The unveiling of Striker’s latest full-length Play To Win is almost here, with a release date of October 26th bringing the latest chapter in these Canadian Heavy Metallers’ discography to the world next week. The band has been on tour for the past month or so alongside fellow Heavy Metallers out of Canada, Unleash The Archers, and when the Apex tour brought them along to the Kingsland in Brooklyn, NY, I was there for all the action. I sat down (well, stood in a hallway/stairwell, technically…hey, it’s Brooklyn.) for a quick Q&A session with frontman Dan Cleary and guitarist Tim Brown.

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I’m just going to kick things off by talking about your new record, Play To Win, coming out in just a few weeks – can you start by talking about your approach going into the new record, coming out of the self-titled?

Dan: I think we kind of approached in a way where we wanted to sort of focus on what we were really good at, we thought that our wheelhouse is more like a melodic Heavy Metal style, little bit less full-tilt on the Speed Metal thing, and maybe try a few more different types of songs, stuff like that. So it’s a little different, I mean, in the end, with every album we aim for something and then it’s totally different by the end. 

Tim: That’s about it. Lots of shred – shred harder than ever. 

All right, that’s a good approach when you’re doing a record like this. And this record is being released independently, just like the last two, so what was it like for you to venture into that initially? 

Dan: It was kind of nerve-racking, I mean, it’s a lot of work. But at the time, when we split from our last label, we just thought it made more sense with the style of music we’re playing, it’s maybe not as commercial and stuff, it’s harder to make money, so we figured no one’s going to work harder at it than us. So we thought that’s probably the way to go, but at the time, we were sort of like, flip a coin and be like, “Which way should we go with this?” but so far it’s been really great for us. 

And in terms of the actual logistics of how you went about doing it independently?

Dan: Well, we just started contacting as many people as we could about how we could do it, whether they were willing to work with us, and we were actually pretty surprised at how many people had already either heard of us, or were just willing to work with us just based on us emailing them. So it was like, the doors are there, you just have to knock on them and see if anybody will open up. 

Tim: That’s pretty much what happened, as a band, your money’s as green as anyone else’s. 

For the new record, “Heart of Lies” is your first single, can you talk a bit about what went into that track in particular?

Dan: Yeah, that’s like sort of more of a classic Striker sound, what we found is a little bit of heavy metal, speed metal and thrash metal and hair metal, sort of everything melded into one track. That was sort of our flagship one, because we didn’t want to put out…well, we’ve got a variety of songs on the new album, so we wanted to make sure we put out something that was in line with what we’ve done in the past, and then we’ll sort of sucker the people into listening to the rest of the album after *laughs*. 

There you go – grab and pull ‘em in, right? *laughs*

Dan: That’s right. *laughs*

So then, the songwriting for that one is a traditional approach for Striker, you would say?

Dan: Yeah, I think we’ve always approached the songwriting in kind of the same way. This time we were trying things a little bit differently, different instruments and stuff like that. But primarily, we’re a guitar-driven band, so that’s where we start everything is with the riffs. 

All we’ve heard of the record so far is the single, but once everyone gets a chance to hear the full thing, what would you want someone listening to the album to take away from it?

Tim: We always like to say that if you’re coming out to a Striker show, if you’re not having fun, we’re not doing our job, so that’s kind of what we want to convey on the album as well. It’s a really fun album, gets you going. 

Awesome. Anything to add, Dan?

Dan: Nah, that’s pretty much it. We’ve got a juicy ballad on this one so get ready for that! *laughs*

*laughs* All right! But, it sounds like it’s all about the classic heavy metal fun, which is cool. So both of you being in Striker for a while now, obviously there’s a traditional classic kind of influence on Striker, you guys make that pretty clearly known, but have you discovered any other kind of influences along the way – something that’s come across your path that’s affected the way you play, the way you approach your own writing?

Tim: We listen to all kinds of music, I mean, we’re stuck in a van or a bus for like, way too long every day so one of the easiest things you can do to occupy your time is put music on and it gets kind of boring listening to the same stuff over and over and over, so we listen to all kinds of weird stuff in the van…from like Hawaiian ukulele music to you know, Ultimate Shred and super brutal stuff. You name it, we’ve listened to it. 

Dan: I think when we were young, we had like that sort of Elitist Old School Metal vibe, and we’ve sort of shaken that along the way. Because you really box yourself in if you’re only wanting to listen to, like,  albums from 1984 or whatever? There’s only so many. And like, new music is pretty exciting right now. I think there’s so much going on, there’s lots to listen to.

And there is like a classic, traditional sound as a style that’s very prominent now on the metal scene, especially from bands out of Canada. Do you feel this is, as a lot of people are saying, a “New Wave of the Traditional Metal”, or just that it never really went away to begin with? 

Dan: I don’t know, really, because it’s like a “new wave” that’s been happening for like 10 years now. So it’s kind of just like a thing that’s going on, I think there’s always a palate for that. When we were kids, or like when we were in High School, what we liked to listen to was like, Metallica, Megadeth, Testament, stuff like that. So we got into it sometime when we were kids – I don’t exactly know how, but it just happened that way. So there’s probably just cycles of people just finding out about that music and it just keeps rolling. 

I just want to ask you guys about you personally, for each of you, tell me about the first time you picked up each of your respective instruments. 

Dan: When I picked up my first voice, it was when I was…no, I’m just kidding. I started with guitar, actually, and my Dad had an acoustic guitar, and they were like, if you play this for this many months consistently, we’ll get you an electric guitar. And I did, and so that was the end of piano lessons. Gone, only electric guitar. And then, I started singing because nobody else wanted to sing in the band, which is, I think, a common problem. Nobody wants to sing, nobody wants to play bass either, but singing is the hard part, especially when you’re in High School and stuff, you’ve got to push yourself out there a bit. 

Tim: I actually started out as a vocalist in a band before Striker, in high school. We were writing songs, playing music, whatever, and the guitar player in the band at the time was like, “Hey man, here’s a guitar, I’ll show you how to play some songs”. I had no idea, had never touched a guitar in my entire life, and I said “What the hell? This is really fun”. I just had a lot of fun, like your first time you touch a guitar and you’re like, “What the hell is going on? How do people even play this??” So I just thought it was really interesting, and I started playing it, and then I got a guitar for my 17th birthday, and I just couldn’t stop. 

And jumping to the modern day, you guys are here at the Kingsland in Brooklyn playing alongside Unleash The Archers, just your thoughts on the show tonight?

Dan: I think it will be really good, this whole tour’s been like, crazy. We weren’t sure what to expect, two Canadian bands, but we just got off two sold-out shows in a row, so hopefully tonight is a similar experience. But this tour’s been really, really good.  

Lastly, just to wrap things up, what can we expect on the horizon for Striker?

Dan: We have a European tour with Skullfist starting in November, and all of November, we’ll be in Europe. And then we’re starting to book our next European tour after that, as well as another North American tour, while trying to book our other little tour, we’ll also have new music videos and all kinds of fun stuff coming up. 

Lot of good stuff to look forward to and you’ll be on the road a lot, so plenty of chances to catch Striker out there. Thank you guys for talking with me, it’s been awesome. 

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Keep up with Striker via http://www.striker-metal.com