There’s always a place for a little anarchy in life. And this summer, music fans will have a chance to see it live and loud as hard rock supergroup Art of Anarchy hits the road once again for a few select dates.
The band’s second album, The Madness, was released in the spring of 2017 and has received both popular and critical acclaim, spawning a number of international tours. Even though all five members of the band are exceedingly busy with their various other projects, they managed to cobble together another American run this summer, with shows starting in Clarksville, Tennessee on July 15, running through the US south and Midwest, ending in Colorado Springs on Aug. 12.
“People have been digging the album and I am just so happy about that. We gave it our all. We put a lot into it and just really worked to make the songs that are on there as good as they can be and we’re glad that people are liking it,” said band co-founder and former Guns N’ Roses member (from 2006 to 2014) Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, who added that the creative process for The Madness was frenetic at times, but rewarding.
Art of Anarchy was formed by Thal and two of his long-time friends from New York, Jon and Vince Votta, in 2011. Not long after forming, Disturbed bassist John Moyer was brought into the fold and for the first few years, leading up to the band’s 2015 self-titled debut album, former Velvet Revolver and Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland was part of the project. (More about that later in the article.) Weiland departed in early 2015 and was replaced by Scott Stapp, best known for his chart-topping days with Creed. The music on The Madness is a unique blend off all those varied influences, yet comes out of the creative blender sounding as its own unique, and hard-rocking, sound.
“When we first got together as a band to start this thing it was in late September of 2015 and the five of us just got into a room and stated jamming and seeing what turned into what. We would jam on ideas and if something felt like it had a spark, it would naturally lead to the next phase and eventually turn into a song. And we would record all these ideas. And every day for about two weeks we would just bust out ideas, one or two songs a day. And Scott would just be singing melodies and spontaneous words over the music and eventually he would do proper lyrics. And we wrote half the album that way, in that first week and a half to two weeks. The title track was the first song we wrote, then No Surrender, Won’t Let You Down, Changed Man and Afterburn, in that order, over that short period of time,” Thal explained, explaining that the band then broke into its component parts with each member touring their various other projects, while the Votta brothers continued to track their parts (Jon is a guitarist and Vince the band’s drummer).
“After getting those songs pretty much finished, Scott had some solo stuff that never made it on to an album so we worked those out, and they turned into the songs Sombre and Dancing with the Devil. And then we started working with some outside writers as well and those contributions led to the songs 1,000 Degrees, Echo of a Scream and A Light in Me. Actually, A Light in Me was one Scott and I just worked on together down in Nashville.”
Thal talked about how happy he and the rest of Art of Anarchy was that, even though there were definitely elements of each member’s individual pedigree that filtered into the songwriting and playing, The Madness still sounds like its own entity.
“We’re always going to be who we are and we’re going to do what we do, so no matter what the scenario is, what the situation is for writing and making it happen, Scott is always going to sound like Scott and his lyrics are always going to be a personal story and the melodies are his and the tone of his voice and his approach to telling a story is always going to be authentically him,” he said.
“When I pick up the guitar and lay out a guitar part, no matter how hard I try it’s still going to sound like me. So the weird guitar parts and whatever kind of left-of-centre strange things you heard in there are mine. And then all the cool kind of thrashy, attack kind of stuff, that’s the Votta brothers and all the cool grooves and stuff that makes your head bounce, that’s Moyer. When you put it all together it makes something interesting.”
Thal was still in Guns N’ Roses when he decided to help the Votta brothers realize their dream of recording an album, never expecting it to turn into what amounts to a globe-trotting all-star band.
“They’re twins and I have known them for about 20 years now. I first met them when I had a recording studio in New York City and they came in to check out the studio and we immediately hit it off and started working together. They were just kids at the time so I always took care of them and did what I could to help them. We stayed friends even after I closed the studio and we would just hang out and stay in touch,” he said.
“By 2008 they weren’t pursuing music full time any more – they kind of eased off from it a bit. That year I put together this all-star band for a diabetes fundraising concert in Las Vegas and they came down to the show just to hang out and support it. But I had them come on stage and we played some Metallica and some Gun N’ Roses and that sort of relit the spark and made them want to get back into doing music. They came to me in 2011 and said they had written 10 songs, just guitar and drums, and wanted to make the album they never got to make. They wanted it to sound the way they wanted it to sound, but back in the day they always had someone telling them to sound like this or sound like that, that they couldn’t do something that was so metal.
“We started recording and it just evolved into something more. Originally there were going to be 10 different singers, one for each song. But after doing Til the Dust is Gone, Scott Weiland decided to do the whole record. And then John Moyer joined in and it became a band. We never planned on having a band together but it’s a case where when something like this is growing and taking on its own life, you don’t want to stop it, you just let it go and see what happens.”
Moyer had made his mark as a member of Disturbed for a number of years and he and Thal had many mutual music industry friends and collaborators in common. Once Moyer heard the demos of the songs, Thal said he was hooked and has been an integral part of the Art of Anarchy sound ever since.
As with any musical concoction, things don’t always go smoothly and considering the mix of personalities involved in Art of Anarchy, some volatility is to be expected. Losing a lead singer, though, is sometimes an unrecoverable scenario. But its testament to the fortitude of Thal, Moyer and the Vottas that they persevered through just such a crisis to come out on the other end with a truly stronger band, as evidenced by the excellence and intensity of The Madness.
There was a bit of internal chaos for a short period of time just as the self-titled debut album for Art of Anarchy was set to be released in early 2015. The mercurial Weiland had publically distanced himself from the project and declared that he was not going to tour with the band. This left Thal, the Votta brothers and Moyer in a bind. Who was going to be the band’s singer? Could they find someone not only quickly, but who would fit in with the vibe that Art of Anarchy was attempting to create. The answer came in the form of another notable singer named Scott.
“We actually thought, okay do we want to keep the band going, and if so, who do we want to be the singer, and at the top of the list was Scott Stapp. Our manager reached out to him and in August of 2015 me and Jon and Vince Votta flew down to meet him and Scott booked a rehearsal room for us to kind of hang and chat in and after a little bit of time, we were vibing and even had a little song written. We saw right then and there that it could work,” Thal explained, adding that everybody knew about Stapp’s past issues with substance abuse and the publicity generated by some of the behaviour his problem engendered.
But lengthy discussions, and seeing how clear-headed and passionate Stapp was about the project, convinced Thal and the rest of Art of Anarchy that things were going to be just fine.
“When we met him we talked about all that stuff. He told us all about it and how important it is for him to stay on the right path. And fortunately he joined a band where me and the Vottas don’t do drugs and we don’t drink and Moyer is totally fine, so it’s all good. Scott is doing even better than you could have expected. I don’t hold it against people for going through difficult times. It’s what you do about it. But he took care of himself and he fought through it and he rose above it and he stayed dedicated and determined and has maintained his sobriety for well over two years now and deserves a lot of credit for that. And I see on the road how he is inspiring so many people who have gone through similar things and they see him overcoming and not only just getting past it, but being a better person for it. That really inspires people,” Thal said.
“For any of us, and really for any person no matter what your job, it’s about finding that balance where you can still do what you feel you have been put in this universe to do for others and maintain yourself and your health so you can keep doing it. It’s hard to have balance in life, especially when people don’t want you to. You have to really fight to be firm about doing what’s best for you. The nature of being a musician is to be a giver and a pleaser and that’s, in essence, what we try to do as musicians. With that you will do things to your own detriment to make others happy and it goes against every fibre of your being to not do that and to stick up for yourself and say no, I need sleep, or no, I can’t do this. So I have a ton of respect for Scott and what he has accomplished. And listen, he’s a better man and a better performer for it. He never phones it in. He works up a real sweat onstage.”
Weiland began writing and recording vocal parts of Art of Anarchy in 2012 and that process continued off and on (Thal was producing the debut album in between touring stints with Guns N’ Roses) and he also took part in promotional photo shoots and video shoots for the album in the latter part of 2014 before curiously distancing himself completely from the project in early 2015.
Sadly, the breathtakingly talented and equally mercurial Weiland’s darker side had caught up with him again and while he was touring with this solo band The Wildabouts in Minnesota, he died from a drug overdose later that year.
“It was devastating. I was not close to him and it really ended, band-wise, in a negative way but I cared about him. How could you not? It was so hard to hear that he died … there were no words. The demons got the better of him and I feel bad for his family and wish that it didn’t happen, that he could have gotten past it,” Thal said, adding that he was also profoundly saddened by the more recent death of Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell.
“I met Chris once at a rehearsal place just for a quick hello. Now that hit me super hard because I remember hearing Outshined and seeing the video on MTV and that was the first time I heard Soundgarden. And for me it was like someone opening the door to a prison and letting me out. I was waiting for something like grunge to happen my whole life up to that point. The kind of music I was making was sort of grungy but people kept telling me I couldn’t do that, that I had to do what’s in style.
“But the first time I heard that song I was like THIS is what I had been waiting for. The sound of his voice was a big inspiration. And I get why people were so sad with his passing, the same with Scott. You’re a fan of a person’s music and it helps put certain things into your life and when you lose that person, all that gratitude you feel for towards the people who do that for you and who have done that for so many – you just feel like a piece of you is torn away, without even really knowing that person. It’s just what you get from their music.”
Thal has released nearly 20 solo albums over the past 20 years, and was a key contributor to the most recent Guns N’ Roses studio album, Chinese Democracy, which was released in 2008. His solo albums have been sold around the world, and he continues to tour throughout Europe, the Far East and beyond, as well as guesting on recordings across a wide spectrum of musical genres. He also continues to produce other acts as an in-demand studio maven.
“A lot of people have heard my stuff, but don’t know it’s me. The theme song from That Metal Show on VH1 was my song, A Day to Remember. And I have had a lot of my stuff on TV and in indie films. But the mistake I have made is I have done so much of my solo touring overseas that right here at home people are like, ‘Bumblefoot? What, are you just going to go out and play Sweet Child O’ Mine?’ No I have more than 100 songs in a catalogue going back to 1995,” he said, adding that he believes that Art of Anarchy will also be a continuing part of his musical life for years to come.
“We hope to be touring throughout 2017 and we do want it to continue. We made the album, we delivered the album and we’re ready to get out and do everything we need to do. But when we’re not touring, I will be doing the Bumblefoot thing. Let’s put it this way, if there’s an Art of Anarchy tour, I am not going to cancel it to do a Bumblefoot tour. I have so much fun playing with these guys and playing these songs, that I hope it can keep going for as long as possible.”
For more information on Art of Anarchy, The Madness and upcoming tour dates, please visit www.artofanarchyband.com.
For more information on Bumblefoot’s music and upcoming tour dates, visit www.bumblefoot.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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