SEVENDUST vocalist Lajon Witherspoon recently spoke with Cameron Buchholtz of the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma radio station Rock 100.5 The KATT. The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).
On touring with CLUTCH:
Lajon: “We actually went out with them years ago on [the] ‘Ladies Night In Cambodia’ [tour] — it was CLUTCH, SEVENDUST and LIMP BIZKIT. This is a family reunion tour for us. It’s a great energy. We have a good time. Everybody jams. It’s a fun tour to be a part [of].”
On new album “All I See Is War”:
Lajon: “I feel like we’re still growing, and there’s still room to grow. To work [producer Michael] ‘Elvis’ Baskette was an incredible adventure, to finally be able to take that avenue. I look forward to working with him again. We lived in his house — one of the first bands to live there. It was this big, beautiful mansion, and the studio was incredible. The energy… every day, I looked forward to singing. It was great. I think it’s definitely heavier. We just wanted to kind of go a little bit traditional SEVENDUST. Elvis wanted to kind of pull back a little bit. He just said, ‘Do what you guys do,’ and that’s what we were doing on this album. It was really fun to have a person come in to almost be like a member of the band, and also police some of the things… He was just great. Not only could he play guitar, sing, add melodies, he was a brother. He’s been a friend of ours for a long time, so it was a pleasure to finally be able to work with him. To see his work ethic was incredible. We did 12-to-12 days — 12 noon to 12 midnight — and I think we would take Sundays off, but man, we worked.”
On how the band members — who no longer live in the same city — wrote the album’s material:
Lajon: “The first part of the album, me, Morgan [Rose], John [Connolly] and Vinnie [Hornsby] just got together in Atlanta and started writing some stuff, and then me and Morgan flew in and hung out with Clint [Lowery] in St. Louis. We still all have our own studios at home and we send stuff back and forth, but I think the magic really happens when we get into a room together. That’s when we put the seed in and watch it grow.”
On having already released a number of music videos for the album:
Lajon: “Thanks to Rise Records, they’re all about those music videos and social media, which is something that’s great for us in this time in our lives… It’s hard to tell what the ‘single’ is. I like it. We want people to get out there and hear the music, because sometimes, it’s so sad that you do a whole album and you get one single out of it, and people really don’t know that you have this deep album with great music on it. I’m down the avenue of wherever we can get the music out, let’s get it out.”
On whether the band plans to continue recording full-length albums in the future:
Lajon: “I’m sure there’s room to change – maybe let a single out here and there, maybe three songs here. We’ve always talked about different ways to do things, and I’m sure in the future, we’ll be doing that, but with the help from Rise now, it’s just exciting having this new album.”
“All I See Is War” was released in May. It marks SEVENDUST‘s first album for Rise Records, the Oregon-based metal and hard rock label which was purchased by BMG in 2015.
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