Soundwave Festival

Biography

Australian fans were thrilled recently with the announcement that for the first time ever, Baroness would finally be hitting our shores for Soundwave 2010! Last week, I had we had the pleasure of chatting with frontman John Baizley to discuss the bands upcoming Australian tour, his thoughts on having an album hit #1 on the Billboard charts, his passion for painting and more.

John, great to be speaking with you this afternoon, firstly mate… congratulations of the latest album ‘Blue Record’, looking back over the whole process is there anything you wish you would have changed or would have liked to have done differently?

No, no, I’ve got no regrets whatsoever.

The ‘Blue Album’ hit the Billboard Heatseekers charts at number one which is awesome, I’m curious though… do you get caught up in all the hype of chart positions etc, I mean it’s nice to have your albums hit the top of the charts, but how do you view all that stuff!

Ah no, not for a second man! There’s nothing that is more the opposite of why I play music and why this band exists. We tend to block all that out!

John, the album has been out for about a month now right… how has the response been from the fans and media that have heard it, and how are the new tracks going over live?

The response has been overwhelmingly good I think, once again though I don’t pay too much attention to it because I don’t want to get too big a head. Everything that I have heard has been great so far. We have played three shows with the new stuff so far and I think it’s some of the best stuff that we’re playing live!

It’s been two years between studio albums, how much time did you spend this time around in the studio?

The record took about two to three months to write and we were in the studio for three weeks from start to finish.

I love the artwork for the new album; tell us the story behind the main piece?

Well, as has always been the case all of our art is made internally. The cover is difficult to explain directly. I actually made the cover… everybody in the band gets together and I get ideas from everyone in the form of overall feelings, it can be anything from incredibly baked to incredibly specific. I try to merge that with some of our lyrical feelings and lyrical energy’s and some of the tones and feelings that I get from the record as a whole.

Mate, I do want to talk to you a little more about art but before we get into that lets discuss the upcoming Australian tour… no doubt you guys are thrilled to be heading here as part of the Soundwave Festival for 2010?

Yeah absolutely, none of us have ever been to Australia before so this is going to be a great opportunity for us!

John, when you travel half way across the globe for a tour like this, what is the one thing you most look forward to about coming to Australia?

Well, that’s the thing, there is 23 hours in the day that we’re not performing and what we look forward to when we’re touring is filling up those hours with other stuff. At this point in our career we’re not a hard partying band anymore we’ve chosen to try and get as much done in the day as possible. What we generally do is try to meet as many people as possible prior to the tours. We’d love to have somebody take us around and show us the thing’s that the tourist books don’t, and just emerge ourselves in whatever the local culture is.

You are on the 2010 Soundwave bill with some amazing bands like Faith No More, Alexisonfire, Paramore & Anti-flag to name a few, will you be putting time aside to check out any of the other bands throughout the festival?

Oh yeah, I intend to see as many of the bands as possible over the course of the tour. There are a number of bands that were very important in my development as a musician most immediately Janes Addiction and Faith No More who were favorites of mine when I was first picking up the guitar, so I’m really excited to see them. When we play these festivals I like to see everybody, even the bands that I don’t think I like all that much and maybe don’t like at all. I like to sit there and watch and learn.

Mate are you a fan of playing on the larger festival bills or would you much prefer the smaller more intimate venues, no doubt both have their advantages!

Yeah those are still fun for us; the majority of the shows that we play are still clubs, so we’re not burnt out on the festival shows. We haven’t played enough of them to get too tired of doing them; they’re always a lot of fun too!

There’s no doubt that when you’re playing on the large festival bills such as Soundwave, it can be a fantastic way to expose the band to a lot of people who may have never heard you before … for those punters attending Soundwave who plan on checking out Baroness, how would you describe the band live and what can the Australian audiences expect when you take to the Soundwave stage?

Well first and foremost we have always considered ourselves a live band, and we have some pretty strict guidelines… when we play, our music never stops, we never talk onstage except to introduce ourselves and to thank our audiences. We talk at the very beginning if we’re going to say anything, depending on how long a set they give us. If we get a half an hour set you can expect a full thirty minutes of music with no fillers, we like to present our music as music.

Oh dude that works well for me, on the day I will be shooting the show and usually you get the whole three song rule, but if you guys just don’t stop playing I will be able to shoot the whole show!

[Laughs]

Will you guys be appearing on any of the Side-waves that have been getting announced?

Oh yeah, we have the five festival shows and then we are playing an additional two side-shows, then directly after that we are flying over to Japan for a week of touring.

John whilst we’re on the subject of touring… Can you remember the hardest time you had as an opening act?

I think it’s pretty difficult for any band that has to go through that whole opening act thing. You have to deal with the low capacity clubs, when you’re opening a show at seven o’clock and the main band doesn’t go on until nine or ten you just don’t get a crowd and it’s disheartening.

I actually can relate to that, the crowds these days seem to be more excited about seeing the one main band rather than making a night of it and watching and enjoying the whole concert experience start to finish!

Exactly, I remember when I was a kid whenever the doors would open I would be there, we would like to think that everybody would like to show up early enough…

When you look back over the extensive touring that you guys have done already, what's the craziest thing that has ever happened to you on stage?

Oh I don’t know if there has been anything that is too crazy, I mean we have been through the same stuff as everybody else, the beer bottles, the insults, the hecklers, this that and the other.

How about looking out into the crowds from onstage, no doubt you have seen some crazy shit going on whilst you’ve been playing!

It’s really been in the past year, we’ve seen everything, especially when we’re doing the festival shows! For me, to show up and visibly see twenty or thirty thousand people is humbling, and we have to pay respect to the sheer numbers of audiences at festivals!

Mate we have hit the part of the interview where our readers get to find out more about the real you… What was the first concert you ever attended and how much of an impact did that have on you musically?

The first show I ever saw was Sonic Youth and it was what I consider a defining moment in my life and my musical career.

How about the first song you ever wrote… what was that called and what was it about?

Oh geez… I don’t even know, I’ve probably written three hundred songs, I couldn’t even tell ya [laughs]. It’s safe to say that it probably wasn’t about anything all that important!

John, what else would you like to achieve musically in your career?

My musical goal is simple… it’s to continue to challenge myself and our band, and to be just as passionate in five years time about playing music as I am today, then five years after that to continue to have that passion and so forth.

If you had to choose between doing the paintings and artwork or music what one would you give up?

[Laughs] Here’s the thing… I’m always going to be able to make art, that is a career that I have been working towards for a long time and it’s something that I’ll never have to give up. Let’s be honest here, we don’t want to be sixty years old and playing the type of music that we do. There is fine quality to this music and right now it’s the major focus in my life.

Who have you been surprised to learn is a fan of you work?

As far as artwork is concerned... I was really surprised to find out that folk duo Flight of the Conchords from New Zealand were fans of my artwork, that was one of those out of the blue cool things to hear… I actually just did the artwork for their most recent album cover.

What’s the craziest rumour you’ve ever heard about yourself and or the band?

[Laughs] I don’t know that I have heard any crazy rumours, I don’t think we fit under that banner of gossip, I’ve never heard anything crazy!

John you’re obviously just as passionate about doing art as you are music, I was just wandering what did you start off with first the art or music?

I don’t really remember… I have been making both for so long now that I honestly can’t remember what one came before the other. I remember being about six years old and actively drawing pictures like most six year olds do and at the same time I also had an acoustic guitar which I couldn’t really play but it was always there!

Not only has your artwork been used throughout your career with Baroness, but bands such as Pig Destroyer and Darkest Hour have also used your work, which is great to see. How did you become involved with those bands, did you approach them or vice versa?

The thing about being and artist and a musician is I get to tour around; I get to meet these people! Most of the bands that I’ve done artwork for, I know them or at least one member in the band, so it’s just a matter of a phone call saying “are you interested in doing this with us”.

I believe you are now also doing some amazing artwork for Guitar World magazine… Art is something you obviously love doing as much as music… in terms of art though what else do you want to do….

Similar to my beliefs with music, I’d like to keep making it for the rest of my life! I just recently started showing my work in some galleries and that is another direction that my artwork can take.

Mate, unfortunately we’re out of time, I want to thank you again for your time, and I’m looking forward to catching you guys in February for the Soundwave festivals… Do you have any last words for our readers?

Nuh man, I think we pretty much covered it, we’ll see ya in February… we can’t wait!

© Cameron Edney Dec 2009

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The forceful BARONESS formed in the Summer 2003 in Savannah, GA with all members, past and present, hailing from Lexington, VA in the foothills of the mighty Blue Ridge Mountains. Maybe that’s where the band draws inspiration for their majestic music, or maybe their noble noise is inspired by their name, or maybe it’s just when these four band-mates come together the end result is always bold and impressive.

BARONESS has forged forward with heavy independent touring and a sound built upon a resolute sense of purpose and shaped by hundreds of explosive live shows. BARONESS have positioned themselves at the forefront of heavy music with their first full length Red Album. Powerful, expressive, confident, and commanding it sees the band expand its sonic vision; colossal riffs and haunting vocals roll like thunder across epic songs spanning both the intense and the sublime. “Red Album is more ambitious; more accomplished, simply bigger” – Pitchfork Media

And what can we expect from BARONESS live at Soundwave 2010? “Instantly won over by their combination of aggression, precision, beautiful instrumental compositions, clever interplay of gruff vocals, and occasional moments of surprising minimalism. And just general badassery.” – Bostonist.com

Their 2007 album entitled Red Album was named Album of the Year by heavy metal magazine Revolver.