Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Irish band GLYDER began its musical journey in 2004 at the annual Phil Lynott tribute gig “Vibe for Philo” in Dublin. The band has developed a very distinguishable and unique sound, blending their classic rock influences with a fresh and modern sound. Glyder’s fourth album “Backroads To Byzantium” came out in October 2011 through SPV. Just before the release I had a chance to interview bands guitarist Pete Fisher, here’s our conversation…

Hi Pete, I’m Tarja. Welcome to Metal Shock Finland! How are you doing today?

Hi Tarja Pete here, I’m good thank you. Just after completing two shows with the band Y&T from California, which went very well, and our album has been released Europe wide yesterday so I’m very pleased.

Before we’ll go to your new album, let’s talk about your musical journey which started in 2004… tell me about it, and how you came up to your band’s name Glyder?

Yea the band formed in 2004, our first release was the EP Black Tide Silver Path under the name Hollywood. We then recorded our first album under the name Glyder in London in 2005 with the producer Chris Tsangarides and it was received really well my people. Our second and third album followed through-out the next four years “Playground For Life” and “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” and another EP “Weather the Storm” along with lots of gigs in the UK, Europe, Scandinavia and even India. Over that time we felt that the bands song writing abilities kept getting better and better and we really were a tight band.
The line-up changed then however in 2010 with our original singer/bass player Tony and drummer Davy leaving the band. Bat and I had the musical ideas ready for another album, and the band had built up its name well over the five years together so we decided to keep the band going and get new members in, the product of doing so is our latest album “Backroads to Byzantium”.
The name Glyder came from the time we were recording our first album in London, we had been racking our brains thinking of band names at the time, and beside the studio there was an old airfield that was now been used for lauching and landing glider planes, and we were sitting watching the gliders go up in the sky and I think it was Tony said what about the name Glyder and the rest of us liked it so we went with it.

Your sound is a blend of classic rock, but what is your “touch” to make it Glyder-sound?

I think Glyder is all about writing “the song” whatever song that may be at the time, using sounds and textures that are best for the song, the classic rock influence is completely natural, it occurs because we love good rock music and want to make good rock music.

Talking about the Irish rock and metal scenes of today, what are the pro’s and con’s, and how you see the development in the future?

The Irish rock and metal scenes aren’t great at the moment. There are great bands around the country but they don’t get much/or any support from Irish media/ radio, they have nothing to build a domestic scene through or around, so the Irish metal/rock scene has pretty much become part of a European wide one, with many fans travelling to the European festivals such as Wacken, Graspop, and Roskilde (to name but a few) every year to see their favourite bands.

Over the past years you’ve toured the UK and Europe, sharing the stage with bands like Metallica, Slash, Motley Crue, Thin Lizzy, Dio, WASP… just to name some… any special memories you would like to share with us?

Getting to meet Ronnie James Dio was an honor, he was really nice to us. The Metallica gig was a special one, it was the biggest gig we have done in Ireland to date and all our friends and family got a chance to see us perform on a big stage, and it was just a very memorable day. They’re the two occasions that stick out in my mind, but getting to play on the same stage as legends is always great, you can learn lots by just watching them, seeing how they deal with everything.

Last year your original lineup splitted, but in January 2011 you announced the new lineup. Please present us your band members and their roles…

The new line up is as follows:
Jackie Robinson- lead vocals
Bat Kinane- guitars/ backing vocals
Pete Fisher- guitars
Graham McClatchie- Bass guitar
Des McEvoy- Drums

For our latest album Backroads to Byzantium myself and Bat wrote nearly all the musical ideas and Jackie wrote alot of the lyrics, because Jackie lives far away from the rest of us (nearly 200 miles away) we wrote this album by sending emails containing our musical ideas to one another, I‘d send Jackie an idea that maybe had music and a chorus vocal idea and he could change that and put his own idea on the track and send it back, this worked well for us and the rough sketches for the songs did not take long to come together. Des and Graham would listen to the tracks also and play them in their own style, putting their own bits into them and thats how most tracks for the album came about.

I’ve read that you are a band that will not compromise what you’re about and refuse to follow trends like a lot of your contemporarys… anything you’d like to say about this statement?

Well following trends is something that we dont see as nessesary, we have our own style as a band and thats what we stick too. I think doing what comes natural to you but also having a greater awareness of what your trying to achieve is better than following any trend.

And now to “Backroads To Byzantium” which comes out in a couple of days, via Steamhammer/SPV … why this album title?

This album title was created by Bat, it is a nod of the head to the W.B.Yeats poem – Sailing to Byzantium. Byzantium was a place where art was the highest form, in the poem Yeats wants to set his soul free from his aging body and go to Byzantium and exist there as a work of art for eternity. Our music is our art and we are taking the Backroads to bring it to the world, I suppose thats where you could say its open to interpedation.

Infact, listen to it, I get an idea to be in a nice American car driving along the desert roads stopping at rest areas for a beer or two… so this album continues your started journey… but how it differs from your earlier albums, tecnically speaking?

Well the song writing process was different for this album, having wrote the majority over email, also for this album Bat wrote half the music and I wrote the other half and there is the mixture of our two styles on there, which has never have happened before. Then there is the sound of the band with the new line up of members, all of these things make this album very different than the previous ones. There is some Americana elements to some songs definately and I can understand how that image came about to you.

Tell me about the songwriting process for this album, and how the recording proceeded in the studio? And from where you got the mainstream idea for the lyrics?

As I discribed earlier the writing process for this album was done mainly through emailing each other our musical ideas. When we had the rough sketches of the songs done we reahersed them together as a band and ironed out any bits that needed to be changed. We recorded it alongside engineer Declan Lonergan in Bluebird Studios not far from Dublin. Its a great studio and Declan is a great engineer, it was a bit of a hectic recording session we gave ourselves a time of three weeks  to get the ten songs recorded, but on the first day of recording Bats wife Linda gave birth to their first child,a little girl Layla. Bat had been hoping to have completed the recording before this occured, but Layla arrived early and Bat had to spend time with Linda and Layla and come to the studio when he wasn’t needed by their side. The rest of us got as much of the songs down as we could and the session ran a few days over but it was all good.
Alot of the lyrical content on the album is Jackies, he found ideas for lyrics in subjects such as the troubles in Northern Ireland (where he lives)..in the song Dont Make Their Mistakes, the subject of mortality..in the song Fade to Dust and even the subject of global warming in the song End of the Line. Bat and I contributed some lyrics to the album, Bat completed the song Even if I Dont know Where I’m Gonna Go musically and lyrically, and had half of the lyrics for Something She Knows, I had the track Motions of Time completed and had chorus ideas for Two Wrongs and End of the Line.

The album was recorded in Dublin and mixed in Copenhagen by Peter Brander at Media Sound Studios. Mastering was done by Andy Horn in Germany. How you define this triangle?

Peter Brander had mixed our previous album Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and the EP Weather the Storm for us, he always does a fantastic job so it was a given that we wanted him to mix this album, he has a great set of ears and a great studio and we thank him for the great job he did on this album. Andy Horn was the choice of SPV and he too did a great jod on the mastering, when I heard the mastered tracks I was delighted.

Have you already published something about the album, as a teaser? if yes, what has been the reaction of your fans and critics? What do you expect from this album?

We put up the songs Something She Knows and Fade to Dust as free downloads on the web before the album was released and the reaction from fans was great, people who were in to the band before the new line up came about gave them a massive thumps up so that gave me alot of convidence in the new material. We also created a video for the track Fade to Dust and posted it up on YouTube and the reaction that it got in its first week up on the web was incredible.

Talking about the cover art, made by Mark Wilkinson. There’s a guy who’s hitch-hiking and I guess he gets a ride in that Glyder-truck… it’s surely a concept coverart, but what else you would ike to tell me about it?

Again Mark Wilkinson is another person who has done work for us on previous albums, I love his work he really knows how to catch a persons eye with his art, we knew that this album was going to be a hard rocking album that would be good to drive to so Bat suggested some things to Mark, like the Glyder logo across the grill of the truck. Again he has done a great job and it looks great, I hope we can someday get a truck like that to roar through the night from gig to gig with.

And now that album comes out, how will you support it? a tour? a video? and what else?

We already have the video done and up on YouTube, and we are hoping to get some gigs lined up to promote the album, and we are all working hard to promote and push this album at the moment.

Do you have already some plans for the next future? how do you see Glyder in 5 years from now?

Well I would like to think that in the immediate future we will get some touring done and set about working on another album, 5 years from now I would like to see Glyder as a regular band on the festival circuit around the world and still bring a rocking show as we do now to those who come see us.

Now the last question… how would you like to close this interview?

Just by saying thank you Tarja for your time and questions and to Metal Shock Finland. For anybody who is interested in the band check us out on line at http://www.glydermusic.com all the links you’ll need are there. Our new album Backroads to Byzantium is available now, and hope to see you soon at a Glyder gig somewhere.

Interview by Tarja Virmakari – Photos: Rachel Fox

Glyder – Fade To Dust (official video)