Unplugged
YOUR MONTH IN THE ACOUSTIC WORLD
Stone Temple Pilots have announced their new acoustic album Perdida - a studio first for the band - along with an unplugged tour (no UK dates as of yet). Perdida marks a bold departure for a band known for their heavyweight riffs as much as their versatility. We spoke to guitarist Dean Deleo to find out about what sparked it all.
“It’s something that Robert has been wanting to do for many, many years,” Dean tells us of his bassist brother and STP co-writer. “He’s been talking about it for 15 years or more; ‘We need to go and do an acoustic record!’”.
Perdida marks their second studio release with vocalist Jeff Gutt, who was announced as the band’s new frontman in late 2017, and the Deleo brothers didn’t have to look far in providing him inspiration for songs. “You know 2018 was an interesting year for Robert and I to say the least,” reveals Dean. “We didn’t have
to go deep to find the material, we didn’t have to go far, man.”
As Dean notes, “You have to live it to write it” and the band’s eighth album’s title is Spanish for ‘loss’. But the introspective album is also indicative of a positive new era of creativity for STP as it moves further from the past tragedies.
Original vocalist Scott Weiland passed away in 2015, while Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington – who later sang with the band and recorded the 2013 EP High Rise with them in – died in 2017.
Whilst the new musical avenues explored on Perdida will certainly provide a showcase for the Deleo brothers’ underappreciated versatility as players, it was an instrumental adventure, too. “It was wonderful,” adds Dean. “A lot of the solos are on acoustic guitar. I have so many avenues.” Perdida will be released on 7th February 2020.