 Jimmy K here, Metal Voice. Look at this. The Metal Voice shirts are now on sale. Just go to the video description to find out on how you can purchase one. Metal! Welcome to the Metal Voice. Alan, it's been too long. Yes, yes. It's been too long with Todd. One of our greatest interviews ever, I think, was with Todd LaTorre himself, and we're honored to have him back with us today. Yeah, yeah. I think we did like a four-hour interview with him once. We just got to talk like the whole afternoon. Hey, I got the gift to gab. The news. Yeah, February 5th. Jim, what's it got to mean? Rejoice in the suffering on Rat Pack Records. February the 5th. Pureter now. Yeah. Very exciting news. Very exciting news. All right. Tell us about the album. Just tell us about the album. We're talking about anyways. Tell us about the recording process of the sound, Todd. All right. I'll keep things more concise for you. So I don't answer 10 questions with one answer. All right. The short version is my friend Craig and I wrote and recorded the album here in Florida between my studio and his in about a four month period. We wrote the music and recorded everything. And then, uh, and we gave the recordings to Zeus, who you know from doing all the work with Queens, Reich and other artists. And so he did the mixing and the mastering. And, uh, that was, you know, right when COVID started and the lockdown happened, we flew home from two canceled shows. And I called him and said, Hey, this is the time because, you know, we've talked for several years now. We've talked about solo record. And I said, I got to get it done now. Todd back to 2017. We talked about that. So, and you placed a little clip of it. You're talking about like, you know, three, four years now. I know. Yeah. So that's, that's the short version is the recording process was done. Here we had some get-togethers in person, but because of the distancing thing and not knowing about the situation. Um, you know, we did it between both of our home studios. And that was it. It was, it was really simple to be honest. All right. I mean, just for, you know, let's start who plays the instruments. I mean, you're doing the singing, you're doing the drums, I imagine. And. And Craig does all the guitars and bass and he does, uh, any keys, primarily like atmospheric sounds and just like a little bed of some, some notes and stuff underneath. Um, and yeah, so just the two of us did the whole, all everything. Um, we did, did have a guest solo on the title track where Jordan Ziff came in and, uh, he played the second half of the solo to rejoice in suffering. And was this, okay. So again, you mentioned COVID. Did this kind of help you or hurt you in this whole solo project thing? Or sort of like, Hey, this is a great opportunity to like get this done. It was a great opportunity to get it done. I mean, there was no touring for the foreseeable future. We didn't, you know, then you didn't really know. And I remember saying like, um, this is going to be, we're going to be down for a long time, like months and months and months. And at the time, you know, there were a lot of people around us saying, you know, I'll, you know, in a month or so, we'll be back in the swing. I was like, no, dude, this is, this is gnarly. You know, I was watching, uh, Dr. Michael Osterholm on a Joe Rogan podcast when he wasn't really doing any stuff on the, on TV. And you know, he's an expert in this. And so I was listening and I was like, this, this, this looks really bad for a million reasons. But I thought, okay, I'm never home for any real length of time. And it's hard to focus on this stuff. Like when you're only home for a week. And you're like, okay, I got to go back to these songs. And I was just, I told Craig, I was like, this is the time right now. And every single day I woke up and we just worked on the music and recorded and, and we got it done. But yeah, I can, I just considered it as a, an opportunity that I'm never going to get again to have this kind of isolated downtime to just focus on this. So can we get to the title, like rejoicing the suffering? Like, what does that come from? So that was the first song that was, that was ever written. So that, that one song was written many years ago, actually. There was only, that was the only completed song prior to the March recording or set a starter, started the songwriting sessions. And that was written about my dad's suicide and the turmoil that was surrounding that personally with certain family dynamics that were really not good. And so that was my, you know, to the two individuals in the situation. So yeah, there's a couple songs. And initially I thought, you know, maybe I'm going to write a concept album about, about my dad and about, you know, that whole situation. And it ended up, I ended up not doing that. But then apology, which is really what I consider the last track of the album itself, one through 10 is what I consider the main record. That's also that song is, is if I were in his, like his last day through his eyes experiencing his very last day, that song's about, about my dad also. So that title, without getting into too many details, that's essentially what it's surrounding is, is, is that situation. I mean, apology for me is one of the strongest songs on the album. I mean, just your vocals on that could be right off of the warning, right? I mean, just the emotion that you have in there just brings me right back to that time period. Yeah. I really liked that song a lot. And, you know, when, when a few years ago Craig and I had rejoice in the suffering song done, and then we had, I had a verse, I had an idea for the intro singing part, but I had the verse and like part of the chorus done. And then I had a little snippet or like a one little verse of pretenders done. And I think that was it. And so everything starting in March, aside from the ones I just said was all finishing apology, finishing pretenders and then we wrote all everything starting in March. So essentially I say the record really was kind of written and recorded in four months with the exception of those two pieces. I told you. I really like apology. I think it's a good closer. Even though you do have the bonus tracks again as, as one through 10, I think it's a nice ending. And it's really emotional that that last, that last verse, you know, where I'm singing in the higher register, you know, I sometimes I hear it and I get goosebumps because it's like, you know, you don't get, you don't get to say goodbye. You don't, you know, it's just, you get the phone call and you realize, you know, that they killed themselves and it's like you're left with trying to like, fuck dude, you didn't even say goodbye. You know, hopefully people can, even if they don't know what it's about, and I was really reluctant guys, you know, when I did this, I was thinking, you know, I know people are going to ask me about the title and what does that mean? And do I want to explain what it means? Cause it's really personal. And do I want to explain what apology means? Somebody can say, well, but you're putting it out there for everyone to hear what, you know, it's natural to ask why would you not want to, but sometimes that's my, it's my way of bleeding out. It's my, you know what I mean? It's my therapy. And so I feel okay with explaining some of the things I've said to you. And it's a sad reality for a lot of people. There was some more positive news here. It's just unbelievable the amount of, if I can use the term voices that you use on this album, it's, you know, dog matter starts it off. I think I counted like six different influence or different types of voices just in that song alone, you know, the vocal Olympics basically. That's what it is. Some guy, a friend of mine, he heard, you know, the first song we put out was dark and majesty and he, he messaged me. He goes, how does someone have a duet with themselves? That song. I mean, it's like the, this is how I've been singing for so long on my own, various ways, you know, and people will say like, oh man, he, he, you know, you're, you're, you're a chameleon. You can mimic and sound like so many different things. But at the same time, you know, people are like, but what does he sound like? It's like, you know what I sound like? All this stuff. Because I sing with whatever the song makes me feel like it wants. So, you know, I really kind of contest that type of a response as far as like, okay, well, obviously he doesn't sound anything like Queens right on this. So he's trying to sound like that in Queens right. And I say, well, when Michael writes a song and it sounds like Queens right, I'm going to write it. I'm going to phrase things that way. I'm going to, it's just the way that it is. And, but, but I got to say pretenders. Hold on. Just not to cut you up, but I know what you're going to say. Let's talk about Robert. You got the rolling of the, you know, the rolling of the R's, you know, like the Rob Halford, you know. And I mean, you know, I know this is little nuances. But maybe that song made you feel like painkiller or something. Right. Yeah. I mean, it's like saying, oh, he did a finger tap. You know, you're ready Van Halen now. Like, he's not the only guy to trill it on. Yeah. But I mean, you know, another singer that's a friend of the show stew block with ice earth. I mean, you got the death vocals on here too. Right. On the bonus track. Yeah. And he's famous for doing these types of things as well. I mean, it's amazing. I told stew, I texted him one time. Like I had watched him do, I think it was painkiller on the 70,000 tons. And then he hits this note that's to the stratosphere. And I was like, I think I texted him and I was like, what the app like WPF dude. God damn you're pissing me off. I wish I could sing like that. You know, we call them freaks of nature. That's what we call it. Awesome. But you know, I didn't have other textures and other sounds to my voice that people don't get to hear because again, I'm never going to put that stuff in Queens, right? I mean, there's some songs in Queens, right? Like, like hellfire. Okay. There's a line in there. It's like, you know, piercing screams in my head and it's, you know, the octave higher that I do. That's totally like what I would sing on a pretenders or something like that. But that's just a little piece. Yeah. If it was like, you know, it sounds like overkill in vanguards of the Don wall. I love, I love overkill. I love that kind of delivery. And so when I heard that, you know, that thrash thing, I was like, okay, this doesn't need flowy, melodic clean. This needs harsh shrill, percussive phrasings. And, you know, so that's what I did. You know, I just thought we'd throw out a few song titles of what my impressions are. Maybe you can just add to it as we go along. Let's do it. All right. So I got the crossroads to insanity for me. That's like Queens, right? Me Tony Martin era Sabbath, you know, that's true. Yeah. We wrote that song in two days. And we have, we have a video for that song. That's coming out very soon that will surprise you. And I love that song, you know, it's, it's a, you know, it gets to show a lower register in the verses, which I love. It shows Craig's solo work that's very melodic. I mean, such a good player. And then, you know, the ending, when we did that ending, it kind of reminded me of planet caravan, right? And I was like, you know, okay, I'm kind of hearing this. I like this clean ending. It's not expected. Let's just do that and let it fade out. And so yeah, that's one of my favorite songs. I think that'll be a favored song among the people that do get to hear the record. I agree. Along with the apology, I think those are my two favorites on the track as well on the album. So critical cynic, just you go drums crazy on that song. I mean, So that song was started. I called Craig and I was like, Hey, you know, I'm feeling like a So get, you know, this is what I'm feeling. And I said, I said, this is, this is what I'm feeling. But now there's a middle section. Oh, wait, is that the song? Hold on. No, that's another song. We'll, we'll tell you that part later. But anyway, critical cynic, um, you know, I, that was when the stupid plan, dummy, whatever the fuck it's called. This stupid, You know, conspiracy theory crap about the virus and everybody. And I was like, I was so irritated with people here whining about wearing a mask and you're infringing on my freedoms and all this crap. And, uh, And that song was written about the, the, the science deniers. That's what it's written about. So even the chorus, you know, how it's written about, you know, How can we grow when we can't see criticized positions dishonor those who know what's to gain, make of all this madness? Yada, yada. But you've got people that have spent their life. You know, in higher learning, when it used to be revered and coveted and respected and trusted. And now people are like, well, I did my research. I did my research. Research happens at a laboratory. You want, you want to note, here's a note on the masks for my cousin is an infectious disease doctor. And just throwing it out there. Cause I know you're just in the stuff. Yeah. He says that if we have, if I wear a mask and you were a mask. And I have, I have the Corona virus, let's say, and it, and it comes out of my mask. Miniscule, right? Like very small. And then a very small goes into your mask. It's like actually having a vaccine. It's like, Is that great? Is that, that's, that's kind of what they're thinking. That's what the mask can actually do. They filter it out to a point where it's so tiny. That it's like a live vaccine that your body will fight against, but you won't actually get too sick. Right. Yeah. So the viral load is so small, but enough that your body will respond in a way that can be beneficial to you. To create the antibodies that you need to fight off a bigger dose of it. Right. Right. Is that fascinating? But I just thought I'd throw that out there. Fascinating. You know, but, but anyway, that song. Allen was, was, uh, was written about surrounding that, that topic. Okay. That we had vexed. I mean, for me, he's got a nice acoustic intro. But he's got an 80s feel to that song. That one does that. And you know that, the intro to that song is, is Queens, right? The delivery on that vocal is very much in what I would do in Queens, right? Because that's what I felt. Right. Um, and that's another, that's another song. I was outside on my porch and my mailman came up and he's really cool guy. And it's like, oh, still no shows because, you know, we talk a lot. And I said, no, you know, and I was just like really irritated. Right. And I'm like, man, I got to get out of here. And Jimmy knows that, you know, I want to go to Greece one day, you know, relocate there like seriously. And, uh, and, uh, and so that started that. Cause every night I go out and I look at the stars every night before I go to bed. I always go out and I look up at the stars. And that's what that intro is. You know, talks about that. And, and it's, you know, you know, you know, you know, I'm pissed off. And, um, so that, that has to do with kind of the current times, if you will. So, so Vex has got the eighties metal feel. I mean, fractured for me is kind of like nineties kind of grungy Alice, the change kind of feel. So, and you know what? That's, that's my least favorite among all of them. To be honest, it was like, yeah, it's like, it's like, it's like, you know, I mean, and I'm thinking. I'm like, you know, to be honest. It was like, the, it's okay. Initially we were going to have bonus tracks for different territories to be honest. And I was like, okay, one through 10s. The main record. I said, I want to have a special track for Japan. Maybe I'll have a separate bonus track for the U.S. And one for Europe. And then at the end, it was like, condition human. There's the song Mercury Rising. There's Espirito Muerto. There's different songs that nobody's ever heard. They're in Japan. You've never heard it. It's on a seven inch vinyl. You don't even know it exists. And I said, and you can't find it, by the way. But we have three songs that are great Queen's Rite songs that most people have never heard. And they were released legit. And I said, you know what? No, these were going to be bonus tracks. We'll just make them extra goodies at the end of the record if people can like it or not like it, whatever. But yeah, that's a really good assessment, Alan, because it totally has that kind of a sound. I mean, you know, we're a little bit older and the grunge movement, either we were loved it or we hated it. And it just had that feel to me. And then Darken Majesty, you know, for me, that Cinderella meets Alice Cooper, another very strong song on the album. Yeah, I would say that's, you know, the chorus is definitely more Crimson Glory. And the verses remind me kind of more of like a fight, overkillish, you know, it's got that good headbanging groove and then it opens up to a nice melodic chorus. That track has a lot of things in it. And I think that was why I was like, you know what, if I just put out something that's too out there, the initial base that I have of listenership, they may, I want them to connect with some element of a song. And this is a chorus, I think they might appreciate. But I'm really going for a demographic that maybe doesn't even know who I am to get into more of that heavier audience where it's like, I've heard of the guy, but maybe they don't listen to Queen's Rite, for example. And so I'm really trying to just broaden that viewership or listenership to let people know, hey, I can do a lot of stuff here, I'm not just this guy over here. You know, there is a lot of down tuning, there's a lot of, there's industrial elements as well, right? It's a heavier album, like you just said, it is overall a heavier album than any Queen's Rite album, right? Yeah, I mean, it's not like crazy heavy, but it's like heavy in a classic sense, in a thrash sense, the Mesa Boogie guitars, I mean, the guitars are very biting and kind of, they're very present, which I was like, Craig's guitars are so good and his rhythms are, they need to stand out. And we don't want a bunch of layered guitars, we want to keep it to rhythms and that's it and make it. And to be honest, when we were doing this, I was like, I was like, dude, you know what I miss? I miss hearing a stripped down sound like fight, like overkill, where you don't have so many layers of guitar. It's just simple, classic metal, right to the point, you're not having to sift through all these different elements to understand the riff. I was like, I want to keep it very simple. I'm not trying to reinvent anything new. I just want to do what music that I like to hear in my car and songs that make me want a head bang and groove to, that's what I want to write. And I don't, honestly, I'm like, I don't care if anybody likes it or doesn't like it. I mean, you want people to like it, but if people don't connect with it, the whole objective for me was to like have the outlet. Yeah, whatever you do to the next two songs, I mean, that's for me, it's stripped down heavy metal classic hellbounded down and vanguards of the dark wall. I mean, though for me, that's just a classic sound, just like you described it. Yeah, I mean, hellbounded down has has a little has a good groove like Pantera. It's got the guitars on that are kind of Pantera ish, you know, it's got like a little bit of that Southern sound, the riffs in the verses to hellbounded down, then it's a very, you know, straightforward double bass classic chorus, then you have this cool breakdown, you know, where I get into this, you know, walls, burning that whole thing with the the Tom work and his guitars reminded me of Slayer, you know, in that. So instead of singing there, you know, how do you end up here? You know, I was doing more of that as like a like a Tom array, a type of a delivery, like I don't want to sing here, I just want to vocalize an attitude here. And yeah, vanguards of the dawn wall is just a straight up thrash tune, you know. Yeah, so okay, so you have this album, it's being released, the pandemic is pretty much still in play. You can release videos and all right, but I mean, I don't know, Florida is how open it is, I guess I'm hearing it's kind of the Wild West, dude, it's it's stupid. Yeah, but can you play a show open? Is Florida open enough to do a show? Just came through town. Steele Panther played here, jet plate played here, collective soul played here. I mean, yeah, people are playing and dude, it's out of control in Florida. But are you going to be playing or are you saying no, wait a second, I'm waiting till this is over. I mean, I'm not doing anything right now. There's liability, I would assume with fans and there's liability with just yeah, I just I mean, you know what, I would assemble a group of players that are my buddies that are my friends that are also known. I've already had some conversations, you know, with some people that are very well known, be like, hey, you know, if I were to go play some shows a handful, I'm not going to be like on tour doing all this stuff. But like if I could go to Europe and play five, you know, a handful of festivals and come home, I would be like, I would love to do that with this music. Queens Right always comes first. That's the bottom line. It's always going to come first. It's always going to take precedence. But if like, if one of those bands came through town, and it was like, hey, you know, you can you can get the opening slot or something, I'd be like, hell yeah, I want to go I do want to play some shows on this at some point. But I want it to be right. So but as far as like right now, there's no way I would I would risk myself or or have a reason for people to gather unnecessarily. I consider it unnecessary right now. And look, I haven't worked in 11 months. Wow, zero, zero, zero paycheck from touring in 11 months. Okay. I'm still not going to go do it until it until the protocols are established and put in place. And I trust the situation. And it's going to be with Queen Drake first. So are you are you finishing material for like a now with this all this free time? Are you guys like writing material for a new album? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Michael, Michael flew down recently a week or two ago. And Zeus came down. And then Casey lives here. So he was coming over every day. We recorded 1415 new song ideas. And then he's coming, Michael's coming back down again. And like a month or so. So we're writing new Queen Drake stuff. And Zeus is recording it in real time as we're in a room coming up with fresh ideas on the fly. Eddie and Parker, they may come down. It depends. Parker slammed with his guitar shop. He has a shop called Diablo guitars. And he's just like, you know, exploding things are going great for him. And Eddie's songwriting at home and he doesn't feel safe traveling right now. So that's why he didn't come down there. And I said, dude, I totally respect it. And I get it. Absolutely. But yeah, we're working on new stuff. How about a live album with your your era, you know, sort of yeah, that would be nice. We have we have tons of multi track recordings from two years of live shows. And I and I told Eddie, you know, I think Michael has the hard drives. Why don't we divvy up, send hard drives to each of us and we'll pick three songs each guy because you've got a 2000 song, you know, things to go through. And I'll pick three songs. And like, I'll just find the best live performances from those three songs. And maybe we can assemble 15 songs or something for a live record. So I mean, that's something we are talking about. I guess he's been listening to songs and sifting through some of that material from live performances. So we'll see. All right, so well, Todd, it's always a pleasure to speak to you. We should do this more often and a great congratulations. It's a really solid and strong album. I more I listen to it the more I discover new things and it's thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. I hope that that people dig it. And you know, I was did a nice four page layout and art shock and and actually got album of the month. Hey, that's great. Todd, your album is is great. I really enjoyed it as well as much as Alan enjoyed it. We're kind of texting each other back and forth saying, oh my God, this is amazing. Thank you, God. All right, we know you got another interview. We know you, Naga. And so pick it up, everybody pre-order now. Rejoice in the suffering February 5th via Rat Pack. Reavere Rat Pack Records. Here we go.