Archive | Interviews
It’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon outside the Palladium Theatre in Worcester, MA. But after playing an early and criminally short set at the New England Metal & Hardcore Festival’s second day, Doc Coyle has no time to relax in the sun. He’s rushing around outside of the venue trying to make sure that each and every interviewer gets a chance to speak with him or his bandmates. And for a guy who had just been onstage a few hours earlier, he’s doing a pretty damn good job keeping his band on track.
Metal Insider was fortunate enough to pull Doc himself aside outside the Palladium Theatre for his last interview of the long day. During our chat, Coyle spoke about life after their latest album Equilibrium’s release, his love for the history and origins of heavy metal, and the learning experience that came following his brother Dallas’ departure from God Forbid.
Equilibrium has been out for a few weeks now. With all the work that went into the recording, how does it feel now to have the album released?
Yeah, in a lot of ways our work is kind of done as far as the album is out of our hands, and it’s up to people to decide whether they like it and how the word of mouth spreads. It has to develop its own life. Right now we’re about playing, and the playing live experience is different than the album and it’s its own thing. You have to kind of cultivate that and really, it’s our job to represent those songs as well as we can. But in terms of how it’s received, it’s either going to happen or it’s not. It’s cool either way.
I mean, it’s been getting great reviews. I think it’s one of the best of the year to come out so far.
I like it! [laughs]
Does it at all feel like “Ah, job well done!”?
I mean, I feel very satisfied. I listen to the album and I’m very happy to hear it, I enjoy listening to it. You want to be proud. I think a lot of times you do records and you’re like “Ah, I don’t like that part!” I mean, I like all of our albums, but with age you listen and go “Oh, that’s not as cool as I remember it being” or maybe “Oh, we probably should have shortened that song!” But it feels good right now. I’m sure I’ll be not liking something about the album in a year, but maybe not. Maybe this is our classic, I don’t know. Like I said, you don’t know what it is, and that happens with a lot of albums that become big albums. People don’t necessarily know from the start that, it develops a life of its own and the people will decide. Read more »
Don’t fool yourself, being the “new guy” in any band is never an easy task. A lot of pressure is on them to keep the group moving forward. Yet it’s also a nerve-wrecking experience for said band, especially when they’ve been out of the spotlight for an extended period of time. So it’s extremely understandable that both singer Marc Hudson and Dragonforce had a lot on their mind prior to performing at this year’s New England Metal & Hardcore Festival (which also served as the kickoff to their first full North American tour).
Yet when Metal Insider spoke to the new singer and bassist Frederic Leclercq aboard their tour bus just hours before they took the stage, they did a hell of a job hiding any of their fears. During our chat, the two members of Dragonforce talked about the nerves that went into performing and recording, the goal of focusing on song structure with their new album The Power Within, and their thoughts on a world without Guitar Hero.
After working on music with Dragonforce for over a year now, how does it feel to finally have The Power Within released? Relieved?
Marc: Yes! [laughs]
Frederic: Yeah, finally!
Marc: Definitely. For me, it’s the first album. So we’ve been really excited for it to come out. And now that it’s finally here, it’s pretty cool.
I know that the audition process took place before this, but you [Marc] “officially” joined Dragonforce over a year ago. Have you gained more confidence as the band’s frontman over that time period?
Marc: Yeah, I think so. I mean, I had a lot to learn when I started. Obviously I had come from a completely unprofessional background. But these guys have been telling me how stuff works and how to better behave onstage. Now things are really coming together. So I think things are getting easier and easier. Read more »
Hearing the names Black Sabbath and Pantera attached to a project is without a doubt a great way to get any metal fan’s attention. So the fact drummer Vinny Appice (Black Sabbath, Dio, Heaven & Hell) and bassist Rex Brown (Pantera, Down), along with singer Dewey Bragg (Pissing Razors) and guitarist Mark Zavon (Ratt, W.A.S.P., 40 Cycle Hum), joined forces in a new group called Kill Devil Hill isn’t something to take lightly. We’ve had the chance to see them live up to expectations onstage last Fall, but fans will get to hear what Kill Devil Hill has to offer in the studio when they release their debut self-titled album on May 22.
Rewind a few weeks back, though. We had the chance to speak with Vinny Appice himself. And indeed it was an interesting time to talk with him, considering everything that’s been happening with his former band. During our chat, we asked him the inevitable questions regarding Black Sabbath (including how Tony Iommi has been holding up, as well as about that empty seat behind their drum kit). However, Appice also opened up about the birth of Kill Devil Hill, revealed that he worked with Dave Grohl on a song for his Sound City Studios documentary, and reflected on the special moments he shared with the late Ronnie James Dio.
While Kill Devil Hill’s debut album definitely has a modern edge to it, I also hear a lot of influence from each member’s past bands (especially Black Sabbath and Down). Were you ever afraid, though, that you and Brown’s past fame may overshadow Kill Devil Hill at all?
No, not really. I thought it was plus, coming from such major and heavy bands. These days, it’s hard to do something without some star power in it or whatever you want to do; even concerts, packaging “KISS/ Motley Crue.” People want value for their money. [laughs] That’s not why we did it.
The funny thing is, we didn’t put this together and write those songs to sound like any of those bands. Actually, a lot of the material was started before Rex was involved. It was just the way Mark [Zavon, guitarist] plays, and a lot of my ideas were in there, keeping the riffs heavy but gentle. I like the fact that it’s compared to Sabbath, or Down, or Alice In Chains or whoever. They’re all great bands, but we never sit there and go “Oh, let’s try and sound like this!” It just came out. It’s like a good fart [laughs].
Well it definitely doesn’t smell like one.
[Laughs] There’s a lot of people who have asked that over the years with Dio and Sabbath. They go “Oh, did you want it to sound like this?” You know what, all of those bands never thought of themselves as sounding like anything. It just came out. It’s just a combination of people that are writing the songs and playing them, and develops into a product or a baby almost. All of these different fathers, and then a baby comes out. That’s the way it works. Read more »
When you see piece of artwork by Thomas Hooper, be it a tattoo, a painting or one of the limited number of album covers (Tombs, Doomriders, Scott Kelly) that he has done, it bears an unmistakable mark of quality. You can stare at his work for hours, return a few days later and pick up something completely new. Words like “sublime” come to mind.
You have the sense that there are feelings and higher concepts woven into the fabric of the work, it’s not just decoration, like so much of what passes for “creativity” or “art” is in this disposable age. It hints are a more workmanlike approach that has more in common with an artisan than an artist, yet there is so much more. Spirituality? Maybe, but the impact of Hooper’s work is undeniable.
I had the opportunity to meet up with the Sidley, UK native in his Brooklyn studio to talk about his work, new projects and the meaning of fatherhood.
What came first for you, tattooing or painting?
Tattooing. My mother was an artist and I grew up loving art. She had a studio at home and was always creating art, and I was very inspired by that. My father played music, when I turned 14 or 15, I decided to do neither; it wasn’t a mistake but it stopped me for a bit. If I had done it from that age I would be five years ahead right now. Different paths: I studied mechanical engineering for two years and learned about design.
I just couldn’t get on; I wasn’t good at math. When we got to complex numbers and stresses on helicopter blades and stuff like that, it was beyond me. But I enjoyed the technical drawing and being creative. I enjoyed having that object and that idea in your mind and making it into this tangible thing.
You worked as a machinist for a while; do you think engineering and your experiences as a machinist influenced your work?
Definitely. I think I’m at this stage where I have these different tools and bits of language that are in my art where I don’t fully understand them quite yet. I’m still learning about which ones appeal to me and I’ll have to sit down and further fully understand why they relate to me. I kind of just allow myself to be naturally drawn to things. But I think the draw to wanting to be an engineer and make things is the same as wanting to paint and create on paper and such.
I did the engineering, was lost, didn’t know what to do. Took a year off, worked in the engineering field and hated it. I had friends doing it and I could see if I stuck with this in two years I could be making more money. But I just can’t do 9-5; I grew up listening to punk music. Just didn’t work for me. I worked listening to punk rock on my headphones in a place where you’re asked to not show initiative. When I left engineering, I traveled America a bit, riding my bike. I was really into photography. So my mother said “Oh, why don’t you explore art again?” She knew she didn’t want to push the drawing/art thing, so she encouraged me to go and study photography. So I did that through a media studies course. I studied film, photography and graphic design and magazine production type stuff. That was great; I wanted to be a photographer for a minute. I really wanted to be a cinematographer; but I didn’t want to be a runner on a film set, or an assistant photographer for ten years, it just wasn’t appealing.
Then my mother encouraged me further to study in the Art Foundation, just to learn all the aspects of art. At that point, I started getting tattooed and wanted to learn that craft, and the two kind of melded together. I met William Green, who was the father of a close friend. William had been a famous painter from the fifties and sixties in England. He wanted me to meet him because I was into art. We got along and I started photographing his home and his art practice. He did these dark and very destroyed and broken down type things. Then I started to learn to tattoo and went to school and got a degree in drawing. Read more »
Headlining the New England Metal & Hardcore Festival is a nerve racking experience to begin with, especially if you’re a band from Massachusetts. Now imagine if that headlining gig was not only your first show in two years, but also your first show in nine years with your original frontman following a public split with a prominent band member. Well, that’s exactly the scenario Killswitch Engage found themselves in on the night of April 22. However, as you’ve probably already heard via reviews (like ours) or seen from fan filmed footage, Killswitch Engage overcame their nerves and lived up to fans’ expectations (and then some).
Roughly two hours before taking the stage that night at the Palladium Theatre, Metal Insider had the chance to speak with bassist Mike D’Antonio backstage. During our chat, D’Antonio revealed when it became obvious that Howard Jones’ time in the band had come to an end, what the audition process in finding a new singer looked like, how Jesse Leach has energized the group upon his return, and what the future of album covers as an art form may entail.
We’re a few hours away from Killswitch Engage’s set at the NEMHF. I just have to ask given everything that’s happened up to this point, what’s going through your mind right now? Are you at all nervous?
Yeah, I am extremely nervous, and I never get nervous before shows. But we haven’t been onstage for two years. It’s been a long time! I mean, I’ve done other things and other bands, but not on this scale. And this really means a lot. So it’s got to be right, which is a ton of pressure. But they are songs we’ve played a ton of times, and I’m sure they’ll go great. But there’s just that uncertainty that something could go wrong.
I remember seeing you with Death Ray Vision last year at the NEMHF, and it’s amazing how much has changed in a year. With that in mind, I have to ask: at what point did it become apparent that Killswitch Engage was no longer going to move forward with Howard Jones?
When we started writing the new record, there was just no creative juices flowing on his end. And after the last record, we kind of got a sense that things weren’t going right. Then the interim, in between the two years that we had off and writing the new record, it was just not going into the proper direction. We could tell that it was stifled, a very stifled situation. So that’s all I can really say. It was easy to tell. Read more »
Chances are John 5 is best known for his work with Rob Zombie. However, the collection of musicians the guitarist has performed and written music with reads as a “who’s who” list: everyone from Marilyn Manson to David Lee Roth, from Rob Halford to Lynyrd Skynard, and from Meatloaf to K.D. Lang. Yet despite keeping himself busy with other musicians and Rob Zombie, John 5 still finds the time to record instrumental solo material that pushes the boundaries of traditional guitar playing. And on May 8, John 5 will release his sixth solo album God Told Me To.
Somehow, John 5 found a spare moment to talk with Metal Insider. During our chat, the guitarist discussed the challenges of creating acoustic material over electric, how he constantly learns from every musician he works with, the upcoming projects he’s been working on (including new music with Rob Zombie AND Rod Stewart), and how he continues to love working with Zombie.
I just want to start off talking about your new solo album, God Told Me To, which features half electric and acoustic songs. Do you find playing or writing in one style more difficult than the other?
That is a good question. I kind of look at it as, ‘I want to keep this song interesting and have a good melody in it.’ So I guess both are very difficult in a sense because I want to make it really good. Maybe the acoustic is a little more difficult, especially something like “Noche Acosador” because its flamenco music and it’s something I don’t rock every day, but I wanted to make it authentic and sound really good. So something like that is a lot more difficult then something I’ll write every day. So yeah, I think the acoustic stuff is a little bit more difficult because I’m not playing acoustic every day like I am electric.
Maybe the right word might be more “challenging”? Because I can hear that you’re a little more hesitant to say difficult.
Well, I don’t know because it’s kind of hard to describe. It’s like trying to describe the color blue or something like that. You get into a different mind frame when you’re doing acoustic music.
I was kind of surprised this was the first time you released acoustic material.
Yes, I have done little acoustic pieces on other albums, but never a whole half of a record. I took the acoustic music to a different level instead of just playing a ballad with nice melodies. I did rhythmic tapping on the body of the guitar, on the wood of the guitar. I’m using violin bow a lot; I’m using mandolin. It’s a little more challenging in that way instead of just playing a ballad on an acoustic or something. So it is a little more challenging, acoustic music. Bbut a lot of fun for me because I love challenges. So that’s what it’s all about for me, if it’s a challenge and it comes out to be a nice piece of music then I’m really happy with the outcome. Especially with this record, I’m very, very, very happy with the outcome of the music. I’ll listen to it and be like “Oh that came out really good!”
This is your sixth solo album. How do you approach writing solo material differently than in a group setting as with Rob Zombie?
Sometimes I’ll start out with a riff, and the riffs are just good rock riffs like you would hear on the radio. But instead of a vocal coming in, it’s a crazy guitar. I would think that same question when I first started doing this instrumental music back with Vertigo. I would think “How am I going to do this? Is this just an extended guitar solo through the song?” which it’s not. I try to give it a verse, a B section and a chorus just as you would in other songs. And other guitar instrumentalists do the same thing and they have a nice verse, with a cool guitar thing going on, a B section and a melodic chorus. That’s the kind of instrumental music I like. I’m not really a big fan of instrumental music that’s just a big long guitar solo over a rock track. I just don’t think there’s a lot of thought into that. Like the big guys, that’s who I listen to and that’s where I got a lot of my inspiration for writing and doing instrumental music. There’s so many great ones out there now too, it’s great I love it. Read more »
April is proving to be a hectic yet exciting month for Brendon Small. Metalocalypse, the Adult Swim series chronicling the lives of everyone’s favorite animated death metal group Dethklok, kicks off its fourth season on April 29. As if that wasn’t enough, the show’s co-creator will be releasing his first solo project Galaktikon on the same day via his newly launched website.
With so much on his plate, we were lucky that Small had time to breathe, let alone talk with us. During our chat, Small discussed the origins and inspiration behind his “high stakes intergalactic extreme rock” album, what it’s like working with Adult Swim, what might potentially lie ahead for Galaktikon and Dethklok, how music and comedy go hand in hand together, and what he considers to be his proudest accomplishment.
I know Galaktikon came about while you were in the studio waiting to record the second Dethklok album. But how did the idea of adding a concept to the material come about?
I don’t think I can write unless I have a story or characters. I can do one-off songs, but I think it’s a lot of extra work you don’t need to do. Looking back, some of my favorite stuff that got me excited about story and music and all this stuff were these bigger concept albums. Even going back to musicals, [like] Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Jesus Christ Superstar and Tommy. That was a big thing for me growing, seeing them. And I thought “Oh, Jesus Christ Superstar is a fucked up, weird story from the bad guy’s point of view.” Then Tommy’s this weird story about this kid who wills himself to go blind because he saw something horrible. It’s just all these weird dark storylines [that] I was kind of into as a kid.
And then by the time I was 13 or 14 years, my buddy down the street introduced me to King Diamond’s Them, and I thought “Oh I get it, there’s people everywhere doing this!” And then [Rush’s] 2112, and ELO [Electric Light Orchestra] had concept albums. Almost all of their albums were concept albums. There was an outer space one called Time I thought was pretty cool. Movie music and music that supports story was all kind of exciting to me. So that’s the angle I naturally approach it from.
Do you think that “concept” is missing or lacking in today’s current scene?
Well, I know that Mastodon does it. I think most of their albums are concept driven. They’re thinking of an overall album rather than song to song. Almost like comedy guys. Louis C.K. is a funny comic because his whole routine is about him, his life, his family and how he reacts to it. Whereas Steven Wright is living joke to joke, and they’re all really funny and incredibly well crafted. But that’s a harder thing to do as oppose to carving out a personality or story or an art.
I think it’s really interesting to hear you talk about comedy because I feel that you do such an amazing job blending comedy and metal music together with Metalocalypse and Dethklok.
Thanks. I mean, they’re not that far away from each other, to be honest. If you understand committing to the thing, you can make it funny or you can make it dark. You just have to commit to either one. Read more »
Attendees to this year’s Paganfest have been pleasantly surprised by opening act, Huntress. While the band’s debut album, Eight of Swords (Napalm) doesn’t get its national release until May 8, their blend of traditional metal and thrash has undoubtedly perked up more than a few show concertgoers’ ears from beneath their viking helmets. Much of that is due to vocalist Jill Janus. Since joining up with the remainder of the band, who had been called Professor, the classically-trained Janus (she’s in the center – duh) has brought her four-octave range and outspoken personality to the band. We caught up with Janus prior to their show at New York’s Gramercy Theater to talk about being on tour without an album out, the preconceived notions of a onetime model joining a band (Janus has graced the pages of Playboy) and who their dream tourmates would be.
So, here you are on the Pagan Fest. How does it feel being one of about seven girls out there every night?
It feels so sexy. But in all sincerity it is a huge honor being on a bill of such reputable bands especially without having a record label – I mean without having a record out. See I’m so used to not being signed (laughter).
You have a label, it happened, congratulations!
I do? I do! Thank you so much! Yeah, we were put on this bill without an album out. Now, after this were going to be on the Dragonforce tour so that’s actually when our album drops.
That’s pretty awesome…
Yeah dude, I can teach them a few things about playing guitar!
You guys probably will have to speed up a bit.
Yeah, ya think?!
So was joining a major tour without your album out yet an issue?
You know it was never brought up. I think that there has been such a showing of support and faith for Huntress for the very beginning. I’m so grateful and I don’t really know where exactly it’s coming from but we’ll take it. I think when we signed with Napalm, there are two other bands on this bill that are signed to Napalm, Turisas, I believe are signed to Century Media. So I think we’re also grouped in because were family. At the same time, it’s kind of mind blowing that people are showing such support with us not even having a record out yet. Read more »
Even with a slight uptick in sales for 2011, it’s no secret that the record industry has seen better days. But despite the gloom and doom, publicist Josh Eldridge earlier this week announced the formation of a new metal label, Gravedancer Records. With support from his day job as a publicist at The MuseBox, Eldridge has launched the label, which will be distributed by EMI (the label group behind March Is Metal Month). With releases from Conan, Byzantine and Chrome Waves coming out this year, the label will also become an American partner for Europe’s Roadburn and Burning World Records. Eldridge spoke to Metal Insider about the new label, how his time at Century Media prepared him for launching a label, and what he’ll be looking for in artists.
So how did the label come about?
I finished up at Century Media last year and joined up with the MuseBox doing marketing and PR. As the head of marketing, doing A&R on what kind of clients we bring in, now was the time to do it. So with their help and assistance on the label service side of things and EMI Distribution, we decided to launch Gravedancer. It’s a way for me to work with the metal that I really love, which is why we’re in this business in the first place. I’d worked with Sid McCain [from EMI] for a long time going back to the Century days, and she was excited. I signed the first project a few weeks ago, Chrome Waves from Chicago. which is Stavros from Atlas Moth, Bob from The Gates of Slumber and Apostle of Solitude and Jeff from Nachtmystium and Wolvhammer. It’s an amazing fucking record. It’s very doomy and black metally like you would expect from those guys. The next thing we picked up is Byzantine, who used to be on Prosthetic. Chris Adler from Lamb of God discovered them and they signed to Prosthetic just as Lamb of God was jumping to Epic. They’re groovy but also technical. They get a lot of comparisons to Lamb of God and Meshuggah. They’d taken a hiatus, but now they’re back. We’re going to be recording in May and looking at an October release, tentatively. The Chrome Waves record will be a July 3rd release.We’re going to have CDs, digital and a very limited run of crazy vinyl packages that Jeff and Stavros are designing.
The third piece of the puzzle I’ve been working on is a partnership with Roadburn. That’s one of the most exciting things I have ever worked on. The Roadburn festival has become so iconic, and I’m a huge fan. I got excited about this and I saw a cool opportunity and we partnered up. So we’ll be putting stuff out from Roadburn/Burning World Records. The partnership can grow from there. We’re starting with the Conan record which is an amazing crusty, UK, doom metal band. We just premiered a track on Pitchfork and it’s got a lot of great attention. So that’s really my forte, the really technical stuff or the heavy, balls-out doomy, black metal kind of stuff. That’s what I’m trying to bring out with Gravedancer and I think we have three great records that fit that very well.
When is the Conan record coming out?
We’re finalizing everything right now as far as layout, but we’re eyeing a July 31st release date.
So Gravedancer launches in July?
Yeah, July will be the first releases. Then we’ve got the October release and we’ll go from there. I’ve been taking a lot of meetings with friends, and people have been receptive so I think we’ll have a lot of killer releases this year. Read more »
As the most recognizable face of Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy was synonymous with the band for a quarter century. When he left, many wondered what he would do to pass the time. He quickly answered that by playing with Avenged Sevenfold for an album (Nightmare) and tour before leaving them as well. As to what he’s been up to since, fans of the Long Island skinsman can pick up two albums featuring his work, both of which were just released: the hard rock supergroup Adrenaline Mob (featuring Symphony X vocalist Russell Allen) and the more proggy Flying Colors (with Deep Purple’s Steve Morse). Portnoy spoke to Metal Insider about the two albums being released more or less simultaneously, why he cares what fans and blogs say about him, and the status of the Progressive Nation tour.
What are your thoughts on having both the Adrenaline Mob and Flying Colors records out now? Did you know they would both hit at the same time?
No, it really wasn’t by design or part of any master plan. They were recorded many months apart last year. The Flying Colors album was started around January and the Adrenaline Mob album was started around April. So they were scattered in terms of recording, so I assumed they would come out that way. But it just turned out, with two different record companies, they both scheduled it for March releases. So at first I thought it was a crazy move, but the more I thought about it and the more I’ve sort of seen this evolve, I think it’s actually been a good thing. I think there was a lot of speculation or anticipation as to what I would be coming out with after Dream Theater. I think if only one of these albums came out it wouldn’t paint the full picture.
Flying Colors is more of a pop, alternative, prog kind of thing and Adrenaline Mob is more of a hard rock metal thing. So I’m glad people are actually going to get to hear both of these albums at the same time so you can kind of hear the balance of what I’m doing. It’s not just one or the other. It’s about both of them, and it’s about both of those styles. That’s what I’m about. I love so many different kinds of music and that’s what I want to do with my career post Dream Theater, I want do lots of different things. So it’s kind of cool people are getting to hear the yin and the yang at the same time.
If you had been asked to join a super proggy metally, kind of Dream Theater-esque band, would you have purposefully not done it? Did you want to explore?
Yeah, honestly I was interested in exploring different things that don’t sound like Dream Theater. I did Dream Theater for twenty five years and all of the projects I did while in Dream Theater, whether they were Liquid Tension Experiment or Transatlantic, they were always rooted in prog. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Obviously I love it, it’s a huge part of what I do. But one of the things I really wanted to do now is explore other things with other types of players. And to be honest, everything that I’m currently doing kind of fell into my lap. I didn’t really initiate any of these things. I didn’t initiate Flying Colors, I didn’t initiate Adrenaline Mob, I didn’t initiate the John Sykes thing when I was working with him. These were all things that came my way.
But to get back on track to what I was going to say, when Russell Allen approached me to check out what he was working on and if I would be interested in it, to be honest, I was kind of fearing that it would sound like Symphony X meets Dream Theater, which is just not what I wanted to do. So I was pleasantly surprised when I hit play and heard the demo of “Undaunted,” and suddenly it was just these big riffs and Russ’ big vocals. I think the fact that it didn’t sound like Dream Theater or Symphony X is what drew me to it and really appealed to me. Read more »
It’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon outside the Palladium Theatre in Worcester, MA. But after playing an early and criminally short set at the New England Metal & Hardcore Festival’s second day, Doc Coyle has no time to relax in the sun. He’s rushing around outside of the venue trying to make sure that each and every interviewer gets a chance to speak with him or his bandmates. And for a guy who had just been onstage a few hours earlier, he’s doing a pretty damn good job keeping his band on track. 
Posted by Zach Shaw on Wed, May 16, 2012 at 11:59 am
Interviews