Crowned By Fire Interview

Interview
John the Impaler
Crowned By Fire

Lineup:
JOHN THE IMPALER: VOCALS
JUSTIN-SLUSH-MANNING: GUITARS
REECE TURNER: BASS
DAVE K: GUITARS
J R: DRUMS

Crowned by Fire: J.R., Reece, John, Justin, Dave (Photo: Megan C Brooks )

8/5/07
Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale

One of metal's best kept secrets, and luckily unearthed thanks to MySpace, Crowned by Fire is here to pierce your souls and ears with their home grown American Metal! Join in conversation with mainman, John the Impaler as he discusses the bands' comings and goings as well as their future. Read on...

Karma E. Omowale: Thank you for conducting an interview with FourteenG.net, John! When and where did you find the member’s of your band and please provide us with a mini-history of the union of the band.

Jöhn The Impaler: Crowned By Fire is: Reece Turner (bass), JR Crampton (drums), Justin Manning (guitar), Dave K (guitar) and yours truly John The Impaler (vocals). We're an American band... We've all kind of known or jammed with each other over the years. Things seem to flow a bit more organic when you already got the dirt on each other and know where each other is coming from as far as influences and musical abilities are concerned.

Karma: I understand that Justin used to be a guitar tech for Zakk Wylde, are there any other cool associations tied to the band?

Jöhn The Impaler: The main Les Paul and the majority of the rig Justin uses was personally given to him from Zakk. Justin has also toured with George Lynch and Yngwie Malmsteen. Beside guitar teching he also lived and learned with some of these dudes. That’s where he claims to get his technique from. Also on the Wylde tip, one of my closest friends Roberto ('RA' -BLS artist and Wylde family nanny extraordinaire) shares the duties of artwork for CBF with our other guitarist Dave K., who happens to be quite respected in the lowbrow artist community. Also, my son Karloff the Impaler (4) and Hendrix Wylde (5) have been hangin out the last few years and plan on releasing their first Wylde Impaler album in 2011, -has something to do with the 2012 prophecy, they claim...

Karma: I also understand that you run your own body piercing shop. Nice that you can do both by piercing the hearts, minds, and bodies in one failed swoop! Haha What’s the strangest story you have involving impaling of the flesh?

Jöhn The Impaler: I've owned and operated Just Passing Thru body piercing in Newhall, CA for 13 years this august. Shit I dunno, most of my work is just day to day bread & butter hooha, but I've certainly been offended enough at one point or another by particular subhuman nature enough to where I question my own existential intentions.

Karma: What would a newcomer to your music expect to see at one of your live performances?

Jöhn The Impaler: We're a bit predictably unpredictable as far as live shows go. Kinda Motörhead meets Spinal Tap. We're experienced and focused enough to where the show is gonna rock regardless, even when my face may get puked on (by a gorgeous woman) in the middle of a song or maybe playing an entire set in front of a custom airbrushed backdrop by brother RA turned backwards. Just goes to show ya, bad things don't always happen to good people.

Karma: How do you mesh all of your individual influences into the your band’s sound? How do you keep it original and fresh for yourselves and your fans?

Jöhn The Impaler: Well, we're a five piece, when you have that many people in one room as far as influences and an specific goal are concerned things can get a bit chaotic, fortunately in our case writing flows extremely natural for us.

How important is it to you to have fan and critic recognition for the musical contributions your band has made to the metal community on a whole?

Jöhn The Impaler: Actually, it means everything to me. We may have already lost a few fingernails along the way scratching the surface, but we plan on doing whatever it takes to build a pyramid or two.

Jöhn The Impaler: I've tried to disassociate myself with writing in the past to make things not so serious, but I’ve found my only true comfort zone is my symbolic personal side portraying the paths I’ve trotted and my personal interpretations thru mysticism and failures of life to come (a self proclaimed philosophy I call POE -process of eliminations...).

Karma: Clever! What have you learned about the music industry that has made you a better musician today?

Jöhn The Impaler: Aside from being in various bands over the past 18 years, in the early nineties I worked as a paid intern for the management agency Gold Mountain Entertainment and World Domination Records. Mainly as an artist I learned not to pay attention to the industry.

Jöhn The Impaler: Can't say I perceive myself ever dying happy, but touring with (the original) Black Sabbath, Motörhead and Venom would definitely take things up a notch. For that matter I'd settle for Slayer, Down, Crowbar, Ozzy, BLS and or Corrosion Of Conformity, haha!

Jöhn The Impaler: The same reason anyone should listen to heavy classic rock/metal or any of the bands I just mentioned. Classic in a sense that the sound holds true thru the changes and tests of time. Thats the only genre I care to be a part of...

Karma: Peering into the crystal ball, what does the next year hold in-store for your band?

Jöhn The Impaler: Hanging my needles up as occupation, touring with some of the bands previously mentioned and being an fulltime magician and or musician or whatever comes first...

Jöhn The Impaler: I'd like to enjoy a Hollywood hills sushi diner and several bottles of sake with Boris Karloff, Christopher Walken and Joey Ramone then end the night with Charles Bukowski beatin' the shit out of me in the alley of some sleazy bar in downtown Los Angeles, then wake up as a passenger in Hunter S. Thompson's rented convertible on the way to Las Vegas...

Jöhn The Impaler: My Choctaw blood tells me to go back at least a few centuries and live a life of discipline and enlightenment as a Buddhist monk/Shaolin Warrior, -all about the 36 chambers -yo. Actually, I dunno there are many inteeresting lives to live as far as I'm concerned. Guess I'd sound alot more metal if I said a Viking or Pirate or some shit like that. Hell, that's how I feel right now. Where's my ship goddamitt!!!

Jöhn The Impaler: I'm kinda perpetually stuck in the past as far as that goes. Always Black Sabbath, Motörhead, Neurosis, Kyuss and AC/DC.

Jöhn The Impaler: Ozzy, Jim, Bon, Phil, Iggy, Zakk, Darby, Lux, David (Yow/Bowie), Glen, Bruce and the almighty Lemmy. I could go on and on. I live for the shit.

Jöhn The Impaler: My taste in music doesn't suck, but I confess, I do own alot of weird shit as far as music goes, or anything else for that matter, Ha!

Jöhn The Impaler: No matter how many people find out or know of them, Neurosis will always be my so to speak favorite underground band. In my mind no other band has consecutively laid down such an abundance of truly original heavy music. In my eyes, they are truly gods of doom.

Karma: What’s the one thing that people wouldn’t know about you that you wouldn’t mind sharing?

Jöhn The Impaler: Just Passing Thru, Keep On Truckin', Do It In The Dirt, Fire In The Hole, It Burns!, I'll Be Back!, Do It For John, any one will do, haha!

Karma: Role reversals: If you could commission a band or artist to cover a CBF song, who would do it and which song would they do?

Jöhn The Impaler: Three come to mind: Kyuss during “Blues For The Red Sun” doin' “Get Under The Dirt”, Motörhead doin' “Shake The Bag” and Neurosis doing “Black Moon Shine”. Fuckin-A, the original Black Sabbath would have to do “Tombs Ov Oblivion”...

Karma: If you could ask these questions of anyone, who would you like to have answer these questions?

Karma: Look John, I maybe psychic but it’s a bit foggy since I cannot seem to locate that dope you’re asking for either! LOL Any special messages you would like to extend to your fans and supporters?

We’d like to thank John for this entertaining yet informative interview. God speed!