New Jersey’s Weapons of Anew are in the midst of a tour that sees them sharing the stage with Messer, alongside headliner Scott Stapp [ex-Creed]. It is an ambitious jaunt that saw the travelling rock circus begin in Wisconsin, traversing through a number of states before ending on Aug. 8 in Nashville.
It is kind of a quirk of musical fate that Weapons of Anew have now shared the stage with the all members of the alt-rock sensation Creed. They are on tour with Stapp right now, and two years ago copped an opening slot with Alter Bridge, which features the other three members of Creed (Scott Phillips, Brian Marshal and Mark Tremonti) plus vocalist Myles Kennedy.
Weapons of Anew has also opened for the likes of Metal Allegiance and Tesla in their short career, giving them the opportunity to play in front of thousands upon thousands of potential new fans. Comprised of vocalist Ray West, guitarist Freddy Ordine, drummer Chris Manfre and bassist Stefan ‘Reno’ Sutrupi, the band is making the most of those opportunities.
“We really like all these opportunities. We have been really lucky to have been able to tour with bands from a lot of different genres. We toured with Alter Bridge, and then we toured with Tesla and Metal Allegiance; we always seem to find our way onto these amazing tours, which means we’ve always got to go out there and work our asses off for the 45 minutes or whatever we have each night,” said Ordine.
“We’re a live band; we’re all about energy and trying to connect with the audience, so we’ve been really lucky with the tours we’ve done so far. And on this tour with Scott Stapp, it’s been going great; the crowd response has been amazing, and Scott Stapp and his team have all treated us really well. It’s been a great run so far.”
The Collision of Love and Hate was the band’s debut album, released in the fall of 2017 on OK Good Records, it featured the incendiary single/video Killshot, which Ordine said was a metaphor for the ending of a toxic relationship.
“It’s the typical situation where you love somebody so much and they take you for granted. They shit on you and shit on you and shit on you and it just gets to the point where you’re like, ‘I’m done, I just can’t do this anymore.’ It’s the vicious cycle that can happen in relationships, until you decide to finally break the cycle,” he said, adding that in general the songs of Weapons of Anew deal with real life situations, experiences and emotions that have happened to members of the band, lending each track and all the lyrical content an infusion of authenticity.
“For us, an album is a snapshot of the time in our lives when we were writing the songs; the things that we were going through at the time, or just how we were feeling on a particular day. Sometimes a cool idea would just pop up when Ray and I were together and he would just go off and write the lyrics and almost every time, he would nail it on the head.
“We’re all so close and often the subject of a song, or the feelings going into a song, are things we all know about. We all know what’s going on in each other’s lives and that will bleed through into the writing. So, it’s pretty easy to identify with; if one of us is going through something, all of us are going through it with them.”
Writing for the band’s second album is well underway, according to Ordine.
“We actually started to work on the new album and were making headway up until a few weeks ago and then we got the Scott Stapp tour offer. And we were like, ‘man, we can’t turn this down.’ So, we actually put the record on the shelf for a bit to go out on this tour. We will probably get back to it around the end of August and I think it will all be recorded and in the can by October or so and then we hope to have it out in January or February of 2020,” he explained.
“In terms of the songs, we’re going to ramp it up in terms of the amount of radio friendly, Active Rock stuff on the new record. Probably half of it will be that, and the other half will be the heavier stuff that we also like to do. We want to make it more accessible, with good melodies and stuff, but we’re never going to sacrifice the energy or intensity. It’s not that we’re going more commercial, just stuff that can get us some airplay. Already from the last album we have been getting a lot of love from Active Rock stations who have been pushing our music.”
Ordine and West are both veterans of the music industry and touring scene. West spent many years as lead vocalist for Spread Eagle, while Ordine was a key component of the bands Axiom and HavocHate. The WOA lineup is rounded out by bassist Stefan ‘Reno’ Cutrupi and drummer Chris Manfre. Both Ordine and West had taken substantial time away from the music industry before the fire in the belly to get back on stage and get back into the studio brought the pair of talented, driven and experiences musicians together to form Weapons of Anew.
“I quit playing around 2006. I was in HavocHate with a couple of guys from Testament and we had done a couple of records that did pretty well. I had a young son, and I didn’t want to miss anything with him growing up, so I felt it was time to step away so I could raise him. But I got the bug again about four years ago, but I didn’t know if I wanted to be in a band. Chris Manfre was in a local band [in the New York/New Jersey area] and we were friends and he kept on asking me to come out and do some shows. I finally relented and we did a couple of local shows and it was like, ‘yeah, we’re going to do this.’ A couple of acquaintances knew Ray and Ray’s name kept coming up to me, but I wasn’t sure because Spread Eagle’s music was so different from what I wanted to do,” he explained.
“My friend just kept pushing to just get on the phone and talk to him. And when I did, I spent probably 3 ½ to four hours on the phone just talking, and we really connected. We had so much in common, how we were raised, how we grew up, the experiences we had in the music industry and then not wanting to do it anymore but developing a desire to do it again. And that was it. We went from there and Weapons of Anew was born.
“Me and Ray’s writing relationship was like magic. When we first got into the rehearsal room it was like what I was hearing in my head, before I could even say anything, he was just belting it out. He is awesome with melodies and that has become such a huge part of this band. I think the one way we really stand out is the importance we put on good melodies. And I do think we have our own sound. I don’t even know how to really describe it. We definitely have a heaviness to our sound, but there’s also a real groove to us and, like I said, a lot of melody. When we watch people, who have never heard us before, within the first five minutes we’ve got, I would say, 90 per cent of the room moving. It’s music that makes you want to move and do something.”
Alongside the two battle-tested veterans, Cutrupi and Manfre have added a dose of enthusiasm that is infectious, creating an incendiary, ebullient and raucous live show, for which Weapons of Anew have become known.
“Chris the drummer is actually a little bit older than me, but he has 10 times the energy that I do. It’s awesome to see. I remember when we did the first Alter Bridge tour, the first show – and it actually was the first ever Weapons show – was in front of 2,800 people. And before we went onstage, I asked Chris if he was okay, because this was all new for him, and he was like, ‘yeah, I got this.’ I just remember looking back at the smile on his face behind the kit and all the energy he had. He really is a ball of energy on stage,” Ordine said.
“And Reno is the same. He just doesn’t stop from the second we go on stage until the second we walk off stage. He pushes the rest of us to really move around, so it definitely helps having guys with that kind of energy and enthusiasm.”
Ordine said after the Scott Stapp tour, Weapons of Anew will get back to the task of finishing their sophomore album. Once it’s out, they will hit the road again, with hopes of crossing the pond and getting in on some of touring action in the U.K. and Europe, particularly the big festival shows. He also hopes to get back up to Canada too.
“We played Toronto and Montreal on the Alter Bridge tour and they were amazing shows, so we would love to get back up there,” he said.
For more information on tour dates, and the forthcoming album, visit http://www.weaponsofanewband.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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