Category: Interviews
New to the Project Opus community, Scotland’s Lavaman was quickly recognized for their virtuoso guitar work. With Al on lead and long-time co-writer John on bass, Lavaman takes listeners by storm with their new album, “Back to Earth.”
Inspired by their life experiences, “Back to Earth” has been in the works for nearly a year. More than an example of musical craftsmanship, it’s also quite the technical feat. With little more than a handful of guitars, a couple of LINE 6 PODs, Cubase SX, Addictive Drums, and a pair of broken hi-fi speakers, the album remains a sonic marvel.
It’s a great honour to have this opportunity to sit down with Al for this Project Opus exclusive interview.
Why Lavaman?
It’s a very complex subject, not one that can be answered easily and changes depending on who I’m talking too. (laughs) I guess it can best be answered by a multiple-choice question, strangely enough:
- It refers to Al and his pagan background growing up in Scotland
- It’s his nickname and he can’t seem to lose it
- He read too many Marvel comics as a kid
- All of the above.
Take your pick.
I understand you and John have been working together for a very long time. Could you tell me more about some of your favourite projects you've worked on together?
We’ve had some good and bad experiences and met a lot of musicians along the way. Played alongside bands as varied as "Travis" to "The Grid". We've tried our hand at radio jingles, sound effects, to being a Karaoke presenter. All of it huge fun, but none of it really what either of us wanted to do. Even when we were in bands there was always someone else calling the shots as well as us. A long the way we've played pretty much every kind of metal, pop, rock and electronic music.
My favourite is without a doubt the Lavaman material. For the first time in my life, I like our music. A few of the songs on the album are actually re-works of SONG's with vocals that we've recorded over the years.
As long-time partners, do you have similar styles, or do you both contribute different styles to Lavaman? When you're not writing music, what are you doing? Do you feel it's added to your style?
Yeah, we are very different. I was brought up on Black Sabbath, Tangerine Dream, Jean Micheal Jarre, Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Slayer, Alien Sex Fiend, Bauhuas, and Led Zeppelin. John was into a lot of UK Punk and pop bands like Stiff Little Fingers, The Clash, The Jam, Joe Jackson, and The Beatles. Of course we both liked Zappa, Satriani, Vai and J.S Bach. (smiles) Yes, you can hear our influences all over the album, in fact melody and chord wise there are nods all over to our favourite artists.
For example, “A Lesser Magick” is a homage to Joe Satriani's "Hordes of Locus." Even on "Back to Earth", I deliberately play a Vai-like lick as a nod and a thank you.
When I’m not playing music, i play a lot of video games to relax. I just finished Crysis, Half-Life Episode2 and Bioshock. You can also find me playing "Quake Wars" a few hours a week but NOT under the name Lavaman. (smiles)
John likes racers. He’s currently playing Flatout: Ultimate Carnage on XBox 360. We are also huge comedy fans. We watch South Park, Family Guy, Bo Selecta and lots of other comedy late night during recording sessions and on coffee breaks.
What was the inspiration for "Back to Earth" and your music in general? Did you ever get stuck in the creative process? What did you do to get moving again?
The inspiration for songs, it could be anything really. A lot of what inspires us is about the duality of human existence. Yeah, I mean all the tracks were different, but most followed the same workflow. We would usually have a basis or chord progression for the song .Then we would write and sing melodies we like over it. I got stuck a lot writing the lead guitars, which were mostly left for me to work out. Thing is, I’m not a natural guitar player, so all the stuff i had to practice A LOT. I had actually given up playing lead guitar seriously for a long time. I only picked it back up in the last year. My chops and technique are getting better again, though.
Everyone has their own interpretation of music, but what would you say the message is behind the album? Why the name, "Back to Earth"?
Well, it’s a lot of things, most of which I won’t bore you with. But that track "Back to Earth" was about rebirth for us. John had a car accident a few months previous to the track being recorded. He lost partial use of his lungs and couldn’t sing for a while. So while he was healing, we started this project. Back To Earth was the first track we completed from the album while john was still recovering and it didn’t have a name. (For those wondering, John is fine now and can sing as well as he ever could.) When we listened to the mix we both knew we were home.
It made us feel like kids again, like learning Satriani, Iron Maiden or whatever we were jamming that week when we were kids. So "Back to Earth" is just a metaphor for rebirth from destruction.
Could you walk us through the creation of a song? Who writes what? What comes first?
They are all different, but a lot stem from jam sessions we have. For example "Honestly", apart from the bass, was written by me sitting around myself. Back to Earth , most of the chord structure was John’s idea and in fact, John can be heard playing rhythm guitars in that track too. As I said before, I always end up writing the melodies and harmonies as I’m left for days at a time with my guitar.
I’m also a dogmatic power hungry overlord to work with. (laughs) J lets me have the last say and does trust my judgment. It's mainly down to me doing a lot of the work myself and being behind the PC-in control. John is a huge part of the band though. He’s a talented multi instrumentalist who can get a tune out of anything he touches.
He can be heard playing bass, guitar, and drum programming all over the album. He also plays a right handed guitar, left handed upside down. Not to be flashy, you understand. It’s because he is left handed and could never afford a left handed guitar. Thing is, now he couldn’t play a leftie if he tried, he needs his strings upside down. (laughs)
Creating an album without a pair of studio monitors and a drummer is quite the feat. How do you feel this affected the album? What did you do to compensate for it?
Yeah, it affected it badly. It would have came out better quality with the right equipment, no doubts. But the album is very honest; it’s just drums, bass and guitar. You know I’m not 100% happy with the album. No where near it. Most of it is mixing and mastering problems. Some of the playing could have been tidier too, but I had to let go at some point and move on. I’ve never been 100% happy with anything I’ve created, this album is the closest I have gotten. We haven't really compensated, what you hear is what you get with us, even live it sounds the same.
If you had a choice, what would you choose: the stage, or the studio? Why?
I like the warmth and comfort of my home studio, but nothing beats the buzz of playing live. That’s where John and myself come from and once we have the right material, that’s where we are heading again. We played a few songs from the set recently live and it was a blast. Playing "A Lesser magick" live through a 3 kilowatt rig to an unsuspecting audience was quite an experience, especially for the audience. (smiles)
Of the songs from the album, what's your favorite, and why?
"Honestly" still brings a tear to my eye, and it’s probably my favortie to play live. It’s about the struggle my wife and I have had to endure in our lifes from addiction to illness. It’s about pain, hurt relationships and the truth.
Do you have any advice that you'd like to pass along toaspiring musicians?
Learn something new whenever time allows you. True enlightenment is knowing you know nothing.
When it's all done, what do you want Lavaman to be remembered for?
Ultimately, I’d liked to be remembered as a 6 foot 8 inch, confused-about-life guitarist who loved his family and friends more than he could ever express in words. Hopefully this album goes a little of the way in expressing it to them.
What are the future plans for Lavaman?
We’re still looking for a talented drummer to join us live. More material, another album, live shows and some real surprises as we move along into the new year. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya's!!
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