Interview with MANILLA ROAD

Interview questions by Paweł Kowalewski

Answers: Mark Shelton

Photos: Richard Cathey; Sarah Kitteringham

Hello Mark! How are You? I noticed, that You are very busy rcently. Do You still find time to do interviews or are You already tired of them?
Shark: I never get tired of interviews because it gives me a chance to babble hahah. I am busier now days but it is all good because it’s all music stuff that is occupying my time and that is something that I live for so it is fine with me.

You’ve released the first Hellwell’s album some time ago. Tell us about this project. Who and when created it and who takes part in it? Except the basic line-up (3 persons), we can also hear Hellroadie and Josh as a guests.
Shark: The project sort of got started when E.C. Hellwell and I got together after many years of no contact. He had me read a story that he wrote called Acheronomicon. I fell in love with the story and decided it should be put to music. Ernie is a keyboardist and bass player with good capabilities so we figured on writing some stuff together. We were in a bit of a lull with Manilla Road at the time waiting for the drummer to finish working on some of the tracks for Playground of the Damned. During that time I was introduced to Jonny Benson and we tried him out for the Hellwell project and as soon as I heard him I nicknamed him Thumper and signed him up with Hellwell. So we had the core band comprised at that point. We just started out thinking it was going to be a one off project but as time went on we were having so much fun and coming up with so many ideas that we decided to turn it into a band and see how far we could go with it. Since we were having such a good time with the creating and recording of the album in my studio Midgard Sound Labs some of the other guys around MR at the time wanted to get in on the action also and that is how Josh and Hellroadie became involved. Also during the start of all of this Vince Golman (bass player for MR at the time) started to have physical problems with his left hand and was unable to play so he bailed out willingly from the band leaving a bit of a gap in the project we were working on. Vince had done 2 songs for the Playground album Brethren of the Hammer and Art of War but the rest of the album was still void of bass parts. So I asked E.C. if he would finish the album with us. He said yes and it was on. He did such a good job on the parts that we started thinking about putting him in the band as the bass player but he did not want to tour as much as we were looking at for the future and he really had his sights set on the Hellwell project also. So we did the rest of the album with Ernie and then we brought Josh in later to be our permanent bassist for the Road.

Musically, it is a combination of MR’s style with hard rock sounds of the 70's. This is what You can call Your inspiration from the youth?
Shark: You might say that. I grew up with the sounds of the 50’s 60’s and 70’s music so it has always been an influence on me. I just believed that combining the sound of the organ and guitar like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep did would be very interesting for a project like this. The themes that the band touches on are like classic horror and so a classic approach to the music seemed appropriate as well. I think it is a cool mix of styles and generates a bit of it’s own style in the fusion process.

There is a dark atmosphere on the album. The lyrics are inspired by horror stories. Tell us about them. What is this album about?
Shark: Well The Strange Case of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes is about the case of Herman Webster Mudgett in Chicago during the 1893 Worlds Fair where Tesla lit up the place with the first array of electrical lighting for a portion of the fair grounds called the White City. Holmes had a hotel that he built with death chambers in it and a lab for dissection in the cellar. He murdered as many as 200 people that were visitors to the Fair selling their cleaned and stripped skeletons to universities anatomy departments. Eaters of the Dead is based on the story of the same name by Michael Crichton. Keepers of the Devils Inn is about the Bloody Bender family of Kansas that murdered and robbed unsuspecting travels at their little trading post on the Osage Trail in Kansas. Deadly Nightshade is about the Zombie Apocalypse haha. Got to have a zombie apocalypse plan you know. All of the rest of the album is a trilogy based on the short story Acheronomicon by E.C. Hellwell. It is a very Lovecraft and Howard type of influenced story with his own style thrown in as well. It is all very dark and definitely influenced by classic horror type themes.

You’ve recorded the album in Your Midgard Sound Lab with some help of Derek Brubaker and Hellroadie as well. Tell us how was the work in the studio?
Shark: This project was really fun to record. It all seemed to just flow out of us on this one and that was a great relief at the time because things were moving very slow for Manilla Road’s progress on Playground of the Damned. I think it was refreshing to bring some new blood into the studio with E.C. and Thumper.

You have left the process of mastering for Steve Falke. Is he a better expert than you or what?
Shark: Oh yeah he is a better expert than me when it comes to mastering and his studio has all the right stuff for the mastering process. Cornerstone is equipped with much better gear than I have for mastering and mixing. And Steve really knows his way around the equipment and has really great ears.

Who is Alexander von Wieding, who painted the front cover and designed the artwork? Is this painting only his idea, or do you worked together?
Shark: We worked together with him. Ernie sent him the story and they discussed it along with me but most of it is Alex’s interpretation of one of the scenes from the story.

The album was released with a thick booklet containing a story book by Ernest. I still don’t have it, but it must be amazing for the fans, don’t You think? Do You like the story?
Shark: Yes it is totally cool and I love the story to death. Stuff like this just does not happen that often anymore and we thought that the fans deserved something special. It was as much High Rollers doing as us. It was a mutual idea to print the story along with the music. Great stuff I think and high quality stuff from High Roller and Shadow Kingdom.

The song "Deadly Nightshade" was originally set to appear on „Playground of the Damned” album. Is this true? So why then the song was not on the album?
Shark: Yes I actually wrote the song for the Playground album. But Cory just never did come up with a part for it. So we shelved the recordings of the song but one night Thumper was working with me in the studio and I played him the song and he came up with a part for it right away. We worked on the song for most of a afternoon and he put down a great part to it so we decided to go ahead and put it on the Hellwell album.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember that You was also planning to write a book. It was in time of “Voyager” release. Has anything changed since then?
Shark: Still want to write that one but I just have not had the time to work on anything except music. The music always comes first.

Is Hellwell only a one-time side-project or a regular band? Are there plans for another album and some live shows?
Shark: We are not sure about live shows yet but we are already working on another album for Hellwell. We have 3 songs finished already and they are even stranger and heavier than the ones on Beyond the Boundaries of Sin. So I would have to say that Hellwell is for sure a band that will at least keep recording projects for a while. If there is enough demand for Hellwell to play live then we will most likely tour at least a bit.

Ok, let’s talk about Manilla Road now. I know that You already finished works on a new album. When can we expect it? I know that it will be for sure early 2013, but do You already know the approximate release date?
Shark: We are looking at February 2nd as being the release date We will be doing a special show at the Metal Assault Festival in Wurzburg Germany for the release along with a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the release of Crystal Logic. For this glorious event will be doing the whole Crystal Logic album from start to finish with Rick Fisher playing drums with us. Neudi will play the rest of the show. It should be epic.

The album is going to be titled “Mysterium”, am I right? Apparently there was also a proposal to entitle it “Stand your ground”. Why did You change the title?
Shark: We never really had set down a permanent title until I thought of Mysterium as a song for the album. We actually figured that almost any of the song titles could have worked very well for the title of the album but that one seemed to stick with all of us as the title of the project.

What is this album going to be? The title is similar to “Mystification”. Is the music going to be similar too?
Shark: Conceptually speaking the Mysterium is not really like Mystification at all. There are some ghostly type moments in couple of the songs on Mysterium but for the most part it is dissimilar as far as the topics are concerned. There are a few Scottish influenced songs that sort of tie together and there is the title cut that is a epic story of my Great Uncle Ludwig von Leichhardt who was a famous explorer in Australia in the 1840’s whose last patrol was lost in the Outback to never be seen again. To this day there is still no real explanation as to what happened to them. As far as the music goes it is the closest thing we have done to a classic Manilla Road album since the reformation in 2000. It still has our experimental flavor to it but it also sounds a lot like our style in the mid 80’s. I think this is the best produced project that we have ever done. We recorded it in my studio but did the mix with Steve Falke in his studio and I pretty much let him do most of the work and I just sort of consulted. It was hard to let go of the reigns with the mix but Steve is great at what he does and Mysterium shows that. It sounds incredible.

After all, You have a brand new bassist and drummer. How the new musicians did their job in the studio?
Shark: They both did a great job. Josh is fun to work with and is very talented. He has not worked on a lot of recordings before so this was a bit of an experience for him but he did great. Neudi is just perfect for this band and he was totally on fire in the studio when he did his parts. It was a blast recording Mysterium.

You have played a whole bunch of shows with them already. Can You tell that they are already a part of the family?
Shark: Oh yeah they did not take long to settle in at all. Neudi and I have been friends for many years anyway so we already got along really well. These guys are really fun to tour with.

Do You stay in touch with Cory? Why did he leave the band and what is he doing now?
Shark: Cory got into some shit at home that is keeping him from being able to travel and unfortunately you have to be able to tour in order to be of any use to the band. So it was a business decision to change drummers because we just could not postpone any of Manilla Road’s tour plans. He is working in Wichita and still playing in his other band locally. We have had some contact but not much.

Did You compose alll the new material by Yourself or maybe the others also took an active part in the composing process?
Shark: I actually wrote all the songs for Mysterium on my own but the other guys have added a really cool feel to the whole thing.

Who helped You this time in the production, mixing and mastering? Was it Steve Falke again?
Shark: Yep. Steve is a great asset to us right now. Sort of our guiding light when it comes to the mix and mastering.

What is the story You will tell us on the new album? It will be a conceptual album like for example Voyager, or rather the songs are not closely related?
Shark: Well we sort of have two concepts going on with the Scottish thing and the Mysterium concept. We also have some songs that that are not exactly connected with the others. So there is a bit of both worlds going on. The over all feel of the album is that of standing ones ground and being adventurous.

When You start working on new MR’s album, do You have in mind all those fan’s suggestions on what this album should be? I guess that You get many requests from fans for making an album similar to the one of the earlier ones.
Shark: I just pick themes that I like and nothing more. We do get some requests for us to try and go back to the Crystal Logic or Open The Gates style but it seems to be rare. I think most of our fans have always known that change is inevitable with Manilla Road.

Let’s talk about “Playground Of The Damned” album. Are You still proud of it today? For me it's Your best album since the reunion at the beginning of new millennium.
Shark: Yes I am still proud of it. I also think it is one of our best projects from the reformation period. I still love the sound of that album. I think songs like Fire of Asshurbanipal or Abattoir de la Mort have a really cool vibe to them. Hell I like all of the album. I am really proud of the lyrics to Art of War. I think it is the best produced album that we have done since the reformation but I still really like Gates of Fire also. Playground was a hard and long process because of many band member issues that arose with Cory and Vince both. It seemed to take forever to get that project finished. I am surprised that the album held together as well as it does because the project took 2 years to finish. Things are better now and we seem to be on track again turning our studio into a music factory. We are starting to tour more so it is important to be able to spend as whatever time we have to work in the studio being productive and not spinning our wheels. Playground was a long excursion into the darker planes but I am still really proud of the project and believe it is one of our better releases.

This album is has very traditional sound and individual tracks reminds me of Your first albums. It seems like it was Your ‘back to the roots’. Do You agree?
Shark: On some songs I would agree for sure. Grindhouse has that sort of older epic Manilla Road feel to it especially since it has that sort of psychedelic section to it at the last. Fire of Asshurbanipal has a very ancient Manilla Road feel to it also I think. Art of War is another song that really feels like old MR to me as well. So in many ways I have to agree with you.

Where did You get the idea to do a song inspired by Tarantino movie? Do You like his movies?
Shark: I do like his movies but it was not just the movie him and Rodriquez made but the genre of Grindhouse movies that I grew up with in the theaters in my younger years. The whole genre was extremely cool if you ask me and I am always interested in old movies and media. Especially weird stuff like what we are talking about. I’m also totally into classic horror movies.

The artwork on this album is once again an outstanding work. It contains many elements that refer to the Manilla Road’s history. Will the cover of the new album do the same guy?
Shark: No. I used Markus Vesper for the last two albums and he is a great artist. But I like to change it up every once in awhile also so that we don’t just start treading water so to speak. So the Mysterium will be done by Alexander von Wieding of Germany. He has done some other great stuff for me as well and we seem to connect well. I’m sure I will use Markus again for something soon because he is really good. Alex did the Hellwell art on Beyond the Boundaries of Sin which if you look at that one you will freak out on the art as well. He is the stuff also.

You cooperate with Shadow Kingdom Records. They have released your last album and some classic reissues. Are You satisfied with this cooperation and this reissues? I think they’re great! Do You have all of them at home?
Shark: Yes I am very close to Shadow Kingdom and love the work they do. We have a good relationship with them that goes back many years. I expect to be working with Shadow Kingdom and High Roller for a long time to come.

You signed with Golden Core records which will be Your record label in Europe. That’s good news for me and all the MR’s maniacs from Europe. Is there a chance, that they will create us the possibility to get t-shirts and other merch? Currently we have to spend a fortune on shipping acrosst the oceans.
Shark: Yes I am really excited about signing with Golden Core / ZYX. I think it will help us all a bunch to tap into such heavy distribution across Europe. I know they are planning a big promotional push for the Mysterium but so far we are retaining the merchandise rites for Manilla Road. The best thing to do is catch us live at one of our tour dates and then you can get the merchandise directly. But if you can’t get to a show then you can always get merchandise from our website at www.manillaroad.net . Unfortunately we all have to endure the mailing costs when it is mail order but that is the next best thing to getting it at a show.

You are going to play in Wurzburg, Germany (Februadry 2nd) a special 3 hour show which will be a 30th anniversary of Crystal Logic album with Rick Fisher on drums. Was it hard to persuade him to do this? Who came up with this idea?
Shark: We had been talking to Rick about doing something like this for a long time now. I think it might have been Bryan that came up with the idea originally but in truth there have been several fans over the years that have asked about something like this also. So I guess you would have to say that the fans asked for it and so here it comes. Rick will do all the Crystal Logic album with us and then Neudi will finish the rest of the show which will be about 2 + hours. It should be a great epic night and show I believe. That will be one not to miss. I have to give Oliver of the Metal Assault festival a big hand on this one also because he has been instrumental in making this show happen this way.

Is there any chance to see Randy Foxe again playing drums on next albums anniversaries? I know that some time ago You met him, and jammed together with Neudi.
Shark: Yes it was good to bury the hatchet so to speak. It was really good getting back together with him. Bryan and I just went and saw him play guitar and keyboards with the band Initial Impact about 2 weeks ago. They were really good. Who knows about whether Randy will ever play drums with us again for any reason. Stranger things have happened that is for sure. I would not put it past us to do something like that.

When can we expect a live DVD or at least live CD from You? You have a lot live of material I guess.
Shark: There will be a 60 minute DVD included with the release of Mysterium so I hear. So that should be very cool. I think the footage is from the Hammer of Doom Festival in Germany during October of 2011. There will be a full length DVD movie in the future about the Road and it will have lots of footage from many eras of Manilla Road.

That’s all for now Mark. Thanks for Your time, and now please say a few words to our readers and Your polish fans. See You in Wurzburg (I hope).
Shark: First of all thank you for doing the interview. It has been an honor. And to our fans I just want to say thank you so much for all the support you have given us. We can’t do it without you and your faith in us. Up The Hammers & Down The Nails.