Interviews

Interview with Brian Vander Ark of The Verve Pipe

Published

5 years ago

January 23, 2019

Ron

FLASHBACK TO THE MID 90s. THE TUNES WERE GOOD AND THE TIMES WERE SIMPLER.

The Verve Pipe came into Annapolis MD bringing back with them nostalgia and great song writing. Empire Extreme got to sit down with Singer Brian Vander Ark and talk about old times, tough times , and the future of The Verve Pipe.

EE: How’s the Tour so far?

Brian: It’s been great, just had a couple days off, which doesn’t happen that very often. I went down to Raleigh for a speaking gig, and then came back up to meet with them. That’s where the real money is Corporate Speaking (Laughs)

EE: How often do you guys get mistaken for The Verve?

Brian: Happens everyday. I get tagged people thinking they are tagging The Verve. People ask me why we didn’t play Bitter Sweet Symphony. I don’t mind it at all. I’m sure they get the worse of it because their band is cool and credible English band.

EE: How was it making the Villains album, were you expecting the huge reception that you got for that album?

Brian: I think you always expect all your albums to sell, but we failed to realize that 95% of records on labels fail so we were really lucky. Then we make the next album and you think it’s going to sell and it didn’t. But that album was great making we were a bunch of Michigan kids in SF on a house boat and we recorded where Metallica was recording at the same time. It takes a cold hard slap in the face to realize that what you had, we have to work out ass off now.

EE: You guys released the latest album Parachute last year, how’s the response been for that and with the cover being what it was?

Brian: Yeah we do kids shows and nobody has ever complained, I’m not sure if we put that album out at those shows. It’s a great piece of artwork. We did have a complaint about her being a parachute as it was sexist, but I always took it as she’s the parachute and that’s what saves you.

EE: So you mentioned you did kid albums, how is doing that compared to the adult ones?

Brian: I have kids and I was sick of listening to the Wiggles and other stuff, nobody is making rock and roll kids stuff. Let’s make a Verve Pipe record but with lyrics for kids and the shenanigans we did as kids. Sirius Xm played it, and we did better on that stuff, and we sell more kids merch and stuff that anything else. The kids shows are way harder than the adult one, the kids ones you have to be entertaining the whole time, and focused on them 100%. Kids have a way less attention span and you have to work so much harder for them than adults.

EE: How was it like doing the acting stuff like Dead&Breakfast and Rock Star with Mark Wahlberg?

Brian: That experience was amazing, Jeff Pilson of Dokken taught me how to play bass, and playing with Zach Wylde was amazing, Blas Elias from Slaughter these guys are great musicians all together with the actors. Dominic West who blew up after that, and Tim Olyphant who was amazing. It was great all the actors wanted to talk about music and all the musicians wanted to talk about acting.

EE: With all the bands reuniting, is there a band you like to see Reunite?

Brian: XTC, I’m a huge Andy Partridge fan, after the Beatles there my favorite band.

EE: What Dead musician would you want to bring back?

Brian: I would probably say George Harrison or John Lennon. I think George would be making such Greg music now and he produced a lot of films like the Monty Python stuff.

The Verve Pipe put on one hell of a show, StoryTelling from the beginning of the band till currently, giving us insight to ideas that became songs and the hardship of being a top band to being down in the dirt and picking yourself up again. Songs like The Freshman, Never Let You Down and Colorful from the Rockstar Soundtrack which Brian said was him on the recoding with Mark Wahlberg lip syncing to him, and everyone asks why The Verve Pipe is doing a Wahlberg cover. Then playing a few covers before ending the night. They played an amazing version of The Chain by Fleetwood Mac and a killer version of Don’t Fear The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult.

Overall the show was amazing, it was great to hear about making the songs and the places he was and mindset of them. Brian’s voice is amazing, and the band just played so great together. I can’t wait to get to see them again.

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Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH MERCURY OF PRIEST

Published

3 weeks ago

April 23, 2024

Ron

Empire Extreme got to sit down and talk to Mercury of Priest when the band came into PA at LoveDrafts.

The show was amazing all the bands that we seen put on a great show for the fans. Vampires Everywhere killed it once again. Last time we seen Priest we only got to see them open for Powerman5000 and got like 6 songs, this time Priest was headlining and we got to see much more which I was excited to see.

Priest played a good mix of old and new and even a few songs off the album “Dark Pulse” which is out in May. We got to see 13 songs played and even Mercury come out into the crowd a few times and when they played “Obey” even blessed some of the crowd. It was great hearing songs like “BlackListed”, “Signal in the Noise”, “History in Black” and “Vaudeville”. It was such a great night of music and a great conversation with Mercury. If you get a chance to see this band play in ur town, it’s a must

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Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

Published

2 months ago

March 4, 2024

Ron

Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

About Author

Ron

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Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

Published

3 months ago

February 16, 2024

Ron

Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.