John West
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This was the first phone interview I've conducted in years, and I was tremendously nervous! At 11:45 I was scrambling to make sure my recording equipment worked for the 12:00 interview...which of course it didn't. After a battery of phone calls and a brief fling with Google, I got everything set and finally placed the call, shaking like hell and trying to remember how to form sentences. John West made me feel so comfortable right off the bat; he took every question right out of my hands and gave wonderful, detailed answers in return. He talked freely, he made me laugh and he appreciated my questions. John is a conscientious, thoughtful, and authentic gentleman--I am glad to have made his acquaintance. I wanted to spend all week talking to him. Of course, I couldn't. But I hope you, the reader, will enjoy the results of my time with John. |
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HR:
Hello,
Mr. West?
JW:
Yes. Hi there. How are we doing today?
HR:
I'm all right. How are you doing?
JW: I'm good.
HR: Great! All right, I wanted to start by asking you about Artension.
JW: Okay.
HR:
Do you have any plans for anything with Artension at the moment?
JW: Uh, it's kind of up in the air because Vitalij's been sorta hard to get a hold of lately. Roger has interest in it and I have interest in it. Of course, Mike would do it. So really, we need Vitalij to get on board. So, if somebody hears from Vitalij soon I think we can do it. Otherwise, I really don't want to do another album if he's not involved, because he really is the main songwriter with me, and I think it would be pretty much a different album if somebody else came on. So, just waiting to hear from Vitalij and when he's up for it I guess that's when it's going to happen.
HR:
Just waiting for a call? Or has everyone been ringing his phone or what?
JW: Yeah, he's just sorta like unreachable at the moment, so I'm not sure exactly what's going on with him. He hasn't returned my calls, he hasn't returned Roger's, and we're like "let's do another album". I guess we'll wait and see.
HR:
Hm, that's no good.
JW: Yeah, well, it's not like I'm not busy enough doing other things.
HR: Yeah, so I hear!
JW: Yeah...when it happens, it happens, I guess.
HR:
Indeed. Well, we're all clamouring for another Artension album.
JW: Yeah, there's been interest in it, and actually record company interest...but without Vitalij it's not going to be the same.
HR: I see.
JW: Yeah.
HR:
Well, weren't you guys planning to tour at some point? I don't remember
exactly when that was.
JW: Oh yeah, years and years ago. We were in the early stages, we actually had rehearsed and had a tour lined up. We got to Japan actually, but Vitalij was stuck in San Francisco because he didn't have the proper visa.
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HR:
So
you guys were all in Japan....? JW: (laughs) HR: ....And your keyboard player just didn't show?! JW: Well, he couldn't get through immigration, and they wouldn't even let him leave to go to Japan. There was a mix-up with his visa; he had one, but it wasn't apparently the right one. He was a Ukranian national, I think, so there was something weird there with Ukraine letting people go here and there. We take it for granted in America that we can just go. |
HR: I see. Were you just sitting on a stack of equipment, or
did that get held up too?
JW: We actually never ended up playing when we were over there. Everybody was there except for Vitalij. Is that the theme of the interview?
HR:
(confused) Um...?
JW: Like "Where's Waldo"..."Where's Vitalij?"
HR:
(laughs) Yeah, exactly!
JW: Anyway, I did a bunch of interviews because I had the solo album that had come out at that time, "Permanent Mark". So I used it as sort of like a publicity march, and I did a bunch of interviews and TV shows while I was there. Going to Japan is always a major trip, so we tried to make the best of it. The record company that was handling Artension was also handling my solo album. We just sort of turned it into a publicity campaign for my solo thing and it worked out okay.
HR:
Awesome! Yeah, the Japanese love rockers.
JW: Oh yeah. And now Russia seems to be the new hotspot. Japan sort of...with the economy, and I think a lot of the kids sorta grew up and maybe out of the style, but Russia has been the new hotspot. For me, anyway, and I think that style of music. And they're more open now to letting more bands in, and they got a better system of promoting. The equipment used to be horrifying when you got there, and it used to take nine or ten hours to get through immigration at the airport, but now they've got a better system in place.
JW: (Talking to someone in the room) That's quite a bumblebee you got, Steve.
(response) Is that a pet? (response) Okay.
(we both laugh)
HR:
I wanted to ask you about Future World. The vocals production on that
album is really different from any of the previous Artension albums.
JW: Mm-hmm.
HR:
Actually, the first time I heard it, I doubted it was you!
| JW: (laughs) Well, that was the me shortly after my treatments that I was having on my throat. I was sort of under a deadline to make that album, so I don't think physically it was my best condition to be in to make a record, but I had to make it at that time. If I had waited maybe three or four more months I could have been 100%. It's one of those things, you know. We'd already gotten the advance money, but that was before I discovered I had a problem, and afterwards, I had a deadline and I had to make it. We actually just went with a different approach with more backing vocals, a more Queen-style approach with my leads kind of taking a back seat, and that was something I had never done before. It's not really my approach, but it worked. I think there's some really great songs on there. There's a few songs that I think that I think the lead vocals are really good, and other ones that are sort of just average. I've never really shot for average. |
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HR: Well, which songs did you think really turned out well?
JW: I really liked the ballad. I liked the title track, I really liked the ballads. A lot of it for me was that I wasn't physically able to do what I normally do, so I was kind of stuck. Sometimes there's a situation if you have a deadline like that, and I had to do what I had to do.
HR: I'm sorry you were forced into that...but we loved it.
JW: It happens. And, you know, shortly after, I recovered and I did the Royal Hunt album that year, Paper Blood. I was trying to tell them that I just needed a little bit more recovery time so that I could. It was like "Either give us back the advance money for the album, or we'll get another singer, or we'll do it". Okay, well, I did it. There you go.
HR: Well, we loved it.
JW: It was a cool album; it just wasn't my best physical performance.
HR: It had a much different feel that the other Artension albums. It was much less organic.
JW: Mm-hmm.
HR: It was more, kind of, sci-fi-ey and futuristic.
JW: Yeah, that's why I wrote that way, too. I thought the music was leading me that way. And I was just in a totally different mindspace, too.
HR: So it did, then, reflect where you were at the time?
JW: I think so, I mean, all my Artension work has been sort of like......you know, that's deep-thinking stuff. It's not "let's get on the Harley and ride", and chicks. You know what I mean? It's not that kind of music. It's thoughtful stuff, and so wherever I am at the time, and usually when I do Artension work it's based on whatever I happen to be researching. Like I was doing Lewis & Clark when I was in the New Discovery era. And at that time I was just really into the futuristic vibe.
HR: I see.
JW: It just all kind of came out at that time.
HR: Well, right around the turn of the century you were writing a lot of kind of esoteric stuff based on ancient cultures, like The City Is Lost and Sacred Pathways...
JW: Exactly.
HR: That seems to be your best-loved work.
JW: Yeah, and I think music like Artension gives me the bed to do that. That kind of lyric-writing doesn't fit over everything.
HR: Very true.
JW: The straight-forward rock stuff...it just doesn't seem to fit. I really need epic and progressive-type beds to write that stuff over. I don't get stimulated to write over straight-ahead rock tunes or even classic metal. To me, it doesn't seem right. And I never had a chance to write with Royal Hunt that way; I only wrote probably three or four songs the entire time I was with Royal Hunt. I was never given the opportunity but I think that musicscape would have been perfect for my historical or intellectual kind of writing. But, I was never offered that. It was always Andre's lyrics and I would just sing them.
HR: Is that one of the reasons you split with them?
JW: Well, you know, it's gotta be one of the factors. If you're a creative person and you're not allowed to be creative, it has to be one thing. Although I must say it was one of the easiest gigs I've ever had because he'd just hand me a lyric sheet and he had a studio singer sing the rough melody. All I basically had to do was go in and learn it and sing it my way.
HR: Wow.
JW: Yeah, it was a very easy way to go, and for somebody that didn't really have an interest in the creative process it would be a perfect gig for them, because all you have to do is just...do it. It's all done for you. For me, that's boring.
HR: You were a fabulous frontman for them, though.
JW: I think it was a good lineup. Especially the last lineup was the most energetic. When I left in the Paper Blood era, we had the two Swedish guys that were really giving it their all and they really brought some youth to the band. Just the overall energy was really good. When I first got there it was sort of an ugly scene, because they'd been through kind of a bad breakup with D.C. (Cooper), and I think they were just assuming that all American frontmen were to be hated.
HR: (laughs)
JW: Even though they loved my voice I think they were ready to hate me. But it took a few months and a couple good tours and a couple good trips together and then they started to realize that I was a completely different person, and we got along well. I think they started to appreciate that I had my own talents and it wasn't just about Andre or things like that. So it was pretty respectful, I just think that after five albums...and the music business itself was sort of eating progressive metal bands up. To keep it going with Russia being really the only stronghold we had left--at that time I think it was time for a change, and Andre and I talked about it. I wanted to do something else, I wanted to be creative, and he wanted to try and get some new energy in there. So they looked for another singer. We're on good terms and we may end up doing some solo work together or maybe touring together or something at some point. I think it was a good time. They've got a new album now, and they've got Mark Boals singing there, and hopefully that will give them some energy to kind of rejuvenate.
HR: Yeah.
JW: You see a lot of those bands that just don't have the longevity. It's a tough thing, you know. They want you to go play a festival, you get an offer to go play a festival, and they offer you $2500 for the band, and plane tickets you got $4000. So, you do the math.
HR: Yeah.
JW: How do you do the shows? And then, if you wanna add 20 dates in Europe, you gotta be in a bus going around, and there's no guarantees at the shows, you gotta sell tickets, and financially, if you don't have some kind of backer or something like that, it just gets to be.... Well, everybody has bills to pay and things like that and it's just like, okay, where do you draw the line?
HR: You sound like you're really jaded about the industry.
JW: Not jaded, I'm just realistic. I've been in those situations and I know exactly what it takes.
HR: Did you feel differently when you were younger?
JW: Nnn...Well, when I was younger, it was a different business, wasn't it?
HR: I...I assume it was?
JW: Yeah. It was much different. Guarantees were better, and there was just a lot more money all around. There was just more to go around, and it wasn't so outrageous to go out on tour and things like that, but now it's, you know, you really need tour support and you really need backing and things like that and you need to have a lot of fanbase that's going to go out and buy tickets to sell these places out every time you go there. And with progressive metal, the audience has gotten smaller and smaller, and the backings have gotten smaller and smaller, and the records companies--which ones even still exist anymore--don't offer tour support.
HR: I see.
JW: So, that's the reality of it and that's why a lot of people don't ever get to see these bands. They're just financially unable to get there. It's not because the bands are jaded, or they're jaded about the industry. The industry is real, and that's it. Unless you have a guy that sitting there with a million dollars going "look, I'm going to make you guys go out there".
HR: Well, we'll be praying for that guy to manifest himself.
JW: (laughs) You know? That's just how it is.
HR: Yeah.
JW: Jaded or not, that's just the reality of it. We're all facing it, everyone's doing it the same. The same thing.
HR: Well, it's a real drag. We really wish we could have seen you play in more places.
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JW: Well,
with Royal Hunt it was getting to the point where if we played ten
shows in a year's time, that was like...good. But I would consider
that to be like...two good weeks in a row. HR: I'm really glad you guys released a DVD when you did. JW: Yeah, I am too. I think that's a good thing, that that happened. HR: That was amazing for the fans. JW: There's a lot of other footage that we have too, that's been shot from over the years, and maybe it will see the light of day someday when we put some kind of compilation together. |
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HR:
Yeah, I have this crazy old DVD that someone filmed of you guys doing an
acoustic show in...Japan, I think? (actually Korea)
JW: Wow.
HR:
It's just amazing and I really wish--or hope anyway, because I don't know
for sure--that you have that professionally recorded and will release it.
JW: I don't know, is it terrible-sounding, the one you have?
HR:
Um, it's all right. There's a pretty terrible jam in the middle of it, but
for the most part you guys sound great!
JW: (Chuckles) Is it three-piece?
HR:
Yeah, yeah it is.
JW: Okay, I guess that would be somewhere around the Fear era. We did a lot
of shows in Japan as a three-piece and just sort of went around and did
acoustic versions of some of the old stuff and some of the new stuff. I'm
sure somebody somewhere captured that. I'd like to see that, actually.
HR:
Oh, I'll send you a copy.
JW: That would be sweet.
(exchanges address)
JW: Yeah, I love seeing all these wacky little videos that are shot from
all over the place. We did a lot of three-piece gigs that year. Once
again, we had a lot of momentum because there was the singer change and we
had the new album, and I think they're going to probably see a little bit
of a Renaissance there with Mark.
HR:
Good.
JW: Yeah, it's one of those bands I think that people expect them to change
personnel. Like Deep Purple or something, they always get this new guy,
and then, you know, all of a sudden the fans would come back. Not Deep
Purple, but you know, like Rainbow. You know what I mean?
HR:
Yeah.
JW: It's one of those bands, it's just like...there's always Ritchie (Blackmore)
there, and Andre would be the Ritchie, and then you just have this cast of
characters, all these talented people coming and going. I think there's
certain bands that can do that, and survive, and there's certain bands
that can't. Once they make a change, it's over. But it doesn't happen that
way with Royal Hunt. They just seem to keep rolling, and I think change is
good for them. I think I did everything I could do.
HR:
I think you were amazing!
JW: I don't know what else I could have done.
HR:
You were great.
JW: Thank you.
HR:
Yeah, Royal Hunt is just one of those bands that I just always have faith
in to fit whatever situation they're in at the time.
JW: Mm-hmm. Well, Royal Hunt is Andre, so when he decides it's over, or
that he's done with it, that's when it's done. But until then, there will
be some incarnation of it.
HR:
That is good to hear.
JW: And in the general sense, he doesn't burn his bridges with any of his
former...(pause).....I don't want to say employees, but I'll say bandmates.
And so, a lot of those doors are open. Like with Kenneth (Olsen), he came
back and played, and that sort of brought a little bit of energy there.
Like getting Kenneth back when we did the Paper Blood thing, that was like
cool, like wow, Kenneth is back. And who knows, some day maybe Henrik will
be back singing. It can kind of go like that too.
HR:
From what I understand, Henrik is occasionally difficult to work with...?
JW: I don't know, I've never worked with him, other than when he did
backing vocals on one tour, when we were doing Fear. And he was cool! He
was like one of the coolest people I ever met.
HR:
He seems cool to me.
JW: Yeah, he's just a regular guy, and he's a good singer, and he's a good
guy. I didn't get that. But then again, I'd never been in a band with him
either. His role with us was limited, and him and I just hung out. We were
just friends, and instantly.
HR:
That's awesome; you hung out with Henrik Brockmann!
JW: Oh yeah, all the time! We were buddies. And then of course, I was in
Denmark a lot, working with Royal Hunt, and when I was in town I'd call
Henrik and we'd hang out.
HR:
That's very cool.
JW: Yeah, you know? Rehearsal's over, I gotta go meet Henrik.
HR:
But we've got to tackle the important issues here. Did you go to LegoLand?
JW: (Chuckles) No. No. I never went to Tivoli, either. I was standing out
front of it, because it's how you get to the Hard Rock.
HR:
(laughs)
JW: No, it just didn't have any draw for me. I was more interested in going
hunting there, but I could never find anybody to take me.
HR: I didn't know they had hunting country there.
JW: You have to go through some channels and things, but if you get up
there, but if you get up in the boonies of Denmark there's some pretty
good hunting opportunities.
HR:
Very cool.
JW: But it's not like here where you just go and you go out and meet people
and you just go out and you go hunting. You gotta go through a bunch of
hoops up there. They're not even allowed to have guns or anything up
there, they have to keep 'em somewhere for you.
HR:
Well, what do you hunt with?
JW: That depends on what I'm hunting and where.
HR:
.....All right, um.......(I clearly have no idea what the hell I'm talking
about)
JW: What'll I use next week when turkey season opens?
HR:
That's a fine place to start. (Thanks, John!)
JW: As far as weaponry, or what?
HR:
Sure.
JW: Well, I use a 12-gauge for turkey. And the new 12-gauges have a
three-and-a-half-inch chamber so you can....it has all the power of a
10-gauge.
HR:
Wow.
JW: So that's my turkey choice. I was watching them yesterday through the
binoculars. I got two giant gobblers up on my hill that are just sorta
like doing their thing right now out there, and I was watching them for
about an hour.
HR:
You know what I just heard today? Did you know that Eric Adams has a
hunting DVD?
JW: Oh yeah.
HR:
Okay, I'm the only person that didn't know, then.
JW: Well, I was supposed to be part of it, but our schedules didn't work
out and....a friend of mine, Chris Caffrey kind of got in there, and he's
been doing some hunting with Eric. They went down to Texas, I think, with
their bows and got some wild boar. And I couldn't go on that one, so...one
of these days I'm gonna get in there. It's always something with
somebody's schedule. I think they filmed some of the boar hunts in Texas
with Chris.
HR:
Sounds good.
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JW: Yeah. Well, Eric Adams in another upstate New Yorker. HR: Oh really? JW: Yeah, he lives probably about a half hour from where I live, so....it's just kind of what you do when you grow up around here, I guess. All my friends hunt and everything. HR: Sounds good. I bet the eatin' is good. JW: Oh my god, I just had some tenderloin, venison, yesterday on the grill, it was so good. I brought it to Ten Man Push practice, just a big Ziploc bag of these little nuggets, and we pretty much just did that, instead of practice. We just ate meat and just like, grunted. HR: That's........pretty manly. |
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JW: (laughs)
HR:
That seems like an appropriate substitute for practice.
JW: (laughs) Well, you can only play the songs so many times in the
rehearsal. You gotta get out and play. And we're ready to. We're leaving
here on the 18th. It'll be my first actual like, you know, tour of America
since 1998.
HR:
Yeah, I saw an announcement! You're going to California, aren't you?
JW: We're going to California and we're going to get some shows in between.
We're doing a lot of motorcycle races this summer, because they picked up
one of our songs for the theme song on a television show.
HR:
Oh, which song is that?
JW: It's called "In The Dirt". And so, one thing led to another
and we're starting to get more and more attention in this racing
community. And so now we're actually going to be appearing live and
playing concerts in some of these big races, and they're like...20,000
seaters. So we're getting a lot of exposure this year. And in between the
races we're going to do club dates and who knows what. Maybe even
unpluggeds.
HR:
That's excellent!
JW: Yeah, we did like a coffeehouse unplugged with Ten Man Push, it was
awesome! So cool. The songs just translate really well.
HR:
Awesome.
JW: So, that's pretty much the plan, is to get a turkey in the freezer and
then get out there and play.
HR:
(laughs) Sounds great. I hope you guys make it down here (Florida).
JW: Yeah, I'm working on it right now. I talked to a guy this morning
through e-mail talking about maybe getting something in the Orlando area
on this leg. If you have any good ideas about venues or anything in the
area or someone I can talk to that does booking...
HR:
There's always House Of Blues.
JW: Yeah....those are tough to get, though, if you're not working with an
agent.
HR:
Well, there's the place that Jon Oliva plays in Seminole, called the
Boiler Room.
JW: That's what I need, the info. Send me some of that info with who to
call or a number of a contact or an e-mail or anything, I can take it from
there.
HR:
I'm on it.
JW: Okay! That's helpful.
HR:
That would be great.
JW: I talked to Michael Kenney last night. He called me; it's been, I don't
know, a couple years since we talked. He plays keyboards for Iron Maiden.
And they just finished a big leg of their tour and now they have some time
off and they're getting ready to go back out. But he got me lined up with
a club in L.A. to play when we're out there. Because we're playing a race
in San Bernadino, and then, so, we can play in L.A. I'm working on the
House of Blues actually in Vegas right now--got a couple ins there--just
trying to get a date that will work for us.
HR:
It's really great that somebody picked up on you guys, that you found a
market that really likes you.
JW: That's the thing, and like I said the business is so tough now, there
is no...You don't just traditionally shop a CD anymore like we used to.
You can't just go around and shop record labels and get a deal and get
money and go out on the road. You have to do everything yourself. And we
have a backer, which is a great thing, and we have a great lawyer, we have
a manager, we've have all the things in place. We've got a great band,
great songs, we all get along, and now we've just gotta go out and do it.
And we're starting from square 1. I mean, when I was in America playing
live, I was with Lynch Mob; that's how long ago that was.
HR:
Yeah, that was a while.
JW: That was a while ago. You know, so, everything I've done since then has
been in Europe. I really don't have a straight-up American kind of
connection, so we're just having to work all the angles again. It's kind
of cool. It's tough, but it's cool, because I really want to be in America
playing.
HR:
Yeah, I bet that would be much easier for you.
JW: Oh yeah.
HR:
Is it difficult to be mostly working with European musicians?
JW: Logistically it's hard because you end up having to get on a plane and
fly seven hours any time you want to take a picture or do an interview,
you know what I mean? It's extremely logistically painful, and it's always
me that has to do it.
HR:
Yeah.
JW: Those guys stay right there and I have to get on the plane and fly.
And, you know, it's okay, I don't mind it, if it's a good gig. But
logistically it's expensive; it's me having to travel.
HR:
Indeed.
JW: And whatever comes up, you have to add the price of what's it going to
take to get me there first, before you even think about all the rest of
it. And sometimes those tickets are expensive.
HR:
So that's just another expense, then.
JW: Okay, we got the Sweden Rock Festival. They're offering $5000. Okay,
well, it's only going to cost us $5000 to do it. Who wants to do it? When
you start asking everyone in the band to chip in $1000 to go do a show,
the answer's pretty much....no. (chuckles) Now if you've got a backer
who's saying "You guys are going to go play that festival whether or
not it costs me money or not", then that's a different story. And a
lot of these bands do. They do have some kind of silent backer or
financial partner or something. Because the record companies have just
pulled out.
HR:
Yeah, it seems like all bets are off lately.
JW: Yeah, the record sales aren't there. It's downloads and everything now.
It's just different; there's no budgets anymore. And it's hard to get a
label to even take your album and even want to put it out. Even if it's
done. You can shop a completed album and it's just kind of like,
"eh...nah". So, most bands are just selling their albums online
and probably there won't even be CDs in a little while, it'll just be
downloads.
HR:
Can't say I'd like that.
JW: The actual CD is probably the 8-track of our era.
HR:
What a drag.
JW: I know, I know. But, it is what it is and it's too late, so you just
gotta find other ways to make it happen. And that's what Ten Man Push is
all about, we're just sort of re-inventing the wheel.
HR:
Yeah, you guys are making an incredible presence on the web and on MySpace
and you're really garnering a lot of attention.
JW: Thank you. Well, I think it's a great band, first of all. And it's not
even me fronting!
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HR:
No,
it's Lonnie (Park), isn't it? JW: Yeah, it's Lonnie's baby. But the thing is good. The songs are good and the band is great live and we just all get along. We have similar interests and we have just a good chemistry, and I think that's the key to it. And everybody's really into it. It's not like we're just like dragging people along. It's just four guys all wound up on ten. And that's what's makes it go. You just have to work it and you have to want it. There's not a record company doing it, and there's not a promotion company doing it and there's not a huge management engine pushing the whole thing. It's just us. And that's what the whole thing is turning to now. |
HR: You guys have adapted really well.
JW: Yep. I appreciate that. We're still new, too. This will be our first
real let's get out there and go out playing and be on the road thing.
We've played all around New York, and...great, but then you have to sort
of like take it out there.
HR:
I suppose technically you're still a local band, aren't you?
JW: I guess so. It's pretty funny, after all these years, now I'm
a...local. Thirty albums later I'm now a local artist.
HR:
Oh my god, yeah. And you've got millions of fans.
JW: (laughs) But it's cool. I like the role I'm in now in this band. I'm a
songwriter, I'm a guitar player, I'm a backing singer, and live I get to
play my solo stuff, which I never would have been able to do with Royal
Hunt.
HR:
And the band backs you, I guess, on your solo work, then?
JW: Oh yeah! It sounds great. We kick ass when we do my solo stuff.
HR:
Do they know all the songs, or just a few?
JW: Not ALL of them. I'm not going to turn Ten Man Push into my solo
vehicle, but, you know, it breaks up the set nicely when you go "Hey
guess what, our guitar player can sing" and everybody's like
"holy shit". So, it's a plus. And it gives me space to do my
thing, which I had no room to do with Royal Hunt. Not allowed, you're not
going to do any solo material.
HR:
I see. It's Royal Andre.
JW: It's just Royal Hunt, really. I mean, he doesn't do his solo stuff
either. He's not trying to get me to sing his solo stuff either, it's just
Royal Hunt. And if you really look at it under a microscope, it is Andre.
But still.
HR:
Well, he leads the band well.
JW: Yeah, and the songs are great. And it's been around a long time and
it's still going to be around.
HR:
We miss you, though.
JW: Yep. Well, I got my interview #2 right here, so...
The interview gets cut short, much to my surprise. I didn't know that interviewers are given half-hour slots. We schedule a follow-up for May 2, 2008.
JW: Hello?
HR: So were you striving for a particular sound or were you just doing your thing?
HR: Yeah, Surrender kicks ass!!!
HR: Hello, Mr. West, how are you doing?
JW: Hi.
HR: HHow are you doing?
JW: I'm doing fine. How are you doing?
HR: I'm good. I'm glad to hear you're doing well.
JW: I got a turkey yesterday, so I'm psyched.
HR: I'm really glad to hear that, for some reason.
JW: Awesome.
HR: You bringing it to the next Ten Man Push practice, or what?
JW: (laughs) Maybe! If they treat me right! I might bring 'em a little something.
HR: Sounds good.
JW: So it's part two.
HR: Yes it is.
JW: I've got 30 minutes, just to warn you.
HR: Thank you. All right, I'll get right into it then. I want to start by asking you about The Watchers.
JW: The Watchers was kind of an idea, after the Fear album, that we could give something for the old time Royal Hunt fans to sort of introduce me. Because a lot of them hadn't seen me on tour, and they didn't know how I was going to approach the old material. So it was a chance for the fans throughout the world who didn't get a chance to see Royal Hunt live to actually hear me "cover" the old songs, in a way, I guess, or interpret them my own way. And it really didn't cost us a whole heck of a lot to make, because Andre has his studio right there and we just kind of put it together in between albums. And I think it was a good sort of introduction for everybody to hear what it would sound like, 'cause that was everybody's question when I was hired in Royal Hunt, like, "What's he gonna sound like doing Brockmann material? What's he gonna sound like doing Cooper material?".
JW: Yeah, I was just doing it my way, and hopefully not pissing anybody off in the process. (laughs) But a lot of those songs came out really cool. I'm really happy with it. We didn't spend a lot of it. I don't want to say they're live versions, but they're as close to live as studio recordings go, as far as what I did in my work. I didn't want to sit there and like, you know, take every line by line by line, and take it that way. I just wanted to roll through the songs and get 'em in live fashion, more of a big chunk.
HR: Very cool. I didn't hear any complaints about it.
JW: It was a nice little in-betweener, because The Mission was such a big concept album, and Fear of course was my introduction, and in-between was The Watchers. I think it came out at a good time. It's cool for me, because now I have sort of like a history, you know. From my point of view it was kind of cool for me to be able to record those songs, even though eventually they came out on the live DVD and the live album, but to do studio versions of the classic Royal Hunt stuff for me was a treat too because now I have that sort of as part of my catalog
HR: Very cool. Now I definitely did want to ask you about The Mission. That happens to be my favourite album of all time. Ever. In the world.
JW: Thanks.
HR: Thank you.
JW: It's one of my top ten, I'd say.
HR: I wanted to know how the idea to use The Martian Chronicles came about.
JW: You'd have to ask Andre. That was his brainstorm from the beginning. I ended up writing two songs on that record but it was only under his direction. It's sort of like he was giving me the space to sort of join the band and help out. But he had the concept for the whole album. Apparently he was a big Bradbury fan, had read the books, and he wanted to put it to music, and it was an awesome idea. And the music was really energetic and sort of uplifting, and it gave me a chance to expand my horizons--range-wise, melodically. Fear was kind of like a down, more soulful approach, and The Mission was like, "Let's turn up the heat". We actually went into it, recording, thinking, "We're gonna show people what you can do". And that was kind of the approach. So we took every song on that way. And it was cool for me, because I got to write. I thought, "This is going to be the beginning of a relationship where maybe on this album I write two songs, maybe on the next one I write three or four; it's gonna be really like a band sort of situation where I get to be included". And of course, it never really turned out to be that, it was just kind of a token gesture, and in the future I became less and less of a writing force but the fans took those songs that we wrote together and they were actually some of the favourites and they got all the attention, it seemed like to me.
JW: Surrender; that just is Royal Hunt with John West. That's the perfect example of what it could be if I'm allowed to be fully creative and Andre does his thing. And at the same time it's a powerful thing, but it's hard to let go if you're the majority and you've always been that. I think for Andre it was always a hard thing. He just didn't like writing with other people, no matter what it came out. Even if it was great, I think it just never was his thing and probably won't ever be.
HR: Well, you guys did what you did--
JW: Yeah, and it was a good run. I definitely have the record as far as singers who hung out in Royal Hunt.
HR: (laughs) Yeah, you sure do.
JW: They said it was a two-album run when I joined, and it turned out to be five for me, so I'll say I'm either extremely patient or----.I don't know. Maybe it was just right, the chemistry was right.
HR: It seemed like it.
JW: Yeah. We'll see what happens with Mark Boals. See if he gets past the second album.
HR: Yeah, I really like Mark Boals but I'm not so sure about him with Royal Hunt.
JW: I don't know. Only time will tell--not to be puntastic--but we'll see.
HR: Yeah, yeah, we will. I'm kind of interested to see what happens. All right, so let's move on to your solo stuff. What inspired you to write Earth Maker?
JW: Earth Maker was, well, it was a story that I had written basically out on paper. It had no music or anything to it. It was just a story, basically. And I don't know where it came from. I have Native (American) heritage, I have fascination with this type of story-telling, and reading. I have a tattoo on my right arm that's named Shenandoah so I kind of brought the tattoo to life.
HR: I see. So the tattoo came first.
JW: The tattoo came first, way back in like, '89 or something. And that was my native spirit. Which I had tattooed on my arm, and it's been there ever since, of course. And his name was Shenandoah from the beginning, and I don't know why, that was just his name. Then comes this story, and the main character was Shenandoah. It just seemed like a really cool story and it was kind of like a short story or something I was writing. And then I had the opportunity to make that record, and I just said "Oh, I'm going to put this whole story to music, and sort of break it up into songs, and make the songs kind of relate, and make the lyrics relate. It was a lot more work than making a regular album, I can tell you that.
HR: (laughs) I bet it was.
JW: It really was. I didn't know what I was getting into when I started it. And luckily I had, you know, I just had the best players you could ask for, in the band. So it was just amazing. All my ideas came to life through the people I worked with, because I just, you know--I mean, the guys I played with were just amazing. Everything I wanted was there, every position. I don't know, I don't think there's been a better band amassed. There may be one equal, but none better.
(both laugh)
JW: The photo of the front of it. (chuckles) I don't know, just one of my crazy ideas, where it would sort of blend Dana Merkur's photography genius with Eric Philippe's artistic genius, and Lisa Allen, who's been my stylist for, I don't know, over ten years now. In my mind I had this idea of what I wanted it to be, and I just sort of went to the people who I thought could make it happen, and--that's exactly it right there. It's supposed to be me presently, and me, sort of like--.my native spirit, blended together. It came out pretty cool.
(both laugh)
JW: Yeah. I mean, Dave ("Rock" Feinstein) is my next-door neighbor. JW: Yeah, it's just a weird thing. And it could have been really cool, if we had taken the Saxon tour and taken the Dio tour, it might be a totally different thing at this point. Because the momentum was there, the reviews were all great--.it actually sold a lot of copies! People actually bought that thing, instead of downloading it, and it was cool, it was like, this thing could really fly. And then, well you know--.I don't know, if it's something you can find a burning ember and pull it out of the ashes and maybe fire it up again someday, I think it's easily done, because obviously we live right next door to each other, but in the meantime you just sort of have to see what happens.
HR: Yeah, that would be good.
HR: Yeah, it was an all-star lineup.
JW: Oh my god, unbelievable. And all cool people too--which, over the years I've found is more important to me than the playing aspect. It's just about being surrounded by positive people and good people. And I had the complete package on that one. Just--I wish I had put that album out maybe three or four years earlier when tour support was a possibility and I could have taken that thing out live and done the whole album.
HR: That would have been amazing.
JW: Yeah, but I'll do some of the songs from Earth Maker live when I go out this year with Emir Hot.
HR: Ah, yeah, Sevdah Metal! Can you tell a little bit about that?
JW: Actually it was a studio project in the beginning, recommended to me by Mike Terrana, and they had tried a few other singers and it was just sort of like, out there for everybody to really capture it. The songwriter and the leader of the band was a Bosnian guitar player who had something in mind as far as what the singing was going to be, and he just couldn't capture it with all these different people trying. And Terrana had played drums on it, and said, "You really should try John West if you're going for something--.maybe this guy can deliver". And Emir had known me from Artension and from other works, and Royal Hunt. You know--he flew me out to London, and we did the recording, and you never know how things are gonna go. It could be some studio work and you sorta shake hands and that's it—and we just got along so well. And the songs came together so well and just sorta like came to life. And the opportunities have been presented now for live performances; you know, to make more out of it, more of a band kind of vibe. And I'm all for that. You know, when something shows a little spark, I say, feed the flame. And so, here we go. We'll go in July to Croatia and Bosnia and Italy for some shows, and supposedly even more shows in the late fall. Hopefully it won't coincide with deer hunting.
HR: Hopefully not. That will make your bandmates very upset, I'm sure.
JW: I'm going to have to have at least a couple weeks to get a deer. It takes me that long. I don't just take the first one I see; I have to be picky.
HR: Oh yeah?
JW: I just enjoy being out there, really.
HR: I bet you do.
JW: Yeah, so, it sort of blossomed into something more than I thought it would be. And it's very unique. Certainly not like anything else that's out there right now, or anything else I've ever heard before that.
HR: Yeah, I heard some samples. It sounded very good and very different!
JW: Yeah, it's cool. Emir's an awesome dude, and just talent. And Terrana couldn't do the summer leg, so I got John Macaluso to do it. So he's gonna be on the road with us, and he's always a good time, and he can play the stuff. It's crazy stuff. Whoever plays it is going to have to be on top of their game, because it's just wired. It breaks into these, like, polka sections. Bosnian--folk--metal. It's bizarre.
HR: That's awesome.
JW: Yeah, I like that. Something different. Artension was like that. When Artension first hit there was never anything like that; you know, that Vitalij take on things. And since then, you know, people have sort of gleaned that. You hear other bands sort of copping that craziness that Vitalij had, but Artension in the beginning was absolutely unique. And I think this Sevdah Metal thing has that sort of juice. And you know, it's lets me sing and be melodic. You know? I love that.
HR: I like it too.
JW: Yeah.
HR: All right, well, I actually kind of cut you off on the Earth Maker thing but I had one more question about the Earth Maker album.
JW: All right.
HR: Can you explain the photo on the front of it?
HR: Yeah, I like it.
JW: Yeah, and, you know, between those three people, it happened. I called Lisa and I told her what I was planning on doing, and she did the braiding and the makeup. It wasn't a lot of makeup; I'm pretty dark to begin with, but she made me a little more. And Dana took the photograph. And Dana's amazing. He's the guy I always go to if I want the photograph. And then Eric Philippe took the concept, and he had the photograph to work with, and just made that cover. Eric Philippe had been one of my favorites, long before we worked together. I love his work. And he's another great guy. It's like, that's the theme of my career, for probably the last decade, is just work with good people. Just good people. You always find talented people that are good if you search for them. There's a lot of talented assholes out there too.
HR: Well put.
JW: Unfortunately I've met quite a few of them.
HR: Okay, so Chris Caffery is also on that album, and I was wondering how you and he came to work together, and how you met, and how that--.happened.
JW: Chris Caffery was looking for a singer for his band in 19--.probably 1990, I would say. And he was living in New Jersey, and I was living in upstate New York, and by word-of-mouth he had heard about this singer who was relatively unknown. Actually, extremely unknown at that time! 1990, I hadn't done anything really. And he and his brother, who was the drummer of the band--they didn't have a complete band, they were just kind of piecing it together, because Chris had had his falling out with Savatage at the time and he was ready to do his own thing. They heard about this unknown singer so they drove to Cortland, New York, and they appeared at one of my cover gigs. I was up here, banging around with a couple buddies of mine, playing, you know, Judas Priest covers or something. And he pops up and introduces himself, the guy from Savatage, and I didn't really know who Savatage was. I knew the name, but I had never really heard their music or anything. "We're putting this band together, and we're in New York City," and for me it was like, of course I'll do that. I'm not doing anything here; I'm in Nowhere, New York, playing covers to drunk people. So of course I'm going to do that. And you know, we went down and, it actually was called Witch Doctor, after some time, we came up with a name. We recorded a bunch of songs, and we played live, and for whatever reason, you know, it just sort of didn't pan out at the time. Chris went back to Savatage, and I was in Badlands by '92, and we just kind of kept in touch as friends. We worked together on Sun Red Sun, and we just stayed friendly over the years and then when I moved back to New York we actually got to be even closer because he was living in New York and I was upstate New York and he started to come up, and follow me out into the woods when I was going hunting. I'm like, "Well, if you're going to stay with me, you're going to put camo on, if you gonna follow me around, because that's pretty much what I do. And he liked that, he'd go out in the morning and watch me hunt turkeys and watch me hunt deer and stuff like that. And then of course, the following year he was taking his hunter's safety course, and we were gun shopping for him, and he was giving me back my camo and buying his own, and now he's completely addicted. I mean, he's bad. So, you know, Earth Maker, at that point, it was just like, 2001 maybe? I don't remember the year.
HR: It says 2002 on the copyright here.
JW: Yeah, so we started recording it in '01, and Chris and I were great friends and we had been writing music together, and it was like, okay, well this song could work for this lyric, this kind of fits with that, but I knew I wanted, I wanted something that was kind of like, angst. I wanted like these guitar duels and I wanted completely different sound from the guitar player, and I didn't want it to be me so much. I played on the record, I sort of had my role as the melodic guy, but I wanted somebody else who could just sort of bring the terror, you know? And just by pure chance I had met Metal Mike because I was backstage at some concert, I think it was Iron Maiden or something. And Halford was opening. And somebody said, "Metal Mike wants to meet you, he's a big fan of yours", and I thought, "Ohhh, I'm gonna meet some fan or something, I had no idea, you know. So I'm talking to this guy, he's got long hair, his hair was in a ponytail and he had a funny accent. And I love this album and I love that album, and I've known you for this and that. Okay, and it was great, we hung out and took pictures together, and I just thought I was meeting a fan, and then literally ten minutes later I'm at the concert and out comes Halford and that guy's playing guitar. I'm like, holy shit, that's the dude, I just met the dude. And he just shredded down for Halford. It was awesome, crazy guitar player. So I was like, all right, Metal Mike. There's the guy. So I asked him if he would play on my record and he was thrilled to do that. And Bobby Jarzombek came with Mike, because you just can't get any better than that for drums. It just kind of fell together; it's weird how these things kind of come, but the album was already up and running and going and then Mike started writing songs with me, and it just seemed to fit, and it all kind of came together. Lonnie was there, of course, the whole way. And then, to top it off, I got a hold of Kevin Chown, and he put the bass tracks on at the very end, and just like completed the package.
HR: Awesome. It came out really good.
JW: Yeah, you just can't--.I don't know, I guess you could plan those things. I can't! Maybe somebody could, but I don't work that way, it just kind of fell into my--.all fell together.
HR: (laughs) I appreciate your candor.
JW: (laughs) Yeah, I'm not the genius type when it comes to that stuff, it just kind of happens.
HR: So you did a cover of "Run To The Hills" (Iron Maiden ) with Chris Caffery.
JW: I did, I had an offer to do that song, and it was like, "Well, if you put a band together, you've got this spot on this album", and it's like, Sebastian Bach is on there, and other people, and the record company had contacted me directly. And I was like, well, I better call Chris—he's right around the corner and he'll come up. And of course Lonnie's up for it, and he's right here and he's got his studio. And Jeff Plate. I had a bass player here who I was friends with, Jeff Howell, who played with Foghat and then The Outlaws. He just happened to be like, he just moved back here up to upstate New York after being out on the road for years, and he can play anything. So it was like, okay, let's throw it together, but we have to do it, I mean, if we're going to do "Run To The Hills"--and that was my choice, it was like, you have a choice of doing all these different Maiden songs, what do you want to do? It's like, "Run To The Hills", of course.
HR: Very appropriate.
JW: That's my thought!
HR: Yeah!
JW: But then, of course, you know, doing a song like that, you have to do it--you either have to do it very well, or you have to do this reggae version of it, to, you know, pretend like you're being artsy, instead of telling anyone you can't cover it.
(both laugh)
JW: So we actually went the route of, you know, actually doing it justice. And we kicked it up a little bit, you know, we sped it up a little, and double-bassed it a little bit, and I sang a little bit higher at the end, and things like that, that was kind of the approach I wanted to take, I didn't want to do some weird polka version of an Iron Maiden song, just to be weird.
HR: (laughs) Thank you for not doing that.
JW: You're welcome.
(both laugh)
JW: But I'm proud of it. It came out good. But I'm not a big tribute guy, you won't see me on a lot of tribute albums, 'cause, you know, I don't go in on that usually, but--.Maiden! Come on!
HR: Yeah.
JW: "Run To The Hills", you know? Playing with the guys from Savatage. Yeah, I'm in.
HR: Hell yeah! So what happened to Feinstein? Fine-stine? Fine-steen?
JW: Fine-stine! Fine-steen! I don't know, you can call it whatever you want. I don't know, we had a lot of momentum there, when the album (Third Wish) came out, and tour offers, and things like that, but it just boiled down to tour support. And it was a matter of like, ohhhhh, SPV had put up a certain amount of money, and we had an offer to do like a Saxon tour, and we had an offer to do part of a Dio tour. That was kind of like the breaking point for the band, was when the tour support monies weren't match. And I don't know where it would have come from. It would have come from a sponsor of some sort, or maybe Feinstein himself would have put the money up. But the money wasn't there, and the tours kind of came and went. There's some fighting going on there between Feinstein and Magic Circle, who was the record company that originated it. So I think that until they figure out all their legal battles, that Feinstein is kind of tied up in that record deal. And so it's sort of on hold until something can be cleared up there.
HR: I see.
HR: Oh, wow!
JW: Yeah, he's actually my next-door neighbor. I've got little stone stairs that go up the hill and go right up to his swimming pool.
HR: (laughs) That's awesome.
JW: He knows how to get a hold of me.
HR: I imagine he does.
JW: Yeah, I mean, we wave at each other when we're
snowblowing, and we play golf together all the time. It's not for lack of being able to write the songs; we've actually got a whole album's worth of Feinstein material. It's just one of those deals that kind of went sour, and he's got a record deal and he's kind of like in the process of trying to do a Rods album and there's legal stuff. Whatever, I'm not involved. I'm just waiting for him to say, "Okay, now we can do another Feinstein album", and when it happens, then we can do it.
HR: Sounds good.
JW: Yeah.
HR: All right, um, well, I guess time's winding down, so one last thing. Can you tell a little bit about your Native American descent and your background and your relationship now with your Native American background?
JW: Well, what's to say really, other than all my time is spent out in the woods, usually. I'm not a big computer geek and I'm not that hip to all that stuff. I mean, yeah, I ride a motorcycle. I'm as American as they come, but, there's a big streak in me that says, you know, get up in the tree and wait for the deer to walk by and shoot it with a pointy stick. You know, I butcher my own meat; I've got a freezer full of wild game and that's pretty much what I eat throughout the year. And friends that are lucky enough to be nice to me get it too. So, I don't know, I mean, it's spiritually part of me, obviously--I don't know, it's a big part of me. There's other parts to me too. I have European descent, and all-American red, white and blue kind of thing too going on. I'm just kind of a mutt. That part of me is there and shining too, but--hard to describe.
HR: Yeah
JW: I didn't grow up on a reservation or anything like that. I grew up in a normal--.I was adopted into just your normal everyday white American family, and raised that way.
HR: When then how did you get into it? I mean how did it get into you, rather?
JW: You'd have to ask my parents that. I mean, biologically--.there it is. Something you can't fight.
HR: I guess not.
JW: But now it's Ten Man Push. We leave in two weeks, we go to California and back, a bunch of shows, and we play all over America this year. It's going to be exciting.
HR: When are you guys leaving?
JW: We leave on May 18th. The first shows are in California, and we're going to be playing throughout the year in America, hopefully.
HR: That's awesome.
JW: Yeah. Well, I appreciate all your time, and all the good questions.
HR: Thank you. And, uh, anything else you want to add?
JW: Not really. (laughs) Unless you got more!
HR: Uh--..(fumbles)..er, no, nothing significant.
JW: No, that's cool.
HR: Thank you so much, John.
JW: I appreciate it.
HR: You're awesome.
JW: Well, stay in touch.
HR: I will.
JW: Yeah, let me know where this interview's gonna drop.
HR: Oh, sacredembrace.com. I will send you a link as soon as it's up.
JW: I appreciate it. You told me that, and I heard it, and I just forgot it.
HR: Awesome. I can completely relate.
JW: My head is full of song lyrics, I'm sorry.
HR: That's O.K.
JW: (laughs)
HR: That's okay. That's to be expected.
JW: All right!
HR: You have a great day, okay?
JW: Okay, we'll talk soon.
HR: You got it.
JW: Bye.
