Transcript of an interview I recorded with Karl Lean of NOTHING SACRED - 20200106. Full article here. MAL-
On the line Karl Lean from NOTHING SACRED, Karl, thanks for joining me. KARL- Hi Mal, good, good to talk to you again. MAL- It's great to have you on. Now we've got some exciting news but first we'll launch into the ancient history Tell me what you can remember about the formation of NOTHING SACRED, the early days let's go KARL- Yeah. It goes all the way back I think when we started in like Sham's living room when he was like he was 14 Sham the drummer, and we were jamming in his living room in our very first version with a couple of guitarists who left us pretty early on. But we really became NOTHING SACRED in about 83 when we found Woolly and Buddy the two guitarists and you know we really launched into it got got really stuck into it in probably early 83, mid 83. We played a lot of gigs and then moved on to recording got that first EP ready sometime in 84, I think. But yeah, that was just a really good time back then. It feels like it went on forever. It's hard to believe now that that that period was only sort of 18 months to 24 months but feels like it went on for a decade. There was just so much happening back then gigs every night, bands to play with, tours was just there was just so much going on. MAL- It was a great time, wasn't it? KARL- Yeah, it was. It was it was good. We went to Adelaide and about 86 I think. And then 87. We did Sydney in 85 and 86 and plenty of gigs in Melbourne. I don't know how many times we played in Melbourne but we recorded the album and everything. So we compress the hell of a lot in about two and a half years really. MAL- Yeah. Now local Australian bands if you like recording an album back in those days, that was a big deal. How did you go about it? KARL- Well, the EP that we did we put it we we've self financed, self released that ourselves so we actually put up a lot of money for those days. I think it costs us about eight or $9,000. MAL- Yeah, that's huge amount back then. KARL- Yeah back then it was a fair amount of money just on four tracks. And that was pretty good. We're pretty happy with that even today that the quality is not too bad. But the album buy the time we got around to doing the album we weren't as rich. So we rushed that a lot more. So again, we self financed the recording but we had a deal with Cleopatra records to do the release. So they did a I think I did a thousand, 500 or 1000 pressing and they released it around the world. They shipped it to Europe and stuff. So they they did all of that we ended to pay for the recording but because we're on a tighter budget and we're doing a lot more songs we did 13 tracks, I think during the recording the qualities, you know, it wasn't what we would hope for because we were rushing MAL- What happened after the album? KARL- Well, basically, around the same time as we're doing the album, we toured Sydney with TYRUS. And so we got to know we'd already play with TYRUS a few times at Metal For Melbourne and stuff. And we got to know Pete Hobbs pretty well. And shortly after that, he asked Sham, myself and Woolly, if we'd help him record a demo for us, he wanted to launch this new project called ANGEL OF DEATH that he's been working on. For whatever reason, I'm not sure why he didn't want to use TYRUS to do the recordings. So he got us in to record the four track or five track demo, whatever it was, which he sent off to Germany. And in response to that, he got a recording contract, got offered the chance to go to Germany and record and he asked us to go with him. And Woolly jumped at the chance and Sham and I at the time thought, you know, hindsight is a wonderful thing, we thought at the time that we were better off sticking with what we were doing. No disrespect to Pete but just because we you know, we'd been working on our own stuff and we'd done the album and whatever. So we kind of lost momentum basically. Woolly took off to go with Pete and then decided to stick with Pete because things were really developing there, it was going really well. So we had to find a new guitarist. We got George who played with TARAMIS for a little while, but then George was also busy with TARAMIS and other things. So he couldn't stay permanently, so we found two brand new guitarists and by the time we found the guitarists found the guys we wanted, rehearsed wrote some new stuff. We just lost momentum. So unfortunately, it was just just really bad timing I guess. We worked hard to get the album ready but then once it was finally ready for release, the band was kind of not disintegrating but certainly lost momentum. We lost their way for a little while. MAL- And what what time was this? What year are we talking? KARL- That was probably 87 leading into 88 we really, really was a wasted year and the album, you know, the the one thing you need to do with an album is, especially back then it was, you've got to promote it, you've got to run with it once you've got it, but unfortunately, by the time the album was out, finished, pressed and released, the band was sort of almost, you know, in a state of suspension, so we couldn't really do much and by the time we had the new guitarists on board, and we got that was Terry and Richard and we wrote a few songs with them and everything. The album had already been done for over a year. And so they were kind of keen to record some of their own stuff. So we actually started recording another album. So heading into 89, we actually headed back to the studio again, and then we never finished those recordings we we've got recordings, we got most of it done, but we never got it finished. It never got released. So that that became he great unreleased album, which to this day remains largely unreleased. MAL- So what's happened in the meantime? Life got in the way? KARL- Yeah, yeah, I think so. It's really hard to remember exactly what happened. I know you know, I got a day job and everything like that so I mean, I was earning money and and i think other people started the whole everyone's gone down the whole families and and work and everything else road and Sham got interested in it started working with a couple of other bands and he moved to Adelaide for short while he was he was in Adelaide, I think he was playing with, was it GRUNGEON or BASKET CASE or something that MAL- BASKET CASE I reckon it was. KARL- Yeah, it could have been Yeah, yeah, I think it was he was sort of jamming or playing with them and stuff. So he sort of drifted to Adelaide for a little while. And so we just, we just ended this period where we, we didn't officially end or breakup or anything. We just stopped doing stuff, and it sort of surprised all of us that that period ended up lasting probably close to 15 years. We just kept running into each other at gigs and talking about maybe doing this or that, but it just never coalesced into anybody actually doing anything until early 2012 really, which is, that's probably nearly 20 years. MAL- Yeah. All right. So we're in 2012. What happened then? What changed? KARL- Ah, to be honest, I don't know why it changed, but I think we just all cross paths again. And sort of, we had the opportunity Johnny Giles used to be the guitarist from BLACKJACK, he was putting together a series of gigs just with mates and people getting up and having ajam and whatever and he kind of said, Why don't you guys come along and ever just just jump in? I think it actually was. Ross from ION DRIVE it was going to be his 50th birthday or something. Something like that was some occasion anyway. And so we just thought, Okay. All right, let's give it a go. So we just jammed for a month or two. And as it turned out, Buddy the original guitarist moved to Atlanta, Georgia, a decade ago so he was out of the mix them and I still keep in touch with him now and then but yeah he wasn't coming back to Australia just to do a one off party gig, so we got Ross actually from ION DRIVE we thought we'll get Ross to fill in as the second guitarist and we got Woolly back because while he was a been jamming with his own band, so we got him back in for just for the gig and thought that that will go okay. And in the end, Woolly couldn't make the gig so we played it with just Ross as a four piece. So that was kind of weird. But probably just got us enough interested because it might well enough, we liked it, people didn't seem to hate it. So we decided to actually, you know, make more of an effort so Woolly just wasn't available just wasn't gonna work out. So we got George back. So we actually ran with George and Ross while we played some gigs in 2013 2014 and then we headed to Japan in 2015. And had the opportunity to go there so we thought we'll take it, just jump at it, do something we haven't done that's why it's a good thing. And yeah, that kind of leads up to the roughly now we did the 2017, We did the Metal For Melbourne gig. Sham was basically involved as one of the promoter organisers, him and Rob were the two guys that really pulled it all together, and they both ended up playing in multiple bands on the night, as it turned out, but so we did that gig in 2017. And then we've just sort of entered another period of drifting... MAL- Hiatus? KARL- Yeah, we had a couple of lineup issues again. We'd been using a new singer, Chris, in 2015 and 2016. It was good, but it just wasn't gelling the way we'd hoped it was. And we were trying to record we we've been recording now for about two and a half years, three, three years even. But it just wasn't coming together the way we wanted it to. So we sort of mutually agreed that we sort of decided we move on from that so Chris drifted away and then I guess, Ross, he'd been playing guitar, but he was always, Ross is, if you know Ross, he's he's like the Everready bunny. He's, he's been perpetual motion. He never stops. He's always doing 100 things. MAL- I do know Ross. KARL- Yeah, it's so damn hard to pin him down. So in the end, we just kind of decided we needed to. Yeah, he needed to go to off some of the things he was doing. ION DRIVE have been sort of back and kicking again. And he needed to finish a few things he wanted to do. So we've actually now lined up we've got a new singer, a new guitarist, and we're back. MAL- Right What is the lineup these days. KARL- The lineup is Sham on drums and me on bass so we sort of the core that been in every lineup. We've got George who has been in the band on three different occasions over the years and he would be the longest serving guitarist of anyone if you added it all up now so he really is a you know a foundation member in many ways or a core member. And then we got the two new guys we've got James on vocals and we've got Stu on guitar, Stu used to play for a Melbourne band called CAPTAIN TRIPS. MAL- James vocals, Stewart on guitar, George on guitar and you and Sham righto. I do know that Chris, organiser of CHURCHES OF STEEL has been wanting to get you guys over here for a while. Now this time he actually managed it. And we've got a massive lineup of course Saturday February 8, at WEST SIDE MASSIVE that's that Royal Park there. NOTHING SACRED coming over to us for the first time since what 1988? KARL- It's either 87 or 88. I was trying to get Chris wanted me to confirm exactly how long it's been and I really tried hard. MAL- I could tell you right now early 88, because it's one of his Big Bash, the Big Bash at the North Town Hall. KARL- We should have asked you, should have known you'd know, it's good that you're a historian Mal it's good to have somebody. MAL- So we're looking forward to this. I bet you guys are too. KARL- Yeah, no, it's gonna be great. It's gonna be really good. I mean, yeah, we'd be jamming we've been the second half of this year sorry. 2019. When I forget, we're in 2020. The second half of 2019. We've been you know, jamming a lot but also recording we've come to an arrangement with Rue Morgue records. W we've given them a track that's going to be on their compilation 12 inch vinyl which is due out. I think they're hoping now for like a March release. I think it's the shedule they're looking at. So we've got the track that's ready and been submitted to them. And that's all done. And then we'll also do on a single through them as well. So we've got the A side 98% ready. And we're just working on the B side now. We've got a couple of tracks just trying to pick which one we're going to finish off and get ready for that one. So we hope to have that single ready for early in 2020. So maybe March, April. MAL- These are new tracks, like unreleased tracks? KARL- They're definitely unreleased tracks. Yeah. One of them is one of the tracks from the 89 recording sessions, we dusted that one off and re-recorded it so it's totally recording, but it's a track from it now. And the other one, the one that's going to be the single with the moment is a totally new track. So we're just going to pick a third track, which the band is, it's not a bad debate. It's the band's a bit split at the moment on which way we want to go. We've got a number of different tracks with different fields. So we're just trying to figure out which one we think will suit best and then we're going to finish that off. So hopefully that's all going to happen, just after we get back from Adelaide, we'll spend the next couple of weeks after that finishing off that recording and so we should ever single out probably by April I guess. It's a little hard to be too tight with the timing MAL- All right Karl from NOTHING SACRED, absolutely great talking to you and reminiscing about the old times, and we're going to do plenty of that again, Saturday, February 8th at CHURCHES OF STEEL festival number four. Looking forward to that can't wait to see yAs. KARL- We can't wait to be there. We're gonna kick some arse. It's been too long. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |