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Interview with Sean Peck - Cage
Science of Annihilation is my favorite album of the year so far so I decided to send off some questions for lead singer Sean Peck.
Hello Sean, First, congratulations on another fantastic album!
Thanks man! we are already working on the follow up now ha! We are on a roll and want the rise of true metal to be complete!
It seems to me that you have turned everything up since Hell Destroyer in terms of intensity, speed and power. My first thought was "Wow, there is a Bohemian Grove-like intensity all the way through this album". Was it a conscious decision right from the start to go all-out or did it just happen when you were writing and recording the songs?
Yes kind of. We knew with Norm on the drums that we could experiment with a new level of speed and some thrash beats and incorporate that into the CAGE sound. You still have to have good songs and that is the key. We plan on turning up the intensity again as we move forward but it is cool to hear people are jamming to this added speed and power.
How are you going to pull off these songs live? Or maybe a better question is; How has the first leg of your European tour gone and how did you pull off the new songs live?
The new songs are definitely more challenging but my voice held up great! This tour we just completed was by far the most I have ever sung at one stretch. Our management told us to back of the set list and put some easier songs in there. They looked at our set and tour schedule and called it a suicide mission! But we stepped it up and if you talk with anyone who came to the shows they will tell you that it was killer! I think the guy from ROCK HARD gave us an 11 out of 10 for the show! This was the first album that we really did not test the songs out live before we recorded so there was a little question as to the results but all the new ones went over huge! We had to live up to our AMERICAN POWER METAL KINGS label but I think after this tour run no one who witnessed it will cast doubt onto the title.
How do you keep your voice in shape? Both when you're touring and not.
Like I said that was the most I had ever sang so I was really happy that I had all my vocal weapons at my disposal throughout all the shows. Even when I could not hear myself sing at all on some bad sound systems. I don't complain I just try to give the fans a show they will never forget. The comments and praise the band and myself as a singer got at every show were so over the top, if I quoted them here people reading this would probably think I made them up. I just took some advice from my friend Juan Garcia from AGENT STEEL and got out of my wet shirt and did not talk much after the show. It really worked so I have to thank him for the advice. I am really proud of the band as a whole they did a great job and our live show is in top form right now complete with all our rock out Scorpions/Priest moves. The crowd loves that shit!
The album is produced by you and Dave Garcia. How was that experience? And are you planning to do this for future albums as well?
Yes of course. We learned a lot doing this one and got lots of advice from some local san Diego producers as well as Roy Z who helped us out a lot too. Doing it at our own studio will allow us to make music much quicker and cost effectively allowing us to tour more and get close to the fans.
In my review I comment on the album being mastered too loud, resulting a lot of noise in the most intense sections. Do you agree? And how did it end up like this?
I can hear that sometimes but the cd itself sounds much better than the mp3s so I don't know which one you are listening to. Must people won't notice it I believe and many reviewers say it is our best sounding release yet so I don't know ha!
I know this may be a long one but I'm interested if you can tell something about the ideas or stories behind each song on Science of Annihilation, both musically and lyrically? If not all then at least Die Glocke, Operation Overlord, Black River Falls and Scarlet Witch which are personal favorites.
Planet Crusher and Spirit of Vengeance are both based on marvel comic book characters, operation Overlord is about D Day, Power of a God is a story of creation, Spped Kills is a cliché fictional metal desolate future story.
Die Glocke is an interesting account of the nazi super weapon program where they built a device that was reported to be able to nullify gravity and disentigrate matter as well. A lot of research went into that song and it is the source of the Nazi UFO stories as well.
Scarlet Witch is the name of a comic book character but I made it into a forbidden love/sex song with a witch. That was a fun one to write and it goes over great live.
Black river Falls is another one that lots of research went into. It is a real place and the events are based on a famous book called Wisconsin Death Trip. I took some real events and forged it into a King Diamond like horror story. That is another great live song that people really liked.
The Science trilogy was the last song we wrote and really tied the cosmic vibe of the cd together. It is the story of a guy who dies in battle in ancient Rome and becomes a Demi-God of war. He over sees all of mans conflicts throughout the ages and manipulates them like pawns from high atop the Earth. He grows tired after ages of this and uses his powers to project himself to the end of time where he finally meets God who asks him to decide if existence should end. He then answers Yes and the cd ends with the universe collapsing in on itself and that is it. we destroyed the universe on this cd where as last cd we destroyed the Earth. What next??
Do you have a favorite moment on the album?
That is a tough one and a good question. I really like the prechorus on Stranger in Black. I like the Devourer of Worlds screams at the end of Planet crusher. I like the middle of Black river Falls after the falsetto stuff. There are a lot of magical moments on this one so that is cool.
How the hell did you come up with the completely genius vocal lines for Die Glocke? I'm specifically talking about the first two lines of each verse. How long did it take to get those vocals right?
They came pretty easy. We rewrote the verse on that song. The original one sounded too much like Painkiller so we scrapped it. I had lyrics of a different sort written and it was just not good enough. If it is not stellar we detonate the song and fix it. This is a good example as it happened with Christhammer on the last cd. Dave came up with a new verse part and I jumped right into that melody line. So I am glad you like it. Singing it in the studio was pretty easy I think I did those in one take. We may bring that one out on our second strike tour we are working on.
How many vocal teachers did you scare away to get to where you are today?
I had a vocal teacher for 1 day that was it. She was a great teacher yes? Ha! She was named Sabine and was in Hollywood. She was a famous metal screamer teacher that many metal people went to. I just basically taught myself and started by copying everyone until I developed my own distinctive style and sound. I like to take a different approach to each song to keep it interesting. I am at my best right now I think. I have continued to improve and push the limits of the human voice. Now my touring confidence is up as I have finaly been tested and passed. Many people say I sound better live so that is cool.
Can you tell about the first time you heard the finished version of Science of Annihilation? Did the album go though several incarnations and did you have any songs that didn't fit on the album for any reason?
No everything is there. We have leftover riffs and such but all the complete songs are there. We don't write 20 songs and pick the best 10. We write 10-13 great songs and if they are not up to par we make them better until they are deemed worthy. On the last album Abomination was the one track I was sketchy on but people liked it so it barely made it on. Die Glocke was the one I was worried about on this album and see it was one of your favorites!
The Cage website mentions a US remix of Science of Annihilation. What's the deal with that?
That is not happening as of now we are releasing the same cd that you have here in the states. We may tweak with it later just for kicks but for now it will stay the same.
I seem to remember that you were once in negotiations with Joey DeMaio and Magic Circle Music about switching to their label. Can you tell anything about this and why it fell through?
I don't want to bring the wrath of the Kings of Metal down upon our meager meaningless little band. We had to bow before the great Joey Demaio lest feel his mighty respite. Translation. I can't say.
Now to the future...
What can you tell us about the two upcoming Cage DVD's?
The first one is from a big show in Mexico we did which has mostly HELL DESTROYER era stuff on it. It has some cool backstage stuff and even a Cribs section showing where we live and stuff. I think there will be like 16 songs on it from various shows and includes a full pro shot concert. The second one is the early years and should be fun. A bunch of old stuff up to the Astrology concerts.
Can you say anything about "Metal Ultimates" or is it too soon to tell?
Well that has recently changed. That was going to be the next cd but that has been put aside. We are still doing it but first there will be another CAGE album. Metal Ultimates will be an over the top power metal scream fest that will include the top screamers in the world all wailing at full power to CAGE like songs. Then there will be a tour with myself and 2-3 other singers al onstage at the same time delivering what no one has ever seen before!
Sean, thanks for the interview and thank you for keeping Heavy Metal alive and moving forward. If you have anything you wish to say which I didn't ask then you're free to go nuts on the keyboard below... or not :)
Just thanks and please everyone stop by and say hi to us at www.cageheavymetal.com and www.myspace.com/cageheavymetal
HAILS
Sean
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Written by Steen - 6/8/2009 |
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