Transcript of an interview I recorded with GUS G. of FIREWIND - 20200423. Full article here. MAL-
Talking once again to Gus from FIREWIND. Gus, thanks for calling. GUS- Yeah, it's a pleasure, man. Thank you. MAL- It's good to talk to you again. We spoke six and a half years ago now just before you came to Australia that time, where's the time gone? GUS- 2013 Yeah, time flies, man. I know. MAL- That was just to promote the 'Few Against Many' album. In early 2017. You had the 'Immortals' album, how did that album go for you? GUS- Was really good actually was very well received. I mean, we went after that 'Few Against Many' album and tour we went on a small hiatus. The singer left it's kind of usual in this band. Apollo left, so anyways, we you know, I got kind of got fed up with it. So I went on to do solo albums and solo tours and in 2017 Yeah, we came back with 'Immortals', which was very well received, I must say. We did a lot of touring for that. And that kept us busy for almost two years now. And we are with a new one now. MAL- You mentioned your solo thing. I don't mean to sound disrespectful here. Was that getting something out of your system? GUS- Um, yeah, yeah, we can definitely say that. I mean, and no, that's not disrespectful at all actually was a it was definitely an attempt to satisfy my needs outside FIREWIND. And also to just, I mean, okay, FIREWIND has been my own band from the start, I just wanted to start this project and just do other things. Try to write into different directions, like try out songs that normally wouldn't go on a FIREWIND record, collaborate with other singers, other musicians just basically do a project where I don't have to rely on steady members. You know what I mean? Just like a revolving door of friends that come in and guest on my records just the thing, just something different, you know, which was the right thing to do at the right time. And it was good. It was a cathartic experience, especially the first album. I didn't expect that was going to do all these solo tours, honestly. But it sort of evolved into this touring thing, you know. And I got to tour with a lot of great guitar players that I admired. A lot of my heroes actually, so I thought, why the hell not? Let's keep doing that. MAL- And then you mentioned coming back with FIREWIND for the 'Immortals' album. How was it hooking back up with those guys again? Fresh Start? GUS- Yeah, in a way. Yeah, it seemed like that. But in hindsight, but it really wasn't. I mean, we'd all missed each other. You know, we got together we played a few festivals in 2016. And we enjoy playing again. And we're like, okay, let's make this album. And you know, we got a producer on board, Dennis Ward, who helps so much to make to get this album going. And there was this kind of like, okay, let's start the engines a little bit and then let's See what happens but this kind of when you have this kind of mentality like okay, let's see what happens let's just see what happens I'm like it it just doesn't work like that, you know, like okay, let's see what happens okay maybe you play like a few festivals here and there maybe a short tour here and there but unless you make a plan and you make some sort of effort and you have goals you want to achieve nothing really is going to happen significant, you know what I mean? So, and that was the problem with the band up until recently was like, Well, you know, the minute I tried to I was trying to set all these goals like Okay, let's go back into doing all these support tours and let's you know, try to reach a bigger audience and let's do this and then build this and let's look two or three years down the line, where are we going to be? That's when I realised that some of the guys did not share those those opinions with me and that's when another inevitable lineup change came again, right before it the midst of the production of this album to be honest. MAL- Because yeah, the first thing I noticed when I saw the early film clip was 'Where's Bob?' So, tell us what happened there. GUS- Yeah, Bob is out. He definitely didn't want to continue touring at this pace. We weren't even touring all that much, but I wanted to, you know, step it up, and he was like, you know, wanted to build a studio and he has, he has a small label back in Athens. And, you know, he's got his clients and he enjoys working in the studio and mixing and editing and doing all that stuff and producing good, good yeah, that's, that's he has he has had a successful business for many years like that. So he couldn't really commit to this and he sort of started not enjoying the travelling at all so you know, we had this discussion, you know, because it's like, well, dude is like if you if you're not enjoying this, there's, there's no reason on earth you should be doing this, you know, and, you know, people will understand don't worry about that, you know, and then we understood We understand and we wish him the best really. He's always be family and always a great friend. But that was like also a wake up call for me like, okay, maybe this is the time to reimagine the band rethink of how FIREWIND should continue, IF FIREWIND should continue First of all, that was the main thing and once I decided that we should continue then there was this you know who comes in and what, what the replacements look like and what the sound? You know, what's the new sound here? What are we trying to achieve? Where should we go and so there's a lot of a lot of questions were up in the air while we already had made the music and recorded it. MAL- Tell us about Herbie, how did you get him because he sounds so good. Tell us about how he came on board. GUS- Yeah, sure. I asked the record label. I told them that things aren't working out with Henning either. And first of all, I told them well Do you still want a FIREWIND album even with a new singer and they were like They're like, well, we want to have a FIREWIND album as long as you're on there. So I'm like okay, let's do it then, you know, I knew the record labels backing me up. So I asked him Do you know anybody to to help them finish this? So they suggested Herbie Langans and they send me some links to check him out. And I quickly realised they I knew of this guy because I had listened to SINBREED about eight years ago and I was like, wow, this guy is amazing. So theY put us in touch and we started talk. You know, it all happened very fast. You know, I asked him to sing on one of our older tracks to see how he sounds. Then I tried to write something with him. I sent him like a new riff. first song we wrote was 'Devour'. So it was pretty obvious to me there that okay, this is how FIREWIND should be sounding. And then I told him what's happened You know, like, Look, dude, like we have the music written but we don't have lyrics or vocals for this and You know, I asked him if he can commit to all these tours that I was planning, which is kind of ironic because none of this can happen right now but but regardless of all that, at some point all this will happen when we go back to how it was so, yeah, and he was up for it. You know, he's a professional touring musician because he works with AVANTASIA a lot. And so yeah, we made the plan we talked about everything and we started working right away. So there we are. MAL- And the new album will be out soon and it's simply called 'FIREWIND'. Tell us about some of the tracks on there. My favourite track I will just let you know is 'Break Away'. GUS- Oh, cool. Cool. Thank you. It's also one of my favourite tracks and it's going to also be one of the, we're planning to do a lyric video for that. MAL- Excellent. GUS- Yeah, I think it's one of the standout tracks for sure. There's cool catchy themes, really great vocals, adventurous arrangements and stuff. It's a one of the more power metal tracks of the record. Pretty long guitar solo in there too. MAL- I did notice that. GUS- Yeah, it was fun to do all that. Funny thing is that track is actually was supposed to be an instrumental. I had that idea for a couple of years on my hard disk laying around and I thought originally was going to make it on one of my solo records because it was an instrumental but I, I realised at some point like look this, it doesn't sound as exciting instrumental as it should be. Whereas I thought like if I put vocals over this and keep the main themes, it can be a smashing like Power Metal FIREWIND tracks, so I'm glad I made that decision to include it on this album. MAL- Tell us about 'Orbitual Sunrise'. GUS- 'Orbitual Sunrise' Yeah, actually. Actually, this is the last thing that me and Bob co-wrote before he left the band, you know, he had submitted a couple of ideas. I usually do like all the music. Bob used to contribute like maybe a song or two on each album, and he had this idea, this riff and I thought, I thought was really cool, and I thought we should keep it regardless, you know. So, you know, he had most of the riffs and I added my flavour to it and like my arrangement and added some extra bits. So we co wrote that and that's musically wise, but lyrically, it's cool because it's part of a small concept within the record lyrically. It's about this astronaut, who goes out in space orbiting around Earth, in his spaceship, and you know, basically describing the thoughts that he has on humanity and on Earth and those kind of things and this is 'Orbitual Sunrise', and it's actually a trilogy, there's another song called 'Longing To Know You'. And another song called 'Space Cowboy'. So those three are sort of tied in together under the same concept. MAL- Excellent, I like it. One that's a little bit out of left field, you might say, 'Overdrive'. Tell us about that one. GUS- Sure. Yeah, 'Overdrive'. Yeah, it was one of those kind of like outsiders so to speak. I knew it was a different track. Like I was going for that, you know, 'Heaven and Hell' or 'Headless Cross' type of SABBATH vibe, you know, a very 80s and I wasn't sure how I thought well with the right vocals, it can be a really cool song, but it depends. I'm not sure if we would fit on a FIREWIND record but then that's where you know, again, a great singer like Herbie steps in and you know, I send this to him and he goes like, you know, he sends me the vocal lines back and he sounds so good at doing that kind of Dio / Tony Martin kind of thing and it made me immediately I thought it fell right into place, I was like, wow, this is really cool. And you know, lyrically, it's about kind of like an anthem type of track for the fans and you know for the music that we like and basically what keeps the drive You know, what's the drive that keeps us going to do this basically. MAL- So when's this album coming out now? And has it has the release date been delayed by all this that's happening in the world at the moment or you're pressing on regardless? GUS- Yeah, not as far as I know, we're still aiming for it May 15, yeah. MAL- What happens then though? This is the thing is. We touched on it before with all these tours that you were all set to go on, and now you can't. Where is the light at the end of the tunnel? How far away is the end of the tunnel? GUS- Look, I mean, right now, nobody knows. You know, it's like, I mean, if doctors cannot predict, then I don't think a booking agent can predict. So you know, it's like, we just take it day by day, you know, all I know is that we're going to put out new music, release it to the world. Hopefully, it'll keep people in quarantine, keep them company, maybe more people will check it out. Maybe people will pay more attention to it than they normally would. MAL- Well, I think so because I've never listened to as many albums as I have in the last couple of weeks. GUS- And there you go. And I was also talking to a friend of mine from the record industry just like earlier today and he said well, it doesn't matter if you release your album in June or August you still cannot tour you know, so you know, you might as well not release anything for you know, wait until all this is over if if you really have to be with you know, everything that's supposed to happen like you know, I'm supposed to do it traditionally, release the album, tour, I mean, okay, we're gonna have to do it without the tour. Think about how many bands put out records and cannot tour even in the normal world. So and for us, we will tour in all these tours we just get postponed to next year. So we just think fans will have to wait a little bit longer for us and then we'll go back out there and do it. I hope people can stay safe right now and keep listening to music because it's good company. MAL- Gus, thanks for talking to me. Good luck with the album. And good luck when you get to tour again, we're all gonna be like caged animals let out. GUS- Yeah, for sure. Thanks so much, my friend. MAL- Hey, thanks, mate, you have a great day. GUS- You too. Bye bye. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |