Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 929 - Joe Nally (Urne) Discusses "Setting Fire To The Sky" and Trying to Grow as An Artist

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 929 - Joe Nally (Urne) Discusses "Setting Fire To The Sky" and Trying to Grow as An Artist · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  But funny enough, like you'll always see things, the bigger
• 0:02
  you get, the more you're out. You'll always have to get the
• 0:04
  people going. You know, I've seen a few.
• 0:06
  Oh, you know, there's not so many peaks and valleys in this
• 0:09
  one. I'm sorry.
• 0:10
  Well, there's more than what a lot of bands do.
• 0:12
  There's not as much emotion as there is.
• 0:14
  And compared to the last one, and I was like, oh, sorry, I'm
• 0:17
  not writing about someone dying this time.
• 0:19
  But the overall response had been amazing.
• 0:22
  When I kind of sit back and look at you, I'd say 85% of it people
• 0:26
  reviews are like saying this could be album of the year. 10%
• 0:29
  are saying it's just a good record.
• 0:30
  You know, I enjoy it, it's fine. And the other 5% are like, these
• 0:34
  guys suck and I'm like, where's your band?
• 0:44
  What's up everybody? It's Kefi at ghostcoldman.com.
• 0:47
  I am stoked to be once again joined by Joe Nollie of Earn.
• 0:50
  How are you doing, buddy? Yeah mate, I'm all good.
• 0:52
  Usually like getting ready for tour, we practice pretty early
• 0:57
  but we're doing it later on in the day now today, so I don't
• 1:00
  know. I've got like a morning to like
• 1:03
  wonder when he got coffee and I'm like, what can I do now?
• 1:07
  So I'm just watching a documentary about Dave's Mustang
• 1:10
  making wine. So there you go.
• 1:14
  But yeah, I'm I'm all good. Just getting just really excited
• 1:17
  to get out and play some shows. But it's new album.
• 1:19
  Right on. And yeah, super interesting.
• 1:22
  Dave Mustang's wine business. I see his daughter on the on the
• 1:26
  social media ads a lot and I know that she's also, you know,
• 1:30
  they moved to Nashville for like a combination of interest,
• 1:32
  better life, quieter life. I love.
• 1:36
  Have you heard the new Megadeth? Did you have any thoughts on it?
• 1:39
  I must admit, personally, I, I, I have struggled with it.
• 1:43
  I think vocally I've kind of struggled.
• 1:46
  I couldn't quite see past it lyrically as well.
• 1:49
  Yeah, there's just a few things. I was just, I really, I really
• 1:54
  wish it was this, this amazing thing that they could go out on.
• 1:58
  But I think the hard thing like I feel is it's like there's so
• 2:01
  many key components that made Megadeth, Megadeth, be it Chris
• 2:05
  Poland, be it Marty, Dave Ellison, the space playing.
• 2:08
  I know obviously they had to part through certain reasons,
• 2:12
  but there's a tone that he gets and the way it worked, it just
• 2:16
  makes Megadeth sound. Yeah.
• 2:18
  I, I, I really wished I, I was fully into it.
• 2:22
  Megadeth and Mustangs, quite a big influence.
• 2:24
  Some stuff that I kind of bring in to earn, like the risks that
• 2:28
  I write and, or try to, you know, try to write.
• 2:33
  So yeah, I thought it was fine. So my alarms just got off, but I
• 2:38
  had to remind myself, Yeah. But yeah, I I will give it a go.
• 2:44
  I didn't like the ride, the lightning thing.
• 2:46
  I think it just shows you moments in time sometimes are
• 2:50
  there for a reason. And yeah.
• 2:53
  That's fair enough, you know, fair enough.
• 2:55
  I also miss, I think James, a great bass player, especially
• 2:59
  live. He's an excellent, you know,
• 3:00
  fantastic guy. You know, if you played in Black
• 3:03
  Label Society, that's like, you know, music school for a lot of
• 3:06
  people. A good pedigree to have.
• 3:08
  But yeah, there's some tone missing without Ellefson, I
• 3:11
  feel. But I love the Megadeth record
• 3:12
  actually. Like I felt like 64 year old
• 3:15
  Dave Mustaine is not 24 year Dave, 24 year old Dave Mustaine.
• 3:19
  So I figured with those limitations, the same thing I
• 3:22
  will measure the next Anthrax record against.
• 3:24
  It's the same thing I measured the last Layer record, the same
• 3:27
  thing with, you know, Metallica. So yeah, tough one.
• 3:30
  Tough, you know, Time waits for no one, and the pale horse is
• 3:35
  riding for all of us, man. There's a few who still managed
• 3:38
  to knock it out the park from that sort of world like the new
• 3:43
  creator. They're pretty, pretty
• 3:45
  consistently. They're in a very been in a very
• 3:47
  good place the last 10-15 years. Very little line up changes.
• 3:51
  And yeah, they seemed I mean over here mate, they're playing
• 3:54
  like big venues and it's a friend of mine's our manager and
• 3:58
  he's like taking them the last 10 or so years and just built
• 4:01
  them and that they're playing like Brixton Academy, which is a
• 4:04
  big venue because Sabina 10 years ago they were not playing
• 4:07
  that Testament can consistent. You know, I wasn't like Oh my
• 4:12
  God by then, but they their last album.
• 4:15
  But it won't let you down. But I guess with them guys that
• 4:18
  just all, you know, a few years younger than the Mustaines.
• 4:22
  Do you know what I mean? As at that age, I'm sure five
• 4:25
  years is a big fucking difference and pretty so good
• 4:29
  friends of mine, that of fucking band Forbidden Bay Area legends
• 4:34
  that's been finished up their new album.
• 4:36
  So I'm super excited to hear that.
• 4:39
  Chris Kontos on drums, who's one of like the best people in the
• 4:43
  world. So I'm really excited to hear
• 4:46
  that. But yeah, that's with me going
• 4:47
  in front of Fresh. No, that's all that we love.
• 4:49
  I love all those bands. I'll throw Overkill and
• 4:51
  Sepultura in there. Have done tremendous albums the
• 4:54
  last few years. Swanson and Jetson too.
• 4:56
  And I'm wait, I also I'm a huge forbidden fan.
• 4:59
  Before I lived before I moved to the Bay Area and I my New York
• 5:02
  friends hated me for always talking about forbidden and
• 5:05
  Craig and and I love Kantos being in the band and I've seen
• 5:09
  Norman's bands across the Bay for a while since I've been out
• 5:13
  here. He's a killer singer.
• 5:14
  So it's just going to be a phenomenal record.
• 5:15
  I'm super pumped we saw. That live a couple of months ago
• 5:19
  and I had Dan from Voivod playing.
• 5:21
  Right. And it was ridiculous.
• 5:24
  Like Craig's, Craig's so good, you know, I mean, you don't get
• 5:28
  asked to go and play for death and, you know, not know what
• 5:30
  you're doing. He and he's a killer, killer,
• 5:33
  killer guy. Such a great guy.
• 5:35
  And Kantos also. So, you know, welcome to my new
• 5:38
  podcast talking about thrash metal with Joe.
• 5:42
  But yeah, we are getting back together to talk about setting
• 5:45
  fire to this guy. The new album from Earn out now
• 5:47
  on Spine Foreign Records. And we talked extensively for
• 5:50
  the last record. And I remember in that
• 5:53
  interview, because I'm studio and I take notes about all the
• 5:56
  things and you had said like, oh, you know, this record stands
• 5:59
  in time. And probably the next thing we
• 6:02
  do because of, you know, the line up and different things is
• 6:05
  that the out we will be a different sound will still be
• 6:08
  earned, but we'll be different sounding.
• 6:09
  We're going to mean, you know, expand.
• 6:12
  And you totally like, I totally felt that listening to this and
• 6:16
  I went back and listened to the other records and then this
• 6:18
  again. And that was my process for this
• 6:20
  record. We'll listen to it again today
• 6:22
  along with the new music stuff today like Pussifer and Mayhem
• 6:25
  and just AB things. And man, what a tremendous job.
• 6:28
  Congratulations on this. Just absolute banger of a
• 6:31
  record. Thank you so much.
• 6:34
  Yeah. Like, I mean, I wouldn't want to
• 6:36
  ever write the same sort of thing.
• 6:38
  I think we took, we did take a little bit of face and I think
• 6:42
  we took quite a bit of what the first record was the kind of
• 6:45
  triumphantness. And and yeah, we wanted to do
• 6:47
  something different. We wanted to make it sound a bit
• 6:49
  more modern and straight at you, you know, it's and again, but
• 6:55
  the next record will sound different.
• 6:56
  And the one good thing about having guys who listen to a lot
• 7:00
  of music and always have done, we're not listening to like, I'm
• 7:03
  going to go and listen to this band so we can RIP them off.
• 7:05
  I've listened to music my whole life.
• 7:07
  I've been fortunate enough to like have like family who
• 7:10
  doesn't listen to rock or metal, so you're kind of pulling in
• 7:12
  from different things growing up and family D radio DJs,
• 7:16
  successful DJs. So there's always music coming
• 7:18
  into the house. And yeah, I mean, I'm already
• 7:21
  excited to get right in the next one because I think it's going
• 7:23
  to be very different. And I feel like we're building
• 7:26
  up to like our perfect album. But funny enough, like, you'll
• 7:30
  always see things. The bigger you get, the more
• 7:32
  you're out. You'll always have to get the
• 7:34
  people going. You know, I've seen a few.
• 7:36
  Oh, you know, there's not so many peaks and valleys in this
• 7:39
  one. I'm sorry.
• 7:40
  Well, there's more than what a lot of bands do.
• 7:42
  There's not as much emotion as those.
• 7:44
  And compared to the last one. And I was like, oh, sorry, I'm
• 7:47
  not writing about some. I'm dying this time.
• 7:49
  But the overall response has been amazing.
• 7:52
  When I kind of sit back and look at you, I'd say 85% of it people
• 7:55
  reviews are like saying this could be album of the year. 10%
• 7:58
  are saying it's just a good record.
• 8:00
  You know, I enjoy it, it's fine. And the other 5% are like, these
• 8:04
  guys fucking suck and I'm like, where's your band?
• 8:09
  They always we get nothing but derision in our comments.
• 8:13
  I published most all of them. And then I go look at their
• 8:16
  stuff and I see where they oh, you don't have anything going on
• 8:19
  in your life. Cool.
• 8:20
  I'm so glad that I work full time and also, you know, help
• 8:23
  support underground bands. I'm so glad you're more
• 8:26
  important than me. You know, I'll I'll say I don't
• 8:29
  know who is said. The record wasn't as I thought
• 8:32
  this was like, you know, a super dynamic journey with a lot of
• 8:37
  ebbs and flows much more than obviously the last record was
• 8:40
  much more of an like a bunch of ass beaters and a couple of cool
• 8:43
  chill moments. And this has to me a whole range
• 8:47
  from start to finish. I mean, breathe, we just got the
• 8:50
  video for breathe with with Joe the amazing Joe Quail ghost cult
• 8:53
  favorite. Not supposed to have favorites,
• 8:55
  but we do and and we've been following Joe from the beginning
• 8:59
  and just what a magical song. And of course the video comments
• 9:02
  are like, of course there is a loud, of course there's a soft
• 9:05
  song at the end of the album. It's like, God, can't you just
• 9:07
  let people be? But killer song.
• 9:10
  I love the video. I like a real change of tone.
• 9:13
  Beautifully done. Well, yeah, I mean for us, I've
• 9:15
  seen a number of things, you know, like some people of people
• 9:20
  go, you know, of course there's a mellow song.
• 9:22
  I'm like, yeah, it does come after a 10 minute song.
• 9:24
  Like the way we saw it is like that's the big epic finale of an
• 9:29
  epic film, the 10 minute like ending battle or dramatic
• 9:32
  moment. And then the finishing credits
• 9:35
  to wind down is the song with Joe.
• 9:39
  But yeah, it's it's it's funny. Like if I see that and I'm like,
• 9:42
  all right, well, you know what? Show me.
• 9:44
  Show me your song with a world class cello plan.
• 9:47
  Show me your song with a Grammy winning Troy Sanders that goes
• 9:50
  before it. If you haven't got it, don't
• 9:52
  speak to me. Like I'm fine.
• 9:54
  Just crack on lads. Like you can go and write a song
• 9:58
  if you want. Right on.
• 9:59
  I'm glad you brought up Troy. I'm having quite a journey
• 10:04
  lately with Mastodon. Obviously we saw, you know, with
• 10:08
  the terrible loss of Brent Hines last year, even though he had
• 10:11
  parted from the band, and then they kind of triumphantly went
• 10:14
  on tour and did back to the beginning.
• 10:16
  And then I just saw Troy a couple of weeks ago in LA with
• 10:20
  Metal Allegiance where he was just singing no bass, which was
• 10:23
  fun because like, I don't think he's used to doing that.
• 10:25
  So he's like, I don't know what to do with my feet or my hands.
• 10:27
  But he was incredible as a but you know, vocalist and he brings
• 10:31
  such a beautiful quality to harken the waves.
• 10:34
  It's a very like Leviathan remission sounding Mastodon E
• 10:38
  song. It's like the most sludgy thing,
• 10:40
  and then his voice is just beauteous on on top of it, you
• 10:44
  know? Yeah, I mean, I mean, I'm pretty
• 10:45
  fucking excited that I I get to kind of go back and forth with a
• 10:50
  guy who's done for me Crack the Sky.
• 10:53
  I think when I think of three albums over the last 25 years,
• 10:57
  I'm like, were the ones that everyone was was the fate in
• 11:00
  this Crack the Sky. And probably from Master serious
• 11:04
  where people were like, hold up, this is there's other big albums
• 11:07
  and albums that might have been bigger, but there's not been an
• 11:09
  album that people have gone crack the sky across the board,
• 11:13
  blah, blah, blah. And that guy's one of the
• 11:15
  members, one of the key components of that.
• 11:17
  And you know, you've got Leviathan and you know, even
• 11:19
  like the latest one, some stuff that Troy does on the last one,
• 11:22
  like there's a film called had it always really singing very
• 11:25
  subtly. And I get to kind of go back and
• 11:28
  forth over 10 minute track with that guy.
• 11:31
  Wow, Like what a buzz. And we couldn't believe that he
• 11:34
  was so up for it. And he was like, we met him and
• 11:38
  he was like really honored by it.
• 11:40
  Maybe. I know he's done some guest
• 11:42
  spots in the past, but some of them, one of them, I can't
• 11:44
  remember what band it is. He's on it for like 10 seconds
• 11:47
  and I didn't even know it was him.
• 11:48
  And I'm like, if we're going to get him, I'm like, let's send in
• 11:51
  as many like verses. And you know, we sent him about
• 11:55
  6 and he's like, let's see, let's see what happens here.
• 11:57
  Nothing repeats. And let's see, boom, sent it all
• 12:00
  back. And it was like, anything else
• 12:02
  you need want tweaked or changed, just let me know.
• 12:05
  And I was like, yeah, mate, it sounds amazing.
• 12:08
  All good. You're good.
• 12:09
  Right on. Not only did you hold your own
• 12:11
  trading lines with him, you know, I really thought this was
• 12:14
  like a tremendous level up for you vocally this album and and I
• 12:17
  couldn't be more happy about it as a fan and and just a person
• 12:21
  that's followed you from the begin beginning and yeah, like
• 12:24
  all over the map hard when you need to be hard gentle range,
• 12:28
  phrasing a lot of things. You did hear extremely well.
• 12:32
  Maybe Earn is going to have a Mastodon like future.
• 12:36
  You know, Troy also learned how to sing.
• 12:38
  I don't think any of those guys were going to be singers
• 12:40
  originally Brown either. And, and now they are.
• 12:43
  And now you are, you know, and I'm sure it wasn't in your mind
• 12:45
  when you were beating the bass and screaming your lungs out
• 12:48
  that you would someday sing like, you know, with a lot of
• 12:51
  melody and, and beauty. Well, I think for me, like I've
• 12:55
  always thought, God, I've always like, you know, like many of us
• 12:59
  have been, I can hold a tune sort of thing.
• 13:01
  And I had to take a few vocal lessons just to kind of correct
• 13:04
  some bits. And I won't try and sing out of
• 13:06
  my range, but a big thing like behind me, I've got like a big
• 13:09
  portrait of Sam Cooke. I'm a big, big soul music guy.
• 13:15
  Like that's, that's probably my main thing that has been for
• 13:19
  some time. So I think I kind of was maybe
• 13:22
  pulling a bit more from that, like try not to render hooks
• 13:26
  like that when the melody is there.
• 13:28
  I won't try to pull from maybe a metal or rock area.
• 13:32
  I was kind of maybe listening to a bit of like Wilson Pickett or
• 13:35
  Aretha, just trying to pick out different things and what would
• 13:39
  they do? And there's like a singer over
• 13:42
  here called Beverly Knight who should have been massive.
• 13:44
  I think if she was American, she would have been 2-3 times the
• 13:47
  size, but things like that. And I sort of like, what would
• 13:50
  what would they do? And that's where I kind of took
• 13:53
  from that. But again, I wouldn't try and
• 13:54
  sing out of my range. I'm nowhere near and will never
• 13:57
  be near any of those things that I mentioned.
• 14:00
  But it's just doing the best that I can.
• 14:02
  And I think getting the confidence and being given the
• 14:05
  confidence to try it really helped.
• 14:08
  And on I, I was, I did a bunch of deep dive documentaries last
• 14:13
  year about music history. And of course, you know,
• 14:15
  everybody you know, knows Abbey Road from The Beatles and Led
• 14:18
  Zeppelin and Floyd and, and of course also the, you know, a
• 14:22
  bunch of Beatles documentaries and, and the Led Zeppelin
• 14:25
  becoming Led Zeppelin thing. And there was a lot of stuff
• 14:27
  about Abbey Road and Shirley Bassey, who is not only an
• 14:30
  incredible huge star overseas, not unfortunately as big here,
• 14:34
  James Bond theme songs notwithstanding, but but like it
• 14:38
  go back to that. I think it's in the Zeppelin
• 14:40
  documentary where Plant, I'm sorry, where Paige and and John
• 14:43
  Paul Jones are playing on Goldfinger.
• 14:45
  And the conductor just kept keep going, keep going.
• 14:48
  Hold that note at the end. She just took in a huge deep
• 14:50
  breath and hit it in one take. And you know, they just don't
• 14:53
  make them like that anymore. We just don't have singers like
• 14:55
  Aretha and Sam Cooke anymore. But what?
• 14:58
  Amazing. Shirley Bassey does the
• 15:01
  rendition of a song called I Who Have Nothing, which Benny King
• 15:05
  also did a great version. I don't know who did the
• 15:07
  original, but she's someone and it's it's next level.
• 15:12
  It's it's it's ridiculous. She is ridiculous power.
• 15:18
  She was her generations Whitney, probably Whitney Houston and she
• 15:22
  had a lot a little lady with a lot of power, lung power.
• 15:25
  They would again, they were just built different back then and
• 15:28
  and what a great and UN characteristic influence.
• 15:31
  I love hearing about that. And then, you know, just talking
• 15:34
  musically, not just I mentioned the dynamics across the whole
• 15:36
  album and the guests, but also musically.
• 15:39
  So you know, you know, much more refined in terms of, you know,
• 15:44
  song type and structure. And there's a lot of, you know,
• 15:47
  90s metal influence in there. I'm sure the other guys brought
• 15:50
  in. There's like some Fear Factory,
• 15:52
  there's some Sepultura, there's some, you know, just sounding
• 15:55
  like some severe ass beaters machine head kind of references,
• 16:00
  but also your own thing. Like it's start, it's becoming
• 16:02
  earned music now and it always was really.
• 16:05
  But like especially now I think setting fire to this guy is
• 16:08
  showing that. Yeah, I mean, there's certainly
• 16:11
  from that sort of 90s point. I think Burn My Eyes is always
• 16:15
  the kind of like reference. We had one review say this is
• 16:18
  their favorite drum sound since the album.
• 16:20
  And as I mentioned previously, Contos is not only like like
• 16:25
  grew up. He was like a legend in the
• 16:26
  playground when I was a kid. He was like contact was.
• 16:29
  Better than blah blah. Blah, blah, blah, blah, He's now
• 16:32
  he's now a friend of mine and like I'll text him and whatnot
• 16:36
  and he's just like, dude, this new fucking album.
• 16:38
  And I'm like, ah, so trying to have anything reference to to
• 16:42
  that is great. And yeah, like, like certainly
• 16:47
  the kind of chaos AD era sets, like that kind of rawness, that
• 16:52
  big riff sort of stuff. And yeah, it's I just think
• 16:56
  though, like my my favorite thing is like when you see
• 16:59
  people, are they the one? I don't get sludge.
• 17:02
  I don't know, I don't listen to sludge music.
• 17:04
  None of us do, but we always seem to get it.
• 17:06
  And I'm like, I don't know what the fuck that is.
• 17:08
  And but when people like it sort of sounds like sludge and a
• 17:11
  metal core, but I'm I think we're probably all on the same
• 17:14
  agreeance as to when metal core was in the late 90s, because
• 17:17
  there's no way what today's metal core is.
• 17:21
  It ain't it ain't if people say think that they had no idea
• 17:25
  about music and should go away. But maybe that's sort of some
• 17:28
  eyes to the Sky, early Shadows Fall era where they're doing
• 17:31
  like big passages. But then we get all these
• 17:34
  different genres and people are like, oh, and I'm like guys,
• 17:38
  it's just lads who listen to metal.
• 17:39
  It's just metal. Just just.
• 17:41
  Chill, it's just just metal music and.
• 17:44
  It's all just metal now. Yeah.
• 17:45
  And that's it. I'm like, God, yeah.
• 17:47
  And then are you? I've seen a few like where
• 17:49
  they've in the interview, they've got me.
• 17:51
  I'll see anyone is this, this, this and this, this, this and
• 17:54
  this, but it isn't too original and I'm like, well you've just
• 17:56
  compared us to about 8 different genres.
• 18:00
  Like what is it guys? You know what I mean?
• 18:03
  But I, yeah, mate, I just think it's just growing up.
• 18:06
  We, we love the same stuff that I love when I was a kid and
• 18:10
  there's nothing. I've got me records down there
• 18:11
  and a big album that come out around the time that was like,
• 18:14
  fuck yeah, was was the last Judas Priest album.
• 18:17
  And it's so metal. And I was just like, fuck yeah.
• 18:21
  And Richie Faulkner is a top, top, just the man.
• 18:25
  And I think that really inspired us, the kind of final stages of
• 18:28
  putting it together. And then we were like, yeah,
• 18:30
  Priest came in and just really drove it home for us.
• 18:33
  Yeah, Richie is wonderful, a killer guitar work.
• 18:36
  I will also say I love the drum sound on the record.
• 18:38
  I think it's the spirit alive as my favorite drums like so far
• 18:42
  this year, like drum performance.
• 18:44
  And there's definitely like a, there's a really cool, you know,
• 18:49
  miking technique done I think across the album.
• 18:51
  But on that song, that's the best one for me.
• 18:54
  That might be my favorite song on the record.
• 18:55
  But like, again, such a banger and so much great guitar stuff.
• 18:59
  I think maybe the sludge thing is tone.
• 19:01
  So I hear like Converge and I hear sometimes old Neurosis and
• 19:06
  and today is the day in a little noise rock moments when all the
• 19:11
  you know, they're the whether it's mixing or it's tones or
• 19:14
  it's the two guitars together with the bass.
• 19:16
  I think that's where because we because I think the last record
• 19:19
  was sludgy and we had this same like talk last time.
• 19:23
  Like no, I don't think so. And I was like a little, but
• 19:26
  like it's OK. Like you know, obviously you
• 19:28
  make your music for you first. You're the first.
• 19:29
  You have to be the first fans, right?
• 19:31
  The band, Yeah. And then you play for the label
• 19:34
  and hopefully they dig it. And they did.
• 19:36
  And your producer and things like that.
• 19:38
  And then kind of the world gets your music right.
• 19:40
  But they all everybody takes it in through the lens of whatever
• 19:43
  they hear with. And, you know, critics being
• 19:45
  critics. I, I can't apologize for some of
• 19:48
  my brethren, my brethren being not great at what they do.
• 19:51
  But you know, I get it, thankfully.
• 19:54
  But yeah, man, like, you know, just such a, such a top to
• 19:57
  bottom killer performance across the board.
• 20:00
  Yeah, man, I'm really chuffed. I'm really proud of everyone.
• 20:02
  Like and just really went above and beyond on this one to be
• 20:05
  fair. Like all of a sudden, like the
• 20:07
  deadline came was coming around really quick.
• 20:09
  And then you'd have something like breathe we found on an old,
• 20:12
  old tape from 12/30/14 years ago and he'd go right, there's the
• 20:17
  song. Cool, thanks up for that.
• 20:19
  Like we tweaked it a bit, but then we were getting near the
• 20:22
  end and like all of a sudden you sort of, are we going to, are we
• 20:26
  going to be able to get this in time?
• 20:28
  And then all of a sudden there's we want some B sides and I'm
• 20:30
  like, oh God's sake, I don't want to write B.
• 20:34
  But then we did it and we did a cover of Sabbath Eye, which we
• 20:38
  had great fun with. And I think it's, I think it's
• 20:40
  an amazing cover. I mean, it's easy for me to say,
• 20:43
  but I'm, I'm pretty, I'm pretty big on that cover.
• 20:46
  I love it. But yeah, I, I, I just loved
• 20:50
  anyone I think really went above and beyond.
• 20:52
  And Justin, who produced it, he smashed it out the park.
• 20:55
  And Johan, who mixed it, he mixes, you know, he's a Gajira,
• 21:00
  front of house, mastered on front of house mixed his
• 21:02
  engineers their stuff as well. He smashed it and we wanted it
• 21:06
  like, let's make it sound big. And, you know, so I know some
• 21:08
  people sound snares really loud and I'm like, go into a practice
• 21:12
  room and listen to a snare. But that snare was borrowed for
• 21:15
  us by who played drums, Saddam. And it was I've, I literally was
• 21:21
  taking two hands fully to have to lift that snare.
• 21:24
  It's like, I don't even know. And that thing where your arms
• 21:27
  are shaking and you're like, that's that's somebody on me,
• 21:29
  you know? And it was, I don't know what
• 21:32
  the hell it was. So yeah, you want it to.
• 21:35
  I want it to sound massive and big.
• 21:37
  But again, the next album, like, I already think we're gonna
• 21:40
  really go for it on a journey, I think.
• 21:43
  Nice. Well, we're on.
• 21:44
  We're on our way already. Interestingly enough, I think
• 21:47
  perhaps like the last 10 years of albums and production have
• 21:50
  flattened things out so much and compressed things so much that
• 21:53
  people are not used to hearing real drums anymore or they're
• 21:57
  hearing needs these very processed drum tracks or mixed
• 22:00
  drum tracks that are not ringing through anymore.
• 22:03
  And like I mentioned, those 90s metal bands that I'm a huge fan
• 22:06
  of, you're a huge fan of their drummers were different back
• 22:09
  then. I'm no shade.
• 22:10
  There's some incredible drummers in the world right now.
• 22:12
  But I think about Raymond when he was in Fear Factory, Raymond
• 22:16
  Herrera, like the OR Igor Cavallera, the combination of
• 22:21
  technical ability and power to physically strike a drum kit.
• 22:25
  It's not just miking or, or techniques.
• 22:27
  And so I think people are not actually used to hearing real
• 22:30
  drums anymore because we've been on this journey with metal core,
• 22:33
  death core and death metal and and some cases black and death
• 22:36
  metal where we're getting this just very processed weak drum
• 22:40
  sound to me. Because like the accuracy is the
• 22:42
  thing. And then everything is kind of,
• 22:44
  you know, cranked up in the mix, which, you know, not great, not
• 22:48
  great for your ears or your sensibilities.
• 22:51
  Well, one thing that seems to go missing a lot now is the
• 22:53
  overheads hearing symbols, hearing the I want people to
• 22:56
  hear that James just smashing that thing with hardest can as
• 22:59
  can be. I don't want to just hear the
• 23:01
  the high hat, the kick in the snare.
• 23:03
  I want people to hear that wash the cymbals and I want him to
• 23:07
  hear that crack. And I think that's the thing
• 23:09
  that we try to do on this album and the last one.
• 23:12
  It was like that was a big thing with Joe on the last one.
• 23:15
  You know, he wants to he really worked on the drums and it was
• 23:18
  about capturing every light space we had.
• 23:20
  Mike's so far away that we're trying to capture everything
• 23:23
  with the symbols for watching that make it feel real and you
• 23:27
  want people to be there and I just find, you know, some some
• 23:30
  modern stuff. I'm just like, lads, this is a
• 23:32
  metal record I want to hear. I want everyone to hear
• 23:34
  everything. I want that bass.
• 23:35
  It's the best face tone I think we've got.
• 23:37
  The bass is there, whereas the last couple of albums I don't
• 23:40
  think it's been. But this album is straight in
• 23:43
  there and you can hear everything down for extinction,
• 23:45
  negative. You can hear every individual
• 23:47
  thing nice and clearly, and I think you can do it on this as
• 23:50
  well. Obviously the tone's a bit
• 23:51
  brittier, a bit heavier, but you can hear everything.
• 23:54
  I know man, I'm so proud of you guys and I love this record.
• 23:58
  Certainly one of my favorite records of the year so far.
• 24:00
  And we'll, you know, we'll see where we are later in the year
• 24:03
  for this early year. Highmark, you know, I like to
• 24:07
  end all of these interviews with a wild card question.
• 24:10
  So the one I have picked for you this time is, what is your
• 24:13
  favorite album artwork of all time?
• 24:15
  Rainbow Rising, Yeah. I like it.
• 24:17
  You had it ready. Yeah.
• 24:19
  I did not give him this question before I've.
• 24:22
  Got a I've got a print of it on my wall.
• 24:24
  It's rainbow rising it. I think our new artwork's really
• 24:27
  beautiful, like I think the colour scheme of it.
• 24:30
  Dan Zollinger, painter from New York, did it.
• 24:32
  I think he's so proud that he did a metal album as well, and a
• 24:35
  lot of his stuff's a bit darker. And this one, I had the concept
• 24:38
  and I had like a mock up of it and it was just like brighter,
• 24:41
  brighter, more this than that. And then I love it.
• 24:43
  And then just looking at it in a shop, I'm like, yeah, that's
• 24:46
  pretty, that's pretty, you know? And then when I look at Rainbow
• 24:50
  Rising, just that big, like, and that's what I wanted to try and
• 24:55
  capture on this. The lads kind of leave me to do
• 24:57
  the artwork, kind of trust me on that front.
• 25:01
  Yeah. Rainbow Rising, right?
• 25:02
  On thank you so much for using a real artist on your album and
• 25:06
  not AI. You know just I don't mind you
• 25:10
  know look AI is a useful tool, but I just feel like the over
• 25:13
  hype and over reliance on it is going to kill off real artists
• 25:16
  and jobs for artists and musicians that I don't want to
• 25:19
  see but thank you. The artwork is beautiful.
• 25:21
  The vinyl variations were amazing.
• 25:23
  Spine Farm always does a great job and shout out to John
• 25:27
  Freeman with the PR, my homie. But once again, Joe, man, a guy
• 25:30
  I would love to have a, a cuppa with or a beer.
• 25:33
  I appreciate you so much, man. You've always been so gracious
• 25:37
  with us. And I want to just say thank you
• 25:39
  for this new record and be safe on the road.
• 25:41
  And we'll we'll see you hopefully either out there in
• 25:43
  Europe or out here someday in the future.
• 25:46
  I'd love to get over there mate. I'll have a I'll have a word
• 25:49
  with the forbidden boys be like, come on, take take, take us out.
• 25:53
  Get our new album out and take Take us out with you.
• 25:56
  The killer. What a great lineup that would
• 25:58
  be. Yeah, let's do it right.
• 25:59
  So have a great weekend. Look with the rehearsal, send my
• 26:02
  best to the boys and we'll talk soon.
• 26:03
  Cool. Thank you pal.