Trucks, Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa, Peter Frampton, Myles Kennedy, and Steve Morris. Kind of interesting having two Deep Purple guitar players playing on the same track together at one time.

Rob: When is that coming out?

Greg Hampton: It will be out at the end of November. They’re all playing with the multi-tracks. There’s a song that’s a first collaboration with Glenn Hughes and Tommy Bolin from over 35 years ago. It’s an unfinished song that Glenn finished, and it was a very emotional session. Glenn actually singing along with Tommy here in the room with us. Steve Lukather is actually also playing with Jeff Peccaro on a song. The last time they played together was a week before Jeff passed away. That was another emotional session.

Rob: What are some of the titles?

Greg Hampton: Some of the more popular songs that were off of Teaser were “Strut,” the song “Teaser,” “Wild Dogs.” It has “People, People” featuring backing by Big Sugar, which is one of my favorite Canadian bands. It’s actually Gordy Johnson who’s the producer of all the Gov’t Mule records over the last few years. He’s a stellar talent.

Peter Frampton plays on “The Grind.” Myles Kennedy does an amazing job singing on “Dreamer”. It’s a pretty amazing lineup, and it’s a labor of love that Warren and I…I think initially it was 2008 when we put that together, when we first planted the seeds and the ideas. Now here we are coming to fruition with the final touches on it.

Ed and I are also playing on a track which has Mike Finnegan singing. If you’re a big guitar fan, you will flip. Brad Whitford played some amazing stuff on that too. It’s nice for me to have guys like Peter Frampton sitting in front of me and saying, “Hold on a second. Play ‘Fever’,” and all of a sudden I have Peter Frampton playing my favorite Humble Pie songs right in front of me. Stuff like that; you can’t buy for a zillion dollars.