Melodic masters House of Lords have returned with their 12th album, a masterful collection of songs that bridge the gap between the best of the 1980s rock sound with a spirit of modernity, that makes for a compelling musical concoction that will appeal to a broad range of fans.
House of Lords rose from the ashes of 1980s melodic rock band Giuffria, but Greg Giuffria who enlisted a solid roster of bandmates, including vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist James Christian – the lone member still in the band since it’s founding in 1987. When the Seattle grunge sound came to dominate the music industry in the early 1990s, many of the so called ‘hair metal’ bands, including House of Lords, were pushed to the side. The band took a hiatus from 1993 until reforming in 2000 and became affiliated with Italy’s Frontiers Records in 2004 with the release of their fourth album, The Power and the Myth. Every subsequent album, all eight of them including the fresh-off-the-press New World – New Eyes, has been released on that same label.
House of Lords is centred on the songwriting and vocals of Christian, who was joined by lead guitarist Jimi Bell and drummer B.J. Zampa in 2005. Bassist Chris Tristram came on board in 2016 in time to contribute to the group’s last album, Saint of the Lost Souls, which came out in 2017. Christian said they took a little extra time between records in order for him to recharge his creative batteries.
“I needed some time off, because not only were we doing the last record, but we did a tour on top of it right after, and my wife [Robin Beck] also did an album around the same time, so when I go out on the road with Robin when she tours, I take the duty of bass player for her. As soon as I got back from touring with Robin, I went right out again for some House of Lords shows. It was so much in that one year that I realized I needed to slow down. And you know what, I think it really helped out because with this record, everything felt fresh to my ears – the ideas and working with [co-writer] Mark Spiro, which was a joy to me, because I love writing with him. It felt like old times, and that’s what you want when you’re writing. You really want the feeling that this is not a job, this is a labour of love,” Christian said.
“It took us about eight months to do the whole record from start to finish. The writing part of it started before that. There was a lot of material to cycle through because we had those couple of years off of not doing records, but it didn’t stop Jimi from sending me tracks all the time. But I was just not in the mode of listening to them and saying which ones I wanted to do. I just put them in a folder and let them build up to the point where Frontiers was saying it was time to do another record. And when that happens, you know it’s time to get back to work.”
The reunion with Spiro, whose impressive list of credits includes work with Giant, Bad English, Cheap Trick and more, was not only a fun experience, but a productive one, according to Christian.
“I worked with him years ago. I remember going to his place in L.A. when we put together the song Spirit of Love [from House of Lords’ 1992 album Demons Down] And then we put together this gem of a song called Inside You for the same record and I remember thinking how the hell we were going to do it, and we ended up getting a full orchestra from the L.A. Philharmonic coming into the studio to do all the strings, hired an orchestrator and everything. So that time with Mark Spiro was amazing and I guess I wanted to recapture that,” he said.
“When I called Mark I said, ‘let’s work on one song together.’ And we did, and that one song turned out to be eight. You know it’s about writing compatibility, and also what he hears I hear, and what I hear, he hears. That’s pretty amazing. We also love the same style of music. We love the Beatles; we love everything about melodic music. So, we’re always on the same page, we’re on message. We wanted hooks. Not everything that you write with has that same taste. It’s hard to find, let’s put it that way.
“And like me, he doesn’t want to live in the past. The most important thing for me with House of Lords is we didn’t live off the past records, especially the first three. When we got back together, I certainly could have just hired some musicians and gone out and toured off the first three records. But that’s not what I wanted, because there was so much more material I wanted to record, so much more I wanted to say. When Jimi and B.J. came on board, they were of the same mindset that we should continue House of Lords and continue writing. Rather than living in the past, let’s push on to the future, so one album turned out to be eight albums since then. And we have evolved. We have tried to keep up with what’s going on without leaving the community of melodic rock.”
The title track sets the tone for the album, with a number of songs following a thematic thread that paints a more hopeful picture of the future, even in the midst of the current political, social and climatic turmoil.
“There is a link with New World – New Eyes, and Change (What’s It Going to Take) and We’re All That We Got. I would say those songs have a common thread and it’s that things are changing and evolving day by day and the people are trying to change things if we need to preserve what we have. And our spin on songs like New World – New Eyes is not one of doom and gloom, it’s of hope. And that’s the way we want to go with songs like that,” Christian said.
“With that song, the opening line is, ‘out of the ashes, a new sun will rise. We’ll raise our glasses to a new world with new eyes.’ Out of the ashes means you’re basically starting from scratch now. I am looking at it as meaning we’re passing the baton on to the younger generation of leaders and entrepreneurs and people that are going to take it to the next level. Every generation has the responsibility of passing it on. Will the next one do better? Have we given them enough to keep things going, or will they screw it up? Music, for me, has become a great outlet, because you write about stuff like this, stuff that’s going on in the world, but also what’s going on in your own life and your own relationships. And you don’t want to scold anybody. So, my thinking is give people some messages, and maybe somebody will understand what’s going on.”
Songs of love have always been integral to the House of Lords milieu and New World – New Eyes is no different. The first single from the album, The Both of Us, is an ode to one’s life partner, and Christian said he definitely had his wife Robin Beck, a singer/songwriter of note in her own right, in mind when penning this track.
“That song is about a man and a woman, where the man is praising the woman for everything she does in their life, taking care of the family, being a partner that is actually contributing so much more than just being a wife and companion. She takes care of everything, in other words – somebody you can’t do without. And I am saying you’ve got me forever, you’ve been there for me, in the good times, in the bad times, and everything I have done, I owe it to you. So, the song is saying no matter what happens it happens to the both of us, and that pretty much says it all. We are sealed and we are going to be together forever,” he said.
“My wife is that kind of woman. I am inspired by her in so many ways. Raising a child is one of the hardest and most beautiful things I have ever done, but I saw the way Robin kind of gave up everything to just be a mother, even though she is a performer, she chose to be a mother first. And she was always there when Olivia [now in her early 20s and involved in professional theatre] was growing up, making sure she gets to school and attending all her school plays and meetings while I am on the road. And then on top of that Robin gets back to doing a record. She has had a lot more duties than I did, a lot more responsibilities than I did. So, the song is a tribute to her and a tribute to all the things that people do for you in your life, and how it’s so important to appreciate them.”
The sombre yet compelling Better off Broken looks at another aspect of love – how it’s better to get out of a bad scenario, take the emotional hit in the short term, because it’s better off to be alone than in a situation where there is only pain, sadness and regret. It’s a song of resilience, essentially.
“It’s the relations between a man and a woman, where no matter how much this person does for the other, nothing is ever good enough, so it would be better off to be broken and picking up the pieces than to just keep hoping that he will love her again, but in the right way. And that’s something we can all relate to. And again, from my own past relationships, I know that I will be better off broken than to continue going through what I am feeling right now. It’s about getting through the hard times to be able to move on to something better,” Christian explained.
“And it’s funny because I know a couple of people who I spoke with recently that have heard the songs and say they are going through that scenario right now. I don’t think I know anybody who has not or will not go through that kind of situation. And, yeah, it can represent other kinds of relationships and situations. That’s the whole idea when you’re trying to write – don’t be too literal so that it can still be about the listener too and their own life. It’s always a fine line, because you need to leave things a little open to interpretation. The title alone should say that, and then you create the song to what fits that image in your mind. It was the same this with [lead-off track] Change (What’s it Gonna Take) where I heard a lot of people didn’t realize that the song is about drug addiction, but other people have different interpretations of it. So, you never know.”
Even with some easing of the Covid-19 restrictions on social distancing and self isolation, there are no touring plans for most bands and musicians on the books, with only tentative dates scheduled for the fall. Christian said House of Lords is going to keep promoting the release of New Day – New Eyes with press and social media postings, in hopes that the road will open up again some day soon.
For more information, visit www.houseoflordsband.com.
- 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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