John Olgeirsson of Lords of War interview plus brand new music video

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             For this first time I was able to interviewed someone outside of a phone and in a dinning room of a home. This seemed to have worked out well for Lord of War lead singer John Olgeirsson because he was able to be candid about where he thinks metal scene is going, joining a band while they have already recorder their record, being the lead singer who actually could make a difference and his fling with trance music.

 

H.S.- How do you feel the metal scene is going from a younger bandstand point?

Olgeirsson- It has become very over saturated. There are a lot of people trying to accomplish the same goal at the same time. I believe the scene itself is pitting people against each other that would other wise be friends or accomplices; they are musicians that are like minded and can be working together. Instead they are pitted against each other in this rat race that’s going on. It is part of the business. I don’t know, sometimes you just get some questionable folks that are really hindering things.

 

H.S.- Do you think that it is because you have less of an opportunity to work with a music producer to put things out?

Olgeirsson-  I strictly think that it is because the market is over saturated not because there is a lack of producers because there are plenty of people making music and producers as well and engineers that are talented. That is part of the problem everyone can record in their bedroom that is good enough to be distrupted.

 

H.S.- That is not the same thing or type of producer. I have talked to Chuck Billy (Testament go look at it) one of the problems he finds in the metal scene, the lack of producers are not giving back to the metal scene like they used to as opposed to the rap, hip hop scene.

Olgeirsson- That is not a perspective I have heard. If the kind of producers that cater to them are leaning that way, if we are talking about the big names in the industry then yes they are probably taking away from metal. It is defiantly not considered a mainstream thing. Even the Black Dahlia Murders, and the Lamb of Gods, those kinds of bands don’t really occupy that much market share in a main stream setting as much as they should in a musicianship.

 

H.S.- The metal world has never been like that though.  Even going all the way back to Motorhead it has always been an underground kind of thing.

Olgeirsson- That is true.  It has never been really commercially viable.

 

H.S.- You had mentioned the other night that you were not the first lead singer for Lords of War but the fans responded to you better, why do you think that is?

Olgeirsson- Primarily because I actually learned the material.  Of the 5 or 6 vocalist that they had before me I think only two of them actually learned the lyrics. When I started in the band they were really starting to pick up momentum, not really even touring, early on when I started we got signed and a management company represented us. That is the kind of stuff started to take off.

 

H.S.- Do you think it has something more to do then that, like your presents on stage and how you interact with your fans?

Olgeirsson- Defiantly. I know I get way more into the live show then any other vocalist. It’s a lot to do with my approach; I know I do it more then any of the former vocalists. I’ve seen videos of their old vocalist and they just kind of stood around and looked pissed.

 

H.S.- Do you think they were more doing it for the fame and the pussy?

Olgeirsson- I know that one of the vocalist we had left because it wasn’t brutal enough for him.

 

H.S.- What the hell is brutal enough? Like the few black metal Norwegian bands that burn done the churches? Is that brutal enough?

Olgeirsson- I don’t know the band he is in now is pretty fucking brutal. He is a guttural vocalist and that doesn’t really fit in as well with Lord of War. He found his nitch and he left to peruse it.  I know a couple of other guys were just in it for the pootang.

 

H.S.- Do you feel at all accomplished to have had you cd at Best Buy even if it was for a short time?

Olgeirsson- Oh yeah that was great.  What is funny is that a few months prior to that we were agonizing over having to pay 300 dollars to get 100 cds printed in a tiny little shitty jewel case with a one-page booklet. And then within in a couple months we had a full cd release with a four or six page booklet that was full with art and there is print on the disk. It was disrupted to Song, FYE, Best Buy,  it was a huge weight lifted off our shoulders to make our album available to fans.

 

H.S.- Did you take a picture with it?

Olgeirsson- Oh yeah I took a few pictures with it.  The first few weeks any time I saw it.

 

H.S.- Do you write any of the lyrics or music.

Olgeirsson-  I have been but I don’t write all of it. When I joined the band the entire album had already been written and recorded so I am not even on the recordings, the guitarist, Alex  Walshaw did all of the vocals for the album so the material was pretty much already set and for a year after I had joined they were not writing any new material and we were busy coordinating all of the stuff like getting signed and dealing with management. There wasn’t really any writing going on for the bulk of the time I have been in the band. On these past tours we have returned from, we have been playing new material I did write some of the lyrics for that. One song I wrote the lyrics to and the other one Walshaw and I wrote together, half and half.

 

H.S.- What inspire you to write?

Olgeirsson- I just follow suit as to what they were writing when I joined; which inspired by conspiracy theories. Its little works of fiction were we take popular conspiracy, which have to do with aliens, we have a lot of stuff which refers to aliens infiltrating the human race. I keep it with that theme. It is a subjected that is used a lot in bands that are of similar genre (space metal).

 

H.S.- I have never heard of space metal before. There are to many version of metal!

Olgeirsson- It is very much getting out of hand.

 

H.S.- It seems like there are a million different types of metal.

Olgeirsson- Every time someone does something different they have to go make a new genre for it.

 

H.S.-  What have you been listening to lately?

Olgeirsson-  I get into kicks every few months where I will start listening to Pandora again because I get kind of bored of the music selection I have on my phone. You can listen to it for a few a days and you get bored with it (Pandora) you have heard every song that they have. That’s what I have been doing. I have been going back to Through the Eyes of the Dead as well this past week.  I have actually been listening to a lot of trance, Base Hunter, Cosmic Gates for the past month. It is really good driving music.

 

H.S.- A little judgment.  Do you listen to industrial or is it only trance?

Olgeirsson- I don’t get to involve in categorizing my music. If it sounds good then I listen to it. That’s part of the reason why I started listening to Pandora because I like that stuff but I don’t care to know what it is or who makes it.  I will put in one artist that I know and then it will play a bunch of artist that I will never remember but it is what I am into at the moment.

 

H.S.- So you don’t know the history of your music?

Olgeirsson-  I do with the genres and bands I’m into. I just don’t consume it and let it go. It is more like a fling with me and trance its not a long term relationship. We are not committed to each other in the way that I am committed to metal.

 

Check out there first official music video that has just been released its their first one:

 http://youtu.be/A1Dn84tl92o