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Having
fallen foul of the dreaded lurgy that was doing the rounds our dear
Editor was unable to carry out this promised interview with Sean from
Fozzy, so it was up to me to step up to the plate and talk to the demon
on the bass himself.
MM - How are you
today?
Sean
- I'm fine thanks.
MM -
How has the tour being going so far?
Sean
- It's good, we feel like the
machine is fully operational now. With the first show we got to
work out all the kinks in the show, we had a new crew and all the
preparation and sound-checking takes about 2 or 3 shows before we get it
down to where that motor just purrs. Last night was probably the
best show we've really had, everything just ran so smoothly and
hopefully from here on in it's going to more of the same.
MM -
Am I right in thinking this is the longest stretch of Fozzy tour dates
the band have done to date?
Sean
- I think you might be right
about that. I know we did a lot of touring with All That Remains
but this is going to be the longest tour to date, which is kinda
neat. This is a nice run of shows, plus for the rest of the band
this doesn't stop, because when Jericho flies home then we fly over Lord
Nelson and Stuck Mojo starts to tour and we go to Spain and tour for
another two weeks. So myself and the rest of the band it will be
just over a month pretty much non-stop.
MM -
Tonight's show is an all ages show, how important is it for the band to
get these all ages shows so that the fans of all ages can come out and
see them perform.
Sean
- It's
very important to us. In fact we almost predominantly tour over
here in Europe for just that reason, in the States the ages at gigs is
pretty strict, it's 21 years and up and that really cuts into the whole
Fozzy fan base. It's really important that we purposely try and
get all ages shows.
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MM -
The album itself has been hailed as THE Fozzy album. Have you seen
many of the reviews that have been coming through about the album?
Sean
- Yeh we've seen a few.
When
we went out to LA Jericho hosted the Golden Gods Awards and everyone who
was anyone was there. We did a whole ton of interviews
there. Everybody was shocked and when they got the album, those
people who were just totally music fans and didn't watch the wrestling
started to do their homework on the band and they were asking ... God,
who are these guys? ... I had a guy on a UK radio station who
couldn't believe when he looked up Chris Jericho and found out that he
was a wrestler. He just couldn't believe it. It's happening
and it's good that people are now realising the band are standing on
their own and it's not a gimmick.
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MM - I
was talking to Rich back in March and he said that he'd actually started
to work on the next album, do you know how that's progressing?
Sean
- Well with Rich, he's a well of
riffs, it's always flowing and he just keeps on writing stuff.
We'll see. We have to focus on this tour right now and every tour
has it's time. Everything goes in cycles and between Stuck Mojo
and Fozzy it just never stops. It's certainly cooking.
MM -
What's next on the Stuck Mojo front?
Sean -
Well once the Fozzy tour officially ends in about 12 or 14 more days in
France then we roll on down to Spain and we'll be playing a few
dates. We'll be playing a festival in Denmark and then we'll see
how that goes. Once we get all that done and we get back home then
we'll decide what we need to get done first.
MM -
I
noticed that you'll be going back to Australia with Fozzy as well.
Sean
- Yeh I can't wait to get back
there.
MM - The band seem to have really progressed from
what was essentially a tribute band to a full blown out band. When
you first started out did you ever think it would become the beast it
has grown into?
Sean
-
No, I think in the very beginning, about 10 years ago when they were
just playing for a goof, a bit like Spinal Tap, it kind of ran it's
course for a few records and then around 2003, which was when I got
brought into the band, all that remained was that we would be a band
that would have no gimmicks and we would go out and play this for
real. There's been no looking back since then.
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MM - The band was perhaps structured differently to most
bands in that Fozzy was a side project for most of you. How did
this affect the band and do you see it as a side project still or do you
see it as a full blown band now?
Sean
-
Oh no we see it very much as a full blown band and it keeps us pretty
busy. I know why you might think because of Chris's wrestling
career, but in fact a lot of our shows would be on dates that follow
Monday Night Raw. So if there was a show in Michigan we would fly out
and set up a show there. Chris would do the wrestling show and
they would announce the show to over 30,000 people and we'd be at a club
real near the venue. So we got to play all kinds of venues. We actually managed to go on RAW several times and do live music in
front of a viewing audience of over 12 million people. So this
definitely proves that it can be done and even when Chris is doing his
thing we have Stuck Mojo so the two just kind of run hand-in-hand like a
well oiled machine.
MM - Have Stuck Mojo got any new albums in the
pipeline?
Sean
-
It's definitely cooking. It's been a while and just like so many
other bands out there, we've had a few label issues. But now that
all that's over with now we're hungry to start all over again. There is a lot more music to be played.
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MM
- Since we last spoke to Rich back in March the world of Rock has seen a
great loss with the sad death of Ronnie James Dio. Countless
artists have spoken about how he influenced their bands in one way or
another.
Sean
- Well you know, I mentioned earlier that we were at the Revolver Golden
Gods Awards
and Dio actually made one of his first public appearances at the Award
show. We were on the black carpet with Fozzy and Dio was as close
to me as you are right now. Ozzy was there, everyone was there, it
was the Golden Gods Awards. Rob Halford, Lemmy, everyone was
there, but when we saw Dio it was like ... Dude! It's Dio! ... He
looked so happy and he was up and we thought it was looking good, then
shortly after that we were playing a gig and we flew in and when we
arrived at the airport the texts starting to come in. The rumours
had started that he was gone. We were all together as a band when
we got the news which kind of heightened the emotions. It was
devastating, for the next few gigs that's all that we were playing in
the tour van. It was just Dio, Dio, Dio. And as a tribute to
Dio we added 'Stand Up And Shout' to our setlist. We brought that
back because Dio was the man, let's be honest about that.
MM
- The setlist for this tour, will you be mostly be concentrating on the
new album or will it be a mix of stuff?
Sean - It's a lovely mélange of all sorts
of flavours. We do about 5 new songs and then we do some songs
from 'All That Remains', we do a few songs from the other records and
then we do a few classic covers to tie it all in together to make for a
fun show.
MM - I have to admit 'Chasing The Grail' was the
first time I got into Fozzy, it was the first time I'd actually heard
anything by the band. I'd always thought Fozzy was just a tribute
band.
Sean
- Well you know we've had a few
people who are high up in the industry ask us if we've ever considered
changing the name of the band. I've been asked that a few
times. But we are what we are. If
it's the first time you look up Fozzy on the net you'll probably get
this picture of one of the Muppets! (laughs). I love it that a
picture of this bear shows up when you search for us, just to make clear
you're not coming along to see a Muppet show! (laughs). That would
be very Spinal Tap.
MM
- Apart from the current tour, what does the future hold for Fozzy, what
is your game plan?
Sean - I
would like to see us having someone like Metallica open for us when we
play all these huge Arenas. (laughs) We're just going to keep
growing and Chris is excited, he's taken time off as we've got some
things in the works for next year. There are some massive
festivals and festival tours, it's just really spring-boarded off this
new record. We're just going to keep touring it. Like every band
out there this is what you have to keep doing because the industry is
upside down right now as opposed to how it was maybe 5 or 10 years
ago.
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MM
- Well I have to say I was personally blown away by the band and the new
album. It was the first time I'd heard anything by Fozzy and I was
totally blown away by the sound, not only by Chris's vocals but the all
round sound the band had. The album covers so many genres it would
appeal to anyone who's into Rock music.
Sean
- Why thank you.
We're just playing good Rock n' Roll and sometimes it get a little
heavier and sometimes it's just good old stuff we're playing. I
give my hats off to Rich with this one, this was his first. Previously we recorded all our records with Andy Sneap and they were
produced with all these super uber massive producers. I think Rich
spent that much time peaking over their shoulders and trying different
stuff. He took this one on himself and it sounds amazing,
especially for a debut effort, to have it sound this good it just
amazing. It wasn't beginners luck and now he's gonna have to keep
on doing it (laughs).
MM - To close off the interview, is there
anything we haven't talked about or any messages you'd like to say to
the army of Fozzy fans out there?
Sean -
The fans over here are far and away our most loyal, that's why we've
come time and again out here to play in England. We've toured here
something like 7 times within 18 months, it's been crazy. That's
actually how I met my wife. I almost moved out here!
Seriously the UK has just been great to us. I'd just like to say
thanks to everyone and to those who haven't heard us yet, buy the record
and come out and see us on tour. We'd love to meet you.
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We'd
like to thank Sean for taking the time out to chat with us this evening
and for the show that truly rocked and then some afterwards at the
Empire in Middlesbrough. The bands latest album is absolutely
amazing but don't just take my word for it, check it out for
yourself. There's plenty of sound bites on MySpace and the like to
wet your appetite. Live this animal is truly a wonder to behold
and I can honestly say we'll be there for every tour to follow this,
such was the impression this band made on us tonight. |