Sometimes, it takes a new beginning to bring out the best. This was the overriding philosophy guiding Greek guitar wizard Gus G as he put together the latest album from the band he founded more than 20 years ago, Firewind. The record comes out May 15 on AFM Records.
The loss of two band members, the addition of an exciting new lead vocalist and co-writer, an exceptional focus on what makes the band the powerhouse that they are, led to Gus, who has also played with Ozzy Osbourne and released albums under his own name, simply titling the album after the band, as he sees it as a sort of new beginning.
“It’s absolutely what you said, it’s a relaunch of the band, it’s a restart. It’s like pushing the reset button 18 years later. The band has been through a lot of ups and downs. We’ve been through a hiatus, through numerous lineup changes. So, it hasn’t always been easy. This band started out very unorthodox as a file-exchange band, when I was in my early 20s. We didn’t become a full touring outfit for about four albums. It hasn’t been such an easy journey for the band. And the fact that we’re still here and doing this is insane. So, I felt this was time to push the reset button. If we were to be given a second chance to do this all over again, if Firewind was to start today, how would I do it, how would it sound? And I feel this is the record, this is that sound,” said Gus from his home in Greece, where he – and his countrymen and women, are under government lockdown because of the Covid-19 crisis.
“I think this album represents everything that Firewind has always been to greater and lesser degrees over the course of nine albums. It’s the things that made Firewind what it was, through all our eras, all our phases, from the heavy stuff, the speed/power stuff, the classic metal stuff, the big AOR choruses, the melodies and the shredding stuff and the musicianship. All these elements that kind of put the puzzle together for the sound, this is it. I think you will still find a lot of variety, but all those elements have come together with more focus. I guess you can say it took all this time to finally hit upon what Firewind is and what it represents.
“Like every band, you experiment sometimes. When you have done nine albums like we have done, you try to change up the sound. In the early years you’re still finding yourself and it might take two or three albums to do that, and finally it comes to a point where you realize, okay this is what we have been known for, this is what works better, and this is what feels better writing-wise. For this album, there was a really natural flow in the writing, at least for the music.”
The complications began on the lyrical and melody creation side of the songwriting process, as in the early compositional stages for what would be this self-titled concoction, Firewind lost it’s lead singer, Henning Basse, who was with the band first in 2007 and then returned as frontman in 2015. He was replaced, on relatively short notice, by veteran vocalist, Herbie Langhans (Sinbreed, Avantasia). As well, in March of this year, 16-year veteran keyboardist Bob Katsionis also left the fold to pursue opportunities as a producer and studio musician.
“Not having a singer, that’s where this album got complicated for me. I was writing all this stuff last year. We went into the studio in August and did drums in Germany and then came back to Greece, because I have a home studio and I track all my guitars here. There was this long period of silence when there were no vocal ideas coming my way from Henning – nothing was happening. I tried to do a little bit of melody and vocal writing with Dennis Ward, who co-produced the previous Firewind album Immortals with me [released in 2017]. We also wrote together on my latest solo record [Fearless, released in 2018]. We had an established songwriting team happening between the two of us and it works good. Dennis provided three or four songs worth of vocal lines, but then he had to leave and go work with Helloween, so I was kind of left hanging, with 70 per cent of the lyrics and melodies undone,” he explained.
“There was also a little bit of tension with the previous lineup, some people were unhappy, and it was not working out perfectly. It got to the point where we did these tours with Queensryche and at some point, we had to sit down and make some decisions, because the album was not moving forward. I wanted to move forward, I wanted to stick to the deadlines. I am that kind of guy, when we say we have to finish an album by a certain date, I am like, ‘okay, this has to happen,’ and I get very focused. But when there is not excitement there, there is not much you can do, and you have to make decisions. I was thinking, ‘well, am I going to have to call it quits after all these years?’ I decided no, I am going to do whatever it takes for this to function and for this band to be a happy place once again. That was it.
“When looking for a new singer, I always start with the voice. At this point I reached out to the record label and said, ‘well, this is happening, and I need somebody. Do you have anybody you can suggest, who can maybe help me out here?’ And they said, ‘how about Herbie Langhans.’ I asked them to send me some of his stuff to check out, so they sent a bunch of links and then I realized that I had heard him about eight years ago when he was in a band called Sinbreed. I remember listening back then and how he reminded me of [Firewind’s] first singer Stephen Frederick from the first two albums. He had that raspy, almost Graham Bonnet [Rainbow, Alcatrazz] kind of thing, which I love. I thought Herbie’s voice was so unique and perfect for what I was doing musically. This could be the guy, because vocal wise, he was perfect. And I have this intuition of where I hear somebody, I know if they will be a good fit or not almost instantly.”
What helped Langhans really ingratiate himself with Gus was the fact that not only did he have excellent vocal chops, but also superlative songwriting skills, that matched up with Gus’s perfectly.
“Initially I tried him out on some of the older material, and then I sent him a new riff, because I wanted to make sure that he could also write and have ideas. I wanted him, first of all, to be a full member and for him to know that he was welcome to be creative and put his own stamp on this. And, really, I just wanted to have another co-writer in the band again, because Henning didn’t write stuff,” he said.
“I needed somebody in the band that I could write with and have that guitar player/singer dynamic thing like so many other bands have. That first song we worked on was Devour, actually. That was when I sent him the music and the very next day, he sent me back the vocal line for it. Basically, it’s how you hear it on the album, with slightly different lyrics. That was so cool, and it was a no brainer at that point – this was the guy. That song was how Firewind should be sounding in my head.”
Whereas Immortals was a concept album that essentially examined the tales of the great Spartan king Leonidas and his vaunted 300 soldiers, who valiantly held off a massive Persian army from invading mainland Greece in 480 B.C., in an ultimately unsuccessful, but powerfully heroic deed, the new self-titled album features a more general look at the human condition and the world around us
“This time, it just didn’t click like that. I didn’t come out like that, and I didn’t want to force anything to continue as a concept if it didn’t feel natural and authentic. There is a bit of a concept between three songs on there; Space Cowboy, Orbitual Sunrise and Longing To Know You. It’s basically about an astronaut orbiting around the earth, and it’s not so much a space odyssey as more talking about social and political views. How would a person look down at the Earth and the feelings they have about nature and the type of destruction and the bad things we do to our planet – but through the eyes of an astronaut. We always sort of talk about these topics in the lyrics – essentially we want to talk about human psychology and the human condition,” Gus explained, as he discussed some of the other songs on the album.
“Welcome to the Empire is about artificial intelligence and the type of times that we live in. Technology and AI is, in many ways, a good thing, but there are a lot of bad things that come with it as well, and also generated from us, since we are the ones who create the technology. Rising Fire is about overcoming difficulties and obstacles in life, the different types of situations that we have all been in at one point or another. Kill the Pain was one that Herbie did a good job on. He was writing a story about how this guy’s life is really messed up and he was thinking of bringing it to an end. He sent the lyrics and we worked with it a bit, because we actually wanted the song to end on a positive note. So, the first part is about how dark and gloomy everything is and how life is so bad. And then in the second part is saying what you accept, what you allow, is what you become, so it’s up to you to change all that, because you do have the power to make things better.”
Although Gus understands the nature of the music business sin 2020, with the focus seemingly more on singles and streaming, he still believes its important for him as an artist and Firewind as a band to write, record, produce and tour on the strength of full albums.
“Honestly, I don’t believe a lot of what people are saying about it. I think that most people still listen to albums, at least in our genre. It has never occurred to us to do a single or an EP. For some reason, maybe it’s the style of heavy metal that we play, whether you want to call it power metal or traditional metal, you still need a physical product, because people still want it. Of course, sales are way less, but you still put out the vinyl and the limited digipacks and stuff with the artwork and the fans love that. They love the packages and the special bundles and all sorts of things. And I enjoy doing full albums; it like a big painting, you can’t just put one corner of a painting up, you have to include all the pieces, so people have the full picture. It’s the same with albums.”
With touring likely not happening until the late fall or winter, if at all in 2020, Gus said he is doing his best to stay busy while on lockdown and is also doing his best to promote Firewind far and wide.
For more information, visit http://firewind.gr.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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