THE
WARRIORS ARE BACK!
An Interview with Manowars Eric Adams
Metal hero's, Manowar, are back and stronger than ever with "Warriors
of the World," their first studio album in six years, and they are
psyched to bring their traditional brand of hard-hitting, ear-splitting
heavy metal to the entire world once again.
Manowar; who includes Eric Adams, Scott Columbus, Karl Logan & Joey
DeMaio; have been rocking the globe for close to twenty years and
have always delivered a fierce arsenal of head-banging music. I
recently spoke with singer, Eric Adams. Adams is an incredible singer
whose range is insane. On this album he proves, once again, that
he is one of the greatest singers to ever come from the heavy metal
circuit, but this time he goes even further as he takes on the famous
opera piece, "Nessun Dorma," and delivers big-time. As you read
this interview you'll be glad to see that not only is Adams one
of the most intense and underrated singers in metal history, but
also one of the coolest.
Words: Don Sill
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Tell me about your new album, "Warriors of
the World" This is your first studio album since 1996, you must
be psyched to get this one out of your system?
Eric Adams: Yes, too psyched, brother.. Believe me it's been a long
time coming.. Look, we've been busy, we've been on the road and
doin' all kinds of shit and so it took some time..
This album is 100% Manowar, you guys had total
control; It was recorded in Joey's home studio? Eric Adams:
Yeah, that's right, brother, we call it "Hell" (Laughs)
(Laughs) How did it earn the name "Hell?"
Eric Adams: Believe me if you were up here in central New York and
you walked in you'd know exactly why.. (Laughs) You walk into what
used to be his living room and there's nothing but gear everywhere
you look, you got the drum kit set up all the time, the vocal booth
is right there all the time and usually Joey [DeMaio] was right
there all the time too, engineering the thing..
So, all of your hard hours of work to get
this album together spawned in "Hell?" (laughs)
Eric Adams: Oh Yeah.. It was a long time, man.. And, I'll tell ya,
I wouldn't want to wear Joey's shoes cus' he was there all hours,
him and Scott [Columbus] and they had to be there. So, when one
of us would lay our parts down then Joey and Scott would take over
from there and listen to all the different takes and mix it and
figure out what's best and all of that stuff, it's a lot of work.
Yeah, I could imagine, and the result of all
of that work is excellent.. Pure, 100% Manowar..
Eric Adams: That's right. Look, we tried other producers and our
record company wanted us to use different producers and all those
guys want to do is make something that's gonna sound like their
last hit.. You know what I'm sayin'? But we know what we want to
talk about, who would know better than the band themselves? We know
what we're trying to get out live and what we want to put on on
CD and so, we decided, 'Fuck this" we're gonna go out and produce
our own albums and we've done it already in the past. It's not like
we're virgins here..
Is it an easier process to do everything yourself
because of the freedom, or is it harder because all the pressure
is on you?
Eric Adams: Well, earlier in our career it was harder because the
money wasn't there to live off of. The quicker we got one done and
got out there meant we were eating again.. (Laughs) you know what
I mean, Don? (Laughs) But, it's a lot better now for us, cus' it's
a lot more laid back and the atmosphere is better.. We're not in
any rush to get things done, when it's right it's done and if it's
not right then it's not done and if it takes us months or years
then that's what it takes. We're in no hurry and there's no pressure
at all and it's really cool..
Your music does get quite complex, I'm interested
in the creative process.. Do you write the lyrics?
Eric Adams: No, Joey writes all the lyrics.. He's a very talented
man, he really is. He writes all the lyrics and most of the music.
What he does is when he gets an idea, now I don't know why but he
usually gets his ideas at about 3 O'clock in the morning, then he
calls me up and he says, "Brother, I can't do this any further without
hearing your voice on it and to see if it's a good key for you or
whatever." So, I come over to his place right away, he only lives
about 2 miles away, so I zip over to his house and we do the thing..
We work on it a little bit and he sees if it's in a good key for
me and then it's just a question of finishing the track and then
the rest of the song gets put together..
Is there much tension is the during studio
sessions?
Eric Adams: Fuck yes, are you kidding (laughs) remember, we're a
family here, okay. It's a family and there's tension, there's always
tension. The good thing about this is that is somebody's part just
sucks then we can honestly just tell each other, "Listen man, that
aint' happening." We have the opinion that it's either "It" or it's
"Shit" right away. So, there are times when I sing a song and I
ask them what they think about this note I'm singing and I can see
the other 3 guys just looking at each other and then one of them
says, "hey man, that aint' happening." (Laughs) So, it's cool, it's
cool thinking about it now, but there is tension sometimes because
you want to do your best, but it's a cooperative thing, everybody
helps each other and criticizes each others performance so it can
be the very best it could possibly be.
You guys have always been into all of the sword & sorcery / fantasy
stuff, why has that particular theme been such a big part of Manowar
for all these years?
Eric Adams: You know what, it all started out because we wanted
to bring the whole image back to the roots of man and that's how
we started doing all this sword and sorcery stuff right in the beginning.
It took right off in England it was unbelievable. From there we
did the tour and decided to bring some swords out with us and we
had a reputation for using real swords on stage and word of mouth
spread and we always kept that whole tradition and idea together.
I think it's a great image, cus' not only does it show the strength
of the band but the strength of the music behind the band. It's
that whole feeling of brotherhood that an army of immortals would
have.
The first thing most people think of when
they think of Manowar is that whole powerful image with the swords
and muscle and all that stuff..
Eric Adams: That's the whole idea. You don't want to go out there
with pots and pans & right.. You gotta kick ass, right? You gotta
kick ass when you go into battle and everyday is a battle. Everyday
life is a battle; everyday you're dealing with bullshit. So, if
your going into battle you should use your sword and fight. That
has been a great image for us and is something that has really sowed
the whole thing together.
What is the whole concept of your new album,
"Warriors of the World?"
Eric Adams: It never starts out being a concept album. It always
starts out with great somgs that we came up with at the time, but
as it develops the album kinda makes itself happen. This is a much
more versitile than any of our other albums, it was balls to the
walls after we started developing it. It was like, anything goes
here. That's why we did "Nessun Dorma," that why we did the Elvis
track, "The American trilogy" and all of that. We just said, "Fuck
it." There has never been a concept idea. We always have an ass-kicking
song on every album, always an anthem song, always had slow songs,
always had fast songs, so this is just something Manowar has always
followed and we done it again. But, this time we taken it a step
further and added opera to it.
Yeah, that Opera piece, "Nessun Dorma" what
made you decide to include that?
Eric Adams: It was fun to do, it's a lot more fun to do live..
When you guys played it live in Italy I heard
that you had the fans holding back tears.
Eric Adams: Yeah, (Laughs) We did it live again and we filmed the
crowd, you should see it.. It's unbeliveable, maybe we'll add it
to the normal set, who knows.
That is the kind of thing that I think everyone
could appreciate.
Eric Adams: Well, it does set us apart from the other metal bands
out there and it really calls out the shit, ya know.. A lot of guys
today think they're singers, okay, but I call them vocalists. Anybody
can grunt and make sounds with their voice, but if you're gonna
be a singer you better be ready to fuckin' sing. That's my whole
thing, I think this calls out the shit.
Well, there's certainly not a lot of 'new'
guys that can pull off opera, I'll tell you that.
Eric Adams: Exactly, and then they hear the Manowar album, they
buy it and they listen to it and they say, "Holy fuck..
(Laughs) Hell yeah, you raised the bar, man..
Eric Adams: Yeah and I think that's a great thing… It does set
us apart just like the band itself sets us apart. I really believe
in my heart that we're a band set apart from other bands out there..
We're a band of brothers and that's the way it has always been.
Published by : oppositezine.com
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