Interview with Lizzy Borden frontman Lizzy Borden

After nearly twenty-five years in the business, theatrical metal band Lizzy Borden are once again back at it! The release of their newest offering, Appointment with Death, proves they can still rock with the best of them. A host of guest musicians such as John Lynch and Dave Menketti, have helped Lizzy Borden craft a masterpiece with death as the overriding theme. True to form Lizzy Borden has put together a full theatrical package as well, from the unbelievable cover art to a stage show that as Lizzy puts it is “A high energy full throttle theatrical dramatic onslaught of debauchery and blood, so in other words, you’ll have the time of your life.” The band is currently on tour of the United States with dates lined up for Europe as well. I was fortunate enough to catch up to Lizzy in between shows to ask him about the record and the band.

What can fans expect when they pick up the latest CD, Appointment With Death?
Lizzy: A kick ass theatrical metal record inspired by death.

There are quite a few guest performers on this recording, people like George Lynch and Dave Meniketti. How did this come about? What was it like working with these musicians?
Lizzy: We just invited some of our friends to come down and have a go at some of the songs and see what happened. Watching Corey Beaulieu (of Trivium fame) play was really amazing for us because he came in prepared, knew what he wanted to do, and with each take never made a mistake. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that from someone coming in cold playing on a song that they’re not all that familiar with, but that’s Corey. He’s a big fan of classic metal and perfectly suited for it, he’s very nonchalant when he plays, but what he’s playing blows you away.

Marten Andersson also played with George lynch so when we started asking our friends to come in he was a natural choice. George was amazing to watch in the studio, he’s like a mad scientist with all his knobs and stuff. We just turned on the song and he started playing and he did this for a couple hours just blistering with about six or seven of us watching. It was a clinic and we were lucky enough to have the camera rolling, the end result was fantastic.

Having Dave Meniketti on this record means a lot to me and Joey because we are huge fans and we we’re usually in the front row when Y&T came to town. Just watching Dave play was something that you don’t get from just any guitar player, it’s all in his fingers and his emotion, I think he’s the most underrated guitar player ever and we couldn’t be happier that he’s on our record.

Jonas Hansson (of Silver Mountain fame) was also a friend of Marten’s, he played the blistering lead on the title track, absolutely perfect for the song and he’s just an unbelievable guitar player, were honored to have him on his record.

Erik Rutan (of Hate Eternal/ex-Morbid Angel) was a friend of Brian Slagel (from Metal Blade) and Brian thought it would be a great idea to have Erik mix this record. While he was mixing I asked him if he wanted to play on one of the songs and he loved the idea. He did all the Egyptians stuff and the lead in “Somthin’s Crawlin.” It’s really cool and bizarre and completely opposite of what he usually is known for.

Michael T. Ross is in “Hardline” and he plays with “Angel”, Angel is one of my favorite 70’s bands, so we had that in common. Michael came up with some really great stuff for this record. Our goal was to make the keyboards more subliminal and accent the drama in each song, Michael did it perfectly.

Adam Cameron is a really good friend of ours. He is just a great guitar player through in through and I wanted to showcase his skills on this record so I asked him to put a solo on “Under Your Skin.” I love his inflections and the melancholy lines that he put in; again it was perfect for the song.

Marliese Mildenberger is also a longtime friend; she was a second engineer on the Visual Lies record. She’s also an amazing keyboardist, the stuff she came up with is really melodic and I hope to have her on future Lizzy Borden records. Zane is a really good rhythm guitarist; he’s fast and furious in the studio and a little sick and demented, just like we like.

Give us some insight into the record and the meaning behind its title. I understand that it is a conceptual album. Can you elaborate?
Lizzy: Each song speaks for itself under the umbrella theme of death, there are characters throughout as well as I play the main character the Angel of death. The three girls on the cover represent three of the characters within the record but I don’t like to say what songs because I like that to come from the listener. My main goal is to write songs where you could read the lyrics and see yourself in them or see someone you know in them, so I don’t like to reveal too much of the storyline. That’s why I call them theme records and not concept records.

You guys have been in the business for a long time now. How do you think the internet and sites like MySpace have impacted the industry and your band? Do you think that downloading of songs helps or hinders the artist?
Lizzy: I think downloading hurts a band like us, record sales are very important to use as leverage to put your band in position to keep climbing the ladder. But the Internet is invaluable and I wish we had it way back when.

Lizzy Borden has long been known to have a very theatrical stage set to go along with the music. What can fans expects when they come out to see you in support of Appointment With Death?
Lizzy: A high energy full throttle theatrical dramatic onslaught of debauchery and blood, so in other words, you’ll have the time of your life.

If you were not making music what other profession would you be in?
Lizzy: My other hobby is film; I hope to make my own films someday, whenever I get a second. It’s been a big passion of mine for a long time.

What is the hardest part about being in a touring metal band?
Lizzy: Putting a package together where all the bands get along and there’s excitement every night about what everybody’s doing on that stage. The rest is just pure fun for me. I love meeting new people and I love traveling so it’s a dream job.

What was the writing process like for this recording? Did you guys write altogether? How long did it take?
Lizzy: Yes this is the first time since 1987 that I invited the band to work on the music together. We have a new guitarist, Ira Black, and it took a little while for us to capture what we needed to capture to create Appointment with Death. We spent about six months writing song after song trying to put the right songs together and not just make it a balls out metal record and not make it too slow and dramatic; we wanted a well-rounded record that covered all the bases.

I hear there is an interesting story behind the shooting of the photos for this record. According to your bio there were over a thousand pictures taken and then the set was set ablaze. Can you tell us the story?
Lizzy: Yes the cover was a special thing, we put a lot of work into it and it really paid off. When you look at it, it looks like a surreal painting. There’s no Photoshop or anything like that, it is how we shot it. We spent two days working on all the shots for the inside sleeve and all and at the end it just seemed like the right thing to light the whole set on fire! And run….

What is next for Lizzy Borden?
Lizzy: To bring the “Appointment with Death Tour” to every country that will let us in. The reviews have been great on this record and we really want to do a lot of touring. We have a few festivals booked already in Europe and working on a tour for the US and beyond.  [ END ]