HRH Mag Issue XXIII - March 2024

WALTER TROUT

04 Walter Trout

08 Susan Santos

10 Viki’s Gates of Hell - 10. Stone Angels

- 12. The Now

- 13. Drip Fed Empire - 14. Night Thieves

- 15. Revenant

16 Gun

19 Kris Barras Band

20 Lizzy Borden

23 Monkey 3

24 Blackberry Smoke

26 Cassidy Paris

18 Cedric Burnside

30 DeWolff

32 Dion

34 Lucifer

36 Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes

38 New Years Day

40 Ministry

42 Live Reviews

- 42. Corey Taylor

- 44. Hillbilly Vegas & Crowley

- 46. Don Broco

- 48. Extreme

- 50. Joanne Shaw Taylor

- 52. Michael Schenker

- 54. Bowling for Soup

57 HRH Awards VI Photo Gallery

58 Hard Rock Hell 17 Photo Gallery

62 Robby Krieger of The Doors

64 Grey Daze

66 HRH Prog 12 Photo Gallery

70 Steve Hackett

72 Saxon

74 Philip Sayce

76 Album Reviews

CEDRIC BURNSIDE | AMARANTHE | PHILIP SAYCE | JETHRO TULL | LIPZ | WALTER TROUT | CASSIDY PARIS | MEDICINE HEAD | ROBBY KRIEGER AND THE SOUL SAVAGES | REVOLUTION SAINTS | STEVE HACKETT | BRUFORD | TURBULENCE | MINISTRY | SUSAN SANTOS

82 Infected Rain

84 The Bites

86 The Bee Tellers

88 Bokassa

89 Ask The Editor

Welcome to volume XXIII The Team

Editorial Chief Editor - Adam Kennedy adam@hrhmediahub.com

Designer - Charlotte Hooper

Contributing Writers: Russell Peake, Viki Ridley, Adam Kennedy, Paul Davies, Charlotte Hooper, Dennis Jarman, Peter Ray Allison, Simon ‘Spindles’ Potthast, Diane Davies, Victoria Llewelyn

Contributing Photographers: Adam Kennedy, Simon Dunkerley, Eric Duvet, All Others Credited.

Advertising John Ellis john@darkwatch.net

Subscriptions Visit hrhmag.com/subscribe or email info@hrhmag.com

Management Publisher - Dark Watch BVI Limited

HRH Experiences Ltd Chairman / Founder Jonni Davis

European Director John Ellis john@darkwatch.net

Head of Marketing Charlotte Hooper charl@darkwatch.net

Head of Sales Jessica Lloyd jess@darkwatch.net

HRH Official Photographer Simon Dunkerley simond@hrhmag.com

As always, a huge thank you to ALL the hardworking bands, photographers and writers that have contributed to this issue. It’s very much appreciated by us all.

Walter Trout

Blues-rock icon Walter Trout is exploding into 2024 with a new album titled Broken which will be accompanied by heavy touring.

The start of the year saw the blues great head down under for a tour of Australia, where we caught the man himself shortly after he left the stage in Canberra. The artist showed his humility and expressed his gratitude to still be making music in the present day. “After what I’ve been through in my life and the fact that I’m still alive, and I can still play and write and do gigs - every year to me is a bonus. And all I see is positive memories. I am overjoyed to be alive and still going. I’m going to be 73 here in a couple of weeks,” proclaims Walter.

Walter’s work ethic is prolific. His discography is a testament to this. Speaking about his latest album, Walter said: “This is album number 31 for me.” Few artists reach double figures in their discography let alone 31 albums. “I’m really happy with this record. But I think what I concentrate on at this point in my life is to try and write good songs. Songs that have something to say, solos that have some substance, songs that maybe stretch the boundaries a little bit of what I’ve been doing.”

The artist’s latest album and the title track are called Broken. Walter discusses how the song came to fruition. “I have a song called All Out of Tears. And I wrote it with my wife, Marie, and with a great blues singer named Teeny Tucker, and Teeny’s son had died. And the three of us wrote the song together as a tribute to her son and it was about grief. And at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, that won song of the year. But one of the lines in it, which is out of grief was, I know, I’m broken. And every time I would sing that song on stage, or every time I’d hear that song on the radio in the States, I’d think I’m broken. I don’t want to be broken anymore. And that was kind of the birth of the idea,” explains Walter. “I started thinking, well, that last song was really about grief. But in a larger metaphor, being broken could be about the world in general. It can also be about pretty much everybody who’s gone through tough times in their life.”

Walter adds: “I look back on myself and realise I was a very broken person. I’ve been sober for 36 years. There were things that happened to me in my childhood that still affect me and things that I had been in therapy for. And what I have realised with therapy and my wife also, is that you never get past that stuff. You learn how to coexist alongside it, and how to not let it ruin your life, but you never get past it. And so, I started writing lyrics with that in mind.”

The artist’s wife Marie was instrumental in the songwriting process. “I got so close to it, I had to stop. And I told my wife, who is on her own, an award-winning songwriter. She’s the only Danish person to win a Blues Music Award,” explains Walter. “And so, I talked to her, and I said, this is too close to me. And I know what I want to say,

but I’ve got a block here, and I’ve stopped, I can’t go on. So, she went into the back room. And an hour later, she came out with a whole set of lyrics. And she’s got at least 60% of the lyrics of that song, amazing lyrics.”

But the collaborations on the song didn’t stop with the artist’s wife. “I went in the next day and did a scratch vocal on the song, and I sent it off to my dear friend Beth Hart. And because she’s been in recovery, and she’s been through a lot herself. And to me, she is one of the greatest artists on Earth. I send it off to her. And the next day, she sent me a video, and she was listening to the song with her husband, and she said, I’ve got to be on this song. I love this song,” recalls Walter. “So, she came in the studio, we sang the tune, and she put her entire heart and soul into it. And it was mind-blowing to watch her sing. And it was jaw-dropping. And also, a lot of us were in tears. And to this day, when she comes in on that second verse, I get goosebumps, and I start feeling tears welling up. So, there’s the evolution of that song. And it’s also my wife who said, Walter, you can say it’s about the drugs or the booze. But it’s really about the world in general. And it’s pretty much about everybody. But the bottom line of it is there’s hope. There’s always hope. And you have to hold on to the hope you can’t let go of.”

A further guest on the album is Dee Snider from Twisted Sister. “Right before we started the album, Dee was on Twitter. And he had put up a song of mine, a live cut of mine on his Twitter feed, and wrote, quote, who the f*ck is this guitar player? And how come I’ve never heard him before? And you’ve got to listen to this guy. So, I just went on his page. And I just said, hey, I’m Walter. And thank you very much. And he answered me back and he said, hey, man, send me your cell number. So, I sent him my cell number. And we just started talking, and we hit it off, and we became great friends instantaneously. And he’s an amazing, brilliant, intelligent, outspoken, incredible, man. And so, we just hit it off,” says Walter. “He said, let me sing with you on your record. And I thought, well, that would be awesome, but then I thought, I’ve got to write a song for him. And I thought his biggest hit was We’re Not Gonna Take It. So, part of being broken, is like, hey, I’ve had enough. And so, I wrote all the lyrics of I’ve Had Enough. And I’ve got to say, I was in not the best mood when I wrote that. I kind of just wanted to get away from everything. So, it was actually from my heart. And as my wife said, well, that song is pretty dark, Walter. And I went, well - that’s the mood I was in.” Walter adds: “He came in and sang great. He had a great time. He was jumping around like a kid. And we keep in touch, and we’re great friends.”

Walter and Marie worked on further songs elsewhere on Broken. “My favourite song on that

record is called I Wanna Stay - it’s a ballad. And I wrote that one with my wife. I said, I wanted to write a song that could have been done by Curtis Mayfield or Luther Vandross. And I want it to be about the first time we spent the night together. What did that feel like the next day? And that one to me is one of my, I think, better pieces of songwriting with her,” reflects Walter.

Album release aside, the rest of the year is going to pan out much like how it started for Walter Trout. “When I get back from Australia, I’ve got about two weeks, and then the album comes out. And I do shows up and down the West Coast. I get home from that in the middle of March, and I’ve got about 10 days. And then I come over, and I do six weeks in Europe. And that takes me into May. And then in June, July, and August, I spend the whole summer going back and forth from Europe to America and playing festivals. And in July, I do a couple of weeks run through the Midwest, then in August, besides going back and forth, I do about a three-week run on the East Coast of America into September. Then at the end of September, I come over and I do the UK. That takes me through the middle of October. Near the end of October, I go back home to America; I want to be home for the election. About a week after the election, I come back to Europe. And I tour again till the middle of December. So I’m going to be working my ass off. And I’ll be happy to be there,” confirms Walter.

Despite the new album on the horizon, Walter is already thinking about what comes next. “My wife manages my career, and she has for 31-32 years. One of the great joys of my life is working on this together with the love of my life. We bond on this; we do this together,” he says. “She’s already been talking to the guy who owns Provogue Records to talk about when I want to make another record,” he concludes.

Broken the new album from Walter Trout will be released on March 1st via Provogue/Mascot Label Group. Trout has also announced an eight-date UK tour, starting on 16 October at the Opera House in Buxton and calling through Edinburgh (Queens Hall), Gateshead (The Glasshouse), Holmfirth (The Picturedrome), Bury St. Edmunds (Apex), Frome (Cheese & Grain), Birmingham (Town Hall) and will finish at the Islington Assembly Hall, London on 25 October. Tickets are available from www.thegigcartel.com. Support will come from Laura Evans.

Words by Adam Kennedy

Photo Credit: Leland Hayward

Susan Santos

Celebrated Spanish guitarist and singer-songwriter Susan Santos will release her new studio album “Sonora” on 5 April 2024.

even new fans are listening.” Susan continues:

The Madrid-based performer has a glowing resume. The artist has shared the stage with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbon and won “Best Musician Performance” at the 2018 European Blues Awards, and “Best Female Album” at the 2019 LA Critics’ Awards. “Sonora” was recorded at Black Betty Studios, Madrid, and is produced by Santos and Jose Nortes. The album is diverse and encompasses guitar styles that range from Western to psychedelia.

Like most artists, Santos endured a difficult time during the pandemic. Following a return to some semblance of normality in the touring world last year, the artist was able to hit the road again. This year, Susan is overjoyed to be starting 2024 with a new album under her belt by way of Sonora. “Last year for me was almost like how it was about three years ago. Because the pandemic years were a difficult situation, and we couldn’t tour like we used to do. I think for me, it felt like 2019, we are here again.” explains Susan. “Last year, we had an incredible summer. I played in a lot of places outside of Spain. And the UK was the best way to finish the year. And to start this year with our new album, we’re thinking about what good things could happen this year.”

But how is Susan feeling ahead of the release of their new album? “The release of our new album, it’s like my small baby. I’m so excited,” says Susan. “Three days before the release of the first single Hot Rod Lady. I was a little bit scared because it was the release of the first single, and everybody could listen to the song. And I was scared about the feedback of the people. But I feel so happy because I have had really good feedback, and

“I have now in April the release, and I’m excited, but on the other hand, a little bit scared because on this album, I recorded songs I want to play, I recorded the song I wanted to write, and I decided everything. I wrote the songs, I even played a lot of instruments, and I worked on the mixes and the production too. There were so many things on the album,” she says. “I feel like it was 100% the album I wanted to record.”

“Sonora” is Santos’ sixth studio album. The album title encapsulates the overall vibe that permeates throughout the eight songs. Although each of the album tracks vary in style, they all share a common thread – the desert. “Sonora, for me, has a double meaning because the first thing is Sonora is a Spanish word – it’s the female of sound. But the thing is all the songs on the album they are in different styles. They have all in common rock/blues, country/Americana, but they are different,” explains Susan. “But it’s true about the desert. The first time that I was trying to write a song, I never thought that the name was Sonora. All the songs have a true story, but for me, I wanted to make a story that’s like a chapter of a book, that every song talks about someone. In all the songs, it’s a woman that is sometimes a dangerous outlaw that is dark. They are a protagonist of every song, but they have different stories.”

The first single taken from Sonora is called Hot Rod Lady. “The song is a little bit dark because I recorded it with my baritone guitar - they have more power. It’s not a bass. It’s a guitar,” explains Susan. “And for me, it was a Hot Rod, the American car, and I felt that it was funny to have a different person in the song. Because all the time we listen to songs, and they are talking about the guy - and I say yes. But why not about

a girl or woman driving so fast in the middle of the desert trying to go from one place to another, drinking beer? I think that it’s a funny meaning for me.”

The video for the single was recorded in Joshua Tree National Park in California. “For me, it was an amazing experience. It was because I played at a festival in California, even before I recorded the album. But in those days, I had my demos,” explains Susan. “I thought if I record the video right now, that maybe it’s one of the greatest places to record a video.”

She continues: “When we were recording the video, the guy with the camera, when we arrived at Joshua Tree, they told us in the park, that those days at the end of April, it was the days of the rattlesnake in Joshua Tree. And all the time when I was recording, we would go from one place to another and I took off my boot, and when I put my boots back on, I was trying to see if there was a rattlesnake,” she says. “Then the guy who recorded the video said maybe it could be a cool story if you have a bite from a rattlesnake. I said sorry, I don’t want that.”

With a tour of Spain already under her belt during 2024, Susan remains open-minded about the rest of the year. “I think that the new album and the tour for me is the best news for this year. The rest? Let’s see what happens,” concludes Susan. Sonora, the new album from Susan Santos, will be released on the 5th of April 2024. Pre-order the new album from www.susansantos.info/ shop.

Words by Adam Kennedy

Photo Credit: Juan Pérez-Fajardo

GATES OF HELL Vikis

Who are you?

STONE ANGELS

We are four hard grafting grunge rockers with a penchant for creating loud noises, who barley knowing how to function in polite society. Some people call us Stone Angels.

Roll Call?

Stone Angels is fronted by lead vocalist/ rhythm guitarist and Co-op Employee of the month Niall Kersey. Lead guitarist/backing vocals fall on the shoulders of the man with more outfit changes than TK Maxx, James Innes (Me). Bringing up the good vibrations of the low end on bass/backing vocals is Sam Sayers, a mythical creature who is primarily made up of energy drinks. Finally, we are onto tub thumper & professional poker player Laurence “Loz” Ford he has more cards up his sleeve than a magician.

Hailing from?

We come from the beautifully eclectic & wonderful city of Brighton & Hove which is also home to some of the biggest Godzilla-esque seagulls that won’t think twice before dive bombing to get that sandwich out of your hand.

Other than the mild threat of avian muggings, we can’t think of a better city to be in a band and be a music lover. Any night of the week you are spoilt for choice of live music at any number of venues. There is a great sense of community, especially within the Rock/ Metal/Alt scenes. As a band we’ve really honed our craft largely due to having amazing venues like the Concorde 2, The Green Door Store & The Prince Albert to name a few at our disposal.

Journey so far?

We burst onto the scene back in 2011, Both Niall & I where in separate bands that both imploded around the same time, and one night Niall reached out and asked if I would be up for working together as another band had offered him a small run of dates across the UK as main support if he could get a group together in time. We managed to piece together the first iteration of the line up with the help of a lot of duct tape and rehearsed pretty solidly for 2/3 months before loading our things up in the back of my parents Toyota Previa and hitting the road.

Since then, we put out our debut album “Give In To Temptation” back in 2014, our lead single from that record

“Can You?” has been making waves on Spotify as it has cracked over a million streams, which for an independent/ unsigned band is nothing short of mind-blowing that it’s resonated with so many people.

During this time we’ve had more drummer than Spinal Tap, but both Loz & Sam have been the longest serving/ tightest rhythm section we’ve ever had and they have also given us the strongest foundation to build our wall of sound on for our energetic and pulsating live shows.

During our time we’ve played every toilet venue and flea pit in the land, which has really helped us develop a thick skin while honing our live skills. The last couple of years, has seen us take a big step up in gigs as we’ve played with the likes of Skindred, InMe, HotMilk & Dave Evans (AC/DC) to name but a few.

We originally began recording demos for the album in the summer of 2019, however, on November 7th at approximately midday, a fire broke out in my house while I was inside. The trauma of watching my home, my safe space be destroyed by the blaze sent me into a depressive spiral, especially as the pandemic quickly followed. It’s the closest that I have ever been to becoming an alcoholic as at times it felt like the only release I had. However, rather than fall into the dark, I decided to take on the traumatic experience head on. “Up In Smoke” was the most challenging song that I have written, but with the support of my wife, bandmates, family and friends I was able to heal. It was my way of making a silver lining to that smoke cloud.

The response to our first couple of singles off the album have been incredible, it really feels like we’ve struck a chord with a lot of people as the engagement we’ve had on Spotify, YouTube as well the amount of pre-orders of the album have beyond our wildest expectations. It’s never been a better time for the band!

Influences/sound?

At our core, we are a Hard Rock band and while we draw inspiration from bands like AC/DC & Guns N’ Roses, we don’t just stick in our lane as we love everything from Grunge, Punk, Country and more. Our ethos is a good song is a good song regardless of genre and

we challenged ourselves on the new record to draw inspiration from more a wider net than we did on our debut, which saw us progressing beyond bar chords while adding string sections to a couple of songs, I even learned to play slide guitar and also step up to the microphone and share some lead vocals on a couple of tracks. As the album is a testament to overcoming adversity, I guess you could say that one of the biggest influences was stepping out of our comfort zone and leaving the safety net behind.

Biggest gig/proudest moment to date?

We would probably say the second time that we got to support Skindred. Back in 2018, they invited us to support them at the Bedford Esquires as part of their Big Tingz tour, which was already an incredible night. That was the 1st time we played with them. In the wake of that show, due to demand they added a second date in Brighton at the Concorde 2. They shared on their socials that they wanted a local band to open and were asking for suggestions, we were blown away by the number of people that put us forward. It quickly became a onehorse race and we were offered the slot.

Being a band from Brighton, the Concorde 2 is one of the most iconic venues in the city and one that we had been wanting to play as soon as we had started playing together.

Usually, I can feel some nerves before a show, but the second that we began to load in to the venue, I felt a pure wave of happiness and calm. The gig was a sell out show and one of our best performances as a band. I still have a ticket of that show pinned on my fridge.

What does the future hold for you?

We are aiming for a busy 2024/25, there are a couple of festivals that we are in discussions with and we are currently aiming to put together a UK tour to really push our new album. Who knows, there may even be a couple of shows in Europe.

With the first couple of singles from “Up In Smoke”, the band’s star has never been brighter and we are keen to stoke that flame as much as we can.

Photo Credit: Luke Bateman

THE NOW

Who are you?

We are a projectile missile of raw sex appeal headed straight to your ear drums; waiting to explode our rock n roll goodness into you like a dirty one night stand!

Roll Call?

Shane Callaghan - Lead vocals and guitar

Callum Bromage - Lead Guitar and backing vocals

Jay Evans - Bass and mayhem

Will Scott - Drums… just drums

Hailing from?

The Now are like a pack of mongrels spread throughout the South Wales valleys. Shane lives in Neath, Callum lives in Swansea and Jay and Will live in the valleys.

Journey so far?

The journey has been an interesting one. The Now started out in it’s infancy with Shane and Callum meeting in a jam night somewhere in the underbelly of Swansea. Despite having other drummers and bassists along the way the jigsaw puzzle of carnage was set in stone when Jay and Will joined the band.

The last two and a half years has been a rollercoaster. As soon as Gary Trew, (our manager) came on board we’ve not stopped. We have recorded an EP and an Album in Real World Studios; the studio owned by Peter Gabriel and look forward to releasing it in March this year! We’ve played non stop in every sticky floored venue we could get our hands on and have luckily played some big festivals too! We’ve had our tracks played on BBC Match of the Day, BT Sport, Sky Sports and have seen our Spotify streams sky rocket in recent weeks too! A lot coming from South America so hopefully the people of Brazil are ready for us to invade their shores!

Influences and Sound?

A lot of fans have likened us to Kasabian and Muse with a pinch of attitude but to be honest we see ourselves as more of a hybrid between Motley Crue and the unadulterated rock n roll musings of inspirational 90’s legends The Vengaboys!

The biggest gig/proudest moment?

The biggest gig would have to be a toss up between The Isle of Wight or Beard-

ed Theory festival in Derby - thousands in attendance just makes us want to play more and more festivals!

The proudest moment though would have to be playing the opening night of Swansea Arena in front of a packed out audience, mostly our fans to be fair!

What does the future hold for you?

Well I suppose it’s down to us as a band to keep on keeping on and hopefully some sort of shift in the mainstream music industry where they actually try and highlight some of the unsigned talent that exist. Just seems to be a constant flow of regurgitated, plastic vacuous pop that no one really cares about; apart from the fact they’ve listened to it on their phones on Tik Tok when they’re lying in bed not wanting to get up for work in the morning!

In our minds we’re gonna take over the world… So stay tuned!

Photo Credit: Lloyd Stranaghan

DRIP FED EMPIRE

Who are you?

Jay: We’re Drip Fed Empire, a Nu Metalcore band from the United Kingdom. We pride ourselves on combining organic music styles with elements of electronica. So, it’s a fusion of influences drawing from a wide variety of styles.

Roll Call?

Jay: On vocals and electronics, we have Jay, on guitar we have Jordan, bass Jack and on drums and we have Burcher.

Hailing from?

Jay: We’re all from various different places in the United Kingdom. Jay’s from Birmingham, Jack’s from Dunfermline, Sean’s from St. Austell in Cornwall and Jordan’s from Bristol where we’re all currently based.

Journey so far?

Jay: The name itself has been around since 2015 but we don’t really consider ourselves the same band that was started back then. It’s really since the four of us got together a few years ago that we’ve really defined it as what it is and started making waves across the UK and EU. Has been a blast these past

few years seeing the growth that we’ve achieved.

Influences/sound?

Jay: We’re drawing from lots of different heavy music styles. Anything from Nu Metal, Metalcore to Drum & Bass and Industrial. Bands that fuse electronic and organic music styles are a big influence for us such as Enter Shikari, Linkin Park and Bring Me The Horizon to name a few. We’ve often been compared to Pitchshifter which funnily enough none of us had ever listened to before writing this record but since then we’ve gobsmacked how much of a crossover there is without even knowing it.

Biggest gig/proudest moment to date?

Jay: Playing Bloodstock festival was a big moment for us for sure as it was our first big festival slot. Since then, we’ve had some great opportunities to play to some large crowds across the UK and overseas in Germany.

What does the future hold for Drip Fed Empire?

Jay: We’ve got some great shows and

festival slots in the pipeline for 2024 and potentially some new music towards the end of this year and the start of the next. We’re working with a new management company that are really helping us propel forward post release. It’s looking to be some really good years for us going forward. Keep in touch athttps://linktr.ee/dripfedempire

Photo Credit: Montish Media

NIGHT THIEVES

Who are you?

Ryan: We are Night Thieves, a four-piece alternative metal / heavy rock band, based in and around London. We have just released our latest EP ‘Polarity’.

Roll Call?

Jess: We have Ryan on drums, Paul on guitar and programming, Rick on bass and occasional backing vocals, and Jess on vocals.

Hailing from?

Paul: I’m from South East London and Jess is based in Southend.

Rick: Ryan and myself are based in Hertfordshire. We mainly call ourselves a London-based band as we practise in London and it’s the central place we meet.

Journey so far?

Rick: Night Thieves was born from the ashes of my previous band with Jess. Paul auditioned bringing in a new heavy down tuned sound but with loads of catchy hooks, which was exactly what we were looking for. Since then

we have released three EP’s and more recently Ryan joined on drums.

Influences/sound?

Jess: BMTH is a big one for me. Stevie Nicks is iconic as well as David Grohl and Foo Fighters, and Simon Neil and Biffy Clyro.

Rick: We have a wide range of influences and some great overlap in bands we love. At moment I’m really into bands such as Silent Planet, Novelists and Tesseract.

Paul: Same really but I’m listening to a lot of Northlane, Vukovi, and Architects at the moment.

Ryan: A lot of my influences come from Matt Halpern, Chris Turner, Adam Gray & Matt Greiner.

Biggest gig/proudest moment to date?

Rick: Playing the Black Heart supporting Hawxx. The place was packed and it was such an amazing gig with a great lineup.

Jess: I’m proud of our latest EP, conceptually and soundwise, I feel like it’s the best material we’ve created so far.

Paul: Same as Jess and the response we’ve got from ‘Polarity’ has been awesome, people are really getting behind it!

Ryan: Getting to be part of a professional band!

What does the future hold for Night Thieves?

Paul: We can’t wait to play Polarity live! Our next gig is with Kite Thief at 229 London on 1st March with more dates to be announced very soon. Gigs aside we’re focused on writing for the next release and hope to have that recorded by the end of this year.

Photo Credit: Pearl Cook

REVENANT

Who are you?

We are Revenant, a new four-piece Southern Rock/Blues Rock outfit. Big Riffs, catchy hooks and songs that contain a message. We’re here to create anthems. We’re not afraid to get to the point with our music and we don’t shy away from what makes us uncomfortable as people. Song writing is our therapy.

Roll Call?

Sam Lay - Vocals/Lead Guitar

Matt Hudson - Guitar

Robin Nutley - Bass

Carl Donoghue - Drums

Hailing from?

We hail from the south of England, Berkshire/Hampshire area. Two of our member hail from Newbury the hometown of Jordan Fish (Ex-Bring Me The Horizon) and two members from Basingstoke (Home to Robin Trower, we record in the same studio).

Journey so far?

First single ‘Coming back to life’ released in September 2023 and was featured

on Spotify’s Release Radar and Discover Weekly. Second Single ‘The Masquerade’ followed in November 2023 and followed the same path. Gigs booked all over the UK for 2024 and currently on track to feature in the Live Final to get to Firevolt Festival this year.

Influences/sound?

Chris Stapleton, Black Stone Cherry, Zakk Wylde. We have two lead guitarists and we’re not afraid to use them, but we’ll draw you in with soulful vocals and a powerful message.

Biggest gig/proudest moment to date?

Sold out show at The Facebar in Reading, in 2023 we sold out every bit of our first merch line. Proud to announce we are now working with San Pr to take our music even further.

What does the future hold for Revenant?

2024’s focus is to get everywhere we can to gig and grow our following even larger. Our E.P ‘What a time to be alive’ is released May 10th and Pre-Orders

are flying out. A big hometown gig is booked in April, and we hope to get to Firevolt in August. Lots going on and we are only just getting started.

Photo

BREAKING OUT THE BIG GUNS Interview with jools gizzi

Scottish Squad Gun are preparing to release their forthcoming new album, Hombres, on April 12th, 2024, via Cooking Vinyl.

Ahead of the release, the band have received high praise with the words “some of their best songs since Gallus!” being declared by Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris. Hombres marks the first album of all new music from the group since 2017’s Favourite Pleasures, which entered the UK official album chart at #16.

songs for this album, everyone talks about, Taking on The World, the Gallus album and Swagger, and I think we wanted to try and get towards those,” said Jools. “We thought, why don’t we just get back to them, maybe just give it a little bit more of a contemporary modern feel? But get back to the guts of the guitar of what we’ve always been confident in doing. So, we just thought get back to those big guitars and those riffs.” Jools adds: “It was just really getting back to basics. A lot of people will say, All Fired Up is very eighties, well it is very eighties.” The guitarist is channelling influences like Billy Idol and Steve Stevens on the latter.

something like that. Let’s go towards that and try and make a 2024/2023 Steel Your Fire,” declares Jools.

The band had a distinct idea of how they wanted to approach their new album from the off, adopting more of a back-to-basics approach. “I think the last album, the Favourite Pleasures record, was a bit funkier. Obviously, there were rock songs, but I think when we were writing

One of the recent singles from the album Take Me Back Home, was partly inspired by one of the band’s greatest hits. “The song that goes down really well live is obviously, Steal Your Fire. And we just thought how we created that song and that great big riff, and we were searching for

The video for the track was recorded at one of Glasgow’s most iconic venues, The Barrowlands. “It’s really magical. It’s hard to put into words the feeling you get as soon as the lights go down before you even take the first step onto the stage. You hear that roar of the crowd; you feel like you are walking on air. You can really hear the crowd’s reaction; it’s a phenomenal venue. And every band I’ve known who’s played it, who’s witnessed that reaction, they’ve always said: it’s got to be one of the best venues in the world. Even though it’s a 2,000-capacity room compared to some of the other venues. It is a special place to play. I remember when Rage Against the Machine played it. And oh my god, it was like a sea of people. And, I think halfway through, all the techs had to come out and put strapping

over the PA because the floor was bouncing that much. You could actually see the PA moving. I’ve never seen anything like that. And that really got me. That’s what the Barrowlands is all about. It’s a great venue, I absolutely love it,” confirms Jools.

In the 90s, Gun had a hit with their take on Cameo’s Word Up. But did the band ever anticipate that the song would become such a huge hit? “I think when we released it - in 14 or 15 countries, it was in the Top 10 and throughout Europe. We all loved that song with Cameo. And one day in rehearsals, I just started playing it, and then everyone was laughing and joking and then the guys jumped in, and they started playing it really heavy. And then we just did it at soundchecks,” said Jools. “But then we started putting it in the set, and this was before we even recorded it.”

He continues: “Our manager said, why don’t you just go and record it one day when you’re in Lon-

don and just put it down. And, of course, there was no pressure. We knew the arrangement and how we were going to do it. So we went into the studio, and recorded it one day and mixed it the next day. And it’s funny because we were playing it when it was getting mixed, and Yazz, she came running in and went, oh my god, that’s amazing. Is that your next single? We said no, we are just recording it; it’s going to be a B-side. So, we played it to the record company. And they were like, wow, that sounds incredible. We were like, why don’t we keep it for a B-side. And they said no, we’re going to release this. So, we waited until the rest of the Swagger album was all recorded and mixed. And we thought, alright, we’ll go with that, and we’ll see what happens. And then, we got the MTV award, and it opened a lot of doors in Germany and Europe. And it became a really big hit. So yeah, it was great fun and good times.”

The band are getting ready to embark on a run of release shows to promote the new album. “So, what it is, if you buy the ticket, you’re pre-ordering the album. So, every ticket that we sell will go towards an album chart when we release it. Right now, if we were to release Hombres today or this week, it would be a Top 5 album by the amount of pre-orders we’ve had. So, we’re just really trying to get everybody downloading the album so that when we press go on April 12th and with the physical sales, it helps for a good chart position that we can be proud of. But then you don’t know who else is going to be releasing roundabout that day. But that’s just one of those,” concludes Jools.

Hombres, the new album from Gun, will be released on April 12th via Cooking Vinyl.

Words by Adam Kennedy

Credit: John McMurtrie

Photo

“Sounds just like Freddie”

“Love the band... atmosphere was explosive!”

Jim Jenkins

Kris Barras Band are bringing all-new, arena-sized grit to 2024 with their new album, Halo Effect, set for release on April 12, 2024, via Earache Records.

Barras’ new album sees the group continue to push their sound from their traditional blues/ rock roots into a more contemporary hard rock/ metal sound. The Halo Effect started to come to fruition during the band’s headline tour at the start of last year. “We had the big tour during January and February time. We did 28 dates in the end, once we added the Irish dates. So yeah, it was a bit of a monster. And that’s actually when we started writing the album on that tour,” explains Kris. “We set up a studio in the top lounge of the bus. Josiah and I pretty much every day would be in there jotting down ideas. We were really inspired by the live shows. The set that we did for that tour was the heaviest we’d ever done before. We put in a lot of different sections and beefed up a few things. And seeing the crowd response inspired us really to write more things along that line.” Kris adds: “We recorded it around August, or September. Sometime around then, and now here we are.”

Halo Effect showcases the harder edges of the Kris Barras Band’s sound. “I definitely feel like this kind of stuff is more natural for me. As much as I love the blues, I did always feel like I had to tone myself down and put some restraints on myself in what I’m able to do as a writer and an artist in particular, and performance-wise,” said Kris. “I grew up playing in metal bands and doing that kind of thing. I’ve been playing guitar for such a long time. There’s been so many different influences throughout my life. I started with blues rock and classic rock stuff, because I started when I was five years old, and my influences was my dad’s record collection.

And then once I got into my teens and started finding more of my own voice, I was more into the heavier stuff, instrumental guitar by Satriani and things like that. And also, during my teens, I think it was a good time for guitar-based music.”

“I enjoy doing the blues rock stuff. And I still enjoy playing it. Maybe I’ll come back to it a little later down the line,” he says. “I’ve been influenced by so many different things. I’ve never really wanted to be pigeonholed by one thing.”

If you watch the video for Kris’ recent single Hourglass, you may notice that the frontman is performing without a guitar. Even though he played guitar on all of the tracks on the release. Was this a conscious decision to showcase the artist in a different light as a singer? “I think this album I’ve definitely stretched myself vocally. I’ve done a lot of stuff that I haven’t done before. I think I’ve improved my voice. I’ve put a lot of work in over the past year with lessons and courses and all sorts to improve my voice. It’s something that I’ve always tried to do every album to try to improve on that aspect. And I feel like I have it,” explains Kris.

There is also a flip side to this decision. “For me, a lot of it’s about the performance aspect. The whole reason I started doing this in the first place was to play live; I love playing live. I love that feeling when you’re on stage, singing your own songs and people sending them back to you. That, for me, is the best feeling in the world,” says Kris. “Often when you’re a front man who is the lead guitar player, we’re very restricted because you’re stuck in front of a mic stand until your guitar solo. You’re quite restricted with what you can do per formance-wise. So, on the last tour, we were doing one song

where I didn’t play the guitar, and I just sang it, and it gave me a chance to go into the crowd and to do that kind of thing. And I loved it.”

Kris continues: “Obviously, I play guitar on the track. On every song I play guitar. But live, there’s going to be a couple that we’re going to try and mix up a little bit so that maybe I just play guitar on the solo or maybe even let Josiah take on the solos - he’s a great guitar player. I enjoy the performance side of things. I find it just mixes things up a little bit and helps to be a bit more of a frontman and put on a bit more of a show.”

Halo Effect will be the Kris Barras Band’s first album since signing with Earache Records. “They are a fantastic team. I think we’ve shifted away from the blues rock world into the heavier rock, softer end of metal. They’re definitely the label to be with for that. So, I think it made sense with the sound shift,” he said. “It’s just been fantastic so far, with lots of fresh ideas. They are super upto-date with everything digital marketing-wise, and it’s great. It’s been a fantastic experience so far.”

Kris Barras Band will be touring throughout April on an extensive headline tour in support of their new release, which will also feature a run of in-store appearances. Beyond that touring is very much on the agenda. “We’re going to be doing festivals throughout the summer. And I’m sure there’ll be plans for another tour in this album cycle as well,” concludes Kris.

Halo Effect, the new album from the Kris Barras Band, is set for release on April 12, 2024, via Earache Records.

Words by Adam Kennedy

Photo Credit: Dean Chalkley

HARD ROCK HELL 17 HIGHLIGHT

Shock rock legend Lizzy Borden is presently working on the eagerly anticipated follow-up to their 2018 album My Midnight Things.

Formed in the early 80’s, Lizzy Borden is celebrating their 40th anniversary, which will see the band perform a UK-exclusive set at HRH 17 in Great Yarmouth in November.

The band’s last album ushered in somewhat of a new chapter for the group. “When I put out My Midnight Things, it was kind of a restart for me. Because we had kind of left America and went to Europe for 10-15 years. And that’s what we worked on,” explains Lizzy. “I let go of the lineup that I had. And I wanted to start over. And My Midnight Things was the first album from that start. I was really concentrating on the positives that I bring to the table after all these years. And that’s the show, and certain songs that have stuck out from each album.”

He adds: “I reconstructed the whole show more about the influences I started with. And that was my main focus. And then that’s what we’ve been doing. I’ve been tweaking lineups, bringing people in and bringing people out to see which guys fit with my way of thinking these days after all these years of playing. So last year was the kind of the start of that.”

Taking the band out on the road with their latest album helped the group reconnect with their loyal fanbase. “When I put the album out, we did a great tour of America and Canada with the band Demons and Wizards. It was probably the best tour we ever did. The turnouts were great, it was almost all sold out. It was absolutely amazing,” explains Lizzy. “It just opened my eyes to the fact that this thing still means a lot to people.” He continues: “Last year, I was working on the new album, and the new album has been my whole focus. But now we’re starting to do more shows.”

Whilst Lizzy Borden is presently celebrating their

the future and what comes next. “I never look at those types of things. We’ve been asked to do certain records in their entirety and all this stuff. And I want to go forward, not backwards,” he says. “I realise I’m playing songs that were written 40 years ago, a lot of them. And I do that precisely just for the audience. Because if it was my way, I would play only new songs. I’m a songwriter, but I’m also an entertainer, and I want to make people happy. So, I definitely have to have at least half my set older songs. And then the other half, I get to do what I want to do. And so, it feels good to continue to do what I love.”

Whilst pondering the band’s milestone anniversary, Lizzy explains: “I always said this in the very beginning, even when we were in our second year. How long can you do this? And I said I’ll do it as long as it’s fun. And when it becomes not fun, then I take a break. And I stepped back, and I go ok, well, I don’t want to just go out there and not have fun. So, I want to retool, surround myself with people who make me happy, and then go back out there with a new show, and then have fun again. So that’s how I’ve gotten through these 40 years.”

Lizzy Borden has switched up their approach to writing on the new album. “I’ve been writing by myself for decades. I started the new album that I’m working on now by myself. And it’s about halfway done. And I just said I want to work with other people. People are starting to write with other people outside of their own world. And it just seemed fun to me, like I said, go back to that fun aspect. So, I’ve been trying to write with anybody and everybody,” he says. “On this album, I’ve written with a few big-name people, and the songs are coming out amazing.”

Lizzy Borden was recently bestowed the Shock Rock Icon Award at the Vegas Rocks Magazine Music Awards. Reflecting on his achievement, the artist said: “It was great. I’ve been asked to

get awards before, and I usually don’t do it. But this one was in Vegas, and it was a fun night. I had never gone to anything like that before. But there were a lot of people there, a few thousand,” he says. “I was honoured to receive it. As I said in my speech, the bands that inspired me were all shock rock bands. David Bowie, right out of the gate. Elton John, the original Alice Cooper band, The Tubes. And, of course, KISS is the one that just sucked me in. So, the essence of all those bands is in Lizzy Borden’s music, even though they usually tailor us to other metal bands. It’s really came from those shock rock bands. So, to receive an award in the thing that inspired me to do this in the first place was amazing.”

Lizzy Borden is looking forward to returning to the UK to play at HRH. “I’ve been dying to play the UK for so long. The first time we ever came, we played the Reading Festival and the original Marquee within the same week. And it was amazing. And then we didn’t come back until, I think, 89 or 90. And we were slated to come back a few times, but it never worked out. But then we played every single pub. And every little place that we could play all across the UK. And it was the most fun we ever had,” he says. “I fell in love with the UK, especially all the little places all around. I love London, but I loved all of it.”

The band has a special relationship with its UK audience. “The first places we went to outside of America besides Canada were Japan and the UK,” he says. “So, it means a lot to me. And I wanted to play there over all these years, and the opportunities come when they come, and they don’t when they don’t. And so, when they do come, I jump all over it. I’m really excited to come back.”

Lizzy Borden will perform at HRH 17 in Great Yarmouth in November. For ticket information and further details, please visit: https://hardrockhell.com/.

Words by Adam Kennedy Photo Credit: Stephanie Cabral

MONKEY3

Instrumental psych rock frontrunners

Monkey3 kickstart 2024 with a true album highlight of the new year. In February, the Lausanne-based four-piece returned with their cosmic new studio offering, titled Welcome To The Machine, via Napalm Records. Last year, the Swiss quartet set their eyes on the prize which was to complete their magnum opus. “Last year was about writing new music and recording the new album. We almost didn’t play the live shows for the first part of the year,” explains Boris. “Then we did a tour during the fall, because it’s cool to play live, and we wanted to test the new tracks live just to see how 2024 could look like for live shows, but mostly focused on the on the recording.”

The band are looking forward to performing their new record on the road. “We’re already thinking about the live shows. We will have a tour starting in May,” says Boris. “We are already excited about the touring more than the release.”

Composing instrumental music is a complex process. “Usually, a lot of the new music starts by jamming together in the rehearsal room,” explains Boris. “We don’t really have a plan when we start working on new music. We just play and see what kind of vibe is coming out, and we will add a lot to how the music feels. Is there a vibe there? Can we picture ourselves somewhere? In some kind of scenario when we listen to what we’re trying to do, that’s basically the starting point.” He adds: “Basically, I would say that, at the beginning of the writing process, it’s more like a happy

accident than something planned. Although sometimes, one of us can come with a full track already composed, and we work on it. But it’s more an exception than the norm.”

If you look at the duration of the tracks on the band’s latest offering, you will notice that many of the songs span into double figures. “We do like quite long tracks because we feel that it leaves a lot of room for expressing yourself, but also creates a whole landscape. And that enables us to try at least to tell the story. And we feel that in a shorter format, without lyrics, it’s more difficult to tell a story,” he says. “But it’s always a fine line between, okay, it’s long enough to create the story, or it’s too long, it’s boring. It’s always difficult to find where is the line and to have the right balance.”

There is a real cinematic quality to the band’s repertoire. Their latest release was inspired by movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Matrix, Sunshine, Solaris and 1984. “Movies are a big influence on us. We really like watching movies. And not only sci-fi but new movies, a lot of various movies,” he says. “As we don’t have lyrics, we try to have that cinematic feel. And I have to say that if we can one day do a movie soundtrack, that would be absolutely awesome. We dream, and hopefully, it will happen one day.”

Boris adds: “But what inspires us on that record with those movies are not the movies themselves, but it’s more the story that is told in those movies. And how do humans and machines interact together? And what will

be our near future? With the new technology coming in, like artificial intelligence. And how now we are starting to be controlled by all the digital machinery codes everywhere in banking. I mean, it’s like we are surrounded by a digital world, that it’s becoming a big prison. And on that record, we are not saying that it’s like that; we are more thinking about it and reflecting on what the future could be in that scenario. And those movies they kind of talk about those topics. So, it was for us inspiring. The basic story that they’re telling, and how we could maybe put it into just music.”

But has the band thought about how they present their new record in the live environment? “For now, we don’t know. We are just starting to think about live shows and how we will set up this setlist because when we play live, we are always looking to tell a whole story during the show. But the tough thing is if you pick tracks from different records that are part of different stories, we try to put them all together to make one big story that makes sense,” explains Boris. Whilst the band’s latest long player evaluates the future, what does the future hold for Monkey3? “There will be Desert Fest in London. Then we will do summer festivals in Europe. And then there will be another tour this Fall. And actually, there will be some UK shows during the Fall tour. Then 2024 will be over, and early 2025, we’ll go to Australia.”

Words By Adam Kennedy Photo Credit: Giuseppe Aufiero

Super Starr

Interview with Charlie Starr

Throughout their prolific career, Blackberry Smoke has released eight studio albums, including 2021’s You Hear Georgia, which celebrated their 20th anniversary as a band. The Atlanta, GA natives march into 2024 with the release of their latest album, Be Right Here.

The band’s latest album is a product of a 2023 that was “eventful,” says Starr. “Everything is all well. It was a busy year, and then we had dealt with a lot, with Brit’s health and making the new record, but we’re all here.”

With the group’s new album scheduled for a February 2024 release, the band have been road-testing some of their latest material. “We have been playing the singles live after they’re released. So that’s good. And those had been received quite well,” he says. “I like it when they like it. But I’m very excited for people to hear the whole thing.”

For their latest offering, Blackberry Smoke brought in Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb. Speaking about working with Cobb, Charlie said: “He brings passion, spontaneity and also knowledge. He’s a very knowledgeable fellow, and he’s a great musician himself. He just knows how to get the job done. And so far, I haven’t mentioned a sound that I might have in my head that he can’t find, and that’s always great. With a producer, you put your trust in them. And he delivers.”

But how did Dave Cobb approach the band’s latest record? “This time, when we started to talk about the record, I started to send him demos,

and he said, don’t send these demos to the guys in the band. This time, when I said, too late, I’ve already sent about half of them or a little over half. He said, well, don’t send any more because I want to capture their spontaneous musical reactions. And I said, ok,” explains Charlie. So, we tried a bit of both - we already had rehearsed a few of the songs, or at least half of them, and then for several songs, he’s like, ok, play the song. And I played it, and I got what he meant or what he was going for. He wanted to capture what people instinctively play when they first hear the song. And the idea is that most people play something really interesting immediately. And especially a band that’s been together as long as we have. So that was really interesting and fun. And that’s generally his approach. Not that specifically, but his approach is spontaneitythat’s where the magic lives.”

What made this album different was the fact that the whole band were together in the same room when recording. “We made both records in the same room. You Hear Georgia, the drums were in the drum booth, and I was in a vocal booth for a lot of the songs. Just everybody was playing live on that record as well. But we had separation with the amps and things like that. This time, he said, I want to put the drums in the big room. He said, we’re going to make a little amp record - Champs and Princeton’s and things like that. And I want to put those in the room too. So as soon as we started to track, I was like, I see what you’re going for. It’s like a jam. It’s really organic and analogue.”

Blackberry Smoke’s latest album came together quite quickly. “The basic tracks that we tracked live took about six days. Then we went down to Georgia Mae, which is Dave’s studio in Savannah, Georgia, and we did overdubs and finishing touches there for about four days. So, there’s a couple of weeks and then a week or so of mixing. And then it went to mastering, so it took less than a month,” explains Charlie.

The title of the band’s new album, Be Right Here, was taken from one of the tracks on the record. “That’s a lyric from the song Azalea. It says, home will always be right here,” says Charlie. “I think that Whippoorwill is the only album where I knew before we made the record, I knew what we should call it. And ever since then, it’s been like, do we name it after a song? Or should we

name it after something random or a lyric? And this time, that just stuck out. To me, Be Right Here? And meaning, be true to yourself and be present? Everything is so crazy right now, as far as what’s going on in the world with war and division. And everybody just seems like everybody’s so anti-everything. It’s just like, everything p*sses everybody off. So, it’s just like, be true to yourself.”

At one point, Blackberry Smoke had a t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase Too Rock for Country, Too Country for Rock. But how does the band feel about this dichotomy in the present day?

“We had a shirt made, like you said, and it was sort of the pickle that we found ourselves in. And it’s our doing, we put ourselves in this position, but I think it became something that we wear with pride,” says Charlie. “We’re not trying to be easily pigeonholed. I don’t really think about it that often. I guess for some people, it became even later something to argue about. Our fans are like, they’re a country band. No, they’re not they are a rock band. But who cares? It’s just music.”

Blackberry Smoke will be returning to the UK in the Summer. This side of the pond is somewhere the band’s frontman enjoys performing. “I love it,” proclaims Starr. “I did some searching years ago on ancestry.com and determined that all my people are from the UK anyway. Well, mostly English and Irish. It’s amazing that you can trace your family’s lineage. I found photos of my fifth or sixth great-grandfather’s headstone in Derry, which is crazy to look at. But anyway, I’ve always felt ever since the first time I visited the UK, I felt at home. I know that sounds crazy. But I felt a kinship, and it felt familiar to me,” ends Charlie.

Be Right Here, the new album from Blackberry Smoke, will be released on the 16th of February via 3 Legged Records/Thirty Tigers. The band will be touring the UK throughout September 2024. For ticket information and further details, please visit: www.blackberrysmoke.com/tour.

Words & Photo Credit: Adam Kennedy

Cassidy Paris

Turn back the clocks to 2022, and Cassidy Paris was one of the standout names at HRH 15 in Great Yarmouth. Throughout the weekend, the artist made three appearances with her solo project and with the band Wicked Smile. Of course, the guitarist of the latter, Steve Janevski, is Cassidy’s father, and as the old saying goes, talent doesn’t fall too far from the tree. And that’s certainly the case in Cassidy Paris.

The Antipodean rocker has been making waves across the globe and subsequently landed a deal with Frontiers Music, which saw the artist recently release their debut album, New Sensation. The artist was back on our UK shores at the end of 2023, which saw Cassidy hit the road alongside Wicked Smile and her new solo band. Following a show at Trillians in Newcastle, Cassidy said: “The response has been awesome. We’ve done something like seven or eight shows, and every single gig has been packed, which is great. And I’m playing with a lot of bands that we love. It’s good to see people supporting original music. And young people want original music. It’s very exciting for us.”

Working with a label like Frontiers has been a great experience for the artist so far. “Frontiers have been absolutely awesome to us. I feel like I’ve had so much to say in the record and all the decisions in the record. And they’re working really hard behind the scenes to get us out to a new audience. And even a new demographic and trying to crack into that younger generation,” explains Cassidy. “They’re doing everything in their power to make sure that that happens for us. It’s exciting times, and they’re aiding us in finding our feet in the music industry.”

But how did the opportunity to work with such a high-profile label come about? “I sent Danger, the first single, to Frontiers. And I said, look, if you guys are interested, this is the type of music that we’re looking to write - if you’re interested? And everything went from there. It’s been a really cool journey. And obviously, new recruits Tom and Alex Rogowski as well. So, it’s been great.”

Cassidy first met up with her new bandmates in Great Yarmouth. “We first met up at HRH in Great Yarmouth. We just clicked and got on really well. We had the same music tastes and passion for music. We’re going out to Australia with my brother. It seemed like an obvious thing to do by working together,” explains Tom.

In Tom and Alex, Cassidy found the perfect

combination that she was looking for. “It’s cool to see young musicians that are very passionate and committed,” says Cassidy. “For someone that young that really believes in the style of music that we’re doing is exciting for us.”

Cassidy worked with producer Alessandro Delvecchio on her debut album. “I can’t thank him enough. He’s been absolutely fantastic to work with and such a kind guy, but such a heavyweight in the music industry as well,” she said. “It’s been great working with that side of Frontiers and learning from musicians that you would never ever get to meet. Even at Winter Storm, where we were playing, we met Danny Vaughn, and he was just the most lovely, nice man. And what a voice. I’ve been a huge fan of Tyketto for so long. So, when such a heavyweight in the music industry is supporting young artists in the industry it’s very exciting and a little bit overwhelming as well.”

New Sensation has been a long time in the making. “I started songwriting when I was maybe 10 or 11. They weren’t of the scale they are now, but I had a fantastic mentor in Paul Laine, Ex-Danger Danger and The Defiants. He’s done a lot of solo stuff as well,” explains Cassidy. “So, when I started songwriting, I expressed an interest to my dad, and my dad wanted to get me a mentor that was going to be able to guide me better than what even he could do. And he had come to Australia, he was doing solo stuff, and my dad’s band, The Radio Sun, were backing him.”

Cassidy continues: “We sat down and wrote Talk About It, and I believe Walking On Fire as well. And then Stand came after that, which is strange because that wasn’t the order that everything came out. But I learned so much from Paul,” she said. “I don’t think I’d be the songwriter I am today without him.”

With limited markets for touring in their native Australia, Cassidy is looking to spread her wings and tour further afield. “The rock scene in Australia, although it does exist, it doesn’t exist to the extent of America or the UK. And we’ve had a lot of support internationally, which is great,” said Cassidy. “It’s exciting to see that people all over the world are enjoying our music, not just in our homeland.” Cassidy adds: “I always love Australia and have a soft spot for it, but it’s very cool to be overseas.”

The future is certainly looking bright for rock’s New Sensation. “We’ve got a lot of people working behind the scenes for us, which is fantastic. And a lot of people thinking about our future customer types, which is very exciting from a musician’s perspective that people are thinking so much about the next steps. I’ve already started writing for the second album, which is great. And I will continue to do that and make it the best possible sophomore album that we could possibly make,” concludes Cassidy.

New Sensation by Cassidy Paris is out now via Frontiers Music.

Words & Photo Credit: Adam Kennedy

Cedric Burnside

Top of The Hill

The blues is a sound that has its roots in the Mississippi region. Several styles have evolved from that locale, but the Hill Country sound resonates deeply with blues aficionados around the globe.

One artist who continues to promote the sound passed down by his ancestors is Cedric Burnside. The artist’s grandfather RL Burnside, along with peers such as Junior Kimbrough and Othar Turner are legends of this beloved and distinctive sound.

Cedric’s last album, I Be Trying, won a Grammy, and deservedly so. Speaking about his high-profile acknowledgement, the bluesman said: “It’s very humbling for me. It feels great to be able to do something that hasn’t been done here in the hill country. It’s also great to give recognition to my Big Daddy, RL Burnside, who opened the door for the Burnside family. I was fortunate enough as you know to travel with him for so many years starting at a young age. And I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for giving me a chance and having my Big Daddy to be a true legend in this style of music, and to open the door for me to do my thing in the hill country world.”

With a Grammy firmly in his awards cabinet, Cedric is presently preparing to release a brandnew album. The long player was recorded in the heart of the Hill Country region in Ripley, Mississippi. “At the time, I was getting ready to start a juke joint of my own in Ripley. Things didn’t work well with the landlord. We couldn’t get things up to par fast enough. But the building was one of the oldest buildings in Ripley. It was a lawyer’s building, and it was about 150 years old,” explains Cedric. “It had great acoustics and big wooden walls. So, one of the great things I got to do with the building, even though it didn’t become a juke joint was record my album in it with my really good friend, my brother from another mother, Mr. Luther Dickinson.”

Cedric elaborates on Luther’s involvement on the record. “We just happened to be on the road doing a tour called Voices of Mississippi. And about a week before we finished that tour Me and Luther got the talking,” he says. “I told him that the acoustics in the new juke joint building was great. And he said, well, I’ll tell you what I will do. I’ll break down all the studio equipment, and I’ll bring it to the building in Ripley. And so that’s what he did when we got back. And we had a 14-song album in two days.”

for the Grammy. I’m doing it because I have so much music in me, I just have to express myself and put out as much music as I can. Because I’m overloaded man.”

With his success, talent and deep connections to the music, Cedric Burnside is promoting the hill country sound to a new generation of music lovers. “I’ve been around the hill country blues my whole life. And being around my Big Daddy, RL Burnside it’s hard not to grow to love this music. You’re going to either get sick of this music, or you going to grow to love this music. And I just grew to love the sound of this music,” explains Cedric. “I love the unorthodox rhythm of it. I love that it is so different from any other blues that’s out there.”

Cedric has the benefit of age on his side. Allowing him to put his youthful stamp onto a traditional sound. “With me being the younger generation, I am going to put my touch to it,” confirms Cedric.

The award-winning artist was out on the road with his grandfather from a young age. “I did my first tour with my Big Daddy at age 13. And I was curious. I was ready to go out and explore. It made me feel nervous at times because I went to a lot of places that I had never been before in my life. I grew up doing things in Mississippi, doing the house parties, and the juke joints,” he says. “I left from Mississippi to go to another country, which was Canada. And, man, I was nervous. I had butterflies. And my Big Daddy said, just do what you do at the juke joint.”

Once the artist began playing alongside his grandfather, his fears and nerves began to disappear. “All I see is people waiting on the music, and I’m wondering, are they going to receive the music? Are they going to like the music? And the first song we did, man, I gave it my all. And when we got done, the people were whistling, and they were clapping, hollering, and dancing. I was like, oh, wow. Yeah, this is going to be great. And so, from there, the butterflies went away. And I was ready to go on to the next one.”

RL Burnside’s influence on his grandson transcended music. “Besides him introducing music into my life. He taught me life lessons,” explains Cedric. “One of the things he would always say is, you’ve got to treat people like you want to be treated. That’s one of the things he will always say to all of us.”

big part of my life. And, like I said, he introduced me to music. And I like to put a song on of him to show people where I got it from and where I come from, as well,” explains Cedric. “The last album I did, I Be Trying, the Grammy-winning album, I put a song on there from Junior Kimbrough because he was a great influence on me. Growing up, I played in his juke joints for many years. I played with him on the road for many years. And he and my Big Dad were good friends.”

Cedric adds: “Shake ‘Em On Down - this is a guy I wish I could have got the chance to shake his hand and talk to him, is Mississippi Fred McDowell. He and my granddad were also really great friends. They used to play house parties and drink moonshine together. My Big Daddy used to play a lot of his music for us as a kid. Specifically, Shake ‘Em On Down was one of the songs that he would play all the time. And even though my Big Daddy performed that song on his set, a lot of times, I liked the way he did it. But also, I like the way that Mississippi Fred McDowell did it. I mean, he wrote the song. And so, I wanted to put that on there for Mississippi Fred McDowell because I was inspired by him as well as a kid.”

Whilst the Hill Country sound has been prominent in the juke joints of the region for many years, the juke joint is one which there are few and far between these days. Perhaps one of the most well-known is the Blue Front Café in Bentonia. “Growing up in that part of the world and growing up in that culture was a big part of my life. I grew up in juke joints, and I remember saying in a song that it was my church and my school, because I was there all the time. But I think it’s a big part of the hill country. And there’s not many here in this part,” confirms Cedric.

“Today, my uncle Duwayne Burnside, he not too long ago opened a little building in Holly Springs, and so he does music there from time to time. But there’s not many juke joints around North Mississippi too much anymore. Hopefully someday in the future, hopefully sooner than later, I will find the right spot and bring that back for the people for the community as well as for myself because I miss it as well.”

With his new album on the horizon, Cedric is looking to take his latest release on the road. “I start touring in March. And right now, I’m already booked up into September. So, it’s looking pretty good,” concludes Burnside.

Being in somewhat of a creative purple patch, Cedric had already commenced working on his new album before the Grammy recognition. “I finished writing Hill Country Love at the end of 2021. And the Lord blessed me to win a Grammy for I Be Trying in 2022,” explains Cedric. “But I have to explain it like this. I’m not just doing it

The influence of the greats who proceeded Cedric Burnside are present on the artist’s new album. “I always write original music, that’s something that I feel it’s going to always be with me. Because I love to write, but when I decide to record an album, I always like to put a song or two of people that I grew up around. My Big Dad had been one of them. RL Burnside was a

Hill Country Love by Cedric Burnside will be released via Provogue Records/Mascot Label Group on Friday, April 5th.

Words by Adam Kennedy Photo Credit: Jim Arbogast

RECORD BREAKERS

Of course, musicians are in the business of making records, but there aren’t too many who can say they are record breakers per se. But that’s certainly the case for Dutch outfit DeWolff. On 1st June, the group produced the world’s fastest studio-to-store record. The band started recording at 1 pm in the Artone Studio at Record Industry, and precisely 2 hours, 59 minutes, and 38 seconds later, the first 12-inch vinyl single, “Rosita Rápida”, was sold at Sounds in Haarlem, the Netherlands, beating the record previously held by Jack White.

DeWolff’s Hammond player Robin Piso explains how the opportunity came about. “We’ve got one of the biggest European vinyl pressing plants in the Netherlands called Record Industry. And we’ve had a long-term relationship with them,” says Robin. “They actually reached out to us, because they had this Haarlem vinyl festival. And because they’ve existed for a lot of years, they wanted to celebrate. And they asked us, do you have a cool idea?” He adds: “I thought about the possibilities about recording direct to disk. And I knew that Jack White did this once and was holding the world record. And I thought, maybe we can do it quicker.”

Record breakers DeWolff received recognition online from The White Stripes frontman himself. “We actually tagged Jack White, and he commented on one of those progress posts, and he said good luck. Please make sure to record the whole process, because, for him, it’s also fun to watch. And he said, I hope you break the record, but not literally,” explains Robin. “For me, that was the coolest thing about the whole day, that Jack White actually acknowledged our existence.”

But the band’s interest in recording doesn’t stop there. DeWolff have an interest in analogue recording techniques. The group’s latest album

Love, Death & In Between encompassed some of those retro methods. “We wanted this record to sound as human as possible. For us, that means no overdubs. Everything you hear on the record has to be played in that room,” said Robin. “You get a really human sound with a lot of the dirty mistakes that we like. So, it was definitely a choice. And for us, that’s the most important thing about recording analogue, that you get a certain process of recording which makes you listen to the music instead of the separate parts.”

The band’s latest album has been well-received. Love, Death & In Between, released on Mascot Records, became DeWolff’s first ever #1 record in their native Netherlands. This is something which the band are very proud of. “The previous record was recorded with as little human contact as possible because of Coronavirus. Considering that we got to tour with this record, and it got a lot of attention. I’m really happy with how it turned out. And I’m really happy that the world acknowledges that this record is kind of special,” he says.

DeWolff took a brief pause to celebrate a nomination for an Edison Award (The Dutch Grammy’s) for their album Double Cream with The Dawn Brothers. “For me personally, it was a big deal because that was an award that’s been around for a long time. And my parents not being into music at all. I love them, they love me, and they’re really proud, but they don’t really understand the scene or anything, or they don’t go to concerts, and that’s fine. But they knew what an Edison Award was, so us to receive one, that was for my dad, like, Oh, my God. I know that award. That’s a really prestigious one, it’s been around for a long time, and I’m so proud of you. So that was cool,” confirms Robin.

The group have recently completed a tour of

the UK alongside US-based blues/rock guitarist Jared James Nichols. “That was actually the first time we did a tour in the UK. Before that, we did London a couple of times, we played some showcase festivals there. And we played The Black Heart in Camden and the Blues Kitchen,” explains Robin. “This was our first opportunity to travel around the UK. At the first show, we were getting used to it a little bit because we didn’t know what the UK audiences would be like,” he says. “After the show, we always go to the merch stand to sell some records and talk to the audience. And that’s when we heard that everybody really loved it, and we made some really good friends there that are already buying tickets for the other shows in March that we’re doing.” The band also paid homage to one of their heroes whilst on tour. “We visited John Bonham from Led Zeppelin’s grave. We felt really close to the music that inspired us.”

DeWolff will return to the UK in March for an extensive headline tour. This year, touring and writing is very much on the agenda. “In January and February, we start writing again. We’re going to record in May, and we’re going to release hopefully at the end of next year. So that’s the general idea for the year, but all the specifics is maybe for the next interview because we’ve already got some cool stuff in the pipeline,” concludes Robin.

Words by Adam Kennedy

Photo Credit: Satellite June

The Wanderer Returns

Dion has had a long and fruitful career. Turn back the clocks to 1959, and Dion and the Belmonts won a place on the ill-fated Winter Dance Tour with Buddy Holly et al. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inducted artist has hits in his repertoire, such as Runaround Sue, The Wanderer, and Ruby Baby, to name but a few.

Fast forward to the present day and the American singer and songwriter is in one of the most creative points in his career. Dion is preparing to release his third new album since 2020 this year. Speaking about his creative purple patch, he said: “I know so many people who went through an agonising, terrible, horrific time during COVID. But it was the most productive time of my life. I was locked down; nothing was open. We were here, and I just stepped onto the spout of creativity. And I’ve written about thirty of the best songs I’ve ever written.”

Dion’s latest album, Girl Friends, features collaborations with an ensemble of outstanding female artists. “I had such a good time on the two albums I made previous to Girl Friends. I worked with Rickie Lee Jones and Samantha Fish. I just had such a good time with them that musically it was off the charts,” he says. The artist believes that men play differently when there are women in the room. “The room changes when a beautiful girl walks in the room. And not only beautiful but talented,” explains Dion. “On some level, I think everybody’s trying to compete for their attention, but it’s a lot of fun.”

But how did the artist pick each performer for their song on the album? “I just try to write a good song with my imagination and think of the theme and what I want to say. And I put the song together. And then, when I’m listening to it, usually an artist will pop up in my head. They belong on this song,” he says.

One of the recent singles from the album is called, Soul Force, featuring Susan Tedeschi from the Tedeschi Trucks Band. “Susan Tedeschi is one of my favourite singers. My only regret on this album is I didn’t get to sing with her,” explains

Dion. “I didn’t want to write every song like a dialogue across the table. Like you say this to me, and I say this to you.” He continues: “I thought Susan Tedeschi, she’s a Soul Force. She definitely embodies that word. So, I called her up.”

There are songs from Dion’s repertoire, such as Runaround Sue, Donna The Prima Dona, Little Diane and Ruby Baby, that had a strong female focus. Recollecting the timeless classic Runaround Sue, he said: “I would sing it with the group in my neighbourhood. We’d get like a mantra going. And you ride on that riff like its horns. All these ideas are from the Apollo Theatre, and I would get the group to do that, and then I would sing on top of it.” He continues: “Back then, you had Frankie Avalon singing Venus and Johnny Mathis, and you had Paul Anka singing Put Your Head on My Shoulder.” But the artist wanted to do something a little different with Runaround Sue. “I’m thinking, now we’ve got to get some strong women in the songs. Let’s get some conflict or some energy to these.”

But was Runaround Sue based on a true character? Dion recollects encountering the person in question whilst being interviewed on a radio station some 20-30 years ago. “We’re taking phone calls at a radio station. And don’t you know it, the girl that inspired Runaround Sue, I’m not going to mention her name because it didn’t rhyme,” he says. “She calls up. And she didn’t know the song was written about her. She just called me because we’re from the same neighbourhood.” He adds: “She was married to a rabbi. And she had six children. And she was totally happy.”

Dion remembers vividly the late great Buddy Holly. Dion regarded him as “a great guy.” He adds: “He had a great sense of humour. He was very serious in a lot of ways and very intelligent. I think people who have the kind of sense of humour he had have to be intelligent. And he was a joy to be around. He was almost like an accountant offstage. He was very structured, statuesque, and regal. And then he would take all that off. And when he walked out on stage, he just took the stance, he had the Strat, and it was

like, hold on, here we go. So, it’s free abandon, but he was a very thoughtful guy. I remember him as a very decisive guy.”

Of course, Dion was only a teenager when the two crossed paths. “I was 19. He was 22. And I was kind of in awe because I was learning how to hail a cab; I didn’t even know what taxes were, I had no idea. We were all just learning a lot of stuff. He was taking flying lessons at Teterboro Airport. Here I am learning how to drive,” explains Dion. “I miss those guys. He taught me a lot too. He used to say, I don’t know how to succeed, but I know how to fail - try to please everybody. So, if it wasn’t for him, I don’t even know if I would have sung Runaround Sue, The Wanderer, or Abraham, Martin and John or any of those songs. I just took a leap of faith.”

Whilst Dion’s new album will be released in March, the artist has plenty more irons in the fire. “I just wrote a book. In fact, we’re going to talk to the publisher this week,” he says. Dion also has a musical called The Wanderer about his life on the horizon. “We’ll be working on the play because then you’ve got to start raising money. And I don’t know, that’s not a thing I can do,” he says. Whilst concerts are also on the agenda. “I’m going to keep it simple. I’m going to put my band together to do some shows and join the people out there with some good music and take them on a trip,” he concludes.

Dion’s new album “Girl Friends” is released by Joe Bonamassa’s KTBA Records on March 8, and is available to pre-order from www.ktbarecords. com.

Words by Adam Kennedy

Photo Credit: David Godlis

Heavy rock megalith Lucifer are kicking off the new year in style with a magnificent new album, Lucifer V, which drops on January 26th, 2024.

Consisting of nine unholy hymns, Lucifer’s fifth offering can easily be regarded as their magnum opus and sees the band channelling all their strengths known from previous records into one monumental mass of electrifying heavy rock and roll.

So, something was going on every night.”

Being on the road is perhaps the fun part of band life. “It’s easy to forget that there’s another side when you’re at home. We live like hermits, out in the wild with our studio at home. And when we record music, it’s like we see each other, but we don’t see many other people,” explains Johanna. “You come out, and you see all these faces, and they sing along to your songs. It’s like, wow, that’s crazy. I wrote this line a year ago. And now there are people crying to the song and getting emotional about it. It’s very touching because it’s easy to forget when you’re by yourself.”

The band recently took to the road across the US on what was billed as the Satanic Panic Tour, where Lucifer co-headlined alongside Coven. Speaking about the run, lead vocalist Johanna said: “That was a really fun tour. It was cool. We did almost a month. And I just came home a couple of days ago. And I have pockets full of great memories from this one. We had two shows where Bobby Liebling [Pentagram] joined us. He drove from Kansas to Omaha and joined us on stage for Forever My Queen, and then he came back to us in Philadelphia. And then, in New York City, I got invited by Jinx to join Coven for Blood on the Snow. That was a lot of fun. A lot of bands and peers from other bands visited us on tour.

but with a smirk in your eye. I think it’s just a mix of things, and I also thought it was funny because nobody else would probably see that. But I do like Lana Del Ray, and for some reason, I thought that maybe that’s a song that she would write and sing in that way if she was in a band called Lucifer that usually plays like Doom and Hard Rock. I’m just trying to entertain myself with the lyrics as well.”

There are strong recurring themes within the Lucifer repertoire. Singles such as Slow Dance in a Crypt are a prime example of that. “I do have a fascination for the morbid, and I guess if you had a top 10 charts of themes that are reoccurring and used for lyrics, death would be topping the charts. So, there’s so many different angles you can take that on,” explains Johanna. “Slow Dance in a Crypt has a lot of humour in that kind of romantic side, or maybe it’s almost necrophiliac

She adds: “When I mentioned the title to the rest of the band, it’s like, nobody says anything, but I can tell by their reaction, it’s like, oh - okay. But, it’s fun to be daring. It’s definitely not a song title for a band that plays Doom and takes themselves too seriously, which I think makes things silly, if you take yourself too seriously, I think humour is always very important.”

But how does the artist feel about their new album against the rest of the Lucifer back catalogue? “You are supposed to love all your children the same. But somehow, I love it a little bit more, even than the others. And that was my honest opinion. And not because it’s the one that’s coming out right now. I do think that

it takes all these albums to learn each other’s musical language more and more and also to develop as an artist,” she says. “It’s supposed to progress with your instrument, or in my case, with my voice or whatever. So I think that was our best one yet.”

Johanna adds: “I have not given many interviews yet because we are only starting, but a few journalists that I spoke to all say the same thing. So I mean, for whatever it’s worth, we’ll see. I mean, in the end, it’s important what the fans say. So that’s a different thing. But I love this album, and it’s close to my heart, and it’s been sincere. The songs are sincere, and I managed to let them touch me. If you can write a song that moves you, then that’s great because you’re obviously not going through the motions. So hopefully, that spark will fly over to a few souls out there.”

The album cover for the band’s latest offering has somewhat of a macabre aesthetic to it. “I’m actually lying in a coffin,” declares Johanna. “It’s a real coffin. But you don’t know that because I guess it’s not so clear on the cover. It’s more when you hold the actual album. And it’s a

gatefold, and you open it up, and you’ll see that everybody’s lying in a coffin. And the coffin on the cover is an old transport coffin that’s over 100 years old. It’s this rusty, beautiful thing. And we borrowed the coffin from a friend of mine and we carried it into a studio in Stockholm and propped it up on a sofa. I thought with the light, it looks a little bit more like a film poster. And I guess that was kind of the idea.”

Lucifer will shortly be embarking on a European tour in support of their new album alongside Angel Witch. “I’m excited because we get to play the new singles on the next tour. So, on this US tour that we just did, we played only one of the singles, but I’m very excited to change up the setlist. And I’m very excited to tour with Angel Witch. I guess it’s my favourite New Wave of British Heavy Metal band, so that is really cool,” explains Johanna. “On the first Lucifer album, Andrew Prestige was playing back then in Angel Witch, and he told me that Angel Witch was called Lucifer before they were called Angel Witch. Isn’t that funny?”

Touring is on the band’s agenda this year, al-

though they remain open-minded about the second half of the year. “We have a European tour coming in February. And then there’s going to be festivals in the summer. But since we have the album coming out in January. Right now, in the second half of the year, I have no idea. And I’m actually kind of glad about it. Because it’s been a very busy year, we’ve done this Ghost tour, and since then, it’s just been nonstop stuff, like recording the album, US tour,” explains Johanna. “So, I think we can let the new album breathe a little bit when it comes out and see what’s going to come. Of course, we’ll probably book more stuff throughout the coming year, but that’s as far as I know right now,” concludes Johanna.

Lucifer V drops on January 26th, 2024, via Nuclear Blast Records.

Words by Adam Kennedy

Photo Credit: Chris Shonting

RATTLE AND ROLL

Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes turbo-charged into 2024 with a brand-new album and a UK tour to boot. The band’s latest album sees the group pushing their musical and creative boundaries further than before.

Whilst we are still at the top of a new year, Frank reflects upon how the last year affected the frontman. “Last year was tough for me. I was really dedicated to consistency and to really challenging myself,” he says. “I got sober at the end of the year before and so it was a very different way of living, very different than what I had been used to in recent years. So, for me, it was a tough year, but it was one that was full of some fairly profound revelations.”

He adds: “Naturally, we were making a new album and some big projects. So, I had a lot of really big successes and was present enough to appreciate all of them. 2023 was a hard year, but actually, it was a really beautiful year.”

Perhaps it was these feelings that illustrate the duality of the band’s new album Dark Rainbows. Elaborating on the album title, Frank said: “It’s the thing that exists, but it doesn’t exist. It’s something that appears momentarily. It’s like a ghost of a thing. Rainbows are a beautiful thing, it doesn’t matter how old you are, you see one, and you’re still going to stop for a moment and be amazed because it’s just this little gift from heaven of something unexplainable, and it needs multiple elements to happen. You have to have rain clouds, and you have to have the sun. So, it requires the duality of two opposing things to achieve this little moment of magic. That’s what I was experiencing. It was a very dark time for me, but within that, there were moments of absolute clarity and beauty that kept pushing me forward. Someone described it to me as the tension between happiness and sadness.”

Having gone through the process of self-evaluation and reflection for Dark Rainbows, does Frank Carter prefer to write from a personal place? “Lyrically, I can only write from my perspective,” he says. “I’ve danced around other people’s perspectives in the past, and it’s just it doesn’t feel dishonest, but it also doesn’t feel like the right thing to be doing. My gift is words, but the most success I’ve had in writing about other people’s perspectives was writing as a voyeur, as a watcher of those situations.”

On Dark Rainbows, the artist dug deep. “With this one, this was as deep as I could go. And then I went a bit further, when you hit your

rock bottom, I definitely carved my name this time. And I hope I never get back down there to see it, but if I do, it’ll be a stark reminder to you that I shouldn’t be there,” declares Frank. “It’s funny because I sit here and talk about writing from a personal perspective, but my problems are not unique to me. They resonate with me. Many people have, if not exactly the same, just different characters, but similar struggles, and that’s why I think our music resonates with people because we’re singing about the strife of life.”

But how does the songwriting process work within Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes?

“We write separately all the time, and then we get together. So, I’ll be writing bits of music, Frank will write lyrics and then really the way we understand it is that the songs come when we merge those two things. There’s something we don’t understand about what the other person does that makes it quite an inspiring moment,” explains Dean. “I don’t know what it’s like for Frank writing lyrics, but for writing music on my own, it can sometimes feel like a wrestle. You’re in that hole of - is this good? Is this not? And that all seems to go for me when we get in a room together and we start running our ideas into each other.”

However, there was one exception to that rule on Dark Rainbows. “The only exception, which I keep coming back to, because I feel like it’s such a special moment, is the song, Sun Bright Golden Happening. On this record, it was a rare moment where we wrote at least the song in real-time, just together in the room,” describes Dean. “We were in a cabin in the woods in the UK, and it was just a real singular moment where that song came out of us almost exactly as it ended up.”

Dark Rainbows showcases the evolution of the band’s sound. But was that a conscious decision to push the sound down a new path, or did it happen organically? “It’s always the most fluid process. I think we just want to grow. I think it was a confidence thing more than a conscious thing. I think we’ve had the reins for the last couple of records with me producing,” confirms Dean. “And the headspace we were in with Sticky, suited Sticky, and we made Sticky, and it’s the right record for that time. But we both went into this with a sort of calm confidence.”

One of the many tracks on Dark Rainbows which stands out on the release is the song Superstar. “We’re always looking for those sounds that are atmospheric and I think so much of our sound in the past has been about energy and just driving forward and relentless. And while that has a time and a place, so much can get lost if your only dynamic is a hundred miles an hour,” explains

Frank. “I think when we set out on this journey, we knew the song, Sun Bright Golden Happening, was the heart of the album, and we were going to build a record around that. And Superstar, I had this lyric that was tongue in cheek, but I loved it because of the sentiment; I still stand by that. Like I said, the chorus is about wanting to be in a movie with your partner.”

He continues: “You want it to feel passionate. You want it to be real. And you want to feel like you two are the only people in the world that matter, in the rain, having that slow car blur past you. I remember when we started writing it, and Dean was digging out that bassline, and it was just so rich, and it felt like a night I had in Madrid or Barcelona - I forget, which is a nice thing. Walking through some gardens, it felt like that. It was the soundtrack of that night. And so, I looked for that in those lyrics. I knew I’d written a whole song,” says Frank. “And when you hit that chorus, and it explodes, that was when I think I realized probably just the potential of our band to the future. It was like, that is what happens when you put the hundred miles an hour in the right place. That’s how you win races. That to me is just one of the first steps in achieving a cinematic record.”

The band’s recent single, Man of the Hour, came together in the final stages of the album process. “Man of the Hour probably came as maybe one of the last two or three songs we wrote. I think we knew from the moment we first heard the chorus; we were like, this is an important song for this record,” explains Dean. “We might have done some cinematic things in the past, but we haven’t really had such a sense of theatre that’s in that song that I would associate with artists like Queen or Perfume Genius. There are loads of references in our minds, and we found a little bit of that in a Rattlesnakes way on that song, and I’m really proud of that because that’s the element I take from that song is it feels theatrical, but in such an exciting way that’s got a huge history with rock music.”

The band will tour their latest offering in the early stages of 2024. Speaking about playing their new material on tour, Frank said: “I really hope that it connects with people in a big way.”

Dark Rainbows by Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes is out now.

Words by Adam Kennedy Photo Credit: Brian Rankin

Interview with Ash Costello

Hot off the back of a recent US tour with peers In This Moment and Ice Nine Kills, New Years Day are preparing to release their latest album, Half Black Heart. With several tracks from the release already available, the momentum continues to build as the group approaches the release date.

Reflecting upon last year, the band’s enigmatic lead singer Ash Costello said: “2023 was a year of incredible developments, artistically and creatively, but personal wise, it was not the best year of my life. But what ended up happening was, I got a lot of song content out of it, which ended up on the album.” She adds: “I’m very lucky that I have a creative outlet to input personal struggles into.”

Half Black Heart has already garnered positive feedback from the industry and the band’s fans alike. “I feel very excited about it. As opposed to Unbreakable, which I felt very trepidatious over. I had a lot of mixed emotions about Unbreakable, even though I love that album,” said Ash. “We’ve released three

songs from it, one single and two just kind of track releases, and the response has been awesome. And people are so excited about it. So now I’m getting very excited.”

The band’s new album title fits their aesthetic perfectly. “I’ve always been drawn to anatomical hearts. I know that sounds very strange. But in school, I used to draw them all over my binders. And it’s just a symbol that’s always for some reason resonated with me. So, I’ve held on to this album title for a while. I’ve had this in my back pocket for a long time, and I wasn’t going to use it until it felt right. And it feels so right now to finally put this idea out there,” explains Ash. “And the red and black thing is definitely on purpose. I’ve had the red, black hair now for over ten years. And now it’s just become a part of not only myself but it’s become a part of the New Year’s Day culture. I get tagged in pictures or posts almost every day where someone has dyed their hair this way and tagged me in it. So it’s very cool.”

Time away from the road during the pandemic allowed the artist time to reflect and gather

NEW YEARS

ideas for a point when some semblance of normality resumed. “When I talk about how the pandemic affected our songwriting, it’s not in the way most people mean or would assume it affected us in a way where I didn’t write anything. A lot of bands wrote their pandemic masterpiece albums, and New Years Day had been touring nonstop for about three years. We had tours booked for the rest of the year, which all got cancelled. We were in the UK when the pandemic struck, we had to come home. And I was burnt out, I was tapped creatively, because our album had just come out and our album cycle got cut short because of the pandemic,” confirms Ash. “I just took the time to live life and experience relationships and spend time with my family. So, I didn’t write anything. We didn’t start writing until way after the pandemic was over. So thankfully, I was able to go through some things, recharge my batteries and fill my songwriting tank back up. And that made it possible to start writing the album later on.”

The artist’s life experiences inevitably feed into their songwriting. “I have a love/hate

YEARS DAY

relationship with songwriting from personal experiences. But I do it because I know that I should, for myself, for my own mental well-being. And I know that I should for our listeners because I want to give them something that they can relate and connect to, and hopefully help them if they’re going through something similar,” explains Ash. “So, although I don’t love to get very personal in songwriting, it’s something I’ve been doing for a long time and pushing myself to do.”

stronger than that.”

New Years Day released the song Vampyre around Halloween. A perfectly fitting time, perhaps you will agree. “I feel like everyone can relate to this. It’s about the people, person, or groups of people in your life that are trying to cause harm to you, they want to hurt you. And we’ve all experienced that. And so, for me, it’s a multitude of different things,” said Ash. “I have to deal with people in my personal life or people who are business related trying to take advantage of me or harm me, or a group of people online, like online haters, or a past relationship. It is basically any form of narcissists, that’s going out of their way to cause you harm. I wanted to write a song that stood up and said, I am going to be

The sound on Half Black Heart sees the group return to their roots. The latter being catalyzed by the return of key members of the band’s original lineup. “Jeremy Valentine is a pivotal part of the New Year’s Day sound. I feel like when New Years Day became its own band was in 2015 when Jeremy joined, and his songwriting technique entered the storyline. And he really helped us find this unique sound that no one especially not a girl-fronted band was doing at the time,” explains Ash. “When we lost all three of those boys, especially the Wolf brothers, that’s Brandon and Jeremy, they still had a hand in writing the record Unbreakable. But they weren’t part of the band. And it wasn’t the same. For the first time, I had to go off and make an album with no help from a band member. It was just me and songwriters. And I’m proud of what I did, but I don’t feel like it was fully New Years Day. And I think the fans could tell too. I think I did a great job, but it wasn’t what I would have hoped. And so, when they came back, my first thought was, ok, so we need to go back two records and revolutionise

the sound that put us on the map in the first place. And that’s how Vampyre was born.” One band which seems to fit perfectly with the group as a touring package is In This Moment. Perhaps you remember when the pair shared the bill alongside Halestorm in the UK before the pandemic? “We’ve been touring pretty heavily with In This Moment since 2018. We’ve travelled the world with them, and they’re amazing people and incredible human beings. Maria is visionary and like a sister to me now, and I adore her with all my heart,” explains Ash.

With the band’s new album on the horizon, the singer remains open-minded towards the band’s plans for the rest of the year. “Some of the year is mapped out. Some of it is still up in the air - so we’ll see,” concludes Ash.

Half Black Heart, the forthcoming album from New Years Day is set for release on 1st March via Century Media.

Words by Adam Kennedy Photo Credit: Press Supplied

Interview with Al Jourgensen

Ministry has been the lifetime passion project of founder Al Jourgensen, considered to be the pioneer of industrial music. The US-based outfit will release their thought-provoking sixteenth album, Hopiumforthemasses, in March.

The 2021 album Moral Hygiene marked a new creative era for Jourgensen and the band. Last year, the band had a lot on their agenda. “It’s been busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. I can keep saying that for the rest of the year,” says Al. “It was intense man; we did a lot of stuff. We did the tour with Gary Numan. We did a tour with Rob Zombie and Alice Cooper. We got done with Hopiumforthemasses. We just did a film score for a documentary.” He adds: “It’s just been crazy. So, I’m not complaining, just exhausted.”

The band’s new album title, Hopiumforthemasses, is quite a mouthful. “It’s basically taken off an old Karl Marx quote. So, keep people at their windows, looking at their neighbours, looking at everything, keep them paranoid, but keep them up to date and give them enough hope that the masses don’t rebel against a pretty f*cked up situation that we have going on in the world thanks to governments across the world,” describes Al.

Some of the band’s latest offering evolved from Ministry’s 2021 long player. “A couple of the songs were done by Moral Hygiene, but we just didn’t have time to mix them from the album previous. A couple of them we

did fairly recently, and the majority of it took place last summer,” said Al. Whilst the group is in a creative purple patch, what does the future hold for Ministry beyond their latest release? “I’m certain that the next one after this one will be the last. I’ve even recruited original member Paul Barker to do the next album with me, and we’re going to close out our career with a nice little bow,” said Al. “Next year, what I’m working on right now is I’m doing a re-record album of all the early stuff, doing that Arista record, which I’ve hated for 40-something years. Doing it the way we wanted it to, not the way the label wanted it to do it. So that comes out next year, as well. And then I’m doing a final album, with Paul Barker and me co-writing. We’ve settled all our differences, and we’ve actually become quite good friends again. Plus, he’s moving back to Los Angeles. So, he’s around the corner. And so, he just dropped by my studio, and we just keep recording. So next year, you’ll have two albums of Ministry. A re-record of the earliest stuff, and then the last stuff. And so that’s our plan. And then I will bow out gracefully.” Outside of Ministry, the artist has plans for future projects. “My plan for the next couple of years after that is just to do film scores, which I’ve got lined up. So, I’m going to be doing a lot of film scores and a lot of activism,” he says.

Having Paul Barker on board is going to have a positive impact on the sound of the group’s upcoming releases. “Bringing Barker back in is going to give it a whole new dimension that we haven’t had in the 90s. He’s changed, I’ve changed. And so, I think it’ll stay fresh in that sense, but still familiar. So, I think it’s a good time to stop instead of trying to outdo yourself every time because there’s only so much you can do,” said Al. “You can only top yourself so much. So, you have to know when to say when because otherwise, it’s a downward trajectory where you’re just flailing about trying to do stuff that’s not even you because you’re trying to outdo you.” He adds: “I’m really happy with the way this one came out. I’d have to put this in my top two or three that I’ve done.” Ministry toured last year with Gary Numan, something which the frontman enjoyed immensely. “It was so nice

that we’re going to do it twice. We did it last year with him. We’re doing it this year with him,” he says. “Our bands interact literally on our buses, that we’d wake up in the morning and there’d be a couple of Numan people on our bus, and it’d be a couple of our people on the Numan bus sleeping in each other’s buses and we get along quite well. And, of course, I’m a fan, and he’s a fan of what we do. So it works out so great. We’re going to try it again in different markets but also different albums because the last time we toured Moral Hygiene, and he was touring on his latest. And now we both have new records coming out. So, this tour should be spectacular.” US touring aside, does Ministry have any plans to return to the UK and Europe? “We want to so badly, but first there was COVID. And then the economic crash that you had in Europe all over. So, we would go there and maybe break even - it was that bad. You see a lot of bands not going over there doing full tours anymore,” said Al. “This summer, we’re already booked. So next summer, a guarantee we will be there. And it’ll be the penultimate. It will be the next to last tour that we do. So, we’ll see you next summer. That’s a year and a half. But we’ll go over for that for certain, man. And I think they’ll be ready for us then. And we’ll have quite the setlist waiting for them that pretty much appeases everyone’s taste and still doesn’t make us a one-dimensional band.”

Ministry will be back on the road with friends this year. “We’re going back on the road with Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie for the summer. Because it worked out really well last time. So, we will do that. And then in February, we’re talking about a limited number of ten dates in North America, doing our Cruel World set. The very first Ministry stuff, just for a limited ten market run in February of next year. Then after that, me and Barker are just recording all year. Getting ready to go, and then next summer we head out with that, so fingers crossed,” concludes Al. Hopiumforthemasses, the new album from Ministry, will be released via Nuclear Blast on 1st of March.

Words by Adam Kennedy

Photo Credit: Derick Smith

REVIEWSLive

COREY TAYLOR

O2 ACADEMY, LEEDS

It’s not very often that you get the opportunity to witness an artist of the magnitude of Corey Taylor in such an intimate setting as the O2 Academy Leeds.

Usually, fans of the Slipknot frontman would have to stand in a field of tens of thousands of people at events like Download Festival to see the legend and his bandmates perform. But on this occasion, the legendary rocker arrived in West Yorkshire as he started his solo tour in front of a sold-out crowd in Leeds.

With a new album in tow, the headliner kicked-off the show with a ferocious airing of Post Traumatic Blues from Taylor’s latest offering, before turning back the clocks with Tumult from the Stone Sour back catalogue.

The beauty of a Corey Taylor solo show is that it allows the artist to showcase the many different facets of their artistry. Throughout Taylor’s career-spanning setlist, no stone was left unturned. Tracks from the Slipknot repertoire such as the anthemic Before I Forget or Snuff were welcomed with open arms. An acoustic airing of the latter also allowed both Corey and the crowd to take a well-earned breather.

Throughout their fifteen-song setlist, Corey Taylor left everything out on stage. The show was fuelled by the passion and intensity that his fans have come to know

and love. Whilst, the inclusion of a fan request for the SpongeBob SquarePants Theme also allowed the audience to see another side of the man behind the Slipknot mask. With his engaging persona, Taylor fired up the Leeds crowd all night long.

Several tracks from Corey’s latest album featured, including the first track to be released from the record, that being Beyond. The inclusion of songs such as Talk Sick and a live debut of Midnight showcased the high calibre of Taylor’s latest solo release.

Other highlights from the set included anthems and crowd pleasers such as Black Eyes Blue along with 30/30150 and the main set closer Through Glass from the Stone Sour catalogue.

By the time the headliner returned to the stage for an encore, the room was at a fever pitch as Taylor launched into the Slipknot classic Duality. The whole room sang along at the tops of their voices. A cover of the Black Sabbath number Fairies Wear Boots not only allowed Corey to pay homage to the British heavy metal greats but it also rounded out the evening in spectacular fashion.

In Leeds, the Slipknot frontman’s career-spanning setlist was Taylor made for this Yorkshire audience. And the fans enjoyed every single minute of it.

Words & Photo Credit: Adam Kennedy

HILLBILLY VEGAS & CROWLEY TRILLIANS, NEWCASTLE

What is the perfect antidote to a cold and stormy February night in Newcastle? A double dose of good medicine, administered by Northern stars Crowley, and some slick country rock from Southern USA Hillbilly Vegas.

Although very much a crowd awaiting some southern style melodies, there was a roar of appreciation for the hard hitting 5-piece Crowley. Already somewhat of a supergroup of local artists from bands such as Thieves of Liberty, Lyxx, Fallen Mafia and Scream Of Sirens. From their opening track, Hell Hath No Fury, Lidya Balaban grasped the attention of each one of us and Crowley kept us spellbound for entirety of their set.

Darkly gothic and occult inspired lyrics, delivered with a thundering rhythm, powerhouse vocals and immense guitars from Ruth Cranston and Eliza Lee. Crowley’s style and prowess have brought commercial and critical success to date, with singles Something Wicked (This Way Comes), The Witching Hour and a personal favourite Pyre, and as they are poised to hit the road for festival season here in the UK, they are guaranteed to gather a greater number of members to join their mysterious cult of rock.

Hillbilly Vegas take the wheel and open with Mason Jars and Moonlight, a bar room blues romp about making love and making trouble. A strong start and a cover of Waylon Jennings Steady AT The Wheel is a nice way to lubricate the crowd ready for a personal favourite. High Time For A Good Time, with its nod to The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil, has hips swinging and heads a shaking and

draws the biggest cheer of the night so far.

Already, the talents of the musicians present tonight have been demonstrated. Troy Hollinger and Johnny Reed bring the heartbeat and the thunder in the rhythm section, with Geraldo Dominelli covering all bases with keys and guitar, Hillbilly Vegas are seasoned, and it shows. Harris is the raconteur, telling stories of his escapades throughout the years, to a captivated audience ready to laugh, dance and drink all night.

Shake It Like Hillbilly deserves the success it has garnered. It is impossible to defy Harris for the duration of this hard rock, southern, dirty groove, you will shake it like a hillbilly and, you’ll like it! Heavy hitter, Hell To Pay tears the roof off Trillians with its rolling riffs and gritty, vocals soaked in threats and consequences, this again is a highlight of the set. The crowd now dancing, singing, and swaying along with this fan favourite, which sadly, brings us to the end of the night.

For the duration of their set Hillbilly Vegas bring a wonderful ‘wall of sound’ keeping the audience hooked on the groove and melody that they serve. At close of play Hillbilly Vegas have us baying for more, more of anything they have to give. Having now witnessed Hillbilly Vegas live myself and, following their, now legendary, set at Planet Rock’s Winter’s End, those of us present in Trillian’s tonight are safe in the knowledge that it won’t be too long before we are graced with another visit from our newly acquainted American brothers.

Words By: Viki Ridley Photo Credit: Mick Burgess

DON BROCO

O2 CITY HALL, NEWCASTLE

Fresh off the back of their latest US tour, Brit rock titans Don Broco arrived on Tyneside for their first show in the region since 2021.

The band’s last date in the city was at the start of their Amazing Things album cycle. Only this time around, the band is bringing this chapter in their career to a close. Of course, Amazing Things is an album that has resulted in great success for the group, garnering them their first Number 1 album in the UK Official Charts.

And despite the time of the year being the festive season, the title of the group’s current jaunt is the Birthday Party tour. The latter ties in with the name of Broco’s recent single.

Celebrations aside, the tour almost took a turn for the worst when frontman Rob Damiani injured himself a couple of nights prior. Arriving onstage sporting a neck brace, the singer embraced the old showbiz motto of the show must go on. According to a post on social media, despite advice from his physio to take it easy, the frontman was determined to push through the pain barrier to prevent the tour from being rescheduled.

Don Broco kicked off the show with an arsenal of crowdpleasing anthems including Gumshield, Manchester Super Reds No .1 Fan, Pretty and hit single Come Out To LA. The band’s on-stage energy catalysed the audience’s euphoric response throughout. And despite his neck brace, the band’s effervescent frontman didn’t hold back on what he regarded as “the most basic of Dad moves”. Rob still sank his heart and soul into his performance all night long.

For the old-school fans in attendance, songs from the band’s debut album Priorities were welcome additions. This included the likes of Actors, a stripped-back acoustic airing of Yeah Man and the thunderous title track itself.

Of course, there was plenty of room for tracks from the band’s current chart-topping album, including contemporary rocker Endorphins, One True Prince and an explosive airing of Bruce Willis. Damiani showed his admiration for the Hollywood actor sporting a t-shirt depicting the Die Hard star in various stages of his career.

In the latter stages of the show, Don Broco included recent single, Birthday Party. The song was the theme for the show, with many of the fans arriving in party hats. Even Rob got in on the action when a fan at the front of the stage passed up a small cone-like hat depicting the man himself, which he wore for a short period.

On the subject of the band’s newest material, Rob signalled that following the conclusion of their current tour, they would be going away for a little while to write a new album. Perhaps the news the band’s fans had been waiting for.

Don Broco concluded their seventeen-song setlist with a two-song encore that concluded with the anthemic T-shirt Song. And even on a chilly night in Newcastle, the fans were still more than happy to waive their shirts above their heads throughout the track.

For many, Don Broco’s show at the O2 City Hall may well have been their last concert of the year. But what a way to round out an excellent year of live music on Tyneside.

JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR FIRE STATION, SUNDERLAND

On Tuesday evening, Joanne Shaw Taylor made a welcome return to the Fire Station in Sunderland, where a legion of blues lovers awaited her.

The concert marked the artist’s second show in this very room, having performed at the venue approximately 18 months prior. Joanne has a connection with the city via her days with local superstar Dave Stewart. Of course, Joanne was discovered by the Eurythmics legend at the age of 16.

Joanne Shaw Taylor opened the set by way of In the Mood, which as the title illustrated, set the tone or mood for a wonderful musical evening.

The headliner was accompanied onstage by Shane Sanders on rhythm guitar, Steve Lehane on bass, Phil Whitfield on keys, and Eric Savage on drums. Collectively, throughout the evening, the band came together like a wheel-oiled machine.

This time around JST is touring as a precursor to the release of her forthcoming album “Heavy Soul.” The album is to be released on Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records on June 7th. Joanne’s forthcoming long player was produced by the legendary Kevin Shirley.

On this occasion, the artist largely kept her new material under wraps, with recent singles Wild Love and Sweet Lil Lies featuring in the set. Each of these didn’t disappoint. As the old saying goes, all good things come to those who wait.

The first half of the show saw Taylor put her stamp on several covers by greats of the blues genre, including the soulful sounds of Keep on Lovin’ Me by the late Otis Rush

and Can’t You See What You Are Doing to Me by Albert King. With its heavy groove, the latter got the audience’s toes tapping.

Joanne’s blistering fretwork during If You Are Gonna Make a Fool of Somebody was captivating. She made her Fender Telecaster sing like a bird. The cover songs featured on Joanne’s 2021 release, The Blues Album, where the artist put her stamp on tracks by many a blues legend via some of the lesser-known tracks in each of their repertoires.

The thunderous blues/rock stylings of Dyin’ to Know and the rather apt Watch ‘Em Burn featured mid-set. Joanne’s playing throughout the song was sizzling. The latter felt appropriate since the headliner was performing at a venue named the Fire Station after all. Massive cheers erupted from the Sunderland crowd.

A heartfelt performance of Diamonds In The Dirt was one of the many highlights of the set. The song was the title track of Joanne’s second album and was most welcomed by the artist’s old-school fans in attendance.

The headliner switched things up momentarily while grasping an acoustic guitar during an emotive airing of Fade Away. A beautiful and insightful backstory accompanied the song, where the artist shared her thoughts about grief and loss. A subject that many can relate to. In music, Joanne has a vessel to channel her emotions, and throughout the song, she does exactly that. The audience was transfixed throughout.

The main set closed out with a fiery rendition of Bad Love. The finger-picking sounds of Going Home was the perfect way to close Joanne’s combustible performance. On Tuesday night, Joanne Shaw Taylor was on fire in Sunderland.

Words & Photo Credit: Adam Kennedy

EXTREME

O2 CITY HALL, NEWCASTLE

US-based legends Extreme along with special guests Living Colour, arrived at the O2 City Hall in Newcastle for perhaps one of the most eagerly anticipated rock shows on Tyneside in recent times. But did the clash of the funk rock titans live up to our expectations? The answer is unquestionably yes.

When you get a band of the calibre of Living Colour opening the proceedings, it is always going to be a special occasion. The group kicked off their set with a homage to Jimi Hendrix on what would have been the late great guitarist’s 81st birthday by way of a rousing cover of Crosstown Traffic.

Classics from the Living Colour repertoire came in thick and fast with the likes of Leave It Alone, Love Rears Its Ugly Head, Glamour Boys and fan favourite Cult of Personality all featuring inside the group’s 40-minute set. Living Colour also gave a nod to the 50th anniversary of hip hop by way of a medley of tracks from the era, sighting bass player Doug Wimbish’s contributions to the genre.

The gifted and versatile US-based quartet were the perfect choice to hit the road with Extreme on this run. And their opening set was the cherry on top of a very strong touring bill.

It’s been six years since the last time Extreme performed in the region, with a show at the former O2 Academy Newcastle in 2017. Only this time, the group returned with a new album under their belt titled Six – their first studio album since 2008’s Saudades de Rock. Despite the long gap between studio releases, the group’s fans would agree that Six has been worth the wait. The capacity crowd at the O2 City Hall on Monday evening was a testament to that and the band’s staying power.

When you think about Extreme, your mind immediately flashes back to the early 90’s, and the group’s slew of radio hits and that unforgettable appearance at the Freddie Mercury Tribute at Wembley Stadium.

At the top of the show those memories came flooding back as the group nostalgically opened the set with It’s A Monster and Decadence Dance from their 1990 album Pornograffiti. The latter was an album which opened the door for the group around the world. In fact, Extreme played on this very same stage whilst touring with their seminal album back in 1991.

Extreme may not have been prolific visitors to the region, but each of their performances in the North East has been memorable. Whether that be their support slot with Bryan Adams in 1992 at Gateshead Stadium or their show at Whitley Bay Ice Rink in 1993 on the III Sides to Every Story tour. But quite often, there have been large periods between return visits. Which perhaps has made each show in the region even more special.

But it wasn’t all about the nostalgia, despite there being a healthy dose of it. Extreme’s latest album sees the Boston originating quartet firing on all cylinders. The early inclusion of Rebel at the top of the set showed just how seamlessly the band’s current material sits side by side with their greatest hits. The likes of their recent single Other Side of the Rainbow and the hard-rocking Banshee also featured. The group’s sound may have evolved from the 90s, but it’s the perfect example of contemporary rock without forgetting where the band came from.

There were occasional nods to Queen and Freddie Mercury, who, of course were huge influences on the band by way of excerpts of We Will Rock You and Fat Bottomed Girls. Gary Cherone’s energy, along with his heart and soul performance, conjured up images of the great frontmen of yore.

For the guitarists, an audience with Nuno Bettencourt is an unforgettable experience. Nuno’s blistering fretwork excited the crowd all night long, particularly during tracks such as Play With Me. The latter featured on the soundtrack to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Nuno’s eastern-tinged acoustic extravaganza Midnight Express and his electrifying Flight of the Wounded Bumblebee left the O2 City Hall fans spellbound.

There were many highlights of the set, including a harmonious airing of Hole Hearted and a jammed-out rendition of Am I Ever Gonna Change, to name but a few. Of course, the main set would not be complete without the anthemic Get The Funk Out.

There weren’t enough terms to explain how good the band’s performance was. It left this writer flabbergasted. Perhaps you could say their show was More Than Words could describe. In Newcastle, Extreme let their music do the talking. And it spoke volumes.

Words & Photo Credit:

Adam Kennedy

MICHAEL SCHENKER

O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE, LONDON

There comes a time in a highly respected musician’s career to take complete ownership of their illustrious past. To remind their fanbase of the many recorded instances that established them on their gilded pedestal in the first place. For Michael Schenker, it began as a seventeen-year-old German wonder kid guitarist in a coming-of-age British band, UFO. In journeying back to his original stint in this redoubtable heavy rock band, he took tonight’s sold-out and committed audience on a wild ride by reclaiming choice cuts from his UFO and subsequent MSG back catalogue.

Oddly, in expertly delivering these big heavy bangers from his trademark Flying V, it was one of the quietest decibel level gigs facilitated from a front-of-house mixing desk that I have experienced. Not that this mattered in the great scheme of the quintessential setlist that Herr Schenker and company rolled out like a pristine and lush musical red carpet. His engaging wingman in the vocal department, Robin McAuley, translated these muchloved rock milestones with a silver-tongued performance following an opening instrumental salvo of Into The Arena on which Schenker threw angular shapes with his Flying V. He continued to do so on follow up track Cry For The Nations and throughout the entire evening.

A very welcome re-visit of Doctor Doctor got the selfmedicating UFO hard rock ball rolling as an MSG airing of Looking For Love set up Lights Out with Shoot Shoot not far behind to quench the hardcore thirst of this theatre of diehard fans. A new track, Emergency, was hauled onstage

from Schenker’s latest album, Universal, and it paired well with another MSG fave from the grave, On And On. As a result, they set up a cracking shot of stonewall rock classics as Let It Roll was delivered bang on the nail by the superb back up musician’s Steve Mann, Bodo Schopf and Barend Courbois.

Further definitive versions of UFO classics including Natural Thing, an epic Rock Bottom and Too Hot To Handle mixed sweetly with Armed And Ready, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie and Desert Song from the MSG songbook. Without question, Michael Schenker embodied the final song Only You Can Rock Me as he assumed this song’s sentiment as his own.

All in all, not oft heard rock anthems are like neglected batteries; they fully recharge their fundamental values when rarely plugged in and attentively played by an originator. As one hundred percent proof, the nerdgasm Schenker induced in his clamouring audience tonight will continue to satisfy those who witnessed this show, and other dates on this tour, first hand for some time to come.

If music is the food of love, then Michael Schenker served a sublime and tasty menu of cherished sonic classics to this bursting at the seams sold-out Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Tonight, everyone was rewarded by getting their long overdue just desserts. As one wizened attendee observed upon exiting, “That was how God intended UFO songs to be heard, played on a Flying V guitar”! Lights out, London.

Words By: Paul Davies

Photo Credit: Adam Kennedy

BOWLING FOR SOUP O2 CITY HALL, NEWCASTLE

Pop punk legends Bowling For Soup and touring counterparts Less Than Jake arrived on Tyneside for a show of epic proportions.

Such was the demand for this show, much like many dates on the run, the band’s date at the O2 City Hall in Newcastle was a complete sell-out. With opening act The Vandaliers kicking off the proceedings at 7.30 pm, it was going to be an action-packed Monday evening from the off.

The Vandaliers, who are a six-piece outfit based in Austin Texas brought something a bit different to the proceedings. The group could be described as Country Ska. By their admission, Spotify has a challenge trying to find people to like their music, due to its varied sound. But based upon the response from the Newcastle audience, they had no trouble at all falling for the band’s up-tempo, feel-good repertoire. Songs like Troublemaker and Every Saturday Night were a testament to his. Whilst, the band’s foot-stomping take on The Proclaimers I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) worked to great effect. Even the band were surprised that so many people turned up to see the opener on a Monday night. But on this occasion, the Geordies most certainly made the right decision.

Now, it may have been a Monday night, but when you’ve got one of the best party bands on the circuit by way of Less Than Jake on the bill, the audience is going to lose their inhibitions even on the worst day of the week. Of course, the US-based outfit are no stranger to this room, having played on the same stage just a few years back. The band’s high-octane set and relentless energy captivated the crowd from the off. They opened the show with Last One Out of Liberty City, Help Save the Youth of America from Exploding, and All My Friends Are Metalheads, whilst barely pausing for breath.

And whilst the audience welcomed the 90s nostalgia of Automatic, Less Than Jake was proud to showcase the single Lie To Me from their latest release, Silver Linings.

The latter is an album which was released in 2020, with a seven-year gap between the record and their previous release, See The Light.

Crowd-pleasing renditions of History of a Boring Town, Look What Happened and set closer Gainesville Rock Show were the cherry on top of the ska punk band’s career-spanning setlist.

Following a quick turnaround between bands, it was time for the headliners Bowling For Soup to take the stage. Performing in front of a huge video screen that often switched up the backgrounds and even displayed the song titles at times alongside imagery of the crowd. The band got the show underway with Emily, My Wena and Out the Window. By the fourth song of the set, Ohio (Come Back to Texas) arrived, fellow Texans the Vandaliers returned to the stage to help the band finish the track.

Bowling For Soup took the audience back to 2003, with Life After Lisa, before smoke cannons filled the air during The Last Rock Show. Decorative beer barrels filled the outskirts of the stage, and with an impromptu bar set up in the corner of the production, the stage set had a very homely, pub-like ambience.

Bowling For Soup’s set had an interactive element by way of an enhanced photo opportunity with the band during the anthemic Punk Rock 101. And even a rather generous guitar giveaway. One of the most frantic songs of the set came via the theme of Phineas and Ferb. Of course, the crowd hung on every word of the latter.

Jaret took the opportunity to discuss mental health before an emotive airing of Turbulence. Whilst anthems like High School Never Ends, Girl All the Bad Guys Want and 1985 transported the Tyneside audience to a nostalgic finale.

Bowling For Soup may have been a band for 30 years and visitors to the UK for 24 years, but based on their recent Newcastle show, the band are still going strong and showing no signs of slowing down.

Words & Photo Credit: Adam Kennedy

CEDRIC BURNSIDE HILL COUNTRY LOVE

The follow-up to ʻI Be Tryingʼ. 2022 Grammy Winner for Best Traditional Blues Album.

IN STORES APRIL 5TH ON CD, LP AND DIGITALLY.

WALTER TROUT BROKEN

New album by the iconic US blues-rock guitarist! With guest performances by Beth Hart, Dee Snider & Will Wilde.

OUT NOW! AVAILABLE ON TRANSPARENT DOUBLE VINYL, CD & DIGITALLY.

PHOTO GALLERY

Photo Credit: Simon Dunkerley & Adam Kennedy

PHOTO GALLERY

Photo Credit: Simon Dunkerley

BREAKING DOWN

AN INTERVIEW WITH ROBBY KRIEGER

As a member of one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time, Doors guitarist Robby Krieger wrote or co-wrote classics such as Light My Fire, Love Me Two Times, Touch Me and Love Her Madly. The distinguished artist is preparing to unveil a new chapter of his career via the debut studio record from his latest project, Robby Krieger And The Soul Savages.

Speaking about how the project came about, Krieger said: “I have a studio in Glendale, and a couple of buddies of mine live near there, and we started jamming together,” explains Robby. “We just started playing for the fun of it at my studio and kept getting new songs. And that’s pretty much how it came about.”

The relaxed atmosphere of working at his own studio proved to be a fertile ground creatively for the group to work. The guitarist agreed that the approach was akin to when The Doors recorded their final album with Jim Morrison, LA Woman, at their rehearsal space in California. “Yeah, it was very similar, as a matter of fact,” confirmed Robby. “I was just thinking the other day how Riders on the Storm came about. We were just fooling around in our rehearsal place with The Doors, and we were playing Ghost Riders in the Sky. That song has that surf kind of guitar sound. And so, Jim came in, and all of a sudden, he started singing. Instead of Ghost Riders in the Sky, he started singing Riders on the Storm. And so, it became a whole different song.” A similar approach was taken on the guitarist’s latest album. “We kind of do the same thing. We start playing a bassline that somebody knows, and it just turns into something else,” explains Krieger.

Robby Krieger and the Soul Savages work in a very organic manner. The band’s eponymous debut release takes the group on an instrumental musical odyssey that explores souljazz, dirty blues, and the psychedelic rock roots of The Doors. But what is their starting point for composing instrumental music? Do

the band use a framework or a song title to inspire the song’s musical direction? “It hardly ever starts with a song title; that usually comes later,” confirms Krieger. “We actually had quite a difficult time coming up with the names for these songs. But there’s something always that comes up that gives you an idea. There’s one called A Day in L.A. That I think was the day when COVID was almost over.”

Recently, Robby Krieger released his revealing memoir, Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar With the Doors. “I started that book probably 20 years ago. With one thing or another, I never got around to finishing it,” he says. “Finally, this friend of mine, George. He was trying to get me to do a new movie about The Doors, especially about my life with The Doors. And for one reason or another, that never came to fruition, but we had a guy who was trying to write the script, and he turned out to be really cool guy. And he really is the one that helped me to get the book going and finish it. Because without him, I don’t think I ever would have. Jeff Alulis is his name.”

These days, it seems like Jim Morrison is a mythical character, preserved in the annals of music history via the band’s songs, iconic imagery, archive recordings and vintage black and white videos. But what was the iconic frontman like as a bandmate, a friend, and a songwriting partner? “He was great to work with,” confirms Krieger. “He seemed to love everything that I would come up with. And his words were so great. It was just easy to put music to it. I couldn’t ask for a better writing partner.”

It goes without saying that Jim Morrison was a poetic lyricist. However, for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted guitarist Robby Krieger, working in the field of instrumental music is a different beast, but in a good way. “It’s different because it doesn’t have words. But with me, I always loved music, even more than words,” explains Krieger. As a guitarist in the

Doors, writing lyrics wasn’t at the forefront of Robby Krieger’s agenda. “I never thought about writing words until one day, Jim said to the three of us. He said, hey, we don’t have enough songs. Why don’t you guys write some words too? And so, I went home, and first I asked him, I said, what should I write about? And, he said, write about something universal. Something that’ll hold the test of time? And so, I said, ok, what’s universal? Earth, air, fire, and water. You know, what’s more universal than that? So that’s where I got the idea for Light My Fire. And then there are some water songs. We just started playing Yes, The River Knows, that’s a water song.”

If you turn on the radio today, perhaps you will hear songs like Light My Fire blazing over the airwaves. The music of The Doors has soundtracked our lives for many years. “A lot of groups from that time really don’t have that privilege. And for some reason, The Doors songs still seem to resonate with a lot of people. And young people too. Many young people come up to me, like 10 years old to 12 years old, and say, wow, I really love your songs. And I always ask them where they heard it, and not very many say from their parents. Some do, but a lot of them hear it on the radio or from their friends. And it’s pretty cool really,” explains Robby.

With his new album wrapped, the doors are open for the legendary guitarist to explore opportunities presented by his new project. Robby Krieger is considering his options with regards to touring his new album. “We’re trying to get it together right now, and make the plan. We’re going to do some gigs here in the States all over. We’ll just see what happens,” he concludes.

The eponymous debut album from Robby Krieger and the Soul Savages will be released via The Players Club on 19th January 2024.

Words By Adam Kennedy

Photo Credit: Jill Jarrett

#FORYOUCHESTER

Following an instigated reformation as Chester’s request, Grey Daze are back and celebrating the exceptional legacy of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, by embarking on a tour in the UK for the first time, to display an often overlooked chapter of his career. We took a look back at the progression of Chester’s first band and how they are honouring his talent.

Sean starts with setting the scene and transporting us back to where it all began “Okay, so it’s 1993, putting my long hair over my shoulders real quick. I was 17/18 years old. He [Chester] came in to audition [to join Grey Daze} through a mutual friend. He was 15 years old, scrawny little kid. And truth be told, I was disappointed when he walked in the door because I had this impression of what I thought a lead singer was supposed to be. And, you know, shame on me for letting my ego and having these assumptive expectations that were unreasonably placed on somebody walking through the door. As

soon as he started to sing however, it kind of smacked me in the face and reality set in like, this guy can really sing. Who am I to be judging? He doesn’t look like a rock star. He doesn’t come across like a rock star. We were all so young and naive and we just had these assumptions of where we thought we were going and who we thought we were, what things were supposed to be. They were unreasonable expectations to say the least. But I’m being honest, that’s how I felt. Then of course, as soon as he started singing, we hit it off. [I] Loved what he could do talent wise. We became best of friends and then kind of took off from there. Put out our first record in ’94. Another one in ’97. Had a couple of record deals, toured around the country then the band broke up in ’98. We maintained a business partnership and close knit friendship all the way through his Linkin Park years, and I’m proud of everything he did there. I played in a few side projects with him along the way, and then in 2016 we decided to put the band back together.”

The business that went on to become a huge success across the USA Sean is referencing, is called Club Tattoo, which is “a luxury tattoo

and piercing lifestyle brand. I have six studios in Las Vegas in Arizona. Started the company in ‘95. Chester helped me lay the initial tile in the shop. Eventually became my business partner in 2003 and helped me open up multiple stores. We did a bunch of global collaborations. We had several different businesses, but that was the main one. We did some real estate stuff together. We owned some tanning salons and some other stuff, but the main business we did together was Club Tattoo and he was very, very proud of that. And throughout his Linkin Park success, I know he was very, very into what we were doing as Club Tattoo. We would have a lot of intermixed business with Linkin Park and Club Tattoo and would have them come do meet and greets and stuff like that, would bring our staff out to their shows, that type of thing. We really got along in the business, the business side of things and just, you know, clearly we had a great friendship. So it was a natural progression for the business side of things to kick in. And then when the opportunity to come back and start playing music together, it was a no brainer for both of us.”

After discovering the unique bond Sean

had with Chester, it raised the question as to why the band dissolved and how Chester went on to become apart of Linkin Park. Sean explained “we got into a huge fight and truth be told, Chester’s first marriage was extremely challenging. You know, it was his first marriage, they were both very young and immature. I was best man at the wedding and I was too. So it’s not a dig on that we were all that way at that age, but they were very tumultuous in their relationships and fought a lot. And she was very controlling over what he was doing and had a lot of opinions on the band. My ego was very large back then and I was putting a lot of time and energy into the band. And when I saw band members not contributing the same, I started to get resentful. Mace, our bass player at the time, was an addict and was making all the wrong choices for all the wrong reasons. So all these things kind of culminated into a recipe for an explosive fight, which we had. And then the band just kind of disbanded. None of us could kind of move past our own egos and our own points of view. And, you know, kudos to our attorney at the time, Scott Harrington, who does not get enough credit because without Scott Harrington, Linkin Park never have happened. Scott Harrington had the foresight to know that Chester was a massive talent and he was working with a band called Xero out in LA through another mutual partner at their law firm and encouraged Chester to come out and audition for them as their singer. And that’s what he did. And then of course, Xero became Hybrid Theory, Hybrid Theory became Linkin Park, but without Scott Harrington, that would’ve never happened. And they kind of write him out of the story, which is kind of bullsh*t. The guy was a great guy. He was an attorney that actually cared about Chester and really had a massive contribution that goes unnoticed. So I’m glad I finally get an opportunity to talk about it.”

Showing true compassion and appreciation of their friendship Sean stated his favourite memory of the late singer, saying “Oh man, I have so many, so many. And this answer would probably change honestly depending on the time of year you asked me and the context it was asked. Right now I’m thinking about times that we are hanging out in Mexico on the beach writing music together as late teens. That, just popped in my mind. But I honestly have so many fond memories.”

After we delved into the early days of Grey Daze, latest member of the group and joining Grey Daze for their UK tour this summer, Chris, expressed his excitement about joining the band and how his collaboration with the group developed “So I met Sean and the guys in 2020 when the Amends record came out. I

was actually not even scheduled to go. It was a private release in Los Angeles and I wasn’t even supposed to go to this thing, I didn’t know about it until maybe an hour before it happened, and a friend of mine invited me out and I got to hear Chester’s voice in Grey Daze on the Amends record. I got to meet Sean, we just kind of hit it off, we exchanged numbers and we stayed in contact for years. They would come out to my shows whenever I toured through Phoenix. And so they knew what I did and we all got along. In October of 2022, they called me saying, should we try this? Should we give it a shot? And all of us were very trepidatious about this. And so I just flew out to Phoenix not having any expectations, nobody had any expectations, we just flew out there. We had some good hangs, we got in the rehearsal space and we played these songs that have never been played in this format before. And everything felt incredibly natural. It felt right, it felt surreal, but at the same time very comfortable. And we just put it out to the fans. We said, do you guys want to hear this live? And the response was overwhelmingly positive. And so our very first show that we did on top of filling this role, very first show that we did was in front of 10,000 people at U Fest in Phoenix, Arizona, and so that was nerve wracking to say the least. But despite a lot of the technical issues and the fact that the nerves were kicking in, the response was again, very overwhelmingly positive. So we ended up doing just a few more shows in the US, that went well, then some promoters in the UK came knocking on the door and we said, yes, of course we’ll bring this to the UK and out of everything we’ve done, I am stoked to come see you guys over there so that you guys can hear this music live for the first time.”

Sean expanded on the connection and powerful energy Chris brings to the band by expressing “I will say this, Chris has all the earmarks of, a great front man. So that I already knew because I went out and watched him play. I didn’t realise the personal side of Chris was gonna be so endearing. We’ve become close friends since he’s joined the project. We don’t get a lot of time together because he is touring and other stuff and lives in LA, but he’s a very thoughtful person. He is a very kind person. He has the magic when he is on stage, but at the same time is able to not let that, try to follow him around ego wise in his personal life. And I think he’s very intuitive as to the nature of what we’re trying to do and realises the importance of approaching each thing we do in a respectful nature to the entirety of the project. There’s so many facets to consider and the selfish point of view never or rarely comes out of him. So I find it refreshing to be honest.”

Whilst discussing the tour, Chris elaborated “Sean just nailed the whole aspect of this project. It’s not about us, it’s about honouring the legacy and these guys have been doing this for years prior to me. And every step that is taken is to make sure that we’re honouring a legacy, that we’re being respectful in everything we’re doing. And that’s what these guys embody. And so it was extremely refreshing to fly out for the first time and get to spend a few days with them and the amount of respect and and carefulness surrounding this project, surrounding this project and just with them as in character is a blessing for me to just be a part of their lives.”

If you’re catching Grey Daze on their May tour, Chris gave us a little insight with what we can look forward too, saying “UK is known for going hard and the crazier the audience, the better the show. And I have been known to jump into the crowd quite on quite a few occasions if the mood strikes me. So I’m excited to see how crazy UK can get first of all. Second of all, I’m very excited to just have the experience of performing this music and having this moment with everybody over there to honour the music.”

It doesn’t just end with the tour, 2024 looks very exciting for Grey Daze with talks of some near music up ahead, “We’re going in the studio to record in March with producer Brian Virtue. I think the fans are really gonna love hearing Chris with Grey Daze with songs that he’s written. I am really excited for the fans to hear that. I think we knocked it outta the park on a couple of these tunes and I think the fans are gonna appreciate that. And being that it’s our first time in the UK [this May], we will be doing a meet and greet with the fans at every single show and we will sign all of the memorabilia, we’ll sign anything that you bring to us.”.

You can catch Grey Daze throughout May 2024 as they tour the UK for the first time, for Chester..

Words By Charlotte Hooper Photo Credit: Press Supplied

PHOTO GALLERY

Photo Credit: Simon Dunkerley

Steve Hackett

As a storied artist with a prolific output from over a half century of artistic activity, it can be difficult to know where to begin with Steve Hackett and, Genesis puns aside, a good embarkation point is to be found on his new album, The Circus And The Nightwhale’s opening sound collage on People Of The Smoke as Steve details: “The smoke refers to London. It’s not people who smoke a lot of dope and wacky baccy. This is before all of that in 1950 London. The audio snippets from BBC Radio at that time, with a moment of the Ovaltinees meets Pathe news broadcasts and various things including ‘Listen With Mother’ with the ‘are you sitting comfortably’. Then you get a baby’s cry, the baby is obviously very uncomfortable, and then a steam train arrives over the cry that gets up to speed and it sets the pace for an incoming String Orchestra. Which then hands over to a rock band and a rock guitarist, strangely enough,” laughs Steve. “The autobiographical nature runs throughout the entire album, and I don’t want to give everything away, but it really is very personal. The only thing we are really experts on is ourselves and I’m a suitable case for treatment, of course, so there we are.”

As Steve states, this thirtieth solo studio album is his most autobiographical recording to date and this feeds into the unusual title of this album: “Well, we wanted to do an autobiographical album my wife Jo and me. And she suggested the title because we’d kicked around a few ‘circus’ titles before and it’s an intriguing title because the circus is a symbol for all things in my life as a musician. Travelling, the three-ring circus that is my everyday life living out of a suitcase and ministering to the needy.” Steve further adds: “Then there’s the Nightwhale which were the most difficult challenges for me to face where I was literally scared to death and close to a nervous breakdown at one point. It did feel like too much, am I going to be swallowed up by events or am I going to survive them? We gave it a name, which was The Nightwhale. The idea is you come through and it’s a transcendent moment, a kind of rebirth in order to achieve autonomy, which has been a big bugbear of mine throughout my early professional life and later life where my professional and personal would sometimes crash into each other with alarming results.” The harmony of married life to Jo has enabled Hackett’s ongoing creative roll as he reveals his working methods: “I think Jo and I are ideally suited to each other. She is a very gentle, caring, creative woman and full of ideas full of heart and I think I’m the luckiest guy alive to be with her. We wrote a lot of the album together and Roger King also wrote a lot as well. So, it’s a bit of a trinity. Roger puts them

into practice and takes ideas where I can’t do it on paper, he can do it sonically with his box of tricks. I think we take it in turns to be the ringmaster during this three-ring circus really.”

Steve has always worked with exceptional keyboard players ever since his days in Genesis with Tony Banks. Roger King has, for a few decades, been an ever-present creative force in Hackett’s magical sonic sphere as Steve lauds this extraordinary keysman: “Roger is very important. He has been talking about possibly retiring and I’m at the point where I’m hoping that he won’t. That I’ll be able to talk him out of this. He’s terribly, terribly important. I mean, just when we’ve got this on the eve of success with this album that’s been so well received. The response has been so overwhelming.” Amongst The Circus And The Nightwhale’s ear and mind-bending songs, the heavyweight doomy sonics on Taking You Down features Steve’s touring vocalist, Nad Sylvan. Steve came across Nad following his and Bonamici’s Unifaun album and upon recommendation from Loreley Festival organiser Winfried Volklein who heard Nad record a version of Genesis’ The Chamber of 32 Doors. Nad nails Taking You Down as Steve expands upon its meaning: “When I was at school, I seemed to be drawn to the odd bad character. I had a friend who, if you drew a comparison with (Carlo Callodi’s) Pinocchio, there’s a character called Lampwick and various people that lead him astray. But Pinocchio thinks that that’s alright because it’s going to be an interesting part of his education that he hasn’t experienced so far. My school pal, when we were nine years old, got me smoking, turned me into a pyromaniac and got me stealing. What else did he do? Oh, he taught me how to play poker. He was already playing poker at nine years old! He could do a professional shuffle and taught me how to do that. He didn’t teach me how to cheat at cards, but he got me several jobs. He was a little bit like my first manager, so my mother says, and one of the jobs he got was working in the fairground, first in the arcade and then I was given the upgrade to work in the main fairground at Battersea Park during one glorious summer of 1962. That’s when I was twelve, and I thought it was the bee’s knees, but it’s all about him and the fact that he didn’t really have a conscience at all. Then he got into drugs. The odd one of our friends would pass away and I think that there’s no doubt that he would have been pushing drugs and doing all of that because as a natural born entrepreneur he’s either dead, but he can’t be dead because he would be a survivor. I’ve lost touch with him now. He’s either in prison or running a country

somewhere probably in South America with a moustache. That would be him and having reinvented himself entirely with some bogus thing, I’m sure the mafia would be hot on his tail. Taking You Down is all about this character from school.”

As the ringmaster in his musical circus, Hackett is a beneficent leader of a touring group of crack musicians all of whom make stellar contributions to this album with Big Big Train’s Nick D’Virgilio, on People Of The Smoke, and Hugo Degenhardt, on Breakout, drafted in to provide their percussive stylings. But it’s current sticks man, Craig Blundell, whose drums were recorded in an unusual fashion for this release as Steve reveals to me: “I started the album about two years ago, and then there were so many gigs I couldn’t take it forward. I’d recorded a couple of tracks. Then we hit on the bright idea of recording drums at soundchecks. When we had a spare moment, and there weren’t a lot of those, many of these drum tracks were from live halls. That was with Craig.” Steve furthers: “ Of course, some tracks fell through the cracks and were written later. That’s why we got Nick and Hugo involved. The rest of the drums are either Craig or Roger King doing a little bit of virtual drumming as he does on Circus Inferno. The drumming on the album I have to say is spectacular.” As are the guitars: “I’ve always thrown the kitchen sink in. Sometimes, Tony Stratton Smith of Charisma Records would say to me, ‘it’s what you ought to leave out, Steve’, but I didn’t know what it meant,” he chuckles.

It’s going to be a busy 2024 for Steve Hackett as well as the release of The Circus And The Nightwhale, Steve has a demanding tour schedule as he tells me: “We’ve got an extraordinary number of shows. We have two months in America coming up. We have Europe and we have UK dates. There’s supposed to be some stuff in Japan that’s being offered. And there’s an offer from Dubai, which I’ve never been to. Yeah. It seems to be going on. I’m also hoping to move house at some point.” Well, you can bet your house on getting ultimate satisfaction from his new album and the hybrid live set of solo songs and tracks from Steve’s estimable period in Genesis as this circus continues to go round

Words by Paul Davies

Photo Credit: Tina Korhonen

Interview with Biff Byford

With a powerful back catalogue of British Heavy Metal recordings comes a great responsibility and Saxon carry the heavy weight of their legion of fan’s expectations with a steely class. It’s been a bestselling storied sonic pilgrimage from the vanguard of the NWOBHM to stoically being in the redoubtable rear-guard of the old wave of British Heavy Metal. Never fear, the marauding adventure in Heavy Metal continues for this fearsome crusading force as they release the twenty fourth Saxon album. Its title sums up what Biff and the boys have been accomplished at conjuring ever since they originally burst out of their native Barnsley. Hell, Fire And Damnation continues to be

(Blessed) from way back. We did some char ities together for the Yorkshire miners and a charity for people with asbestosis.” Biff continues: “I’ve met him a couple of times. I sent him a message asking if he could speak some words. So, I’m really lucky to get him because he’s quite busy.” The result is Brian Blessed’s inimitable preamble on album opener, ‘The Prophecy’ setting up Biff’s shrieking intro to the title track.

As the passionate leader of Saxon, Biff defines another band leader, Brian Tatler, contribution to this standing shoulder to shoulder release in Saxon’s weighty canon: “His contributions have been good. I mean, it’s a bit of an accident because Paul (Quinn) left quite suddenly.” Biff further reveals original Saxon guitarist Quinn’s reasons for quitting: “He had enough of playing metal music and

generally sweating on stage. Plus, there’s a lot of pressure writing songs, especially on the riffs. I don’t want any clever chords, just some really great riffs.” He furthers: “I asked Brian if he’s got any ideas as we were pushing a bit for time because we weren’t going to release it this early in the year. We were going to release it in November. We wanted to get something out to tour with Judas Priest. Brian sent me a few riffs and I liked them. So, his contribution on the album is great. We’re lucky, I suppose.”

Saxon are certainly blessed to have both Brian’s contributions with Diamond Head’s Brian Tatler ensuring a continuity of sound whilst adding a shot in the arm energy to this venerable group’s performance. Although Paul Quinn delivers two guitar solos, it’s a recording that sees Doug Scarratt’s and Brian Tatler’s duelling guitars firing up a blast furnace beneath these songs. Biff’s lyrics also delve into historical themes with titles Madame Guillotine, Kubla Khan And The

Merchant Of Venice, Witches Of Salem and 1066 (which includes the line ‘In 1066 The Saxon’s were slain) as Byford explains: “I don’t understand how we or Iron Maiden haven’t written a song called 1066 before? I co-wrote the song Saxons And Vikings with Amon Amarth, for their The Great Heathen Army album, which is about The Battle Of Stamford Bridge where the Saxons beat the Vikings. We let them know about that when we were filming the video,” chuckles Biff as he adds: “I thought I could write a song about the Norman invasion because that was the next big thing that happened after the Vikings. I thought, 1066! Brian had this guitar riff that was nearly the same as what I was thinking. So, the two things went together easily. The album really wrote itself.”

Another historical observation is the infectiously catchy Madame Guillotine: “I like storytelling,” declares Biff. “And for Madame Guillotine there’s a little story that gives a flavour of Marie Antoinette having her head lopped off and the whole thing turning into a bit of an entertainment spectacle. I think it was put together quite well by me and

Brian.” The storyteller in Biff further comes to the fore on Kubla Khan And The Merchant Of Venice: “I like the word Kubla Khan, it’s a great word to say. Kubla ended up being the Emperor of China at the time when Marco Polo was travelling around the planet writing about his travels. He went to China and found out about gunpowder, the silkworm and porcelain. He was the first guy to write about it. Christopher Columbus was a big fan of Marco Polo, apparently. So, it’s just a good story, isn’t it!” This album also contains the well-cooked bangers and mash up of straightforward Saxon metal belters as Biff tells me about the tale behind final track, Super Charger: “We used to jump on our motorcycles, when I was sixteen, and go down to this American Air Force Base and watch the drag races there. It’s about drag racing. So, I suppose, that’s history as well,” He continues: “Let’s face it, there’s only so many times you can write songs about having a great time on the road and I don’t want to get into singing about the occult; other people do that much better. I think it’s a British thing to write about history.”

With this album fast tracked for release

prior to their UK/European tour with Judas Priest and Uriah Heep, Biff ponders on the strange case of Saxon having never played Wembley Arena before...: “I don’t think we’ve ever played Wembley and we are looking forward to it. “We went to Wembley once with Rainbow on the Down To Earth tour, (Saxon had just recorded heir seminal second album, Wheels Of Steel) and we got to the backstage area and the tour manager came out and said, ‘I’m sorry, guys, Ritchie doesn’t want you on tonight’. We had just played Deeside Leisure Centre and Stafford Bingley Hall and we’d obviously gone down too well, because we were happening. When we toured with them in America, about four years, or so, later, I did mention it to Ritchie, but he had absolutely no recollection of it.” The silver lining still rising over this metal rainbow sees Saxon marching onwards with Hell, Fire And Damnation for any foes that dare get in their way.

Words by Paul Davies

Photo Credit: Ned Wakeman

KEEPING THE WOLVES AT THE DOOR

Guitar guru Philip Sayce recently wowed fans on this side of the pond during his first UK tour in many years. Following the release of several singles last year, the esteemed artist and Jeff Healy protégé released his new album, The Wolves Are Coming, in February. Although the gifted guitarist resides in California, he was born in Wales, where he spent his formative years before transitioning overseas. Returning to the UK was something that had been a long time in the making. “It felt like a dream come true, and I’m thankful for the opportunity. I feel extremely grateful. And having the opportunity to make music is a privilege. When that was taken away during the COVID era, it put a lot of things in perspective,” explains Philip. “I just really wanted to make the very most of every moment in the UK on these dates we just played because I hope to come back. But we’re not sure about anything anymore. The turnout was incredible. The support and the warmth I felt certainly from the UK audiences has been something I’ve dreamed about, and I’m deeply grateful.”

Philip Sayce is an artist who has a legion of guitar aficionados within his fanbase. At his shows, attendees could often be found peering over the stage whilst analysing his setup and pedal board. “It’s a beautiful gift that anyone cares. I’m just doing what I love to do, and what I’ve always loved to do. I’m always pushing myself to do better than what I did yesterday, and each day pushing myself to go further. And the fact that people will share in that and to share the energy exchange of a live gig and they even care about something that I’m doing is a gift, really,” he says.

Philip Sayce performs as part of a blues/rock power trio. Of course, it’s a format that has been adopted and championed by groups such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream, to name but a few. But what is it about that format that makes it work so well? “I think in a trio setting, you have to rely on one another, trust one another and listen to each other as well. There’s no extra bells and whistles, so everything is right there,” explains Philip. “It’s very intimate in that type of setting, so it’s really important that we listen to one another if we’re going to go into something we’ve never done before. And trust one another.

So, I think it speaks to the relationship on the stage listening to one another, but also off the stage that we get along and that these guys, they are talented and motivated musicians in a way they push themselves to play better all the time.” Philip Sayce released his new album, The Wolves Are Coming, in February, but what was the backdrop to his latest long player? “I think that the album was conceived during an intense time. A lot of stuff was going on for all of us, regardless of what country we’re in or where we’ve been living. Over the last few years, I’ve seen a lot of changes, some things that are good and some things from my perspective that I don’t like as well,” describes Sayce.

The album title itself has a lot of different perceived meanings. “It means a lot of different things, The Wolves Are Coming. I think it’s about self-preservation and self-care. And being prepared, and ultimately, the idea of getting the engines rolling here and getting these engines started, and let’s get moving because the wolves are coming. So, if you drown and doddle, they’re going to get you,” he says. “But ultimately, it’s part of the strive to stay motivated and to light the fires and to keep moving. Because if you sit around and get lazy, the wolves are coming. I think it can mean a lot of different things for people. It’s a sense of motivation, but also a sense of reality from what I’ve seen happen. And from a social standpoint, again, as I mentioned, there are some things that I’m seeing that look good, but some other things that I’m seeing that look bad from a social standpoint. So, it covers a lot of ground.”

Both onstage and on his new album, there are moments where the influence of guitar greats such as Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan shine through in Sayce’s playing. Speaking about their influence, he said: “I mean, they wrote the book. Or in the time that they were here, Jimi Hendrix wrote the entire book cover to cover.” Philip continues: “And certainly, Hendrix has his influences and took his influences from people that came from before him.” “Stevie Ray Vaughan, in the same way, he’s like the heavyweight champ. So, if anything that I’m doing, in some way, reminds you of them, that is the most beautiful compliment that I can think of. And in no way am I trying to, no one is ever going to be

them. It’s just not possible. For my own journey, I have my own experiences in my life, and their music is a lot of the soundtrack of my life. So, I tried to certainly go to the book of Hendrix, the book of Stevie Ray, the book of Albert Collins, and the book of Freddie King and certainly try to play that in a way that. I’m not shy to say, hey, I hope that it reminds you of them, but also that it’s me coming through. And I think that I love the music so much. And I respect those artists and their contributions to make this world a better place so much that my mission is to keep that fire moving forward in my own way,” reflects Philip.

Philip Sayce is well documented as a protégé of the late great Jeff Healey, having performed and toured alongside the guitar great. “Jeff was such a special and unique musician. Beyond something that you learn, he is just gifted with something in this world. The short time that he was here with us, I just feel so thankful to have been near him on stage while he did some of what he did. And it was like truly watching the most beautiful bird doing what it does naturally in the sky soaring and singing and whooping and enjoying the sunshine. And that’s what it felt like watching Jeff play. Listening to him perform and seeing he was just in his element and shining as a true force of nature,” recalls Sayce.

Following a successful UK tour in 2023, the artist hopes to return soon. “We’re working on dates. It looks like late spring we will come over to Europe. We’ve got some dates also in Eastern Canada, which we’re looking at around that time, and some dates in the US during the summer. And then we’re working on a more thorough UK run of shows also in 2024 which we’re looking forward to. So, we’re working on all those things at this moment,” he says. “So, we’re just exploring the possibilities and putting our game plan together of when, where and how we’re going to do in 2024 and beyond.”

Philip Sayce’s new album “The Wolves Are Coming” is released by Atomic Gemini/Forty Below Records via www.philipsayce.com and www. fortybelowrecords.com.

Words By Adam Kennedy

Photo Credit: Matt Barnes

REVIEWSAlbum

CEDRIC BURNSIDE HILL COUNTRY LOVE

Those who are familiar with the blues will immediately recognise the surname Burnside. It’s a name that is synonymous with the beloved hill country blues sound via the late great RL Burnside. The family is musical, to say the least, with many of its

WALTER TROUT BROKEN

Legendary bluesman Walter Trout returns with his incredible new studio album. The title of the release is Broken. A thoughtprovoking title which could be interpreted in many different ways, both from a personal standpoint, as well as the world in which we live today.

members actively performing in the blues world.

Presently RL’s grandson Cedric Burnside is following in his grandfather’s footsteps. His last album, I Be Trying, deservedly won a Grammy. With his latest album, Hill Country Love, the esteemed artist continues to shine a spotlight on the Mississippi region as he showcases this distinctive sound and flies the flag for hill country music for the new generation of artists coming out of that area.

As one of the descendants of the hill country sound, the album features his take on oldschool blues numbers such as the classic Shake ‘Em On Down by Bukka White and Po Black Mattie by his grandfather RL Burnside. Of course, Cedric performed alongside the late bluesman himself during the early stages of his career. In this respect, Cedric is keeping the legacy of his grandfather alive with the respect it deserves.

From the opening notes of I Know and Hill Country Love, that unmistakable hill country sound with its hypnotic rhythms and

The title track itself was recently released as a single and features none other than Beth Hart. An artist whom Walter amongst countless others holds in very high regard. The raw emotion that runs through the track can be felt from the off. Hart’s vocal harmonises with Walter’s to convey a beautiful and emotional connection. When coupled with Trout’s incendiary guitar playing, the song is quite something else, and most certainly a deserved title track for the release.

On Turn And Walk Away, Walter truly sinks his heart and soul into his playing. He makes his trusty Fender Stratocaster sing like a bird during some wonderful guitar solos. The track is further accentuated by some rather fitting blues harp playing. Harmonica player Will Wilde, brother of Dani Wilde, also adds his touch to the blues number Bleed to great effect. There’s nothing better than a slow blues number, and the song Courage In The Dark certainly fits that bill on Walter’s latest offering. Whilst No Magic (on the street) is the kind of staple blues/ rock number we’ve come to know and love from Walter Trout over the years, and one of the many highlights of the release. Walter

infectious melody is present from the off. Hill country music is the kind of blues sound that makes you want to dance.

The artist pays homage to a type of venue which has been at the heart of the region’s music scene by way of Juke Joint. The artist’s latest album was recorded in a building which Cedric had intended to turn into his own juke joint, but sadly, it wasn’t to be.

The distinctive picking style of the hill country sound is present throughout Closer and Thank You. Coupled with a tight beat, you can’t help but bob your head and tap your foot to the music. Whilst there is something of a more acoustic/resonatorbased sound to the song, You Got To Move, giving the track a slightly more traditional blues influence.

As the old saying goes, talent does fall far from the tree, and that’s certainly the case with Cedric Burnside. With albums of this calibre, the artist has many more awards and accolades coming his way in future.

Words by Adam Kennedy

continues to rock out thanks to special guest Dee Snider of Twisted Sister who features on the barnstorming number I’ve Had Enough. Continuing in a similar vein to We’re Not Gonna Take It. Snider’s fiery performance is of particular note.

The tempo of the release is brought down slightly via a further spellbinding slow blues number by way of Love Of My Life. The use of strings accompanying Walter’s virtuoso playing adds a wonderful texture to the overall composition of the song.

As we head towards the conclusion of the release Heaven Or Hell is another rocker, with a slightly 70’s aesthetic to it. Perhaps the sound of the organ gives the track that classic touch. Whilst I Wanna Stay is a heartfelt number and a great piece of songwriting from Walter and his wife Marie.

Walter Trout’s latest release is another gem in his colossal discography and storied career. Walter just keep on doing what you are doing. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Words by Adam Kennedy

BRUFORD

ONE OF A KIND

All too often people are put off listening to ‘challenging’ music due to other’s prejudices clouding their own judgement. Consequently, they create a mental wall between themselves and a patiently waiting adventure in a musical landscape of exotic sonics and dexterous musicianship. An open mind is always rewarded. Sure, it helps if you have a scintilla of hands-on musical knowledge to gawp in wonder as to how so and so ‘did that’! That gawp isn’t exclusive to such, though. As anyone can ‘get it’ and it helps when rhythmic complexity and creative melody intertwine with a variety of musical flavours.

This is jazz fusion and it’s all about meticulous attention to detail and feel. One Of A Kind does all this and more. The cast of players represents the crème de la crème of this genre as Bruford, Berlin, Holdsworth and Stewart silkily and skilfully intersect on memorable compositions. This is the professor of percussion Bill Bruford’s first release under the ‘Bruford’ band name. This new vinyl reissue is mastered from the original 1979 mix taken from the original 1979 analogue tapes by Stephen W Taylor. Its provenance is unquestionably pristine as is the acclaim this recording achieved following its release.

From opening big banger Hells Bells via One Of A Kind Part One & Two to album closer The Sahara Of Snow Part One & Two, the lengthy labyrinthine musical passages are a pleasurable maze of musicality balanced by the shorter Abingdon Chasp, Forever Until Sunday, Travels With Myself-And Someone Else, Fainting In Coils and Five G. One Of A Kind remains a unique cerebral and emotional experience proving exceptional music and playing lasts forever.

AMARANTHE THE CATALYST

Amaranthe are a heavy metal band from Sweden. They are unusual in that two of the six members are vocalists. They formed in 2008 and were initially called Avalanche, before having to change their name due to legal issues. They have had a series of members, but at their core are guitarist Olof Mörck and singer Elize Ryd.

The Catalyst is Amaranthe’s seventh and most recent album, with the first track from it being initially released in October 2022.

The album opens with a synth-infused metal, harkening back to classic eighties sci-fi. There is no introduction that establishes the theme or tone of the album. This can be initially off-putting, but the album builds into an increasingly stronger experience. It has a similar feel to Fear Factory’s third album, Obsolete, if Within Temptation had collaborated with them.

There is an excellent use of contrasting vocals, between Elize Ryd’s operatically clear vocals and the harsh vocal growls of Mikael Sehlin. Ryd’s vocals are clear and symphonic, whilst Sehlin’s roars occasionally overwhelm the music.

The Catalyst has a moment of tranquillity midway through the album, with Stay A Little While; but that was just the eye of the storm, as it builds to a crescendo with Find Life. The tracks are short and punchy, never overstaying their welcome and each running for approximately three minutes. However, with thirteen tracks and running for just over 38 minutes, the album may feel a little short. However, what there is, is incredibly powerful.

Ultimately The Catalyst is a fantastic album of symphonic heavy metal and a demonstration of just how much Amaranthe have evolved as a band. There just needs to have been more.

REVOLUTION SAINTS AGAINST THE WINDS

The supergroup follow-up last years ‘Eagle Flight’ with Eleven tracks on ‘Against The Winds’. This Mark II line up with Deen Castronovo on vocals and drums, Jeff Pilson on bass and guitarist Joel Hoekstra are joined once again by producer Alessandro Del Vecchio, on keyboards and backing vocals. I was struck by Deen’s remarkable voice when I reviewed the last album, not many realise how good he is.

Bassist Jack Blades (Night Ranger) and guitarist Doug Aldrich (Dead Daisies) were a hard duo to replace but ‘Eagle Fight’ proved that Pilson and Hoekstra were more than capable, and this album sees them firmly cemented in their roles. After the first song, which is also the title track, it’s apparent that all the experience and expertise, has been brought together and used in the most productive way. ‘Against The Winds’, with thundering drums and a melody that runs unhindered is an early indication of how ‘Revolution Saints’ could dominate the AOR market with this release.

Deen warms your heart on ‘Changing My Mind’ he comes across with so much emotion it’s truly commendable. ‘Fall On My Knees’ rushes with more passion before the more graceful ‘Can’t End It Right Now’. It gets a lot more boisterous for ‘Will I See You Again’ which is packed with the sound of Joel’s lush guitar. He turns it down for ‘Show Me The Light’ increasing the density on the chords to reflect the strength of the power ballad. ‘Been Said And Done’ pops, mixing screaming guitar with smooth vocals and it reflects this band’s sound perfectly. There’s more feeling on ‘Divine Wings’ a rock-hard track with more of Joel’s incredible work. Last up is ‘No Turning Back’ which has a romantic vibe and Deen is in full control once again. Accomplished sequel to the last album.

Words by Paul Davies

Words by Peter Ray Allison

Words by Diane Davies

STEVE HACKETT THE CIRCUS AND THE NIGHTWHALE

A rite of passage concept album centred on a young character, Travia, shares resounding similarities with a seminal album by Hackett’s former ‘alma mater’ group. However, this is not an epilogue, or parallel narrative, to Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. Instead, birthed by an initial gallimaufry of sonics on opener People Of The Smoke, it’s a recording that documents the travels and travails of Travia from 1950s post war Britain onwards. The autobiographical angle is a sort of musical

CASSIDY PARIS NEW SENSATION

Ms Cassidy Paris’s debut album title could at first be interpreted as a nod of respect to antipodean greats, INXS. New Sensation the long-awaited album from the 20-yearold hard rocker has landed and, has indeed caused a sensation with fans and critics alike.

I first witnessed a live set at Hard Rock Hell 2022, Cassidy took the stage by storm and made it her own, dropping jaws and

meme that Hackett develops throughout this astounding album’s boundary bending auricular landscape.

Indubitably, the combination of atoms that make up this musical molecule expands the bandwidth of Hackett’s estimable catalogue of recordings. In this instance, it’s the variety of instrumentation, superb musicianship and compositional excellence that linger longest on the senses. Still, it’s a concept not without a caveat as the at times vaguely defined storyline occasionally fails to clearly tell the narrative in a linear fashion. Nevertheless, it’s an album of exceptional music that is best savoured in its entirety in which there are more than a fair few standalone songs that can also be best experienced on an individual basis.

Utilising a vast variety of string driven instruments, Hackett, as ever, leads from the front with Taking You Down’s heavyweight shimmering soundscape on which Nad Sylvan’s lead vocal impresses. In fact, this album is probably Hackett’s career best studio vocal display as, with Amanda Lehmann, on Enter The Ring, the deliciously dark blues of Get Me Out and the dreamy Ghost Moon And Living Alone and Wherever You Are further attests. Superlatives have been exhausted in describing Steve Hackett’s guitar skills. There’s no more that can possibly be said other than the seductive sonic language that his mastery of string-based instruments communicates

impressing a packed to the rafter’s venue, as she delivered a vocal that could easily put her amongst peers such as Lzzy Hale, Pat Benatar and Leigh Matty. Having toured extensively around the world to date, Cassidy has gathered a fan base that respects and admires her for what she delivers on stage and, with 2 EP releases already under her studded belt, there was much anticipation and wonder regarding her debut long-player.

However, having long been mentored by her now Producer, Paul Laine, of Danger Danger and The Defiants fame. He was clearly the only man for the job. The result of which is a clean, polished, classy sound throughout New Sensation, which also, retains the rock n roll edge that reflects this artist’s formidable presence on a live stage.

An entirely great listen from start to finish - this is AOR in fine form. Standout tracks are many and each one has hooks, riffs and vocals that keep us interested and wanting to hear more.

Back in the 80’s, Danger, would have taken Cassidy Paris into the heights of the Billboard chart. A track Janet Gardener would have been proud to perform, Ms Paris brings us a tale of a woman biting that forbidden fruit, knowing trouble lies ahead,

across the entirety of this captivating release.

As well as his current touring band contributing the apogee of their individual talents, there is a return to the drum stool for Hugo Degenhardt on instrumental colossus, Breakout. Also, Big Big Train’s Nick D’Virgilio bangs his drums on People Of The Smoke. Steve’s brother, John Hackett, blows in breezily with his flute on Enter The Ring. In addition, it would be criminally remiss to not give major props to Steve Hackett’s remarkable musical partner, Roger King, who elevates the overall sonic sphere of music with his masterful arrangements and keyboard wizardry.

Overall, The Circus And The Nightwhale joins the sparkling summit of Hackett’s sonic endeavours and is an enchanting addition to the repeated riches residing in maestro Hackett’s bulging treasure chest of recordings.

Words by Paul Daviese

a story wrapped around strong guitars and a vocal that belies her age, yet proves her prowess. A striking way to start, the bar is set high.

Ten further songs follow and although each has its own lure and the high points many. Hard-hitting Addicted, the Benatar–esque Rock N Roll Hearts and the shimmering riff of Like I Never Loved You catch the ear and capture the essence of Cassidy’s ability to emote and rock, concurrently.

At first glance, Ms Cassidy Paris is a beautiful young woman with a lineage in the music industry that some would say has offered her opportunity. However, to anyone familiar with Wicked Smile, The Radio Sun and/or Black Majesty, Guitarist and songwriter, Steve Janevski has toured and performed extensively across the globe and has instilled this work ethic in his daughter, so maybe Cassidy is no stranger to the industry, but she’s certainly no stranger to hard work either.

If you are ready for a New Sensation, look no further than Cassidy Paris, a highly recommended release and most definitely a woman to watch soar.

Words by Viki Ridley

MEDICINE HEAD HEARTWORK

On the surface, there’s a smooth and occasional cracked patina of emotions across these mostly mid-tempo blues influenced tunes. However, what shines across this solid presentation of songs is John Fiddler’s optimistic lyrical cogitations on the meaning of love. This harmonious musical blend is the recorded companion follow up to his previous back under the Medicine Head banner Warriors Of Love album. On Heartwork, Fiddler continues to revel in a sweet and melancholy mood as the opening track Making Up For Lost Love asserts. It’s a slow burner bluesy tune not unlike a JJ Cale deep cut, even the cliched blues guitar licks find their perfect home over this deep groove. Exquisite female backing vocals float along on a bed of loose musical grooves as Fiddler speaks a personal lyrical tale on Alibi. As much follows on Everybody Has The Blues Sometimes with Fiddler expressing his fine singing voice accompanied by tasteful underplayed guitar licks.

There’s also a cool bluesy bite to Fiddler’s voice that reveals itself in earnest on Hands In The Air. Its slide guitar motif, electric piano, and loping beat fuse to sparkling effect. Stepping out of the blues hued song medium, the reggae dub feel to Livin’ In A Bubble adds a rhythmic versatility to this recording’s laid-back vibe. As much is true on the country rock ballads Love Is Not A Dream and Gotta Hold On that add a width to this song cycle. Back in blues cruise control mode, It’s All About Love and closing tune Ridin’ In My Car tightly fit the overall sonic architecture represented on this deeply worthwhile album. Heartwork sweetly pulsates with the cool essential vibes of JJ Cale and Chris Rea at its centre.

MINISTRY HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES

Al’s back and attacking the system the only way he knows how. This 16th Studio album ‘Hopiumforthemasses’ is a nine-track rant, red circling social issues, like corporate greed, climate change and dodgy government interests. Mr Jourgensen has also enlisted some noteworthy guests to help him out as Eugene Hutz, Jello Biafra and Pepper Keenan all appear on the album.

Ministry first brought us Industrial Metal in the 80s, they were the harshest and most brutal of their time and rose to mass fame in 1992, with the release of ‘Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and The Way to Suck Eggs’. A lot of polluted water under the metal bridge since then, but Al Jourgensen and his band have reached a new era since ‘Moral Hygiene’ in 2021 and Ministry’s views on the state of the modern world, have never been clearer.

‘B.D.E’ stabs at toxic behaviour, with lyrics like ‘Hating What You Cannot Have’. The grind is unrelenting and the weight of the riffs from both Cesar Soto and Monte Pittman, drag to the lowest levels, insanely brilliant. ‘Goddamn White Trash’ wallows in putrid industrial waste, it’s so despicable it’s majestic. Already out as a single ‘Just Stop Oil’ describes itself. Bashing the drums to smitherines, Roy Mayorga is unstoppable. ‘Aryan Embarrassment’ with guest Jello Biafra, rings with penetrating chords, before the onslaught of chugging riffs that defy humanity and Al’s untouchable vocals.

’New Religion’ continues the theme, a kaleidoscope of unabated noise, while ‘It’s Not Pretty’ has ghostly voices that make you tremble, before it shoots into a tirade. The last song ‘Ricky’s Hand’ makes full use of John Bechdel’s keyboards, re-routing to end the album in a less destructive manner. Jesus may have built the Hot Rod, but it’s Al and his band that have customised it.

LUCIFER

LUCIFER V

Something heavy comes this way as Lucifer unleash their fifth studio album Lucifer V via Nuclear Blast Records on January 24th, 2024. These nine songs impress heavily, a point proven by album opener Fallen Angel. NWOBHM flows through the song’s veins for a short, sharp, metal masterpiece of chugging riffs, screaming dynamics, earworm choruses and a siren powered lead vocal. At The Mortuary is doom metal at its finest, writhing and churning for six skin slashing minutes of claustrophobic soundscapes, surprisingly melodic choruses, all pinned down by a stadium filling vocal. Laid back riffing strides through Riding Reaper, along inventive drumming that add menace to an outro of twin lead guitar wizardry.

A shift in pace for Slow Dance In A Crypt brings it to an almost standstill, marching along on a soothing vocal, gaining strength from bass guitar bludgeon to unleash a blistering lead guitar piece, holding onto the last note as if it’s life depended on it. A Coffin Has No Silver Lining has an attentiongrabbing main riff, bizarrely sounding like Looks That Kill by Motley Crue, but the comparisons end there as this potent pounder closes on twin lead breaks. A gently picked acoustic intro is the calm before the storm for Maculate Heart, headbanging furiously along, heads held high for a victorious battle!

The Dead Don’t Speak only communicate here by rocking out for a bonafide slice of banshee like vocals and a soul stealing musical maelstrom. More speaker rattling bass is like Godzilla stomps for Strange Sister, a seismic rollercoaster ride and one blink and you’ll miss this incredible journey of claustrophobic vibes. This astonishing album closes on Nothing Else To Lose But My Life, savagely suffocating the listener with a leering vocal that crawls through quicksand cloying vibes.

Words by Paul Davies

Words by Diane Davies

Words by Dennis Jarman

SUSAN SANTOS SONORA

Spanish guitarist, singer and songwriter Susan Santos returns with her new eighttrack album Sonora. The latter is a Spanish word - a feminine form of the adjective “sonoro”, meaning “sonorous” or “loud”. As a blues/rock guitarist, Susan Santos is not afraid of turning up the volume to ten and making some noise, just like the title of the album indicates.

There is a common thread running through the album, and that is the theme of the dessert. Even the video for the opening number and lead single Hot Rod Lady was filmed in Joshua Tree National Park in California. A perfectly apt locale for such a number. Of course, the single kickstarts the album, with its chugging blues/rock guitar riffs and memorable hooks.

The desert themes of Sonora continue with the sultry blues sounds of Snakebite. You can almost imagine the song being played in a Western Saloon. Susan’s wonderful guitar solo during the track is of note. Santos switches things up with So Long. The track has a slightly more Country/Americana twang compared to the first two songs on the album. Whilst Have Mercy has a slightly jazzier aesthetic. It’s the type of song that would work well in a Manhattan piano bar.

Susan turns up the heat with the thunderous, foot-stomping number, What I Want. With each song on the album, Santos twists and turns as she grapples with a variety of musical stylings. With Voodoo Wheels, Santos delivers a refreshing Rockabilly number, which works incredibly well in the latter stages of the release. Sonora concludes with Let It Ride. A funky number that truly showcases Susan’s incredible guitar-playing chops and soloing.

Just like the title of the album alludes to, Sonora deserves to be played loud. Turn it up.

Words by Adam Kennedy

TURBULENCE BINARY DREAM

The Middle East is a region where civilisation reaches back thousands of years. It’s this ancestry and the legacy of those races, that often appears in the art and music of its current inhabitants. Turbulence are from modern day Lebanon, a land steeped in history that’s ingrained in its people. A creative mind can produce music on a different scale and these guys use their heritage to merge progressive rock with traditional sounds, using multiple elements and technical innovation. Binary Dream is a concept album centred on ‘8b+1’, an experimental robot, whose experiences are the subject of these Nine tracks. This is Metal, Prog with Jazz and even Djent thrown in, the latter a term originally used by guitarist Mårten Hagström of Meshuggah, to describe distortion and down tuned guitar.

’Static Mind’ is the beginning, 1.31 minutes of a humming riff and sonic atmosphere to weave you into the album. ‘Theta’ has bass from Anthony Atoui and vocals by Omar El Hage that carry you into their world even further. ‘Time Bridge’ is just that, a short instrumental interval that precedes the longer ‘Manifestations’ which is also without vocals. Around 6.28 minutes long, the notes often appear random, however this is a characteristic of how Turbulence take control, palm muted chords are integral to the bands style. ’Ternary’ is quite melodic and Omar captivates with his rich and warm tones. The guitar of Alain Ibrahim softly caressed alongside the vocalists stunning words.

The title track is over 14 minutes long and each aspect is one to be savoured. I think this is where ‘8b+1’ is enlightened and gains human conscience and awareness, as the next piece is called ‘Hybrid, so I think the experiment is a success, at this stage anyway. However, the final songs, are more delicate, ‘Corrosion’ and ‘De Erosion’ bringing the journey to a sad ending.

Words by Diane Davies

PHILIP SAYCE THE WOLVES ARE COMING

Celebrated guitarist and Jeff Healy protégé Philip Sayce returns with his eagerly anticipated new studio album The Wolves Are Coming. And with a guitarist of the calibre of Philip Sayce, you would expect nothing less than an album packed full of the US-based artist’s masterful playing and fiery fretwork. The release gets underway with the sounds of Oh! That Bitches Brew. For the jazz fans amongst you, the track title will remind you of the late great Miles Davis who had a studio album of a similar name. The song’s heavy groove and catchy hooks grab the listener’s attention from the off. Sayce switches things up momentarily with the funky sounds of Lady Love Divine before upping the ante with the simply smouldering Babylon Is Burning. And just like the title indicates Sayce’s playing is on fire.

The wah-infused opening to Your Love lures the listener in immediately. The song is packed to the brim with funky guitar licks and oozing with soul. Whilst the rather emotive It’s Over Now and Intuition are a pair of exceptional slow blues numbers featured on the release. The DNA of guitarists such as Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan are present in Sayce’s playing throughout the record.

Black Moon is certainly one of the rockier numbers on the album, and it sits side by side with Blackbirds Fly Alone, which is the polar opposite showcasing a more strippedback approach to the artist’s songwriting. The heavy tone of Sayce’s Fender Stratocaster underpins Backstabber. And with its contagious groove, the song is one of the many standout numbers on the record. The Wolves Are Coming rounds out with This Is Hip, which is one of the more traditional blues numbers on the record. And further adds to the smorgasbord of musical sounds and stylings on the album.

With his latest offering, Philip Sayce has raised the bar very high. And in that respect, I’m not crying wolf.

Words by Adam Kennedy

LIPZ

CHANGING THE MELODY

Swedish band LIPZ have been in existence since 2011, when guitarist/vocalist Alex and his brother drummer Koffe K Klintberg joined forces with guitarist Conny Svärd. It’s been a journey, there have been changes and with most bands, ups and downs along the way. Fast forward to 2023 and by joining Frontiers records, LIPZ evolved yet again, adding Chris Young on bass. The label, having faith in the band, have helped to nurture them into a Glam Rock outfit that embodies all the glitz of their 80s and 90s peers, along with the hardened cladding of in-vogue sleaze bands.

This sophomore album has ten songs that say a lot about the band and the metamorphosis they’ve undertaken. ‘I’m Going Under’ and the title track ‘Changing The Melody’ offer shock treatment, they may wear a mixture of fishnet, studs and makeup, but this is pure gutter rock and roll and in a similar vein to fellow Swedes Crashdïet, if you need a comparison. More cheesy on ‘Bang Bang’ and then ’Stop Talk About’ has funky punches that echo ‘The Electric Boys’. This is a standout song, extremely catchy and wriggles in your head. ‘Bye, Bye Beautiful’ has been well received since it came out as a single. Slightly slower and having a sticky chorus, gosh this album is infectious.

The drumming of Koffe signals the start of ’Secret Lover’ which has the most desirable and singalong chant I’ve heard for ages, ploughing to the end with increasing tempo, it’s followed by the sumptuous ballad ‘I Would Die For You’. LIPZ also excel in this realm of softer dreamy rock. They turn it around full circle and the guitar solo is mesmerising. ‘Monsterz’ brings back the more dazzling rock, stamping the end of the album with total grandeur. I enjoyed ‘Changing The Melody’, and would love to see LIPZ head over to the UK.

JETHRO TULL

CHATEAU D’HEROUVILLE SESSIONS 1972

This widely documented, and previously released in other formats, ‘great lost album’ recorded in the summer of 1972 being beset by technical difficulties, equipment failures, bedbug infestation and food poisoning toxified Tull’s relationship with these songs. Dissatisfied with their experience, the band named these recordings ‘The Chateau D’Isaster Tapes’. They were meant to form the follow up to the massively successful Thick As A Brick album. Nevertheless, given the unfinished nature of the original songs this, potentially, would have been another landmark album if Tull were able to persevere and wrap up finished recordings. Despite the above obstacles, it’s no surprise that Anderson eventually set up his successful commercial studio business, Maison Rouge. Previously reworked and released on the Nightcap album and Steven Wilson’s 2013 mixes for inclusion on the A Passion Play: An Extended Performance, these unfinished tapes sprouted many instances of early growth beauty. Side 4 proves such, on this vinyl edition, with tracks finally finding homes on future albums: Only Solitaire and Skating Away On The Thin Ice Of The New Day were placed on the Warchild album and The Story Of The Hare…on Passion Play. And this is the difference with this double vinyl release compared to these previous outings. The same mixes stir a refashioned product, yet the songs still impress. With his penchant for satire in overdrive, Anderson lambasts music journalists whose, sometimes, negative views and reviews rile him on the excellent Critique Oblique. Scenario, Audition, No Rehearsal is a conceptual trilogy of tunes that also proudly fit in the Tull canon. The ‘medieval rock’ of Animelee (a direction Tull would further explore) plus Law Of The Bungle and Tiger Toon are a satirical mix of Pythonesque surrealism and Jethro Tull musicality possessing the unique Jethro Tull imprimatur. The songs remain the same just reordered in a new context. To summarise, if the recording circumstances had flowed smoothly then the natural course of events would have altered Jethro Tull’s discography and, god knows, what its release title would have been?

ROBBY KRIEGER & THE SAVAGE SOULS

ROBBY KRIEGER & THE SAVAGE SOULS

The Doors’ very own Robby Krieger has joined forces with The Soul Savages to release an instrumental exploration of a number of musical fusions for a self-titled gem of an album. A groove-filled treat, from the playfulness of their single Blue Brandino to the improvisation-feel behind opening number Shark Skin Suit, this 10-track release displays an amalgamation of blues, funk, jazz and soul grooves. Robby is joined by regular collaborator Keyboardist Ed Roth, along with Grammy-winning Bassist Kevin “Brandino” Brandon, and accomplished Drummer Franklin Vanderbilt. The entire album is a well thoughout constructed release that has been made with a loose vision in mind. Samosas and Kingfishers is a specific highlight track for me as it demonstrates something a little different, mixing the consistent jazz influence we hear throughout, into some prog inspired elements including melodic organ runs and an additional layer of a sitar. A Day in LA paints a picture of a warm summer’s day we all crave, with its catchy bass groove as well as the call-and-response melodic tangles that are transitioned through the whole band. Tracks such as Bouncy Betty and Contrary Motion I feel break up the album as intriguing interludes that keep you engaged with the sound palette put in place. The mix of all these musical components shows the true craftmanship of Robby Krieger and The Soul Savages as they’re each given opportunities to put their stamp and musical visions into each track. A group of pure talent that works seamlessly together. The closing track Math Problem is a strong choice of track. A perfect way to go out with a bang and leave the fans wanting more. The jazz influence was high throughout this particular number with the change of pace and rhythmic runs as the song unfolds. This album is a great, easy and fun listen.Robby Krieger and The Soul Savages selftitled debut album is out now via Mascot Label Group/Players Club.

Words by Diane Davies

Words by Paul Davies

Words by Charlotte Hooper

The Hands of Time

INTERVIEW WITH LENA SCISSORHANDS

INFECTED

bers that are not with us in the band anymore, they’ve been with us for more than 10 years. And obviously, it’s hard on the fans too.”

designs, concepts, even names often, and I liked it right away.”

Modern progressive metal outfit Infected Rain experienced their most successful years yet in 2022 and 2023. Following a recent US tour with Wednesday 13, the band will release their sixth album, Time, in February.

Successes aside, Infected Rain have gone through some personnel changes. “In our band, after years and years of being with the same musicians, we changed to a new band member. Two band members left Infected Rain, and we only added one back, and now Infected Rain is two girls and two boys. We like to jokingly call ourselves Abba,” explains Lena Scissorhands. “Seriously though, it feels different. It feels fresh. It feels new. It was a challenging moment for our career because we didn’t really know what to expect from fans. Because the two band mem-

The singer adds: “When it comes to the band itself, we had a very hard-working year. We did almost 100 shows last year. We played some great festivals that could be considered milestones for a musician’s career,” reflects Lena. “We needed this album this year, even though it comes out at the beginning of February, our sixth album was fully created last year. And I think that we put together something really awesome and unique. I’m very proud of this.”

The band’s new long player is poetically titled Time. Speaking about the title, Lena said: “It’s very complex, but at the same time minimalistic. It’s just such a small, tiny little word that means so much. We were already working on the songs when the idea for the title came out. Our guitar player, Vidick, has a lot of ideas when it comes to

Lena adds: “The few songs that we were working on were conceptually embracing this specific theme, and when we decided on the title, I was still working on some songs and some lyrics,” she says. “Some people might not see it immediately. Maybe you see it after you listen to the album a couple of times, even though the songs are quite different, and they do different things somewhere in there is embroidered the theme of time in a way. The waste of time, the use of time, the regret of time, there is so much more connected to time.”

For their latest offering, Infected Rain, are doing something that they’ve never done before. “This is our first album that has an overall bigger concept throughout the entire album. We put a lot of effort and attention on visuals, on the sound, and on the meaning of the songs,” explains Lena.

INFECTED RAIN

“Maybe after all these years of creating so many albums and doing so much in the music industry for the career of Infected Rain, maybe with this album, we arrived at the point where we, in a way, reflected a little bit about the things we’ve done and the things that we want to do with our lives.”

Lena adds: “Everybody in the band is close to being 40 years old. Everybody’s quite different ages, but very close to being that. And so that could have been also somehow an influence. I don’t know. But I know for sure that specifically, with some songs more than others, I wanted to bring to the attention of the listener the fact that time is priceless. Time is precious. Time is probably the biggest gift and rich we have in our lives, and it costs more than anything. And it passes by so fast. And I wanted to, I guess, in a way, invite people to not regret the time, but try and be more aware of how precious time is and, maybe realise that certain things are not worth

the time. Certain people are not even necessarily worth the time. The arguments, the fights, the things, all of that.”

There is one track on the album which sees the artist grapple with Italian. That being Paura. “I do speak Italian. I did University in Rome, and my entire family lives in Italy. I moved there more than 20 years ago. So, I’m familiar with Italian for a big part of my life. I thought it would be nice to incorporate some of the languages I speak in the songs. I don’t know if I’m ready to write an entire song in a different language but incorporating different languages in a song is something that I always admired and liked whenever I came across an artist that did it,” explains Lena. “Paura is a continuation of the song Never To Return. And if you only listen to the melody of the instruments, especially after you know, you will hear the similarities.”

The word Paura translates to Fear. “I recite a small

little text that I wrote in Italian about fear, and just basically translating it and summarising it in a couple of words,” she says. So basically, it’s a text that says what fear is, how easy it is to give in, and how much work it entails to fight it, and be strong against it. But the song itself - the lyrics are in English,” explains Lena. Infected Rain will soon take to the road across the UK alongside Dragonforce and Amaranthe. “So far, we only had one tour in the UK in 2019, and it was fantastic. We loved the fans, we loved the support, we loved the country and the places to visit. So we are very excited to come back,” concludes Lena.

Time, the new album from Infected Rain will be released on February 9th via Napalm Records.

Words by Adam Keennedy

Photo Credit: Victoria “Wonka” Tututescu

ONCE BITTEN

Q&A WITH THE BITES

THE

tion here in the UK. You’ve done well in a short period of time over here. Have you been overwhelmed by the support you’ve received here thus far?

our own thing and it’s setting us apart from everybody else.

Earache Records’ brand-new signing and Hollywood’s new bad boys of raw rock ‘n’ roll The Bites released their new album ‘Squeeze’ last year. The band have been on the rise since their single Do Me A Favour hit our airwaves.

HRH Mag caught up with the band whilst on tour in Newcastle at the end of last year to get the lowdown on the group and the band’s debut album.

You have been on tour in the UK, including festivals and your headline tour. How was that experience for The Bites?

It’s been fantastic. It’s been more than we knew was coming to us, which is awesome. The festivals were incredible. The fact that people are coming to see us 6,000 miles away from home and singing our words back to us wearing the merch to the shows, and we’ve never stepped foot here is really something. You’ve been getting a lot of media atten-

It’s been really great. We’re from Hollywood, so we don’t really feel a lot of those effects in person; we find out online. But, even today, we were at a service station. I was literally walking through trying to find a music magazine. I saw Classic Rock Magazine. I snatched it up and I was like, this can’t be the one that we were in. And I flipped to it, and I yelled at Mark.

The Bites hail from Los Angeles. Obviously, it’s got such a huge music scene, and it’s very competitive. I know you played some of your first gigs at the Viper Room. What has the response been like back home?

People really are digging us. You’re right, it is super competitive. There are a bajillion bands. With that being said, it is very cool making rock and roll music because there are people doing the heavy stuff, the pop-punk stuff, retro glam - there are too many genres to even name. But I feel like we’re really doing

I think the difference about us is that we’re very authentically influenced by some of these bands, but we’re doing our own thing with it. We all realise it’s not the 1980’s anymore, and we’re not trying to pretend it is. We’re trying to do our own thing with our influences, which is what those bands would have done back then, and I think people see that. And at the shows, the energy, the authenticity, and the genuine fun we bring to it. We take the music seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. And I think that’s what people really enjoy about the band.

Your latest single Dirty City touches upon your home city of LA. I know some people love it and others hate it. What are your opinions on living in LA?

It takes some getting used to. The first time I was in LA, I absolutely despised it. I never wanted to go back. It was just a personal experience that didn’t rub off the right way. But then I moved to LA, I think, four years after

BITES

that, and I never wanted to leave. So, everyone’s going to have a different experience. It’s what you put into it is what you’re going to get out of it. And as five musicians who are so hungry and passionate about what we do, we’re really making our mark there. Love to hate it, but we hate to love it.

rock and roll guys. And, quite honestly, music is so fleeting nowadays, whether it’s in the pop genre, hip hop, rock, or anything, it’s just so flash in the pan making something that like.

set a great tone for who we are as a band for someone’s initial listen.

What are your plans for 2024?

How did the opportunity to work with Earache Records come about?

They reached out to us directly. In 2021, we released Knockin’ on the Door, we just did it independently. It got a couple of playlists.

I think it just caught their attention, and a couple of months later we ended up signing with them. The record was finished and we were just ironing out the many details it takes to put out a record and then September it came out and the game has changed. Not only here in the UK, but in the States too, it’s really been a pivotal step for us.

Tell us a little bit about the album and your vision for the record.

At the end of the day, we just wanted to create something that was timeless. We’re all

You’re going to hear it for the first time and think to yourself, wow, I’ve known this song for a decade, two decades, my whole life. We want people to feel good when they hear it. And if it’s the first time, they can sing it back to us, or the 10th time they hear it, and they can sing it back to us we’ll take it, and that’s a sign that we’re doing the right thing.

Do Me A Favour was a big hit for you over here. When you were working on that song, did you know you were onto something special at the time?

It actually was kind of a surprise when we found out it was going to be a single. It’s the longest song on the record. It kind of turned into this rock opus, very much the closer of the album, the set, whatever. But the fact that they chose it as a single worked really well because we loved that right off the bat. And it

We’ve got about three or four weeks off once we’re back in the States, and we’re doing a South West and West Coast run with Jared James Nichols. We’re very excited to hit the road with him. We have a couple of things, but we can’t quite announce it yet for March and April, a couple of festivals in the States. We’re coming back here to the UK for the Stone Dead festival in August. And we are definitely going to be tagging on some shows. Along with that, maybe even some more festivals when we’re here. But it’s going to be a busy 2024 for sure. And we’re ready.

Squeeze by The Bites is out now via Earache Records.

INTERVIEW WITH Heather Findlay and Simon Snaize

Former Mostly Autumn vocalist Heather Findlay and solo artist Simon Snaize recently unveiled their new project The Bee Tellers. In their own words, the outfit has been described as: ‘Folk, blues & Americana infused progressive rock songs with Eastern vibes and a nod to Buckingham Nicks and Led Zeppelin’.

The Bee Tellers are presently preparing to bring their live show to HRH Prog in Great Yarmouth. Having been friends and musical counterparts for some time, the last year saw the duo get the wheels in motion for their new project.

Reflecting on the last year, Heather said: “For me, personally, I was sort of transitioning back into recording music again. I sort of took a slightly different creative direction for a while and a bit of a sabbatical from music. It wasn’t really a conscious decision. I wasn’t very well for a little while and had to slow down and ask myself some deep questions - where do you want to go with things? I found myself writing and illustrating a couple of books, which put me in quite a different direction for a little while. And then I slowly got myself back into writing and recording music.”

Heather adds: “I’ve not stopped writing music, but I stopped releasing music for a little while. And that was kind of off the back of all the pandemic stuff. And so, I started releasing singles in this more waterfall way, moving towards an eventual album. That’s called Wildflower. And then, out of the blue, towards the end of last year, Si and I started working together around October. So that was 25 years in the making. You always have to leave room in your schedule for magical things like this.”

Simon was looking for a change from his solo work. “I’ve been a solo performer quite a lot. And my focus for a number of years was on solo albums. And I got to a point where I thought I’m not really going to do that anymore; I’m going to focus more on doing other things. So, I was making steps towards that a little bit,” he said. “When this came together out of the blue, it really brought to the forefront the idea of me writing and collaborating. So that was a really good experience for me, because it’s brought me back into the picture in a way that’s felt really good and authentic. And Heather and I have been working with each other on various projects for a number of years.”

The Bee Tellers have allowed the pair to push themselves musically. “For me personally, I just seem to be on the crux of becoming somebody a bit different musically. Simon and I, for years, have always met up as friends. And we’ve got a lot of similar interests in life. And had quite a few big personal things happening for us both. And that drew us into quite very deep conversations. And I think out of that, we found ourselves sort of flowering. I can’t really think of one defining moment, but we just suddenly started writing music together. And that took off very fast. And before we knew it, there was a flood of songs and ideas. It determined itself.”

Simon adds: “I’ve done live tours with Heather. And so, there’s always been that satisfaction of music collaboration without it becoming a song. This is a project we’re doing together. And it did come out of nowhere.”

The Bee Tellers has allowed Heather and Simon to further their creative partnership.

“This is the first time we’ve actually ever collaborated and written material together. The biggest sort of album we’ve done together is an album of Simon’s called The Structure of Recollection, where Simon invited me to literally sing half of the album,” explains Heather. “There are two sides to this album. And Simon had me sing the Juno side. It was like, literally masculine, feminine energy sort of coming together. And then, of course, there’s Live White Horses, where Simon’s playing guitar throughout the whole thing. But this is really the birth of us actually collaborating as writers together, which is really interesting.”

The pair’s latest project has allowed Heather to spread her wings beyond what her fans have become accustomed to. “I seem to be able to write from the heart, and my fan base tends to just accept that even though I’m mostly known for progressive rock. And I’ve been given a lot of grace where that’s concerned,” explains Heather. “I’m a bit of a rebel, and I don’t like to be limited. And, also, personally speaking, I feel that I’ve always felt that songs come through me from somewhere else. So, to actually sit down and dictate, like, can this be a progressive rock song, please, or can this be thrash metal, please? It’s almost like I’m shown what song wants to come through. And I know that sort of probably sounds a bit woo-woo for some people, but I know that personally, that’s how I like to write. I don’t like to be limited and pigeonholed.”

The band’s influences span some of the greats of the classic rock world. “Having Led Zeppelin in there and Fleetwood Mac in there as reference points, they’re two of our favourite bands. And I suppose Fleetwood Mac, they’re responsible for more of the ear wormy poprock angle and this sort of Americana angle. But then they weren’t afraid of the progressive route with songs like The Chain, for instance,” said Heather. “When you get into that beautiful sort of spectrum that Led Zeppelin display in their slow-burning intros to songs that go to all the full throttle of the heavy hard-hitting rock songs, and the eastern vibes is something similar to Kashmir. The string movements that denote the Eastern musical sense.”

In terms of their original music, is there an album from The Bee Tellers in the pipeline? “I think you are getting smiles from us because part of what happened was within a twomonth period of it beginning to happen, we ended up with a lot of material,” said Heather.

“We have a folder, and it has 17 folders within it. And they all carry a certain title. So, we do have an album in mind. We would like to create an album, and the album has a title. The album is going to be called Sovereign. And it’s thematic in some ways, but that’s the title of the album,” said Simon.

How the pair release their new material is still open for discussion. “We are working towards an album, but I think we will also experiment with this waterfall release idea of putting out steady streams of material, and I think we’ll probably mix it up,” declares Heather.

With their creative partnership in full flow, the duo has been testing out material and preparing for further live dates like HRH Prog in their native York. “We have a residency in York, just in the city walls, at The Habit every Thursday night. So, we’ve been using that as a bit of an alchemical playground for The Bee Tellers as well. We are working on a pile of songs to really get a feel for the arrangements, and what’s working, what might need tweaking, so we’re going to record a few of those songs,” concludes Heather.

The Bee Tellers will perform at HRH Prog in Great Yarmouth over the period of the 14th – 17th November. For ticket information and further details, please visit: https://hrhprog. com/.

Words By Adam Kennedy

Photo Credit: Press Supplied

The Bee Tellers

LIVING THE DREAM

INTERVIEW WITH Jørn Kaarstad

Hot off the back of a recent tour with Therapy? Norwegian three-piece Bokassa released their new album, All Out of Dreams, via Indie Recordings in February. The band’s new long player follows in quick pursuit of the recent single The Ending Starts Today. The trio set the tone for the release by describing the track as a demotivational poster in song form. As they most eloquently put it – why not accept failure already, instead of clinging on to that last bit of hope?

Whilst contemplating the last year lead vocalist and guitarist Jørn Kaarstad said: “I think it was a good year for us. We did a lot of overseas playing. I think we did a couple of festivals, and maybe one Norwegian show. That was it. The rest was just doing support tours and playing festivals. So, it was a bit of a different year in that way. But it was cool. We learned a lot because we love playing festivals, but we also learned that you don’t say yes to everything. We learned some lessons, I guess.”

Part of Bokassa’s 2023 touring schedule saw the group take to the road with Therapy? The latter invited Bokassa having seen them perform on a festival bill overseas. There were obvious synergies between the two bands. “Therapy has a very strong sense of melody and hooks, and also have this metal punk mix, which we have. We do a lot of other genres, but I thought their fans would be open to that kind of thing. So that was our idea to go in there and win over some of their fans, which I think we did because we sold a lot of merch. So, I’m really happy about that decision. And to visit every city in England. I had never heard of North-

ampton before; now I’ve been there,” he said.

Although the band’s latest release is not a concept album per se, strong themes prevail throughout the record. “I just saw the different lyrical themes, and I realised that in most of the songs, there are a lot of people with their failure. That someone has failed them, or they failed themselves, etc. It’s a resignation kind of thing,” explains Jørn. “I thought All Out of Dreams was a fitting title for the lyrical matter of the record. And it also works with the cold metallic sound of the record, and with the artwork, because I view the album as a whole piece. And I think it works well for this album.”

As with their previous releases, Bokassa’s latest offering sees the band remain true to the mixing of genres. But does the band prefer not to be pigeonholed into one particular musical style? “If I could, I probably would just write one genre, because that is the key to being more successful. But unfortunately, I can’t. So, it’s just kind of what makes sense to me. I don’t necessarily think about it as different genres until I hear it afterwards,” he says. “To me, it just makes sense. Why wouldn’t you have an awesome metal riff that turns into this extremely catchy pop-punk chorus and maybe a stoner riff or something lower? Why wouldn’t you? That’s why I think I just want to have the things that I enjoy. So basically, I’m writing for me.” For this release, Bokassa worked with Tue Madsen at Antfarm Studios in Denmark. Speaking about the experience Jørn said: “The Danish have a reputation of being very laid-back people in Scandinavia, and he is a very laid-back man. We played in his studio in Denmark in the summer of 2022. And he had a neighbour who made wine and had a neighbour who made sausages and stuff like that. And

we were barbecuing each night. So, it was really cool. And he’s a veteran of the trade and knows his stuff.” He adds: “There are several places on this record, which I called exploding drums. When we had the demos and showed him, we wanted to have this sound here and he just knew exactly how to make up the drums without necessarily using a plug-in effect. So that was pretty cool to see. He works fast as well. So, I really enjoyed working with him.”

All Out of Dreams is the first Bokassa album to feature guests. On the track Garden of Heathen, the band invited Lou Koller from Sick Of It All to feature on the song. “I think this is one of my absolute favourites from the album. It’s just so punchy and in your face,” he says. Tue Madsen had a connection with Lou, which assisted the band in bringing him into the project. “I asked Tue, don’t you think that it would be cool if Lou Koller was singing that, and he just texted him, sent him the song, he liked it, and then he sent it back from, I guess, New York. So, it happened really fast. And we were really stoked.” Bokassa are very much looking forward to taking their new album on the road. “We have a Norwegian tour which starts in February, and it’s until May. Then it’s festival season,” he said. “Then we haven’t booked anything, but we have planned a European tour and a UK tour probably around October and November. Hopefully, we’re not too late to book it. So, hopefully, we get to come back to the UK.”

Bokassa’s new album, All Out Of Dreams, will be out on February 16th via Indie Recordings.

Words by Adam Kennedy

Credit: Troll Toftenes

Photo

ASK THE EDITOR

Interview with HRH Mag Editor

Adam Kennedy

Adam is a professional photographer, writer, radio DJ and host, band manager, blues aficionado, and Editor in Chief for this very publication. As he is usually the one asking the questions, I felt it was time to turn the tables and put Mr Kennedy in front of the camera for once, instead of behind it!

Hi Adam, can you firstly introduce yourself? Please tell the HRH Mag readers where you are from. I’m a North-East based photojournalist, band manager and Editor of HRH Mag. I’ve been involved with the magazine since it began when my good friend and former Editor Simon Rushworth started the publication. Since that point, I’ve progressed from writer and photographer through to Sub Editor under Toby Winch until finally moving up to Editor when Toby moved on.

You have a long history of loving music, where did this all start for you, did you grow up in a house full of music lovers?

My family are certainly music lovers. My parents were huge fans of Queen, and they were very much a fundamental part of my musical upbringing. One memory that sticks out in my mind is my parents going to see Queen play at St James Park in 1986. I was only 7 years old at the time, and I desperately wanted to go to the show with them, but I was too young. So, I guess my obsession with music has always been there from my childhood.

Can you remember your first concert?

My first concert was Guns N Roses at Gateshead Stadium on the Use Your Illusion tour in 1992. My dad took me to see the show. The band were supported by Faith No More and Soundgarden. An impressive bill, perhaps you will agree. Guns N Roses were my favourite band as a teenager. I will always recall how hearing my favourite songs performed live made me feel. It was a combination

of euphoria and emotion and for the last thirty years, I’ve been chasing that feeling.

When did you decide that you wanted to work in media, was it always photography that held an interest?

Photography was my gateway into working within the media world. I’ve always had a passion for photography, even in my youth. When I went to my first shows as a teenager, I would always carry a 35mm film camera with me. And even though a lot of those images were often taken from a distance, they were treasured memories which I loved to share with friends and family long before the days of social media. At college, I went on to study photography and used to enjoy developing my images in the dark room. Of course, digital photography made things a lot easier as time went on.

When and where did your career begin?

I guess my career in the music industry was kick-started by US-based rock and soul band Vintage Trouble back in 2011. The band liked my work, and I was very fortunate to accompany them as a photographer on tours with The Who, AC/DC, and Paloma Faith, along with major festivals like Glastonbury and countless UK headline runs. For many years, I also worked with the band and their management team at McGhee Entertainment in Los Angeles and Nashville as one of their social media managers. Working with Vintage Trouble opened many doors for me within the music industry and media world.

You have a very impressive resume now Adam. How did you become involved in Radio presenting/ hosting?

Radio presenting came about during the pandemic. During that time, I was working on a virtual photography project, which gained a lot of media attention. I was getting interviewed on the radio, as well as in magazines and newspapers. I co-hosted a few radio shows in the UK where I was being interviewed about my project, and I really enjoyed the experience. When HRH Radio was looking for new presenters, I put myself forward, and thankfully, they took me on board.

What is it about the genre of Blues that makes it such a passion for you?

I think with blues, it’s at the root of all modern music, particularly rock music. So, if you love rock, blues is intrinsic to that sound. If you look at bands like The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, they were all influenced by blues greats like Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, Lead Belly and Muddy Waters. So, I guess, my interest in blues is a by-product of my love of rock music.

To date, what has been your favourite show, to attend, and to photograph?

It’s difficult to pinpoint my favourite show, but some of my favourite artists that I’ve seen live include Bruce

Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, The Foo Fighters, Aerosmith and Guns N Roses. My favourite band to photograph would be KISS. They are just so much fun on stage; they have a huge production and they always give you great poses.

Your work has been featured by some true icons, Mark Knopfler, and Vintage Trouble, how does it feel to know that your images will be seen around the world?

It’s always a joy to see your work in print. Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to have my images of Vintage Trouble appear on a billboard campaign at JFK Airport in New York, which was surreal. As well as having the streets of Montreal lined with the official poster for the Montreal Jazz Festival bearing my image of Vintage Trouble. The Mark Knopfler piece was particularly symbolic. I was honoured when I was asked if a live portrait of Joe Bonamassa, which I had taken in Leeds, could be used on the cover of Knopfler’s new charity single, a version of Local Hero featuring a cast of superstars including members of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Who, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Slash and Joe Bonamassa himself. The artwork was designed by Peter Blake who created the cover for The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s album sleeve, as well as Live Aid, to name but a few. Local Hero is a song that is synonymous with the North-East and Newcastle United, so to be part of that project, even in a small way, meant a lot. And, of course, the story of the release was reported in outlets such as Rolling Stone, NME and more, which was huge for me.

The last few years have brought you into a new role as Editor for HRH Mag and also as a band manager. How do you keep all the plates spinning Adam? I get asked this a lot, but basically, I love what I do. They always say if you enjoy what you do it never feels like work. Apart from that, I don’t get a lot of sleep. Although, I’m still waiting on my endorsement from Red Bull or Monster haha.

What comes next for you, is there anything on the horizon you wish to share with us, or anything on your bucket list for 2024?

This year will be much of the same for me. Lots of shows and interviews, as always. There are a few bands I’m hoping to catch this year that haven’t been around before, but I don’t want to mention them in case I jinx my chances of seeing them haha. And I always look forward to festival season, so hopefully, I will see some of you out there.

Thanks, Boss… Back to the grind!

Interview by Viki Ridley