2010 to now (part 3)

So, after getting completely burnt out by touring and recording (as mentioned in PART 1) and then taking a year off where you’ve found something you really enjoyed (as mentioned in PART 2), what goes through your mind when you think about getting back on the treadmill again?

That’s a really good question.

Apart from a great change of pace, 2011 was a good chance to look at everything from the outside with a fresh perspective. When you’re in the middle of the maelstrom your only thought is getting to the next step of your plan so you can get ahead. It’s easy to buy into hype, into the pressure of expectations of your peers and fans, and into an inflated sense of rivalry with other bands. To a degree, your art becomes secondary to the “game” you need to play (and sadly you do need to play the game in any business to get ahead, the music business is no different. Any band who thinks that all you need is good songs and good musicianship to succeed is surely kidding themselves!). Unfortunately, when you’re so caught up in things, you can lose sight of what actually is important what what, ultimately, is just stupid crap.

Looking back at the last five or six years of touring before we took our break, it just astounds me how many times we ran into the same situations. In a scene as small as the Australian music scene is (particularly the underground rock/metal scene) do we really need pissing contests with other bands? It’s not a race. Do we really need holier than thou show-pony promoters, venue owners and label guys parading around thinking they were the stars of the show, not the artists they were representing? For every good guy we worked with (and there were many) we would run into twice as many douches. Everyone talks crap about everyone in every workplace – that’s a given, and it’s harmless to a degree – but do we need people going out of their way to be vindictive and purposely damaging to other acts to further their own goals or just to bring them down because you don’t like them? In the last years of touring, I’ve seen it all, happening both to us and other artists that we know.

A year off and an outside perspective really makes you see how pathetic that all is and how if all of that crap disappeared tomorrow, and there was no political bullshit that you had to play to get ahead in this industry, how much better it would be for everyone.

But sadly, that’s not the way the world works and we have no control over this.

What we do have control over is our art. Our music, our live show, our visual and live image. The stuff that is actually important, and the whole reason you usually want to do a band in the first place – to play music you love, hopefully to people who appreciate what you do.

We’ve been (very slowly) working on a new album since our time off the road. We know for a fact it will never get perfect scores in reviews for much the same reasons our last albums didn’t – it’s got a mix of too many styles on there for most reviewers to like, and fair enough too. We don’t expect people to like everything that we do, and since LORD’s style is all about diversity, you’re more than likely going to find that while you may like a lot of the album, there’ll be “that one song with growled vocals I hate” or “that stupid pop song thing” or “that generic power metal crap” in amongst stuff you do enjoy.

And you know what? We’re OK with that.

The new album will have elements that we haven’t explored much on previous albums, although it most definitely still sounds like a LORD album. We thought about the aspects we’re bringing in and wondered if people would like it or not. And the more we thought about it, the more we realised we would be selling ourselves out if we just wrote what we thought people wanted to hear, rather than stuff we truly thought was our best work, regardless of what people may think of it. We do hope you like it, of course, but what’s important is that it’s something we’re proud to call our own.

The same goes for our live shows. If we go out on stage, we want to be the best act we can be. We want to go for that high scream, we want to rip out a theatrical drum solo, or have a mock guitar duel, or go running Iron Maiden style around the stage and venue. We want to have fun. We want the crowd to be involved. We want it to be cool, and stupid, and fun, and amazing. And we know that people will call us posers or think we’re arrogant or cheesy.

And you know what? We’re OK with that too.

We do this because we love it, because we love playing, because we love the energy we get back from the crowd. As burnt out as we were towards the end of 2010, the one thing that was always great was the look of excitement and vibe we got from the people standing in front of us. And that’s kept me doing this year after year after year.

So to the first question: am I ready to get back out there after a great year off, away from the madness, and rediscovering myself?

Honestly, I don’t know.

But what I do know is this:  I’ll be walking out on stage in front of a hungry band who want to be the best. I know I’ll be giving it my all and putting on the best show I can do for the crowd, playing music I genuinely love.  Whatever the future may hold and how I feel about it will be what it is. All I know is that if I’m gonna do something, I’m gonna do it properly so I’m not ripping off people who have paid good money to come see us, and ripping myself off by selling my art short.

We have a pretty amazing year lined up show-wise in 2012 and lots of exciting developments in the works. If there’s any year which will tell me if this is all worth it, it’ll be this one…

So let’s make it a damn good one!

See you all on the road!

- LT