Adler Chatter With Chris Adler
Gun Shy Assassin is humbled to be able to bring you an ongoing string of quick, casual, off-the-cuff interviews with the very talented Chris Adler, drummer for the one and only Lamb of God. Chris will be checking in with Gun Shy Assassin from time to time with updates on what’s going on in his world, and will occasionally answer some topical and ridiculous questions from me. Without further explanation, here is a Gun Shy Assassin Exclusive: the eleventh installment of Adler Chatter with Chris Adler.
Recently, I had the chance to head down to a recording studio located somewhere in New York City, where I got to watch Chris Adler track drums for a track slated for the forthcoming
Lamb of God record. Adler was working in the studio with Josh Wilbur, the producer who helmed the band’s previous studio offering, 2009’s
Wrath.
As I watched these two masters at work, meticulously fine-tuning what was a crushing track, rife with ripping guitars, I had to ask Chris if he was ever worried about that ever-present criticism bands face in metal when they don’t record an album in their garage: the “overproduced” knock.
Is overproducing ever a concern for a band, when they’ve reached a level of success where, time is no longer an issue?
“There is an inherent struggle in being in a young band or being a young artist and creating raw product without the resources to perfect it,” Adler says. “That battle is what builds the artist and the following. If and when success shines down, all of a sudden the resources become available to take things to the original idea of perfection. It’s easy to take that for granted and too far — relying on those means and support to create for you.”
Adler said that the “product we create is crafted in our homes and in our rehearsal space together. We now have access to the gear and personnel that help us sound and perform our best, but we have never and would refuse to allow that support to create for us. Our battle is to out-do ourselves and our previous work. For every million things we do that a band with no money can’t do, there are 10 million things we don’t do that we could. At the end of the day, we only have to answer to ourselves and we take a lot of pride in our work, how it comes about and how it’s presented. I want to sound good. My idea of cred doesn’t involve a cassette demo recorded on a Satanic boom box in a cave. I get that people identify with the struggle; that is what metal is all about. That’s why we all care as much as we do to be and sound the best we can.”
I thought back to
Lamb of God’s As The Palaces Burn, because the song I was listening to sort of reminded me of that feeling I had when I first started listening to the band, back when
Palaces first dropped.
Regular readers of Gun Shy Assassin know that I have a small obsession with Devin Townsend, who actually produced that album for Lamb of God, which ended up being a breakthrough album for them. It’s a metal record that will stand the test of time and still holds up all these years later.
I had to know whether Adler was keeping up with Devin since that collaboration, and was himself, a fan of Hevy Devy’s music.
“I have always thought and continue to think that Devin is a genius,” Adler said. “I originally suggested him as a producer for Palaces and would love the chance to work with him again. I fell in love with Ocean Machine and since then, he has grown into his genius and put out material far beyond my comprehension.”
More next week, folks.
Chris Adler is the drummer for Grammy-nominated metal band Lamb of God and the author of the book “The Making of Lamb of God’s New American Gospel,” a comprehensive behind-the-scenes narrative book detailing the early days of Lamb of God and the writing and recording of their New American Gospel LP. Anything else you need to know about Chris Adler, you can find at his web site, Chris-Adler.com.
source: http://gunshyassassin.com/adler-chatter-with-chris-adler/gun-shy-assassin-presents-adler-chatter-with-chris-adler-11/
16.20
Fred Morton
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