From bubble-gum pop/rock to thinking man's metal, the band Winger have come a long way in the past 20 years. From MTV darlings to virtual over-night pariah's thanks to the ignorant rantings of those musically-challanged dim-wits Beavis & Butthead (I mean come on!! Of all the 80's rock bands, Winger were the least deserving of contempt, every member displaying an almost virtuoso level of technical excellence!), the band have persevered and released superb albums of intelligent hard rock, with Kip finding time to record three solo albums in the same period.

On the occasion of Winger's release of the accurately titled, ‘Demo Anthology', Monica Castedo-Lopez decided it was a good time to have a little chat with frontman Kip Winger and find out more about the album, the US tour they had just completed and a few other bits and pieces...

Firstly, let's talk about the new album ‘Demo Anthology'. This album, as well as the original demos of most Winger classics, contains a wealth of previously unreleased tracks. What else can you tell us about it?
There's not much to tell. It's just songs that I had sitting in my house for a long time that never got released and I wanted everyone to hear the demos, so I thought I'd put out some unreleased music. There's really nothing other than that. It's pretty self explanatory, except that they labelled a lot of the new tracks as new but they're not, they're just the same songs with different lyrics.

What do you think fans could get out of this album?
It's just a way to hear the history of the band. I think it's just really for the hard core fans, the ones that follow everything that we do.

The unreleased songs alone would be enough for a new album. Why did you feel it was necessary to include well known tracks such as ‘Madalaine', ‘Hungry', ‘Can't Get Enough', etc?
Because they're demos. That was the whole point. It's the demo anthology of all the music we've ever done.

Why were the new songs left behind at the time?
Because when I make albums if I don't feel like everything fits exactly right then I don't put it on there. I like to make albums that flow from one song to the next very well and I don't like it when the song doesn't feel like it belongs there, and the songs that didn't make the albums just didn't belong on any Winger album.

Who wrote these songs?
Either I did or me and Reb. Nobody else on there.

The band formed in 1987, making 2007 your 20th anniversary. Are you organising any special events to commemorate this?
No. I just wanted to put it out. I had the idea to do it for a while now and I came out the road from the European tour and decided to put it together. It only took me about four weeks. Maybe there should be some celebration, I didn't even think of that. I don't think like that, I don't commemorate the band or any of that stuff. I just try to keep moving into the future.

Maybe it would be interesting for the fans...
Yeah. Like what would I do?

I'm not sure. A special party? Maybe to get Paul Taylor to come back...? What's happening with him? He's in Nashville writing songs. He's very busy. We asked him to come back for this and he didn't want to. John Roth is much more of a likely member for the band. The vibration feels better.

How do you feel now about your biggest hits, such as ‘Seventeen', ‘Hungry', etc? Do you still enjoy performing these songs now as much as when you first wrote them?
Yeah. They're fine now. It's very difficult material to play musically, so it's always a challenge and the fans like it a lot. It's fun to do it. We just got out of a six week tour and it was sold out half the shows. So it was great. Tons of people showed up, mostly young people, which was very surprising.

In this 20 year history, albeit the 9 year hiatus, there are so far only four studio albums released, including last years' ‘IV'. Were the long tours part of the reason for this short discography?
I made three solo records on my own and working on a forth solo record, so that would make it nine records, which is basically the rate of one record every two years. I don't like to make any Winger albums if I don't have anything to say. I don't want to put out endless amounts of crappy music that all sound the same. I'm not that kind of an artist. I only put a record out if I really have something to say, that you can actually get something out of it.

How do you feel ‘IV' has been received by the fans? Was it what you expected?
I didn't expect anything. It got great reviews. I think the Germans were the only ones that were hoping we would be a poppy bubble gum band, which is odd because the Germans like heavy music. They didn't really like it. Other than that everybody else thought it was our best record.

Are there any plans to record a fifth Winger album and keep the band going for as long as the fans want it (which could be ‘til eternity!)?
Well, it won't be eternity I guess, but we'll definitely make another one. I don't know when. Right now I'm finishing my fourth solo record and a couple of other projects I'm doing and I'm working on a live Winger DVD, so it will be a while before we start that.

When are you expecting to release this new solo album?
I don't know. I need to finish it first. It's been seven years in the making because I've been so busy, but it's almost finished.

What about the DVD?
We filmed a live DVD three weeks ago, so that should be coming out in a couple of months. It was filmed in the Galaxy Theatre in Anaheim, California.

Three of you guys have been at one point or another playing for Alice Cooper. How would you describe these encounters with the legend?
A glass of blood a day! Hahaha! Nah, it was a great experience. I learned a lot with Alice and he was a great person to be in a band with, very professional, super funny and an American legend. It changed my life forever. As far as the other guys go, you have to ask them.

Of all the bands Winger have shared a stage with, which one is your favourite?
Good question. I played with so many... I think probably... Cinderella. They were probably the most fun.

What about Poison?
Poison was okay, but the musicianship isn't there, really, you know. They're fun, but they're not great musicians. I like good musicians. I like the Scorpions, Bad Company, some that are more musician oriented band.

And it was great to play with them and to party with them afterwards...
No, I don't really party. As the lead singer, I can't drink or smoke. I concentrate on performing.

How does Reb Beach find to combine Winger and Whitesnake? I'm sure it can't be easy.
It's easy. He's the lead guy in our band and he's really like the second guitar player in Whitesnake. He likes both, actually, because the music of Whitesnake is really good but he also gets to be the star of the show in our thing. Really when one band is travelling and the other one isn't, we kinda have to work our schedule around each other.

You've also written soundtracks for movies. Can you tell us what the difference is for you between writing these and band and solo songs?
It's just a totally different process. The creative process is different. For soundtracks you're writing music to a visual image. That's the biggest difference. The other way you're just pulling music out of thin air. I like both things. I haven't done a lot of films, so I don't consider myself the greatest film composer or anything like that, but I like it a lot. I can write songs to scripts, but I don't really write music to scripts. It's better to see the movie.

You're also a producer. How do you enjoy that?
I like producing, depends how good the artist is.

Unfortunately I only had one chance to see Winger live and that was last year at Firefest 3. Thus I feel compelled to ask you about your experience at this event. How did you find playing again in the UK well over a decade after your last appearance as a band here?
Great! But I played there a lot acoustic. At Firefest our set got cut short because the band before kept going so we couldn't really do our full show, but other than that it was fine. The English fans are really dedicated and some of them were really hoping we would do music from the first and second records and they don't want us to move on. That actually was a good show for me, except that we didn't get a chance to do ‘Miles Away' and some of the other hits. But all the vibes were good.

Are there any plans to come on tour to the UK again any time soon?
I'd like to. I talked to the guy that did Firefest and we're trying to come back and do one. It's not gonna work this year, but maybe next year.

Finally, as an experienced musician that persevered and succeeded in the music industry, what advise/tips would you give to new bands?
Write songs. Develop your writing skills because that's the only thing that is gonna set you apart.

And would you recommend the use of Myspace? It appears Winger is active at taking advantage of this new tool.
MySpace is cool. As far as marketing goes, I don't really know what to advise people on anymore because I'm old school, but MySpace has been great for us, so yeah, definitely. But you have to write good songs. If you don't have good songs you don't really have anything.

What is next in the books for Winger as a band?
We're doing a lot of shows in the summer in the US, planning on which kind of record we want to make next, we have a live DVD and after that we'll figure out what to record. We've been trying to come back to Europe in the fall but we haven't got anything straightaway yet.

Would you like to add anything?
Thank the fans for the support over all the years. We appreciate everybody hanging in there. We have a lot of good turnouts at our shows and people are buying the records. I thank everybody for that.