OLD RAKE

Old Rake or Ol Drake, (Have it your way) started his career as the lead guitarist in Evile. They recorded four studio albums: Enter The Grave (2007), Infected Nations (2009), Five Serpent's Teeth (2011) and Skull (2013). Kerrang, the respected metal publication soon hailed Evile as the most important band of the thrash metal revival. In 2013 after four albums and nine years with Evile, Ol Drake decided to leave the band to pursue his solo project Old Rake. To record his solo album he got some help from legends such as James Murphy (Obituary & Testament) and Gary Holt (Exodus) and the album was released a few months back through Earache. Now over to Ol Drake...

We can begin with a small presentation of you Ol Drake.

Hello! My name is Oliver Drake and I make music. I was in a band called Evile but I left. That is about it.

What bands and musicians are you influenced by?

Growing up I was initially influenced by stuff my Dad got me into. Stuff like Queen and Led Zeppelin. Then my brother got me into Guns N Roses and Metallica and it went from there. The main band who really got me into Thrash was Sepultura; I still love the first four albums as much as I did back then. Jeff Waters of Annihilator also inspired me to really put the work in on the guitar.

Your solo debut album Old Rake was released in early 2014, are you satisfied with how the album has been received?

It was received OK, but due to its instrumental genre it didn’t receive very good exposure, which I expected, really; the majority of people aren’t interested in guitar-orientated music - I know I wasn’t when I was younger. I think people would enjoy it more than they’d imagine. Plus it would have been good to get some more sales under the belt for the costs of making it.

On the album you have guests such as Gary Holt (Exodus), James Murphy (Death, Obituary & Testament), amongst others. How has it been to collaborate with such legends?

It was brilliant! it was quite a simple process though. I caught Gary just before he left for a long stint with Slayer, so that was lucky. James co-produced and mixed the album so it was inevitable that I’d get him to play on it. Many times in my “career” i’ve felt like the 16 year old in me is jumping around all “OH MY GOD”.

You left highly popular Evile in late 2013, why did you chose to leave the band?

http://www.blabbermouth.net search “ol drake”

Kerrang dubbed Evile the band that was carrying the thrash genre's whole revival on it's sholders. It must have felt good with such praise?

It was great. That quote helped catapult us, in a way. Kerrang! used to be the mainstay of heavy music so it was an honour.

Enter The Grave (2007)

Evile's debut album was produced by Metallica-producer Flemming Rasmussen, how did you get in contact with him and how was he to work with? It must have been special to work with such a legend so early on in your career?

We got in touch as a joke, really. We thought “haha wouldn’t it be funny if we could get Flemming to do it” and the label said “why not?” - and it happened. It was amazing to work with him, he’s such a nice and interesting guy. There’d be times when tracking rhythm guitars and making a mistake where he’d stop and say “Hetfield wouldn’t have done that” just to tease - no pressure then. We also recorded it through the same desk Lightning and Puppets were recorded through.

Evile toured Europe with Megadeth, how was that? I've heared you joined Megadeth on stage and performed Peace Sells?

That was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime thing. They were very accommodating and easy to talk to; Dave, contrary to popular belief, was a delight. We joined them on stage to sing the chanting near the end, that was very bizzare. Not all of us could fit around James’ mic so we just ended up shouting to the crowd.

In 2009 you became Mike Sifringer's temporary replacement in Destruction when he broke his finger, it must have been cool playing alongside such legends?

Destruction are such great guys that it was nothing but a pleasure. I’ve worked and played with them since. To me they are the ONLY Thrash band who embody, and has always embodied, the true essence of Thrash Metal; they haven’t waivered once in their approach, style or attitude. I remember the festival I played with them. I remember everything was fine, not nervous at all. Then stood behind the cabs, the “Curse the Gods” intro comes on, and I all of a sudden shit my pants (metaphorically). The pressure was huge as they are a 3-piece, and any mistake on guitar can’t be hidden behind another.

Five Serpent's Teeth (2011)

You also contributed some lead guitars on their Day of Reckoning and Spiritual Genocide albums. How was it to work with Destruction?

It was great. for Spiritual they flew me over to the studio and I spent a couple of days there and had a great time. I even did some childish voices at the start of one of the tracks.

Evile has also toured with Kreator and Overkill? How was those tours?

Those tours were great, though they were separate tours. We did five months in America in 2010 with quite a few other bands, and to be honest, I can’t remember a lot of it unless someone prompts a situation/venue to me. Bobby Blitz is one of the most interesting guys I’ve ever met; one of those who, as soon as he starts talking, everyone seems to hang on every word.

Ol Drake - Photo: Jorge Botas.

Evile's Thrasher was included in the video game Rockband 3 for Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. How did that come about?

I actually have no idea, It possibly could have been Digby at Earache putting it forward. It got great exposure through that, and I think it is still the hardest song on all of rockband?

So what's your plans for the future?

If you’re speaking musically, I’m dubious if there is one. I have an interest in film scoring, but I’m not sure if I’d ever try and take it to a professional level; it’s just a bit of fun for me. Other than that I’d love to work towards possibly moving out of England to somewhere slightly secluded and live a simpler, living-off-the-land life.

What's the highlight of your career?

That’s hard to say, there’s been so many. I think sharing a bus and touring with Exodus through Europe was the highlight. They are such good guys that there was no negatives or bad days. The only negative was our bus being hit by a Hertz hire van in the middle of the night. Everyone was asleep except Lee (Altus) and Mike (R.I.P.). The van smashed into our trailer and shunned the bus forward quite far. Our driver apparently ran out of the bus in just his boxers after the guy - who tried to drive away - and pulled his keys out and didn’t let him leave. On return Lee and Mike’s only complaint was that the guy made them spill their drinks.

Have you got any funny story to tell, if anything weird has happened while touring or recording?

There are way too many to tell or even pin-point. So many times have we laughed so hard that it hurt. One that just came to mind is when I met Slayer. I was doing a photoshoot with Kerry for Metal Hammer and I asked him if he could get Gary to come out from the dressing room to say “hi” as I hadn’t seen him in a while, so he said “man I’ll just take you back there”.

Instantly 16-years-old again I followed him. I walk into the mood-light-lit dressing room with Tom sat there who briefly looked at me then went back to his iPad. Kerry says “want a drink?” and I said “yeah, sure”. “What’ll it be?” and I said “Whisky would be good”, so for some reason he gets out this expensive-looking wine - and I, at the time, didn’t/couldn’t drink wine. He pours me a big glass of it, and I’m not about to say “Excuse me, sir King, I requested whisky”, so I start drinking it and I hate it, but I stay British and polite. Then Gary walks in all “Ol! nice to see you”.

A brief exchange of words and he goes back to practicing and I start to feel in the way (I remember many times people would be in our dressing room that we didn’t even know and we would think “erm… why is this person here?”). Lombardo walks in and looks at me as if to say “erm… why is this person here?” and so does a label-looking guy. Starting to feel especially in the way, I down the rest of the wine and place the empty glass on the table - which made me feel like I was going to vomit my insides out - and I tell Kerry I’m going to leave them be.

All of a sudden Tom stands up happy-as-larry and says “dude, what’s your name?”. I say “It’s Oliver”. “Nice to meet you dude, would you like a shot?”. Again, I’m not going to say no, so I accept. Tom picks up the same empty glass I just had and tops it up with the same wine I was just nearly vomiting over. He passes it me and goes “cheers!” - so there I was doing another glass of wine.

My face probably looked like one of their early album covers and I left with a predictable outcome. I then recall drunkenly walking all the way from Alexandra palace into the center of London having no idea where I was. I even went into a McDonalds and asked where I was. The answer meaning nothing to me, I asked if they could call me a taxi, and they said no. So I got Slayer-wined and stranded in London. I didn’t even know where my hotel was. I actually can’t remember how I got back - at all. I love wine now though, probably thanks to Slayer.