A little over a decade ago, Red formed in Nashville, Tennessee. They are not just any band. Red is a band whose members carry their strong Christian beliefs and values with them on their journey in rock music creation and performance. This is the life they’ve chosen and they continue to vigorously pour themselves, heart and soul, into it. What an amazing 10 years this has been for Red so far and there is no end in sight for these guys. When you listen to the music they create and the songs they perform, it’s clear to see that they take their music very seriously, right down to their album art, as you will read further in. With many top ranking hits in the past, their new album is sure to please their fans without falter. The band now consists of vocalist, Michael Barnes; Anthony Armstrong on lead and rhythm guitar; Randy Armstrong on bass, piano and keyboard; and most recently hired Dan Johnson on drums. I was fortunate enough today to sit down and discuss their new album “Of Beauty and Rage” and tour with Anthony so I could pick his brain and dig into his thought process surrounding the entirety of it all. There are some “golden nuggets” as Anthony put it, that the fans will be fed as time allows and even I won’t reveal them too deeply. In all seriousness, this album is going to take you deep into the darkness. It’s going to break your will and tear down your soul, and just when you think you can’t possibly find any strength, strength finds you and smacks you right in the face. It awakens the inner terrors that we all feel at one time or another as it strips away the marrow of the bone until there’s nothing left but the deepest and darkest desire to rebuild. After listening to this album over and over, and after being explained the significance of the opening and closing tracks, “Descent” and “Ascent”, which are available on the album only, I am beyond certain that this album will not disappoint their fans, both old and new. There is no denying the ability to inspire that this band brings to the table. Though I’d like to use a lot of heavy words that explain just how kick-ass this band really is, I say this simply, just buy the album, listen to it, feel its’ adrenaline rush through your veins as the music and lyrics wash over you. That pain and that ability to overcome, it’s real and it’s deep. The way I see it is that between the darkness and the light, there is a twisted struggle and that struggle is a deep shade of RED. Let them take you there! It won’t take long; you’ll totally get what I mean.
Interview with Anthony Armstrong of RED
By Leslie Elder Rogers
Metal Exiles: You’ve got this new album coming out; It’s your 5th album, so how are ya’ feeling about it?
Anthony: It’s a great feeling actually. You always have that kind of revival almost. You tour each record and it sometimes seems to last forever but it’s really only about a two year window. You have to keep feeding your audience and it’s just kind of decided that it’s time to go back to the drawing board. We started writing for this record over a year ago so we’ve been living with this project for a long time and it’s just time now. We’re ready to do this.
Metal Exiles: With Of Beauty and Rage do you think you have fully reached your creative peak or do you think there are more crevices yet to be discovered?
Anthony: I would say that any artist would say I hope not because you want there to be room to grow and room to mature with your writing. I think, as far as peak, the way the record was written, the sound, the sonic landscape, the emotion and everything that was poured into it, yes, this project was the peak of emotion. That’s because of where we’ve been the past few years as individuals, as a band, and even with our producer Rob. We’ve had a lot of hardships and things that I have been going wrong in our lives and it’s been really hard to understand and comprehend. We’re firm believers so we’re obviously exploring those avenues and trying to ask the big man upstairs “Hey, why is this happening? What’s going on and why is this happening to me? I feel like I’m a good person.” Sometimes we don’t see what’s truly happening and that there is a meaning and plan for everything. I think that is what “of Beauty and Rage” ended up being; that process and that chance for us to have our vessel of delivering that emotion and that real, just raw human element to our fans so that they can relate. I think this is going to be one of the most relatable records we’ve ever made as far as that connection with the human spirit.
Metal Exiles: Were you glad to have the opportunity to have Rob Graves produce again on the 5th album after he’d produced your first 3 albums but not the 4th?
Anthony: Yeah, we felt we needed to take a break from each other. Like I said, I think everything just kind of started spiraling in a different direction that none of us were really happy with. I think ultimately what we did with record 4 led to what we’ve done with record 5, I mean if you’re a believer in the “things happen for a reason” mentality. We felt like what went on between all of us, it was never like anything bad, it was just this is where I am at this point in my life and in my career and this is what I want to do. Those things have all just added up to “Of Beauty and Rage” and we couldn’t be happier to work together on it. The chemistry we brought to this record and everything we brought to the table, I mean Rob just understands us as artists and just has a way of gluing all the pieces together and ultimately giving us this amazing record; this project. It was not just that, the way we live, the environment we were in while we made this record; we literally lived at the studio. We were literally sleeping ten feet away from the console and were just completely immersed with the creative process, with the music and also with the emotional connection between all of us and I think that’s a big part of it. If you don’t have that happening before a single note is played, there’s not really much for people to look forward to. I think that’s what they’re connecting with the most.
Metal Exiles: Beauty And Rage is your darkest effort to date, what did it take for Red to go this deep into your collective emotions?
Anthony: It is definitely the darkest record we’ve ever written. It’s something we’ve never really explored before; that darkness, it’s a very scary place to be. There’s a phrase that was coined very early on that kind of started this whole process. Like I said, we drew so much from our individual lives and the difficulties we’d been experiencing the last year. I’m not just talking about with Red, but the personal lives of the guys that comprise the band. Some have had some really rough times and relationships and everything. You name it. Things just seem to attack you. What it took for us to get to that point was understanding that on this project alone, there was something to be said for someone who can revisit the dark. Being able to go back to that place that was so hard and so difficult and study it and memorize what comprises that struggle, that evil and all of those things and have that “know your enemy mentality”. The mentality of “I know what this is all about. I know what this is going to do to me and this is how I’m going to get out of it. This is how I’m going to move on and find the ultimate beauty in the situation.” That’s where we went and I think early on when that phrase was coined, I walked into the studio and said “Guys, I gotta be honest with you. The last year has been like walking in the shadows and if that shadow had a darkest part; a place where it was so dark that you can’t even see your own hand in front of your face, that’s where I was at”. That’s where we coined the title “The Darkest Part”, and that song was made from it. It just turned out exactly the way it should’ve.
Metal Exiles: You guys stated that “of BEAUTY and RAGE is about suffering and finding the beauty in that. Do you think we all have to suffer something at some point and why?
Anthony: I think we all have to. I mean, I know we all have to. I think it defines our character. I think that when the tough times come, it is the measure of man, the race, of humankind. If there wasn’t any suffering, there would be no personality. There would be no characteristics that make up an individual. If it was easy all the time, it would just be kind of, well, like when you’re in school and you play sports, you learn more from losing than you do from winning. That’s just a good way of looking at it. I feel like that struggle, like that dark part of our lives is always going to be there regardless. That’s another part of the record too. It doesn’t matter how fast you run; like bad dream, you’re trying to run as fast as you can from that monster but you’re not going to get away. It’s this constant every day remembrance and understanding of who that enemy is and trying to negotiate your way to the beautiful parts. See this is great. I can do these interviews back and I feel like I’m saying different things in each one of them so it doesn’t all cannibalize itself with other interview outlets, so that’s cool. We have a lot of stock questions like ‘How do you like your new record and stuff”, but then interviews sometimes take a turn when someone hits you with a question that’s like “Wow, great question”!
Metal Exiles: That being said, what do you want the fans to take away from this album?
Anthony: We want them to be responsible with this record. What it took for us to achieve this record was a scary thing because like I said, diving back into and remembering those parts of “wow, this is where I was. This is what was happening in my life and this is what it made me do. This is how it made me feel”, it’s like remembering those things can almost drag someone back into those things. That one sip of alcohol, that one look at a bottle of pills, all of the vices that exist out there, people just reach for it again. For us to go and just remember and understand the emotion of all of those things and not fall into them again but to just draw from them again, to come out unscathed and better for it is what we want people to do. We want them to relive those demons and understand what they are and who they are and why they exist so they can be prepared. It’s like that doomsday mentality. Prepare your mind, prepare you heart for the next dark thing that comes along because you know so much about those things in your life and when the new thing shows it’s ugly face, I’m sure there are going to be a lot of characteristics about it that are similar to what you’ve already lives and you can beat it. You can win that battle. Who would’ve thought that a collection of ten silly rock songs would turn into this thing; this massive journey of the mind and of the heart? There’s so much emotion when you’re playing a guitar. It’s pretty wild. That’s why we love it so much.
Metal Exiles: Was it hard for you guys to write this album and where were you emotionally when you were done recording?
Anthony: Yes, the song “Fight to Forget”, when you said that, it kind of choked me up a little bit because it was written solely about the situation that I was in. It’s just so cool that we all come together as a group of brothers. We fight for each other. We lift each other up and we try to help each other through the avenue of music. That song is a grim reminder. It’s so therapeutic at the same time to be able to scream. I think that’s why we love it so much. The novelty of what we do and the screaming in our songs, it’s all just that moment in your life when you just want to grab a pillow and just scream your brains out. You need those moments to just release that energy. That’s what that song is. It was a difficult record. When we started hearing the final mixes and the songs come to life, you go back there in your mind and the wounds were deep and the scars are there and very real. It’s just cool to have that; ultimately this gigantic band aid.
Metal Exiles: What tracks on the record really drive home the point of the album and why?
Anthony: I think “Darkest Part” is definitely a front runner as far as that keystone moment on the record where we felt this is it. This is what we’re talking about. Another one that pops up for me, especially as a group of guys that work together is “The Ever”. If you listen to that record, there’s reference to every project we’ve ever done. You hear the words instinct and faces, and all the work we’ve done throughout the records. It’s how we found a way to incorporate everything we’ve ever done and it has become the beauty and the rage. It’s a powerful track because that’s a song where you feel like in your life, someone was telling you that you can’t do this, that you’re not capable of doing this unless you have me in your life. You have this vice. It’s like that darkness talking to you, the first couple of lines of that song; “I didn’t know what I was capable of. I didn’t know I could do this without all those things” and it’s pretty incredible. Another track I will point out is “Yours Again”. It’s definitely another front runner for me as far as how the record feels and the whole theme behind everything. Just knowing that it was always there and you let it go and the hardest times collided with the good and you came back; you found a way.
Metal Exiles: As a guitar player, how did you attack this album and where did you go to channel these monstrous riffs?
Anthony: I like to turn it up really loud when I write stuff because I want to envision being in front of a group of people. What I mean by that is there is nothing more fulfilling than to see the look on someone’s face when that song starts and you see the journey happen right there before your eyes. You see someone else’s mind almost go to the same place, if not the place they just need to go when that song kicks in. When I’m writing, that’s one of my favorite things in the whole world; the thought of how is this going to make someone else feel when this note is behind this note and this note is in front of it. I just go from there. Rob likes to call it “Anthony’s Vietnam”. What I mean by that is it was like several tours of duty and just painstaking effort and hours of coming up with just the right thing; just to make those moments happen for people. There were a couple of tracks on the album that were like that for me. The very first track called “Imposter” was one of those tracks for me musically where I thought “Gosh, this is going to kill me”. It’s always a fun time. Rob is just trying to get outside of the box and not write the very typical record. This is not a typical record; at least we like to think so anyway. You’re just kind of getting outside of what you’re used to hearing. I was on Facebook the other day and I saw this post about a six song mash- up of all of these famous Country songs that are out right now that are all the same core productions and the same key and the same melody and the same structure. It seems like in the music industry, when it comes to just the industry, the money making scheme of it all, whatever works, just keep doing that, over and over. They think you should make as much money as you can and cash in on that formula because that’s what people like and that’s what people are listening to. We went into this project not caring about radio or about the three minute and thirty second limit. We don’t care about any of those things. There is a track on this record that’s almost seven minutes long. We just don’t want to have to cater to writing this song for radio and it having to sound like this and feeling like that. We want our fans to feel. We don’t care about how a radio programmer feels. We want the fan to be like “Oh my God, I was going to kill myself last night and I heard this record and I had to let you guys know that this song saved my life”. There’s a little band called “Nirvana” that did that. They did a thing that no one had ever heard before and it was rock and it had similar elements of things but there was just something about it. I feel like that’s what been lost with music so much recently in the last ten years. It’s hard when you’re in the industry not to fall into some of that formula. You’re not going to get certain opportunities and things aren’t going to happen and you’re ultimately not going to get your music out to the amount of people you want to if you don’t sort of follow this regimen, but you get ten years into your career and, for lack of a better way of putting it, it’s like this middle finger and you’re thinking “I don’t want to do those things. I want to do what I know is going to be impactful for our fans”. That’s’ the whole path that we took in the very beginning.
Metal Exiles: The album artwork carries on the tradition you guys have of having striking, provoking artwork. What does this say about Red and what you want to public to see when they pick up your albums?
Anthony: We want them to see the imagery for what it is and not take it so literal. Everything we’ve tried to do and tried to achieve with our imagery always has an element of theatricality to it; always has that entertainment value to it. It has to. That’s what we do. We don’t only make music. We try to inspire. We entertain. That’s the fun part of what we do. With “Of Beauty and Rage’, it all started when we saw these pictures of this place in Poland called “The Crimson Forest”. This is an actual place and you see on the cover of the record, an actual shot of that forest. In the fall, all the leaves in that forest turn red and fall to the ground. The whole floor of the forest looks like it’s covered in blood. The trees are just creepy and epic and there was just something about it that struck us. As a band, we’ve always been known for having those evil elements; being able to flirt with the darkness and look into the darkness and see that monster. Everybody likes to call it the monster; this plague. It’s actually a plague doctor from the bubonic plague. They would wear those masks and they would fill those beaks full of flowers and herbs and essences that they thought would mask them from contracting the plague. The doctors wore those masks and ultimately the public started wearing those in order to not get sick. It kind of turns itself on it’s’ head, the image itself looks evil. It’s looks kind of scary and creepy. We liked the way it looked and felt and how it made us feel. When you look at the imagery of the record, think of us as believers. We’re all God fearing men and as believers we look at that forest and when those leaves turn red in the fall, that’s all those things, all the dead in our life falling around us; hitting us and touching us and collecting at our feet, almost burying us alive just as evil buries us. What are we going to do to escape? It’s that dark image that’s constantly haunting us. That image is meant to be you looking in the mirror. That’s what you see every single day. How are you going to fight it? It’s just about being a salt on the senses; an overwhelming war.
Metal Exiles: What gear did you use on the album to get this amazing tone you have?
Anthony: It’s weird, a lot of guys get hung up on the “let’s try this and let’s try that” experimentation. We kind of take the route more of “that just sounds good”, period. It makes us feel good, it sounds good and I feel like we’ve got a pretty good ear for what sounds good because this is what we do. I can almost guarantee that our fans are gonna think “wow, that sounds so good, the tones are just amazing.” We like to see what’s new and hot out there and see what’s gonna give us the best range of what we’re looking for. We used some new gear, a new thing called the Kemper, which is an amplifier profiler piece of gear which we love. We’ve all been huge supporters of the guitar companies that have been more than willing to take great care of us. I play PRS guitars and I didn’t switch off to a Fender Stratocaster or a Gibson Les Paul. For so many songs, I strictly used the guitars that I will be using on stage. You’ve got to narrow that gap from what you hear in the studio to the stage and make that sound come to life live and I think that if you’re using the same gear and the same things in both theaters, you’re gonna get that overall sound. We stick to what we know and what we’re good at and try not to stray too far away from that because that’s when things get confusing and lost in the mix. You just don’t want to do that.
Metal Exiles: The tour with 3 Years Hollow and Islander was just announced. What do you think of these bands and what do you have planned after this run?
Anthony: The only thing I know about either of the bands is that the guitar player used to be Brian “Head” Welch’s guitar player which is funny because now our drummer is the same drummer that played for Brian when he had the band “Love and Death”. I don’t know if you’re familiar with them or not. Dan is now our hired drummer and JR Bareis has just been hired by Islander to play the guitar so we know at least one guy in the band but we’re not familiar whatsoever with either one of the bands’ music. That’s cool and that’s why tours can be fun. Hopefully every time you’re gonna have a great experience. You want to have a great experience, especially with the other acts because sometimes it can get tough when bands don’t come out there doing what they need to be doing. We appreciate hard work. We appreciate bands that are really out there trying to push their music out rather than just for the party aspect of it that everybody typically sees from rocks bands. It’s cool to get to be reintroduced to new acts and up and coming things because we were there once too. We can always appreciate the new guys on the scene who barely have anything going for them right now and here they are hungry; they’re the JV team, if you want to give it some comparison I guess. It’s just cool to see them want to jump on and be supportive and do their thing; do what they love. We have so much respect for that. They’re essentially doing the exact same thing we’re doing and trying to make a living doing it. That’s the beauty of touring with newer acts too. It’s almost that fraternity and sorority mentality where the big help the little, the new guys because they’ve been around the block and they know how this world works and what you have to do to be seen and understood and heard. So it gives a chance for us, a band that’s a little more seasoned to help. My gosh, we’ve only been doing this 10 years and there’s band that we’re more familiar with like “Skillet”; those guys have been around 20 years so we’re kind of right in the middle there. We’re not quite on the back 9 yet so I guess that’s good, but yeah, it’s really just so fun to see the hunger of the new bands. They just want to pick your brain and almost immolate so much of what you do from the stage show to their business aspect. They want to ask questions and just take on some of the same things. That’s the way we’re programmed. We’re creatures of monkey see, monkey do.
Metal Exiles: Well, since you’ve brought up Skillet (whom I deeply love), would you like to see Red tour with them again at some point?
Anthony: Yeah, it’s a Juggernaut I would say when it comes to the “quote, unquote Christian bands” or whatever. Red and Skillet are right there; kind of two of the big marquees and we’ve just had an amazing career. It’s so cool that people kind of lump us into that and if you want to listen to rock and you want a great message and you have that kind of base, then you’re gonna want to listen to either Red or Skillet. So, yeah, it’s already in the talks every single year that we need to do a big tour together. We’ve toured several times together and we’re all good friends. It’s funny though because you do take on a little bit of that competition going on there too. Our fans probably create more havoc than we do (laughing). We understand each other as the artists. Their fans, the “panheads” and then our fans, the “redheads” are sometimes saying “awe man, my band is better than your band”. It’s kind of funny but it can create a little bit of awkwardness sometimes. Obviously we’re just trying to make everyone happy. But yeah, it’s always definitely on the radar to maybe be able to hang out with those guys again and do a nice long run.
Metal Exiles: You guys have won many awards and have been quite successful. Do you see Red as an anomaly in this fickle business?
Anthony: Wow, that’s a tough question to answer and it’s a great question by the way, thank you. I don’t know. If you’re referring to the anomaly being that we’re a group of believers in a rock and roll world where it’s tainted with the sex, drugs, and craziness, I think it’s funny how much more tame it really is out there than it used to be. It’s more about the fact that you have to work at this now. You’re not just given a multi-million dollar record deal and you’re not just this guy that has everything done for you. You work for a living man, and you see a lot of bands out there that just have their nose to the grindstone. That’s what we do and we appreciate that so much about other bands. Now there are bands out there that get it wrong and there are guys out there like us. It’s almost like you picture a couple of animals, a couple of dogs, and there’s “ole yeller”, the dog that’s been around the farm several years that just kind of sees the puppy as the annoyance. A little bit of that happens out there but we’ve been around long enough to know that nowadays you have to work for this. You have to work hard at it. You have to be envisioned to your fans. The rock star is bad. There’s no such thing as a rock star anymore because the rock star was the anomaly. Now, mind you, there are artists that are so huge, but our whole career and our whole lives are on the internet. There’s no mystery. If there’s not going to be any more mystery, then there’s no such thing as this untouchable, up on a soap box pedestal type of worshipped mentality that people used to take on with artists. What’s cool about that is that it levels the playing field a little bit and it gives so many more bands the opportunity to know so much more about other bands, and like them more or less as a result. The fans are truly getting you, for the most part, and now it’s up to them to say whether they want to support you or not, where I guess it was more of a guessing game than it was before. Now they can form their own opinions, “I think they’re cool. I think they’re nice guys. I think they’re this or that”. It’s up to them.
“Of Beauty and Rage’ drops on February 24th, 2015. Don’t hesitate to own this remarkable album.
Official Band Website:
http://www.redmusiconline.com
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Pre-order Of Beauty and Rage@ https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/of-beauty-and-rage/id961259509
Interview with Anthony Armstrong of RED
By Leslie Elder Rogers
Metal Exiles: You’ve got this new album coming out; It’s your 5th album, so how are ya’ feeling about it?
Anthony: It’s a great feeling actually. You always have that kind of revival almost. You tour each record and it sometimes seems to last forever but it’s really only about a two year window. You have to keep feeding your audience and it’s just kind of decided that it’s time to go back to the drawing board. We started writing for this record over a year ago so we’ve been living with this project for a long time and it’s just time now. We’re ready to do this.
Metal Exiles: With Of Beauty and Rage do you think you have fully reached your creative peak or do you think there are more crevices yet to be discovered?
Anthony: I would say that any artist would say I hope not because you want there to be room to grow and room to mature with your writing. I think, as far as peak, the way the record was written, the sound, the sonic landscape, the emotion and everything that was poured into it, yes, this project was the peak of emotion. That’s because of where we’ve been the past few years as individuals, as a band, and even with our producer Rob. We’ve had a lot of hardships and things that I have been going wrong in our lives and it’s been really hard to understand and comprehend. We’re firm believers so we’re obviously exploring those avenues and trying to ask the big man upstairs “Hey, why is this happening? What’s going on and why is this happening to me? I feel like I’m a good person.” Sometimes we don’t see what’s truly happening and that there is a meaning and plan for everything. I think that is what “of Beauty and Rage” ended up being; that process and that chance for us to have our vessel of delivering that emotion and that real, just raw human element to our fans so that they can relate. I think this is going to be one of the most relatable records we’ve ever made as far as that connection with the human spirit.
Metal Exiles: Were you glad to have the opportunity to have Rob Graves produce again on the 5th album after he’d produced your first 3 albums but not the 4th?
Anthony: Yeah, we felt we needed to take a break from each other. Like I said, I think everything just kind of started spiraling in a different direction that none of us were really happy with. I think ultimately what we did with record 4 led to what we’ve done with record 5, I mean if you’re a believer in the “things happen for a reason” mentality. We felt like what went on between all of us, it was never like anything bad, it was just this is where I am at this point in my life and in my career and this is what I want to do. Those things have all just added up to “Of Beauty and Rage” and we couldn’t be happier to work together on it. The chemistry we brought to this record and everything we brought to the table, I mean Rob just understands us as artists and just has a way of gluing all the pieces together and ultimately giving us this amazing record; this project. It was not just that, the way we live, the environment we were in while we made this record; we literally lived at the studio. We were literally sleeping ten feet away from the console and were just completely immersed with the creative process, with the music and also with the emotional connection between all of us and I think that’s a big part of it. If you don’t have that happening before a single note is played, there’s not really much for people to look forward to. I think that’s what they’re connecting with the most.
Metal Exiles: Beauty And Rage is your darkest effort to date, what did it take for Red to go this deep into your collective emotions?
Anthony: It is definitely the darkest record we’ve ever written. It’s something we’ve never really explored before; that darkness, it’s a very scary place to be. There’s a phrase that was coined very early on that kind of started this whole process. Like I said, we drew so much from our individual lives and the difficulties we’d been experiencing the last year. I’m not just talking about with Red, but the personal lives of the guys that comprise the band. Some have had some really rough times and relationships and everything. You name it. Things just seem to attack you. What it took for us to get to that point was understanding that on this project alone, there was something to be said for someone who can revisit the dark. Being able to go back to that place that was so hard and so difficult and study it and memorize what comprises that struggle, that evil and all of those things and have that “know your enemy mentality”. The mentality of “I know what this is all about. I know what this is going to do to me and this is how I’m going to get out of it. This is how I’m going to move on and find the ultimate beauty in the situation.” That’s where we went and I think early on when that phrase was coined, I walked into the studio and said “Guys, I gotta be honest with you. The last year has been like walking in the shadows and if that shadow had a darkest part; a place where it was so dark that you can’t even see your own hand in front of your face, that’s where I was at”. That’s where we coined the title “The Darkest Part”, and that song was made from it. It just turned out exactly the way it should’ve.
Metal Exiles: You guys stated that “of BEAUTY and RAGE is about suffering and finding the beauty in that. Do you think we all have to suffer something at some point and why?
Anthony: I think we all have to. I mean, I know we all have to. I think it defines our character. I think that when the tough times come, it is the measure of man, the race, of humankind. If there wasn’t any suffering, there would be no personality. There would be no characteristics that make up an individual. If it was easy all the time, it would just be kind of, well, like when you’re in school and you play sports, you learn more from losing than you do from winning. That’s just a good way of looking at it. I feel like that struggle, like that dark part of our lives is always going to be there regardless. That’s another part of the record too. It doesn’t matter how fast you run; like bad dream, you’re trying to run as fast as you can from that monster but you’re not going to get away. It’s this constant every day remembrance and understanding of who that enemy is and trying to negotiate your way to the beautiful parts. See this is great. I can do these interviews back and I feel like I’m saying different things in each one of them so it doesn’t all cannibalize itself with other interview outlets, so that’s cool. We have a lot of stock questions like ‘How do you like your new record and stuff”, but then interviews sometimes take a turn when someone hits you with a question that’s like “Wow, great question”!
Metal Exiles: That being said, what do you want the fans to take away from this album?
Anthony: We want them to be responsible with this record. What it took for us to achieve this record was a scary thing because like I said, diving back into and remembering those parts of “wow, this is where I was. This is what was happening in my life and this is what it made me do. This is how it made me feel”, it’s like remembering those things can almost drag someone back into those things. That one sip of alcohol, that one look at a bottle of pills, all of the vices that exist out there, people just reach for it again. For us to go and just remember and understand the emotion of all of those things and not fall into them again but to just draw from them again, to come out unscathed and better for it is what we want people to do. We want them to relive those demons and understand what they are and who they are and why they exist so they can be prepared. It’s like that doomsday mentality. Prepare your mind, prepare you heart for the next dark thing that comes along because you know so much about those things in your life and when the new thing shows it’s ugly face, I’m sure there are going to be a lot of characteristics about it that are similar to what you’ve already lives and you can beat it. You can win that battle. Who would’ve thought that a collection of ten silly rock songs would turn into this thing; this massive journey of the mind and of the heart? There’s so much emotion when you’re playing a guitar. It’s pretty wild. That’s why we love it so much.
Metal Exiles: Was it hard for you guys to write this album and where were you emotionally when you were done recording?
Anthony: Yes, the song “Fight to Forget”, when you said that, it kind of choked me up a little bit because it was written solely about the situation that I was in. It’s just so cool that we all come together as a group of brothers. We fight for each other. We lift each other up and we try to help each other through the avenue of music. That song is a grim reminder. It’s so therapeutic at the same time to be able to scream. I think that’s why we love it so much. The novelty of what we do and the screaming in our songs, it’s all just that moment in your life when you just want to grab a pillow and just scream your brains out. You need those moments to just release that energy. That’s what that song is. It was a difficult record. When we started hearing the final mixes and the songs come to life, you go back there in your mind and the wounds were deep and the scars are there and very real. It’s just cool to have that; ultimately this gigantic band aid.
Metal Exiles: What tracks on the record really drive home the point of the album and why?
Anthony: I think “Darkest Part” is definitely a front runner as far as that keystone moment on the record where we felt this is it. This is what we’re talking about. Another one that pops up for me, especially as a group of guys that work together is “The Ever”. If you listen to that record, there’s reference to every project we’ve ever done. You hear the words instinct and faces, and all the work we’ve done throughout the records. It’s how we found a way to incorporate everything we’ve ever done and it has become the beauty and the rage. It’s a powerful track because that’s a song where you feel like in your life, someone was telling you that you can’t do this, that you’re not capable of doing this unless you have me in your life. You have this vice. It’s like that darkness talking to you, the first couple of lines of that song; “I didn’t know what I was capable of. I didn’t know I could do this without all those things” and it’s pretty incredible. Another track I will point out is “Yours Again”. It’s definitely another front runner for me as far as how the record feels and the whole theme behind everything. Just knowing that it was always there and you let it go and the hardest times collided with the good and you came back; you found a way.
Metal Exiles: As a guitar player, how did you attack this album and where did you go to channel these monstrous riffs?
Anthony: I like to turn it up really loud when I write stuff because I want to envision being in front of a group of people. What I mean by that is there is nothing more fulfilling than to see the look on someone’s face when that song starts and you see the journey happen right there before your eyes. You see someone else’s mind almost go to the same place, if not the place they just need to go when that song kicks in. When I’m writing, that’s one of my favorite things in the whole world; the thought of how is this going to make someone else feel when this note is behind this note and this note is in front of it. I just go from there. Rob likes to call it “Anthony’s Vietnam”. What I mean by that is it was like several tours of duty and just painstaking effort and hours of coming up with just the right thing; just to make those moments happen for people. There were a couple of tracks on the album that were like that for me. The very first track called “Imposter” was one of those tracks for me musically where I thought “Gosh, this is going to kill me”. It’s always a fun time. Rob is just trying to get outside of the box and not write the very typical record. This is not a typical record; at least we like to think so anyway. You’re just kind of getting outside of what you’re used to hearing. I was on Facebook the other day and I saw this post about a six song mash- up of all of these famous Country songs that are out right now that are all the same core productions and the same key and the same melody and the same structure. It seems like in the music industry, when it comes to just the industry, the money making scheme of it all, whatever works, just keep doing that, over and over. They think you should make as much money as you can and cash in on that formula because that’s what people like and that’s what people are listening to. We went into this project not caring about radio or about the three minute and thirty second limit. We don’t care about any of those things. There is a track on this record that’s almost seven minutes long. We just don’t want to have to cater to writing this song for radio and it having to sound like this and feeling like that. We want our fans to feel. We don’t care about how a radio programmer feels. We want the fan to be like “Oh my God, I was going to kill myself last night and I heard this record and I had to let you guys know that this song saved my life”. There’s a little band called “Nirvana” that did that. They did a thing that no one had ever heard before and it was rock and it had similar elements of things but there was just something about it. I feel like that’s what been lost with music so much recently in the last ten years. It’s hard when you’re in the industry not to fall into some of that formula. You’re not going to get certain opportunities and things aren’t going to happen and you’re ultimately not going to get your music out to the amount of people you want to if you don’t sort of follow this regimen, but you get ten years into your career and, for lack of a better way of putting it, it’s like this middle finger and you’re thinking “I don’t want to do those things. I want to do what I know is going to be impactful for our fans”. That’s’ the whole path that we took in the very beginning.
Metal Exiles: The album artwork carries on the tradition you guys have of having striking, provoking artwork. What does this say about Red and what you want to public to see when they pick up your albums?
Anthony: We want them to see the imagery for what it is and not take it so literal. Everything we’ve tried to do and tried to achieve with our imagery always has an element of theatricality to it; always has that entertainment value to it. It has to. That’s what we do. We don’t only make music. We try to inspire. We entertain. That’s the fun part of what we do. With “Of Beauty and Rage’, it all started when we saw these pictures of this place in Poland called “The Crimson Forest”. This is an actual place and you see on the cover of the record, an actual shot of that forest. In the fall, all the leaves in that forest turn red and fall to the ground. The whole floor of the forest looks like it’s covered in blood. The trees are just creepy and epic and there was just something about it that struck us. As a band, we’ve always been known for having those evil elements; being able to flirt with the darkness and look into the darkness and see that monster. Everybody likes to call it the monster; this plague. It’s actually a plague doctor from the bubonic plague. They would wear those masks and they would fill those beaks full of flowers and herbs and essences that they thought would mask them from contracting the plague. The doctors wore those masks and ultimately the public started wearing those in order to not get sick. It kind of turns itself on it’s’ head, the image itself looks evil. It’s looks kind of scary and creepy. We liked the way it looked and felt and how it made us feel. When you look at the imagery of the record, think of us as believers. We’re all God fearing men and as believers we look at that forest and when those leaves turn red in the fall, that’s all those things, all the dead in our life falling around us; hitting us and touching us and collecting at our feet, almost burying us alive just as evil buries us. What are we going to do to escape? It’s that dark image that’s constantly haunting us. That image is meant to be you looking in the mirror. That’s what you see every single day. How are you going to fight it? It’s just about being a salt on the senses; an overwhelming war.
Metal Exiles: What gear did you use on the album to get this amazing tone you have?
Anthony: It’s weird, a lot of guys get hung up on the “let’s try this and let’s try that” experimentation. We kind of take the route more of “that just sounds good”, period. It makes us feel good, it sounds good and I feel like we’ve got a pretty good ear for what sounds good because this is what we do. I can almost guarantee that our fans are gonna think “wow, that sounds so good, the tones are just amazing.” We like to see what’s new and hot out there and see what’s gonna give us the best range of what we’re looking for. We used some new gear, a new thing called the Kemper, which is an amplifier profiler piece of gear which we love. We’ve all been huge supporters of the guitar companies that have been more than willing to take great care of us. I play PRS guitars and I didn’t switch off to a Fender Stratocaster or a Gibson Les Paul. For so many songs, I strictly used the guitars that I will be using on stage. You’ve got to narrow that gap from what you hear in the studio to the stage and make that sound come to life live and I think that if you’re using the same gear and the same things in both theaters, you’re gonna get that overall sound. We stick to what we know and what we’re good at and try not to stray too far away from that because that’s when things get confusing and lost in the mix. You just don’t want to do that.
Metal Exiles: The tour with 3 Years Hollow and Islander was just announced. What do you think of these bands and what do you have planned after this run?
Anthony: The only thing I know about either of the bands is that the guitar player used to be Brian “Head” Welch’s guitar player which is funny because now our drummer is the same drummer that played for Brian when he had the band “Love and Death”. I don’t know if you’re familiar with them or not. Dan is now our hired drummer and JR Bareis has just been hired by Islander to play the guitar so we know at least one guy in the band but we’re not familiar whatsoever with either one of the bands’ music. That’s cool and that’s why tours can be fun. Hopefully every time you’re gonna have a great experience. You want to have a great experience, especially with the other acts because sometimes it can get tough when bands don’t come out there doing what they need to be doing. We appreciate hard work. We appreciate bands that are really out there trying to push their music out rather than just for the party aspect of it that everybody typically sees from rocks bands. It’s cool to get to be reintroduced to new acts and up and coming things because we were there once too. We can always appreciate the new guys on the scene who barely have anything going for them right now and here they are hungry; they’re the JV team, if you want to give it some comparison I guess. It’s just cool to see them want to jump on and be supportive and do their thing; do what they love. We have so much respect for that. They’re essentially doing the exact same thing we’re doing and trying to make a living doing it. That’s the beauty of touring with newer acts too. It’s almost that fraternity and sorority mentality where the big help the little, the new guys because they’ve been around the block and they know how this world works and what you have to do to be seen and understood and heard. So it gives a chance for us, a band that’s a little more seasoned to help. My gosh, we’ve only been doing this 10 years and there’s band that we’re more familiar with like “Skillet”; those guys have been around 20 years so we’re kind of right in the middle there. We’re not quite on the back 9 yet so I guess that’s good, but yeah, it’s really just so fun to see the hunger of the new bands. They just want to pick your brain and almost immolate so much of what you do from the stage show to their business aspect. They want to ask questions and just take on some of the same things. That’s the way we’re programmed. We’re creatures of monkey see, monkey do.
Metal Exiles: Well, since you’ve brought up Skillet (whom I deeply love), would you like to see Red tour with them again at some point?
Anthony: Yeah, it’s a Juggernaut I would say when it comes to the “quote, unquote Christian bands” or whatever. Red and Skillet are right there; kind of two of the big marquees and we’ve just had an amazing career. It’s so cool that people kind of lump us into that and if you want to listen to rock and you want a great message and you have that kind of base, then you’re gonna want to listen to either Red or Skillet. So, yeah, it’s already in the talks every single year that we need to do a big tour together. We’ve toured several times together and we’re all good friends. It’s funny though because you do take on a little bit of that competition going on there too. Our fans probably create more havoc than we do (laughing). We understand each other as the artists. Their fans, the “panheads” and then our fans, the “redheads” are sometimes saying “awe man, my band is better than your band”. It’s kind of funny but it can create a little bit of awkwardness sometimes. Obviously we’re just trying to make everyone happy. But yeah, it’s always definitely on the radar to maybe be able to hang out with those guys again and do a nice long run.
Metal Exiles: You guys have won many awards and have been quite successful. Do you see Red as an anomaly in this fickle business?
Anthony: Wow, that’s a tough question to answer and it’s a great question by the way, thank you. I don’t know. If you’re referring to the anomaly being that we’re a group of believers in a rock and roll world where it’s tainted with the sex, drugs, and craziness, I think it’s funny how much more tame it really is out there than it used to be. It’s more about the fact that you have to work at this now. You’re not just given a multi-million dollar record deal and you’re not just this guy that has everything done for you. You work for a living man, and you see a lot of bands out there that just have their nose to the grindstone. That’s what we do and we appreciate that so much about other bands. Now there are bands out there that get it wrong and there are guys out there like us. It’s almost like you picture a couple of animals, a couple of dogs, and there’s “ole yeller”, the dog that’s been around the farm several years that just kind of sees the puppy as the annoyance. A little bit of that happens out there but we’ve been around long enough to know that nowadays you have to work for this. You have to work hard at it. You have to be envisioned to your fans. The rock star is bad. There’s no such thing as a rock star anymore because the rock star was the anomaly. Now, mind you, there are artists that are so huge, but our whole career and our whole lives are on the internet. There’s no mystery. If there’s not going to be any more mystery, then there’s no such thing as this untouchable, up on a soap box pedestal type of worshipped mentality that people used to take on with artists. What’s cool about that is that it levels the playing field a little bit and it gives so many more bands the opportunity to know so much more about other bands, and like them more or less as a result. The fans are truly getting you, for the most part, and now it’s up to them to say whether they want to support you or not, where I guess it was more of a guessing game than it was before. Now they can form their own opinions, “I think they’re cool. I think they’re nice guys. I think they’re this or that”. It’s up to them.
“Of Beauty and Rage’ drops on February 24th, 2015. Don’t hesitate to own this remarkable album.
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