Longtime Kinks frontman Ray Davies goes in depth on the impact the U.S. had on his upcoming solo album Americana in the above video interview.

"America, the land of ice cream and apple pie, guns and the wild West," Davies muses. "America is such a vast country, such a big land mass."

"Americana is such a big story," he continues. "The landscape is phenomenal. I've always been influenced by the big skies. I think about the big sky, and all the problems in the world don't seem to matter."

Davies' most recent solo project was 2008's Working Man's Cafe. The Kinks, with whom Davies initially explored the U.S., haven't released a collection of new material since To the Bone in 1994. "When we first went to America, everything looked like a film set," Davies recalls. "It was almost unreal. I had an impression of what America could be like, with its shopping malls and consumerism, but I didn't feel the need to go there. But the more Americans I met, the more I became fascinated by the place."

Co-produced by Davies, Guy Massey and John Jackson, Americana grew out of Davies' autobiography of the same name. Members of the Jayhawks are featured on the project. The above clip also includes snippets of the title track from Davies' new album, which is due on April 21. He's already shared a preview of another advance song, called "Poetry."

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