Interview: Iced Earth’s Jon Schaffer Talks In Detail About New Vocalist, “Dystopia” Album

By Andrew Bansal

The year of 2011 marks a new chapter in Iced Earth’s career. In the early part of the year, vocalist Matt Barlow announced his retirement and amicably parted ways with the band. This led to the introduction of Into Eternity’s Stu Block as the new Iced Earth frontman, and “Dystopia”, his first album with the band, came out on October 18th on Century Media Records. In my opinion, the album is a success, and Stu justifies his new role to perfection. Recently, before the release of the album, I spoke to guitarist and principal songwriter Jon Schaffer to talk about the vocalist change, the new album, and a few other topics in great detail. For me personally, this was one of the most enjoyable interviews I’ve ever done, and I hope you feel the same once you’re done reading. After that, feel free to check out the band’s official website for up to date tour info and other things.

You have a new vocalist now, Stu Block. Change of vocalist is a huge change for any band. How’s it been working with him?

It’s been an absolute pleasure, man. He’s got an amazing attitude, great work ethic, and lots of integrity. He’s very, very much dedicated to Iced Earth. I think the people, even the skeptics are going to be pleasantly surprised when they hear us and see us live.

I was listening to your new album “Dystopia”. While your previous vocalists Matt Barlow and Tim Ripper Owens were very different from each other, I think Stu kind of combines both elements and brings the best of both worlds. Would you agree with that?

Well, I think there’s definitely a reminiscent thing in the high ranging parts that Stu does, because he’s a big fan of Judas Priest and Rob Halford, just like Tim Owens was heavily influenced. So, you’re going to hear some familiarities in what Stu does  to his falesto voice. He has a very similar tone to the Halford-Owens kind of thing. But yeah, Stu is just discovering the middle range of his voice, and that’s what we’ve been working on for the past several months. In Into Eternity, he never sung that way, and he never sung that way in his life before. So this is all a new thing to him. There are so many different things we can utilize and explore in his voice that it’s great. For me a songwriter and producer guy, that’s what you want. If you have that kind of talent and ability with a great attitude, you really can’t ask for anything better.

So I take it that he won’t be involved with Into Eternity at all, and Iced Earth will be his main band from now on.

Yeah, Iced Earth is his main band now. There just isn’t going to be time for him to do Into Eternity. It doesn’t sound to me like the guys in Into Eternity are going to be very active anyway. I think they’re going to do the occasional album and a few shows in Canada. They have families and they’re kind of moving on in a different direction. Stu has a shot here at really doing something big and touring in places that he never has before. We’re all going to places we’ve never been before. We’ll be playing in India, China, Indonesia, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, and lots of places we haven’t played. Iced Earth is going to tour like it never has.

That’s great for him, and for the fans in all of those places. Coming back to the album, the last few albums have been concept albums and all of them were 60 minutes long. But this one is much more compact, it’s 45 minutes and I think it’s your shortest album in a very long time. Were you happy to kind of move away from the whole concept album thing for a change?

Yeah, I was actually. It felt like the right thing to do. I mean, there are bonus tracks on the deluxe edition. There are two songs “Iron Will” and “Soylent Green”, plus we did a couple of cover tunes. So I mean there’s material out there, but the main jewel case edition that Century Media has put out has 10 songs. And yeah, I don’t think we had an album as short as this since The Dark Saga. It just does feel like to the point. It’s strong, it has the right attitude. After the last three albums that were big theatrical pieces with lots of parts and production issues, it was fun to go back to the basics and come out with a “kick in the nuts” heavy metal album.

Musically, it sounds very much like Iced Earth, but I think it’s much beyond a mere power metal album. It has a lot of different elements. Would you say musically it’s a new chapter for the band?

There’s no question about that. Musically, it doesn’t feel very different from what Iced Earth has done, but it is a new chapter. There’s a new singer coming on board and he is a very involved and capable writer, which is a very nice thing. It takes a lot of pressure off of me. We write very well together. We worked on his vocal parts together and the lyrics and everything, and it was refreshing for me. It makes it more fun for me because now all the weight is not on my shoulders. That part of it is great. So yes, it’s a new chapter, but I don’t know if it’s a new chapter musically. I mean, we’re still Iced Earth, and every album is going to be a reflection of what’s going on at the time. Me being the principal songwriter, it’s always going to be a reflection of my life. If you look at the last two albums, I wrote those albums in about a year’s period. In that year, I lost my brother, mother, sister and my father. So it was a brutal year for my family, and I can hear it in my music. I just wasn’t as focused as I wish I could have been. I tried to solider through as best as I could, but it was very difficult. Every album is a genuine reflection of where I’m feeling, and what’s going on in my life. That’s Iced Earth. That’s the whole history, and you can look at it.

There are underlying themes behind the album, even though it’s not a concept album. There are movie themes and things like that. Is this something you’ve had in mind for a few years, or did it come to mind very recently?

No, it was recent. It was just Stu and I sitting around, talking about what we should do, where we should take it. He likes those kinds of movies, and I do, and it seemed like a cool idea, sort of like Horror Show. But the difference between this one and Horror Show is, that one was pretty much all related to horror and monster movies, novels and stuff. But Dystopia is not really like that. There’s a song Stu wrote about his mother and her struggle with cancer. There’s a few songs that don’t have anything to do with the dystopian scientific dictatorship kind of thing. So it’s a mix, but the majority of it is based on it, whether it’s from my Something Wicked story, from movies like Soylent Green, Dark City, Equlibrium, and stuff like that. So there’s that element. It seems like it works really well together.

Because it’s a more compact album and not an epic musical piece like the albums of the recent past, did it come together more quickly?

Yeah, it did. I started with some musical arrangements in January of this year. The news of Matt’s retirement then dropped and I started to really look for the vocalist part. When we made the decision in late February-March and Stu and I got together, at that point I was just focusing on putting the music all together. Then he came from Canada a few times and we focused on vocal parts and lyrics together. That’s how it rolled out. So yes, it did happen in a quicker period of time.

You’ve said about the recording process being a challenge because of the busy touring schedule. What was it like this time? I think Iced Earth has been more actively touring these days than ever before.

Well, we’re about to be. We haven’t been nearly active enough in the last ten years. We’re about to very active. But yeah, this summer the challenge was doing the festivals in Europe and coming back. A lot of weekends were like, ok we fly to Europe on Thursday, do two shows Friday and Saturday and then fly back to the States on Sunday to be back in the studio on Monday. I had to do that all the time. The other guys didn’t have to go in the studio with me immediately and they could just chill out for a bit. It depended on who was up next. If it was drums, we focused on that. After that, it was guitars, then it was bass. And we split the days between vocals and lead guitar. Then Troy’s solos and stuff. So it was probably more difficult for me because I had to be in the studio for every session that was going on. It was tiring, and there was a lot of jet lag, but it was still fun, and I think people can hear that we had a lot of fun when we made this record.

You talked about briefly about the touring plans. Can we expect the band to be on tour for pretty much the whole of next year?

Yes, we’ll be on the road for most of 2012.

You also mentioned that you’ll be playing in India. When are you actually going to play there? 

We’re just planning right now. There are dates being proposed, and I think it’s like April-May timeframe, but I can’t say for certain. I would wait until it’s confirmed and up on the website. But it’s definitely on the agenda.

That’s very cool to hear. Coming back to Stu, was it an easy choice for you, because you’ve obviously known him from Into Eternity, a band you’ve toured with in the past.

It was easy once we got together. During the Iced Earth-Into Eternity tour, we didn’t really hang out that much. I met him a couple of times, but that’s a whole different thing. I had to get him out to the tryout to see if he can do what Iced Earth requires from a frontman. Like I said, he was doing a lot of death metal and kind of black metal sound and he had been doing the high Halford-like stuff. That’s cool, but that’s not what Iced Earth is. So we had to really take a very close look at the middle range of his voice, which was new to him to develop. But he did it very well. He got it quickly and he was very excited about it. The biggest thing that interested me about Stu was the look in his eyes. That was the first thing. When I watched some of the Into Eternity videos, I was looking in his eyes and looking at the spirit behind those eyes. And I saw somebody that has the right kind of aggression, the right kind of spirit to be the frontman in Iced Earth. After having him try out and knowing that physically he was very capable with his voice, I felt like this is the kind of guy, that if he comes into the band he’s going to be 100 per cent committed to the band. That’s important, because we really haven’t had that for about ten years. We haven’t had a completely dedicated frontman. Matt could only be dedicated as far as doing it part time. And I was ok at the time and I agreed to it. But in the last two years, the music industry has changed a lot and the world has changed. The financial system is in trouble, and the band really has to work. You can’t really rely on physical record sales anymore. You have to get out and perform. Matt is a police officer and he doesn’t want to be away from his family. I understand that, and I love the dude. But it’s just that the band has to work. Iced Earth is a force of nature, man. I chose to do this 25 years ago, and I don’t have any other career interest. This is what I do, and ever since I’ve had my awakening I’ve been happier and more driven and focused than I ever have been. I really think that Iced Earth has been reborn.

Whenever there’s a change in vocalist, people are always quick to point out and say, somebody else could be better. But don’t you think it’s about who you’re most comfortable working with, as much as about who’s best for the job?

Yeah, you have to gel at a personal level, and it’s really important that the guy, whoever it is, understands out sense of humor. That’s a big deal, because then you’re sympathetic with a person. You’re on the same level. That’s one thing that Stu gets totally. He gets the sense of humor of the band. He’s really dedicated and sincere, and that’s what this band needs.

One interesting thing you said in an interview you did a while ago was, the Something Wicked story might be a true thing and you’ve seen creepy parallels in contemporary life. What did you mean by that? Could you elaborate on that a little bit?

I just think that there seems to be some evidence out there. I’ve done lots of research actually. There is a kind of a shadowy cartel that is running everything, and is controlling the resources and the money supply of most of the countries on the planet. These people have definitely manipulated the population into wars and that kind of thing draws a lot of parallels with the Something Wicked story. So I think at some level, my sub-conscience was feeling it. I mean, I always knew that some things were wrong, and there’s always corruption and bad things going on in this world. I guess I just didn’t realize it to the level that I do now. I think once you learn about the fraudulent monetary system, you can see the motive and the amount of control. Once you have an understanding of fractional reserve banking and the amount of power it gives to these people, it becomes clear. Let’s put it that way.

You touched upon the fact that the industry and financial situation has changed, which has required bands to work more. So, do you think the image of a musician, or a “rockstar”, has changed from being that of a celebrity to more of a workman-like person?

I don’t know. I’ve never looked at myself as a rockstar, and I don’t even like the word. That’s not why I’m in this and that’s never been my thing. I’m just a guy, I have a vision and I’m moving forward with it. More importantly than anything, I’m a songwriter. If I had to choose one thing that describes me as a musician, one thing that I achieved in my life, I wrote songs, and hopefully they touched people. That’s about it, and the whole hero-worship thing and rockstar mentality has never been something I’m interested in.

Finally, I wanted to ask you something outside of Iced Earth. You’ve been doing a project with Blind Guardian’s Hansi Kursch, called Demons And Wizards. He recently put out an update saying that you guys actually worked together on some new material in the European festival season when you two met. Is that correct? What’s the update on that?

We talked about it, but we haven’t actually put any new material together yet. We talked about when we’re going to try to get together. So, we both want to do it. It’s just the timing issue really, that’s out biggest problem. There is no question that there are always going to be Demons And Wizards records. It’s how much time goes in between is something different. So I hope that within the next year or so, Hansi and I can put some ideas together. The problem is, we really want to do the majority of the songwriting in-person, not through email. That makes it more challenging because we both have to get our schedules lined up. I’ve been so busy this entire year with Iced Earth, that there really hasn’t been a chance to do that. I don’t know when we’re going to be able to do it, because next year is going to be even more intense with all the touring that we’re doing, so we’ll see.

Just to follow up, another band you just started is Sons Of Liberty, and last year you did a short US tour in which that band played together with Iced Earth. Will you do more of that on this upcoming touring cycle at all?

I don’t think so. Those were just four special shows that we did. I think in order for Iced Earth to really grow to the level that it needs to, we need to do package tours with bands from different genres. We’ve always been trying to be a support band for many years and we haven’t had much luck. It’s very difficult for us for some reason to get on as a support band for a bigger band. But you know, the Sons Of Liberty thing is not impossible, but it’s kind of unlikely at this stage.

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