How have you been?
Great! We've been on the road since April 8th We did like a 7 week headline run in the US, then did a run with Anvil, then we did 5 weeks in Europe and did Bang Your Head festival. After this is done we tour back with Ghoul for about a week and then take a break in August to write the new record. I think I'm just used to it now, moving along like that. The conditions are good on this tour and the venues are nice, it's god to end the years touring cycle on that.
Night Demon has impressed me in the last few years because you are one of the hardest touring bands in metal. How have you been able to do that?
Just by doing it! People ask “How does a band at your level not have jobs?” and the answer is we are gone long enough and often enough that no one would even give us a job. No one would hire us! We had plans years ago about what we wanted to do around this band and we have plans for what we want to do four years from now. Plans change for sure but we are farther ahead than we thought we would be. We have made positive adjustments. It just morphs into something else because other opportunities come up. We've all been playing for so long in other projects so with this there is no laziness. Even when it's hot and there's an opportunity to skimp out on stage production we still do it anyway, we always have to put that show on. The other 23 and a half hours of the day can suck sometimes but the reward is the performance. Some bands carry the negative stuff about the travel to the stage and we try not to do that. We want our heads in the game. All the grueling travel is for this moment. The fans don't care, they are at home!
Just by doing it! People ask “How does a band at your level not have jobs?” and the answer is we are gone long enough and often enough that no one would even give us a job. No one would hire us! We had plans years ago about what we wanted to do around this band and we have plans for what we want to do four years from now. Plans change for sure but we are farther ahead than we thought we would be. We have made positive adjustments. It just morphs into something else because other opportunities come up. We've all been playing for so long in other projects so with this there is no laziness. Even when it's hot and there's an opportunity to skimp out on stage production we still do it anyway, we always have to put that show on. The other 23 and a half hours of the day can suck sometimes but the reward is the performance. Some bands carry the negative stuff about the travel to the stage and we try not to do that. We want our heads in the game. All the grueling travel is for this moment. The fans don't care, they are at home!
Who is Doug Clark? You have his name tattooed on your arm...
He was my best friend I grew up with and he passed away when I was 18. He was in my first band. Having your first band when you're a career musician is like your first girlfriend. You think you are going to be together forever and take over the world. That's how I felt in that band when I was a kid. We played all through junior high and high school and when he passed folded it up. People wanted us to keep going but it wasn't the same. It happens.
On a totally different tack – How do you fold in the managing other bands to the hard touring lifestyle?
Like what I said before about life adjustments. You have to make no excuses. The easies way to do it is to do it the first thing when you wake up. You have to have a system. You have to have a list of priorities you want to knock stuff out of the way first. When you do that things come up of course. With todays technology if you send an email or a text people reply quickly and that leads to conversations and more things and that takes more time. It's cool because being out here this is where you meet the other bands and promoters. We're playing in Salt Lake City here on this tour at The Complex and I manage Visigoth from there. I noticed Blind Guardian is playing there before Visigoth go on tour so I was able to bro down with the house promoter there and hook it up. I am able to get my bands on other peoples radar because I have face time with people all over the world. I didn't get into band management because I wanted to but rather because I felt like I had too. I felt there were bands that needed the help. It was never a goal for me.
He was my best friend I grew up with and he passed away when I was 18. He was in my first band. Having your first band when you're a career musician is like your first girlfriend. You think you are going to be together forever and take over the world. That's how I felt in that band when I was a kid. We played all through junior high and high school and when he passed folded it up. People wanted us to keep going but it wasn't the same. It happens.
On a totally different tack – How do you fold in the managing other bands to the hard touring lifestyle?
Like what I said before about life adjustments. You have to make no excuses. The easies way to do it is to do it the first thing when you wake up. You have to have a system. You have to have a list of priorities you want to knock stuff out of the way first. When you do that things come up of course. With todays technology if you send an email or a text people reply quickly and that leads to conversations and more things and that takes more time. It's cool because being out here this is where you meet the other bands and promoters. We're playing in Salt Lake City here on this tour at The Complex and I manage Visigoth from there. I noticed Blind Guardian is playing there before Visigoth go on tour so I was able to bro down with the house promoter there and hook it up. I am able to get my bands on other peoples radar because I have face time with people all over the world. I didn't get into band management because I wanted to but rather because I felt like I had too. I felt there were bands that needed the help. It was never a goal for me.
You've had a personnel change recently... how has that been?
Really good! Armand is our new guitar player. We asked him to join the band when we started because we wanted two guitar players but he thought it wouldn't go anywhere! Then he formed Gygax! He left that band to play with us. When Brett left we asked Armand right away and he said “Let's do it, you guys have done the shitty stuff already!” I mean it's still shitty sometimes but it's not hand to mouth like we were. He's a great guitar player, I've known him over twenty years and we've always played together. We all live in the same town and Dustin our drummer has lived with his sister for six years so they're like brothers in law. We have a lot more fun on the road now too. The musicianship is second to none, he's the best guitar player I've ever played with and he sings the backing vocals live and has great stage presence, which you need for three guys. It's great to be running around with him, I used to feel like it was a lot more focused on me. That's not discredit to Brett though, his legacy is important and it was our vision. It was a transition to not have him involved but the band had to live on. This was a pivotal point for us and for us to fold it now... I'm not even considering that!
Really good! Armand is our new guitar player. We asked him to join the band when we started because we wanted two guitar players but he thought it wouldn't go anywhere! Then he formed Gygax! He left that band to play with us. When Brett left we asked Armand right away and he said “Let's do it, you guys have done the shitty stuff already!” I mean it's still shitty sometimes but it's not hand to mouth like we were. He's a great guitar player, I've known him over twenty years and we've always played together. We all live in the same town and Dustin our drummer has lived with his sister for six years so they're like brothers in law. We have a lot more fun on the road now too. The musicianship is second to none, he's the best guitar player I've ever played with and he sings the backing vocals live and has great stage presence, which you need for three guys. It's great to be running around with him, I used to feel like it was a lot more focused on me. That's not discredit to Brett though, his legacy is important and it was our vision. It was a transition to not have him involved but the band had to live on. This was a pivotal point for us and for us to fold it now... I'm not even considering that!
Why do you think he left?
All I will say is this gypsy lifestyle is not for everybody and not everybody likes to be on the road as much as we do. For a while we were all homeless and he was done with that. Early in my career I was promoting a lot of shows, right out of high school. I did the last Death tour and brought Dark Funeral over from Europe but back then no one cared about that stuff. It was all about Fear Factory and Slipknot. I was touring a lot when I was young and that stopped at one point after five or six years. I went to school and got a job and I still toured but I did it more as a hobby and I hated that. People would ask what I did, and I wasn't really a touring musician. I was a guy who ran a company. I didn't enjoy it at all. I thought that that was what I had to do to survive and I got depressed doing it, so I went for broke. I decided I didn't care what society or family would say I had to do this. If it kills me at least I know I gave it 100% and put everything out there and was able to be comfortable being uncomfortable and going without. It was about pursuing the dream and forgoing luxuries.
I had a supportive family growing up. I grew up in white suburban California. Anything I needed I had so I was used to a certain lifestyle and really quickly I had to get used to not having any of that. Looking at the big picture of your career you have to do that and dive in headfirst. A lot of people describe us as lucky but I don't agree with that. I don't think luck has anything to do with this band. We rarely get asked to do things, anything we've done we've pushed for. Being asked to come with Carcass was one of the few times we were asked to do something but that came from us slugging it out on the road. You have to look at your legacy and what really matters on paper if you want to get into the books. People don't care about your money or luxury or how you are living, all they care about is your art and the product you put out and your performance. You can do that with nothing. That's the attitude we came in with and that's what we are going to leave with.
All I will say is this gypsy lifestyle is not for everybody and not everybody likes to be on the road as much as we do. For a while we were all homeless and he was done with that. Early in my career I was promoting a lot of shows, right out of high school. I did the last Death tour and brought Dark Funeral over from Europe but back then no one cared about that stuff. It was all about Fear Factory and Slipknot. I was touring a lot when I was young and that stopped at one point after five or six years. I went to school and got a job and I still toured but I did it more as a hobby and I hated that. People would ask what I did, and I wasn't really a touring musician. I was a guy who ran a company. I didn't enjoy it at all. I thought that that was what I had to do to survive and I got depressed doing it, so I went for broke. I decided I didn't care what society or family would say I had to do this. If it kills me at least I know I gave it 100% and put everything out there and was able to be comfortable being uncomfortable and going without. It was about pursuing the dream and forgoing luxuries.
I had a supportive family growing up. I grew up in white suburban California. Anything I needed I had so I was used to a certain lifestyle and really quickly I had to get used to not having any of that. Looking at the big picture of your career you have to do that and dive in headfirst. A lot of people describe us as lucky but I don't agree with that. I don't think luck has anything to do with this band. We rarely get asked to do things, anything we've done we've pushed for. Being asked to come with Carcass was one of the few times we were asked to do something but that came from us slugging it out on the road. You have to look at your legacy and what really matters on paper if you want to get into the books. People don't care about your money or luxury or how you are living, all they care about is your art and the product you put out and your performance. You can do that with nothing. That's the attitude we came in with and that's what we are going to leave with.