ANACRUSIS
KENN NARDI
Anacrusis was a thrash metal band from St. Louis, Missouri. Their first two albums was regular thrash metal but on their third album the band started to include more progressive elements into their sound. I have talked to Anacrusis frontman, guitarist and vocalist Kenn Nardi...
We can begin with a small presentation of Anacrusis...
Let’s see…we formed in 1986 and after a couple of demo tapes we were signed to Active Records in the UK. We released Suffering Hour (1988) and Reason (1990) and then signed with Metal Blade records for our last two albums Manic Impressions (1991) and Screams and Whispers (1993). We toured with DRI, Megadeth, Overkill, Mercyful Fate and finally Death before splitting up in 1993.
Anacrusis reunited for the Keep it True-festival 2010 in Germany, how was that gig? And what made you decide to reunite again after all these years?
It was fantastic. We couldn’t have asked for a better reaction from the crowd. It was a wonderful “welcome back” for us after so many years.
A small label contacted me in 2008 about releasing a limited edition CD of our old demos. The guy who ran the label is friends with the promoter of KIT and both were Anacrusis fans from way back. Our original drummer had recently moved back to town after many years on the West Coast and he and I had talked about getting together just for fun. When we were invited to reunite for KIT, I asked the guys and everyone liked the idea. We had to commit a full year ahead of time and took all those months to also re-record our first two albums.
Kenn Nardi - Anacrusis
Tell us about your upcoming album Dancing With The Past...
Well, from 2009 to about 2012 I had been writing and working on tons of new (and a few old) songs with our drummer Mike and bassist John. I had hoped to release something with the three of us, but things didn’t work out so I ended up recording virtually everything myself and will release it under my own name.
Musically, all of the elements of classic Anacrusis are pleasant plus a lot more. Some songs take up where Screams and Whispers left off with a more Orchestral-metal style, some are thrash, some mid-tempo and there is even a bit of acoustic stuff mixed in. it is a huge album of 28 songs and will be the most diverse metal album that I am aware of. The main emphasis is on strong melodic structures and actual “songs”, which are sadly missing form most of the metal scene of the last 20+ years. I think it will be a metal album unlike any other and will have plenty of material for any Anacrusis fan and more.
It will be a 2-CD set and the running time is nearly 2 ½ hours.
In early 2011 you re-recorded and released your two first albums with an updated sound for the compilation "Hindsight: Suffering Hour and Reason Revisited". How was it for you to re-visit those old songs?
It was great. There is no such thing as a “perfect” album, but the production on those two suffered greatly from a variety of problems, due to time, budget and the usual mistakes. I had always wanted to re-record them as we would have if we had been given a little more time to get things right. Hindsight is not perfect either, but I am pleased with the outcome and the response was overwhelmingly positive. People are always going to favor what they heard first, but for many newer fans the hope is that Hindsight might turn them on to some of that older material without tripping over the production so much. There is no replacing the originals, of course, and they are still there for the ages.
I've heard your original demos of Annihilation Complete was stolen out of your car? Is that correct?
Yes. Actually a few irreplaceable tapes were taken. I had borrowed a tape case from our guitarist Kevin several years ago to make copies of some of the old demos and live shows that he had always kept better versions of. Someone broke into my car and stole all my CDs and that case (which I’m sure went right into the garbage once they looked inside). The masters were only on cassette and did copy them, but not digitally (this was in the late ‘90s) so I only have dubbed copies and the originals are lost forever.
How was it to tour with Overkill and Megadeth? Are you still in contact with those guys?
Both were great. They were both for the manic Impressions album. Dave & the guys were clean and sober and treated us very well with none of the drama I’ve heard about over the years. We only did 8 shows with them, but it was great.
The Overkill Tour was two full months and had its ups and downs. Nothing to do with the bands, just that many places we played were totally unfamiliar with Anacrusis, which meant most night were us trying “prove ourselves” to the audience. It does help to build the band up and makes you play harder, but it is so much better when you are playing for fans who want to hear the music.
Chuck Schuldiner of Death was a fan of Anacrusis and wanted Anacrusis to go on tour with Death. How was that tour and how was he as a person?
I understand that Chuck was apparently a fan of our band or at least of Screams and Whispers, though no one made a big deal of that at the time and I only found out later. We shared the same booking agent and I didn’t know until later that Chuck had asked for us specifically for that tour.
I was apprehensive at first, having heard lots of stories about Chuck’s unpredictable nature, but I was very pleasantly surprised. He was very quiet and soft-spoken towards us, which I did not expect. We even shared a tour bus with Death for the whole month in Europe and Chuck was very, very cool to us. I only ever spoke with him a few times, but he was always very polite and respectful. He kept to himself a lot, but not in an unfriendly way. He just seemed shy. He was 100% professional and cared about doing a great show for the fans. That also included giving them a good opening show. In fact, at a few particularly lively shows where we had the best crowd reaction, Chuck even allowed us to do an encore which is pretty unheard of for an opening band. It was a great experience, but unfortunately Anacrusis was nearing its end, with everyone tired of dealing with everything and we broke up right after that tour.
Anacrusis disbanded after the Screams and Whispers-album, it might seem a little bit odd as the band was on it's peak of popularity. What happened there?
The usual stuff mostly. After seven years of playing together and with everyone married or living on our own, it was just harder and harder to commit to playing music full-time without bringing in anything to show for it. Of course there was plenty of in-fighting as well since some of us always had very different ideas about how to handle the band and the music which we were usually able to iron out, but with the frustration with the label, business and all of that, it just boiled over and we were better off splitting up.
Was the name Screams and Whispers a nod to Ingmar Bergman's movie Cries and Whispers?
Haha, I don’t know that particular movie, so no. If anything, there might have been a subconscious borrowing from Icicle Works’ “Whisper to a Scream”, but mostly I just thought it summed up not only my voice, but our music as a whole.
I felt that Anacrusis was a very unique band with a sound of their own. Especially on Manic Impressions and Screams and Whispers. Do you agree with that?
From the beginning, we tried to be unique. We were never the best musicians and I was not a great singer, so the only chance we had to stand out was through god song-writing and by creating something a bit different. At least, that’s what I had always strived for. When we switched drummers on Manic Impressions, this gave me an opportunity to stretch out a bit more and try some new things. Chad had been the drummer in my pre-Anacrusis band and I knew his style was different than Mike’s and took that opportunity to use some of those other stylistic differences to try new things. We had begun to establish our own sound early on and especially by the 2nd album, but I think manic was when we really defined what Anacrusis had finally become become and followed up on that with Screams and Whispers.
Screams and Whispers
What bands had the biggest influence Anacrusis sound?
There were so many. There are also different parts of Anacrusis that were influenced by different thing.
From metal, there were the usual influences…Priest, Maiden, Sabbath and then the newer ‘80s bands like Metallica, Metal Church, Savatage, Trouble & Slayer. To me though, what made us different were those other influence from outside of the metal world. We all loved Pink Floyd and borrowed from their darker, atmospheric later albums. Mike and I were into lots of punk and crossover bands, John loved prog rock and Kevin loved the classic rock bands like Queen & Cheap Trick.
I was also into lots of alternative and new wave stuff like Joy Division, new Model Army & the Cure All of things came together to make something unique. I was also always into the singer-songwriters like Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel and anyone who could write great melodies that moved me, musically.
Lyrically, bands like Rush and Pink Floyd were big influences. I was never into the usual metal lyrics and preferred songs with a more universal subject matter. Just like when I would listen to Roger Waters’ lyrics and identify with so many things, I wanted people to relate in some way with my lyrics as well and the other guys followed suit. I believe this is why so many of our fans feel closer to Anacrusis than so many other bands. I think you can really know us through our songs because they are very personal.
What's the highlight of your career?
Oh boy. The first time around, probably playing with Megadeth in 1991. Also, some of the last shows in Europe with Death where we had so many people who were familiar with our music and were going crazy when we played, singing the lyrics and all the rest, unlike most of the shows we played on other tours.
Also, KIT in 2010 was right up there with any other highlights from our career. It was a great time and a fantastic crowd. It was an awesome feeling to know people could still love our music after so many years.
What's your plans for the near future?
We are discussing the possibility of maybe playing some more festivals next year, only this time with the Screams and Whispers line-up. We’re still working out whether we can put up with each other long enough to do it though, haha.
I am finishing what will be my first solo album “Dancing with the past” which will be a huge, 2CD set of 28 songs very much in the style of Anacrusis, but with some interesting twists. I plan on having that released in the coming months. I am finishing the last couple of songs and the cover is in the works. The artwork will once again be handled by Eliran Kantor, who did the Hindsight cover for us.
Have you got any funny story to tell, if anything weird has happened while touring or so?
Believe it or not, we were probably the most boring band to ever go on the road. We were all married or in serious relationships, so there aren’t any great groupie stories. None of us used drugs and none of us drank much either. We’d play and then go sit in the van or RV and read books or whatever while the other bands poked fun at us, haha.
Being from St.Louis, are you a fan of St.Louis Blues? Brett Hull was my big idol as a kid. ;)
I am not a big sports guy at all, but I do know who Brett Hull is. However, every single other member of the band is a huge Hockey (and Blues) fan. I went to one hockey game finally a couple years ago and it just wasn’t my thing I guess, because my wife and my drummer were going nuts and I was sitting there wondering what the heck was going on, haha. Bit of Hockey trivia for you…Janet Jones (Wayne Gretzky’s wife) is from St. Louis and graduated from the same high school as our guitarist Kevin and original drummer Mike (a few years ahead of them though, so they didn’t know her).
Any last words for our readers?
Just the usual “thanks” for all the support over the years. It’s an incredible feeling to know your music can stand the test of time and I know that for at least a few, ours has.
By/Ruthless
(25-06-2014)
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