Razor & Tie All That Remains singer Phil Labonte appeared on Loudwire Radio recently to discuss the military, religion and the band’s new album ‘A War You Cannot Win’ with the show’s host, Sandman. In case you missed it, check out a transcript of the interview below. Sandman: Your band, All That Remains, on the verge of putting out your sixth album and coincidentally it’s on Election Day. Is that coincidence or not? Phil Labonte: You know, I’m very political and I think that most of the people that are … there’s people that are into a band that pay absolutely no attention to the members, and there are people that are into a band that want to know what the band think and what they had for dinner and blah, blah, blah. Anyone that’s into the band members and wants to follow us on the Internet, whether it be Twitter or Facebook, whatever, those people know that I’m very political. And … it wasn’t my idea! I swear to god, it wasn’t my idea to spit it out on Election Day! I swear to god! I’m not the guy that’s going to go ahead and try to keep people with my crap, I’m not afraid to tell people the truth so it’s like, people may think “Oh, Phil wanted to go ahead and do this because he’s all into politics and that.” It wasn’t my idea at all. When they brought it to me, the label said “Hey, how about we do this on Election Day?” And I like “That’d be way cool! Yes! Let’s do this!” It wasn’t my idea; I didn’t come up with it. S: You were only compliant. That’s it. P: Exactly, exactly. I was, I was, definitely. I was the label’s bitch at that point. S: The album ‘A War You Cannot Win’ is the latest release that will be out on Election Day and the single ‘Stand Up’ is in the Loudwire Top 20. You guys have really, I think, over time — and I’m pretty familiar with the band from its early days — have really honed your craft and, man, very impressive progression through the years. P: Thank you. Thank you. S: I’m curious as to your military background. Does that weigh into your politics in any way? P: Mmm … I don’t know that my military background really weighs in that. Can I be honest with you? I was in the Marine Corps for, like, less than a year when I joined and I’m old now … I’m almost 40 … and I joined the Marine Corps, I went into basic in ‘93. I got a medical under honorable conditions, it’s not like I was screwing off or whatever; I got an actual injury in training, and I got sent home in ‘93 — I’m sorry, ‘94. I’ll talk like, ‘Yes, I was in the military,’ ‘Yes, it’s for the military’; my wife was deployed to Afghanistan once, Iraq twice. My old roommates, one of them got blown up by a rocket. He was a contractor and he was in the National Guard, the other one was in the military. I come from a military background; my dad was in the military, my grandfather’s, both of them were in World War II, my uncle was in the Air Force … So, I mean, I come from a military background, I’ve been in the military. My actual contribution … it’s irrelevant, I didn’t do anything. All I did was, like ‘yeah, I want to go!’ and then they were like ‘oh, you got hurt, go home because we’re cutting the military.’ I mean, when Bill Clinton got into office he really made a lot of cuts in the military and that was right when I joined. So anyone that was less than perfect … they were doing a lot of ‘forced retirement’ in ’93 and ’94. So, I can’t say that … I did join, but I can’t say that I’ve done anything worth noting, you know? I mean, it’s like I showed up to class and they were like, “Go home,” and I was like “Uh…okay.” So, I definitely support the military and I’m a big fan of people that support our country and support our military and stuff but I can’t take credit for anything other than being like, ‘Hey, can I go?’ and then were like, ‘No.’ And now we’re going to get a little deep into my politics … You can be pro-military and not be pro-imperialism. You can be pro-military and pro-national events and still think that we have too many bases in foreign countries that we just don’t need. And you can’t think that the military would be better served if we weren’t trying to have military bases — I mean, we have military bases in literally over 100 countries. I believe over 150 countries. I think it’s 190. I’m saying “ I think” because I don’t have the numbers in front of me and I don’t like to say I’m sure of anything unless I can actually verify it. But, it’s definitely over 100, probably over 150, and I think it’s somewhere around 190 countries in the world with military bases. Do we need that? I mean, does that make America safer? Or does that make America an imperial power? You know? I tell you what, I think we should go ahead — and I’ve said this before — my personal opinion is that we should cut the Army by probably 75 percent. Take 25 percent of the money we used to put into the Army and put that into the Navy and the Air Force because that way we’re not actually occupying other countries; we still have the ability to project influence. Because I tell you what, you park an aircraft carrier off the coast of a country and their opinion changes instantaneously. S: Yeah, that’s a big statement. When you roll up on somebody’s coast with your aircraft carrier that makes a statement for sure. P: Yes, because the aircraft carrier, they can see it. There’s a support group that goes, there’s a submarines that go, there’s a whole air wing and, you know, there’s probably 3,000 marines, a marine experteer unit that’s on every aircraft carrier. I mean, it’d be the U.S.’s ability to project power just by showing up and saying ‘hey, we’re paying attention to you right now. Knock it off.’ I mean, we don’t need an army that can physically occupy territory because we don’t need to be in other people’s territory. If we want to influence their politics … ?? … between sanctions … ?? … an aircraft carrier, basically a combat unit, which is an aircraft carrier that supports the Marine Corps and then the threat of nuclear missiles. You don’t need a big army that’s going to go in and hold land. That’s unnecessary. S: Right, occupy a country. P: Yeah, it’s unnecessary. We don’t need to. We should go ahead and start making decisions that are based on “would military action promote our national security, our general welfare?” If it doesn’t then stay the hell out of it. I think the U.S. needs to do more ‘staying the hell out of it’ and also, on the same token, you need to go ahead and decide okay, it will support us, so then we should just say “we’re going to kick the s— out of you” more. I mean, that’s your option. It shouldn’t be ‘let’s get in there with troops and influence and nation build and try and work with the people.’ No. Okay, are you cool with us? Cool. We’re cool with you. Let’s trade. Are you cool with us? No. You want to f—ing shoot bombs at us and blow up our buildings. Okay, we’re going to smoke you. Like, it should be a little more black and white. S: I could not agree more. I mean, maybe that’s just the Republican in me coming out but, um… P: I don’t think it’s very Republican. I think it’s more… S: American. P: Yeah. I mean, because, the thing is, I think there is a lot more countries that would say if we didn’t have faces all over the world I think there would be a lot more countries that would be like, “Alright, cool. So, you’re sailing the seven seas and you’ve got a lot of military power in the Navy but you aren’t putting bases into foreign countries.” A lot of geopolitical perspective in the Middle East, which is where most of the tension is, a lot of it is based on their religion, which, I don’t believe in any ‘steady guy in the sky’… I don’t care whether it’s Phoebus or Muhammad or whatever, I don’t care. I think when you’re dead you’re done, and that’s cool. Period. The period ends it. So, I don’t worry about offending your silly god, I don’t worry about, like, if Jesus is going to come back because your not and if he does it’s only going to be a really charismatic guy who’s going to be able to fool the Christians into thinking “See? It don’t end. I’m Jesus again!” and doing a sweet dance, or whatever. But, religion goes into politics so much and the reason that the Muslims that hate America — and not all of them do — the Muslims that really hate America, they hate us because we have bases in a whole bunch of Muslim countries. So we should pull all of our bases out of Muslim countries and then if they blow up American stuff then we should “give” them nuclear weapons, but not give them to them. S: I think that’s a pretty great philosophy. I would agree with all that. I think you’re right in the fact that countries react to you being up their ass and being in their country and occupying their country and that’s what Osama Bin Laden took offense to in the first place and how a lot of this got started. P: I don’t care what any Republican tells you, Osama Bin Laden does not hate Coca-Cola. S: Ha-ha. I’m sure he did not! He watched TV! He was watching TV when they, you know, raided his compound. P: He loved VCR’s because he’d watch himself. Narcissist prick. So, my political perspective boils down to bringing American troops out of other countries. There is enough water on Earth where the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps and the Air Force … well, there’s enough air … even though the Air Force doesn’t actually on Navy ships, but, anyway, that’s besides the point … There’s enough water where the U.S. can influence the rest of the world. “Influence” not “control” but “influence” the rest of the world. Then, if a country attacks us, then turn them into glass. I mean, just don’t attack us. We should stop being an imperial power and trying to force our way onto other people, we can influence them, but don’t force them, don’t occupy their country. And when you stop occupying their country and they attack us, well then, kill them all, violently. S: And that’s that. Ha-ha. P: Yeah, I mean, if we don’t attack you, if we stop instigating violence … which is kind of what we do. S: We do. P: A lot of times. If we stop that and then we’re attacked then we have a moral to defend ourselves, right? Or to retaliate. Right? That’s what happens. S: Right. Talking to Phil Labonte, lead vocalist of All That Remains. Their new album “A War You Cannot Win” is that title … is that a mental war? Or is that a reflection on the world today and the things you and I have been talking about here? P: This one’s pretty political. I’ve got a sweet girl that I’m with so it’s not all emotional poppycock or whatever. I’m fairly simple as a dude, like, I write lyrics and songs and stuff about things that matter to me. And the first things that matter to me are family and my woman … and after that it becomes politics because writing a song about how the Boston Celtics are doing or writing a song about the Red Sox or the Patriots or whatever, or another handful of things that I’m actually interested in … People don’t care. S: Nah. That’s your hobby, that’s your own stuff. P: Yeah, well, I mean, I’ll write songs about politics and freedom and stuff and there are people out there that will interpret it as me saying something about guns, which is another hobby that I have, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s about personal freedom and stuff and politics. S: But the great thing about art is that it’s interpreted by the consumer, you know. It’s left for interpretation. And, really, when you write a song about the Red Sox or the Patriots there’s nothing left to interpret, it’s laid out for you. P: Yeah, I tell ya, that’s a great segue into being the lyricist. A lot of people, when you do interviews, will be like “Hey, what was this about. What was that about? What were you thinking when you wrote this.” And my first response is—and I got this from Jeff Walker from Carcass, hopefully some of your listeners know who he is—but, he used to say is “I don’t like to explain stuff because I explain it and then it takes away from the listener.” And that’s so accurate because they’re people that have sent me e-mails and they’re like “I heard this song and this happened in my life and this song helped me get through.” And my first thought is “Ha-ha. What? How do you think that that song equates to what you just told me that happened in your life?” Now, I don’t send that e-mail back or anything … That’s just me comprehending what they say. But the important part about writing a song and putting it out and letting people interpret it, letting people hear it, is not me. The important part is the listener. Like, if they are on the same page and hear what I say or hear the lyrics and they understand what I was thinking then cool, man, that makes me feel good. But it doesn’t matter if it makes me feel good, all that matters is: they hear it, they relate to it, they like it and they find something that means something to them. I mean, it doesn’t matter if it makes me feel good because the vast majority of people that are going to hear All That Remains songs I’ll never hear anything from. I’ll never talk to them. I’ll never hear what it means to them, what they think about it, you know? It doesn’t matter. It’s cool when I get an affirmation, when people understand what I was thinking and are like, “Hey man, I get what you’re saying here and this is what I think you’re saying” and it lines up with what I’m thinking. But it’s just as cool when people say “Hey man, I heard this and this is what was going on in my life and this is what that means to me” and it doesn’t matter that when I read that I say “That is not at all what I was talking about.” I would never tell them that because the important part isn’t me, the important part is them. S: You’re a very intelligent guy and I don’t know what it is about you New Englander’s but, I’ve interviewed the guys from Godsmack and Staind and other bands and you guys are all pretty smart dudes. P: Well, I appreciate the kudos. I guess you haven’t talked to our guitar player Mike Martin, he’s an idiot. S: Ha-ha! Not yet! P: You should totally put that on the Internet everywhere. That should be the headline. “If You Haven’t Talked To Our Guitar Player Mike Martin, He’s An Idiot.” Because all we do is give each other complete hell. S: I can tell. P: That’s a Massachusetts thing, I tell ya. All the bands that … you know … Unearth, Killswitch Engage, The Acacia Strain, All That Remains like, we’re all from Massachusetts and we are all so comfortable just giving each other just boatloads of crap. And I know some wonderful dudes from other places in the country that are sweet, sweet people and I am fortunate to know them but I would never say the terrible things to them that I would say to anyone from Massachusetts just because it seems like if you’re from Mass, if you’re a Masshole, you’ve got so much thicker skin. I can take almost anything from most of the guys from Unearth and Killswitch and definitely all the guys in my band and they’re just like “You’re an idiot. Shut your face.” And it’s like “okay” we get that as a joke. If I were to say terrible things to some of the dudes from California I feel like it would just be butthurt central. S: Ha-ha! You’re probably right about that. You guys just have thicker skin, man. That’s how you survive the cold. P: Yeah, probably, you know. S: Probably so. Phil Labonte, All That Remains, thank you man, so much for taking time for Loudwire. Good luck on the new album and the tour and it’s been a pleasure. P: Thank you, sir. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/loudwire-radio-station-list/” title=”See Which Stations Air Loudwire Radio” align=”center”]
Posts Tagged ‘America’
All That Remains Singer Phil Labonte Talks Military, Religion + ‘A War You Cannot Win’
November 15th, 2012 
Metalkult 
Posted in News 
Tags: America, band, bands, consumer, guitar, internet, loudwire-radio, massachusetts, military, people, phil labonte 
No Comments »Kid Rock Recalls How Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney Earned His Support
November 14th, 2012 Metalkult Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com Kid Rock ended up being one of presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s biggest celebrity supporters in the run up to the election, and the vocalist revealed on the Howard Stern Show how he managed to warm to the buttoned-up politician. According to CBS Detroit , Rock and Romney met in person before the musician decided to publicly lend his support. He told Stern that it was important to him that Romney was “not just a rich guy who wanted to become president to out-do dad.” He explained, “I know what it’s like to want to be better than your father. Of course, I’m getting these ‘I really want to help America’ [answers], and I said, ‘Cut the s—, this is my living room. This isn’t going to leave here.” Once Romney addressed the commitments he had specifically toward Rock’s hometown of Detroit, the pair began to bond further. Rock says that while he dipped his toes into the political arena by publicly supporting Romney, he’s not necessarily into right wing politics. “I’m less into government,” explained Rock, who added, “If gay people want to get married, I don’t give a f—.” He went on to add, “It’s OK to stand for something … I’ve got friends who didn’t vote. I want to smack them upside the head.” With the election behind him, Rock is more focused than ever on his hometown. As in recent years, he’s backed a drive to provide families in need with Meijer gift cards for the holidays. Plus fans will be able to catch him kicking off the United Way holiday campaign by performing at halftime of the Detroit Lions Thanksgiving Day game. Kid Rock’s ‘ Rebel Soul ‘ album arrives in stores Nov. 19. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/kid-rock-new-single-lets-ride/” title=”Next: Listen to Kid Rock’s ‘Let’s Ride’ Single” align=”center”]
Posted in News Tags: a-rich-guy, America, commitments, election, howard, kicking-off-the, kid rock, political, revealed-on-the, the-buttoned-up, upside-the-head, vocalist, wing-politics- No Comments »Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta Talks New Album, Touring with Lamb of God, Rowdy Fans + More
November 12th, 2012 Metalkult Liz Ramanand, Loudwire Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. He spoke all about the band’s forthcoming album ‘The Divinity of Purpose,’ as well as hitting the road with Lamb of God and how playing shows has changed since Randy Blythe’s arrest. Read the full interview with Jamey Jasta below: You are obviously part of this awesome Lamb of God tour and you are probably doing 12 bazillion things, as you do? Metal is a life style and no one in the metal community is more immersed in that lifestyle than you. When did you realize that metal would become so prominent in so many aspects of your life, musician, songwriter, label owner, media personality. Coming from the punk and hardcore scene – I just saw that there needed to be more unity with metal. We always played with metal bands and we always enjoyed metal bands like thrash bands, death metal however you want to call the different sub-genres and I thought “It’d be good to just be more involved and bring people together.” I always liked the inclusionary aspect of metal whereas coming from the punk and hardcore scene a lot of it is exclusionary where there’s a lot of strong beliefs. So I thought “Man, it would be great to have a balance of the two” so very young I started learning about how shows were booked and how tours were booked and how different bands got signed and I just tried to learn so that if I ever was to be in a band, which I ended up being in – I had a little bit of an edge. Especially coming from the punk and hardcore scene there’s so many bands and it’s so hard to break especially in the Northeast – being from Connecticut we were sandwiched in between New York and Boston where there’s hundreds of bands, you really have to work super hard to get noticed. Growing up and having bands like Biohazard and Sick of It All but also bands like Anthrax and all of the Florida death metal bands, we ended up getting to play with a lot of those bands. You see how die-hard the fans are and how truly supportive and they stay with the band and now we’re seeing it more than ever with Testament and Anthrax and even Megadeth – they constantly keep having these huge rebirths in a way where the fans pass it along to younger fans. We just wanted to do that but for bands who were crossover bands who had roots in the hardcore scene and everything comes with that – the lifestyle aspect of it, trying to make a brand, have your own clothing, have your own label, have your own TV show or radio show or whatever it is. You want to have a medium to promote the stuff and it’s been cool and a lot of people are still doing things like that; Kerry King from Slayer had a clothing line, Scott Ian has a web TV show and it’s nice to see that through metal there are all these cool opportunities being had. I believe in abundance I’m like, “Share the wealth and have everybody express their views and interests and have the music be that medium to get the message across.” As you mentioned there’s a new Hatebreed record coming out in January and tell us what will fans love most about this new record? I just think if you like any one Hatebreed record there’s a little bit of something for you on this one. I feel like if you like ‘Satisfaction [Is the Death of Desire]’ and you’re in your thirties and that hardcore was a big part of your life, there’s some stuff you’ll like on this record. If your more ‘Perseverance’ type of person and from the last ten years onward have been a fan there’s a lot of themes that are similar. Then there’s the thrash and the crossover influence, as well. I think it’s got all of the cool elements of Hatebreed records in the past but has that identity where it’s fresh and new but you know when you put it in, you know it’s Hatebreed. Even if you hate us at least you won’t be like “Who is that? What is that?” you know who it is. You guys are celebrating an anniversary coming up right? We just celebrated the 10 year anniversary of ‘Perserverance’ and Nov. 11 [marks] the 15th anniversary of ‘Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire.’ I don’t think we’ll get the chance to do a tour or a re-release of the record or anything which would have been cool but the past is the past – we’re proud of it but it’s like we got to put this new record out in January and it’s onward and upward. This is a huge tour for us to play out to a new audience. It’s great to see Lamb of God – even though they might not be new to some people, we’re seeing a lot of young kids and I feel like they’re the new leaders of aggressive metal or modern metal. Both Hatebreed and Lamb of God are both powerful aggressive bands in an instant how did things change for you as a musician, entrepreneur and for metal as a whole when Randy [Blythe] was arrested in Prague? Well it was crazy because it instantly put this magnifying glass on how a concert should go as far as searching the fans, security, barricades and we come under a lot of scrutiny because we’re from the hardcore scene. There are some people who are very vocal about us becoming a big band – they don’t like that. There’s always been this kind of punk rock guilt in the scene like “You can’t be successful, you can’t make money or play big shows on big stages” but we’ve always been looking for the most success possible – we’ve never been ashamed of that. Randy getting arrested has really brought that out and people have said, “What are you going to do? Are you going to be able to play shows without a barricade.” We’ve been playing shows with barricades for the last 12 years it’s just people that wasn’t to cause a stir and act like we’re compromising our integrity in some way. They’ve brought all this stuff up like, “Everybody should be welcome on the stage” and all this stuff – not at a metal show maybe at a punk and hardcore shows and God Bless them if they can police the stage and be on top of it. God forbid somebody breaks their neck like we had happen at The Staircase in PA and that’s probably going back to 2002, 2003 – that club shut down, we almost got named in the lawsuit. Even before Lamb of God we were dealing with these types of issues before Lamb of God was even signed so they just brought it to the forefront – it’s such a unique incident where they feel Randy is at fault which he isn’t, he’s totally innocent. Regardless I think it’s a bigger question or a bigger thing where people just need to respect each other at a show, respect the security and vice versa. What do you want out of the show? Do you want to enjoy it or do you want to hurt people and hurt yourself? You have to ask yourself that. If you’re looking to hurt people or hurt yourself then maybe you should just stay home. As far as the bigger metal bands like Lamb of God, Anthrax and Slayer – don’t ever expect to be allowed onstage. Hatebreed has already done shows since this has happened without barricades and it was just a couple random shows like my birthday show in Switzerland and everything was fine. We took a risk by doing that and if could’ve gone wrong but we told the crowd “Look this is super important that everybody respects each other, if somebody dives you got to catch them, if somebody falls you got to pick them up.” I don’t see that being something that can still go on especially not in America, definitely not in America. I think that in America, especially after the ‘Perseverance’ tour which was probably our most violent tour we’ve done in a long time, with the exception of Pomona. Pomona was incredible, seeing all the unity and everybody picking each other up and really no fights – that was great but every other place was super violent and I’m not complaining. I understand it’s heavy music and a crazy show and we write some stuff that’s going to cause the kids to go crazy but at some point you have to say “Enough is enough, let’s respect each other.” If you get hit in the pit just deal with it and shake it off. At the Detroit show there were girl fights and it was crazy. I know when you involve booze and heavy metal you’re bound to have a couple fights but we had a lot of shows where it was literally like 30 fights – two, three fights every song and you’re like “Alright this has got to chill for a little bit.” That’s why with Hatebreed we try to do the bigger tours like Mayhem Fest where we can play to a ton of people, get out message out and not have to worry about people getting hospitalized. In terms of Hatebreed, what surprises people most about you in terms of their perception that’s based on Hatebreed and your music? Well now after the whole CNN debacle where they basically misreported us being a racist band or having a racist agenda – because our fans stood up for us and really just bombarded them with Tweets. It actually got us a little bit of mainstream attention and now people who might not know about Hatebreed at least they get it and they say, “Okay their negativity or the negative aspects that they see or feel in the world they’re trying to do something positive with it” and they get that we’re trying to have a positive agenda. So I guess when people meet us and we’re regular guys and we’re not out here beating people up or sacrificing goats or whatever they think that we’re doing – they get it. Also, when you perform at this level – we’ve done more shows than most bands who’ve been around for 20 years, 30 years, we’ve done a higher volume of shows. We’ve gotten out a lot of energy, when you scream your head off for 40 to 90 minutes a night – it’s hard to be upset during the day, that’s the therapy. That’s probably another thing that people don’t realize – I get all the bad stuff out, I have that release. That’s why with this whole record and going into this new world tour and everything, I have a really good outlook because I still get that fulfillment – that’s why I feel like we’ve had such long term success it’s a cyclical power, people get that from the show and we get that from performing. We just need now to make it be more of a fun experience and hopefully the next tour won’t be as crazy and violent. We write some heavy stuff so it is to be expected. Do you think looking back at starting out in terms of punk roots and you have to be in an angry mindset in general on that whole genre – thinking back then to now do you still feel that anger and rebellion in general? Yeah, but also I think it goes in waves now we have the election coming up and the way the economy is and as you get older you see so many people are down and out. People are dealing with depression and anxiety and struggles that you face throughout your life, it’s just constant fuel for the fire I think. I feel like life is never going to be a hundred percent peachy so you got to have that balance. You don’t always want to eat pizza, you can’t eat pizza for every meal, you want to switch it up just like you don’t always want to listen to Hatebreed, maybe some people do and God bless them – but for when you do need that release or you want that aggressive music whether it’s in the gym or on your ride to work hopefully we’re that band. Full Metal Jackie will welcome Dez Fafara of DevilDriver on her next show. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com .
Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister Calls Mitt Romney a ‘F—ing Monster’
November 5th, 2012 Metalkult Liz Ramanand, Loudwire With Election Day taking place in the United States tomorrow (Nov. 6), Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney is getting exponentially more heated. As one of the few subjects that truly divides groups of human begins into two halves, politics constantly draws passionate statement from people of all backgrounds. One of those backgrounds happens to be playing bass and providing vocals for Motorhead , with the legendary Lemmy Kilmister offering his two cents on the election. During a recent discussion with Rolling Stone , Lemmy was talking about his inclusion for a Chuck Berry tribute concert. During the conversation, Rolling Stone journalist Patrick Doyle shared an experience he had while interviewing Berry, who teared up while saying, “My dad said, ‘I don’t know if we’ll live to see it, but one day we will [have an African-American President] – and thank God that I have.’” Lemmy responded to the story with a passionate statement of his own. “I would have said America wasn’t ready for it. And I don’t think they were, because they’re trying to drag him down now,” begins Lemmy. “I mean, the poor f—er’s only just gotten rid of all that George Bush s–t that he left, or is trying to. And he’s being stonewalled by the f—ing Congress all the time. I don’t know how he’s gotten anything done. They should be glad. I mean the alternative is Mitt Romney. Please, please don’t vote for Mitt Romney. F— him. Repeal abortion law is the first thing he’ll do. F—ing monster.” When Lemmy was asked whether he had been watching the debates, the musician responded, “I couldn’t bear it.” Be sure to head out and vote tomorrow (Nov. 6), but in the meantime, make sure you cast your vote for our President of Heavy Metal election. Lemmy almost made it to the final round, but was defeated by Rob Zombie , who faces Ozzy Osbourne for the sacred title. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/rob-zombie-vs-ozzy-osbourne-president-of-heavy-metal-election-finals/” title=”Vote in the President of Heavy Metal Election” align=”center”]
Posted in News Tags: alternative, America, barack-obama, election, george-bush, heavy-metal, inclusion, lemmy kilmister, MOTORHEAD, musician, president, responded, rolling-stone No Comments »Daily Reload: Suicide Silence, Black Sabbath + More
November 1st, 2012 Metalkult Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com Suicide Silence frontman Mitch Lucker passed away Thursday morning at the age of 28 following a Wednesday night motorcycle accident. [ Loudwire ] Black Sabbath , who will headline one of two nights at Ozzfest Japan , are still in the recording process of their new album, according to Tony Iommi . [ Loudwire ] Soundgarden will play three small gigs in big cities this month to promote the ‘King Animal’ album. [ Loudwire ] Guns N’ Roses kicked off their Las Vegas residency at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino with a well-received show. [ Loudwire ] Trent Reznor ‘s How to Destroy Angels project has unveiled a new video for the song ‘Keep It Together.’ [ Loudwire ] Starting to think about Christmas yet? The kings of music merchandising, Kiss , have a holiday gift guide. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] King’s X drummer Jerry Gaskill is among those who lost their homes in Hurricane Sandy. [ Ultimate Classic Rock ] Battlecross are moving from the ‘Trespass America’ trek this past summer to experiencing the ‘Growing Pains’ tour with Abiotic. [ Rock Music Report ] Atoms for Peace , the band featuring Radiohead ‘s Thom Yorke and Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘ bassist Flea , have offered up the song ‘What the Eyeballs Did.’ [ Diffuser.fm ] From the office of “We didn’t know that was a job”: Professional mattress jumper. [ GuySpeed ]
Posted in News Tags: a-new-video, America, atoms-for-peace, black-sabbath, daily-reload, destroy-angels, from-the-office, hotel, mitch-lucker-2, Music, office, ozzfest-japan, trent-reznor No Comments »Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine Discusses Being Hit by Beer + Rocks at Croatian Festival
October 30th, 2012 Metalkult Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com You may remember an incident in Croatia earlier this year where Megadeth were pelted with beer bottles and rocks after a group of fans blamed the ‘Big 4′ thrash act for W.A.S.P. no-showing at the festival. After frontman Dave Mustaine was hit in the head with a rock, the band ended their set early. Now, nearly four months later, Mustaine has spoken out about the event in a new interview. After being asked by Powerline about the online backlash to some of Mustaine’s controversial comments, such as speaking out against gay marriage and claiming that President Obama “was born somewhere else than America ” even after Obama’s long-form birth certificate was released, Mustaine eventually made his way to the Croatian incident. Mustaine mistakenly placed the event in the Czech Republic rather than Croatia, but he still recalled the situation with vivid detail: I treat people the way I want to be treated. Even when we were in the Czech Republic and people were upset about the whole debacle with W.A.S.P. not playing and took it out on us. That wasn’t our fault but they still were taking it out on us and when we were in Dubai we did a meet-and-greet and a woman and her little boy came up. And she said, “Yeah, he saw you in the Czech Republic and he was supposed to meet you after the concert and you guys finished early.” And I was gonna say, “Yeah, but …” and she said, “He cried because he didn’t get to meet you.” And I thought, “You know what?! Son of a gun …” The guys that acted out there, I understand why they did that. They wanted to see W.A.S.P., they don’t know why that they didn’t play and somebody had said something that it was our fault. It wasn’t our fault. We don’t decide whether W.A.S.P. plays or not. And they had been out in the sun drinking and they thought it was a novel way to express their disdain for the way things took place was to throw objects at us. I understand. I totally understand. I would have handled it a little bit different. I’m not a p—y who throws rocks at artists. They may not love me, but I still have love in my heart for them. And I’m not going to write the Czech Republic off just because of these few people who mishandled themselves that day. I think that if the guys who actually did that, if we sat down and talked, we’d probably have a lot in common. Because I don’t dislike W.A.S.P. I’m actually friends with Blackie [Lawless] and I probably would have wanted to see them play as much as their fans did — well, probably not as much, but it’s funny how similar a lot of us are when you get down to it, but this mob mentality gets people fired up and you’re afraid to say what your convictions really are because … You know, I saw a letter about three years ago. It was the vice president of GE and I’m thinking it was an open letter about how afraid he was about the way things were going and how he doesn’t think he’ll be able to write the same letter several years later because of the fact that if anybody who says anything negative right now about a politician is going to be vilified and, man, damn if he wasn’t right. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/megadeth-dave-mustaine-shares-concerns-vocal-damage-cursing/” title=”Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine Shares Concerns Over Vocal Damage + Cursing” align=”center”]
Posted in News Tags: America, band, croatia, croatian, czech, czech-republic, dubai, event, fault, festival, mustaine, mustaine-shares, president, president-obama, write-the-czech No Comments »Danko Jones on New Album, Showmanship + Social Networking
October 24th, 2012 Metalkult Adrenaline PR It’s been a pretty significant year for Danko Jones and the icing on the cake came with the recent release of their latest studio album, ‘ Rock and Roll Is Black and Blue .’ Singer Danko Jones and his longtime musical cohort, bassist John Calabrese, spoke with Loudwire about the significance of the album title, the occasionally misunderstood showmanship that they bring to their shows, and how much stock they place in the immediate response of social networking. ‘Rock and Roll Is Black and Blue’ is a great album title. How did that come to be? Danko Jones: It was a term we had that we were going to call the very first thing we ever put out, ‘Rock and Roll is Black and Blue,’ but our scene in Toronto, there was another band called the Deadly Snakes that put out a 7-inch called ‘Real Rock and Roll Tonight,’ and we just thought the titles were too similar so we didn’t use it. We just kept it and it’s always been around, and then J.C., we were trying to think of titles and J.C. came up with the title again and Atom [Willard] liked it and we still liked it obviously, so we went with it. The title definitely lends itself to what you do live. If you can talk about the energy you unleash onstage and the commitment you have to rock ‘n’ roll. DJ: For me personally, I think ‘Rock and Roll Is Black and Blue’ signifies that it’s not the most popular genre of music anymore. Not even like the fifth or sixth most popular genre of music. Pop music, rap, country music, metal and electronica music are more popular than rock and roll, even though it used to be the most popular form of music. It almost made popular music, but now it’s just seen more as jazz – an old form of music, but it still has an energy to it. There’s a representative for each genre, like Lady Gaga and Jay-Z and Metallica and Green Day and arguably so, but there isn’t anyone of that stature for rock ‘n’ roll. There’s Wolfmother and Airbourne, but they’re nowhere in comparison to like a Lady Gaga or Kanye West in terms of popularity, so it really shows how much it’s not very popular. It’s underground almost. So that’s kind of what the title is saying and you can take from the title what you want, but for me personally that’s what it means. Can you talk about the single ‘Just a Beautiful Day’ lyrically? DJ: Lyrically, it’s actually how I don’t like beautiful days and how I don’t like the sun. [laughs] It was the first day of the year this year where everybody, at least in Canada, like L.A. you guys are lucky that it’s like this everyday, but in Canada, it’s winter for six months of the year, so the first day that it’s good and everybody busts out their shorts and their t-shirts and they just walk [everywhere], it was one of these days, a weird odd, freaky day where it was plus-20 or whatever that is in Fahrenheit, but I saw people walking around, and I couldn’t relate. One of the first noticeable things about that track is the drums and what Atom Willard brings to the song … DJ: Well that’s Atom. Atom’s been in the band for just over a year and it’s been great having him and he joined the band because he’s a fan of our band and we were fans of his band, so it was like a mutual meeting. In terms of drumming he wanted to take it back to how it was on our previous records. Obviously he’s going to do what he does, and especially on that record he really threw in a lot of the fills and stuff so it was good. Did you know it was going to be the single? John Calabrese: Hindsight’s always different when you put out the record because you don’t know what songs, cause you’re so attached to them that you don’t know what people are going to think is the single. I kind of have no idea, cause I know I like this one or that one, but I’m glad that that’s been taken as the song to represent this record in a way cause it has a lot of elements to it that are rocking and have a lot of melody. It can translate. You shot the video for the track with the Diamond Brothers, who already shot your documentary and several of your videos. What made them right for this? DJ: We had a good time making those videos for ‘Below the Belt’ and I think they knocked the documentary out of the park. It was really well done and put together considering the amount of footage they had to wade through that we gave them. And it was only natural to not fix what isn’t broken. If we went with them for a very simple black-and-white performance video, why change it up? JC: And they’ve been looking at our faces constantly for the last three years. They’ve been going through this footage and whatnot. Have to say, excellent work on the documentary and it really shows off what great showmen you are. Looking at some of the early footage through the present, you’ve really got command of that audience. DJ: It gets misinterpreted a lot by people who come to music, I think, young and they don’t understand where it’s coming from. But I have no time to explain it to them. I really don’t. I care that they don’t like our band, but I just have no time and they’ll have to come back to us when they grow up a little bit. That’s plagued us for a lot of time that we’ve been a band. Nobody understands that this is a tribute to the performance of a rock band more so than it is me shouting at people. The people who get it, get it, and it creates a strong bond between us and the audience when they do get it. I’ve seen audiences turn where they do understand mid-show what we’re doing and what this is about and there’s never ever been a show where I’ve come onstage and not been self-deprecating in a sly way. I’ve always made sure that I’ve telegraphed that to the audience. Now it’s up to them to be smart and understand it, and if they don’t understand it and don’t get it, well I’m telegraphing it to them. There’s nothing more I can do other than take out a billboard and tell them that I don’t really think of myself like this. It reminds me of one of the last times we played in America, could have been the last time we played where we did this huge festival called Rock on the Range in Columbus, and we got pretty much 99% bad comments after from these people who didn’t know. It wasn’t spoonfed to them, so they didn’t know. All they saw was some guy going, ‘I’m the best! I’m the best!’ … I’ve come to the point where I just can’t explain it. If you’re too stupid to get it, it’s not rocket science, it’s really not. I’m obviously not as stupid as you, but I’m not that smart either. So if you don’t get it, you’re just stupider. [laughs] Now I’m starting to realize that you can’t care. There will be a majority of people who will not understand what you’re doing and you’ve just got to be fine with that. Now that I’ve started writing for the Huffington Post, and you read the comments section, or you’re on Twitter or Facebook and you read these people’s comments, on social media, it’s so immediate and so accessible that people either don’t read or don’t think before they write or open their mouths and you really get an inside view as to how people really think, and wow, there’s a lot of really stupid people out there. [laugh] So you’ve got to march on. Before Twitter and Facebook, a comment meant so much more, and that was only three or four years ago, where it carried so much weight. You’re like, ‘Oh my God, if this person thinks that, then all these people thought that.’ Like, ‘We’ve really got to change the set times because this guy is really indicative of what everybody is thinking.’ Well, no, not really. Honestly, it’s really changed how I … it’s made me more confident to go, ‘No, I was right in the beginning.’ I second guessed myself for a long time, whether it’s the performance or comments that I say in interviews or anything like that, because that one comment carried so much weight. But even last week with the Huffington Post article, people were commenting and I’m like, ‘Did you not read the article? No? You did but you didn’t understand it.’ Okay, short of me asking for your email address and explaining it to you personally, there’s nothing much I can do. JC: To follow up on that, the performance thing, sometimes people come up to me and are like, ‘What’s wrong with him?,’ and pointing at him like why does he have so much attitude? It’s just like, they don’t understand it. It’s the showmanship and he’s really excited to be there and he’s never talked down to an audience. And just like he said with the self-deprecating comments, that just makes you equal to everyone else in the same room. The only difference is that he’s got a microphone and he’s a bit louder. Well, he’s the loudest guy in the room. [laughs] That’s the only difference and that’s it … It’s all for the purpose of being entertained. DJ: If Iggy Pop came out and was like coming out like he comes out onstage which is all guns blazing, but he came out going ‘Aw shucks guys,’ he wouldn’t be Iggy Pop . So there’s a certain amount of Iggy Pop and David Lee Roth and Paul Stanley and Freddie Mercury in the way that I approach the stage and attack the stage and talk to an audience. ‘You Wear Me Down’ is another great track on here, and it’s got that obvious Led Zeppelin feel and born out of a jam session… JC: Yeah, you just played the riff and jammed on it. Yeah, and I would record all the sessions we were doing and that jam is basically the template to what the song is and basically a little bit of polishing here and there, but that was it. So we’re like that’s gonna be [on the record]. DJ: There was one jam where we tried to match that in the studio, at least for me in terms of soloing, I was trying to match the demo of it. But I really get a kick out of that song, and maybe some people would consider that to be super classic rock on our part for a band that professes to have more of a punk background, but that in itself is why I wanted it on the record. You look at the discography and we did start out as a garage rock band, which was very basic and very primitive songs – sometimes not even choruses or bridges. And here we are, like six studios album in, and we’re taking a stab at Led Zeppelin . Zeppelin is and always has been the musician’s musician band. They were studio guys in there. So it does stand for something … and to take this primitive garage band and you can actually track it through our discography that we’re taking a stab at Zeppelin, I got a little kick out of that because you can see the growth of the band through the discography. JC: We played it for the Diamonds when they were in Toronto. We had them in the studio and they listened to the song and they just turned to us and said, ‘You guys went there.’ That was the first thing they said. So fans who know the band like those guys do will get it. DJ: It’s not a ground that a lot of bands tread because it’s holy ground and a lot of bands who have tried it have failed and been made fun of, but I think we did it in a more jovial way because of our background. There’s just nobody who’s going to think that we’re trying to rip off Zeppelin – especially with past albums where things sound like AC/DC or Kiss . This is just another stab at a rock sound and that’s why I also felt comfortable including it on the record and not throwing up a red flag like, ‘Aw, this is gonna paint us as this.’ We’re not going to be Kingdom Come or something. After listening to ‘I Believed in God,’ I have to ask how cool was it to have a gospel choir on a song? DJ: It was pretty cool, but it wasn’t originally intended when we brought the song into the session. It was a wish, but we hadn’t really nailed down gospel singers or anything and the organ was at the studio. We didn’t pick the studio for the organ, it just happened to be there, so things happened quite naturally. However, if we were so hellbent on having them before we started the session … I don’t think it would have come off as it did. It might have been better, it might have been worse, but it was cool that we found these girls and they did it. There was this one girl that’s on it, she was on it the most, and she really f—ing knocked it [out of the park]. When she started singing, I could really start seeing how the song would end up. It ended exactly as I thought when she started belting out the song thankfully. On the song ‘Legs,’ many props on the bass playing. DJ: Yeah, I agree man. The bass playing ‘Legs’ is one of the biggest reasons why I fought for that tune to be the first single. I thought it was really standout. JC: Thanks man. ‘Legs’ was a tune that we had for ‘Below the Belt’ and we went and added a twist to the chorus. [Danko] loved the riff that we had for ‘Below the Belt,’ but we never took it anywhere further. And then we felt that if we changed it to the ‘Legs, long legs’ part that became the chorus that it is now and the ‘Ooh la la’ part… DJ: We added the ‘Ooh la la’ and it sounded so much better. JC: It was just little things that we made up, and then to kind of color it there were a few little things I did on my end that kind of worked with the song that way. It does make it sound really raw. It is the band, so it’s not like I’m trying to go for something different, but it is a really fun song for sure. Off the new record, what are you most looking forward to playing live? DJ: Looking forward for me, I’d say ‘Terrified.’ It’s one of my favorite songs on the record and I can’t wait to play that song. It’s just heavy and all the half-steps I love, so it just makes things heavier and I like that. JC: We’re just about to start the journey that is the supporting of this record, so I’ll go with him on ‘Terrified.’ It’s gonna be fun. I really want to play ‘I Don’t Care’ cause that’s gonna be a real crowd pleaser and ‘Get Up,’ I can see those two ones there really working well in the set and bringing a lot of high energy. Obviously you’re moving forward with this record, but with this year of reflection with your ‘Bring on the Mountain’ documentary and ‘Too Much Trouble’ book, can you think back to what you hoped for as a new band back in the early days and how you view that now? DJ: It’s in the book and I did the interviews for the book before Atom was in the band, and what I say in the book was, for me, the only thing I wanted to do was tour with Rocket From the Crypt and record with Doug Easley, because Doug Easley recorded all those Blues Explosion jukebox 7-inches that I thought were like better than his records, so those were my goals. I remember saying that out loud, “I want to tour with Rocket, record with Doug Easley, and tour Japan.” I don’t know why those were the goals, and also get signed to a cool indie label in America like a Touch & Go or Matador or something. Only one of those things happened, which was we were able to play Japan. But the guy in Rocket when we started is now in our band. So, you know, it’s a yin-yang thing. Things have a way of evening out in the end. But had no idea that we would be taken around the world by Axl Rose or get to sing with Lemmy or get to sing ‘Night Train’ with Guns N’ Roses … Never knew any of that would happen. JC: And it’s still happening. We were in Toronto a few weeks ago and Jello [Biafra] was in town it was like, “We get to have lunch with Jello Biafra.” That’s just great. And we went to the show and [Danko’s] singing with him. Man, who would have thought? All these years later, look what we’re doing. DJ: I really think that that’s the way to do it. I think if we had a plan, it would have crumbled. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/danko-jones-just-a-beautiful-day-exclusive-video-premiere/” title=”Next: Watch Danko Jones’ ‘Just a Beautiful Day’ Video” align=”center”]
