In December of 2017, Judas Priest held an NYC album listening session and press day in conjunction with Sony Music and Epic Records. I got the chance to sit down with Rob Halford, Richie Faulkner, and Scott Travis for an interview. From Firepower to touring and recording, Rob Halford’s coined term of the “Metalsphere”, right down to video games and Reddit, we covered a lot of ground and had a great chat.

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I just want to start off by asking, you have Firepower coming out next year – what made now the right time to start working on this album and get it out there?

Rob Halford: I was passing the mic to Scott Travis, who deferred, so I’ll pick it up. You know, I don’t think there’s ever a time to make a record, you just instinctively know that that’s what you want and need to do next, and that’s been the case with Priest for over four decades now. We’re a working metal band, you know, we get together, we write some songs, we record them, we go out and tour, we take a little break…and repeat. And that all builds up to this great metal treasure trove that we have surrounding us in the Priest world, and now it’s the opportunity for Firepower to be born into the “Metalsphere” – ah, that’s the first time I’ve said that in this interview. And that feels great, it’s a bunch of all the things that we love to do, this is how we see and perceive and want to represent Judas Priest in 2018, and we’re so excited as a band to have this opportunity again. It’s all been placed out for us by our fans, everything that we do is relevant to the connectivity of our incredible Judas Priest worldwide fanbase, they’re part of the motivation that keeps up fired up to make a record like Firepower.

Firepower, not to be ironic about it, but it is a very “powerful” title, like most Judas Priest albums – so what’s behind the title, where did that come from?

Richie Faulkner: Well, after the recording sessions, we went to an Indian restaurant most nights during the week, and “firepower” is what usually happened the morning after because of the spicy Indian food…

Rob and Scott Travis: *laughter*

Richie: …no, but really. It became pretty apparent that there was an energy, there was a lot of intensity, a lot of firepower – there’s not really a better word for it in this album. So, the songs were energetic, they had a great vibe, it was a very powerful to be making, in my opinion, for a band that’s been going over 45 years. Creating new music with this much intensity? It’s an indication of the firepower that’s still within the band and the genre and the fans. So when we had the track “Firepower”, and we were looking at potential album titles, that one seemed to be a perfect summarization of the content within. Once you decide that, it then leads to a visual, an image which is obviously a powerful one, there’s fire and there’s a Priest monster on there…you know, but it all comes from the music, it all comes from the sound and the vibe that the music’s giving off. It’s a powerful statement, it’s intense, it’s energetic. What better name than the firepower of heavy metal, you know what I mean? And it refers to, as Rob said before, it’s the firepower of heavy metal, it’s the stuff that holds us all together, whether you’re creating music or whether you’re a fan of heavy metal, we all know what that intensity’s like as a fan. So yeah, it’s a representation of the music and the power of heavy metal.

Awesome.

Rob: *claps hands* Round of applause for…Richard Faulkner!

So I do want to ask for a little bit of a look into the recording process, I’m curious about what your style is like as a band. What seems to be increasingly popular these days is musicians remotely recording parts on their own time, sending it in to each other…is that what you do, or do you get together and pull it all together in studio at once? 

Scott Travis: It’s not what we did on this record, which was a great pleasure for all of us, because we wanted to do “the organic style” recording where we’re all in a room together. Generally, after these guys write and formulate songs and they banter about and come up with good demos, then we get together and start recording the drums first…so, in the past, we have dabbled in what you described earlier about being in different locations, maybe doing things not so organic like we did this time, and we hope that that translates into the sound of the record, which we think it definitely does, it definitely created a – well, just a more humanistic way of making music. You know, if Richie’s sitting ten feet from me on a stool and Ian’s over there, and Glenn’s over there, and Rob’s behind the curtain so to speak, just so he can have some vocal independence and not bleed through the rest of the mics…(to Rob) is that right?
…But, it’s just an actual thing when you’re playing with people and you have the visual context as well as the audio, because obviously we’re all wearing headphones and can hear each other, so anyway…That’s how we recorded this record, we think it translates into a slightly different sound than some of our previous recordings in the most positive way. Having Mr. Tom Allom and Andy Sneap behind the mixing desk along with Mike Exeter as an engineer was a beautiful congregation of all of us trying to get together to do the same thing and have one goal of making a great Priest record.

Now, getting a little more into that “great Priest record”, as you say, I just got out of the listening session where we were also shown the music video for “Lightning Strike”. I just want to ask more about both the song and the video, what went into that particular track?

Rob: Obviously any kind of visual interpretation is valuable, and we’re in a different world now to where Priest began, so we know the opportunities that are afforded you across various platforms – as they’re called these days – and one of the great ways to communicate your music is to have some kind of visual interpretation. This is just a way of getting the song across more than anything else, it’s a very exciting piece to look at, the kind of thing you can watch over and over again. But the whole essence of the idea is just to send out this song, “Lightning Strike”, to our fans for a first listen – the first complete pass of a song, that’s always exciting to do. And that’s what it is, you know, it’s a combination of cuts, edited pieces from a Wacken performance a couple of years ago in Germany, and some recent footage that we cut. So it serves the purpose of just getting the song launched out to our fans around the…*laughs* Metalsphere.

Metalsphere! 

Rob: That was the word I was looking for. Old “Metalsphere”.

Scott: *laughing* We hope to have a few more video cuts off this album. Having videos, I would say, is nothing new, although someone reminded us in an interview earlier today that we didn’t do one for Redeemer, which is…our mistake, really, in a way because – I’m holding up my phone – everyone has these small TVs now in their back pocket, where you can pull up anything and you can see everything as well as hear it, i.e. videos, so like Rob said, this was just something we whipped up together real quick to get that song out there with the video, we hope to have a couple more.

Definitely, to get the excitement going. 

Scott: Totally. People want to see it as well as hear it.

And just another track that happened to jump out at me – the transition from “Guardians” into “Rising From Ruins” – at first, I thought it was a standalone instrumental but then I noticed the transition and buildup from one into the other, so I was curious about the connection between those two songs. 

Richie: The intro was something that was around…we put it together, the song “Rising From Ruins” was put together out of different parts, there was half a song here, and a riff here, and as you put stuff together, that’s usually what happens…and the intro was a standalone piece of music I put forward, it was a piano thing. I wasn’t sure if it was relevant but you never know, and as Rob says, you put everything on the table and sometimes you surprise yourself, you put something on the table, it might not fit in your mind, but somehow in the context of a song or a record, it absolutely does. And that’s what happened with this, so we then put a part of “Guardians”, of the intro, in the song “Rising From Ruins”, so it almost reprises the intro if you know what I mean. It just seemed to connect really beautifully. And being a piano part, it wasn’t completely out of the question, Priest have used piano before —

Rob: “Epitaph”.

Yes.

Richie: — “Epitaph”, exactly. So, it’s just one of those things, whenever you putting ideas down, there’s nothing that was before it, if that makes sense. You don’t quite know…there’s no blueprint. So you’re putting out ideas that might stick, that might not stick, they might be relevant, might not be. And sometimes you surprise yourself. Hence, a piano-style intro, you know. But it seems to work, again, in the context of the song on the record. Anyone else?

Rob: No, I just think that in terms of what Judas Priest represents as a band, we have specifics in the world of Priest and it includes that kind of experience, you know. By definition, we’re well-known for certain kinds of songs, and these are just extra adventures, really, in…not exactly the same things, but…it’s Priest —

Richie: I just realized as well! When you put them together, is it “Guardians Rising From Ruins”? Is it? I’ve never seen it like that before, I just realized, is it the guardians that are rising from the ruins?

Rob: Well. You know, Richie, I’ve never thought of that either, but I suppose it could be! I suppose it could be, you know, what are the guardians, who are the guardians, maybe we are the guardians? Maybe metal is the guardians, like the guardians of the metal galaxy?

Richie: There you go then.

Rob: It’s quite possible that that’s what it could mean. And this is the joy of Judas Priest, we let everybody bring their own interpretations to the table, we have a lot of fun thinking when we’re making the music, especially when we come in to titles and the lyrical content. We have our own kind of concept of what a song might mean, but how it might be interpreted by our fans could be completely the opposite, and that’s the joy of music, really, in the way that everybody brings their own kind of vision to the pieces that you make. But yeah…the “Metal Guardians of the Galaxy”.

There you go, there’s something. *laughs* So then, right around the album launch, you’re kicking off a grand scale Firepower world tour, and in terms of what audiences can expect, obviously plenty of content from Firepower blended with the classics – any thoughts you care to add to that about the tour? 

Rob: We’re trying to put a setlist together and the further we go, the more of a challenge that is, eighteen studio albums, about ten songs per record, how much is that? 180 tunes.

Scott: At least.

Rob: At least, to look at. But here’s the thing, we know we’re going to go out and play “Breaking the Law”, we know we’re going to do “Living After Midnight”, and why shouldn’t we? We love playing those songs and every time you play a song like that, at the moment that you’re playing it, it’s the first time you’ve ever played it because that’s the way life works, you know. So there’s that excitement because the song is never the same when you play, but also it’s just the connection that you see, that you’re making with that particular piece of music at that moment with your fans that have waited two or three years to see you again and again and again. So this is really the great part of being in a band is that you have this opportunity to you know, leave your house, lock the door, and come back about a year or so later after going all around the world and seeing your glorious fans all over America, South America, Canada, over in Japan, all through Europe, our home country, the UK. This is what we live for besides making metal, writing metal, recording metal…the whole thing becomes a substance as a reality, this is why we do this because we’re standing on the stage with all of our glorious fans united in the spirit of what metal represents, and celebrating the whole experience together on that given night. And so, having said that, *laughs* we still haven’t got a clue what the setlist is going to be. We do know that those songs I’ve mentioned and other have to be in the setlist, but it’s going to be tricky to pick the tracks from Firepower because we’re so committed to every song. You know, any band that you go and see, there’s the opening sequence, there’s the middle sequence and the end sequence, so you really have to put time and thought and effort into how you’re going to make that whole flow go through the night. But it’ll be fun, we’ll probably play a couple tunes, maybe three tunes from Firepower, and there’ll be stuff from British Steel, hopefully from Painkiller again, and…we might try and find some deep cuts that we’ve never played before, even if it’s only one song, we’ve been thinking about certain tracks that have never been performed before by Priest, and that would be a thrill.

That would be exciting. 

Scott: Great segue, because…what Priest song would you like to hear us play live?

Oh my, that is very much on the spot. 

Scott: Only one!

Honestly, my favorite Judas Priest song, it may not be a deep cut…

Scott: Doesn’t matter.

I’ve always loved “Freewheel Burning”, that is absolute top for me. 

Rob: Okay.

Richie: Killer!

Scott: Fair, fair.

And right next to “Freewheel Burning” is also “Love Bites”, pretty much that whole [Defenders of the Faith] record is right there at the top for me. 

Richie: The interesting thing is these days, the world, because of the connectivity of the world we live in, fans will tell you. They will message you, they will say “We want to hear ‘Sinner’”, or “We want to hear ‘Saints in Hell’”, they’ll make you aware. So instead of before, like maybe 20 years ago, you wouldn’t get an idea of what people wanted, now they tell you what they want.

They tell you straight out. 

Richie: They’ll say, “We want this”, you know what I mean? And it’s a great position to be in with eighteen albums to choose from, really. Sometimes it makes it harder, because if you picked all the songs that everyone wanted to hear, you’d be there for…

Rob: You’d be on stage for a week.

Richie: Exactly.

At least! 

Richie: But again, because of the connectivity these days, and how connected all the fans are, they’ll tell you straight away you know, and you take that…some of them have good points, you know.

Rob: It’s the passion, isn’t it? It’s the passion as we say time and time and time again how grateful we are to our fans for supporting us and giving us this life in metal music. Yeah, as Richie says, the fans are really hardcore about certain songs that they want to hear, we try and accommodate as best we possibly can. There’s always that, “Well, they didn’t play it this time, maybe they’ll play it next time” type of deal, which is a fact. So we’ll do our best to try and cover all the metal bases on the Firepower tour.

Excellent. And then, not to do an on the spot type of question, but if you had to pick one song that has been your absolute favorite to play live, consistently over the years, what would it be? I’m asking this of each of you, actually, whoever would like to start. 

Scott: Actually, I enjoy “Metal Gods”. It’s just a cool grooving song, it says it all – in other words, it really does fit the band, obviously the guys wrote this song many, many years ago, maybe before they really were Metal Gods. Now, Priest is “The Metal Gods”, and led by “The Metal God”, singular, Halford. But no, I really enjoy that song, that’s a killer song.

Rob: For me, it’s always going to be “Victim of Changes”, just because in that one song, you’ve got so much metal going on, you’ve got the intro twin guitars with that great riff, then you’ve got the bludgeoning experience when the whole band crashes in, you’ve got the breakdown section where it cools down a little tiny bit, and then you’ve got the climactic dramatic ending, you’ve got so much going on within that piece of music that, for me, it’s a real special tune.

Richie: Well, I was going to say “Victim of Changes”, now I don’t want to sound boring, so I’ll have to pick another one. But, for all those reasons Rob said, if an alien came down from wherever —

Rob: An alien?

Richie: An alien! And said…*with an accent* “What is this Judas Priest?”…That sounded like Polish…

Rob: *laughing* That sounds Russian!

Richie: Okay, but if an alien came down…”What is Judas Priest about?”, you’d have to show them “Victim of Changes” for all those reasons Rob just said, it’s got the intro guitars, it’s got the high screams, breakdown, the clean passages…but just to pick another one, I don’t think I could. That one’s, as you said, consistently my favorite, and there’s actually a part of that song where I have been known to actually exclaim.

Rob: Exclaim?

Richie: “Ahh, this is so fucking good!” …Not quite like that, but I think I’m doing it, you know, when Glenn plays his solo.

Rob: Yes!

Richie: And it’s coming to a climax at the end of everything, I’ve actually been known to just scream my head off, ‘cause it’s so intense, so great, such a great song. You know, so I can’t really top that, really.

Now, there is a question that’s probably on a lot of fans’ minds, and I have to ask it…how often do you find yourselves playing your new “Road to Valhalla” video game?

Rob: Ah! Well, I’m the world’s worst video game player so you shouldn’t ask me. I’ve tried to do that, you know, I do know a little bit about that world, and as I understand it, they may even be considering it for the Olympic games at some point in the future. Because it is, when you see some of these high end players play, it’s absolutely scary and again, some of them – they are a team, aren’t they? They’re a team battling the other team? And the skill that’s involved, and the reflexes, the coordination, it’s just mind-blowing to watch how incredibly talented these players are. So, having said that, *laughs* I think I’m still stuck on Level One. I’m still on the bike and I’m still stuck in Valhalla, which is not a bad place to be. But I will say this about the “Valhalla” game is that it was something that we as a band had never done before, and we’re not the first band to do it, but I thought it was just a great moment to show that you can marry the music of Judas Priest into an online gaming experience. It worked really well, it turned out great. For some of them you never know, you know, the high-end ones where it’s almost real, like the new “Star Wars” one…why did that get all that flack, Richie? I still don’t understand that. The battle thing…?

Richie: It was the way that you leveled up through the game, so essentially, they call it “pay to win”. So someone with a load of cash can go in and buy a load of stuff and get everything, whereas other people would have to spend hours and hours and hours to get the same stuff.

Scott: So it’s like real life.

Rob: *laughs*

Richie: Exactly!

Rob: Well, no, I understand what the fuss is, because I’m a Reddit freak, I love Reddit, you know? And I’m seeing all this going down on Reddit and I can’t quite grasp it, and I thought I knew what it was and you explained it correctly, Richie, and that absolutely sucks. It sucks, it just takes all the fun out of it.

Richie: They changed it pretty quickly, by the way.

Rob: Did they?

Richie: Yeah, within the first day they took that element out of it. Made it more fair.

Rob: Well, I hope that goes the same way as Net Neutrality because that’s just a horrible thing waiting in the wings. Anyway yeah, Metal listeners, check out “Valhalla”, the Priest game. I think it’s on Apple.

There it is. And we also learned a little bit about Rob Halford’s internet habits in terms of Reddit just now. So I think fans will like that!

Rob: *laughs* I love my Reddit.

Honestly, I could have millions of questions and sit here talking to you all for hours, but I have been given a time limit and I’m sure you don’t want to sit here talking to me for hours, so —

Rob: Yes, we do.

Oh, okay. *laughs* Well, I will just ask you to wrap it up with a simple straightforward thing – a message to the fans from each of you. 

Scott: Personally, and I know we all feel like this because we’ve been saying it in interviews and we’ve talked amongst ourselves, we’re really looking forward to the new album, but definitely to the new tour, it will be almost three years since we’ve been on the road and been able to be face to face with fans and that’s really what, I think, being a live performer is all about. Obviously, when you first start playing music, you hone your own craft and then you, of course, want to get with like-minded people that share the same musical direction. That’s cool, and then the big culmination is you have to go and play in front of people, otherwise you’re just a star in your own zip code.

Rob: What is that, a star in your own zip code? Did you take that from somebody or did you just make that up?

Scott: No, had that one for a while.

Rob: Let me just follow up by saying everything that Scott said, but we love you, our fans. Thank you so much for supporting Priest and being with us for so long, and you new Metalheads that might be coming to see Priest for the first time, you’re going to love it. You’re going to be with a great bunch of people – we’re all together in this metal community spirit, so thank you, check out Firepower, and we’ll see you on the road. Here’s the Falcon Faulkner.

Richie: Oh man, how can you add anything to that?

You get the closing statement, Richie!

Richie: I agree.

Rob: There you go.

Richie: Just end with that.

That’s a perfect closing statement. 

Richie: Well, I totally agree, again, it’s my second studio record with the band, and it’s my third world tour. And just to be a part of a band that’s been going almost 50 years because of the fans is an amazing thing to be a part of, and I think it’s an accolade that the band deserves. And I’ll see you out there on the road with Firepower. 

Rob: Thank you, everybody!

Thank you all. 

Firepower is set to be released March 9th, 2018 on Epic Records. Visit the Official Judas Priest Website for more.