Wednesday, November 10, 2010

"We're a live band and we love to play live," Says Raven Guitarist

69 Faces of Rock's Mark Kadzielawa recently conducted an interview with brothers John and Mark Gallagher of the veteran British/American heavy metal trio Raven. Excerpts from the chat have now been published via Blabbermouth.net.

69 Faces of Rock: The energy of the new album is quite unbelievable, very reminiscent of the early Raven years.

Mark: We're a live band, and we love to play live. And one thing that was always difficult for us to record is that live Raven feel onto an album. Not because of us, but because of other factors like the people we worked with, or the studio environment. I was really happy with this record that it sounds like a live Raven.

John: And it's just a question of having the right performances with the right songs, and the right sounds. It's just a magical thing when the stars are aligning. It comes together well.

69 Faces of Rock: The title Walk Through Fire couldn't be more right considering everything that had happened in the last few years. I suppose the title was very intentional, right?

Mark: It was intentional. I don't know where did I get that from, but it just came to me. There was a time where the doctors were gonna take one of my legs away. And when you're dealing with something as serious as that, it makes you think hard. If you listen to the album, 80% of the songs are about overcoming adversity, and that's something everybody has to deal with in their lives. It's a common theme for everybody, and I think people can get something from it. Over the last few months, we've had fans come up to us and say that certain songs got them through a lot of hard times in their lives. And we appreciate it. To have that type of effect on people is good, but that was personal thing for me. And it really sums up a lot of things for the band. We've had to deal with a lot of things, not just me being sick, but there were other things like management, and so on. (Read More)

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