{"id":2279,"date":"2013-04-17T11:21:29","date_gmt":"2013-04-17T05:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/?p=2279"},"modified":"2013-04-17T13:03:54","modified_gmt":"2013-04-17T07:33:54","slug":"in-depth-interview-with-white-wizzard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/2013\/04\/17\/in-depth-interview-with-white-wizzard\/","title":{"rendered":"In-depth Interview With White Wizzard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview by Avinash Mittur<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Los Angeles’ very own traditional metal outfit White Wizzard have been around since 2007, releasing two EPs and two full-length albums in the process. The latest of these was ‘Flying Tigers’ which came out in late 2011, and showcased the band in a different light, with some classic prog rock influences blended in with the good old fist-pumping, head-banging traditional metal that was typified on releases like ‘High Speed GTO’ and ‘Over The Top’. The current lineup of the band consists of Joseph Michael on\u00a0vocals,\u00a0Jon Leon on guitars (studio) and bass (studio and live),\u00a0Jake Dreyer and Will Wallner on guitars, and\u00a0Giovanni Durst on drums, and will release a new album called ‘The Devils Cut’ later this year on Earache\/Century Media.\u00a0On April 13th, they played at the Whisky in Hollywood, as main support act in Lizzy Borden’s 30th anniversary celebration show. A couple of hours before they hit the stage, Jon, Joseph, Jake and Will sat down with our man Avinash Mittur at the Rainbow, first to give him a rather exclusive peek into the new music (including the songs ‘Forging the Steel’ & ‘Strike the Iron’)\u00a0and artwork, and then did an interview with him. Enjoy the great conversation below!<\/p>\n

This is White Wizzard\u2019s first show in about four months, the last one was the Scion Showcase in Pomona last January. Do you guys expect any sort of rustiness at this show at the Whisky tonight?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joseph:<\/strong> I\u2019ve got all the lyrics written on my arms. [laughs<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Jake: <\/strong>There\u2019s bound to be rustiness. It\u2019s coming out of us not having that many rehearsals and not too many shows. You really start getting good on tour, and even then it\u2019ll happen halfway through the tour. This may not end up being our best performance, but we\u2019ll sure as hell try to make it our best performance anyway.<\/p>\n

With this current lineup, you\u2019re all based in L.A. and the idea is that White Wizzard can now be a regularly touring unit. Is that going to happen? Are we going to see White Wizzard touring?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jon: <\/strong>Oh yeah, definitely. We\u2019re pretty much gearing up for that now that the new record is finally done. We just finished mixing it actually. This show is kind of a precursor… We might do a show with Cauldron in May down in Orange County. We just got that offered to us, so we\u2019re probably going to do that. They\u2019re labelmates, they\u2019re also on Earache, so that should be fun. But yeah, it\u2019s great, we\u2019re all here! We have a singer that wants to tour- we got a lot of shit in the past three years because we had a singer that just didn\u2019t want to tour. He was flaky and didn\u2019t want to be in LA. We\u2019d book tours and he\u2019d flake out at the last minute. It\u2019s great to have a guy that wants to perform, he\u2019s a great singer- you obviously heard the track. We got a good team right now, this is a good team of guys and a good group of dudes. Everyone\u2019s got a lot of talent and everybody wants to get out there. Jake wants to tour, Will wants to tour- he wants to be Paul Stanley. [laughs<\/em>] Onstage he turns into a mad cross of Paul Stanley and David Lee Roth! That\u2019s only when we get a few beers in him. He\u2019s real quiet until he gets the beers and then he goes completely nuts.<\/p>\n

As I got to hear just earlier, Jake and Will, you two are kicking ass with the solos. Just out of curiosity, because I\u2019m a huge Judas Priest fan, who\u2019s on the left and right channels in the mix?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will:<\/strong> Oh, well the rhythm guitars are all Jon. Jake and I handle the leads.<\/p>\n

I still noticed that the solos were split from left to right though!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will:<\/strong> Were they? [laughs<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Jon:<\/strong> When you have the CD, I actually was so meticulous with the credits that I put which solo was played by who on every song, like Judas Priest did on Defenders of the Faith.<\/em> These guys will get credited for everything that they did. Any fan will be able to go in and know which one is Jake and Will. I think their styles are very distinctive. As time goes on, listeners will be able to pick out Jake and Will on their own.<\/p>\n

Joseph:<\/strong> On \u2018Kings of the Highway\u2019 on that first solo, I thought it was Will but then oh shit, sweep picking! That\u2019s Jake. That\u2019s the only reason I knew that was him!\u00a0 [laughs<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Will<\/strong>: My solos are usually more slow and melodic, and more classic rock-influenced. Those are usually me.<\/p>\n

Okay, well now I know that the sweeps were done by Jake. You also incorporate some tapping into your solos right Jake?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jake: <\/strong>Yeah, I mean definitely during my solo during \u2018Strike the Iron\u2019 as you got to hear. The two longest solos were me, and the rest were Will. I believe Will did some tapping on there too though.<\/p>\n

Will: <\/strong>My solo started with tapping, the one right in the middle of the track.<\/p>\n

Jake:<\/strong> The solo during the slow breakdown towards the end, the one with all the crazy Marty Friedman shit going on, that was Will.<\/p>\n

Fans got to check out the demo of \u2018Torpedo of Truth\u2019 on YouTube last year. Has that song changed at all in the time since you guys put it up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Will:<\/strong> It\u2019s pretty much the same. Jon re-recorded his guitars, I redid my leads and I think the rest is the same.<\/p>\n

Joseph:<\/strong> I think we fixed some of the vocals too.<\/p>\n

Jon: <\/strong>I think it\u2019s going to sound better. It\u2019s going to have that overall cohesiveness that the current mix will have. That\u2019s really it though, and as far as the track itself goes I just hope we play it well tonight. [laughs<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Will:<\/strong> I did actually re-record one of my solos on there because the first one on the demo was the first take I did. I was really anxious going in, and afterwards I felt like it wasn\u2019t my best solo.<\/p>\n

Jon: <\/strong>Did you end up re-writing the solo?<\/p>\n

Will:<\/strong> I basically just replayed it better. The first time we literally used the first take. This time the execution is better, the first time I was kind of making it up on the spot.<\/p>\n

Jon:<\/strong> And it is<\/em> better. You definitely improved it. Just imagine how the song sounded as a demo, but with a better mix and a better overall sound. As you heard, the production is fantastic and the mix is great. We have a great producer, and that\u2019s always the band\u2019s sixth member anyway. Any great band, whether it\u2019s Maiden, Rush, Priest, Scorpions- they had Dieter Dierks, Tom Allom, Martin Birch, Terry Brown… It\u2019s all the same thing man, you got to have a great producer and Ralph Patlan is a phenomenal producer, I think we\u2019d all agree.<\/p>\n

Jake:<\/strong> He\u2019s really, really cool. It was a blast working with him on leads, he was real patient and had a lot of really good ideas. The guy\u2019s ear is incredible, it\u2019s unbelievable. He\u2019s a freak when it comes to being able to pick out tuning issues or if we\u2019re off by so little. Working with him was really great.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Have these songs all been ready to go since the \u2018Torpedo of Truth\u2019 demo was released last year? Have they been in their finished form since then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jon: They\u2019ve been in various demo stages, but I really hunkered down after the tour we did last summer and started to refine them. I also wrote a twenty minute long song but it didn\u2019t make it on the record- that\u2019ll probably end up being something to save for the future. I was working on that as well, which took up a lot of time. And then yeah, I went in and demoed them. Will was nice enough to be my demo producer so to speak. He pushed all the buttons while I painfully sang the demos and did all my parts. [laughs<\/em>] The process was a little slower than I would have liked, but I think part of it had to do with circumstance. We had to wait for when the label wanted us to record, they had to secure the advance with the producer, the producer had to slot us in his schedule… it\u2019s a matter of coordinating schedules. The goal was to have an album out as early in 2013 as we could. Century Media is now involved with Earache, and they\u2019re going to be doing the U.S. release, which is great. We\u2019re going to have a lot more push in the states than we did before, because Earache didn\u2019t really have that before. That\u2019s why we have a great following in the U.K. and the rest of Europe, but the states has always been a little bit less so. It\u2019ll be good for us since Century Media has so much pull, so it\u2019ll be fantastic. While we\u2019re on tape here, let\u2019s see your reaction to the album art! The artist is Cameron Davis, who did the Over the Top<\/em> album art.<\/p>\n

[Jon shows me the artwork on his phone<\/em>] Well, that was not <\/em>what I was expecting!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jon:<\/strong> As you zoom in, you\u2019ll see there\u2019s even more to it. This is a priest who\u2019s been ballgagged and look who\u2019s on him! It\u2019s a nun in stilettos that\u2019s beating him with a ruler.<\/p>\n

Joseph:<\/strong> Did they leave in the skeleton holding up the bible? That\u2019s the best part of the drawing!<\/p>\n

Jon:<\/strong> It\u2019s pretty ridiculously awesome. The artwork, the detail, the coloration… everything this guy does is great. Cameron was the guy that drew everything that Guitar Hero animated. He sat with Metallica, Aerosmith and all those guys and actually drew them. He did Over the Top<\/em>, which is a great cover, and he did The Devils Cut<\/em>. We\u2019re really happy to have worked with him, and the result was phenomenal. I think it\u2019s going to get a lot of attention and piss the right people off too. [laughs<\/em>]<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting, I looked at it from afar and I thought it was a 3-D CG image, but when you zoomed in it became obvious that it was hand-drawn.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jon:<\/strong> Oh, well take a look at this, this is the original sketch. [Jon pulls up another image on his phone, this time it\u2019s a black and white pencil sketch of the artwork<\/em>] We\u2019re actually going to shirts with this artwork as well, this is the completely hand-drawn version. We\u2019ll have shirts with both versions of the artwork.<\/p>\n

Jake:<\/strong> We\u2019ve got a little video thing that goes with it with a bunch of chicks with pentagrams on their asses. [laughs<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Jon:<\/strong> We had a fun photoshoot with the artist and Joseph got some scandalous girls to be a part of it. There will be a press release probably next week for the artwork.<\/p>\n

Very cool. On Flying Tigers<\/em> the second half of the album was a kind of progressive suite of songs. Are we going to see more progressive influences on The Devils Cut?<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jon:<\/strong> I interwove some progressive influences into some of the songs, there are couple songs that are more epic. This album is straightforward while still being dynamic- I actually reeled the progressive stuff back a little bit. The twenty minute song that I\u2019ve written is definitely more along the lines of a progressive vibe and goes into deeper territory and I want to do that song in the future with the band. This album is the most cohesive White Wizzard record in a lot of ways because it\u2019s got some of that stuff interspersed in the songwriting, but it\u2019s still really straight ahead. There\u2019s a lot of singing throughout, there\u2019s some instrumental passages but they don\u2019t go on as long as the ones on Flying Tigers<\/em> did. It\u2019s just long enough- the album is about forty five minutes long, I don\u2019t think it ever really lets up. It\u2019s just an album that I don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s going to get bored with. It\u2019s a lot of good catchy songs, a lot of straightforward songs with progressive elements, as you got to hear with \u2018Strike the Iron\u2019. That song is a prime example of a song that had some progressive elements woven in there but it\u2019s still really straightforward and it just kicked ass. I mean, it really showcased Will and Jake\u2019s leads and of course, Joseph\u2019s voice.\u00a0 The leads especially was what Flying Tigers<\/em> was missing. My lead guy at the time flaked out and couldn\u2019t come back to the states. I had a lead guitar guy that lived in Wales and a singer that lived in England. Both of them didn\u2019t fly back because of visa problems, and the lead guitar player\u2019s parents didn\u2019t want him coming over here. I had to play the leads on Flying Tigers <\/em>out of necessity. I usually play the rhythm and harmony guitars, some of the songs on Flying Tigers<\/em> and Over the Top<\/em> are all me on rhythm and harmony, but as a lead player… on \u201940 Deuces\u2019 and a couple other songs I think I nailed some pretty good leads, but for the most part I\u2019m not a lead player, especially for metal. You need guys like Jake and Will to really elevate the album to that next level, and that\u2019s exactly what they did. Everything that was missing from Flying Tigers<\/em> in my opinion, and even more so on Over the Top<\/em> and High Speed GTO<\/em>, is on The Devils Cut<\/em>. These guys are the best guitar players we\u2019ve ever had in the history of the band, and they have two really distinctive styles that play off each other and compliment each other really well. I think people are going to be taken aback by the greatness of the leads throughout the record. I still listen to them and I want to go give these guys kisses, because they just kicked ass.<\/p>\n