Paul Stanley Says Soul Station Tackles Covers With Passion

Paul Stanley makes it clear, his R&B combo Soul Station is not some rock star's pet project — but a true labor of love. Coming on March 5th is the group's first album, Now And Then. Soul Station has played sold-out club dates in the U.S. and Japan, with the debut album featuring 14 tracks — five originals and nine classic covers.

Among the covers included are the debut cover single of the Five Stairsteps' “O-o-h Child,” the Temptations' “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me),” the Delfonics' “La-La (Means I Love You),” and a pair of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles evergreens — “Tracks Of My Tears” and “Ooh Baby Baby.”

Paul Stanley told us that unlike most cover projects — Soul Station started out as a top notch touring ensemble with an actual creative mission: “It really is like a family of really diverse individuals who love the same music and wanna do it justice and we get along great. The idea initially was to go out and play all these great Motown, Philly soul, Stax/Volt, and Atlantic songs — and do them justice. That doesn't mean mimicking them and it doesn't mean impersonating them. It means doing them accurately, but doing them with passion.”

We asked Stanley how he went about writing the five new originals that sit between the legendary R&B classics on the upcoming set: “For me, it's not a calculated impression of something, as much as — I don't wanna say 'channeling it.' But I know that music so well, that to write those tunes really wasn't difficult at all. It was an amazing extension. That music is really deeply rooted in me, long before I heard the British bands that I loved and were inspired by.”