Metal Monday: Black Sheep Wall Q&A
posted in: Exclusive Interviews • Rock
Bands break up and bands reform, it’s a pretty normal thing. What isn’t normal, however, is how Black Sheep Wall went about things. BSW put out an album, got loads of buzz, were approached by a reputable label, turned them down, did a one album deal with some other label, then imploded and disappeared off the face of the Earth. The good news for everyone is that they’re back on track and are about to release one heck of an album with the aforementioned reputable label (but I’ll let them fill you in on that). When we caught wind that they were back in full effect we reached out to them to get the skinny on what they’ve been up to since their debut record, and guitarist Scott Turner was happy to provide the details.
OS: You guys did one album with Shels Music back in 2008 [I Am God Songs] and are about to release your second record, now with Season of Mist. How did the transition between labels go?
ST: The transition was just a matter of getting in contact with Season of Mist since they had initially contacted us when I Am God Songs started getting a lot of buzz on the Internet and they wanted to release it, actually. I mean, we were young (I was like seventeen or eighteen), and we were already kind of crumbling at the seams so the idea of a multi-album deal they wanted to give us was kind of daunting, and Shels parlayed our fear”or, not really fear, our reservations”by saying Hey, come with us, we’ll give you a one album deal and we’ll see where we’ll go from there. Shels was kind of a new label at the time so the idea of growing with Shels was cool.
I’m not sure if you know the history of what we’ve been through as a band, but we broke up there for a while and when we got back together the idea was to work with Shels again for No Matter Where It Ends (it didn’t have a title at that point), and after we started writing the album I sent an e-mail over to Michael who runs Season of Mist on a whim and I asked him if he’d be interested. We had a demo in hand, and after that he said he was down. And under no certain terms, he asked us What happened? We tried to sign you guys a while back and you didn’t really follow through with that. So we had to explain our piece and it all worked out in the end, now we’re where we are today.
OS: So what’s your relationship with the Shels guys these days?
ST: [T]hese days the guy who runs it, Medi, is an awesome dude and we still talk. Just recently we had that whole thingamajig where we put up the whole album (I Am God Songs) for free and he was totally on board for that, as we always talkabout maybe doing something in the future, like maybe a 7 or a split with another band through Shels, even collaborating on some music. I know Medi and his band Shels (on the same label of the same name), they’re doing a tour of Russia this summer and when they get back me and Medi have been talking a lot about doing a project.
OS: No Matter Where It Ends is just as heavy as I Am God Songs, but it’s still a bit different. Can you give me a bit of insight into what went into writing and recording this record?
ST: It was recorded at the same place, actually ([with] Dave at Lovejuice Labs). The writing process for anything we do, really, I come up with a song in my head, like even on my way to practice I’ll come up with a riff in my head and think Yeah, that’s the riff I want to be able to play and I’ll hash it out. Me and Jackson, the drummer in Black Sheep Wall, we’re practically the creative forces behind everything”with that too, we also probably butt heads about creative stuff more than anyone else.
We started writing the album over a year ago, the first song we put out, Luminality, was actually written about a year and a half ago and that was the demo song that we gave to Season of Mist when we got back in contact with them about putting out the album and it all just sort of came together. It has to be a natural, organic thing for me. I can’t just sit down and say I say I wanna shell this out and write a song. I’ll just be sitting around in my room riffing on a guitar or something, find something cool and just see where I can take it. I never really try to just hash out riffs because they always seem to trite and never really come out the way I want them to. That’s basically what was behind the stuff on No Matter Where It Ends. Some of those songs came from when we were practicing and everyone would turn their amps on and be feedbacking and getting ready to play the next song and Brandon would be like Oh, that’s cool, we should use that and we’ll work on it.
OS: Did it change much from the old iteration of the band to after reforming?
ST: No, not really, since me and Jackson have always been the ones who have done the songwriting. Any time I’ve played in another band, and I think some people realize that we have somewhat of a collective of bands going on, and anytime it’s me and Jackson in the band, we’re the driving forces behind that.
OS: Press for No Matter Where It Ends has been really positive so far, how does it feel to be back in the saddle with Black Sheep Wall?
ST: It feels cool. I don’t think anyone would complain about writing and putting out music that’s being recognized on the level it is for us. At its core, it’s really about satisfying ourselves and I’m glad that I can put out something that I believe in that other people also like.
OS: On a similar note, are you planning on releasing No Matter Where It Ends, or even I Am God Songs, on vinyl at any point?
ST: That would be awesome. That’s not really up to me, though. [laughs] I wish all our music was available on vinyl. Really, if I had a choice, vinyl would be the primary medium to listen to the music on, then maybe in the packaging it would include a CD or something, but that wouldn’t sell.
OS: I suppose it should be somewhat obvious that you guys would be into doing a Hum cover, but how did it come about that you recorded it for the Casa De Diversion covers compilation?
ST: Well, Hum has been one of my favorite bands ever since I was younger. I grew up with Hum. It’s funny because Hum was a band that I just bought an album on a whim, it was You’d Prefer An Astronaut, when I was really little. I must have been nine or ten. I just saw it at a record store, when there used to be an abundance of record stores, right down the street from my house (which I can’t even fathom at this point) and I went there and I saw the cover and thought Oh, this looks pretty cool and bought it. Little Dipper, the first song on the album, that was a profound moment in music for me, that was it; I love that song. That song in particular holds a special place in my heart. It’s really easy to play, too. [laughs] When I saw that Toxicbreed’s Funhouse was doing the cover albums, I talked to Wayne, who I’d talked to in the past (we both love pro wrestling so we talk about that a lot) and when I saw that he was having some trouble with bands dropping off that compilation I asked if Black Sheep Wall could hop on it, and the next thing you know we were recording it. The drums on the track are fake, I programmed those things”I don’t know if you could tell. We recorded all the guitars and vocals in my closet.
OS: What about upcoming tour plans? Anything developing there?
ST: Yeah, actually, we’re in the midst of booking our first full US tour this summer. It’s looking like it’s going to be thirty days and about twenty-eight shows, and I think we might get to hop over the border to Canada for a show or two, which would be super awesome. A handful of those dates we’re doing with A Life Once Lost. I’m not sure what they’ve been up to lately, but I think it’s going to be a big coming out party for both of us. The whole idea from the tour came from their vocalist, Robert Meadows. He got in contact with us and he was stoked on the band, and he initially asked us to do some dates in March that didn’t pan out, so when we were booking this upcoming tour we got in touch with him and I think we’re doing about ten days with them on the east coast in late June or early July.
If you’re interested in preordering the album, you can do so from the Season of Mist e-shop. Be sure to keep an eye out for new regarding this summer’s tour dates as Black Sheep Wall are guaranteed to put on a show well worth the handful of dollars you’ll fork over to see them. Check out one of the new tunes, as well as a couple old ones, in the player below!