Baroness – John Baizley

Baroness are an experimental metal band from the U.S. who have infused elements of southern rock and grudge into their elaborate prog-metal mix. The recent release of “Blue Record” has destined them for great things in 2010, one of which is being apart of the Soundwave festival in Australia in early February. Metal Obsession recently had the pleasure to speak with Baroness frontman John Baizley, about the band’s latest album and their support of the 2010 Soundwave festival across Australia.

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Metal Obsession: Hi, this is Tim from metal obsession, how’s it going?
John Baizley: It’s going really well man, how about you?

MO: Yeah not too bad. So you’ve just released your new album, how’s that going for you?
JB: So far it’s going really well. The records been out for a couple of weeks now and we’ve only played a couple of shows since it’s come out and we’re looking forward to playing more.

MO: That’s good, and you’ve got a decent amount of touring left for the year through America I believe?
JB: Yes, just right up until the New Year, and once that switches over we’re definitely touring more internationally in the New Year.

MO: You’re coming out to Australia to do the soundwave festival, is that right?
JB: Yes, In late February, I think.

MO: Is this your first tour to Australia?
JB: Yeah actually, it’ll be for anybody in our band or with our crew, it’ll be our first time in Australia.

MO: Are you looking forward to that?
JB: Absolutely, any chance to come out and see somewhere new is a great opportunity for us.

MO: So with the new album, how have the fans reacted to it, from the shows you’ve played?
JB: It’s been great but of course our first couple of shows were all very local to us so we kind of had a home team advantage.

MO: That’s always nice.
JB: Yeah definitely but we’re interested to see how this works out when we’re outside of our home city and home state.

MO: So the Blue Record is the follow up to your previous release the Red Album, and there has been quite a lot of change in the music. Is this something that you as a band have worked very hard for or has it been the natural progression of the band?
JB: Well when we started this the whole idea was to continually be moving forward and progressing things and encounter new challenges and new struggles to overcome musically and I mean hopefully every record has moved forward from the last.

MO: For this album your recording experience was different with a new producer?
JB: Well yeah, we’ve done, well you know we’ve been in numerous recording studio scenarios in the past but it has always been in the same studio with the same producer and the same two engineers, with this record we wanted to shake things up a little bit and get ourselves out of our element so to speak so we choose somebody who didn’t have any initial personal relationship with us, you know someone who would hopefully bring out the best in us and challenge us in an interesting way.

MO: In addition to your music you personally are also involved in a lot of artwork, how do you manage that mixed in with the touring?
JB: Ah well it’s become; actually my whole life has either become making music or making art. It’s just a matter of scheduling, you know once I stopped working additional jobs, which has been a couple of years now, it actually goes to where I spend about six months working with the band and the other six months on artwork so I’ve always got one thing round the corner and one thing to fall back on.

MO: With your artwork, a lot of it is for other bands, is this something you do a lot of, you know, having a lot of requests, or something you do every once in a while?
JB: It’s something I’ve done less of more recently but literally that’s all I’ve done for the past three or four years. But outside of music it’s creating artwork for record covers and for bands that I’m working with. That’s it – I can’t really do anything more commercial than that.

MO: Well, thank you for the interview, and best of luck for the remainder of your American tour and we look forward to seeing you in Australia in February.
JB: Yeah, thanks for the interview.

Interviewer: Tim Smuin

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Just a reminder that Soundwave tickets are still avaliable through www.ticketek.com.au and www.soundwavefestival.com

Don’t miss your chance at seeing Baroness next year at the Soundwave music festival across Australia.

SATURDAY 20 FEBRUARY – BRISBANE, SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL – Licensed All Ages
SUNDAY 21 FEBRUARY – SYDNEY, SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL – Licensed All Ages
FRIDAY 26 FEBRUARY – MELBOURNE, SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL – SOLD OUT!
SATURDAY 27 FEBRUARY – ADELAIDE, SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL – Licensed All Ages
MONDAY 1 MARCH – PERTH, SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL – Licensed All Ages

www.soundwavefestival.com – www.myspace.com/yourbaroness – www.relapse.com