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(Summer 2006) by George Dionne
Magic Circle Music may not be one of the major players in the music industry
just yet, but their sure making an impact in the heavy metal underground.
Owned and operated by Manowar frontman Joey DeMaio, Magic Circle's roster
runs the gamut from fantasy metal, hard rock, virtuoso, to heavy metal.
The fist signing to Magic Circle was Chicago metallers Bludgeon, who released
their sophomore album World Controlled (read CD review) earlier this year.
RIL: If I knew absolutely nothing about Bludgeon how would you describe
the group’s music to me?
MD: I would say it’s just like the name Bludgeon; heavy, hard-hitting,
and pounding. It’s just aggressive brutal music.
RIL: You state in the band’s press release that the title of your
new album World Controlled was inspired by people trying to control you.
What’s the story behind that?
MD: There was just a lot of shit that was going on,
that I really don’t
want to get into. It’s all personal stuff that’s behind me now.
Basically it’s just any type of control, whether someone’s telling
you what to listen to, or maybe you should play like this or maybe you should
play like that, or maybe you should sing heavier or lighter. I just kind
of do what I want to do and that’s where the title comes from. All
around us you see forms of control. I don’t know about you, but around
us they’re starting to put up cameras at every red light, and now everybody
has to pay this fucking speed pass bullshit for toll ways. Either you buy
it or they charge you double or triple of what the toll is to make you buy
it. It’s the same thing with gas prices.
RIL: Do those ideals reflect in your song writing as well?
MD: Yeah, oh yeah. Definitely. I take in everything
around me when I’m
writing songs and just build off of that. Whether they are things I’m
going through personally, or it may be friends that I’m arguing with,
or just what I see in the news.
RIL: How do think World Controlled differs from you debut
album Crucify
the Priest?
MD: Crucify the Priest was more of a death/thrash album, where this album
is more hardcore/thrash. Some of those songs [from Crucify] were from earlier
on. They just stuck with the band. [The songs on] the new album are songs
we wrote off the last tour. One is just a little more relevant to the times
we are going through now, and the other one was more like a seven year process.
RIL: Bludgeon was the first band signed to Joey DeMaio’s (Manowar)
Magic Circle Music label. How did that come about?
MD: There was a local radio station in Chicago that
played a lot of the local bands. Somehow the DJ had heard through the grapevine
that Joey was looking
for bands. The DJ was a friend of ours and sent him one of our CDs with a
bunch of other ones. Next thing you know, out of the blue, Joey calls up.
The DJ didn’t even tell us he sent the CD. First we were like, “sure
it’s Joey; who the hell is this?” Sure enough it was him. He
flew out to Chicago and checked us out and jammed in our living room. The
next weekend he had Brian [Slagel] from Metal Blade fly out, and that’s
where we went form there. Our favorite bands were on Metal Blade, so we were
glad to start there.
RIL: Joey believed in you so much that he even produced your album.
Were you a little apprehensive in that Manowar’s music is a far cry
from what you do?
MD: Oh yeah, it’s totally different music. At first we were like we
want to see how it would sound, so we said lets do one of them. We brought
all the equipment to our house in the living room so we didn’t really
leave the house at all, just drilled holes in the walls and ran cables to
the control room and everything. The only thing that wasn’t live was
the vocals. I went back and did them, and maybe some solos that he dubbed
in later. Other than that it was pretty much a four piece recorded live,
and it turned out so great. Joey showed us this studio that he built, and
we were like, “this is the place!” We brought in a bunch of amps
and he did a really great job. He’s got a great ear for music. Manowar
has been around for over twenty years, so he’s been in the business
for a while. We knew he has experience, and he’s not going to steer
us wrong. The greatest thing was that he believed in us. He didn’t
want to change the music. He wasn’t one of those guys that comes in
and says that’s great but lets cut out this riff and let’s switch
it around. He’s straight forward. He’ll tell you to your face, “I
don’t like the way that sounds.” He doesn’t beat around
the bush.
RIL: Does Joey wear his loin cloth into the studio or what?
MD: (laughs) No. Actually, if you look on our DVD there
is an enhanced video that you can hear us talking about stuff in the studio.
There’s a
segment with me not having the lyrics or title to a song, because I was
a little slow. I had a little writers block at times, but that’s
kind of better for me as I work better under pressure.
RIL: Do you have any videos planned?
MD: Not right now. We did one DVD before this album, between Crucify the
Priest. I would like to do something for Carnage Begins or even World Control
would be nice.
RIL: Will you be touring in support of the album?
MD: We’re actually talking trying to get on some festivals right now
that are going on overseas. We’ve been trying to jump on some existing
tours too I would like to get on that Slayer tour, but there’s
already too many bands on there. That would be something that I would
cherish. RIL: What was your worst on stage experience?
MD: I chipped my tooth once on stage!
RIL: How did you do that?
MD: I had chipped it and got a cap when I was a young
kid. I was up on stage and I went and got a water bottle. It had one of those
flip caps and I
pulled it wrong, and there it went. We were in Germany, so I had to go
to a dentist in Germany. That was pretty interesting. The dentist was like, “I
just got back from America and I was the first guy to do like twenty implants
on a person.” I was like, “holy shit!” That’s probably
the strangest thing I had happen.
RIL: Who would be your ideal band to open up for?
MD: There’s a lot of them man. My ultimate tour
would probably be Bludgeon, Slayer, Testament and Pantera if Dimebag was
still around. Those are some
of the bands that influenced me to play guitar. Testament was probably the
main influence though. When I first herd Slayer it was like, Dave Lombardo
all the way. I wanted to play drums. Then I heard Testament with those riffs,
and I was like I got to play guitar man.
RIL: Are there any bands that you toured with that were jerks?
MD: No. With all of the bands we toured with we had
a great time. Even the last tour we did with Manowar. All the people, like
the roadies, pulled
a gag on us, which was something we never experienced before. It was pretty
good. It was all done in good fun. At first I was a little angry, but then
I was laughing. That’s how it always is. When you get hit with a
water balloon or something, you’re pissed, but then you’ll
laugh about it.
RIL: What did they do to you?
MD: We have some of it on the DVD. They changed the
backdrop. Instead of Bludgeon, it said, “we’re Bludgeon, we play heavy, western
country metal.” It was funny. They were putting little dots on our
forehead and we were laughing at that. I think Scott form Manowar came
running out in a Santa uniform, and one of the other guys techs came running
out with a sock hanging around his…you know what. It was a lot of
fun, but we’ll see next time if we tour with them…we have some
stuff in mind for them for our next show. We didn’t know what to
expect, but now we know. |
MARK
DUCA
