3
Inches Of Blood
I discovered 3 Inches Of
Blood by mere coincidence! I feel I was very lucky that day, because I
came across one of the most intriguing, excellent bands on earth! Their
music is so catchy, so breath- taking, so full of energy that leads you
to merciless headbanging and... and... and... I think I could go on forever
with the band's advantages. Instead here I present you an interview I did
with the band's bassist, Brian and one of their 2 singers, Jamie. We had
some problems with the phone line, since the band was on tour and during
the intevriew they were on the van passing through Salt Lake City. Mobile
phones don't always have a good signal... you know that... ENJOY!!!!!
- FIRST OF ALL MY CONGRATULATIONS FOR “ADVANCE
AND VANQUISH”, IT IS AN EXCELLENT ALBUM.
1. HELLO! HOW ARE YOU? I READ IN YOUR BIO THAT
THIS GROUP STARTED AS A PROJECT, SOMETHING THAT YOU WANTED TO DO FOR FAN.
WHAT CHANGED THIS DECISION AND MADE YOU START WORKING ON A MORE PROFESSIONAL
BASIS? WHICH ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF YOUR CAREER TILL NOW?
Brian: It started out… Well, some of the old
members (note: of 3 INCHES OF BLOOD) wanted to resurrect their old band
and ended up jamming and kicked out all the members. So they recruited
some other folks and started playing the 3 INCHES OF BLOOD style and turned
to be more fun, more enjoyable. Right now, since I am a new member of the
band, recording “Advance And Vanquish” was a huge thing for me. The tour
with THE DARKNESS for the other guys, I am sure that was a very big deal.
Finally, the videoclip we shot.
2. 3 INCHES OF BLOOD IS A VERY GOOD AND ORIGINAL
NAME FOR A BAND. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH IT? HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK
IT’S FOR A BAND TO HAVE A CHARACTERISTIC MONIKER? DOES IT HELP YOU ATTRACT
THE RIGHT FANS?
Brian: First thing we thought was drowning
people and 3 inches is the minimum depth to drown people and if you got
to drown somebody and really want to freak people out you not gonna drown
them in milk, you drown them in BLOOD!!!
3. YOU STATE IN YOUR BIO THAT YOUR MUSIC WILL
UNITE ALL THE FANS OF HEAVY METAL. HOW CAN YOU ACHIEVE THAT?
Brian: I am thinking ah… Having an appeal
to traditional heavy metal, but also kind of got a bit of the aggressive
like some more modern aspects, like thrash metal. It ties the old schoolers
with the new school metal bands altogether and has something for everyone
in it, like PURE HEAVY METAL!
- AREN’T YOU AFRAID THAT SOME PEOPLE MAY
ACCUSE YOU OF TOO MUCH PRIDE?
Brian: Well, I mean people have their opinions
and they can say what they want, but we do what we love and believe in.
So if they disagree then I guess they will be considered “enemies of metal”…
4. “ADVANCE AND VANQUISH” IS YOUR SECOND ALBUM,
SO CAN YOU TELL US WHICH THE MAIN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YOUR 2 RELEASES ARE?
Brian: Well the first album is definitely
a bit more raw and the second album is a bit more of mature stuff. Also
the production value is a big plus, the songs sound even better and are
a bit more well written, you know…
5. “BATTLECRY UNDER A WINTER SUN” IS A VERY RARE
AND HARD TO FIND ALBUM. SO, DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS OF RE-RELEASING IT?
Brian: Actually, yeah we‘ve been talking about
this and it’s possible to do that, but I don’t know when it’s going to
happen. I hope that we gonna have done that until summertime I think.
- WILL YOU CHANGE SOME SONGS OR IT WILL BE THE
SAME WITH THE DEBUT?
Brian: I think it will be a straight re –
release and we might put some extra stuff.
- WHY DID YOU INCLUDE ONLY THE TRACK “DESTROY
THE ORCS” FROM YOUR DEBUT ALBUM IN “ADVANCE AND VANQUISH”?
Brian: Well, I mean, Roadrunner was pretty
excited about this song and also it is a track that people like.
- IS IT INSPIRED BY THE TOLKIEN BOOKS?
Brian: Yeah, definitely. However I don’t
see Jamie or Cam employing things from that. I mean I can see that the
Orcs can be very Tolkien.
6. I WILL NAME SOME BANDS THAT I BELIEVE HAVE
INFLUENCED YOU AND I’D LIKE YOU TO TELL ME A COUPLE OF THINGS ABOUT EACH
ONE OF THEM. ACCEPT, JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, RUNNING WILD, CIRITH UNGOL,
AT THE GATES, DARK TRANQUILLITY.
Brian: ACCEPT : I love ACCEPT, we are all
big fans of ACCEPT. As a matter of fact we were listening to ACCEPT yesterday
(note : the interview was done on 22 of February).
JUDAS PRIEST : JUDAS PRIEST, is just JUDAS
PRIEST! We have seen them on OZZFEST and they blew our fucking heads off.
Rob Halford is probably one of the best metal singers.
IRON MAIDEN : I love “Wrathchild” song man,
is one of my favorite songs that they have ever written.
RUNNING WILD : RUNNING WILD fuckin’ rule!!!
RUNNING WILD was a big influence for the pirate trilogy that we have written
in our new album.
CIRITH UNGOL : (note : the guys didn’t know
this group…)
AT THE GATES : I love AT THE GATES.
DARK TRANQUILLITY : DARK TRANQUILLITY is a
pretty good band. I like their first 2 albums very, very much.
- PLEASE NAME 5 OF YOUR ALL TIME FAVORITE ALBUMS.
Brian: 1) IRON MAIDEN – Killers
2) DIO – Holy Diver
3) VENOMOUS … - Retroactive Abortion (note : sorry I couldn’t understand
the whole name of the band) is one of my favorite lately.
4) IRON MAIDEN – Powerslave
5) NAPALM DEATH – Enemy
7. NOW A FEW THINGS ABOUT THE LYRICS… WHO IS RESPONSIBLE
FOR THEM?
Brian: Cam and Jamie, they both write
the lyrics, they pretty much split up 50 – 50 the work.
- DO YOU WRITE YOUR OWN FANTASY STORIES OR DO
YOU BASE YOUR LYRICS UPON SPECIFIC BOOKS YOU’VE READ?
Brian: It’s all pretty fantasy based. They
definitely draw inspiration from books they have read, but nothing really
directly. Also they draw inspiration from movies, but they are very imaginative
folks.
8. ON THE ALBUM “ADVANCE AND VANQUISH” YOU HAVE
A PIRATE STORY DIVIDED IN 3 TRACKS. CAN YOU TELL US A FEW MORE THINGS ABOUT
IT?
Brian: About the pirate story, I, personally,
can tell you a few things about it, but I can actually give you Jamie who
is sitting next to me and he can probably tell you about the pirates (note:
here Brian passes the phone to one of the vocalists of the band, Jamie).
Jamie: I extremely can. It’s a story about
a pirate that steals a ship and of course succeeds and becomes wildly rich
(Fear On The Bridge song). In the second song, the pirates provoke the
wrath of the gods and because of their greed they are sent into the bottom
of the sea, but in a tragic twist of fate, the captain of the pirate ship
finds himself alone with gold far beyond he can ever imagine, however
he is stranded, cast away in a deserted island where he has no chance to
escape ( Lord Of The Storm Song). He is the richest man of the world, but
he’ll never spent a cent. He is cursed to live eternally with his pile
of gold, but never spent it.
- THE STORY REMINDS ME A MIX OF PIRATES OF THE
CARIBEAN AND A KING DIAMOND STORY…
Jamie: Haha, KING DIAMOND is good, that’s
true!!!
9. WOULD YOU EVER CONSIDER OF RELEASING A CONCEPT
ALBUM IN THE FUTURE? WHAT WOULD ITS TOPIC BE?
Jamie: Maybe, but not too soon. Such sort
of things, I believe that have to come after a while, you know. You better
have a few solid albums on to your belt before you start that, I think.
But it will be great.
10. I BELIEVE THAT THERE IS AN INTERESTING STORY
ABOUT HOW YOU GAVE THE TITLE “WYKYDTRON” IN ONE OF YOUR COMPOSITIONS. CAN
YOU SAY IT FOR OUR READERS TO LEARN?
Jamie: Well, we‘ve played a show in our hometown
in Vancouver and one of the bands that played was a cover band and it wasn’t
very good and somebody ripped their name from the poster that was hanging
on the wall on the back of us and replaced it with an imaginary band that
we would like to play, you know some prog rock/space band. And so we’ve
seen “Wykydtron” as the alternate band name on the poster and eventually
after staring it everyday while we were practicing for hours we just developed
it into a song.
11. HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO SIGN WITH ROADRUNNER
RECORDS?
Jamie: Well, you know, the traditional way.
We sent demos and that sort of things, we toured around and they turned
back to us and said that are really interested. I think that they saw that
we put everything we had into it, convinced them that we were serious.
- I SAY THAT BECAUSE THIS LABEL IS MOSTLY INTERESTED
NOWADAYS IN NU-METAL AND HARDCORE RELEASES AND NOT THE CLASSIC HEAVY METAL
SOUND THAT YOU MAINLY SERVE…
Jamie: Yeah, they definitely go that way,
but their back catalogue is fantastic, you know they’ve got KING DIAMOND,
ANNIHILATOR, SUFFOCATION, PESTILENCE etc.. It would be nice, really, to
bring them back on track you know.
12. HAVE THEY EVER TRIED TO FORCE YOU INTO CHANGING
YOUR SOUND IN ORDER TO MAKE IT MORE FASHIONABLE AND CATCHY?
Jamie: No nothing at all. All the creative
juices are coming from us. Thank goodness!!
13. I BELIEVE THAT HERE IN EUROPE YOUR SOUND WILL
BE MORE APPEALING TO THE METAL FANS. SO, DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS FOR COMING
FOR A LIVE SHOW IN EUROPE? IS THERE ANY CHANCE TO COME TO GREECE?
Jamie: That’s what I heard people say. So
I am excited to come over there and see the response. Yeah, we will be
coming to Europe in May. I don’t know the exact roots yet, but soon enough.
Hopefully, we will come to Greece too.
14. THE WARRIOR IN YOUR COVER ARTWORK STRONGLY
REMINDS ME OF CONAN. DO YOU AGREE WITH ME? WHO IS ITS CREATOR? WAS IT HIS
OR THE BAND’S IDEA TO HAVE SUCH A COVER?
Jamie: I can see that, yeah! The creator is
Ed Repka who you know did the MEGADETH most famous sleeves and many other
great covers.
15. WOULD YOU LIKE TO COMPOSE THE SOUNDTRACK FOR
A MOVIE?
Jamie: Oh, if it was the right movie, that
would be fantastic.
- PLEASE TELL ME WHICH KIND OF MOVIE WOULD BE
THE BEST FOR YOU?
Jamie: I’d say a medieval barbarian tale,
maybe with some zombies, that will work for me. Really gory!!!
16. WHAT’S THE BEST AND WHAT’S THE WORST PART
IN YOUR MUSIC, ACCORDING TO YOU? IN WHICH FIELD DO YOU THINK YOU NEED FURTHER
IMPROVEMENT?
Jamie: That’s a tough question. I have to
think about it for a second. (Note after a while) I have no idea hahaha.
17. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD
IT BE?
Jamie: Would be a charging armored rhinoceros
with an axe-wielding warrior on the back of it.
- IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?
Jamie: The Charging armored rhinoceros with
the axe-wielding warrior riding into the battlefield.
18. IF YOU COULD INVITE FAMOUS MUSICIANS TO PLAY
IN YOUR ALBUM OR APPEAR ON STAGE WITH YOU, WHO WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
Jamie: Oh, I have to say Rob Halford and I
think it’s obvious why.
19. THANK YOU! HOPE TO SEE YOU HERE CAUSE I AM
SURE THAT YOU WILL WIN MANY FANS.
Jamie: Thank you very much. That’s excellent
to hear…
Nick "William_Kidd"
Parastatidis
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