SAVAGE interview


Planetmosh chats to the guys from British rock band, SAVAGE, after the release of the ‘Sons Of Malice’cd.

Planetmosh. Why do you feel now is the right time for a Savage rebirth ?

CB ( Chris Bradley – Vocals, Bass Guitar )  Why not? ‘The Cream always floats to the top’, laughs, things had stopped getting in the way long enough for us to get a bat on!

KB (Kristian Bradley – Guitars)  I guess real life finally stopped getting in the way!

AD ( Andy Dawsoon – Lead Guitars ) The time is right when everyone is in the right frame of mind, rather than if the time is right for the industry. The metal scene always seems to be mostly underground so it always has a battle on it’s hands. We were ready to do it and we had the songs which we felt could re vitalise the band whilst staying true to it’s roots.

 

PM. Are there more songwriters this time around ?

CB it’s generally me and Andy but Kristian brought the ‘Look at Yourself’ riff to the table, his own style is quite different to that of Savage but hoping he will come up with more next time around.

KB I contributed a track on my debut, but I don’t think it’s really deviated much from what a Savage song should sound like.

AD Mostly me and Chris, One from Kristian and input from everyone.

PM.So did this influence the overall Savage sound ?

AD As I said me and Chris are the main writers for this project, Mark engineered and mixed the album to such a high standard that it has , if anything, improved the sound of the band. All of us helped arrange the tracks and look at the fine tuning stuff like tempos and the sounds that we wanted. The guitar sound is the basis of the band and this time we nailed it, or at least Mark managed to capture it. One review suggested the album could have been recorded by Bob Rock, which is pretty impressive

KB I think potentially my ‘touch’ has made the album slightly heavier than it may have been as well as adding a few touches I don’t think Andy would have put on had he done all the guitars himself as has been done in the past.

CB I think Kristian’s style of playing certainly added an extra dimension to the overall sound, but the style of music is still very much ‘Savage’, I am really looking forward to how this line up delivers on the next studio album, I think it will be heavier and maybe a little more pacey!

PM. How are the reviews for the album “Sons of Malice”, positive ?

CB We have had over 70 reviews so far worldwide and the response has been to the most part extremely good; the English speaking countries have been exceptional, they seem to get it! Some of the European reviews have been a little less exceptional; they are still waiting for ‘Loose ‘n’ Lethal’ 2 but to the most part have still been good!

AD Extremely positive and very gratifying, some of the best reviews we have ever had.

KB Very pleased. The odd couple haven’t been brilliant but I am learning to take the bad with the good!

 

PM. I take it you are heading out onto the road to support the record, any tour news you can tell the readers ?

AD UK Hard Rock Hell in December plus gigs in Belgium on the cards, hopefully 2013 will see more European dates added.

CB yeah as Andy said we got a couple in the bag and are working on others. We are always open to offers for all you promoters out there reading this, lol.

KB There’s been one or two dates but we want more!!

 

PM. Savage were at the forefront of the NWBHM movement, and your debut album got great reviews , and is still seen as one the best NWOBHM albums from that era, Why didn’t you capitalise on that momentum ?

CB Well that’s the 64,000 dollar question, I suppose a lack of strong management and label support, its difficult to say in all honesty, sometimes things just don’t go the way you would expect them too, but hey we still here and as you tell from the new album we are far from dead yet!

AD hahaha, don’t ask us we were just so young. Poor management and label support is always the stock answer but it is true in our case. A red hot manager would have made such a difference. Some one who could fight for us and understood what we were about. I’m not sure we knew what we wanted at that stage, the press were very influential and they were looking to America all the time. We didn’t suit a US style approach, all image and polish.

 

PM. How did you feel about being given the NWOBHM tag though? I felt it was given to every British rock band around at that time regardless, and the Genre was diluted somewhat.

AD We didn’t feel part of the movement and didn’t sound like a lot of those bands. The movement was quite short lived and is mostly referred to by foreign journalists. It hasn’t done us any harm but it does make up 50% of the interview questions, so it’s important to them

CB as Andy said we never really felt part of that movement, we did our own thing and didn’t really get into what the other bands out there were doing; to be honest we thought a lot of them didn’t really have songs that where that good! And in my opinion very few where in the same league as Andy as a guitar player, we always looked to be in the same league as our heroes who all pre-dated the NWOBHM movement. I was sent a copy of the Malc Macmillan A-Z of NWOBHM bands and frankly I had not heard of most of them, there are a lot of bands remembered with such affection from those days and for the life of me I don’t know why!

PM. What have you learned about the music business that you could pass onto bands just breaking onto the scene?

CB The only advice I would give a band is to do what you feels is right and works for you, the whole industry has changed so much that I couldn’t begin to advise on the business side except, be prepared to put a lot of effort in for little return, so you got to do it because you love it, and if you have enough talent, a whole shit load of luck and the right people supporting you, you may just crack it!

AD The internet has opened up everything which is good. It’s no longer just in the hands of a few companies. The down side is that there’s no quality control and every one can down load stuff fro free which is killing smaller bands. My advice would be to be true to yourself and play the stuff you really want to and don’t follow the trends. If you do you’ll be 2 years too late. If you are British band don’t try and come over like an American Band. Look at Emo, Punk and Grunge, or even Hip Hop. It would sound awful if you are from Yorkshire trying to rap!

 

PM. Any other music plans/involvements in the future, or are you all content with Savage ?

CB there has only ever been one band for me, Savage was my life and was all I cared about, it was taken away from me once and it was difficult to carry on, so I will fight tooth and nail to keep it!

AD I’ve got a side project for fun but my investment is in Savage. I always have and always will write and record, I live and breathe music and the guitar.

KB I currently front my own band, Metal Cross, which is a Thrash 4 piece. I don’t expect anything to come of it; I just love writing, playing and recording music!

 

PM. So who would you like to work with in the future if possible/and do you have any musical hero’s ?

AD I’d love to work with a top producer such as Bob Rock or Terry Date, Brendan Obrien. Maybe do something with Doug Pinnick from Kings X, he’s awesome

KB For me? Robb Flynn from Machine Head, James Hetfield and I would love to sing with Chuck Billy and Diamond Dave too!

CB good question because as I said Savage is all I ever really wanted to do but if James Hetfield, Zack Wild and Mike Bordin wanted to get a band together then I might be up for it, would probably blow the nuts off a charging Rhino at 100 metres, laughs.

PM. So, finally, when can we expect some more material, to keep the reborn Savage momentum going ?

AD we have 3 bonus tracks from the SOM sessions. I have more stuff developing for the next album plus a live recording would be great, maybe ‘Loose ‘n’ Lethal’ LIVE!

CB We are planning a live album next year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of ‘Loose ‘n’ Lethal’, hopefully and as Andy said we also planning to start writing new material ready for another studio album after that!

PM. Thanks guys, i look forward to sharing a few drinks with you at Hard Rock Hell in December.

Read my review of the album HERE

About David Farrell

General Manager and 'THE' competition guy at planetmosh.com. Manager of The Goddanm Electric www.thegde.co.uk, Tour manager for Serpentine, and ex-general Dogsbody at Hammerfest.co.uk. Media partner to numerous bands. Also takes photos, writes reviews and likes classic rock, with a touch of thrash to get the blood flowing.