Over the years, Overkill has never compromised their Thrash metal roots to fit in with the current musical trend. Their formula of writing music has remained the same, honest lyrics, skull crushing guitar riffs, and never hiding their brutal honest thrash roots.
One thing that has changed is the addition of drummer Ron Lipnicki to the fold. The current line-up of Overkill features Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth on vocals, original bassist D.D. Verni, guitarists Derek "The Skull" Tailer and Dave Linsk, and newly added drummer Ron Lipnicki on both upcoming album, and tour.
In November, Overkill will support Motorhead in Germany beginning November 20th. Saviours of Rock Correspondent Deb Rao recently spoke to Overkill front man Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth as he reveals details regarding ,"Immortalis" on Bodog Music, Overkill European tour, and how the reunion of Jonny and Marsha Zazula transpired.
BOBBY, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR CHECKING IN FOR THIS INTERVIEW. TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR LATEST RELEASE,"IMMORTALIS" THAT WAS RELEASED ON OCTOBER 9TH VIA BODOG MUSIC? "Immortalis", I suppose being around as long as we have, our process hardly changes. It originated with D.D. and the riffs. Then goes through the process of each member of the band and their interpretations of it with additions and subtractions to it. But D.D is really the originator and the principal music writer. While, this is developing I take the developed parts and start adding the vocal lines .Then start going from there and then going into the topic. In most of the topics, I have always been fascinated by the God question. That is where the basis of an Overkill record is like.
This is one of the longest records with regard to time that we ever done. This is about 2 1/2 years. But that doesn’t mean that we are not touring in the interim and developing songs, while we are touring. So it was approximately 2 1/2 years between the release of "RELIX lV and this record. The writing process really never stops. It is always kind of an ongoing thing with us.
HOW DID TOURING PLAY A MAJOR PART IN THE WRITING PROCESS? I KNOW OVERKILL HAS A NEW DRUMMER, AND YOU KIND OF TOOK A DIFFERENT APPROACH ON THIS ALBUM, VERSUS PREVIOUS ALBUMS IN THE PAST?
'killin live
Absolutely. Probably the one member that helped the most is our newest member Ron Lipnicki, who you got to see perform a few times. Ron had probably done a hundred shows with Overkill, as a principal member of Overkill before he even recorded a note with us. So, I think that this really translates to the record. If Ron does this 100 shows before even recording a note, he really has the feel for what this band is about.
HOW DOES RONS STYLE OF DRUMMING DIFFER FROM PREVIOUS DRUMMERS IN OVERKILL? I think Ron has the best hands Overkill ever had, with regard to a drummer and I don't mean massage. (Laughter) With regard to interpretation of everything from brains to hands. His feet are fantastic. We have had some great drummers past through the doors. We have been around two decades plus. I think that you have to have great people past through the doors to be able to stay around for that amount of time. Ron is up there with the best hands for sure, if not the past.
BOBBY, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS REGARDING,"IMMORTALIS" IS THE REUNION WITH JONNY AND MARSHA ZAZULA. THEY USE TO BE ON MEGAFORCE RECORDS. THEY WERE QUITE INSTRUMENTAL IN PUTTING OVERKILL ON THE MAP. HOW DID THE REUNION OF JONNY AND MARSHA ZAZULA TRANSPIRE AND OVERKILL SIGNING TO BODOG RECORDS? When we had done the Gigantour and we were in the process of negotiating with a few different companies, we had waited to sign. We were going to wait to sign until the Gigantour was done. Obviously, this business move was something to up our value, we had large exposure. Some of the shows were arena size and with decent crowds in them and a
Immortalis
lot of sheds. So we waited until the end of Gigantour. Actually, we did the Gigantour without a record label, came back and we were about to ink a label that was in Germany but has Worldwide distribution and Jonny Z called me maybe two days before and said,"Hey I saw the tour when it went through here. I am interested; this is what I am doing. All negotiations stopped with everybody else and we just kind of focused on this. It is kind of cool to be able to start with somebody who has turned themselves into a legend or Icon like Jon and Marsha did. But to be able to do it twice is a pretty unique situation to be in. D.D. and I weighed out all the pluses and minuses, and said this could be an old school band meets old school record company philosophy and it could be just what the doctor ordered for us. It is not the formalized way of doing things, it might be back to doing videos, back to doing promotional tours, and it might be back to getting tour support to be on larger tours again. So far that has all worked out. We are in the process, in getting our video together, which will be for Fuse and MTV. We are doing the Motorhead tour through Europe, which starts in November. Some good things have happened. The things that we hoped would happen are happening.
WHAT SONG ARE YOU CHOOSING FOR YOUR SINGLE AND VIDEO FOR THIS ALBUM? I don't even know if single exists under these circumstances. This is really a record. Obviously, you can't do a 55-minute video unless you are doing a DVD. What we are going to do is "Skull and Bones". Randy Blythe from Lamb of God sang on the song with us. He is a good friend, and a lover of old school like we are. Randy actually agreed to appear in the video with.
HOW DID OVERKILL GET TO WORK WITH RANDY? The Gigantour opened a lot of new relationships with us, and rekindled old one. We were friends with Dave Mustaine from the early days. When Dave was in Metallica, we had known him and actually toured the "Peace Sells" record back in 1987. So this was a friendship that was rekindled on the Gigantour. But the Lamb of God guys were on there too; we hit it off almost immediately. They have kind of an old school vibe to what they do. We are obviously are what we are. I don't think there is any mistaking what Overkill is. We have known that for a long time. We are a band that does what we like. I think that they liked that about us.
Overkill live 2007
I think our second night of the Gigantour, Randy was out onstage with us and appeared every night there after, doing the song,” Old School'. So it was a really kind of a cool relationship that started on that between the Overkill guys and the Lamb of God guys.
WOULD YOU SAY THAT "IMMORTALIS" RECAPTURES THAT OLD SCHOOL HISTORICAL MOMENT IN OVERKILL'S CAREER AGAIN? To some degree. I think one of the unique things about this band regardless of its roots, which is always evident when you press play. We are also to some degree contemporary and evolutionary. We move in the direction, the steps are not huge, where they are unrecognizable, but I think that we do have let's say contemporary value with old school principals. So, I think both shine through on this record. Which is kind of a unique way of looking through the whole picture. I think that is what makes Overkill, Overkill with regard to what we try to portray.
WAS IT DIFFICULT TO WRITE THIS ALBUM? I MEAN OVERKILL HAS BEEN AROUND FOR OVER 20 YEARS. WHERE DID YOUR INSPIRATION COME FROM ON,"IMMORTALIS"? ? You know, it's not. I think when you find something that you love to do it is not hard to write. I think it is more of a matter of trying not to repeat yourself and still keeping your root that may be the hardest thing. It is not really talked about or even thought about in the process of mixing the record. Because if it raises an eyebrow, if it brings a smile to a face, then we know we are on to something good because it is coming in through the ears and the reaction therefore is physical by saying Ok that put a smile to my face. From my end to it, I just have to make sure that I don't want to be repetitive, but at the same time, I want to keep the same style that is attached to it. So that becomes maybe the hardest part of my end of writing a record. But, usually I don't think it is. D.D. hasa certain style that is rooted in our roots, but at the
Blitz - doing what he does best
same time is very up on very contemporary stuff with large production with regard to certain parts and writing. So, I think he is the perfect combination of let's say what was and what is.
THAT IS TRUE. WOULD YOU SAY THE TITLE,"IMMORTALIS"DEFINES THE LONGEVITY OF THE BAND? I don't think so? The idea behind "Immortalis” was about a collective group effort. This has always been a band that is very reachable; we realize that we don't do this by ourselves. We realized this a long ago. This has a lot more to do with those that support us and the immortality is not a self-proclaimed thing. It is more about how this works and its value are high based on how much support this gets. So the immortality is really given by those who support it for this amount of time. So it is really more about us collectively, that means those who support the band and the band themselves. Anybody who knows us, knows that is always the direction we think regardless that there is strength in this or certain amount of immortality that again as a collective group type effort not just a band effort.
DO YOU HAVE ANY FAVORITE STAND OUT TRACKS FROM,"IMMORTALIS" THAT COME TO MIND? The thing I like about this record because it is always hard for me to be objective but what I like about it, what I notice about it is that it is cohesive. What I mean by this is from press and play from hearing,” Devils In The Mist", and going all the way to "Overkill V", the album appears like a full offering. Each song is cohesive to what proceeds and follows it. When you are writing a record, this is what you really want to accomplish on the back end of it. Its not to have a collection of songs, but more so an album. Why does this have a certain feel to it? I mean if I grew up on thing like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest and I remember records like Deep Purple’s,” Machine Head", or Judas Priest’s,” Stained Class". These were cohesive records to me that if one song were missing the record would just not be as complete. I am not comparing,"Immortalis" to these great records but I am comparing the cohesiveness to it. I do feel that this record has that.
WHO DESIGNED THE ALBUM COVER OF "IMMORTALIS"? This is Travis Smith; we have used him in the past. We started using him back when we released,"Necroshine" back in 1999. Travis works for a company called Seem Pieces, which is his own. We were on the Gigantour, and he said,” I think I have something that you guys are going to like." We tweaked it very minimally. This was really his idea, and I have to give him credit for it across the board. We added a few things to it, but the majority of this idea was Travis Smith.
WHERE WAS THE ALBUM RECORDED? In D.D.'s studio down in Central New Jersey.
WHO WAS THE PRODUCER? Johnny was doing Executive productions things, because he comes in and said this sounds great or this doesn’t sound great. He really likes being involved. With regard to the production, D.D. and myself did it with the help of an engineer John Duva.
Bobby goes airborne!
OVERKILL RECENTLY EMBARKED ON AN EAST COAST TOUR THAT KICKED OFF ON OCTOBER 3RD IN UPSTATE, NEW YORK AT THE AMP? Which is what it is all about. We started in Upstate New York in Elmira and made our way through Chicago, then New York City and New Jersey and Detroit. It is kind of a Northeast, Midwest kind of a run. When we come back, we start with Motorhead in November in Europe. I think there are a couple of South America dates that are peppered around the Motorhead tour. Then we are working on a European tour for Winter 08 and a second third run in the U.S. for Spring 08.
ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THE MOTORHEAD TOUR IN GERMANY? HAVE YOU EVER TOURED WITH LEMMY AND MOTORHEAD BEFORE? We did back in the late 80's. It was a blast touring with these guys. We are really, really, looking forward to it. We are going to playing a whole bunch of the German dates with Motorhead. This is a top, when you get to tour with people that you actually listen to.
WILL YOU BE FILMING THIS TOUR FOR A POSSIBLE NEW DVD IN THE FUTURE? Not on this one. We are going to set it up for a one show kind of a thing and later in the year. Probably in spring of 08, once everything has kind of tightened down like a machine and we will do one night, as opposed to an entire tour.
ALSO EARLIER THIS YEAR, YOU UNVEILED YOUR SIDE PROJECT THE CURSED. ANY PLANS FOR ANY MORE SHOWS WITH THE BAND? HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT THE RESPONSE OF THE CURSED? It came out cool. I was real happy with it. I think you were in touch with Dan prior to the release. Dan is a great person to write with and work with. What translates in his head as a riff comes out his fingers. He is one of the unique people who can do that. He is almost done with a riff as soon as he thinks about it. As opposed to working on it. It is quite a unique situation to be working with a guy like Dan. I was happy with the record too. It was just something that was completely different than Overkill.
BOBBY, IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY TO THE READERS ABOUT,"IMMORTALIS"? What we will also include, I know for sure for some of the imports there will be with the release of, "Immortalis", will be our set at Wacken this year on DVD. So there will be a DVD included with that on the first 7500 European pressings. It will also be available in The States as Import.
Lemmy
It is always exciting to be able to do what you like to do and do it at a high level. In our opinion, this is just another step in the journey but it is as still important step as the first one or the ones that happen in-between.
THANKS TO BOBBY FOR TALKING WITH SAVIOURS OF ROCK. HE'S A GREAT GUY AND WE WISH HIM ALL THE BEST FOR THE FUTURE. GO CHECK HIM OUT AT
November 2007
11-17 Mogador Theater Bogata, Columbia - SA
OVERKILL will support MOTÖRHEAD on the following dates:
Nov. 20 - NL [to be announced]
Nov. 22 - GER Leipzig Haus Auensee
Nov. 23 - GER Elmshorn Elbmarschenhalle
Nov. 24 - GER Bremen Pier 2
Nov. 26 - GER Stuttgart Messe Congresscentrum B
Nov. 27 - GER Köln Palladium
Nov. 28 - GER München Zenith
Nov. 30 - GER Erfurt Thüringenhalle
Dec. 01 - GER Saarbrücken E-Werk
Dec. 03 - GER Berlin Columbiahalle
Interview
by Debby Rao
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