Transcript of an interview I recorded with Andy Dowling of LORD - 30/07/19. Full article here. MAL-
It's good to be talking to Andy from LORD, Andy, thanks for taking my call. ANDY- Oh, thank you very much for having me. MAL- It's great to have you on. Let's do a bit of a recap if you don't mind on what LORD have been doing the last few years, I haven't seen you for a while. ANDY- Yeah, it's one of those things. I think one of the storylines at the moment is you know first album in six years and Tim, especially in our band, like we've been doing heaps. So we we've, I think we've sort of been sort of behind the scenes releasing lots of stuff, the point of doing as much touring as many other bands. But we've, since the last album 'Digital Lies', we've re-released all the old DUNGEON back catalogue, we've recorded it and put it out as a box set. We've done a couple of EPs and re-recorded some more of the LORD stuff as well. And we did a live album, which was recorded in the US. And yeah, done a little bit of touring in the US and Southeast Asia and around the country. So we've been busy. But it's the elusive studio album, which is been six years in the making. And I think that's where most people's attentions been, so been busy, ut I think in some ways we are back now. MAL- Right, six years, that's a long time between drinks, what was the story? ANDY- Yeah, it's um, it's one of those things where I think we, we've got the last album out, we started doing the touring cycle around that. And then we started looking at our back catalogue, and we realized that there's a lot of stuff just legacy wise, that is owned by different people, different record labels. And we wanted to, I guess, refresh the back catalogue, especially the DUNGEON era stuff where we wanted to control it and own it. And a lot of labels, own bits and pieces. And the rights are in all sorts of different territories and weird contracts. So we thought stuff it, let's re record everything. And we spent just a lot of time sort of, I guess, cleaning up the the office, so to speak, and just getting everything in order and re-releasing some stuff and bringing that old crowd back to the what LORD's doing now. And it was just a bit of, I don't know, we're just we're just I guess, tidying everything up and trying to prep ourselves for eventually, what would be an album, but we didn't expect it to take 6 years. So I mean, we I think we started talking about the next studio album, probably about three years ago, and we had clear intentions of what we wanted to do what we thought it might sound like. But then, you know, like anything life gets in the way and things drag out and then recording sessions don't happen or people don't, you know, other priorities pop up, and it just drags out. And so before we knew it, it's like, well, geez, so we really need to pull our fingers out and put this out there. So yeah, lots lots happening but and also that the industry changes quite a bit as well. I think we sort of looked at it and watch how people digest music and I think we sort of looked at it and thought we can try a lot of different things, release lots of different formats in different ways of putting music out into the market and just see how things go. And, but it's come full circle now we thought well, yeah, we're overdue for an album. MAL- Okay. lineup who's in the band? ANDY- Yeah, so that's, that's a big question. So what so what the band is now I mean, it's, it's three of us so, Tim, LORD, Tim, Mark on guitars and myself on bass and with we're pretty much the three amigos of the band these days. since our last permanent drummer, Damian Costas left I think in 2013. So ever since then, we've had this very Spinal Tapish revolving door, that we can just never keep down and some are coming with intentions to be a permanent fixture. But I think it's, it's a hard, it's a hard domain to walk into, we've got, you know, the three of us have been heavily invested in the band for quite some time. And it's just a different level of, of passion that's involved with it. So we kind of got to the point where we thought, you know, what, the three of us are the band, we had been the band for, for quite a number of years, I mean, Mark's the newest guy in the band, he's been in the band for for well, over a decade, probably getting closer to 12 or 13 years now. And, you know, we'll just get out, we'll get great friends, great session musicians, we know some incredible drummers from around the country, and when we do a tour we'll grab one of those guys and get them on board and, and, and get them up to speed. And I think that's probably going to be the way it'll be for at least for the foreseeable future. I think that's probably the easiest way for us to manage it. So very loaded question. But it's been it's been an ongoing theme with our band, this revolving Spinal Tap series of drummers that have come and gone. MAL- Just so long as we don't get people exploding on stage. ANDY- No, no, no spontaneous combustion. MAL- Okay, so you've got the album in mind, you've gone in to record it. Tell us about this. ANDY- Yet, it's it hasn't been quick process. So we, as I mentioned before at least three years ago, we all sort of got together and spoke about what we want to do. We've done a number of different types of things. we've, we've done the epic long songs, and we released an EP with a 24 minute song on it with all these twists and turns very cinematic. And we, we went back and re-recorded DUNGEON stuff, and we just thought, you know what, we need something that's just straight up, no fussing, no messing about just very cliche, but balls to the wall, heavy metal album. And something that's memorable, not too dumbed down. But just something that has the best elements of everything that we've done in the past, has really catchy choruses, has everything to pick on those for the solos, the heavy guitars, all that sort of stuff. And we kind of looked at our back catalogue and picked out the parts that we love the most as far as particular elements and different things that we're able to create from those previous albums. And we kind of just start mashing riffs and ideas together. And it was just a long process. You know, we just throw riffs into a bucket, song ideas, lyric themes, and things like that. And we just start to throw things at a wall and see what sticks and yeah, and we just sit and we see what happens. And so we went through the demo stage and, and started putting them together. And then we started to slowly track things. And we had a few delays here and there for various reasons. And and yet it wasn't, it probably wasn't the easiest process to go through. But thinking back I don't think any of the last several albums that we've done have been easy. They've all been they've all had their own unique challenges. something dramatic has happened at some point in time on each album. So it sort of adds an extra level of I would say an extra level of energy to the album where it's probably a little bit of pent up frustration that just is unleashed with some heavy guitars and some vocals. MAL- Yeah, so the album we're talking about 'Fallen Idols'. 10 killer tracks, great album. I love it. Tell us about some of the songs on there. I'm keen to know more about 'Master of Darkness'. ANDY- Haha, yes. There's a few easter eggs on that one, I said look, thank you by the way, 'Fallen Idols' is I think the what we would call the ultimate mixtape, a big theme behind this in addition to sort of establishing or confirming the idea that we wanted to put together just this balls to the wall heavy metal album, we wanted to sort of have a bit of a throwback to when a lot of us were getting into music and having the old school mixtape that we dub off the radio or vinyl or other cassette tapes, or whatever it was, or Yes, somebody put in a compilation burning songs onto a CD or whatever it is. And just it's mash of just odds and ends, like lots of different music, you have everything from BON JOVI to BATHORY and KREATOR and SLAYER and MEGADETH and all sorts of stuff. And it didn't matter. You didn't have to worry about the sub genres and all the eclectic little elitist groups and who, who listens to what it was just heavy guitars, heavy music, and that's what people loved. And we wanted to capture some of that, but bring in a very fresh modern production to it as well. So we could get the best of both worlds we didn't want to sound dated. But we want it to be a celebration of everything that we love about metal that we love about heavy music. So that's that's where a lot of the album comes from. And so as people listen to the album, you're going to hear elements of everything from very straight up power metal, and old throwback DUNGEON riffs and choruses, right through to this epic, very orchestrated tracks, to melodic death metal, to old school, thrash, and even like a very, very 80s power ballad with some heavy heavy guitars, heavy guitar solo in there, but we've just mashed all together. And sounds like it's a bit of a mix match of stuff, but we've tried to make it sound cohesive. And it flows and it sounds like a LORD album. And that's the most important thing. And 'Master of Darkness'. That is a Tim and Mark track. More So Mark, they both massive, massive Star Wars nerds. And they felt a great urge to just pay homage to one of the one of the greatest sort of movie series out there that's ever been released. So I'm, it's, for me, I don't mind Star Wars. I'm not as heavily obsessed as they are. I watched them on a little group chats, talking about storylines and plots and I go, 'Oh, God, guys, you've lost me'. But even even listening to this song, I'm tempted to go back and rewatch everything and get up to speed because they've done a good job of capturing just some of that excitement around that whole, that whole empire that's being created out of that film. MAL- Who's releasing this album? Are you doing it yourself? Have we got a label involved? ANDY- We establish our own label a few years ago called Dominus Records. And so we we made the decision of actually we've been, we've been self releasing for at least 15 years. And it ensures that we have more control over our music and we can we can do what we want with it. And so this album is released through through our own label and internationally. We just doing it all through ourselves apart from Japan, Japan's releasing the album, I think a week later, through Rubicon music, and Japan has been a little bit unique. But we've got a good legacy there. So we we like to keep things, keep things happy over there and let them do their thing. But apart from that, we do it all ourselves. MAL- Well done. Now a lot of people stream music these days, but I'm old school I prefer an actual product. Now I noticed that you mentioned before about bonus packages and that now I spotted one the other day online as a pre release bonus pack. Tell us about that. ANDY- Yeah, so we we, we put out the pre orders a few weeks back. And well, I'll just say without blowing too much smoke up my rear end. It's been the most successful pre-order campaign we've ever done for any DUNGEON or LORD release. So even though we're in a in a new era of streaming music, and different, different behaviors, when it comes to listening to music and enjoying it, we've sold more CDs in this pre order than we ever had before. So just goes to show that I guess, things are changing. But metal still has that great passion for the physical product, which is cool, we want to make sure that we continue to do that. But for the pre order stuff, we allowed people a few different options, they could grab a signed copy of the CD that we'd we'd scribble all over for them. Also a T shirt and CD combo. And then we've got something that we've done, sort of corny but we've called it the deluxe pack, which is the CD and the T shirt and is an old school back patch and a couple of smaller patches, so people can get their old battle jackets out of the closet, and a bonus CD, which is karaoke versions of all the songs and some additional bonus tracks. So there's a couple of couple of cover songs on the on the deluxe version. JOHN FARNHAM cover, an ICEHOUSE cover, just for a bit of Aussie nostalgia there and an additional bonus studio track on there as well. So we've made sure that we've really sort of gone full on bang for buck for for the people that support us. MAL- Yeah, now you've been touring. You've come to Adelaide, where now? ANDY- Yeah, so funnily enough, we do everything backwards. So we decided to do the tour before the album came out. So we thought, let's get out there and give everyone pre warning that the album's coming out. And that's, that's done really well. But we at the moment we are just working out, I guess what the opportunities are in some of the other international markets. We're looking back at Japan, we're looking at New Zealand, New Zealand being long since we've gone there, Southeast Asia, and then of course, Europe and North America. But we'll probably come back around the traps in Australia and do a second leg probably in the beginning of the next year 2020. We really want to stretch this album out and and really milk it for as much as we can. So we'll we'll come back to the places that we played last time and some of the places that we missed as well and we'll just make sure there's as many people get an opportunity to see us but also get to listen to the album, hear the songs and enjoy them. MAL- All right, Andy from LORD thanks so much for taking my call tonight. Best of luck with the new album, 'Fallen Idols' and we'll speak to you again soon. ANDY- Okay, thank you so much. I appreciate the time and really looking forward to everybody enjoying the new songs. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |