jericho Archives - MediaMikes

The hard rock/heavy metal band Fozzy released their 6th studio album titled “You Wanna Start a War” this past summer and since that release the band has been out on the road non-stop in support of the release. The group is set to hit the road again and will be kicking of a headlining tour of Europe beginning in March. Media Mikes had a chance to talk with the group’s front man Chris Jericho recently about the group’s latest album, the bands relentless tour schedule and his popular “Talk is Jericho” Podcast.

Adam Lawton: Can you tell us about the bands next tour run?
Chris Jericho: We have quite a few tours lined up at this time but the one that will be kicking off first starts in March. We will be hitting England, Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, Germany and France. We have always done very well in Europe which makes it feel like our second home. We haven’t been there in about 18 months as we have been doing a lot of stuff here in the States since “You Wanna Start a War” came out. It’s really an honor to know that we have such a devoted fan base to be able to tour as much as we do. In this day and age touring is the back bone of the music industry so the more places you can hit the better it is for both the band and its fans. It’s certainly a different vibe when we are overseas but we are used to it and always have a great time.

AL: What type of band line up will the shows feature?
CJ: This will be our headlining tour over there and originally we were looking to do possibly a co-headlining tour and bring along a band with a similar style to that of Halestorm or Avatar. After some thought we decided to just go on our own. We will have a UK band by the name of The Dirty Youth with us but we really felt it was time to start taking bigger steps as a band and it’s looking like a lot of those shows are on pace to sell out. Sometimes you just have to take a chance and put on the big boy pants. That’s what we did and it’s seems to be paying off.

AL: It was announced recently that you will again be part of this year’s Rockville Festival here in the States. Can you tell us about that?
CJ: We are starting to see festivals like this one pop up here in the states that have elements of festivals that have been going on overseas for years now so this is something that is really cool. We played the festival last year and generally they don’t have bands back two years in a row. That’s why you won’t see us at some of the festival shows we did last year. For whatever reason we were invited back this year to Rockville again and we will take because we had a great time last year. Jacksonville is a great rock and roll town so I am sure it will be a great show. We have started talking about putting together a tour in the states with the Rockville show sort of being the corner piece.

AL: With “Do You Wanna Start a War” being out now for several months what has the overall impression of these songs been for you having watched them develop during the creation process to where they are now being performed live on a regular basis?

CJ: That’s always the fun part. The creative process is a lot of fun and very challenging as you want to get it right. I think most artists would say this is the best record we have ever done and you should definitely feel that way each time you make a new record. This is certainly our best record yet but it’s also our most diverse. Taking these songs out on the road and seeing the reaction from fans has just been crazy. We currently do 6 of the 12 songs from the new album live. We are looking to add one more for the European tour. Fans are getting a good helping of the new album so if you come to the show not having heard the album already you might be a bit lost. The songs are very catchy though so it’s not hard to get caught up. All the songs our going over real well and have fit in nicely with our older material which makes each shows set really great. Whether we are headlining or supporting we make sure to pick the ones that get the crowd going. It’s sort of a non-stop barrage of rocking during our shows. There’s not a lot of talking as we let the music take care of that and the shows have a nice flow.

AL: With the band going through a number of lineup changes where do you feel the band camaraderie is at right now being that this line up has been together for two albums now?

CJ: The core line up of the band has been the same since the start with me, Rich Ward and Frank Fontsere. Billy Grey has been with us a few years now and Jeff Rouse we have known for awhile as well. When you spend a lot of time together you sort of whittle away the bad seeds and dead weight over time. It’s very important to have a lineup you get along with. It’s not just the songs you’re playing during that hour long set. It’s the other 23 hours of the day you’re together traveling and what not. When you together for large amounts of time it doesn’t take much for people to get on other peoples nerves. When that stuff starts to happen it can throw an entire tour off. After all these years we have a lineup that is great together both on and off stage. This has never been Chris Jericho’s band. This is a band of 5 legitimate personalities who have worked hard to get to where they are. We want to stick with this line up for as long as we possibly can.

AL: Will you be keeping up with your podcast’s while out on tour?

CJ: Absolutely! I have about 20 or 30 episodes on deck ready to go. I do the outro’s and intro’s weekly and those can be done just about anywhere. A lot of times when I know a tour is coming up I make sure I have all that stuff set to go ahead of time. I love talking with people so to be able to do these shows is really great. Even to talk with people I have worked with for years is really great because very rarely do you get to just sit down and have a longer conversation. It’s a lot of fun and to have the freedom that podcasts have is great also because I really think that’s what draws people to them.

Read Complete Article

Fozzy is the hard rock/heavy metal band fronted by WWE superstar Chris Jericho recently released its 5^th studio album via Century Media records titled “Sin and Bones”. Media Mikes had a chance to talk with Chris recently about the album and his appearance on the popular ABC television show “Dancing with the Stars”.

Adam Lawton: Can you give us some background info on the new album?
Chris Jericho: After the “Chasing the Grail” album we decided that our approach is a little bit different from the norm. We use really heavy riffs combined with melodic hook filled choruses. Maybe if Journey and Metallica had a bastard child it would sound like Fozzy. We really honed in on that with the last record and when it came time to do “Sin and Bones” we knew that was the direction we wanted to go in. We wanted to make this record like our “Black” album. That Metallica album has a certain tone and feel. Even though the songs on that album are all very diverse they still fit together. We put a lot of time in to the sequencing of the record.

AL: What type of creative process does the band take?
CJ: We do things a little bit backwards. I will generally write the lyrics first. From there I will give them to Rich Ward and he will right the music and the melodies based on the lyrics I give him. A lot of times it’s the other way around. Doing things this way on the last three records has worked out really well. A lot of my lyrics are based on song titles. If I see or phrase or something I find interesting I will put a note of that into my phone. When it comes time to write I will look through those notes and sort of work backwards from the title. Maybe we will experiment with the traditional way of song writing on the next record.

AL: Did the band do a lot of pre-production for the record?
CJ: We took our time. We started working on this album back in November. We did a tour of Europe and brought a recording rig along with us. We just started recording ideas and riffs while we were on the road. When it came time to go into the studio we knew we didn’t want to have to rush. The label actually gave us a deadline of May 2012 but we had already been working on the album since November so we had a good start on things.

AL: What do you think has posed a bigger challenge wrestling, playing music or “Dancing with the Stars”?
CJ: They have all posed challenges. When I was a kid I wanted to be in a rock band. I have been playing music since I was 12 and then I started wrestling at 19. I was always being told that I wouldn’t be able to do those things for various reasons. I learned very early on that you have to eliminate negative people from your world and that if you really want to do something you have to make it happen. As a result of that I have never been afraid to try anything. Especially something that is creative. When “Dancing with the Stars” came up the 3^rd time I decided to try it. The first couple times they asked me to be on the show I was busy with “WrestleMania” and the other time I was doing a Fozzy tour. That show was probably the biggest challenge. Music and wrestling I had been doing for a majority of my life. I had never danced before. The first time I danced was in front of 25 million people. There ended up being a lot of similarities between the three. You have to feel the music and be on top of the beat and like in wrestling you have to remember the choreography while being light on your feet. Once I got that first performance under my belt I got addicted to it. When I got eliminated from the show I had withdraws almost. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was glad that I could prove to myself that I was able to do that.

AL: Do you ever find critiques are quick to write the band off due to your wrestling background?
CJ: They have in the past but we just keep coming back. People have been hearing about the band for years but until they really listen to the music do they understand what they have been missing. I think we have had to work a little harder to get past that but in 2010 I started to really notice a shift. People still knew me from wrestling but they started to pay more attention to the band and not what I have been associated with in the past. When I go see Iron Maiden I don’t say “there’s the airline pilot’s band”. Those are two separate things. You just have to prove to people that you are real and passionate. This is part of who I am and it is never going to go away.

AL: What made Fozzy abandon the idea of having alter-ego’s and go in a different direction?
CJ: We were originally signed as a cover band by Megaforce Records. They were really into what we were doing so we decided to come up with alter-ego’s to make what we were doing a little different as just playing covers was a bit boring. After playing together for awhile we realized we liked what we were doing and we had some good chemistry. We decided to take it to the next step and start playing our own tunes. I compare our band a lot to Pantera. There were two version of that band. When they first came out they were a glam-metal band with big hair and makeup. It makes no since that they changed everything about themselves and turned in to the band we all love. Fozzy was pretty similar. There were two versions of the band under one name. Our original name as a cover band was Fozzy Osbourne so we shortened it and now we are on version 2 of the band.

AL: What are the bands plans for the rest of the year?
CJ: After the “Uproar Tour” ends we have a short tour of the states in October and then we head over to Europe. From there we will be heading to Australia as part of the Sound Wave Festival with Metallica. Those dates were all booked prior to the album release so we will be plugging some holes here and there with other dates as well.

Read Complete Article

Tag: jericho

Fozzy’s Chris Jericho talks about latest album “You Wanna Start a War”

WWE Superstar Chris Jericho talks about working with band Fozzy