By Andrew Bansal
Vancouver, Canada-based heavy metal band 3 Inches Of Blood have been toiling away for the past nearly 14 years, going through a couple of changes in personnel and musical style during the process. But it’s perhaps fair to say that with the release of their fifth studio album ‘Long Live Heavy Metal’ via Century Media Records early last year they’ve redefined themselves as a group of musicians. Filled to the brim with Grade-A heavy metal goodness, this album certainly appeases or should appease every fan of the genre. After the release the band has done a few tours to promote it, and most recently they completed a North American tour where they were main support to Death Angel. The last show of this tour was at the Constellation Room (inside the Observatory) in Santa Ana, and shortly before the band hit the stage, I spoke to singer Cam Pipes about the hockey game he was at earlier that evening, the tour, latest album, and lots more. Enjoy the conversation below.
First of all, before we get into anything about metal, you went to the hockey game at the Honda Center in Anaheim earlier this evening, right? Who did you see and how was it?
The Anaheim Ducks were playing the Vancouver Canucks. It was cool! We have a friend who actually works for the Anaheim Ducks and she always comes down to our shows when we’re in Southern California. She noted that we were going to be in Orange County in the same day (laughs), and asked us if we wanted to come to the game. So a bunch of us went, and it was pretty cool.
Who won?
The home team won, unfortunately for my sensibilities. But it was fun, and it was nice to see it. I hadn’t been to an NHL game in a while because tickets are really expensive back home. But it was not surprising that there were a lot of Vancouver Canucks fans at the game this evening. There usually are, specially down here and in Phoenix. I’ve noticed that on TV. I see a lot of Canucks jerseys at away games.
That makes sense because Southern California is such a melting pot that I’m sure whatever team is playing, there are people supporting it.
Yeah! Then you’ve got the LA Kings close to here as well and there’s that rivalry. They were showing the scoreboard and San Jose had won, so people were booing. It was funny that they were booing the scoreboard. It was a fun atmosphere!
Well I’m glad you actually did something like that while on tour, because touring can get mundane for bands, right? You’re usually just going from venue to venue so it’s good to do something different.
Yeah, it’s funny you mention that because this tour specially has been a little bit different in that sense. We’re used to packing it up and just kind of slugging it off to the next show but whenever we can, we try and spend the night in the town we’re in and get some decent rest that’s not sleeping in the van. But on this tour there’s been a lot more overnight drives than usual. So it has taken its toll on our sanity in some senses. Drives have been longer than usual, and it’s been weird. I don’t know what it is, I guess that’s just the way it was routed. I mean, it’s been fun, still. I can’t complain there. But yeah, tonight we actually got to do something out of the ordinary and just kind of take a break. It was good.
Talking of sports, do you feel a difference watching it in a stadium or arena as opposed to watching it on TV? I personally think there’s a big difference as you’re part of the atmosphere and it must be better to watch it that way.
It is a different experience. It’s funny, when you get to the arena, and this happens every time I go to see games back home in Vancouver, when you get there and you’re kind of close to the ice, it doesn’t feel like it’s as big. TV makes it seem a lot bigger than it really is. Even though you’re in a big stadium with 20,000 people, there’s still somewhat of an intimacy and you feel like pretty close to the action.
I think the same applies to metal shows, seeing bands live versus watching DVDs at home.
Yeah, I definitely agree! Whether it’s a show like this in a theatre or if it’s an arena show, you’re never that far away from the action, so it’s pretty cool that way.
Coming to this tour, other than the long drives, how’s it been touring with Death Angel? They’re one of my favorite bands and I was stoked to see that you were main support when this tour was announced.
Yeah, great band, and all the bands on this tour are really solid and just killer. It’s a really, really strong package. We were happy to be a part of it once it was presented to us.
And as main support you’ve been getting a good 40-45 minute set every night.
Yeah, can’t complain there either! Everyone’s really getting along well on this tour and plays fucking awesome every night. I’ve really enjoying watching every band. I don’t necessarily catch everybody every night, but they are fun to watch when I do get the chance to watch.
Your latest album Long Live Heavy Metal is a year-and-a-half old now, but I wanted to discuss it with you anyway, and I thought you went a lot more old-school with the musical style. Did you feel like making a big change yourselves, compared to previous albums?
Not really. To me it’s just the next record. I don’t really look back and don’t look at trying something a certain way this time. It’s just like we always do, we go into our practice space and we just write and see what happens. That’s all we’ve ever really done.
The song called ‘Look Out’ is a tribute to Ronnie James Dio. All the old-school heavy metal bands are obviously inspired and influenced in some way by Dio, but how did the idea for that particular song come about, in terms of giving him tribute with the lyrics and even with the musical elements in the song?
I don’t know, it was pretty random, actually. One day, Justin was like, ‘Hey we should write a song about Dio and call it Look Out because Dio uses those words in a lot of songs.’ So it kind of stuck in my head and one day, they were writing the riffs for it and I didn’t know what the song was going to be about yet. Something just struck a chord and I just started writing about Dio, essentially. That’s really how it happened.
For that song, you employed some special use of synth, Rainbow/Dio style. Was that just a one-off for that song or do you think you’ll try to use that in future albums too?
Well, we’ve had keyboards on other songs in previous albums as well. Justin seems to find a way to fit them in. That’s kind of his area, and he plays it on the record. But it is a little more prominent on ‘Look Out’.
It’s more of a 70s hard rock kind of keyboard sound.
Yeah! We like that kind of Jon Lord/Deep Purple style heavy hammond organ sound. It will probably make another appearance here and there. I’m sure Justin will find a way to. He’s always thinking of where a keyboard part can go and how. But the song has not been totally reliant on it. We can play some of the songs that have organ in them live without actually having it there, although ‘Look Out’ is one of the songs for which it has to be there. That’s why I’ve started bringing the keyboard on tour when we know we’re going to be playing that song.
I didn’t honestly expect you to do that! I actually saw the first show of this tour in San Francisco too. The live keyboard was a pleasant surprise to me and I’m glad you’re making the effort just for that small part.
Yeah it’s fun because when we first decided we were going to put it in the set, we were practicing it and at a certain point in the keyboard part, Justin has to go back to guitar, so I swoop in. It’s just a simple part for me. I’m not really a piano player or anything. I used to be, but Justin does all the intricate, complicated keyboard stuff and then he has to go back to his guitar and I just do the last few single notes. We didn’t know it was actually going to be like that when we wrote and recorded the song. So when we do it live, he’s literally holding a note and then I come in and get my finger on the same key while he’s still holding it, so that he can do the transition. It’s not always the smoothest transition (laughs). On smaller stages it doesn’t look great, but it works. As long as the sound is carried over smoothly, that’s what matters.
Very interesting! You mentioned notes there, which brings me to the last question I have for you today. You always hit such high notes in singing. In a lot of bands that have been around for a while, singers hit high notes back in the day and now they have to down-tune those songs to try to get at least somewhere close to it. Do you ever worry about what you’re going to do about these songs in 10, 20 years?
Sometimes I think about that. It doesn’t really cause me that much of anxiety because at the moment I’m not having trouble with it. I don’t know what it is about some guys, I guess they just lose the ability. Some guys don’t, though. So I’m glad it’s not a consistent thing across the board with falsetto singers. So we’ll see what happens, I guess (laughs). I certainly hope we don’t have to do that. Musically I wouldn’t want us to down-tune anyway, but whatever the case, someone’s going to have to be adaptable, I guess.
Related: Death Angel/3 Inches Of Blood San Francisco gig review
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