WARBRINGER INTERVIEW

20-02-2010

ORIGINALLY RELEASED UNDER

MIRAS FANZINE ISSUE 7

WARBRINGER INTERVIEW

M: Hi. First of I all I want to thank you very much for requesting our interview. Lets start with your lyrical influences. Warbringer writes lyrics about war surely but my question is what is the main message to the listeners.

John: If the lyrics are about war, they are about the horrors of war. We talked about war a lot on the first album and didn't want to feel like we had dug ourselves in a hole on the second album so we talked about few different topics that still worked with the music and shifted more to the horrors of mankind. For example, "Living in a Whirlwind" is about drug addiction, "Severed Reality" is about the spiritual horrors during a nightmarish sort of trip, other topics included starvation of the entire human population, general bad-assery, and the cost of revenge.

M :Do you think that American thrash metal is different than European thrash metal?

John: Totally. But then it always depends on the band. I would say the more successful American bands played slower and had a lot more melody. Honestly some of the main Cali-Bay area bands like Metallica and Testament weren't huge influences on us.

We were always more influenced the the German approach -- Fast, Brutal, and sometimes even a little reckless. There's not a lot singing in Kreator or Destruction's music, but those bands also managed to become even more technical and interesting as their careers went on unlike some of the American bands that I feel were stuck in a rut. Exodus, Dark Angel, Vio-lence and Demmolitoin Hammer are American bands that are still a huge influences on us.

M: Is Warbringer a job for the band crew that all members can earn money?

John: Only the crew, and we only hire 1 person a tour to help sell merch and maybe drive. We really only break-even as it's very costly to tour, but the goal is that after a lot of touring and work we will be able to headline. Once we can hold our own we're hoping we won't have to deal with being in debt anymore. 

M: If the band gets so famous in the future, will that effect your musical aim or will you go on play louder than hell as you do now?

John: With this band I just want to set out and finish what we started when we were 16. The aim is just to write brutal, sophisticated, original thrash metal music The art is in finding a balance between heavy, simple stuff and complicated, prog stuff. Sometime in the future I might see what I could do with other kinds of music.

M: I can see the cover art work of the ‘War without end’ gives idea about music and lyrics but ‘Waking into nightmares’ cover art work does not. What does the second album cover art work tell us?

John: To be honest, I like the first cover but I think it's kind of cartoony. The second cover was done by a great artist, Dan Seagrave, and the theme is present and a little more subtle. The whole idea of the second album was that the songs were a collection of all sorts of stories about different nightmares and horrors. The cover art is supposed to represent an artifact with some sort of terrible unknown purpose. It could be tied in, as you can see the tanks from the first album, if you look closely. Next time we definitely should do something more direct, but with the second album we really just wanted to push ourselves and everything we could do to say that we were not just another typical thrash clone.  

M: Do you have idea about my city istanbul and the bands we have here?

John: No, I've never been but I know there is a lot of history and we're hoping to make it on the second leg of the current European tour, which is being booked now. I'm sure you probably have some great gigs though. I feel like the crowds in the major cities we play take live music for granted because it's so available to them.

M: ‘War without end’ album has a limited Picture Disc edition released by Cyclone Empire. As a collector, I bought my copy surely. Are you a collector like me? Is the format of the album important for you too?

John: Ha,ha, all of them. There's even a picture disc of War Without End that Cyclone Empire printed 666 copies of, that's probably my favorite. They will be doing a split 7" soon with us and Dew-Scented that I look forward to seeing.

M: Which one is much more amusing? Playing live or recording session in the studio?

John: Both, I like the studio because that's the only chance you'll have for the rest of your life to bring songs you fought with your band to write to life as art. Live is also great because everyone in your band knows what they need to play and it's all about seeing how hard and fast you can play the songs, how tight the band sticks together, and what kind of reaction you can get from the audience.

M: Do we have a chance to see you live in istanbul?

John: As mentioned, there is a second leg to the current European tour where we will headline some dates on our own and we have a tentative date in Istanbul, Turkey that we're hoping will confirm. We would love to have great show in Turkey!

M: These are my questions. Thanks again and greetings from istanbul. Last words for the Turkish fans?

John: Thanks to all of you for your support and dedication! Hope to see as many of you as we can, we have a few gigs in Turkey coming up. 

- John Laux / Warbringer