If you told Lamb Of God guitarist Mark Morton one year ago that he’d have a busy February in 2007, complete with an appearance on the Conan O’Brien Show and Grammy Award nomination, he’d probably think you were talking about another more radio-friendly band. But it is indeed Morton and his bandmates who are living the dream after over a decade together. While the band has been praised in the past for their skillfully executed guitar work and gritty vocals, it’s the last few years that have brought about accolade after accolade.
When the band made its national television debut on Feb. 9 with a performance on NBC’s
Conan O’Brien show, the event introduced millions of fresh ears to Lamb Of God’s melodic, but unrelenting metal. The show appearance came not so long after receiving a
Grammy nod for the single “
Redneck,” and although they didn’t win, Lamb Of God seems to finally be reaping the rewards of their hard work. Morton recently talked with UG writer
Amy Kelly about the latest whirlwind of events that continue to keep his band in the public eye.
UG: You recently made your television debut on the Conan O’Brien show. What was that experience like?
Mark: It went pretty well. It was definitely kind of a new experience for us. That was our first time playing on national TV. It’s kind of an interesting feeling. It’s definitely different than shooting a video. Shooting a video, you’re not necessarily playing. So you can be as sloppy as you want! On TV, it’s kind of like you’ve got one shot to nail it. But it’s cool to actually do something where you kind of get nervous. It’s kind of rare than I’m that nervous before a gig, but before this one I was definitely a little tense. But it was in a good way. It was kind of neat.
Being that this was such a highly publicized gig, what kind of feedback did you get after the show?
I’ve seen people that were like, “Oh, they looked kind of stiff” or “They’re just standing there.” But for the most part, everyone thought it was great. Those that don’t, they don’t get it. You’re only like on a 10 x 10 stage! It’s not like our normal stage, where we can go crazy. It’s pretty compact up there. But yeah, it seemed to go over pretty well. The fans dug it and a lot of people tuned in especially for us, so it was definitely a neat moment.
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| "Honestly, Grammy doesn't really change anything." |
You recently received a Grammy nomination for “Redneck” for Best Metal Performance. What did the nomination mean to you?
Well, honestly, it doesn’t really change anything. You raised the question of what does that mean to you guys, and my gut response was, “Nothing.” Not to disrespect the Grammys. It’s an institution. We’re very flattered to even be nominated, and we were excited about the nomination. We had a great time. In terms of the big picture as a band, because we’re not a radio band and we’re not a pop band, that kind of accolade is a little bit foreign to us. As cool as it is and as neat as it is, it’s a bit of an anomaly for us. But I’m really glad it happened and flattered to be nominated.
Talk a bit about writing the song that was nominated, “Redneck.”
It’s funny. The song “Redneck,” I pretty much arranged all the riffs for that myself. About 3 or 4 days before, I had come in with a different song, a song that’s on the album called “Descending.” “Descending” is a bit of an abstract track. It’s real linear and it’s more of a kind of landscape-ish track rather than just riff after riff after riff, so the band, they weren’t that excited about it. They were like, “Well, we’ll keep working with it. We’ll try it, but I’m not sure about it.” That was there response to “Descending.” So I was like, “Huh, I’ll show them!”
Three days later, I brought “Redneck” in. It was almost as a response, like from my part as a guitar player to the fact that they were still lukewarm on this kind of artsy-fartsy tune I brought in. I was just like, “Well, I’m going to bring in a sledgehammer then!” So that was really where that song was born. When I brought it in, everyone immediately was drawn to it. We called it “Redneck” before there were ever any lyrics or any lyrical content or subject matter to it. It did have that kind of southern swagger to it and the pentatonic movements and it sounded like breaking a beer bottle in a parking lot. It had that identity and character before there were ever lyrics. It was one of the few times in our career where the working title became the real title. That song’s just “Redneck.”
When you’re writing the music to a song, do you generally start coming up with possible lyrical ideas also?
Not specifically within the context of writing music, no. I’m always writing music and I’m always writing lyrics. I don’t really do them at the same time. I’ll have a book where I’ll just go write lyrics all the time, particularly on the road. I do all the writing of lyrics on the road. Then usually, we write all the songs pretty much instrumentally first. We’ll literally put them on a cassette tape. I’ll just bring in a boom box and record it. Then I’ll sit with my lyric book and just kind of start reading over lyrics, just seeing what lays best on the track. It’s never really like I know what the lyrics are going to be for that song. They usually get paired together later.
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| "There are always the basics for our sound, but there are little effects and stuff." |
Do you and Randy (vocalist) ever sit down and write lyrics together?
We usually start out separately. He’ll have his book and I have my book. Since we write everything pretty much instrumentally first music-wise, we’ll just start working to put the lyrics and the vocals together. He’ll be like, “You know, I’ve got an idea for this one.” And I’ll be like, “Okay, well I’ve got an idea for this one.” Sometimes we’re like, if we’re both working on the same tune we’ll just say, “Okay, cool. You do your thing, I’ll do my thing, and then we’ll get together and see which is better or see if we can make it happen as a collaboration.” It’s what happens as well. There’s no real formula to it. We work really well together, Randy and I. It’s not really competitive. We like each other’s writing. Usually by then I’m so relieved that the music part has come along that writing lyrics is kind of fun. Six-pack of beer with your demos and just scribbling.
The first track “Walk With Me In Hell” has got an incredible intro with 2 guitar sections. Did you and Willie Adler come up with those parts together?
That song pretty much started with me. It’s funny, that song I think has probably the longest incubation period of any song we’ve written. I remember very specifically playing the second riff. I remember plugging in to get my sound for “Ashes Of The Wake,” when we were recording the album previous. I was plugging in the studio and setting my amp and dialing it in, and I played that riff for the first time ever. It was something that just came out. I played it and I loved it. As soon as it came out I was like, “Wow. That’s going to be a song someday.” It took a long time. I wasn’t working on it every day or driving myself crazy with it, but it just took a long time to come together.
The lead melody that starts off the song, that was just kind of swimming around in my head. That came first and then I put the chorus underneath it to accompany that melody. Just over time it sort of stuck together and pretty much laid the whole song out. I don’t remember exactly what I was doing in the middle, but there’s a breakdown that basically cuts to a real meaty, heavy breakdown. That was something that Willie had been working on. We were trying to figure out what to do with the middle part and kind of hit a wall. Willie just had this idea for a real heavy breakdown. That was his idea. There it was - it was done.
Were there any songs that you had to go over and over again to get the perfect riff?
There’s this tune I’m working on now that I find myself questioning whether it should be a half-step up or a half-step down on that one note. I just kind of really pick it apart. Some songs require that, and then there are songs like “Redneck,” where there’s just no other way it could have been. It just wrote itself. It just depends on the nature of the tune. Everyone always uses the analogy that they’re like you’re children, but they really are. They all have their own little personalities and different tantrums about them. That’s the joy. Sometimes you can write a song in an hour. Then sometimes, like “Walk With Me In Hell,” it can take you 2 years.
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| "Randy and I are good friends. We were good friends then and we'll still good friends." |
What equipment are you using right now?
I play a lot of different kinds of music on my own, personally. So I have different types of gear that I use for playing country or blues or rock or whatever. But with Lamb of God, the guitar sound really revolves around the Mesa Boogie Mark IV. It has a real natural saturation to it, but it’s not over the top. You can compare us to a lot of contemporary players, but we’re a little bit cleaner. Our guitar sound is a little more natural, I think. The Mark IV is really the basis of our guitar sound.
There are always the basics for our sound, but there are little effects and stuff. You wind up doing things on the record in the studio, like you might put an effect on this or that, then you realize, “Well, I can play it without it live, but it will sound worse than the record.” I was always an anti-pedal guy for the last few albums, but I’ve kind of started breaking out new pedals and effects. I used to do that a lot when I was younger and coming up, but by the time we got Lamb of God on the road, I really stripped everything down. My whole thing was, “Yeah, man, you’ve got to be able to just plug straight into your amp and play.” I can still do that, but at the same time I’ve got a little phaser.
You mentioned playing blues and country on the side. Do you have bands on the side that you play with?
Yeah. I’ve got this group of buddies at home. There’s a band called Alabama Thunderpussy, and those guys are some of my best friends. Some of those guys get together and we kind of do - it’s not even metal all. It sounds like Free or something. We do that kind of stuff. Then I’ve got another band, which is like an all-country kind of thing. We do bars and stuff like that. We don’t really tour. I’m so busy with Lamb of God that there’s really no time to end up doing anything. But when we do get a break, those are my buddies. I’m always playing guitar, so I just kind of shift gears and do something different for a while to kind of clean the palette.
How is the new tour going?
It’s opening night of the tour and we’re in Dallas. It’s like 30 degrees in Dallas! I can’t believe it’s so cold here! It’s us, Trivium, Machine Head, and a great band from France called Gojira.
What do you think of the current metal scene right now?
I think there are a lot of great bands out there. I think this tour is cool because it’s kind of cross-section of everything that’s going on. We’re excited to be a part of it and excited about blowing it up and making it even bigger.
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| "I don't see any reason for us to stop." |
In the bonus DVD on Sacrament, it seems like Randy is not necessarily always there during the songwriting process. Has that ever been a problem?
Not really. We’re kind of so set in our ways and the way we write. Randy is not a musician per se. He’s not a guitar player, so there’s really no point in him being there. I mean, other than to hear what’s going on, which he does. He’ll drop by to see what’s happening and get a feel for things. But to actually be there at a stage when we’re drilling hard and trying to work chord out by chord out, that’s not the time to be there. So usually by the time we get 4 or 5 songs together, he’s coming in and trying to figure out the verse, the chorus, and that type of thing. I think he knows when to be there and when not to be.
On YouTube there is still the infamous fight between you and Randy floating around. Can you look back at that and laugh now?
A million bands have had that happen. It’s just kind of a boys will be boys thing. It’s too much whiskey and maybe a few too many weeks on the road and living too close to each other! You kind of reach a boiling point, you know? You really lose it. It doesn’t really change anything. There was no revelation involved. It was just a bad night. Randy and I are good friends. We were good friends then and we’ll still good friends. It’s the wares of the road.
When you look back at everything the band has gone through in the past decade, particularly after this incredible year, what goes through you mind?
It’s pretty amazing. It’s not lost on us really, how far we’ve come. It’s interesting. I was watching one of my favorite bands in the whole world ever, Nirvana. I was watching this documentary on Nirvana and they were interviewing Dave Grohl. He said something like, “It was inconceivable that we would be the biggest band in the world. We just wanted to play. There’s no way that we could have even been that big.” Obviously, we’re not Nirvana, but that’s kind of how we feel. We never imagined we’d be playing arenas, riding around on tour buses, nominated for Grammys and that kind of shit. It was inconceivable. There was no way. It wasn’t part of the agenda - it couldn’t have been. It was a non-reality. And now, with like all the things that have happened, it blows our minds still. It’s amazing. Every step of the way is always a surprise. Every step we moved got bigger and bigger, and we’re just shocked by it.
You’ve been together over 10 years. Do you think conceivably the band will be making music in 10 years from now?
Where will be in 10 years? I’ll be 45. We’ll probably not be at the same page we’re at now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m still making music and we’re playing shows together. It’s just really natural for us. There’s something about the chemistry of the 5 of us together that’s really special. It’s not always easy and it’s not even always fun. It usually is! But there’s something really special about the chemistry of us together and the music we make and the live show we put on. I don’t see any reason for us to stop.
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