Tag Archives: Slipknot

Influenced, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

2001 – Part 5.2: Slipknot – Iowa

“Iowa” is the second studio album by Slipknot, released by Roadrunner Records on August 28, 2001.

Produced by Ross Robinson and Slipknot but it’s Mike Fraser as the Engineer who deserves a special mention here. The guitars are downtuned a lot and somehow they don’t end up sounding muddled. Which gets me thinking that the placement of the microphones to record the guitars was pretty spot on for Andy Wallace in the mix department to give all 8 members space to do their thing.

The 1999 self-titled debut album took the Charts by surprise, so the pressure to deliver a worthy follow-up was at an all-time high.

Production for the album started with drummer Joey Jordison (RIP) and bassist Paul Gray (RIP) in October 2000. Most of the material was written during this time, while other members took a break after the extensive touring that had followed their debut.

By January 17, 2001, the whole band arrived and basically war was declared between each other. Fatigue was killing Jordison and Gray, while alcoholism and drug dependency was affecting Corey Taylor and the other members. On top of that they had management problems and a party culture full of women and narcotics.

Taylor even resorted to cutting himself with broken glass to achieve the desperation and doom in the vocal growls he wanted.

So if you don’t know Slipknot, they wear masks which obscure their faces and they are referenced with numbers.

(#8) is Corey Taylor on vocals, (#7) is Mick Thomson on guitars, (#6) is Shawn Crahan on percussion, backing vocals, editing, (#5) is Craig Jones on samplers, media, (#4) is Jim Root on guitars, (#3) is Chris Fehn on percussion, backing vocals, (#2) is Paul Gray on bass, backing vocals, (#1) is Joey Jordison on drums and (#0) is Sid Wilson on turntables.

Basically the album is a result of guys who hated each other, the world and the world hated them back. Welcome to “Iowa”.

People = Shit

Great title and a great way of the band saying to people “F off and leave us alone”.

Disasterpiece

Press play to hear the head banging intro.

“My Plague” and “Everything Ends” I normally skip.

The Heretic Anthem

The 6-6-6 chant in the song is reminiscent of other songs from notable acts.

Track 7, I skip.

Left Behind

The best song on the album for me, because of the clean tone vocals. Who knew that Corey Taylor could sing that good back in 2001, as Stone Sour was a few years away from releasing their debut.

Tracks 9 to 13, I skip.

Iowa

The closer at 15 minutes. It’s a Tool like dirge through desolation, doom and darkness. At some stages, it feels like the music if a demented soul.

I tried to like this album because of just how popular it became around the world. Gold Certifications in Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan and Netherlands. Platinum certifications in Canada, the UK and the US.

Apart from “Left Behind” and “Iowa” there was nothing else here for me to grasp onto.

But, I did find the lyrics refreshing and totally different from what I was used to, which is a big reason why I kept giving Slipknot a chance.

If you like hard rock music then you won’t like this, as it borders on death and thrash metal with nu-metal influences.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories, Piracy, Unsung Heroes

Just Another Day In The World

Game Of Thrones

It looks like Piracy does pay. The sales of DVD/BluRay box sets for Season 4 of “Game Of Thrones” are going crazy. Season 3 also experienced the same craziness.

Led Zeppelin

Meanwhile, an album from 40 years ago is back on the charts. Led Zeppelin, who was so late to the streaming party, is now fighting for a spot on top of the charts due to their fans streaming their music.

Sales

So the recording industries response to piracy is to have a global release day on Friday. Hello, its 2015. Every day is a good day to release new music because music when done right doesn’t need a blockbuster opening day. Last week, 36 Crazyfists released their album “Time and Trauma” with first week sales of 3,500.

Yeah, high fives all round. Let’s blame piracy.

Meanwhile, ageing rockers AC/DC moved another 8,000 units as they move closer to 500,000 sales. However, sales of 500,000 does not mean that the record is popular amongst their fans. Does anyone know if it’s continually getting played? It’s not on Spotify so we can’t use any data from there.

Meanwhile, the “Rock Or Bust” clip has over 7 million views on YouTube, while “Play Ball” has over 6 million views. However, if you compare those YouTube views to Slipknot’s “The Devil and I” 26 million plus views, it’s easy to see what fans of rock and metal are listening too.

But hang on a second, the media outlets give ink to the fact that AC/DC has almost sold 500,000 copies of their album, while Slipknot is closer to the 300,000 mark. Further evidence today, that sales don’t equate to the actual popularity of the album. Listening data does.

Sales are old school and they are not coming back. In Norway, piracy is non-existent however revenues from recorded music haven’t increased. Goes to show that people never really wanted to own music, they just wanted access to it.

American Sniper

However if an entertainment product is done right, people will still spend their money. “American Sniper” is a perfect example of that. The movie is all over the piracy sites, and it is also approaching the $500 million mark on Box Office Returns. Compare that to the “The Expendables 3” which bombed big time. One movie hit the mark with the audiences while the other didn’t.

So when something does well, piracy is not mentioned at all as maybe a possible reason for its success, while when something does not do well, piracy is always blamed.

Performing Live

For musicians, piracy is exposure. Machine Head grossed $33,000 for one show in front of 850 Head Cases. If they play 100 shows with the same return, that would mean, they would have grossed $3.3 million. It sure sounds like a decent take home.

On a larger scale, Slash Feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators grossed $316,696 for a show in Dublin.

Music is all about people listening and if we listen and we like it, we will spend our dollars.

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A to Z of Making It, Music, My Stories, Unsung Heroes

Saints (Winners) and Sinners (Losers)

WINNER
Machine Head are doing the opposite of what all the other bands are doing. Playing smaller venues, selling them out and doing “An Evening With..” extravaganza. The prices of tickets are affordable and not extravagant. This is one band that realizes their niche place in the metal music business and they play to their core audience, the Headcases.

In Robb Flynn, they have one of the best frontmen in thrash/metal circles that is not afraid to take a stance on an issue. He speaks to his core audience via his journals. He controls his own narrative and not the press, which is the downfall of a lot of other artists.

Flynn, along with Monte Conner from Nuclear Blast have realized that music is all about the souvenirs. The “Killers and Kings” single release for Record Store Day with the four different tarot covers proved once again that if people believe in the artists, they will spend their money. Machine Head weren’t selling music, they were selling collectibles. I purchased all four and I still haven’t opened them.

WINNER
Megadeth. As a guitarist I didn’t really dig Broderick’s uninspired lead breaks so I am pretty happy that he has left. Just because a person is super technical it doesn’t mean they are good songwriters. Seriously put those lead breaks up against the jazzy shred work of Chris Poland, the neo – classical shred metal of Marty Friedman, the tasteful phrasing of Al Pitrelli and the pentatonic chaos of Dave Mustaine and you will see where Broderick stacks up. Drummers are plentiful so I am sure that Megadeth will have no issues here finding one that will suit.

LOSERS
Chris Broderick and Shaun Drover.

The history of guitarists and drummers that have departed Megadeth is vast. The real good ones have had stellar careers pre and post Megadeth. Marty Friedman had a fan base before he joined and then he became a Japanese musical icon post Megadeth. Al Pitrelli also had an established fan base prior to joining and he was already in demand as a session guy and touring guitarist for various projects. Chris Poland did “Damn The Machine” which was an unbelievable album/band that wasn’t embraced by the waves of change that happened to metal in 1993 and Poland’s instrumental album “Return To Metalopolis” was also a favourite back in the day.

WINNER
Streaming. Fans of music didn’t care at all that The Pirate Bay got raided or that Kickass Torrents got taken down. Those raids/takedowns are all pure PR stunts by the associations and a waste of money/legal resources because copyright for the last 15 years has been hijacked and used purely for criminal pursuits and nothing to do with aiding the artist.

LOSERS
Artists and entities that compare the streaming dollars earned today to those pre 1999 sales dollars without understanding that streaming is all about scale. The more people using the platform, the higher the payments will be in the future. But no one can look that far, when everyone thinks about “right now”. The ones complaining about streaming royalties just don’t have enough fans interested in listening to their music consistently.

WINNER
Slash. He has shown that he is more Guns N Roses than Axl Rose is. His output has been solid via his many projects, like Slash’s Snakepit, Velvet Revolver, Slash (the guest vocalist album) and now Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators. He is doing what every other musician should be doing, which is releasing product and touring.

LOSER
Duff McKagan. His views on piracy/copyright infringement are restricting him from doing what he needs to do, which is, to create music.

WINNER
Dee Snider. His views on Doug Aldrich are spot on.

LOSER
Doug Aldrich. He’s a good guitar player but nowhere in the league of the Eighties guitarist he was competing against when he was with “Lion”. For the years he has been involved in music, there is not one definitive song/riff that can be attributed to Doug Aldrich.

WINNER
Data. The era of feeling it or rorting the charts is over. It’s all about the fans and what they listen too.

LOSER
Sales. Just because Spotify is killing off piracy, it doesn’t mean that people will start to buy physical CD’s, vinyls or pay to download MP3’s again. Seriously there is a lot of rubbish reporting out there stating something like “sales are worse now since Spotify has entered the market”. Well, hello genius, Spotify and streaming for that matter are also competing with sales.

WINNER
George Lynch. He realizes it’s all about the music and without making new music, he has no career. That’s why people come back. Lynch Mob, his solo career, KXM, Sweet and Lynch and now the announcement of a new project called “The Infidels” which is another pseudo-supergroup.

LOSER
Don Dokken. Without the involvement of Lynch and Pilson in the songwriting department, the band Dokken is a shadow of its former self.

WINNER
Indegoot Entertainment. They have a roster of bands that make up a very large portion of the U.S Hard Rock market, that have proven to be consistent sellers in a recorded music sales market that is contracting instead of expanding. Shinedown, In This Moment, Halestorm, Chevelle, Adelitas Way, Black Stone Cherry, Theory of A Deadman and Story of The Year.

Rock is far from dead when you have rock artists like these. And with a good roster of talent comes power on the live circuit. That is why Indegoot is a winner.

LOSER
Any metal or rock band that is spending months upon months creating their new album and being out of the public consciousness. The modern way is to be in our head space every day. If an artist today takes a break then they are on their way to being forgotten. And you don’t want to be in the news if it is not about your music. No one can forget what their core business is.

Slipknot took almost seven years to release their new album, only to have “The Devil In I” rack up 9.6 million streams. What about the other songs?

Yngwie Malmsteen has delivered a lot of dud albums in the last ten years and he still takes his time before issuing the next one.

WHY?

You would think after one crap album, he would get going with delivering a better song quickly to make amends. Malmsteen can be doing much more to keep in touch with his fan base which doesn’t revolve around issuing ten to twelve songs every two years under his own name.

Take a leaf out of George Lynch’s or Michael Sweets or Marc Tremonit’s or Russell Allen’s playbook.

WINNER
Kevin Churko. Everyone wants to work with him. He is the modern-day version of Tom Werman or Keith Olsen. Five Finger Death Punch, In This Moment, Hellyeah, Papa Roach are all bands that have used the might Churko as producer and on some occasions as songwriter. If you want to use sales as a statistic of reach, then bands produced by Kevin Churko are some of the best sellers in the genre.

LOSER
EVH.

My EVH Peavey 5150 Combo that I purchased back in 1995 is still my favourite amp to record with. So it is a shame that the greatest and most innovative guitarist cannot get it together to deliver new music worthy of his stature. Reading Sammy Hagar’s bio recently cemented my views on EVH who has become a person that is so out of touch with reality and a victim of his own vices. His future without any doubt is with Sammy Hagar as the front man.
WINNER
Allen Kovac’s move from management to the label business has paid off. Eleven Seven Music is another label doing their bit in bringing hard rock back to the masses. Artists involve Hellyeah, Mötley Crüe, Papa Roach, Pop Evil, Sixx:A.M, Nothing More, Art Of Dying, Apocalyptica, Escape The Fate and Drowning Pool.

LOSER
AC/DC without Malcolm Young have lost their foundation. Don’t get me wrong, I love AC/DC and always will. They will make a killing on the live circuit however no one cares for their new music. On top of all that their views about withholding their music from certain digital outlets (while it is available for free on pirate sites) shows how out of touch they are. They are leaving money on the table.

WINNER
Marc Tremonti. He showed the world that he was the brains and driving force behind Creed. He kept his career going with Alter Bridge. He started his own solo band. He went away and mastered the art of shred. His PRS guitars are state of the art and brilliant to play. Trust me on that one as I have one. The PRS through the 5150 is the perfect sound for me.

LOSER
Metallica. They are trying to replicate the corporate deals of U2 and the product saturation of Kiss. This in turn leaves the hard-core fan base squeamish. Meanwhile it has been seven years since they released “Death Magnetic” and music is the very reason why Metallica is in the powerful position they are in right now. However it seems they have forgotten that part of their career. “Lords Of Summer” will most probably be turned into a totally different song however if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t bode well for Metallica as they sit down to write the next album.

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Music

A Capitalist Democracy

In the valley of the kings
Na-na-na
Na-na-nahh!
You’re workin’, slavin
Into death every day
Set us free

John Sykes delivers the above in the outro to the Blue Murder epic “Valley Of The Kings”. Replace the word “Kings” with the word “Rich” and you get the following verse;

In the valley of the rich
Na-na-na
Na-na-nahh!
You’re workin’, slavin
Into death every day
Set us free

And it got me thinking about what democracy actually means these days?

Wikipedia states that “Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally—either directly or through elected representatives—in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. It encompasses social, economic and cultural conditions that enable the free and equal practice of political self-determination.”

Wikipedia also states the term originates from the Greek word dēmokratía which means “rule of the people”. It is the antonym to word aristokratia which means “rule of an elite”.

In other words, Democracy means that “the people rule”. So are the people ruling?

In 2013, the people’s’ rule comes down to ticking a box every three to four years on election day for people who have been pre-selected by the ruling elite. Sounds pretty democratic to me.

The Australian people in 2007, elected Kevin Rudd as it’s Prime Minister and by 2010, he was knifed by the Ruling Elite of the Labor Party and replaced as Prime Minister. So much for the “rule of the people”. The people voted in the Prime Minister, so shouldn’t the people have the chance to throw him out of office at the next election. Not in Australia. The Labor Party replaced him. Sounds pretty democratic to me.

What about the recent TPP negotiations led by the U.S? Did you know that the TPP has been negotiated in secrecy. The only time the public hears about the terms of the agreement are via leaks because the public should trust their elected officials to do the right thing. That fact that certain interest groups, like the record labels and the movie studios are allowed to participate in the negotiations and other groups that counteract those views are not. It sure sounds like the rule of the people.

When interest groups and copyright monopolies lobby hard, they know which politicians pockets to hit. This is where the Rule Of The Elite comes into play in democratic nations. Money and wealth is in control. The people who have it, have built up a monopoly from their ivory towers. And they will do anything to keep it.

In relation to copyright, these industries have taken a government granted monopoly that is given to a creator of works and turned it into a corporate empire, where the copyright term expires 70 to 90 years (depending on the country you reside) after the creator’s death. And they are lobbying hard to even remove current Public Domain works and place them back under Copyright. Sounds pretty democratic to me. Did the people have a say in this? Of course not, we trusted our elected politicians to take care of our needs.

In short, our ‘democracy’ is a charade. Our democracy is corrupt and riddled with bad laws, that more or less do not apply to the ruling elite. As Geoff Tate sings in “Speak”;

The rich control the government, the media the law

How many people have participated in a meaningful way in how society is organised and run? The answer to this is probably NONE.

Sacred Reich released “The American Way” back in 1990. Has anything changed in the last 23 years.

This was once the land of dreams
Now these dreams have turned to greed
In the midst of all this wealth
The poor are left to help themselves
A capitalist’s democracy
No one said that freedom’s free
Lady liberty rots away
No truth, no justice
The American way

That is the democracy we have. A capitalist democracy. We have allowed this to happen. Corey Taylor nailed it with the lyrics in “All Hope Is Gone”.

We’re the problem,
but we’re also the solution

Our fascination with accumulating wealth has allowed us to give away more and more of our freedoms. Quoting from “Eye Of The Beholder”.

Independence limited
Freedom of choice is made for you my friend
Freedom of speech is words that they will bend
Freedom no longer frees you

Freedom of choice is indeed made for you.

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Uncategorized

I Am Giant – City Limits

I am listening to the 2010 EP called City Limits – Neon Sunrise from I Am Giant. Man, what an enjoyable listen.

The song City Limits has this bass intro that reminds me of the song “Comedown” from Bush and the drum beat makes me think of “When The Levee Breaks” from Led Zeppelin. If you want an introduction into the band, then this is the song to start with.

“Are we living?
Or merely killing time?

BOOM. Then the distorted guitars crash, mimicking the bass riff. It is the hit that wasn’t.

The vocal melodies are very strong in this song. I am three years late to the party. Isn’t that the modern paradigm. I can’t believe that this song has been out for over 3 years and it has gone relatively un-noticed.

Their VEVO account shows the song has 88,279 views and it is also their most streamed song on Spotify with 48,022 streams. Compared to other artists, the record labels would say that the song is a dud. It is a great song, with a great message and it will rise to the top.

“And the city limits,
Keep on getting bigger,
Just when you thought you had made it out

And you’re sick of waiting,
Lying on the pavement,
Tryna’ get out of this old town”

It’s that whole “Born To Run” and “Don’t Stop Believin'” message. It’s a breath of fresh air, combining art rock, with prog rock, with alternative and many other genres.

As good as the vocals are, and the overall flow of the song, it’s the whole Chorus package that pushes it over the top.

The EP has four songs and all of them are solid. “Neon Sunrise”, “Let Go” and “Living The Crash” show that “City Limits” wasn’t a fluke. Vocalist Ed Martin is the reason why the band has a lot of positives.

Isn’t it funny that in 2013, we hear the music without knowing who the people are behind it. The bands origins go back to 1997 and they begin with a New Zealand band called Blindspott.

After 10 years and a lot of home-grown success, Blindspott called it a day, and that is how I Am Giant was formed. There is the controversy of the Blindspott band name (who owns it), new version of Blindspott Facebook page takedowns (from current I Am Giant drummer, Shelton Woolright who was also the original Blindspott drummer) and legal letters from Shelton to the current incarnation of Blindspott, which forced the band to change their name to Blacklist.

So I Googled “I Am Giant” and I see that they released an album in 2011 called “The Horrifying Truth.” They are about to drop their new album “Science and Survival” soon, I want to hear it, so I go to Spotify.

I hear the lead single from the new album “Razor Wire Reality” first. The music is pedestrian and the vocals do their best to lift the song to a higher plane. Compared to their piece de resistance, “City Limits” it’s no match.

Then there is an “EP” released in 2012 with a “Wow” acoustic version of “Duality” from Slipknot. It’s a ballsy move.

“Purple Hearts” overall reminds me of Cog, however the whole intro and verse riff has the feel of “Cherub Rock” from Smashing Pumpkins. It’s another winner. To me Cog are Australian legends. Cog didn’t have the worldwide commercial success however they are held in very high regard.

The next song that makes a connection is “And We’ll Defy”.

“I close my eyes forever”

It’s such a simple lyric, however when it is repeated over and over again with an agonised melody and a changing background of music, it is very effective.

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A to Z of Making It, Copyright, Music, My Stories

Persistence, Timing, Diversification and playing to your core audience

I am reading the recent issue of Guitar World and I come across a question where Mick Jones from Foreigner is asked how it was to work with Mutt Lange? For those that don’t know Mutt Lange produced the Foreigner 4 album in 1981.

Mutt had really wanted to do our second album [1978’s Double Vision], I believe. But he didn’t seem quite ready at the time. So we did the next one [1979’s Head Games] with Roy Thomas Baker.

So Lange goes away and he proves himself to Foreigner. He takes on AC/DC and produces Highway to Hell in 1979 (their American breakthrough album) and Back in Black in 1980 (their first with Brian Johnson and their biggest album in regards to sales to date). He also produced For Those About To Rock We Salute You in 1981.

He didn’t just give up. In between the period between 1977 and 1981, apart from AC/DC, he also produced albums for artists like City Boy, Clover, Supercharge, The Boomtown Rats, The Rumour, Savoy Brown, Michael Stanley Band, Outlaws, Deaf School, The Records and Broken Home. He is paying his dues, getting the stats on his side, just so that he can work with a band that he wants to work with.

… then Mutt was kind of knocking on the door again. I must say, he was quite enthusiastic.

Then he gets the gig to do Foreigner – 4 which came out in 1981. Persistence. Paying your dues. Credentials. Hard work. Timing. They all play important parts in the recipe for success.

Mutt’s persistence to hard work, made him turn over a lot of records as a producer. A lot of those records made a large impression with the public.
Mutt’s timing was off when he first approached Foreigner in 1978. It wasn’t off in 1981. This time around he also had the credentials to back himself. For a producer, your credentials are the works that you produced, for an artist, your credentials is the music that you make.

He was the first producer I worked with who really challenged me. He was not only very insightful with the songs and in helping to bring them to fruition but he was also really great at achieving sounds.

The real rock stars hated to get challenged. The “songs are their children” is a common cliché that so many of them would say. Mutt Lange didn’t give a shit about that. He wanted perfection. He wanted greatness. He wanted to be involved in something that would last forever.

He was just unbelievably dedicated to the process…to the point where I think we kept Def Leppard waiting six or nine months because Mutt was still working with us on 4.

Def Leppard waited for him. Why? They knew. They knew that this guy was special. They knew he was the person that would be able to capture their pop leanings and merge them with their rock and blues influences. All of that pales, compared to what they really needed. Def Leppard needed a song writing partner. Look at the history that they created.

Def Leppard – High ‘N’ Dry, 1981
Def Leppard – Pyromania, 1983
Def Leppard – Hysteria, 1987
Def Leppard – Adrenalize, 1992

Mutt really set a standard with Def Leppard. I called it the layers standard. Others call it the over dubs or over producing standard. Others call it multi-tracking. The fans loved it. They wanted the big vocals, the arena rock chorus’s layered in harmonies. Once Hysteria exploded every other band released albums in the same layered style. Suddenly every hard rock band was doing the Bon Jovi and Def Leppard thing. Kiss went all pop metal with Crazy Nights and Hot In The Shade. Whitesnake did it with Slip Of The Tongue. However, there was one band that was doing things their own way. That one band is called Guns N Roses. I digress.

Once you become successful, it doesnt mean you stop. Mutt Lange didn’t. He kept on going.

Song writing for other artists became a new income stream for him from the eighties onwards. As an artist, if all you do is just write music and perform it live, you are limiting yourself to that income stream. However, if you write songs for other artist, you have an additional income stream. If you produce for up and coming bands, sharing your expertise and knowledge, then you have another income stream. If you are a guitar player, become a guitar teacher on time off from recording and touring. That is another income stream. Suddenly, you have a years’ worth of work. Yes it is hard work. It was never meant to be easy.

Look at the following list of people that keep on working hard;

Jordan Rudess from Dream Theater. He plays keyboards in Dream Theater, he is a solo musician, he is an instructor and he is an app developer.

Claudio Sanchez from Coheed and Cambria. He is the founder, singer, guitarist and main songwriter for Coheed and Cambria. He also has a side project called Prize Fighter Inferno. He has written novels and comics. He appears at Comic Conventions. He has just signed a production agreement for The Amory Wars story to be turned into a movie or movies. He is also an app game developer.

Corey Taylor is another. The recent House of Gold and Bones releases by Stone Sour have seen that concept story turned into a graphic novel and comic book, as well as a production deal to turn it into a movie. Apart from Stone Sour, Corey still tours with Slipknot. He is also a novelist.

Nikki Sixx is the leader of Motley Crue. He does Sixx A.M as another band. He does photography and his work is being exhibited on line. He has penned two autobiographies (The Dirt and The Heroin Diaries), as well as a picture book/biography for This is Gonna Hurt. He uses social media to build connections with fans. Finally, he is overseeing the long overdue Motley Crue movie. There is also the SixxSense “radio” gig and a range of other outlets like clothing and accessories.

Phil X is currently fill in guitarist for Bon Jovi. He is a session musician. He is a fill in guitarist .He is a solo artist. He is a band member. He is a guitar teacher. Five different income streams. He endorses different product lines of gear.

Kevin Churko is a producer, sound engineer, masterer, mixer and a songwriter. While his production credits involve the hard rock and metal genre, I bet a lot of people didn’t know that he was involved with Britney Spears when he started off. Yep that is right. In 2000 he was the Digital Editing and Programming guru on Britney’s Oops!… I Did It Again album. He had that same job title for The Corrs, Shania Twain and Celine Dion albums that followed between 2000 and 2003.

From 2003 onwards, he then started getting appointments as an Engineer and a mixer. He had those titles for Shania Twain and Ozzy Osbourne albums.

Then from 2006 and onwards he started getting producing appointments.

Churko built up a credentialed name for himself between 1999 and 2006. Since then he has done I Don’t Wanna Stop, Black Rain and Scream by Ozzy Osbourne. Apart from being the Producer, he was also the Engineer, the Mixer and Composer.

He has filled the same role for In This Moment, Hinder, Beggars and Thieves, Emerson Drive, Five Finger Death Punch, Otherwise, Kobra and The Lotus and Rob Zombie.

The point in all of this. Success in music is not just about writing a song and watching it sell. You need to earn your success. You need to pay your dues. You need to live and experience life. You need to be patient. You need to persevere. The bottom line; don’t quit.

And remember: still play to your core audience. That is what all of the above artists are doing. They are keeping their core audience satisfied.

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A to Z of Making It, Music

Far From Being Normal – That Is Why We Love Them

I remember a band member once asking me, what do I believe needs to be done to make it.   I always had the viewpoint that successful people are far from being normal.  The ones that make it had something to prove to someone.  There could be abandonment issues, broken homes, mental issues, drug dependencies or some other X factor.  Of course, there are the 1 percents of the small 1 percents of people who make it, that just keep on persisting their way to the top.

Let’s look at Motley Crue.  Nikki Sixx was the driver of that vehicle and look at his childhood. 

Machine Head’s driver is Robb Flynn.  He was adopted.  He had something to prove. 

Metallica at the beginning was all Dave Mustaine.  He was the one that had something to prove as he had the abandonment issues from Mustaine Senior.  Once he was ousted, it was all James Hetfield.  His Christian Science upbringing was the catalyst.  Lars was the connections guy in the band, while James was the driver.

Van Halen had David Lee Roth, the troubled son from a renowned eye surgeon.  Yes, I know that Eddie Van Halen wrote the music and the riffs, however DLR was the show, the ideas man, the troubled teen that had something to prove.

Megadeth had Dave Mustaine.  Mustaine had something to prove when he was in Metallica and after his ousting he really had something to prove. 

Dream Theater had Mike Portnoy.  Portnoy’s mum died in a plane crash and his step dad was a prick.  Talented as John Petrucci is, if Mike Portnoy wasn’t there, Dream Theater would never have made it.  Portnoy delivered the X Factor.

Slipknot had Corey Taylor. Corey had even overdosed twice in his teens.

Something to think about when our heroes mess things up.

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Stone Sour – Children Of The Grave

Stone Sour – Children Of The Grave

“… without this band, no one back stage and no one out here, will have a career or a life.  This is dedicated to the band that started it all, Black Sabbath.”

Corey is spot on.  I know I have been tough on Sabbath and their new songs so far, however there is no denying their contribution to the metal genre.  

Children of The Grave is my best Sabbath song.  I still prefer the blistering Randy Rhoads version on Tribute.  It’s got more of a metal feel to it and the lead break that Randy unleashes is another one of his songs within a song lead break.

Stone Sour kills it, Corey’s vocals are spot on during the verses.  I like the Slipknot guest appearances.  What kind of forward flip was that from one of them?  They ended up on their asses.

Performing live is a tough gig.  On stage the sound is always different to what you think people are hearing.  I have walked of stages, thinking what a top show and then people come up and tell you, that the sound was horrible.

You notice the difference in sound, between the camera that is way out compared to the camera that is close in.

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