Latest / Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast / PODCAST: Episode 820 - Matt Barlow (Ashes of Ares, ex-Iced Earth) Talks "New Messiahs" and 30 Years of "The Dark Saga"

Transcript

PODCAST: Episode 820 - Matt Barlow (Ashes of Ares, ex-Iced Earth) Talks "New Messiahs" and 30 Years of "The Dark Saga" · Ghost Cult Magazine Podcast

• 0:00
  Because I've heard it my entire career, man, you know, my entire
• 0:03
  musical career. I don't understand what, what
• 0:05
  people like him with Barlow's vocals.
• 0:06
  I, I don't either, man, but, and, and I feel the same way as
• 0:09
  a listener. There are some vocalists that
• 0:12
  people absolutely freaking love. And I'm just like, it doesn't
• 0:15
  really, it doesn't really do it for me.
• 0:17
  So I understand that, you know, it's, and it's, it's all about
• 0:20
  the ear, right? I mean, it's, it's about, you
• 0:22
  know, what is pleasant to our ears as a listener.
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  So if my voice doesn't get it for some people, I totally get
• 0:27
  it, you know? And you know, I've heard it.
• 0:30
  I've heard it my entire career. It's like he's too nasally.
• 0:32
  He sounds like Paul Stanley, you know.
• 0:34
  OK, whatever. I'll take all those I got.
• 0:37
  I got no problem with sounding like Paul Stanley.
• 0:39
  If I could have like a 10th of his wealth I would be happy.
• 0:49
  Ghost Cult Magazine welcomes in the great Matt Barlow of Atches
• 0:54
  of Aries. How you doing, Matt?
• 0:55
  Doing well man, thank you for having me on.
• 0:57
  Man, my pleasure, man. I can't believe it's been 4.
• 1:00
  You're on your 4th record and I still find people like, wait,
• 1:04
  he's still making music? I'm like, yeah, he never
• 1:06
  stopped. You know, it's like you've been,
• 1:08
  you've put out like in the last 20 years since hell, we'll say
• 1:11
  let's start out. Yeah.
• 1:12
  You said you, uh, left Ice Turf the first time you had your new
• 1:15
  career as in law enforcement, you still managed to put out six
• 1:20
  or seven records, you know, so it's not like you disappeared.
• 1:23
  It's like people just weren't. Yeah, No, I.
• 1:25
  Find you, I guess yeah. And you know, maybe that's maybe
• 1:28
  that's my bad. Maybe I wasn't out there, you
• 1:30
  know, you know, promoting as as much, but you know how you know
• 1:33
  how it is, man, If it's not, if it's not paid promotion on on
• 1:38
  Facebook or whatever, people don't don't see stuff sometimes.
• 1:41
  Yeah, No, I've, I've actually put out more records since I've
• 1:44
  since I've been in law enforcement than before I became
• 1:46
  a police officer. So it's kind of kind of nutty.
• 1:48
  I was thinking about that. But studio records anyway, you
• 1:51
  know, there's been, you know, different things.
• 1:52
  But, you know, yeah, definitely studio records have been more in
• 1:56
  the last, you know, 22 years since I've been in law
• 1:58
  enforcement. Yeah, I was a big fan of that,
• 2:01
  the Para Maze record. Yeah, me too, man, me too.
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  I still, I still look very fondly upon that and you know,
• 2:07
  still have have friends from from that band.
• 2:10
  So that's that's awesome too. That's good, man.
• 2:12
  That's good to like keep it's good like never to like burn
• 2:14
  bridges and just like, you know, hey, you help them out at the
• 2:17
  right time. They needed a vocalist and you
• 2:19
  did an amazing job on that record.
• 2:21
  But now we're just talking about your your current, your main
• 2:25
  baby actions of Aries SO44 records in man, Wow.
• 2:29
  I was like new Messiah. It's a it's a banger, man.
• 2:32
  I was I was a little nervous because I was like, oh, no,
• 2:35
  Van's not on Van's not doing the drums, but Kyle did a damn good
• 2:40
  job. Like, where'd you find Kyle?
• 2:41
  Yeah, he did. So Kyle's a longtime friend of
• 2:45
  Freddy's and they they were in, they were in a death metal band
• 2:47
  together back, you know, in the day and, you know, Kyle shut up.
• 2:53
  And so it just worked out really well because he lives around
• 2:57
  Freddie. So they were able to actually,
• 2:58
  you know, workout the songs, you know, together as far as, you
• 3:01
  know, Freddie obviously created the the songs and did, you know,
• 3:05
  did primary drum tracks and things like that as we were as
• 3:08
  we were writing. But you know, he was really able
• 3:10
  to get get with Kyle and, you know, kind of tell him exactly
• 3:13
  what we needed and he and he brought it.
• 3:15
  So it was, it was really good, man.
• 3:17
  Yeah, I feel like all right. It definitely was a new drummer,
• 3:20
  but it still felt like it's still, you know, stayed in the
• 3:23
  same vein that Van laid down the, you know, the the
• 3:27
  foundation. It's still like, all right.
• 3:29
  It's not like, whoa, it wasn't completely radical.
• 3:31
  It just like oh this fits perfectly fine.
• 3:33
  Yeah, yeah. And then I, yeah.
• 3:34
  And I think that's, that's part of it, man.
• 3:36
  I mean, certainly Van Van is an amazing freaking drummer, as we
• 3:40
  all know. And, and he's got his own, you
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  know, he's got his own unique sound.
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  And I think that you definitely hear that any project that he's
• 3:47
  in, you know, that he's it's van man because he's got all kinds
• 3:50
  of stuff. I was a little more
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  straightforward and and intentionally.
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  So I think we just we went, you know, we're going to we're going
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  to go straightforward with us. We're not going to try to, you
• 4:00
  know, bring, you know, Van, you know, van 2 point O or or
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  whatever with this. We're going to just do what what
• 4:06
  we do and allow Kyle to just be who Kyle is and and just play
• 4:11
  straightforward and and not try to be some somebody else.
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  So you can like it. Like you said, you can hear, you
• 4:17
  can hear there's a new drummer, but it doesn't deviate from, you
• 4:20
  know, what the music is and and what it's supposed to be.
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  So that's that was our point. Thankfully, he wasn't a
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  distraction, you know? He just emphasized what you guys
• 4:28
  already did right. That's that's the point, right?
• 4:30
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 4:32
  So now it's been like over a decade this band has been, you
• 4:35
  know, been been a thing. Like how was your writing with
• 4:38
  Freddie evolved over the years? Yeah, it's, it's been, it's been
• 4:41
  really good, man. It's it, it really has, it's
• 4:44
  evolution, right? So you know, that the idea is
• 4:49
  really, since we started, we've been, we've been writing a song.
• 4:52
  We, we were, we started writing one song together in person.
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  And that was this is my hell. And that's, that was, you know,
• 4:59
  from the first record. But everyone since then, it's,
• 5:02
  it's really all been, you know, sharing files back and forth,
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  talking on the phone, emailing, texting, you know, as we're
• 5:09
  building these and it's just basically, you know, put it back
• 5:11
  and forth. And that's how we've we've built
• 5:13
  it and it works out well for us because, you know, obviously we
• 5:17
  live on two different sides of the country and it's really the
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  only way that we can do it without, you know, and, and be
• 5:24
  efficient at it. You know, we could probably get
• 5:26
  together, you know, here and there and, you know, do some
• 5:28
  stuff, but then it would take, you know, 3 forever to get a, a
• 5:31
  record out. And it seems like that sometimes
• 5:33
  for us anyway, even with this, with this situation.
• 5:36
  But it just it just works out better for us because we record
• 5:39
  primarily all of our parts in our home studios outside of the
• 5:43
  drums, which, you know, got Kyle into the studio and and and did
• 5:48
  the drum tracks and all that. But but as we're writing these
• 5:51
  these songs and laying everything down and, you know,
• 5:54
  having it, you know, click tracked along the way so that we
• 5:56
  can put drums in and everything links up properly.
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  You know, we, you know, we just build these in our own studios.
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  So it's just a matter of, you know, sending things back and
• 6:07
  forth, tweaking things. We have, you know, we got, we
• 6:11
  got no egos. So if, if one of us says, hey,
• 6:14
  man, that's not working and we're like, OK, boom, that's out
• 6:17
  and we'll move on and we'll do something different or, you
• 6:19
  know, this part's not working, we'll take that out.
• 6:22
  We'll replace with something. And much the same way, if we
• 6:25
  feel really strongly about something, then then, you know,
• 6:28
  we got each other's back, you know, we just go, OK, cool.
• 6:32
  A for instance, and I've, you know, talked about this before
• 6:35
  just just because it's, and I can't remember which song it is,
• 6:38
  but there's this, there's a bass line.
• 6:39
  There's a bass line and, and I've done a vocal part over it
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  and, and Freddy was like, you know, man, I I really like this,
• 6:44
  this bass line to kind of be the bridge, the transition.
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  And, and I just, I think it's really cool.
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  And I'm like, cool, man, I'll take my I'll take that bit out.
• 6:51
  That's no problem. I'll you know, if it's, yeah, I
• 6:53
  don't even think it was like a big lyrical piece.
• 6:56
  It didn't really, it wasn't like a super important part of that.
• 7:01
  And I ended up working wording things in a different way in a
• 7:04
  different part of the song. So I think he was right at the
• 7:07
  end of the day, he's right. Let it let the song breathe.
• 7:10
  You know, this book, this bass part is really cool.
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  And, and like, so with that stuff, it's just a matter of,
• 7:15
  hey man, can we do this or can we do that?
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  And, and we just, we don't, we don't fight, we don't argue.
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  And you know, maybe that's because we live across the
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  country from each other. So, you know, it's just
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  everything that we do, we do through the love of the song
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  and, and ultimately we're, we're trying to get the Best Song.
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  And, and I think that we respect each other as you know, and as
• 7:33
  gentlemen and as artists enough to not let egos get in the way
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  of creating the songs. And that's, I think that's the
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  thing that's really kept things going with us so well and so
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  smoothly for the last 12 years. And like, yeah, that's great
• 7:51
  like that you guys, it's really nice that you found like a, a
• 7:54
  musical partner, basically. Yeah, essentially it's a
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  musical. It's a musical partner.
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  And it's like, hey, like our brother or however you want to
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  word. It's like a musical soul mates.
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  It's like, wow, you've you've worked with some phenomenal
• 8:05
  other musicians too. And then I'm still like every
• 8:08
  time, like when Ashes comes out, it's like, Oh yeah, I've had
• 8:10
  good memories of you guys. Like I said, I saw like your
• 8:12
  first New York City show at Webster Hall in in 2014.
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  So I've been, I've been, I'm day one for New York and I find it.
• 8:24
  That's the right word. I can't find that.
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  You have such a long history. You could have the ego of a
• 8:31
  maniac, but you don't. That's a real refreshing thing
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  because I know a lot of people of your error.
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  There's some other musicians in that scene and you know that
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  just that won't that don't know how to not compromise.
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  It's not the right word, but know how to work well with
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  others. It's like this is my vision and
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  this is it. No deviation.
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  Yeah, and, and, and with that, you know, some of those, you
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  know some of those those people I respect and I and I respect
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  that, you know that that that's who they are, right.
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  This is not me, man. It never has been.
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  I'm, I'm just, I'm a, I'm a get along kind of guy, man.
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  If it's not, if it's not, if I'm not enjoying it, then it's, it's
• 9:07
  not enjoyable. You know what I mean?
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  It sucks. And, and so that's, that's what
• 9:11
  I, I like about this so much is that it is enjoyable.
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  You know, it's fun to get, you know, Freddie sends me like
• 9:19
  little little pieces and things like that.
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  Like he'll, he'll e-mail me. Hey, man, I got some riffs.
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  Here's a bit of, you know, it's just like just cool stuff like,
• 9:26
  so I start vibing on it and I'll go, OK, OK, I get where you're
• 9:30
  going. All right, I can, I can work
• 9:32
  with that, you know, I can do that.
• 9:33
  So that's just fun, man. And, and, and I think that
• 9:35
  that's really important. I think it's, it's really
• 9:37
  important to, you know, to love what you do.
• 9:39
  And, and, and that's that's why we do it.
• 9:42
  You know, we don't, we don't make money doing this, man.
• 9:44
  It's not, it's not about that. You know, we've got day jobs
• 9:47
  and, and, you know, pretty, pretty good careers and, and you
• 9:51
  know, you know, we're on an ND label and the recording budget
• 9:54
  is not huge. So we do everything that we,
• 9:56
  that we possibly can to stretch that dollar and make it go
• 9:59
  farther. That's why, you know, one of the
• 10:01
  reasons why we, we record it, it works out better for us as well
• 10:05
  just timing wise with our time. But but it, it also helps
• 10:09
  because we don't, we don't have a huge budget.
• 10:11
  And so we try to make it as go as, as far as we can and, and
• 10:14
  make the best product that we possibly can with the with the
• 10:16
  limited budget that we have. And yeah, so it, it just, you
• 10:21
  know, we're, we're just happy. We're just happy that we have a,
• 10:24
  a label that, that likes us and likes to promote us and, and
• 10:28
  gives us any budget to really to, to work with and, and to, to
• 10:31
  record records. And, and that's, and that's
• 10:34
  awesome. But at the end of the day, it is
• 10:37
  we, we do this because we love it.
• 10:38
  We're not here. We're not here making money.
• 10:40
  We know we're not, you know, probably going to make a lot of
• 10:43
  money doing it. But if we can get enough records
• 10:45
  out there for our fans to to snatch up or, or to download or
• 10:50
  whatever, then and that's phenomenal for us.
• 10:52
  I agree and like I'll say like yeah, the budget on the record
• 10:55
  IK the sonically to my ears and my regular headphones like it
• 10:59
  sounds like all the records sound consistent.
• 11:01
  You know there's no it doesn't sound like oh, this ones.
• 11:04
  It sounds like you guys did this shit at home.
• 11:06
  It's like, it doesn't sound like even though you did do some
• 11:08
  parts at home, it doesn't sound like, you know, you guys had it
• 11:11
  mixed properly and master properly and it just sounds
• 11:15
  great. Like, like I'm just going over
• 11:16
  like the gang vocals, you know, it's like 1.
• 11:18
  It's like the gang vocals like on like wake up Vultures, it's
• 11:21
  great. It's like, it just sounds so
• 11:22
  full. And I got to say, like you like
• 11:26
  when I listened to this whole record, like I started smiling.
• 11:29
  I always smile when I listen to your stuff because like you're
• 11:31
  like you're, you're a damn good singer, but you're, you're one
• 11:34
  of the best out there at what you do.
• 11:36
  And I just like, love how you layer your voice.
• 11:40
  It's like the layers, the, the multiple tracking of your voice.
• 11:43
  It's like they all just flow together.
• 11:45
  You have like the highs in the back.
• 11:47
  Sometimes you have like the, it's like you just have the
• 11:49
  layering of your vocal. It's like, I don't know where
• 11:52
  you came up with that or how you decided to like, Oh, I need to
• 11:55
  do another vocal here. I need, How does that, How does
• 11:57
  that come? Where does that come from?
• 11:59
  Well, that that may have been inspired a little bit by Hansi
• 12:03
  Kirsch from the Blind Guardian. I don't know, but maybe just a
• 12:06
  little bit because you know, Hansi is the freaking master of
• 12:09
  that. But but also, you know, working
• 12:11
  with with, you know, Jim Morris for so many years, man, and just
• 12:15
  kind of learning, learning little things and doing little
• 12:17
  tricks and it would be fun. It would be fun to, to isolate
• 12:22
  because I always, I always do that, you know, IAB it back and
• 12:25
  forth as I'm building and, and layering and doing harmonies and
• 12:28
  things like that. IAB it back and forth between,
• 12:30
  you know, music and no music. And it's really cool.
• 12:32
  I really enjoy it when I can hear stacked vocals like and
• 12:35
  making, you know, big courses and things like that.
• 12:37
  It's, it's fun, you know, to, to hear it just by itself, you
• 12:41
  know, just running by itself without the music.
• 12:43
  And if and if it sounds good without the music, then it's
• 12:46
  going to sound really good with the music.
• 12:47
  That's that's I, that's the way that I I do it and that's the
• 12:53
  reason I AB it back and forth and and just so that I know that
• 12:57
  it sounds good tracked, you know, just by just by themselves
• 13:02
  and without any, without any drums, guitar, bass or anything
• 13:06
  like that. So that's really important to
• 13:08
  me. So I'm thank you.
• 13:10
  I appreciate you, you know, listening to that and
• 13:12
  appreciating what I'm doing there because it's a lot of
• 13:14
  work. It sounds like a lot of work.
• 13:18
  Yeah, like no matter it's and it's just like a really cool
• 13:21
  thing that sometimes I see people do, like the layering and
• 13:24
  stacking of vocals, but sometimes I don't see it and
• 13:26
  it's like, oh man. It's like like for your style of
• 13:29
  what you do it, it works perfect.
• 13:31
  Like, at least in my ears. Well, I appreciate it and I know
• 13:34
  it's not everybody's cup of tea. I mean, I know I've seen some
• 13:37
  some comments and things like that.
• 13:39
  I can't, I can't deal with the stacked vocals.
• 13:40
  I don't like, man, you know, just I, I got to do it.
• 13:44
  If, if, if it's something that I, that it sounds good to me,
• 13:46
  then I got it, I got to do it. So there's just some things I, I
• 13:50
  got to do and, and that's, and that's it.
• 13:52
  So at the end of the day, I'm, I'm doing it for me as well as
• 13:54
  other people. I just hope that other people
• 13:56
  dig what I'm doing. And you know, I, I don't do it
• 13:59
  all the time, but I, I do it and I, and I, and I enjoy it and you
• 14:04
  know, to me it's, it's, it's my creative outlet.
• 14:06
  So it I, you know, it's my thing.
• 14:11
  I agreed but also don't read the comments.
• 14:13
  We all know, don't read the comments.
• 14:15
  And, you know, yeah, you got to read them, though.
• 14:19
  I mean, I, I got to respect people's opinions.
• 14:20
  As long as man, as long as people are being respectful,
• 14:23
  I'm, I'm totally cool with it. You know, you tell me all day
• 14:26
  long. I don't really, because I've
• 14:27
  heard it my entire career, man, you know, my entire musical
• 14:31
  career. I don't understand what, what
• 14:32
  people like him with Barlow's vocals.
• 14:34
  I I don't either, man. But, and I feel the same way as
• 14:37
  a listener. There are some vocalists that
• 14:39
  people absolutely freaking love. I'm just like, it doesn't
• 14:43
  really, it doesn't really do it for me.
• 14:44
  So I understand that, you know, it's, it's it's all about the
• 14:47
  ear, right? I mean, it's, it's about, you
• 14:49
  know, what is pleasant to our ears as a listener.
• 14:52
  So if my voice doesn't get it for some people, I totally get
• 14:55
  it, you know, and you know, I've heard it.
• 14:57
  I've heard it my entire career. It's like he's too nasally
• 14:59
  sounds like Paul Stanley, you know, OK, whatever, I'll take
• 15:03
  all those. I got no problem with sound like
• 15:05
  Paul Stanley. If I could have like a 10th of
• 15:08
  his wealth, I would be happy. But you know, it just, it's just
• 15:13
  not for everybody and that's fine.
• 15:14
  That's just, you know, be, be respectful and move on.
• 15:18
  It's cool. I'm cool with that.
• 15:20
  It's, it's, it's when when people start getting hateful,
• 15:23
  I'm like, is that necessary? I don't know.
• 15:25
  And like I said, like I've, I mean, yeah, anybody who's got
• 15:28
  ears and know knows music. It's like, yeah, like again,
• 15:31
  since we mentioned Power, Power Maze and and I stuff, yeah,
• 15:34
  you've been in three distinct different projects.
• 15:36
  It's like, yeah, like none of them, they have a similar,
• 15:39
  there's a similar flow to all three bands, but they're all
• 15:42
  musically, sonically different entities.
• 15:44
  It's like, Oh yeah. And that's what I appreciate
• 15:46
  about it because it would have been easy to make Ashes sound
• 15:49
  like, like, you know, like your old project.
• 15:50
  But it's like it doesn't need to, it's its own thing.
• 15:53
  I was kind of exciting and everything, like I remember the
• 15:55
  first 2 releases you guys did, Every time I, it popped up, I
• 15:58
  always forget. I was like, Oh yeah, Freddie S
• 16:00
  not just a bass player, he's a guitarist, so.
• 16:04
  Hey, man, Freddy's a bass player, guitarist and a drummer,
• 16:06
  man. I mean, he, like I said, he's,
• 16:08
  you know, he writes the music and including, you know, the,
• 16:11
  the drums as far as the basic drums that, you know, are
• 16:14
  concerned. I mean, he's an amazing
• 16:17
  musician, man. And he, he should get a lot more
• 16:19
  credit than than he gets sometimes.
• 16:22
  But he's, he's doing it all, man.
• 16:23
  He's doing it all. I I agree with that man.
• 16:25
  Freddy is Freddy. It's an unsung hero that more
• 16:28
  people need to hear. Yeah.
• 16:31
  So let me let me see what we got here.
• 16:32
  I got a bunch of questions. So we're gonna be jumping all
• 16:35
  over the place of fun. Alright, so I want to go for
• 16:37
  this. I want to talk about the I love
• 16:39
  the fact like the album. I got the digital like you know,
• 16:43
  press version of this. So I have like the extra songs
• 16:45
  and it and I get a kick out of it because it's like labeled in
• 16:48
  there. I was like, oh, wow, like you
• 16:49
  have a CD only version of this with an extra song.
• 16:52
  And it reminds me of the old days of the old Japan had the
• 16:55
  bonus tracks. It was like everybody, right?
• 16:58
  And I was like, oh, like, to me, that's a nice little nod to the
• 17:00
  old days. It's like, oh, like, yeah, CD
• 17:02
  only bonus. It's not just for Japan this
• 17:04
  time. Yes, yes, yeah, I mean it's and
• 17:06
  it is cool, man. It's it's fun.
• 17:08
  I mean, I'm, you know, it's, it's the not necessarily our
• 17:13
  idea, you know, but the record labels like, Hey, let's do this
• 17:15
  and let's do this and we can put out, you know, we can do a, a
• 17:17
  vinyl with this because we can, you know, get with, that's the
• 17:21
  other thing with vinyl, you know, you get as a better sound.
• 17:23
  The, the kind of the, the lesser tracks that you have on it.
• 17:27
  You just for whatever reason, we, we kind of exceeded our
• 17:30
  limit with that. So we couldn't get the, the
• 17:33
  extra track that we had for the, for the record on the, on the,
• 17:38
  the disc. So that they said, OK, well,
• 17:40
  then we'll do this as ACD only release.
• 17:43
  And at least it's ACD only release.
• 17:44
  And, and obviously that, that helps, you know, hopefully full
• 17:48
  copy because, you know, at the end of the day, we, we do like
• 17:51
  selling physical copy as, as musicians.
• 17:54
  It definitely helps us when we're talking about, you know,
• 17:56
  our, our royalties for the songs.
• 17:58
  Because you know, whenever you sell an entire record, you get,
• 18:02
  you know, royalties from each of those songs that are sold on the
• 18:04
  record, right. So it helps us out as musicians.
• 18:07
  Again, we don't get paid a lot. We make very, very little money
• 18:10
  anyway that we make goes back into this into this band.
• 18:13
  But but it's still, you know, at the end of the day, it's, it's,
• 18:16
  it's a good thing. And I and I and I really like
• 18:18
  physical copy a lot more. Man, I'm, I'm I'm here to tell
• 18:21
  you I will, I will testify. You know, it's going to go, it's
• 18:25
  going to go album vinyl as far as sound, sound, sound for me,
• 18:31
  vinyl, CD and then other because you know, there's just so much
• 18:37
  information for one thing that the record for me is just it
• 18:40
  just got that that analog warm sound that's just phenomenal.
• 18:44
  But then going to CD, it's got so much more ability to to have
• 18:49
  more information on it. And I just think they sound, it
• 18:52
  just sounds so much better, man, going through, going through
• 18:55
  speakers then then, you know, MP3 S and stuff, man.
• 18:58
  So I urge people to, to buy a physical copy.
• 19:01
  I mean, enjoy it on, you know, on YouTube and you know, in the
• 19:04
  previews and all that other good stuff, stuff and all that.
• 19:06
  But at the end of the day, nothing beats the sound that
• 19:09
  you're going to get from physical copy.
• 19:11
  And you can't sign a. You can't sign an MP3.
• 19:13
  That's true. That's true.
• 19:15
  I mean, I mean if you, if you dump stuff down on if you, if
• 19:18
  you buy stuff and you dump it down to a flash drive, I'll sign
• 19:20
  the flash drive. I have no problem with that.
• 19:22
  Be great. If that happens, I need to know.
• 19:26
  Hey, it could happen. You never.
• 19:27
  Hey, man, whenever, whenever people hand me a drumstick and
• 19:30
  hey, can you sign this? I'm like, hey, it's a drumstick.
• 19:33
  But B, how the hell do you sign a drumstick?
• 19:35
  And I've I've signed a lot of drumsticks, so a flash drive
• 19:37
  probably wouldn't be completely unusual.
• 19:40
  But I hope you had a nice new sharpie for that.
• 19:42
  Yeah, exactly. Get get real tight in there.
• 19:45
  One of those like fine fine point.
• 19:47
  So like, let's see cuz we're like I said earlier, we're like
• 19:50
  3 records in on RP on a Rock of Rock of Angels records.
• 19:56
  Yep, yeah. It's also your third record with
• 19:59
  Camille, your cover artists. Where did you find him?
• 20:01
  Yeah, so it's so kind of cool. Camille actually did, did some
• 20:06
  art for John back in the day with, with some oyster stuff.
• 20:12
  He started out as a, as a fan artist and he did some, some
• 20:15
  stuff for them. And he's, he's really been, you
• 20:18
  know, kind of like he was sending, sending me stuff and,
• 20:22
  you know, doing all kinds of stuff.
• 20:23
  He actually sent me a really amazing painting of Batman.
• 20:27
  He knows I'm a Batman fan. So he sent me a painting of
• 20:29
  Batman as a gift. And that was really freaking
• 20:32
  cool because he lives in Poland and it's, it's a, it's a lot to
• 20:35
  send a painting, you know, from, from Poland to, to the US.
• 20:38
  But yeah, so we, we and I and I just love his work, man, because
• 20:42
  it's just so dark. It, it has it, you know, it's,
• 20:45
  it's, it's like, and I and I kind of, I, I was talking to him
• 20:51
  and he has, he's doesn't have the best English sometimes I
• 20:55
  don't either. But you know, so we're, we're
• 20:57
  chatting back and forth via e-mail and things like that.
• 21:00
  And I told him I'm like, man, I really like your stuff.
• 21:02
  It really reminds me like Simon Bisley.
• 21:04
  And I am really a big fan of his because it's really starts, you
• 21:07
  know, Simon Bisley and and again, Frank Frazetta, you know,
• 21:11
  guys like that, that start in the darkness and then add light
• 21:14
  coming forward. That's that's their style.
• 21:17
  And I really love that because it it plays with shadow and
• 21:19
  everything like that. And, and so Camille just struck
• 21:22
  me as that kind of artist and he and he really is.
• 21:24
  And he's got a really cool eye for things.
• 21:27
  And so just love his work. And it's like, hey, man, you
• 21:31
  know, love to work with you. And so when we did well souls,
• 21:36
  he he agreed to do the record and he he did more than the he
• 21:39
  did the album cover. He did like pieces of art for
• 21:42
  each of the each of the songs and it was amazing.
• 21:44
  And it was a lot of work, though it it took him a long, long time
• 21:47
  And he's he's a phenomenal artist and we've just had a
• 21:50
  really good relationship this with this record.
• 21:52
  He was he was only able to do a couple pieces for us.
• 21:55
  He couldn't do for each song, but because he's he's a busy guy
• 21:59
  and but we were just happy to have him on on this one because
• 22:02
  I think I think it's really important to have that kind of
• 22:04
  that, you know, that thread that weaves through each record.
• 22:06
  And I think the art helps that as well.
• 22:08
  I mean, we do it. We do it with the the thematics
• 22:12
  of the songs as well. Some of the themes that we have
• 22:15
  tend to intertwine with each record and, and and so on and so
• 22:19
  forth. But, you know, I think it's real
• 22:21
  important to to kind of create that, just kind of create that
• 22:24
  universe, you know, kind of create something that that's
• 22:29
  kind of larger than just even just one, one record.
• 22:32
  You know, you're creating a band and A and a vibe.
• 22:34
  And that's, I think that's really important for us.
• 22:36
  I I agree on that. And it's like I'm also like a
• 22:39
  big comic book fan too. So like, yeah, like you give me
• 22:41
  like, like I remember like years ago Megadev did, I think it was
• 22:45
  like called the cryptic writings of Megadev.
• 22:47
  They put out a comic book, like like a four issue comic book and
• 22:50
  like they had like short stories based on like every song they
• 22:53
  could stick in those four issues.
• 22:55
  And it's like, I feel like you guys are aren't far from doing
• 22:58
  something like that. I feel like you're you're
• 23:01
  definitely a comic book guy. So it's like, like, what are we
• 23:04
  reading nowadays? Well, you know, pretty much
• 23:08
  pretty much anything. I, I really, I really enjoy, you
• 23:11
  know, the, the darker side of, of Marvel, obviously, but, but
• 23:15
  then again, you know, you got the, the Vertigo stuff is really
• 23:19
  is really cool too, the DC stuff.
• 23:21
  So I, you know, I don't, I'm, I'm typically kind of drawn to
• 23:25
  the darker, the darker characters, which is kind of
• 23:27
  obvious in, in our song choices and the characters that we
• 23:30
  represent, because I, I just think that they go really well
• 23:33
  with, with heavy metal and, and vice versa.
• 23:35
  And so on this record, we're, we're celebrating, you know, one
• 23:40
  of my, one of my favorites, Ghost Rider.
• 23:44
  He's been one of my favorite since I was a kid, you know, in
• 23:46
  the 70s, you know, picking out comics from, from a local
• 23:50
  hardware store that we had here. I remember, well, you know,
• 23:54
  heck, man, I'm, I remember Ghost Rider was, was huge with me.
• 23:56
  And then the first introduction of Blade with, you know, Tomb of
• 24:02
  Dracula was, was really, I have thought Blade was an amazing
• 24:05
  character. I was like, yes, a guy that
• 24:07
  kills vampires because at that time.
• 24:10
  So my fascination with vampires also goes through all these
• 24:13
  records because like each record has a vampire vampiric song in
• 24:17
  it. But that started out as a as a
• 24:19
  young kid, I was deathly afraid of vampires.
• 24:21
  And so, you know, back then, whenever I saw Blade in the
• 24:25
  comic books, I was like, yes, OK, he's a vampire, but he kills
• 24:28
  bad vampires. So I'm definitely down with
• 24:30
  that. And so that was, that was cool.
• 24:32
  And, and, and yeah, so that's, that's the kind of stuff that I
• 24:36
  like, man. I, I, I tend to go towards the
• 24:38
  kind of the darker characters and things like that.
• 24:41
  And, but you know, then again, then there's a Superman song.
• 24:44
  So, you know, you never know. I could, you never know which
• 24:47
  way I'm going. But yeah, we'll continue that
• 24:49
  trend as well. I mean, I'm, I'm a fan.
• 24:51
  I, I like the, the, the genre of, of, of comic books and, and
• 24:56
  comic characters. And I think that there's a lot
• 24:59
  of, you know, it's, it's the, the kind of the modern day myths
• 25:02
  and monsters, you know what I mean?
• 25:04
  It's just, it's just really that's, that's, it's a, it's
• 25:07
  certainly a part of, you know, Americana for sure.
• 25:10
  Me, you know, me growing up in the, in the 70s and 80s and it's
• 25:13
  just really, it was a big part of my life And, and I think it's
• 25:16
  just, I think it's something to be celebrated.
• 25:19
  And so, you know, this is my outlet to do it.
• 25:22
  I hear you on that one. I'll say, like for ghost
• 25:24
  writers, like, yeah, you're a Johnny Blaze guy.
• 25:27
  I was a 90s kid. So like, Dan, Danny Ketch was my
• 25:30
  ghost writer. So it's like, oh.
• 25:33
  Nice. So it's like I, I appreciate
• 25:35
  like I love that whole Midnight Suns era.
• 25:37
  They did those, those crossovers in the 90s like those or some
• 25:40
  other that was like peak stuff. And I feel like they're just
• 25:43
  trying to chase that that dragon and try to get to that again.
• 25:46
  And it's like they just can't. I hope so.
• 25:50
  I, I, yeah, well, I, I hope they, I hope they decide to do
• 25:53
  that cinematically. I mean, I think that would be
• 25:55
  pretty dope, man, you know for sure, especially, you know,
• 25:59
  since they've they've introduced certain characters and they're
• 26:02
  and they're they're, you know, playing with the idea again of
• 26:04
  bringing like ghost rider back and things like that.
• 26:06
  I mean I did like the Nick Cage version of it, but I I can
• 26:09
  definitely see where they could go a little less campy on it in
• 26:13
  certain certain aspects of it. But you know, we'll see, we'll
• 26:17
  see how it goes, man. It's just it's tough, man, and I
• 26:20
  think, you know, like for one thing, you know, even I even
• 26:23
  I'm, I'm, I really want to see more blade movies, but man,
• 26:27
  Wesley Snipes just crushed it from the from the beginning.
• 26:30
  And and you know, that me that that movie was to me the start
• 26:35
  of the MCU. You know, I know, I know a lot
• 26:37
  of people give it to to get give it to, you know, certain other
• 26:41
  other characters, But I think that that blade just made, you
• 26:44
  know, kind of pushed it on through and, and really made
• 26:47
  Marvel an amazing thing. And then of course Spider Man
• 26:50
  came after that and you know, yadda, yadda.
• 26:52
  But that was that was big. That was a really big, big movie
• 26:56
  and a really important time. And I think it snuck up on
• 26:59
  people because they because most people didn't even know who the
• 27:01
  hell Blade was, but I did. And but you know, most
• 27:06
  moviegoers didn't know. And then they were like, oh,
• 27:08
  damn, this is a comic character. Wow, that's amazing.
• 27:11
  So anyway, I think they can, I think they can do something
• 27:14
  really cool with it. But you know, we'll see man.
• 27:16
  We'll, we'll see how it how it goes.
• 27:18
  Yeah, I I hope for I I hope it'd be I hope for more of the
• 27:22
  darker. Yeah, because I think it was
• 27:23
  like that first Blade was New Line Cinema, so it had that more
• 27:26
  horror feel to it. And yes, I agree that that first
• 27:29
  Blade movie was the starter of the Marvel franchise.
• 27:31
  You want to call MCU, don't call MCU whatever Blade started it.
• 27:35
  Because if you watch Blade and then you watch Blade 2, certain
• 27:38
  effects got tried out there. And by the time they did Spider
• 27:42
  Man, Spider Man 2, those same effects that they were doing in
• 27:45
  Blade were there perfected. So I felt the Guinea pig for
• 27:49
  everything. And then then the other ironic
• 27:51
  part is, you know who directed Spider Man?
• 27:53
  Sam Raimi? I mean master of horror.
• 27:55
  So it you know what I mean? It's just like, it's like it
• 27:58
  they took all those things and all those like, like the the Sam
• 28:01
  Raimi, a lot of the things that he was using back in Evil Dead,
• 28:07
  I mean, he was using those same techniques to kind of gather
• 28:11
  stuff for for Spider man. So yeah, there's, I mean, it's
• 28:14
  really cool. There's a whole bite.
• 28:15
  And then of course, you know that the full circle with Sam
• 28:17
  Raimi doing a Doctor Strange. That was really cool too,
• 28:21
  because I, I, I really like rainy as a director as well.
• 28:24
  And I'm a huge fan of of Guillermo del Toro as well, who
• 28:29
  did blade two. I strongly, you know.
• 28:31
  Yeah, yeah, Blade 2 was was amazing and I love the strain
• 28:35
  too, but it's a whole separate. Show Oh dude yes Rain was badass
• 28:39
  for sure. Creepy, creepy.
• 28:41
  Yeah, so we're going to stay on comics for a second.
• 28:43
  I'll just give you a since you like vampires, I'll give you a
• 28:47
  Image comic called Kill Adelphia.
• 28:49
  It's really cool, historical. It's like historical ish.
• 28:54
  It's like cops and the vampires are like early presidents, like
• 28:59
  the founding fathers are vampires.
• 29:00
  So they meet up in modern day and it's like 3030.
• 29:06
  Some odd issues so far. They're just coming off a break
• 29:09
  soon and but there's like 3 or 4 collections you could find right
• 29:13
  now, Philadelphia from Image. And since you know, like I love
• 29:17
  Image for years and you guys clearly love Image because also,
• 29:21
  you know, they also put out Spawn and Spawn has showed up in
• 29:24
  one of the later issues of Philadelphia.
• 29:27
  And it is kind of cool to see that we're getting a dark saga
• 29:31
  like anniversary. It's like it kind of all flows
• 29:35
  together. And I'm kind of excited for that
• 29:36
  to hear Ashes of Aries version of this, cuz that's exciting to
• 29:40
  my ears to see how that's gonna sound.
• 29:43
  I wish I had a passport. I need to renew my passport.
• 29:46
  Yeah, well, I'm sure there's gonna be some.
• 29:48
  I'm sure there's gonna be some video out there somewhere, man,
• 29:50
  for sure. So you'll be able to hear.
• 29:52
  Hopefully it's good sound quality.
• 29:54
  That's that's that's all I'm hoping for just something, you
• 29:56
  know, something good, nice off the desk.
• 29:58
  That would be fantastic. But yeah, we'll, we'll see how
• 30:02
  it goes, man. I mean, we're really looking
• 30:03
  forward to it. I think it's going to be, I
• 30:05
  think it's gonna be a lot of fun.
• 30:06
  You know, certainly I think the, I think the people are, are
• 30:09
  ready for it and we've gotten a lot of positive feedback already
• 30:14
  from, from folks. So yeah, it's.
• 30:16
  Your legacy too. So it's like, it's obviously
• 30:18
  it's like, yeah, of course. Why wouldn't you?
• 30:20
  You know, you, you have like an you have an ownership to that
• 30:23
  stuff as a kid also by vocals, you sung and wrote those lyrics
• 30:27
  and you're part of, you know, like you're part of that amazing
• 30:31
  time and it's good to like see like it's celebrated if it's
• 30:35
  actually actually you do whatever you want in my ear.
• 30:37
  So I'm I'm all for. It yeah.
• 30:39
  And that's, and that's really what it is, man.
• 30:41
  I mean, it's a it's a tribute to, you know, it's tribute to
• 30:43
  the music, man. It's tribute to, to the music
• 30:46
  and tribute to, you know, to John who wrote, who wrote the
• 30:48
  music, you know. And so we're, you know, we're
• 30:50
  trying to honor, honor the the music, the record, the fans who
• 30:55
  who, who have kind of stuck by that and held that held that
• 30:59
  record up high, you know, for all these years and put it, you
• 31:02
  know, put it up there with with some of the the true, true metal
• 31:06
  classics, man. So we're really, we're really
• 31:08
  inspired by that. And and yeah, the the 30th
• 31:11
  anniversary coming up, I think it's really important to to
• 31:14
  honor to honor it. And, and yeah, I was, you know,
• 31:17
  proud to be a part of the original recording and the, the
• 31:21
  original touring for that record and, and, and everything else.
• 31:24
  So hopefully we can, hopefully we'll, we, we will do it.
• 31:27
  We will do it the best justice that we can and, and get it out,
• 31:30
  get out there and, and perform it and in its entirety.
• 31:33
  And as far as I know, no, nobody's ever done that,
• 31:36
  including Iced Earth. So has played the record in in
• 31:39
  full from front to back. So really looking forward to.
• 31:42
  That I cannot wait for that. It's coming up.
• 31:45
  It's a European Tour for Down. Hopefully we'll get some
• 31:48
  stateside shows because I've been itching to see you on stage
• 31:52
  again. Yeah, man, it would be, it would
• 31:54
  really be great to do that. And, and obviously if we, if we,
• 31:57
  if we can, we, we will, you know, sometimes it's a, it's a
• 32:00
  money thing, you know, it's just it, it cost a lot to tour and,
• 32:03
  and so we got to make sure that we, you know, we got our, our
• 32:06
  bases covered locally at, at local venues and things like
• 32:09
  that. So, but if we can make it
• 32:11
  happen, we will definitely try to do so.
• 32:12
  So hopefully we can get some get some feedback back from some
• 32:15
  local folks and if they want us to come, then we'll we'll make
• 32:18
  it happen. Hoping for the best because it's
• 32:21
  been too damn long since you've been stateside on a stage.
• 32:25
  Yes, I agree. Let me see, yeah, so who's in
• 32:29
  the lineup nowadays? Cuz like, I remember when it was
• 32:31
  Dean and Charlie and everybody else.
• 32:34
  So who? Who, Who's filling out the
• 32:36
  lineup? Well, it's, you know, as far as
• 32:39
  in, in the from from the US right now.
• 32:42
  It's me and, and, and Freddie obviously, and Charlie Koenig,
• 32:47
  who's been a long time touring partner with the band.
• 32:51
  He's a good friend of ours from, from the Boston area and we have
• 32:55
  some, can't really say from, from Europe at this point, but
• 33:00
  some of our, our European brothers are going to help us
• 33:02
  out over there and, and we'll be announcing all that pretty darn
• 33:06
  soon. Cool cool because I was like,
• 33:08
  huh, who's cool is it? It was it was bugging me for it
• 33:11
  was bugging me like looking around.
• 33:13
  I was like, wait a minute, they're not saying.
• 33:14
  Is it the I wasn't sure if I was not sick at all.
• 33:16
  Star, whoever it is, I'm sure it's going to be like some.
• 33:20
  Yeah, not, I mean, yeah, I mean, they're, they're awesome
• 33:23
  musicians and and so they're they're friends.
• 33:27
  I'm, I'm not, I'm not going to say we know we're not, we're not
• 33:30
  the All Star band or anything like that.
• 33:32
  But you know, it's we're they're they're friends of ours who are
• 33:35
  going to rock out with us. So it'll be fun.
• 33:37
  Gotcha, gotcha. I'll say this.
• 33:40
  It's like I gotta I want to just thank you early before I forget
• 33:44
  because your your old version of deep purple burden for you.
• 33:50
  Like you kind of like made me remember that band because I
• 33:54
  kind of forgot about. Sorry, not deep purple, Blue
• 33:56
  oyster. Yeah, yeah.
• 33:58
  I kind of forgot about Blue Oyster call and then I was like,
• 34:01
  and I still listen to like your music like, and I was like, Oh
• 34:03
  man, I like I love that that cover record was like a great,
• 34:07
  just like so many great, great, great renditions of classic
• 34:11
  songs. And like your burning for you
• 34:13
  was just like, wow, this is this is just beautiful.
• 34:15
  It just, it's just, it was like one of the most beautiful covers
• 34:18
  I've heard and it made me do a deep dive and into into Blue
• 34:22
  Öyster Cult. And I was like, they have so
• 34:24
  many bangers out there. And I was surprised by like, why
• 34:28
  have I not heard this sooner? I should have heard these songs.
• 34:31
  Besides Don't fear the Reaper. There's so many, so many more
• 34:35
  wonderful songs that they've done.
• 34:37
  And I was like albums I was so they, they blow me away even
• 34:41
  every time I look at every time I listen to them.
• 34:43
  I was like, ah. Yeah, it's, it's cool, man.
• 34:45
  And I think that's, you know, I, I think that's a really, that's
• 34:49
  a really good by product, obviously, of, of doing cover
• 34:53
  songs, introducing people to songs that maybe they wouldn't
• 34:56
  have either heard otherwise. By by us doing them.
• 35:01
  You know, maybe fans of ours or younger fans or what have you
• 35:05
  that are just in a, in a certain genre of, of metal or or rock or
• 35:09
  whatever, hearing something and gone.
• 35:13
  I realize this is a cover song. Let me go back and listen to the
• 35:16
  original. And then, you know, so on.
• 35:17
  And, you know, because I think ultimately that's, I mean, these
• 35:20
  are the things that, you know, a lot of the, the, the bands that,
• 35:24
  that were on that record or the, the, the songs that we covered
• 35:27
  are, are, are bands that inspired, you know, they're,
• 35:31
  they're bands that inspired us as, as musicians.
• 35:34
  And, and it's really, you know, really, really important to, to
• 35:38
  spell that out to people and say, Hey, this is, you know,
• 35:40
  these are the folks that inspired us.
• 35:42
  And, and, you know, there are, you know, kind of over the, the
• 35:46
  gambit, you know, what you would consider, you know, maybe rock,
• 35:49
  Hard Rock, heavy metal, it's kind of all over the place.
• 35:53
  Probably even more of them, probably even more songs on the
• 35:56
  record. It's, it's maybe half and a
• 35:59
  half, but between rock and what you would consider rock'n'roll
• 36:02
  and what you consider heavy metal.
• 36:03
  But at the end of the day, all these all those bands inspired
• 36:07
  and, you know, kind of the same, same thing goes for for us.
• 36:10
  If we're doing a tribute like on on this record, on New Messiahs,
• 36:13
  we did a tribute to Sir Elton John.
• 36:16
  You can't deny the the amount of influence that the man has had
• 36:23
  on the rock genre. You know, it's just, it's just
• 36:27
  obvious. So, you know, there's so many,
• 36:29
  there's so many songs that he's done now.
• 36:31
  Maybe it's, you know, the stuff is not, you know, maybe not
• 36:35
  everybody's cup of tea, but the inspiration is there.
• 36:37
  And he's done a lot for, for Rock'n'roll.
• 36:41
  And so I thought it was really cool.
• 36:45
  Freddie was the one that really wanted to do the tribute to Sir
• 36:47
  Elton. And, and of course, I was 100%
• 36:50
  behind my, my writing partner and, and I love Elton John
• 36:54
  music. I grew up listening to it and,
• 36:57
  you know, so obviously he's inspired a lot of people.
• 37:00
  And so I thought it was really cool to do a tribute to him on
• 37:04
  this record, and we had a good time doing it, so kind of making
• 37:07
  it our own. Oh yeah, you totally did.
• 37:09
  It's like, yeah, besides like the bass line, that bass line,
• 37:11
  just a groove and bass line. And and like you guys just bring
• 37:15
  this like you just like metalize, like the swing of it.
• 37:18
  It's like the song. It's like, oh, it's, it's metal.
• 37:19
  Like this is metal and it's just like swinging.
• 37:22
  And it's like it's, it's really, it's a really fun cover.
• 37:25
  Yeah, it was. It was a lot of a lot of fun and
• 37:27
  we got to play play around with it.
• 37:28
  Obviously Freddie did a really cool job, I think of translating
• 37:32
  between what would have typically been a a piano heavy
• 37:35
  song or what is a piano heavy song to a guitar heavy song and
• 37:40
  really did some, some cool stuff with that.
• 37:42
  We tried to, you know, I, I played around a little bit with
• 37:45
  the chorus to make it not quite so poppy, but make it still flow
• 37:48
  and having a good groove to it. And yeah, I mean, the subject
• 37:52
  matter alone is, is kind of, you know, one of the, one of the
• 37:55
  driving forces. It's, you know, it's I, I think
• 37:58
  the subject matter is, is really important.
• 38:00
  You know, it's about addiction and overcoming addiction, things
• 38:02
  like that. And, and I think that's really a
• 38:03
  huge, a huge thing. It's a good message and it kind
• 38:07
  of fits in with what we do so. Yeah, I feel like, yeah, there's
• 38:10
  so many people in our scene that are that do struggle with
• 38:15
  substance and addiction problems.
• 38:17
  So it's still, it's a nice way without being overly preachy.
• 38:21
  For some people, it's like, you know, it's a nice way to say,
• 38:24
  hey, man, there's help there if you need it.
• 38:26
  Yeah. And it's, yeah.
• 38:27
  And it's and it is a positive thing.
• 38:28
  It's like, you know, you can, you can't overcome.
• 38:31
  I think that's, that's the the for me, that's the main message
• 38:34
  of the of the song. It's a tough Rd. but you know it
• 38:37
  can it can be accomplished. Yeah, well, I agree with that
• 38:40
  one. Yeah, totally agree.
• 38:42
  Let's see. Yeah, I got a couple more for
• 38:44
  you, man. I, dude, I really appreciate
• 38:45
  your time. Let me just let's see you try to
• 38:48
  hammer these last few out. I was like, yeah.
• 38:50
  So like once I listened to like, yeah, after I listened to this
• 38:53
  record, I just had like one note.
• 38:55
  I was like, oh man, I wish we had like a Monster's Lament Part
• 38:57
  2 with Stu, because I think it would have been cool to hear you
• 39:01
  and Stu go back-to-back forth. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 39:05
  Sue's got a really good voice, man.
• 39:06
  He doesn't. Does some really cool stuff with
• 39:08
  this with his voice. Yeah, and like, I like, I just
• 39:11
  want to like gush on that song for a minute.
• 39:12
  And it's like, I thought you and Tim sounded like badass.
• 39:16
  That was like amazing. I that was that made me giddy
• 39:19
  because I I do often A&B like your songs that you both have
• 39:26
  recorded, that you both recorded together.
• 39:28
  And it's like, oh, I find it cool.
• 39:29
  Like how he interpret interpret your Something Wicked songs and
• 39:33
  how you had to interpret his songs that he created and see
• 39:39
  and see your take on it. Like like a charge to keep.
• 39:41
  A charge to keep is like one of my favorite songs.
• 39:43
  And it's like, oh, here's Tim's approach and here's your
• 39:47
  approach. And like, it's like 2
• 39:49
  Christmases for me. Yeah, and that's, and that's
• 39:52
  fun, man. And that's the, I think that's
• 39:54
  the cool thing about it too, man, is that, you know, you, you
• 39:57
  do understand and realize, like obviously Tim has a very unique
• 40:00
  voice. As soon as you hear Tim, you,
• 40:02
  you know it's Tim, right? And and I and I hope that that's
• 40:05
  the same, the same with me. Right, wrong or indifferent, you
• 40:08
  know, so and then we have the two of us together.
• 40:11
  You can, you've got that, that cool thing like you're saying,
• 40:14
  you know, and I know what you mean, like doing the, the A&B
• 40:16
  back and forth from our different recordings.
• 40:18
  But but that's also kind of like with, with that song, it's an
• 40:21
  A&B. We're playing two different
• 40:23
  characters in that song. And, and I in this, in that
• 40:26
  song, I get to be the complete asshole in the song.
• 40:29
  You're welcome, Tim, You're you get to be the, the, the good guy
• 40:32
  in the song. That's fine, but you know, it's
• 40:34
  it was it was fun man and and all you know, all credit to to
• 40:38
  Freddie, man that Freddie wrote that song front to back.
• 40:41
  He he had laid out the the the dialogue, how it was gonna go
• 40:45
  and how how it played with the music.
• 40:48
  And so again, that's a A tribute to to to Freddie and to Tim and
• 40:54
  to me. I guess we're we all three
• 40:56
  collaborated to make that one really, really cool song and
• 40:59
  we're really proud of it. So yeah, it was a great time.
• 41:01
  Yeah, it's a, it was a, it was a pleasant surprise to like catch
• 41:05
  that trek. And of course, it's like 11
• 41:07
  minutes long. It has to be that long.
• 41:09
  Yes, obviously, obviously. So let's see what the last comic
• 41:15
  book question for you. Do you ever plan on like since
• 41:18
  you ever plan on writing a comic book one day?
• 41:21
  I I don't know, I might, maybe I'll maybe I'll try to write
• 41:26
  something with my son. My son's more the writer so and,
• 41:30
  and, and I think that he really wants to write a comic book.
• 41:32
  So I just need to need to get it.
• 41:35
  We need to get an artist though. That would that would be the
• 41:37
  important that would be the important thing.
• 41:39
  I mean, yes, the words are are important and the and the idea,
• 41:42
  the concepts are important, but but the pictures are really,
• 41:45
  really important too with a comic, right?
• 41:47
  So, yeah, it would be it would be tough.
• 41:50
  I mean, I I would love to do something, you know, a
• 41:53
  collaboration with music and and all that.
• 41:55
  But again, it's, you know, more, again, it costs and I have no
• 41:58
  idea as far as the publishing stuff and where that, all the
• 42:02
  costs involved in that. But I, I certainly know it's, it
• 42:05
  takes a lot of time to put something like that together
• 42:07
  and, and money. And so that might be a tough
• 42:11
  one, unless, unless I can figure out how to have our, our record
• 42:16
  label help us out with that one. We'll, we'll see.
• 42:19
  Maybe we, maybe we can do that. Maybe if we save a little bit of
• 42:21
  money on some videos we can we can do some comics.
• 42:24
  There is a couple comic book companies called, there's one
• 42:28
  called Z2E2 that does a lot of like music, music artist, comic
• 42:32
  books, basically. You know, it's like, Oh yeah,
• 42:34
  it's written by this this musician and he's got his own
• 42:37
  little comic. They put out the GWAR comic
• 42:38
  book. They put out stuff from Oh, nice
• 42:41
  from all the other, like, you know, metal bands and like
• 42:43
  little rat backs. They put out a lot of cool, you
• 42:45
  know, stuff from spirit box to, I can't remember anybody else
• 42:49
  right this second, but yeah. But it's out there.
• 42:51
  Z2 comics. They do some really good stuff.
• 42:54
  This, this. Yeah.
• 42:55
  You've got like a history, bro. It's like you could say, yeah,
• 42:58
  its industry since over 30 years and it's like what is one of the
• 43:01
  bigger things that you noticed that has changed?
• 43:04
  What's the biggest change for you in the last 30 years of
• 43:06
  music? Well, I mean, the, I mean, I
• 43:09
  think obviously the biggest change for the, for the industry
• 43:12
  was, is during, during my, my time, my introduction.
• 43:17
  And I did, and I kind of get out, got in there in there late
• 43:19
  a little bit to, to actually make money on, on records.
• 43:22
  But that, that's certainly a, a big change in the industry with,
• 43:26
  with, you know, the Internet the way it is and, and all that.
• 43:29
  And, and I know it's, it's a controversial subject, but at
• 43:33
  one point, you know, artists made money, you know, they sold
• 43:36
  records and they made money on those selling those records
• 43:39
  because you get, you know, X amount of dollars per, you know,
• 43:43
  per record sold and and so on and so forth.
• 43:46
  And those days are kind of gone because it, you know, there's a
• 43:48
  lot of pirating and a lot of just people, you know, putting
• 43:51
  music out there. And so it's the, the artists
• 43:55
  don't make is don't make so much money because, you know, at the
• 43:58
  end of the day with the record company, they're, they're
• 44:00
  producing the physical product and they're promoting and all
• 44:03
  that. They have to make money to be
• 44:04
  able to do all that. So that's kind of where it
• 44:06
  stops. And that's fine.
• 44:08
  If you're a guy like me who, you know, does this for the for the
• 44:11
  love of it and it doesn't isn't relying on it to, to make a
• 44:15
  living. But that definitely was
• 44:18
  something that changed in the industry during my, my tenure.
• 44:22
  And it you could definitely see the, the things changing because
• 44:25
  it used to be people would, would tour to support a record.
• 44:29
  Now people make records to support a tour, you know, to
• 44:32
  say, hey, we're getting to start a new tour.
• 44:34
  Here's a new record and and then stay on the road for nine
• 44:36
  months. They didn't have to do that
• 44:38
  before they could just, you know, tour for, you know, a
• 44:42
  month in Europe, month in the US, you know, month somewhere
• 44:45
  else and, you know, kind of be be done.
• 44:48
  You know, they would to where on the end that would that would be
• 44:50
  what they did, because they would make money on the records
• 44:52
  and it would, you know, stabilize things and you could
• 44:55
  go back. You know, that's just changed
• 44:57
  now the the live shows are where the money's AT and and you
• 45:01
  really have to have to be out there and be dedicated.
• 45:04
  And, you know, to some degree, I think, I think it works out
• 45:07
  really well for some people, but for for others, it can be also
• 45:10
  so very much a, a burden because you're, you know, when you're on
• 45:14
  the road, you're not with your family.
• 45:16
  You know, when you're on the road, you're not at home, you're
• 45:18
  not taking care of, you know, family business and things like
• 45:21
  that. And, you know, it really I, I, I
• 45:23
  don't want to say I saw the writing on the wall, but I kind
• 45:25
  of did see the writing on the wall.
• 45:26
  And, and so, you know, kind of spurred going somewhere else and
• 45:30
  doing something different with my life.
• 45:31
  And, and, you know, because of that, I have been afforded the
• 45:35
  opportunity to, to watch my kids grow.
• 45:37
  You know, I'd be home and, and be present and not, be not, not
• 45:42
  out there living that, that road life.
• 45:44
  So as much as it's, it's painful for people to not, you know, see
• 45:49
  their, you know, see a band or, you know, maybe see me out
• 45:52
  touring and all that other good stuff.
• 45:54
  Just know that it's it was a sacrifice and I appreciate your
• 45:57
  sacrifice so that I could stay home with my kids and watch them
• 46:00
  grow up. Yeah, and like I really
• 46:02
  appreciate keep on walking. It's like the song.
• 46:05
  I was like I was listening to that song and I'm watching the
• 46:07
  video and I thought that's like such a heartfelt.
• 46:10
  It's that it's definitely like a love.
• 46:12
  It's it's a love letter to your children.
• 46:14
  You know, it's a love letter to if you're a parent, you
• 46:16
  understand. I'm a parent.
• 46:17
  I have my kids are I'm retired now.
• 46:20
  Like I have a 19 year old and a 23 year old.
• 46:22
  So like. I am done.
• 46:25
  So I was like wee. Yes, yeah, yeah, I got now
• 46:28
  minor, minor 19 and 17, so. Yeah, it's fun.
• 46:32
  It's fun. And it's like, I appreciate
• 46:35
  that. Like I was like, I almost part
• 46:37
  of me was like, I wish this song wasn't on the record.
• 46:40
  I feel like even though it's for, I feel like it's more for,
• 46:43
  for your, for them. It's like, oh, I think you just
• 46:46
  give this to like the day you pass away.
• 46:48
  It's like, hey, Dad left us free, you know?
• 46:50
  And I feel like I should just like part of me felt like I
• 46:53
  should be like that. But it's but he gave it to a
• 46:56
  solid. It's a comment.
• 46:57
  It's very sweet seeing like all the photos.
• 47:00
  And I just thought it was it's it's very touching.
• 47:02
  It was a very touching song in tribute to your family and to to
• 47:05
  parents. Period.
• 47:06
  Yes, 100%. That's, that's, yes, it was
• 47:10
  written purely from a, from a parent's point of view.
• 47:12
  And then hopefully hoping, and I, I know that you feel the same
• 47:16
  way, hopefully that all the lessons that we pass on will be
• 47:19
  passed on with them and they can share those lessons with, with
• 47:22
  their children and so on and so forth.
• 47:24
  I think that's how we, that's how we go, you know, we, we
• 47:27
  travel through time and, and that's how we, you know, pass on
• 47:30
  our legacy. So.
• 47:32
  Ultimately, right, my thing is now is just try to stay healthy,
• 47:36
  you know, make sure I stretch, like make sure I work in
• 47:38
  production. So it's like, hey, make sure,
• 47:40
  make sure I can still touch my toes and put my hands above my
• 47:43
  head because I learned like, yeah, once a lot of older folks,
• 47:46
  they don't reach up high anymore, Like, and I was like,
• 47:49
  wow. And I was like, you lose that
• 47:50
  mobility and it's like you're gonna be a younger, you could be
• 47:52
  young and spry all day. And it's like, I refuse to like,
• 47:55
  you know, break my back or or lose that mobility because like
• 47:59
  I want to keep up with my kids and maybe future for grandkids.
• 48:02
  I don't, I don't know what's what's the future holds, but
• 48:05
  it's I just want to make sure that I'm not burning anybody
• 48:08
  with anything. Yes, yes, obviously.
• 48:10
  Yeah, we don't. We, we certainly don't want to
• 48:12
  be a burden. And yeah, I mean, I've got, I, I
• 48:17
  got my certain creaks and, you know, things when I get up and
• 48:21
  I, you know, I start to feel, OK, maybe I am this age, but you
• 48:27
  know, we don't certainly don't like to admit that, right?
• 48:29
  No, and and then for a lot of people's like and sonically your
• 48:33
  voice sounds just as strong as it ever did.
• 48:36
  So it's like, oh, you know, like unless I super maybe I might
• 48:38
  hear something different, but it's like, oh, I can put this
• 48:41
  record next to an earlier record.
• 48:43
  You know, your your bass and your voice sounds just as good
• 48:46
  and your high sound in pitch. Is that the right in pitch?
• 48:49
  Is that a right? Yes, yes, that.
• 48:51
  Well, yes, hopefully that. Yeah, hopefully they are in
• 48:53
  pitch. Yeah, yeah, I appreciate it,
• 48:56
  man. That's, you know, I, I try and,
• 49:01
  and obviously that, you know, another, another good byproduct
• 49:04
  of recording the way that we do is that, you know, if I'm, if
• 49:07
  I'm not having a good day, then I just don't record.
• 49:09
  And then I'll go out there when I in my studio, when I am having
• 49:12
  a good day and I, you know, do do a bunch of tracks.
• 49:14
  So it that's kind of the cool thing about being able to track
• 49:17
  track stuff in my home studio. Like home studios are the best,
• 49:20
  like the best thing from the pandemic was that this
• 49:22
  demarcatize everything. Now everybody but you know, for
• 49:26
  the for better or worse, everybody can get a microphone,
• 49:28
  but which is great, but everybody could get a microphone
• 49:31
  which isn't the best all the time.
• 49:34
  Yeah, well, it's not, it's not the microphones fault, you know,
• 49:37
  it's just the stuff that comes out of peoples mouths sometimes,
• 49:40
  right? Yeah.
• 49:43
  And that's yeah. And that's the other side of it
• 49:45
  too. You know, I was talking about
• 49:46
  the, the pitfalls and the downfalls of, of, you know, the
• 49:49
  Internet and, you know, music and, you know, being, you know,
• 49:52
  taken and, you know, all that other good stuff.
• 49:54
  But on the upside, you know, because of the way that Freddie
• 49:57
  and I write music together, that's the upside of, of the
• 50:00
  Internet and, and being able to share, you know, send those
• 50:03
  files back and forth and being able to write music living on
• 50:06
  opposite sides of the country. So, you know, with everything,
• 50:11
  you know, there, you can always look for the silver lining,
• 50:12
  right? So, so that I guess that's the
• 50:14
  silver lining for us is that we can, you know, in the, in the
• 50:17
  comfort of our, of our own studios, we can free music and
• 50:22
  share it back and forth across the country.
• 50:23
  Yeah, you know, it's like, yeah, like I know I appreciate bands
• 50:26
  that can still do it the old fashioned way and like get
• 50:30
  together in a jam room and jam cuz yeah, there's something fun
• 50:32
  and magical about that too sometimes, you know, but
• 50:36
  sometimes necessity is the way it is, is the way it is cuz of
• 50:41
  life. Yeah.
• 50:42
  And I gotta say, man, I'll give you, I gotta give you some more,
• 50:46
  some more, You know, it's a it's impressive and admirable that
• 50:50
  you're able to stop touring and start a whole new career.
• 50:54
  I know the timing of the world at that time was, you know, the
• 50:58
  9/11, the 9/11 time. And it's like roughly around the
• 51:02
  same time. And it's like, yeah, you know,
• 51:03
  we've all heard the stories about the glorious burden.
• 51:05
  It's like, you know, like, like one day I hope I ever hear the I
• 51:08
  hope I hear the Matt Barlow version because I'm so curious
• 51:11
  to see how you did those songs. But to go from, from and that I
• 51:17
  want to, I want to do my family life and that's and you didn't
• 51:20
  do it in a selfish way. Like, you know, from, you know,
• 51:23
  I found out with you a few times over the years, like month, you
• 51:26
  know, and you know, it's like, it's not like some people,
• 51:29
  there's like no resentment to you.
• 51:31
  There's no resentment towards like your family.
• 51:33
  Like, you know, it's like I did this for you guys.
• 51:35
  I stopped. I could have been a rock star.
• 51:37
  You get the ego. It goes back to egos, like the
• 51:39
  fact that you don't have an ego and you're able to continuously
• 51:42
  put out music over the last 20 years and maintain a full time
• 51:46
  career. Not everybody has that.
• 51:49
  I don't say the job that's with the flexibility to do that.
• 51:52
  And I think that you, you're a, you're a fucking stand up guy,
• 51:57
  bro. Well, thanks, man.
• 51:58
  I appreciate it. And and my wife says that she
• 52:00
  won't let my ego get too inflated.
• 52:02
  So I'm sure you met. Yeah, I'm sure you probably met
• 52:08
  my wife when we were on tour. I think she was probably our
• 52:10
  merch girl. Yeah, I probably, yeah.
• 52:12
  When you probably think when you were on tour with with one of
• 52:15
  the Yeah, if you were with yes, yeah, we probably we all hung
• 52:18
  out at at Webster Hall and where Dean took us somewhere.
• 52:25
  Dean took us somewhere. I think I.
• 52:28
  Lord knows where Dean took us. Yeah, but man, like, dude, like,
• 52:33
  yo, bro, I really appreciate your time.
• 52:35
  And again, you know, it's a guess reading like, you know,
• 52:38
  it's like, I just, you know, it's like, yeah, I kind of have
• 52:40
  to just touch on it briefly. I don't really want to get into
• 52:43
  it, but it's like, yeah, I appreciate you guys.
• 52:45
  Are you and your wife, you guys are in a very interesting
• 52:49
  awkward spot, you know, and I, you know, I feel like people
• 52:51
  like come at you sometimes. I've seen comments left and
• 52:54
  right, you know, like, and I was like, that's why I'm like, yeah,
• 52:56
  don't read the comments because you know, I feel like, you know,
• 52:59
  it's an awkward spot for you, for you guys.
• 53:01
  It's like people are like, yeah, that's your boy.
• 53:03
  And it's like, and you're like, yo, I'm not my brother's keeper,
• 53:06
  you know, But at the same time, it's like you've also been, you
• 53:09
  know, yeah, you've said nice words about him.
• 53:10
  And it's like, you know, people do what they do.
• 53:13
  And if he's a Jesus guy now, hey, more power to him.
• 53:17
  I hope, you know, he makes he, he's better and you know things,
• 53:21
  you know, you know, I'm sure he's still a great uncle.
• 53:23
  And it's a, it's just a weird spot, you know, I don't want to
• 53:26
  say anything. I'm not trying to be negative.
• 53:27
  I'm not trying to do a gotcha or anything.
• 53:29
  I just think it's like it's just an interesting spot to be in for
• 53:33
  you abstractly, if that makes any kind of sense.
• 53:37
  Yeah, no, I, I, I understand, you know, I understand people's,
• 53:40
  people's opinions and things like that.
• 53:41
  But, you know, at the end of the day, he's, he's family, you
• 53:44
  know, and, and you know, I love him, man.
• 53:47
  And, and, you know, hopefully, you know, I will support,
• 53:51
  support him. Hopefully, you know, things are,
• 53:54
  are well for, for everybody and hopefully people, we live in a
• 53:57
  world that, you know, redemption is is is a possibility.
• 54:00
  That's not we're doing. Yeah, pretty much.
• 54:02
  I have to believe in in redemption because like, you
• 54:05
  know, it's like I learned like when I like I made my first trip
• 54:08
  to we're going to wrap this up really soon, but it's like I
• 54:10
  made I went to Norway and like I hung out with them and they took
• 54:13
  me on like this like heavy metal tour.
• 54:16
  So I went to the the mayhem places where all this stuff
• 54:19
  happened and we talked about him.
• 54:21
  We talked about the dude from emperor and the stabbing and
• 54:25
  everything. We talk about all this stuff and
• 54:26
  it was like, Oh yeah, we have jail time here is like 21 years
• 54:30
  and we you know, then they always re up, but they don't
• 54:33
  want you. They kind of educate you.
• 54:34
  They they really believe in rehabilitation and it's like,
• 54:39
  wow, again, they didn't want you to go back to jail.
• 54:41
  Once you get out of there, they they work to make sure you don't
• 54:44
  re reoffend here. Now the guy, man, I wish we did
• 54:47
  more like they did to take care of people who go in because
• 54:50
  sometimes people go in by stupid and then some people just, hey,
• 54:54
  man, some people just need that support to like better
• 54:58
  themselves. And it's like, hey, man, like,
• 54:59
  yeah, we all make mistakes. I feel there's not enough.
• 55:03
  It's all, Nope, you fucked up once, that's it.
• 55:06
  And like you're done. Like, you know.
• 55:08
  Yeah. And that's, and that's not,
• 55:09
  that's not something even, you know, in, in my, in my career
• 55:13
  that I'm, that I'm in now, I've had these conversations with
• 55:16
  people that I've, you know, had to do my job right.
• 55:19
  And I tell them, you know, hey, man, don't, don't let this be
• 55:22
  your defining moment. You know, this is, this is not
• 55:25
  the, this is not the, the only, the only thing, you know, just
• 55:28
  learn from this man and, and move on.
• 55:30
  It's, it's, it's OK, you know, and, and hopefully, you know, I,
• 55:34
  I think that there are certainly other people in my profession
• 55:36
  that are, are sympathetic in that way as well.
• 55:40
  And that goes from, you know, all the way from frontline law
• 55:42
  enforcement to, to corrections. So I think that there, there is
• 55:46
  a, a, a, you know, a definite, even though not, we're not
• 55:50
  always given the, the props for it, for being, you know,
• 55:54
  community policing. And that includes, that includes
• 55:56
  every member of our community. And that's, that's a really
• 56:00
  important part of it, man. I think that that we have to.
• 56:03
  We have to as humans, live in a world where where redemption is
• 56:07
  possible. Otherwise we're doomed, like my
• 56:09
  wife says eloquently. She is 100% right.
• 56:12
  You're both 100% right. It's like, it's like it's I'm
• 56:16
  looking at, I look, I'm joking at like, oh, you're a kid.
• 56:18
  It's like, hey, remember when you're a kid, it's like, oh, you
• 56:20
  made these decisions when you were a kid.
• 56:22
  It's like, hey, I wouldn't be an astronaut.
• 56:23
  And it's like, hey, you're, you're 35 now.
• 56:25
  You're not an astronaut. I should treat you like an
• 56:27
  astronaut your whole time. And it's like, come on, you're
• 56:31
  allowed to grow and change your mind.
• 56:32
  To you, the person you were five years ago was in the perch you
• 56:34
  are today. The person you were in 97 is in
• 56:37
  the perch you are today, Correct.
• 56:39
  You know, so it's like you have to give people room to grow and
• 56:43
  change. So, you know, it's like, hey,
• 56:44
  I'm I'm all for redemption and everything.
• 56:47
  And hell, it's like, like, you know, selfishly, it's like, oh,
• 56:51
  he, you know. Ice Turf has released Tim Owens,
• 56:55
  you know, live albums recently. And I was like, finally I felt
• 56:58
  like he was missing. I thought that was missing of
• 57:01
  like live recordings of it, of him besides YouTube.
• 57:04
  And it's like, oh, fine, I get to hear him like in a, in a
• 57:06
  better sound setting. And I feel like to me it's like,
• 57:09
  oh, cuz like I do like these videos of like, you know,
• 57:12
  discography videos and like, yeah, Ice Surf is on the list.
• 57:16
  And it's like I have to like I don't, I'm like, I love it.
• 57:19
  It's like, yeah, like I'll still, I still like rock.
• 57:21
  I surf to this day. It's like I'm never gonna stop
• 57:24
  listening to it, you know? So, you know, I, I do to
• 57:26
  separate from artists to whatever, you know, you can
• 57:28
  separate, but you're not hurting kids.
• 57:31
  You don't forgiveness. I'll put it that way.
• 57:34
  Amen. Yeah.
• 57:35
  All right, So I'll wrap this up. Thank you for your time.
• 57:38
  I appreciate you. I appreciate your wife for
• 57:41
  letting me steal you away for a little bit longer.
• 57:44
  Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 57:47
  She gets it, She gets it. And the more I'm talking comic
• 57:51
  book stuff with you, the less I'm talking comic book stuff
• 57:53
  with her. So she appreciates that that I
• 57:55
  have that outlet. All right, Mr. Matt Barlow,
• 57:58
  thank you for your time, brother.
• 57:59
  It's been a great time chatting with you tonight.
• 58:02
  Ashes of Aries new album, New Messiahs is out now on Rock of
• 58:05
  Angels Records. And don't forget to catch the
• 58:06
  band on the European Festival tour in September and October
• 58:09
  doing the Ice Earth classic album The Dark Saga for its 30th
• 58:12
  anniversary. Well, your kids enjoy the rest
• 58:14
  of your night. It was a pleasure.
• 58:16
  And yeah, I'll talk to you sooner or later.
• 58:19
  Thank you for your time, Matt. Alright, look forward to it man.