​CLOSE ENEMIES Preparing for Busy Summer, Tracy Heck Interviews the Band

BY: Tracy Heck

​Powerhouse rock band Close Enemies are gearing up for some June headlining dates as well as
some August dates supporting L.A. Guns, Tom Keifer and Winger. Featuring legendary musicians, bassist Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith) and drummer Tony Brock (The Babys, Rod Stewart) and touring veterans, guitarists Peter Stroud (Sheryl Crow, Don Henley) and Trace Foster (AC/DC, The Rolling Stones) alongside vocalist Chasen Hampton, Close Enemies have been creating a buzz with their fiery live sets and popular singles “Sweet Baby Jesus” and “Sound of A Train.”
Recently, Sound Fury Magazine got a chance to speak with Foster who was out on tour with
AC/DC. He spoke about forming the band, the upcoming shows and what’s next on the horizon.

Q: You’ve got some shows coming up in June after you wrap up this leg of the AC/DC tour.
Are you excited to get out there as a unit and play?
A: Yeah, I’m really looking forward to that. I just love playing clubs. I’m doing stadiums right
now with AC/DC and it’s weird because it’s great to sell that many tickets, but there’s just
something nice about playing for a couple hundred dirty, sweaty people too.

Q: Something about having that interaction up close?
A: Yeah, you can actually feel the energy.

Q: You’ve gotten the chance to work with so many different people over the years as a tech
and player and you’ve seen all sides of the music business. What is the biggest lesson that
you were able to bring to forming Close Enemies and what was the catalyst for the
formation?
A: You know, it’s amazing because I’ve done things like spending a dozen years being Melissa
Etheridge's guitar tech and also playing keyboards and guitar during her shows. So I’ve been on both ends for a long time. I’ve been the guy that nobody sees playing for awhile, but I just woke
up one day and as one of my friends always says, we’re screaming down the hill now in life. I
woke up and said I’m not done yet, I really want to do one more musical thing! I’ve been very blessed in life to have the time and the ability to do it. When I decided to do it, I said that I was going to get all the best people that I knew. I mean, I’ve been doing this for forty years so I know a lot of people and it was amazing that everybody I asked said yes right away. Tom even said, why didn’t we do this 25 years ago? I laughed because I didn’t even know him then! It’s just been amazing and so much fun. As for what I brought to this project, I just brought my knowledge of seeing things on so many levels, the good and the bad. I can see things and tell the boys what’s going to happen if we don’t do this or that. We’re all very involved because we’ve all seen horror stories.

Q: What is it about this particular lineup that is working so well?
A: Well originally we had the drummer from Cheap Trick Daxx Nielsen, but his schedule did
not allow him to be able to do this because those guys work all the time. So when Daxx
couldn’t do it, Tom had some songs to work on so I said I’d come up to Boston and bring
a drummer. Peter was the one who said that he and Tony Brock had been looking for
something to do together. Once Tom and Tony played together, that’s when I realized
that if we had a rhythm section like that then everything else would come together.
Those guys just immediately locked in. To answer your question, it’s just the high quality that was there right away. Peter and I are two exact different guitar players. People that come see us say man, you have two completely different sounds, but it fits together like a puzzle. That’s the secret. That’s from listening to Ronnie Woods and Keith Richards all my life and before that Aerosmith
with Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. Brad is actually my neighbor.

Q: You can definitely hear those influences on your current single “Sweet Baby
Jesus.” Is that something you considered when putting it together?
A: That was a conscious decision just to not say ok, we’re going to write a certain kind
of song. We said we’ve got five guys in the band and we’ve got Gary Stier, who I’ve been
playing with since the eighties. He was in a band called Buffalo Nickel, which branched off into
Blackberry Smoke. We’ve known each other for a long time and he’s the first person I thought of
when I said I wanted to do this again because he’s a great songwriter and I said let’s start writing..
That’s when I called Peter and said I wanted him to hear this stuff. That was “Sound of A Train” and he called right back and said he didn’t need to hear anymore. That’s how it started and we said we’re going to write from the heart as five guys in a band and a songwriter like Gary. Everyone gets to add their little bit here and there in every song.

Q: And what’s the plan for the rest of the year?
A: We’re releasing another single on June 2 called “ Rain, “ which everyone has been looking forward to. It’s the single we always open up with. Then we start the next part of our tour in August. We’ll be adding more dates and plan to tour until December. Somewhere hopefully in the beginning of all that the record will come out, which will be ten singles. We’re just going to hit it really hard. We’re actually playing The Whisky on November 14 in Los Angeles and we’re going to record it live. We’re going to release it in 2026 for Record Store Day. We’re only going to release it on vinyl. That’s pretty cool and exciting.