By Aniruddh “Andrew” Bansal
Two years after their first ever performance in India, Lamb Of God are back, and will play at Clarks Exotica tomorrow. Today, on May 25th 2012, they called a press conference at the same venue to answer questions put forth by representatives of various media outlets from around the country, including yours truly. All members of the band were present for the conference, but guitarist Mark Morton had to leave to set up his gear for tomorrow’s show. His guitar tech didn’t make it to India and Mark had to do the work himself, but the remaining four members more than made up for his absence, and answered questions on a wide variety of topics.
To start with, the other journalists’ questions centered around the latest album “Resolution” and the lyrics and musical elements in it, then the discussion moved to Lamb Of God’s connection with fans worldwide. The band then addressed various other things like their future plans, musical journey, Randy Blythe’s twitter account, etc, etc. After all of that, the band turned the tables on us and asked us for suggestions on places to visit in Bangalore. Then they did individual interviews with each of us, and the event ended with a small presentation by Nokia. The mobile phone company has made a very limited number of Lamb Of God Nokia Lumia phones, with the band’s logo laser-etched onto the phone, also pre-loaded with three Lamb Of God albums. One such phone was given to each of the band members, and will also be on sale tomorrow.
During the conference, I was fortunate enough to get to ask a few questions of my own to Chris & Willie Adler. Read the conversation below, and keep an eye out for the band’s answers to the questions from other journalists, as those will be posted on their respective outlets soon enough.
Chris, I read the book you wrote about the making of “New American Gospel”, and it was interesting where you mentioned in the book about how you’re finding those old songs harder to play these days. What have you done to overcome that difficulty?
Chris: I did so by going back and playing them more often. As we progressed in the timeline of the band, we paid more attention to the newer songs because we’re obviously proud of them and we want to keep playing the new music. For us it becomes a bit stale to always play the old stuff, but the longer we go, the more it becomes apparent that people want to hear the old stuff. We’re not like the Eagles or something, but there are songs on those records that we need to play, so for me, going back and just rehearsing them over and over, and taking better physical care of myself, and working out, doing a lot of running lately has got me back in shape to do those things. I don’t know what I was thinking when I was 22 or 23 years old, trying to write these parts. I was really drunk (laughs). But on a serious note, to be honest, I certainly didn’t plan on having to play those songs again at the age of 40. But now that I’m getting close to 40, it is very important for me to take care of myself and make sure I play those songs. I think the biggest challenge is not the physical part but just remembering them. “New American Gospel” was almost thirteen years ago now, so for anyone to do the same thing that you did 13 years ago, you’ve got to spend a little time on it.
Lamb Of God is such a popular band these days that you play big shows everywhere. Do you guys sometimes miss the smaller shows that you used to do back in the day?
Chris: We started the “Resolution” touring cycle in January. We did a week-long run of the US East Coast doing smaller shows, and it was a lot of fun to get back to that. It was good for us to get warmed up again because we had taken time off to write the record and we needed a bit of practice live. But yeah, for me personally, those shows are great, and even the small theaters are great. When we get into the festivals, those are great picture opportunities and great to tell your mom about (laughs), but it’s not very exciting for the metal fan. The energy in the smaller places and theaters is really tangible. It’s a special event for the band and for the fans, because the energy is trapped in such a small place. So for me that’s a lot more fun. Of course, I’m not going to say No to a Metallica arena tour, but the stuff that we choose to do in the US normally stays in those smaller-sized venues.
You guys mentioned in the press conference that you’re shooting a documentary on this tour. But of course, I’ve seen your old documentaries like “Killadelphia”. So I was curious to know, when the crew is shooting you guys, does that affect you? Does it change your way of going about things while touring?
Willie: I think we’ve come to a point that the camera and the cameraman are almost invisible. They’re basically one of the five of us. This is me personally, but when we were shooting the Killadephia, not that we’ve been shooting that long on this current one, but when we did all the work with Doug Spangenberg, he was basically part of the family and part of the crew, where the camera became invisible. It didn’t even feel like there was actual filming going on.
That’s cool. But is it important for you guys to keep it real? Sometimes band documentaries are glorified, and it doesn’t give you the real picture of what it’s like.
Chris: Yes, it is very important. We were talking about the Killadelphia DVD earlier, and I think some of the stuff that we decided to keep in the DVD did more for our music career than any album did. And that was by keeping it real and not just showing the limos, girls and stuff like that. There’s fist fights and band drama all the time. That’s what real life is about, no matter what you do. But this new documentary is a little different than that one. We’re not really focussing on the band. We’re focussing on the fans a little bit more. Of course it will show the band, but not in a glamorous way. Most of the places that we’re going to with the film crew are places like here, Israel, and we just did South America. So it’s not the big Los Angeles “rich people” kind of scene. So it will show a different side of the world, and hopefully it will also show a different side of the band as well, as we interact and learn more about ourselves and the people we’re playing to.
For the sake of the young musicians that follow my website and constantly ask me to find out about various bands’ gear setup, could you briefly tell me about your setup? What are you using these days, and has it changed from the last album or from the past?
Willie: It’s changed a little bit, not drastically. I’m still a proponent of the Mesa Boogie Mark 4, but with the introduction of the Mark 5, it adds a little bit more depth in the tone. I couple those two amps together to make a stereo out that is beneficial to my tone, but as far as that’s concerned, I don’t have any effects pedals or anything crazy going on like that. I use an MXR Chorus and that’s basically the only FX that I go through. I have a clean and dirty channel, and my ESP guitars, and that’s pretty much it. So it’s a pretty straightforward rig.
Chris: My gear is all the same from the past two records. It’s Mapex drums, Meinl cymbals, Pro-Mark sticks, Aquarian heads, Trick drum pedals and Gibraltar hardware.
Awesome, thanks for that. I interviewed John a couple of weeks ago and I asked him what he does to keep his sanity, outside of the band. He said he’s passionate about motorbikes. What about you guys?
Chris: I have a four-year old little girl. When I’m home, I love being Mr. Mom and I wake up with her every morning, watch cartoons, and then we go find a bagel or a donut, go to school. I pick her up from school, we go swimming and all that stuff. So it’s very important for me to be the best dad that I can be when I’m home, because I’m not home all the time. So my passion at home is to spend time with her.
Willie: I have a kid as well, but I golf so that I can stay away (laughs). I’m kidding. But honestly, golf is a hobby just to get out and hang out with the boys, and it’s an awesome getaway thing for me.
Related: John Campbell interview