An Interview With Armored Saint

We’ve been friends for a very long time, we went to school together. When we were in high school we used to jam together, and when the guys founded the band they tried to get me to join for a long time, but because I was in another band I didn’t leave. Eventually I did leave and join the band, that was in 1982.

In terms of influences, there’s typical hard rock that was popular in the mid 70s such as Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, UFO, Queen, Ted Nugent, Kiss, Aerosmith, and then around the late 70s we got into the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Bands like Saxon, early Def Leppard, Motorhead. So, we were influenced by both American and British bands, as well as RNB, bands like Sly Stone, Earth, Wind and Fire as well as Pop and bands like Pink Floyd.

So, we weren’t impacted by the pandemic, indeed we finished recording the album and mixing it before LA was put into lockdown.

The writing and recording process was similar to the last few albums. I’ve got a sort of laundry list of what I want done when I enter the studio and I work to that.  Usually, what happens is that I record a demo in Pro Tools, I’ll record the guitar parts, the bass, and use programmed drums to get things going. I’ll show it to the guys and then we’ll work from there. Sometimes I’ll play the part on the actual recording as well, rather than have to show the guys what to do again.  In terms of the recording this time, one thing that was different was that John (our singer) recorded his vocals at my home studio.  He’d come around after dropping the kids at school and record his vocals, and some of the demo takes were so good we decided to keep them and use them on the actual record.

In terms of songs, well, there’s a lot of variety on this record. I quite like the songs that are outside the box for us. Songs like “Bubble,” “Lone Wolf,” “Fly In The Ointment,” and “Unfair,” and obviously the more hard rock songs as well. It’s good to do something different and challenging.