“Hail a long-forgotten sound” as the lyric from Iron Kingdom’s “Legions Of Metal” so truthfully states. This poetic musical tome known as Iron Kingdom certainly brings back that forgotten sound of true heavy metal. In today’s modern times that sound is all but lost or at least hidden but Iron Kingdom brings it back to the front.
Chris, thank you so much for this interview! I’ve been watching you guys since 2013. I was a fan back then and I’m glad we could touch base finally.
The honor is mine Heather, thank you very much for taking the time to chat with me today!
I got to hand it to you. You guys are amazing! You guys have skill and talent. The musicianship is amazing, solid. You also have the drive. You guys are out on the road playing shows, throwing out albums, doing it the old-fashioned way. But I’ve noticed bands like yours don’t get labels or at least big ones. Why do you think that is? Do you like being “underground” so to speak or do you even want a label? Why do you think the mainstream industry doesn’t support bands like yours?
Heavy Metal isn’t exactly mainstream, even the bands that are doing well are not really all that mainstream, at least not today. Metal had its time in the spotlight back in the 1980s, but that time is long gone now, and it’s hard to say whether it will come again. It is funny that you bring up labels, you know believe it or not we don’t exactly try to stay away from labels, it’s just that we haven’t seen a deal worth signing. It could be our downfall that we haven’t signed yet, but perhaps it’s also what makes us unique.
You have to keep in mind that the world has become easier and easier for a band to record their own albums, to tour on their own, to ship their own merch, everything is more digital, everything is faster, and on top of all of it I think there’s a lot less money going around, so the bands just end up taking less from the deal and the label still gets their cut, it is however a question I can’t exactly answer because I’ve only seen one side of it, we’ve only ever been unsigned. It is a question that keeps me up some nights.
How did Iron Kingdom get started? What’s behind the name Iron Kingdom?
Iron Kingdom was created on June 6th, 2011, right before we went into the studio to record the debut album ‘Curse Of The Voodoo Queen’, that album was actually a collection of songs we wrote over 6 years or so under another name. The name IRON KINGDOM was meant to mean something like a realm for Metalheads, it’s welcoming to anyone who’s into Metal, regardless of sub-genre, gender, race, religion whatever. Think of it like an exaggerated metal festival, that’s cobble stone and fortified ha-ha, you walk the street and its vendors selling leather, denim, cd’s and vinyl, there’s cool shows going on every street corner, essentially you could say it’s something of a dreamland for Metalheads.
Your music is perfectly old-school, I love it! Very Iron Maiden-esque with a tinge of Judas Priest. What is the scope of influence Iron Maiden has had on your music? I may have even heard a distinct echo of Eddie Van Halen once.
Well, we grew up listening to all the 1970s and 1980s bands and wondering what happened, where did they all go? Heavy music was so much more interesting back then, and then it kind of just vanished, at least in the mainstream. So yeah, bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden are some of the groups we found a heavy influence from, but there’s also plenty of other groups like Accept, Saxon, The Scorpions, Deep Purple, Helloween, HammerFall, the list goes on and on. We love listening to these groups and we love creating music in the same vein as them, because it’s the music we enjoy making and performing and we figured the world could use a bit more of it!
Iron Kingdom’s musicianship is brilliant. The drums are deep and resonating like the sound of marching warrior knights of metal, the guitars play together in tandem, solid and unified, the solos brilliantly played out, the bass holding the band together in rhythm and harmony. How do you guys work so well together? I don’t hear one instrument supporting another, I hear all musicians and instruments working together, melding in perfect unity and harmony to create a spectacular sound.
We don’t simply write our parts as individuals, we work as a team, from start to finish, we all discuss what each instrument is playing at any particular time, and we debate the options. We try to come up with the best ideas we can as a group. Sometimes it works better than other times, but that just how we like to write, we jam it out, we tweak each instrument, and we lock it down!
I’m sensing you take great pride in Iron Kingdom, like it’s your baby. You want the band to be successful. It’s a creation that is constantly being crafted, to be built up in a more glorified form each album that comes out and each show that you play. All albums from start to finish are amazing. I feel the “Ride For Glory” -album is where your foot became firmly planted in the soil of the rock of success you’re climbing. Whatever you’re doing with Iron Kingdom, I feel this album is where your foot became firmly cemented in it.
Yes, I’ve always found we’re never 100% satisfied with any release we’ve done, and each time we work on the flaws of the previous album, and we keep doing what we can to improve those points. Sometimes it works and other times it just opens up something else to work on. All we can do is our best each time, and we learn, and we evolve, and we make new tunes, and we try again. This new album does have a really cool vibe to it, and I’m just glad to hear the positive reviews coming in, it’s all we can ask for, people enjoying our craft.
“On The Hunt”-album sounds different from all previous records in that it steers away from the Maiden influence. I feel I even heard some 1980’s era undertones in the album. Am I right on all this or is that just the way I’m personally hearing it? If I am right, why is that so?
‘On The Hunt’ was a unique album for a few reasons, it was the first record that Amanda was no longer playing drums with the band, and we had Megan on guitar for the first time too. On top of the lineup changes we also chose to record this album and engineer it on our own, which was also a first for the group, and made us even more DIY. I guess some of that feeling you noticed of a shift farther from Iron Maiden might be due to Megan joining the group, being that she always preferred Judas Priest over Maiden, when Leighton and myself tended to lean more towards the Maiden side, but I wouldn’t say we completely went away from that Maiden type sound, you have some songs on that album that are actually very Maiden-esque like ‘White Wolf’ or ‘Driftin’ Through Time’ for example, but yeah we definitely explored some new ideas as we always have album to album, I don’t think any-one Iron Kingdom album sounds like any other one, but there is a feeling that makes its way across them all.
I’m left wondering how “Blood Of Creation” will sound! We can see that album comes out November this year. This album was made during the time where we have a lot of things going on like wars, pandemics, economic issues, basically during this huge upheaval going on right now on the planet correct? What kind of challenges, if any, have you faced in making this album?
Oh, we had a lot of challenges writing and recording the album, it all started when in March of 2020 we were touring Europe and the pandemic shut everything down, we lost our first headlining festival in Europe and upon returning home we immediately lost yet another drummer. After all that we all had to go into a lockdown, and we had no idea that it was going to be for so long.
We didn’t exactly start off on the right foot, I myself lost my career (temporarily of course, just the 1.5 years duration of the lockdown), we had no drummer and we had to cancel our upcoming tour plans, plus it wasn’t exactly easy to set up auditions as you may have expected. However, we did push on, and we made it work, eventually we came across Max Friesen and we haven’t looked back. We immediately began writing the new album, I mean truthfully that’s all there was to do anyways, we couldn’t go to the pub even because, well, they weren’t open either!
During the writing process, I actually broke the tip of my finger at my new job, and because of this I had to play and write with using only two fingers for three months, it was terrible but once again we pushed on because this album was the only thing we had to look forward to.
I am fully aware many other people had it far worse than us, and I’m very aware that everyone experienced this together, although separate. The mental toll that the lockdown had was not small, I think we all felt it at least a little bit, and I think many of us will be working that out over the next few years.
Has it been a struggle to keep Iron Kingdom alive in this modern music industry?
Yes, in some regard, but it’s all we know, so we’re not fighting some dream that it was ever easy, because we don’t know anything except what we’ve experienced, which seems to be uphill both ways before going steeply uphill again haha. I’ll admit that the age of the internet has allowed people to find us from all over the world, but it’s also flooded the market. It’s arguable whether we have it easier or harder than in the past, I think there’s some comforts that weren’t in the 1980s like GPS systems and iPhones that can manage the sales of merchandise, but people don’t really come out to the shows like they used to and for some musicians I think that’s hard to handle. So, yes, it’s been tough, but with each year I think we see small improvements and they compound and maybe one day it won’t be such a struggle anymore.
You’re amazing when it comes to solos. What occurs in the seconds before you launch into your solo? Is there this sudden rush of adrenaline? What is it that runs through your head at that moment? Watching some of your videos you don’t give any hint you’re getting ready to go all out on your fretboard, you just lay into it.
I don’t think I put much thought into it at all at that moment. I aim to entertain, and I aim for perfection as a musician. Sometimes I’ll debate what note it starts on, or if I should run to the other side of the stage this time but yes once we hit the stage we’ve rehearsed so much, that its nearly second nature. It’s all about enjoying that moment and feeding off the energy from the crowd.
The artwork on Iron Kingdom is amazing. Who does the artwork for the albums? Who thinks of the concept for the artwork?
We hired an artist by the name of Alan Lathwel, he’s based in the UK. Usually, we like to start the process by seeing what he’ll come up with naturally, based solely on song titles and brief descriptions. We might also hint toward one or two tracks that we think would make the best cover. After we receive the first draft, we discuss if this is the right direction for the cover. Sometimes it’s perfect and we modify from there, other times we lay out our vision of the cover and see what he creates from that. It’s a cool relationship because he’s very easy to work with, and there’s no ego involved, it’s simply just the mutual creation of something cool, and it’s a really fun process with Alan every time.
How did you learn to play guitar? WHAT made you want to learn?
Ritchie Blackmore. Hearing him play the solos on the “Machine Head” -album by Deep Purple absolutely blew my mind. It’s all I wanted to do, I needed to be able to play like that. I got some lessons from a great guitar teacher named John Gilliat. He always let me be very creative in our lessons and it helped me grow as a song writer as well. I started playing at age 7, and I never looked back.
Who writes the songs for Iron Kingdom and where do the ideas for the songs stem from? Are you someone who is interested in sorcery, magic kingdoms, and witchcraft?
YES, I think those are awesome topics, who doesn’t love fantasy and magic? You’re basically describing every song that came from DIO.
But to answer your question, we sort of all write together really, I used to be the main writer from a musical perspective, but once Megan came on board, we’re somewhat neck and neck for the music these days. Looking at it from a lyrical perspective, you’ve got Leighton our bassist doing the majority, but everyone comes to the table with ideas and ways to complete things. I’ve written a few tunes front to back in a lyrical sense as well, so we’re inclusive, whoever has a cool idea, has the right idea!
The content comes from anything and everything. I’ve got a few of my ideas from some Fantasy books I was reading, but I mean hell, the idea for the lyrics of “Witching Hour” came from a movie I watched, so yes, it’s really just whatever gets us excited.
How about a little fun trivia question: What do you think of the idea of sustainer type passive pickups in the neck position of a guitar? Can that be a thing and if so, how would it be done?
Hmm. I’ve never tried that myself, I can’t say whether or not you can do it as a passive pickup, might need to be active, but I don’t think it’s that uncommon to do something like that.
I’ll be honest though, I’m pretty happy with my neck pick-up being the PAF Pro, it’s got a nice sustain and tone and gives quite a bit of character to the guitar.
If you had all the money in the world, what guitar would you be playing, how would it be set up?
To be honest, I pretty much already have my dream guitar, I modified a fender Stratocaster and added a Maple AllParts neck with 22 frets. For pickups, I put in a Super Distortion, Hot Rails and a PAF Pro, and added an original Floyd Rose Tremelo, also I cut the Tone knob out of the wiring, because I always want it on 10. I use D’Addario 8-38 size strings, yep, they’re tiny, but I love ‘em. All in all, I feel the instrument is just an extension of me when I’m playing it, and I think that’s all you can ask when it comes to your axe!
What would you like to see for Iron Kingdom’s future?
The dream scenario would be touring theatres, like 500 – 700 people capacity, you know 70% sold out or whatever, with a driver and a roadie, haha, that would be amazing. Might be able to actually live on music that way, but that is still just a dream.
Realistically, just touring more, maybe some tours with some other cool bands in our genre, getting back to Europe as much as we can, playing more festivals, and writing some more killer tunes! I feel that we’re on the brink of a small piece of success. Seeing our album release party this Friday sell out is a killer way to start the day, and who knows, maybe we’ll be blessed to see a little more of that sort of thing. But for now, we keep driving forward and we keep doing what we love, because we love to do it!
Thank you, Chris, for this interview. We wish you and Iron Kingdom all the luck for the future!
Thank you for the interview and thank you to all those who took the time to read it! I hope you’ll take a chance to listen to some of our new tunes and perhaps follow along with the group as we head on through our quest for metal glory! As always, Keep It Steel!
Chris Osterman
www.iron-kingdom.com
Interview: Heather Williams
Photos: Iron Kingdom
