For more than 50 years, bassist Tom Hamilton anchored Aerosmith as both its founding member and one and only bassist. Hamilton co-wrote classics, like “Sick as a Dog” from 1976’s Rocks and “Janie’s Got a Gun” from 1989’s Pump, even if he does refer to the latter as a “Steven track.”
To that end, the only thing that rivals Hamilton’s monstrous presence on bass is his humility. And it’s that and more that he carries into his first post-Aerosmith project, Close Enemies. “This was something I wanted to do while waiting to see what was going to happen with Aerosmith,” Hamilton says.
Adding: “When Aerosmith had to tragically cancel our tour and retire from future touring, it was awesome to have something so promising to be involved with.”
Speaking of Aerosmith, which halted its Peace Out Tour in September of 2023 after vocalist Steven Tyler fractured his larynx during a performance on Long Island and then shuttered its doors for good in August of 2024 when Tyler’s recovery didn’t go as planned, Hamilton is tight-lipped.
Hamilton also declined to comment on Steven Tyler’s recent live appearance alongside Nuno Bettencourt (and others)—which seemed to potentially crack the Aerosmith-relate door open again—while raising funds to aid those impacted by the tragic fires that decimated communities across California.
But the veteran bassist beams when reflecting on his recent work with Close Enemies. “Obviously, I’m proud of the song that I brought in and grateful for the ideas that everyone contributed to help finish it and give the song its atmosphere.”
“Overall,” he says. “I’m happy with my playing on this record. It’s been great to have the time to try out whatever ideas came into my head and have the support of the other guys.”
Tell us how Close Enemies formed.
Trace Foster, Peter Stroud, and Tony Brock came up to Boston about three years ago and offered to help me develop some song ideas. We worked for a few days and then it was time for me to get back into Aerosmith mode and get ready for what would eventually be our Peace Out Tour.
While I was doing that, they went back to Atlanta and started writing songs. When the Aerosmith tour had to be canceled, Trace called and asked if I would be interested in joining them. I heard the songs they had written, and I was blown away.
I headed down to Peter’s house in Atlanta. The first day I was there, we worked up a track that eventually became a song called “Wink and a Feather.” I should also mention that Gary Stier was there as well and had been involved in writing the songs they had developed.
The next day, I played them a demo of a song I was working on that I was calling “More Than I Could Ever Need.” I only had to play it for everybody once, and by the end of that afternoon, we had a track. It felt amazing to be with a group of people who were so responsive to my ideas. I loved it and was hooked.
What’s your songwriting process like for this now that you’re in the forefront rather than off to the side?
I’ve never considered myself to be at the forefront. I was joining something that was already most of the way established. I’m happy if my name and history help things along, but this isn’t “my band.” When I’m with Close Enemies, I don’t feel like I’m at the “forefront” any more than with Aerosmith; I feel like I’m “off to the side.” I’m happy to be an integral part of both bands. I look forward to bringing more song ideas to Close Enemies when the time comes.
You co-wrote Aerosmith’s “Sick as a Dog” and “Janie’s Got a Gun.” Tell us about that and how those experiences lend themselves to your approach with Close Enemies.
Those two songs came along during times when I was simply spending time having fun playing my guitar. In his book, Alex Van Halen talks about song ideas already being out there in the ether, and it’s just a matter of finding them.
I wrote the guitar parts to “Sick as a Dog” when we were working on the Rocks album, and thanks to the support of our producer, Jack Douglas, it made it onto the record. Years later, I came into the studio with a song idea when we were writing for the Pump album. Steven Tyler took a chord progression from it and used it for the intro to “Janie’s Got a Gun.” From there, he wrote the song. I consider that one a Steven song.
How do Close Enemies differ from what you’re known for, if at all? Does this feel like a fresh start?
Close Enemies is a more relaxed situation. There’s still the element of striving to be a great band with great songs but the overall atmosphere is a little more chill. As far as the material goes, it feels totally natural. I’ve never felt like I had to adjust to a new style. I think when the fans become more familiar with our songs, they’ll feel the same way.
What are the advantages of coming from a huge band to a smaller act? Is it almost like your early days?
I’ve never felt like I was coming from something huge to something small. I’m happy to let the outside world decide about hugeness and smallness. I’m more oriented towards the quality of the songs and the musicianship of these guys. It feels like we all went to the same school.
What gear are you using and why? What’s the secret to your bass tone?
Gear-wise, I’m using my beloved G&L ASAT and a Duesenberg Starplayer. I added my bass tracks at home using Logic and a Universal Audio Apollo Twin. I’m using the UAD SVT plug-in and a little compression right in Logic. Simple and effective.
I love to use the UAD Precision Maximizer as well and sometimes the Waves R Bass. The cool thing is that when it’s time to mix, we can use any combination of the above or whatever else comes along. Live I’m using an SVT with a single Gallien Krueger 4×10 cabinet.
For the icing on the cake, I’m using an Original Effects Bass Rig pedal that sounds amazing! It’s easily the best pedal I’ve ever used. I get the crunch and drive I want with no loss in the bottom end.
What songs stand out most here and why? What are you most proud of with this project?
I’m really excited and proud of my track on the song we have out now, which is called “Sound of a Train.” In the original demo, there was a bass track by a great bass player named Robert Kearns. It was a challenge to cover the priorities of what the song wanted yet in my own way.
Feature Photo:Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 FR , via Wikimedia Commons
Amy Winehouse was not just a singer but a voice that redefined modern soul music, blending raw emotion with classic jazz and R&B influences. Born on September 14, 1983, in Southgate, London, she grew up in a family deeply connected to music, with a father who adored Frank Sinatra and a mother who supported her creative pursuits. Winehouse’s unique talent emerged early, as she attended the Sylvia Young Theatre School, where her voice began to set her apart as a future icon.
Her professional career began in earnest with the release of her debut album, Frank, in 2003. A critically acclaimed record with a heavy jazz influence, it featured original compositions co-written by Winehouse and demonstrated her lyrical depth and vocal range. Tracks like “Stronger Than Me” showcased her distinct ability to merge modern themes with a vintage musical sensibility, earning her nominations for the Mercury Prize and Brit Awards.
Winehouse’s second album, Back to Black (2006), propelled her to global superstardom. Featuring collaborations with producer Mark Ronson, the album drew on Motown-inspired melodies and 1960s girl-group harmonies. Its standout tracks, including “Rehab,” “You Know I’m No Good,” and the haunting title track “Back to Black,” resonated with audiences worldwide. The album’s critical and commercial success earned Winehouse five Grammy Awards in 2008, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for “Rehab,” making her the first British woman to win five Grammys in a single night.
Winehouse’s live performances were as unforgettable as her records, with her soulful contralto voice captivating audiences. Her band included accomplished musicians who complemented her raw talent, making each show an intimate, powerful experience. However, her struggles with substance abuse and publicized personal challenges often overshadowed her artistic accomplishments, adding a tragic dimension to her story.
Amy Winehouse’s influence extended far beyond her music. Her signature beehive hairstyle and retro fashion choices became cultural hallmarks, inspiring trends in fashion and music. More importantly, her success helped pave the way for a new wave of female artists, such as Adele, who cited Winehouse as a key influence on their careers.
Tragically, Winehouse’s life was cut short when she passed away from alcohol poisoning on July 23, 2011, at the age of 27. Despite her untimely death, her legacy lives on through her groundbreaking albums and the Amy Winehouse Foundation, established by her family to support young people struggling with addiction and mental health challenges.
Amy Winehouse remains a symbol of unfiltered artistry, vulnerability, and resilience. Her ability to channel personal pain into universal truths, combined with her unparalleled voice, ensures that her music will continue to resonate with generations to come.
(A-K)
“A Song for You” – Lioness: Hidden Treasures (2011) “Addicted” – Back to Black (2006) “Amy Amy Amy”/”Outro”/”Brother”/”Mr. Magic (Through the Smoke)” – Frank (2003) “Back to Black” – Back to Black (2006) “Best Friends, Right?” – Lioness: Hidden Treasures (2011) “Best Friends, Right?” (Leicester Summer Sundae 2004) – Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012) “Between the Cheats” – Lioness: Hidden Treasures (2011) “Body and Soul” (with Tony Bennett) – Lioness: Hidden Treasures (2011) “Close to the Front” – Back to Black (2006) “Cupid” – Back to Black (2006) “Fu*k Me Pumps” – Frank (2003) “Fu*k Me Pumps” (T in the Park 2004) – Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012) “Half Time” – Lioness: Hidden Treasures (2011) “He Can Only Hold Her” – Back to Black (2006) “Help Yourself” – Frank (2003) “Hey Little Rich Girl” (with Zalon and Ade) – Back to Black (2006) “I Heard Love Is Blind” – Frank (2003) “In My Bed” – Frank (2003) “In My Bed” (T in the Park 2004) – Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012) “I Should Care” (The Stables 2004) – Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012) “Just Friends” – Back to Black (2006) “Just Friends” (Big Band Special 2009) – Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012) “Know You Now” – Frank (2003) “Know You Now” (Leicester Summer Sundae 2004) –Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012)
(L-Z)
“Love Is a Losing Game” – Back to Black (2006) “Love Is a Losing Game” (Jools Holland 2009) – Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012) “Like Smoke” (featuring Nas) – Lioness: Hidden Treasures (2011) “Lullaby of Birdland” (The Stables 2004) – Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012) “Me & Mr Jones” – Back to Black (2006) “Monkey Man” – Back to Black (2006) “Moody’s Mood for Love”/”Teo Licks” – Frank (2003) “October Song” – Frank (2003) “October Song” (T in the Park 2004) “Our Day Will Come” – Lioness: Hidden Treasures (2011) “Rehab” – Back to Black (2006) “Rehab” (Pete Mitchell 2006) “Some Unholy War” – Back to Black (2006) “Stronger Than Me [Jazz Intro]” – Frank (2003) “Take the Box” – Frank (2003) “Tears Dry on Their Own” – Back to Black (2006) “Tears Dry on Their Own” (Jo Whiley Live Lounge 2007) – Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012) “The Girl from Ipanema” – Lioness: Hidden Treasures (2011) “(There Is) No Greater Love” – Frank (2003) “To Know Him Is to Love Him” – Back to Black (2006) “To Know Him Is to Love Him” (Pete Mitchell 2006) – Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012) “Valerie” – Version (album by Mark Ronson) (2006) “Valerie” (Jo Whiley Live Lounge 2007) – Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012) “Wake Up Alone” – Back to Black (2006) “What Is It About Men” – Frank (2003) “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” – Lioness: Hidden Treasures (2011) “You Know I’m No Good” – Back to Black (2006) “You Know I’m No Good” (Jo Whiley Live Lounge 2007) – Amy Winehouse at the BBC (2012) “You Sent Me Flying”/”Cherry” – Frank (2003) “You’re Wondering Now” – Back to Black (2006)
Check out our fantastic and entertaining Amy Winehouse articles, detailing in-depth the band’s albums, songs, band members, and more…all on ClassicRockHistory.com
Janey Roberts lives in Chelsea, London. She has worked for various British musical publications writing album and concert reviews. Originally from Balboa Park, San Diego, Janey brings an international cross cultural perspective to rock journalism.
As they head towards their 25th anniversary, Finnish prog-doom merchants Swallow The Sun are bringing a touch of hope to their more melancholic output with the transformative new album, Shining. Bandleader Juha Raivio discusses their brighter sound, Marillion’s influence and why the record is going big with Queen-style choruses.
Swallow The Sun’s new album, Shining, is aptly named. It isn’t exactly bursting with joy – the Finnish quintet are far too steeped in melancholia for that – but it does provide glimmers of hope that shine like distant stars in the darkness. It’s also an album that guitarist, keyboard player, founder member and main songwriter Juha Raivio felt that he had to make at this point in the band’s career.
“I needed it to feel different to our last album for my own sake, because Moonflowers was so dark,” he explains. “It was so painful. Anyone who knows us knows the music has a lot of weight from my own personal life. It started to be quite dangerous for myself, to play the music and go on tour and stab myself in the heart. A voice inside myself said that maybe you could have a little bit of mercy with yourself if there’s ever going to be new music.”
For those who aren’t familiar with Swallow The Sun’s recent history, their last two albums – 2019’s When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light and 2021’s Moonflowers – dealt directly with the death of Raivio’s partner and artistic collaborator, Aleah Stanbridge, and the guitarist’s own difficult journey in its aftermath.
“When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light was made from love, pure love. I love that album. But I fucking hate Moonflowers. I hate that I had to write that album,” he says.“Aleah told me, ‘You have to face the darkness. Don’t have any fear – just go straight into the darkness because the light is on the other side.’ But I got so deep that I kind of passed the point where the light was; I was going even deeper into that direction. I was hoping with this new album that I would feel some kind of power rather than lying in that coffin.”
SWALLOW THE SUN – MelancHoly (OFFICIAL VIDEO) – YouTube
Shining does take a different tack. If the lyrics aren’t exactly suffused in light, they at least question and start to arrest that descent into darkness. Album opener Innocence Was Long Forgotten looks backwards with a darkly romantic lustre. What I Have Become takes a long, hard look into an unforgiving mirror, while MelancHoly warns of the dangers, as Raivio puts it, of “making melancholy your god.”
“People think I’m some kind of goth, weeping in a forest and drinking red wine,” he says. “That’s part of how I express myself through the music – but there has always been a hope in me, and both light and darkness. It’s very powerful in me. I sound like a fucking Jedi, but we all have that duality.”
Sign up below to get the latest from Prog, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
There are themes of rebirth, or at least a vigorous reassessment, that go beyond the lyrics too. Even the album artwork provides a marked contrast, with gleaming jewelled hands forming a transformative moth shape. It’s a far cry from Moonflowers, which saw the guitarist pour his pain – quite literally – into the minimalist aesthetic.
“I painted the Moonflowers cover with my own blood,” he nods. “I cut myself up just to paint the album. With the new one, you’re the first one who got it, but it’s the moth from our logo. It’s also two swans, and there’s a brightness with the diamonds and the whiteness of the image. It feels powerful: the kind of change I was hoping for.”
SWALLOW THE SUN – What I Have Become (OFFICIAL VISUALIZER VIDEO) – YouTube
Along with these thematic and aesthetic changes, the band decided to take a different musical approach to their ninth full-length studio album. Bassist Matti Honkonen has described Shining as the Finns’ own Black Album, and while his tongue was at least partially in his cheek, the comparison might still be alarming for fans of their more progressive leanings.
Metallica’s self-titled record was, after all, a far more streamlined take on their sound that became a huge mainstream hit, even as it alienated sections of their fanbase. Even more alarm bells might have sounded on the announcement of producer Dan Lancaster, whose production and mixing credits include Blink-182, Don Broco and Bring Me The Horizon.
I wanted Shining to have more power – and the mix feels like someone punching you in the face
“Matti was joking in part, but in a way it’s true, because the genre can be very… protective,” Raivio chuckles. “Like with the Black Album, lots of ‘true’ Metallica fans thought, ‘I want my Metallica to be exactly like this.’ We’re not into labels. People call us doom metal, and there is some of that in there; but we have melody and growling and slow tempos and long songs and short songs. People never know what to expect from us.
“I wanted a producer with a fresh perspective who’s never done this kind of music. Dan didn’t change the songs, but I wanted Shining to have more power – and the mix feels like someone punching you in the fucking face. He helped pull the melody out more than ever before and he also sings a lot, adding backing vocals and harmonies. You might want to hang me by my balls for saying this, but he brought a lot of Queen to the band with the big vocal choruses.”
SWALLOW THE SUN – Innocence Was Long Forgotten (OFFICIAL VIDEO) – YouTube
We’ll pass on that, thanks; but there’s a sense of immediacy and even bombast to Shining that certainly wasn’t present on its understandably downbeat predecessors. At the same time it’s recognisably a Swallow The Sun album, and long-term fans needn’t worry that they’ve morphed into a shiny pop-rock outfit. Despite the more optimistic tones, the gloomy melancholia remains. “It’s part of the Finnish people,” says Raivio with a laugh. He’s a man who lives alone in the woods with a beautiful Norwegian forest cat (who makes a scene-stealing appearance on our video call) for company.
I wish I didn’t have to write this music myself; so in that respect, I feel sorry for the people who like my band
The progressive elements are also ingrained, shining through the melodic layers of Under The Moon & Sun and the nine-minute title track which closes the album. “There’s so much Marillion in this band. We had Steve Rothery play with us [on 2009’s New Moon] and he’s my main influence as a guitarist,” Raivio says.
“Some prog fans might be like, ‘What is this asshole talking about?’ but it’s in there. We have a 34-minute song [2008’s Plague Of Butterflies]; and even I played in a progressive band through the 90s. We’d play these underground prog parties in Helsinki.”
It’s now nearly a quarter of a century since he helped put Swallow The Sun together. In that time they’ve become a respected and occasionally revered band, but their continued presence in the prog metal scene is never a given.
SWALLOW THE SUN – Charcoal Sky (OFFICIAL VISUALIZER VIDEO) – YouTube
“Every album is the last album for me in a way, because I can never be sure that the inspiration will come again,” Raivio explains. “I live here in my godforsaken forest and I wait. When the music comes, it comes in a flood and I write the whole album in a month. So far it’s always happened – but who knows if it always will?”
And if Shining should become their Black Album, in terms of a surge in popularity, would any of that change? “I still wouldn’t be able to plan music or write to a schedule. It’d certainly be amazing if more people found the band; but in some ways, even with the new album, I think you have to have lived it, to have loved and lost to really resonate with the music.
“I wish I didn’t have to write this music myself; so in that respect, I feel sorry for the people who like my band and I’m happy for the ones who don’t.”
Slayer’s Kerry King has named a metal guitarist who “plays circles” around him.
During an interview with the Talk Louder podcast, the 60-year-old offers the praise to Phil Demmel, formerly of Machine Head and now a member of King’s solo band.
King mentions Demmel when he’s asked about how he divvied up the solos on his 2024 debut solo album, From Hell I Rise, which also features vocalist Mark Osegueda (Death Angel), bassist Kyle Sanders (ex-Hellyeah) and drummer Paul Bostaph (Slayer).
“I probably would have given him more, because Phil Demmel’s a wizard,” King answers (via Ultimate Guitar). “He plays circles around me. He’s really, really fucking good, and he’s definitely more melodic than me. I’m far more archaic. But together, it works.”
He continues: “And in the beginning, when I was trying to decide who would play what, I thought about what fans would expect me to play, because I didn’t want to let fans think I wasn’t thinking about them, or passing the buck because I’m doing something else.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, King talks about the differences between his solo band and his work with Slayer.
“Say, for instance, you’ve got a horse with blinders on – that was me in Slayer,” he explains. “Not completely blind, just looking straight forward. In my band, I’d say [the blinders] open five to seven percent – not a lot, but it’s a different perspective. You know, Slayer was this juggernaut. And people had an established opinion – as well as I – about what the songs should be, how they should sound, things like that.
Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
“And then, when I did this band, I was just looking to do an 80s tribute punk song. That was Two Fists. I wanted the riffs to be as if they were written by a punk band. There’s a big riff in the middle that I just had to throw in there, because I couldn’t do it without one. But I wanted the vocals to be presented that way too.”
King unveiled his solo band in February 2024 with the announcement of From Hell I Rise and the release of their first single Idle Hands. The news came just days before Slayer, who’d previously retired in 2019, announced their surprise comeback.
Slayer are now active as an occasional live force, and are booked to play Louder Than Life in Kentucky in September, but King spends the majority of his time with his solo project. Since releasing From Hell I Rise, they’ve toured prolifically. They’re currently playing across the Americas and are set to also perform in Europe from July to August. See dates and details via King’s website.
Demmel is best-known for his stint in Machine Head from 2002 to 2018, but he’s also performed with Lamb Of God and Testament as a fill-in guitarist. He played several dates with Slayer during their 2018-to-2019 farewell tour as well, filling in for Gary Holt.
Cradle Of Filth‘s Dani Filth has condemned Spotify, and says he “owes it” to his fellow musicians to not have an account on the streaming platform.
In a new interview on Sonic Perspectives, the frontman explores the realities of living as an artist during a time where music is so readily and cheaply accessible in digital spaces.
He says (via Blabbermouth), “I owe it to my brethren in metal and music not to have a fucking Spotify account because they don’t pay people. It’s not just them — it’s just platforms in general.
“I appreciate the fact that people could discover you from another band and whatever; I’ve heard it a million times. But I’m old school… I want my bands to be paid because if they’re not paid, they’re not bands anymore.”
Noting the impact of streaming platforms on the livelihood of musicians, he continues: “I know so many people from big bands that since the pandemic have gone, ‘You know what? I’m taking a proper job. So you’ll see me less often. We’ll still be doing albums, but probably once every five years,’ because it just seems like daylight robbery.”
Filth then goes on to compare the act of streaming music to taking food illegally from shops, explaining: “If you owned a delicatessen or a fucking supermarket even, people aren’t allowed to just come in and help themselves to free produce, which is what people think they’re entitled to do with music because it’s a periphery thing and it’s in the air.
“You can’t physically touch music. But how do you expect bands to survive without that?”
Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
The frontman additionally shines a light on the film industry clamping down on online piracy, noting how he feels there’s less strict attitudes to consuming music without fully paying for it. “”Obviously, they really try [to combat piracy] with movies, and there’s more money involved in movies — obviously,” he says.
“But in England, we used to have these, not up to very recently, this whole advert they had before the movie starts where ‘video piracy is killing the movie industry’, and they even go to the point where they’d have this slamming prison doors, in IMAX quality sound, THX. ‘You’re going to prison if you watch a bootleg movie.’ But not the same for… I know back in the day [they had a message on the back of albums saying that] ‘home taping is killing music,’ but nowadays it’s like a fucking free for all.”
While in conversation with Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece, he explained: “It’s been deteriorating ever since… I think 2006 was the year that everything swapped from being comfortable for musicians — well, not necessarily comfortable; it was never comfortable.
“But [it went to] just being a lot harder with the onset of the digital age, the onset of music streaming platforms that don’t pay anybody. Like Spotify are the biggest criminals in the world. I think we had 25, 26 million plays last year, and I think personally I got about 20 pounds, which is less than an hourly work rate.”
Watch the full interview with Sonic Perspectives below:
DANI FILTH Talks Songwriting, Creative Process & Inspiration For CRADLE OF FILTH New Album – YouTube
If you’re attending Black Sabbath’s star-studded Back To The Beginning show this summer, you may face dramatically increased prices for nearby hotel rooms.
According to local newspaper Birmingham Live, hotels near to where the pioneering metal band will play their swan song at Villa Park on July 5 are upping their rates by up to 725 percent.
The publication singles out the three-star Apollo Hotel on Hagley Road, a 15-minute drive from Villa Park, as an example. It reports that a ‘superior’ double room without breakfast on the night of the show will set you back £619 on Hotels.com. By comparison, the same hotel room – when booked via the same site for Saturday, June 28 – costs just £75.
Birmingham Live also points to a Travelodge on Broadway Plaza, 14 minutes from the gig, reporting that a room there which costs just £53.99 on June 28 will be £319.99 on July 5. Similarly, in Yardley, a 22-minute drive from Villa Park, a Travelodge room will cost £303.99 on July 5, compared to £47.99 if you were to stay the week before Back To The Beginning.
Jacked hotel prices are the latest in the series of difficulties fans eager to attend Back To The Beginning have faced. The BBC reports that, after tickets to the show went on general sale on February 14, the online queue to buy passes exceeded 60,000 people. (Villa Park has a seating capacity of just 42,000 people.) If they got through the queue, fans then faced ticket prices that ranged from £200 up into the thousands.
Back To The Beginning will mark the first time Black Sabbath’s founding lineup – singer Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward – have played together since 2005. It is also set to be the band’s final show, as well as the last time Osbourne performs onstage. The Prince Of Darkness retired from touring in 2023, due to the physical effects of numerous surgeries and Parkinson’s disease.
You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.
It’s been six years since Killswitch Engage released Atonement, marking their longest gap between albums by far. The pandemic during that period appears to have been on vocalist Jesse Leach’s mind during the crafting of the band’s ninth album. He’s spoken about his consequent mental struggles, his initial rage and frustration turning to sadness and despair at the fractured state of the world. That journey can be heard throughout This Consequence. Jesse expresses feelings of loneliness and abandonment with furious anger, before calls for humanity to unite and heal come soaring in. His lyrics can often be cloaked in metaphor, but his passionate delivery always connects deeply, and here he’s sparked the strongest KSE album in well over a decade.
The opening Abandon Us is classic Killswitch – all metallic hardcore riffs, rhythms that will get you spin-kicking around your bedroom and some brilliantly bold, chest-beating vocals. But Jesse’s enraged, impassioned referencing of all he had being ‘turned to dust’ and being ‘left to bleed’ elevates the song and steals the show.
Jesse has rarely sounded as seething and fucked off as he does here. Even in the melodic sections, he sounds like his brain is about to combust, each syllable spat out with a ruthlessness you can’t help but be swept up by. The death metal vocals on Collusion make David Vincent sound like Sabrina Carpenter. Jesse Leach is on one, and it slaps.
Of course, this would mean little if the rest of the band didn’t match their vocalist. When KSE step up their trademark metalcore a notch, as on the grinding, thrashing opening of The Fall Of Us, it’s as heavy as they’ve ever sounded. If you were told Discordant Nation was Cannibal Corpse with Jesse guesting, you wouldn’t have blinked. There’s even a NOLA sludge and Alice in Chains mash- up, Broken Glass, which is suffocatingly heavy and achingly melodic.
While this is unquestionably the hardest, often darkest and most frenzied Killswitch album in some time, their belief in affirmation and self-betterment remains. Jesse continues to be a force for good in the metal scene, and has always preached strength through unity. His stirring call of ‘I believe, there is hope for better days’ on I Believe shows that a positive core and desire for solidarity remains a key part of his identity. After a couple of decent albums and a huge break before this one, you’d be forgiven for worrying that Killswitch Engage might enter into a period of diminishing returns. But This Consequence sees them roaring back to classic form, possibly even heavier, just as emotionally raw, and still the leaders of the metalcore pack. It’s a pleasure to have them back.
This Consequence is out this Friday, February 21 . Order our exclusive Killswitch Engage bundle featuring a limited edition t-shirt design via the official Metal Hammer store.
(Image credit: Future)
Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.
Feature Photo: Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Olivia Rodrigo’s rapid rise to superstardom has made her one of the defining voices of her generation. Born on February 20, 2003, in Murrieta, California, she was raised in Temecula, where she developed a passion for performing at a young age. Rodrigo first gained national recognition as an actress, starring in Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark from 2016 to 2019 before landing the lead role in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. While acting, she showcased her songwriting abilities, particularly with “All I Want,” a song from the show’s soundtrack that gained viral success and foreshadowed her transition into a full-fledged music career.
In 2021, Rodrigo made a stunning debut as a solo artist with SOUR, an album that redefined contemporary pop with its mix of heartbreak, angst, and raw emotion. Led by the record-breaking single “drivers license,” the album catapulted her to global fame, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 and producing multiple hit singles, including “deja vu” and “good 4 u.” The album earned widespread critical acclaim and established Rodrigo as both a powerful vocalist and a songwriter capable of capturing the complexities of young adulthood.
Rodrigo continued her success with her second album, GUTS, released in 2023. Featuring hit singles such as “vampire” and “bad idea right?,” the album showcased her growth as an artist, blending pop-punk influences with introspective lyrics. Like its predecessor, GUTS debuted at number one, cementing her position as one of the most influential young artists in music. Her ability to seamlessly mix vulnerability with biting wit has resonated deeply with fans and critics alike.
Throughout her short but impactful career, Rodrigo has already accumulated an impressive number of awards. She won three Grammy Awards in 2022, including Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album for SOUR. She has also received multiple MTV Video Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, and American Music Awards. Her ability to achieve both commercial success and critical recognition at such an early stage in her career has placed her among the most promising talents of her generation.
Rodrigo’s appeal extends beyond her music; she has become a cultural icon for young audiences. Her willingness to be open about emotions, relationships, and the struggles of fame has made her relatable to millions of fans. Her music often draws comparisons to artists like Taylor Swift and Alanis Morissette, both of whom she cites as major influences. However, her unique voice and perspective have allowed her to carve out her own space in the industry.
Outside of music, Rodrigo has used her platform for activism and philanthropy. In 2021, she visited the White House to promote COVID-19 vaccinations among young people, demonstrating her commitment to social issues. She has also been vocal about mental health awareness and has encouraged discussions about self-expression and emotional well-being through her lyrics and public appearances.
(#-D)
1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back – Sour (2021) All-American Bitch – Guts (2023) All I Want – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Bad Idea Right? – Guts (2023) Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl – Guts (2023) The Best Part – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 2 (2021) Bizaardvark Theme Song – Bizaardvark (Music from the TV Series) (2016) Blobfish – Bizaardvark (Music from the TV Series) (2016) Bop to the Top – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Breaking Free (cover) – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Brutal – Sour (2021) Can’t Catch Me Now – The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Soundtrack (2023) The Comeback Song – Bizaardvark (Music from the TV Series) (2016) Deja Vu – Sour (2021) Drivers License – Sour (2021)
(E-H)
Enough for You – Sour (2021) Even When/The Best Part – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 2 (2021) Favorite Crime – Sour (2021) Get Him Back! – Guts (2023) Girl I’ve Always Been – Guts (Spilled) (2023) Good 4 U – Sour (2021) Granted – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 2 (2021) The Grudge – Guts (2023) Happier – Sour (2021) Hope Ur Ok – Sour (2021)
(I-L)
I Think I Kinda, You Know – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Jealousy, Jealousy – Sour (2021) Just for a Moment – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Lacy – Guts (2023) Logical – Guts (2023) Love Is Embarrassing – Guts (2023) Love the Haters – Bizaardvark (Music from the TV Series) (2016)
(M-Z)
Making the Bed – Guts (2023) Obsessed – Guts (Spilled) (2023) Out of the Old – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Pretty Isn’t Pretty – Guts (2023) River (cover) – High School Musical: The Musical: The Holiday Special: The Soundtrack (2020) The Rose Song – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 2 (2021) Scared of My Guitar – Guts (Spilled) (2023) So American – Guts (Spilled) (2024) Start of Something New – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Stranger – Guts (Spilled) (2023) Teenage Dream – Guts (2023) Traitor – Sour (2021) Vampire – Guts (2023) What I’ve Been Looking For – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) Wondering – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack (2020) YAC Alma Mater – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 2 (2021) You Never Know – High School Musical: The Musical: The Series: The Soundtrack: Season 3 (2022)
Check out our fantastic and entertaining Olivia Rodrigo articles, detailing in-depth the band’s albums, songs, band members, and more…all on ClassicRockHistory.com
Brian Kachejian was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx. He is the founder and Editor in Chief of ClassicRockHistory.com. He has spent thirty years in the music business often working with many of the people who have appeared on this site. Brian Kachejian also holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Stony Brook University along with New York State Public School Education Certifications in Music and Social Studies. Brian Kachejian is also an active member of the New York Press.
“We jumped offstage and took our masks off and started swinging at people at the end of one song”: The wild story of Slipknot vs Mushroomhead, the masked band feud that lit up nu metal
(Image credit: Dean Karr/Press/Hayley Madden/Redferns)
It’s September 11, 1999, and Slipknot are on top of the world. Hot off a game-changing self-titled debut album, the masked nine-piece are in Cleveland, Ohio, taking part in the enormous Livin’ La Vida Loco tour. They’re there as part of a stacked bill headlined by Coal Chamber and also featuring Machine Head and Amen. It should have been another magnificent night of what had been a hugely successful trek.
Except it wasn’t. At a gig in Cleveland, Slipknot found themselves facing an unexpectedly aggressive audience.
“People came down and threw everything but rocks at us,” Slipknot singer Corey Taylor remembered of the set his band played that evening, discussing it years later at one of his solo concerts. “They hit Paul [Gray, bassist] in the face with a fucking padlock the size of my fist, while we were onstage!
“When we got done playing, we took all our shit off and went into the audience,” he continued. “There were a lot of them, but there was all nine of us, there was Machine Head and all our friends in Amen. Let’s just say, we fucking handled it right there.”
“Me and Jim [Root, guitarist] jumped offstage and took our masks off and started swinging at people at the end of one song,” Gray told Revolver. “When we were done with that set, everything came off. One of the guys in our crew got maced by the cops and arrested.”
The gig-turned-brawl was the Iowans’ first time in Cleveland: a city that happened to be the hometown of Mushroomhead, a band with whom Slipknot had more than a little in common. Both wore masks and boiler suits. Both even had a bassist that dressed up like a pig. Corey Taylor and co, however, were the newer of the two – and they were already bigger. Much bigger. And that was the problem.
Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
Mushroomhead released their first album in spring 1995, more than four years prior to The ‘Knot. Despite this though, the latter were an immediate breakthrough after June ‘99’s Slipknot, eclipsing the Ohio troupe in a minuscule span of time. In frustrated fans’ eyes, a very close imitation had not-so-subtly ripped off the genuine article and ridden their coattails for a quick buck, leading to the violent boiling point that was Cleveland in September 1999.
That one night was the height of the Slipknot versus Mushroomhead feud, which would go on to become one of the biggest talking points of the era. For years, loyalist fans would cling tightly to their respective favourites, while on-and-off mud-slinging consumed the rock ‘n’ roll press. Everyone else stood on the sidelines, wondering what they hell it was all about.
The stage for the rivalry was set in mid-1998, when Slipknot signed an extremely enviable seven-album deal with Roadrunner Records. A year beforehand, the label had been interested in signing Mushroomhead, but the band turned them down. “Roadrunner had a guy shopping us,” ex-frontman Jeff Hatrix said on a podcast in 2018. “And, at the time, we were making more at local shows than they were offering us in advance, and they wanted all of our merch… The money just didn’t make any sense.”
Hatrix had previously claimed outright that Slipknot were a homemade imitation of Mushroomhead. “They are Roadrunner-invented clones of us, and everybody knows it,” he said in 2007. Drummer Steve “Skinny” Felton was more aggressive towards the alleged rip-offs, when he ranted that Slipknot “traded a platinum record for dignity, honour and respect”: “Corey Taylor says, ‘You cannot kill what you did not create.’ Maybe so – but I guess you can sure as fuck sell what you stole.”
(Image credit: George De Sota (ID 5073478)/Redferns)
Local magazine Cleveland Scene reached out to Roadrunner’s A&R director to get their side of the allegations. “I honestly [couldn’t] care less about your article and I have nothing to say,” came the reply.
Although Slipknot’s 1999 Cleveland show was the only time the debacle came to physicality, the two bands would trade vicious verbal barbs through the 2000s. In the May 2002 issue of Rock Sound, Taylor accused Mushroomhead of encouraging their fans to violence on that night. He brutally added, “I’ll fucking go to fucking Cleveland and grab every fucking one of them by their stupid fucking masks and I will put a knee to their faces until they pass out from loss of blood!”
Hatrix later admitted that he was indeed involved in orchestrating the events in 1999. “I know all the people who did it and I did personally paint [their] ‘Cleveland Supports Mushroomhead’ and ‘Slipknot Go Home’ signs. But I wasn’t there and I didn’t know the complete extent of what they were going to do. But, hey, these guys are men, right? […] Welcome to Cleveland, bitches!” The singer also accused Slipknot and their touring crew of harassing his girlfriend for wearing a Mushroomhead t-shirt near the venue earlier that day.
Hatrix et al. aggravated things even further in 2005, going so far as to perform concerts in their home state that mocked Slipknot. The eight men (together with one of their touring crew) dressed as The Nine onstage, playing samples that repeated, “The whole thing, I think it’s stolen” – a parody of the words that open their debut album.
“People started chanting, ‘Fuck Slipknot!’,” one concertgoer told Blabbermouth. “Waylon [Reavis, vocalist] then screamed, ‘Come on, don’t be afraid to say it,’ which made everyone start the chant back up. The crowd was brutal and I loved it.”
By 2007, Mushroomhead were still continuing their crusade, slinging insults such as “straight-up frauds” and “the NSYNC of heavy metal”. However, they hadn’t been met with any further response from their rivals, who were becoming the mainstream face of a generation of rock music. Slipknot’s latest album, Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses, had climbed to No.2 on the American charts, while Mushroomhead’s most recent release, 2006’s Savior Sorrow, had reached No.50.
By that point, Slipknot themselves were traying to take the more diplomatic route, refusing to add fuel to the fire. “I’m tired of it,” Taylor said in a 2005 radio interview. “We’ve tried everything that we could to squash this between ourselves and Mushroomhead. I’ve even come out and said I wish them nothing but luck. I don’t care. It’s not that big a deal to me.”
The decade-plus-long tensions seemed to have finally come to an end by 2010, as Mushroomhead, both publicly and privately, sent their condolences to Slipknot after the tragic death of Paul Gray. Since then, Taylor has expressed interest in performing alongside his band’s former nemeses, wanting to curate a tour that will see the duo share stages with fellow masked rockers Mudvayne and Gwar.
Speaking to Metal Hammer in 2023, Mushroomhead’s Steve ‘Skinny’ Felton could look back at with a sense of perspective. “A bit of it over time has been inflated,” he told us. “I wasn’t there personally and I’ve heard 20 different versions over the years. And let’s not forget that it was popular in that era to have beefs in bands and stack people against each other. It was huge with the West Coast and East Coast rappers. The media fuelled it and fans bought into it.”
Asked if Slipknot stole his band’s thunder by signing with Roadrunner after Mushroomhead didn’t, Skinny was equally measured. “No, because there were lots of people signing lots of bands in the day. It wasn’t like we got the exact same offer by the same guy who signed Slipknot. And I have a lot of compassion for them, because they’ve put up with a lot of bullshit just to make music and art, and they’ve lost good people. I commend them for everything they do and it just goes to show that I wasn’t that far off many years ago that this type of thing was going to be bigger than we even knew. I wasn’t wrong. It just wasn’t my band.”
More than 20 years after it all kicked off in Cleveland, the sustained Slipknot/Mushroomhead rivalry remains one of the 90’s most talked-about discords. It was the Metallica versus Megadeth of the nu metal era, escalated by fistfights, arrests and the internet. Today, both bands try to dismiss their past skirmishes as fan- and media-driven, each trying to downplay their own involvement in what was the most over-the-top feud in nu metal.
Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.
David Gilmour will never escape questions about whether Pink Floyd would ever reunite, despite a mass of evidence to the contrary. When Classic Rock met up with him at his home 2002, eight years after Floyd’s then-final studio album The Division Bell and three before the band’s brief reunion at Live 8 , he was focussed on going it alone and finally laying his old band to rest.
The image of David Gilmour as calm, focused and unflappable goes back over a quarter of a century. Whether standing amid the cacophonous sensory overload of a Pink Floyd spectacular or alone in the lush acoustic intimacy of the Royal Festival Hall, he has always maintained the same dedicated, unhurried, workmanlike demeanor.
Like the recommended plumber who comes round to unblock your U-bend (oo-er, missus), he will take as long as it takes but you will be satisfied with the result. As opposed to the bloke you found in the Yellow Pages who turns up in a flash shirt and pressed jeans, ear glued to his mobile, acting like he’s doing you a big favour, leaving the job half done and you to clean up the wet patch.
At 2001’s solo concerts at London’s Meltdown Festival, he seems like the most unruffled person in the Royal Festival Hall. He’s certainly calmer than the audience, many of whom are unable to suppress squeals of excitement at the merest hint of a recognisable riff.
But beneath that placid exterior there were other forces at work. “I can show you places where the nerves are there,” says David. “At the beginning of Shine On You Crazy Diamond there’s a close-up of me doing a vibrato on the acoustic guitar which is more than I’d ever intended. That was due to trembling. It wasn’t as under control as one would like it to be.”
We’re sitting in David’s studio upstairs in the barn overlooking his house, deep in the rockbroker belt that lies between London and the South coast. It’s a sunny September afternoon and small children occasionally dash between the house and some tents on the back lawn. His wife Polly pushes a pram around the garden, lulling their week-old daughter to sleep.
There’s no sign of celebrity life-style to titillate the tabloids. Even the studio denotes “musician at work” rather than “rock star in residence”. At one end there’s a mixing console with associated screens, computers and keyboards. Bits of masking tape mark out exactly where David is supposed to sit while he’s remixing Pink Floyd’s Pulse live DVD for 5.1 surround sound.
Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!
The rest of the room is a comfortable clutter of sofas, tables and bits of equipment with a sink in the corner and two piles of vinyl albums awaiting sorting. Next to one of the sofas is a stand with eight or nine guitars, many of which would be instantly familiar to anyone who has followed David’s career. Among them is his first guitar, a Spanish acoustic from the early 60s.
David Gilmour (second left) with Pink Floyd in 1973 (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
On one of the tables is a long black instrument case containing a bass harmonica, purchased after seeing Brian Wilson in concert at this year’s Meltdown Festival. The noise it makes comes straight off a backing track for God Only Knows. “I’ll put that on something one of these days,” muses David. “It needs a special role, though.”
This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock issue 48 (December 2002) (Image credit: Future)
It was in this studio that David came to “panic” after he’d accepted an invitation to perform at the June 2001 Meltdown during a phone call from Robert Wyatt who was putting it together. “I came in here and I tried out a lot of songs from the Pink Floyd catalogue first,” he explains. “Really, it was to give myself a safety net. I had a string sampler and I tried them out with the kind of instrumentation I’d already decided I wanted to use, just to see if they worked.”
He’d decided on a band of cello, double bass, brass section and “gospelly” choir even before he’d put the phone down to Wyatt. An unusual choice but one that immediately distanced him from Pink Floyd. “I love orchestras and I particularly love the cello. And the sound of a gospelly choir is something that’s always appealed to me. I chickened out of getting a real gospel choir. Having a number of singers like Sam Brown, who I knew well and have used many times before, made me feel better. Because I was quite nervous about the whole thing.”
It wasn’t that David hadn’t played solo before – there have been notable appearances with Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Tom Jones, Dream Academy and even Spinal Tap as well as solo spots at various benefit shows. Not to mention a solo tour back in ’84.
“That was pretty much done with the same sort of rock band, just on a smaller scale,” he says. “This was looking forward, trying to find a way of exploring something different. Not necessarily forever. When I do it again it will undoubtedly change, though I’ve no idea what to. But it’s nice to be freed from any strictures, which admittedly are self-imposed.”
He tackled those strictures head on, starting the Meltdown shows – just like Pink Floyd invariably did on their last tour – with Shine On You Crazy Diamond. “There was a moment of thinking, ‘Shall I attempt an acoustic guitar version of the long, synthesised opening?’ It came to me one day how I could do it and it worked out not too badly.” The solution, involving delay units, pedals and “plenty of regeneration”, made for a novel variation on the epic introduction.
For Comfortably Numb he says he went back to the original demo to remind himself of the acoustic original. That’ll be demo he once played on a Capital Radio show then – a couple of minutes of strumming around the wordless melody that, tantalisingly, never reaches the final chord.
“I never get to the ‘I have become comfortably numb’ bit because Roger Waters said he wanted to put that line in as a lyric and I had to write the extra bit there and then.” He reaches over and takes an acoustic guitar from the stand and starts picking at the same chord structure. “This is the guitar I wrote it on. It’s still strung the same way.”
He also enjoyed revisiting Fat Old Sun which hadn’t been aired since the Atom Heart Mother tour over 30 years ago. Several friends requested it and David was happy to oblige. “I really like it. Even I forget that I ever wrote lyrics! I wasn’t allowed to put it on Echoes (last year’s Pink Floyd compilation), I was out-voted.”
Having strung up his “safety net”, which also included songs from the recent, Roger-less Pink Floyd, he could get more adventurous when it came to picking covers. Undoubtedly the bravest was Je Crois Entendre Encore from Bizet’s opera The Pearl Fishers which must have required a considerable leap of faith to carry off. “It certainly did. I remember my wife Polly’s face going red when I tried singing it and my face literally going into a cold sweat – ‘Do I dare try this?’ But once the choir came up here and ran through it with me, that gave me a huge amount of confidence.” Nevertheless, he remembers feeling “very, very exposed” when it came to singing it in public.
The trick, apparently, is to get inside the song. “You need to inhabit the song to do it justice”. And the same applies to the two Syd Barrett songs he covered. “I think I did Terrapin pretty much as the record, as much as I reasonably could. Dominoes I did change around a little. I gave it a slightly jazzier feel.”
Was he also trying to make them more accessible, maybe, for those who find Syd’s deranged delivery a little hard to take? “Like an easy listening version, you mean?” Well, not exactly, but… “No, that’s fine. That’s fine. Many of his songs are just… too personal to Syd. Or too… incomprehensible in some ways. With some of them it’s hard to feel confident about inhabiting the song. I’m pretty sure I know where Terrapin is coming from. It’s that underwater vibe. Although it is slightly off the wall lyrically.”
As Syd’s fans are well aware, there are two songs he recorded with Pink Floyd for an aborted single in 1967 that have never been issued. And while anyone who’s interested can find Vegetable Man and Scream Thy Last Scream on bootlegs, it remains something of an anomaly that they’ve never been released, particularly as they are infinitely better than any of the extraneous bits and bobs that showed up on the ‘Barratt’ box set a few years back.
David Gilmour onstage at London’s Wembley Arena in 2004 (Image credit: Jo Hale/Getty Images)
“Vegetable Man is good,” confirms David, “and Scream Thy Last Scream has lead vocals by Nick Mason. We did actually perform that one a few times in my very early years with Pink Floyd. I don’t know if they were ever finally mixed or anything to be honest. And that whole era is before I joined so I don’t really know the history of what happened with those songs. I think it has been mooted that they be put out but I think some people are a little unwilling to put them out,” he adds with a hint of evasion. “I’d be perfectly happy for them to be dug out and preferably remixed and put out.”
I suggest that the spirit of Syd still seems to haunt them all. There are references to him in every show that Pink Floyd, David or Roger perform. “Yes, that’s true. It’s hard to get away from. One could get away from it if one wanted to but… it doesn’t obsess me either way. I’m happy. I mean, Syd was the reason for the band’s existence. They wouldn’t have started without Syd. And his descent into his own private hell is very well documented on WishYou Were Here with some music that I’m very proud to have been a part of.”
While WishYou Were Here is probably most Pink Floyd fans’ favourite album, in terms of sales and record-breaking statistics it remains eclipsed by its predecessor, Dark Side Of The Moon. But David is with the fans on this one.
“I had some criticisms of Dark Side Of The Moon. It’s kind of ludicrous in a way to have criticisms of an album that was so successful but I did voice them at the time. I thought that one or two of the vehicles carrying the ideas were not as strong as the ideas that they carried. I thought we should try and work harder on marrying the idea and the vehicle that carried it, so that they both had an equal magic, or whatever, to them. So it’s something I was personally pushing when we made Wish You Were Here. It’s underrated by some, but not by me. I think it’s our most complete album.”
Roger said recently that Wish You Were Here was mourning the loss of the group as a band of brothers as much as it was mourning the loss of Syd. Does David go along with that? “Maybe in mourning the band, not as a band of brothers I don’t think, but more in terms of a band of seekers if you like. We were people dedicated to hunting down and playing something with some meaning and soul.
“The period after Dark Side Of the Moon when we made Wish You Were Here was a strange time. We had achieved everything really that one could hope to achieve. There was a bit of a distance between us all at that point, and Roger wasn’t the only one who noticed this sense of absence.
“But that sense of absence is part of the album’s magic. It helped create it. I don’t know quite how it did. I can’t regret that period at all. I don’t think it’s necessary for that absence, that feeling of post-euphoria… I don’t see it as something permanent. You maybe suffer a little dip in some ways. But little dips in life can inspire great things. It is odd to try and work out how something as good as that album came out of this rather blank feeling that we had.”
David Gilmour – Fat Old Sun (In Concert) – YouTube
Almost as odd as trying to work out why Syd, who none of the band had seen in over four years, should suddenly show up in the control room one day while they were mixing the album. It overwhelmed them at the time and, to judge from their comments in a TV documentary on Syd earlier this year, it overwhelms them still. David said he didn’t recognise the man with the “shaved, bald head, very plump”.
“It was a strange thing. It was a strange thing to happen,” he says. Did you acknowledge him? Did he acknowledge you? “Eventually. Eventually we said hello. When we realised. It did take a little time before we cottoned on to what was going on.”
Did he ask about the album, you were working on? “I don’t think so.” Do you know why he was there? “No. He obviously knew the studio well. He’d done most of his recording there, including his solo albums. I mean, I’ve no idea why. We’d spent months in there so maybe it was pure coincidence.”
Have you seen him since? “No.” But he’s OK. “So they tell me, yes. He’s got relatives around him and I don’t think he wants for anything in particular. I’d like to go and see him one of these days.” Isn’t there a risk that he might become disturbed if he’s confronted by his past? “I don’t know whether that’s still the case. That was something I discussed with his sister 20 years ago. I think he’s more settled and happy in his skin these days.”
As is David. So much so he’s planning a solo album. “I’m hoping to make an album next year. I haven’t got very far with it as yet. Time seems to be flying by.” Well, you’ve got one song for it – Smile – the only new song that was played at the Meltdown shows.
“Yes, indeed. It’s a start,” he chuckles while walking across to the studio and tapping at the keyboard. Seconds later the demo of Smile is playing. It has the same simplicity as the live version but it has a clearer direction about it and sounds more realised. Just about ready in fact. David nods in agreement. “It didn’t quite come out the way I wanted it to in concert.”
Do you have any other songs for the album? “I’ve got plenty of bits of music that I need to do a lot of work on,” he replies. For lyrics he need look no further than Polly, who contributed several to The Division Bell as well as Smile. “Strangely enough, as valuable as she is in the lyrical sense which, as a writer is her forte, she’s very strong with musical production ideas too. She had a lot of little ideas on The Division Bell which were not properly credited.”
David Gilmour with his wife Polly Samson in 2002 (Image credit: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
Are you hearing much new music that interests you these days? “Well, radio is my ear for what’s going on in the outside world. Of course down here we can barely get Virgin Radio, let alone any of the other good stations that you can get in London, like Xfm which I rather enjoy.
“I found the Streets’ Let’s Push Things Forward grew on me when I was in town recently. It’s forward looking and anarchic. It has its own anti-big company ethos which I like. And it has strange little quirks of timing that I find very hard to use. Perhaps it will influence me in the future, I don’t know. But it’s nice to hear something that works which is outside your usual frame of reference.”
Which leaves us with the diminishing prospects of seeing Pink Floyd in concert again. David has already stated that he has no desire “to hit the stadiums again” although he hasn’t yet closed the stable (or stadium) door.
“Well, I don’t like to say that I’ll never do something again, but I suspect that I’ve done that. One never knows if one’s tired old ego might creep up on you and persuade you to give it another go. I mean, I’m at liberty to play with Rick and Nick any time. But the weight of the whole Pink Floyd thing is something I don’t feel like lifting these days.”
“And I wouldn’t feel happy doing it without a new record. Going out and cashing in, playing all the old songs again, isn’t really what I’m into, or ever have been. Touring would have to be on the back of another Pink Floyd record and I don’t feel in the mood to compromise in that way right now. I think I’ll stick to my own label for the time being. I just think I’ve grown out of it. Finally. Probably…”
Riding back to the station in David’s classic car – I forgot to ask, but 50s or 60s to judge by the amount of chrome and the leather seats – I ask whether Nick Mason had told him he was going to be making an appearance at Roger Waters’s recent London shows. He says not and, like the whole Syd thing, he’s not obsessed either way.
As we pull up at the station there are some glances, mainly at the car which is one gleam ahead of the rest, and a couple at the driver. I suggest that he gets more recognition now than he did at the height of Pink Floyd’s fame when they were famously anonymous. “That’s true.” And you don’t mind? “I don’t care very much. The sort of recognition I get these days wandering around London or around here… they don’t really care very much. There’s no pestering.” He couldn’t have planned it better.
Originally published in Classic Rock issue 48. December 2002
