Armored Saint wasn’t expecting to make a comeback after an eight-year hiatus, but sometimes you just can’t quiet creativity. What started out as merely “fun” songwriting sessions between bassist Joey Vera and vocalist John Bush eventually morphed into the Los Angeles’ natives sixth full-length record La Raza, an album that in many ways pays tribute to the classic rock sound that originally influenced most of the band.
Recording with analog equipment versus a digital setup – a decision that meant a bit more pressure and a stricter deadline – ensured that this goal was accomplished. La Raza, which features the original lineup from 1991’s Symbol of Salvation, hit retail shelves on March 16.
Armored Saint found its biggest audience during the thriving 1980’s metal scene, but Vera hasn’t been idle since that time. The versatile musician has played with everyone from Fates Warning to Chroma Key, and in 2004 he filled in briefly for Anthrax bassist Frank Bello. His return to Armored Saint, a band that experienced an identity crisis of sorts during the 1980’s, should please many an old-school metal fan. For those wondering if a lengthy tour schedule might be on the horizon, those plans are still up in the air. Vera explained to Ultimate-Guitar that with families and other projects waiting at home, launching a club tour is more difficult than ever before.
UG: I know that you and John Bush did quite a bit of songwriting in preparation for La Raza, but who originally spurred the decision to start recording again?
Joey: It all started with a conversation that we had around May of 2008. We were just sort of commenting on the fact that we hadn’t done any work together or written anything together. I said to him that I had a little bit of music lying around if he wanted to start working on songs. He said, “Sure, let’s see what happens.” I gave him a couple of ideas and he wrote some lyrics. We demoed the first song and had a great time doing it. One song turned into three songs, and by the end of the summer of ’08 we had demoed about four songs. During this time, we were just writing for fun. It wasn’t until like the end of summer where we kind of had a conversation like, “We’re on a roll now. We’re starting to get into the groove of writing.” We wanted to continue writing, but we had to say to each other: “Why are we writing? What are we going to do with this stuff?” We threw around a few different ideas, but we came to the conclusion that it would make the most sense to gear this for an Armored Saint record. So we ran that idea past the rest of the band and asked them how they felt about it. They were, of course, like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” So from then on, we continued to write with Armored Saint in mind. We continued to write for another nine months after that, but again, it was still done in that way where we were just having fun with it.
"During this time, we were just writing for fun."
I moved away from analog like the rest of the world has during the late part of the 90’s and into the 2000’s. I produce and engineer on the side – when I can basically. So I’ve been working mostly in the digital domain since 2000 myself. It’s more affordable. I have a home studio, and it doesn’t cost as much money to build a really nice digital studio as it does to build an analog one. That’s why there has been a big shift, I think. There are a lot more people who also went to the digital world. The way that this came about was that the engineer that engineered this record, Bryan Carlstrom, he worked with us in the past on Symbol of Salvation. He approached us and said, “I have this studio and I’ve been collecting analog gear for the past 16 years. I’ve got all this stuff, and you guys are welcome to come into my studio.” It was for a very, very reasonable price. We thought it was going to benefit us. Part of the reason was initially when we wrote this record, and this is my perspective, I was drawing a lot from stuff I grew up listening to, stuff that influenced me mostly. It was music from the mid-70’s to the late-70’s. All of those records were made on analog gear. So I felt like there was an opportunity there, and I’m going to take it. It’s only going to enhance what is already here. The music on this new record is very much like the music I grew up listening to. We’re all from the same era and we’re all the same age. It made a lot of sense for us to do it that way. It puts different limitations on you than when you work with digital, but those limitations are part of what you have to live with. In other words, nothing’s perfect on this record. There are some mistakes. Those things are there in an effort to reintroduce this spirit that was there when music was made 30 years ago.
Did that choice result in a lengthier studio session?
To the contrary. You have to work quicker because it’s not my home studio. If I were making this at home, I could spend like six months making it. I could just sit here for however long I wanted to, which can be a bad thing because it would take me six months. The pressure of working in another studio would cancel it. You have to have a time limit. We did this in five weeks. I think it went into six weeks, but that’s relatively quick by today’s standards. It forces you to make decisions quickly. That’s okay, though. Those are things you live with.
Regarding the equipment you used on the new record, did it change much from the setup that you’ve been using for the past few decades?
For me, I’ve been playing Fender P-Basses since I started playing. That’s a long time. I still use P-Basses in the studio. I have my ’72 P-Bass, which is the very first bass that I bought. I’ve been using it on almost every single record that I’ve made almost. With the guitars, it’s just an old ’60 Marshall head. I’ve used an old Marshall straight stack with Greenbacks in it. The only things we needed to play with were some of the overdubs, but the core of the rhythm section is all the same stuff I’ve been using on every record.
You are most well-known for your skills as a bass player, but you also are an accomplished guitarist and drummer. Which instrument do you prefer to use when writing the core song ideas for Armored Saint?
I have a pretty set method. I write everything on the guitar. I very rarely write anything on the bass. I actually started playing the guitar before I switched to the bass. I’ve never been in a situation where I play guitar specifically, so I’m not a great guitar player. I’m pretty good at playing rhythm guitar. I’m not a very good lead guitarist. I am a closet guitar player – and I’m also a closet drummer! I don’t really play drums all that well, either. The way I write is I’ll come up with a riff on the guitar. I’ll stick it into Pro Tools with a click track. Once I get the basic arrangement of the song, I’ll go in and I’ll program a drum track that’s pretty elaborate. Then I’ll go back and I’ll redo all of the guitars. Usually the bass is the last thing that I play. That’s pretty much my method. In the studio when we’re making a record, we usually do the drums first. Then we’ll go and do the guitars, and the bass is done last.
"We demoed the first song and had a great time doing it. One song turned into three songs, and by the end of the summer of ’08 we had demoed about four songs."
We did find ourselves in a little bit of a quagmire, especially during the mid to later part of the 80’s. Heavy metal first became popular in the early 80’s. It was kind of a broad genre. As it went into the later 80’s, there were some major definitions being drawn between the different types of metal. Off to one side you had the heavier stuff that was coming out of the thrash movement. On the other side you had the lighter stuff that was the hair bands and the glam rockers. We found ourselves in the middle. We had more in common with bands that were heavier on the left because we grew up with metal and were influenced by the new wave of heavy metal in the early 80’s. We had more in common with them, but we had this image in the early 80’s where we would wear costumes like armor. We were trying to separate ourselves from pack by having this image. In the beginning it may have worked for a little while, but once the lines were being drawn, then some couldn’t look past the image. We were getting blamed from the thrash side as being too glammy and then they’d say our music wasn’t fast enough. On the other side we had glammers that said we looked too rough and too heavy. We were in the middle. We were like, “We want to be over here, but we can’t.” The pressure didn’t really come from the label necessarily. It mostly came from ourselves. That added to a lot of confusion for us. We started doubting what we were doing. We started doubting whether the image was hurting us or not. In hindsight, I think it was. We started doubting the music that we were writing and we were trying to keep up with the Joneses. We lost a little bit of focus during that time. It was confusing for us.
Is it true that you auditioned for Metallica at one time?
When they had that whole horrible mess with Cliff getting killed in the bus accident, they were auditioning. They were basically having a cattle call where thousands went up there, and there were people they didn’t know. It was awful. They just wanted to play with their friends basically. I was one of the people they called. This was actually before this really confusing time, about a year before. We were in the studio making the first record with Armored Saint when I got the call. It was a weird time for me to get a call like that. I wasn’t really ready to quit Armored Saint. It wasn’t like it was horrible. They said, “Why don’t you come up and jam with us? Let’s see what happens.” That’s how it was. It wasn’t like an audition or anything. I had to call him back and decline the invitation because I wasn’t in a place where I was ready to make any kind of change like that. Like I said, I was in the middle of making our first record on Chrysalis. I wasn’t in a place in my head where I was ready to bail ship. I had to decline the offer because I would have been wasting their time and my time if I’m not going up there with the 100 percent intention of going in and joining their band.
Have you been concerned at all about La Raza getting leaked?
Yeah. To be honest with you, I’m not all that worried about it. I think the label is more worried about it. The thing with us is that we’ve always been involved in some sort of peer trading in terms of cassettes, sending them around. The information was much slower then because we didn’t have the Internet. Now everything moves much faster and the volume of trading is much bigger. As far as we’re concerned, we don’t want that happening. We want everything to be on the up and up. I think that the labels, over the last 10 years, have tried to figure out how to curb it. I think they have done a really good job of it, but I know it’s not 100 percent. For that reason, they were very cautious about who gets the record and when they get it. We didn’t even get the record until like last week. I’ve been guarded about it because we don’t want to make their life any harder. We’re cautious of all that.
"I have a pretty set method. I write everything on the guitar."
Brian is someone that I met through the Anthrax guys. For those that don’t know, he’s a comedic actor and he’s also a huge metalhead. Years ago he put out a record Live In: Nerd Rage. He went in to record a few songs that were basically metal songs that were kind of jokes. They were poking fun at himself, but good fun. He asked me to play on it along with Scott Ian and John Tempesta. We got together and put together a few songs for that record, and we had a blast. It was so much fun and we made a video for it. It was a song called “Metal By Numbers.” You can check it out on YouTube. Last summer he was putting together a new record. Again, he called us in and we basically got the same band together. It was me, Scott, and John Tempesta again. We went in and tracked two new songs for the new record. As part of that, we were invited to play the Golden Gods. Brian hosted the show last year. I don’t think he’s the host this year, but he asked me to come out and play. We’re going to come out and play one of the new tunes that we did for the new record. It’s all good and fun. Again, it’s poking fun at itself, but the music is totally heavy. It’s going to fun. It’s going to be a really good time.
Is there a possible touring schedule lined up for this year?
I wish I had a good answer for it. We don’t have any plans right now to do that. It’s difficult to get up and go these days. Some of us have families and some have day jobs. Believe it or not, we’re not the kind of band that can sell out 500 to 1,000-seat clubs every night. We do well in the big cities, but all the little cities we have a hard time being successful. Going out is kind of a big step for us. I don’t know. If it’s something that makes sense for us, we would totally consider it.
Interview by Amy Kelly
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