Hello Jarvis, Let's start with an introduction of you and your band Night Demon.
The main influences for myself and for Night Demon just basically go back to your cliché heavy metal themes I would suppose. Horror movies not so much on the fantasy side of things, we're not the kind of epic band. We're more like a street band I think that's where the the punk rock stuff that we grew up around came in and kind of melded with the metal that we were doing. It also taught us a lot about the the DIY ethic of it all.
I would define traditional metal as music made organically by people that are influenced with their direct surroundings. Much as I would classify original punk rock or hardcore or original rock and roll. A lot of a lot of this stuff was happening out of necessity in certain cities and certain scenes versus popularity. A lot of the stuff was happening before the internet was around and major commercial radio or television was not pushing anything underground like that. So this was stuff that was sparked from you know the earlier hard rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and kind of melding with the punk underground. That's where you were getting stuff like this.
I would even go as far as to say Judas Priest is probably the first traditional metal band in my mind, because they were around after the big three. After the Sabbath, Purple and Zeppelin thing and and before the 'New Wave of British Heavy Metal'. I would probably put Motörhead in there too but i just think that they're more of a straight rock and roll band and and more even on the punk side ethic wise. So traditional metal I would really go to judas priests 'Sad Wings of Destiny' and you know the couple records that came after that. Sin After Sin, Stained Class' and so on. I think that was the birth of what we call traditional metal.
I do consider Night Demon to be a traditional metal band in the way that we operate in the way that we do things and we're a hardcore touring band, and traditional metal bands that's the only way for us to get out. That's how the music gets out. The internet is a very powerful tool but the music is made to be played live. I think we're definitely a traditional metal band however there is a lot of room to grow and we've we've proven that and we're actually continuing that on as as time goes by.
In the early days it was our goal to replicate or recreate the traditional metal sound that we loved but as time has passed there's only so many times that you can do that and and feel comfortable and fortunately for Night Demon we're in a situation where it's 'the less is more' approach. We haven't repeated ourselves yet which is nice. We don't really need to write 'Heavy Metal Heat' again. We have that anthem. We don't need to write 'The Chalice' again we have that anthem. So it's nice to be able to grow in that way and not feel the pressure to put out an album every year or put out the same record every time.
Social media was even less of a tool for discovering things outside of your immediate group of friends. That's the thing everybody has their own website so they're only going to be exposed to what their friends are showing them on that. They're not going to be exposed to anything else there's probably tons of other sub-genres or music scenes that none of us even know about that are probably huge for a select group of people. So I think that's what social media and the internet has done.
I'm not going to say it has segregated groups of people but it's allowed small scenes to propagate all over the world. So it doesn't matter how small they are they're worldwide and it's it's allowed these people to connect and get together. So that hadn't happened for me yet until I started Night Demon and started to discover other bands and when that happened like I said it was a huge relief. The band Cauldron from eastern Canada, We played one of our first shows with them. They had toured and came to Los Angeles. Enforcer from Sweden they were one of the first ones that we heard about. High Spirits from Chicago and there was Midnight Chaser from San Francisco.
I would say those were the ones that really stood out, those are the ones that when we started trying to find a place to to market Night Demon or trying to find People around the world that would even care. That's when we discovered those bands and we felt again a big sense of relief. we felt that they were great bands and they were doing exactly what we wanted to do to.We had zero ambitions that this was going to go anywhere. We were doing it purely for fun. Again because we knew nobody around us. So we didn't think anybody would care about what we were doing. We thought that we were playing music that was far outdated and it was only nostalgic to us three individuals and that was it, but once we discovered that there were other bands out there doing it and once we connected with them and put our music out into the ether that's when the floodgates really opened.
Our initial goal was to be a 'New Wave of British Heavy Metal' sounding band I think we accomplished that when we first came out. We hadn't played any gigs and people overseas actually thought that we were a lost gem from the early 80s or the late 70s and they didn't know that we were a new band, that was a big compliment to us. However if you listen to that first EP there are some parts, some speed picking parts, that technique had not really come to light at the back then. So again we couldn't help but be influenced that the thrash scene happened during our lifetime. New metal happened, Death Metal happened, Alternative Rock happened. All these things happened so just having the knowledge of those different subgenres and those styles of metal. You already know the capabilities, so it's a lot different recreating a certain sound, and we don't think of ourselves as recreating it, It's in our DNA. we're influenced by the stuff that we like and we just like to play music that we enjoy and I think most 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal' bands will say exactly the same. It's not a copycat thing musically.
I personally have chosen the traditional metal route because I was fortunate enough to start Night Demon when i was 30 years old. Rock used to be a young man's game and back in the pre-internet days it was all about who's the hot new young band and if you were age 30 or older you were pretty much over the hill. People wanted fresh new blood for the kids.
Now young people aren't really listening to rock music. The ones that do really appreciate older guys going up there and doing that. I still feel pretty young, There are many bands that are 30-40 years older than me that are still doing it at a high level. So that really gives us some hope for the future too, but I think the advantage of starting the band when I was 30 and not 20 is that I was able to be in a lot of bands before and learn a lot about music before I started the band. That I really wanted to be known for in my life and with that I had gotten all of the teenage angst out.
So choosing a traditional style of heavy metal versus thrash or death metal or you know the brutality of it of it all. I mean i think that i had just gotten older and I wasn't as angry at the world anymore and I was definitely more emotional and I wanted to have more emotion in our music, and it's still heavy as f**k. You don't need to down tune it or speed it up so fast where it's unrecognizable what you're playing for it to be heavy. I think our music is some of the heaviest because of that. it's the way that we play. So i think that's really the key. It felt right and I think I was at that age where I was already nostalgic for the things that i liked.
I appreciate all of the bands from the 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal' scene. I think it has grown so much. I'm i'm definitely honored to be a part of the first wave of it and one of the originators that came up with it. I know a lot of people have put us in that category with a handful of bands and i'm really honored by that. Especially when you think of loving a certain style of music and having it be your life and and your lifestyle. it's a part of who you are but feeling like you were born too late sometimes or you missed the bus.
I felt like that a lot growing up, i felt that I was always 10 or 15 years behind, only to arrive at an age now and realize that I wasn't. I was in the the right place, the right time, all the time. i just had to go through those things in my life to get to a point where i knew that i could do it at a high level and do it the best I can. So looking back you know Night Demon has been around for 10 years now and to see the way that it has grown has been amazing. We always said that we weren't a band that came to compete. We came to inspire and that's exactly what we did and we hit the road harder than anybody and bands really took to that .
We showed them that it was possible to do it and a lot of other bands did too. I'm not taking full credit that we did but I definitely think we were the most vocal about it and we were very hardcore. Every interview we ever did, our parting words we would just inspire everybody.
Where there was no scene you have to create one and and we found ourselves doing that a lot. Going to towns where there was no scene and the next time we would come around there would be a crop of new Heavy Metal bands that we'd have to play with because they they were inspired by what we were doing and we would keep coming back around again and again and before you know it a movement starts. So now there are hundreds of bands in the 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal' and there's room for all of them and for all of us and a lot of us have gone on to experience great things, a lot of success and it's just great for all bands. They say when the tide rises all boats float higher and I fully believe that's the case happening here with the 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal'.
Our relationships with the other bands of the 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal' are very strong. There's very few bands that we actually don't know personally. It's great that new bands are popping up all the time but it's only a matter of time before we're going to meet each other. This is a big difference of how things used to work back in the day back in the 80s back in the 70s. There was so much competition between bands. I think it was actually pretty unhealthy to be honest. You heard about all kinds of stuff, bands sabotaging each other on tours and on stage and it's just completely ridiculous when you talk about the 'New Wave of British Heavy Metal'.
I've talked to these guys personally I've met most of my heroes. I've played shows with them, I've played in some of those bands which has been awesome and one of the things that I always ask them is what was it like back then,what was the camaraderie like and they all tell me the same thing. it's pretty much non-existent, a lot of these bands didn't even know each other. Many of them didn't even play gigs any together. It was a thing that the press was writing about and lumping all of these bands into this scene that they dubbed the 'New Wave of British Heavy Metal' and these guys had no idea who each other were. A lot of them didn't even have each other's records.
When you think about it England is such a small country compared to how large the rest of the world is. So on that scope that really got me thinking and there are so many bands that I could name in this scene and the 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal' we have played together in so many countries and different continents around the world . We've played so many festivals together, we've all toured together, slept on each other's floors when we come through town.
The camaraderie is insane and that is one reason why I'm glad for the advancement of technology and the internet. We've all been able to connect in one way or another and it's great . We have a global community and again it doesn't matter how popular this scene is in the mainstream. it's not something that any of us are looking for. When when one of us breaks out it it's awesome and we cheer each other on.
It does help because we don't change. If we're on the radio sandwiched between two bands that are in a very popular but we think shitty sub genre of metal. That us waving the flag for the 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal'. There is never a bad time for somebody to get into good music you know. It took me a long time to be exposed to things because I was sheltered in the suburbs of southern California and it's fine. It doesn't matter we're happy to expose what we do to the masses because we feel that it's that good. It's undeniable the energy and the passion that we bring and when you hear it it just does something to you
Night Demon - Darkness Remains (2017)
The wave is still going strong, I think with the pandemic everything had to die but that means when something dies it needs a rebirth. The scene may have been getting a little bit stale but that's okay. We've had a forced break and a lot of creativity's gonna come out of this. It's will make people want these bands even more. I know personally that I'll i will never take playing for granted again. I'm just excited to get back out there and do it as many of us are.
My message to people who think that the 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal' is for elitists is 'yes it is' and you cannot join, no I'm joking. I mean I don't really subscribe to the elitist attitude at all. I think every scene has some form of that and usually that comes from the people that are not doing it, that comes from people that are in the scene that are merely bystanders. Those who feel inferior or have some sense of low self-esteem probably because they don't have the courage to be in a band themselves.
You never see it from the bands because once guys from different band start acting that way, nobody wants to be around them. The other bands don't want to play with them so fortunately we don't have a lot of that in our scene. It comes from a face in the crowd or comes from a keyboard warrior on social media who feels that their opinion is valid but you know I think the best thing to do is, if you don't like a band then don't talk about them. Don't even give them the attention at all. There's no point in going out there and just dogging somebody because you don't like it. Not everything is for everybody but somebody out there likes it and it's not it's not fair for you to take away somebody else's hard work just because you feel that your opinion needs to be heard.
No comments:
Post a Comment