Warmachine founder/guitarist/singer/songwriter Joe Di Taranto spoke to Bill Murphy earlier this month, not long after the feces hit the rotors with the now-legendary row with Megadeth. Whilst other up-and-coming metal bands might have reacted to the situation with anger, bitterness, or a resolve to escalate the matter into an online tit-for-tat battle of words, Joe took the road less traveled. And, as Robert Frost put, that has made all the difference.
In this far-ranging conversation, Bill and Joe talk about Megadeth, the origins of Warmachine, Joe’s musical influences, the meaning behind the songs on the band’s stellar debut The Beginning of the End, and Warmachine’s upcoming appearance at the Nightmare Metal Fest in Florida in March.
This is Part Two of a Two-Part Interview. It picks up immediately where Part One left off.
JD:...thrashier. Again, a little bit of a later song written for the album. Not quite right before, but probably a month or two before we hit the album. And definitely a favorite live, that’s for sure.
BM: Oh yeah. How about track three, “Beginning of the End”?
JD: “Beginning of the End”, yeah, that was actually a defining song for us. Again, a very old song, that I wrote probably when I was around 16, 17 years old. And I just remember being in the basement playing that lick, the lead guitar lick, yeah, and just coming up with that on the spot, and then writing the whole song right away from that.
BM: Really.
JD: Yeah, and I remember it was pretty influenced by Judas Priest in terms of the riff and that kind of thing. And you know, that’s kinda what defined, “This is really cool, this is a cool sound. This is different, lots of harmony guitars, harmony vocals.” And I said, “Ok, I think I know what I gotta do now.” In terms of, it was kind of the blueprint for the rest of Warmachine’s material after that.
BM: Yeah, it’s, I think it’s because it sounds like a ‘70s or ‘80s maybe, riff, it’s one of those air guitar classics, you know?
JD: Yeah, that’s the thing. It’s a very simple song, it’s definitely not too technical. But it’s pretty catchy, and that’s what it’s all about for us, is having a good groove.
BM: How about the next one, “Safe Haven”?
JD: “Safe Haven”, I’d say that’s probably where the thrash comes in. Nice heavy song with a really cool riff. Again, this was another song that I wrote alongside “Betrayed”, right before we went into the studio, maybe a couple of days before we went into the studio to record the album. That tends to happen to me a lot, whereas, we’re about to go in, and I just get a whole bunch of ideas. And I’ll write like three or four brand-new songs, which usually turn out really good.
BM: Wow.
JD: So that was again, another one fell swoop kind of write. And yeah, it was just a really catchy song, but really heavy as well.
BM: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I’m listening, as you’re talking, I’m hearing it in the background.
JD: Oh cool. [laughs]
BM: Tell me about “Fate.”
JD: “Fate” is a little bit of a newer one as well, but I think it was written maybe about six months before we went in to do the album. And a little bit on the softer side, I would say. So this is where the album kind of slows down a little bit, before it picks back up again into the middle. And it was kind of my take, lyrically, on what I thought life was about, at the time. I kind of had a really good focus on, that there was a fate for everybody. Everybody has their own destiny and their own fate. So it was just kind of myself talking about that and thinking about it aloud. And again, a little bit more of the melodic side. Lots of harmony guitars, some cool dynamics in there, and a really catchy chorus.
BM: Yeah, definitely. As is the next one, “Eternally.”
JD: “Eternally”, yeah.
BM: This one reminds me of Iced Earth. I mean, you’ve got some stuff going on in there that sounds like their latest album.
JD: That’s what a lot of people say, actually, about this one. And personally, for me, I’ve never really listened to much Iced Earth.
BM: [laughs]
JD: Which is kind of funny. We get a lot of that, bands I hadn’t even heard of before, like Queensryche, I just got into maybe five or six years ago, but we would get that all the time, “You guys sound like Queensryche. You sound like Geoff Tate.” I was like, “Wow, I should check out this Queensryche, I might actually like them.” [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: So I did, and I fell in love with them. But beside the point. Yeah, “Eternally” was, yeah, I think it’s that intro there, the acoustic intro, that people get the Iced Earth from. And I’ve heard a couple of Iced Earth songs that sound similar to that, intro-wise, and acoustic-wise, so I think that’s where that’s coming from. Again, very melodic song, and this was a very easy one to write as well. I wrote this all in one shot.
BM: Oh really.
JD: Yeah, it was effortless, pretty much, with this song. I heard the whole song in my head. All of a sudden, I just played it right out and that was it. And lyrically, it was about, no matter how long or short my life is, I just kind of want it to be meaningful, and do what I’ve always wanted to do, you know. Do music and just be happy. And that was basically it, and do something different. So that’s pretty much what that’s about.
BM: See, that’s the thing that’s incongruous with you, trash people are not usually known as happy people. [laughs]
JD: Yeah, that’s the thing, you know. [laughs] I mean, I’ve got nothing to be unhappy about. I’ve had a great life, and a perfect family, and I’m lucky.
BM: [laughs]
JD: You know, what can you do? I have no reason to be pissed off, and I much prefer to be happy, that’s for sure.
BM: Oh yeah. [laughs]
JD: [laughs] I’ve always been a happy go lucky kind of guy. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I still get pissed off and stuff like that, hence “Betrayed” and all that, but yeah, life’s great. No reason to be angry.
BM: Tell me about the next one, “Forgotten Demise.”
JD: “Forgotten Demise” is a pretty old song. It was on our first demo ever, which was, I think we did that in 1997. And it’s obviously reworked. I would say, I know Ralph Santolla from Iced Earth played a solo on it, so that gives it a little bit of an Iced Earth feel as well. A lot of people say it sounds very similar to Megadeth, vocally, which I find pretty amusing. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: But yeah, very old song. I wrote it, wow, I would say probably around 15, 16 years old, this song. It’s definitely got a cool little heavy part there, and it’s a great song to play live, that’s for sure.
BM: Yeah. How about “Taunted Souls”?
JD: “Taunted Souls”, that’s another thrasher one there. David Ellefson played bass on that one as well. And it kind of reminds me a little of Annihilator meets Nevermore kind of thing. It’s still very melodic. It was originally played in a lower octave, it was played in, originally written in E flat, and then when we got into the studio, Murray suggested to play it on the A string, which would bring it up quite a bit and let you hear everything. So it got a lot thrashier. It was reworked a few times, I think this was maybe the second or third song that I had written, yeah, ever. So it changed a lot over the years, that’s for sure. And I think it was originally like nine minutes or something like that. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: So that got cut down pretty quickly. And yeah, lyrically, a very old song as well. It was just kind of, I think I remember, because being a short person as a child, I got picked on quite a bit. So it was that kind of little tongue-in-cheek, lyrically, you know, getting revenge kind of thing.
BM: Oh yeah, yeah. [laughs]
JD: Lyrically, yeah. [laughs]
BM: How about the next one, “Eye for an Eye”?
JD: Another old song, actually, too. But quite a favorite live. And that riff, one thing that’s good about this song is that main riff in there. And no matter wherever we go, there’s always a band that we play with that ends up playing this song, for some reason, and this riff.
BM: Oh really?
JD: Yeah. They always, they’ll say something like, “Warmachine’s here.” And this is the riff that everybody plays. [sings riff] Everybody knows it.
BM: Yeah.
JD: So it’s kinda one of those tunes. Again, an old song. I think I wrote it at the time with the topic of capital punishment in my head there. Wondering if it’s right or wrong, and it’s kind of someone being sentenced to death, and then realizing what they’ve done and repenting for it. That kind of thing. And I wrote this one thinking I’m gonna write kind of a sequel, or lyrically a sequel later on at some point about someone that’s gone to jail and is gonna be sentenced to death, but didn’t actually commit the crime, kind of from that standpoint. So you know, kind of the pros and cons of capital punishment. So that’s what that was from. And again, they’re pretty thrashy riffs, and a thrashy song.
BM: It’s cool, yeah. How about “Dust to Dust”, track 10?
JD: “Dust to Dust” was one of David Ellefson’s favorite songs on the album, that’s what he told me.
BM: Really?
JD: Yeah, which is kind of a different song. An old song again, which was a lot shorter originally. It appeared on our demo 2001. Cool little riff. He loved the bass line in it, actually. Even though he didn’t play it, he loved the cool simpleness of the bass line. It is again a philosophical song I was definitely into writing at that point. So lyrically, that was the standpoint. Life, the circle of life, I guess. And let’s see, musically, it’s definitely different for us, that’s for sure. Drum-wise, it’s a totally different drum beat for us, something you don’t hear from us very often, it’s not very straightforward. And just a pretty quick song with a cool solo. I think my favorite part is that solo at the end. I did quite a long solo where it fades out at the end there. I just remember writing that solo on the fly.
BM: Really?
JD: Yeah, I think we recorded a couple of the wammy bar pulls at the beginning of that solo, so there’s about two or three of them at the same time, where the solo starts, and it just sounds like an airplane taking off. So I love that. That’s definitely my favorite part in that song.
BM: It’s a great song. Great guitar tone too. I love the beginning, how the guitar sounds right in the beginning of the song.
JD: Oh cool. Yeah, absolutely. A killer guitar tone. A nice, fluid-sounding guitar tone.
BM: Yeah, it’s really neat. It’s a great solo at the end, you’re right about that.
JD: Thank you. Yeah, a lot of the stuff is like that, where it’s just off the cuff. A lot of the solos on the album were off the cuff as well. So you come up with a lot of cool stuff that way.
BM: The last track is “Apocalypse.”
JD: “Apocalypse”, again, the first song I ever wrote.
BM: That is so cool.
JD: I think I wrote that at 14 years old.
BM: Wow.
JD: Yeah, old, old song, that is actually Alberto, our bassist’s, favorite song. He loves playing this song. So anytime we get to play it live, he’s happy as a peach.
BM: [laughs]
JD: So a little bit more of a progressive song, where it has different time changes and tempo changes here and there, between the verses and the choruses, and the middle part there. So again, that solo wasn’t the original solo on the track. I know I cut a bunch of them off. This was also again off our first demo, which was entitled, The Demolition. And definitely sounds a lot different back then, but it turned out really cool. It’s lyrically about the end of the world, that kind of thing. I wrote it around Easter time, after watching the Ten Commandments.
BM: Oh yeah, that’ll put you in the mood for the end of the world.
JD: Yeah, that put me in the mood to write about the end of the world. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: And then, I think at the end of it, if I remember correctly, the bass fades out. I think I remember Murray saying something about that’s him whispering, “Joe’s a homo” or something like that over the track, backwards, or something like that. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: And it could be true, or it could just be him fooling around, but I wouldn’t put it past him, that’s for sure. I thought that was pretty funny.
BM: Well, these are great songs. Of all these 11 tracks from your first album—and by the way, the four demo songs you sent me for your next album are great.
JD: Thank you.
BM: Which of these songs is your absolute favorite to play live? Which is maybe your favorite, and/or which is the crowd favorite, and are they the same song?
JD: For me, I’d say—and hard question, because a lot of them are really fun to play live—I think “Betrayed” in terms of, it’s gotta be either “Betrayed” or “Beginning of the End” for me. “Betrayed” because it’s a really tight-sounding song live, and a really big-sounding song. We usually start the set off with “Betrayed.”
BM: I see.
JD: So that usually gets things off on the right note. For me personally, I would say “Beginning of the End” is one of the more fun songs to sing, especially when it gets to the higher stuff in the third verse there. Just a really fun song, and it just feels really good to sing, to hit those notes. And it usually goes over very well live. I would say in terms of probably a fan favorite live, it has to be “Eye for an Eye” or “Safe Haven” probably are those two.
BM: Are any of these songs particularly difficult to reproduce live.
JD: Honestly, I wouldn’t say so. Maybe “Dust to Dust” might be a little on the difficult side, because we don’t play it very often. We’ve played it maybe three or four times, just a handful of times, and just because there’s a lot going on in that song, you just gotta really concentrate on what’s going on there. “Taunted”, not necessarily a difficult song, but you gotta concentrate on what you’re playing, because there’s a lot going on and it’s really fast. Especially if you haven’t worked out your right arm for a while. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: It kind of tends to cramp up when you’re in the middle of that song.
BM: Do you guys like to play any covers when you’re out on stage?
JD: Yeah, we usually do. We usually do a couple covers here and there. I know we were playing “Tornado of Souls” [Megadeth], we played that for a while, which I don’t see us playing ever again.
BM: [laughs]
JD: [laughs] “The Trooper” by Iron Maiden.
BM: Oh wow.
JD: Actually, that’s a big fan favorite, and a really fun song live to play. And we’ve done “Two Minutes to Midnight”, “Aces High.”
BM: Oh wow, yeah.
JD: We’ve done quite a few. Usually, we usually stick with something from Maiden, for the most part. We’re looking to do something a little bit different, maybe do some Dio or some Black Sabbath or some Dio, maybe some Queensryche would be cool. And Adam, our drummer, really wants to do a Queen cover, so it’s just finding the right one. Maybe even a Rush cover.
BM: Yeah, wow.
JD: Yeah, just kind of switch it up every once in a while, it’s just a fun thing to do.
BM: What can audiences expect from your gig at the Nightmare Metal Fest?
JD: A lot of moving around, that’s for sure. [laughs] A lot of harmony guitars. It’s gonna be a good show, it’s gonna be a clear show that will sound different from a lot. No screaming, that’s for sure.
BM: No screaming, yeah. No Cookie Monster vocals?
JD: No Cookie Monster vocals. I don’t think you’ll find any at that festival, which is kind of cool.
BM: Yeah. [laughs]
JD: I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love Arch Enemy and Carcass, in fact, Carcass was a big influence on me as well, but I think it’s a little cliché these days to be doing the Cookie Monster vocals.
BM: [laughs] Yeah.
JD: You know? There’s two clichés these days, the Cookie Monster vocals, and swearing.
BM: Oh yeah. [laughs]
JD: You know, that’s just never appealed to me. So yeah, you’re gonna get a good, energetic show, with quality music. And you’re gonna hear a lot of stuff of the album, and we’re gonna do a few songs from the next album, which we’re working on right now.
BM: Yeah, that was, I’ve got two questions for you, then I’ll let you go. When do you anticipate your next album to come out?
JD: Well the thing is, we were supposed to be in the studio throughout December and January, but that didn’t happen because of the whole Megadeth thing. That got pushed back. So what happened is we’re probably going to be going in, hopefully next month, to start the album. We’ve already got those four songs, we’re probably going to redo a bunch of it of those four songs, plus I’ve written another 10, 11 on top of those.
BM: Wow.
JD: So we’re gonna probably pick and choose, probably around 12 songs for the album, and hopefully get in there next month. The sooner, the better we can get this out, I think that’d be great. We’re really excited about this new material. It’s been a while for us, I mean, this album we did, “The Beginning of the End” we did between 2004 and 2005, we recorded that. So for us, it’s pretty old still, the material. We’ve been playing it for quite a while. It’s quite exciting and we’re really happy with the way the new stuff is turning out. It’s different, but it still sounds like Warmachine. It sounds really fresh to us.
BM: Well, you sound like a guy whose not only got his head on straight, but you’re extremely talented. If you can keep cranking out this caliber of songs that just keep coming to you.
JD: Thank you.
BM: Here’s my question, and I’ll make it the last one, is talent alone enough? What’s your biggest challenge that you face as a metal band in this day and age?
JD: I think being a traditional metal band is probably the biggest challenge. And not having that cliché Cookie Monster vocals. I think that’s probably the biggest thing. But things are going really well for us right now. We’re starting to get tons of new fans and people are really jumping over that fence and getting into this stuff. I think, I really think that in the next year or so, music’s going to change quite a bit, and I think our style’s going to be up there. I think it’s gonna be.
BM: Are you thinking the Cookie Monster stuff’s going to fade out a bit.
JD: I think people are going to get, I don’t think it’ll ever go away, and for myself, I wouldn’t want it to either, because I do enjoy a lot of it, but the whole formula that a lot of these bands have nowadays where it’s, you know, you scream your verses and then you sing your choruses, and then you scream your verses.
BM: Yeah.
JD: You know, that whole thing is getting really played out. I think it’s just that kind of thing. People just want to listen to good songs and good music and good vocals and good melodies.
BM: Well you know what I find, I guess there is one more comment I want to make, and/or question.
JD: Yeah.
BM: The guitar, it seems like the caliber of playing these days isn’t what it used to be.
JD: Yeah.
BM: In that people don’t solo as much, their riffs are just sort of that fast, chord-change, wall-of-sound stuff.
JD: Right.
BM: What do you see as going on with that? Are people less talented then they were, or is that a style they just think is great?
JD: I wouldn’t say so, I see a lot of young kids these days just sweeping all over the place with their guitars, and that’s one thing that I just never learned how to do. There’s a lot of kids that have tons of talent these days, and there’s a lot of bands out there that are full of great talent. I think in the metal world, there’s a lot of soloing going on, and they’re getting back to that shredding. Which I think is cool as well, as long as it’s done in good taste. But in terms of pop music, yeah, it’s still definitely back to basics, no solos, and that sort of fat guitar tone, wall of sound, basically. But I think that’s gonna change, I honestly do. I think it’s gonna come right around to the traditional thing. Music always goes through a big cycle, so I think metal’s back on the rise, and I think even more so, traditional metal’s going to be coming back. So it’s looking good.
BM: Well, it’s a pleasure. The album is great. I find myself listening to it a lot.
JD: That’s great to hear.
BM: With your kind of attitude, that’s one of the things I always talk about with my wife, is why in the hell do all these musicians end up dying at the age of 27 or something due to drugs?
JD: Exactly. [laughs]
BM: That makes no sense, man. [laughs]
JD: I’ve never understood that. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, and you’ve got your whole life handed to you on a paper plate, especially those guys back then. So you know, I never understood it. I think they just took the partying too far.
BM: [laughs]
JD: They took themselves a little too seriously.
BM: [laughs]
JD: [laughs] That’s never been the case with us at least, we never take ourselves seriously at all.
BM: Yep. [laughs]
JD: We’re in it to have fun and live life, and that’s what it’s all about, having a good time and making good music. If we can put a smile on someone’s face, then I’ve done my job, that’s for sure.
BM: That’s great. It’s great to talk to you, Joe. Thank you very much.
JD: Thank you, Bill.
BM: Thanks, bye bye.
JD: Take care. Bye.
In this far-ranging conversation, Bill and Joe talk about Megadeth, the origins of Warmachine, Joe’s musical influences, the meaning behind the songs on the band’s stellar debut The Beginning of the End, and Warmachine’s upcoming appearance at the Nightmare Metal Fest in Florida in March.
This is Part Two of a Two-Part Interview. It picks up immediately where Part One left off.
JD:...thrashier. Again, a little bit of a later song written for the album. Not quite right before, but probably a month or two before we hit the album. And definitely a favorite live, that’s for sure.
BM: Oh yeah. How about track three, “Beginning of the End”?
JD: “Beginning of the End”, yeah, that was actually a defining song for us. Again, a very old song, that I wrote probably when I was around 16, 17 years old. And I just remember being in the basement playing that lick, the lead guitar lick, yeah, and just coming up with that on the spot, and then writing the whole song right away from that.
BM: Really.
JD: Yeah, and I remember it was pretty influenced by Judas Priest in terms of the riff and that kind of thing. And you know, that’s kinda what defined, “This is really cool, this is a cool sound. This is different, lots of harmony guitars, harmony vocals.” And I said, “Ok, I think I know what I gotta do now.” In terms of, it was kind of the blueprint for the rest of Warmachine’s material after that.
BM: Yeah, it’s, I think it’s because it sounds like a ‘70s or ‘80s maybe, riff, it’s one of those air guitar classics, you know?
JD: Yeah, that’s the thing. It’s a very simple song, it’s definitely not too technical. But it’s pretty catchy, and that’s what it’s all about for us, is having a good groove.
BM: How about the next one, “Safe Haven”?
JD: “Safe Haven”, I’d say that’s probably where the thrash comes in. Nice heavy song with a really cool riff. Again, this was another song that I wrote alongside “Betrayed”, right before we went into the studio, maybe a couple of days before we went into the studio to record the album. That tends to happen to me a lot, whereas, we’re about to go in, and I just get a whole bunch of ideas. And I’ll write like three or four brand-new songs, which usually turn out really good.
BM: Wow.
JD: So that was again, another one fell swoop kind of write. And yeah, it was just a really catchy song, but really heavy as well.
BM: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I’m listening, as you’re talking, I’m hearing it in the background.
JD: Oh cool. [laughs]
BM: Tell me about “Fate.”
JD: “Fate” is a little bit of a newer one as well, but I think it was written maybe about six months before we went in to do the album. And a little bit on the softer side, I would say. So this is where the album kind of slows down a little bit, before it picks back up again into the middle. And it was kind of my take, lyrically, on what I thought life was about, at the time. I kind of had a really good focus on, that there was a fate for everybody. Everybody has their own destiny and their own fate. So it was just kind of myself talking about that and thinking about it aloud. And again, a little bit more of the melodic side. Lots of harmony guitars, some cool dynamics in there, and a really catchy chorus.
BM: Yeah, definitely. As is the next one, “Eternally.”
JD: “Eternally”, yeah.
BM: This one reminds me of Iced Earth. I mean, you’ve got some stuff going on in there that sounds like their latest album.
JD: That’s what a lot of people say, actually, about this one. And personally, for me, I’ve never really listened to much Iced Earth.
BM: [laughs]
JD: Which is kind of funny. We get a lot of that, bands I hadn’t even heard of before, like Queensryche, I just got into maybe five or six years ago, but we would get that all the time, “You guys sound like Queensryche. You sound like Geoff Tate.” I was like, “Wow, I should check out this Queensryche, I might actually like them.” [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: So I did, and I fell in love with them. But beside the point. Yeah, “Eternally” was, yeah, I think it’s that intro there, the acoustic intro, that people get the Iced Earth from. And I’ve heard a couple of Iced Earth songs that sound similar to that, intro-wise, and acoustic-wise, so I think that’s where that’s coming from. Again, very melodic song, and this was a very easy one to write as well. I wrote this all in one shot.
BM: Oh really.
JD: Yeah, it was effortless, pretty much, with this song. I heard the whole song in my head. All of a sudden, I just played it right out and that was it. And lyrically, it was about, no matter how long or short my life is, I just kind of want it to be meaningful, and do what I’ve always wanted to do, you know. Do music and just be happy. And that was basically it, and do something different. So that’s pretty much what that’s about.
BM: See, that’s the thing that’s incongruous with you, trash people are not usually known as happy people. [laughs]
JD: Yeah, that’s the thing, you know. [laughs] I mean, I’ve got nothing to be unhappy about. I’ve had a great life, and a perfect family, and I’m lucky.
BM: [laughs]
JD: You know, what can you do? I have no reason to be pissed off, and I much prefer to be happy, that’s for sure.
BM: Oh yeah. [laughs]
JD: [laughs] I’ve always been a happy go lucky kind of guy. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I still get pissed off and stuff like that, hence “Betrayed” and all that, but yeah, life’s great. No reason to be angry.
BM: Tell me about the next one, “Forgotten Demise.”
JD: “Forgotten Demise” is a pretty old song. It was on our first demo ever, which was, I think we did that in 1997. And it’s obviously reworked. I would say, I know Ralph Santolla from Iced Earth played a solo on it, so that gives it a little bit of an Iced Earth feel as well. A lot of people say it sounds very similar to Megadeth, vocally, which I find pretty amusing. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: But yeah, very old song. I wrote it, wow, I would say probably around 15, 16 years old, this song. It’s definitely got a cool little heavy part there, and it’s a great song to play live, that’s for sure.
BM: Yeah. How about “Taunted Souls”?
JD: “Taunted Souls”, that’s another thrasher one there. David Ellefson played bass on that one as well. And it kind of reminds me a little of Annihilator meets Nevermore kind of thing. It’s still very melodic. It was originally played in a lower octave, it was played in, originally written in E flat, and then when we got into the studio, Murray suggested to play it on the A string, which would bring it up quite a bit and let you hear everything. So it got a lot thrashier. It was reworked a few times, I think this was maybe the second or third song that I had written, yeah, ever. So it changed a lot over the years, that’s for sure. And I think it was originally like nine minutes or something like that. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: So that got cut down pretty quickly. And yeah, lyrically, a very old song as well. It was just kind of, I think I remember, because being a short person as a child, I got picked on quite a bit. So it was that kind of little tongue-in-cheek, lyrically, you know, getting revenge kind of thing.
BM: Oh yeah, yeah. [laughs]
JD: Lyrically, yeah. [laughs]
BM: How about the next one, “Eye for an Eye”?
JD: Another old song, actually, too. But quite a favorite live. And that riff, one thing that’s good about this song is that main riff in there. And no matter wherever we go, there’s always a band that we play with that ends up playing this song, for some reason, and this riff.
BM: Oh really?
JD: Yeah. They always, they’ll say something like, “Warmachine’s here.” And this is the riff that everybody plays. [sings riff] Everybody knows it.
BM: Yeah.
JD: So it’s kinda one of those tunes. Again, an old song. I think I wrote it at the time with the topic of capital punishment in my head there. Wondering if it’s right or wrong, and it’s kind of someone being sentenced to death, and then realizing what they’ve done and repenting for it. That kind of thing. And I wrote this one thinking I’m gonna write kind of a sequel, or lyrically a sequel later on at some point about someone that’s gone to jail and is gonna be sentenced to death, but didn’t actually commit the crime, kind of from that standpoint. So you know, kind of the pros and cons of capital punishment. So that’s what that was from. And again, they’re pretty thrashy riffs, and a thrashy song.
BM: It’s cool, yeah. How about “Dust to Dust”, track 10?
JD: “Dust to Dust” was one of David Ellefson’s favorite songs on the album, that’s what he told me.
BM: Really?
JD: Yeah, which is kind of a different song. An old song again, which was a lot shorter originally. It appeared on our demo 2001. Cool little riff. He loved the bass line in it, actually. Even though he didn’t play it, he loved the cool simpleness of the bass line. It is again a philosophical song I was definitely into writing at that point. So lyrically, that was the standpoint. Life, the circle of life, I guess. And let’s see, musically, it’s definitely different for us, that’s for sure. Drum-wise, it’s a totally different drum beat for us, something you don’t hear from us very often, it’s not very straightforward. And just a pretty quick song with a cool solo. I think my favorite part is that solo at the end. I did quite a long solo where it fades out at the end there. I just remember writing that solo on the fly.
BM: Really?
JD: Yeah, I think we recorded a couple of the wammy bar pulls at the beginning of that solo, so there’s about two or three of them at the same time, where the solo starts, and it just sounds like an airplane taking off. So I love that. That’s definitely my favorite part in that song.
BM: It’s a great song. Great guitar tone too. I love the beginning, how the guitar sounds right in the beginning of the song.
JD: Oh cool. Yeah, absolutely. A killer guitar tone. A nice, fluid-sounding guitar tone.
BM: Yeah, it’s really neat. It’s a great solo at the end, you’re right about that.
JD: Thank you. Yeah, a lot of the stuff is like that, where it’s just off the cuff. A lot of the solos on the album were off the cuff as well. So you come up with a lot of cool stuff that way.
BM: The last track is “Apocalypse.”
JD: “Apocalypse”, again, the first song I ever wrote.
BM: That is so cool.
JD: I think I wrote that at 14 years old.
BM: Wow.
JD: Yeah, old, old song, that is actually Alberto, our bassist’s, favorite song. He loves playing this song. So anytime we get to play it live, he’s happy as a peach.
BM: [laughs]
JD: So a little bit more of a progressive song, where it has different time changes and tempo changes here and there, between the verses and the choruses, and the middle part there. So again, that solo wasn’t the original solo on the track. I know I cut a bunch of them off. This was also again off our first demo, which was entitled, The Demolition. And definitely sounds a lot different back then, but it turned out really cool. It’s lyrically about the end of the world, that kind of thing. I wrote it around Easter time, after watching the Ten Commandments.
BM: Oh yeah, that’ll put you in the mood for the end of the world.
JD: Yeah, that put me in the mood to write about the end of the world. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: And then, I think at the end of it, if I remember correctly, the bass fades out. I think I remember Murray saying something about that’s him whispering, “Joe’s a homo” or something like that over the track, backwards, or something like that. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: And it could be true, or it could just be him fooling around, but I wouldn’t put it past him, that’s for sure. I thought that was pretty funny.
BM: Well, these are great songs. Of all these 11 tracks from your first album—and by the way, the four demo songs you sent me for your next album are great.
JD: Thank you.
BM: Which of these songs is your absolute favorite to play live? Which is maybe your favorite, and/or which is the crowd favorite, and are they the same song?
JD: For me, I’d say—and hard question, because a lot of them are really fun to play live—I think “Betrayed” in terms of, it’s gotta be either “Betrayed” or “Beginning of the End” for me. “Betrayed” because it’s a really tight-sounding song live, and a really big-sounding song. We usually start the set off with “Betrayed.”
BM: I see.
JD: So that usually gets things off on the right note. For me personally, I would say “Beginning of the End” is one of the more fun songs to sing, especially when it gets to the higher stuff in the third verse there. Just a really fun song, and it just feels really good to sing, to hit those notes. And it usually goes over very well live. I would say in terms of probably a fan favorite live, it has to be “Eye for an Eye” or “Safe Haven” probably are those two.
BM: Are any of these songs particularly difficult to reproduce live.
JD: Honestly, I wouldn’t say so. Maybe “Dust to Dust” might be a little on the difficult side, because we don’t play it very often. We’ve played it maybe three or four times, just a handful of times, and just because there’s a lot going on in that song, you just gotta really concentrate on what’s going on there. “Taunted”, not necessarily a difficult song, but you gotta concentrate on what you’re playing, because there’s a lot going on and it’s really fast. Especially if you haven’t worked out your right arm for a while. [laughs]
BM: [laughs]
JD: It kind of tends to cramp up when you’re in the middle of that song.
BM: Do you guys like to play any covers when you’re out on stage?
JD: Yeah, we usually do. We usually do a couple covers here and there. I know we were playing “Tornado of Souls” [Megadeth], we played that for a while, which I don’t see us playing ever again.
BM: [laughs]
JD: [laughs] “The Trooper” by Iron Maiden.
BM: Oh wow.
JD: Actually, that’s a big fan favorite, and a really fun song live to play. And we’ve done “Two Minutes to Midnight”, “Aces High.”
BM: Oh wow, yeah.
JD: We’ve done quite a few. Usually, we usually stick with something from Maiden, for the most part. We’re looking to do something a little bit different, maybe do some Dio or some Black Sabbath or some Dio, maybe some Queensryche would be cool. And Adam, our drummer, really wants to do a Queen cover, so it’s just finding the right one. Maybe even a Rush cover.
BM: Yeah, wow.
JD: Yeah, just kind of switch it up every once in a while, it’s just a fun thing to do.
BM: What can audiences expect from your gig at the Nightmare Metal Fest?
JD: A lot of moving around, that’s for sure. [laughs] A lot of harmony guitars. It’s gonna be a good show, it’s gonna be a clear show that will sound different from a lot. No screaming, that’s for sure.
BM: No screaming, yeah. No Cookie Monster vocals?
JD: No Cookie Monster vocals. I don’t think you’ll find any at that festival, which is kind of cool.
BM: Yeah. [laughs]
JD: I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love Arch Enemy and Carcass, in fact, Carcass was a big influence on me as well, but I think it’s a little cliché these days to be doing the Cookie Monster vocals.
BM: [laughs] Yeah.
JD: You know? There’s two clichés these days, the Cookie Monster vocals, and swearing.
BM: Oh yeah. [laughs]
JD: You know, that’s just never appealed to me. So yeah, you’re gonna get a good, energetic show, with quality music. And you’re gonna hear a lot of stuff of the album, and we’re gonna do a few songs from the next album, which we’re working on right now.
BM: Yeah, that was, I’ve got two questions for you, then I’ll let you go. When do you anticipate your next album to come out?
JD: Well the thing is, we were supposed to be in the studio throughout December and January, but that didn’t happen because of the whole Megadeth thing. That got pushed back. So what happened is we’re probably going to be going in, hopefully next month, to start the album. We’ve already got those four songs, we’re probably going to redo a bunch of it of those four songs, plus I’ve written another 10, 11 on top of those.
BM: Wow.
JD: So we’re gonna probably pick and choose, probably around 12 songs for the album, and hopefully get in there next month. The sooner, the better we can get this out, I think that’d be great. We’re really excited about this new material. It’s been a while for us, I mean, this album we did, “The Beginning of the End” we did between 2004 and 2005, we recorded that. So for us, it’s pretty old still, the material. We’ve been playing it for quite a while. It’s quite exciting and we’re really happy with the way the new stuff is turning out. It’s different, but it still sounds like Warmachine. It sounds really fresh to us.
BM: Well, you sound like a guy whose not only got his head on straight, but you’re extremely talented. If you can keep cranking out this caliber of songs that just keep coming to you.
JD: Thank you.
BM: Here’s my question, and I’ll make it the last one, is talent alone enough? What’s your biggest challenge that you face as a metal band in this day and age?
JD: I think being a traditional metal band is probably the biggest challenge. And not having that cliché Cookie Monster vocals. I think that’s probably the biggest thing. But things are going really well for us right now. We’re starting to get tons of new fans and people are really jumping over that fence and getting into this stuff. I think, I really think that in the next year or so, music’s going to change quite a bit, and I think our style’s going to be up there. I think it’s gonna be.
BM: Are you thinking the Cookie Monster stuff’s going to fade out a bit.
JD: I think people are going to get, I don’t think it’ll ever go away, and for myself, I wouldn’t want it to either, because I do enjoy a lot of it, but the whole formula that a lot of these bands have nowadays where it’s, you know, you scream your verses and then you sing your choruses, and then you scream your verses.
BM: Yeah.
JD: You know, that whole thing is getting really played out. I think it’s just that kind of thing. People just want to listen to good songs and good music and good vocals and good melodies.
BM: Well you know what I find, I guess there is one more comment I want to make, and/or question.
JD: Yeah.
BM: The guitar, it seems like the caliber of playing these days isn’t what it used to be.
JD: Yeah.
BM: In that people don’t solo as much, their riffs are just sort of that fast, chord-change, wall-of-sound stuff.
JD: Right.
BM: What do you see as going on with that? Are people less talented then they were, or is that a style they just think is great?
JD: I wouldn’t say so, I see a lot of young kids these days just sweeping all over the place with their guitars, and that’s one thing that I just never learned how to do. There’s a lot of kids that have tons of talent these days, and there’s a lot of bands out there that are full of great talent. I think in the metal world, there’s a lot of soloing going on, and they’re getting back to that shredding. Which I think is cool as well, as long as it’s done in good taste. But in terms of pop music, yeah, it’s still definitely back to basics, no solos, and that sort of fat guitar tone, wall of sound, basically. But I think that’s gonna change, I honestly do. I think it’s gonna come right around to the traditional thing. Music always goes through a big cycle, so I think metal’s back on the rise, and I think even more so, traditional metal’s going to be coming back. So it’s looking good.
BM: Well, it’s a pleasure. The album is great. I find myself listening to it a lot.
JD: That’s great to hear.
BM: With your kind of attitude, that’s one of the things I always talk about with my wife, is why in the hell do all these musicians end up dying at the age of 27 or something due to drugs?
JD: Exactly. [laughs]
BM: That makes no sense, man. [laughs]
JD: I’ve never understood that. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, and you’ve got your whole life handed to you on a paper plate, especially those guys back then. So you know, I never understood it. I think they just took the partying too far.
BM: [laughs]
JD: They took themselves a little too seriously.
BM: [laughs]
JD: [laughs] That’s never been the case with us at least, we never take ourselves seriously at all.
BM: Yep. [laughs]
JD: We’re in it to have fun and live life, and that’s what it’s all about, having a good time and making good music. If we can put a smile on someone’s face, then I’ve done my job, that’s for sure.
BM: That’s great. It’s great to talk to you, Joe. Thank you very much.
JD: Thank you, Bill.
BM: Thanks, bye bye.
JD: Take care. Bye.
