Fozzy: Chris Jericho
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And then there’s ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman on the very metallic and aggressive track ‘Born Of Anger’.
“Friedman lives in Japan now, and plays in a band called J-Pop, which is one of the biggest bands in Japan. They play, as you would expect, pop music. He was a friend, and a fan of our producer Rick Beato (Who himself contributes a solo on the album’s title track). Beato said he was able to help hook that up, so we e-mailed Friedman the track, he laid down the solo and e-mailed it back to us with the wonders of modern technology. Once again, he did a tremendous job playing this great solo on the album. It was very cool to have him involved, and I definitely owe him a beer as well.”
Perhaps the strangest contribution to the album is the inclusion of noted rapper Bonecrusher and backing vocalist Allison Irby on ‘It’s A Lie’.
“Well the thing with that song is that it’s more of an experimental type of song. I don’t even call it a rap track. It’s a song that has a rap vocal, a metal vocal and a Tina Turner rhythm and blues sounding vocal on it from Irby. It’s kind of like combining three completely different styles of singing onto the same track. Most people consider that the favourite on the album. It’s that different. People either love it or hate it. ‘Born Of Anger’ is in the same way. They either love that song or hate it too. The thing about Bonecrusher that I thought was really cool was the fact that he laid down his vocals in about twenty minutes. We had no lyrics or melody lines written for him. He did it all himself. He’s got such a hard, abrasive voice. It’s almost the same as the death metal vocal style on ‘Born Of Anger’. It’s that authoritarian, heavy and mean sounding. I really dig the track. It is different, and it’s something that you don’t really hear. I think Bonecrusher did a great job, and it has a great riff and solo to it as well. It’s definitely one of the different songs on the album. That one and ‘Born Of Anger’ are ones that people either love or hate.”
With such a contrast of opinions over both ‘It’s A Lie’ and ‘Born Of Anger’ (Which are very much at polar opposites to each other style wise), you have to wonder if the same comparison can be drawn at determining what makes up Fozzy’s primary fan base.
“I don’t know if it’s indicative of the sort of fan base we have, but it does say something about us as fans of music. We like all different styles of metal and music. We didn’t want to put any restrictions on what we wanted to do. Whatever came out of us song-writing wise is what we recorded. This album is kind of where we are at. We have some influences that kind of touch upon thrash, and there’s some rapping/funk kind of vocals and everything in-between. I think that’s a problem with a lot of bands these days. They put out an album, and it will sound the same from track one through to track ten. That’s pretty cool for the first three or four songs, but it eventually all blends into one. On this record, you definitely don’t hear that. You never heard that on a Led Zeppelin, Beatles or a Pink Floyd album. There was always something a little bit different. It was always within the style of the band, but there was always something on there that made you think. That’s kind of what we set out to do. This is our band, and we have many different sounds and styles, but it's always going to sound like Fozzy. That’s important for us.”
While the album artwork accompanying ‘All That Remains’ does have an immediate meaning, there’s also a far deeper meaning behind the obvious according to Jericho.
“I don’t know the exact meaning behind the title because it could mean a lot of things. I guess that’s why I like the title. It could be like the album cover suggests, which is just dust and bones. Maybe that’s all that remains after you go. Or maybe it means that after you strip away all the gimmicks, all that remain of Fozzy are the songs and the band. I originally liked the title ‘All That Remains’. I thought it was such a cool song title! (Laughs) But then the concept started to flesh out from there. When we finally saw the album cover, that’s when it became the title of the album. It all made sense after that. It can mean a multitude of different things if you have to use your brain and think about it.”
Obviously with the new album out, Fozzy are well and truly into touring mode, with plans to visit as far and as wide with ‘All That Remains’, which may include Australia.
“We just came off a headlining tour in the U.K., and that was awesome. We’ve also been playing a lot of shows here in the U.S. over the last couple of months. We’re definitely working towards doing a tour of Australia for the first time this year too. We have a lot of fans in Australia, and ‘All That Remains’ is doing very well there. So I think it’s just a matter of time before we make the trek down under, and play some shows for all the Fozzy fanatics. I guess it will be billed as ‘Fozzy In Aussie’! I’m looking forward to the possibility of that happening. I think it would be great. I think we’ll have some great shows in us for the fans that we have down there.” [END]
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