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Music For The Soul With AJ CHANNER From FIRE FROM THE GODS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:08
  Now. Everybody want to sign. Everybody want to see their name of in
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  their lights. Everybody want to go high sky. They don't want to say
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  what the whole fucking vine. They don't want to work. Aren't we even
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  try? They stuck you no mother, let me no track yet? People
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  think for yourself, don't know? Yo, Walk on on my people down
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  in ours. This is Aj from Fire from the Gods. Shout out to
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  Heavy Mind for having me, and we're chatting about soul revolution, the collapse.
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  Walk on. Hey, what an intro? Brother? Good morning?
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  How are you today? I'm fantastic, my bro. I'm good. I'm
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  good, I'm feeling good. My head's up. I just got told that
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  I'm having a third child, which is going to be a third girl.
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  So I'm fucking fantastic. Okay, brother, congratulations mine, that's great news
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  for the morning. Yeah it is. It's great. Well it wasn't my
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  morning. I heard it actually that I've got I've got two young daughters myself,
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  Bro, and daughters are a beautiful thing, girl squad baby, tell
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  you good. It is the baddest strong breath smart women. And then tell
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  and I bet you AJ is not going to argue about that either because he's
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  way out numbered now, yes, sir, exactly number three. Now,
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  so you're saying, bro, have you mag let's talk to me. Talk
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  to me man, what would you like to know? Made you and me
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  this time? Are we were having something different? This is great? So
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  we're here to talk about, as you say, made the release of Soul
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  Revolution Deluxe The Collapse, which is out in June. So it's an extension
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  of twenty twenty two, this album Sole Revolution, Mate that you still get
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  this sort of the same feeling. Releasing a deluxe version of an album is
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  what you do when the original comes out. Yeah, you know what I
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  mean. I think I'm more I'm happy about this one because, as I've
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  told everyone, most pressed that it's about the it's about the family. With
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  this one, it's it's about the homies, some really some really solid close
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  you know, individuals to Far from the God. So I'm really excited about
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  this one. I am excited about the release. Typically, you know,
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  Far from the Gods, we'll release the record and then we do some sort
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  of reimagined version of it. We've done it since our first record, Narrative,
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  and you know, it's always like okay, cool, and you know,
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  I'm glad and people are really excited about hearing the different version of the
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  song or a different take or reimagining again of of the record. But with
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  this one, it's collapsed. It's it's people that we specifically really are close
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  to our hearts as as brothers, as bands, as musicians. So we
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  really like handpicked those that we wanted for this and and I didn't want it
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  to I didn't want to blow it up and you know, get a massive
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  name on it and you know, spend a ton of money going after j
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  D Jonathan Davis or some big name to try and boost sales or anything.
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  We really wanted to do it as some homies that we wanted to show love
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  and some people that we know really respect our band and respect what we got
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  going on. Yeah, that's fantastic, right. And did the original came
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  out on October twenty eighth and twenty twenty two? I said on that album
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  mate, like, did fans embraced as much as what you thought they would?
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  Uh? You know, that's a great question, because hardcore fire from
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  the Gods fans really enjoyed the record, But I feel like it was it
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  was at a weird time for us to release a record because there was so
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  much happening at our label and so much And I'm not blaming anyone for,
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  you know, the for the difference between the American son and as opposed to
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  so revolution like I think, I think there's it didn't it didn't reach enough
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  ears essentially what I'm saying, But hardcore fire from the gods. Fans really
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  did fuck with the record and really loved it, and and that's enough for
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  me because that lets me know that the message really is out there and spreading.
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  Yeah, that actually sort of lazy, didn't put My next thought,
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  bro Like in the modern age of music, when things are like they're easier
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  in a lot of ways, but they're difficult as well, like sort of
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  how do you measure the success of an album these days? You know,
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  went back in the old days, your mates and ringing up and they go,
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  yeah, man, that was fucking great, you know, but these
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  days you've got my numbers, you've got you've got so many different things.
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  How do you measure it? There's so many metrics right to see the success
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  of a record and and all these new things because you know, obviously you
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  know, hardcore album sales are as far as like you know, selling selling
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  a physical CD. You know that's not that's almost a thing of the past.
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  I mean, that's obsolete. So yeah, you have all these metrics
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  and all these small increments, and it gets in you know, these weird
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  calculations and and different equations. But for me, it's it's it's the response
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  that I get from fans. You know, we just played two major festivals
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  here in the States, and you know, people the response to the newer
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  songs and playing songs like I and I which is also revolution or or so
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  os we've played and people they hear it and they talk about the message and
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  what it means to them. That to me is the successful of a record.
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  That's the that's that is gratifying and self edifying enough for me to say
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  I'm doing some real good and I don't I'm not trying to sound like a
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  social justice warrior or exalting myself as a person to look up to. But
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  it's like, you know, I go through real ship and I'm a real
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  dude man, and my band we're real guys and we live real lives,
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  and so I make I make music for real people. And when real people
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  come back to me and say, yo, I feel that struggle, I'm
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  going through something similar or I've been through this and the music has done this
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  for me. It means a lot, and that to me is the success
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  of a record. That a beautiful answer. Brother. So it's at a
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  touch on this before me, But I want to go into a bit more
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  depth now, like Star Revolution Deluxe, the Collapse speeches, four refreshed fan
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  favorites and one cover. So I want to run through the new editions one
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  by one, bro, and you can sell me a bit more about the
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  new versions and why you chose the people, to be honest. So we'll
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  start with Star Revolution, which features Young Bosh. Yeah, so you know
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  I haven't I started a record label with some homies, man, and you
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  know we're trying to do something quite different as far as hip hop is and
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  the scene of new metal coming back and where hip hop and metal intersect.
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  So Young Marsh perfectly displays that. And you know it wasn't it wasn't about
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  an ego boost, like, oh, look at my artists, you know,
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  like kind of like rappers, do you know, like in the hip
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  hop scene, it's always like, let me put my artists on so that
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  everyone can hear what I'm you want to hear my new guy. No,
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  it was like, Yo, we wrote this dope song and Yo, marsh
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  has this vibe about him and their band. I was like, Yo,
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  let's let's put my man on this song and let him do a thing.
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  And he did. You know what I'm saying, He added, you know,
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  the the the brutality that that is in their their music, the heaviness
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  of his voice and his style. So it perfectly suited him. So sol
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  Revolution Man and you know they he is a big fan of Fire from the
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  Gods, So I know it meant a lot for him to be on to
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  be on a track with us. And the next one is that sr s
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  witch Faces. Yeah. So Nate has become this like massive TikTok kind of
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  star, but a little do people know. You know, he's got Jared
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  Leto and and uh the guys shine Down and all these amazing singers that are
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  follow him on TikTok and and love his stuff and and have and you know,
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  he's a Lincoln part cover that the world likes, and he has all
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  these followers. But he started as just a kid that used to hang around
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  in the studio with Fire from the Gods and he developed his sound with some
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  of our like major collaborators, and Richie from Fire from the Gods helps write
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  his music, and so it meant something to us because yeah, he's got
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  popular, but he has a particular vibe to him in his voice. That's
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  really why I wanted him on it, because that song is very emotional and
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  it comes from an emotional place and he's like the email kid that everyone loves
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  now, so it's like, yeah, let's put out brother on the song,
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  you know, And the same with with Double Edged Sword. Sila isn't
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  even very active right now as a band, but Jaden is a is a
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  massive home of mine. He's a he's aither are. He's either someone that
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  I respected for years, and we would come from the same scene in New
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  York City, the same hardcore scene that I came up in. And you
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  know, I was like on a industry party in New York that was actually
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  a release a release party for Soul Revolution, the original version of the of
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  the record, and I was like, bro, I'm so glad you're here.
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  I haven't seen you in forever. And yo, you know the street
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  Smiths, Silo and he You know, we had this like emotional reunion because
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  I hadn't seen him in a while, but you know, and it just
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  made sense. It was like, Yo, let's put Jayden on the track.
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  I don't know Silent is going to come back in full force, but
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  I know that my boy Jayden really loves and respects fire from the Gods,
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  and it was beautiful to have him as as part of it all. So
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  we'll move on to the one that that I'm really interested in, Mate thousand
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  lifetimes, and she's got Corey Glover from a living color, Yes, yes,
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  and og Man and og in the business and og In in just consciousness
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  and just and all and a dynamite individual. Man. We've really since when
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  we got signed to Better NOI Entertainment, which was eleven seven at the time
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  we were everyone kind of threw around this idea of yo, let's collab with
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  with with Corey Glover because they're like everyone, Yo, we know Corey Glover.
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  We know Corey Glover, and I'm like, Corey Glover, you mean
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  the culture personality, Corey Glover, the man. Yeah, And so Corey
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  Glover on the track is a dynamite. Is a dynamite collab man and he
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  killed it Man one of the best voices in the game. Underrated but known
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  and respected, So there's not much more I could say to it. And
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  the way he brought out an already emotional song and a song that meant a
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  lot to me personally, I think he really he did his thing, and
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  and and and I I mean he blessed it, he blessed the song.
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  I've actually had just realized why the Petties just dropped it. Cory's just brought
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  out a new band and they're actually called Soule Revolutions, So let's see ultimate
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  ultimate compliment they can pay that album. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
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  Then the cover on the album is through a radio by rating against the
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  Machine. Mate, Like, great fucking song, But why did you change
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  that particular song the cover? You know? I love Regious Machine Man,
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  and I grew up like really respecting the band because they spoke to me.
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  When I heard first heard Regience Machine, I'd never heard that anyone speak like
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  that on a on a record and have that sort of of that sort of
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  aggression and the political charge lyrics. It was everything that I was taught as
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  a kid. He was talking about the issues that that that that really affected,
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  that affected my community. So I wanted to really, you know,
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  I looked up to regios and Gorilla Radio was one of the first ones.
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  I have one of the first tunes I've ever heard from from Rage and I
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  learned it as a kid. I played drums to it. So when the
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  band was like, Yo, let's find a song to cover. Yeah,
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  we wanted to do a lot of other things like Jimi Hendrix. We wanted
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  to do a lot of other really cool things, and someone said, Yogi
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  got the machine and it made so much sense. So it was perfect for
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  us, man, you know, and I think we made our own,
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  not we didn't just do a cover for cover and bends like at your level,
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  Bry, like you do you consult other bands before doing a song or
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  would you have called Zach and sort of told him that you're going to do
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  it and gave a listener order. Did that? No? Then I've tried
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  to reach out to Ridge so much and tried to talk to to talk to
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  those guys, and it's never it's never been like, I don't know,
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  you know, it took a while for us to get clearance, but I
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  wanted that was kind of my way of saying, like, you know,
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  in sports, when they have in sports, when they're like, oh,
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  come and get me kind of sing when someone wants to transfer to a team,
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  you know, so me saying like, yeah, I really respect you
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  and I look up to you. Take us on tour man, you know
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  exactly. So you're chosen those four songs and the comedy go I'm a the
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  lax version of favorite. How do you you know, like, albums are
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  very personal things for artists, as you know, so how do you choose
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  which songs so sort of revamp and put out again? Because I could imagine
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  you would have liked to do all of them in a sense, right,
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  yeah, I mean i'd love to. I'm sorry say that again, mate,
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  because how did you choose those particular four songs? Like I could imagine
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  you'd probably want to do. You know, we just wanted to give I
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  wanted to showcase the songs that we really liked and really loved on the record,
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  and and and those were those were like the ones that meant a lot.
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  And I thought that a lot of people deserve to like hear those and
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  hadn't heard them before. And oh now you've not long finished a long touring
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  campaign including shows with our seven Dust of Mice and Men, Maggie, Death
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  Biping, Death Punch, plus a few festivals. Mate, So are you
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  taking a break for a bit out of refrect especially become a daddy again.
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  Yeah, we've got to We've got a new record and that we're working on.
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  Bro, you gotta write this new record? Yeah? How far into
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  that any brod? Like? Is it going to be what fans expect from
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  Fire from the Guards are? He's gonna got to pull out a few surprises.
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  I think we're gonna we're going to try and go back to our roots
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  a little bit man of being like just you know, the heaviness that the
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  struggle hasn't changed, The message hasn't changed, but the anger and the ferocity
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  is still there and we're about and I think that's what we're what we're about.
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  Very good, right, all right a j Well, thanks very much
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  for your time. But I may be an absolutely pleasure to spe We're an
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  inspiration, bros. Good to talk to you this time with over congratulations on
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  the new baby girl as well. Brothers. It's a great days. It's
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  another death my child rich Like now everybody want to shine everybody want to see
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  their name of in the legs. Everybody want to know higg in the sky.
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  They didn't want to appreach them. What the whole fucking place? They
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  don't want to work? Are we even tried? They stuck you no mother
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  love her no no traction because we self don't perfection. And I can repeat
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  for the reaction for a great shag and the reaction, I feel like carrier
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  like you Sami by mom, Yeah, losing no cut to see, losing
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  the jam money and no wasting minds were the fun and be oh yeah,
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  it's a double light song when the blis make no fly. God had refuse
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  to walk as happy shoes up the loose hat out of mind. But I
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  read it by the fem and the knoss they stuck you know, mother let
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  the non track sun and they put themselves on their brutal fast And I can
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  repeat for their reaction for the grand sat with the reaction, I feel like
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  airl my Jesus God, losing no country to see, losing my friend for
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  me and my waisting mind were to find and I beyond. It's a double
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  light song when the we don't find, we just learn to live way time
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  gives in a different direction, needs to change my trajection. But it's okay.
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  I'm still losing, no culture to see, losing my d move me
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  one and my wating, my work to find and beyond. It's a double
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  l side when the bladely double. Not everybody wants to join the fucking party.
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  Not everybody wants to join your fucking party. Let's say, let's