RAVEN INTERVIEW
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Hailing from Newcastle Upon Tyne in North East England back in 1974 (yes – 44 YEARS ago!!!) the brothers Gallagher cut their teeth playing the pubs & clubs until solidifying their line up in 1980 with drummer Rob Hunter. The trio went on to release three of the most influential metal albums of the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) on the Neat records label which in turn inspired every band of that era and beyond. Basically, without RAVEN you just might not have had thrash/speed metal…. after all, the band did give Metallica & Anthrax their first tours!
Twinmusix got to speak to John Gallagher from Raven about his upcoming tour and more.
TM - Hi John, Thank You for having this call with me today.
JG - Thank You for having me.
TM - What can fans expect from your Australian tour?
JG - We are going to go over to Australia and entertain and in a very heavy metal way.
TM - Sounds metal, What can fans expect from your Setlist?
JG - We are going to mix it up we are going to say at least one song of our upcoming studio album, a couple of stuff from my last album and some classic hits from over the years. There is always a lot of improvisation and craziness.
TM - What can fans expect from your new studio album?
JG - They can expect a faster song and more speed. A lot of our speed has come from the new drummer structure strong Melodies and great vocals.
TM - You just mentioned you got a new drummer, has this impacted the sound on your new record?
JG - Mike, our new drummer was playing with Fear Factory. He is amazing at kick drums, he is a great improviser and obsessed with drums. He is really driving us and everyone is raising their game. This is the only album that we have ever tracked where the drums were done separately in his own studio. We added all our stuff after so it's worked out really well.
TM - If you could have any bands play one of your songs which band would it be, which song would it be and would it be in your style or their Style?
JG - Metallica doing "For the Future" in their style. They would do it justice.
TM - You gave Metallica and Anthrax their first shot, how did this come about?
JG - We were organizing a tour in 83 and Johnny, the promoter called us and said we have the biggest band in San Francisco to open for you. We said what Y&T are going to open for us. He said no, Metallica and we said who. we ended up getting the cassette for No Life 'Til Leather. We thought that it sounded like Motorhead being played at the wrong speed. We thought oh ok that sounds cool and that happened to be their first tour.
They were young crazy and drunk and we did about 30 or 40 shows across America with them. It was a bit of a game changer and they asked us if they could come on tour with us and we said yeah sure come on. If we go out on the road, we want a good opening band, what is the point in having someone that people will not like.
TM - That is sweet that you took them out on their first tour!
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
JG - Thank You for the support over the years. I know there has been a lot of people wanting us to come over and we are going to make it worth your while. We are going to kick ass from one end of Australia to the other.
TM - Thank You so much for this interview today, and we cannot wait to see you kick ass in Australia.
