Gareth Murdock – Alestorm

The drunken pirates in Alestorm are about to tour Australia for the first time since 2013. I phoned up bassist Gareth Murdock to have a chat about the tour, his new deal with ESP, alcohol and touring in Russia…

A fair few things have changed since the last time Alestorm pillaged this big island of ours.

“We haven’t toured Australia since 2013, and we’ve had a new album since then. Thankfully that’s the one part of the world that hasn’t heard the album tracks live, that’s something new to expect. And we have a new guitar player (Máté Bodor) too, he’s wonderful. It’ll be his first time. It’s going be different for a lot of reasons. Because the last thing we did in Australia was a DVD recording, we haven’t been back since then. We don’t really know how that went down, so I guess we have more of a connection with Australia now because of that. So it’s going to be exciting just to see how much of an impact that had. We’re so excited about it!”

The band played two shows in Russia last month. Naturally, I was curious about how that all went down, Russia being the odd country that it is.

“It was our second time in Russia, we played a one off show in Moscow in 2011. It was pretty crazy, it was our first time there and I don’t think anyone had really heard of us. We weren’t sure what to expect going back, but this time it was ten times better. Crowds were bigger, everyone seemed to know who we are now. It is just a ridiculous place, it’s a wonderful place, but it was an experience. It is its own little world, that’s for sure. There are not many countries in the world that you get security guys at the venue beating the shit out of people when they misbehave. It’s pretty strange, being on stage playing, but it’s normal for them apparently. “

I wanted to congratulate Gareth on his endorsement deal with ESP. I also wanted to know why Andy Dowling of LORD received a special mention on Facebook.

“I’ve got Andy Dowling to thank for everything really. I needed to switch guitar companies. In the studio on the last album our producer said: “You’re playing this ESP!” and it is probably the most beautiful bass I’ve ever played in my life. So I thought to myself: “who do I know who plays ESP?” just to try to get a sneaky foot in the door. So I messaged Andy and he got me set up with the guy in Japan and the guy in the USA and a year later it all came about. So I’m really, really happy with it!”  

As a Swedish heavy metal fan, I was really curious about Alestorm’s co-headlining tour in the UK with Sabaton. I asked Gareth if he thought that this tour would pave the way for Sabaton’s success in that region.

“I’m not too sure what the situation is, because Sabaton seem to be HUGE everywhere. I’m actually quite surprised that we’re co-headlining with them in the UK. I’m not quite sure why that’s happening, I know they’ve got the big kind of stage thing, it’s a lot for us to try and keep up with that. We toured with Sabaton anyway, we did a big European tour with them in 2010 I think, we’re both so much bigger than back so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes!”

Alestorm have become very good friends with the pirates in Lagerstein. I wanted to know if the Aussies had taught them something wonderfully Australian.

<laughs> “Oh god, too many things to even try to remember them all. Vegemite is a good one! I have a jar of it right here, I think it’s fantastic. The only thing those boys have taught us is how to drink. It takes a lot to drink Alestorm under the table, but they know how to!”

Alestorm have grown in popularity over the last couple of years and whilst I do believe that most metal fans would’ve at least heard the band name at some point, I asked Gareth what he would say to people who have no idea what the band is all about, and why you should go and see them in November.

“I know it’s kind of cliché, but I do know that everyone in Australia likes a good drink and a party, so it would be foolish of them not to come down and have one with us!”

Whilst on the topic of Australia, I wanted to know if the band has had the chance to be proper tourists on their past tours Down Under, and what they do to pass time when not on the road.

“It’s tough to do the tourism things sometimes, we don’t have many days off and time is very tight. A lot of the time we’re just kind of sleeping. I’ve been to Australia as a holiday as well, hopefully we get a bit more time this time. We have a couple more days off than normal, so hopefully we get to show the new guy in the band and our crew some sights. Fingers crossed! I don’t like it when it’s just work, work, work!

We haven’t been touring that much recently, Chris has been on the road with Gloryhammer at the moment, and the rest of us are only trying to stay alive really. I’ve got a new band kind of myself. It’s actually based in Australia, that’s why I said I’ve been there for a holiday. I was there earlier this year, writing and recording a new record with a different band. Unfortunately I can’t say anything about it, but we do keep ourselves busy!”

Alestorm is obviously one of the pirate metal bands. I’ve been wanting to ask the band for quite some time if they feel restricted by their own brand. Lately the pirates have started time-travelling, and they are not really traditional in that sense anymore, but surely it must become tedious to not write about anything else?

<laughs> “Ehm, we kind of got ourselves into this situation. We kind of chose this and now we’re cursed with it. Of course there are days where we wish that we were just a band who sang about stuff, anything. But we can keep going with this whole thing.  We can keep just make it more and more ridiculous. Each album we’ve released has gone more and more ridiculous. People seem to be enjoying it more and more. I wouldn’t be surprised if we keep this going for a few more albums. Expand the stories, like you said, there have been pirates time travelling, so I’m not too worried about it, we have a few more years in us yet!”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f55CqLc6IR0&w=560&h=315]

We then started talking about Alestorm’s latest release, Sunset on the Golden Age. I mentioned how weird it is that it has been more than a year since the release of the record, and I wanted to know if they will keep touring the album for much longer, or start writing a new album?

“It’s actually been more than a year..  I looked at the date when you said that, and holy shit, it’s actually been over a year! The quickest year of all time! It’s looking like we might have to start thinking about it soon. We’ve toured the album everywhere. We have Australia and then the big European tour next year. Maybe, this time next year we have to start really thinking about it. There are some riffs and ideas put down already, but nowhere near completion at all. So, I’d say, wow, 2017 will probably be the next album!”

Our fifteen minutes were quickly coming to an end, and before we parted ways I had to ask the one question you would ask any respectable pirate. “You find out that you will be stranded on a tropical island for the rest of your life. You can bring one bottomless bottle of one kind of beverage only. What do you pick?”

“Oh! Good question! This is probably just because I’m drinking it right now. I’ve got a lot of interviews tonight, so I thought I’d treat myself to a bottle of port. So I’m sitting here drinking a bottle of port now, I’m halfway through the first glass, thinking: “This is the most delicious thing in the world, I hope this bottle never ends!” and then you ask me that question! So there’s my answer!”

Catch Alestorm on tour next month with Lagerstein and Troldhaugen!

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