Interviews : Double Dragon (Lee Gardiner) – 20/12/2009

Double Fucking Dragon. Seen them? You should have by now given they’ve toured the country three times in the past year! In the lead up to yet another tour, this time supporting Chimaira around Australia, MO spoke with front man Lee Gardiner, about touring in support of their album Devastator, playing with their original lineup, and what exactly went down at the Slayer show in Melbourne that got Dave Lombardo a little angsty!

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Metal Obsession: Welcome once again, friends from South Australia! How is the scorching summer heat treating you over there? Conducive to a dirty, sweaty moshpit much!?
Double Dragon: Hey hey to our mates in Melbourne!! Before I start I want to congratulate you on the development of Metal Obsession. It’s fantastic that there is a site that has a real focus on the Australian scene, so give yourselves a big pat on the back and thanks for letting the world know what our wonderful metal scene is up to!

The weather hasn’t actually been too bad, we had a really hot spell not long ago that I think travelled up to you, like a week of 40 degree days, but yeah it means lots of sweaty, drunken, stinking shows, but its better than freezing your balls off, and there’s definitely no complaints with the attire of the female metal heads – except at a Cuntscrape show, the colder the better.

MO: We last spoke to you in September 2008, shortly after the release of your debut full length album ‘Devastator’. You’ve had the chance to tour the country since then, how was the reaction from fan on the live front?
DD: It has been a trip out that’s for sure. We were lucky enough to get around the country I two or three times in the last 18 months, and each time there is more and more people singing along to our tunes, and personally, to have complete strangers knowing our songs, as a musician, there is no greater feeling.

Obviously when we play support shows we are playing for people who want us off the stage as quick as possible so they can see their heroes, but too us it’s a great opportunity to show people what Double Dragon are all about, and its forced us to increase our intensity and live performance ten fold, something I think is now leaching into our newer material. Playing alongside and getting to know bands like Soilwork and The Haunted, the professionalism they display constantly, well it rubs off and gave us plenty of inspiration both onstage and in the studio for our new album.

MO: Of course a number of those live shows the band was opening in support of the Slayer and Megadeth tour around the country. How was the tour, any funny stories, highlights or random shit that we should know about?
DD: That tour was a dream come true. From the moment we randomly got the call to say that Slayer wants us to tour with them, the build up, the excitement, the sheer size of the crowds, the stage, and the bands themselves, it’s hard to believe that it was something we actually did.

I remember the last time we played with Slayer in Adelaide for the Christ Illusion tour – that was the biggest highlight of my life pretty much, and when the promoters said they want us for the whole tour this time around, and with Megadeth, I seriously nearly fainted! Slayer and Megadeth are two bands that, like so many of us, I have grown up with, when it all sunk in, we knew we were the luckiest band in the country at that time.

To be honest, there wasn’t that many funny stories, playing to those crowds day after day, walking past Dave Mustaine, Kerry King, watching them sound check, watching how the staff and everyone contributed really was an eye opening experience – we   really tried to take as much in and learn as much as we could from two of the best bands in history. Usually, on tour, we are the wildest band going around, but this time we were on our best behaviour, we have so much respect for them we didn’t want to make asses of ourselves and just focussed on our performance and playing the best we can. Having a smoko with Dave Mustaine was something I will never forget, the friendships and sessions we had with the Slayer/Megadeth road crew, catching Jeff Hanneman side stage in Sydney banging out to our song Dead But Still Killing, it was like the ultimate heavy metal holiday and something that I will never ever forget. I only wish we could have taken more of our friends along for the ride!

MO: Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo had some ‘kind’ words to say in relation to both yourself and Contrive vocalist Paul Haug joining the band on stage when Tom Araya couldn’t go on with vocals due to losing his voice. Any thoughts or comments on that?
DD: I just read that just then! Haha pretty brutal, it probably should have been planned if people were to get up on stage, but what can you do hey? I’m glad it happened, and I’m sure Paul Haug is equally glad,  I suppose that is a little selfish, but what can I say man? We got to sing a song with SLLAAAAAAAYYYYYYEEEEEEER for fucks sake, and it was one of the highlights of my life. I’ll let you all know how this actually went down (as it was) completely random and really, I don’t know many people who wouldn’t have done what Paul and I did.

After Megadeth played we grabbed some drinks and we were just watching side stage. Slayer started and I remember there wasn’t much going on vocally. I thought it was a sound issue, and by the third or fourth song, Tom was only singing certain lines. His roady Warren, and Tom, kept looking over at Jason (from Adelaide band Truth Corroded) and I after songs talking to each other,  I remember Jase was like  “Hey I think they want you to sing” I was like.. “Fuck off dude, no way” then Warren and Tom called me onstage and I was just on stage thinking, fuck yeah this is cool, watching Slayer on stage!

At this point, Tom walks over and is like, “I want you to sing Hate World Wide”. It all happened so quick, I was walking on stage in total disbelief, looking over at Kerry and Jeff thinking, “Fuck me, I remember pretending to be in Slayer singing into a deodorant can at 15 years of age, now holy shit, this is happening!!!”

Then, seeing Paul Haug do the whole “The next song is about a man called Ed….” I cracked up laughing, it was fucking classic. I was stoked for the Haugs that Paul had the chance to do that in front of an adoring home crowd. A very, very special night indeed. I remember our first show ever in Melbourne was with Contrive and Truth Corroded in 2006, and too think that the three of us would be all onstage years later with Slayer, at Festival Hall – well it still blows my mind.  But yeah, Dave didn’t like it, what can you do hey, they made at least three people’s metal dreams come true, wouldn’t change it for the world , my comment is blame Tom – it was all his fault!!

MO: You also recently played a gig in Adelaide under the moniker of Have Them Destroyed, which was with your original line-up. How did this come about?
DD: Well our bro’s in Truth Corroded needed someone to fill in for Mark on their recent Asian tour, and as the Truth Corroded/Double Dragon camps are really close, the obvious and easiest choice for them was to ask Davin to join them after recently helping them out on with a show in Perth. We are still very close to our original lead guitarist Moif, and every now and again pops down to our studio and watches.

As we are all show pigs and stage addicts, we didn’t really want to stop playing while Dav was away, so we thought it would be a great chance to revisit some old songs and have a jam with Moif in the down time. It was a smallish show, at our rehearsal studio (Carmen, the manager built us a stage in the main foyer) and we ripped it out for nearly two hours, 20 songs. The great thing about re-learning our first songs is that we kind of remembered why we started this band in the first place, when it wasn’t so goal driven, when we didn’t have fans and we just played and sung with the tools we had at the time, and yeah it was almost like coming home so to speak, the contrasts between the style of those songs and our newer material is like black and white, but still very Double Dragon at the same time.

Davin was actually back for the show, so we got him on stage aswell and played some new songs, which was also cool, it was a great nostalgic night, and it was one of the most fun shows I have ever played. Since then, Davin and I just played an acoustic show too, where we re-worked our old songs and did some covers. It was weird because after the bright lights and massive crowds of Slayer, we really needed to go back to the grass roots smaller shows, and get ourselves grounded again. The Have Them Destroyed Show and the Unplugged show have possibly been my favourite shows of this year, mainly as they have been a great chance to reflect on the last five years and all the craziness, and to remind us of where we came from.

MO: Double Dragon is now set to support Chimaira on their Australian tour next month (Jan 2010). Have the American’s been much of an influence for DD?
DD: I wouldn’t say they have been a direct influence on our sound, as we sound nothing like them, but I am definitely a big fan and have been since they released “Pass Out Of Existence”.

I remember when that album came out,  I was 21 years old, still in my old band “The Undermind” and me and my best mate Benny (who now plays drums from In Death in Qld) saw an add in Kerrang or something and we were like, lets ring the cd store and see if they have it in. Anyway, I remember the day well, it was stinking fucking hot, we were both drunk as fuck about 3pm, the dude was like, yeah we got it in, come down. So we jumped in the car, hooned it too the cd store, ran to the counter and the sales guy was like “Sorry guys, I just sold the last copy!!” Benny and I looked at each other and were, “you fucking cunt, you mean we drove down here drunk for nothing – you son of a bitch!”, then he pulls out a sample copy and said, here you can have this one (I think just to get us out of the shop) and Benny and I proceeded to fight for the CD, in the store, knocking over shit and being real arseholes. When we got back home, we chucked it in, and the production, heaviness, everything was something that was kind of refreshing, like a return to actual metal music from the bullshit nu-metal era. Since then, I have been a fan of the band, followed every release, and have enjoyed watching them evolve into a metal powerhouse. Their new album is great, a real grower, although musically they are not a direct influence on Double Dragon, their attitude and the fact that every album they put out is so stylistically different than its earlier works – that is an influence and I respect the shit out of the band for doing whatever the fuck they want, and being successful at it.

MO: How long will you be gracing the stage on each night, and what sort of set list will you pull out of the bag, much new material?
DD: We have a 45 minute set on this tour, which is great, for 2010 we will be playing our new set, and using this tour to debut some of our newer songs from our upcoming album. Of course we play some tracks from Devastator and Scars of Fire, but touring those songs for so long, we are all itching to play our new songs and add some new additions to our set.

MO: On the topic of new material, how are the new songs coming along and when could we potentially see a release date?
DD: The new songs are coming along great, we have recorded some pre-production on about 8 songs, we have written another couple in the last few weeks, when we get back from home from  Chimaira, we want to be in the studio ASAP, finish it all off and then look to get overseas.

MO: Any stylistic changes that you have noticed so far in the new material, or have you been ‘true to your roots’ for lack of a not so overused expression?
DD: No, we are fucking off our ‘roots’ and trying something different this time! But, thinking about it, I don’t really know where our roots are. Our first EP Have Them Destroyed is very different than Scars of Fire and Devastator, but SOF and Devastator are stylistically similar somewhat. With Moif leaving, and Davin coming in, it was a great chance to sit back, re-access who we are, what music we actually want to play, and what we would be happy playing in the next 12 months, but we also didn’t want to beat the same dead horse and do another Devastator.

Primarily our music has been very guitar driven, twin harmonies type stuff, but this time around we are exploring some different ideas, writing around the drums and the vocals, which has opened up our sound massively. I remember on the tour with The Haunted, we got some great feedback from the guys, their drummer Per’s main advice was – “Your riffs are great, but you play too much, you should simple things out a bit more and let your riffs breathe”.

We really took that on board and we are more than happy with the results. A common statement from people who have heard us on record, then see us live for the first time, is “You guys are a lot heavier live than on Cd” a statement I whole heartedly agree with, I have always felt our recordings were too clean and polished, and not a true representation of how we play it live. This time around, we want a dirty, live sounding album that represents what we are doing on stage. Another change in our sound is that this year we have all worked hard individually on our own instruments to become better musicians, I enrolled in a vocal school, Danny our drummer has really been coming along in leaps and bounds, Davin, Jase and Roads have been putting in extra efforts getting their chops up, we really have never been more able and ready to make this album the best we possibly can, in the five years of Double Dragon, in the last couple of months, we have never sounded better.

MO: Will the band be sticking with Truth Inc Records, who do a great job in Australia, or perhaps will you be looking to gain greater exposure in the international market?
DD: We are not sure what will happen yet but once we have something that sounds good enough to start shopping we will be doing that. Either we go out on our own, or get Truth Inc Records to assist with us finding a new home, but our main focus is getting the songs right for now. Though I don’t want to start thinking about labels too much, just in case they say.. “a little more of this, or a little less that”, we will give them a finished product and then go from there.

We do have some interest from both here and abroad, and we will approach them with an open mind when the time comes. Truth Inc Records are one of the rare labels that’s focus is on strengthening Australian metal as whole, so yeah anything they want to do with us, we are always going to listen and respect what they say, we respect the shit out of those guys and the opportunities they have created for Double Dragon, and Australian metal in general. I suppose the next step for Truth Inc Records, Double Dragon, and Truth Corroded, is to stitch up an international deal. If that happens, then Truth Inc Records is definitely a breeding ground for the next wave of Aussie metal, and that will be great for everyone.

MO: To wrap things up, any parting words to our faithful readers here on Metal Obsession?
DD: Yeah, thanks for reading, make sure you keep coming back to Metal Obsession for Aussie music news, and when we are playing in your town, make sure you come up and say hello The best thing about being in a metal band is meeting metal heads and making new friends, so feel free to come and buy us a drink and shoot the shit!

MO: Thanks for your time mate, all the best on the Chimaira tour!
DD: Thank you – and hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and New Years.. METAL!!! lml

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Queries: Brendan Amos (Metal Obsession)
Retorts: Lee Gardiner (Double Dragon)
Date: 20/12/2009
Origin: Adelaide, Australia
www.myspace.com/doubledragonheavymetal