Richie Faulkner recently released Horns For A Halo, the debut album from his new band Elegant Weapons, via Nuclear Blast Records. Metal Magnitude’s Chelsea spoke with Richie Faulkner about the formation of this supergroup of a project; bringing classic influences and artists to a modern sound while recording with Scott Travis, Ronnie Romero, and Rex Brown; all about the Gibson Richie Faulkner Flying V Custom; plus an update from the Judas Priest front.
Sermon released their second album, Of Golden Verse, this spring via Prosthetic Records. Metal Magnitude’s Chelsea spoke with Sermon frontman, known only as “Him”, about following up on Sermon’s debut album Birth of the Marvelous, introducing the band to the world, working with James Stewart (Vader/Decapitated) and Scott Atkins (Grindstone Studios – Cradle of Filth/Vader/Benediction), genre exploration, and songwriting methods.
Vinnie Moore recently released his latest solo album, Double Exposure, via his own label, Mind’s Eye Music. This is the first of his solo work to feature guest vocalists, including former members of MSG, Riot, and more. I spoke with Vinnie about the making of the album, producing his own music through his own label, how he became known as a guitar authority, working with Alice Cooper, the latest on UFO, and more.
Joined on the phone here today by Vinnie Moore, excited to talk to you about your new album Double Exposure, so thank you for joining me today. How are you doing?
I’m doing great, thanks so much for having me on. It’s good to be talking to you.
Awesome. So of course I’m super excited, Double Exposure is an awesome record, and it’s not your first run at a solo album of course, but it has been the first in a few years. So to start things off, what brought you to this album as we hear it today?
The album started during the lockdown time frame, and you know, I was basically at home. All the shows that we had planned were kind of canceled or postponed or whatever, and you know, I just got bored and thought, I need to do something to keep busy and be creative. So I came up with a scheme to release an instrumental EP, 6 songs. And so I recorded some stuff, and that was pretty much how it started. But as I was listening to the songs, I started hearing vocals in my head and singing along with them. I got this idea like, “Hey, I could get some of my singer friends and maybe do two versions of each song – one with a singer and one with the guitar singing”. So this kind of dual album/dual song thing kind of popped into my head. It wasn’t really planned, but you know it just kind of happened and I just kind of rode with it.
Cool, and I love the way you phrase that, “one side with the guitar singing”, that, of course is what you’ve kind of always done with your instrumental. It was also a first to find vocals on your solo album, so my question on that is, how did you arrive at the lineup of vocalists that you did? I mean, did you have the songs first, and decide which song fit which vocalist, or did you already have some people in mind while you were writing?
Well, the songs were written and I actually, once I got the idea that I would like to do vocals on the songs, I pretty much started, you know, jotting down some lyrics, and I sang on everything myself. Because I always have a lot of melodies in my head, so I might be sitting around doing the instrumental thing, and get a vocal in my head, and you know, start recording and just like lay down a vocal. I presented each singer with both versions, the one with me scatting with my temporary lyrics, and the ones with just the music. And told them, you know, totally get creative, do your own thing, or listen to what I’ve come up with. But yeah, to go back to your question, it did take some thought. These were all friends of mine that I knew that I always wanted to work with, but some thought went into like who would be right for which particular song. For instance, like “Hummingbird”, there’s obvious, like…That’s gonna be Keith Slack. He’s a Texas guy, he’s got that southern twang and that big husky voice, and I just knew he would be right for that because it had a southern kind of vibe to it. And, you know, just kind of put some thought into it and just chose who I thought would be right for each song. There was no real right answer like, every one of these guys would have been good on any of the songs. But, I kind of tried to tailor it to each guy specifically.
Yeah, that makes sense, kind of just feeling the style and the vibe and which one seems suited to – because, of course, like you said, they could have handled any one of them but it’s like, which one was best for them as an individual, which is cool.
Exactly, that’s right.
You mentioned the genre there as well, because of course it is, a rock record fundamentally, but I like that there is a little bit of layering of genre. There’s a little bit of a southern, you know, twang here and there, and then you’ve got the blues element, which a lot of people seem to be picking up on the blues element of it as well. Was there any specific idea in mind with genres? Or you were just kind of experimenting and seeing what came up as you were writing?
I just kind of let it flow, you know? Without much thought. And I’m into so many different styles of music, so many great things out there, and I’m just like, inspired by all of it and, you know, I just kind of let it come out, when I’m writing. I try not to think too much and have a plan, I found that if I think too much, it doesn’t come out as good. You know, let it happen, so to speak. Put a guitar in my hand, whatever happens happens, wherever the road leads, you know, it leads, and I follow it, just follow the inspiration. A lot of my early Southern influence came out on this record, that probably hasn’t come out a lot in the past, like on “Hummingbird”, for instance. So yeah, it’s just go with the flow for me, and not think.
That’s good, I mean I think a lot of artists can tend to do that. If they set out with something too specific in mind, like, “I want to write in this style, this genre, this particular sound”, you can get kind of caught up in that thinking you have to fit into a mold. So it definitely is better to just let it flow, you have a certain idea and then say, “All right, let’s see where this goes”, just start playing and jamming and messing around.
Right, especially since it’s a solo record, and not a band scenario. Pretty much, can it be experimental and really do anything I want, whereas if there was a band such as UFO, we have a collective, like, style, you know? And there’s a certain area you have to stay within, like a certain boundary for that. So…kind of more boundary-less.
Definitely, that makes sense, yeah, UFO has a certain kind of expectation to itfrom the fans as well. You expect a UFO record to sound a certain way, and then, you know, if you come out of left field with a full-on southern record, people would be like, “Huh. Okay, that’s different” *laughs* So, I agree there’s an expectation, but it’s cool to be able to do it yourself. And I noticed that it came out on Mind’s Eye Music, I’m sure it’s no coincidence that that shares the name with your first solo album. So is that your own label, Mind’s Eye Music?
Yeah, definitely my own label, I just, at a certain point, it made no sense to try to do solo instrumental records on record labels anymore, and I just thought I could do better for the record myself. Having my own label and releasing it that way, and being more in control, and then also I could make whatever record I wanted without having to get any feedback externally. So it’s worked out well so far.
That’s awesome, and congrats on that.
Thank you.
Do you do your own production as well, or do you work with anyone else to help with production?
I produce it myself, and you know, I usually find a good engineer to record the drums and to mix it, and that helps out as well. But I’m the overseer of the whole creative process.
That’s awesome, and yeah of course, it’s like you said, it brings you that extra level of control to it. You can just make it whatever you want to make it, and then promote it out there in the world as, you know, “This is fully mine, this is my music, my creation”. I specifically wanted to ask you about the track, “Breaking Through”, because that really stood out to me, and I like that track a lot, and I feel like it’s such a unique instrumental tone going on there. And to me it almost resembles, like, dual guitars with yourself, I like the layers in there. So I want to ask more about the ideas and the work behind that one.
Thank you. There’s harmony guitars on that one, and I used to do lots, tons of harmony guitars back in the old days, like especially on the first couple records, and you know, I guess there was…some of my Brian May influence was coming out, or whatever. I’d harmonize almost all the melodies within the song, and then I just kind of broke away from that, I felt like I had to move away from it, and do something different. But for this specific song, I knew, I was hearing in my head that I wanted to harmonize the melody, and I had a specific idea, I want to go a fourth above. And then I started experimenting with this plugin, Harmonizer, and I ended up adding 2 harmonies to my melody, one higher and one lower. Back in the old days when I did harmonies, I’d actually track them both. So I’d track my melody, and then I’d go back and add the harmony to the melody, play along with it. In this case, both harmonies, the higher one and the lower one were actually there while I was playing the part, so it kind of inspired me to do some different things. And it just sounded massive when I was playing it. I think I came up with a couple cool things because the harmonies were there as I was tracking and playing.
I like it a lot and that’s interesting about the technology element of it – which is really cool because it kind of helped you, you know, assisted you in the song writing, and I like the idea that you’re embracing the technology. Because occasionally, musicians who have come from more of a classic or an analog kind of…origins and background prefer to stay that way. And it’s cool that you’re embracing the technology in the sense of what it can add to your songwriting. Kind of takes some of the extra work and extra recording time away, and lets you focus more on what you’re actually writing and coming up with.
Yeah, anything that inspires you and makes you go in a direction that you initially wouldn’t have gone in, is a really cool thing. Like, I was using this program, I guess it was like almost 10 years ago, more than 10 years…called Asset, where I was listening to different loops, and that was inspiring me, and I came out with this record called To The Core, and if you listen to that you can hear even influences from techno music. I was following inspiration from loops and whatnot, which was different, and fun, and exciting at the time.
It seems like you’re very open about your gear and technology, and things that you use as well, like…You’re not somebody who’s trying to keep major trade secrets and things like that, it’s like, when people ask you about gear, you’re willing to tell them what you work with, what you like, your plugins and pedals, and programs and everything that you use. Which is cool as well, that you’re very open about it.
Yeah, I don’t mind sharing information at all, because I’m also at times on the other end of things where I go, “Hey, how’d you get that sound, man?” And it’s always great when people tell you how they’ve achieved certain things. I still wanna know how Jeff Beck did some of the things he did.
Aww, yeah. It would be great to ask him. You’re not only a great player though, but you are considered a guitar authority in your own right, with good reason, for a majority of your career. I mean, with the guitar clinics and columns, etc., when did you first realize you like the teaching side of guitar too?
That’s something I never considered doing, that sort of was offered to me and I was scared to death at first, to be honest, like I don’t know if I could do that. I’d rather be on stage with a band. And I went out and tried it, and I got good at it, and I realized, “Hey, I can do this”. And it was good exposure for my music and my playing, so it turned out to be a really good thing. When I was in the studio recording The Mind’s Eye record, which is my first record, I had Tommy Aldridge on drums, and he had just done a Hot Licks instructional video, and he told them about me, recommended me, and then I started talking to Hot Licks, Arlen Roth, and I ended up doing that instructional video because of Tommy’s recommendation. That’s something I never considered I would be doing either, it just sort of happened and you know, I went with the flow.
I mean, that shows the humble side of you as well. Whenever somebody is an authority in a subject, they usually don’t feel that way. I mean, they’re like, “Oh, I’m just doing this, this is my thing, this is what I do”. And when other people are seeking advice, you don’t feel like you are the “supreme authority” on it, but people do see you that way, out of your instructional aspects of what you do.
Yeah, I mean, I’m not an authority on anything. I’m just learning as I go along, and happy to pass on anything that I’ve learned, and there are some things that like, I’m reluctant though. I get protective of, like, certain licks or something that I think are really…I know I came up with on my own, and there have been times where people have said, “Hey, how’d you do this?”, and I’m like, “I don’t know, what part are you talking about? I’m not sure”. I’ll avoid talking about it, and I feel selfish, but yeah, for the most part I’m pretty open.
No that’s fine, you have every right to have certain things that are unique to you, and you protect those secrets, and that’s totally fine. And if anything, if somebody’s trying to figure it out, they can just work a little harder to listen closely and figure it out themselves, you know?
Exactly, yeah, like I did when I was a kid, like we all did. There were no instructional videos or YouTube, you just listen to the record over and over again, you know, picked up the needle, and try to figure it out the best you could.
Exactly, and some people could you know certainly do with doing it that way these days, instead of trying to take shortcuts and everything.
Yeah, nobody wants to use their ears anymore, like, kids just want to get tablature. But I mean, it’s great that tablature is available, and can help you learn things faster, but there’s something to be said about using your ear and learning things. You know, it helps develop that whole thing.
And to me, I feel like it’s more satisfying that way when you do figure it out yourself. I play guitar as well, I mean certainly not on any level close to you, but just in general, you know, I play a little more casually, and there was a newer song I was listening to that I was trying to find some tabs or, something that someone had put out there for it, and there was absolutely nothing out there for it because the song was still pretty new. And I ended up just doing exactly that, just putting it on a loop, listening over and over, figuring out the notes, and it was just a lot more gratifying and satisfying to be like, “Okay cool, I play this now because I figured this out myself from just listening to it by ear”.
Right, you feel like it’s rewarding at the end when you’ve done it.
Exactly. So another thing I do want to touch on while I have you is, of course, touching on the UFO front. I mean, we’re all pretty aware of what happened last year with Phil’s health, making the official farewell show last summer but, you know, some people are still questioning whether it really is a farewell for UFO, whether there might be more music recorded in the future…Is there anything you can share for updates on how Phil’s doing, or anything with UFO?
I know he’s doing a lot better, he’s feeling good, he’s in good spirits. We text almost every day, and we were texting yesterday, and it’s usually joking, to be honest with you. Sending one another funny memes and videos and what not. I think he would like to do more, and it’s probably just a matter of him just kind of making sure that he doesn’t push the limits too much. He just needs to feel that everything’s okay, and, you know, that he’s not risking anything.
Of course.
I think that it could happen next year as long as he feels good about things, but I really don’t have an answer at this point.
Of course, definitely just good to know that he is in better health and spirits all around, fans will of course be thrilled if anything new comes out, but of course the priority here is his health and making sure he’s all good, so that’s totally understandable.
Yeah.
The other thing I’d like to touch on real quick is to talk about your time with Alice Cooper, because he happens to be one of my favorite artists as well, and the Hey Stoopid record is also one of my favorites, I love that it became this collaboration with so many guest artists on there. So, can you take me into the recording studio for that album, and what did you personally take away from that experience?
Man, I heard about him having the guests on the record, and I was asked to be a part of it, which was kind of an honor for me, you know? It was amazing. I live like 4 hours drive from the studio, which was in Bearsville, New York, Bearsville Studio. I drove up there one winter evening, I think it was in January, spent the night, got up the next morning, drove right to the studio. They had given me the 2 songs in advance, “Dirty Dreams” and “Hurricane Years”, and I just went in and knocked them out, you know? I think it took maybe 6 hours, and then we all went out to dinner together, and said our goodbyes, and I drove home that evening. So it was pretty much “Wham bam thank you ma’am”. But it was a lot of fun, that’s the first time I met Alice, and having him there in the control room while I was recording stuff going, “Hey maybe you could make it more like this, or you know, get a little more sloppy and sleazy, or whatever” back from him was like, totally cool.
That’s awesome, I love that, and that’s funny, that feels appropriate for Alice’s music too, that kind of feedback.
Yeah, it was almost like, well…I played one of the rhythm tracks, and he was like, “you obviously know the song, but maybe you’re playing it too perfectly, maybe you could just swap it up a little bit”. Very cool.
That’s great, yeah, I feel like that comes from that instrumental guitarist element, you are very precise with notes and that sort of technical aspect of it that I guess certain kind of rock is like, “Listen put some attitude into it, too”, which is funny.
Yeah, there was attitude, but I think you just kind of, the more you play, you get more proficient and better at it.
So coming back to the present day with Double Exposure, it’s a great record getting lots of attention, I know everyone’s happy to hear something new from Vinnie Moore, so tell us what’s on the horizon for you now.
I want to get out and do some shows, I have some stuff shaping up for Europe in September, and working on some USA stuff, and I don’t know exactly when that’s gonna be. And then I want to get more of a band together instead of the solo artist thing, you know, with a band name, and make vocal records and go out on tour. Especially since UFO was coming to a halt, I’m going to need another band to kind of replace that.
We’re all looking forward to seeing what you come up with next, so thanks so much for taking the time to talk me today, Vinnie, this has been awesome.
Oh thank you, I totally appreciate it, thanks so much.
Lacuna Coil released Comalies XX, a 20th Anniversary modern update of the iconic 2002 album Comalies, Fall of 2022 via Century Media Records. Shortly after the release, I spoke with frontwoman Cristina Scabbia about reimagining the record with a new perspective, Cristina’s interest in pop culture and Lacuna Coil’s Batman comic collab, the Lacuna Coil holiday track “Naughty Christmas”, and more.
Queensrÿche recently released their new album, Digital Noise Alliance, and I spoke with guitarist Michael Wilton about the making of the album, their tour with Judas Priest, and more.
(Photo by Larry Marano/Getty Images)
I’d like to start off by asking you what inspired this album and felt like the right time to release it?
Just like most bands, we were waiting for it to be safe to travel with the immunization and shut-downs and all that. We had just gotten off our last tour when the government shut everything down, so we were just like every other musician wondering what was going to happen. Basically, when it was deemed safe to travel, that’s when this whole thing started, we had a meeting with the band and the producer, Zeuss. That’s when we started what we call “think tank sessions”, where we’d all fly into a certain spot and just start experimenting and coming up with ideas, and Zeuss would archive them, and that’s kind of how it got started. We decided that this album would be better served by everybody being in the recording room and contributing ideas, rather than doing the whole email thing. I think that was something that we hadn’t done in a while, and lo and behold, it turned out to be so efficient and I think we decided to come up with all new ideas, which is not regurgitated songs from the past or anything like that, this is all pretty much improvised. Most of the songs started from a guitar riff, and they were just built up into a song. This is kind of like what we did back in the early ‘80s, before technology, cellphones and internet and all that, we would get together in a room and show each other riffs, ideas, lyrics, and everything. So we did this with Digital Noise Alliance in a modern sense. I think it just gravitated the whole energy of the recording.
We had, I believe, three or four of these big Queensrÿche get-together think tank sessions, and each time, we’d come in with ideas and just start writing and compiling and building, and we were starting to get on a roll. We were starting to see that, “Wow, this was really working cool”, I’d record a riff, and Zeuss would tell Casey Grillo to put a drum beat to it, and Todd would come up with a melody, and Eddie would come up with a bass part. You know, so we got this momentum and it was so efficient, we were coming up with probably three to five songs a day. We got to a point where we had like, 22 songs, and we had to cut it down to 11 or 12 songs, and that’s when we started to microscope the whole recording and start moving to where we actually start printing. I think the whole idea behind this was just, “let’s let this flow, let’s let this just be organic, and create as we go”. And Zeuss goes, “Michael, do you still have those old Marshall heads that you recorded with?” and I said, “Yeah, they’re in my closet”, and he says, “let’s bring them, let’s record that”. So we set up, I brought six of my Marshall heads in, and I think those things just have such personality, that we would combine different amplifiers, they all have different sounds and everything, and it gave it that whole unique, vintage-y feel in a modern situation.
Absolutely, that’s awesome. And it sounds like there definitely was a lot of great creativity flowing, I mean, 22 songs sounds like you’ve already got another album on deck, which is really cool. But yeah, so many bands did have to go the whole remote writing and recording style, like you said, emailing back and forth for the past few years. So with DNA, that must have been great to get back to your roots in a sense and create everything in person and feel that creativity.
Right, I know, it’s just a concerted effort that we made. Once it was safe to fly *laughs*, it was like, “let’s do this”.
And of course you mentioned the classic gear there as well, your Queensrÿche guitar tone and sound was unique in the 80s and it’s unique today. You seem to be someone who’s very open about discussing your gear, what do you think has been the most unique factor to your guitar sound over the years? Something that stands out as a favorite, or a key piece of your tone and sound?
I’ve endorsed ESP guitars for decades, and I think that has a lot to do with it. And I think the amps that I use to record, and I think it’s just kind of the way that I attack my playing, and how I do what I do. Which is, not try to complicate things, just let things flow and just kind of go with whatever ideas in my head. I’ve got Zeuss by my side archiving, and I’ve got the guys giving me thumbs up or thumbs down. I really can’t describe how I play, other than I just do what I do. I write what’s in my head, streaming through my brain.
Well, you do it well. You’ve mentioned Zeuss a couple of times, you had worked with Zeuss on the last two Queensrÿche albums, so was it just natural and par for the course that he would come on board for this album too?
Yeah, there’s such a trust that’s built. He’s efficient, he knows our style, he knows our personalities individually, and he’s a fun guy to be around. He’s great to hang out with as well. So obviously, we give him first shot when we’re doing a record, because everything that he’s done has just really been so outstanding. We hope to use him on the next album, whenever that happens.
You mentioned that you had so many songs ready for this album, do you think you’ll end up carrying forward any of the songs that you ended up with, or do you want to start fresh for the next album?
I don’t know, we don’t preplan, when it’s time to do the next album, we’ll make that decision and it could be something completely different, who knows.
I also want to ask you about the single, “Behind the Walls”, because of all the singles that came out, I feel that one stands out to me the most because it’s a very intense song, it’s heavy, but it has such a classic, quintessential Queensrÿche vibe and tone to it. I’d love to hear more on the making of that track specifically.
Right, that song was in the first batch of writing. It’s a riff that I wanted to make powerful, I think that it was something that just kept building and as we put layers on and built the process, Todd came up with great lyrics. We were just in a stream of creativity, right? So we didn’t know that this song was going to have such an impact until we did a video for it that was on YouTube, and it kind of took off, and it was like, “wow, okay”, and consequentially, we’re playing it now on the Judas Priest tour. So it’s great and it kind of fits with the songs we’re playing, and it’s something that the fans are enjoying, but the song has taken on its own life, it’s really a lot of fans’ favorite song off this album.
And that’s awesome, because that is something that can happen in that stream of consciousness/creativity that you were saying, not necessarily something you’re thinking too hard about, not over-calculating the sound, you’re just like, “you know what? This is a good vibe and we’re going to roll with it”, and it ends up being a hit in that sense.
Exactly, sometimes there’s just energy in a riff that needs to be unleashed *laughs*.
Definitely. And of course you mentioned the Judas Priest tour, you guys have been touring almost non-stop, with a few breaks here and there, but pretty much for most of the year, with Judas Priest. Can you first talk about that tour and how everything’s going with that creative energy, but also about your connection with Judas Priest, and what was your first experience ever touring with them?
I think that was back…I may be wrong, don’t quote me, but back in 2007, I think we toured with them. So that’s the beginnings of meeting the guys and everything. And this year, after the pandemic, it was a great opportunity to springboard back into the industry and get on the spring tour with Judas Priest. When they announced a fall/winter tour, we said we were available, they picked us again, and we were grateful for that, and it’s going great. This tour that we’re on right now is going to go until December 1st and then probably going to take a bit of time off, maybe do a few fly gigs, and then 2023, end of February, we have a Digital Noise headline tour already booked, so that’s going to be fun. I know they’re already booking shows in Europe again, so that will be great to get to Europe again. So we’re going to be busy for the next few years on this album.
That sounds like you’ve got a ton of stuff on the horizon for Queensrÿche. Another thing I noticed about DNA, there’s been several special vinyl editions of the album coming out, and I’m sure that was something you did when the classic Queensrÿche albums were coming out. Now it seems it’s back to vinyl again, so I’m curious about your thoughts on that?
Oh, I love LPs, I love vinyl records. I think it’s very cool. I have a turntable at home, although I haven’t tried to play the color vinyl yet, I just play the standard black ones, but they sure look cool, I love them.
I’m also curious because you mentioned the connection between Priest and Queensrÿche, and something the two bands have in common is that dual guitar factor, both guitarists working together on layering and building while still showing each one’s style. That’s something you do in Queensrÿche, but lately you’ve had a returning guitarist with Mike Stone, so can you talk about him being back in the band, and that dynamic?
Yeah, that worked out great for us, because when Parker retired, we were possibly considering going the audition route, but Eddie still had Stone’s phone number, and just on a whim, gave him a call. And he said, “Sure, I’ll help you guys out”. So he’s been with us, he knows most of the songs, so it was a no-brainer. We brought him in to do some recording on Digital Noise Alliance as well, so he’s back with the band in full force, everybody’s digging it.
Another thing about DNA, we were talking about the single “Behind the Walls” and how much that really resonated with everyone who’s heard the album, but for you personally, what did you feel was the track that really stood out to you the most when you finished that flow of creativity and took a step back and looked at what you guys made?
I think probably the song, “Forest”, because it was so different from the other songs, because it was probably the last song that we wrote. I just like listening to that and how we created something a little bit different.
I think the whole album is definitely something different, it has a classic Queensrÿche vibe while still being very new, very modern, and fits in well in 2022. I think you guys came up with something awesome, and you’ve got some great stuff on the horizon for Queensrÿche, so thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today.
Thank you for having me, thank you for supporting Queensrÿche, and tell everybody to support live music because the bands need their help.
Scaphis is a Death Metal band out of Melbourne, Australia who recently released their second album, “Dissected & Fermented”. I spoke with vocalist Spyke Jagerkrieg (who joined us by audio) and drummer Lance Vegas about the new record, their formation and experiences as a band, and more. Check it out via the Metal Magnitude Official YouTube Channel below:
NAMM 2022 is a wrap, and it was good to be back. Leading up to the NAMM show, many were concerned as to whether or not it might be able to return at the same level of an event that NAMM is known to be. While I will admit it may not have been a full-scale NAMM with business entirely as usual (especially due to many artists of all genres being in the midst of summer tours), it certainly fulfilled its purpose as a gathering spot and metaphoric musical playground for merchants, musicians, industry, and more. Overall excitement and enthusiasm to be back at NAMM in person once again was enough to create a collective buzz that you could feel, and you might even be able to hear if not for the cacophony of instruments playing throughout the halls – no complaints on that here.
Before NAMM officially began, a very special event took place in Anaheim – the 10th Annual She Rocks Awards. Founded in 2012 as a networking breakfast by the Women’s International Music Network, the She Rocks Awards has grown year by year into an incredible awards show that honors leaders and trailblazing women in all genres and areas of music, from musicians to engineers, educators to execs, media to manufacturers, and more. She Rocks 2022 also featured a silent auction, with a portion of proceeds going to the NAMM Foundation, as well as helping to fund the Women’s International Music Network.
I had the immense honor of covering the Red Carpet for this event and speaking with honorees and participants this year. The red carpet interviews can be found on the Metal Magnitude YouTube Channel here, with Featured Honorees and Guests: Lyndsey Parker (Red Carpet Host and Dreaming Out Loud Award), Katie Daryl (Co-Host), Meredith Brooks (Trailblazer Award), Carmen Vandenberg (Bold Star Award), Yvette Young (Inspire Award), Mindi Abair (Co-Host/Guest Performer), Laura Whitmore (Founder of Women’s International Music Network/Co-Producer of She Rocks Awards), Leslie Gaston-Bird (Champion Award), Sherri Chung (Spirit Award), EveAnna Manley (Mad Skills Award), Julie Robbins (Powerhouse Award), Kerry Fiero (Motivator Award), MILCK (Vision Award), Command Sisters (House Band), Janet Robin (Guest Performer), Laura Clapp (Guest Performer/Past Honoree), Christina Torres (Guest Performer), Heather Youmans (Guest Performer), Tenille Arts (Opening Act), Shira Yevin (Founder of Gritty In Pink), Jennifer Jo Oberle (Guest Performer). Two additional awards for the evening: the Warrior Award given to Myki Angeline, which remained a secret until it was unveiled to her as a surprise during the show; and the Legend Award, to Dionne Warwick, who was not present for the evening due to a tour overseas, but recorded a video sending her love to She Rocks. It was an exciting night of fun and musically diverse performances – everything from Country, Pop and Rock ’n’ Roll, to Jazz, a Dionne Warwick tribute, Progressive Rock guitar, and a Meredith Brooks-led shredding “Bitch” jam to close out the night.
Photo Credit: Kevin Graft
Backtracking a little to the morning of the She Rocks awards, the NAMM goings-on all started with NAMM Media Preview Day, which gave an early look at a handful of products to be featured at the NAMM Show. It seems that multi-scale (also known as the “fanned frets” style, where each string varies in length and tension to make for easier downtuning and versatility, among other perks) is a guitar style and design that we’re seeing more and more of these days. I was able to get some time with Ernie Ball Music Man engineer Drew to talk about the new Tosin Abasi collaboration known as Kaizen: https://youtu.be/EIfUog_QpYg. I also heard about the latest metal-oriented bass innovations from Ibanez with rep Scott Miller, who gave the specs showing why the unique features of the new (soon to be released) BTB605MS and BTB806MS are ideal for a player of the heavier genres: https://youtu.be/udhg49aWBNw.
In the absence of some of the major brands such as Gibson and Fender, who usually have entire rooms to themselves, there was more space for up-and-coming, boutique, and independent brands to stand out. However, for those still seeking the household names, especially in the heavier genres, there was plenty to be found. A prime example would be the ESP guitar room, a haven for metal fans, displaying playable signature models from the likes of Kirk Hammett, Glenn Tipton, George Lynch, Gary Holt, Max Cavalera, Tom Araya, and more, including the ’87 reissue series. The room was framed with an impressive “James Hetfield & Kirk Hammett” display right outside, showing a piece of the legacy of these two metal icons who have been working with the brand since 1987.
Ibanez had their solid share of floor space in the main showroom once NAMM officially began, where Steve Vai’s “The Hydra” was on display. I heard about the innovation of this fascinating anomaly of an instrument some time ago, so my reaction to seeing it in person couldn’t be more than standing and staring for a few mintes while thinking, “…it’s real”. I don’t think I need to explain why…just look at it (and listen to it in action too). Though The Hydra took front and center stage, Joe Satriani’s JS2GD guitar also drew quite the crowd with its standout gold design, as did Nita Strauss’ JIVAX2, alongside Steve Vai’s PIA35th Prototype and new PIA3761C. Plenty of Ibanez Signature artist guitars were featured, including Mike D’Antonio (Killswitch Engage), Fieldy (Korn), Sharlee D’Angelo (Arch Enemy), Jake Bowen (Periphery), Kiko Loureiro (Megadeth), and more. Ibanez also showcased a wall of their Iron Label series, specifically designed with technical proficiency and metal shredding in mind.
Aristides Guitars had a prominent presence, where Timo Somers could be found once again manning the booth and sharing insights on his preferred guitar brand just as he did at NAMM 2020. S.I.T. (“Stay In Tune”) Strings is known for their frequent collaborations with artists in the rock and metal genres, who tailor their signature strings to their preferred gauges and styles. Some featured artist signatures at the S.I.T. booth included Willie Adler of Lamb of God, Karl Sanders of Nile, Wayne Lozimak of Hatebreed, Richard Z. Krupse and Paul Landers of Rammstein, Zach Myers of Shinedown, and Rusty Cooley. Blackstar Amplification primarily showcased their new St. James, marketed as “The Lightest 50W Valve Amp In The World”, and featured guitarist Carmen Vandenberg – a She Rocks honoree and the first woman to design and release her own signature amp – with her new CV30. During a walk through the Yamaha room, I also spotted a wall devoted to Yvette Young, an innovative musician and another She Rocks 2022 honoree.
The Haunt
I encountered a band known as The Haunt doing a signing at the Highwire Daze booth – hailing from South Florida, their sound is a Rock/Hard Rock/Alternative blend with a Gothic vibe and aesthetic, and they most recently toured with Mongolian Hard Rockers The Hu (who have featured artists Lzzy Hale and Jacoby Shaddix on some of their tracks, and also covered Metallica’s “Sad But True”). You can check out Metal Magnitude’s interview with 3/4 of The Haunt – vocalist Anastasia, guitarist Maxamillian, and drummer Nick – on the official YouTube Channel here.
Graham Bonnet’s signing followed at the Highwire Daze booth, which also drew a sizable crowd. Dianthus made an appearance later that day, the band featuring talented twin sisters who are paving their path with a unique brand of progressive metal – I recently interviewed drummer Jessica Parry for Metal Magnitude.
Chaos & Carnage 2022 Official Poster
The Chaos & Carnage Tour was something I’d been looking forward to seeing, and it was the perfect event to wrap up a day of NAMM. With a 7 band lineup, it felt more like one day of a festival than just one show, and “Chaos & Carnage” could not have been a more perfect name for this night of brutal Deathcore showcasing a plethora of talented modern metal musicians.
Distant brought the best of their Dutch Deathcore to the table setting an intense tone right off the bat, while Unique Leader labelmates Signs of the Swarm kept the mood and the pit going. Angelmaker is a band that I’ll admit I wasn’t too familiar with before this show, but one live set from them was enough to make me a fan of the dual-vocalist doomy deathcore that had the room headbanging within a minute of their first song. Winds of Plague is generally considered Deathcore, but the symphonic yet thrashy elements of their sound bring in a little more of an old-school metal sound – with no shortage of circle pits.
Lorna Shore took to the stage next, and for most in the room, it was their first time experiencing the band with new frontman Will Ramos, who’s been taking the metal world (particularly the internet) by storm with his unique and powerfully versatile vocals since “To The Hellfire” was unleashed in 2021. Bassist Michael Yager is also new to the band as of 2021, and brought his best 5-string performance to the stage. Carnifex was another highlight of the night for many, and it was my first time seeing them live even though I’ve been listening to the band for years, interviewed Scott Ian Lewis via phone in the past, and may or may not have had “Graveside Confessions” on repeat for a week or so after the single came out because it’s just that good. Suicide Silence arrived to close out the night, and this particular night at House of Blues in Anaheim – featuring new and classic tracks alike – was a unique one, as the show was recorded for a future release. Chaos & Carnage was worth every bruise from the pit (that might also be the reason why I don’t have much in the way of show photos or footage to share from this one…), and is high on the list as one of the best metal tours of 2022.
Later on in the NAMM weekend, I also stopped by Vola Guitar, a brand where Michael Keene of The Faceless has made a home with his signature guitar known as “The Keene Machine”. Vola had a few models on display that were ideally suited to players with shredding in mind – you can check out the Vola Metal rundown with Greg Lienhard, VP of Operations at the company, here: https://youtu.be/msZnqN0qjVk.
Another notable presence was that of Tsunami Cables, which is not only known for their highly durable and long-lasting cables for instruments, microphones, and speakers, but bassists of any genre may favor their latest preamp innovation, the V-15, designed by Bruce Egnater with a classic sound in mind, inspired by the heritage B-15. Not too far from Tsunami’s booth was Arachnid Cabinets, which may not yet be a household name, but they are for Gary Holt – Arachnid is part of his gear of choice for the road, and the rig pictured far left is Gary’s actual road setup.
On the tech side, JackTrip promoted their timely technology designed to connect remote musicians, enabling everything from one-on-one lessons to group rehearsals and band jams, with low-latency high-quality audio even through standard video chatting programs. Cloud Microphones demoed their ribbon microphones and mic activators, which enable an extra boost in gain and sound quality when recording or performing. Allen & Heath stood out in the American Music and Sound section of the live sound room, with new and innovative takes on the classic analog technology they’re known for, such as the dLive console, which has become one of the most popular and widely used digital consoles in the audio engineering world, and the brand also offered live sound training sessions throughout the weekend with renowned engineer and instructor Mike Bangs.
Other than the gear and gadgets one can always find on the showroom floor, NAMM had no shortage of interesting and engaging programs discussing the present and future of the music industry, including pro audio, live sound, music publishing, and promotions, in addition to concerts from new and established artists on outdoor stages all around. Anaheim and the surrounding area is always known for the shows and events that pop up at NAMM time – the She Rocks Awards and Chaos & Carnage were the notable events for me this time around, and surely there will more of the kind returning to the area for the next NAMM and beyond.
NAMM 2023 will be a spring NAMM, already scheduled for April 13th-15th, building up to a full-scale return to Winter NAMM on January 25th-28th, 2024. Follow and find more on NAMM via: https://www.namm.org.
Dianthus recently released their sophomore album Realms via Deko Entertainment, and I spoke with one half of the twin sister duo, drummer Jessica Parry, about the making of Realms, her background and influences as a musician, producers the band has worked with, and their venture into the comic world. Check it out below.
First of all, congratulations on the release of Realms – I want to start off by digging into the overall ideas of what’s on Realms, and the big picture of how the whole concept came about.
So, of course, the album artwork for Realms, it kind of tells the story already in that picture – this album is very conceptual, there’s a deeper story behind it, and we also are going to explore it in other mediums as well. It’s very fantasy and mystical-based.
Are the lyrics driven by the same fantasy and mystical ideas?
They definitely are. We also have some interludes too that kind of take you to that place. There’s a lot of synth and piano, so we play a lot on that.
The title track was revealed to us last year, before the album came out, with the music video for Realms. This is an awesome track, and very interesting because it has progressive, heavy vibes, not your standard 4/4 rock ’n’ roll time, but still very catchy and memorable without that structure. Can you talk about what went into that track?
Yeah, it was very exciting for us to write this album, and Realms was actually the first song we wrote for this record. We had lots of ideas going into it, and we wanted to write a song that kind of captured the entirety of our sound, so the synth, guitars, drums, it’s kind of like that standalone track that describes us well.
Now, “A Space In The Silence” is a more recent single we’ve heard, with another music video. It’s similar but has more of a modern melodic metal vibe, can you give us some behind-the-scenes on that one?
It was fun working on that song too, because the way it came about, we were working with our producer Steve Evetts, and he really helped us simplify certain parts where we wanted the melody to shine, so the chorus has that more simple feel with the drums. We wanted something people could sing along to live, easier to catch on to. The production was really fun, and the music video too, it takes you into that fantasy place as well.
Absolutely. You’re often called Progressive Metal by people who are getting to know you guys, it seems to be a term they hook in to, but do you put yourselves in that category, do you identify with that genre?
I actually do, and sometimes people think that we’re more pop with our vocals, but as far as progressive metal, that suits us better than progressive rock. We have the heaviness of metal, and there’s definitely odd time signatures going on, so that definitely describes us better.
That’s the thing, the time signatures are what grab people – they hear that and it’s like, “Oh, we’re getting into some Progressive territory”, which is cool.
Exactly! Yeah, thank you.
I want to ask more about your personal background, Jessica, as a musician, like what made you pick up the drums to begin with, and of course you also sing, not all drummers are singing and doing harmonies while they play – just want to know some of your inspiration with that?
I never thought I would be a drummer growing up, it’s kind of crazy how it all happened, but I started off with classical piano at age 7. My sister and I, we always wanted to be in a band together, especially since rock music was fun, we wanted to do a band, and I actually said, “it would be cool to play drums”, and that’s actually how I got into drums. I was influenced by lots of bands – Rush, my dad loved them, so that’s how it all happened.
That’s funny, you evolved from piano to singing to drums, so now you’re just doing all three at once.
Right, right! And singing, too, that came out of nowhere. My sister and I, we made songs together, and naturally live, I just started picking up backing vocals.
So when you say that you write the songs together, is that both music and lyrics all together?
Yeah, it’s teamwork together. The song itself, the structure, we usually start off with that, and then the lyrics and vocals come later.
Especially if you’re both working together on lyrics, I can see how that comes into play with you both singing as well – you’re contributing the words, the story, and the message behind the song, so you’re telling that story at the same time.
Right, it’s a process that works well for us, because we’re definitely music-based, we love coming up with that first and creating a good thing for the lyrics to sit upon.
Definitely, and I love to hear that you have a lot of classic influences in there, Rush – I mean, Neal Peart is a huge inspiration for many drummers, and I can see that’s where your progressive influence comes in.
Oh, for sure, and he was the lyricist, too, for Rush. I actually love writing lyrics too, so I relate to him a lot.
Awesome. What are some other tracks beyond the singles that really stand out to you on the album?
The last track on the record, it’s called “Secrets and Promises”, and we don’t currently have a music video for it yet, but I think that’s another fun heavier song from the record. I would describe it as a pirate metal kind of feel with the drums, and I would say it’s a lot of triplets, as we call them. Very groovy, pretty upbeat.
Now, when you say that you and your sister learned your instruments growing up, were you self-taught, was it anyone in your family, or did you take formal lessons?
We took formal lessons with the classical piano for over ten years, but also, at the same time, we were getting formal lessons in guitar and drums at a rock school academy. That really helped us get used to being in a band with other kids our age, and now we’re kind of just taking things from YouTube and self-teaching, learning things on our own now.
And I’m sure you’re getting opportunities to learn from other artists now that you’re getting more out there in the industry.
Yeah, there’s so much to learn at our fingertips now with YouTube and other platforms – every day is something crazy online *laughs*.
*laughs* Absolutely. I’m also curious, because sometimes when people come from a classical background, that’s a very structured, strict way of doing things – you’ve got your sheet music to play things the way they’re written and that’s that. So going from that to a band setting, where a lot of it is open and free, and jamming until you find the sound as you go along. How was that transition?
It was really fun. For me personally, going from classical piano, which, yeah, is a lot of theory and dynamics…going into drums, I felt like I had more space to breathe, more freedom if you will, because there’s not actual pitched notes going on. I still play a lot of the piano too, but with drums, it’s another fun side to music that I just release.
And I see that you do a lot of covers on social media too, so I’m curious, what’s the process of picking those out – do you just get in the mood for a certain song and say, “You know what? I’m going to cover this now”, or is it long-time favorites that you’ve been building up to?
Sometimes it’s just based on feeling – I’ll have short bursts where I’m listening to a certain song and I’m like, “Wow, I didn’t realize how cool the drums were”. It’s like a revisiting thing for me, and manifesting certain skills, that I can actually record certain parts that I didn’t think I could years before. It’s just fun to see my progress and see how other people feel.
You definitely get a different insight on music when you learn new instruments, I’m sure you’re able to notice exactly when the drums are hitting what, you kind of tune into it more.
Yeah, that makes sense because when you revisit other songs, you have more of an appreciation for it. You can also experiment with your own style, different drum fills, it’s cool to find your own thing.
And that’s where covers can really shine through, because you’re putting your own touch on it. It’s fun to do covers paying tribute to the original artist, but it’s great to put your own spin on it as well.
Definitely, music has to be fun in the end. You’ve got to make sure you’re having fun, and a good challenge is always good too.
You mentioned working with Steve Evetts as a producer as well, and he’s done a lot of metal for sure, but he also has some alternative and other genres under his belt as well – what do you feel his touch brought to the Dianthus sound?
Definitely his experience with other bands has helped us mold our sound too, he’s worked with pop-punk bands like New Found Glory – actually, at the same time as recording our album, he was working with these other pop-punk bands too. He has such a good ear for radio-ready songs, and coming into the process, we had all these crazy technical ideas, and he kind of calmed us down at certain parts to simplify and let the music take over.
That’s pretty funny, you had all these crazy progressive ideas and he’s just like, “All right, guys – tone it down”.
Right, if you want to reach more people, they have to understand the song, and you can’t get too crazy at certain parts.
Some progressive metal – and, what am I saying, some Rush – can get really crazy and out of hand, but sometimes even their craziest songs were radio-friendly, as long as you’ve got a hook, a melody, something that people can grab onto.
That is true, yeah, there’s always a flipside to everything.
That makes sense with his pop-punk/alternative background, that makes things very melodic and catchy, and that helps explain why you have that “almost drawn from pop” sort of song structure…but it’s not pop, of course, but just the structure of a memorable, catchy chorus that people can come back to.
And another thing to add to the reason why we kind of calmed down at some parts – it was something we never really tried before, so we were open-minded because our first record was definitely very progressive and we wanted to try simplifying certain parts, and seeing how people would react.
Right, and of course, your previous album, Worth Living For, that was produced by JINXX from Black Veil Brides, can you talk about evolving your sound with him?
Yeah, well, to start off, Black Veil Brides played a huge part in inspiring the Dianthus sound, very melodic, kind of bright at some parts. So working with him hands on was super cool. My sister was able to come up with a lot of great guitar tones, certain riffs, we had harmonies, guit-armonies, going on. So it was a really cool thing.
You also signed to Deko Entertainment in the past couple of years, so I wanted to ask about that experience and how that connection first came about?
We love Deko Entertainment, and we love the team we have now. It actually started from creating our Realms album, because Steve actually knew one of the team members from Deko. So naturally, when we were having our songs mastered, it went to someone who kind of knew of Deko, so that was how we got connected.
You mentioned having this fantasy world of Dianthus and Realms in other forms, so what is this I’m seeing about a Dianthus comic book to go with Realms? You’re giving me a throwback to when Kiss came out with comic book characters when they first came out. Talk to me about that project?
Definitely, it was an idea from one of our team members at Deko. He kind of suggested they’d be cool to kind of dive deeper into the story of the albums, because there’s only so much that you can tell through music, that you need that extra visual to supplement the storyline. We never started any comic books before – we’re not too much comic book junkies, but we love the idea of doing it, and plus we know the whole scene in comics is pretty huge, so it’s pretty exciting. We think it will definitely help the fans understand the concepts more for sure.
You’re talking about the visuals of the band, through the comics and music videos, but I feel like the fashion and general aesthetic is part of the visual for your live show as well. You have the Victorian Goth appearance that a lot of symphonic metal bands tend to do, but without being a symphonic metal band yourselves.
It’s kind of interesting, yeah, we’ve always loved the Victorian style, and combining that with metal, we think it has a really cool intrigue. Plus, Victorian has a lot of black clothing and kind of fanciful wardrobes, so we just like the look of it. We kind of want to become characters in a way to really tell our music better.
As a drummer, do you have any go-to gear or brands that you work with that you’re particularly fond of?
Yeah, as far as drumsticks, I always use Vic Firth even since I picked up the drums, it was the main brand that I really gravitated to. So they’re great – I love Zildjian cymbals too, especially the darker kind of K cymbals, those are pretty good for our sound, and I play Tama drums.
What about the flower of Dianthus did you identify with that made you say, this just feels like the right band name?
It’s actually interesting how the band name came about – my sister was looking through different plant and flower names, and then she came across Dianthus so of course we had to look up an image of it, and the flower itself has kind of rough edges, but it’s also very bright. Plus it sounds kind of metal, people don’t really know that it’s a flower, so it seemed natural to choose that one as our name.
It does feel like a natural name for a metal band – when I looked it up and actually saw flowers come up too, I was like, “wait…what?” *laughs*
*laughs* It is a funny surprise there.
But it is mostly content about you that comes up when you put “Dianthus” in at this point, so you’re overcoming the flower results in Google!
*laughs* Exactly, I told my sister that maybe we should tweak the spelling or lettering, but I think it’s cool.
Another exciting thing that I see coming up for Dianthus is that you have some support slots for Angel at the legendary Whisky a Go Go and Count’s Vamp’d, two very well-known venues in the rock world, have you played either of those before?
Well, we’ve played the Whisky before, but Count’s Vamp’d in Vegas, we’ve always wanted to play there, so we’re very excited that we’re finally playing that place in June.
Awesome. I also want to ask a little bit about Jessica outside of the music world, and what else you’re into?
For sure, I’m definitely an artistic person, I’ve always loved to sketch and draw, but in my free time outside the band, I like to create graphics. I like to do a lot of the posters, actually, so it all comes back to the band in a lot of ways, I love designing graphics. I also love to go antique shopping, my sister and I love to do that – it’s therapeutic for us.
That’s fun, and I feel like that also ties right back into the band since you have the vintage Victorian aesthetic. Even if it’s something that’s a hobby, you still end up using it for the band.
Right, *laughs* it all comes back to the band, it’s always art-based.
To wrap things up, what’s on the horizon for Dianthus at this point?
We’re excited to be continuing to play shows here in the area – we’re based in Riverside, CA, so we’ve got some shows coming up, and also in the summer with Angel on June 10th and June 11th, so keep an eye out for those dates – and those tickets are available now.
Awesome, thank you so much for your time today, Jessica!
Once Human just unleashed their new album, Scar Weaver, to the world via earMUSIC, and I had the chance to speak with frontwoman Lauren Hart about the making of the album and videos, how she started her journey of metal vocals, her involvement in animal rescues, and more. Check it out below.
Congratulations on the release of Scar Weaver, it’s an absolutely incredible album – just to start off, how are you feeling now that it’s out? Excited, relieved, exhausted, where are you guys right now?
Oh, I’m excited and relieved. We’ve held onto this album for quite a while because of the whole world shutting down, we wanted to release it even a year before it actually got released, so we’re just super grateful that it’s out. I’m really excited about the response, and looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks of it.
Well, I’ve been listening to it, even up to just a few minutes before speaking to you, it’s absolutely a killer album, I’ve been loving the singles that have been coming out, and you guys really have some awesome stuff on your hands.
Thank you.
Now, this is Once Human’s third full-length album, and it’s got everything, it’s brutal but meaningful, and I just want to start kind of general before really digging into it, moving from Evolution in 2017 to Scar Weaver now, how did you first approach constructing this new album?
Well, there’s a massive difference in the music writing this time around, so Logan was on tour with Machine Head doing the 25th Anniversary Burn My Eyes reunion, and when he came home, Max Karon, our lead guitarist, had written ten full songs for the album, and they were done. And Logan thought they didn’t need to be touched, so this whole album musically was written by Max, and then I’ve written all my lyrics. But previously, music was written as a collaborative effort between the three of us, so that’s one of the biggest things is you really get an inside look at Max’s brain and his emotions, and he was allowed to be 100% himself in the writing. So that’s Scar Weaver.
That’s really cool, and also kind of explains why, like you said, you guys kind of had this on hand already for a while, but you just couldn’t release it, because you went into it with ten songs ready to go.
Yeah, we did, we were ready a while back, but then when we were sitting in a house, in a studio, for this whole time, things did get changed and songs were rewritten just because we had the time. And I, of course, took my time with the lyrics because I’m a perfectionist, so time is not a good thing for me *laughs*, I need deadlines.
So if you had all the time in the world, you’d probably end up changing it a hundred times, right?
I’d never be done! It’s never done!
Well, you got it done, though! It’s locked in, and it is where it is now, so you can’t change it now.
*laughs* No, I know, I’m happy with how it came out, I always am. Once it’s delivered, it’s done, but I’m really happy with how everything turned out, no regrets at all.
Awesome. Lauren, you are notably one of the most powerful vocalists in metal today, and of course, everyone notices the growling vocals alone which are so impressive, but it seems like you’re including even more clean vocals than ever before, which are every bit as powerful. So what drove the clean vocals for this album?
100%, it was the touring that I did with Kamelot for two years prior to this album. I grew a lot with them. Before touring with them, I was still very unsure of myself when it comes to clean vocals – a little bit insecure, I guess you would say. I always felt very confident in my screaming, but the cleans, I was staying in my safe zone a lot in previous writings, and not really exploring things outside of my comfort zone. So Kamelot really threw me into the deep end, and I had to sing songs that Alissa White-Gluz and Elize Ryd from Amaranthe sang, and it’s a completely different genre, style, but then doing it every night on stage, I really grew into my own voice and discovered my own voice from that. I wouldn’t call it extreme confidence, but I did overcome some fears, and I think that really shows on the new album.
Absolutely, it’s a great infusion of the clean vocals – it doesn’t distract from your incredible screaming vocals, it’s kind of peppered in to have something a little bit different. So that also makes me wonder, when you first started becoming a vocalist, did you start from screaming right out of the gate?
Yes! Okay, so the first time I ever heard a woman screaming was The Great Kat, you know, but I wanted to be a guitar player, and she sort of screams a little bit on her album that I listened to. But then when Wages of Sin came out, I heard Angela Gossow screaming, and at first, I thought it was a guy, and when my friends were like, “no, this is a girl, here’s her photo”, I was like, “this beautiful, amazing woman is screaming on this album?!” I just felt so inspired to go in and try it. It was my boyfriend at the time, now my ex, I was a teenager, after his band would be done rehearsing, I would go in and ask, “Can I please just play with you guys on the microphone? Let me scream and you guys just free jam or whatever?” and they would let me and I would always come out of that tasting blood and screaming completely wrong. There was no YouTube to tell me how to do it. But yes, I always was into screaming. And by the way, if you taste blood you’re doing it wrong! I didn’t know what I was doing back then, but then I grew and I learned. I took some theatre classes which taught me how to breathe, project and speak right, which is what I now use in my screaming in order to not injure myself. Also, I’ve been recently working with a vocal coach as well, that’s really helped me along with the screaming. So the cleans came a lot later for me.
I love that, I feel like that’s a unique journey for you – a lot of people do just dive right into it, but usually there’s maybe a little bit of a singing background, or they took a few lessons here and there then discovered their screaming voice, but you were just like, “I’m just going to jump right in and scream like everyone I was inspired by”, which is cool.
Yeah! It made me feel something, you know, it just felt so good listening to it then actually getting on a microphone and doing it felt, almost therapeutic in a way. So I got hooked on that.
Well now everyone is hooked on the sound of your voice, so I think it worked out.
Thank you!
Of course! Digging a little more into Scar Weaver, I wanted to ask about the music video for “Erasure”, because you’ve been saying lately that that’s one of your favorites, so can you talk about what made that video so special for you, and some of the process behind it?
I just love the visual. So that area where we did all the extra footage with, I call her “Lady Death”, the black dress stuff…that was shot at Red Rock Canyon, and that’s a place that we would hike very frequently. I posted a lot of photos up there, and a lot of people were like, “You guys should do a music video up here”, so we did. And we made the poor videographer hike up a mountain to get those shots in the middle of summertime in the desert. So, props to him for doing that! But the message of the video as a whole, director Robert Graves really made it come to fruition. It’s about blood diamonds, and I think he really paints the image so beautifully and painfully about the story that the lyrics are painting here. These things that are going on still to this day, basically, how humans, their rights are stripped away and they are enslaved and tortured for the sake of these rocks that, ironically, are given to people as a token of love. It’s a very emotional video to me, and I feel like the director Robert Graves did a really good job of putting it together.
It’s an important message, like you said, and it’s also visually very impressive. I definitely think it made a lot of sense to put this in the setting of nature…and Red Rock is awesome, by the way, I’ve been there myself, it’s a beautiful place and crazy impressive, so, good choice.
Yeah, it really looks like a diamond mine. It was crazy. This is Red Rock in Nevada, you’d never expect it, down the road from all these casinos is this gorgeous nature *laughs*.
Exactly! But the nature was there first though.
True, very true.
You mentioned hiking, and I notice from your social media that you’re big on fitness and hiking – is that something that’s a lifelong passion for you, or something you’ve discovered in more recent years?
No, I remember my dad would bring my brother and I to the gym as kids, and I think it all started then. It was like this family event and I enjoyed going there with him, and back then they had these funny little bikes where you could see your bike going on the screen and my brother and I would race each other, it was a fun little time. But I never stopped going to the gym, I was constantly there, and hiking has been a passion of mine – the hikes in Australia are the most beautiful hikes you would ever imagine. There’s so much nature to explore and an animal around every corner, so I’m hooked on hiking and I’ve been really lucky to explore parts of Switzerland and Germany and so on while on tour. It’s really just where I find myself, and find peace, and refresh my brain, is when I’m out hiking in nature.
That’s beautiful, and really important to be able to find that inner peace, whatever environment you feel that in. Coming back to Scar Weaver, another thing that people can’t stop talking about is the collaboration with Robb Flynn on “Deadlock”, and that’s such a cool track. Your voices work together so well on it too. Can you talk about how that collaboration went down in terms of the writing, recording, just making it all happen?
Well, I’m really grateful it did happen, and I don’t think it would have happened if it wasn’t for the end of the world. And it’s one of those things that restored hope in me that good things can happen in the worst of times. And I think it wouldn’t have happened because Rob simply wouldn’t have had the time, he would have been on tour, he would have been super busy – so he had the time to sit down and do this with us and I’m so grateful. We didn’t expect him to say yes – Logan immediately thought of Rob for this track because of how it sounded. I guess you could say it has some Nu-Metal-type riffs in there, we just really heard a voice like Rob’s singing on it. We asked, and Rob really loved the track, and said, “yeah, let me try something”. He sent something back to us, I had already written a chorus prior to sending it to Rob, but when he sent it back, my chorus was gone and his was on there – and it mopped the floor with my chorus, he put me to shame! Now, I can’t even remember mine, his was so much better. Rob knows how to make those hooks, and then we didn’t expect him to say yes to doing a video with us, but he did. Then this amazing video came out of it too, and then we were able to play it together on stage when we were on tour with Cradle of Filth. That was so much fun, it’s been a massive dream come true, and I’m really glad people like it.
Absolutely, it’s a killer track. Don’t knock your own songwriting, of course, you definitely come up with some awesome stuff yourself. But sometimes that is part of the nature of collaborating, sometimes your ideas kind of get knocked out of there, but you’re still happy with what comes out at the end.
I know, I’m just such a huge fan of Rob, and I’m a huge fan of Machine Head, so of course I’m just going to fangirl out on anything he sends, especially if it’s on a Once Human track, it’s like, “Oh my God, this crushes!”
Great job on both you guys’ part, and of course, everybody involved, the whole band. Which brings me to ask – personally, I really loved the “Cold Arrival” single, I was fascinated with that one when it came out, I think I had it on repeat for a couple of days at least.
Oh, thank you.
It was just epic and powerful, so of course I want to ask about your ideas and the songwriting behind it, but it also kind of leads me to ask about production as well. All the songs on Scar Weaver sound amazing, but “Cold Arrival”, there’s just something about it, the tone and everything that comes through – the vocal layering of clean and growls together, just everything. I just wanted to ask about the process behind that song and what you guys put into that.
Well, I can only speak for the lyrics here, because Max did the writing of the music on this song. I know that the chorus was a standalone riff, the main part where I scream “cold arrival”, that was a riff without a song around it at first, and I told Max we have to build a song around this. And we used to say, “can you write something around this Danny Elfman riff?” *laughs* It had this Danny Elfman-type sound. So that’s really all I can say about the music because Max wrote it, I don’t want to speak for him. But lyrically, the song is about a friend of ours that died in 2020. He was our fitness coach in spin class and became a friend to the three of us, Max, Logan, and I – we would all go to his spin class nearly every single day, and a lot of times it was just us in the room. Jared would play metal music for us, he let us borrow his spin bike for the tour – he was just a really great guy, and really young, really healthy. He just died unexpectedly and it really did a number on me. I was not expecting it. I think everybody sort of prepares themselves with their grandparents or something, you understand what’s going to happen in the near future, you prep yourself. But this was a very young man, just suddenly gone. It was also my very first experience with death, so I did a lot of my grieving process in the lyrics, it’s a very sad song. It’s difficult for me to listen to it because of that.
Well, I’m very sorry for your loss. It hits hard, something like that, and especially someone so young, so I’m very sorry to hear about your loss. I guess the consolation is having that creative outlet for yourself, that you were at least able to pour that grieving into making something amazing out of it – sonically, lyrically, everything that you could draw out, and hopefully help yourself feel better in the process.
Yes.
Something else I wanted to ask you about, “Eye of Chaos” seems to be a fan favorite from Evolution, I feel like a lot of people tend to refer to that song and video as a great example of the sound and image of Once Human overall. I was wondering if there were some Once Human songs that are band favorites, or personal favorites for you, Lauren, that you feel represents you the best.
Well, definitely “Eye of Chaos”. That one, I think, a lot of people love, and a lot of people that are learning screaming apparently like to choose that one. So it’s really special, it was also – going back to one of your first questions, sort of what helped me come into my own as a writer, and sort of when the penny dropped and I was able to connect lyrically with something that happened in the world. The lyrics to that song had come together a lot like “Erasure” lyrics, it was something that had happened in the world that I learnt about and felt really compelled to write about, something that affected me deeply. “Gravity” is another one I feel fans really loved. It’s hard to say on Scar Weaver just because I really feel like we know what hits people the hardest when we play it live, and we have yet to play these songs live. But what I’ve been hearing is “Cold Arrival”, “Only In Death”, but yeah, I think definitely “Eye of Chaos” would be the one.
I think it will definitely be exciting to see what people gravitate toward once you get out there and play Scar Weaver live. Outside of the music world a bit, I saw from your Instagram that you recently got involved with an animal rescue organization, and you definitely have a lot of animal-related posts, so I’d just love to hear more about this, your involvement and love of that.
Well, I’ve only just discovered Animal Tracks, I was just there last week – it’s an animal rescue in LA, and I was invited by my friend Jess. Yes, I have a history of being involved in animal rescues and working as a veterinary technician in Australia. I’ve really devoted a lot of my life to animals, and do whatever I can. It’s something I’d like to do more of, that’s for sure, I would love to spend more time at Animal Tracks, and if anyone out there is listening, you can go check it out. There’s a fundraiser as well, if you’re interested in saving some animals and giving them a nice, new home. A lot of these animals come from – either they’re retired circus animals or surrendered pets that people realize, “oh, I can’t have this wild animal in my house”, or injured wildlife in general that end up here. And it’s really sad to see all these wild animals in cages, but at the same time, where would they be without this place? Animal Tracks, I saw, really provided good enrichment, they pair the animals up or put them in groups so they’re not lonely – everybody needs a friend – except the solitary animals, of course. I really thought that they did a good job, and I look forward to spending more time here and doing what I can.
Awesome! That’s great, and it’s easy to hear that you have a genuine interest and passion for this. I’m an animal lover myself, so I totally relate. This has been really awesome getting to know more about you and talking about the new album today, so I’d like to wrap it up with a little view of what’s on the horizon for Once Human?
Hopefully, we tour and we don’t come home for a really long time. I guess it’s just up to the world to see if that happens. We’re releasing, unfortunately, in unknown territory, so we will have to see. But that’s the goal, and hopefully we can make that happen.
Well, everyone is waiting for it to happen, so hoping for the best over here. Thank you again so much for your time today, this has been awesome talking with you, Lauren.
Geoff Tate recently kicked off the 2022 Empire 30th Anniversary Tour in the US, where he’s performing the classic Queensryche albums Empire and Rage For Order in their entirety live with his current band. For this week’s Q&A, we’re bringing one back from the archives of 2021, when I spoke with Geoff about his Sweet Oblivion project, his lifestyle and recording during the pandemic, the Insania Wine brand, and more. Check it out below.
It’s been a while since you and I have chatted for an interview, I think the Metal Hall of Fame in 2020 was probably the last time, and honestly, after the way this past year’s been going, that seems like ages ago. How have you and your family been doing through all this?
Oh, I think like everybody, we’ve all been going through an adjustment period. It’s been a unique time in history, you know, we’re all affected by it on a number of different levels. People have lost their jobs, or have a shifting relationship with their job. For me, it’s been the first time in…I don’t know, thirty years that I’ve been in one place for so long of a time. In 2019, I was home for 23 days of the year, so I spend most of my traveling on the road in different place every day, and I’m used to that, and being off the road has been like that Groundhog Day movie, you know? Every day you wake up, you’re looking at that same clock, that same table, and you’re going through this routine – I’ve never lived that way. So it’s weird for me, and I’ve had a bit of a struggle trying to figure out how to live like that. But I’ve managed to do a lot this year work-wise, I’ve completed one album and I’ve got the second one nearing completion, and I’ve got two others in the works. So I’ve got a lot of music ready to go for release over the next couple of years, been doing that, mostly.
That’s great you’re keeping active in the music world even though you’re not able to physically get out there and tour – you’ve always seemed to keep busy with other bands and projects outside of your own. Of course, one of the latest ones is the new Sweet Oblivion record, the second album, Relentless. So how did the Sweet Oblivion band and project first come about?
Well, I asked for it. *laughs* After finishing my time with Queensryche, I was looking to work with different people and try some different musical endeavors. I had signed up with Frontiers Records to do a three-album set of Operation: Mindcrime trilogy records. I was talking to Mario from the record company one day, and I said, “Yeah, I really want to try something different, work with some different people, especially producers, engineers, and other musicians. If you have any ideas on that, or something comes across your desk, let me know”, and he said he would, then we kind of went our separate ways, and I was off doing my own thing. A year or two later, he called me up and said, “I have an idea, and it’s called Sweet Oblivion”, and he told me what his idea was for it, and I thought it was great. So I started working with some Italian writers and producers, and thus we have Sweet Oblivion. There’s two records, I did one a few years ago, and now this one. There’s different musicians and producers on each record, the only constant is me *laughs*. So, it’s been really fun and an interesting journey, working with international musicians and players, I’ve been enjoying it.
That’s funny how the only constant is you, so having a different cast of characters on each album, how did you go about following up on the first record?
We did it in kind of interesting way, that maybe a lot of people would find strange, but it actually makes a lot of sense. We worked in different studios in different continents and countries, and we meet together in the studio of the internet, passing our files back and forth to create the songs. And it’s actually an interesting and fun way to work, you’re able to sit in the comfort of your own studio that you’ve created, your happy place, and live the way you want to live, and still work together. It’s efficient.
Especially when you’re working internationally. In recent years, bands have been going for more of the remote style of recording, sending files back and forth, that’s increasingly more common, but it’s funny how the whole past year has made it almost mandatory, that’s the only way you can do it right now.
Exactly, and necessity is the mother of invention, as they say. But really, when you break it down and look at it, the reason we all sat in the same room and worked is because that’s the only way we had to do it. We were limited by technology of the times, and basically, the recording studio is a completely different animal now than it was then. The studio I carry around in my suitcase and set up in my hotel room every day, is more powerful than Abbey Road Studios in London, where so many great records have been made. So why go there? Unless you’re shooting a video, or happen to be in London and need the drum room that they have. It’s a new way of working, I think after the pandemic, a lot of people that have never worked this way before will continue to work this way now.
Yeah, I think that’s been one of the most prevalent message people have been getting from this whole past year, is realizing, “Hey, I could do this entire job from home. Why should I even return to the workplace?” So it’s going to be interesting to see how things develop once we get back to…“normal”, whatever “normal” is going to look like now. Companies in the industry, musicians in recording studios, everyone’s adapting their working style now, a lot of lessons have been learned for the past year.
And I think this can be applied to pretty much everything in life. Typically, the reason why we do something is because that’s the way we were taught to do it, by whoever taught that person who taught us, and we tie things up in the idea of tradition. Tradition doesn’t always mean the best way to do something. It’s shifting the focus on how to do something in a more efficient way, which is so much better. Over the last couple of years, I bought an electric car and it’s really changed my perspective on driving and traffic, and just about everything related to automobiles has changed. The way I drive is different, it teaches you to be much more efficient. I’ve got to tell you though, driving an electric car, my stereo sounds amazing and I love listening to music in the car again. Because, man, I can hear everything. Before, there was so much engine and road noise, and exhaust pipe noise, man, you can’t hear the details in music. But now, the car is so damn quiet, the music really shines.
Nice, that definitely makes for more enjoyable road trips and rides then.
Absolutely.
Well, we’re talking about learning to adapt and work remotely, but one thing that can’t really be replaced is live shows, of course. I see that you have some shows coming up later this year, a UK and European run, then some shows in the US. It looks like things, at least in terms of everyone’s planning, are starting to come back up again.
Yeah, state by state, opening at different capacity levels, and we’ve been looking to adapt to those rules and structures. It’s exciting to see things are opening up now, and I have to say that my management and my agent have been working strenuously just to organize the shuffling of dates. They’ve been working on it all this year, and we’re basically picking up where we left off. We were on tour last March when everything just shut down, so we’re gearing up to continue that tour. Of course we made commitments to the promoters, and we’ve always worked to honor those commitments, and to the fans who expect to see the show. We’re gearing up to bring that back out.
Awesome. I think a lot of people still feel like it’s proceeding with caution, we’re all hoping, but there’s still that bit of uncertainty of whether it’s going to go on.
When you think about it, everybody lost their shows, and so everybody’s vying for the venues now, in hopes that they’re all opening up. We have a show in the Seattle area here coming up, and we sold the amount of tickets that they’re allowing us to sell, but then there was some speculation from the state government saying that we’re going to have to roll back our numbers to those from several months ago because we’ve had an uptick in the amount of cases, so that means for us, that we’ve oversold the venue. So now it’s like, “What do we have to do?” My management’s been working with the venue to see if we’re going to have to split the show into two shows, or how we’re going to do this. But then, the governor made another announcement this past week saying, “No, it’s okay, we’re going to allow the capacity to be what it was, and we’re actually upscaling the capacity now”, so it’s all good, no more panic. *laughs*
Definitely, it seems to be getting better as time goes along. Now, a couple of years ago, you did the Operation: Mindcrime Anniversary tour, and now it’s going to be the 30th Anniversary tour for Empire and Rage For Order together, so is it going to be literally a full show of those two albums back-to-back?
Back-to-back, yes. It is a really good show, when we were doing it this past year, before the pandemic kicked in, it was absolutely stunning and I was so proud of my band for being so on point, playing so well. The audiences were turning out at sold out shows, there was just this momentum of everything being just right, and I felt really healthy and good, I was singing well, and it was really a shame when the whole thing had to be unplugged and postponed. But we’re gearing up to bring it back out, and hopefully we’ll get back up on that roll of playing at the top of our game again.
Absolutely, and it’s an easy to decide setlist at this point, because you already know what the songs are going to be start to finish. Have you been digging into tracks in rehearsals with the band during this time?
Oh, you have to rehearse this stuff. It requires a lot of work to make it where it should be, presentable. I don’t like to go out and do things that are not perfection, I like to make it as good as I can possibly do it. I have the band fly in, typically two weeks before the first gig, and we spent two weeks just really fine-tuning it to where it should be, you know?
Good stuff. So outside of the music world, how is the Insania wine business going?
Oh, the wine is flowing, yes.
As it should be.
As it should be, yeah! People say, “Oh, I bought a bottle of your wine, I’m saving it”, I say, “No, don’t save it, drink it, I’ll make more”. *laughs* I’m looking forward to October because that’s our wine festival, when we do our harvest with the grapes, and actually crush the wine and get it rolling through the next vintage. We have a big party every year at the winery, and thousands of people show up, it’s become kind of a thing. The hotels in the area sell out, it’s crazy, and it’s all free. Maybe that’s why it seems to sell out, *laughs* it’s free.
*laughs* That helps!
That helps, yeah. But it’s a really fun time. Last year, in October, that was the first time that I didn’t get to go to the harvest, and I of course had to Zoom call with my winemaker and talk to him about the harvest and how the grapes are looking, and he was keeping me abreast of all the developments, but it’s so strange not to have tasted the vintage yet. Because typically I’m there and I’m doing it, and I’m really involved. This last year, of course, we couldn’t do that. But I’m looking forward to getting back to Germany for it.
Even winemaking went virtual, what has the world come to?
*laughs* Yeah, really!
No, but there definitely seems to be a lot of things to look forward to for this year, and you’re still been staying productive. It’s great you keep people updated on social media with everything you’re doing, I just saw you posted the Pink Floyd tribute album, as well as The Prog Collective, and it’s clear you’re keeping busy with a lot of things in spite of not being able to play shows.
Yeah, well, I keep getting these offers from people to get involved with their scene and what they’re doing, and some of the stuff, I really like a lot, so why not?
Well, definitely some great stuff on the horizon, especially with Empire and Rage For Order getting back out on the road, so I’m glad to hear everything’s going well in the world of Geoff Tate, and I’m looking forward to seeing more from you later this year.
Thank you, Chelsea, and thanks for the interview today, I appreciate it.
Metal Magnitude started this list during the 2020 lockdown to keep track of livestreams across the rock and metal world, updating with upcoming shows while keeping an archive of past ones that are still available to stream. While the world is still not back to “normal” quite yet, there are now more concerts and tours taking place in person (finally!) than ever before, but some artists are still taking the livestream route from time to time. For now, this list will stay up on the site, so keep an eye out for updates, and if you know of any upcoming livestreams, please submit the link and details to submissions@metalmagnitude.com, or reach out via social media. Thanks for the support and Happy 2022!
**Update 2021**
We may not be able to go to concerts to see our favorite artists during these crazy days of Covid-19 and social distancing – but that hasn’t stopped our favorite artists from bringing the shows to us. Virtual concerts are becoming the new norm during these times, and whether we’re reliving an iconic moment in a band’s live history, participating in a live Q&A with an artist, or watching a living room or garage performance in real time, there’s plenty to keep us entertained. Metal Magnitude has assembled a masterlist of virtual content in the Metal/Rock/Hard Rock genre so you can plan out your concert calendar from the comfort of your home – the list is continually expanding, so be sure to check back for updates. If you have, represent, or know of a band with livestreaming content coming up, submit the links and details to submissions@metalmagnitude.com or reach out via social media so it can be added to the masterlist. Support our community and spread the word!
Motörhead just released a new boxset with Everything Louder Forever – The Very Best Of, out this past weekend via BMG. In light of the new release, here’s an interview from earlier this year, when the Louder Than Noise…Live In Berlin boxset came out, and I spoke with longtime Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell about the release, plus his own band Phil Campbell and The Bastard Sons.
Our main focus is of course, the Louder Than Noise…Live In Berlin Motörhead release, so to start things off, what are your thoughts on this particular show being released in audio/visual form now?
Yeah, we were looking through a lot of audio tapes and everything, and we found some interesting things. We recorded most of the shows, we didn’t visually tape every show, but when we listened back to the audio of the Berlin show, it just sounded really, really killer, so we checked the footage out and everything. So we’re really excited. I think it was the last show in Germany of our little group of shows that we did – Germany’s always been good to us, Europe’s always been good to us. We thought it was about time to put out something new for the fans.
Absolutely, and I read that this was about 12,000 people, and one of the biggest German audiences you had ever had – Motörhead was always filling arenas, of course, but I suppose this was a particularly large one for you guys.
Yeah, it was probably the biggest indoor place we may have played in Germany! There was lots of people there. I didn’t count them all individually, but about 12,021, lots of eyes.
Live In Berlin is actually the second live release to be released since we unfortunately lost Lemmy. How is it for you to revisit live shows through these releases, and do you find yourself reminiscing on the tours at all?
I miss Lem every day, you know. He’s in my mind all the time, I still get a great thrill out of listening to us live. Believe it or not, you could count the amount of bad gigs we had on one hand, you know? We were always pretty much on fire with the live shows and everything. It’s just a shame that we can’t do it any longer really, but you try and think of the good times rather than the reality of it, really. But it’s good music, it’s going to be there for many years to come. We left a good body of work, I think.
Absolutely! It’s solid, and there’s so many fans helping to keep the Motörhead spirit alive, as well as what you guys are doing with all the new releases. There’s been a good amount of new releases since 2015, you had the live albums, the boxsets, a cover compilation. And it’s cool that there still seems to be things out there to be uncovered and released.
Yeah, there’s going to be things out there, it’s just that we’re not spending 24 hours a day going through everything for six months. When we come across something, me and Mickey, we’ll have a chat about it and try and make some decisions, and just put stuff out which we think our fans will really like, without giving them the same stuff over and over again. We want some urgency in the music, and some balls, make sure it’s all sounding ballsy. So yeah, it’s quite interesting, we listen back to stuff, and you can’t even remember playing it, or you can’t remember that you this song live. There’s still lots more stuff to sift through, there’ll be varying degrees of recording quality in that, but I’m sure there’s lots of really top-notch recordings around, just got to get to them.
And that’s something to look forward to on the part of the fans, whatever you come across, you share with us, and it feels like we become part of that experience and those memories. And about the recording quality, I don’t think anyone is worried too much about that, if you find something that’s not been released before, cool old demos or live recordings, I don’t think anybody’s going to say, “oh, but this is not a top quality production”. *laughs*
But I do.
Ah, good point.
*laughs* So, you know, you can let a few things slide, but if something goes out, we’ve got to live with it for the rest of our lives. So we try and make sure it’s up to our standards and everything.
Now, we’ve been saying that this show in Berlin happened to be a particularly notable night for you to commemorate on the CD/DVD set, but what have been some of your other favorite destinations to tour in the past?
All over the world was a blast, we went everywhere from South America to Russia to Japan, and New Zealand, the fans have always been fanatical wherever we’ve gone, really. At the end of the day, we’re really just kind of in a building or in a field, so we enjoy it everywhere, really. I don’t think any of us have ever mentioned our favorite countries to play in. If the people cheered, we were quite happy with that. But everywhere was really good.
That’s awesome, and a great attitude to have towards it too, you give an equal experience to everyone, wherever you are.
Exactly, we’re just happy to get on stage and play.
Now, outside of this live Motörhead release, there’s plenty going on for your end of things as well, the best part about having a band called Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons, is that it’s actually your sons. So how did that first come about, were you just like, “oh, it’d be fun to jam together”, or did you guys more formally plan out to actually start a band?
Well, we got together about 2 or 3 years before Motörhead finished. My eldest son turned 30, so we booked a venue for his party down in Wales, and obviously, we were all there as a family, and we had borrowed the band’s instruments, and my son’s friend, Neil Starr, who had his own band Dopamine, he was there, so we went up and did a few songs. That was fun, just some cover songs. Then we did a couple more gigs, I think we did one at Bloodstock Festival, and I was still playing with Motörhead then. We were called Phil Campbell’s All-Star Band, we couldn’t think of anything else then. Sadly, when Motörhead finished, when I had a chance to get over that, I had a lot more time on my hands. Then we decided to change our name and write some cool original material, and it kind of went on from there. We’ve done an EP and two albums now, and we’ve played stadiums supporting Guns ’n’ Roses, and lots of arenas and we’re building it up, you know. We’re playing bigger places up by us, with ourselves headlining now, you know? It’s great fun. My kids are amazing musicians, they’ve been in lots of other bands as well, great bands. But they’ve never gotten the recognition they deserve, so at least we’ve playing to respectable crowds now. We’re just looking forward to some shows happening now, maybe, and playing some of them songs from the last album for the first time. Because we had 13 original songs from the last album we put out in November, but no shows yet, so we’re looking forward to doing some of them later this year.
You mentioned the Bloodstock Festival, and I saw that you guys are planning on playing some festivals this summer, Bloodstock being one of them, Steelhouse is another, and honestly, that’s great news to see that some shows are being scheduled, and so far, planning to go on.
Yeah, we just got two or three festivals in the summer booked in the UK, and a UK tour we’ve got booked for November. We already had to cancel all of last year, like most artists. We had our busiest year last year as well, we were going to be busy for nine months out of the year basically, and we didn’t do anything *laughs*. We did an album though, we wrote and recorded, thank god we did that, otherwise it would have been a complete write-off. We recorded, wrote, and released a new album, so we’ll see, yeah. Bloodstock’s not til the end of August, I think there’s a couple of other festivals in July, maybe, so fingers crossed. We’ll have to wait and see, as soon as everyone gets vaccinated, the sooner we can get back to normal.
We’ve all been holding our breath waiting for live shows to come back again, and now there’s some positive signs that they might actually be here later this year. Definitely exciting to think of the prospect of everything kind of going back to normal.
Yeah, another full year without it is too much to comprehend really, isn’t it? Everything has dragged on for everyone. We need some good news now.
You also mentioned that you recorded the new album last year, so you were obviously in a lockdown type of situation, how did that change your approach to recording? Or did it not affect you much?
We wrote it in January and February, not knowing it was going to be a lockdown in March, we had a few ideas in from soundchecks last year, and Todd wrote a bunch of songs, ready to present to the band, and I had a few as well. So we got the album ready to record by the end of February, really, and then March became the big lockdown. But luckily, we’ve got our own studio, close to where we live, we own a studio. So we were just going in and taking it in turns with Todd, socially distanced, doing it bit by bit like that. It was done in a way with no pressure on us, no deadline as such. Our plan before any lockdown or anything, like the previous year, was to get a new album out in 2020, so it didn’t affect us in that way. Only the lack of gigs, of course. But it was good for the album, we could take our time and everything. So we were really pleased with the album in the end, I think it’s a belter of an album.
It sounds awesome, and it’s great because it’s really a rock and roll album and band, first and foremost, but you’ve got some blues mixed in there, a touch of metal, mostly heavy rock, so it seems like a great balance of everything. What were some ideas that went into the new Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons record?
The different generation helps as well. Me being the older generation, and the other boys being in their 30’s, the influences all of us are bringing to the table, you sometimes can’t really put your finger on different things, but we like to think that we know good music. We just try and put it all together to make good songs, at the end of the day. We didn’t actually say this time, “we’re going to do a metal album” or “we’re going to do a blues album”, we just tried to get a bunch of really good songs together. And it turned out great. Over the moon with it, great production, Todd did a brilliant job producing and everything. I’m glad you like it, lots of people have told me it’s a scorcher of a record. We just want to play the damn songs live!
Exactly, that’s what we’ve got to focus on next!
It’s killing us! *laughs*
It sounds like you have a lot of great stuff going on with that band, I’m sure it must be fun keeping it in the family, the music bug that you had, you passed it on, so that’s good. And the Motörhead live release, like I said, is great for everyone to experience some of those memories with you, of past tours and whatever future releases you have coming out, we’re all looking forward to that as well.
Ah, that’s brilliant.
So let’s wrap things up with what’s next for Phil Campbell?
Just waiting to do some shows, I think, and maybe some recording next year. We’ll wait and see, but we’re itching to do the shows now.
Well, we’re all itching to go to them, so let’s all keep our positive energy up and hope that they’re coming soon.
Ministry just unleashed a new album with Moral Hygiene, the fifteenth of the band’s discography. I recently had a chance to talk with Al Jourgensen about what fueled the ideas of the new record, forming a new lineup and recording during the pandemic, and more.
Photo Credit: Derick Smith
I have so much to say and ask you about Moral Hygiene, but I’ve got to start somewhere, so I want to start with “Alert Level”, obviously an awesome track that hits hard right off the bat, and of course you’ve got the lyric video for it out already. Can you talk about what went into this opener for the album?
Yeah, that was the first song that we started recording literally a couple of weeks pre-quarantine, like a couple of weeks before March. So it’s been a while, and it was basically about what we can do as a society to protect our planet so we have a planet to live in – ie., climate change, et cetera. And we did the song and we were just like, “wow, this actually came out really good”, and then quarantine hit. And we didn’t know if there was going to be record labels…a society *laughs*…movies, all releases were shut down. So we made a point to get that one out first as opposed to just waiting around for the rest of the record to get out and all that, we were like, we don’t even know if there’s a future. At least release that so we can have our say-so in it.
Yeah, that’s pretty wild you had that all queued up and ready to go, getting ready to make more music and all of a sudden the world just shuts down, it’s like, what the hell happened, man?
It’s been a crazy year.
Exactly, but things are starting to look up a little bit, you’ve got Moral Hygiene on the way this fall, and another track that you released to the world recently is “Good Trouble”. You released a social media only version, and that’s a really cool approach when for the past year everyone’s been on social media more than ever before, so it’s a unique way of sharing an extra bonus outside of the album.
Well, that’s the unfortunate circumstance of the society we live in today to where me and my friend, Arabian Prince from NWA, decided he would read the words of John Lewis posthumously, on something that he thought really long and hard about and didn’t say while he was alive, although he lived what he said when he was alive. But he said it, and it was put in succinct terms after he died, and I thought that was spectacular, and so did Arabian Prince, so we both said we’re going to do a song that’s worthy of this man and this movement. I think we pulled it off, but then the labels get all concerned that we couldn’t get ahold of John Lewis’ representatives to say, “it’s okay, you have a clearance to do this”, and so they said, “no, you have to edit it out on the album”, because they were all afraid of lawsuits. This is the society that we’ve created, nobody can do art anymore without really expressive constrictions that are going on. So that kind of pissed me off, so we released it in social media in its full form because no money is to be made by it, it’s just on our social medias. And I really urge fans to go and get that one out – that video is poignant and important toward relations of the human species in the future. I mean, I really think John Lewis has been onto something for over 50, 60 years, and it’s about time that he was credited. Because Ministry has always just been known as badmouthing political figures, you know? *laughs*
*laughs* You have a point.
And now we’re honoring somebody, but I don’t consider him a political figure, I consider him an activist and a true human world citizen.
And I actually didn’t realize all the mechanics going into something like that, not putting it on the album because of other representatives being involved, that makes the social media version make a lot of sense. It feels like social media has become such a platform for artists to express themselves beyond constrictions like you were saying.
I just think that social media has become…and I have a song that touches on it on Moral Hygiene, called “Disinformation”. Social media and the internet were supposed to be like the renaissance of information, and it’s just devolved into disinformation by corporate greed, it’s just a cesspool. So you take your chances. It’s almost like you have a better chance of winning the lotto than doing something really productive and good musically, putting it out, and having someone not pick it apart because of political things or whatever, you know what I mean? You get caught in this cross-trap of disinformation and pretty soon you’re like, is this all worth it? But, yes, it is. We’ve just got to persevere and hopefully cooler heads will prevail in Washington someday – doubtful, but maybe. That artists can tour again, and people get vaccinated and they can go see concerts and go to restaurants and movies, and this and that, and the entertainment business makes a comeback. Because right now, just as when the streaming services happened, the music industry was completely caught off guard and they didn’t know what to do. The eventual deals that were struck between the streaming services and the labels, the only people that didn’t make any money or anything was the artist. Everyone else still had their share, but it just stomped the artist down, and now with this new age of social media disinformation, it’s even worse. Some people prosper but like I said, it’s like the lotto. Some people go viral – for no apparent reason, just because it’s the flavor of the week and they’re the new, biggest thing, and they really have put nothing into the art community, but yet they’re the hugest thing in the world right now. And I don’t blame them, I just blame the system for what’s propagating what we listen to and what our culture and arts are right now.
And what you mentioned about the streaming platforms, of course, that’s something very prevalent, and a lot of artists are trying to fight that system now – like the deals where the artist gets half of a half of a penny for each stream.
But you know what? The whole mainstream media places it at the feet of the artists, like we’re just greedy artists, we want more mansions and this and that. More yachts, blah blah. It’s like, no, you have to remember, man. There’s entire roadcrews, there’s personnel at every venue in the United States, that rely on the music industry. These are working class people, so you could put it in a nice little bag with a giftwrap and say it’s just “artists’ greed”, but no, it’s corporate greed. Because the artists are struggling to survive at this point. I mean, literally, we’ve done congressional measures for first responders and people that work in grocery stores and movie theaters, anything. First line contact, but they don’t have any rules yet for the music industry. And this is what’s perplexing to me because culture doesn’t grow without art, any society doesn’t grow without art. You look at all the great societies of our time, from the Greek and Roman and everything, and the artists were well-paid in the sense of, they propagated culture to what we wanted to advance to. They propagated human dreams. And human dreams are being shut out by the corporate greed that’s happened through this pandemic. If you notice, most people are broke yet people are sending…space dicks, into space, and making money off this. The economic inequality is stunning. And we forget how important the arts are, it’s the first thing they cut out in high school curriculum – they always keeps sports because sports makes money. And I understand that, but the arts – and for example, civics classes have not been a thing for 20-30 years. They cut that out so we’re not able to understand our government and how it functions, and how you can make it function better. All these things are just like, it’s so depressing.
There’s so much to address in what you said, but I agree that when music and arts are so essential to society, it’s definitely crazy that artists have been struggling for this past year, and there doesn’t seem to be any clear path to getting out of that. I’ve been seeing various charities popping up, Live Nation did something, Sweet Relief has been raising money for musicians and road crews, and things like that. But it’s been a very strange and rough year for the music industry for sure.
Well, the entire entertainment industry, I mean, look at movies. Literally, I’m pretty sure that the only movies we have coming out over the next few years are either really depressing things that show the real condition – like Father or Nomadland or something – or just Marvel comics. That’s it, that’s what people want to see. So where does that leave us as artists in the musical variety? It really confuses people. So we just got to keep putting one foot in front of the other and hopefully people realize that art and culture progresses society in a way that legislation can’t even do. If the art is sincere, people will think differently if they enjoy the art that’s being given to them about the legislation that’s occurred. It’s really all hand-in-hand, it’s kind of like an ecosystem, I think the whole ecobalance of artistic ingenuity has been thrown off balance in this society, and I think it needs to get back to that.
I think, in terms of your music, you’re very authentic, you definitely say what’s on your mind and put it into the music, so in that way, you’re contributing to what you want to see happen. That sense of putting one foot in front of another, putting your own message out there and hoping it reaches where it needs to reach.
Yeah. And you know, if it was shit, I wouldn’t mind if people just went, “yeah, whatever”. But, I honestly…you may say this is pompous, but I think my music’s important and I think the things that we have to say as the band, under the brand Ministry, is basically where every couple of years, we put out a record, and it’s a wake-up call, like this is the blueprint on what’s gone wrong and maybe how we can fix it.
I don’t think it sounds pompous, I think you should be sure of your art, when you’re going to release something, you want to be standing behind it and believing in what you’re saying.
Thank you, that’s all I’ve got to say, thank you. *laughs*
Of course. So, when you say “we, as the band Ministry”, you do have a recently new lineup, and it’s a mix of some long-term members, and some brand-new ones. Getting a band together during a pandemic is probably something pretty challenging, so how did this new band that you have lined up for the fall tour all line up in your life?
Well, of course, I mean, we were all double-vaxxed and masked. And then we decided in my studio what fits and what doesn’t. But it was a weird extra component towards making art, this health requirement. It was really strange. But either way, I think we put the perfect band together for this, I don’t know if there will ever be a better band for Ministry than, I believe it was 2008 with Joey Jordison, myself, and Mike Scaccia, Paul Raven – all those three are deceased – John Bechdel, that was really a rock band, okay? So this is a little bit different, but I think that the potential for this band on this upcoming tour is astounding. I think we found the right build of personalities, talent, and taste that we’ll make this a really good tour.
That’s awesome, and really exciting as well. You did have some guests besides the new band, of course you mentioned the team-up with Arabian Prince, and I love that you covered The Stooges on the album, and you also got Billy Morrison involved with that. So how did you guys go about reworking that song to give it the Ministry touch?
Well, that’s kind of a long story if you’ve got a minute. So, Dave Navarro of Jane’s Addiction, et cetera, and Billy Morrison put together this band and this wonderful benefit for a wonderful cause called Above Ground, basically focusing on teenage suicide, “keep them above ground”. And also basically focusing on LGBTQ communities, and why people commit suicide due to the social media onslaught, and this and that. So they decided they’d put together a band, Dave and Billy, and they got some guest singers to sing on two albums that they were going to focus on, a David Bowie album, and an Iggy one. And on the Iggy album, they called me and they thought I was the right representative for Iggy because I’ve worked with Iggy before, and I’ve known Iggy for 35 years. So we went to soundcheck, and I did the two songs I was supposed to do, and then we went backstage and then backstage – I will tell you this right now, a lesson learned in life, man…never accept a joint from a stranger.
Uh-oh.
…Done. *laughs* Yeah. So about twenty minutes before I was supposed to go on, a joint was being passed around backstage, and listen – I’m a heavy marijuana smoker, I enjoy the benefits of cannabis immensely, as well as psilocybin, that’s the only drugs I do anymore, that’s it. I’m pretty well legal within American constraints, but I decided to take a hit off this joint, and everything went under water. So I went onstage, and I sang “Search and Destroy”, basically in half-time. Because a lot of people have covered “Search and Destroy”, a lot of bands, and they try and do it like the original. This was not like the original because I was singing it in half-time and underwater. So the next day, I woke up, and I called Dave and I called Billy and apologized profusely for me screwing up their entire event and this and that, and I was seriously just freaked out at how bad this was. And they went, “No. This is it, this is the way this song needs to be done! That was actually the way to do it, so let’s go to your studio and record this tomorrow”. That was actually one of the first songs we did on this record, but I didn’t want to put it on the record until I actually contacted Iggy and made sure he heard it and gave it a thumbs up, which he did. So yeah, there it is.
That’s definitely quite the story, but awesome that it got the thumbs up from Iggy, wherever it came from *laughs*. Now, you recorded Moral Hygiene in your own studio, so can you talk a bit about your home studio setup?
As far as what was done in the studio over the last year, not only was Moral Hygiene done, but ten songs were recorded for a new Lard record, which Jello Biafra is sitting on right now, singing in his own studio in San Francisco. So it’s more like the next two albums that come out are like Zoom albums, during the quarantine. You get your stuff, you mail a hard drive, they mail stuff back, you mail stuff back, and that’s the new way to do it. And that’s fine! I’m willing to adapt. Human beings are always good at adapting, so we got an entire Lard record done, and we also got an entire new Ministry record done, where the only thing missing is my vocals. I’m very persnickety about the message I want to send and the vocals that I do, so I didn’t find that I had it in me to sing on these songs, but the songs are not any less than the songs on Moral Hygiene. If anything, I think they might be better, but I didn’t have it in me at that time to come up with topics for those particular songs. So it’s an ongoing process, but during the quarantine, I basically recorded three albums.
That’s amazing, and to know that there’s already more Ministry on deck, when we’re just kind of digesting this one now, there’s more on the horizon.
That’s a good way to put it. Let’s dissect this one, then let’s see the next. And I think the next will pretty much end the dissection, you’ll pretty much know where I’m at. *laughs*
That’s exciting though, that’s the thing, quarantine has been really weird for the music industry, but it has given some artists a lot of additional time to dig in and write more music, since you haven’t been on the road, might as well just get in studio and knock out a bunch of stuff.
Right, exactly, and I hope they used their time wisely. Because that was literally a wasted year for 75% of the population of the globe, and I think 25% really took advantage of the world’s time out, which I think was actually necessary. As you see hiring patterns now amongst businesses that are starting up, people are going, “You know what? I never liked that job. Screw it. Maybe I can do something on my own, do my own startup or something, I don’t need to be working for this fascist company to make billions of dollars for the owner while I’m paid minimum wage”. And they’re just all like whatever, man. And now only that, the earth actually healed for a year – everything from carbon emissions to ozone, healed over a year. It just shows what a year of being sensible would look like to the future of humanity. I think there was a lot of good things – obviously, not the deaths and needless deaths. Some deaths will occur of course, but the needless deaths, and these people have dreams, lives, and families, and they’re dead now because they listened to political disinformation. It’s really sad, the state of where our society has gotten to right now.
It’s definitely double-sided, everything that’s happened over the past year. I do agree that you can see a few positive changes – the earth in general, people’s attitudes toward work, toward realizing how valuable it is that they got to spend time at home with family and realizing they have to prioritize that more – and then of course from the music side, for the artists – so I suppose there’s always a few positives to be pulled from any situation.
Chelsea, that’s very astute, but you missed out on the biggest point of all – Britney is going to be free soon. *laughs* When I heard that I was like, “oh my god, finally, some GOOD gossip”. *laughs* And trust me, that was completely dripped and coated in sarcasm. I don’t give a shit, but I’ll tell you what. It was fun watching, because pandemic news has been different than other years’ news, mainstream media has adapted and we’ve all adapted to how we view things and how we go about our lives thanks to this pandemic. And I mean literally, thanks, there’s a lot of things that I think are going to be positives when we’re done with this trial – I call it a trial of humanity. I think there’s a lot of positives coming, so I’m actually becoming a glass half-full as opposed to a glass half-empty guy, and Britney’s freedom of course, that would just be the cherry on the sundae.
*laughs* Well, in terms of some other positives, everybody’s looking forward to seeing Ministry get back out there on the road for the tour this fall. We’ve been focusing on Moral Hygiene, of course, but your upcoming tour is also featuring The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, for the 30th Anniversary, and that’s obviously so iconic of an album, you’re heading out in October with Helmet, Front Line Assembly, so it sounds like a lot of cool stuff going on for this tour.
Well, we’re going to do a couple of Moral Hygiene songs on this tour, just to introduce them to people, and we’ll do 5 or 6 from The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Taste, and recreate the original set that’s on “In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up”, with the chainlink fence and all that. And so it should be an interesting tour with a lineup that I’m really, really proud of. And then, who knows? Like I said, we have two albums coming out within the next two years of brand-new stuff done during quarantine. So we’ll have to figure out a new approach depending on health restrictions and this and that, whatever’s going on. I just have my fingers crossed that October can happen – I’m double-vaxxed by the way, I fully support it, and listen – nobody, nobody in this world has been as fully adamant about distrusting government as Ministry and myself. But, it’s not about government, it’s about science, and we can help our society continue as a society, or even a semblance of it, if you just get vaccinated. I’m on the full-on, just go get vaxxed, just get us back to…well, I don’t want to say “get us back to normal”, let’s get us to the point where we can propagate a new normal that’s better than the old normal.
“A new normal that’s better than the old normal”, sounds like a good note to end it on. It’s hard to say right now exactly what’s going to be happening in October, but there’s a lot of plans in the works and it looks like things are heading in the direction of opening back up and getting to shows again, so hopefully it happens, and I’m looking forward to seeing you out on tour.
Like I said, fingers crossed, man. That’s all we can do at this point, just fingers crossed and just do what’s right for you, your neighbors and the community. And thank you so much, Chelsea, you take care.
Absolutely, thank you so much for your time today, Al.
Motörhead is set to release a new boxset this fall with Everything Louder Forever, the definitive collection of 42 of their loudest ever songs, representing every era of the band’s recorded history all in one set. The release will be available in many forms, including 2CD, 2LP, 4LP, digital download, streaming and 360 Reality Audio. The 2CD digipak and 4LP fold out sets will feature 42 tracks, including “Ace Of Spades”, “Killed By Death”, “Overkill”, “I’m So Bad (Baby I Don’t Care)”, “The Game” and many more. The 2LP set will include 22 tracks in a gatefold package.
This week, to preview the upcoming release, Motörhead has revealed an upgraded music video for the track “Rock Out”, on which they comment, “One of the finest tracks from #EverythingLouderForever is ‘Rock Out’ and to celebrate we’ve had the video restored and upgraded to 4K HD. ‘Rock Out’ appears on the album ‘Motörizer’ and features the line-up of Lemmy, Phil Campbell, and Mikkey Dee. Originally released on 26th August 2008 on SPV, it was produced by Cameron Webb”. Check out the video below.
Everything Louder Forever will be out on October 29th via BMG Records. You can preorder the album with exclusive merch bundles, and keep an eye out for news and updates via: https://imotorhead.com/everything-louder-forever/.
August Burns Red has kept busy throughout lockdown, with three releases out over the course of the past year – Guardians, Guardians Sessions EP, and Leveler 10th Anniversary Edition. I had the chance to speak with guitarist JB Brubaker about the latest recordings and releases in the August Burns Red world, his pandemic experience, their recent breakaway to being a self-produced/self-released band, signature guitars and gear preferences, and more. Check it out below.
JB Brubaker of August Burns Red with his signature Ibanez JBBM30 guitar. Photo by Clinton Tustin.
So first off, how have things been for you and your family, handling everything that’s been going on for the past year?
You know, we’re making it through, I guess, it’s been a challenge as for many people. One of the challenges, without getting too deep right off the bat, but my wife and I have only known each other through me being on the road. So, coming home for a year and a half straight is just an adjustment for both of us just for the lifestyle we’re used to, and we have a small child, so we’ve been doing a lot of co-parenting, which is different for me. Because I’m used to being the career guy, going out and working. So a lot of adjustments, but we’re making it through and trying to make the best of the situation.
I’m sure that is an adjustment, especially for touring musicians in general, it’s a huge adjustment to be like, “oh, I’ve got to stay home now, what? This is weird”.
Yeah, definitely weird. I think both my wife and I miss the “normalcy” we had, because it was comfortable for us, and I definitely miss playing shows and I can’t wait to just get back to that environment.
Everyone’s waiting for that environment to come back for sure. Regardless, August Burns Red, you’ve had three releases in the past year alone, Guardians, the Guardians Sessions EP, and now the Leveler10th Anniversary coming up, so no doubt the band has kept busy, I think.
When Guardians came out in April of 2020, we had this kind of feeling of like, almost defeat. Like, we just put this record out that we’re so pumped on, and can’t do anything with it. And we just sort of hibernated for a couple of months right there at the beginning of lockdown. Then we basically did a 180, we were like, “okay, this isn’t ending anytime soon, we need to come up with a plan to be an active band because this is what we do”. And then we just started cranking and we haven’t stopped, and we’re going to keep doing what we need to do to be an active band, whether or not we can be active on the road. We need to keep ourselves busy one way or another. So we’ve recorded a lot of stuff and we’re releasing a lot of stuff, we just want to keep doing our band, because it’s what we love to do.
So when Guardians came out, you said, it was April of 2020, so you had everything done basically, before the pandemic and lockdown happened, right?
Yeah, the record was done for a few months, we had that tour with Killswitch Engage that we only got to play two shows on before we had to come home because of the pandemic, and we had a great plan for the record that has gone away. But there are some things that are more important than August Burns Red’s touring schedule *laughs*. This is one of those.
But the touring schedule will come back around at some point, hopefully later this year.
Yeah, it will.
So you also have the 10th Anniversary of Leveler this year, how does it feel to be looking back on that album? Because it wasn’t your first album, it was your fourth, so August Burns Red had already been going for a while by then, but you were still pretty new as compared to now. So while rerecording the tracks, did you find yourself reflecting on experience since then in the band?
Yeah, totally. Just looking back at the songs for what they were, I mean, reflecting on the songs, reflecting on where we were at as a band and our relationships as bandmates, a lot has changed since then. In 2011, 2012, when we were on the Leveler tour, we were going through a lot of growing pains as a band, and just understanding each other as individuals and working on internal conflicts and stuff that are inevitable when you spend so much time together in very tight places and traveling a lot. And on that touring cycle, I think we played over 40 countries or something ridiculous, we toured really aggressively on that record.
Wow! 40 countries, you covered a lot of ground there.
*laughs* Yeah, it sounds daunting to be thinking back on it, we definitely haven’t been that ambitious since. And honestly, it was probably a little bit too much, because it put a lot of strain on our internal relationships, but, it also taught us how to work through problems and understand each other more, and I think that that conflict we experienced then has helped us to be really stable as we came out of the weeds. And at this point, ten years later, we’re stronger than ever internally in how we get along, and we’re all on the same page working toward the same goal, there’s no individual ego, we’re all in it together for the common good. So I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish since this record came out. And then more so on the musical side of things, I’m really proud of being able to dissect these songs from Leveler, and be able to give them sort of a modern facelift from the original recording. The production’s way better, we were able to do more with guitar solos and we brought in guest musicians that we weren’t able to do the first time around. And I think for fans of the original, it’s going to be a new experience, and I think for people who haven’t heard the record at all, it’ll be an opportunity to share the album with them and have them hear it like it’s a new, modern release.
That’s awesome, and really great to hear about how tight the ties are between you guys in the band are now, just from what you’re saying, it sounds like you’ve grown over the years, and that’s great to hear from a band that works as hard as you guys for as long as you have.
Thank you.
So how did you initially approach the decision to re-record in general? What did you do in terms of going back and listening, deciding what felt like it needed an update, things like that?
Our bass player, Dustin, and I handle the majority of the songwriting at this point, so we basically just pulled up all the original guitar tabs that we had written for that album, and combed each song carefully, changed the tunings, we tuned everything down a little bit lower than the original recordings as metal music just has gotten lower and heavier over the last 10 years. And then we rewrote solos and various guitar leads here and there, and then added a lot of pads and sort of ethereal textures underneath various riffs to kind of give the record a more dynamic vibe overall. We approached it the way we would approach a record that we were writing now. We know a lot more than we did when we were writing back in 2010. So basically, gave it the modern August Burns Red facelift.
Of course – that makes sense, you’ve learned a lot over the years, and what you said about the downtuning and giving it an even more modern metal sound – I think for a lot of metal fans, they understand a lot about the music but may not be musicians themselves, and may not even necessarily recognize something like tuning down and how much heavier or darker it can sound without that insight. I think that’s cool that you guys went in and provided that modern metal sound that people will recognize, even if they’re not sure exactly what created it, you know?
Right, totally, I agree. We are just in this really unique position right now where we’re in between record labels, we’re out of a contract right now, so we’re free to do whatever we want. That is something we’ve never been…we haven’t been “free agents” since, like, 2005. So we wanted to take this opportunity where we’re all kind of stuck at home anyway, and focus on studio projects, because we’re able to do that anyway, and self-release if we want, which we are doing with the Leveler10th Anniversary Edition.
Cool, yeah, I mean, you guys have been signed to labels for a long time, because you had Solid State for years before, and Fearless Records for years now, so I guess it is kind of the first time you’re out and exploring on your own a bit there.
Yeah, it’s really weird, but if we had to be in that position, I’m glad it was during the pandemic, when we were at home, and able to spend a lot of time with our music.
Because that way you don’t have pressures and deadlines and things, you’re like, “let’s just see what happens!”
Exactly! I love that.
You’ve also got a Leveler livestream coming up, and you guys have been doing playthroughs and things like that for all of this time, you’ve been keeping active on social media, keeping the fans engaged and everything. Is this the first actual full concert livestream you’re doing?
It’s actually our third, we did two at the end of last year, in November we did one for the 15th Anniversary of our record Thrill Seeker, which was our first record that we put out. And then around the holidays, we did one for Christmas. We play an annual Christmas show and we couldn’t do one this year, so we decided to do that online. But it’s going to be a good six months since we did anything, so we’re really excited to play together again. We have a really ambitious show planned out, both in the amount of songs and material we’re going to be performing, and I guess the sheer size of the production we’re trying to do. So hopefully it comes out the way we envision it, I think it’s going to be a really fun August Burns Red show even though people can’t watch us in person.
That’s the thing with the livestreams, everyone needs to make it bigger and better, I think, is how a lot of bands are feeling, because you don’t have that in-person energy and experience, so it’s more of a visual and audio thing, like “how big can we make this that it still feels almost live?”
Right, that’s the goal, and it’s definitely a challenge, but it also opens up possibilities for us to do things – like, what we have planned for the Leveler livestream is something that we could never take on the road for the size of band we are. It only works in this one-off sort of environment, so I’m excited at the prospect to do something bigger than we could typically do on a regular tour date.
So that will be some interesting surprises for fans in that case – what, are we going to have like an Iron Maiden Eddie-style big August Burns Red mascot coming out?
*laughs* Well, you’ll just have to wait and see, I don’t want to give anything away.
Of course *laughs*.
There will be no Iron Maiden characters coming on stage though, I can say that much.
*laughs* I also wanted to ask about the Guardians Sessions EP, that was another lockdown release. Was it just something that came up for you guys during lockdown to go back and revisit some things, do some B sides, covers, things like that?
Yeah, definitely a product of us having time on our hands. We had a couple of songs that were unreleased from Guardians that we wanted to put out, but we didn’t really want to release them just as singles. So we took advantage of our downtime and did a couple acoustic reworking of songs from Guardians, and then did a couple covers for fun just for us. I started with a cover of the Westworld theme song, probably back in 2018, and I never got to finish it because I was just too busy with more pressing material. But as soon as we got sent home, that was the first thing I did. And I actually spent a lot of time finishing that cover. And then, we realized we had a fair amount of material and it made sense to do an EP, instead of just releasing it all at once, we thought it would be fun to just slow release one song at a time. I think we did seven songs over seven months, starting last October. Which was cool, we’ve never done anything like that before, and I think it was fun for fans to just get that steady stream of new material.
Absolutely, it gives you something to look forward to, especially when you know it’s on a monthly basis, you’re getting something new from August Burns Red. Was that one also self-released, self-produced?
No, this one was with Fearless, it was our last. It just happened to fall under the time when we were still under contract, but Fearless was fully behind it, and did an awesome job helping us to create and market the record. Happy to have them on the team for this release.
And you also had, for years on Fearless, this producing team of Carson [Slovak] and Grant [McFarland] for many of the albums, so was that anything tied to Fearless, or will you still be working with them after, do you think?
We actually started working with them – our last record with Solid State was also produced by Carson and Grant, they’re long-time friends of the band, and there’s just an understanding between us. We really get how they work and they get how we work, and they’re local to us, which is nice, because a bunch of us have families now, and it’s difficult to be – I mean, not in 2020, since we weren’t touring – but, typically if we’re on the road, we don’t want to then come home from a six-week tour and fly to LA for six weeks to make a record, like that just doesn’t work with our lives right now. So it works well to work with Carson and Grant and we can treat it as a day job where we usually work 10am to 6pm, like a normal kind of workday. And then we go home end can be parents and whatever we need to be for our families.
Yeah, that’s convenient, but funny, because no one ever really thinks of music, especially metal, as a 9-to-5 style job, so that’s funny you guys were able to work it out like that.
It definitely wasn’t in our 20’s, but now that we’re in our 30’s, things are a little more regimented *laughs*.
Of course! You’ve got to adjust and balance everything as you go along. So I also wanted to talk about gear a little bit, I believe I saw you were endorsed by Ibanez for guitars, but other than that, what are some favorite go-tos for gear in general, whether it’s Ibanez or otherwise?
Yeah, I play Ibanez guitars and I actually have a new signature model coming out this year through Ibanez, it’s a black guitar with white stripes, I had one previously that was green with white stripes for anyone who knows anything about that – so if you know anything about guitar, and you’re interested in that sort of thing, keep an eye out, it should be out shortly. I play Fractal Audio Axe Effects for my amps, just a digital amp processor, and I’m literally standing in my studio right now looking at my pedalboard, I don’t know how in-depth you want me to go *laughs*.
However in-depth you feel like, man! It’s all good.
Cool. Well, one thing I guess that’s cool about what I’m doing right now is, we have a lot of different tunings during our songs, and rather than play four different guitars during a set, I use a pedal called a drop pedal that a company called DigiTech makes, and it basically allows me to drop the pitch of my guitar without actually changing the tuning of the guitar, which makes it really easy to play live in lots of different settings without having to switch guitars constantly. Really handy when traveling overseas, this one, so you don’t have to haul around four different instruments. I don’t know, technology’s crazy, it’s crazy to think how much gear we used to haul around to make our sound, and now we’re playing out of these little computers, basically, that do everything in one small box, it’s wild.
No, absolutely, it’s so crazy. And there’s new things coming out every day with audio processing, digital, everything you can do where you’re still the one physically playing the guitar, but so much is happening in these digital plugins and processors that transforms it into something completely different. It’s really cool, actually. And I’m sure people, during the pandemic, have had time to develop even more.
For real! I just know for myself and my band, we’re done a lot with home studio stuff in just the last year, because we’ve had the time and we’re stuck at home, so we’re trying to step up our home audio game.
And I’m sure when you have – like you said earlier – labels involved, and there’s deadlines and whatever, you probably find a sound and you’re like, “Okay, this is cool, we’ll stick with it”, but I’m sure if you’re experimenting at home, you have more time to be like, “What would happen if I used *this* pedal or *this* plugin instead”?
Absolutely, we can try out so much more at home before we get into the actual studio with our producers, which is a big win for everyone, really.
Well, like you said, you guys have been keeping super active for the past year, and it’s definitely great for the August Burns Red fanbase out there that’s looking for new stuff from you guys, so it’s cool you’ve been keeping up with it. The livestream is definitely something to look forward to, so other than that – do you have any ideas on what’s next on the plate for August Burns Red, or are you just going to hang out for a while and wait for shows to come back?
Well, we have aspirations to tour in the fall, we are confirmed on a bunch of festivals that have been announced, so we’ll just have our fingers crossed that we can play again, because that’s what our hope is, and that’s the hope of the fans as well. So hopefully people get vaccinated and we can get back to playing again before long.
Well, thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me today, JP, it’s been really cool talking with you and getting to know more about you and your gear and lifestyle and everything. Best of luck with everything!
