Lord interview

In the past few months I have been listening to quite a few bands from Australia. One of them is Lord, a kick ass heavy metal band that I was introduced to by Riju Dasgupta (Albatross). He gave me their album ‘Set in Stone‘ on cd and I was hooked. I spoke to Andy, their bassist about their recent releases, the metal scene in Australia and also their plans for the year.

Andy Dowling, Lord Tim (LT) and Mark Furtner (Left to Right)

Hi Andy, how are thing in the Lord camp?

Andy : Busy, but good! While we’re still on the hunt for a new drummer which is definitely a tiring process, we are keeping busy regardless with new recordings, booking shows with temp drummers and generally trying to stay in the public eye and keep it all moving. Things are good!

Last year, you put out a re-recording of all your studio albums under the name “Dungeon”. Tell us a bit about the project.

Andy : 2014 marked the 25th anniversary of Dungeon and we were thinking of what we could do to mark the occasion. We had discussed re-recording some of the old Dungeon tracks in the past but the more we thought about it, the more we warmed to the idea of just doing the whole lot. With each album/release having various licensing rights all over the world, it’s been a real mess and difficult to do a great deal with the existing back catalogue, so this was a great opportunity to take ownership of the songs again as re-recordings. It was also important to highlight this songs with the production that they deserved at the time but didn’t receive due to time and budget restraints. We were able to bring this songs up to the same production as the last few LORD albums which has given them a new life of their own. Since its release a few months ago, it’s been a great discovery for LORD fans who have only discovered the band in the last few years but has also been a fantastic gateway for the old Dungeon fans who never bothered to see what LORD was all about. This really was Tim’s baby from the start and his countless hours of putting this together has truly paid off. We’re all very proud of what it became.

For those not familiar with your music, which album would you recommend they listen to first and why?

Andy : I think ‘Set in Stone’ is a great introduction to the band. It’s nice and diverse in content (which is what we’ve become known for) and a lot of the songs have stood up over the last few years since it was released. I think that if you enjoy that album then you’ll love the rest of our back catalogue.

Alternatively, we send out ‘best of’ promo samplers that have songs from all of our albums. We include them with ever merch order we sell through our online store, so if anyone feels like grabbing a t-shirt or something else, they’ll get a cool promo CD that gives you a full taste of what we’re all about.

In the past 16 years, you have opened for some BIG metal bands. What is your favourite memory from these gigs?

Andy : For me personally, the shows we did with Queensryche in 2006 and Saxon in 2008 were my favourities. The shows themselves were fantastic but to be able to share a stage with your idols was a real ‘pinch yourself’ moment. An honourable mention was also doing the first Iced Earth tour in Australia. Amazing band and great guys who I’ve kept in touch with since.

How did you get into metal? What was the first metal concert you attended?

Andy : It would have been through other people at school and swapping cassette tapes/CDs. I didn’t have any older siblings to expose me to it all, so it was really just word of mouth from friends and slowly discovering what was out there. As far as first metal show is concerned, I honestly have no idea! It wasn’t metal but I think AC/DC may have been one of the first ones I went to? That was pretty amazing for me. I also went to a lot of local metal shows in Brisbane when I was young, seeing bands like Astriaal, Carbon, Urgrund, Misery, Catacomb, Tripwire and countless others. Brisbane had such a great extreme metal scene at the time I still listen to a lot of those bands today.

How has the metal scene in Sydney and Australia changed over the years?

Andy : It’s pretty quiet at the moment but that’s been due to a number of venues closing down, local promoters giving up, local bands not putting in as much effort as they used to and punters simply finding better things to do. I do think that things are beginning to slowly pick back up again but it is a long road ahead. The sooner we can get some fresh blood in and some enthusiasm back with the local promoters and bands, we’ll see big improvements.

I’ve only been in Sydney for the past 10 years so I can’t look back too far, but I’ve seen it do quite well and then quite poorly. The big thing has been the closure of venues due to pokies and noise complaints but instead of putting up a fight to keep things alive, a lot of the locals simply gave up and found something else to do instead. As said before, it is slowly getting better so hopefully it continues to go in a more positive direction.

What are you plans for the rest of 2015? New recording? Shows?

Andy : We’re recording at the moment for a release that is hopefully due out in April. Can’t say too much more on that at this stage but it’ll be a bit of a ‘one off’ for us and something very different to what we have done before. We’re quite excited about it and I think a lot of people will enjoy it. While we’re still on the hunt for a new drummer, we’re ensuring that we continue to put music out and keep busy, even if it means holding off on a full length album for time being. Shows wise we’re playing sporadically across the country this year and also looking at touring opportunities overseas. We’re working hard to try and tee up some touring in Europe/US/Asia but will ultimately come down to what is on offer. Either way, we’ll be in everyone’s faces as usual, working our butts off and having fun!

Check out a few songs by Lord below

“Digital Lies”

“Set in Stone”

Here’s a nice cover of Kylie Minogue “On a night like this”