interview
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artist:
by:
Johan Wippsson
date:
2012-03-24
2011 was a great year for Canadas Art Of Dying and I'm sure that 2012 will be even better. Their major label debut "Vices and Virtues" is a wet dream for any fan of hardrock and melodic rock with great songs from start to end. I got the chance to ask the very cool guy Jonny some questions about yesterday, today and tomorrow and here it is!
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Hey there Jonny, are you preparing for the upcoming tour with Shinedown and Adelitas Way, which now starts at the end of March?
Ya, we're super stoked about touring again… especially with Shinedown for the first time. I've heard so many great things about them, so I'm really looking forward to opening for them, but also catching their set each night. I'm thinking a lot about about the set list that we'll be playing each night and also getting my voice back in shape. Also thinking about the important things like having a good beer koozie ready for the road!
Have you played with any of the bands before?
Actually, our last tour was a co-headliner/club tour with Adelitas Way. It was a really good fit and they're cool guys, so we're looking forward to round 2 with them.
Feels like a good timing for you to go on tour since the new single "Sorry" has received good response and is starting to take off?
Timing couldn't be better! We feel pretty fortunate to be releasing our third single from Vices and Virtues. In a time when the music industry is changing faster than ever, our faithful fans and supporters are helping to put us on the map and really make an impact with our first major label record. It's gonna be really nice seeing all the familiar faces (and new ones too) with "Die Trying", "Get Thru This" and "Sorry" in our set list. (Our first three singles)
The album has now been out for a year. Has it gone as you expected? What were your expectations when you sign were to Intoxication / Reprise?
We knew we had some pretty great material going into the recording process. We also felt like we were in really good hands having signed to Dan Donegan and David Draiman's label. To have those guys in our corner is a really amazing thing! The people at Reprise and Warner Bros have been great to work with too. They believe in us and our music, so it's been a really great relationship so far. I'm very "hands on" with the label, so they've been pretty cool in putting up with me on a day to day basis.
Behind Intoxication Records is the Disturbed members David Draiman and Dan Donegan and which I assume had a hand in the game. How did you get in contact with them?
We met Dan and David through relentless networking and ended up really drawing their attention through our independent accomplishments. Before we knew they had a label Dan asked us to open for them on a tour in 2009 which ended up being a 12 show "showcase" for Intoxication that we were unaware of. When you play your heart out every night on stage good things can happen, and they did with us and Intoxication. Dan often says that our work ethic and hunger reminds him a lot of Disturbed in the early days which couldn't be a bigger compliment for us!
Four songs were taken from your independent release. How was it to choose those songs, was it given which ones that was suitable for your major release?
We chose the songs for Vices and Virtues based on what we thought we're the best, and what made the best sense together. A lot of the songs from our indie record were important factors in us signing to Warner Bros, so it became important that they made it on to the major debut as well. We also had direct input from Dan, David and our management team, not to mention producer Howard Benson. It's funny actually, many of the songs including "Best I Can" we're selected in pre-production with Howard after playing them for him acoustically. He would just say, "That's gotta be on the record".
The independent record is not easy to get anymore, but thanks to Amazon I now have a copy. Likes it a lot and it's really fun to see where you are coming from. It feels a bit rougher and simpler, but with a clear Art Of Dying feeling. "Vices & Virtues" is arena sounding and muscular in my opinion. How would you compare the two albums? That's a pretty good comparison right there! The self-titled record was very raw and I still love listening to it. One of the best experiences on that record for me was recording "Dog is My Co Pilot" in one take with an acoustic guitar. We had a great vibe on that whole recording session and we really learned a lot about our selves as musicians. Doing Vices And Virtues with Howard and Dan was an amazing experience as well and a good progression for us. When you work with such renowned people, you seem to pull things out of yourself that you may have not known you had in you. Just having them in the room with you inspires you to rise to the occasion. Of course a lot of cold beer and Jack helps you rise to the occasion as well. And then having some pretty amazing mix engineers kind of pulls the whole thing together before the world gets to hear it. Chris Lord-Alge is an amazing talent as is Neal Avron and we were fortunate enough to have them both involved. We are very proud of Vices and Virtues.
You worked with Howard Benson who more or less a legend and has done so many great records. How did you come in contact with him?
He was at the top of our list as far as producers we wanted to make the record with. Adam Gontier from Three Days Grace was actually the first person to introduce me to Howard. They were making a record in Vancouver and asked me to come in and do some singing on the album, so I ended up working with Howard and Adam on that. That's kind of the moment that I think we decided to work together on our record, simply because it went really well and Howard and I seemed to understand each other instantly.
To me he managed to create a very dynamic and clear rock production on your record. A little less technical than usual, which I love since it has an organic feeling over it. How was it to work with such an experienced producer like him? It was cool man. He pushed us to make a better record, but also gave us an amazing amount of room and freedom to do what we wanted. We had to fight for a few things we believe in and learn from each other. We've had complete creative control, so you can't really ask for more as an artist. And how much were you involved in the sound and production? Did you have preferences about how you wanted it to sound and feel? We were very involved. We kind of just "did our thing" and let Howard and engineer Mike Plotnikoff steer us with their experience and knowledge. The team that works for Howard is amazing. I'm pretty proud of the song writing we did before going in to make the album. I think if you're extremely happy with the songs, then things can be really smooth in the studio. You kind of want to let the songs shine when you believe in them, so you end up not over doing a lot of production. Canada has for the past ten years produced lots of great rock acts as Nickelback, Default, JetBlackStare, Three Days Grace, Closure, and of course you do. You must have a very good and strong rocks scene there? We do and I'm proud to be Canadian. It's a tough country to tour in as the cities are far apart and the winters get a little harsh, so many of us end up coming down to the states if the opportunity comes up. We feel very at home in America and seem to get along with Americans famously. It's a pretty amazing thing to call Vancouver home when we're not on the road and to do most of out touring south of the border. The best of both worlds in many ways. Nickelback has had tremendous success both in North America but also around the world since the "Silver Side Up" record. Is that a band that has influenced you in any way? Nickelback actually calls Vancouver home as well, but unbelievably we have yet to tour together or connect on that level. I'd say that's where we get a lot of inspiration from other bands is watching them while on tour together and soaking up their show. I respect the musicianship and songwriting that those guys have achieved in a big way. We'd really like to tour with them as I think Nickelback fans would really "get" Art of Dying, plus I have a feeling we'd take their shirts at poker! And when speaking of success around the world. Do you have any plans to tour Europe? I really think that you should work here since the Hard Rock scene is big here. Not just house music and trance :) It is totally our goal to bring our tour to Europe. We just have to do it at the right time which we're trying to organize wit h our record label. We had an amazing run with Seether independently in the UK back in 2006 and haven't forgotten how crazy and cool our UK fans are. If the rest of Europe embraces us in a similar way we're in for a crazy ride. That's was it Jonny, thanks for your time. Any last words for our readers?
We're always available to you on line (and we really answer our shit) so, find us on Facebook or Twitter and we'll get back to you! www.facebook.com/artofdying www.twitter.com/artofdying |
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Did you know that?
Goth rock band Deadsy features Elijah Bule Allman, son of Gregg Allman and Cher.
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