Hi Mark! First of all I want to say that it’s a real honor to have you on Grande Rock to talk about the new album “Free Spirit Soar”!
M: My pleasure. Thank you very much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Was it your decision to revive Warlord and record a new album almost 3 years after Tsamis’ death?
M: It was a combination. I’ve been talking to Giles all the time. And we were talking about various things. I said, you know, I have a bunch of stuff that Bill and I were working on. Then Giles sent me a couple of emails and text from Bill that I hadn’t seen or hadn’t really known about because it was between those two, not me. And Bill talked about how he wanted his music to continue. He said right in the email to Giles, “Hey, if you know for some reason, you know, you guys need to keep this going because if you don’t, it’s just gonna die”. And he goes, “I don’t want that”. I remember Bill telling me several times “hey, let’s play. Let’s go out and play. You know, we have shows, let’s record a record”… but he was just too sick to do it.
I remember back in early 2000, when we were doing “Rising Out of the Ashes”, in New York. When Bill came to New York to record was very ill and he had a big big container of medication they had to take for a stomach in the gastro. So, he told me several times when I kept bugging. “I’m like, oh, hey, man, let’s go and play”. And he would say, “hey, I can’t make it because I don’t feel good, but you can just go get any guitar player and because it’s not complicated and just go spread the word”. He told me several times. I just didn’t want to do that while he was alive. I just didn’t think that would be right. So, we just didn’t play. For that period a time and he just wasn’t able to make it, so when everything kind of came together and I talked about it and, also you have some separation of the time that he actually did pass. Because your feelings and emotions change and you see things a little clear and it was definitely something that I thought would be a great idea to do. And to get his remaining music out there.
Yes, I’m sure you were aware that there would be some complaints and speculation about this decision, especially from die-hard fans of the band.
M: Well, here’s the deal! I really don’t care what anybody else says. I appreciate the fans and I know without the fans I would just be sitting here in my studio playing by myself. I get that. Totally appreciate the fans, but when I play the drums and I play Warlord, I’m playing for Bill and myself. It feels good to me and I like it. I hope everybody else likes it. But we’ve never been a band that was like, oh, you know, they want us to do this or they don’t want this. They want the heavy fast songs. They don’t want the more cinematics and so on. But make no mistake about it. Without the fans, we’re just 2 guys jamming in a warehouse. So, we love the fans and we appreciate the fans and we know without the fans you and I wouldn’t be talking right now. Hopefully we’re giving the fans what they want, what they like and something that they can really appreciate. I wasn’t really worried about what other people were saying because I was more concerned about turning out a quality product that Bill would be proud of. And just doing Warlord the way Warlord should be done!
Personally, I find it a bit annoying that some fans say you only do it for the money.
M: Hold on a second. I have a delivery. They’re bringing in the new Ferrari that I just bought from the Warlord royalties! Everybody hold on, I gotta get the Ferrari out! Anybody in this business knows there is no money. If we didn’t all have our own home recording studios, this would never happen. There’s not enough money. Even go into like a real studio and record. Does it bother me? Well… yes and no. I really don’t care what other people think, but at the same time, it just amazes me sometimes how people have the nerve to say things, but it’s really easy behind the keyboard. You know, it’s really easy to say behind the keyboard, and it’s a different story when you’re standing in front of somebody. It kind of does especially when they make stuff up. I’m not a big fan of making it up… I’ve always been that guy who just said it straight and it is what it is. I said it many times you can call me an @ss, but you can’t call me a liar. So I just kinda tell you the way it is. Everybody’s got their opinion and that’s great. If you’re not into it, it’s great. Okay. Don’t buy the record, don’t come to the shows.
I guess to answer your question took me a while there. I get annoyed when people think like taken on a crusade that their whole goal in life is to convince people that it sucks. That their whole idea is they think there’s some authority. That they have to go and spend their time and energy being negative on something like that. If you’re not into it, don’t listen to it, don’t buy it. It’s that simple.
Yeah, I get it. It’s the age of social media, but at the end of the day, as you said, unfortunately, Warlord wasn’t a top-selling band.
M: Yeah, it’s funny because we’re going out and we’re gonna play a lot of live shows. And everything’s going great and every time I talk to a festival or promoter I kind of joke and say well you know the good news is you can’t say that we over saturated a market. You can’t say that Warlord did 75 world tours and we can’t go back to Brazil because we played there too many times. This is like a brand new band. I don’t think we played 8 to 10 shows in 40+ odd years.
So, the whole live aspect is wide open. You know, and we’re going to go out and play the songs, note for note. We’re gonna give people exactly what they want and what they’ve heard. We’re not gonna jam. We’re not gonna have extended solos. It’ll be Bill. But just played by somebody else who’s very qualified to do it. We wanted to see like Warlord’s always been about the music. It was never about Bill. It was never about me. It was never about, the singer… it was about the music as a whole. And that the good thing about that is we can go out and deliver that music. As compared if they have, if you have a band and it’s all built on this really flashy guitar player. And that’s all anybody cares about. And then when he leaves the band or passes away, you’re kind of like, okay, now what do we do? But Warlord is about the music. So, we’re going to go out there and play the 17 classics and have a great time and hopefully, the audience will, as well.
Great to hear that. Hence, did you put this line-up together and what were the criteria for choosing each of the musicians?
M: I kind of let not that I learned a lesson over the last few years, but being involved in another band or 2 trying to learn the lesson that at this point in the game. If you really want to do something the right way, you have to get people that you kind of know. You have to get people who are really professionals. And people that are going to tell you what it is, it’s like, hey man, I can’t make that gig. Instead of waiting until 20 min before the gigs supposed to start and then they tell you. It’s just about professional and mature players. So that kind of stuck in my mind. Obviously Philip always plays when, you know, I always say when Mark’s playing Philip’s playing. So, the bass player position was not a problem. Keyboard player Jimmy Waldo who I’ve worked on in Graham Bonnet band and also A through Z, turned into a really, really good friend of mine, great player, completely professional. I couldn’t ask for anything more. Giles is singing. Sang on “The Holy Empire”, the one song “Kill Zone”. He did the live and he was a very, very, very, very, very close friend of Bill’s. Giles used to go to Florida all the time and hang out with Bill for weeks on end. They were a lot closer to be honest. You with you then Bill and I were. As far as, you know, on a personal side of things. So, that was no question on who was gonna sing. Plus, you have to find guys that are totally into Warlord. I wasn’t just looking for a singer that was looking for a gig and would come in and kind of. Do it his way. We’re not doing anything his way. This is all the Warlord way. And Giles got that. Jimmy Waldo got that too and he went out and studied the keyboard sounds and got those exact same sounds to use. When it came to guitar players, we just, we talked to a million different people and had a lot of people ask about it and we did kind of like audition things like hey here’s the song without the guitar play what, play, play it, record it. And Eric is the one that just came up that had it down to the teeth. You know, air jersey. He studied Bill, he knew all about it. He kind of got inside Bill’s head. As far as how the music goes and where what he would think would be happening next musically wise and then also his sound. He very much knew his sound. Bill’s sound is a very 1980s guitar sound. We didn’t want to change that. We wanted to keep that exactly the same. And that’s part of what the Warlord sound is. We don’t want to come out, you know, Warlord sounding 2024. Hey, let’s have some sample drums and that kind of stuff. We’re trying to keep it very true. To what it was and with those players that I just mentioned. They were all on board with that and they all understood that that’s what had to be done.
Next, I’d like to ask you a question that many of your fans often ask. Why didn’t Mark release this album under a different name?
M: Because it’s Warlord! Is that clear? Let me ask you a question. If I released it under something else, would it make a difference? Would it make it better sounding? Would it make it worse sounding? People kind of seem to sometimes forget that I was part of Warlord as well. People don’t know the inner workings. But let’s just leave it as it is. Bill wrote the music and I did everything else. Okay. They don’t understand. I was there and the beginning. It was Bill and I in a warehouse in San Jose. Bill in his KISS boots, it’s about 6 foot 7 and his KISS boots. Just him and I jamming on “Winds of Thor”, “Battle of a Living Dead”, you know, we played way too fast and you know we were very young and energetic but we were playing all those songs and doing all this stuff. So I’d been there from day one. I’d gone through the whole thing of when the band dissolved I did the whole thing of putting it back together for “Rising Out of the Ashes”.
It never even crossed my mind because it’s Warlord. It’s Bill’s guitar parts. Why would I change the name of the band? I think it would be a disservice to Bill. I know for a fact. Bill would look at me and go, what the hell are you doing? You know, if you’re gonna change the name of the band, both play reggae, but if you’re gonna make a Warlord, make a Warlord. So all the songs are written by Bill. Who else has compiled the songs? We had a lot of arrangements being done. I mean, I have stuff in my computer back in 19 or 2017.
You know, “Conquers” and the “Alarm” and other songs that we were working on but Bill just physically wasn’t in a position to get it to the album stage. So we’ve been working on stuff. There were a few other demos that were floating around that we’ve done over the years. We had to put a lot of stuff together. There is a lot of Bill’s, actual guitar parts on that record that we took off that I had here in the computer, but there was arrangements needed to be done because a lot of the stuff or some of the stuff weren’t really complete songs or kind of just repetitious ideas. So we had to put some stuff together. Certain songs already had lyrics. But other songs didn’t and this is where Giles had to come in and write the lyrics and the melody lines for that. So again, he was the perfect choice knowing that he was gonna keep it in the Warlord vein and the Warlord style. I think when you listen to the new record everybody can say, oh, it’s not Bill, whatever, whatever, but it’s in the Warlord style and it is Bill. People also have to remember that we didn’t kick the guy out of the band and then we continued. He passed away. And, it’s documented that he wanted us to continue… and that’s what we’re doing.
I can definitely hear Bill’s guitar parts on the album. Nobody in the world can play like Bill!
M: Oh yeah, absolutely. Now that’s when you were asking me earlier, “does it bother you when people say things” just to show how stupid it is? Here’s a song. It’s Bill’s guitar parts. It’s something Bill and I worked on 6 or 7 years ago. It’s Bill’s guitar part. It’s Bill’s lyrics.
It’s Bill’s everything. Oh, that doesn’t sound like Warlord. What do you mean? It’s Bill. It’s me and Bill play Warlord, but everybody has to have something to say. They have to say something because they know better.
Why did you never release another album after “The Holy Empire” in 2013?
M: Well, it’s interesting because after “The Holy Empire”, we played we played some shows. And then again, it really comes back, Bill was sick. I would talk to him and he could barely talk, he was in so much pain and what happened was we did the show, I forgot what year it was, but it was the Chania Festival in Crete. We were happy that he could just make it to the stage. He was really physically bad. After that we had a great talk about… “Hey, why don’t we do this”? Let’s go back and let’s go back. Instead of like “The Holy Empire” and the kind of long cinematic songs, let’s do an album like “Deliver Us”, with 3 – 4 min songs. You know, early eighties metal, not big symphonic keyboards and I mean, we always use the keyboards, but let’s not get into the movie soundtrack stuff. And we talked about that and he thought it was a good idea but he just couldn’t play. He wasn’t physically able to do it. That’s the reason. That’s the whole reason. From “Rising Out of the Ashes” onward things weren’t moving the way we wanted to move. He physically couldn’t do it and we weren’t gonna do it without him if he was alive.
What were the most difficult challenges in order to complete the new album?
M: There really wasn’t any, you know, when you work with professionals. It was amazing… it got done very quickly and very efficiently. You deal with professional high quality people and it gets done and kind of that’s it, if you know, High Roller Records. A great label. They took care of the album cover. So that’s something we didn’t have to deal with, which is always good because that’s always kind of like OK, what do you think? I don’t know. What do you think? You know, that doesn’t look good. That looks good and so on. But they did a great job. They kept it in the theme of “Deliver Us”. And it’s a perfect album cover for the record.
There really wasn’t any, you know, the, the, That I guess the most difficult part is just hearing the negative comments, but you can just kinda dust those off and not worry about it so much. The label was totally into it, which was really a good thing when you have your label that’s into it. We just went to work. We were just knocking the songs out. And it’s amazing, you know; I’m here in Los Angeles basically. Philip was on tour, but he’s in Arizona. Jimmy Waldo is in Chicago. Giles is in Germany. Eric’s in Germany. But it all got done because everybody is pro. The thing that everybody does because they’re in different places and we use the internet to make album and stuff like that, works only when you have great professional mature people that know what they’re doing. It can be a complete nightmare and I’ve been involved in a few of them. A complete nightmare when you’re not because you don’t really have control over the other people. And people can disappear for 3 weeks and you don’t know what happened, you’re waiting for something. So, it’s a double edged sword, but this album was easy. Really easy.
Since you mentioned the cover of the album… Was it intentionally made to look like something reminiscent of “Deliver Us”?
M: Yes, like I said, High Roller handled it, which I’m really, really grateful for that we didn’t have to handle it and not from it’s just this those are hard decisions. Like your album cover, you know, that’s why a lot of times I just leave it to the professionals. For instance the A through Z stuff, I leave it to Hugh Syme, cause he’s great. Just do what you’re gonna do and we’ll tweak it a little bit. I’ve always had the philosophy of finding the best people that you can find and letting them do what they do and not tell them, okay, don’t play this, play that, sing this, don’t sing that and so on. So, I’m glad they took care of it. I think it’s awesome. I think it fits perfectly with it with everything it’s great packaging, I can’t say enough.
Coming back to the songs, when and why did you decide to include two of the Lordian Guard songs on the new album? How do the two re-recorded Lordian Guard songs, “Behold a Pale Horse” and “Revelation XIX”, fit into the new album, and what are the differences and similarities between the original and the new versions?
M: Well, it’s kinda interesting that people don’t understand because they weren’t there, but Bill had a tendency over the years over 40 or 50 years or whatever it was to jam together. Some of these songs were Warlord songs originally. When the band was no longer together he did his Lordian Guard songs with Vidonne, and a drum machine. But here’s other things that. He started as Lordian Guard that kind of made their way back into Warlord. I think the big difference obviously is the drums. I mean, yeah, it’s a drum machine, you know, it’s like, okay, it’s a drum machine, a lot of double bass going on there. Also when you get away from that drum machine, it does give the ability of the song to breathe more. There’s a kind of a push and pull and that’s what Warlord always had. As much as we might have been recording to a click track, all the music had a certain haunting feel to it where you can’t get that with the drum machine you just can’t! You’re taking away the human feel. And Warlord is such a human feel band that you’re missing that. So, I would say that’s probably one of the main differences and then even though it seems like a small thing of just the drum machine, it makes everybody else play a little differently to the songs. Real drummer, not just a precise, you know, click. So, I think it gives it more air, it gives a more life. It gives a more feeling it makes it come to life a little bit more. I always thought things with drum machine sounded very stale.
Can you tell us a few things about the sound and the lyrics…
M: The album definitely captures the Warlord sound. Okay. Then again when Giles is singing and writing the lyrics and the melody lines, it’s not gonna be exactly like Bill. But I think they’re really, really good. I think they’re great. I think it fits the song. I mean, all the guys involved we’re very critical of the whole album as far as like, oh no, no, no, that doesn’t sound good or that’s going on way too long. We don’t need 64 bars of a league, okay? We need to shorten it up. I think it’s just a Warlord album. I think the mix is really really good and it represents Warlord without getting too modern. Also, I think it has the power and the spirit of Bill. That’s all I can say.
Where did the recordings take place and who was responsible for mixing, producing and mastering the album?
M: Riccardo Demarosi (David Reece). He did a great job. Actually, he did a phenomenal job! Again, you deal with professionals and anybody who’s done this file sharing thing through the internet knows if you have all professionals It’s really easy because everybody’s sending exactly what they need. The guy takes it, he loads it up. Everything’s great. So, it was pretty easy for Riccardo to do the mixing and for Patrick W. Engel (Amon Amarth, Armored Saint, Cloven Hoof, Destruction) to do the mastering and they both did a great job. But again, you go back to when you’re dealing with professionals. It’s just like I said, the whole recording process was easy, even the mix. You know, it was easy. There was nothing like, wait a minute. Where’s the other guitar partner? Why is this sound of sink? It’s like everybody was professional. And he did a great job. Ricardo absolutely did a great job… and we’re not the easiest people in the world to please!
How did the collaboration with High Roller Records come about?
M: Well, High Roller came to us years ago to do all the reissues. And they did all the reissues of “Deliver Us” and “And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun…” and a million other warlord things. That’s been the home for Warlord for I’m not even sure how many years. I mean they’ve just been great. I’m pretty sure the owner is a really big fan, which always helps. And he’s just always been there for us. Just a great label and this is I think one of the few ventures. But this is one of their first branching outs of doing a record like a new record. So, I guess, this is the perfect record form considering that the big Warlord fans. They have a lot of the back catalog that we have on all the reissues. They do amazing reissues where you know you oh even, I was impressed you open it up and there’s a poster and there’s a bat and there’s these inside stories and there’s they really do like a really nice package. It’s not like oh here’s the CD, that’s it, kind of thing, which a lot of people do today.
So, where do you see Warlord going after this? Have you thought about the future?
M: The next step is we’re gonna go out and play live. We have a lot of festivals booked going to Japan, Europe, and hopefully things will continue. I just want people to come out, close their eyes and listen to the music and tell me if it’s not Warlord. It’s gonna be great, like I said note for note, there’s no jamming. It’s not like, okay, Eric, you can do your thing.
We’re not doing his thing. You know what I mean? I’m playing note for note. The way I recorded them 40 years ago. We’re giving the people what they want. If I go to a Warlord show and I’m not in the band, I don’t want to hear like new ideas on how “Child of the Damned” should sound. I don’t wanna hear anybody’s interpretation of what it should sound like. I want to hear what it sounds like on the record and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
What your fans should expect from your live shows?
M: I’m okay with everybody having their own opinion. But this is really made for the people that love the band want to hear the band understand that things in life happen. I could understand how people might be upset if we came out and we play, and it didn’t sound like war learned at all. You know, it sounded like some bad cover band trying to play Warlord. I would understand that, okay, but that’s not what this is. And then, as we all grow older, this happens to probably 95% of the bands that are out there. Things happen… people pass away, or bands break up or whatever the case may be. Does that mean the music should just die? Especially when you got Bill. You know, with emails and texts and phone calls saying, keep it going, whatever you do, just keep the music going. That was with always the interesting thing about Bill is as much as a genius musically as he was. He was also that guy that was like a band guy. He understood. That it was about the music. It wasn’t just about him. He never wanted the spotlight. You know, we’re on a Warlord record, do you hear, ever see anything like, oh, look at me, I’m a guitar player. Yeah, he never did. It was all about the music and creating that and that’s what his vision was. So, we’re just keeping it alive.
Do you plan to record and release another album at some point?
M: You never know. I’m not gonna say “yes”. I’m not gonna say “no”. We have to see how it goes. I mean, if everybody hates the band, well, it make it very difficult to do another record, wouldn’t it? Yeah, there’s no point doing a record at that point. We’ll see. You know, it’s kind of wide open. I can’t commit one way or another. We just don’t know where things are going to go. There is no hurry, we have a new record out, so we don’t have in mind to put together another record quickly. That’s not a problem. Let’s just see how it goes, but no, we’re totally open to everything. We’re definitely open to anything and everything.
How did you come up with the name Warlord?
M: That was all Bill. When I met him for the very first time, he already had the name, he had the concept, he had the whole Destroyer Thunder Child, Damien King names in his head. He had like ideas of writing a song for each member of the band. And then he saw a movie kinda like playing out. He had all kinds of ideas. Yeah, he was way ahead of his time.
And how did you feel when you saw him being so tactical and having so many ideas?
M: I was happy to be there. I’m just, grateful. That it was the right time in the right place for him and I. And if it didn’t become gigantic, it’s kinda out of my hands. We did everything that we could. You know, this happens to a lot of bands.
Why do you think Warlord never became a top-selling band?
M: For 2 reasons. It’s really, really simple. I’ll tell you a really quick story. There’s a gentleman named Michael Browning, the AC/DC band manager. We went to his house in the Hollywood Hills. Just like in the movies, Bill and I. After “Deliver Us” was done. He puts it on, listens to one side, doesn’t say a word, flips it over, listens to the other side. And he takes it off and kind of sitting there going, oh boy, okay, what’s he gonna say? He looks at us and he goes, “You know you have a platinum selling record here, don’t you?”! And me and Bill are like going, oh wow, we’re getting all giddy and stuff like that and goes. But nothing’s ever going to happen because you’re on a really small label that’s not going to be able to do anything for you. The bottom line is you have to remember what there’s no social media. Okay. God bless Brian Slagel and everything that he’s ever done for Warlord, Fate’s Warning and every other band like A – Z that I’ve ever been in. Great guy, great label, great everything. Not a negative thing to say, completely professional. Couldn’t ask anything more. It’s a time and a place. It’s 1982. He’s just starting out. He’s still working at a frickin record store. Okay, he’s doing the best he can. As compared to bands that got hooked on to major labels where they could go out and tours that the music would get played on the radio that they would be able to do videos. Okay, we’re just on a small label. You also have to remember that you’re talking Ratt, Motley Crue, Cinderella, Poison and those kind of bands and Warlord wasn’t that kind of band. Warlord was Rainbow, Black Sabbath, whatever… we were different. So, we weren’t really the darling of all these different record labels that were looking for that kind of band. Another problem was the singer problem. We couldn’t go out and play. We could have played and believe me; we played many nights in our rehearsal studio to 15 – 25 people on the floor whether it was Invey or Robin Crosby or whoever else was coming by it was kind of a little bit of a hangout there and we crank up the songs. Singer caused a big problem, needless to say, you don’t have the singer, what are you going to be able to do? So those are the 2 things… it was the timing. Brian Slagel treated us extremely well for the position that he was in. He wasn’t a major label. I mean, we were happy just to be making records, would it have been nice to be on a major label? Of course. Wouldn’t it been nice to have the backing and someone that came in and said, okay, this is what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna do this and do that to help with the success with the band. It seems like the band now is more popular than it ever has been. And that’s just because of kind of a word of mouth. It’s not like we toured. It’s not like we’d be popping out records. It’s just that the legacy kind of continued and now we’re at a spot where we’re in a position to, okay, let’s really push this through. We’ve got a good label. Is it a major label? No. But with social media and everything else that’s out there, we can get this thing rolling and that’s what we plan to do.
It’s great that you have some of the most loyal fans, right?
M: Absolutely! You know, as much as I said earlier and I don’t want people to misconstrue what I said. I’m not saying the fans aren’t important. I’m saying when it comes to the music and when I’m sitting in there and I’m creating something I’m asking myself; Mark are you blowing yourself away? Are you like, oh, wow, this is cool? This is great. I wonder what Johnny in the third Rose can say, okay? Because I know from my experience. If I think it’s cool, you’re gonna think it’s cool as well. It’s my job is to make it cool for me and impress myself and go, oh, you really got something special here. Or if I don’t, start over. Do it again. You get but I have to have it where I’m excited about it for you to be excited about it. Again, like without the fans, I’d be sitting back there in my drum room just by myself playing. So, I’m not downgrading the fans. I’m just saying when it comes to the creative, it’s about me and Warlord and Bill in the band
What are your thoughts on AI? It appears to have taken over the world for quite some time now, and this is just the beginning. What are your thoughts on the AI-created music?
M: Well, you’re talking to a drummer that’s had to deal with drum machines for years. Now you got autotune, now you got AI where you can say, hey, play guitar part like this or that or the other. I think it all needs to go. I think the whole computer thing is beneficial to some things and it’s detrimental to other things. Not a big fan of AI at all. We even tried it a couple times in the past on artwork and it never seems to quite get to where you wanna go. But when it comes to music, it has to be people. It has to be the human people doing it. This is my opinion. That’s kind of where I stand.
Yes, because everyone can easily write something that’s reminiscent of bands they like.
M: Hey, how about we take the AI and like feed the homeless? How about we take the AI and cure cancer instead of like ripping off artists, you know? How about we do that?
Thanks for being with us Mark.
M: Thank you very much!
