Category Archives: Musical Musings

Suicide is a promising solution for Davey Suicide

Courtesy FiXT Publicity

Suicide is usually a rather depressing subject. But when it comes to Davey Suicide, the it’s more of a glass-half-full kind of thing asserting that when you hit rock bottom, the only way to go is up. And with a celebratory sound that is equal parts industrial angst and heavy metal sleaze (think Rob Zombie meets Mötley Crüe), it’s clear that Davey and his band are having too much fun to want to off themselves anytime soon. With a self-titled debut album due out early next year (preceded by an EP this October), things continue to look up for this gothy-glam rock star (or, as his first single attests, “Generation Fuck Star”) in-the-making as he just finished a few dates opening for Wednesday 13 and hits the road on July 15 as the opening act for Static-X and Prong on the Noise Revolution Tour. As he prepares for his biggest tour to date, Suicide takes a moment to tell Wrestling with Pop Culture just how bright his future will be.

You just finished opening a few Northwest dates for Wednesday 13 before hitting the road again with Static-X and Prong. What were the shows with Wednesday 13 like for you guys?

I thought it was great. Our band goes really well with Wednesday’s band with the visuals and the crowd and stuff. I thought it was a great match, everyone got along really well and most of those fans were awesome. I like the Northwest, too. There’s a lot of trees and there’s just a different energy with the people up there.

The Static-X tour will be a much more extensive one. And the lineup is cool because there’s a thread of similarity between each band, but you’re all also unique within the lineup. What are your anticipations from that tour?

That tour goes all the way through September 2, so we’re on it for almost seven weeks. I think it’s going to be awesome, though. We’re probably the least metal of all of them, but I think we’ll probably be the one that stands out, for better or worse. We grew up listening to Static and Prong and stuff like that, so it’s cool to go from being a kid and knowing their music to touring with them. It’s a very interesting transition.

Your name has come up recently because of the upcoming album and tours, but I recall hearing of you a few years ago. Weren’t you doing some modeling or something like that?

Courtesy FiXT Publicity

I always get stuck being on sets with my friends and they’d be like, “Hey, we need somebody to do this shirt.” I wouldn’t say I was a victim of circumstance, but I’d always take pictures if someone wanted to take photos. But I started a clothing line called Killers Never Die, so you may have seen me doing stuff with that, if we were doing a big group thing where we had a bunch of models and stuff, I would jump in there with whatever shirt I liked at the time. But that was never an aspiration of mine. Getting photos taken is just part of being an entertainer and stuff, so it was just something that came along with being in music.

Your debut album comes out in a few months, but what’s your background when it comes to music and art?

This is the first album under Davey Suicide, but I’ve done music all my life. I also tattoo and paint and do art every second of the day. But this album embodies everything I’ve been working towards and it’s probably my proudest accomplishment. I’m excited to share it with people. I’m more excited for the future than where I’ve been. I was in some regional acts and stuff, but this is the first one that’s getting press in Revolver and doing kind of big stuff.

Who are the other guys in the band? Are they people you’ve worked with previously?

Courtesy FiXT Publicity

Needlz [keyboards] and Frankie [Sil, bass] grew up in Youngstown together and have been friends forever. Eric [Griffin, guitar] and Ben [Graves, drums] have been friends forever, and Ben was one of the first guys I met when I moved to Hollywood. We had talked about doing a band for a while, but the stars just kind of aligned at the right time as Frankie, Needlz, Ben and I were working together and needed a guitar player. Ben knew Eric, and the monster was born.

This tour ends just before your CD is scheduled to be released. Do you have any additional touring plans to promote that?

We’re working on a bunch of stuff. We’ll have a little bit of time off, then we’ll be back on the road again. We’re going to be road dogs and it looks like we’re going to get to the U.K. a little sooner than I thought we were. So we’re excited for people to finally hear the record. It’s tough, sometimes, playing for people who only know a song or two. So it’s going to be exciting for people to get the whole experience of what we are.

For more information, go to www.daveysuicide.com.

Malice returns with a “New Breed of Godz”

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Although today’s music fans may not be familiar with the name Malice, the band has become legendary in the heavy metal underground since its inception more than 30 years ago. Malice not only toured as the opening act for theatrical hard rock legend Alice Cooper and thrash favorite Slayer, but also had a then-unknown Metallica as an opening act in 1982. There has been an absence of Malice for the better part of the last two decades, with its last full-length release (Licensed to Kill) coming out in 1986. But the band is back with the same evil intentions it always had with the new album New Breed of Godz, a collection of re-recorded classics such as “Against the Empire” and “Godz of Thunder,” as well as four new songs. Core guitarists Jay Reynolds and Mick Zane were joined by original bassist Mark Behn in the studio to record New Breed of Godz, with new members including Helstar singer James Rivera. With some California shows this weekend, Malice plans to tour Europe next month, with a possible North American tour this fall. Staying busy with Helstar and Malice, Rivera takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about metal’s resurrection.

This being your first album with Malice, what was your input, especially considering that much of the album is re-recorded versions of older songs?

My input on the new material was where we need to be and go musically. Malice was a band that a lot of people don’t even know who they are. They had a big thing going on pretty much at home, but not anywhere else. The first time I remember seeing them was when I was with a friend of mine who was totally into them and kept insisting that I go see them. But back in the day, when I lived in the Southern California area in 1987 or something, there was a band I was helping out called Daggers Edge. They took me to a show and I want to say it was Stryper, W.A.S.P. and Malice, but they were all going to see Malice and it had nothing to do with the rest of them. I was like, “OK, who’s this Malice band?” I had no clue. Then I saw them and was like, “Wow! Killer. Sounds like Judas Priest.”

Ever since I’ve gotten involved with the band, I’ve really wanted to do stuff from the first record when they were a little bit more Judas Priest metal. The second album was a little more Hollywood, but there were some great songs throughout the band’s career.

You’ve been performing with other bands for about the same amount of time that Malice has been in existence. Did any of those bands ever play with Malice or anything like that?

Courtesy Freeman Promotions

No. The way I got hooked up with Malice was me and Jay were in a classic ’80s metal tribute band called Denim and Leather based out of Las Vegas. The guy that put it together used to have members from Leatherwolf, Metal Church, Malice, Helstar, and eventually he got Jay and me in the band and that’s how we met. It went back to that show in San Diego and here we were 25 years later and he would just not let up, saying, “You’re going to be singing for Malice, dude! This is going to be the best shit ever.” Then we got invited to play the Keep It True festival and that’s where everything started. That was about a year ago.

With the new album out for just a few weeks, will you be going on tour to promote it?

Things are in the works to do a tour from Los Angeles to Texas. What we’re doing right now is we’re trying to capitalize on the markets where we’re both strong – from their past and who I am. I’m from Houston, so I’ve got a big following in Texas, and they have a following in California. But the big plan is to do a full-on U.S. tour in the fall.

You’re best known for your work with Helstar. Will you continue working with that band or are you working solely with Malice now?

No, Helstar is still my number one priority. We just had our 30-year anniversary show and we’re releasing a double live album and live DVD of the show we just did in Houston. We’re touring in Europe starting August 29 through September 15. That’s going strong and Helstar is basically my baby. That’s my bread and water and it is a priority project. Malice is a band I’m hoping is going to run parallel along the lines of Helstar and I’m more than happy to give it that chance. I have a tribute band called Sabbath Judas Sabbath that I keep busy with and I have seven chapters all over the world. Between all of that stuff, I’m kind of like a carpenter: “Where can I build? I will build. Give me a hammer and some tools and I’m there.”

How does the dynamic with Malice compare to your other bands?

Actually, I’ve become a lot more melodic with my singing. I’m doing more high-pitched stuff constantly, which is what they were known for back in the day. That exercises my voice, which is a good thing, and it allows me to do something a little bit more straightforward and commercial. I think if everything is done right promotional-wise, label-wise and business-wise with Malice, this band could actually take leaps and bounds over anything I’ve ever done in my life. That’s where my head is at and my heart is with it because I’ve put so much work into it. Helstar’s always going to be more of an underground band at this point. We’ve all decided and realized we’re never going to be Metallica or any of that stuff. We can keep putting out great records, we can tour Europe, we can do this, but we’re going to have a fan base. But I think Malice can actually take me to another point if everything is done right.

Why do you think the band has already reached that level previously?

Courtesy Freeman Promotions

Well, they kind of did. So far the album has gotten phenomenal reviews. For me, we’re talking about filling the shoes of some guy that was considered one of the greatest singers in the world. I think with all the great reviews, the one thing that’s different – and this is not only coming from major magazine writers in Germany and major promoters in Germany – when we did that Keep It True festival, the one thing I always heard was, “I just hope you can nail the stuff live because when we saw James Neal, he sucked live.” I said, “I kind of have to agree with that.” When the Keep It True show was over, that’s when the guy from SPV came to us and said, “I want to do a contract.” That’s a really big compliment to me. What you do in the studio and what you do live are two different things. Then I also heard straight from the horses mouth of the band, “Yeah, he was never good live. He did a couple of shows that were OK, but for the most part he never could do it.”

When you have Atlantic Records backing you up with thousands and thousands of dollars, I guess you can sit in the studio for two fucking months and do the vocals. I never had that treatment. I go in and I do the vocals in two weeks for every project I’ve ever done in my life. That’s it because I figure a song a day is all you need, not three months. I think that has a lot to do with why things are in a more positive spin now. The producer took what James Neal did and incorporated it with me. When I started this thing I would do everything just like James Neal did and he’d stop. He’d be laughing through the glass and be like, “Come here.” I’d be like, “Oh, shit. What did I do wrong now? What’s flat and what’s sharp?” And he’d be like, “Everything’s killer, but it sounds just like the old guy. I don’t want that. I want it to sound like you. So what we’re going to do is change that line.” I was real skeptical at first. But then when the band started hearing it, it was like, “Fuck yeah. This is metal now.” So I was like, “OK. Let’s keep going this way.” So being in this band has been a great thing for me.

This style of metal has never gone away, but it’s definitely been a while since it’s been mainstream. However, it also seems like there has been a resurgence of ’80s metal a of late. Do you think Malice could ride that wave to bigger success?

It’s resurfacing, that’s for sure. And it’s a good thing to know that we’re still some of the main ingredients from the old school that are around, because if we weren’t around it wouldn’t exist. Accept is fucking bigger than ever, Iced Earth and all these bands from back in the day are bigger now because of a new generation of kids that are into it. My son just graduated from high school and when he comes to the shows he brings 80 people that are all into metal. It reminds me of the old days in the ’80s when you’d have a garage band and play a backyard party and, dude, you’d have 500 people in that backyard. It’s kind of going back to that again and I think people are just getting tired of garbage and going, “Hey, this is the real music. This is musicianship. This is what it takes.” There’s a lot of bands out there that are very corporate and boring and I often wonder how the fuck these guys got there.

For more information, go to www.malicemusic.com.

Serj Tankian commits “Harakiri” with new solo album

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Only a few weeks before a reunited System of a Down heads out for an East Coast tour (the band’s first United States tour in at least six years), eccentric front man Serj Tankian releases his latest solo album Harakiri following 2010’s Elect the Dead Symphony and Imperfect Harmonies. Based on his introspection and observations throughout 2011, Harakiri is one of his most diverse, yet consistent, releases to date. And for the most part it tones down the metal tendencies he’s best known for, focusing more on pop, electronic and punk-like elements and song structures.

Named after the Japanese term for ritualistic suicide, the album and its title track were inspired by reports of birds and fish committing mass suicide. Oddly one of the album’s most triumphant-sounding songs, Tankian lyrically explores the idea that maybe Mother Nature knows something we don’t and that these animals have an inherent knowledge of when their time has come on “Harakiri.” Musically and lyrically, “Harakiri” stands in stark contrast to the more upbeat and angsty opening track “Butterfly,” a less optimistic song about man’s mechanical routines and their effects on nature.

“Figure It Out,” with it’s Slayer-like guitar riff and Mike Patton-like vocal delivery, is the most System-sounding song on Harakiri. As a result, it’s also one of the most fun tracks on the album, despite its socio-political underpinnings. Tankian’s oft-employed use of gypsy melodies and ethnic sounds arise on “Ching Chime,” another inquisitive look at the importance of money and material objects over the betterment of humanity.

Speaking of the betterment of humanity, “Reality TV” is thematically like Tankian’s updated version of Public Enemy‘s “She Watch Channel Zero?!” with it’s comedic chorus, “I abhor the whore who calls herself reality.” That leads right into the very Dead Kennedys-like “Uneducated Democracy,” with its punk rock pacing and political themes. And “Deafening Silence” is a more subdued trance-like track that dabbles in electronica.

Overall, Harakiri is probably Tankian’s most pop-oriented endeavor yet. But I guess pop standards are a little bit different when referring to someone who has been known to play speed metal with odd time signatures, only to later have the Aukland Philharmonia Orchestra serve briefly as his backing band. But unlike the birds and fish that inspired Harakiri (and considering that Tankian has already recorded three Harakiri companion albums for future release), this album clearly isn’t the death of Tankian’s career. But the ritualistic manner in which it was recorded and has been presented might just be in keeping with the message those mass suicides were trying to convey. And Tankian is likely the only person who could adequately explain what that message might have been.

For more information, go to www.serjtankian.com.

Cirque du Soleil immortalizes Michael Jackson with music, theatrics

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As is the case with any significant artist or musician, the spirit often lives on long after the person is no longer with us through the music and images he leaves behind. And when you’re talking about someone as eclectic as Michael Jackson, you should expect nothing less for his remembrance than the elaborate costumes and unique circus performers of Cirque du Soleil. Having started in Cirque’s home town of Montreal last October, Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour features MJ favorites like “Beat It,” “Ben” and “Man in the Mirror” while Cirque dancers, aerialists and acrobats add to the costumed spectacle seen in his iconic videos. Having performed in more than 60 North American cities since October, the tour continues through August before heading to Europe for the rest of the year. With a three-night stand in Atlanta starting tonight, tour spokesperson Laura Silverman talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about The Immortal Tour‘s spectacle.

This isn’t Cirque du Soleil’s first show based on a particular pop musician. For those of us who have yet to see MJ, how does it compare to other Cirque du Soleil performances?

Aerialists perform to “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” in “Michael Jackson: The Immortal Tour” (photo courtesy OSA Images)

This show is much different from any other Cirque du Soleil show, including the Beatles and Elvis shows. It’s very much Cirque du Soleil meets rock/pop concert whereas the other shows are much more theatrical. This one really feels like you’re at a Michael Jackson concert. It’s taking Cirque du Soleil elements that people know the company for – contortionists, aerials, acrobatics and all of that – and pairing it with Michael Jackson’s music, his iconic dance moves and the flashy costumes that both Michael Jackson and Cirque du Soleil are known for. So it really has a high-energy concert feel to it as opposed to it being a theatrical show.

Was Michael Jackson creatively involved with the show before he passed away?

Unfortunately this specific project didn’t come about until after his passing, but he was a fan of Cirque du Soleil. He saw one of the very first big top shows in Santa Monica in the 1980s and he visited our international headquarters in Montreal in 2004. So there had always been a mutual respect between Cirque du Soleil and Michael Jackson. Cirque du Soleil is always trying to outdo itself coming up with new ideas for its shows and costumes and technology, and Michael Jackson was the same way. He was always thinking ahead of the curve, always coming up with ideas for things you couldn’t even do yet. In that respect, I think that partnership was natural.

Since the focus of this show is on the music and you said it is more like a rock concert than a typical Cirque du Soleil show, are most of the performers dancers or does it have the different types of performers we might see at any other Cirque du Soleil show?

A somewhat macabre seen from Cirque du Soleil’s “Michael Jackson: The Immortal Tour” (photo courtesy OSA Images)

We have a great mix. There are 61 total artists in our show, so that breaks down to about 12 musicians, 26 acrobats and 23 dancers. We have our duo aerial artists, a man and woman swinging and flying together in the air; we have a contortion act; and there’s a pole dancer act and she’s a two-time world champion in pole dancing, so she’s just phenomenal. There’s a Japanese acrobatic team that does a really amazing number to “Sream.” And there’s aerial stuff interjected into the dance numbers, too. So for “Thriller,” for example, you’re going to see our dancers doing the signature “Thriller” moves that most people will recognize, but you’re also going to see our acrobats flying through the air.

Speaking of “Thriller,” is the show a collection of interpretations of his songs and videos or is it more trying to capture the overall spirit of Michael Jackson, or maybe a little bit of both?

It’s definitely a little bit of both. The idea of the show is to pay tribute and celebrate everything that Michael Jackson left to us, from his music, his voice, his dance moves, his costumes, his messages and the overall idea of his spirit. So in the numbers where there are iconic Michael Jackson moves or costumes, we’ve paired those with Cirque du Soleil. So with “Thriller,” there are not only werewolves and zombies, but our artists add mummy costumes to the “Thriller” dance and we also add acrobatics to that. And with “Smooth Criminal,” for example, you’re going to see that iconic lean move, but we have pyrotechnics involved in the number. It was easy to coordinate this because there were a ton of choreographers that worked on the show, many of whom had actually worked with Michael Jackson for many years. So they were able to take moves that Michael Jackson was known for and sort of elaborate on that.

Has this show changed or evolved very much since it started last fall?

Cirque du Soleil recreates the “Smooth Criminal” lean in “Michael Jackson: The Immortal Tour” (photo courtesy OSA Images)

With any Cirque show we’re always working to make things better and evolve it as necessary. Nothing has changed in the show, but we always consider our projects sort of a work in progress and tweak things to make it the best it can be.

Once this tour wraps up in Europe next year, are there plans to do another Michael Jackson show that might incorporate some of his other songs?

There’s nothing like that planned for this show, but there is a completely different show planned to open in Vegas next year. But I’m not sure if that one will include different songs. It will be at Mandalay Bay sometime next year.

For more information, go to www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/show/michael-jackson-tour.

Eye Empire strikes back with an “Impact”

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Although today’s release of it’s debut album Impact might indicate that Eye Empire is a new band, the heavy metal heritage of its members says otherwise. Anchored by former Dark New Day bandmates Corey Lowery (also of Stuck Mojo and Stereomud) and B.C. Kochmit, the band also features former Submersed singer Donald Carpenter and former Texas Hippie Coalition drummer Ryan Bennett. Together, these four musicians (and occasionally some of their friends) now proudly wave the Eye Empire flag as they continue the next chapter of their collective hard rock journey. As the band continues its tour, leading into summer support dates with Nonpoint and Seether, Carpenter takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the empowering imagery and themes on the two-disc Impact release, the band’s formation and more.

Front man Donald Carpenter (second from left) makes an "Impact" with Eye Empire (photo by Angela Villand)

Eye Empire’s debut album Impact is out today. How does this release compare to the independently released Moment of Impact?

There are some tracks that have been released on a limited basis on some collector’s issues that we’ve put out independently so far. Some of those songs did make the final version of the album. The first 1,000 we printed were hand signed and hand numbered. We did that so each CD would be unique and once those sold out after the first month and a half, we decided to do a second run of 1,001-2,000 where we changed the artw0rk and actually included some photos of anybody who bought the first album in the artwork. We changed out three songs on each of those collector’s issues, so the track listing varied a little bit and there were some new songs on the second thousand. It’s been a way for us to promote our band and give our fans from the beginning something to give them patience as we build this behind the scenes. In the end, it makes it kind of unique with the collector’s discs because there’s only a few of them out there.

The completed album is a two-disc album. What all is included on that?

The cool thing about it is it’s kind of the culmination of everybody’s faith, love, respect and support from these first three years. Each little CD and each little word-of-mouth thing that’s come along has helped build to this disc, and that’s turned into 19 studio tracks, three acoustic versions and two live recordings. So five of the new tracks are actually like bonus material.

The CD cover and other imagery are interesting, with this very unifying flag and whatnot. What was the inspiration behind Impact‘s aesthetic?

The concept is that we want our fanbase to have an identity. We realize what our place is in this, and I think that’s kind of understood from the beginning with everybody involved. I don’t think music’s about inflating the ego of the band, I think it’s about bringing the fans up to our level. We wanted our fanbase to have an identity and we found that identity within the Empire itself. We wanted to keep it simple and clean and put out the colors. Those are our colors, that’s our flag, that’s what represents our fanbase and represents us as a band.

The title Impact is about what we want our music to be about, and that’s about making an impact. It’s about writing music we can relate to and find refuge in, but it’s also about empowerment and giving the fans an identity.

Eye Empire features former members of Stuck Mojo, Dark New Day, Submersed and other bands, and you’ve worked with some of the guys from Sevendust. How did you all come together to create this band?

All of that helped us have some familiarity with each other. We were always about one degree of separation apart and we went through our little experiences and all of those led to Empire. For whatever reason, Dark New Day came to an end around the time that Submersed came to an end for me and Switched came to an end for Brad [Kochmit]. It took them a few years to find me, but those guys worked together for three or four years and put together some music and were searching for the voice. So three years ago on Halloween I came in and got involved. We feel like all of that was for this and it was all the experience and growth we needed to get to this point.

Lajon Witherspoon and Morgan Rose from Sevendust also contributed to this album. How did they get involved?

Well, Corey’s brother is Clint, who is the founding guitarist for Sevendust. Corey grew up very close to all of those guys. Morgan and Lajon live in Atlanta, which is where Corey’s studio is based. When Corey and Brad got together and started jamming on some of their early music, they needed someone to fill in on the drum set. Morgan happened to be off the road at that time and he enjoys playing music, so he sat in and jammed a little bit. When we started to record the first part of the record, it only felt natural for him to come in and complete the process on some of those early song. LJ was one of those situations where the brotherhood was growing and he’s been somebody I’ve respected for a long time coming up as a vocalist. We were in the studio working together on some other things and the opportunity came up, so we had fun with it. It’s kind of a cool way to show how carefree the process is. We’re really just a lot of people who have a lot of respect for each other and we have a lot of friends that we respect a lot who have high abilities and we thought it would be fun to make a record we could all enjoy.

You guys have done a lot of touring recently and will be on the road a lot this summer. What do you have planned for the shows you have coming up?

Yeah, we’ve been touring for about ten months playing some headlining dates. We went out with Mushroomhead, Wayne Static and Sevendust last year. We’ve played some shows with Volbeat and Five Finger Death Punch over the last few months. On July 28 we’re playing Band Camp in Madison, Wisconsin, then we hit the road with Nonpoint and Call Me No One for about six weeks before we head out with Seether, Sick Puppies and Kyng, which we’re all friends with so we’re excited about that.

I don’t think I’ve had a chance to see Eye Empire live yet, so…

I can promise you one thing; if you did you would know. It’s all about energy. Like I said, it’s about bringing the fans up to our plane. Sometimes we feel a little insignificant out there and it’s about inflating the ego of the rock star. But for us it couldn’t be any more opposite. It’s about us coming out there and celebrating the fans being present, bringing their energy and being such an integral part of keeping music alive. That’s what it is; it’s a celebration of the fans and our love for music.

For more information, go to www.eyeempire.com.

The Smashing Pumpkins drift into familiarly fresh sonic realms with “Oceania”

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When he’s not busy running his Resistance Pro wrestling promotion, Billy Corgan has a little musical side project called The Smashing Pumpkins. Considering how influential the band has been on the rock scene since the early ’90s, I’m guessing you may have heard of them. And after reissuing their first two albums – 1991’s Gish and 1993’s Siamese Dream – as remastered expanded box sets last November, Corgan’s latest Pumpkins incarnation releases its first traditional album in five years with Oceania.

Recorded amidst the band’s Teargarden by Kaleidyscope experiment (an ongoing, open-ended series of singles released digitally as they were recorded), Oceania is a return to the overall album experience as an art form. Rather than pump out singles in advance of the album’s physical release, the band instead streamed the album in its entirety (devoid of individual track separations) over the course of the past week. That means many fans are already familiar with the entire album before it hits store shelves today.

But Oceania is a return to the Pumpkin vine in other ways, as well. With the psychedelic guitar buildup that begins opening track “Quasar,” longtime Pumpkins fans might think they are listening to a Gish outtake or “I Am One” B-side. And that trend continues as songs like “Panoptica,” “The Celestials” and “My Love is Winter” feature Corgan’s blissful lyrics alongside his Brian May-like guitar wailing and overall blend of ’70s progressive rock, shoe gaze-y haze and occasional goth rock leanings. But Corgan also revisits the electronica elements he started toying with on 1998’s Adore and 2000’s Machina/The Machines of God, most notably on “One Diamond, One Heart,” the Kraftwerkian “Pinwheels” and “Wildflower.”

Corgan indulges his New Age-y rock side a few times, too, especially on the somewhat meditative title track. Then “The Chimera” and “Inkless” return to the harder rocking “Cherub Rock”/”Mayonaise” alt-rock sound that established Corgan and the Pumpkins as rock royalty. And even though many Smashing Pumpkins fans will claim Oceania is not a true Pumpkins album (especially since longtime drummer Jimmy Chamberlin is no longer in the band, leaving Corgan as the sole original Pumpkin), Corgan has always been the creative force behind the band’s uniquely heavy sound. And with a newer lineup that seems to be just as accomplished in the studio as any previous members, Oceania proves that Corgan is not only still good at creating the yet-to-be-duplicated Pumpkins sound, but he also has a talent for finding equally accomplished musicians to help him realize his musical vision.

For more information, go to www.smashingpumpkins.com.

Volbeat answers “A Warrior’s Call” on summer tour

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It’s been more than a year since Danish band Volbeat released its fourth album Beyond Hell/Above Heaven. And since then the single “A Warrior’s Call” has become an anthem for fighters and wrestlers, as well as rock fans looking for something to pump their fists to. Written specifically for Danish boxer Mikkel Kessler, “A Warrior’s Call” is just one of several songs that blend the punk rock stylings of the Misfits and the rockabilly swagger of Johnny Cash and Social Distortion with thrash metal riffs and hardcore sing-alongs. After touring with Metallica, then opening for Megadeth, Motörhead and Lacuna Coil on the Gigantour earlier this year, the band set out on a United States festival tour for most of last month. As Volbeat prepares for a summer headlining tour of North America with support from Hellyeah and Iced Earth beginning June 18, drummer Jon Larsen takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about “A Warrior’s Call,” album themes and the band’s creative process.

This album has been your most successful one yet, at least here in North America. That’s largely because of the first single “A Warrior’s Call,” which is about a boxer. Did you know a lot of independent wrestlers also use that as their entrance music?

We are quite familiar with those stories, actually. We also know there is a hockey team, maybe, that is using it. It seems like a lot of people in the world of sports have really picked up on that song and use it as an intro song or whatever, which is kind of amusing and fun for us. The song was written specifically for a Danish boxer and that’s basically what it was. He had been using one of our older songs from the Guitar Gangsters album for his intro when he walked into the ring. We got to know him and kind of just said, “Why don’t you have some decent music when you enter the arena?” And he said, “Well, why don’t you write a song for me?” So that’s what Michael [Poulsen, singer/guitarist] did. He said, “Sure. That’s a challenge. I’ll do that.” So it was written specifically for him, but it’s interesting that a lot of independent wrestlers, hockey teams, soccer teams or whatever started to use that song. But, hey, it’s all good. We aren’t complaining.

Beyond Heaven/Above Heaven picks up thematically where Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood left off. For those who are just discovering Volbeat through the newer album, what is the connection between these two albums?

Some of the songs on the Guitar Gangsters album were combined into a story. I’m not really that familiar with the story either. I know that Michael got the idea after watching an old gangster movie on TCM and didn’t finish the movie because he was doing something else. So he started wondering what actually happened during that movie, what happened to that guy. So that’s where he picked up the story and made it into his own story. There were seven songs on the Guitar Gangsters album that were combined into this story and on the new album there are three or four songs that continue the story.

He obviously writes the lyrics and comes up with the overall concepts, but how much input do you have as the drummer when it comes to writing songs and albums?

It varies from time to time. Sometimes Michael will have a full song ready when we meet up in the rehearsal room and he will say, “Try to play like this” or “Try to do something like this.” Sometimes he doesn’t really have anything and we just start fooling around with a riff and all of a sudden it’s like, “Whoops! We’ve got something there.” Then he goes home and continues working on that. Of course, we all throw in any ideas we have and if he can use them, he will. But if it’s too stupid, he won’t use it. Most of the time, he and I will meet up at the rehearsal room before the other guys show up and start just pounding out ideas and riffs and beats and whatever and see what we can come up with.

You recently finished a string of festival shows and now you’re heading out on your own headlining tour. How will the shows on this tour compare to the festival shows you’ve been playing?

We just did 15 festivals and seven headlining shows. A festival is what a festival is and headlining shows are actually sometimes more fun because we’re in better control of everything. On this run we’ll be hitting some shows on the West Coast, which we did not on the last run. We’re going back to Canada, doing some shows on the West Coast and some East Coast shows, so we’re going to be all over America on this run. We don’t really change anything production-wise. It’s not about a stage show for us; we are what we are and it’s just basically amps, drums and guitars.

Volbeat drummer Jon Larsen (right) prepares for North American summer tour (photo by Erik Weiss)

You are what you are, but your sound is an amalgamation of everything from metal to punk to rockabilly. Do those influences creep in from individual band members or do you all share similar interests in many rock genres?

We’re four different people with four different musical tastes, so we just throw in everything we’ve got. Like you said, there’s some metal in there, some punk in there, some rockabilly, some three-chord bar rock, there’s everything. We just play the kind of music we like to play. We don’t really think too much about what it is, it’s just how we started. We didn’t really think too much about if it’s supposed to be this or that, we just said, “OK. We’re going to do this. Does it work? Yeah, it works. Does this thing work? Yeah, it works.” That’s what we did in the beginning and that’s what we’re still doing, basically.

Given the appeal that “A Warrior’s Call” has had with wrestlers, sports teams and the like, do you think Volbeat might continue writing music for specific wrestlers or other athletic entities in the future?

Right now, no. But never say, “Never.” Who knows? If something interesting pops up, why not?

For more information, go to www.volbeat.dk.