I N T E R V I E W
(Jeff Westlake) My name is Jeff Westlake on guitars. Here are Jeff Boggs on guitars, Chris Sammons on bass and backing vocals, Josh Kitchen on drums, Julie on vocals. We were joined in 2004, Julie comes from a country band. In Spring 2005 we contacted by Michael Waegener to produce what we call our professional debut release called "Bombshell" and in summer 2005 we recorded and mixed "Bombshell". In spring 2006 "Bombshell" was presented on our website.
The official release in United States was Halloween on October 31st. That's a quick version :-))
(Julie Westlake) Vocally I had no training. Just, I grew up singing but any professional training I haven't.
(JW)Me personally, I never had a lesson, nothing for me, I'm self taught.
(Jeff Boggs)Self taught with some school.
(Josh Kitchen)For me, I had no training.
(Chris Sammons)Self taught.
(JW)We are a melodic metal band. Everything is heavy, that's the music. We attend to have our own sound.
(Julie W) Our lyrics are based on our personal life experiences. The majority of songs on Bombshell have something to do with friendships or past relationships or just life in general.
(Julie W) A lot of people compare me with Doro.
(Jeff W) I don't compare Julie with Doro. I can't see any similarities between the two, I do see a big resemblance with Pat Benatar. Julie and Doro come from 2 different areas, their approach is different.
If I listen to Doro then to Julie, I definitively don't hear the same style of vocal. I would take Julie's voice more from a running Dio type thing, more power melodic driven. Of course she doesn't sound like Dio, but she's in that kind of style.
If I had to compare her tone and her style, I would compare it definitively to Pat Benatar.
(JB) I think it's a resurgance, it's not necessarily a return to the 80s, I think it's more a return to power rock, metal rock.
(Jeff W)I don't want to sound negative but if you actually listen to Bombshell, it's got some flavourings from the 80s but it has very modern sound but as Jeff said, I do think that this kind of music that's coming back will ever be the same as it was, no chance at all. This kind of music is coming back but it will never be as it was.
We see that it's coming back via the resurgance of Dio in the last 10 years, Whitesnake came back from nowhere again, Iron Maiden since their reform, Judas Priest... Also with Koritni and Krokus, people want to come back to great groovy metal music.
(Jeff W) Julie is the sexy lady :-)))
(Julie W) I think that everything that attracts attention is good whether it's positive or negative. People can think we are a crappy band who sucks but not.
Of course we wanted a cover that was eye-catching.
(Jeff W) American metal is crap, that's my own opinion. It's all about who can make the most noise or talk about Satan during an entire album. I love metal that makes sense, I'm a Motorhead fan but at the same time I like things like Nightwish, I like Disturbed, I'm not gonna play a music that'll be popular today but not popular tomorrow.
I play the music that I wanna play. I think that the european metal is stronger because you've still bands like Whitesnake or Saxon who play great music on a consistent basis.
But in America, a band that's being heard on this year won't be heard next year. That's why we've decided to concentrate our promotion on the european market.
I would like to be bigger in my own country but there's no metal scene in America, it doesn't exist ! For example you have bands who sell 10000 records, but it's nothing because we are 3 times the population of Europe in the USA.
(Julie W) We started promoting in USA first. Basically we released Bombshell to the whole world thanks to the Internet.
(Jeff W) In July 2006 Underclass emailed us to propose us a deal for the distribution on the french territory and since there, the dominos started falling everywhere.
(All) We don't know...
(Jeff W) Nothing impressed me this year, we're so busy with the band, we can't listen so much.
(Jeff W)1. Accept : Breaker
2. Black Sabbath : Mob Rules
3. Michael Schenker : The Soul Attack
(Julie W) I can't be so specific, I have no idea. I grew up with country, it's very weird from me because I'm lot like a lot of people who buy a lot of albums all the time. I'm very rarely to go to music stores to buy albums.
(Jeff W)Julie has a total different perspective from the other members of the band. When she's writing a sound, it's totally fresh.
(Julie W) I think the latest CD I bought was Josh Grovan. He's a male singer who has a phenomenal voice.
(Chris) 1. Dio : Live Inferno
2. Kiss : Revenge
3. Aerosmith : Nine Lives
(Josh) 1. Primus : Sailing The Seals Of Cheese
2. Kansas : Power
3. Pantera : Vulgar Display Of Power
(Jeff B) 1. AC/DC : Black In Black
2. Judas Priest : Scream For Vengeance
3. Van Halen : 1
(Julie W) We've recently heard their stuff on Myspace.
(Jeff W) Good band with strong AC/DC influences ! It will be interesting on stage because we're two different kinds of rock.
(Jeff W) What you see is live, what you hear on Bombshell is not live.
(Julie W) It's totally different live, it's much heavier as on the album !
(Jeff W) And we changed also a lot of arrangements live !
(Julie W) Today we have a DVD shot during the "Strip'Em Blind Tour" that we did in the strip clubs in the US. It's a real cool show.
(Julie W) It's available for a pay-per-view online. It'll be released on April, 8th. You can see it right now on our website by paying and downloading it, like streaming.
(Jeff W) Look at the cover :-) !!
(Julie W) It's a good album, you can't ask for a better production. Michael did an excellent job, the music is good. My advice is : Come to see us live, it sounds better and different than the album !
(Jeff W) Music is as good as the cover !
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