SOCIAL MEDIA

TWINMUSIX GOT TO SPEAK TO RICH WARD FROM FOZZY ABOUT THERE UP COMING ALBUM AND MORE.

 

TM - WHAT CAN FANS EXPECT FROM YOUR NEW ALBUM JUDAS?

RW - It's eleven songs. If people have been fans of the band over the years they know what Fozzy has done and what kind of band we are. What we did on this record that was different from different albums was we hired a outside producer. On pervious albums we produced the albums ourselves. This album we brought in a guy called Johnny Andrew's who has nine number one songs on the rocks charts he's worked with lots of top bands from Hale Storm, All the Remains he's a excellent producer. It was great working outside with someone besides the five of us. He acted like a coach and tried to bring out the best in the band not change is but hold us in and help us produce our best album to date and I have to say alot of that is due to Johnny's influence and coaching style.

TM - WHAT PEDDLES DO YOU HAVE ON YOUR GUITAR RIGGS?

RW - Early 1980's Ibanez tube screamer for my distortion sound, TC Electronics delay pedal for all my echo stuff in my solos, Digitech whammy pedal for my core sounds and my pitch shifting and active effects. I have about 40 or 50 peddles I use in the studio. It's basically like if you are in the 6th grade in school and you can draw prettier pictures if you have more crayons and I always look at peddles like crayons the more colors and options you have the bigger and brighter colors you can paint with your guitars. But I always try to just bring the essentials.  I have 4 or 5 key one's that come with me on the road.

TM - WHAT WAS THE RECORDING PROCESS FOR YOUR NEW ALBUM AND HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO WRITE?

RW - We were still touring a bit when we were writing the album.so a year and a half from the very beginning of the day we started writing the first ideas to the completion of the album. I would say it took a year to write the album. We would come home have two or three weeks of writing sessions then we would go out on the road for a couple of months come back work on more. We wrote probably 30 songs.  The idea was to come up with as meny ideas as possible knowing not every Idea was going to work out. But it was really cool because it was the first time I had ever sat in a room in a long time. Over the last 10 to 15 years we have all been waiting in our own home Studio's, so we would write as individuals and then collaborate on each other's ideas.  This time was the first time in a long time we had all come together and been writing collaboratively so God forbid we write together as a band, I felt like I really benefited we got much better results with this being a group effort.

TM - HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH YOUR VEDIO FOR DO YOU WANT TO START A WAR?

RW - We worked with the director/producer in LA that sent us an idea and said hey I would love to shoot a music vedio for you. And started working back and forth with our singer Chris Jericho. That was more of a collaborative effort with them. Where as the vedio we did before that Sandpaper Jericho and I conceptually. And the vedio for judas was a band decision. I think what is cool about Fozzy is we have always been open to changing ideas we don't have to stick to one idea to write songs or one way to make vedios. I think there is one way to always in prove evolve. I think it's been the secret to our success. We have been a band for a very long time and performed in 1999. So it's always been rearing to yourself that you can do something better, keep in proving, always pushing yourself to be better and improve is a way to keep a band unified because it gives you a common goal. Not to sell more records bake more money or be successful. To be a better band and these are the things we can control. We can't control the music industry or marketing campaigns. We can control what we do as a band and how we work with each other so that's been our focus.

TM - HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE PLAYING AT DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL?

RW - That's probably the greatest rock and metal festival in the world. As Americans we grew up in the 80s. Looking at posters from magazines back then it was called the Monsters Of Rock. We always thought when looking through them Van Halen, Motley Crew, Deep Purple, Ozzy Osborne and Iron Maiden it was the biggest festival in the world. We were always so excited to find out what bands are playing these festivals. I remember 7 years ago we got offered to play the show the first time in the tents taged in 2005. We were excited to be included in something like that . 12 years later we are playing on the main stage where all the greatest bands on the history of music have played. It's a great honor and a amazing festival. They always treat us so well. I've played alot of big festivals over the years and from my perspective it's the best in the world.

TM - IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY BAND PERFORM ONE OF YOUR SONGS WHICH BAND AND SONG WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WOULD IT BE IN YOUR STYLE OR THERE’S?

RW - Ozzy Osborne doing Judas in his style
Metallica to do Judas in there own style

TM - WHAT WAS IT LIKE TOURING WITH METALLICA?

RW - When you are a 14 year old kid and listening to master of puppets and think this is the greatest heavy album I have ever heard. You would have never of convinced me that I was going to go on tour with them. When we were young musicians all we wanted to do was get good at our instruments and be good enough to play at a pool party and for friends. I never dreamed of making albums or going on world tours. I wanted to play at my high-school and play Motley Crew covers for my friends. So the idea that I've had to play these big festivals and play with Metallica, Pantera it's a dream come true. It's unreal I've had these opportunities that are important to me.

TM - ANY CRAZY FAN STORIES?

RW - When I was younger in the scene in was in a band called Stuck Mojo. We were one of the first Rap/Rock bands before the band really exploded. So I spent my early 20s and early 30s driving vans around the USA playing small dirty rock clubs. Part of the process was you were living like animals. We were playing a style of music we were trying to break through. We weren't in any popular clicks. We were out there playing every roadhouse bar and every inner city metal place. It was different Stuck Mojo was a different type of band we didn't have groupies like you would see on movies or documentaries. Fans felt like part of the same Gane we were in. I think that's part of some of these underground scene's.

TM - DO YOU EVER CHANGE YOUR LYRICS DURING LIVE SET?

RW - Sometimes you don't even realize you have changed things about your songs. A couple of years down the line ill change something on guitar and not realize I've changed it from the original recording. Same for Chris with some lyrics. You don't even realize you have done it and you do the wrong lyrics. And the new lyrics now feels right and the old lyrics feels wrong but we have never intentionally changed any lyrics.

TM - ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO ANNOUNCE TO YOUR FANS?

RW - We should be releasing tour dates in the next couple of months we love Australia and we are super excited to be coming back some of the best shows we have ever played have been in Australia.

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CHECK OUT FOZZY'S ALBUM RELEASE - Fozzy Album Relase

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CHECK OUT TWINMUSIX FOZZY PHOTO GALLERY

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CHECK OUT TWINMUSIX INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS JERICHO 

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CHECK OUT TWINMUSIX FOZZY REVIEW HERE

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