Posts Tagged ‘guitar’

8-Track: Every Time I Die

8-Track takes a band with a storied history and identifies eight songs throughout their career that define their strengths as a band, musically, lyrically, and conceptually. Read previous installments here . Where to begin with Every Time I Die, Buffalo’s favorite party animals? A career that has thrown out more filthy guitar licks and jarring breakdowns than a kegger at the Red Bull headquarters can’t quite be summarised in eight tracks; not quite anyway, but we’ve given it a go for our latest installment of the 8-Track feature here at Heavy Blog. Over seven albums and fourteen awesome music videos later, this mathcore/metalcore/hardcore/riffcore band have amassed a following that is just at home at Warped Tour as it is in that shitty venue in your hometown where people are scared of entering. As usual, we’ve picked tracks that we feel best showcase this band across the years. We disagree on the best and worst albums and we can’t even agree on the best tracks from some of these albums, but we tried. We gave it our all, just like this band do with every show and every release. If you haven’t heard Every Time I Die before, this is a great god damn playlist for you to get stuck into. Enjoy. Everyone seems to forget about the first album from these guys. While it’s still very rough and does not sound like they do now, noticeably lacking the “southern hard rock” charm they’ve worked into their sound, it does make for some damn fine metalcore/mathcore. The album is chock full of bangers, but none more so than “The Logic Of Crocodiles”. The beginning is standard mathcore, but then it builds into this really awesome breakdown towards the middle of the song that absolutely rips. It’s a shame these guys don’t really play too many songs from this album live, because it definitely could be turned into an anthem and become a staple. The most noticeable thing about this track is how harsh Keith’s vocals are over the entire thing. It sounds at many times as if he’s straining while screaming, which adds to the the sheer intensity of the song itself. There’s also some very cool chugging that goes on in the song, which is abrasive from beginning to end. Trust me, if you’ve never visited their back catalogue, now’s the time to do so, and you can begin with this piece of history. -Spencer Snitil As unique and abrasive as ETID’s early career was, it didn’t take long for it to catch on.  Hot Damn!  is considered the band’s breakout record, and with tracks like “Ebolarama,” it’s no mystery why the album caught on. Jordan Buckley’s guitar work bears a catchy mix of mathcore spunk and just the right amount of Southern charm to concoct infectiously aggressive riffing throughout the entire track. And while Keith Buckley’s vocals are commanding as always, it’s never clear which way he’ll stretch his larynx next. He’ll be moaning an eerie drawl one moment before launching into a manic roar the next. Of course, the highlights of the track – like every great ETID track – are the moments when the whole band lines up for a full-throttle romp, channeling the unbridled energy of their live performance. Ozzfest may be no more, but the band surely tore up the stage back in the day with tracks like “Ebolarama,” when they first started introducing themselves to audiences as their newest favorite band. – Scott Murphy Can we all take a moment to look back on Guitar Hero 2 and appreciate what that game did for so many of (pre?)teens in our discovery of metal? Dethklok, Shadows Fall, All That Remains, and of course, Every Time I Die were included as bonus tracks to the game’s “official” setlist. Thanks to this game, Every Time I Die were brought into the mainstream for many would-be metalheads in the form of “The New Black,” an almost uncharacteristically catchy and anthemic rock and roll tune that downplayed their hardcore roots in favor of party-ready riffs and the sassiest of hooks. The group have since gone on to become mainstays in the genre — a no doubt creating masterpieces along the way — but “The New Black” maintains as the group’s most iconic track, and for good reason; revisiting this song will leave it stuck in your head for days on end, so get comfy. -Jimmy Rowe At this point in Every Time I Die’s somewhat lengthy and unquestionably respectable career, no song perfectly encapsulates their signature sound quite like the intro track to 2007’s The Big Dirty , “No Son of Mine.” With both this record (and song alone) the band came steamrolling back after the oddly-flat mixing job that plagued 2005’s Gutter Phenomenon and positively pummel for the next three minutes. This track also boasts some of the finest Keith Buckley-isms in the land, including such greats like “leave your drunken accident at the prom,” “shoot that dog if we can’t afford to feed,” and the world’s finest breakdown accompaniment ever, “don’t ever say rock and roll.” Keith’s cryptic and often scatterbrained lyrics can probably be interpreted a number of ways, but his delivery and conviction is incontestable. Back this bizarre frontman up with some off-time, Botch -esque mathcore that’s as heavy on the dissonance as it is accessibility and you’ve got yourself quite a winning recipe. The song seems to begin collapsing about two-thirds of the way through, constantly pushing the band’s heaviness to new heights. It’s a remarkable opener, and it’s one of the band’s live staples for a reason. There were very few bands even attempting this sound back in its time, making “No Son of Mine” all that more unique in context. -Kit Brown Another fat, Southern sounding track crammed full of dirty guitar licks and Buckley poetry, “We’rewolf” is easily the most memorable track from The Big Dirty. The audacity required to kick off a track with straight cowbell hits is reason enough to give the party boys a clap on the back, but there is far more to this particular rager. At surface level, “We’rewolf” is a track written from the perspective of the perennial party animal, one I can empathise with down to a tee. “It’s a full moon, denim is tight and my flannel shirt is freaking out”. A real lyric in a real song and one that could only be taken seriously in sandwiched between dirty ETID riffs and a country lick that Muse DEFINITELY ripped off in “Knights Of Cydonia”, the scumbags. On arguably their weakest release, this track will always help dust off the air guitar skills of anyone shotgunning a beer or drinking a bar out of tequila. Things I love to do, especially with ETID blasting; it just makes sense to get shit faced listening to this track. -Matt MacLennan Biting sarcasm and a poet’s lyrical ability have always been trademarks of the Every Time I Die sound, and on their fifth studio album, New Junk Aesthetic, the band finally managed to hone those traits to a razor’s edge, such as is displayed on “The Marvelous Slut”. The track is a biting commentary provided by the band’s own vocalist, Keith Buckley, as well as The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato who helpfully chimes in during the choruses. In a way, it sums up nearly everything Every Time I Die is, speaking of their rather insane partying on the road (the “slut” Buckley refers to is himself, in reference to his own habits) all laid over the classic, southern-tinged metalcore attack that fans have come to expect. If anything, this song is a definitive crash course in the catalog of ETID, offering up all of their key elements in healthy doses all while still being compacted into a nice, two minute chunk for easy listening. -Jake Tiernan “Revival Mode” always sounded like an early Every Time I Die track slowed down to me. Seriously, imagine it played a good bit faster and it could be a B-side from Hot Damn!. The leering, creeper of a riff that lurches in and out of the track is almost dissonant, ties in with the vocal line on some of the notes and eventually gives way to an organ grinding verse that continues to keep the creep factor alive. On an album full of rambunctious rippers, this seedy track still blows up and into a big ETID refrain with a classic Keith lyric; “I need to pay the judge”, well, don’t we all eventually? While the band experimented with slow burning tracks right up until Ex Lives (and further, on From Parts Unknown), this is the first time that they perfectly balanced that finely tuned aggression with the nasty side of pop music. Finally, the guitar solo that ties up the final movement of the track is just phenomenal and is an example of how to get a guest musician to really raise the game of a track. -Matt MacLennan In my books, From Parts Unknown was one of 2014’s best. Although the album in its entirety has finally found its way out of my heavy rotation, I often find myself coming back to certain tracks – far and away the most notable of which is “Moor”. With its minimalistic opening, characterized by a marked piano motif over top of which Keith Buckley croons along with an eerie sense of calmness, Moor presents itself at first as an anomaly in relation to both the album, and, on a larger scale, to ETID’s entire body of work – that is, of course, until the track abruptly explodes into the aural barrage of pummelling power chords and fierce bellowing for which ETID have come to be known (and adored). The sudden impact only serves to magnify the mood conveyed by the callous lyrics spat by Buckley, who sounds at times as though he’s on the brink of coming unglued: “All I want is his head and this horrible fucking world will be wonderful again / There’s so much beauty and love and when I eat his beating heart I can bring it back to us.” No sooner is this line uttered in a final desperate croak than the track once again falls off into the simple piano-accompanied croon exhibited at the song’s start – only this time the calmness strikes as twice as distubring following the violent episode that is the song’s midsection. A final note in the lower register hangs in mid air to conclude the song, leaving the listener to whether wonder the madness that just hit them had really actually happened. -Elizabeth Wood -HB

Pantera’s Phil Anselmo: ‘It’s a Shame’ Vinnie Paul Never Reached Out to Me

Kathy Flynn, WickedGoddessPhotography.com / Gilbert Carrasquillo, Getty Images The rift between longtime Pantera bandmates Phil Anselmo and Vinnie Paul has been well documented, but that hasn’t kept Anselmo from offering olive branches to open communication in the media over the years. The former Pantera frontman once again opened up about his onetime band and their disintegrated relationships in Revolver magazine’s latest issue, which recently hit newsstands. “I feel bad for Vince,” explained Anselmo in the interview (excerpted by  Blabbermouth ). “People should pity the guy. I wasn’t there when Dimebag [Darrell] was murdered, but he sure as f— was. That’s his flesh and blood, murdered right in front of him. It’s a shame that Vince never reached out to [bassist]  Rex [Brown] and I. I think the healing process would have been beneficial to him, instead of his knee-jerk reaction to fear and his therapy through tit bars and whiskey.” The vocalist added that while he will admit his role through a fair share of mistakes that led to the downfall of Pantera, he wasn’t alone. “One guy can’t break up a band,” says Anselmo. “You have to understand, it goes all four ways when a band breaks up. Yes, I made mistakes. Yes, there was a lack of communication on both sides and some of it is my fault — a lot of it is my fault.” Anselmo also insists that he would have repaired his relationship with Dimebag had the guitar legend not been slain. “We would have made amends. I would like to think he would be proud of me for pulling myself out of the muck, the abyss,” says the frontman. “I just choose to remember the positive things. He was almost like the perfect counterpoint to me. We may have clashed to a certain extent, but we would always find a happy medium. It was a vital relationship that I miss greatiy.” [button href=”http://loudwire.com/vinnie-paul-on-pantera-reunion-it-aint-gonna-happen/” title=”Next: Vinnie Paul Says Pantera Reunion ‘Ain’t Gonna Happen'” align=”center”]

Metallica’s Kirk Hammett + James Hetfield Hang With Vans Pros Nathan Fletcher + Steve Caballero

Kevin Winter, Getty Images As part of the cross-promotion for the new Metallica -created shoe line with Vans, each of the band’s members have been meeting with some of Vans-backed sports athletes for new video features. Robert Trujillo’s clip went up first, with the bassist meeting with Vans team skater Tony Trujillo. Incidentally, both Trujillos, along with Tony’s wife Ashley, have formed the Trujillo Trio and they have tracks that can be downloaded for free  here . On the heels of Trujillo’s video comes new featurettes pairing James Hetfield with pro skateboarder Steve Caballero and guitarist Kirk Hammett with pro surfer Nathan Fletcher. In Hetfield’s video, Caballero is treated to a tour of the frontman’s vintage car collection as well as the Metallica HQ studio. Once inside, the skateboarder visits the band’s “jam room,” which is covered with the fan banners they collected over the years. There’s also the inspiration hallway, filled with photos of iconic acts like the Sex Pistols , Kiss and Black Sabbath , and what Hetfield calls “the frustration zone,” where the members can work out their anger on punching bags. Hammett, meanwhile, reminisces with Fletcher about one of their standout performances, playing alongside Van Halen in the late ’80s. The guitarist also uses the clip to discuss his new Vans shoe. He explained, “The inspiration comes from the fact that I like wearing black and I like the fact that this is a Vans shoe that is completely black. Inside you have a little guitar pick shape stamped in there and what you see is a version of a Ouija board on the guitar pick and the inspiration from that came from one of my guitars.” As for the target audience, he adds, “It’s very subtle. It’s made to cater to those individuals out there who like it none more black.” Watch James Hetfield Give Skater Steve Caballero a Tour of Metallica HQ video platform video management video solutions video player Watch Kirk Hammett + Pro Surfer Nathan Fletcher Catching Some Waves + Licks video platform video management video solutions video player [button href=”http://loudwire.com/casting-call-metallica/” title=”Next: Casting Call – Metallica” align=”center”]

Halestorm’s ‘Love Bites (So Do I)’ Wins 2013 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock / Metal Performance

Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images Congrats are in order for  Halestorm , who were the winners of the Grammy for the Best Hard Rock / Metal Performance at the 55th annual Grammy Awards Sunday night (Feb. 10). The full band was on hand to accept the honor during the pre-telecast ceremony, with frontwoman  Lzzy Hale  and her drummer brother Arejay Hale delivering the bulk of their acceptance speech. Arejay opened the speech, shocked at their victory stating, “Oh Christ, did not completely expect this.” The drummer mentioned that he had written something down that was on his phone, but he mostly went off the cuff. He thanked his and Lzzy’s parents, stating, “Thanks to our parents for turning us onto great music. Most parents want their kids to be doctors and lawyers and our parents encouraged us to join the circus.” Lzzy Hale meanwhile dedicated the award to the “Halestorm freaks,” exclaiming “Here’s to us.” She also shouted out fellow nominees Iron Maiden and Lamb of God , stating, “If it wasn’t for your inspiration … we wouldn’t have written this song and been in this category.” In addition to Halestorm, the category included Anthrax ‘s ‘I’m Alive,’ Iron Maiden’s ‘Blood Brothers,’ Lamb of God’s ‘Ghost Walking,’ Marilyn Manson ‘s ‘No Reflection’ and Megadeth ‘s ‘Whose Life (Is It Anyway?).’ In the Grammy press room, Lzzy added, “[This] wouldn’t have been possible without these people, specifically, Lamb of God. We were inspired by the guitar part … and we wouldn’t have gotten into hard rock if it wasn’t for Megadeth and Iron Maiden, so it’s just amazing.” Talking about the camaraderie in the genre, Lzzy explained, “It’s an incredible genre to be a part of because rock isn’t always the most popular genre. Sometimes we’re underground, but we all work really hard on the road. We all look out for one another.” In addition, Lzzy answered questions about the band’s newfound Grammy cred, stating, “If I sit this in the back of any meetings, you know in the political business…” to which Arejay Hale interjected, “It’s like, ‘Oh yeah? You don’t like that song? Oh, let’s ask Mr. Grammy.’” Elsewhere during the Grammy pre-telecast ceremony, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for ‘Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.’ Though not there in person, Reznor tweeted , “Why thanks, y’all.” Black Keys also won a pair of Grammys during the opening ceremonies, taking home Best Rock Song for ‘Lonely Boy’ and Best Rock Album for ‘El Camino.’ In addition, Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach won the Grammy for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/halestorm-lzzy-hale-on-grammy-nomination-personal-victory-for-the-four-of-us/” title=”Next: Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale Discusses Reaction to Grammy Nomination” align=”center”]

The Darkness Making Plans for 2014 Album

Jo Hale, Getty Images The Darkness ‘ reunion will continue beyond their ‘Hot Cakes’ album and guitarist Dan Hawkins says that fans shouldn’t expect too long of a turnaround before a new record arrives. The guitarist tells Billboard , “I think it’s important the next album comes out quickly. ‘ Hot Cakes ‘ has been a great introduction to let people know we’re back. Now we need to keep the output up, really.” To that end, Hawkins says the band members have already started looking head to the next release. He explains, “Every day we set up our little [portable] studio and start jotting down ideas. It’ll be out in 2014. This year we’ll be touring and writing, then early 2014 we’ll hopefully be recording it or continuing to write it and get it out later that year.” As for what he’s expecting, Hawkins says, “I think we want to get even more old school. We want to make it even more of a performance record. We just want to be really brave and try to do something as live as humanly possible, warts and all. We’ve lost a bit of that in music today. It’s time to get a bit of character in there, so we’ll be going for something as f—ing Route 1 as possible.” Hawkins says he doesn’t envision any of their past problems resurfacing, adding that the band members are “settling into a nice groove.” He adds, “The music is on 11, the gigs are on 11, but the drug intake is on, like, zero to one. That’s how it should be.” The group is currently on tour and will remain on the road in the U.S. through early February. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/dan-hawkins-of-the-darkness-dishes-on-owning-a-custom-guitar-crafted-for-the-legendary-jimmy-page/” title=”Next: The Darkness’ Dan Hawkins on Owning a Custom Made Jimmy Page Guitar” align=”center”]

Watch Chris Cornell Perform at President Obama’s Commander-in-Chief’s Ball

YouTube President Obama began his second term with his inauguration earlier this week and with the ceremony came a number of galas . Soundgarden ‘s Chris Cornell , one of Obama’s many supporters, was invited to perform at the Commander-in-Chief’s Ball, which recognized Medal of Honor recipients and Wounded Warriors, and video footage of his entire performance has surfaced online. Cornell, armed with an acoustic guitar, took the stage to perform a trio of cover songs. However, with some microphone problems on the guitar, the set really provided a spotlight on his voice. The vocalist took the stage, telling the audience, “I’ve got to say this is an honor to play for you guys and to celebrate this event, the re-election of President Obama, so thank you so much.” From there he launched into ‘(What’s So Funny Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding,’ the Nick Lowe song popularized by Elvis Costello. After making note of the microphone issue, he would perform his other two tracks with a little more amplification for the guitar. First came a powerful performance of the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic ‘Long As I Can See the Light,’ which really showed off the wonderful rasp and emotion in Cornell’s voice. He followed with what he called “a song of hope or an impossible dream maybe” — a cover of John Lennon ‘s ‘Imagine.’ The full almost ten-minute performance can be seen below. Cornell would return later in the evening with the full Soundgarden lineup to perform at the Inaugural Ball , doing a three-song set of ‘Been Away Too Long,’ ‘Outshined’ and ‘Rusty Cage’ for those in attendance. Watch Chris Cornell’s Commander-in-Chief’s Ball Performance [button href=”http://loudwire.com/soundgarden-talk-future-albums-perform-at-inaugural-balls/” title=”Next: Chris Cornell Discusses Soundgarden’s Future” align=”center”]

Jason Newsted Talks ‘Metal’ EP, ‘Soldierhead’ Single, James Hetfield’s Influence + More

NewstedHeavyMetal.com Former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted is back in a big way with his new band, simply called Newsted. The outfit has just released a new EP called ‘Metal’ and it features the blistering new single ‘Soldierhead.’ We spoke with Newsted for nearly an hour, and he covered everything from his new music to beating Justin Bieber on the iTunes chart to his current relationship with the guys in Metallica. In Part 1 of our interview, Newsted discusses his ‘Metal EP’ ( available on iTunes ), the new single ‘Soldierhead’ and the influence that Metallica frontman James Hetfield has had on him. Check out Part 1 of our interview with Jason Newsted below: The material on this new EP has a lot of interesting shades to it from the full on attack of “Soldierhead” to the almost Thin Lizzy-like tones that thread through the beginning of ‘Kings of the Underdogs.’ How does it all fit together for you? It’s all metal, you know? It’s all heavy music. Some of it’s fast and some of it’s slow and it has some of those different nuances that you’re speaking of. I think a lot of my obvious great teachers and heroes really rear their heads. Motorhead, [Laughs] Motorhead is one of the heads that rears for sure! [Also] Black Sabbath’s stuff and some of the original Ted Nugent band [material with] Rob Grange playing bass — some of that real musicality with old school bass players — that kind of thing comes through in some of the bass lines. I wrote all of the songs on GarageBand and iPad last August/September and played all of the instruments. I played all of the rhythm guitars on all of the recordings, played bass on half of the tracks [and] Jessie [Farnsworth] played bass on some of the other tracks and then lead guitars, I did some [guitar] leads, but all lead vocals. And then Jessie, he did background vocals, too. So it was my baby from the beginning and that’s kind of why it’s got my name on it, too. Because it’s the first time in my career that I’ve written the whole album from top to bottom myself, so it’s worthy of the name this time. When it came to branding it with your name as opposed to a band name, did you have any sort of hesitation about doing that? No, not really. It kind of all made sense, just because of what I explained. I never have an issue coming up with band names like a lot of my friends do. I just don’t have problems. I’ve always…I think anyway, [come up with interesting band names like] Echobrain and Papa Wheelie and a million of the other ones on projects — the different cool stuff we’ve come up with for years and years. So it was appropriate that the name’s on there. And also, now that this time has passed and I have spent 30 years working on this — half of it in Metallica and half of it with other bands — it’s a global thing. You know, Metallica is bigger across the ocean than it is in the United States. It always has been from the beginning. In that whole thing, we traveled around 50 countries we played in to take the music around. So I have to approach it as that and no matter what language you speak, if you are at all familiar with metal circles from the last few decades, “Newsted,” you know what that means and “metal,” you know what that means, no matter what language you speak. And I want to make it real clear that because of all of the diverse acts that I’ve played with and the music that I’ve recorded – Echobrain, Gov’t Mule, Sepultura, Unkle – you know, pick a few of those. I want to make sure that everybody is very clear on what they’re getting when they go after this one. Hearing ‘Soldierhead’ as the opening shot from this EP, it communicates and suggests that you’ve got a pretty good idea of what kind of music people want to hear from Jason Newsted at this point. How much did that play into what you’ve been writing? Is that something you think about? No, that’s kind of strange, actually. I’m old school metal. I can’t be anything but that. You know, I stretch out and round myself out playing with these other styles, Gov’t Mule and whatever [else] like that to make myself a better player, but I’m still old school thrash metal, man. And that’s what comes out, when I bare down on it and I play what I play best, this is what you get. This is what I spent the most years/months/weeks/eons playing [Laughs]. So that’s my forte, you know? So it’s what I know best and that’s why it’s what you’re hearing. I’m really not…..the fans did call me back into this and I am doing this because of the fans [and] because I want to. There is nothing about worrying about making money or selling a million records or any of that, [that] is not in the mix. The mix is about anybody sharing it with me that wants to. I have enough friends and fans around the world [and I] hope they’ll dig it for what it is and that’s all I really want. I want to be able to share it with anybody who wants to hear it. You know, when I went and played with Metallica at the end of 2011 at the Fillmore – when I got that response from the fans that I did that week….dude, for real, I’ve been telling everybody this, but it’s the absolute truth – they pulled me back in. They asked for it – they screamed for it [and] they looked right through me, right to the back of my skull and said “dude, we are so happy to see you – can you please do more?” and that’s really what it came down to. And now, as I reach myself out in the last couple of months on my social media and stuff, I am realizing how important that Metallica has been in so many people’s lives. And that I was always the people person in that band. I spent so much time with fans in my career that it’s really coming back to me in a very strong positive manner. How did you channel that when you approached making this music? Because I think some people might expect that you would take an experience like that and make an EP that sounds a lot like what you did with Metallica. There’s elements of that in this, but it’s certainly not all about that. I think really, as we started out talking, the influences show themselves very clearly and then [also] the people that I have been privileged enough to spend time with for myself, to learn from greater players. [James] Hetfield the most years, obviously, and he is the very best at what he does. No one can touch that same growl, playing those kind of guitar parts, singing the way he sings. He is it. So I got to be around that for a long time, in dressing rooms, it’s Lars [Ulrich] and Kirk [Hammett] in that one and Jason and James in that one. That’s how it was for the whole time. So as far as taking that on, you take on each other’s things. When you saw our Metallica onstage, after a while when we got in sync, it looked like we belonged together, really, a lot. It really fired off in that way and James and I took on each others movements, actions, styles and things like that. Anything that I got exposed to for a few years – even the guys from Echobrain, the way that they went about it in their musicality of things and their understanding of the way music goes together and songwriting and stuff – I learned a lot from that. And most of all, I think the four or five years that I spent with Voivod, were the biggest learning things for me, because the challenge was greater. You know, they speak in French and A-B-C-D-E on the guitar to them is do re mi fa so la ti and so that already to begin with was a challenge and then you go to Piggy’s [late Voivod guitarist Denis D’Amour] guitar playing and he doesn’t tune his guitar like anybody else tunes it – he tunes it his way. But it’s not a tuning that you can say “hey, he’s playing an A chord, because he’s not.” So all of that learning experience and especially with Snake [Voivod vocalist Denis Belanger], the vocal approach, weaving the words in – English is his second language, so he has no in between connector words. He just goes the direction that every word means something. So that kind of approach and just the way that he does weave it – I think he’s the very best at that, as far as me being a fan. I learned so much from him. Taking in all of these experiences, this is what we get now, from me paying attention. Vocally, how easy was it finding your vocal space when you came down to recording this material. Because I do hear the influence of your time with Voivod, but I also hear other things, so I’m just curious where you really were drawing from? I’ve been working on my real voice for like 10 years. Always, when we do the improv jams at Chophouse [Newsted’s recording studio] or any of the other things, I have my books of poetry and songs and stuff and they’re just put up on a music stand and we rock through improv stuff and I sing and sing it and sing it. [There’s] been years and years of that, developing a real voice instead of just “Diiiiiiie” [imitates guttural metal vocal] and all of that stuff, right? I can still do all of that of course – that’s what I’m kind of known for. The Papa Wheelie voice and things like that and in the beginning the IR8 voice and all of that Sepultura stuff. As time has gone by now, and especially with Echobrain, I tried to start learning to sing a little bit more. It’s actually a new voice [with this material] – I have a new voice, even though I’ve got some years under my belt, this is a new thing. I work it out like I do my regular workout of situps and pushups and all of that – I work my voice out as well with training, so I can be as good of a singer as I can when I present this to people, because I feel that the performances on the recordings are quite good and I really worked with them a long time and I practiced them a lot to get to that place. So it’s something that I’ve been really consciously working on for about a decade to try to come away from the Cookie Monster [vocals] all of the time. Some of the transitions and pacing of this material are really interesting. The moment when ‘King of the Underdogs’ kicks in right around the one minute mark is just brutal. Can you talk a bit about the building process for that song? Oh thank you – I love that part too! [Laughs] That song’s a little bit older and it just showed up that way. You know, once I built the songs, I’d burn a disc and I’d give it to Jessie and Jesse [Jesus “Jesse” Mendez, former Metallica drum tech and current Newsted drummer] and they’d go study for a week or two and come back and we’d hit it and then we’d create what the songs are. So that just came from, building from the demo and then just going over and over and over it until we got what we liked and then we were able to really capture it in the studio. It’s just a natural thing — it just showed up. A lot of this stuff dude, it’s the same as the paintings – I just make myself available – I reach up and I touch into that zone and it just comes and I just channel it and I make sure that the recorder is on. I think – and I didn’t realize it until now, because I went so full on, with the recording of all of the parts and understanding the compositions of stuff like that – that the way I had to go about it was a long road, but when I finally got there, I was ready. All of the things that I had done, I was ready for it, so when I started channeling the music, it was recorded right away as it hit me, because I had a guitar in my hands. It makes for the immediacy of the song – like that part that you’re particularly speaking of — there’s such an anticipation….that tension and that thing that comes, that was a channeled thing — it just happens because I made it available and my capacity from studying all of the years, I could do it when it came to me. But it really is like that. ‘Soldierhead,’ I think it probably came to me in like 10 minutes and I got the main riff down and then the lyrics just came to me and I said “this is going to be the one” and I had it done by that night and it just showed up, because I keep chasing it, man. Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Jason Newsted interview, in which he delves deeper into his new music and beating Justin Bieber on an iTunes chart, and Part 3, in which he talks about his relationship with Metallica and reminisces on his days in the legendary metal band. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/newsted-soldierhead-video/” title=”Click to Watch Newsted’s ‘Soldierhead’ Video” align=”center”] ?