Walker on

He's worked with such high-profile acts as Pink, Avril Lavigne, Lindsay Lohan, and the All-American Rejects. But Butch Walker doesn't consider himself a producer by trade. ``Honestly, I've never looked at it as anything more than a hobby," Walker swears. ``It just happens to be a well-paying hobby." His attention these days -- while he waits for the CBS reality show ``Rock Star: Supernova" to complete its summer long search for a lead singer so he can produce the album that follows -- is on ``The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's Go Out Tonites." The disc is the latest in a series the former Marvelous 3 frontman has released every two years like clockwork since the late 1990s. Walker, who plays Axis with his band tonight, recently discussed the potential disaster of Supernova, his feelings on rival production teams, and how seeing Kiss when you're 8 years old can change your life.

Q. Obviously, there are a lot of glam touchstones on this record.
A. Yeah, I grew up on that stuff, so it's obviously in my influences regardless of if I do a more stoic and sparse singer -songwriter acoustic record or if I do a revved-up rock record. It's always going to be there. And lyrically I always like the poets. I always like the guys that were a little bit more storytelling. I certainly don't know if I consider myself a good lyricist, but I certainly strive to not write a bunch of garbage. I like it to be a little interesting and kind of spicy.

Q. How did you start playing music?
A. I started playing music when I was 8 years old. I went to see my very first concert. I begged and kicked and screamed and told my parents to take me to see Kiss. And they took me to see Kiss, and I saw 20,000 people stoned out of their gourd, going nuts to people blowing guitars up on stage and spitting blood, and I said, ``That's what I wanna do." The circus kind of paled in comparison to that after that.

Q. Do you find it any easier to get your own material made and released now that you do have a name as a producer?
A. Not really. And you know what? That's good, because I would feel really [bad] if someone just wanted to put out a record just based on the fact that I can write a song for someone else. For some reason, maybe I'm a little righteous in this sense, but I don't feel like I'm Linda Perry or the Matrix or any of those people, where that's pretty much all they do is produce and write, and they're like machines, and they sit around and just get cuts on people's records. It's all about getting a cut on a record. That grosses me out, that whole world. It's a very informal process for me to begin with. And when those people go and try to put out their own records, doesn't it seem a little silly? It just doesn't seem like anyone will ever take it seriously. But I don't feel like I'm in that department.

Q. Do you consider the "Rock Star" reality show to be detrimental to the process of finding a singer for Supernova?
A. No, I think it's a funny little twist. They may take it a little too seriously, but I think it's a cool little twist to have a TV show and narrow it down and find a singer. It's like having a casting call, but there are TV cameras on. Plus, I enjoyed entertaining the notion of doing a record like this that was going to be a possible trainwreck because it had no singer. We've got to finish recording all the music and everything without knowing who the singer is. That just sounded definitely like a trainwreck to me, so I was in. I was like, I like a good challenge.

Q. How much do you love T. Rex? One of the things that I really like about your latest disc is that you don't just go for the guitars, you went for the backing vocals as well, which a lot of people overlook.
A. Yeah. I love that. I love that we just went [crazy] on the background vocals on this record. It's really fun. And I had no qualms about taking two hot girls out that could sing and dance and go crazy and act like being nuts on stage . . . so I was really excited about that, actually. Because this show we're taking out is a little bit of a party.

Butch Walker and the Let’s Go Out Tonites play Axis tonight. Doors open at 6, show at 6:30. Tickets $17. Call 617-931-2000 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.

SAMPLE BUTCH WALKER Check out audio clips at www.boston.com/clips.