Italian metallers ARTHEMIS were formed by guitarist Andy Martongelli back in 1999 and are the epitome of a hardworking metal band, with their thrashing, catchy heavy music! The band’s most recent album, “Live From Hell” was released in 2014 and recorded at Hard Rock Hell VII.
ARTHEMIS are now well into the “We Are The Fire” European Tour with GUS G. I caught up with guitarist Andy and drummer Kekko before the first show of the tour in Nottingham on 20th February. We discussed everything from the band and live music to cakes! Check out some excerpts below and the full chat on the audio player:
Andy Martongelli, ARTHEMIS, With Blackdiamond Nottingham 2015
Discussing ARTHEMIS in general since the release of last studio album “We Fight” in 2012, Kekko stated:
“We had some line-up changes – the rhythm section – bass and drummer (me!) and we recorded the live album “Live From Hell” with the new line-up which is great, very tight.”
Andy continued: “Me and Kekko were in Powerquest back in the day so we’ve known each other forever. JT the bass player is my good friend from 2002. This time it was so easy to get the real deal, the real Arthemis back as we wanted.”
The guys talked about what’s going on with the band at the moment and their views on playing the live circuit:
“We’re just writing a bunch of riffs here and there, putting together ideas. We’re working on the album, trying to find the right direction, cos we got so many ideas.
Five years ago you would see a tour, some gigs and studio album. But now, you see two years of touring sometimes. Probably, the proper album is not considered that much these days compared to the past, but the live scene is amazing now!
It makes it more like back in the seventies – where you had to see the real deal and see if the band is really good – they had to prove it straight away. We’ve been confirmed for a festival with Obituary and Angra for the summer and some more news to come soon. We keep gigging, so that’s good!”
FIREWIND creator and guitarist with Ozzy Osbourne, GUS G. has been very busy over the last year with his solo project. His debut album “I Am The Fire” was released in March 2014, featuring various artists including Mats Levén, Billy Sheehan and Jeff Scott Soto and received an overwhelming response from fans.
Gus has already done some touring with “I Am The Fire” but has just embarked on a new European “We Are The Fire” tour for 2015, along with vocalist Henning Basse, bass player Strutter and drummer Jo Nunez. Support on the tour comes from Italian metallers ARTHEMIS and young English rockers SKARLETT RIOT. I caught up with Gus before his first show in Nottingham on Friday 20th February, where we discussed the tour and future plans including shows and the next solo album. To hear what Gus revealed about his new album, favourite food and drink, FIREWIND and more, check out the interview on the audio player! You can also read some excerpts from the chat below.
GUS G, Blackdiamond Rescue Rooms, Nottingham February 2015
During our chat, Gus mentioned his next solo album, so I asked him more about it. Gus revealed:
“I’ve already written all the songs and we’ve just finished tracking drums. So once I go back home from this tour I’m gonna go back in the studio and start working on the guitars. So yeah, we’re aiming to finish it by summertime.”
Regarding guest musicians, Gus stated:
“It will still be very much like that (last album) but with less guests. It’s going to be more like a close group of people that I collaborate and co-write with. I’m excited about that, it’s a very high energy album actually. There’s a lot more up-tempo and heavier stuff on it, a lot of guitar in it – just focusing a lot on songwriting. I love to have catchy tunes on there that rock hard!
I co-wrote some songs with Mats Levénand also wrote a lot of songs with Jacob Bunton – he also sang on the first album, he has more of a leading role in this album. There’s a couple more people that I’m not gonna mention right now, because it’s still not set.”
Asked when we would hear more from FIREWIND, Gus expressed:
“The reason why I haven’t made any official statements on the band’s website is because I still haven’t found a singer that I’m comfortable working with on a long term basis yet – I’m pretty close to one right now. And also another factor is because I need to feel really one hundred percent confident that the material is going to be killer and it’s going to be a great album.
So we decided with the band there’s no rush to go back in the studio and do another album and tour cycle – we’ve been doing that for ten years nonstop. Right now I have some ideas that I’ve been working on that I’m excited about, but we’re going to start working with this new singer and we’ll see what happens, if he’s the right one.”
Check out “I Am The Fire” at the Rescue Rooms, Nottingham:
Continuing the promotion of his Century Media Records solo album debut “I Am The Fire”, for which a special and limited expanded edition CD+DVD Digipak version was released last month, Ozzy Osbourne / Firewind guitarist GUS G. is now announcing a next string of European tourdates. The run of headlining dates in February and March 2015 has now been expanded by 3 shows in Italy as well as a special London show supporting Kamelot.
Here is a complete list of the dates:
GUS G. – “We Are The Fire” European Tour 2015:
19.02.2015 Cambridgeshire (UK) – The Corn Exchange St Ives
20.02.2015 Nottingham (UK) – Rescue rooms
21.02.2015 Manchester (UK) – Academy 3
22.02.2015 Southampton (UK) – The Joiners
24.02.2015 Hamburg (Germany) – Logo
25.02.2015 Flensburg (Germany) – Roxy
26.02.2015 Rotterdam (The Netherlands) – Baroeg
27.02.2015 Mannheim (Germany) – 7er Club *
14.03.2015 London (UK) – O2 Academy Islington + Kamelot *
20.03.2015 Modena (Italy) – Borderline *
21.03.2015 Bosco Marengo (Italy) – Live 23 *
22.03.2015 Muggia (Italy) – Macaki *
* Newly announced dates!
Italian group Arthemis will support the shows from Feb. 19th – March 4th as well as the Italian dates from March 20th – 22nd. For the Swedish dates Jeff Scott Soto and Tara Teresa (who both appear on the “I Am The Fire” album) will join GUS G. and his band, which will feature Henning Basse (ex Brainstorm / Metalium, Sons Of Seasons) on lead vocals for this tour, for a very special set.
In related live-activity news, please take notice that GUS G.’s previously announced appearance as part of the “Metal All Stars” tour for Nov./Dec. is not taking place anymore. The complete tour has been postponed and more details can be found here: http://www.metalallstars.com
And a drum-cam video for the album track “Vengeance” filmed at GUS G.’s recent show in Las Vegas can now also be seen here:
On “I Am The Fire”, GUS G. handles all guitar, bass as well as keyboards and is joined by a roster of friends and guests that helped bring his musical vision to fruition: drummers Jeff Friedl (A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Devo) and Daniel Erlandsson (Arch Enemy), bassists David Ellefson (Megadeth), Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, David Lee Roth) and Marty O’Brien (Tommy Lee, We Are The Fallen), and vocalists Mats Levén (Candlemass, ex Yngwie Malmsteen/Therion), Blake Allison (Devour The Day), Michael Starr (Steel Panther), Alexia Rodriguez (Eyes Set To Kill), Tom S. Englund (Evergrey), Jacob Bunton (Adler) and Jeff Scott Soto (Trans-Siberian Orchestra, ex Journey). The album showcases a well-balanced mix of active rock, classic hard rock, traditional metal and guitar-driven instrumentals, taking listeners on a diverse journey through GUS G.’s soulful playing.
The expanded CD+DVD Digipak version of “I Am The Fire” features 4 bonus tracks and a 62-minutes bonus DVD (Including 4 video clips, 3 live tracks, 6 guitar tutorials as well as an EPK and Track-By-Track Commentary features).
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