Page 24 - RockRevoltMagazine-Fall2016

By Brett Tully
This isn’t Pokémon’s Volbeat, this
is Denmark’s Volbeat and they
fucking rock! Formed in 2001 by
guitarist/lead vocalist Michael Poulsen
and drummer Jon Larsen they have
produced some of the most unique
metal ever. With elements of legends
such as Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley
infused with 80’s thrashers Metallica
and Slayer that is about as close as you
will come to describing these Danes.
Joined by former Anthrax guitarist
Rob Caggiano and bassist Kaspar Boye
Larsen Volbeat recently unleashed
their sixth studio album on the
world, Seal the Deal and Let’s Boogie.
RockRevolt had a chance to chat with
Jon about the making of their latest
record, if there’s a difference between
North American and European
audiences and life before Volbeat.
Jon, I certainly appreciate you taking the time
to speak with RockRevolt Magazine today.
You guys just finished a string of festival dates
overseas. How did that go?
Oh, it actually went quite well, apart from the
weather. I mean, every festival we did this
summer, it was raining, believe it or not. This
caused delays – Rock Am Ring got postponed
for, like, an hour and a half because of bad
weather. Apart from that, the shows went over
great, everything worked, songs worked, so
what’s to complain about?
That’s right, excellent. So, there were some big
crowds over there, eh?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Some of the major
festivals hold between eighty and one hundred
thousand people.
What’s the difference in vibe when you play the
European festivals as opposed to U.S. dates?
I don’t see that much of a difference. I mean,
maybe here in the U.S. and Canada, it seems
to be almost more of a family thing. I see a
lot of young kids and older adults – like a
family picnic almost. That’s not a bad thing.
In Europe, some festivals depending on if it’s
a metal fest or an alternative or whatever, then
you have a more diverse crowd. But basically,
it’s more of the same.
Obviously you guys put out a new album, Seal
the Deal & Let’s Boogie. Can you kind of take
Knuckles crushed my eyes no longer see
I paid the price and fed the family
us through the writing process for that and
how everyone kind of fits in? How did it come
together?
We did almost like we always do. This time we
took six months off to write the album; that’s
a first, and we’ve never done that before. A lot
of the previous albums were written on the
road or in the rehearsal room. But this time I
wanted to take a couple months off to focus on
the writing and put out a rock and roll album,
have more focus on the melodies and hook
lines, stuff like that. So, we spent a lot of time
writing at home, and we’d all meet up twice a
week and sometimes we would come in with
full songs or sometimes just bits and pieces of
it. Then we would work it out from there. It’s
basically how we always do. We recorded the
album the same place we always record. Jacob
is still the same producer, so it was as it has
always been. Not much new there to tell.
If it’s not broke, don’t fix it, right?
Yeah, that’s right. You can ask Iron Maiden
about that…
It’s been working for almost forty years, right?
Yeah, yeah. I figure we might still have a couple
years left.
Absolutely. So, why don’t you take us back to
the history of the band and how you guys came
together?
It was like another century ago, almost. (laughs)
I’ve known Michael since he was sixteen, and
every once in a while we’d meet in the city and
have a few beers and shoot the shit. He said,
“Maybe we should do something together
some day. Yadda yadda…” You know the usual
banter. Then, he disbanded his whole band and
wanted something else. And he called me up
and asked me if I remembered what we’d talked
about back then. He said he needed someone
to do a 2 and 4 snare drum. And I said I could
still do that. So, I dusted off my old drum kit,
took it out of storage and set it up in his room.
He showed me different types of songs; one
of them sounded like vintage Sabbath, and
I was like, “Okay, that’ll work.” And then the
next tune he showed me was more Offspring,
and I was like, “Okay, that’s different, but it’ll
work.” And then the third was straight out of
the Metallica songbook, and I was like, “Okay,
that’s definitely going to work.” (laughs) So I
asked him what we were going to do, and he
said we were going to do everything. He said
he only wanted to play what he wanted to play
– if he wanted to play rock, he could, or punk,
he could. And I said, “Okay, why not?” Many,
many years later down the road, here we are.
Did you ever dream it would become this big?
No, no. Because, I mean, when we started
gigging around, there’d be maybe twenty in
the crowd, and fifty on a good night. And a
lot of people would say, “Oh yeah, we kind
of like it, but what is it?” And we said, “We