Zoals uit de review van het debuut album van Stone Axe al bleek, was ik op zijn zachtst gezegd erg te spreken over deze plaat. Als vrijetijdsmuzikant begonnen bij mij in dit specifieke geval onder andere nogal technische vragen op te borrelen. Toch heb ik geprobeerd het vrij algemeen te houden (niet iedereen zit te wachten op een waslijst met technisch geneuzel), maar alsof Tony Reed mijn gedachten kon lezen, geeft het brein achter dit project ook een mooi kijkje in zijn keuken.
How did the two of you get together? The choice of seventies rock for someone with a Black Sabbath influenced stoner background can be understood, but in combination with a punk rock singer is not the most obvious choice (although I think Dru has done a hell of a job). Dru and I met about ten years ago. I produced and recorded many demos for his bands The Swinos & Gift For Fiction. During these sessions I could tell that Dru was an exceptional vocalist and I knew I would work with him some day other that studio work or drumming (I ended up playing drums on recordings in both of his bands). During recording and rehearsals we would talk about our favourite bands which included all the great 60’s and 70’s bands and some obscure ones as well. In 2006 I started working on an EP for Mos Generator that had a more classic sound and feel. Some of the ideas on the riff tapes for that album ended up being the musical genesis for Stone Axe.
Was the album your idea, did you write all material and asked Dru for the vocals, or is the writing of the songs done by the two of you? I write and record all of the music and then hand it over to Dru to come up with the lyrics and melody. We usually discuss the stylistic angle we want to approach the song with and then record it. Most of the time it works very quickly. Dru understands where I am coming from musically so it is easy for him to adapt to the different vocal styles easily.
The sound on the album is pretty authentic. Can you tell us anything about the gear used? The album was recorded over about a year and a half in my loft on a few different machines. A half inch eight-track machine, a one inch sixteen-track machine and some on adat and computer. I never used over eight tracks. There was very minimal drum mixing. Usually only two or three mikes ran through an old 1960’s Bogen tube P.A. head for that vintage drum breakup sound. The Bogen is used for the other instruments as well. I didn’t use any special microphones, just the usual SM 57s & a few cheap condenser mics here and there. All of the guitars were recorded with a Gibson SG and either a Fender Pro Junior 1x10 combo or a 1970 Laney Supergroup half stack. The Supergroup was used to record most of the bass as well. The electric piano and Mellotron were ran through a Gibson reverb tank and then into a ’66 Fender bandmaster.
The album sounds pretty direct, as if it was recorded live in one take. How did you manage to accomplish that? The first five or six songs that were recorded were considered demos, but then upon listening to them I realized that the quickness that they were recorded in gave them the feel I wanted. There are mistakes all over the songs, timing fluctuates and things aren’t as tight as they could be if I was to re-record the song from the drums up. The “no more than three takes” per instrument is the way the whole album was recorded and even the new songs are done that way. Not really knowing the song and skating through the take is what keeps the feel “live”.
On the Mos Generator albums you can hear quite some Black Sabbath influences. The Stone Axe album contains influences from different bands also from the seventies (Free, Thin Lizzy, Cream). Do you have a preference for bands from that era? By which bands are you most inspired? I am convinced that rock music stopped evolving in the mid 70s. Other styles got piled onto the genre to make hybrids but true rock with power, passion and conviction is long gone. Every song on the Stone Axe album has a musical tie to a rock band from the seventies that we love. On this album I think the main bands that we used for inspiration are Free & Cream, but all over the album you hear familiar sounds from the past. Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Grand Funk, The Faces, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Mountain and a few others are very present on the songs.
Any other reasons why you wanted to record this album? I started writing songs that didn’t fit in the Mos Generator sound and when Dru completed the sound I knew we, at the very least, had to do this for ourselves even if it was only going to be a local area project.
Is this album a one time experiment, or is there more of this fine work to follow? Right now there is a batch of songs that will be ready for release by summer. Our plan is to get those out and tour for a while and then start work on a record that features some of the live band as well. The next album will have some other influences on it. Zeppelin, Sabbath, Bad Company and maybe some southern rock sounds. In the future I would really like to move into some progressive rock areas. I want to put my Mellotron to good use.
Why the choice for Roadburn/Burning World records? You got the connection with the release of a Mos Generator album of course, but they are not really specialised in classic seventies rock. When I sent Roadburn the artwork for Mos Generator ‘Songs For Future Gods’ I also sent them a CD of ‘Riders Of The Night’ and ‘Black Widow’ asking them if they might know somebody that would want to put them out as a single. Jurgen at Roadburn was interested and offered to do a 7”, CD & LP. That is much more than we had hoped for.
Is there a story behind the artwork of the album? I have a book of old photographs and when I saw that photo of the blueberries I was totally taken by it. I just think it looks cool. It has received good response from people. I think it fits the sound and feel of the album. The gate fold painting was done by a friend of Dru’s father back in 1969.
I saw on your site you also perform the songs live, will there be a wider spread tour also (Europe for example?), or is that hard to combine with the other bands? Touring the US and Europe is in our future plans. We have some US tour dates planned and we have just been asked to play Roadburn in 2010. I am very excited about doing Roadburn. Mos Generator played it in 2008 and it was the coolest rock event I had ever been to. We are honoured to be invited.
Playing all instruments on the album, was it hard to find suitable musicians to perform the songs live? How was the live band put together? Dru and I tried out quite a few people and things weren’t working out. It’s not that that music is difficult, it is that there is a certain feel to each song, so you have to be able to play a different style for each song. Another hidden difficulty is the space in the songs. There is a lot of room and space in the songs and the sound is not aggressive, it is very clean. I am finding it a challenge to play some of these songs live although it appears very simple. We ended up with Mykey Haslip (drums) and Mike Dupont (bass). They are the rhythm section of a local band called Sower Of Dischord. Haslip is the brother of Mos Generator bassist Scooter Haslip.
Anything I have forgotten, but you want to share with our readers? I can't think of anything, I think we covered it all. We would like to thank everyone for their support in helping this band get off of the ground.
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