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July 20, 2008 |
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Mark Briody
October 21, 2004
By Tony Antunovich
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JAG PANZER are one of the most underrated bands in metal today. Despite the fact that they have been in existence since the early '80s, they still seem to fall short of being acknowledged as a prominent force in the metal scene. Why they haven't been given this much-deserved recognition is beyond me. The band's brand new album, "Casting The Stones", will surely prove that JAG PANZER isn't just another ordinary metal band that plays the same old thing over and over again - quite the opposite actually. I had the opportunity to speak with guitarist Mark Briody via telephone from his home in Colorado. During our discussion, we talked about the new album, the American metal scene, illegal Internet downloading, the progress of ICED EARTH's upcoming "Gettysburg" DVD, and many more interesting topics.
Congratulations on the new album, Mark. It's an extraordinary effort and in my opinion, it's by the far the best album you guys have done.
Wow. Thank you! Yeah - that's definitely what we were going for when we were writing and recording it.
How did you manage to create something even more stunning than "Mechanized Warfare"?
Well, I think the biggest thing we did right before we even started writing is we had a big band meeting over the phone and talked about what we could do to make it different from "Mechanized". So, we just decided to set some parameters. We decided not to use violin on this album just to hear a different sound and not bring in ten people to sing backing vocals for a big choir. There is a lot of different tunings on this. So right away we set ourselves up with some parameters to help us get a different sound. I think that helped a lot. You know, we may go back to that stuff on the next album, but it was good to do something just completely different.
How has the response been from the fans so far?
It's been pretty good. It's funny - every time we do an album, there are always a few people or critics that say "Well, this doesn't really sound like classic JAG PANZER so I don't know; I don't like it as much." But then (laughs), when we do another album, these same people will come back and say "Ah, it's not classic PANZER like "Casting The Stones" was." (laughs)
(Laughs)
I swear - the same people that said "this isn’t classic" - then they like "Mechanized" now - these are the same people that didn't like "Mechanized". I think it just takes some people a little longer to catch on with an album and unfortunately, some of them are critics who have to get a column out this week, so they go by their initial response. But it's about 10 percent of people that don't like it, I guess.
Well, I think people have to understand that music is an ever-evolving thing and they can't expect a band to do the same thing over and over, time and time again.
Right, exactly! It's not something we were comfortable with. It would actually be pretty easy to do (laughs) - to just throw something together, but it's definitely not rewarding for us to do the same album again.
When you look at it from a technical point of view, the overall sound on this album really stands out in comparison to much of the "mainstream" metal out there.
Right! If I look back at what metal was when I was growing up, it was always a strong lead vocalist, good lead guitar player and memorable songs, and that's really what we try to do. I think a lot of bands today maybe don't have a good lead guitar player, so then they decide to make it cool and NOT do leads, or they have a guy that maybe is not that strong a singer, so maybe he will rap. Then they will say "Ah, we don't need singing." So, I really think a lot of these bands are trying to cover up deficiencies as to why they sound like that.
The songs on "Casting The Stones" are a lot heavier, more aggressive, and more intense than the material on "Mechanized Warfare". Was this a direction the band intended to take for this album?
Yeah. We wanted to see if we could go a little more progressive and a little bit heavier and still maintain the JAG PANZER sound. Sometimes it took us longer to accommodate that. Sometimes it meant rewriting lyrics three or four times or rearranging things. So we just took it as a challenge and it actually worked out pretty good, I think. It definitely made the writing process take longer, but it was worth it. I'm pretty happy with the album.
When it comes to the writing process, do you all write together collectively or do you write individually and then brainstorm with each other?
It's completely individually. Chris (Broderick) and I split the writing duties. He wrote six songs on the album and I wrote five. It's difficult for me to write with other musicians because I tend to write in layers, so in certain songs of mine, my guitar part might be really, really basic, but there might be a more involved bass line or some nice harmony guitars on top or a nice vocal melody there. But If I am sitting in a rehearsal room with other musicians, I would pretty much have to say "Here's my guitar part. It's only four chords. You're going to have to trust me on the rest." - and that's hard to do. People get bored or they want to take the song in a different direction, so when I write a song, it works for me if I can do a demo of everything and then show it to the band. Then they're like "Oh, okay. That's what you are going for."
Do the other members of the band work the same way you do?
Well, Chris and I pretty much do complete demos ourselves and then we send it out to the other guys, and they can always make the song better. I do a rough sketch - it's got drums, bass, vocal ideas, and guitar. The guitar is played okay, I guess, because I'm a guitar player, but everything else is fairly basic. It gives the other members the idea I'm trying to go for, then they add their own parts. Sometimes I don't hear what the real parts are going to sound like until we are actually in the studio. I had no idea what the drums parts sounded like until we were recording, and I was pleasantly surprised because they were a definite improvement over what I had in mind.
It seems like a lot of bands these days do not read music; they go by ear. When you are writing the actual music, do you incorporate notes with parts that you would come up with by ear?
Yeah. Everybody in the band reads and writes music fairly well. We usually end up figuring out the parts by ear, though, just because we've been doing it for so long. Since everybody reads and writes and is familiar with theory, the schooling really comes in handy when we are talking about arrangements. I can just say to our bass player "I'm taking it up a fourth here for this section", and he knows exactly what I'm talking about. It just makes the process go much faster for us because everybody is schooled in music. Chris Broderick will occasionally write things out in sheet music for people. That's pretty cool to work with.
"The Mission (1941)" is my personal favorite on the CD.
That is actually one of the songs on the album where I had band members show up at the studio with many different ideas. I think we recorded probably three completely different drum parts for that song, and our drummer Rickard said "Pick the one you like!" (laughs). I think we had a couple different vocal lines too and Harry said "I'm happy with both so pick the one you want!" That's really great to be able to do that.
Mark, could you please run through each of the songs describing their meanings?
The album starts off with "Feast Or Famine" and it's one of the more progressive tracks on the album. Lyrically, it's talking about the earth's natural resources running out and meaning "Are we going to correct it and have a famine so to speak, or don’t correct it and have a famine - or are we going to correct it and have a feast.
Track two is "The Mission (1941)". I wanted to do something like an old school MAIDEN-feel almost and I told the guys in the band "Let's really try to go back to our roots for one track." Everybody said "Cool!" So, this is sort of a MAIDEN tribute, both musically and lyrically. There are a lot of historical things like that.
"Vigilant" is one of Chris' songs. He wanted to do something with really subtle, tricky things rhythmically - something that you would notice right away that if someone were to sit down and transcribe the song, they would say "Wow. There are some bizarre things going on there." Lyrically, Harry (Conklin) is talking about the "big brother" type thing - watching over everybody - surveillance.
Song number four is "Achilles". We wanted to do a short epic, and every time you think of epic songs in heavy metal, you think about 6 and 7-minute tracks. We wanted to see if we could do one in under 3, and it took a while to do because it wasn't simply a matter of writing a song and cutting it short. We really wanted it to sound like a complete song and tell an epic story in under three minutes. So, that was sort of the game plan for "Achilles".
Track five is "Tempest". It's about the destructive nature and power of a storm. Again, a pretty progressive track; great guitar solo from Chris.
Track six is "Legion Immortal". This is one of those songs where it's a little more involved than when you first hear it. The guitar parts and the verses are actually all three-part harmonies. I've had guys play it and tell me that it's not and then sit down and I say "Well, play it in two parts for me!" (laughs) - and they can't! So, there actually is a distinct three-part harmony on guitar. I don’t know how we're going to pull it off live (laughs) like the sound in the studio. Lyrically, Harry is talking about forces watching over mankind - be it God or angels or whatever you want to call it. It's a force.
"Battered And Bruised" - You know, I was talking to Chris before we wrote and I asked him to write his version of a classic metal song. Chris has different songwriting influences than I do, and I really like his writing style. He has a really diverse, different style of writing than I do, so I was really curious about what he would come up with, and that is what he delivered. It's one of my favorite tracks on the album. It's got kind of a cool, aggressive feel to it.
Track eight would be "Cold" - don't like the song at all (laughs).
(Laughs) You don't?
No. Harry loves it though; the producer liked it, and a couple of other people in the band were really into it so it's there. Not into it; don't like it (laughs).
(Laughs) It has a real groovy feel to it.
Yeah. Actually, I get a lot of e-mails from people that really like it and I get the occasional e-mail from people that say "I hate it! Take it off the album." So, I guess it's cool having a track with a lot of different opinions like that, but it's something I'd probably hit the "skip" button on. Lyrically, I think it's probably about some woman that did Harry wrong (laughs). That is what it sounds like to me.
(Laughs) It's really funny that you should say that because I was thinking the same thing when I listened to the song. I wondered if a woman really ticked Harry off at some point.
(Laughs) Yeah. It probably happened. Let's see - "Starlight Fury" - definitely the most progressive track on the album. It has all kinds of really, really advanced and progressive stuff that Chris is doing in there - a lot of different instrumentation and a really cool, unique keyboard part in there. Lyrically, Harry is singing about the birth of the star, or the birth of the sun, I guess - whatever is astronomically correct (laughs).
After that is "The Harkening", which I don't know what this is about lyrically. I like it musically. I hate going back to the same thing, but it's another one of those songs that is deceptively more involved than you think after hearing it. Chris has some really exotic harmony lines going on with the guitars, and I didn't pick up on them until I started playing the song on my guitar and I'm like "Wow. This is really cool. It's different."
The album closes with "Precipice". Lyrically, it's about a person that is going insane - losing his mind and just imagining himself at the end of the world, which is just a metaphor for the end of his sanity. Musically, I wanted something kind of slow and heavy that kind of hits you hard - like classic SABBATH with DIO. In the beginning of the song, we wanted sort of a creepy, uncomfortable feeling. So, we thought as American musicians, where would we be that would kind of be creepy and uncomfortable - one of many places in the Middle East would fit the bill (laughs). So, we put some Indian and Middle Eastern instruments in there and weird sounds and whispers in the background just to give it sort of an unsettling atmosphere.
Let's talk about the album cover. How did you come into contact with Mattias and what made you decide to choose him over many of the other talented artists out there?
Well, I liked his work with EVERGREY because it had a different look to it. There are a lot of artists, particularly in Europe, and although they are good technically, their look is almost exactly like the other guy. There is Andreas Marschall that does the HAMMERFALL, GRAVE DIGGER, and BLIND GUARDIAN album covers and there must be 20 guys that look exactly like him (his work). So, we really wanted to avoid that look because it's so common in metal. Not that it's a bad look, but it's just so overdone. I liked Mattias' work on the EVERGREY. It just looked different and identifiable. I wrote him and asked him if he was interested and he got back and said "Yes", so we started going back and forth with a concept. He was great to work with. He sent me a lot of things; some of it wasn't the direction I was going for, and he was able to adjust and adapt and he threw in some of his own ideas, which were really fantastic. So, it really worked out well.
So you collaborated together as far as the concept is concerned?
Yeah. I just gave him some direction, but he should get credit for everything (laughs). I just pretty much kind of pointed him in a direction, but he's the guy behind it.
Did it take him long to complete it?
We worked about six weeks, but I don't know how much time that was of him actually sitting down and doing it. I never asked him that. But the whole process of going back and forth was over about six weeks.
Where do you get your inspiration to write from?
You know, just from picking up the instrument. I come from a completely un-musical family, so it's inspiring just to be able to play. It's cool to be able to pick up the guitar and write a riff and know that it's going to be on an internationally released album in a few months. I find that exciting. So, that in itself gives inspiration to write songs. It's nice to be able to write the kind of music you'd want to hear. That's how we started it off, because the kind of music we wanted to hear really wasn't out there, other than whatever (Ronnie James) Dio happened to be singing on at the time. Other than that, there wasn't a lot of metal that we wanted to listen to, so we figured we'd just play it ourselves.
The band seems to be more solid and more focused than ever before. Would you agree?
Yeah. There are less things to worry about. There are no label issues. We have a great relationship with Century Media; we have a good producer; our album budgets are workable, and there is always touring options. So, there is really much less to worry about, and I think that leads to a really solid lineup.
Speaking of your producer, the band have been working together with Jim Morris for a long time now. How was it working with him again this time around?
You know, aside from producing the band, he's a good friend of ours. So, it's really like adding another band member for the couple of months that we work with him. I always look forward to working with Jim. I've got a lot in common with him; I get along great with him; I learn a lot from him. He's a highly skilled producer and engineer and we always grow musically from the experience with Jim.
How long in total did it take you to complete the actual recordings from start to finish?
Four and a half weeks.
That's it?
Yeah. We go fast.
Did you spend a lot of time writing prior to the recording sessions?
Yeah. We usually try to have everything completely worked out before we go into the studio. A lot of times I don't hear everybody else's parts, but I know they're completely worked out.
I read that you took many years of jazz guitar lessons from Bing Crosby's guitar player, Johhny Smith?
Well, I took them at his studio, not from him personally. He was there everyday and you could see him playing, but he had moved on from giving lessons. I was a little late (laughs). I took them from one of his protégé's, who was a female jazz guitar player - a fantastic player. It was a really strict place. You had to read sheet music, improvise, hold the guitar right, and hold the pick right. Everything was really structured and I wasn't crazy about it, but now I'm really glad I did it. It gave me a working knowledge of theory, so I can at least attempt to maybe get 10% of understanding of what Chris is doing on the guitar. Yeah, I would be absolutely lost without that. So, I'm glad that I took those lessons.
So creating that foundation was a really important experience for you.
Yeah. Back then, I kept telling my parents that I wanted to switch and take lessons from a rock guy - to teach me VAN HALEN licks or something (laughs). But my parents were pretty insistent that I stay with Johnny Smith, which was a pretty strict curriculum. I'm pretty glad I did that.
What is your take on the American metal scene today, Mark?
You know, it's good and bad. It's getting bigger. The kind of people that would see JAG PANZER at a show is growing, so in that respect, it's really good. It's bad because it's much more "click" oriented than Europe. I mean, there are people here in the U.S. that would not even like our new album before they heard it. They just would decide "JAG PANZER's music is far too wimpy for me. I'm never going to like anything they do!"
That's pretty presumptuous though.
Oh yeah, and you get that in all genres here. There are guys that listen to power metal that would say "I'm not going to like anything a death metal band ever does", and they just know right away. I get hate mail from the U.S., but I never get it from Europe. I get it from the U.S. - things like "I saw your band open for ICED EARTH. You suck! I'm punching you in the face next time you come here." That's an actual e-mail I got from Columbus, Ohio one time (laughs).
What?!?! You get hate mail like that?
Yeah. I get about one a month (laughs). I figure I get about 30 e-mails a day, so I'm hitting about 900 a month, and one of them is like that every month.
That's ignorant.
Yeah. It's really, really strange. In Europe, I don't get it. Not that I'm saying the European is better in every aspect, but in that, it definitely is. People in Europe that don't like JAG PANZER, they just leave it at that. I don't get the "come here again and I'm going to punch you", you know (laughs).
It seems to me that a lot of people are tired of the "mainstream", and are wanting something more. Do you think that people are getting more interested in this type of music because of the overly saturated pop scene?
Yeah. You know, I think that it's really like big grass roots. It's one guy that might have a buddy that's listening to this kind of music, and finally it clicks with him because his buddy might have it playing in the car every day. I think it's just better music than the "mainstream" music. What ICED EARTH plays is just far superior to what would be "mainstream" metal. For the more heavier extreme stuff, LAMB OF GOD and SHADOWS FALL are better. I just think that the crop of underground bands are better now, and I think as people get exposed to it, they'll start to use their own ears and make judgments. I think they can tell that they're better.
Would you consider JAG PANZER an underground band still?
Yeah, definitely! We don't fit any sort of mass-marketing scheme designed to sell records, which a lot of music fits - like what SLIPKNOT does. Like them or not, that's fine, but their image, marketing, and everything is designed to sell records. It's not designed to make critics' "Top album of the year" poll. It's designed to move product. That's it. It's a marketable product. We're not like that at all. We don’t worry about any kind of look we would have that is going to sell records. We just worry about the music, and I think if you're going to get into that market, music has to be almost secondary. I've read interview with Gene Simmons and he has pretty much admitted that on many occasions - it's the image and the marketing, and we also play music. We're just not like that. We're musicians and that's it. So, I think just that fact there makes us an underground band.
It seems to me that the fact that you're more concerned about producing real heavy metal is the reason why TRUE metal is still around today.
Wow. Thank you. I appreciate that. When I grew up, metal to me was so obviously the best kind of music. It was the kind of music where you could do anything. I mean, (Ronnie James) Dio could do a ballad like "Temple Of The King" back in the old RAINBOW days, or "Rainbow Eyes". There could be a DIO ballad with a classical guitar and a violin, and I could appreciate that. Then, they could come back and do something with thunderous, heavy guitars and screaming vocals. There is really no limit to what you could do with the music. You couldn't do that with another kind of music. I didn’t hear my grandfather playing Hank Williams songs where you could hear a guitar solo coming in there (laughs). All these other styles of music had these artificial limits in them, which didn't seem to exist in metal.
So, I thought "Wow! This is great! These metal bands are using a lot of different instruments; they're good players; they're interesting lyrically; they're doing a lot of cool different things." To me, it just was so much better than other music, and that's what we stuck with through the years. We are just playing the kind of music that we liked growing up.
What brand of guitar do you prefer to play?
I've got several brands, but my main guitars are Dean. Everybody in the band endorses a company, which is cool. I have this new V I just got, which is a Dean, and I now officially endorse Dean guitars. I've also got a couple of Fenders; I've got a Modulus - a nice arched top that's kind of like a Paul Reed Smith. I've also got a Brian Moore midi guitar.
That's a good collection.
Yeah. It's okay, until you see Jon Schaffer's collection of about 70 of them (laughs).
Speaking of Jon, you are working on the ICED EARTH DVD. Are you doing the artwork for it?
I'm producing the "Gettysburg" video. I'm responsible for all the content for "Gettysburg" and I'm basically overseeing the whole DVD project. I've sort of fallen into graphics projects over the years. In the '80s, I was fairly young and I had a friend working for an air force company and she was saying that they couldn't find anybody to do satellite imagery programming. So, I thought I'd give it a shot and got together with a buddy of mine and formed a two-person company. We went and did a demo and they didn't want to hire us because we were a couple of long-haired kids (laughs). Then, they called us back a couple of months later because they couldn't actually find anybody to do the job.
That was a lot of programming and graphic design. So, I got that job, and didn't really do any more for about two more years. Then, I got a call from someone that had seen that work who was working for the Rockies (pro baseball team), and they asked me if I wanted to illustrate the children's book. I've just done a lot of stuff like that for a lot of companies. Some big insurance company in Washington called me last year and they wanted their logos put on a squadron of fighter planes. It's not really my full-time job. I love doing it, and I guess I'm fairly good at it. That's why I keep doing this, but it's not what I do every day. Jon Schaffer had seen my work also, so that's how I got involved with the ICED EARTH.
Is it almost complete?
Yeah, it's about 99% complete. Actually, I sent Jon a final disc last week and he found two really, really slight things to adjust. Jon is great to work with on this kind of stuff because he pushes you just enough. I mean, he doesn't ask for outrageous things you can't do, but he asks for things that are just a little beyond what you think you're capable of. It's great! I've gotten many times better just doing this ICED EARTH project.
It must be a good challenge for you as well.
Very! I'm very much a civil war history buff. That's why I really wanted to get this project because I really wanted to do good work. I knew the subject matter and I really like the song, so I really wanted to do the "Gettysburg" trilogy.
JAG PANZER does not seem to get as much recognition as a lot of other metal bands do.
No. I don't think so at all.
You guys definitely should be considered as one of the pioneers of American metal because a) you've been around since the '80s, b) you play real metal, and c) it's just good quality music.
You know, unfortunately we're probably the victim of sort of "middle of the road" sales (laughs). If you look at Century Media, we've been there for many years, and the average band on Century Media is around for one or two records and then they're gone. There are a few bands - ICED EARTH did their whole catalogue and NEVERMORE lasted al the way through - but most bands are just there for a little bit. So, we've been there for quite a while, but we've always been sort of a "middle of the road" seller. If you look at Century Media now, they get their artists in the guitar magazines, which they never could before. But, they don't get us in there because we're not the big sellers. Realistically, I don't think that anybody would argue that our lead player, Chris (Broderick), is definitely the best player on the label - him and Jeff Loomis from NEVERMORE.
Neither one of those guys would be in any Century Media sponsored article in a guitar magazine because we're not the band selling 100,000 records. So, it's a catch 22 because I understand the label's position. I know you have to put SHADOWS FALL and LACUNA COIL in magazines like that because they're big mainstream sellers and they're good bands. It's just unfortunate that a guy with Chris' talent isn't getting in the guitar magazines like he should be.
What are some of your favorite metal bands aside from DIO and RAINBOW?
The whole NWOBHM scene was just unbelievable - ANGEL WITCH, WYTCHFYNDE, SAXON, TYGERS OF PAN TANG - everybody that hit around '81-'83. I couldn't get enough of those bands. I'd get home from school, do some chores, or go to my dishwashing job (laughs), then get my paycheque every Saturday and drive the 80 miles to Denver - to Little Import Record store. I was just buying anything British metal at the time. "DEMON - This looks good! Okay, give it to me! (laughs) LEGEND - Okay, I'll take it!" I was just totally into the whole British metal scene back then.
JUDAS PRIEST too?
Well, I had been into PRIEST prior to that, but I pretty much wore out my PRIEST records and RAINBOW and SABBATH with Dio. I was just looking for more. MAIDEN was part of that whole scene for me. It was funny because I had a friend that had bought a MAIDEN album about a year before and he told me I wouldn't like it (laughs). I about killed him when I heard that (laughs). MAIDEN became a HUGE influence on me - HUGE to the point of us going to see them, driving home and then forging backstage passes (laughs) - and it worked! We were just THE die-hard MAIDEN fans.
Were you successful?
Yeah! It worked! We told Bruce (Dickinson), because he said "Oh yeah, you got after-show passes?" - "Ah, they're fake." - and he laughed about it (laughs).
(Laughs) That's funny! Well, at least you got to meet him.
Yeah. They were very cool. You know, a lot of musicians are not cool at all. Pretty much EVERY musician I know can be cool in ten-minute increments, and most of them can be VERY cool for ten minutes while they're talking to people. Past the ten-minutes - there are a lot of assholes in the music industry - a ton of them! MAIDEN were actually very cool for the ten minutes that we talked to them. So, that was a big influence also. I thought "Wow these guys are cool. They all act like rock stars."
Why do you think that there are so many musicians out there that NOT cool after then ten-minute mark?
A lot of them believe they're press. Anytime you're in a band that gets a decent amount of press.... you know, we're not that big a band, but I can go on the Internet and can find TONS of articles on JAG PANZER. I can choose to read only the ones that say "This band is great!!!! Mark Briody writes great tunes!!!! Chris writes great songs!!!! Harry is a great singer!!!! We love everything they do!!!!" I think a lot of people believe that. I've seen bands where I've met them at the beginning of their career and they're really cool. Then, three or four years later, it's like a different person - egos the size of a house. It's a shame. I just wish more musicians could just be more down-to-earth and act like a regular person. It's funny - I'll look on the internet and they'll have polls like "The Coolest Guy In Metal", and I'll see a guy that will be #2 or #3. Then I'm like, "Man, I know that guy. He's far from the coolest guy. He shouldn't be #50 even!" (laughs)
What is your opinion on downloading music from the Internet?
I think one or two songs from an album is totally cool. I completely buy the argument that people want to sample bands and see if they like it. I'm totally for that - one or two songs. Beyond that, it's pretty much stealing. I've read all the arguments - "for and against" - and I've had people tell me "Well, I downloaded your album and I didn't really like it, so you really didn't lose anything anyway." Then I'm like "Well, can I come in your house and take your toaster because maybe you don't really like it that much?" I just don't buy that argument that "I wasn't going to buy it anyway." "Well don't buy it and don't download it then - just don't do anything with it." I wish there was a system where you could legally download a couple songs from any band, because there are some bands I'd like to hear and they don't have the mp3's on their site.
I don't go to the illegal download sites because I'd feel like a hypocrite telling you my views then going to one of those sites. So I don't do it. It's unfortunate that if I want to hear a band, and they don't have them on their site, I guess I just don’t hear them. I just wish that everybody had two songs from each album available. I think that's enough to judge whether you like the band or not.
There are Russian websites you can go to now where I think you can get "Casting The Stones" for a buck! - and they are professional-looking websites. In fact, I've seen on metal boards where people are saying "That's a legitimate site. They have a deal with the record company." I'm like "Come on people!! Use your head! A record company is not going to sell an album for a buck! There is no deal with the record company!"
As a recording artist, how does it make you feel when you see that?
You know, I think one of two things: either they're absolute crooks or they're totally misguided. I've talked to people that are misguided; they don't know what damage it does. I've had people tell me "Well, you don't make a ton of money anyway so you're not missing anything." What people don’t know is for a band like JAG PANZER, downloading hurts our album budgets. It doesn't hurt the royalties I receive that much, but it kills budgets. We continually have to work faster in the studio and work smarter to try and do these albums because people downloading music are reflected in the budgets we get. Record companies aren't going to lose money. They're going to get it back somewhere and they get it back in album budgets. So, if a person wants to download a band for free and give it to all their buddies for free - wow! There's a good chance that same band's next album is just not going to sound as good - thanks to you stealing the record!
That must really anger you.
Yeah. It does. I've had people tell me "Well, I download the music, buy then I buy a shirt at a live show." We track everything - merchandise - we sell through the years, and it has not gone up with people downloading songs. It's gone up proportionately with the amount of people that see us live, but we didn't see a big spike in t-shirt sales to coincide with Napster (laughs). I just haven't seen it. I've had a lot of people tell me studies. All I can go on is what my band is doing and we track it pretty well. I can tell you that I'm not seeing the merchandise sales increase.
A lot of bands have started releasing DVDs to go along with a brand new album in an effort to gain more interest in actually purchasing a CD. Do you think that that is one of the solutions to the problem?
Yeah. I like that idea because that's giving you something that you're going to have a hard time downloading unless you've just got your own T-1 line and you want to download a DVD all night. SHADOWS FALL is providing something that would be difficult to download. So, they're giving an incentive to those people, who are on the fence about downloading for some reason, to buy it. I think that's a great idea - or maybe a shirt or just something. It's like you've got to offer more nowadays. It's a shame you have to, but it looks like you're going to have to offer more to get people to NOT download and to buy it. So, I thought that was a good move they did adding the DVD.
Are there any tour plans in the works yet?
Yeah. We got an offer for Europe yesterday that we're thinking about. The tour is going to be a tough decision this time because we've got to work it well. We have to go to Europe definitely because we've done the past two tours in the U.S. and Canada. So we have to look at if we want to headline, open for someone bigger, the advantages and disadvantages of both, and when we want to do it. There is so much more to touring than the average person knows. You just don't pick where you want to go and GO (laughs). It's far more complicated than that. So, we actually got this offer; I sent out the details to my band mates. Everybody is learning the business end really well, so everybody wrote back some good questions: "What's this percentage? How is this paid? How is this going to work?" So, we've got to look at all that, where the tour is going, and if that's what we want to do. If we pick this tour, this will put us in Europe in February.
Will you be planning an extensive North American tour as well?
I don't know if there is going to be one. If something came through that was a really, really good opportunity for us, then there would probably be one. We did HELLOWEEN last year, which was just a fantastic opportunity, and we did ICED EARTH the year before. So far, I haven't seen anything like that on the horizon. We've had a few offers for the U.S. and Canada and they have not been good. It's been with bands that sell about a fourth of what we sell and they want to do a split headlining tour. I can't do that. It's not even an ego thing at all; it's just purely a business thing. You get "x" amount of money for playing a show and we can't split it with somebody that's brining in a fourth of the amount of people we are. We're keeping our eyes open though. We were supposed to play Vancouver on the ICED EARTH tour a couple of years ago, but the promoter had the Denver scheduled the night before Vancouver. He couldn't even make the drive (laughs).
Yeah. You guys were scheduled to play at the Croatian Cultural Centre.
Yeah.
There were some comments made from Anders of IN FLAMES about Jon (Schaffer) and it seems like you were in the middle of it all.
Yeah. I had posted on a bulletin board what I had experienced and then the press picked up what I said and made it a news item. Anders wrote me and said "No. I didn't say that. Our management said it." So, I retracted it. But Anders said some things that were inaccurate too. He said something about their drummer, who is half American. He's not half American. He's all Swedish. I retracted my statement and wrote Anders back and said "Please retract yours", which he didn't. What I said was wrong. I said that Anders wanted more stage room and he wrote back and said "I did not say that. Our tour manager that was with IN FLAMES said we needed more stage room." So I said "Okay." I said on a public press release that I was wrong and "If anybody was hurt by what I said, I apologize." I asked Anders to do the same thing, which he did not do.
Did it all work out in the end?
I don't know. I don't ever hear from Anders again, so. I don't care to. I don't have anything against the guy and I don't have anything for him either (laughs). The IN FLAMES guys were cool. I was just disappointed that I never heard from the guy again over that. My comments were taken out of an internet post because Schaffer just gets a lot of ridiculous things written about him which are absolutely untrue.
Where do you see yourselves in the future?
Still making albums and playing. Hopefully the fan-base will grow. I think we're a band that the vast majority of the metal crowd has not heard. Maybe they've heard the name, or heard a few seconds of a song, but I think most metal fans have never even listened to us. I've never gotten an e-mail from Japan and never done an interview with a Japanese magazine. That's a huge market. So, I'm just hoping that we can finally get exposure to every metal fan. I don't care if people like us or not; I just think they need to hear us and then they can make their own decision. But it's just frustrating when they haven't even heard you.
Do you have anything you would like to say to our readers?
Yeah. For Vancouver readers - sorry we haven't been up there. We'd like to make it up there, and don't hassle me if I'm wear an Avalanche shirt (laughs), because I'm a huge Avalanche fan (laughs). Did you ever hear the Avalanche song we did?
No, I haven't.
During the last cup run we did PRIEST's "You've Got Another Thing Comin' " - we changed it to "We've Got Another Cup Comin' ", and it got a lot of airplay in mainstream stations here in Colorado. We've done several songs that we just don't release and throw them on the Internet. Have you heard the Christmas carols we do?
No.
We've got another one coming up that will be out on December 1st.
Which one?
I think we're doing "We Three Kings". We've done "What Child Is This?", and "Do You Hear What I Hear?", and it's usually just Harry and I on acoustic guitars.
Do you have anything you would like to say to our readers from the United States and the rest of the world?
Thanks for the support and don't download albums (laughs). Hopefully we'll see you on tour. Check us out on the web and if you have a question for the band, come to our web board because we've actually got band members hanging out there daily answering questions. So, if you've got a question for the band, post it on our board and you're not going to get some record company person answering it. You'll get us answering it.
Well Mark, I want to thank you for speaking with us today. I really appreciate your time.
Thanks. Talk to you later, Tony.
Take care, Mark, and best of luck with the new album.
Okay. Thank you. [FIN]
» Official JAG PANZER Website
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