Heavy Metal Textbooks

ULTRA INTERVIEW:

Ed, Rich and Chris from SPACELORD!!

Spacelord was one of the best surprises of 2017 for me, and made both my top ten rock tunes and my top ten stoner rock albums lists.  I will be listening to both their 2017 releases for years to come, and was  beside myself when they agreed to an interview.  Here's how it went down:

I am psyched to be able to interview you. I found your album after getting an e-mail that several listeners I follow on Bandcamp had bought it. For me, “Spacelord” let my attention drift away but then slowly and subtly sucked me in, and before I knew it I had listened to the whole album twice. I purchased it that night, and as I commented on your Bandcamp page, I expect to still be playing this one a decade from now.

Your music seems to blend influences from the seventies, eighties and nineties in a really natural way. I am totally curious: What bands you feel have influenced you the most over the years?

Ed: There are some obvious ones, Zeppelin, Sabbath, but everyone's influenced by them. Writing and recording the songs on the EP and the album (they were all done together, just released separately) was definitely a process of figuring out what kind of band we were going to be. We had no preconceived idea. We could have easily gone in a more roots rock direction. For these songs, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and Tool were major influences that are pretty obvious, I think. And The Sword is a big deal for me, because they made me realize it was cool to write about wizards and starships and shit like that. I've always loved that stuff, but there was definitely a period where to make music about that felt a little cheesy to me. So I remember the first time I heard "Barael's Blade" it kind of opened up my mind, to just write about what you're into and love what you love.

Rich: Ed identified the ones that are universal to the four of us. After that, it comes down to whatever influenced the individuals. I don’t even know if I could put my finger on a single artist beyond those already mentioned. I dip pretty much into every genre, myself. Hendrix is a big one for me. I dig anything Clarence White has done.

Chris: Influences can be tough to nail down for me because I grew up listening to such a huge variety of music. Rich really brings most of the song ideas to the table and as the bass player I try to support the riffs and grooves in a way that lends power in a band that only has guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. I want to beef up what the guitar is doing by doubling it and at times add a second voice, but not so much that loses the punch. The 70's bands Ed mentioned really made the blueprint for that sound and to me the 90's bands we sound similar to are just what rock would have sounded like if you'd skipped over all of the terrible stuff that happened in the 80's. So as far as influences it's not one particular band but just hearing that way of making music and understanding that doing things that way is going to make the song ideas come together in the best way to our ears. We're not ever trying to sound like anything in particular.

Ed: We eventually came around to the idea that whatever songs we were into writing and recording, that's what we sound like. That we define ourselves by what we do. So something as different as "Old Road" is just as much of a Spacelord song as "Warlike." We do kind of like the idea of being influenced as much by the 70s as by the 90s.

As far as who has influenced me, personally, over the years, it would be a list of hundreds. You take a little something from everything you're exposed to. Steve Marriott, Paul Rodgers, Chris Cornell, Chris Robinson, Steven Tyler are some of my biggest vocal influences. And a ton of women rock singers, Jill Janus from Huntress, Diamanda Galas, Pink. I could go on forever, because I'm kind of fascinated by figuring out where things come from and where we get our ideas. I get a lot of melodic sense from Geddy Lee's singing, for instance. But a million other places too.

Here are some questions I love to ask when I get to interview a band I love:

If you remember, what was the first rock album you ever bought?

Ed: When I was 8 I got Van Halen's "1984" on cassette and wore it out. But I also remember when The Black Crowes' "Shake Your Money Maker" came out and it was the first album I really connected with. My mom drove me to the mall to buy it (on cassette, of course). I was a massive Crowes fan for a long time.

Chris: The first album I bought was Iron Maiden's Live After Death. Way before that though, I got Live Dead by the Grateful Dead. I had no idea who they were, it was like a dollar at a garage sale or something and I thought it was going to be a heavy band. Why else would the word "dead" be in the name? Needless to say that was a disappointment.

Rich: I can’t remember which one I bought. I used to have a little record player and I remember somehow having a copy of Back In Black on vinyl and also a K-Tel album with some Kiss songs on it. Actually, a Kiss album was likely what I bought first. I was really, really young when I was bitten by the music bug.

How about your first concert, and what was the best concert you ever attended?

Rich: First concert? Impossible to remember. I grew up pretty poor, but we went out to shows and concerts frequently. Not just rock and roll, but classical and I even remember going to an Engelbert Humperdinck concert as a kid.

I saw King Crimson open for John Paul Jones when they came to UB. That was pretty cool. But, frankly, I think the best concerts are the ones I’ve never been to live, but watched on video. I love watching concert videos.

Ed: I saw Crimson and JPJ on that tour too, in Kansas City. What a show. Robert Fripp came out and handed out apples to everyone waiting in line to get in before the show! First concert was The Bangles. Yes! "Walk Like an Egyptian" and "Manic Monday." Best was Pearl Jam in Montreal around 1997 or 1998. The show was sold out but my friend heard on the radio they were releasing some more tickets the day of the show, so we scored some and drove up. They were side of the stage seats, which actually ended up being an amazing view. I can't really explain all of what went into making that my best ever concert. On objective observer would probably say it was a fairly average Pearl Jam show of that era, but for me it was really special. A close second was seeing The Black Crowes by myself at the Further Festival during a thunderstorm.

Chris: My first concert was Cheap Trick. I wasn't a huge fan but I went with some friends who had tickets. As far as walking into the whole big rock show thing for the first time, that was pretty mind altering. My favorite "concert" was seeing a band called Lightning Bolt at a club here in Buffalo. There was a stage but they set up on the floor instead, in front of a literal wall of speaker enclosures they had brought. In the crowd, you were getting just annihilated by the volume and they were right there, you had to work against the crowd surge to keep from falling into the drum kit.

If you could only listen to five albums for the next six months, which albums would you choose?

Rich: Led Zeppelin – How the West Was Won; Jimi Hendrix – Winterland; Tool – Lateralus; Pink Floyd – Ummagumma; Nashville West – Nashville West.

Chris: Frank Zappa- One Size Fits All, Meshuggah- The Violent Sleep of Reason, Jimi Hendrix- Axis Bold As Love, Rage Against the Machine- Battle of Los Angeles

Ed: I always cheat and start with double albums so I get more bang for my buck. So Physical Graffiti, Exile on Main St, Eat a Peach. And then The Sword's Warp Riders and Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger. I hope whoever's stuck on this desert island with me enjoys hearing me sing along with "Jesus Christ Pose."

Any music you’re listening to currently that you’d like to recommend to us?

Chris: Not to sound cagey but it's hard to choose. There are 3 or 4 stoner/doom/heavy psych/fuzz Youtube channels that I follow and there is such a level of consistency there. I might listen to 3 or 4 albums from bands I've never heard before between Friday and Saturday every week, and they're all killer. Other than that, go listen to the new Meshuggah hahaha.

Ed: I just discovered Windhand a little while ago and have just been listening to them non-stop. The new Butcher Babies album is pretty wild, too. And I bought the entire Ruby the Hatchet discography the other night because, yeah.

This is sort of an oddball question, but every now and then I hear some similarities to Diamondhead in your music. Is this a band any of you ever listened to?

Ed: This is going to make me sound massively lame but as I write this I've never heard a Diamondhead song. I'll go check them out immediately and rectify this situation.

Chris: I checked out Diamondhead way back when I read they had influenced Metallica, but I was obsessively into a couple other bands at the time so I didn't dwell on them.

It seems that you are a brand new band, but your music is too good for you to be new to this. What bands have you played in prior to Spacelord?

Rich: I’ve been in bands for too long to admit. I played in Austin, Texas for three years, mostly as a keyboardist then. I had a band in the early 2000s called “Leopold Bloom” that this band has some relation to. We do a couple of songs from that band.

Ed: We've all kicked around in various bands. I was the drummer for The Transonics a few years back. I was the singer of a U2 tribute band for a little while. Seriously. Chris is in another band at the moment, but I'll let him decide if he wants to tell you about that.

Chris: I've been playing in various local bands forever. I had actually jammed a few years ago with Rich and a random drummer for a couple months in a thing that went nowhere. The thing Ed is referring to is an Iron Maiden tribute I play out with a couple times a year. Coincidentally at one point years ago that band was looking for a vocalist and Ed came down to check it out. So it was funny, when the band that is now Spacelord was looking for a bass player I responded to this random ad not knowing who anyone was. I got an email: "Hey Chris, it"s Rich!" Which was a good sign. Then I come to the audition and there's Ed.

How long were you at work on “New Horrible Menace” and “Spacelord” before releasing them in 2017?

Chris: I guess by the time I got on board the bones of most of the songs were there. It didn't take a huge amount of time to finish writing and making things tight, a couple months I guess. Rich was really responsible for recording and mixing so he'd know most specifically. The recordings were done before we'd really even had any contact with the outside world as a band, so we actually sat on them for quite a long time. Until we'd done at least SOME things that put the name out there.

Rich: As mentioned, a couple of the songs go back to early 2000s. There might even be something among that material that I had since Austin…I’d have to meditate on that. Most of the material is based on stuff I had kicking around the past five years or so. Some of it was after we all got together. The lyrics are all fresh, though. I can write lyrics, but I prefer it when the vocalist writes their own, and Ed prefers to write his own, so that works out. Chris and Kevin put their own thing to the material, so, depending on how you look at it, it’s decades in the making or six months.

I LOVE both album covers. Are they both by Andy Belanger?

Ed: The New Horrible Menace cover is a piece by Lloyd Rognan, first published in Imaginative Tales magazine, and currently in the public domain.

What are some of your favorite rock album covers?

Rich: 70s Kiss albums look great. Pretty much every Led Zeppelin cover was artful. Queen – News of the World is a memorable cover. Big Brother and the Holding Company – Cheap Thrills, I have that one hanging on my wall. Love the Robert Crumb art. There’s a lot of great album covers out there.

Chris: I was a huge Iron Maiden fan growing up and of course those covers are pretty iconic. I have to bring it back to the current stoner/doom/heavy psych/etc scene. The bands are really showing up in terms of album art. It's one great cover after another. There's a real emphasis on vinyl there too so good art is really important.

Ed: There's a comic book artist named Becky Cloonan who's been doing a ton of stoner and doom album covers the last few years, and her work is just incredible all the time. My dream is to get her to do a Spacelord cover. That's basically my benchmark for success in Spacelord. If we can get a Cloonan cover I'll die happy.

I don’t think they grew up in Buffalo, but I believe “The Midnight Ghost Train” band formed in Buffalo. Have you ever run into those guys in any Buffalo clubs?

Rich: Not that I am aware.

Chris: Ha, I am terrible with these things. I'm super anti-social. Whenever someone starts asking about if I know a band or a local musician I always cut them off mid sentence, throw up my hands and say, "I don't know anyone!" I'm the worst.

What other great Buffalo rock bands should I be investigating?

Ed: There's this band called The Scarecrow Show that we've played with a few times that just bring a ton of energy to their shows. And they're kids, like we could literally be their dads. But they rock their asses off. I also really like Stone Priest -- they have a keyboard player, which only adds to the doomy vibe on stage. That dude is like the Garth Hudson of doom.

Rich: I like Handsome Jack.

Only if anyone’s a Bills fan: Do you think Tyrod Taylor is a good quarterback who just needs a better offensive coordinator, or do you dislike him as a quarterback?

Rich: He’s a nice guy, but he’s not getting you past the first round of the playoffs if he can get you into them. I don’t think he makes reads quick enough.

I am truly grateful to have been able to interview you, and grateful for one of the best albums and one of the best Eps of 2017. I am going to do my best to spread the word about Spacelord, and wish you all the best in 2018. Can’t wait for the next album.

Ed: Thanks man, we're hard at work on it right now. We've also been getting a lot of people asking about a vinyl release, and hopefully we can connect with a label this year to help make that happen.

Chris: Thanks!

Rich: Thanks! That means a lot to us.

I urge you to check out "Spacelord" and "New Horrible Menace", and if you like what you hear I hope you'll encourage these guys by purchasing these classics, for a dollar per tune.  There's not a single one I don't love.  As Ed mentioned, the variety of styles their music represents is in part what defines Spacelord.  And an extra thanks to Ed and Rich for their Buffalo music recommendations; I am liking all three.

Back next weekend!   -ULTRA