Skid Row bassist Rachel Bolan is releasing his debut solo album. Gargoyle Of The Garden State — credited under the Bolan banner — arrives 06/12 via earMUSIC.
The record was produced by Nick Raskulinecz, who helmed Skid Row‘s 2022 record The Gang’s All Here, and it comes loaded with guests: Skid Row bandmates Dave “Snake” Sabo, Scotti Hill, and Rob Hammersmith all appear, alongside Corey Taylor (Slipknot, Stone Sour), Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme), Danko Jones, Steve Conte (New York Dolls), and Damon Johnson (Brother Cane, Lynyrd Skynyrd).
Bolan is direct about what the record means to him. “‘Gargoyle Of The Garden State’ is not a project; it is every bit of my soul,” he says. “Like me, it knows when to be serious and also knows where the party is.”
The first single, “At War With Myself”, features Danko Jones and is out now alongside an official music video. Gargoyle Of The Garden State will be available on CD digipak, LP gatefold, digital, and download. Pre-order the album here.
The album is rooted in the New Jersey grit and storytelling attitude that defined his formative years, pairing punk energy with melodic hooks and a raw swagger that early listeners have already called quintessentially Garden State. Beyond the bass — his primary instrument for four decades — Bolan plays most of the instruments himself, shaping the record largely on his own terms.
Speaking on the Rockstrap podcast — hosted by comedian Don Jamieson and radio veteran Keith Roth — Bolan broke down exactly how the album came together: “It doesn’t sound like Skid Row. I’m doing most of the singing. I’ve got a few guests on there. Our buddy Steve Conte is singing a song. The first single Danko Jones is singing with me. And then there’s another song that Corey Taylor sang. So there’s that. Snake played a solo. Scotti played a solo. Damon Johnson played a bunch of solos. Nuno Bettencourt played a solo. Hammersmith played drums on the whole thing. It’s a whole bunch of buds on there, and it’s cool, man. I’m really happy with the way it turned out. Nick produced it. He produced the [last] Skid Row record, and every worth-a-shit Active Rock band that’s out there, he produced. He’s so great to work with because he is such a fan of music.”
Working one-on-one with Raskulinecz, rather than running everything through a full band, made the process notably different from a Skid Row session. “Stuff didn’t have to clear the committee’s vote and stuff and shit like that,” Bolan says. “So it was cool, man. And to see him excited about something that I wrote again, it was awesome, man. It was a really, really fun process.”
The album also features a cover, one that arrived almost by accident. Bolan heard an Oasis track on the radio, didn’t immediately clock who it was, and decided to make it his own. As he tells it: “I’m not gonna tell you [what it is]… I did it just for the hell of it because I heard it on the radio and I was, like, ‘Man, I didn’t know that was them.’ And so I was, like, ‘It’s a cool tune.’ And I was, like, ‘I’m gonna completely change this — not change the chord structure or lyrics or anything, but I’m gonna change the vibe of it.’ So I did it, expecting the band never to be heard from again, and then they were. And I’m, like, ‘Oh, okay.'”
That cover turns out to be “Rock And Roll Star”, a fitting choice for an album that treats music as both a lifelong vocation and a personal reckoning.
“It was incredible to work with so many of my talented friends,” Bolan adds. “An experience I wish everyone could have at least once.”
