{"id":4092,"date":"2014-05-23T10:15:51","date_gmt":"2014-05-23T17:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/?p=4092"},"modified":"2014-05-23T10:23:48","modified_gmt":"2014-05-23T17:23:48","slug":"crowbars-kirk-windstein-talks-scion-rock-fest-new-album-future-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/Interviews\/2014\/05\/23\/crowbars-kirk-windstein-talks-scion-rock-fest-new-album-future-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Crowbar’s Kirk Windstein Talks Scion Rock Fest, New Album & Future Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrew Bansal<\/strong><\/p>\n

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New Orleans sludge masters Crowbar have been spreading their riff-laden gospel for nearly 25 years now, and are all set to release their tenth studio album ‘Symmetry In Black’ via EOne Music in North America on May 27th, and a day earlier in Europe via Century Media Records. With this album, guitarist\/vocalist Kirk Windstein and his band mates deliver yet another expectedly righteous slab of heavy sludge and are gearing up to present it on stages worldwide. They played a one-off show at Scion Rock Fest last Saturday, and a couple of hours before they obliterated the Fox Theater stage, I sat down with \u00a0Kirk Windstein for a brief chat about the new record, Scion Rock Fest, and touring plans. Read it below and get a taste of the new Crowbar.<\/p>\n

Kirk, it’s great to have you on Metal Assault. Before we sat down for this interview, you just called this event at ‘Stress Fest’. Is that an accurate description of what you\u00a0 generally go through in events of such nature?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s just one of those things where I wonder what the amp I’m using is going to sound like, I got two interviews to do, but luckily I found you and the previous interviewer as well. But it’s just a lot of back-and-forth and running around. I’ve already had to move merch three times. Another day at the job!<\/p>\n

This is just a one-off show for you, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, it’s just a one-off fly-in for Scion. I played Scion Fest with Down in 2012 in Tampa FL and it was great, really really cool. They take good care of the bands, so for us it’s a fly-in date and a chance to get to the West Coast. For us living in New Orleans, the East Coast is a lot easier to tour, and the South is, than getting all the way out here. So flying in for just one show is a good way to do it.<\/p>\n

And you’re flying back straight home after this gig?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tomorrow morning. We got in here yesterday and got to the hotel at around 7 PM. We had a two-hour cab ride. It was the first $131.55 cab ride I’ve ever taken in my life! But they reimburse us so it’s no big deal (laughs).<\/p>\n

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So, are you taking this as a chance to showcase some of the material from your new album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, it’s a great opportunity for us but we’re actually not playing anything new tonight, just mainly because it’s a festival and we don’t get a proper soundcheck and whatnot. We don’t want to have a train wreck on the debut of one of the new tracks. We’re playing the Maryland Deathfest next Thursday and we play Alrosa Villa in Columbus OH. That’s the place where the horrible Dimebag incident happened, but I’ve been there and it’s a nice venue. We had a good show back in 2010 when we played there, so we play there Friday night and then drive home, and then we have a show in New Orleans, a record release\/25th anniversary kind of show on Friday May 30th, and then we actually fly out June 2nd to start up in Europe at Sweden Rock on June 4th. We did a UK run in March, we did 15 shows in a row in Europe in April, we do a few things like this in May, and then we have 20 in a row in June. We’re also in Europe in July and August. I think we have South America in September possibly, and then it looks like we’re going to be probably doing main support for Sepultura for 24 shows in North America, so we’ll be out here on the West Coast for that\u00a0 in October.<\/p>\n

That’s what I was going to ask, because the last time I saw Crowbar was on the first Metal Alliance Tour with Saint Vitus in 2011.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh right! We did play here once after that with Prong at the Whisky. It was cool, great show!<\/p>\n

Right, for this new material are you satisfied with how it has come out in terms of how it compares with the previous stuff Crowbar has put out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely, we’re really, really pleased with the way the record came out. We’re really excited for it. A lot of people have heard the one track ‘Walk With Knowledge Wisely’ that we put out, some people have heard little snippets and some people have it already from pre-orders. But we’re excited for the whole public to hear it. So far the reviews and the feedback on the record has been fantastic and we’re really proud of it.<\/p>\n