IGNITOR
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US Metal addicts will already have encountered the name Ignitor. When you all read that they're back with a new album and especially a new vocalist, being Jason McMaster, then it will ring a bell for everybody. So gather round and read what Pat and Batlord have more to tell.
Biggest change compared to your full length debut "Road of bones" is the change of vocalist. From the original female voice of Erika to the renowed powerful voice of Jason McMaster. What happened?
PAT: Erika wasn't happy with the band's lot so we amicable parted ways with her.
Jason is active in other bands aswell, which is his priority? And was he your first choice? How did you get in contact with him?
PAT: Rock'n'roll is Jason's first choice! But seriously, Broken Teeth and Dangerous Toys earn good money when they play gigs. Ignitor is not as lucky just yet, so his priorities are the money gigs for now. Jason is an old friend of ours and agreed to come aboard when he heard Batlord's demos for "The Spider Queen."
The vocalist change has changed your sound, but did it also had an impact on the writing process?
PAT: No, except for some phrasing adjustment, Batlord wrote all the lyrics.
What's absolutely an improvement, in my opinion, is the sound of the new album compared to "Road of bones". A lesson you've learned or another productional team?
PAT: Yes - we were unhappy with the final result of Road of Bones because of some bad decisions the band made such as using different studios to track the drums and vocal. We corrected that by taking our time and recording all the tracks at Batlord's home studio, then took it to a pro-studio for mastering..
"The Spider queen" has a concept behind it, about a man avenging his parents death. Can you tell us something more about it?
BATLORD: The story is about a young man named Helmut who was raised by his grandmother, Necretia. Helmut grew up understanding that his parents were murdered by an evil queen and sets out to seek revenge. When Helmut final gets an opportunity to kill the queen, he discovers that she is young and beautiful and falls in love with her. He later finds out that the queen is not really beautiful, but a hideous spider that eats people. The spider is able to use magic to appear in any form it wishes. With the help of his grandmother, Helmut defeats the spider only to find out that the spider was actually his mother who was cursed by his grandmother when he was a baby. Helmut freaks out and kills everybody, including himself. The end. There is more to the story, but that is the gist of it.
How did you start the whole process? You had an idea for a lyrical theme and wrote music to it, or was it the other way around?
BATLORD: Since we didn't have a singer at the time, I just figured I'd write an opera or whole batch of themed songs so we'd be that much ahead of the game once we found someone to sing them. A rough sketch of the story came first, then I started writing music and fleshing out the story and lyrics as things progressed.
"The spider queen" looks appealing from the artwork of the album. Who worked out the idea?
PAT: Beverly conceived and painted the artwork herself.
This is your second album now for the Italian Cruz Del Sur label. They have quite a lot of American Metal bands under contract, you must feel at home with them?
PAT: Yes, they have been awesome to work with.
And now, get on the road to promote the album in a live setting? Any plans for European dates?
PAT: We'll be a little slow out of the gate as Jason and Brendon both have many other gig commitments this fall and winter. We're celebrating the CD release here at home thi8s week, but other than that we only had a show in January in Austin, and the Alehorn of Power Festival in Chicago next May. We plan on touring Germany and Northern Europe during the last half of September 2010.
You made a video for "Construct of destruction". What's the extended value for a video clip for a true, genuine metal band these days? On European television for instance there aren't any real metal show left to play it...
PAT: You Tube, You Tube, You Tube... No money in video - it's all about aggregation on the internet. We post them on our sites and our labels' sites, then they magically get reproduced all over the worldwide web. Given that we play live so little, it's the least we can do to show people who we are. It's still better promotion than MP3s, people just like video content.
http://www.myspace.com/ignitor
Pow
PAT: Erika wasn't happy with the band's lot so we amicable parted ways with her.
Jason is active in other bands aswell, which is his priority? And was he your first choice? How did you get in contact with him?
PAT: Rock'n'roll is Jason's first choice! But seriously, Broken Teeth and Dangerous Toys earn good money when they play gigs. Ignitor is not as lucky just yet, so his priorities are the money gigs for now. Jason is an old friend of ours and agreed to come aboard when he heard Batlord's demos for "The Spider Queen."
The vocalist change has changed your sound, but did it also had an impact on the writing process?
PAT: No, except for some phrasing adjustment, Batlord wrote all the lyrics.
What's absolutely an improvement, in my opinion, is the sound of the new album compared to "Road of bones". A lesson you've learned or another productional team?
PAT: Yes - we were unhappy with the final result of Road of Bones because of some bad decisions the band made such as using different studios to track the drums and vocal. We corrected that by taking our time and recording all the tracks at Batlord's home studio, then took it to a pro-studio for mastering..
"The Spider queen" has a concept behind it, about a man avenging his parents death. Can you tell us something more about it?
BATLORD: The story is about a young man named Helmut who was raised by his grandmother, Necretia. Helmut grew up understanding that his parents were murdered by an evil queen and sets out to seek revenge. When Helmut final gets an opportunity to kill the queen, he discovers that she is young and beautiful and falls in love with her. He later finds out that the queen is not really beautiful, but a hideous spider that eats people. The spider is able to use magic to appear in any form it wishes. With the help of his grandmother, Helmut defeats the spider only to find out that the spider was actually his mother who was cursed by his grandmother when he was a baby. Helmut freaks out and kills everybody, including himself. The end. There is more to the story, but that is the gist of it.
How did you start the whole process? You had an idea for a lyrical theme and wrote music to it, or was it the other way around?
BATLORD: Since we didn't have a singer at the time, I just figured I'd write an opera or whole batch of themed songs so we'd be that much ahead of the game once we found someone to sing them. A rough sketch of the story came first, then I started writing music and fleshing out the story and lyrics as things progressed.
"The spider queen" looks appealing from the artwork of the album. Who worked out the idea?
PAT: Beverly conceived and painted the artwork herself.
This is your second album now for the Italian Cruz Del Sur label. They have quite a lot of American Metal bands under contract, you must feel at home with them?
PAT: Yes, they have been awesome to work with.
And now, get on the road to promote the album in a live setting? Any plans for European dates?
PAT: We'll be a little slow out of the gate as Jason and Brendon both have many other gig commitments this fall and winter. We're celebrating the CD release here at home thi8s week, but other than that we only had a show in January in Austin, and the Alehorn of Power Festival in Chicago next May. We plan on touring Germany and Northern Europe during the last half of September 2010.
You made a video for "Construct of destruction". What's the extended value for a video clip for a true, genuine metal band these days? On European television for instance there aren't any real metal show left to play it...
PAT: You Tube, You Tube, You Tube... No money in video - it's all about aggregation on the internet. We post them on our sites and our labels' sites, then they magically get reproduced all over the worldwide web. Given that we play live so little, it's the least we can do to show people who we are. It's still better promotion than MP3s, people just like video content.
http://www.myspace.com/ignitor
Pow
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