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Interview with Paul Arnold of At War One of the greatest to be spewed out of
the speed metal flamethrower, At War took solid form in 1983. The thrash
legend then touredextensively both headlining, opening and co headlining with
Slayer, Scarlet: Hello Paul, how's it going in Virginia? Paul: Things are going really well
right now. Since we
started rehearsing again back in October things are Scarlet: At War released it’s first two
song demo ‘Eat Lead’ in 1985 which was extremely well received by both the
underground and the metal world in general. Then came ‘Ordered to Kill’ in
1986 Paul: The business end of At war was
grinding on me at the same time we had been touring quite a lot. I had a
baby girl at home I wasn’t seeing much of and the entire scene had changed
virtually Scarlet: Were you surprised by the
overwhelming response At War received online? Paul: I have been so out of touch with
the whole scene I am only now immersing myself back into it. I am finding
alot about how dedicated At War fans really are. I have been hounded by people
constantly Scarlet: Regarding the recording of the next album, in your own words “Rumor has it that Alex Perialas is on board”. Would you like to say anything else about this? Paul: It is our hope and
intention we can work with Alex again on this most important release. We
had such a great time and Alex knows what we are looking for in overall production
quality. Scarlet: On the upcoming release, do you guys plan on basically keeping your original winning formula and unique vocal style or may we hear some changes in sound? Paul: We are going back to basics on
this one. We are going to be doing the stuff we really love. Scarlet: Assuming At War's next release will be as well received as your previous releases and you receive the call to tour, will you definetly be touring or is this still undecided? Paul: We will definetly be touring to
some degree. Scarlet: How long have the three of you known each
other? Paul: Shawn, Dave and I have known each other for over 27 years and we have grown to know each others styles and do our best to play off each others strengths. It seems to work rather well. Scarlet: At what age did you start singing and playing instruments? Paul: I started playing bass and singing around 1976. Scarlet: Would you tell me about your early influences? Paul: In the early years it was stuff like Ted Nugent, early Aerosmith, UFO, Rush, Hawkwind, Budgie, Frank Zappa. later It just progressively got heavier with Priest, Venom, Motörhead, and the likes.
Paul: I believe it was Geddy Lee who
really inspired me early on. This is why I too play Rickenbackers. It was
driven home when later that Motörhead became my favorite band and it just so
happened Scarlet: This very interesting
statement below is posted on your site. Does this mean that some of those
unreleased "best songs" from the 80’s you mention may see release in the very near
future? Paul: It was weird time in metal.
Grunge rock had just come into being and it seemed at that time no one
wanted to hear metal as much anymore. At the same time, individually we
were experimenting with the way we wrote songs and allowed some of our
personal musical influences to enter that process. Though we love hard
rock and metal, those are not the only forms of music we listen to. Some
of those influences had no place in At War's world. It's pretty much the
old "sounded good at the time". Some of the songs were too much of a
departure from what we felt was ‘At War’, and so it was decided that they
did not belong. We never were really sure about them to begin
with. Scarlet: Speaking of crossbreeding
genres, what do think of all the hullabaloo over some of the established
extreme metal bands adding black n’roll and even progressive rock elements Paul: To each his own. If bands want to experiment I
say go for it. Scarlet: Paul, thanks so much for the interview and I’ve
added your blog Paul: Thanks to you Scarlet for your time and it was my
pleasure http://www.myspace.com/atwartheband 1988: |
