Baroness
Interview Andrew Hatwell
Photography Sanna Charles
Baroness hail from Savannah, GA, a seemingly unlikely place from which to launch a global assault on the world of heavy music. Their super hard rampaging sound owes much to their formative youth, growing up as friends in Lexington, VA, swimming in the river and raising junior hell. John Baizley (guitar, vocals, artwork), Allen Blickle (drums), Peter Adams (guitar, vocals) and Summer Welch (bass) all come across on stage like the friends that they are, genuinely stoked to be playing and to be hanging together.
Red Album (Relapse, 2007) was a milestone for the band. Taking their melodic post-sludge to new and incredible heights with a more melodic core than on previous outings such as First/Second (Hyperrealist, 2008). Their sound is as clearly influenced by punk as the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM), which includes bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. And like Southern rock, their guitar tone is as warm as Virginia sunshine. They match massive riffs with incredibly tuneful passages, vocals that veer between soaring and bellowing, and a forceful rhythm section. Equally unafraid of both complex prog rhythms and straight-up melodic metal simplicity, they craft great songs. An incredible live band, they have honed their skills with near constant touring. In 2008, they played an incredible 250 shows around the world. Their intimate friendship as kids has translated perfectly into the touring machine that Baroness has become today. Perhaps it’s hard to imagine any band playing that much together without that essential bond. Their interplay is perfect, almost psychic, as they navigate the incredible complexity of their set, ranging across the stage with conviction and energy that flows into the audience and always makes for an amazing show. With a band that has played this many shows it almost seems ridiculous to list some of the bands they have played with, but doing so is proof positive of the respect in which they are held. From touring with giants like Opeth, young thrash upstarts Municipal Waste or the amazing Kylesa (for whom John has provided amazing album artwork), they have played with fervor and filled venues worldwide.
‘SUP caught up with the band at the Roadburn Festival in Holland after having seen them play the Underworld in London eight days before. The Roadburn performance was majestic, the main room totally full, the band showing no signs of this being the last of a 15-date tour without a single day off. We managed to wrangle John and Peter to a nearby café and took a seat in the Dutch sunshine. After a brief moment of difficulty for us all as an all-girl hockey team cycled past, this writer pressed record:
John: About four years ago we played here and we were hanging out down the other end of the street there, sitting in the sun by the load in, when suddenly we hear this oompah-pah music really loud. Walking down the street there’s about 50 guys with tubas, all Dick Van Dyke style, the whole nine yards. Each and every single one of them was a total leather daddy. Wearing next to nothing but leather bandoliers, chaps, leather briefs.
(Laughing) A gay oom-pahpah festival on the move? That’s not something you see everyday.
John: Exactly. Five minutes ago I’d have said it was the best thing I’d ever seen on this block (laughs).
After that, I just can’t ask any normal questions. What’s the best thing about being Baroness?
John: The best thing? It’s just getting to play our instruments all around the world. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
As an avid teenage air guitarist with no skills at playing the real guitar, I’m wondering if it’s as much fun as it looks: standing on stage, totally rocking out, doing the band interplay? Have you ever had moments when you realize ‘Oh God. I’m rocking out and it’s awesome?’
John: (laughs) There are no moments when that’s ever been in my conscience, but I’ll admit that post-game its really struck me how amazing parts of a show were, or how much fun certain songs were.
If it was me I’d be all over the place. I mean you’re living the dream up there!
John: You know what, there’s 45 minutes a day that I don’t think about that – when we’re doing it – but the rest of the time I’m awestruck by the fact that we’re here. Friday we were playing in Poland. Things were a little difficult with some language problems. It was looking a bit dodgy and things were getting tense. We were backstage in the venue, way out of town, just getting more and more tense ‘til we have to go on stage. Finally we walk out and they had these fog machines at the side of the stage. The fog was so thick on stage that I could not see my hands to the guitar. It was like walking into a sheet of paper.
Peter: I was across from him, kinda outside the fog and watching him struggling trying to see stuff. But then suddenly I didn’t even know what was going on. Then there was screaming so loud I couldn’t hear myself singing and I look over and he’s just laughing his ass off (laughs).
John: (laughing) I was trying to find the mic! It was just this black shape moving about in the fog. It took me about 30 seconds to get my bearings, work out what was up, down, left and right. About the time the first note was played there was just this eruption of a roar from in front of us. At least I thought that was in front. Just this roar of human noise, vastly overpowering what was being played on stage. For some reason – at that exact moment, in the midst of this blind delusion, this complete sensory deprivation (laughing) – it just struck me as completely humorous. Which has never happened, you know. It’s never been a funny thing.
Peter: Totally! We don’t usually laugh on stage.
John: I couldn’t stop it and I couldn’t contain it! I was trying to sing and I could just hear myself laughing and it was all amplified. I just couldn’t perform the first half of the song, I was so disoriented and it was so hilarious. That was one of the moments where the reality of what we were doing was just totally overwhelming, you know? It just became apparent, and I was just laughing and laughing.
Was the Poland show the stand-out date of the tour?
John: That was it right there. I mean walking out into a blind haze on stage in a country that we’ve never played, that I don’t even know if we’ve sold any records in, and it turned out it was one of the most powerful shows we’ve ever played. We couldn’t hear our own voices over the crowd.
Peter: We couldn’t hear our own guitars over the crowd.
When you’re in the van, what are you listening to?
John: Over the course of the year it’s as intentionally as broad as it can be. I mean its one thing to play with every single band that understands drop tuning. It’s unusual that we listen to – it’s unusual that we listen to anything that sounds like the band we played with the night before. On our way to the festival we started out with some thrash at about 7 a.m. Then we had some blues, then we ended up with some Queen live album – a couple of us were grudgingly starting to like it.
John: I like all Queen albums!
(Laughing) Yeah, but we’re British.
John: And that’s what put you off (laughs)! The video where they’re all in drag and everything. The BBC did a documentary on “Bohemian Rhapsody” that’s amazing. But back to the question: Yeah we’ll listen to blues, folk music, electronic music, thrash metal, black metal, hair metal, cheese metal.
