The mighty ICED EARTH visited Joliet, IL last month during the North US tour and METAL KAOZ grabbed the chance for one in-depth conversation with the mastermind of the band, Jon Schaffer. So, don't waste time and read what he had to say about Greek fans, the "Dystopia" album, SONS OF LIBERTY, the global economical crisis and of course, ICED EARTH's future touring plans. Enjoy!
So, Jon, did you face any kind of trouble in this tour?
I got pneumonia and it’s pretty hardcore. I never had that before. It’s started early in this tour and I am still coughing.
Man, you have to take care of it.
Yeah, I know and it is hard when you are on tour. I mean, I party a lot at night so it gets even harder to get better.(laughs)
As long as you can party, I think you are fine. So, ICED EARTH were on the road with SYMPHONY X; did you see any differences in the audience? After all, ICED EARTH and SYMPHONY X are pretty different bands.
Our fans were out in full force, so the response was huge every night. SYMPHONY X got a great response too and I have to say they are great f***ing guys! It was like the old days when we were on the road with BLIND GUARDIAN. Russel is such a great guy and in fact Stu told so since he has toured with him in the past. And he was right!
This is a rather cliché question but I like doing it; can you spot differences between the US and European metalheads?
ICED EARTH are very fortunate to have great fans everywhere but yeah there are differences between Greeks and the US fans...
Yeah, but I am not talking about the Greeks, but the European fans in general.
Yes, but at the same time you cannot say that most of Europe is like Greece. I mean, the US fans are passionate like the Germans or the Dutch, but are definitely not like you guys! There is a difference when the Greek fans sing every lyric and riff in full force every time.
Do you feel that the US audience has forgotten the classic Heavy Metal scene?
No, I don’t think so; there are a lot of metalheads here and we have a really dedicated audience. It may not be as many as in Europe, but still there is a solid fan base in the US.
ICED EARTH have a new singer in the band and I have to tell you that you were lucky with Stu since he can do a great job in the old and in the new stuff.
Yeah, absolutely.
So, did you change something in the setlist or maybe use a single set of songs since he had some troubles…
(interrupting) No, he does not have any issues. I mean, in Athens, Greece where we did two shows in a row, we played two different setlists. After all, there were fans who would be in both shows.
Even though this might be too early to talk about, what do you think Stu’s voice will bring in the sound of ICED EARTH?
For one thing Stu brings new ideas. He is very good in coming up with great vocal melodies and that has always been my cost and burden to carry for forever. Matt could perform great also, Tim was amazing too and even John Greely was great. Those guys brought their own thing, but with Stu I actually have a writing buddy and that’s really cool. He contributed a lot in the new album.
Now that we are talking about singers and since ICED EARTH have changed a couple ones, have you ever thought of dealing the vocals by yourself?
Not in ICED EARTH. I can never do what I have in my head. I simply do not have the singing abilities to do that.
I am asking this because in SONS OF LIBERTY you are doing a hell of a job.
Oh, thanks man! But SONS OF LIBERTY is a different thing. One morning I woke up so pissed and went to do the vocals. I haven’t done this before, so it felt very weird. For SONS OF LIBERTY I am writing lyrics with straightforward messages, while ICED EARTH things are more theatrical, so the vocals have to do more. I could never do the falsettos and stuff like that.
Talking about “Dystopia” I have to ask about the lyrics; even though the general concept was something like “Horror Show”, they seem to follow a main theme that is applicable to the current situation we live in, right?
Yes, exactly. This was all part of the plan to get a message out there. In SONS OF LIBERTY it’s like a kick in the head but since I don’t want to get political with ICED EARTH I chose a different approach.
Why don’t get the same message in ICED EARTH?
Well, the message is still there but the thing is that a lot of people from the Press would not even talk to me about this stuff, like they did not get it. But now, a few years later, people start to see the shit I was talking about is actually happening and in fact, it’s getting worse every day. For example, the guys from Rock Hard, who have been friends of mine for years, did not want to talk about these things but when “Dystopia” came out, they put me on the cover with a six pages story and almost everything was about what SONS OF LIBERTY. And the guys have done some research with quotes like from Rockefeller so this article was about what SONS OF LIBERTY is all about. Anyway, ICED EARTH is my job and my career and I have a lot of people to take care of besides my own family. After all, the band and the people involved in it are also my family, the guys in the crew, the management and the whole thing, and I cannot take the risk of something happening due to the misinterpretation of the messages. For example in some parts of Europe they thought that “The Glorious Burden” was pro-war or pro-American and it was nothing like that It was all about military history. But this was one of those things, you know?
Yeah, sometimes metalheads are not that open-minded as they think they are.
Indeed, so the new album delivers those messages in a different way.
It really comes to the question if one likes music to be separated with politics or even having opinions expressed.
I think that music is a really powerful weapon and it unlocks people's minds.
At least it should!
Yeah, but I think with SONS OF LIBERTY it works like that. It has become pretty big taking into account that there are no sales. People are just burning copies of the music and spreading them around. It’s like a soundtrack of the revolution...
Many people would like a wake-up call especially nowadays. Nevertheless, let’s stick to the new album and we will get back to this. So, what about the “Something Wicked This Way Comes” concept, you have two songs in “Dystopia”;
These two were two dystopian stories...
Do you think that you will re-visit that story or this was the end of it?
The thing that is so cool with the “Something Wicked” universe is that you can take any part of the human history and apply it. So it’s fun and I think there will be always a song here and there. I don’t know if this will be in every album though. If I have an idea, I am going to roll with it.
Have you ever though of putting an end to this story, if this is even possible?
Not really, since the story is like “Star Wars” where you can go on forever. This is really cool.
Have you ever had a proposition make a movie out of this story?
Yeah and in fact there is a producer who has talked to me about making an animated movie but we’ll see about it since now I don't have time to deal with this. If you want to put an end of the story then this would be “Tragedy And Triumph” with the incarceration of the entire human race, that would be pretty cool (laughs).
Yes indeed. Let’s go back to SONS OF LIBERTY; you have released an EP and you actually included a song from the “300” movie (very cool by the way), so what is the feedback you are getting for this?
You know something, there is no pressure about this. We just put it on Facebook and it has been something like word to mouth and apparently the fans of SONS OF LIBERTY love it.
Do you think that the message is getting through them? Do you think that some misinterpret what you want to say?
I really do not know, man. It’s true that this has happened and it will happen in the future. But I also think that people are slowing come around and realize that this is not a right wing extreme, because it’s not. It’s all about liberty for all humans and not just for the Americans that some were thinking in the beginning.
Do you think that nowadays we live in freedom?
No. We have the illusion that we are. In fact, I used to believe that we did, even though I knew that something was wrong but I did not understand how bad things really were and how the financial system works around us. It seems that we are still battling those motherf*****s we fought against during the revolution. They have snuffed back in and hijacked the country. Of course the Americans are not the first in the world who want to be free. It has always been the national bankers who want to seize your money supply and enslave the people.
This is the modern type of war where one can enslave entire countries without even using weapons.
Yes, it is.
Let talk about music; SONS OF LIBERTY did some shows with ICED EARTH and sadly an illness did not let us to attend the Chicago show; so is there any chance to do something like that again? I mean, physically was it tough for you?
Yeah it was. The thing is my manager proposed to do it for this tour but it would be too much for me. I could not do it this every night. Plus, I am nor a real singer and in fact, I need to take lessons to learn how to use my voice properly. Every since I had the recordings for the first SONS OF LIBERTY album I have problems with my vocals. My vocal chords seem to me leaking and I have to clear my throat all the time. In the studio you can just stop to drink some water but to do this for an entire tour, I really need to know what I am doing as a singer. I cannot do what Stu is doing every night; he is a f*****g animal (laughs). So, after doing some singing I have even greater respect for these guys.
You can do a mini SONS OF LIBERTY tour.
Well, there is a talk about bringing SONS OF LIBERTY to Greece. Obviously the Greek people can really reflect the country’s situation to the SONS OF LIBERTY lyrics.
This can be soundtrack for Greece…
I just hope we won't be the cause to erupt something really crazy there... I really do not know what people are going to do in such a bad situation. I think we just have to realize what is happening and turn off the f****g television and start prioritizing our lives and decide what is really important. Because these f*****s are not gonna quit until they have their empire with one currency and one government. And that’s dangerous, man! One reason that I still have hope for the US is because we still have our guns! This may sound extreme but the guns are there not to stop a thief for getting in your house, but for taking back our government.
But can the guns grant the government to take even more extreme actions?
The think is that if they try to take our guns, it won’t gonna work (laughs). There are certain states like Texas where there is no way to give up their guns. And I think this will be the ultimate flashing point that will make the American people wake up. I am hopeful for the youth and all those college kids who are getting involved in the liberty movement and see the death clock ticking. I don’t like violence and I wish Gandhi’s way would work. The problem is that the American people are spoiled and ignorant. They live in this false illusion that the Constitution of Rights is still there and the television makes them feel that everything is ok.
There is not much of a difference in Europe you know…
Yeah, I know we are against the same group of people. I don’t know man, I think things are changing and I feel I have to do this. I have a daughter and people that I care for. I still cannot believe we had two sold out shows in Greece with all this bad situation in Greece.
I am dying to ask you about “Alive In Athens”; did you change things in the studio?
Yes, we did. There were some performance issues and in fact, I am a little bit disappointed with the results because I was there and I wanted to capture all that energy. There were problems in tuning and in the vocals where the crowd was coming through the vocal mics.
So, you had to re-record some of the vocals?
Yeah, a lot of them we did.
There was also a DVD release for that show that I know you did not approve. Is there any chance of making a proper release out of it?
The thing is that there is only that footage. It was only meant to be for a German TV show, so it wasn’t for a DVD release. It was hard to get Century Media to cooperate and we even try to do that during the ‘Horror Show’ tour where we did the three hours set and they said they did not believe on the DVD format. Can you believe this?
Were there any fans who gave a hard time to Stu while on the road?
No, they accepted him right away and the band’s fan base was really fired up for the shows. The band’s future looks really good right now. I mean, the last 10 years things were really difficult for ICED EARTH. From the business perspective, in my personal life, there were a lot of management problems, some bad decisions were made but I am back and 100% focused. There was a wake up call for me and I actually started to appreciate ICED EARTH.
What do you mean?
ICED EARTH had become a burden for me; it has been like a love/hate situation for me. There was a lot of shit going on behind the scenes, especially during the early days. We had a bad contract and it was really tough to keep the band together. We did not make money until the fifth album was out! And we had been selling a lot of records. And when you are in such a fucked up situation, you never look back to see what you have accomplished. So, one day I did look back, realized what we have accomplished and started to appreciate and caring more for the band. Stu has been a blessing for me since he is a positive force of energy for the band. He brings a balance and you will see that when we will be onstage. ICED EARTH feels more like a band now. We are a bunch of guys who care about each other and we are in for the right reasons. There are no hidden agendas like “I am not gonna use ICED EARTH as a launching board for my solo career”. We have dealt with things like that in the past.
So what is next for the band?
We have South US, Australia, China and then we are headlining a festival in India and that is a long flight for one show (laughs). And then we are going to open for a bigger band here in the US in June/July of 2012 but I am not going to tell you. There have been rumors out there about this. Well, I am going to tell you after we have finished the interview.
Thank you Jon for this nice talk and we will see you again on this upcoming North US tour.
Thank you too guys!