Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Ira Black Steps Beyond the Shredder on Apocalypse

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Ira Black Steps Beyond the Shredder on Apocalypse · HEAVY Music Interviews

0:01
Speaker 1: How's it going? Ira Black here, guitar player of 44 years.
0:04
Speaker 1: I played 101 bands in my career and kind of
0:08
Speaker 1: been there and done it all. And I'm still pushing
0:11
Speaker 1: forward every day, every minute.
0:13
Speaker 2: Fantastic. What an intro. That's fantastic. Look, after decades of
0:18
Speaker 2: being known primarily as a guitarist, what made now the
0:21
Speaker 2: best time to step forward as the vocalist and creative
0:24
Speaker 2: force behind Apocalypse rather than years ago?
0:29
Speaker 1: Well, There is a little bit of a secret, and
0:32
Speaker 1: that is that I did start a band in the
0:35
Speaker 1: late 90s where I was singing lead vocals. Oh, there
0:38
Speaker 1: you go. It was called Darshan. And it was similar
0:42
Speaker 1: in a certain sense, because, you know, it's my writing
0:45
Speaker 1: and my playing and, you know, my brain, of course.
0:47
Speaker 1: But after playing a few shows, I discovered it was
0:51
Speaker 1: maybe a little more difficult than I thought it was
0:52
Speaker 1: going to be, the energy that I put out and stuff. Yeah.
0:57
Speaker 1: But doing it now is.
1:00
Speaker 1: This is really a, hold on one second. I'm going
1:03
Speaker 1: to- Yeah, yeah. I'm going to interview with Australia right now.
1:14
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you. Sorry about that.
1:23
Speaker 2: You're welcome.
1:24
Speaker 1: So getting back to why I decided to you know,
1:31
Speaker 1: do this now. There's a few different reasons. I've always
1:35
Speaker 1: had the desire to do obviously, cause I had tried
1:37
Speaker 1: it before, but, uh, during the pandemic, I guess I
1:40
Speaker 1: could go back to that place where I decided to, um,
1:44
Speaker 1: because we were getting time off from the touring schedule and,
1:48
Speaker 1: you know, obviously the pandemic was a heavy situation, but, uh,
1:52
Speaker 1: You know, I decided to utilize my time wisely. I said,
1:55
Speaker 1: I'm going to figure out how to really record music,
1:58
Speaker 1: like crack the code, you know, so I can get
2:00
Speaker 1: sound the way I want to get it to sound.
2:02
Speaker 1: I've been an avid songwriter for a long time. So
2:06
Speaker 1: as I started to discover really how to get good
2:08
Speaker 1: sounds and stuff, I started dabbling in singing again. I'm like,
2:12
Speaker 1: you know what? It'd be cool to maybe sing on something.
2:15
Speaker 1: And then as I delved into it, I noticed like
2:20
Speaker 1: a big deal was that My vocals didn't sound right.
2:24
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the heck is going on? So what
2:26
Speaker 1: I what I ended up doing was it was kind
2:29
Speaker 1: of funny because I was never really a cover guy
2:31
Speaker 1: playing covers. I thought, well, let me try and sing,
2:34
Speaker 1: you know, a cover. Let me try and tackle something
2:37
Speaker 1: so absurd that maybe I might discover something there. So
2:42
Speaker 1: I tried to sing Stairway to Heaven. Yes.
2:45
Speaker 2: Nice choice.
2:46
Speaker 1: Vocals out. And I'm like, you know, I'm kind of
2:49
Speaker 1: laughing at myself. I got headphones on and I'm in
2:51
Speaker 1: a studio going, this is preposterous. I mean, I'm not
2:54
Speaker 1: even a singer. How dare I even try and touch
2:57
Speaker 1: Robert Plant, you know? But I had the vocal separated
3:01
Speaker 1: so I could listen to his. And then I was
3:03
Speaker 1: singing the notes. I'm like, yeah, but why doesn't it
3:06
Speaker 1: sound like him? And then what I discovered was, it
3:08
Speaker 1: was strangely enough, it's something I already do on guitar,
3:11
Speaker 1: but I wasn't doing it with the vocals. I was
3:14
Speaker 1: singing the right notes, but I wasn't doing it with feelings.
3:18
Speaker 2: There you go.
3:19
Speaker 1: And I started to go, wow. Okay. It's almost like
3:21
Speaker 1: acting in a way you can do different voices and stuff.
3:24
Speaker 1: And then I just got to the point where I
3:25
Speaker 1: had the headphones on and I'm like, I'm kind of
3:28
Speaker 1: like talking to myself for a couple hours, working on
3:30
Speaker 1: this in the, in the, my old garage where I
3:32
Speaker 1: had the studio going at my old place. And I'm
3:35
Speaker 1: like talking to myself and I'm like, I'm like, dude,
3:38
Speaker 1: sing this from the heart, man. Sing it from right here.
3:40
Speaker 1: I'm like literally touching myself and I'm talking to myself.
3:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:44
Speaker 1: I mean, the next take I did, brought tears to
3:47
Speaker 1: my eyes. I literally started crying because it was like,
3:49
Speaker 1: I nailed something. I was like, Oh my God, that
3:52
Speaker 1: sounds like something that's moving. So that started me on
3:58
Speaker 1: my journey. I was like, okay, I'm going to try this,
4:02
Speaker 1: you know? And then that naturally led to me writing
4:04
Speaker 1: lyrics that meant something to me. So I started writing
4:07
Speaker 1: stuff from my past, my upbringing kind of had a
4:10
Speaker 1: hard upbringing. I mean, a lot of people did. I'm
4:12
Speaker 1: not sitting around crying about it. I did a lot
4:14
Speaker 1: of mental stuff. health work on myself in my twenties.
4:17
Speaker 1: I did a lot of spiritual books, you know, reading
4:20
Speaker 1: a bunch of spiritual books and got into meditation. Yeah. Yeah.
4:24
Speaker 1: Self-help stuff. So it's not like I'm sitting around crying
4:27
Speaker 1: about this stuff, but you know, your life is your life.
4:30
Speaker 1: And sometimes it does come back up. I started revisiting
4:33
Speaker 1: some of that stuff, you know, now that I'm older
4:35
Speaker 1: and I have kids and, you know, it's like, you know,
4:38
Speaker 1: the cycles that you're trying to get out of. You
4:41
Speaker 1: don't want to give that to your kids. I was
4:44
Speaker 1: perfect to my kids, but I learned a lot. I
4:47
Speaker 1: tried to do my best to get through it and
4:50
Speaker 1: all that. Anyway, I started writing all these lyrics about
4:53
Speaker 1: my past, my upbringing, and the journey that I've taken.
4:56
Speaker 1: I left my family when I was 14 in pursuit
5:00
Speaker 1: of my music career. Basically, getting away from not the
5:04
Speaker 1: best situation. I've made amends with my parents and my
5:09
Speaker 1: mom's stepfather and over the years and stuff so we're
5:12
Speaker 1: all on good terms now and you know I was
5:15
Speaker 1: a little bit worried about that too it's a little
5:16
Speaker 1: side note that you know I'm putting out all this
5:19
Speaker 1: heavy content and you know I want my.
5:21
Speaker 2: Mom what will they think yeah.
5:23
Speaker 1: You know but we've you know we've worked through a
5:25
Speaker 1: lot of stuff over the years and yeah we're great
5:29
Speaker 1: good texting back and forth uh today and yesterday but
5:33
Speaker 1: anyway so yeah so that that set me on my
5:35
Speaker 1: journey And then as I started putting songs together more
5:38
Speaker 1: and more, it started really turning into something like it really,
5:41
Speaker 1: I started to go, wow, these songs are moving. They're
5:44
Speaker 1: really got something behind them. You know, I know if
5:47
Speaker 1: I can listen to one of my own songs over
5:49
Speaker 1: and over a hundred times and not be sick of it,
5:51
Speaker 1: you know, the, and I started playing them for people and, uh,
5:55
Speaker 1: you know, 20 songs deep in some, you know, actually
5:59
Speaker 1: about 500 songs I wrote during the pandemic, but I started,
6:02
Speaker 1: I put one aside like that one's for this, this,
6:05
Speaker 1: pie in the sky dream project I'm going to do
6:08
Speaker 1: one day. And so I compiled 20 songs. I ended
6:11
Speaker 1: up with 10. I picked the best 10. I ended
6:14
Speaker 1: up signing a development deal with those 10 songs. And
6:19
Speaker 1: now we have a whole team of people and we're
6:21
Speaker 1: putting it out, you know, like a, almost like a business.
6:23
Speaker 1: Like we're on it every day.
6:25
Speaker 2: Go, go, go. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And I wanted
6:29
Speaker 2: to say that I have had the privilege of watching
6:32
Speaker 2: a black box, the music video and, not only is
6:36
Speaker 2: the imagery, does it seem very personal, like a personal
6:40
Speaker 2: story of, you know, trying to protect yourself and that
6:44
Speaker 2: inner child maybe, but also when you listen to the
6:47
Speaker 2: lyrics that really comes through as well. Yeah. Awesome.
6:50
Speaker 1: No, I appreciate that. That's for sure. I mean, the
6:54
Speaker 1: more I wrote and stuff, the more I started to really,
6:57
Speaker 1: as you say, sharpen the blade, you know, to get
7:00
Speaker 1: closer to like, how, how do you, talk about something
7:04
Speaker 1: about how you feel without it sounding generic. Well, you
7:07
Speaker 1: sing it with feeling there's that. And how do you
7:09
Speaker 1: not get too caught up in the words? You know,
7:12
Speaker 1: it's like, and I think that song really, I mean,
7:15
Speaker 1: it's probably one of my pinnacles of songwriting. I got
7:17
Speaker 1: to this point where you hear everything I'm saying.
7:20
Speaker 2: Yeah.
7:20
Speaker 1: You on this story and it moves, you know? Definitely.
7:24
Speaker 2: Yeah.
7:24
Speaker 1: It's yeah. I appreciate you mentioning that. Yeah. It's a
7:28
Speaker 1: very cinematic and, and expressive song.
7:31
Speaker 2: Yeah definitely i like what you said that like you
7:34
Speaker 2: can still hear what you're you're singing about because i
7:37
Speaker 2: think with heavier music that can get lost oftentimes but
7:41
Speaker 2: yeah that's what i really liked about this song.
7:42
Speaker 1: Too yeah that's a good point that was uh important
7:47
Speaker 1: to me even you know i mean look we listen
7:51
Speaker 1: to metal i like all kinds of metal a through
7:54
Speaker 1: z i'm just a music fan yeah and uh you know,
7:58
Speaker 1: in this day and age, you get a new metal
7:59
Speaker 1: record and not NU metal, but a current came out. Yeah. And,
8:06
Speaker 1: you know, nine times out of 10 or, you know,
8:09
Speaker 1: eight times out of 10, whatever it is, it's going
8:11
Speaker 1: to be a cookie monster thing, you know? Yeah. And
8:13
Speaker 1: that's fine. Cause there's a lot of bands I like
8:15
Speaker 1: to do that, you know, but for me, it's like,
8:18
Speaker 1: if I was going to do cookie monster, it was
8:20
Speaker 1: going to be few and far between. It was going
8:22
Speaker 1: to be to, to get a point across, not just,
8:25
Speaker 1: just to do it. that's it you know but uh
8:27
Speaker 1: I like melodic vocals I always was mostly melodic vocal
8:31
Speaker 1: band so that's why you know I'm trying to put
8:34
Speaker 1: a little bit of edge on it but I mostly
8:37
Speaker 1: like to keep everything pretty legible in the sound like
8:41
Speaker 1: I want these words to really be I want someone
8:43
Speaker 1: to have to read the words go what what.
8:44
Speaker 2: Are they saying yeah yeah.
8:46
Speaker 1: It's like what call your mom yeah.
8:51
Speaker 2: No exactly exactly very good point I feel like um
8:54
Speaker 2: There is a lot of metal that does the whole
8:56
Speaker 2: Cookie Monster thing that we were talking about just for
8:59
Speaker 2: the sake of doing it. But, yeah, when it has
9:02
Speaker 2: a message behind it, it's more. And it's few and
9:05
Speaker 2: far between, like you were saying.
9:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that. Yeah.
9:09
Speaker 2: And Apocalypse explores artificial intelligence as well and humanity's relationship
9:14
Speaker 2: with technology. Were these themes inspired more by excitement, fear,
9:20
Speaker 2: or simple curiosity about where we're headed as humans?
9:24
Speaker 1: Well, you know, man, in the mid 90s, I started
9:29
Speaker 1: reading about different things that people would call conspiracy theories nowadays,
9:34
Speaker 1: like David Icke and people like that. And Robert Anton Wilson,
9:39
Speaker 1: you know, alternative viewpoints and alternative books and, you know,
9:43
Speaker 1: the metaphysical stuff.
9:44
Speaker 2: Yeah.
9:46
Speaker 1: So. You know, I started kind of looking at where
9:49
Speaker 1: society was going even back then when as technology started
9:53
Speaker 1: to take off. I mean, in the beginning of the internet,
9:56
Speaker 1: everyone's like, oh, my God, this is going to happen now.
10:00
Speaker 1: it took a while so everyone's like ah it's fine
10:02
Speaker 1: you know but we are slowly slipping towards you know
10:06
Speaker 1: these uh things that we're talking about back then digital
10:11
Speaker 1: currency yep i mean that's a part of our everyday
10:13
Speaker 1: existence now eventually it's going to only be digital i'm
10:17
Speaker 1: sure i mean you know So AI is a huge
10:21
Speaker 1: part of that. I mean, now you have a brain
10:24
Speaker 1: behind the technology, right? Something that can run on a
10:29
Speaker 1: massive scale. So it's a, it's a little bit of
10:34
Speaker 1: all the things you mentioned. I mean, it's, it's a curiosity,
10:36
Speaker 1: you know, I've decided to embrace it because I mean,
10:40
Speaker 1: it's what the world is doing. We all use chat
10:43
Speaker 1: GPT to ask you questions or help formulate stuff, you know,
10:47
Speaker 1: I still try and use my own brain as much
10:49
Speaker 1: as I can. You know, as we get older too, it's,
10:51
Speaker 1: you know, it's good to keep your brain active. And
10:54
Speaker 1: it's also the scary side of it. I mean, you know,
10:58
Speaker 1: I worry more almost for my kids. I feel like,
11:00
Speaker 1: you know, how many years do I have left in
11:02
Speaker 1: the next 20 years? Is it going to completely take
11:06
Speaker 1: over to where, you know?
11:08
Speaker 2: Yeah.
11:09
Speaker 1: If you say the wrong thing on your Facebook page, your,
11:13
Speaker 1: your bank account gets turned off. You can't buy food
11:15
Speaker 1: for a day. like a little micro uh punishment i
11:20
Speaker 1: call micro i'm sure you feel that sometimes right like
11:23
Speaker 1: you're like man i was just talking about that earlier
11:26
Speaker 1: and then and now and then my computer wasn't working
11:29
Speaker 1: yes maybe it's paranoia you know but it also creates
11:33
Speaker 1: a bit of that.
11:34
Speaker 2: Too so yeah.
11:36
Speaker 1: Yeah but you know the song intelligence is uh you
11:39
Speaker 1: know it's about ai taking over the world i came
11:41
Speaker 1: up with a creative way to once again to you
11:45
Speaker 1: know pitch the idea or talk about it and uh
11:47
Speaker 1: you know it's you know it's storytelling you know but
11:51
Speaker 1: but it's reality yeah yeah you know something that's going on.
11:54
Speaker 2: So definitely you have given me a lot more to
11:58
Speaker 2: think about than what i've just been thinking about ai
12:01
Speaker 2: i never thought about that like you know your actions
12:04
Speaker 2: on uh the internet having repercussions in other ways that's
12:09
Speaker 2: yeah that's really interesting um also i've got kids And
12:12
Speaker 2: I'm thinking now in the future, you know, when we're gone,
12:17
Speaker 2: what is that going to look like? What is AI
12:19
Speaker 2: going to look like then? Will they have AI partners
12:22
Speaker 2: and things like that's crazy. That's scary.
12:25
Speaker 1: That already exists. I mean, people are talking to their,
12:28
Speaker 1: to their AI, you know, about personal stuff and, you know,
12:34
Speaker 1: it's happening. So, you know, you know, our intelligence is
12:40
Speaker 1: about just talking about what's going on, you know, and
12:43
Speaker 1: I decided to embrace it to the degree of like,
12:46
Speaker 1: you know what, there's a lot of things that make
12:49
Speaker 1: it makes life easier for so you know.
12:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true. That's true, too. We can't forget. Yeah,
12:56
Speaker 2: the good with the bad, I suppose. But also another
13:00
Speaker 2: question I had for you is, Um, you've worked with
13:04
Speaker 2: huge bands, uh, and is it, has it been more
13:08
Speaker 2: intimidating working with some of those bands or going out
13:11
Speaker 2: on your own?
13:14
Speaker 1: Good question. I mean, it's funny because, uh, you know,
13:19
Speaker 1: I mean, you got my cat here.
13:23
Speaker 2: Oh, oh my goodness.
13:26
Speaker 1: Gorgeous.
13:27
Speaker 2: It looks like a kitty still like a little baby. Yeah.
13:30
Speaker 1: He's kind of a runt. So that's just his size.
13:32
Speaker 1: All right, buddy.
13:33
Speaker 2: Coaches.
13:35
Speaker 1: Anyway, so, yeah, you know, people have asked me before, like, hey,
13:39
Speaker 1: when you're getting ready to go on stage in front
13:41
Speaker 1: of 50,000 people at a festival, like, do you get nervous?
13:44
Speaker 1: And my answer is, you know, it's like, you know,
13:47
Speaker 1: the long, slow crawl in my career to, you know,
13:52
Speaker 1: get to this place. So it's like, you know, it's
13:55
Speaker 1: basically spent my life preparing for it. So it felt,
13:59
Speaker 1: always felt comfortable and good and right. for me to
14:03
Speaker 1: do it. You know, I don't think I ever had
14:05
Speaker 1: stage fright or anything like that. So, you know, if,
14:11
Speaker 1: if it's like, Hey, in one week, Ira, Don Dawkin
14:15
Speaker 1: calls me up and says, in one week, I want
14:17
Speaker 1: you to fill in for John Levin and Dawkin, you know,
14:20
Speaker 1: do you want to do it? Absolutely. So I spent
14:23
Speaker 1: seven days learning the set. I'd get up in the morning.
14:27
Speaker 1: I mean, this is probably the worst. I get up
14:29
Speaker 1: in the morning. Oh my God. am I going to
14:31
Speaker 1: be able to do this? It's all order, you know?
14:34
Speaker 1: And then I work all day on it and I
14:36
Speaker 1: get like one or two songs down, like the way
14:37
Speaker 1: I wanted it to. And then I, by the nighttime,
14:40
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh man, I got this. I got this.
14:42
Speaker 1: And then I go to bed, I wake up the
14:44
Speaker 1: next day and go, oh my God, am I going to,
14:48
Speaker 1: so it's a roller coaster.
14:49
Speaker 3: Yeah.
14:50
Speaker 1: You go through some of that stuff, you know, and
14:52
Speaker 1: it's in the back of the mind, but you know,
14:54
Speaker 1: I'm always diligent about doing the work. So I think that,
14:58
Speaker 1: you know, helps, you know, if you show up prepared,
15:01
Speaker 1: it's nothing really to be scared about if you really
15:04
Speaker 1: know what you're going to do.
15:05
Speaker 2: And yeah.
15:07
Speaker 1: But now I guess the other part of your question was,
15:11
Speaker 1: is it more intimidating to do play the big band
15:15
Speaker 1: or with my own thing? Well, we haven't played live yet.
15:18
Speaker 1: So true. So I'm not sure about that yet.
15:22
Speaker 2: Yeah.
15:23
Speaker 1: You know, I guess we'll see, you know, we haven't
15:26
Speaker 1: played live yet. We have the first video that came out, Intelligence,
15:30
Speaker 1: almost 1.5 million views. The second video comes out in
15:34
Speaker 1: two days on Friday. Then the third song comes out
15:38
Speaker 1: on August 28th, a video single. And also the album
15:42
Speaker 1: comes out then. So it'll be finished, mixed out. So
15:45
Speaker 1: we're literally, kind of funny enough, an internet band right now.
15:49
Speaker 1: Which is funny because it's all known people and stuff.
15:52
Speaker 1: So we're getting this attention.
15:54
Speaker 2: Yes.
15:54
Speaker 1: But, you know, we have to go out and do
15:56
Speaker 1: proof of concept for sure. Now, I'm not worried about
16:00
Speaker 1: it ultimately because, you know, I've been doing this for
16:01
Speaker 1: so long. I know that I'm going to be able
16:03
Speaker 1: to do this. But, you know, it's not a normal
16:07
Speaker 1: thing for me to go out and sing lead vocals
16:09
Speaker 1: and play guitar.
16:10
Speaker 2: That's it.
16:10
Speaker 1: And like command this thing. So, yeah, there's a little
16:14
Speaker 1: bit of everyone's going crazy. we can't wait to see this.
16:17
Speaker 1: And I'm like, yeah, me either. I can't wait to
16:21
Speaker 1: see it either because I haven't seen it yet.
16:23
Speaker 2: Yeah. From what I've seen, it's absolutely awesome. And yeah,
16:27
Speaker 2: you'll have no troubles at all, as I'm sure you
16:30
Speaker 2: already feel and know. But yeah, I guess putting your
16:34
Speaker 2: own sort of thing out there that where you're at
16:37
Speaker 2: the helm, I guess you must have just that bit
16:40
Speaker 2: of like.
16:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I'm optimistically excited. And, you know, I'm sure
16:48
Speaker 1: when it's coming up and I'm like, OK, I better
16:50
Speaker 1: show up and make sure that I'm that guy that
16:54
Speaker 1: I will be. So, yeah. Oh, wicked.
16:58
Speaker 2: And also working alongside your son adds a unique dynamic
17:03
Speaker 2: to the band. Has collaborating as family challenged either of
17:06
Speaker 2: you creatively or has it made the process more instinctive?
17:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I love working with my son. He's a
17:14
Speaker 1: great guitar player. You know, he just filled in for Possessed. Okay,
17:17
Speaker 1: I play in Violent. And Claudius, the guitar player Possessed,
17:22
Speaker 1: he plays with Violent also. And we were on tour.
17:24
Speaker 1: And Possessed had a festival in Mexico that they were headlining.
17:29
Speaker 1: And Jeff Becerra called me and said, hey, Ira, can
17:32
Speaker 1: you fill in? I said, I'm on tour with Claudius.
17:35
Speaker 1: And he said, well, can you recommend somebody? I said, well,
17:38
Speaker 1: get my son.
17:38
Speaker 2: He can do it.
17:39
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, so he went and filled in, absolutely killed it.
17:43
Speaker 1: I knew that he would, you know, he's, he's very
17:47
Speaker 1: diligent when it comes to, you know, learning stuff. Like
17:50
Speaker 1: if he says he's going to do it, he shows
17:52
Speaker 1: up and he's 110%. Like he shows up, you know,
17:55
Speaker 1: really nailing it. So with that being said, I feel
17:59
Speaker 1: like having, you know, not only is he my son
18:02
Speaker 1: who I love and care for, but he's very reliable and,
18:05
Speaker 1: You know, he's an awesome person. And yeah, so it's
18:09
Speaker 1: making it cooler, you know, because this is a very
18:12
Speaker 1: personal project for me. So to have my son part
18:15
Speaker 1: of it, just, you know, it really ties in on
18:17
Speaker 1: a deeper level. It's not just a band. This is
18:19
Speaker 1: a family affair.
18:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. No, that's beautiful. That's wonderful. And the album
18:25
Speaker 2: is titled Phoenix. The Phoenix traditionally symbolizes rebirth. But what
18:29
Speaker 2: does the concept mean to you personally at this stage
18:32
Speaker 2: of your career?
18:34
Speaker 1: Well, it's... Pretty wild thing. As I was saying earlier,
18:38
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of reading over the years and
18:40
Speaker 1: I follow this stuff. I'll have to say that it's
18:44
Speaker 1: pretty interesting that there's a guy named Jason Brashears on YouTube.
18:51
Speaker 1: He has a channel called Archaics. And he has a
18:55
Speaker 1: pretty heavy story. It's very interesting. He spent 25, I
18:59
Speaker 1: don't know the exact number, 25 or so years in prison.
19:04
Speaker 1: And he did a lot of reading. He read hundreds
19:06
Speaker 1: of books. And he started noticing there was a lot
19:09
Speaker 1: of similarities and timelines being formed. So he started forming
19:13
Speaker 1: this timeline. And, you know, he came across a lot
19:16
Speaker 1: of things that are very interesting about society and humanity
19:20
Speaker 1: and the world and all that stuff. But what he
19:21
Speaker 1: really came into was that he knows that there's patterns.
19:25
Speaker 1: He believes that the world does a reset every 138 years.
19:28
Speaker 3: Okay?
19:29
Speaker 1: Yeah. And the more he delved into it, it's a
19:34
Speaker 1: pretty heavy concept. And I listened to a bunch of
19:36
Speaker 1: his videos, and he has a lot of great things
19:39
Speaker 1: about manifesting stuff. And you'd have to check him out,
19:42
Speaker 1: you know. I'm one of those people that, you know,
19:46
Speaker 1: I don't believe in anything, but I'll listen to anything.
19:49
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
19:50
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean I won't take some things from it
19:52
Speaker 1: as well, but you know, I definitely give him credit.
19:55
Speaker 1: He has a thing called the Phoenix event and he
19:58
Speaker 1: believes there's an object that comes in the sky that
20:00
Speaker 1: shoots out some red dust and causes a cataclysm on
20:04
Speaker 1: the earth because through his readings, you know, there's all
20:06
Speaker 1: this hidden messaging and information. So, you know, and here's
20:11
Speaker 1: a guy that spent all this time in prison with
20:12
Speaker 1: nothing else to do, but like to, you know, he has,
20:16
Speaker 1: you know, basically put together a thesis that's like insane,
20:20
Speaker 1: you know, like with lots of credible information and past
20:24
Speaker 1: book writings that he, you know, uses as proof and stuff.
20:30
Speaker 1: So anyways, long story short, you know, I basically, And
20:36
Speaker 1: to cap that off, he believes that, you know, there's
20:38
Speaker 1: a global elite that know about this and they go underground.
20:43
Speaker 1: They break all the library books underground, like physical copies,
20:47
Speaker 1: and they do stuff to preserve humanity because this thing
20:51
Speaker 1: happens and they have to come back out and restart it.
20:53
Speaker 1: So he doesn't think that the human timeline is a
20:56
Speaker 1: solid thing. He thinks it's a broken up thing that
20:59
Speaker 1: gets restarted. I'm like, yeah, it's a pretty interesting concept. Yeah.
21:03
Speaker 2: Yeah.
21:04
Speaker 1: So so I wrote a song called Phoenix loosely based
21:07
Speaker 1: around that. But, you know, I also kind of look
21:10
Speaker 1: at this. My band tells Apocalypse and my idea is that,
21:15
Speaker 1: you know, if you go biblically without the Apocalypse is
21:18
Speaker 1: in Revelations. And, you know, that's the final battle at Armageddon,
21:23
Speaker 1: you know, against God and the devil. And, you know.
21:27
Speaker 1: And it's something that we've all grown up with. No
21:30
Speaker 1: one can get away from it. You know, whether we
21:32
Speaker 1: believe in it or not, it's something that's, you know,
21:35
Speaker 1: I mean, it's more of a part of a society
21:37
Speaker 1: than almost anything. It's like, you know, thousands of years
21:41
Speaker 1: in the making there, but I've correlated the apocalypse with
21:46
Speaker 1: my life. So, you know, we all fight this battle
21:50
Speaker 1: and guess what? We all have an ending too. We're
21:52
Speaker 1: all going to die one day. And that's something that
21:54
Speaker 1: I faced a long time ago. So, I'm like, well,
21:56
Speaker 1: the apocalypse of life is like this battle of like,
22:00
Speaker 1: what the heck is really going on here? And how
22:03
Speaker 1: do we figure it out? Are we here to figure
22:06
Speaker 1: it out? Can we figure pieces of it out? And
22:09
Speaker 1: then eventually it almost doesn't matter because you die. That's it.
22:13
Speaker 1: You know, so it's like, so I tied all these
22:15
Speaker 1: concepts in together. The song Phoenix is a title track
22:19
Speaker 1: on the album. And it's, you know, basically has a
22:22
Speaker 1: lot of, you know, verbal, you know, shall I say,
22:27
Speaker 1: pinnings of, you know, revelations and this whole concept about,
22:32
Speaker 1: you know, the realize, realize the real lies, you know,
22:39
Speaker 1: when you die, you see a light, you know, you'll
22:42
Speaker 1: feel the light of your own demise, you know, and
22:44
Speaker 1: stuff like that. Those are the words in there. So yeah. Yeah.
22:47
Speaker 1: So it kind of goes along that content. I know
22:49
Speaker 1: it's kind of deep, whatever for me, it's like, I
22:51
Speaker 1: kind of packaged it up into this idea and then
22:53
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I'm making an album about this thing.
22:55
Speaker 1: Like my life, you know, on the verge of an
22:59
Speaker 1: apocalypse as we all are. And I'm just here trying
23:02
Speaker 1: to figure this stuff out like anyone else's, you know,
23:06
Speaker 1: in the midst of my music career, I'm, you know,
23:08
Speaker 1: using that as a vehicle to, to get my word out. Yeah.
23:11
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, no, it's great. It is. Um, a huge
23:15
Speaker 2: concept to try and put into an album. But like
23:19
Speaker 2: you said, I think it just gives you more and
23:21
Speaker 2: more to work with and work off.
23:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It has deep meaning for me. So
23:27
Speaker 1: this is, you know, a vehicle for me. It's not
23:31
Speaker 1: just a band.
23:32
Speaker 2: No.
23:33
Speaker 1: And that's been a very cool distinction that I've came across,
23:39
Speaker 1: you know, that I've discovered. I'm like, wait a minute,
23:41
Speaker 1: this isn't just, you know, I played in all these
23:43
Speaker 1: bands over these years and no disrespect to them or
23:46
Speaker 1: taking any, you know, taking any delight to it. Like,
23:49
Speaker 1: you know, I took those things serious, but on the
23:52
Speaker 1: other hand, I mean, this is really, you know, a
23:56
Speaker 1: hundred percent my soul on the line laid out on
24:00
Speaker 1: a platter. Like I'm going, this is, you know, a
24:03
Speaker 1: real thing for me.
24:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, definitely. And it definitely does sound like more
24:08
Speaker 2: than just music. Yeah. And if someone only knows you
24:14
Speaker 2: from violence, Lizzie Borden or metal church press play on apocalypse,
24:19
Speaker 2: what would surprise them most about this chapter of your career? Hmm.
24:24
Speaker 1: Well, well, the first thing, the first two songs that
24:29
Speaker 1: came out, didn't have guitar solos, which is, you know,
24:32
Speaker 1: I'm known as a shredding guitar.
24:34
Speaker 2: Yeah.
24:34
Speaker 1: My forte. And I just, you know, I wrote these
24:37
Speaker 1: songs and it got to a point where it's like,
24:39
Speaker 1: they don't need them. There's no room for it. That's
24:43
Speaker 1: the way it ended up. Phoenix, the title track that's
24:46
Speaker 1: coming out, that does have some soloing on it, so
24:49
Speaker 1: rest assured. Some of the other songs do as well.
24:54
Speaker 1: I did want to make this about the bigger concept
24:58
Speaker 1: and not just, well, I need to fit a solo
25:00
Speaker 1: onto every... I do a lot of things here. The
25:03
Speaker 1: singing is... different because that's not a normal thing that
25:10
Speaker 1: I do but the way that I'm singing is also
25:14
Speaker 1: very interesting I've discovered through working on all these songs
25:17
Speaker 1: that I'm kind of a chameleon I can do a
25:19
Speaker 1: lot of different voices and sounds like I'm trying to
25:22
Speaker 1: express myself I started doing things where I'm singing high
25:24
Speaker 1: falsetto which is you know for a man to do
25:27
Speaker 1: that it's a little bit strange you know it's not
25:29
Speaker 1: you know you hear I have a low voice so
25:32
Speaker 1: to hit these higher registers it sounds very emotional very you.
25:38
Speaker 3: Know what's the right word you know um you know
25:42
Speaker 3: i hate to put it because you know in the
25:44
Speaker 3: metal world it's like hey it's got to be strong
25:46
Speaker 3: you know it's kind of a weak sound in a
25:49
Speaker 3: way or it's an emotional sound it's a pretty sound it's.
25:52
Speaker 2: A yes it is you know it's beautiful.
25:55
Speaker 1: When i started to discover that i could do these
25:58
Speaker 1: you know that was willing to go there because you
26:00
Speaker 1: know you have to kind of climb out of yourself
26:02
Speaker 1: to do that because it's not easy when you're a
26:04
Speaker 1: man you're like man, I want to sing like this
26:07
Speaker 1: in a metal band, you know, but then you start
26:09
Speaker 1: singing some sensitive stuff. Then it's like, okay, start exploring that.
26:13
Speaker 1: I even have a ballad. It was going to go
26:15
Speaker 1: on the album, a piano ballad. And we were speaking
26:20
Speaker 1: with a high profile female singer, like, like we create
26:24
Speaker 1: a list of the top five. Okay. And we are
26:28
Speaker 1: shooting it and we, we hit.
26:30
Speaker 2: Very yeah and.
26:32
Speaker 1: It's gonna probably happen at a later date she happens
26:34
Speaker 1: to be on tour right now so it's it's it's
26:36
Speaker 1: not gonna happen but that would have really surprised people
26:40
Speaker 1: so i'm uh shifting uh a little bit and we're
26:45
Speaker 1: gonna probably put that out as a single later on
26:48
Speaker 1: or the second record so we said you know what
26:50
Speaker 1: let's put the third song out instead of being the
26:52
Speaker 1: ballad because we weren't able to obtain in time everything
26:56
Speaker 1: yeah yeah so So we're shifting. We're going to put
26:59
Speaker 1: out a heavier song. So Phoenix will be the heaviest
27:01
Speaker 1: of the three coming out. So rest assured, no one
27:04
Speaker 1: will be worried. Everyone around me was kind of like, dude,
27:08
Speaker 1: you put the ballad out as the third one. That's
27:10
Speaker 1: pretty heavy. You're going into a whole other territory. You're
27:13
Speaker 1: known as a metal guy. You're going to do that.
27:16
Speaker 1: And that just shows you how diverse I really am
27:19
Speaker 1: and how I want to get my message out. It's
27:21
Speaker 1: like no rules.
27:21
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
27:24
Speaker 1: No zero that I'm going to do it. However I
27:26
Speaker 1: want to do it.
27:27
Speaker 2: Exactly.
27:28
Speaker 1: And you know, if it's getting my message out, but
27:30
Speaker 1: that's all right. So we've had to turn the objective
27:34
Speaker 1: a little bit towards, you know, going in a different direction. So, yeah.
27:38
Speaker 1: So we're going to keep this album a little bit
27:40
Speaker 1: on the, you know, heavier to melodic.
27:45
Speaker 2: That's it. That's it. And you know what, that's growth.
27:48
Speaker 2: And I think when, You can push outside of those
27:52
Speaker 2: boxes that people tend to want to put you in
27:54
Speaker 2: as just a heavy guitarist or things like that, and
27:57
Speaker 2: you get outside of those boxes. That's really where growth happens.
28:01
Speaker 2: And amazing talent comes through. Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah. Look, Ira,
28:07
Speaker 2: we don't have much time left, but it was amazing
28:10
Speaker 2: speaking to you today. We're excited for everything that Apocalypse
28:14
Speaker 2: has to offer. Thank you so much.
28:16
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. And where are you at right now?
28:18
Speaker 2: I'm near Sydney.
28:20
Speaker 1: Oh, awesome.
28:21
Speaker 2: Yeah. How about you?
28:23
Speaker 1: I went out there once. I'm in Las Vegas. Beautiful.
28:27
Speaker 2: I'm jealous.
28:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, we love it here. We were in LA for
28:31
Speaker 1: many years and we came here about two years ago.
28:36
Speaker 2: How do you like, I love the desert. Do you
28:37
Speaker 2: like the desert aspect?
28:39
Speaker 1: I love it here. I'm so happy that I came here.
28:41
Speaker 1: I mean, I had an objective in my mind when
28:45
Speaker 1: we were coming to Vegas. I'm like, new place yeah
28:49
Speaker 1: new adventures new music stuff new career new everything yeah
28:54
Speaker 1: new everything and it's happened the manifestation is all come
28:59
Speaker 1: to fruition it literally it things just went like this
29:03
Speaker 1: and it's built up i'm like wow okay yeah i mean.
29:07
Speaker 2: People don't realize the power of manifestation i've been doing
29:10
Speaker 2: a lot of it lately and it's crazy how it
29:12
Speaker 2: works i think.
29:14
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I have a theory on that. I'll give you
29:16
Speaker 1: a really quick one because I tell all my friends
29:19
Speaker 1: that they're willing to listen. I say, here you go.
29:22
Speaker 1: This is how you manifest stuff. First, it's a thought.
29:26
Speaker 1: And a thought is a physical thing. It's electrical synapse.
29:30
Speaker 1: It's a physical thing. A thought is a physical thing.
29:33
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
29:34
Speaker 1: But the world doesn't know about it yet because it's
29:36
Speaker 1: just a thought. And then you speak it. Because now
29:40
Speaker 1: when you speak it the vibration is also a physical
29:42
Speaker 1: thing that goes into the world and then the third
29:45
Speaker 1: one you write it down because now you're making it
29:47
Speaker 1: permanent so that's the one two three to manifestation.
29:50
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do that.
29:52
Speaker 1: I have white boards all over the house and i
29:54
Speaker 1: make my plate you know and so i you.
29:55
Speaker 2: Know wow it works oh yeah That's crazy.
30:00
Speaker 1: Check marks all day long.
30:02
Speaker 2: That's awesome. Ira, thank you so much. It's been an honor.
30:05
Speaker 2: Absolute pleasure. Nice to meet you.
30:06
Speaker 1: My pleasure.
30:07
Speaker 2: Yeah.