In Conversation With Armored Saint Singer John Bush

By Andrew Bansal

armoredsaintwinhandsdownMuch to the delight of fans worldwide, Los Angeles classic metal veterans Armored Saint are back into fully active mode in the year 2015, with the release of their seventh studio album ‘Win Hands Down’ via Metal Blade Records, the recently concluded high-profile mini-tour with Saxon, and upcoming festival appearances in Europe. Boasting excellent songwriting and crystal-clear production, ‘Win Hands Down’ sees Armored Saint at their creative peak, doing full justice to their roots but at the same time venturing into newer elements to stay relevant in the modern era. I spoke to singer John Bush a few days ago to discuss the album in detail, among other things. Enjoy the conversation below.

John, it’s great to finally have you on Metal Assault. Your new album ‘Win Hands Down’ is out, and thankfully it took less time than ‘La Raza’, for which we waited ten years. What have the last five years been like for you guys, and how has it been with the process of working on this material and making this album?

Well, first of all let me just say that we didn’t work on ‘La Raza’ for ten years. I don’t want to come off like we’re Guns ‘N Roses (laughs). It’s not like we were toiling over the material for that period of time. That would drive me insane, actually. So, a lot of things happened in those ten years (2000-2010), and for five of them I was in Anthrax. And then, we just had other things going on in life. So let me just say for the record that we didn’t work on that record for that length of time. As for ‘Win Hands Down’, it has been five years since that last album was released, but we do have a lot of things in life. We have families, we have other things going on, different circumstances, other endeavors and businesses, so we’re pretty busy. So, sometimes writing music and creating songs has to kind of cooperate with those other things in life. And that’s what we did. A lot of the times I have told people that I would take my kids to school, drop them off at 8:30 in the morning and then I’d be at Joey’s by 9, 9:15 and we would start working on stuff. Sometimes that was the only time we had to work on material, so we had to squeeze it in. We make it work even with everything else going on, but that’s why it takes us longer than the average band who just concentrates on working on material every day and that’s their primary source of income. Unfortunately that’s not the case for us. So that’s why it took time but you know, for us it’s all about quality. Once we felt like we had the nine songs we would put on the record, we could make the record.

I think what I like most about this album is that it has the classic Armored Saint vibe but it also has a very modern kind of sound which is very relevant in the year 2015. So, in that sense you’re not like a retro band or a nostalgia act.

Yeah, for bands that have been around since the 80s, or even the 90s at this point, you have to try to combine those two things. You want to be true to what your sound is and how you started. That’s important because it’s the road you paved for yourself. But at the same time, you have to grow, you have to be aware of what’s happening around you. You don’t want to be stuck in a time capsule, so to speak. You want to show that you’re hip with what’s happening and what’s current. I think that’s how you should feel as a human being in general. You don’t want to go like, “I only live like I did back then, I made my mark between ’84 and ’88 and that’s the person I am.” It’s a weird way to live. To me it just doesn’t make much sense. So, we tried to make sure that we are totally looking back and addressing our roots, which we are super-proud of, as well as at the same time making music that sounds like contemporary Armored Saint. It’s a challenge. You have to be willing to take chances and stick your neck out a little bit if you really want to do it, otherwise you’re playing it conservatively. I always make a joke that I know heavy metal is always an ‘on the fringe’ kind of music and lifestyle, but sometimes it can be a little conservative in the way it is approached. It’s like, “This is what I do and this is my thing.” I love metal but I can’t live like that because then I’d feel like I’m limiting myself. I think we all feel that way in this band. I don’t want to sound like I’m pompous or anything. I don’t feel that way and I don’t mean that at all. No one has more humility than the guys in Armored Saint, for the most part (laughs). But as a fan of the band you should want something that feels like it’s showing growth.

5-2[4]Lyrically, I’ve been reading about the topics that you’ve touched on for a lot of these songs, and it’s quite a wide variety. Is that just how it came about naturally or were you specifically aiming to broaden yourself in that sense?

You know, I want the song to kind of lead into where the lyrics would go. Joey wrote a bulk of the songs, and his music sets the tone for the lyrics. That’s the way I’ve always been. People do it differently, whatever floats the boat and keeps you creative. But as far as I’m concerned, I listen to what the music feels like, and I have a lyric book that I adhere to, with phrases, titles and sometimes just words. I open it up, scan through it and may be one thing will stick and it will open the door to ideas. A lot of lyrics that I wrote on this album come from a few sources, conversations with friends, obviously things I’ve read, things that are going on in the world, being a father and seeing how life is shaping my children, all kinds of stuff. For me, the beauty of lyrics is that you can write about anything. I still really love writing and I feel fortunate that I’m showing a lot of progress as a lyricist. It’s fun. It’s not like a chore and I don’t worry about what I’m going to do or whether I’m going to hit a writers block. I just go with the flow. I really am proud of some of the lyrics I wrote. I think it shows a lot of vulnerability, which I think is important in music. My favorite artists, whether it be hard rock, heavy metal, pop music, or a band like Radiohead, I feel like those are people that take chances in being adventurous and are willing to write things that are showing a side of their life that demonstrates a sense of vulnerability, and I like that. Not every song, as some are really topical, like ‘That Was Then; Way Back When’ and ‘An Exercise In Debauchery’. I also wanted to show a little humor. I think Armored Saint has a pretty good sense of humor and it hasn’t always been revealed. It’s important to be able to laugh, and sometimes I end up writing about things I find really amusing and comical. Basically, whatever the music feeds me, I try to roll with it.

PromoImageThis album is more than 50 minutes long, and looking at the song lengths on previous albums, on an average ‘Win Hands Down’ has the longest songs. Was that ever a thought?

I think as long as the song is moving, the duration of it is not so important. I mean, there’s obviously a couple of songs that are pretty long, but we just felt like if the song is keeping the listener interested, we’re not against it. We wouldn’t do an entire record of 8-minute songs, but having a couple of them in there to interject the other tunes, like ‘Muscle Memory’, kind of the epic-sounding Armored Saint, even looking back at songs like ‘Another Day’ and ‘Aftermath’. So it’s not that unusual for us, but as far as the duration, it’s funny you should say that because I really don’t even know the lengths of some of the old records and the comparison to the new one. The most important thing is that it’s a groovy record throughout and keeps the listener’s attention span connected. There was a time in the 90s, when CDs first came about and everyone was like, “Oh, you can put 80 minutes on a CD!” That’s a lot of time for a record, specially nowadays, as sadly enough, attention spans have become much more minimal. It is interesting that you pointed this out, though.

Right, and obviously around the release of this album you have been playing some shows. In some of the places it had been years since you last went there. How was that, specially playing with Saxon, a legendary band in their own right?

Yeah! I was talking on stage in San Antonio and asking the crowd if anybody remembered the last time we played there, because I just couldn’t, even though I have pretty good memory when it comes to past shows. People were yelling different things. It was a funny moment. It might have been ’87, the last time we played in San Antonio, a long time ago, obviously. So, the way Armored Saint has worked over the last 20 years, as I try to explain to people, there were about ten years where we weren’t a band and I was in Anthrax. So were stagnant at that time and obviously we weren’t going to play. We went out for ‘Revelation’ and we actually did some pretty good touring on that and we didn’t do as much on ‘La Raza’. But I do want to play, I do love playing shows. I enjoy it. Performing live is one of my favorite things to do. I just want to coincide with other things going on in life. Being a road dog for a month at a time, I just can’t do that anymore. It’s not in my soul to do it. I think I would be unhappy. So I made a very conscious decision to not do that. That being said, I do want to play places that Armored Saint has never played and we haven’t been to in a long time. And there are a lot of those cities throughout the world. We’ve never been to Japan. We’ve never played in South America. Three/fifths of the band is Mexican and we’ve never been to Mexico. So there’s a lot of places to play and return to. I think we have a good year, year-and-a-half to accomplish that, and hopefully we will. It was awesome playing with Saxon. They are a classic band and super-nice guys. They’ve stood the test of time and we certainly have nothing but utmost respect for them. It felt like a strong bill. It’s ideal to go out and play with somebody else, even to open, because I want to play great, well-attended shows. Armored Saint had some lean years when shows were sparsely attended, there were questionable shows. It hurts morale when you do that and people start getting down, tempers get shorter. I’m not saying that every show has to be a sold-out coliseum. That’s not realistic, but when we book stuff, it would be nice to know going into the shows that they would be strong shows. That’s the objective now. So, looks like we’re going back out with Saxon for may be two-and-a-half weeks in the States in September, through some places in the mid-West and the south that we haven’t been to in years. It would be great to play in Spain some day. I played there with Anthrax and it was incredible. We’ve got to go, you know.

The other thing is, I know a lot of younger musicians that look up to you as a vocalist, and even now you’re equally strong on the new album and live. What have you done to keep your singing voice constantly solid throughout the years?

Well, for starters I try to take better care of myself (laughs). I didn’t always do that. As a matter of fact, for a majority of my career I didn’t take the best care of myself. We’ll keep the details a mystery (laughs), but you know, I’m an older guy. As an older person you have to take better care of your health than when you’re 25, and that’s what I try to do. My voice has changed, it got deeper, but I do feel that I’m singing better than ever and just honed in on my craft and style. The most important aspect of singing is to have a vibe to your voice. You want people to hear it and identify you immediately. To me, it’s so much about style and quality, and mellowing out on the intake of alcohol (laughs), watching what you eat, which is a big part of it too. It’s a bummer because I’m Italian and I love to eat, but certain acidic and spicy foods are detrimental to good singing. So, I try to do that. Not over-touring is something that probably helps as well. I love singing still, and I’m stoked that I can still do it. Knock on wood, I’ve never had serious vocal troubles. There have been some times when I went through some pretty rough patches. I did a tour one time with Anthrax, it wasn’t a long tour but may be three weeks, and I blew my voice out in the third show, and man, I had to do the rest of the tour, we were playing a lot of dates, and it was a drag, going in every night and knowing that I was going to sound terrible. And I did! There is nothing you can do except for canceling, and we decided not to. It’s like being a marathon runner with a pulled muscle. You can’t do it. It’s very, very frustrating. So, I just take better care of myself and hopefully with a little bit of luck, just keep honing in on what I do best, and going from there.

Related: Armored Saint ‘Win Hands Down’ Album Review

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