In Conversation With Striker Drummer Adam Brown

By Andrew Bansal

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Canadian traditional power/thrash metal warriors Striker have waged the battle for the genre for more than seven years, in the process enhancing their country’s great reputation of producing old-school metal talent. Striker released their third studio album ‘City Of Gold’ in 2014 via Napalm Records, a righteous follow-up to the scintillating 2012 effort ‘Armed To The Teeth’. They’ve actively performed in Canada, Europe and other territories around the world but for one reason or another, never got a chance to tour the United States. This has finally been rectified, as Striker are currently in the final week of their first ever US run as main support to Danish thrash veterans Artillery. The tour started in Los Angeles with a gig at the Five Star Bar on April 10th 2015, and a few hours before they satiated the crowd, I spoke to drummer Adam Brown about all things Striker. Enjoy the conversation below.

First show ever in the US! How are you feeling right now?

We conquered a lot of ground to get here, you know. We’ve been trying to get across the border for years, and just thinking about it, you’ve got to have a lot of ducks in a row just to make it. It’s finally our time, and the first show is in LA which is pretty sweet. It’s beautiful here. Stoked!

How was your journey from your hometown of Edmonton, Alberta all the way to here in Los Angeles? Did you just drive all the way or play shows along the route?

We ended up just driving straight. Well, a fun story, I actually really like to drive. If you fly, you leave home, you land and you’re in a brand new place. But we drove across a continent to get here. We went from snowy lands, mountains, through a desert, and drove straight to Las Vegas which was about 26 hours of driving, I think, with stops. We partied way too hard. But it was like a vacation to start off before we even hit the road, so it feels like we’ve been on the road for like ever and it’s actually the first day (laughs).

You were supposed to be on Artillery’s previous US tour with Onslaught, right? What happened there and why did you guys get dropped off?

It was just due to impossible forces, man. We wanted to do it but just the way things came together and by the time we had to get our visas in, it was not lining up at all. Some poor communication as well. We’ve never canceled a show and unfortunately that was an entire tour, but we looked at it and it just couldn’t happen. So it didn’t, and it sucks and we had a lot of upset fans. A lot of people are mad because we are not playing Chicago or New York on this tour, or even Toronto and Montreal in Canada. But with this tour we’re trying to make up for some of it and there’s more to come.

On this tour you have 16 shows in 18 days. So it’s pretty short and you can give it your all.

Well, it’s a lot of driving. We drove from Edmonton to here, and in a week we’ll be in Florida. So we have a week to drive to the other side of the continent, and just another week to come back and go back up. We actually mapped it out with a pen, and it’s huge. But I like it. It’s short, sweet and to-the-point. We’re excited for a lot of places, like Texas and Wisconsin. It’s going to be great.

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This being your first US tour and you having quite a lot of material behind you, what are you doing on this tour in terms of the set?

This is still our ‘City Of Gold’ tour. The album came out in September 2014 in America and we were supposed to hit that Onslaught/Artillery tour which was in October and it didn’t come together, but we’re still on ‘City Of Gold’. We’re writing new material as well, but it just shows how long and hard you have to work to get here at a decent level, and not just play to no one everyday. That might happen on this tour, but I hope not (laughs). So, we put a lot of work into whatever we’ve got so far and I think it’s kinda starting to show. This release I think has been our most organized. It came out, we toured, and there was a music video too. It’s nice on our end. And we’re going to Europe in July to play some festivals including Headbangers Open Air, and one in Lithuania. It’s going to be crazy, man. We’re really excited and we’re still on this album cycle but we have about seven demos of new songs, not for the public yet.

Eastern Europe is going to be insane, I’m sure.

Yeah! The first and only time we played in Poland, it was my 21st birthday and that night is still talked about, because there was so much vodka. I got dropped on my head because I was too drunk to stand. It was crazy and the Polish police showed up to the house party we were at. You don’t want to go to Polish jail, man (laughs). So, this Lithuania gig is going to be even further east, more north. But yeah, we’ve also got shows in Belgium. European festivals are beautiful. It’s going to be great.

So, this is obviously your first show in LA as well. These days it’s easier to communicate with fans through Facebook etc. How’s your LA fan base? Have you had a lot of people hit you up asking you to come and play here?

I don’t know about LA in particular. Every so often we get comments from people from all over. I’ve kind of lost track of where all of them come from, but I thought I knew no one in the States and even tonight I’ve already met a few friends, so I guess we do know people here. It’s a good feeling when you see familiar faces after driving so far. But as for LA, we’re about to find out, is the answer, and hopefully we’ll make some new fans. That’s really the point. We’re here to sell merch and get people stoked on our band and what we’re doing. We always felt that the live show is really what we’re about, so the more people that see it, the better.

You’re opening for Artillery, but it’s only their second US tour so you’re not too far apart in terms of your status here in that sense. That itself is a good thing.

Yeah, I really like the package. Artillery, I think grade seven was when I first got their album on my iTunes. So that’s cool, and they’re thrash. It’s hard to find bands that fit well sometimes. I’ve seen too many ‘label tours’ where it’s just like a mess of bands. It’s like, what are you doing? But I think they’re a great fit for us. This tour has a lot of bands. I think there are five touring bands which is crazy in my books but I’m glad to be supporting Artillery. They are excited as well, and I just met them and talked to them. They think the same thing. We’re younger, so I think that helps too, as may be we’ll bring in a younger crowd. Those guys have been around for a long time and have some real dedicated fans. So we might get a nice mix everywhere. It’s a win-win.

So, with the whole thrash genre these days, specially here in LA, I feel that there’s really not as much going on. There was a wave of bands about ten years ago but most of them got burned out or faded away because they toured too much. How do you feel about being categorized as thrash? Would you prefer to not be included in that whole thing and instead be a metal band that’s beyond that category?

The endless debate (laughs). A lot of times in Europe we get coined as traditional heavy metal, same as bands like Skull Fist, Enforcer, Cauldron, a lot of our friends. The drummer for Enforcer is here tonight, and we’re really good friends with Skull Fist. So there’s a bit of a movement there, but we’ve always been focussed on just heavy metal. It is just that if you listen to it. May be you could call it power melodic thrash. But I don’t know, I find it very hard to describe our own music. And then metal is just broken into so many niches. I think thrash is pretty close. It depends on what song you listen to. If you listen to ‘Bad Decisions’, it’s borderline hair metal, but if you listen to ‘Second Attack’, that’s pretty thrashy.

Related: Gig Review: Striker Makes Long-Awaited US Live Debut

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Remaining Tour Dates:
4/23/2015 Good Time Charlie’s – Tupelo, MS
4/24/2015 The Metal Grille RK NYDM Spring Bash ’15 – Cudahy, WI
4/25/2015 Vaudeville Mews Des – Moines, IA
4/26/2015 Bushwacker’s Saloon – Denver, CO
4/27/2015 The Metro Bar – Salt Lake City, UT

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