Iced Earth – Jon Schaffer

Iced Earth recently celebrated the release of their tenth studio album, ‘Dystopia’ which features new vocalist, Stu Block. While the album itself is not a concept, it contains themes of dystopian movies and literature which founding member Jon Schaffer, both admires and expresses as more than just fiction.

Metal Obsession’s Anwar Rizk had the honour to speak  with Jon Schaffer about Iced Earth‘s latest release, the band’s upcoming first tour of Australia in April and Jon’s thoughts on certain social and political dilemmas affecting the world.

Metal Obsession: I assume you’re more than excited to be touring Australia for the first time next month?

Jon Schaffer: Dude! I cannot wait. I’m not looking forward to the flight though. [laughs] But we’re keen. We’ve been wanting to do this for a very long time.

MO: What can we expect. Setlist wise?

JS: You can expect getting kicked in the balls…big time! [laughs] This is probably the heaviest set we have ever done. There is only one ballad, but the rest is pure metal madness. Watch the fuck out is all I can say. [laughs]

MO: I know you’re quite an outspoken person when it comes to politics. I’m just wondering what your take is on this whole Kony 2012 film?

JS: Dude! I don’t know. I can’t really say. I’ve just been on tour with Symphony X in the US and Russell Allan has become one of my best friends ever. We bonded really well and spent a lot of time together over the tour. He’s more of an ancient history person and I’m more colonial era America (The American Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation etc). Thats what I love getting into. We have learned a lot from each other.

To be honest, there could be a lot more going on with this Kony guy than I can possibly understand. I just know for a fact that our government are criminals themselves, who constantly lie to everyone. So I can’t really say. I mean I think its pretty convenient to scare the shit out of the entire population and make us think that the world is full of violence and there is no hope for any of us. I don’t think violence, whatever form it may take will end. Not unless we ALL change and not merely think that everyone else around us needs to change first.

I believe there is a financial armageddon which will lead to some serious things happening, but that’s all I can say, man. History just seems to be repeating itself.

MO: I don’t think this “movement” will change anything. Violence and fear have been apart of our psychological conditioning for hundreds of years. Its a contradiction.  It’s conditioning people to use violence against violence.

JS: [laughs] Its all about fear, brother! I mean that’s how the elite always take control of anyone. Once you keep everyone divided and afraid. They win! You’re right. Its a game that’s been played out for centuries. Its the same shit!

I mean it would be awesome if something happened that would change all that. Perhaps some spiritual awakening of all mankind, not just a small group of people. We’d all say “Fuck these shackles of oppression”. “We’re waking up!”. We ALL want to live as free individual people like we’re suppose too. But I’m kinda skeptical. We seem to be up against a propaganda machine of the highest calibre. Its beyond what anyone can comprehend. At its core its the purist of evil. I mean I’ve tried to educate myself. I’ve read numerous books and studied history for quite sometime. I’ve been slowly trying to put all the pieces together.

We’re in trouble, but I don’t necessarily believe its connected to superstitious predictions like the Mayan calendar. I think its just people choosing to be dumb asses about it like they’ve always been. They’re easily manipulated.

[Editors notes: “Dystopia” taken from Iced Earth’s latest release of the same name.]

MO: Like Mahatma Gandhi once said “An eye for an eye ends up making the whole world blind”.

JS: To me, Gandhi’s way is the only way.  The problem is people choose to be stupid about certain issues plaguing our planet. We seem to be spoiled rotten. We watch to much TV, football and reality shows to really care about anything. Its either TV or stupid shit people worry about. The thing is, Gandhi and his people were desperate. They were willing to take a British rifle butt to the head to make a point, yet not use any form of violence to get their point across. Do you think your country men are willing to do that, or even mine? People in Britain, Europe or even Canada? They’re spoiled rotten dude. They eat this shit up. They make people feel guilty into believing that if we don’t have anything of value or if we aren’t “patriotic”, we’re not valuable to them. They love their servitude. I think to myself sometimes “Is this all there is?”. To me, its just a joke.

We have to be completely and utterly desperate before anyone decides to take the approach that Gandhi took. Thats what makes me so angry about this. That we all have just enough wealth to keep us satisfied. As long as that “slave” has enough wealth to serve the elite and can watch football, its all good!

To me, its fucking ridiculous. I don’t understand how people can put up with this shit everyday of their lives.

MO: Would you say its superficiality?

JS: Its worse than superficiality. Its a control mechanism that’s off the charts and people are dumb enough to buy into it. I think Gandhi is awesome. He was right. He certainly was right about a lot of things. But I don’t think anyone is prepared to make a change like he did, because to many people have just enough wealth and choose to be stupid, you know? [laughs]

MO: [Dystopia] seems to be a personal journey. While the album is fueled by aggression and depicts totalitarian imagery, similar to your highly political Sons of Liberty project with references to movies like “V for Vendetta” and “Equilibrium”. There is a strong sense of spirituality and understanding of the human spirit.

JS: I think ‘Dystopia’ is a little more veiled in terms of its message compared to Sons of Liberty. For me, Sons of Liberty is like a roundhouse kick to the head. It’s obvious what it is. I’m not pulling any punches with that. The music press is controlled to a certain degree. There are segments that are controlled that meet a lot of resistance with Sons of Liberty. They didn’t necessarily understand the message. Perhaps they did, but they didn’t want to talk about it because they would be ridiculed by their peers.

I tried to get that same message across with Iced Earth on the new album, but make it a little more understandable and subtle by relating certain movies, literature or even my own stories into the lyrics. Hopefully on a subconscious level it will make people think. At least inspire them to think for themselves.

MO: Did you simply watch these movies and start writing?

JS: Actually, Stu [Block] and I watched the movies together. He hadn’t seen V for Vendetta at the time. Its actually one of my favourite movies and after he saw it, he was like, “Man! This is Killer!”. We both worked on the lyrics together. In reference to the movie tracks like Dark City, Soylent Green and the others. Stu and I watched them all and just worked together.

There is also another aspect of the album which relates to a lot personal issues as well.  We want to provide a positive message because the album is pretty dark. But if you look at tracks like ‘Anthem’, ‘Iron Will’ or ‘Tragedy and Triumph’ there more positive. We want to inspire people. We want to give them both sides of the coin and give them the opportunity to search for answers.

[Editors notes: “Anthem” taken from Iced Earth’s latest release, ‘Dystopia’.]

MO: I think movies like Escape from New York, The Great Dictator and Network do well expressing social commentary. Were there other movies that sparked your interest?

JS: I love Network. Its an amazing movie. Perhaps on the next album we might look into those movies and more. On the Sons of Liberty EP [Spirit of the Times] I guess you could say the song ‘Mind Control’ is loosely based on the movie Network. Its more about the reality of it. I had to tread carefully when writing because I’ve meet resistance before in music press around the world when you try to “keep it real”. That’s why its somewhat veiled. Thats all there is to it. When Sons of Liberty originally came out, no one wanted to talk about it. The label didn’t believe in it and I personally didn’t want to give it to a record label. But they wanted it and put it out there and people were afraid of it.

Two years after the release of Sons of Liberty. Rock Hand magazine, one of the biggest publications in Germany did a 6 page article and put me on the cover for the ‘Dystopia’ release. There was like two paragraphs about ‘Dystopia’ and the rest was informing people of Sons of Liberty and what it was all about. I mean the editor did his research and put in quotes from Woodrow Wilson, David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger. Sometimes you plant a seed and a lot of people don’t want to hear what you have to say.  You can’t undo what has already been said. A lot of people choose to close their mind. But then they happen to see something on the news, or something in their life which makes them think that perhaps they don’t have all the answers, and that person they were trying to run away from perhaps was just warning them.

I mean there are lots of people who have the balls to stand up for what they believe in, but at the end of the day the majority choose to stand back and not do anything.

MO: Do you personally believe there is hope for humankind?

JS: We seem to live in a world where up is down and black is white and so forth. Everything is back to front. A lot of people think they have the answers to the most baffling questions, but it all comes down to how a certain power structure is controlling everyone’s thinking. Its like going back to the whole Kony thing. They say they want to send troops over to liberate the country, but its the complete opposite of that. They just want to control them just like everyone else. I think the only answer to free humanity is to have no government. I’m more of an anarchist than a libertarian. I mean I hate all governments. Every country that has gotten some sort of power wants more of it just turns into a monopoly from there. A small few get the taste of this power and they want more and they’ll do anything to get more of it.

I mean they go in and corrupt government officials, pass legislation’s that only benefit a small group and keep everyone else in fear. They take away fundamental freedoms of everyday people that a lot of us take for granted, in turn making that country a police state and most of the time its done quite subtle, as to not ruffle any feathers. Then people have no chance to resist or speak their mind about how this affects them and their countrymen. This has happened time and time again. That is why I hate government. We want to get to the bottom of this. I mean its no secret anymore for us to change it.

MO: On that note. Do you have any famous last words?

JS: Nah man! Just looking forward to coming to Australia for the first time. Its going to be great. It would be great to catch up in Melbourne and discuss this more. I could talk for hours about this stuff. [laughs]

Iced Earth’s latest release, ‘Dystopia’ is currently available via Century Media Records: www.centurymedia.com

Tickets are still available for the upcoming Iced Earth tour of Australia. Pick up the last remaining tickets via Soundworks Touring: www.soundworkstouring.com/australia