Released on 27 February 2026, WROC finds Jesuit-era etiquette that becomes blazing riffs, odd harmonies, big hooks and a rock ‘n’ roll finale in a wild concept curveball. Approach this Paul Gilbert album with an open mind, and you will not be disappointed. In Part Two of this interview, he delves into his songwriting and declares MetalTalk’s Taylor Cameron as “my therapist right now,” as he discusses the setlist for the upcoming tour.
WROC features not only great lead playing, but also interesting and unique melodies in the rhythm playing. For this album, Paul Gilbert says the melody really was first, so the first guitar part was just figuring out how to support the melody. “What I see as sophisticated pop writing is The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Elton John, Carpenters, Todd Rundgren, and growing up with that stuff from my parents’ album collection and also what was on the radio in the ’70s.
“I’m never satisfied with it until I find something that’s surprising. I always want that surprise chord in there. So that’s not guitar technique as much as it is songwriting technique. I’m trying to be my version of Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, or McCartney in coming up with some interesting chords that support the melody. I try to leave myself a space for some improvisation, but a lot of the songs I play the vocal melody on the guitar. That is, for me anyway, something that can be really challenging, because you’re kind of naked when you do that.
“You can’t cover it up with flourishes, and if you get a note wrong, it’s really obvious. So, to me, playing a melody on guitar is kind of a high-pressure gig, but it has such good rewards. It really plants itself in the ears of the listener. I love the challenge of guitar. A lot of times, I’ll play it on slide, and that wasn’t something that I did as a kid. It came much later in my journey as a guitar player, but now it feels really good, and most of the time I get it right.”
“For example, the song, If You Soak Bread In The Sauce, is, on the face of it, a bouncy pop song. But when I’m playing that slide part, it’s a tricky slide part and really challenging to get right.
“But fortunately, we had enough time to rehearse, where I mostly had everything together and had a fighting chance of getting it right in the studio. We did everything live. That’s one thing I’m so happy about. Not only did we finish the record, but we got everything on video. All 13 songs, supposedly, even the Japanese bonus track, we got all that documented on video.
“So when you see the videos come out, that’s the real take we’re not miming it. That’s the actual footage of us doing it in the studio. I did go back and fix up the vocals because by that time, we had rehearsed all week, and my voice was getting kind of rough. But it matches up right.”
WROC is based around the singular theme of George Washington’s Rules of Civility. If there were to be a further concept album, Paul says that “Ben Franklin’s Almanack or a book of recipes”, would be interesting ideas.
The longer and more interesting point is how he feels about the writing process for this album and how this compares with his earlier solo albums.
“It was a nice way of writing,” Paul Gilbert says of WROC. “This is funny, what I’m about to tell you. When I first started doing interviews, the interviewers would ask me what’s the concept? What is this? What are the songs about? I would have no idea because it really had very little meaning to me.
“I wanted it to have great guitar playing. I wanted to have music with great energy. I didn’t care what the singer was singing about, and often I didn’t even know. I wasn’t even paying attention. But that question was asked so much that I would kind of brace myself for it. It was like, ‘Oh, I’d better ask or find out so I have an answer for the journalist.’
“So, me doing these interviews for this album is kind of wonderful because I actually have an answer.
“Every music listener has different areas that they focus on. Some might focus on the texture, the production, or others may focus on the melody and the chords. There are so many different elements that people can enjoy in a song. Nobody is the same.
“I like all those elements to a varying degree, and I want them all to be as good as possible. I think for me, having that concept, I’m smiling right now, and that’s what it makes me do.
“So to me, doing these interviews, it’s kind of wonderful. Because if somebody says, ‘What’s the album about?’ I actually have an answer. I surprised myself that I could actually make a concept album. I never really had the idea that I could do that. I didn’t know if I could do it on my own, so having the book to pull from was really helpful.”
There will be an American tour to support the new album. I feel that WROC tells a story, so are there plans to play it in its entirety for the live show, and should we expect any surprises?
“Well, I’m driving myself crazy right now,” Paul smiles, “trying to figure out the set list because you always have to have that balance between new stuff that people might know or they might not. And the songs that I know everyone’s likely familiar with, and trying to make it flow as a whole concert.
“So basically every morning after I do my drumming, I’ll run through ideas and see how it kind of flows as a story. It’s so hard to be objective about it. I’ll tear my hair out because as soon as I’m like, ‘oh this is great’, I’ll think, but will they like it?
“There’s been a lot of second-guessing going on, so that’s been my world at the moment. By the time we get to the tour, it’ll be really good cause I’ll have tested it out on myself, and we’ll have rehearsed it. I trust the band’s reaction.”
The lineup for the tour is the same as the album, with the exception of Nick D’Virgilio. “He’s such a busy drummer,” Paul Gilbert says. “So I’ve got Jeff Martin, who I’m very excited about. He was the original singer of Racer X, but he’s also a great drummer. He’s played drums in Badlands, UFO, Michael Schenker, and George Lynch, and he’s played drums with me a lot in the past.
“He’s also one of my best friends in the world, so it’ll be nice to have him on the tour. He’s funnier than anybody, and he’s really into the music. I have to calm him down sometimes. I have to tell him that I already have enough ideas. But I’m looking forward to that.
“You’re my therapist right now, I’m sort of telling you my problems. I love cover songs so much. If you’re a classical musician, that problem is solved because you never do original material. You’re playing Bach or Mozart, and for me, my Bach and Mozart are Led Zeppelin and Robin Trower.
“I love to do that stuff, and it’s so tempting to say I’ll play three songs of my own and then a Zeppelin medley the rest of the night. So I have to balance that desire because I don’t want to be a cover band either. It’s fun to play other people’s songs because they’re just so good.
“It’s like, why would I play my own song when I could play a Beatles song instead. But of course, the audience came to see me, and hopefully they’re happy to hear my stuff.”
Over the span of Mr. Big’s career, they released 10 studio albums. Does Paul Gilbert have a B-side track that is his favourite or that he wishes you could have played live at some point? Something only fans who have listened to the albums in their entirety may know?
“Well, the first song comes to mind, and we might have played it live, I can’t remember, but probably not. There’s a song called Living Like A Dog. It’s this nasty blues rock song.
“I just remember that it came together really smoothly. Eric (Martin) came over to my house, and I had already recorded the music for it, and he just stepped up to the mic and sang it on the first take. That was a fun one.”
Paul Gilbert releases WROC on 27 February via Music Theories Recordings. Pre-orders are available from lnk.to/PaulGilbert. Paul Gilbert’s US Tour begins on 21 April in Denver. Full dates and tickets are available from PaulGilbert.com/tour.
You can read Part One of the interview here. The MetalTalk WROC review is available here.
