Hello Dan, Let's start with an introduction of you and your band Striker.
Dan Cleary, Vocalist in Striker.
What are your main influences?
So when the band started we were heavily influenced by 80s metal from traditional metal to speed metal to hair metal and all that kind of stuff. For whatever reason we were always super interested in that I couldn't even tell you why really. It wasn't like the popular thing going on at the time. It's like watching cult classic horror movies or something like that. it has some charm to it so we just gravitated towards that for whatever reason.
How would you define traditional heavy metal?
I think traditional heavy metal was capped out at a certain year I'm not sure exactly what year that is but it's like maybe late 80's or something like that. It was like nobody was making really what you would call modern metal. There's maybe a like a a gap where everything sort of ended and traditional stuff ended and then modern metal began. I think traditional metal is almost just like 60s and 70s rock but sped up and louder. I think some of the main parts of it are obviously great, singing, nteresting guitar work and sort of the exploration of speed.
Do you consider Striker to be part of the 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal'?
Early on I would say we were considering ourselves part of that 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal' wave although at the time it wasn't being portrayed as that until a little bit later. But early on we were just doing a sort of niche music that we really liked and then eventually we got sort of labeled as a NWOTHM band. It's a weird thing because a lot of bands seemingly got really interested in it around the same period.
Maybe there's was one thing that sort of set that off. It's probably Rock in Rio coming out or something but yeah and as far as that goes. I don't know if we would consider ourselves hugely a part of that scene anymore because we have explored different things as musicians as we got older. Nowdays it's so easy to get into so many different styles of music and I mean there really isn't a super tight-knit scene of our peers here where we are. That is kind of keeping us tied to a certain genre. It's like we have the freedom to listen to whatever we want without judgment. So we started incorporating different styles into our music and it's been a lot of fun and it definitely has made some people be like 'This is no longer a traditional heavy metal band' but I mean what are you gonna do?
Do you think that there's a difference between the bands of the 80's and the 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal' bands?
So as far as the difference between the new bands and and the old bands. I think the biggest part about it is that it was new when those bands were doing it. It was sort of on the cutting edge and they were exploring new territory and a lot of new wave bands have been sort of worshiping that, not in a bad way but I don't think the sound has been evolving. I think what's been evolving is the production values. There's a lot of old records that just didn't get the justice they deserved because the production was so bad. Even with bands that I used to listen to maybe like eight or nine years ago. I go back now and some of it is pretty hard to listen to. I mean the charm and like the song is there but it's like you wished that you had that nice rich production to really do the song justice but it's just not the case.
Why did you choose to play traditional sounding heavy metal?
Well I think the thing with traditional metal was that it was fun music right. I think that some of the sub genres like death metal or black metal is a little bit more serious. I mean although most of the people in those subgenres aren't serious people. It's just like subject matter wise and I think we just vibed with what was going on with that. It was more fun you know like songs about historical events and stuff like that you know.
It's not so much about like torture and death and stuff like that. Which I mean we've listened to lots of that type of music too but for whatever reason having a few beers with our buddies and singing about torturing someone to death is not our vibe. So it's more like why don't we just drink some beers and write a song about the Mad Max movies or something like that instead. It's like that was just sort of more our speed at the time so that's that's why we started as a traditional band.
What's your opinion on the 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal'?
I really like the 'New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal'. If there's one thing I would change about it I would say it's too bad this the circle isn't more like tight-knit or more supportive, like we've always tried to be as supportive as we can. I mean we obviously don't know all the other guys in other bands we've met. Lots of people along the way from those bands and everybody's been pretty cool but there hasn't been a lot of collaboration and stuff like that. Everybody who's doing this type of music really has their own thing going on and they're really focused on what they're doing and I think that the scene probably could have used or could use more openness.
Everybody is actually stoked about all these bands because there is a little bit of 'this band isn't necessarily doing the traditional style' or 'it's too much like this or too much like that' and with so much metal to choose from it's weird to make this sort of small niche thing into an even smaller group of niches. When all these bands already struggle to survive because there's no support for any of them, but yeah, overall everybody we've met along the way who is playing this similar style of music has been really awesome.
Striker - Armed to the Teeth (2012)
Do you have a message for those who think that traditional heavy metal is for elitists or that it's not relevant anymore or that it's strange to pursue a style that commercially peaked some 40 years ago?
God damn that was like an assault on on the band. What's it like to be a fuckin' idiot you might as well just said that. haha
I think the biggest thing with this style of music is like nobody's in it to get like filthy famous and rich like it's just not a thing anymore. Everybody who does it, does it from a place of like they want to sort of recreate this larger than life thing that was happening in the 80s. I mean sometimes i think i've built that up in my head way more than it was like.
But for the the elitism thing, It's definitely a thing. I've been like that too. The facebook memories come back of like statuses you made back in like 2007 and it's just like something so cringy and like hateful towards specific styles of music or something. Nowadays I'm like it just seems so dumb but I think that's what happens when you're young and you've got a thing that you're like really into and you want to be a part of that group.
I would say there is elitism. i think we felt it a little bit ourselves because somewhere along the way I got really into hardcore music and then some of that sort of seeped into the into the music. Because it just happens that way and I remember people we know being like 'You should stop doing that stuff' and I'm just like fuck off man. Llike who cares? No one's listening to it anyways but yeah.
Another thing that was kind of too bad, I mean elitism and in our weird sub-genre of metal is kind of what's the point ot it all? You're just making sure that this style of music is going nowhere so I don't know.
Just do any kind of music that you want to do. You don't owe anybody anything. So for someone to be like 'hey you should stop doing that' thing you like doing because it was popular in the 80s. That's so bizarre it's like you're only in music because you want to be successful and make money. It's not why anybody's in music for the most part. Like if you want to make money then go and get a real job. I think it's a weird lens that you people look at music through where they're like if you're not doing it to be successful why are you doing it at all? It's like well you like playing tennis and you suck ass at it so if you're not going to go pro maybe you should stop playing tennis at all. That just seems fucked up.
What about the fashion of the 80's and wearing that stuff today?
We got into the 80s clothes early on and then after a while we're just like 'That felt fucking weird'. It's like a little too larpy you know. It's like i'm playing dress up as bruce dickinson but he's still alive and like fifty years old. It's like, 'What am i doing?'.
So I mean we had fun doing that early on but then we sort of ditched it along the way because once you're a band you start to find your own identity. You dress the way you want and part of that was not wearing fucking spandex because it's just pretty fucking weird.
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