Tom Morello News

Former Veruca Salt principal Nina Gordon is gearing up to release her sophomore solo effort, which has been nearly six years in the making.

After initially pairing with producer Ethan Johns, Gordon scrapped the original recordings and tapped Bob Rock instead for "Bleeding Heart Graffiti," due August 8 via Warner Bros.

"The first version with Ethan was slow and sad. That doesn't mean that some songs didn't need that -- some do!" Gordon told Billboard.com. "But after being gone for so long, I wasn't ready to put that out there. I'll probably put those versions out in some form some time down the line."

While writing and recording the material for "Bleeding Heart," Gordon experienced a number of life changes that helped shape the general theme of the album.

"I began to notice these songs were representative of the different seasons of the year, sequenced in chronological order -- years about moving out to California from Chicago away from my family, and it being the first time I've been single since I was 16," she recalls. "It felt like a time of pioneering new territory."

Musical guests like session drummers Josh Freese and drummer Joey Waronker plus Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello contributed to the album, and Gordon expects to collect a few more hired hands as her band on the road.

But as for forming a permanent band like Veruca Salt again, Gordon is less enthusiastic.

"I remember the romance and excitement of being in a band, and the horrors of being in a band," she says. "I'm a pretty controlling person, and it gets pretty difficult being with more than one songwriter in a group. I had a blast, but musically people can get in the way of what I want to do and say and achieve. I can't imagine putting myself in the situation again. I know I'm difficult to work with."

Reuters/Billboard