Interview with: Chris Rand from SAVAGE BLADE

Things are great right now here at home. Getting ready for a long, cold Canadian winter. We live in a small town on the edge of a lake (Nelson, British Columbia), and I can see the snow is starting to creep down the mountains as I write this! (editor's note: lucky one!)

Thanks so much for your congratulations on our debut release. We're really proud of the album, and it's been really rewarding to see all the positive reviews that it's been getting so far. As the CD was released on Pure Steel only a couple of weeks ago, I haven't yet seen it on the store shelf, but I'm sure that when I do, I'll buy a copy and will crack open a cold beer shortly afterwards...

Eric and I played together in another project a few years ago, and when that ended, we decided to continue working together on new original material. We both love traditional metal, and we found the songwriting process to be very natural and efficient. Once the basic song structures were in place, we began looking for a vocalist. A friend of ours introduced us to Nikko, so we brought him into our studio to lay down a couple of tracks. Let me tell you, it didn't take very long for Eric and I to realize we found our man! He blew us away right from the beginning. An amazing voice with a great tone and character. As far as the name goes, we chose SAVAGE BLADE as we wanted a strong, memorable name that would reflect our style of 80's influenced true metal.

We're huge fans of music on vinyl LP. You just can't get the same warmth and natural audio characteristics of a recording from a compact disc. And as a fan and collector of vinyl, I've always preferred LP's for their artwork, and simple physical nature - there's something ultimately satisfying from putting an album on a turntable and dropping the needle! As far as the CD release goes, we were fortunate enough to have a few offers from independent labels. When Pure Steel approached us, it seemed like a natural fit. Their support of the underground metal scene, along with their distribution network and ability to get the album into markets that we can't reach ourselves, made our decision an easy one.

Yeah, when you listen to We Are The Hammer, it's pretty obvious what many of our influences are. Personally, I'm a fan of many bands and different genres of music. I always say: There's only two types of music - good music and bad music!. (editor note: I couldn't agree more!) One band that might surprise you, that had a major impact on me back in the 80's was QUEENSRYCHE. I actually saw them live two nights ago, and they played an extended set of songs from the Rage For Order album, which is one of my favorite records of all time.

All those bands are legends of Metal here in Canada. I especially think VOIVOD is above and beyond... maybe the most unique heavy band I've ever heard. SAVAGE BLADE has a long, long way to go before we could even get mentioned in the same sentence as some of those bands! But we're going to everything we can to make our mark on the Canadian Metal scene.

True, traditional Heavy Metal isn't going anywhere! I live near a skateboard park, and I always hear the young kids playing IRON MAIDEN, MOTORHEAD, METALLICA, etc. when they're skating. And these kids are like 8-12 years old! Good music never dies... it may hide in the background at times, but it always comes back. The shit called new Metal - now that's a fad that will die just like any other bad trend in music.

Eric and I wrote, arranged and recorded all the music between the two of us. We also had a lot of the vocal melodies and lyrics in place, but when Nikko joined us, he contributed a lot of new lyrics, melodies and harmonies that helped take the music to a new level.

Oh yeah, we've been writing a ton of new material! We're thinking about doing an EP release in the New Year to follow up the We Are The Hammer album. The new songs are coming fast and furious, and we can't wait to share more songs with our fans. The music is rooted in the same style as WATH, but there are some new interesting directions we're also taking.

Yes, we've just finalized our touring/live lineup, and we'll be issuing a press release in the next few days announcing our drummer and lead guitarist. We've also just started rehearsals, and I couldn't be happier - everything is sounding fantastic. We'll probably work on the show for the next couple of months, and plan to hit the road in the New Year. We'll do some Canadian shows, but we're focusing on getting the band to Europe and the Mediterranean as soon as possible.

Ha! I was wondering when someone would make that connection! Yeah, I do play with the tribute band BC/DC as well. We started almost 10 years ago, planning on just doing a couple of shows for fun. It's now a decade later, and we're still doing it! We definitely don't take it too seriously - just a great way to get out and blast some classic rock, drink too much and make a bit of money! It's a bit of a struggle to manage my time, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Who knows what the future may bring. What I do know, is that we're all musicians that are in this for life. It's who we are and what we do... it's not a part-time hobby.

There's really a lot of great metal bands out there right now. As far as traditional/true metal, I'll suggest a few of our Canadian brothers of metal - 3 INCHES OF BLOOD, STRIKER, and CAULDRON.

You could have asked me what kind of beer we want when SAVAGE BLADE comes to Greece and parties at your house!

Just want to thank you, and the fans of SAVAGE BLADE again for your support. We'll see you all soon enough! Blades UP!!