Lionize were chosen by good friends Clutch as main support for this stretch of the Earth Rocker World Tour. We got the chance to sit down with bassist Henry Upton and have a brief chat about the new album, Clutch and music influences!
R13: How has the tour been so far?
HU: Really great, really really good actually. We've never been in the UK before and the crowds have been superb and excited. The shows have been really good.
R13: For you, does it differ from touring in the US, are the UK crowds distinctly different?
HU: The reputation is for the UK, and Europe in general to be a bit more enthused about live music, their just more excited about it in general than maybe the average American crowd. That's definitely rung true to far.
R13: Yourselves and Clutch are a pretty tight unit, how does it feel having that opportunity to go out and tour with them so much?
HU: It's the most fun we have touring, we've done alot of tours with these guys, and we're friends, known them for seven or eight years now. We're from the same general area back in Maryland so it really is the most fun because they really are one of the best Rock bands left in the world, and you get to see them every night and get to pick their brains and just hang out. It's a blast.
R13: The new album has received a great level of praise, do you reckon it is the best work you've got down on record?
HU: I sure do, otherwise you wouldn't want to go in and keep making them. I think you have to go in, with the mindset at least, that you're going to make something that is really the best thing that you've done. We're just trying to keep growing. I definitely think it is the most cohesive record we've done.
R13: To those Room Thirteen readers who perhaps haven't heard your stuff before, how would you describe your style? Has it differed across the albums?
HU: It definitely differs, the album are always sort of looked at as a moment in time. We've always been trying to, you know, push boundaries with each album, figure out who we are. Really it's a Rock band but we have a lot of other elements come into play. We love a lot of Reggae music and Jazz, Blues and all that stuff makes its way in there. Simplest thing I think to call it a Rock band, maybe recently we've gone Deep Purple-ish, we've gotten into that.
R13: Especially on the new album as well, listening back to it today, it's got quite an accessible sort of groove to it, so it will appeal to your hardcore heavy fans, and more casual music fans who might hear it and want to pick it up. Would you agree with that?
HU: Yeah we're definitely trying to streamline. We used to write all the songs and go play, ad figure out the songs live and go in and record them. We spent a much longer time doing pre-production on this one, just working on them and working on them. I think we boiled it down to something good!
R13: Going back to that album as well, how important was JP's influence? I know he was involved with producing it.
HU: Yeah, huge. We did almost a year's worth of production with him, just going in there, throwing around ideas and he had a ton of input and big influence on not only the drums but the arrangements themselves, the riffs, the direction. He's just got a really great ear and is a really great musician so to be able to have someone like that in the room putting all of their energy towards trying to help you, it's a powerful thing.
R13: How do you guys approach writing albums? Do you all go in at once and thrash it out or is it in stages where someone will come up with a riff or something and you'll work around it?
HU: This one was way more the latter where we were just sort of collecting ideas and bits of lyrics, maybe a little melody here and there then we'd just go play and play. Record it all and give it to JP who would get back to us a month or two later and change a bit, then change it again and again. Every song on there, you're hearing like the sixth or seventh version of that song. There were a couple that were pretty instant.
R13: How have the set-lists been for this tour, do you change it up every night or is it quite focussed on the new album?
HU: We are changing it, we throw in a couple of old ones here and there but the vast majority is the new record. We've got about 45 minutes each night so I would say 35 minutes is probably from that new record.
R13: What do you like to listen to on tour, what get's you fired up for a show?
HU: So many things! It really changes based on the week (laughs). We've been coming out to, speaking of getting fired up, coming out to DJ Kool. Let Me Clear My Throat by DJ Kool, that's some good DC hip-hop from the nineties. We all like A Tribe Called Quest a lot but also play a lot of Deep Purple, Captain Beyond, Parliament, ZZ Top.
R13: Are there any other DC bands that are looking good and on the rise?
HU: Ok, besides Clutch (laughs). Hmm I have to think about that, we're there so infrequently. I don't know about Maryland, but there are definitely some bands that we have toured with who are great. A band called Only Living Boy in New Jersey that I like a lot. There's a lot of Jazz groups. We toured with this band that's not Jazz, but sort of a Bluesgrass/Country/Punk thing called Larry And His Flask and we really like those guys.
R13: Ok that's pretty much me done for questions, have you got a message for our readers?
HU: Well obviously if they're reading and they're music lovers and looking for new stuff to listen to then I would just say give Jetpack Soundtrack a try and if you dig it, let people know!