By Andrew Bansal
American heavy metal stalwarts Iced Earth are currently on a North American headline tour supporting their latest LP ‘Plagues Of Babylon’ and presenting the best of their past to fans across the continent, along with excellent support from Sabaton and ReVamp. They rocked the House Of Blues Sunset Strip last Friday May 2nd for what I consider as the best show of the year so far (and I’ve seen a LOT of shows this year already). Before the show, I sat down with guitarist/mastermind Jon Schaffer to get his ever-insightful and candid thoughts on a variety of subjects such as touring, the new album, and fans’ reaction to Iced Earth opening for ‘junior’ bands, among other things. Enjoy the conversation below.
You’ve been doing this tour for about a month now. How’s it been for you guys?
Well, we’ve actually been on tour since October of last year. We just started the North American tour last month. We’ve had a gigantic world tour and only had a couple of weeks off for Christmas. We’ve been going pretty hard at it for a long time, all over the planet. But it’s been going good! Our set on an average has been about 90 minutes and may be in some shows we’ve played a little longer. It’s what we do.
The LA show is always a big one for you on a North American run. Do you prefer it at the beginning of the tour or towards the end like you have it this time?
Not really. I don’t think it makes a huge difference. It’s really more about taking some breaks in between tour legs and that’s what we’ve learnt from this cycle. It’s not about necessarily doing LA during the first week or in the sixth week, but if you’re touring for five or six months before that all over the world, then there’s no doubt that the band is tired. We’ve been working really hard and it’s a difficult life on the road. Most people think it’s really glamorous, but I guarantee you, 95 per cent of the people out there wouldn’t be able to handle it for more than a week. Not complaining, I’m just stating that there’s a big difference between the reality and the fantasy that people create in their heads.
You’ve very much like workmen in that sense.
Yeah, it’s very hard work. You don’t get much sleep, it’s a difficult lifestyle and it is what it is, but obviously we love it and that’s why we do it, because it is at the end of the day about the art, about the music.
You were saying that it’s important to take breaks between tour legs, but when a new album comes out, like ‘Plagues Of Babylon’ came out in January, is it more exciting for you to go out on tour straight after the album comes out and is the first part of the touring cycle more enjoyable because you have new songs to play?
No, I wouldn’t really look at it like that. It’s all cool, and it’s just a question of having even just a couple of weeks between doing major touring. Basically we went from a tour in Europe to Australia, New Zealand, South America, Central America and North America, and we did massive touring in Europe. We did two months in support for Volbeat, went home for a few weeks for Christmas and then did another two months headlining. That’s a lot of shows, man, just in Europe. We went to Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia, Isreal and a lot of countries in Eastern Europe. We went to Bosnia for the first time. We went to a lot of places that we hadn’t been before. Then in South America we went to new countries, and to New Zealand for the first time. So there’s been a lot of that. And even more so than being in a bus and rolling down the highway, the flying dates are probably the ones that are the most taxing on the band, because even if it’s an hour-and-a-half or two-hour flight in Australia getting to the next city, if you don’t get back to your hotel room after the gig until 1 AM because you still got your adrenaline going but you’ve got a 3:30 AM lobby call, then it turns out to be like an 8-10 hour day by the time you get to the next hotel. And then you get there, put your shit in your room and it’s time to go and do soundcheck, meet ‘n greet, eat and do the show, and it’s the whole cycle. That’s the stuff that really wears you out because at least in a bus you can lay down while it’s rolling down the road.
A lot of bands that are not used to such extensive touring might think that flying is easier because it takes shorter amount of time but I’m sure being on the road is more relaxing because as you said, in a bus you can just lie down, as long as you’re not driving it yourself!
Yeah, people would think that flying is easier but the problem is, the hours of checking in before and when you travel with as many people as we do and you have 30 pieces of gear that you’re checking, it takes forever. It’s like a 3-hour process just to get checked in, and you wait for the plane, then wait for the shuttle at the next place. Then you wait for your luggage. It’s a lot of waiting and standing around. It’s definitely difficult on the singers because out of everybody in the touring party, singers need the most rest because their body is their instrument and one of the most critical things for a vocalist to be in top form is to be able to sleep. So when you’re flying all the time and you’re literally getting a couple of hours of sleep a day, 3 or 4 days in a row like that and you’re going to have problems. That’s just the way it is.
Exactly. But on this tour you also played the New England Metal & Hardcore Fest, and I was actually interviewing the organizer Scott Lee before this year’s edition. Obviously you play a lot of festival shows in Europe but America does have a few of its own too. How do they compare in your opinion? Does an American fest like that stand close to the ones in Europe?
No, even the smaller European festivals are normally outdoors and bring 5000 people, up to 100,000 when you play the bigger ones. So it’s a much bigger thing and typically the conditions are better. I’m not saying everywhere in Europe, because every country is different in culture and budgets. But I haven’t done anything in North America as far as a festival goes that really compares to anything in Europe.
Right, so with this new album ‘Plagues Of Babylon’, I think it’s a darker kind of a sound as compared to the previous one ‘Dystopia’ and even a couple of albums before that. A lot of people feel that you went back to some of the older albums that had the same vibe. Do you agree with that, and was it just natural or conscious in that sense?
I mean, I didn’t go back to any album. It was definitely a conscious effort. I produced the record by myself and we did it at a few different studios in Germany. We did tracking in one studio, mixing in another and mastering in another. So I worked with like four different engineers in three studios, which presented its own challenges because you’re dealing with a different room all the time, but my goal set from the very beginning was to make it a very heavy album. It’s a dark subject matter, so it needs to be dark, but from a production standpoint I really wanted the drums to have more presence. It’s a very natural thing for a band to seek perfection and to want to sound perfect, to do everything you can to make the records perfect, because it’s a testament to your life. It’s going to outlive you. But also, I think sometimes we’ve been too anal about the details to get the perfect timing, the perfect pitch, and to do whatever it is with whatever parts we were recording. I wanted to basically have it sound more like a live album, of a band that has been touring its ass off, even though Raphael didn’t. He was a fill-in drummer, but the four of us had. We’d already done a lot of shows and bonded together. My goals were to make the album dark and heavy, and more raw and live feeling somehow. And I think that was basically not being so anal about every detail, to avoid having it end up being mathematically perfect but missing the feeling. I already have production ideas for the way I want to approach things the next time. I used a very different system than I’d done before, worked with engineers and used different gear than usual, but I think it’s a step in the right direction. Even the mastering, this album’s got three different masters, for CD, digital streaming and for vinyl. The vinyl master to me is killer. It’s so old-school. If you have a good system and a good turntable, it’s really great.
Would you say the vinyl version is the best representation of the album?
I think it is, because it’s the most dynamic and it’s got the most peaks and valleys. It’s really very low-limiting. There’s even low-limiting on the CD version, and the thing is, it depends on what you’re listening on. It really takes somebody that has some kind of knowledge of audio to be able to understand the difference between the three and realize why I did it that way. I still care about audio quality even though I know that a lot of kids today don’t, because they listen to shit on their phones using $5 earbuds or whatever. This album is more for an audiophile, I think, somebody that cares about quality.
The lyrical inspiration is a big part of what you do in Iced Earth, and as you just said, the music on ‘Plagues Of Babylon’ is heavy because of the dark concept. But do you ever worry about running out of lyrical ideas, or do you think that’ll ever happen to you?
Well, I hope not! But Stu contributes a lot of lyrics as well and we’re really on the same page with a lot of things. I think as long as people behave the way they do (laughs), there’s always going to be content. Just sitting back, trying to learn from life and watching the shit that’s going on is definitely … inspiring, let’s put it that way.
You mentioned that you opened for Volbeat on a big tour. They’re definitely a newer band as compared to Iced Earth, and some of your fans were not really thrilled about it. I mean, I totally get why you did it. They have a bigger fan base and you need the exposure and all that, but how do you feel about fans thinking that way in terms of Iced Earth opening for a ‘junior’ band, so to say?
For one thing, I think it’s just sort of ignorance, people not understanding the facts. The thing is, if they really care about the band they should want the band to be exposed to as many people as possible. Whether they get Volbeat or not, that’s a whole another issue.
Right, I was just using Volbeat as an example.
Yeah I know what you’re saying, but I saw some of the bullshit that our fans were saying. For one thing, Michael Poulsen is one of my best friends in the world and he’s one of the biggest Iced Earth fans on the planet, has been since our first album came out, the day that it came out. He’s a total metalhead. He’s like an encyclopedia of heavy metal. So when people talk shit like that, they really don’t know what they’re talking about. And I get that they’re like “How can this happen?” because they’ve been fans for years and they don’t get or like Volbeat’s music, but whatever it is, for us it was a big opportunity to play in sold-out arenas because Volbeat is on fire. Michael invited us to do that tour 3 years ago, and I said “Hell yeah, we’ll do it. Just let me know when!” We did it and it was a great thing for Iced Earth to be exposed to 15-18-20,000 people a night, as main support. And they treated us like gold. They’re just amazing people. So, my loyalty and Michael and I’s brotherhood, friendship, love and respect for each other is far more important to me than any idiotic comments that fans can make.
And finally, I see that you’re wearing a ‘Sons Of Liberty’ shirt and before we wrap up this interview I wanted to ask you, are you thinking of doing any other projects any time soon?
Well, not any time soon but yes, the million dollar question is always when’s the next Demons & Wizards going to happen.
That’s why I didn’t ask it this time!
Yeah (laughs). But you know, Hansi and I really set the standards for Demons, and to do anything other than spending a year on songwriting, recording and touring would be a little bit of a disservice because it’s such a hugely successful project. It’s already been ten years since the second album, I think, or close to it, and it’s still one of the most asked questions that either one of us get. So basically we’re going to do it, it’s just a matter of scheduling. And the same thing goes for Sons Of Liberty, but that’s easier because it’s me by myself doing stuff. This shirt is from the Mexican chapter. A guy gave me the shirt when we were there and I think it’s awesome. But yeah, there will be more of all that stuff but it’s going to take time.
Related: Review + Photos – Iced Earth, Sabaton & ReVamp Perform At House Of Blues Sunset Strip
Iced Earth links:
IcedEarth.com
facebook.com/OfficialIcedEarth
twitter.com/_IcedEarth
Remaining Tour Dates:
May 7–The Venue–Vancouver, BC
May 9–The Starlite–Room Edmonton, AB
May 10–Republik–Calgary, AB
May 11–Riddell Centre–Regina, SK
May 12–Park Theatre–Winnipeg, MB
May 14–The Summit Music Hall–Denver, CO
May 15–Sunshine Theater–Albuquerque, NM
May 16–Diamond Ballroom–Oklahoma City, OK