Interviews

Interview: Milan’s Rock Scene: Discovering MERGING BEATS

Posted by tarjavirmakari on April 8, 2024
Posted in: Int. News, Interviews. Tagged: . Leave a comment

Interview by Tarja Virmakari

Italian city Milan renowned for its fashion and culture, also boasts a vibrant rock scene that pulses beneath its stylish surface. Among the many bands that contribute to this rich musical tapestry, the rock band MERGING BEATS stands out with their unique sound and captivating performances. Merging Beats is a dynamic rock band that fuses elements of classic rock with modern sensibilities, and recently released an EP through Volcano Records & Promotion. Their music is a fusion of infectious melodies, powerful rhythms, and thought-provoking lyrics, creating a sound that is both timeless and contemporary. With a growing fanbase and a reputation for delivering unforgettable live performances, MERGING BEATS is quickly making a name for themselves in the Italian rock scene and beyond. Whether they’re playing in intimate clubs or major festivals, the band’s energy and passion shine through in every note they play. We recently met the band for some questions about their music and career.

  1. Where does the name Merging Beats come from?

The name “Merging Beats” is a nod to computer terminology, as it derives from the concept of merging bits, which are fundamental units of binary code used to encode information on a CD-ROM. Just as merging bits combine data to create a cohesive whole, Merging Beats strives to blend various elements of music, including beats, rhythms, and genres, into a unified and harmonious experience.

  1. In your music, there are elements of both alternative and classic rock. Can you tell us about the musical influences that shape your sound?

As avid fans of classic rock, iconic bands like Led Zeppelin, Queen, and The Beatles have had a profound impact on shaping our sound. We admire their groundbreaking innovation, timeless melodies, and unparalleled musicianship, which have served as enduring sources of inspiration for our own musical journey. In addition to classic rock legends, we also find inspiration in modern rock music. Bands like Muse, with their dynamic compositions and experimental flair, have influenced our approach to songwriting and arrangement. The raw energy and social commentary of Rage Against the Machine resonate with us, inspiring both our lyrical content and our sonic experimentation. Furthermore, contemporary artists like Arctic Monkeys and Foo Fighters infuse our music with a punchy, guitar-driven edge, while Florence + The Machine’s ethereal soundscapes and emotive vocals inspire us to explore different textures and moods within our own music. Overall, our sound is a fusion of classic rock nostalgia and modern rock innovation, reflecting our deep appreciation for the rich tapestry of rock music across generations.

  1. How does Merging Beats approach the songwriting process, and what themes do they explore in their music?

Merging Beats takes a flexible approach to crafting our songs, drawing inspiration from various sources. Sometimes, a song idea sparks from deep emotions or thoughts we want to express through lyrics. Other times, it begins with a catchy melody or a riff that grabs our attention. We believe in letting creativity flow naturally, allowing each song to take shape in its own unique way. Thematically, our music delves into the complexities of human experiences and emotions. We’re not afraid to explore our own vulnerabilities, uncertainties, and life lessons in our lyrics. From moments of joy and triumph to periods of doubt and introspection, our songs reflect the diverse range of feelings that make up the human condition. By sharing our stories and perspectives, we aim to create a sense of connection and resonance with our listeners, reminding them that they’re not alone in their struggles and triumphs. Moreover, our music often serves as a form of catharsis for us as artists, providing an outlet to process our own emotions and experiences. Through our songs, we hope to offer listeners a sense of comfort, empathy, and understanding, inviting them to reflect on their own journeys and find solace in the shared experience of music.

  1. Your discography contains tracks in English and Italian. What’s the reason behind this choice, and in which context do you feel more comfortable?

Our decision to feature tracks in both English and Italian in our discography reflects an evolution in our artistic journey. Initially, our debut album predominantly featured English lyrics, influenced by our deep immersion in English-language music, particularly within the rock genre. However, as we progressed, we felt compelled to explore the expressive richness of the Italian language, prompting us to transition towards incorporating more Italian tracks into our repertoire. The transition towards Italian lyrics stemmed from our admiration for the language’s innate expressiveness and emotive depth. We found that Italian offered us a unique avenue for artistic exploration, allowing us to convey our thoughts and emotions with a heightened sense of intimacy and resonance. While our debut album showcased our comfort and familiarity with English, our subsequent work, particularly our second album, embraced Italian as a primary mode of expression. Moving forward, we are enthusiastic about delving further into Italian music, as it aligns more closely with our evolving artistic vision and resonates deeply with our appreciation for the expressive capabilities of the language. Ultimately, our journey from English to Italian reflects our ongoing exploration of language as a conduit for musical storytelling. Whether in English or Italian, our goal remains the same: to create music that transcends linguistic boundaries and connects with listeners on a profound and universal level.

  1. In 2023, you joined the roster of Volcano Records & Promotion. What added value has working with a record label brought to you?

Joining Volcano Records & Promotion’s roster in 2023 marked a significant milestone for us, offering an extraordinary opportunity for our musical journey. Collaborating with such a respected label has added immense value to our growth as musicians. Primarily, aligning with Volcano Records has connected us with a devoted team of industry professionals who share our passion for music and are dedicated to expanding our reach. Their expertise in promotion, distribution, and marketing has substantially elevated our presence in the industry, enabling us to engage with fans globally. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to Volcano Records & Promotion for believing in our music and providing us with a global platform to showcase our talent. Their unwavering support, guidance, and resources have been essential to our growth as artists.

  1. Wha are your future plans and aspirations?

Our current focus is on completing our first full-length album, a project that we’re pouring our hearts and souls into. The positive reception and appreciation we’ve received for our music are incredibly motivating, fueling our passion and dedication to delivering our best work yet. Looking ahead, we aspire to continue honing our craft, pushing creative boundaries, and sharing our music with a growing audience.

Further info at http://www.mergingbeats.it – http://www.volcanopromotion.com

METHANE Sign with Distilled Entertainment

Posted by tarjavirmakari on March 9, 2023
Posted in: Int. News, Interviews. Tagged: . 1 Comment
Photo by Linda Gabor Photography

METHANE join Artillery, Onslaught and Generation Kill as official roster band of Distilled Entertainment, Artist management and tourbooking.

Distilled Entertainment is a global artist management and North American tour booking agency founded in 2004. Specializing in all genres of rock and metal, Distilled focuses on management services for both signed and unsigned artists and tour booking services for national and international acts. We place artists on stage with some of the biggest names in the industry. Our artists have performed alongside bands like Metallica, Slayer, Korn, Slipknot, Lamb of God, Rob Zombie, Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch, Machine Head, Hatebreed, Atreyu, and All That Remains, P.O.D., as well as other international-level talent.

“Distilled Entertainment is proud to announce we have added Swedish metal masters Methane to the agency roster! If you don’t know them you should! Check them out now!!!” – Patrick Donovan – Agent

After the January 27 release of Methane’s “Kill It With Fire” album things have rapidly begun happen with the Swedish thrash metal band. ” We are now looking forward to do some larger international tours to promote the album. Distilled roster is a filthy mix of thrash metal icon, we are pumped up to start working with Patrick and the agency!” Keep an eye out for upcomming tour dates for Methane in 2023.

See Methane Live
March 24 @ Pow Wow Rockfest in Stockholm Sweden
April 5 @ PLatsen in Linköping Sweden with Nervosa and Frantic Amber
May 27 @ Jarfalla Metal Fest, Jarfalla Sweden

Interview with LIV KRISTINE: “The album reflects where I am today”

Posted by aliblackdiamond on August 5, 2022
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Interview By Alison Booth

Norwegian vocalist, LIV KRISTINE is a true a pioneer of women in metal. She is well known for being the vocalist with gothic metallers THEATRE OF TRAGEDY and also the founder and original vocalist of symphonic metal band LEAVES’ EYES, plus much more besides! Liv is set to re-release her “Enter My Religion” album for the first time on vinyl on August 19th via Allegro Talent Media/ Plastic Head/ Zyx Music. The album will also be released on cassette, with two bonus tracks and as a double CD with unreleased tracks and demo recordings.

A little while ago,  Metal Shock Finland’s Alison Booth caught up with Liv for her radio show Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem, which is broadcast every Tuesday from 6PM GMT on UK station TotalRock. The show with Liv can be heard here.

The forthcoming released was discussed, as well as Liv‘s career and more besides!  You can listen to the interview on the audio player and read some excerpts below:

Discussing the album release, Liv explained:

“I’m very, very happy about it because Enter My Religion was, as it was released back in 2005, it was there just shortly and then it disappeared and the reason for this was that my label partner back then – Roadrunner Records, were bought by somebody else. So there was an internal structural change in the company, so I was one of the ones who had to leave Roadrunner Records for that reason.

I really liked working with Roadrunner Records, but I got my rights back after many years and my first thought was let’s bring it back with a facelift. I’m very happy about the re-release, because it was a very important step in my personal development back then, but it just as much reflects where I am today.”

Regarding her career, Liv revealed:

“Sometimes I thought I really just wanna get out of it and around the times of Enter My Religion, or I would say before, a couple of years before, there was a court case, there was all this stuff going on, which has nothing to do with personal development, authenticity. It’s all about money and I felt strange in the music business. So now, being able to release Enter My Religion by myself is a huge step forward.”

On how her role has adapted over the years, Liv reminisced:

“It was very exciting to be able to go on the road and play gigs at the age of eighteen, nineteen years – coming from Stavanger, from the darkness of Norway where it always rains. All of a sudden we were out there and it went really fast and we got famous overnight.

We found ourselves in the middle of everything, this great music circus and we seemed to be pioneers. But we didn’t feel that way, because we were just being so authentic. We loved Shakespeare, we loved doom metal, we loved Black Sabbath, Anathema, Paradise Lost and we were just eager to express ourselves.

It was kind of refreshing to see how things have developed since then. You have a lot of bands now, female fronted metal bands and I think that’s great. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the gothic metal genre or if you’re like more the rock ‘n’ roll lady, it doesn’t matter. I just think to me personally that it’s important we have more women in metal. I adore Doro and the work she has done, she was a pioneer for me.“

“Enter My Religion” Tracklist:

LP, Tape, CD:
1 Over the Moon
2 Fake a Smile
3 All the Time in the World
4 My Revelation
5 Coming Home
6 Trapped in your Labyrinth
7 Blue Emptiness
8 You Are the Night
9 Enter my Religion
10 Streets of Philadelphia
11 You Take Me Higher
12 For a Moment

Demotracks CD
1 Over the Moon
2 Trapped in your Labyrinth
3 You Are the Night
4 Streets of Philadelphia
5 You Take Me Higher
6 Stjernenacht (unreleased)
7 Woman in Me
8 One Thought Closer (unreleased)

Demotracks Tape:

  1. Enter my Religion
  2. For a Moment

Bonus single Vinyl:

  1. Trapped in your Labyrinth – Piano
  2. Fake a Smile – Piano

Pre-order the album here: https://livkristine.net/index.php/shop/

Official Facebook

Website

Interview: Japanese Martial Arts Warrior REFUTA KAMUY, aka ‘Iron Fist’, Electrified by CELTIC HILLS Album “Huldufólk”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on July 25, 2022
Posted in: Int. News, Interviews, News. Tagged: , . 1 Comment

Interview + opening words by Markus Eck
Inside Photo taken @Nakajima Gymnasium in Sapporo

REFUTA KAMUY – Transcontinental fighting association. Such a highly enthusiastic and fundamentally honest to each other group of truly quivering idealists is not something you experience every day, even in the age of the Internet, if there ever was such a thing before! Thus, a Japanese karate martial artist, wrestling maniac and Metal lover found his way to German PR agency Metal Message ᴳᴸᴼᴮᴬᴸ, only to be immediately gifted with new music by the Italian power metallers CELTIC HILLS. As a contact springboard for this Japanese-German fraternization acted the long-time active Chicago Thrashers Aftermath, whose rebellious accuser attacks also our fighter hero likes to use during sweaty training as a musical strength donor.

Suddenly electrified by the CELTIC HILLS album „Huldufólk“, Refuta ‘Iron Fist’ Kamuy immediately trained even more intensively and better. The fact that Celtic Hills even wrote the song „Metal Message“ as a tribute to their tireless promoter Markus Eck out of deepest gratitude, appreciation and joy, animated master Refuta to appoint the uplifting song as his very personal entrance anthem and his fight song in general. When the enormously jump-strong sportsman then also saw the special lyric video for „Metal Message“, it was all over him – so the muscularly really fabulously defined bundle of energy recently even made his own video with the timeless song. So it’s high time to let the damn likeable Nippon fighter have his own say.

  • Refuta, thanks a lot for your truly awesome support of Metal Message ᴳᴸᴼᴮᴬᴸ and Celtic Hills – how does it feel for you to be an highly appreciated part of such an absolute wonderful intercontinental constellation ?

Thank you so much too! „An absolute wonderful intercontinental constellation“ – that’s right, we crossed the border with Metal and Martial Arts. As the lyric line out of the Celtic Hills song „Metal Message“ – „he brings it to the universe“, that’s exactly what happened!

  • The world sees you masked only – allowed to ask you for your age and the reason for the mask?

As a wrestler, this is not a mask, but a real face. I am the guardian deity of Sapporo City, Hokkaido and a villain. I made my debut in 2017, at PWS: Pro Wrestling Sapporo. So, maybe I’m 5 years old as‚ Refuta Kamuy‘. My age in human life? That is a top secret. But that doesn’t mean I can’t answer the whole interview!

  • Biography – in which age did you discover Metal for yourself and in which age and why did you start to doing power sports etc.?

Seikima II, the Japanese band, is the first Metal that I’ve ever heard, it was in my childhood in the 1990s. Their influence is huge. I learned that expression is free in a band where the ‚devil plays Metal‘. My power sports was influenced by Schwarzenegger, Stallone, and Bruce Lee’s films from an early age. When I’ve red an introductory book on Wrestling in the library, I was also very impressed, but at that time I didn’t think I could do that myselves. I first experienced Karate and Wrestling from high school club activities. When I became an adult, I traveled around Japan on a motorcycle and updated at various martial arts dojos, and it became my current style.

  • Which Metal bands are your all-time faves and which bands are able to empower you musically mostly in your workouts and fights?

I have a lot of favourite bands, but let me pick up a few:
Seikima II: To remember the original intention and because it started with them for me.
Megadeth: I often listening to them when I want intelligence, madness, and fighting spirit.
Helloween: Their songs just make me feel great!
Angra: I especially like their releases with singer Eduardo Falaschi, „Rebirth“ and „Temple Of Shadows“. Perfect, if you want to overcome personal hardships!
Aftermath: they thrash hypocrisy and deception! Same as a real workout!
Celtic Hills: their epic simply makes one feel proud!

  • Do your sport partners also like to listen to Metal?

Yes, as many wrestlers like Hard Rock and Metal! ‘Mr. Karate Machine‘, who is training with me in my video, does not listen to Metal often, but he is excited by Celtic Hills’ „Metal Message“!

  • What do you like most in the song Metal Message and in the music of Celtic Hills?

The bands that Metal Message keeps to introduce, are all great, but if I have to choose from them, I especially like Hand Of Kalliach and On Atlas’ Shoulders. Their song „Age Of Fire” brings my soul to tremble! Hand Of Kalliach’s „Cinders“ and the snow-white landscape seems to come to my mind. There are times like that on winter days here in Sapporo City, Hokkaido. My favourite song of Celtic Hills is „Metal Message”! I love the lyric line „We want it higher!“ I downloaded the whole „Huldufólk“ album and listened to it repeatedly recently. It was amazing from the first song „The Secret Of The Grail“. It’s like the opening of a magnificent story! And every song is high energy and epic … Celtic Hills is amazing!

  • How would you describe the Metal scene in your city Sapporo?

As far as I know, we have many enthusiastic fans here. And one can visit many venues to enjoy gigs in Sapporo. Also various Metal acts from overseas come here to tour. Metallica often came to Makomanai Ice Arena for a while, and there are countless bands aiming to play live here as well.

  • Which styles of music do you like to hear nowadays then beside Metal?

I like to listen to video game soundtracks. They’re good for learning about how to expressing characters and scenes. I also often listen to a Japanese punk band called The Massmissile during my workout. Seiichi Nakano, their drummer and a friend of mine, has a fantastic technique and his double bass is even faster than my punch!

  • How did you end up getting right into wrestling?

When I was very young, I found a book by Hulk Hogan in the library that was like an introduction to wrestling for me. I was shocked by the powerful scenes of people with such a big and wonderful body colliding hard, and then finally fighting even harder with each other. It reminded me of a hero, such as Kamen Rider, who came from television to the real world. When I think about it more deeply, I think that in the end I wanted to be something that ‚transcended’ regular existence. And that has now come true even with this interview – we have crossed the border!

  • How would you describe and level your place in the Japanese fighter scene?

To be honest, I think I’m just one of many indie wrestlers. I can’t make a living wrestling yet, so I usually work weekdays (pretending to be human). Then on the weekends I become a wrestler and terrorize the PWS wrestlers. But I keep challenging them ambitiously so it doesn’t stop there. That’s another reason why I’m happy to give this interview.

  • Regarding the Japanese Wrestling League, how big or popular is this sport in Japan?

I think it has reappeared in recent years. And now I’m showing it to the interested world again!

  • How many matches did you do so far, and how many did you win?

In PWS, we do one or two combat events a month. Of course, COVID-19 has reduced that noticeably, but fortunately lately it is now back to the way it used to be. As for my personal track record, apart from the year of my debut, I have usually won the games. However, I think I have far more prestigious opportunities than pure victory or defeat, such as this enjoyable interview!

  • Your body looks just amazing and your fighting actions are a blow – how often and how long do you practise training a week?

Physical training I perform constantly 5 times a week. I also do aerobic and basic skills exercises on 1-2 days. Technical training takes place one day a week, sometimes special wrestling training on Sunday. Now, I obviously can’t do all of this if my regular work, an event commitment, or an injury interrupts my rhythm, but these are my ideal workouts. I also love to train in nature, for example in the mountains, by rivers or by the sea!

  • Your special nutrition – what do you eat and what do you strictly avoid?

Oh, I love meat. Especially chicken. And I also like rice a lot. When you live here in Japan like I do, there is simply no day that you don’t eat rice! So I love and appreciate the lunches deliciously prepared for me by my family, who can always please me so highly with these delicious ingredients! And I avoid alcohol as much as I can. I only drink it occasionally. Speaking of which, I forgot – I also like the poor victims on the other side of me in PWS fights! I will ‚boil‘ them all with my fists and kicks!

  • Anything you would like to add?

Nice to meet you all here! I am Refuta Kamuy. The wrestler from Pro Wrestling Sapporo – we are active here in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, Japan! Many thanks to my brother Markus from Metal Message ᴳᴸᴼᴮᴬᴸ across the ocean and to Jonathan and Celtic Hills for the great songs that gave me this wonderful opportunity to introduce myself. I am truly grateful and honoured. We have crossed the line! I hope that you guys care about the city of Sapporo and Pro Wrestling Sapporo even a little bit, and I will continue to inspire and motivate you for this with all my might! Thank you very much for everything!

Watch Refuta Kamuy’s videos, training with CELTIC HILLS’ song ‘Metal Message’, HERE and HERE.

More information at
https://www.instagram.com/refutakamuy_pws/
https://twitter.com/steelbaron273
https://www.facebook.com/refutakamuy

Interview with SOTIRIS ANUNNAKI V. -SEPTICFLESH “Our dream was really demanding, this time it was on the next level of difficulty”

Posted by aliblackdiamond on May 27, 2022
Posted in: Int. News, Interviews. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Interview By Alison Booth

Greek symphonic death metal titans SEPTICFLESH have been a force in the music world for more than thirty years, having formed back in 1990 and releasing their debut EP in 1991. They built a huge following of devoted fans over the years and are still gaining new generations of them, eleven studio albums later.

The brand new album “Modern Primitive” was released on 20th May via Nuclear Blast Records. A week before the album release, Metal Shock Finland’s Alison Booth caught up with SOTIRIS ANUNNAKI V. for her radio show Blackdiamond’s Metal Mayhem, which is broadcast every Tuesday from 6PM GMT on UK station TotalRock. The show with Sotiris can be heard here.

Much of the interview was of course about the new album and how it developed during difficult times, its production and also looking ahead to touring again and more! You can listen to the interview on the audio player and read some excerpts below:

On working with producer Jens Bogren, Sotiris explained:

“Well, we were really happy with the result that he managed to produce with Codex Omega, it was our first collaboration. And so he was the first on our list for the next album and fortunately he had also the time. He’s a really powerful producer, with understanding not only for metal, but also for music in general.

So, from the point of production, it’s essential to have someone that can digest the magnitude of channels that we provide, we provide more than one hundred channels of recordings. So we needed someone that will be really clever and he’s a master in his field. He was really open minded – we wanted that. We didn’t want someone to enforce an opinion you know. We wanted to discuss and listen to the options. He also had a lot of patience with us, we are really difficult [laughs].”

Discussing recording the album during the pandemic:

“Yes and actually it affected us as musicians and composers and so you can say that a lot of our experiences enforced from the lockdowns, from the situation, one way or another were incorporated on this album, so it’s a special album.

Also, all this time that we had in our hands, we had the chance to reflect on our direction as a band and everything and also to reflect I think about the direction generally, philosophical point of view, the direction of mankind. And that influenced me to write a lot of lyrics that are dealing with things that are involved around today. And so the majority of the songs are down to earth you can say, but it’s not an earth healthy, but an earth that declines.

So you can say that this album has this ominous atmosphere, all the way from the start to the ending song and it defines its character.

We had a female choir, male choir and children choir. So as I told you from the start, we had to find solutions, because our dream was really demanding. The whole creation we had in our mind evolved around many people, many musicians. We had also a lot of traditional instruments and we had to record for instance some Greek traditional instruments like a bouzouki, also we had to record a mandolin and a lot of other instruments. We had to communicate and we had to use the different studios. We had in some cases to be allowed to have a lot of people together, perform together and it was a really giant step for us. Of course, in the past we always had this symphonic element, but this time it was on the next level of difficulty.”

On the upcoming European tour with HYPOCRISY:

“Hypocrisy is a great band and the people that listen to Hypocrisy and the people that listen to Septicflesh have a lot of common ground – there is something that unites us. We have the opportunity to play a longer setlist, that is important for us. And I think as you said the mix is really good and the people that come will be really satisfied.

The next two years for us will be full of touring around the world.”

SEPTICFLESH are:
Seth Siro Anton | Vocals, Bass
Christos Antoniou | Guitar, Orchestra
Sotiris Anunnaki V | Clean Vocals, Guitar, 12 String Guitar
Psychon | Guitar
Kerim ‘Krimh’ Lechner | Drums

More info on SEPTICFLESH:
Facebook.com/septicfleshband
Twitter.com/septicfleshband
Instagram.com/septicflesh_band
Septicflesh.com

THE FREQUENCY CONSPIRACY – Ft. Members of Last in Line, Tyketto, 24-7 Spyz, Raven – Talking About Debut Album “Quarantine Covers”

Posted by tarjavirmakari on January 10, 2022
Posted in: Int. News, Interviews, News. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

THE FREQUENCY CONSPIRACY, the new project by 24-7 Spyz, Seventrain, Shockhead drummer, Joel Maitoza – featuring members of Last in Line, Lynch Mob, Raven, Pat Travers Band, Tyketto and many others – released worldwide their debut album titled “Quarantine Covers” on January 1st, 2022 (New Years Day) through So Cal Records / Alliance Entertainment.

Just recently we sat down with Joel Maitoza to talk about the debut album “Quarantine Covers”.

  1. Why did you decide to name your new project The Frequency Conspiracy?

A number of years ago, I read an article about the frequency conspiracy and it intrigued me (although I’m not really into conspiracy theories in general). In a nutshell, standard instrument tuning is 440 which was standardized in 1953. If you tune the A string to 432, it’s known to have more healing properties, easier to listen to and more in tune with nature. It was suggested that the monopolization of the music industry features this imposed frequency (440) that is ‘herding’ populations into greater aggression, psychosocial agitation, and emotional distress predisposing people to physical illnesses and financial impositions profiting the agents, agencies, and companies engaged in the monopoly.

  1. What inspired you to record an album of cover songs?

When the pandemic hit, bands stopped touring and the world basically shut down. I decided to contact some musicians I’ve always wanted to work with and record an album of cover tunes with a hard rock/metal vibe. The songs are some “hand-picked” favorites of mine that I thought everyone involved could have some fun with and the fans would enjoy hearing.

  1. How did The Frequency Conspiracy project come about?

It all started releasing two videos in 2020 featuring Last in Line/Lynch Mob vocalist Andrew Freeman and it just took off from there. I recorded the drum tracks in the studio by myself without any music. Just a click track and the arrangement in my head. Then I sent the tracks out to the individual musicians I wanted to have perform on the songs. The artists recorded their parts in their own home studios and sent the files back to me. It was really cool to hear how each musician interpreted and performed their parts. The songs just evolved. The creative process was absolutely fascinating and I think we captured some amazing performances on this album.

  1. Why did you want to work with a bunch of different musicians instead of just forming a new band?

I kind of took a chapter from the Steely Dan playbook and didn’t want the same musicians playing on every song. I could distinctly hear each chosen artist performing each song in my head prior to recording the track. It took some time to figure out who would play on what, but I think everyone did a great job working together and making their individual parts fit like a glove.

  1. What was the biggest challenge in making this record?

Individual tracks (sound files) and mixing. It’s much more cohesive when the entire band is all working together in the studio and bouncing ideas off each other. This was a bit more difficult because the individual tracks were recorded in various studios all over the world so the overall mix of each song sounds a little different, even though the engineer and I tried our best to keep everything consistent.

  1. Are you planning on touring at all?

Not at this point. If the album starts to take off, a few of the musicians that played on the album have already agreed to do a short run of dates in the US. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I have been receiving some show offers scheduled for summer 2022. It also depends on the pandemic. We’ll see.

  1. What’s the future of the new project?

I plan on releasing a couple of more videos to promote this album and have a few radio interviews scheduled. I’ve also been working on an album of original material which I hope to release in early 2023, but no release date is scheduled yet. I’m not sure if I’ll record another “covers” album, but I really enjoyed recording this one and had a blast working with everyone involved.

“Quarantine Covers” Tracks listing:

  1. Carry On Wayward Son
    • Feat. Christophe Godin – Guitars / Jaimie Scott – Bass / Andrew Freeman – Vocals / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  2. Hell Bent for Leather
    • Feat. John Gallagher – Vocals, Bass / Joshua Jones – Guitars / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  3. Locked Out of Heaven
    • Feat. Jason (JMR) Richardson – Vocals, Guitars / David Pastorius – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  4. Words Get in the Way
    • Feat. Craig Soderberg – Guitars, Vocals, Keys / Jaimie Scott – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  5. Rock Candy
    • Feat. Joshua Jones – Guitars / Andrew Freeman – Vocals / Rick Skatore – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  6. Turning Japanese
    • Feat. Craig Soderberg – Guitars, Vocals, Keys / Jaimie Scott – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  7. Shapes of Things
    • Feat. Jason (JMR) Richardson – Vocals / Joshua Jones – Guitars / Miguelon Rodriguez – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  8. Sailing
    • Feat. Craig Soderberg – Guitars, Vocals, Keys / Jaimie Scott – Bass / Joel Maitoza – Drums
  9. Life in the Fast Lane
    • Feat. Craig Soderberg – Guitars / Miguelon Rodriguez – Bass / Joey McCaw – Vocals / Joel Maitoza – Drums

Joel explains, “When the pandemic hit, bands stopped touring and the world shut down. I decided to contact some musicians I’ve always wanted to work with and record an album of cover tunes with a hard rock/metal vibe. The songs are some “hand-picked” favorites of mine that I thought everyone involved could have some fun with and the fans would enjoy hearing. It all started releasing two videos in 2020 featuring Last in Line/Lynch Mob vocalist Andrew Freeman and it just took off from there. I recorded the drum tracks in the studio by myself without any music, just a click track and the arrangement in my head. Then I sent the tracks out to the individual musicians I wanted to have perform on the songs. The artists recorded their parts in their own home studios and sent them back to me. It was really cool to hear how each musician interpreted and performed their parts and the songs just evolved. The creative process was absolutely fascinating and I think we captured some amazing performances on this album.”

Watch “Quarantine Covers” Promo Video:

Also check out the earlier released cover version singles:
‘Carry on Wayward Son’ by KANSAS – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdrbcunU4do
‘Rock Candy’ by MONTROSE – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlD9yzVTkco

The album was recorded at Exum Studios by Scott Exum (Stabbing Westward, Unwritten Law), Room 9 Studios by Jerry Whiting, DML Studios by Don Lithgow (RIP) and AJP Studios by Alex Pappas (Finch).

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