Kevin Winter, Getty Images Guitarist Daron Malakian ( System of a Down , Scars on Broadway ) sat down for an interview with KROQ recently, with the conversation turning towards politics and religion. After a slight dejection from Malakian, the guitarist found himself diving into the topic, sharing his views on President Obama’s first term, how organized religion can destroy the personal experience, global terrorism + much more. Malakian spoke about President Obama’s first term and compared the ‘cult of personality’ honed by Obama to that of Bill Clinton. “Anybody who thinks that Obama was gonna come and fix that mess in three or four years is nuts,” says Malakian. “I mean, that by itself… You’ve gotta give him a little bit more time. I think he’s doing an alright job. I ain’t got no beef with Obama. But I’ll tell you this much: he is a politician, like everybody else, and he’s a damn good one. Because he can really make you like him. [It’s the job of politicians] to bulls–t people and to make them like you, and he is king at it. He might be a little better than [Bill] Clinton, actually.” Later in the interview, Malakian continued with the political discussion, bringing religion into the mix. “I’ll be honest with you: politically, I have no issue with people, but my beef sometimes is with religion at the end of the day,” Malakian explains. “And that offends people, I guess, more than telling people what to do. But I just think a lot of people… Politicians use religion and they get their troops riled up with religion. And it’s not just here with Christianity, it’s… Those dudes, like [Osama] Bin Laden, these dudes are all politicians themselves.” He continues, “They use the simple-minded and the poor and they promise them things and that’s how they rile up their troops using religion. And we don’t see that as the same as our politicians, but they play the same games with their people over there as the politicians play with the people over here to get them riled up, to go to war… ‘You’re fighting for freedom.’ I just think religion is something… It could be a beautiful thing for the individual, but when it becomes organized, that’s when religion starts taking a kind of ugly turn to me.” Scars on Broadway are set to embark on a North American tour with Deftones . The trek kicks off Oct. 9 in Ventura, Calif. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/system-of-a-down-drummer-john-dolmayan-exits-scars-on-broadway/” title=”Next: Drummer John Dolmayan Leaves Scars on Broadway” align=”center”]
Eleven Seven/Tenth Street Entertainment The road to the release of Papa Roach ’s new disc ‘The Connection’ (out Oct. 2) has not always been a smooth one, but that’s part of what powers the strength that it delivers. Written during a tumultuous time during lead vocalist Jacoby Shaddix’s life, the disc portrays a dark time for the band played out song by song. Kicking it off is the face-punching lead-off single ‘Still Swingin’ which is merely the prelude to the darkness that lies within. Sonically, ‘The Connection’ draws from the elements that Papa Roach have mastered with past discs, and melds them into a new approach to their own brand of rock. We recently caught up with Shaddix, who filled us in on his health status after recent vocal surgery, all facets of the new disc from the writing process to the studio and how he came out ‘Still Swingin’ on the other side at the end of it all. Now that you can sit back and appreciate the fruits of your labor, how would you reflect on the whole writing and recording process on ‘The Connection’ as compared to past discs? I would say that this one was just the f—ing hardest, most insane, most fun, exciting, crazier records we’ve ever made. Just the process of it, what we were all going through personally, making the record in Sacramento, we really made the record that we set out to make and it kind of exceeded our expectations. We got to the end and we listened to the record we were like “Oh f—, this record’s dope.” This is the record that our fans have been waiting for. I think it encompasses all of our styles over the years of our career and we kind of just brought it all back around on this record. It’s really exciting. It’s an exciting time and rock music is at an interesting place right now and I just feel like this is the right record for rock music and P-Roach. Talk a bit about the impact of having producer James Michael in the studio with you; you’ve said that he really gets you and the vision for the band. James Michael – first and foremost I love that guy like a brother. We all really connected in the studio. I was fighting for him, I was like, and “Man I want James Michael to produce the record.” The guys were like, “Let’s take meetings with a bunch of people.” And I was like, “No! James Michael is the guy!” I really wanted him, and they took my lead. We had a meeting with him and everybody just clicked. It’s funny, towards the end of the process it got to the point where I was like I would start a sentence and he would finish it. We were just in tune. It was like having a fifth band member in the room because he’s a songwriter, he’s a singer, he’s a musician, he’s a producer, he understands where we’re coming from. It’s not like other producers don’t, it just felt like we were doing the right thing with the right people at the right time. It was great working with him in the studio, he really helped us. We had concepts and ideas in our head and had these visions of what we wanted to create sonically and he really helped us see those things through from beginning to end. And also, just in the process of making the record, when we’re a little unsure of ourselves at times, he would always be like, “Guys, you are on the f—ing right path, don’t second guess yourselves right now because you are in it.” Because when you’re in the process of making music and you’ve got ten songs boiling at once, it was really cool to have that outside perspective looking at it from a helicopter’s point of view going okay, cool; it’s all good, because we get wound up. The first single ‘Still Swingin’ is quintessential Papa Roach through and through. There’s no foreplay, it just starts out with a direct punch to the face – what kind of statement did you want to make with that song? With this song, it’s like we hit a barn door with a barn door. It’s just plain and simple, and I think that’s really what we needed at this point and time for a lead single is just something that just would grab people’s attention. Especially with the riff off the top, it just bounces, it’s like “Oh sh–, something’s coming at you.” Lyrically, it’s a little more lighthearted than the rest of the record and I think it’s a great way to start, it’s like the opening title when you go to see a movie, it grabs your attention. It just felt natural for us to use that as a lead single, and in the spirit of P-Roach it’s what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. This is just the tip of the iceberg on this record, it’s a very dark record, so once you get past this song we take you down this deep dark hole and the process of making this record where when you’re in that deep dark hole there’s always that light, shining somewhere in there in the corner, it’s a great way to introduce people to this record. It will be interesting to see what people think about the ride. Speaking of dark, talk to me about the song ‘Before I Die,’ because that song speaks quite loudly and I think that anyone who’s ever felt those things is going to immediately identify with it. Where did that come from from a personal perspective? I was going through a separation with my wife during the process of making the record, fast forward to the present and we’re working it out now, but in the process of making this record we were separated. I was at the end of my rope; I was in a lot of pain. This music is where I found my sanctuary, where I could express myself and just take myself out it for a second and not feel the pain and just be creative. During the process of making this song, ‘Before I Die’ I felt like everything was taken from me and I was just left out there raw and broken, it made everything clear to me, what really mattered to me. It wasn’t the material things that I have in my life, which I’m not a materialistic person when it comes down to it, but you know at the end of the day it’s the people that I love in my life that are the most important to me and sometimes when you treat the people that you love the most the worst, that’s the wrong path. I had to take a long hard look at myself and realize how I was living my life and make those changes. Just being out there on my own and having those realizations, that’s where the song came from. On this song, in addition to many others on the new disc, you really seemed to lay it all out there lyrically putting you in a very exposed and vulnerable place. Do you feel like you pushed a personal boundary this time around with respect to your lyrics? Oh yeah, this record, a lot of it was written when I was depressed and a pretty pathetic and sad individual. It came from that place but it was also a snapshot. A lot of this record is a snapshot of me at my most vulnerable, broken, weak, point in my life but there was so much strength in it, in a weird way. When you ain’t got nothing, you’ve really got a whole lot because you start thinking about those basic simple things that you’re so grateful for in your life. So it gave me a whole new perspective on myself, on my life, and how I live it. It’s a trip because I’m on a bit of a different path now than I was seven or eight months ago. I have to ask you about a recent situation – Wye Oak’s Jenn Wanser chose Papa Roach’s ‘Scars’ as her most hated song and in return, you allegedly sent her flowers. So the first question is did that actually happen and the second is, why did you opt for that response? Yes, it’s true. I thought it would be a funny thing to do. I use to take that stuff so personally, I’d be like, “I’m not worth anything” and it would belittle me but now, it’s just funny. In reality, that song has meant so much to so many people so to watch it get torn apart as if it was some nursery rhyme bullsh–, I just thought it was kind of funny. So for me, it was just taking the high road. Ready to play some Wikipedia-True or False? Wikipedia says that the first instrument you played was clarinet in the school orchestra – true or false? That is true. I played clarinet for like nine years. I am a certified band geek. Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe is a friend of yours and you said that we could all really learn a lot from the way he’s been handling his current situation, what have you personally taken away from it? It’s pretty incredible to see people go through these dark experiences in life and learn a lot, and that’s what I got from that. It’s like you get lemons, you make lemonade, and it’s pretty cool to see someone that’s going through something like that just have such a solid perspective on life and a positive outlook. For me, that’s pretty dope. Any parting messages to your fans? If you’re a fan of the band, go buy the record — we want to show up on the charts. I think it’s very important for this band right now to make a statement because we’re on an independent label. We’re another one of those rock ‘n’ roll bands trying to keep this genre alive and so if you dig it, go support it or you can go watch f—ing Justin Bieber take the No. 1 spot. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/papa-roach-jacoby-shaddix-vocal-surgery-healing-really-well/” title=”Next: Jacoby Shaddix Updates Us on His Vocal Recovery” align=”center”]
BangerFilms.com Canadian film director Sam Dunn was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. Dunn, who put together and starred in the ‘Metal Evolution’ series on VH1 Classic and is the co-founder of Banger Films, talked all about his effort to raise money in order to film the ‘missing’ episode of the ‘Metal Evolution Series’ which covers a sub-genre very near and dear to him, extreme metal. If you missed Jackie’s show, read the full interview with Sam Dunn: You’ve been very busy with Banger Films which you are the co-founder of — Grammy nominated and ‘Juno’ award winning Banger Films. Congratulations. Thank you, yeah it’s been a busy few years since we last talked, so we got to catch up. Last year Banger films released the biggest ever series on the history of metal and hard rock. It was called ‘Metal Evolution’ and featured over forty years of metal history from early metal and shock rock to thrash and nu-metal. The series followed Sam on an amazing journey, over 30 countries, four continents and you interview 300 of metal’s most respected musicians including the likes of Lars [Ulrich] from Metallica, Alice Cooper, Van Halen, Lamb of God, Slash, Bruce Dickinson who typically is not down for doing interviews so props to you on that and so many more. It’s a huge success on VH1 Classic and it broadcasts all over the world. Despite the success, we the metal fans and Sam, as well, all felt that there was definitely a series that was missing and that is extreme metal. Since the ‘Metal Evolution’ series was pretty comprehensive about the sub-genres of metal, what factors prevented there from being an exteme metal episode? When we initially approached VH1 Classic about doing ‘Metal Evolution,’ they were really excited about the series. They’ve always been supportive of us, three of our four featured documentaries have aired on the network so they’ve always been really good to us. When we pitched the initial series we did have the extreme metal episode in our initial proposal but I guess for their audience I guess they perceived their audience as being more geared towards the older stuff and not necessarily towards the heavier end of the spectrums. So Slash was as heavy as we could go and that was tough for us because we are fans of extreme metal but we were thankful that they could do 11 episodes on metal at all, no one else would really do that these days. So we did the series as you said and it did really well and it even went to number one on VH1 Classic and on Much More here in Canada but we always had this nagging feeling in the back of our brains that’s like, “We really should have done that extreme metal episode.” As it turns out we got hundreds of messages from fans saying, “We wished it was there, too,” so we decided to do something about that and launch this Indiegogo campaign. Anthropologically speaking, how important is extreme metal to heavy metal as a whole, more than some of its other sub-genres. It’s a great question, I think the popular conception is that extreme metal is kind of in this dark, obscure corner that is an irrelevant minority within the history of heavy metal music but that’s just not true. Extreme metal is the sub-genre within metal over the last 20, 30 years now that’s really pushed the genre in new direction. It’s kind of like the kamikaze guy out on the front of the battalion making sure its safe to go over the hill and looking around every corner to see where the genre could go. So we just think when we’re talking about a series that’s about the evolution of metal it seems crazy not to include that genre which really has pushed it forward. More recently I love Keith Kahn-Harris’s phrase; he’s a well-respected academic and writer in metal fan in the UK, he uses the phrase “Motor of Innovation” and I just think that totally captures it. It’s not an obscurity, it’s a style of metal that young fans, frankly are most excited about because metal is all about pushing things to the next level. What an amazing experience it must have been for you to travel the world and interview all the bands that you’ve loved. Did you ever in a million years imagine you would be able to do something like the ‘Metal Evolution’ Series? For Scot [McFadyen] and I — we produced and directed the series together – it was an amazing experience. I think with all the movies we’ve made, we’ve had a lot of success so far and we’ve always felt the comprehensive history of metal needed to be done and back when we did ‘Headbanger’s Journey’ in 2005 and we put together out heavy metal family tree – ever since then we’ve got this amazing response from fans saying, “Can I get a copy of the tree?” or even people critiquing the tree which we actually like which is all a part of the heavy metal culture. To go out and now explore the full history of metal was an amazing experience and I got to meet some incredible musicians that I didn’t get to meet making our previous movie. We’re really proud of it, we hope it stands the test of time as the definitive library of metal until someone – 15, 25 years from now should come around and do another one. [Laughs] But until then I’m happy to have this one out there for everyone. Sam, with several films and a television mini-series under your belt, how has what you envisioned for yourself as a filmmaker and Banger Films as a production company changed since your first film back in 2005? When we started out on the road to make the first film, we really just wanted to make the first in-depth, intelligent film about heavy metal, that was our goal and we were lucky. The film did really well, we realized that there were thousands of people out there whether they were metal fans or just general music fans that felt the same way. So since then we’ve had the opportunity to go on and do ‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666’ and ‘Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage’ and now ‘Metal Evolution’ so it’s been a great experience. I think what we’ve learned at the end of the day is that what’s most important is to tell great stories and now we’ve moved on to a new film we’re working on – the story of Alice Cooper’s career from the beginning of his life right up to his big comeback in the ’80s. I think there is a pretty remarkable story unfolding there, revealing some stuff about Alice and his life that people don’t really know about. We’re also doing a documentary on the cultural history of the Devil – looking at why the Devil has been such a pervasive character in film, literature, TV, music and popular culture over the last several decades. I think that’s a really interesting question that hopefully will get some interest. The Devil has always been kind to us so we’re trying to keep that going – I think what we’ve learned is we start out to make a film about metal and then realize that there’s still a lot of great stories out there to be told not only about hard rock and metal music but maybe some of the darker subject matters of our culture that tends to get ignored. We’re talking about the extreme metal episode that Sam is trying to put together for the continuation of the ‘Metal Evolution’ series, calling it the lost episode. Go to fullmetaljackie.com , I’ve got a link for you to check out the video where Sam is looking to raise funds. I’ll tell you what If there’s one thing metal fans are good at it’s getting together and doing the right thing and anytime anything has come about whether it’s Randy [Blythe] from Lamb of God or any topics – I feel like no matter which sub-genre anybody thinks is better or any opinions they have – metal fans unite. Yeah this is the first time we’ve tried something like this, we’ve always gone the traditional route where we’ve got broadcasters and distributors to finance our work but because our usual sources aren’t really going to get behind this – we’re having to do it a different way. I think that we’ve got a long way to go, it’s a lot of money to raise, we don’t cut any corners. We pride ourselves to taking people to all the important places that are part of metal history, to going to the source, to meeting the people who are part of the story not flying ten people into a room and claiming that’s the comprehensive history of extreme metal. So we’ve got a long way to go but because we’ve had such a great response from the fans, we’re hopeful we can do this all together for the first time. Like you mentioned, this is a sub-genre of metal that means a lot to us as fans and story tellers about heavy metal, not just the folks out there that have watched our movies and supported our work. We’re hoping we can all get together on this one and actually make it happen. The ‘Metal Evolution’ series aired on VH1 classic, super thorough 11 episodes including pre-history of heavy metal and shock rock to grunge and the greatest episode, the thrash metal episode – did you get a lot of compliments on that one? That one I feel like I heard the most chatter – it was not only entertaining but educational. [Laughs] Good, well like yourself, thrash is really close to my heart. That along with the extreme metal stuff that we’re trying to do now was really what excited me when I discovered metal as a teenager and still to this day is what excited me. To go to the Bay area and go to the rehearsal rooms where Exodus and Death Angel and Testament have played for all of these years and get to meet all of these bands it was a great experience. I think thrash is that important mix of the energy and attitude and speed of punk along with the real virtuosity and musicianship that came from bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest in the UK and there’s also some interesting turns in that story. An album like ‘The Black Album’ obviously catapulted Metallica into a totally different sphere and you could argue or question rather “Were they still a thrash metal band at that point?” and we wanted to tackle that because I’ll be honest I love those guys and they’re friends of mine but ‘Enter Sandman’ was not my thing. [Laughs] When I turned up at high school and all of a sudden everyone that hated Metallica had Metallica shirts on, it was tough to take but from the perspective at looking at the history of this that was a real important turning point because I think it put a lot of pressure on the other thrash metal bands to produce a song like ‘Nothing Else Matters’ to produce a big hit like ‘Enter Sandman.’ It was great that guys like Gary Holt and Chuck Billy and the guys from Death Angel could really open up about that. We think that the thrash episode probably dug a little deeper than what people expected and that’s what we wanted the series to do. Sam, first and foremost like all of us, you’re a fan and metal fans are intense to say the least. Is it difficult to maintain professionalism when meeting some of your biggest musical heroes? [Laughs] Yeah, ever since I met Bruce Dickinson on the stage at the Hammersmith when we did ‘Headbanger’s Journey’ that was back in 2004 when we shot that interview – that was the beginning of a pretty exciting road. Guys like Dickinson and others were my heroes, they were my idols and they created music that made a huge impact on me and excited me and was music it was challenged by as a musician and it felt like it had so much more depth to it than so much of the other music that was going on back in the ’80s when I was a teenager. It’s been a fantastic experience and I think what’s even more exciting is that most of these guys are very respectful of what we do, know what we do and recognize that I think, we’ve brought a lot to metal and to the vitality of this music. It’s a little easier now to keep my professionalism in tact when I get to meet some of these musicians but I’m still meeting people I’ve always wanted to meet a guy like Arthur Brown in the shock rock episode in ‘Metal Evolution.’ A lot of people don’t know that he was really an early architect of combining spectacle and really over the top performance with rock music long before Alice Cooper and Kiss were doing it. Believe me I’ve had worse jobs, I’ve been a dish pig so I’m loving what we’re doing. Full Metal Jackie will welcome Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel to her show this coming weekend. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com .
YouTube Slash is once again delving into the animated world, but this time with a more sinister turn in the video for ‘Bad Rain.’ The guitar great and his animated counterparts turn up as the house band at a strip club that holds a dark secret. In the video, an older gentleman enters the club and is immediately transfixed by the fetching redhead with the snake tattoo dancing upon the stage while Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators play in the background. The woman has seemingly every man in the place glued to her every move, but the latest arrival is the one garnering most of her attention. As she continues to mesmerize the gentleman in the front row, he starts to notice that the people around him are not what they seem. But we won’t give any more of the video away. Watch for yourself below. This isn’t the first time Slash has been involved with animation, as Velvet Revolver ‘s ‘ Dirty Little Thing ‘ clip had animated elements. The rocker also appeared in animated form for Disney’s ‘ Phineas and Ferb ‘ film. ‘Bad Rain’ appears on Slash’s latest album, ‘ Apocalyptic Love .’ In other Slash news, the guitarist and his band will perform on TBS’ ‘Conan’ on Oct. 4. The guitarist has been a longtime supporter of the late night host, famously donning a ‘I’m With Coco’ pin while performing on Jay Leno’s late night show. Watch Slash’s ‘Bad Rain’ Video ?
Liz Ramanand, Loudwire Lemmy Kilmister was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. He spoke all about his experience playing festivals, his Motorhead bandmates, this past summer’s Mayhem Festival, his adoration for fellow British band Skunk Anansie and much more. If you missed Jackie’s show, read the full interview with Lemmy Kilmister: There’s going to be ‘The World Is Ours Vol. 2’ release; it’s going to feature Motorhead’s 2011 headlining Wacken Open Air Festival, highlights from Sonisphere in the UK and Rock in Rio in Brazil. What was it like playing that Wacken show, what was it like to headline Wacken last year? All around the world rock ‘n’ roll is here to stay. I think it was 85,000 people the last one we did, it was amazing. We did the full show old show, it’s a great festival. Rio was bigger in fact, Rio was good but you can only see the first 50 rows really. It must look like some crazy sea of people when you look out on the crowd. I’m so used to it now, it’s a funny thing to say you got used to it but I am. You see a lot of people, it’s just a lot of people – you don’t really think about the number, the actual number because they go out over the horizon and they’re out of sight anyway. It’s really funny I got used to that really quick, at first you get intimidated the first time – Reading, I think was our first one, Reading festival, there was like 20,000 people and we were freaked out. After that I really didn’t care ‘cause it’s only good as the one guy who’s applauding, isn’t it? I wanted to ask you how your summer was, you were obviously on Mayhem this summer. Which band did you bond with most over the course of the Mayhem Festival? Let’s see now, Anthrax probably ’cause they’re old friends of ours already – so yeah we had a good time with them. They’re good lads. How was your overall experience on the Mayhem Festival, it was your first time playing obviously. It was my first time playing the Mayhem one, yeah, we just went on when we should just go on and we came off when we should come off and that’s all you have to look after really. There’s things, you have to be punctual – a lot of people aren’t with us because they’re unprofessional. Do your main influences like Buddy Holly and Little Richard still come into play when you record new music? No. Not at all? Well no, it’s a different time now, isn’t it? It’s not 1959 anymore, if it is they didn’t tell me. Do you hear them any different now than when you were a kid? No it sticks with you in that frame, with me it does anyway. You remember the things you were hearing then, little time capsules songs are. It hasn’t changed much over the year so what is it that makes writing and recording a Motorhead album with Phil [Campbell] and Mikkey [Dee] such a comfortable process? It’s not comfortable when we’re doing an album, it’s terrible. I mean we fight like cat and dog over the smallest thing – “That extra beat” “Shut Up!” We always fight over things but that’s how it should be, you should have different points of view or else you’d never get it right. How do you come to some sort of conclusion or agreement at the end of the day? The one who talks last, gets it. [Laughs] The one who shouts out gets it, usually. I’ve heard you compliment your other bandmates in the past and how much of a better musician do you feel you are as a result of the time you’ve spent playing with Phil and Mikkey? I’m not better at all, they just enable to be lazier ‘cause they’re so much better you know. We play what we play, we all got our little niche what we cover for the other two. You’ll never hear us do a mistake onstage, there are lots [Laughs] ‘cause we hate rehearsals but you’ll never hear them because we cover them up real good, usually at least. There’s a couple now and again. I really like playing with these two there some of the best musicians in the world right now and they don’t get enough recognition for it. It’s a shame. You’ve collaborated with a lot of different artists over the years. Is there anybody that you’ve never had a chance to? Yes, Skin from Skunk Anansie is one, Dave Edmunds although I did half a collaboration with him once. He produced our first four tracks ever. Who else? I don’t know really, there’s a lot of people that you think you would like to but then you come down to it and you think about it real hard and you think “No it wouldn’t work.” I’d like to collaborate with Billy Gibbons again ‘cause last time it was only half collaboration, I didn’t get to play in the studio with him. I’ve got to imagine you’ve met everbody that you’ve wanted to in terms of musicians and other artists. Has there ever been anyone who was a letdown when you finally met them in person? Oh I don’t bad mouth people. I’m not asking you to name a name. Yeah you are. You shouldn’t do that, if they got to let you down isn’t that enough dismay you want to share it with people. No, I’ve met most of the people I’ve wanted to and most have been okay. Well I just hope that everybody has been respectful to you because … They should be because I ain’t bad mouthed them, right? [Laughs] You’re a legend, man, and you deserve to be respected and when you sit there and you go to a Motorhead show and you watch the band play live you’re like “Wow there are so many bands that have been influenced by Motorhead over the years.” It’s pretty amazing so they need to respect that. You can’t really hear it though. Motley Crue used to play a couple of songs of ours onstage to get themselves going but you can’t hear it in their music, obviously. It’s like your influences are just your influences, they make you play certain way or they make you realize a certain thing about how it was done. The Everly Brothers are one of my biggest influences and there’s nothing in that obviously ‘cause there’s no one to harmonize with in my band but that was a big valuable influence on me but I couldn’t tell you what for particularly – it isn’t the harmonies which is what I loved them for. So there must be – there’s something else I got from them that I don’t even know about, subliminival. Who do you listen to before you go onstage? I don’t listen to music before we go onstage. There’s enough s— going on without listening to music, as well. [Laughs] Usually I just get up from the table, put a marker in the book and walk onstage and I’m alright. I’m pretty easy to please, I don’t ask for much. Is there any new music that you’ve been listening to lately that’s exciting to you? Not lately, I have not been really looking for any to listen to. Skunk Anansie have a new album coming out though which you should promote and ZZ Top have a really good album out now ‘La Futura.’ The Skunk Anansie one you should listen to, Americans, ‘cause you ain’t got them yet and you should ‘cause they’re excellent. What can we expect in terms of new music and another tour, I guess we’re going to have to wait until next year? Yes we’re going on tour in Europe at the end of October but we’re not playing here until the New Year obviously. I don’t know where we’re going to be, we didn’t set it up yet. For your next record are you going to have a collaboration with any other artists? I’m hoping to get Skin to do a song with me, so I got the solo album almost finished and I just need one more track so I thought I’d do one with her. She said “yeah” but our schedules really odd, they’re not being helpful [laughs] — the schedules themselves. We’ll wait and see, it’s been 10 years anyway, making it. Six months ain’t going to hurt. In terms of another Motorhead record, do you think in 2013? Next year we go into the studio in January so from then on it’s a work in progress. Full Metal Jackie will welcome Canadian film director Sam Dunn, who put together and starred in the ‘Metal Evolution Series’ on VH1 Classics 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 .
Photo by Matthew Rodgers A year ago, Anthrax took the metal world by storm with ‘Worship Music,’ the band’s tenth studio album and first in eight years. ‘Worship Music’ also marked the return of vocalist Joey Belladonna, whose prior disc with Anthrax was 1990’s ‘Persistence of Time.’ When Loudwire recently caught up with bassist Frank Bello, we asked him about the one-year anniversary of ‘Worship Music’ and his reflections on the year since it’s release. “What I love about it is that I can listen to it today and a year later it feels as fresh as when it first came out” says Bello. “When we wrote it, let’s face it, there’s so many songs and here’s the deal with this – honestly when we’re going on tour I thought. ‘I want to play more songs from the record that we haven’t played yet’ and that’s the mark of the record that I like and how I know the record is that good for me.” It’s no secret that ‘Worship Music’ is loved by fans and critics alike. Bello spoke on this by saying, “From what I hear other people are saying it, everybody likes the whole record and for anybody to say after 30 years this is our finest record and our best record – that’s the ultimate compliment and that came across in a big way when we released it.” Bello continues, “I want to play so many more songs and we’re certainly not done with this record, I don’t think our fans aren’t done with it yet that’s why we’re not going to rush another record but it certainly won’t be eight years for the next record.” In addition to our conversation with Bello, the entire band released the following the following statement to celebrate the one year anniversary of ‘Worship Music.’ “To our Fans and everyone who has supported Anthrax and Worship Music : It was a little more than a year ago – September 13, 2011 – that Worship Music was released, and all of us in Anthrax can’t believe how much has happened since then. Our friends in the press gave the album great reviews, and so many writers singled it out as one of the best metal albums of the year. Our label just told us that Worship Music has just passed the 100,000 mark on albums sold. Since Worship Music ‘s release, we’ve played 107 concerts all over the world – in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia, South America, and the U.K. – we’ve gone home to New York to not only play Yankee Stadium as one of The Big Four, but had September 14 named “Anthrax Day” in The Bronx, where Charlie, Frankie and Rob grew up. We’ve been so lucky as a band, and we know we’re able to do what we do because of you, our fans and all of our supporters in the press, at radio and retail, online, on the road, everywhere. We’ve had one of the best years of our career, and we share it all with you. So thank you for making the Anthrax’s “year of Worship Music the best! More to come! Frank, Scott, Charlie, Rob and Joey” After their stint on this summer’s Mayhem Festival, Anthrax are continuing to support ‘Worship Music’ in North America and Europe. For a full list of tour dates, go here . [button href=”http://loudwire.com/anthrax-bassist-frank-bello-discusses-his-role-in-the-film-greetings-from-tim-buckley/” title=”Next: Frank Bello Talks New Film Role” align=”center”]
As previously reported, criminal charges were filed this week against a Des Moines, Iowa, doctor who is accused of contributing to the deaths of eight patients, including Slipknot bassist Paul Gray. Now, Slipknot percussionist Shawn ‘Clown’ Crahan, who was one of the people interviewed by police for the case, has spoken out on the matter. Crahan was one of nine people — including Gray’s widow Brenna — who provided information