Page 16 - Black Velvet Rock Magazine Issue 102

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wars before that were just sheer carnage. This against the success of Metallica, even though know. They’re just shitty and grey; that’s okay
one was, of course, carnage, but then there was he is an extremely successful singer, guitar too because we’re all in this together. We’re all
some organisation involved afterwards, which player, musician. As many people have seen in experiencing these ups and downs.”
kind of led us to the idea of modern warfare. I the documentary of Metallica, Dave’s not happy When writing lyrics, Jonny tells us he writes
think it’s a really great analogue for our own per- with where he’s at. I feel like that is a major chal- ‘in the moment’ without necessarily having a
sonal lives. I think we all have our own battles, lenge for musicians in general. You’re really specific storyline in mind. It is when he looks
our own demons, our own taking stock, our own happy for your friends in bands; you’re really back at his lyrics that he learns from them. “It is
body count, if you will. We all have our own Ar- happy for your colleagues and peers in bands something I like to do actually,” Jonny tells us, “I
mageddon inside of us; that place where our and how they’re doing, but you’re always meas- like to look back at songs like ‘Inside It’s Raining’
battles are fought and hopefully won.” uring yourself against them. I think it is healthy and ‘Die Trying’ and really figure out what I was
because it challenges you more, but it’s also talking about in that moment. ‘Armageddon’ is
ne of the battles we can all relate to, es- kind of a sickness, you know, of never really the same. I feel like that’s where the heart of Art
Opecially in today’s society, is how we feeling completely happy with what you are Of Dying - our music - lives. It is in the struggle
view ourselves and how we are constantly com- doing.” Jonny opens up about who he draws of everyday life and in the fact that you know this
paring ourselves to others. Do other people see comparisons against. “I’m always measuring life is good, you know this life offers you what-
us the same way in which we see ourselves? myself against my friends. I'm always measuring ever you want to take from it, but in the same
This is something Jonny has thought about, and myself against Adam [Gontier - Saint Asonia] breath this life is sometimes horrible and some-
written about, more than once. On the new and Shaun [Morgan] from Seether and our bud- times shockingly hard to get through. I don’t
album, the song ‘Shatterproof’ includes the line, dies in Disturbed. It’s always kind of… it’s a chal- want to overanalyse things, but I think a lot
‘I can see my old friend looking at me in the mir- lenge to measure yourself against such about the people we lost recently. My hero is
ror.’ greatness.” Chris Cornell…I think about many of the losses
“That mirror reference, it’s been around that we have seen in the music world, whether
since day one for me in writing music. I talk s with the band’s previous albums, the it’s Layne Staley or Chris, or so many people
about the same mirror in ‘Get Thru This’, and Alyrics within the songs held on ‘Ar- we’ve lost recently. I grapple with it all the time
that mirror was my dad. You know, it was his mir- mageddon’ are enveloped in darkness, but there because we’re in the same business; we’re in
ror, looking at himself. The mirror is now me is still a feeling of hope shining through. The the same creative field. I know that struggle is in
looking at myself,” Jonny reveals. “Sometimes words carry a sense of pure determination from everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re the singer
you love what you see in the mirror and some- someone who is aware that they are in a dark of a multi-platinum band or if you feel like you’re
times you really don’t like what you see in the hole and doing all they can to lift themselves out a nobody in your tenth grade…” he pauses. “It’s
mirror at all. That really gets me thinking about of it. Jonny admits that there were many times that kind of life and death balance that we speak
what other people see in you and what you see during the writing process where he looked at about a lot in Art Of Dying and I think most of the
in other people. When you look in the mirror, you co-writer / producer Davor and his fellow band- songs, including ‘Armageddon’, are really just
see a lot of things about yourself, you see a lot mates and said, ‘Oh shit, that is dark’. “I know about that struggle.”
of things that you probably don’t want to see. So, from our core fanbase that a lot of people over
yeah, the reflection is important, it really is. I the years have got onboard with us because of espite being heavy in the lyrical sense,
often wonder - what’s the difference between the hopefulness that is in the music, so it was a DJonny found ‘Armageddon’ to be the
what people see in us, when they look directly little scary to dip that toe into the dark water. Like easiest record he’s ever made. The singer puts
at us, and what we see in ourselves when we the final track on the record, ‘No One Ever this down to the location. It was made in Jonny’s
look directly in the mirror.” Wins’, I mean, it’s an interesting way to leave the hometown of Vancouver. “I was able to make the
Jonny notes that how you measure yourself listener. The idea of no one ever wins is, for me, record around my own schedule,” Jonny says
can be one of the hardest things to overcome. one of the darkest concepts I’ve ever written. I happily. “I have a wife and daughter here and I
“I’m reading a book right now and it’s funny be- was almost thinking it’s too dark, but that dark- got to be with my family the whole time. The
cause I know Jason Hook, a friend from Five ness lives within us, you know, the darkness and process with Davor producing - we’ve worked
Finger Death Punch, he’s reading the same the light lives within all of us. What I’m trying to with Davor for years behind the scenes, he’s
book. He was talking about it the other day, it’s really say to people is, to feel that darkness is been someone I write with a lot. We wrote ‘Sorry’
‘The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck’ [by Mark okay. And, to feel that beautiful elation on a dif- together for ‘Vices And Virtues’. We wrote a
Manson]. In that book, the author reminds us of ferent day when something great happens, bunch of tracks together for every single record
the Dave Mustaine / Metallica relationship and that’s okay too. There’s going to be a whole that’s ever come out. So, when he came on-
how Dave is constantly measuring himself bunch of days in between that just suck, you board to write and record this whole record with

ART OF DYING