HM Exclusive: War of Ages interview

“…So, I basically taught him to write breakdowns and he basically taught me that there was more than just one chord on a guitar…”
[I love that quote from the interview I did with Leroy Hamp for the recent HM Magazine cover story on War of Ages. Here in its entirety is the conversation we had, while they were still finishing up the recording at Tim Lambesis’ home studio.]

A club full of long-haired fans vs. a club full of shaved head fans. What’s your choice?
Long hair!

Why is that?
Because I have a shaved head and I’m growing bald and I really, really wish that I had long hair, so I could swing it around some of my friends’ bands and whatnot. We play in a metal band. We’d do some windmills, like our bass player, TJ, has long hair, and I see him doing it all the time. You’re asking me, I wish I had long hair, so… (laughs) I think I just lost that ability to grow it, that’s why I wish I had it, ya know?

I’d like to talk about the new album for awhile. How’d you hook up with Tim Lambesis and how is it working with him?
It was kinda we just asked him. It was an idea that I had. We were originally going to work with the singer of Bleeding Through – Brandon Skapetti. We were going to work with him and it just fell through, things just didn’t end up working out in that area, so originally I wanted to work with Tim. But we didn’t think he was going to be able to, because he was really busy at the time. We just kind of, ‘Well, in between tours, fitting us in?’ We wanted someone that could sit with us for a while and work on it with us, ya know? (Someone) to produce the album, not just record it and whatnot. We wanted somebody that could be there with us. When that didn’t work through, we were just, ‘You know what? Let’s just go for it,’ so I sent over an email to our management, asking them to ask Tim if he’d do that and I asked our record label to talk with him as well and see if he would even be willing or even be interested in it. And Tim came back pretty much right away and said that he wanted to do it. The awesome thing about it: originally we were supposed to record the album at the beginning of the year, but that didn’t work out, because we got offered the Soilwork and Throwdown tour. We really felt that was a good opportunity and we were just kinda, ‘Well, Tim, can you work with us after that tour?’ It worked out perfect, because he ended up going on a tour, anyway, and was off right when this tour ended in California – the tour we were on. The Soilwork/Throwdown tour ended the 4th and he got home the 7th, so it worked out perfect. He’s been with us writing ever since.

As far as how things are going, he is an amazing producer. Like, we didn’t know how it was gonna be at first, because we were, like, ‘Okay, he’s a singer. Can he write? What kind of ideas does he have?’ We’ve never worked with a producer before, so we knew that we had to be open; however, we didn’t know what he was going to bring to the table, either, you know, creatively… He sat us in the practice room and re-structured songs with us and (we) wrote two in the studio with him. Basically, he’s been a blessing and a half to work with and awesome. It’s been very smooth and he’s easy to work with. He’s easy to get along with. Personalities mesh very well and we just work very quickly with him.

From what I can tell, this is your first album being produced by someone outside the band. How has this experience differed from previous albums?
Every band loves their own music – in one way or another. Now, maybe when they put out an album they kind of look at it and are a lot more critical of themselves, so to have an outside perspective come in and kind of go, “We all think that we love these parts,” but then having an outside perspective come in and go, “No, these are the good parts. These are the parts you want to play again.” Having that outlook rather than someone internally in the band has made things so much easier, because when you want to come out with a good product, or you want something to be awesome, you seem to over-think things a little too much. So, when you’ve got someone in there going, “Okay, that’s not it. This is it,” and then you kind of just go with what he’s saying, and you let your producer work… One thing we’ve learned is: We already heard from friends and whatnot that working with a producer you kind of have to let go and let them do their thing. Be subjective, but at the same time kind of feel them out and allow them to do their job, which you hired them for. And we had no problem doing that, because his ideas were great and plus we were just willing to work with him – willing to work through whatever he felt was best. The ideas that we tried, that he wanted us to turned out to be better … they made the songs way better than they were before. So, it’s been different in a very, very good way. More creative…and to feel like the songs are more “like songs” and not so empty. Because we felt like that with past albums. We had to record ‘em and write the songs pretty quickly, so we never got them to sound as full as we wanted them to, and with this album it kind of brings the song in a new direction that we’ve never taken before. It’s very full and very heavy, so we’re pretty happy.

You’ve touched on it already, but if you can elaborate: how is the album sounding so far?
Well, a lot of eighties metal. Steve, our guitarist, he wrote and geared most of the riffs toward … I wanna say… I mean, he grew up in the Slayer realm and listening to a lot of 80s metal. He listened to a lot of Stryper. That’s one of his favorite bands. But then again, he’s had a good foundation in bands like In Flames and Soilwork and whatnot, so that Swedish metal – it’s very prevalent in his music. I know that, if you listen to Pride of the Wicked at all, you can definitely see that. That Swedish metal side of things. One thing even Tim has said about our album is that he likes the fact that we use the Swedish metal kind of attitude in our music, however, it’s very heavy. We take it a little heavier than most Swedish metal is, which is pretty cool, because I like the heavier stuff and he likes the more melodic and whatnot, but I just like heavy. So, it ended up working out really well – the combination of the two; and a lot of 80s metal influence just because Steve kinda writes hair metal. It’s pretty cool.

When you said it’s a little bit heavier than some of the Swedish metal stuff, I was going to ask, “What you attribute that to?” Are you talking down-tuning? How would you explain it?
Aggressive-wise. Swedish metal: it is definitely heavy, if you ever listen to Soilwork or In Flames, it’s definitely heavy, but we go more along the lines of breakdowns and whatnot. Mainly because of the influence that Alex, our drummer, and I have. We grew up listening to nothing but hardcore. My first experience with a metal band was when I started talking to Steve when we first started this band and he introduced me to a lot of different metal bands. The only thing I ever heard was the underground hardcore scene in my hometown. So, I basically taught him to write breakdowns and he basically taught me that there was more than just one chord on a guitar. It was kinda like that kind of a thing. So, heavier as in just heavy music as far as aggression and breakdowns and whatnot.

I was curious to know what the guitars were doing on this album, but it sounds like you answered that pretty good; so, I appreciate it.
I tend to do that: to go off a lot. To be very thorough in what I’m talking about. To give more material to work with.

What are some of the themes that you’re hoping to get across on this album?
I wanted to touch on a lot of things I never got to touch on in our past albums. We kind of built our foundation on what War of Ages is as a band and what we’re trying to do. We’ve toured with a lot of non-Christian bands – especially this past year; and one thing that’s done is it’s taught us a lot personally and it’s taught us a lot about different people and how to deal with different things, as far as what we come across in that realm of things. Playing in a church and then playing in a regular, secular venue are two different things. One thing I wanted to put across is that I’ve been through a lot in my life, personally, and I never got to put across things that I’ve been through and how I overcame them. I wanted to put it across in more of a direct means, like we have one song called “Generational Curse,” and it’s about a fatherless home. I grew up most of my life without my father and (? ? ?) is a crackhead and we have a white power supremacy gang and growing up in that realm of things, I had to become a man very, very quickly. I had a younger brother and two sisters and I had to pretty much become a father for. Not that everything wasn’t peachy keen in that situation. I mean, I’ve been molested. I’ve been kidnapped. I’ve been through a lot. However, through all that stuff, there’s one thing that’s kept me alive, and that’s through my strength in Jesus Christ. That’s one thing I want to put across to the kids is that, you know, we’ve all been through stuff. And War of Ages is that fight – that battle – keep on pushing on, no matter what you’ve been through in your past and what you’ve been through. That just creates who you are for your future. You can allow that past to destroy you, or you can keep your head up and keep moving forward. We definitely want everyone to know that the only reason why we’ve even made it this far is that we have is through strength in Jesus Christ. It’s not only me. Our brother is the drummer, so he’s been through a lot of the same things. He’s my younger brother, of course, but he’s been through a lot, too. Our bass player barely knows his dad. I think he’s met him, like, once. His dad was in jail for murder. Our guitarist, he went to wake up his brother last year, because he was late for class, and found him dead in his bed. So, we’ve all been through different heartaches and different things; but one thing we also put across to the kids out in the crowd is that without pain, without suffering, without hurt, there could be no compassion; there would be no love. We wouldn’t know the truest form of that – what it is to be loved and what it is to hurt and what it is to fight for something – to be a man, to be a woman, like those true feelings that you have. So, I don’t know. That’s one thing I wanted to put across on the album. One thing we’ve been doing with War of Ages in general is that. Putting across that there is a battle out there. Life isn’t great. It isn’t awesome at all times. For the most part, it sucks, but it’s what we do in life and how hard we push that creates us and molds us into who we are as people and men and women. When we raise kids or when we do what we do in life, it helps us fight another day and become stronger and get through those trials in life. That’s just kind of what the cornerstone is – that there is a God. If there wasn’t… I refuse to believe that there isn’t a god, just because of that fact – the pain and suffering. I refuse to believe that the world is just all that garbage, like that’s just it. When we die, we don’t go anywhere. We just die and go to the ground. I kinda rambled a lot, but I hope that made sense.

Yeah, yeah. I appreciate hearing that. That’s pretty cool. Before we go on and talk about the band specifically, is there anything else about the album that you wanted to touch on?
I think I’ve pretty much covered everything and exactly what we’re talking about and as far as musically what we’re trying to put out. I think that’s pretty much it in that area.

About the band, describe the strengths and personality of each band member, including yourself.
Alex, our drummer and my younger brother, he’s kind of the mouth of the band. Not in the way of business and frontman kind of thing. He’s kind of the jokester. He always keeps you laughing. He’s got a good heart. He is very genuine. Sometimes he talks a bit too much, but he’s genuine. Is that the kind of stuff you’re talking about?

Yeah, just whatever comes to mind when you think about their strengths and personality.
That’s what I think when I think of Alex. He’s my brother, so I know the most about him over anybody else. That’s just what I’ve seen over the years. He’s grown a lot in a lot of different ways and become more and more of a man, understanding what his role is in life. That’s one thing I’ve seen in him and his dedication. He’s a very hard worker and whatnot. I’d say he’s the mouth and Steve, he’s like the backbone of our band, musically. He does a lot of the stuff musically. He’s a very, very good writer. He’s very creative. He’s like the creativity part of our band. And TJ, our bass player, he’s like the spiritual leader, to a sense, in our band. He’s the one that we go to. He keeps us on our feet. He definitely is there for a prayer warrior, stuff like that. Me? I do a lot of the business. I do a lot of that kind of stuff. I keep structure and hold the foundation together. I guess, if you wanna say, a leader. I use that term very loosely. Just kind of a role that I would say I take. Guy, he’s vaguely new to the band. This is the first tour that we just did with him. He’s kind of a quiet guy. He kinda keeps to himself. He doesn’t say much. The only times he talks is when it’s important – when he’s got something important to say. He’s definitely a quiet dude. Not a lot I can say about him. I called him “Guy,” but that’s our nickname for him. His name is Brannon. Don’t use that in there…

That would be pretty much every member.

What are a few stories from the band’s history that you will remember for a long time – whether it’s humorous or serious is fine?
Well, there’s a few. Just different things that’ve… There’s tour stories, you know, but honestly, things that we’ll remember are kind of things that’ve happened through emails and stuff like that. There was a kid that walked up to me in Washington and he had lost his mother the week before and he walked up to me and he just said that one of the songs that we play – “Heart of a Warrior” – he said that he was broken and was having a hard time and he would listen to that song and it would just be uplifting to him and give him strength, you know? I kinda looked at it as awesome, but at the same time, that God can use someone like that, that God can use an individual in a band or in life and He can allow ‘em to write music that helps somebody through that. The guy definitely said that he wasn’t a believer, but it made him want to believe. Some people are mistaken. They think that they’re the reapers and sowers, you know? And everyone really has their own. Sometimes people plant the seed. Sometimes people water it. And to know that a band is being used like that and each individual member is being used in a way – that’s pretty awesome. So, just different times that people have said that, but that’s one that’ll stick out in my mind for a long time, just because something like losing your mom – that’s a hard situation. That’s not as happy.

You want me to tell a few? Let me think of some happier ones. I’m kind of scatter-brained. There’s a lot of funny things. I’m just trying to skim through. You put me on the spot. I can’t think of any. I can’t put my finger on one.

I get the same way when someone asks me, “What’s good music out there?What’s new?” And I’m going, ‘Uh, uh…’ My mind goes blank.
I know exactly what you mean. That’s kinda what I’m going through. I know there’s so many funny things that’ve happened. I just can’t put my finger on it. I’m thinking back to our first tour, because we had some crazy stuff happen. One time we drove down to Florida. We’d never been to Florida before and it was our first tour. We drove all the way down to Florida and we were convinced that we were gonna drive down. We didn’t have a place to stay. We knew no one and we were convinced that we were gonna drive all the way down to Florida and stay on the beach, just because we’d never been there before. We thought it’d be warm, it’s gonna be awesome. We get there, we drove 14 or 15 hours. We’re super tired. We’ve got a show to play that night and we go to the beach and find out that’s against the law. We ended up staying in a Walmart parking lot. So, we’re staying in a Walmart parking lot. ‘I’m sleeping in the van,’ because I drove the whole night. I’m dead tired. I’m sleeping in the van and the rest of the guys roll out this carpet on the Walmart cement, because they wanted to stretch out and lay out. It happens that late at night or early in the morning and I hear screaming. I jump up and here’s the guys running around, hitting themselves, running all over the van. They were getting attacked by red fire ants. They fell asleep and red fire ants found ‘em. They woke up everybody. There was another band with us, too. A band called 12 Gauge Valentine. It was our first tour, about four years ago. I think someone in their band was eaten alive as well, but they were screaming and running all over the place. I’m all groggy, looking around, going, “What? What’s happening right now?” I remember thinking, ‘Huh. That sucks!’ And then I rolled over and went back to sleep in the van.

We like to play a lot of pranks on each other. I’ve got one roadie that’s really afraid of spiders and I was actually getting him back; because there was a night that we ended up sleeping in a dorm and he threw some fire crackers in the dorm room and they went off. Little did he know that I had ear plugs in and they really didn’t have the effect that he wanted, but he threw some fire crackers and they went off and kind of woke me up. I looked around, saw smoke everywhere, said, ‘Okay,’ and kind of rolled over and went back to sleep. He was definitely afraid of spiders, so he was sleeping and I bought those little Halloween spiders and threw them in his bed. And he flipped! So, those are some funny ones.

Well, how does your faith in Christ define your identity as a band?
I’ve been asked that a lot. Usually people ask that because we’re pretty vocal at any show. It’s the cornerstone of who we are. I wouldn’t be in a band, personally, if it wasn’t for my belief in Christ. Honestly, I don’t know how I would do this and go through the struggle and the hard times without having faith in Christ that I’m going to get through to the next day. In my life in general, I don’t know how I would be alive today. So, as far as, like, lyrically, He’s the cornerstone. Every single song that we write in some way reflects Christ. Who we are as a person… Every song might not have the pure mission of Christ and Who He is and that He’s God and whatnot, but it’s who I am as a person. That’s where my lyrics drive from – through Him and from Him. He uses me and I spit ‘em out on paper. As far as the rest of the guys in the band, they’re the same way musically. We pretty much try to stay as focused as possible, because it’s not easy doing what we’re doing. It’s not easy being out there away from home; not having the security of your home and what the norm is. You’re out there and you’re being thrown into a world and told to survive and expected to. I’ve used this philosophy before. I don’t remember who I was talking to, but I explained this to him. Lucifer – he was a angel in charge of music in heaven and he fell in love with the angels worshiping him and so he went to God and he was, like, you know, I wanna be you, I wanna be God, because he fell in love with the worship that he was getting and God was like, ‘Okay, and he cast him out of heaven, with a third of the angels that wanted to worship him, but it’s like we are in charge of what? Worship! We are playing music out there for kids. We know that we can either listen to the kids that worship us and channel it to us, or we can channel it to Christ and give him the glory. If we… We could fall in love with the fact that people worship us; because it’s true, kids love your music and they tell you, ‘You’re doing a great job!’ And it’s easy to sit there and go, ‘Yeah! I’m doing awesome!’ But, at the same time, that’s kind of what he did. It eats at ya. It’ll destroy you sooner or later. Not that you shouldn’t be happy about what you’re doing and believing that God’s taking care of you and you’re doing a great job, but there’s definitely a time where you need to focus what you’re doing and point it to Christ. That’s kind of the cornerstone of who we are with God and as a band and as people and staying focused is one thing that we need to have. It’s essential for us to survive. One thing we’ve always said in our prayers is that, ‘If God is ever taken out of the equation of War of Ages, then just bring the band to its knees and end it.’ Because there’s really no point in doing what we’re doing, if we don’t have that factor. It’s everything that War of Ages is based on. We may not get up on stage every night and I may not quote Scripture out to the kids, but as far as testimony goes and putting myself on their level and letting them know who God really is. We do do that. But I don’t like to look at it as I punch my spiritual time clock, you know? I’m on stage, “And now this song…” I say these words and “boom!” Okay, God, there You go. There’s one for the team.” We look at it more like, if God wants me to say something, a certain something this night, then He’ll give it to me. He’ll give me the words. And I’ll speak. But at the same time, there’s nights where I won’t say anything. God knows what He’s doing. He’s using me and I have to be a vessel that’s open to what He wants to do. That goes along with emails that we get all the time about kids that, ‘Why don’t you do things this way? Why don’t you do it that way? I was offended by this!’ And it’s hard getting out there and trying to put music across in a way that you feel God is leading you, because everybody has their own way and their own feeling about how things should be done. We get those emails all the time. ‘You’re doing stuff the wrong way. Our covers are too satanic!’ you know, because we have a battle warrior guy chopping demons’ heads off, pretty much. It’s like, where’s the give and take? Not saying we’re doing everything perfect, but at the same time, it’s kind of like, you know, we’re doing what we feel God is leading us to do, so… And the way we feel God is leading us to do it. For some reason or another.

What are you looking forward to concerning the Screaming the Prayer Tour?
I don’t know. I’m excited about it. At the same time… I don’t know. I’m excited about it for the bands that we’re going on tour with are friends. We don’t know every single one of the bands, but a lot of them we do. We’ve met in the past and now we have an opportunity to tour with them. It’s a lot of bands, though, for one night of playing. It’s interesting to see how it pans out. We’ve never been on a tour of this size. We’ve been on festivals before, you know, a show. So, having a tour like this, we’ve never been on Sounds of the Underground or anything like that, so it’s going to be interesting to see how it all pans out, you know. There’s some good people behind it and we’re excited about seeing where it’s gonna go and how it’s gonna do and how the kids are gonna react to it. But we’re definitely in prayer about the spiritual warfare that’s going to happen on the tour, because anybody… When Satan knows that God’s gonna move on something, he attacks. We’re just being wary and just kind of keeping our eyes open and being prepared for it as well, but at the same time we’re stoked. We’re stoked about what God’s gonna do on it. There’s stuff about playing music in front of a different kind of crowd than what we may be used to and each band is going to bring their own kind of crowd to the table, so we’re excited to see what’s going to happen.

What are some of the craziest things you’ve ever seen from the stage?
(laughs) We’ve seen some evil, evil stage dives, where we’ve watched heads crack open and bounce off things. There was one time I watched this kid from the stage run and jump off the stage and there was this barrier – I think it was Facedown Fest last year – and there’s this barrier in front of the stage, where it give about two or three feet and then there’s kids, you know, and this guy – big dude – goes to jump and his shins crack this metal bar, like you just see… It looked like he had to have shattered his shin and he fell forward, everybody moved, and he just hit the floor. I was kinda… It kinda made me stop for a second in the middle of the song. ‘Okay! I wonder if that dude’s alright?’

Other things? There’s been all kinds of crazy stuff. People like to dress up in costumes sometimes. There’s been bananas that go dancing at our shows sometimes. There’s the occasional heckler. They’re fun, too. It’s mainly older people. The Soilwork tour was interesting, because there was definitely an older crowd there than what we’re used to. Usually it’s young kids when we go out on tour, but Soilwork brought the metal crowd and the older metal crowd, so it was interesting to see the way they react to things. I’d say one of the craziest things was that stage dive. That still echoes through my mind. I wonder how that kid’s doing – if he’s doing alright these days.

How important is the visual aspect of the band’s art to you? And how do you think your musical career would be different, say, if your logo was just a kid’s handwriting and all your album covers and shirts were crude stick figure black and white drawings?
That’s kind of funny, because I think we’re one of those bands that … Dave (Quiggle) has done a great job on our artwork and I think we’re one of those bands that he just has that feel for the artwork, you know? There’s bands that just do anything for their art and it’s awesome. They’ve got this different cover and there’s this cover and then there’s this cover – and they’re all different. But I think we put a stamp… Not saying we broke any new ground or anything, but it’s like when you think of War of Ages, with a name like War of Ages and what we’re about, it’s like you think of a warrior. And our songs… even before the album cover, because our first self-titled release was just a couple figures on the front with a tree, and it became our Pride of Wickedness, this warrior. Dave did a great job on that. We loved it and it kinda set a name for us, as far as artistically. And all of our songs always dealt with war and just fighting and rising up and making a difference in life. It just felt right. We can out with Fire From The Tomb and Dave did a great job on that cover as well, another warrior kind of thing. We have to up Pride of the Wicked this time. As far as what the art’s going to be on the next one, we have to up it. So, we’re just kinda thinking, ‘What are we gonna do?’ We’ve got some ideas. I can’t say anything right now. We’ve got some ideas, but we’re kinda poking around at what we’re gonna do about that. If we wouldn’t have had the Pride of the Wicked artwork, honestly, I don’t think it would’ve done as well, you know? That’s just me. I love Davey’s work and I just think that’s what helped that album do so well. People were kind of like, ‘What the heck is this cover?’ We’ve heard so many people come up to us and say, ‘I’ve never heard you before, but I saw your artwork every day in the mall and I was like, ‘I’ve gotta buy that CD. It just looks so bad-A!’ And so they buy it. We’ve heard that so many times, so right there – these people have never heard the music, they just saw a cool album cover, mainly metal kids, and they’re like, ‘We bought it and then we fell in love with your music.’ So, I think it definitely was enough for people to buy it. I say a very important role.

He does an awesome job. He’s got his own style. He’s great.
He hates it when people say that, too. I agree with you. I’ve seen his work since I was a kid. He’s got his own style. I hate to say it, but he does. And it’s just awesome. You can pick out a Quiggle shirt… Some of this artwork he’s coming out with, sometimes you have to go, ‘Is that Quiggle?’ But, at the same time, you still say, ‘That’s gotta be Quiggle!’ The way he uses his colors and the way he makes his skeletons, you kinda just know. Yeah, I agree with ya.

Cool, man. Well, I think I’ve got some good material for a great story here. Is there anything else you wanted to add or touch on?
Honestly, we talked about a lot of different things and I covered a lot of different issues and I wanted to say kinda one more time that no matter what you’ve been through in your life, God has a way of working things out. Like my father, I told you briefly about that situation… He’s a Christian now. Now we have our struggles. He’s come to the Lord, but he still struggles. He still has hard stuff that he deals with every day and now he deals with a family that lost a lot of years and building that family back has been one of the hardest things. I just recently got married and … No matter what you’ve been through in your life, you’re gonna definitely have trials. You’ve been through a lot of things, you’ve made bad decisions and you’re definitely going to have trials in your life, but the outcome and what you do from here on out and the changes you make and you try to become better and work hard in your own life, that you’re going to be. Take it from someone who knows. I could’ve held up the family business and became a drughead myself and a drug dealer, however, I didn’t. I decided to take my family by the hand and guide ‘em through Christ. It took me a long time to get there, but, you know… Keep fighting. Keep pushing.

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