CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED (Eng.)

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– Hello Richard, thanks for taking the time and congrats on your upcoming album. Soon before its release, what are you up to?

Thank you very much!!! I’m very busy promoting the new album, doing interviews, working my day job at The Howard Stern Radio Show, celebrating the month of Halloween here in America, and also writing new music for the 3rd Charred Walls album! It’s a lot of work but it’s all worth it when I hear people say that they enjoy our music, it really makes me happy that people listen to our music and enjoy it!

– First off I would like you to tell us some story of the band; how did it get together, etc.

Well I started writing songs for our first album around 2004 and by 2008 I knew that I had enough songs for an album and that’s when I decided to put a band together. The first person I called was Jason Suecof because we’ve been writing songs together and jamming together since 1999 and I’ve always wanted to form a band with Jason. Then I called Steve because he’s my favorite bass player and I called Tim because he’s my favorite singer and I’ve been in bands with Tim and Steve before and they’re great, fun guys and I knew we would all have fun in a band together.

 

– And how did you come up with the band’s name?

I work for a radio show in America called The Howard Stern Show and part of my job is to actually make prank phone calls, it’s a really fun job! One day I was making a prank phone call to a very religious radio show and the host got very angry and said that if I didn’t stop making prank phone calls that I would go to hell and be scratching my nails on the «Charred Walls of the Damned», right away I thought, what an amazing band name!!!!

 

– After playing in so many bands from different music styles; why made you form CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED? What does this band provide you and what does it mean to you?

Well I’ve always loved writing music and I formed this band as an outlet for all of the music that I write. In all of the other bands I’ve been in before I’ve had a great time playing the drums but for this band I wanted to also write the music and lyrics and it’s a great outlet for me and my love of songwriting. I listen to many different types of music like metal, horror film soundtracks, jazz, progressive, and also many different types of metal like Death Metal, Power Metal, Progressive Metal, and Black Metal, and I love putting all of my influences into our music.

 

– As I said before, you will soon unleash your second «Cold Winds on Timeless Days». What are your expecations?

Well I hope that fans really love it and I hope that people who liked the first album love this album too! I’m also hoping that our band will go on tour soon and play all over the world because I’m so proud of our music and I would be honored to play our music for metal fans all over the world!

 

– In fact this album will be released just one year after your debut album, which got great reviews. Was this some kind of

motivation or do you just have much creativity in your mind?

It was both. I really wanted to keep the momentum from our first album going, we got so many great reviews and I was so inspired by the reaction to our first album that I wanted to put this album out while the great vibes from the first album were still there. I was also very inspired and felt very creative while we were mixing our first album because the experience was so fun that I immediately started writing our second album while we were mixing the first album. The songs came very fast and I felt great about the songs so I’m extremely excited about our second album coming out so soon after the first one.

 

– Your music has a quite traditional basis but is really difficult to label but, how could you describe your music?

I love to just call us Metal. I listen to all different types of metal and I don’t like to pigeonhole our sound into just one type of metal, I think there’s different types of metal and different types of music in our sound and I like to simply just call us metal.

 

– Anyway, I could say we can notice elements from all the bands you have played in. What are your thoughts on this? How have the other groups influenced you?

Yes I’ve definitely been influenced by all the bands that I’ve played in. I’ve been lucky enough to be in two very popular metal bands, Death and Iced Earth, with amazingly talented songwriters and I learned a lot about songwriting from Chuck Schuldiner and John Schaffer. I’ve definitely been influenced by them and also by the other bands I’ve played in like Burning Inside and Incantation, that’s why there’s elements of many different types of metal in our music.

 

– Though this new album keeps a similar formula to the one on your debut, I could say this new release has even more personality and it also sounds more honest. Was this something you aimed for?

Thank you very much for saying that! I always aim for music that comes from my soul and for our music to sound natural and heart felt. We definitely have our own sound now after these two albums but I think we’ve also progressed very much and learned a lot from recording these two albums. I think after writing the first album I felt much more confident about my songwriting and I think that shows in our new songs, songwriting is something that I love to do and I will always be trying to get better at it and grow.

 

– It also seems like the rhythmn section is more well-cared. How did you approach your drum duties?

Thank you! Well I was very well rehearsed for this album on the drums. I finished writing all of the songs about two months before we started recording so I practiced my drum parts every day for two months straight and felt very well prepared for this album. I also wanted to make sure that Steve’s bass was turned up in the mix for this album because the bass was a little hard to hear on the first album and I think the drum and bass mix is much more balanced and tighter on this album.

 

– And talking about this, how did you start with drums? What artists have influenced your drumming style?

I started playing the drums when I was 10 years old in 1984. That was the same year that Van Halen’s 1984 album came out and when I heard the song Hot For Teacher I immediately wanted to play the drums. Luckily that same year at my school was the year that my class was offered band class so I joined the school band and have been playing the drums ever since. I’m influenced by Mikkey Dee, Alex Van Halen, Shannon Larkin from Wrathchild America, Pete Sandoval, Terry Bozzio and many others. I would say Alex Van Halen’s performance in Hot For Teacher though is the song that made me want to start playing drums.

 

– Coming back to «Cold Winds on Timeless Days», melody plays a really important role in the whole album. How important are melodies for CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED?

Very important. I love strong melodies in metal music. I’m very influenced by Iron Maiden and I LOVE their guitar melodies and harmonies so I think it’s very important for Charred Walls of the Damned to have strong melodies in our music because that’s the kind of stuff that sticks in your head and makes you want to listen to music over and over again.

 

– You are the main composer in the band as well as the responsible for all the lyrics. Where do you draw inspiration from when it comes to write lyrics? What are some of the subjects covered in this record?

I draw inspiration from things around me that I see in my life and strong memories that I have from my youth. Like the song Forever Marching On, which is about my experience playing in the marching band in school when I was young and how music has played such a huge part in my life and how playing in a marching band in school helped me learn how to be a part of a team and how to create music with other people. Avoid the Light is about how I have very sensitive skin and I’m almost like a vampire because I have to stay out of the sun or I’ll be sunburnt in about 10 minutes. So my lyrics are about things I deal with every day.

 

– After a really successful debut album and near to unleash your second piece; what are your goals with CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED?

I just want people to enjoy our music and I want our music to make people happy when they listen to it, that’s my main goal. I would also love for Charred Walls of the Damned to play live all over the world, I’m really hoping that next year we’ll be able to play in Europe and Japan and all over the world. I’m also excited for us to record many more albums for all of the fans and keep playing metal until I’m old and gray!

 

– Leaving behind this «new» band; can we expect anytime soon the second album by CONTROL DENIED?

Yes we are really hoping to finish recording the second Control Denied album sometime later this year or early next year, it will be well worth the wait and it is going to be amazing! We’re just working with everyone’s schedules, including producer Jim Morris, so that we can finish the album soon and the fans can finally hear it, they’re going to love it!

 

– And finally, what are your near-future plans? Will you tour to support «Cold Winds on Timeless Days» on stage?

Yes we will definitely tour which I’m very excited about!!!! We’re setting up some shows right now and hopefully I’ll have some Charred Walls live show announcements very soon! Keep an eye on www.RichardChristy.com for tour announcements and also www.metalblade.com/cwotd for all Charred Walls of the Damned news and tour info!

 

– That has been all form my side, thanks once more for your time. If you want to add some final words; last lines are all yours.

Thank you so much for interviewing me and for all of the kind words about Charred Walls of the Damned! I hope everyone picks up a copy of Cold Winds On Timeless Days and I hope everyone enjoys banging their head to it! For all Charred Walls info you can go to www.RichardChristy.com and www.MetalBlade.com/cwotd take care and thank you very much!

Tania Giménez

tania@queensofsteel.com

 

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