Interview Lamb of God

Interview
John Campbell, Mark Morton & Chris Adler
Lamb of God

Lineup:
Randy Blythe - Vocals
John Campbell - Bass
Chris Adler - Drums
Mark Duane Morton - Guitar
Will Adler - Guitar

The Unholy Alliance Tour
Slayer
Lamb of God
Mastodon
Children of Bodom
Thine Eyes Bleed
Aragon Ballroom

6/20/06
Interviewer: Erika Kristen Watt
Photos: Karma E. Omowale

There is more secretiveness surrounding the latest effort by Lamb of God than all the cardinal knowledge of the Vatican Vaults. Let’s analyze: no pre-copies issued for industry review, no sample “sound bites” released via cyberspace and LoG themselves even went as far as to cancel numerous interviews to avoid pesky inquires. Only a select few LoG fans were snatched from concert lines across the country to be in on a listening party before show time. The Sacrament release (due in mid-August on Epic Records), has as much intensity and seriousness surrounding it, as the band themselves.

I was comforted when I found out I was having an interview with bassist John Campbell due to the fact we met before on the same playing field. I had a false sense of security. To my surprise I was graced with the presence of not only John but guitarist Mark Morton and drummer Chris Adler in the mist of there leisure time. Of course, I stole the opportunity to drag the other members into my slippery slope of interrogation. Never mind Chris’ menacing big brother glare and Mark’s surly demeanor. The visit became an unexpected treat from the band’s most guarded members. Read on…

Erika: Speaking from a fan standpoint, we’ve so missed you guys. (laughs) Congratulations on this gig!

Erika: How does it feel to be hand picked by Slayer to be on the Unholy Alliance Tour?

John: It feels great, it’s definitely a big honor to go out and support these guys on this tour and I couldn’t think of another band that could pull it off!

Erika: With the release of Sacrament in our mist, many are curious as to where this era of musicianship is heading. What do you think you’ve learned about yourself and your bandmates at this point in your careers? Anybody can chime in by the way…

John: I think in the twelve years we’ve been a band we’ve continually progressed in our abilities to play, our abilities to arrange work together to write stuff and get stuff done. I think Sacrament falls right in line with every record we’ve done chronologically, we’ve gotten better in all those things and here we are today.

Erika: So, what do you think you did differently on this album than you did on past albums? Are you are harder on yourselves to achieve a certain level of excellence for yourselves?

John: I don’t think we can do… I think we put everything that we have including these records I don’t think we could do anything different. Pretty much we can do what we can do and we’re just lucky it happens to work out. Yea, there’s a lot of hard work and effort that goes into it. It’s not a walk in the park.

Erika: How do you feel you’ve evolved as a musician during the process of Sacrament?

John: Ohh, well playing with Mark and Willie, Willie works this hand on me (holds up his right hand) and Mark works this hand on me (holds up his left). (Laughter) So um, between the two of ‘em, I’ve become a much better bass player than I was on Ashes.

John: We’ve all been working really hard to get this record done and I think everyone has stepped up in ways, with Mark and Willie working stuff, their writing has diffidently stepped up it’s a lot more streamline rather than bringing in parts that may or may not go together. A lot of times they bring in complete songs and there’s minor tweaks made to it. I think Willie’s been working really hard on his solos and I think he’s gotten a little better there.

Erika: Yes, we are proved to the listening party later. How many are we gonna here?

Erika: Yes! Do you feel that you are put in a position that you have to prove yourselves again in this industry?

John: I think that position is there but I think we work despite it. We just do what we do and hopefully it will bring us success.

Erika: What kind of impact would you like Sacrament to make this go ‘round?

John: Shit, I would love for it to be considered The Album of the Decade! Ya know? (Serious laughter) I hope that it enables us to continue our careers and keep moving forward and continuing to tour the world.

Chris: I don’t know. In writing songs you don’t think of it that way, ya know? How is it going to impact somebody other than us?

John Campbell of Lamb of God (Photo: Karma E. Omowale)

Mark: I always think that, going from album to album, I always wanted each album to have its own personality and its own character. I also try to think of the overall body of work, ya know? Like, each album has to make sense, in context with all the pervious albums. It’s not as much for me about ‘one upping’ each album. You always want to get better. It’s not competing amongst the albums, it’s more adding to the greater body of work. I think Sacrament does that really well because it’s a very unique album for us.

Mark: It’s more diverse. It’s takes a few more risks, I think. Musically, creatively and that’s definitely helped to keep us interested rather than rehashing Palaces or Ashes. A lot of times that’s what the kids want because they get sort of accustomed to a certain sound or a certain style you’re playing. But just as artists, we would loose interest if we just did that over and over again.

Mark: I think we do it to ourselves. Pushing the limits and the threshold of what we’re able to do. Technically, musically fighting for ideas creatively… Randy has definitely, definitely gotten much better on this record. (He says with a look of astonishment). He just continues to hone his ability to control that unbelievably insane voice of his. That’s been fun to watch.

Erika: So, I’ll ask the two of you guys. How do you think your bandmates have evolved as musicians? And then, as people even!

Mark: It’s like 10 years. It’s like asking how your brother’s changed. You see ‘em everyday, you know what I mean? I think musically, again even musically we’ve all evolved in this process together. We impact each other. Everyone influences everyone else’ development. And we get drunker and drunker every record. (Laughter)

Chris Adler of Lamb of God (Photo: Karma E. Omowale)

Chris: I think we just push ourselves a little bit harder individually, on ourselves. We know what we did last time and how you’re going to step it up now. It’s not necessarily a set thing, there’s probably some subliminal, internal competition of some sort that’s not really a win or loose and it’s not really a spoken thing. I think that every time we go back to it, we know we want to do something better than what we just did. It’s impossible to define. Whether it suits the song or pushing your own limits a little bit, playing something that you’re a little uncomfortable with at first and then pushing your ability, finding more naturally as a player. We have the opportunity to do that.

Erika: So, going around the room, do you guys strategically plan your albums? Mark touched on this earlier. How you don’t want it to sound like pervious efforts but knowing that it must fit a particular niche at the same time.

Mark: I think, everyone has their vision of what the next phase for the band is musically or what they individually would like the next album to sound like. The conflict arises when you get five visions in a room; you know what I’m saying? So I think that sort of works itself out naturally. If I were allowed to write a Lamb of God album by myself, it would sound very, very different than if Chris were to. But that’s what makes it, his depth. So, to answer your question, no I don’t think we have a strategy going into a record but I think after a while you start to see what type of record it’s going to be by listening to the stuff. Seeing what kind of ideas are getting put on the table. It starts to make itself apparent what the record is going to sound like. I think with this record, if anything, my mindset going into it was, I always felt with previous records, that there were certain guidelines we had to follow being a thrash metal band and there were certain conventions we had to adhere to. And this time, I didn’t want to impose those kinds of rules on ourselves. I thought like we were finally a band that we could do pretty much whatever we want and that Lamb of God is still gonna be metal. But I didn’t feel constrained by any “conventional” metal thinking writing song. That was kind of liberating.

Erika: Are there any bands or musicians, even engineers or producers that you would like to work with in the future?

John: I know a lot more bands than engineers and producers that’s for sure. Who wouldn’t we want to work with? It’s pretty amazing to be working with Slayer. That’s pretty much the top of the metal list right there.

Mark: I mean, I’m just never like “Wwaaaaa!” (pulls at his hair) I mean it’s great. It’s an honor to be playing with Slayer. We’ve played with other big metal bands but I’m usually more concerned with how we’re doing and what’s on deck for us. And if I get a chance to see a Slayer show at the end of the night every once in a while, that’s cool too. I’m not really yearning to play with anybody in particular. As far as producers, we keep trying but… we’ve had a great relationship with Machine from the past two records. We’re so protective of our music that it’s hard for someone to come in and really restructure things because we’re so involved with the arranging and the writing every step of the way. To have some outside party to come in and go ‘Wait a minute! This is what this song should sound like.’ We’re like ‘No, way. Who are you?’ ya know? We’re not an easy band to produce. We’re kind of self-produced.

Erika: Self-contained. (Laughter) What would complete you as a musician? As a person? And we have to go around the room.

John: What would complete me as a musician first? Shit, I don’t think I’ll know until I’m completed and who knows if that will ever happen. I can always get better and work on different things on the bass. And probably the same answer for completing me as a person. I probably won’t know until it’s completed. I’m trying to do it the only way I know how.

Chris: I don’t think I have an answer. If there were an answer. I mean if there were an answer I’d get there and set up another bar. (Laughter) You know, you’re constantly evolving and growing.

Mark: For me, all the pieces are there it’s just a matter of going with ‘em now. We have a great band and everyone works really well together. We’re doing well so, it’s kind of like accelerating that and keep it going.

Erika: And any special messages for any new admirers while doing this tours’ stint and as well as on your record?

We’d like to thank Lamb of God for talking to us and to their camp for making this interview a possibility!