Alestorm – Christopher Bowes

I love Alestorm. They’re a band that combines much of what I love into a single band. Interspersing lyrical themes about pirates, mythical monsters of the sea, and their various escapades, Alestorm aren’t afraid to push the boundaries of whatever genre they happen to be a part of (here it’s the loosely termed genre of ‘pirate metal’), and generally, they love to drink up, act silly, and give their fans one hell of a performance (whether it’s via a listen-through of one of their now four albums or their brilliant live shows).

So with all that being said, it was my recent pleasure to speak with the one and only Christopher Bowes, vocalist, keytarist, and all-round funny man (or madman, whichever you prefer) for Alestorm, on behalf of Metal Obsession. We discussed their new album, ‘Sunset on the Golden Age’, the band’s eclectic mix of cover songs, whether we may see them return to tour down under once more, and the local metal scene in Australia.

As is usual with my questions, I first asked Chris if he could tell us a little about the new album. His response was amusing to say the least. ‘It’s stupid. It’s complete nonsense. But it’s good nonsense! It’s polished and refined nonsense. There are catchy and memorable anthems and I think it’s wonderful. I can’t wait until everyone has heard it a million times and loves it as much as I do!’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f55CqLc6IR0

‘Sunset on the Golden Age’ felt an interesting transition musically from Alestorm’s previous material. With what seemed a far stronger folk element than earlier records (especially on tracks like “Magnetic North”), it surprised me when Chris noted this was unintentional. ‘If anything, it was my plan to make it less folky.’ Adding on, ‘We tried to get away from that traditional folk metal world. But it’s always nice to use a few of these melodies. What also helps is that we’re all better musicians now and a few of us can play these ladida folk instruments. Like Eli, our keyboard player, is really good at playing these traditional Irish whistles and stuff. It’s quite cool. I do like the sound of “Magnetic North”. It sounded like Titanic.’ [laughs]

Noting how the band had more freedom this time round, Chris commented: ‘In the past we were stuck in this world where we were trying to stick by the rules of both genres but now we realise we can do what we like.’ With a combination of various stylistic choices, Alestorm incorporated into the mix 8-bit game music, screams, and even surf rock riffing. ‘We really branched out stylistically with what we do.’

One of the first songs that grabbed me on my early listen-through of the album was “1741: The Battle of Cartagena”. Based on the historical naval conflict, I inquired as to what drove Alestorm’s decision to cover a real historical event. ‘[Cartagena] was one of the biggest cities in the Caribbean during the piracy age. And I found this story about this battle when [a number of] British people died, so I’m like, ‘that seems like a fun thing to write a song about!’ We’ve never written a song that has any sort of historical realm to it before, so it’s definitely very new for us. It’s all very exciting!’

Something Alestorm are known for (perhaps infamously) is their odd choice of cover songs. Covering the likes of “You Are a Pirate” from the Icelandic children’s program Lazy Town, among others, ‘Sunset…’ continues this tradition with “Hangover”, originally a Taio Cruz song, and features guest vocals here from Lagerstein’s Immobilizer. ‘It’s lovely doing these non-metal tracks. Sometimes when metal bands cover something, they just cover another metal or rock song. And it doesn’t add much to it, really. But with this song it was just such an opportunity to rewrite it. The original version was full of light pop, and dance, synth stuff, and as soon as I hear that, I can imagine it in my head with the Alestorm sound: huge guitars, drums, keyboards, and orchestras. It all just seemed to make a lot of sense to me. This is a song about drinking and it has an awesome melody. It’s clearly the perfect Alestorm song.’ He then added, ‘Of course, I can’t “rap-talk”. But I remembered that on Lagerstein’s album, they did a cover of “I’m on a Boat” by The Lonely Island and Immobilizer did the rap vocals for that. So I thought, ‘You know what, I’m gonna ask him if he can do ours!’ And he pulled it out. He ripped this sweet rap out for us. I’m really enjoying the way so many people are getting so angry about this song, [as well]. A lot of metalheads are very conservative in their appreciation of other genres. So having rap in a metal song is like destroying something we use. It’s great!’

‘Sunset on the Golden Age’ out now via Napalm Records

After discussing how Chris finds it relatively easy dividing time between Alestorm and his current power metal side-project, Gloryhammer, I noted how in a previous interview Metal Obsession did with Chris earlier in the year he’d said how the second album will likely take place in a futuristic space-setting. ‘The first one was set in medieval times, but the next is going to be the same story but a thousand years later. So there’ll be spaceships and stuff. It’s going to be very much like Star Wars with its genre-spanning. It’s going to be a lot of fun! He’ll be “Angus McSpace” or something like that. It’s going to be great!’ [laughs] We both had a laugh over that “Angus McSpace” line and I said jokingly how I expect that title to be on the album now. Chris laughed and said, ‘I’m very tempted to call a song that but I’m like, “No, I can’t do that! That’d be so lazy!”’ [laughs]

The name ‘Sunset of the Golden Age’ itself intrigued me. It brought a rather sombre tone to the fore and I questioned if there was a deeper meaning behind this title than first meets the eye. Whether it could perhaps even spell the end of the band altogether. ‘People have been saying to us for a very long time,’ Chris began, ‘ever since the first album, “Oh, this is great! But how much further can you go with this? It’s just going to be a one-hit wonder.”’ As such, this whole aspect of the ‘end of the band’ became almost a type of inside joke among Alestorm, such as with “Scraping the Barrel” off the last album. Chris assured me, ‘there’s going to be album number five, don’t worry. You can’t get rid of us!’ [laughs]

Glad to hear it!

Assuring me the band should be back next year to tour Australia, Chris mentioned, ‘Australia is one of those places that, for some reason, you guys love us down there. So we keep coming back. Most metal bands will maybe tour Australia once or twice in their whole careers, but for us, it’s just one of those places we love going. It’s sweet, I love it there! So yeah, we will be back. About 2015, I reckon.’

After my excitement wore down here, I noted how when the band comes to Australia (such as with their last tour in early 2013), they are greeted by punters asking the band – specifically Chris, usually – to scull drinks. ‘Yeah, that happens. People assume we’re these crazy, heavy drinkers. They think our reputation proceeds us. But, you know, I’m only a small guy. I can’t hold that much liquor. If I scull ten drinks, I’m gonna be fucked! But you guys just love it.’ [laughs]

After discussing how Alestorm brought New South Wales locals, Troldhaugen, onboard for their current European tour, we discussed Australia’s local scene. ‘Australia’s weird in that there are so many amazing, hugely talented bands all across the country and they’re pretty much all stuck being local bands. Because of the geographical nature of Australia, it’s just so isolated from the rest of the metal world. It’s very difficult for a band to break through. I think it’s the least we can do. To get out on tour with them and show the rest of the world how cool they are!’

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