Chris Clancy has been a force to be reckoned with every since the Self Titled debut album from Mutiny Within in 2010. Since that time he has been keeping a name for himself with his new project, Wearing Scars, whose new album drops July 24th. Clancy has also started a new venture with the website, Metal For Hire. Check out what he has to say!
That Drummer Guy: So how did you get hooked up with Metal For Hire? Chris Clancy: Thankfully, I've known Devin for quite some time. He did some PR work for Mutiny Within and has done the same with some of my own releases. When he contacted me with the idea of the website I thought it was great and jumped onboard. TDG: What services are you offering for Metal For Hire? CC: I'm currently offering Production/Mixing/Mastering and Session vocals. TDG: What are you hoping to accomplish with Metal For Hire? CC: I'm hoping that people will find me through the website amongst the impressive list of other musicians and let me work my mixing magic or hire me for vocal work. TDG: I just had the opportunity to hear your new band, Wearing Scars and I must say I am very impressed. Every song released so far really shines. How did the band form? CC: Wearing Scars is something I've been working on for years (although it was only named last year when it came together as a band). After things with Mutiny Within came to a standstill (touring-wise at least), I looked around for bands to join and carry on performing. I tried out for Monuments who are doing great with my friend Chris Barretto behind the mic now. It was just a clash of styles. The guys in the band were great, but I'm more into straight forward music. I was talking with Killswitch Engage's manager about coming out to New York to try out, but I couldn't afford the flight. When I found out Jesse might be back out in the picture, there was no way I was getting in ahead of him, he's fantastic so I found myself doing nothing again. I decided to take matters into my own hands and started writing songs myself. I wrote some hit and miss songs first and just kept writing and learning. I became obsessed with improving my songwriting and spent every minute I could going over it in my head, jotting down ideas and recording. Eventually I wrote most of the Wearing Scars album. Andy James contacted my via facebook one day and asked if I was interested in working together. Rather than write from scratch, I sent over my songs and Andy loved them, he wrote some material and it fit perfectly so we scrapped some of my tracks, put his into it, re-recorded the entire album from scratch and put together the lineup. TDG: How would you describe the new album? CC: It's everything I personally love about music in one album. I had no end goal with writing the songs I've put towards it so it's just whatever I wanted to do at that time. There's a mixture of riffs and heavy moments mixed with commercial accessable tracks. I just focused on songwriting, not genre so each song captures a theme. For example the song Butterfly is about transcending a current time. It has an uplifting feel to it which reflects this. The song Stand Alone is more of a pick yourself up and carry on theme, so it's upbeat and has more of an anthem feel to it. TDG: Is there any plans on touring with Wearing Scars? CC: No solid plans yet, but there will be tours. We've been soley focused on the album release up until this point. Making music videos and getting everything in place. TDG: Would touring be exclusive to the UK so far or is there any chance of hitting North America again? CC: Touring will be worldwide if everything goes well. We're entirely self funded so we can't afford to fly over to the USA, rent gear and tour, but if the fans support us, buy the music and merch, we'll have the finances available to tour as far as we can. People have been asking us to play Soundwave festival in Australia. We'd love to, it's just hugely expensive. There's no label, no investors, it's just us, so every penny that people spend on our merch or CD's goes to us (minus online retailers cuts of course). This money is our touring fund. TDG: Is there any new music you have been listening to lately? Any favorites of 2015 so far? CC: I'm looking forward to the new Bullet For My Valentine album. Padge was saying they've gone back to more of a "The Poison" feel with it. That was my favourite Bullet album and I really like the single "No Way Out". People are usually pretty shocked when I tell them I don't really listen to music, so I don't really know what's come out or is coming out. I just keep working on my own material. TDG: Was the last Mutiny Within release the end of the band or is it possible for any kind of reunion in the future? CC: We're in the slow process of doing another album. It's just finding the time, we all work and have our own lives now. Mutiny Within was a full time job. We'd work for 14 hours a day on music so when we only manage to devote a few hours a month to it, you can imagine it takes a while. After the Wearing Scars release hopefully I'll have some time to work on it. I actually emailed AJ about it a few hours ago. TDG: Finally, is there anything you would like to bring up, plug, or mention that I have not mentioned yet? CC: Check out the Wearing Scars album when it is released July 24th. Big thanks to Devin for all the help he's given me over the last few years! Check Out Wearing Scars' Debut album A Thousand Words available July 24th! Check out Chris Clancy and so many other killer artists at Metal For HIre That Drummer Guy- So how did you get hooked up with Metal For Hire?
Samus- My long-time friend Devin (founder of the site) told me about it, and I instantly thought it was a great idea, so I jumped on board quickly. TDG- It is definitely a very cool idea. What services are you offering on Metal For Hire? S- Session drums, guitar, bass, some vocals, and even mixing/mastering/production. TDG- That is a lot of great services to be able to provide. Although the site just started, have you had any requests so far? S- About 5 requests so far, and I have completed 2 jobs TDG- It sounds like you can definitely do a fast, reliable job. What are you most hoping to accomplish with working with Metal For Hire? S- Great question! I guess getting my name out there as much as possible, while attempting to make a living playing music which is extremely hard. But I love helping people out where I can, and giving my input etc. TDG- Definitely a great way to look at it. even before Metal For Hire, you have helped out and participated in a lot of different bands and styles of music. What are genres that you most like to play these days? S- I'm not picky at all when it comes to genre, but it usually always ends up being metal! (haha) and I have no problem with that at all, but would also love to try anything else as long as I'm having fun. TDG- And you have covered a lot of genres in metal as well. But it's great to see that other genres can be covered as well. With that said, Your Youtube Channel (which I am subscribed to) shows you in a lot of great Metal moments with a lot of different covers and funny videos. What inspired you to create the Youtube channel as it is now? S- Hey thanks man! Haha I guess it started with my Team America cover. I had originally just filmed it on drums but I actually made a minor mistake during the performance, so I needed other footage in there so my mistake wouldn't be shown, haha!! So I figured why not cover the whole song with the other instruments too! And I had a blast doing it, and it seemed like other people enjoyed it so I decided to keep throwing in comedy here and there :) TDG- It's amazing how an accident can sometime lead to some amazing things in life such as that. When looking over your Youtube channel, your most popular video by far is the Fart Metal video? Had you ever dreamed that would catch on as much as it has? S- Haha oh man. That video was pretty much a last-minute accident as well. I got really excited when I finally got a smart phone a few years ago, and being the sick fuck that I am, I started recording all of my farts. About a year later I synced my phone to my computer and for some reason it just started playing all of my farts in iTunes back-to-back and it was the funniest thing I had ever heard. A song needed to happen hahaha. And no, I NEVER thought it would go that viral! Haha TDG- We will be waiting for the Fart Metal sequel in the future! But besides the funny videos. You are known for your amazing Metal drumming in a lot of great bands. Is there any plans for hitting the road again in the future? S- Ahhh. I would love to! It all depends on the type of job I can acquire when I am done with my university studies (which I currently have one year left of) but I would absolutely love to have a job that allowed me to tour! TDG- It would be great to see you play in my neck of the woods again! Besides the work you are doing with Metal For Hire and Youtube, is there any other projects you are working on? S- Mother Fucking Decrepit Birth!!!! We are about 95% done with the music writing for the new Decrepit Birth album, and we are scheduled to record the drums at the end of August. I can't tell you how excited I am. TDG- I am so excited to hear that. Any new Decrepit Birth is good Decrepit Birth. Would it be fair to say that a 2016 release is possible? S- Absolutely! TDG- Fantastic. and I would assume possible touring would be coming along with that as well? S- Of course! TDG- Awesome. So happy to see that happening. Is there any details you can give about the album yet, or is that too early to tell? S- In my opinion, it will be the best album the band has written yet. Matt's riffs are just so sexy and catchy, and there is more song-structure and repetition now so there will be a few good hooks! As for style, expect a combo of all the DB albums thus far. It contains both melody and brutality. TDG- That is so great to hear. Sadly I do gotta wrap up this interview. Thank you for taking the time to do this interivew. it was a tremendous honor. before we finish up, is there anything you would like to plug, promote, or mention that I have not brough up yet? S- Sure! You can check out my newest video, "The Tempo Experiment" which is pretty much a parody on whether riffs sound better slower or faster. It's all a matter of preference, but I figured I would conduct the experiment anyways with a death metal riff, hehe! Thank you very much for having me! It was a pleasure, sahhh!! Metal For Hire: http://www.metalforhire.com 66Samus on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3unJShm6iXtw9QgDnb9KPg The Tempo Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88NEedodzSE DJ Heavygrinder is an American/Japanese DJ and Producer known for her love of Metal and EDM and starting to help create a genre that blends both genres seamlessly. In this interview we discuss her new venture working with Metal For Hire and getting into her and her partner, Neko's background of heavy music!
TDG- So we are here today in part by Metal For Hire. How did you come about joining up with Metal Hire? H- Our agent Alex at TKO linked us up with Metal for hire and we were very excited to be onboard as they have a great support system for artists and a great team onboard. TDG- It is a very cool concept and especially with what you bring to table. What are the main services you are offering personally? H- Most definitely! We are offering production, remixes, mixing and mastering for Bands. TDG- With your background, it does include love of heavy music. What drew you to heavy music? H- I went to my first Slayer concert when I was 15. Fell in love with Metal. Really loved the earlier Cradle Of Filth, Emperor, Deicide, Pantera, Cannibal Corpse etc. Those are the bands that first made me fall in love with Heavy Music. My partner Neko had been a huge fan of Metallica, Machine Head, Pantera, Fear Factory etc since he was a kid. TDG- So it is quite an eclectic taste of music. With the nods to more of the Industrial side of Metal, what do bands such as Emperor and Cannibal Corpse bring you for inspiration in your original music? H- They are both very visceral and that resonates with our taste very much. We do take some cues from melodic black metal such as Emperor. TDG- It definitely makes sense in terms of the Melodic Black Metal and the use of Orchestration in terms of their latter material. Did that help you to combine heavier elements into your style? H- Pretty much all of our sources of inspiration are heavy in one way or another! And so are we ;) So it definitely transpires onto our music. TDG- It is very apparent when listening to your music with how everything flows together in the right spots. Bringing the heavy aspect with it, is a great touch! You are known for releasing some very popular remixes of songs as well. What make you want to remix classic Metal songs? H- Part of it is a personal tribute to some of the most legendary songs of all time. And I guess it's also a way of introducing Metal to a new generation who would otherwise perhaps not be exposed to it. TDG- It is a great way to bring the music to a new generation. Is there any heavy songs in the future that you would like to remix? H- We are pondering a Metallica and a Lamb of God remix in the near future! TDG- It would be really cool to hear your spin on both bands. Recently you teamed up with Jon Howard (Threat Signal, Vice Versa), How did that come to fruition? H- We've been huge fans of Threat Signal so we decided to hit Jon up one day about a possible collaboration and he was down to do it. The rest is history. TDG- It does feel like a very natural collaboration. His voice fits in right with everything that is going on. Is there any other artists that you would like to collaborate with in the future? H- There are definitely some names out there that we wish to work with in the future but we'd rather keep that a secret for now. Fingers crossed! TDG- You are known for crossing genres and making the whole process feel natural. What would you say the best aspects are of adding such an array of styles into your music? H- I guess that the best aspect is being able to reach a wider demographic. Our fans are just as varied as our style. There's a lot of EDM people, Metalheads etc that follow us. So it's a cycle! TDG- What are some other EDM artists you feel are pushing the genre into wider territories and making the genre stronger for artists like yourself? H- The Metal-Electronica crossover is still in it's infancy. But there are some people out there doing great work. We are huge fans of Celldweller and Zardonic. TDG- Sounds like some cool stuff worth checking out. Going back into your music, what new music is currently in the works? H- We are working on an EP at the moment. TDG- What ground will you be covering with the EP? H- We are considering mixing electro and drum n bass with Metal and Industrial. But you'll have to wait to know more. TDG- When can fans expect to see a release? H- Coming this Fall! TDG- Bringing the conversation back full circle. With working for Metal For Hire, what do you hope can be accomplished with what you bring to the table? H- We hope to collaborate with some awesome bands out there and help push the Metal genre as a whole further. TDG- It definitely sounds like you are. Metal is a genre that gets better the more expands and enters new territory. Thank you for taking the time to do this interivew. It's been a complete honor. Before we wrap things up, is there anything you would like to mention, plug, or bring up that I have not brought up yet? H- We are super excited to be a part of the Metal for Hire family! Thank YOU for taking the time to interview us. It's been such a great pleasure and honor :) We would just like to plug our sound cloud page that is full of remixes and free downloads. www.soundcloud.com/djheavygrinder |
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