A mainstay of the rock wars for more than three decades, Lizzy Borden has carved out a niche as one of metal music’s most theatrical bands, with stage shows that combine the bombast of Queen and Iron Maiden with the storytelling penchant of Alice Cooper.
The Los Angeles-based band, named for its lead vocalist and songwriter, is known as much for powerful words, powerful melodies and harmonies as they are for the crunching riffs and heavy vibe. All of this is on resplendent display on the band’s new album, My Midnight Things, which came out June 15 on venerable heavy metal label Metal Blade Records (which helped introduce the world to Metallica and Slayer among others).
It’s a raucous, but focused collection of 10 songs, masterfully composed and produced to create an almost old-school experience where the emotional tenor of each song feeds into the next like chapters of a book, taking the listener on a journey of the heart and mind along the way.
It is Lizzy Borden’s first new album in 11 years, a delay that Lizzy himself said has as much to do with the changing nature of the music industry as anything else.
“The last record [2007’s Appointment with Death] was right around the time when the industry crashed. And when the industry that you work in completely crashes and none of the old record deals make sense, and none of the ways you record an album or sell an album makes sense, it would have been a huge waste of time to put out records. Many bands have been slogging it out and putting records out there and some of them stick to the wall, but most don’t. I just didn’t want to take that risk. Plus, I was touring all over the world and having a really great time. Making a record and watching it bomb didn’t really interest me. But things have got better,” said Borden.
“Metal Blade is bigger than its ever been and it’s been a pretty amazing ride for them. [Owner/founder] Brian Slagel has always been a big supporter of mine and he told me that they had been able to figure out how to make their way through this wreckage of the music industry and make it work. So, he convinced me of that and I said okay. I really missed being a recording artist. That part of it was always more fun than even playing live. To not do it for all this time is really tragic but I am glad it all worked out and I am glad that I did wait this long because it’s a different environment right now and I can make a record in this environment.”
My Midnight Things is the band’s seventh full-length studio album and third since the dawn of the new millennium. Throughout the 1980s, they released four albums, two EPs, a live album (The Murderess Metal Road Show in 1987) a handful of singles, and then a greatest hits album in 1994 before going on hiatus from 1996 to 1999. After issuing Deal with the Devil in 2000, the band took another short break from late 2004 to 2006.
Each album of new material tends to contain a common thematic vein and tone, something that Borden puts a great deal of thought into. For My Midnight Things, he said he started with a completely bare cupboard creatively so that the tone and vibe would be arrived upon organically.
“For this album I did start with a clean slate, but I did dip into some older ideas about ¾ of the way through the process. I have a folder full of demos and pieces of songs and riffs – thousands and thousands of files. So, some of the stronger pieces I pulled out, maybe a chorus here and there, a riff or whatever, and then I made it work within the structure of the album,” he explained.
“Each album has its own kind of voice. I wrote about 40 songs for this album and ended up throwing all of them out because they just didn’t work together. I needed to find ones that worked together and that felt like an album, where I was confident that each song belonged. And eventually I came upon a theme for this album. Each of the last two had themes: Deal with the Devil I did about religion and the last one was about death. I knew it was going to be a lighter theme this time, and it’s about love. But as with everything I write, I always kind of go into the darker end of things to try to find the essence of the psyche of different kids of relationships. So that’s why you have titles like A Stranger to Love, Obsessed with You, The Scar Across My Heart and Our Love is God.”
One of the standout tracks is the evocative Long May They Haunt Us.
“I knew I couldn’t just write ‘why did you leave me’ and that kind of stuff. I wanted to dig deep and find different aspects of love. So Long May They Haunt Us is about people who were heavily in your life and now they are no longer in your life, but you still think about them every day. You wake up and think about them, so they are haunting you, but you don’t want that haunt to go away,” he said.
“And I wanted it to represent a wide range of people, and it doesn’t even have to be about people who are dead, just that these people are no longer in your life. I went out of my way not to pigeon-hole it that way. I wanted it to be something where you can have a drink and raise your glass to these people who are no longer in our lives for whatever reason.
“But it’s still very open ended, and I did that especially with Obsessed with You which is going to be the next single. That’s a whole different kind of love and I wanted to explore that as well. It is also multidimensional if you really get into the lyrics. I didn’t want you to understand the song just by the title, and you easily could. I wanted you do dig down into the lyrics and the story where you understand that you don’t even know who is right and who is wrong in this scenario – who is delusional and who is realistic.”
The title track My Midnight Things also offers the listener a host of possibilities. For some it could be the carnal, sensual experiences of the dark hours, or it could be the intrusiveness of fears and nightmares, the incessant and unyielding thoughts of insomniacs or the creative spirit who finds their true inspiration in the midnight mode.
“While I was writing that song I definitely wanted it to be open to suggestion. As the listener, your observation about what that song means is the most important thing. And you can say that about any piece of art for that matter. I have my interpretation of what I think My Midnight Things means but I don’t like to say it. I have heard 10 or 15 interpretations of what people think that song is about, just from talking to journalists. To me that means I hit it; I have done something right if I can get that kind of reaction.”
Lizzy Borden has always been known for his vocal prowess and spends a great deal of time concocting full, lush and powerful vocal harmonies. This has been achieved to dazzling effect on the song We Belong in the Shadows, which acts as an epic, dramatic, almost cinematic way to wrap up the record.
“It’s kind of like the ending of this whole story. You’re not sure if it’s a dark ending or a light ending. That was actually one of the last songs I worked on for the album, and it came out surprisingly interesting for me. The guy who plays drums on the album, Joey Scott, says it’s his favourite song on the record, and I have heard that from may reviewers who thought it was their favourite song as well,” Borden said, reflecting on how, even 35 years into his recording career, the bands that first influenced him as a singer and songwriter continue to shape his music today.
“I have been really working on the vocal production on my last few albums because my main influence vocally in the studio is Queen. They kind of created the framework for this kind of thing – the layering and the big harmonies. So, I kind of follow that model, but instead of four singers there’s only one. I do go out of my way to add personality to my harmonies because I don’t want it to just sound like me harmonizing with myself. I really want to create personalities within that structure. It’s one of the things during the recording process that takes a lot of work, but I as I am doing the recordings of each track, I am so into it, so involved that I am not thinking about all the hours and effort that is going into it.
“Plus, it’s very physically demanding to hit those notes. I don’t use Autotune or any of that stuff, which means everything has to be right and you’ve got to do it multiple times. It’s very physically exhausting because you are constantly singing all day long. When I am done, I am pretty much wiped out. As I am doing it, doing these complex harmonies, I am just putting that puzzle together because in the moment I really don’t know how it’s going to come out until I put all the pieces together. Part of that is because I don’t really do demos at all any more. I do a very rough sketch demo and then jump right into the proper recording.”
Lizzy Borden is also a bit old school in the sense that when the band tours, the most recent music gets showcased. Some artists, if they even do new music, may only play one or two songs from the latest release, focussing on the familiar hits. Borden believes that the foundation of his band’s success and longevity is based on the live performance and the creation of music that screams out to be unleashed on live audiences.
“Because it’s been so long since I released an album, I wanted to get this new record out there and generate a buzz. For every album I have ever done, I have played at least seven songs from that album. I am creating the Midnight Things Tour right now, although I don’t have a band yet. I am piecing together the elements of the show, including the production and staging and possible set list and then I will start looking for musicians to do the show with me,” he said.
“I wanted the album to get out there and for people to get used to the songs so when I come and play those songs they already know them. I am already getting hit up from every territory in the world to come play, so I will start booking stuff once the album comes out on June 15.”
The drum stool is already filled, as it has been since 1983 been by Scott, a stalwart who has been through the rock and roll wars with Borden and has become a trusted veteran musical confrere.
“Joey has been with me since the very beginning. I was auditioning for bands way back when and I just got sick of it, so I decided to start my own band and he was the first person I asked, and he jumped on board right away. I have gone through many, many different lineups, but I have always stayed the course in the theatrical direction and Joey has been right there with me the whole time,” he said, adding that he is still debating whether he wants one guitar or a two-guitar attack onstage.
“The band sounds different with one and in some ways it’s better. But I write a lot of guitar harmonies so when I have a second guitar player it opens up that door as well. I am just going to see. I know I am going to be hit up by a lot of guitar players really soon because the word has already got out to certain people. If I find two guys that I just love, and I think it’s going to work, then I will do the dual guitar thing. I have changed the lineup almost every record. It’s a whole new excitement when you have a new lineup. Every time I have a new lineup it holds me over for at least three years.”
Borden said he definitely hopes the forthcoming tour will bring Lizzy Borden back to Canada, where they haven’t played for many years.
“I will never forget the first tour that brought us to Canada and we played a place in Toronto called Larry’s Hideaway and I remember it was a pretty wild place. That was in 1985, but it’s been a while since we’ve been to Canada,” he said, adding that he has actually begun working on new material.
“I have started mapping out the next record and working on it a little bit. So, I guarantee it will not be another 11 years before there’s a new Lizzy Borden album. I signed a three-year deal with Metal Blade and we have already started planning where I want things to go and how I want to do it. It’s dependent on when I start the tour because if it’s going to be later in the year, then I will start recording the new album now. But I really want to keep my focus on My Midnight Things because this tour is going to be a big undertaking and I want to make sure all my attention is there.”
For more information on Lizzy Borden, My Midnight Things and any upcoming tour dates, visit http://www.lizzyborden.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.
SHARE THIS POST:
