interview: Project Armageddon

Metal Bulletin Zine # 36 is now complete.

Since there is a lot of music covered by Metal Bulletin Zine and sometimes it feels like there is too much, here is a bit from issue #36: an interview with Project Armageddon.

This is newer version of the interview. Anyway, in case you missed the interview before, here it is:

Project Armageddon (U.S.)

With the album “Tides of Doom,” these Texans called Project Armageddon found the heavy metal time machine. Project Armageddon did not travel back in time to the 1980s, but rather to 1969-70 England, and they took to Texas the guitar used by Tony Iommi, and all his studio equipment, which is why this guitar sound will recall classic Black Sabbath and big-riff doom-stoner sounds. You wanted the doom, you’ve got the doom!

Here are the answers by Raymond Matthews (the cannons) and Alexis Hollada (the grit and the thunder) to a set of questions sent to them in Morse code. The lineup is completed by Brandon Johnson (the crunch). www.projectarmageddon.com

-- Hello, Project Armageddon! I have been listening to the "Tides of Doom" album. I didn't realize that Houston, Texas had such doomsters. Is it true that you put out the album by yourselves? What does that mean? You have put up your own money to record the album?

Raymond-We own the production company, Shattered Man Records. So we did record the album ourselves, and we paid for the CD production from money we saved playing shows. We try hard to reinvest everything we make back into the band so we can continually improve our sound and quality of production. We also hired out the mixing and mastering to Tomasz Scull, of supernaturalsoundltd/Venomin James & I'd say he did a killer job for us.

Are you all homeless now from having spent all your money on the album?! Are you living in a van, down by the river? Project Armageddon must be one tough bunch to go at it alone?

Raymond-I've played drums for over 20 years and have always been motivated by the excitement of creating something new, original, and entertaining, and then having the joy of sharing that with fans in a live performance. I also thrive on the technical challenges of capturing that original work in its best possible form by recording. Though I don't have formal training in recording, after spending countless hours and dollars over the years I've managed to pick up enough to make it work.

Doomstress Alexis-Really when it comes down to it, if you have a drive and passion about something that you are creating, then you strive to overcome any obstacles in order to achieve that goal. There are things that will either obstruct that objective or perpetuate it. If it means enough to you, you will find a way to make it happen regardless of the consequences, and this is true in many things in life.

So how exactly does Project Armageddon achieve its sound? Do you use special equipment? Do you use equipment that is old, in order to achieve the classic 70s doom sound? How much autotune did you use?!!

Raymond-We use a rack mounted 24 track recorder, the Alesis HD24. It captured the sound exactly as we play it. I use the same Tama drums set that I bought in new back in 1991, the Rockstar DX series, with some good mikes and as few punches as possible. It's important for the feel or the song to try to get in in as few takes as possible. We typically play the song and record the drums, bass, and rhythm guitar all at once. This helps capture the live feel, then we go back and add or replace bass & guitar lines including solos and harmony tracks. Last we lay down the vocal tracks. Doomstress Alexis does a great job of capturing the feel in just one or two takes most of the time. The sound has to be attributed to the gear and the mikes we use. Like to make sure we can capture the same or better sound live and we have on the album so we don't rely on any triggers or computer generated synthesizers. We use a couple samples that we made ourselves, too, like the marching crunch in “Fallow Fields,” which is the same sample we used on the first album. We do have an assortment of effects pedals and love to experiment with them to create original sounds as well. One example is running the bass through a POG (Keyboard synth pedal) as heard in the intro to “Sanctimonious.”

Doomstress Alexis-1st off-NO AUTOTUNE! We record through a mix of different gear both analog and digital, and then we sent it off to SupernaturalSoundLtd for mixing (although the 1st record we did mix ourselves via an analog mixing board). Aside from that we just use great gear that gives us the sound we like, and we capture it well thru trial and error, and advice from those with the know-how.

How can people stay in touch? I live in Washington State, have you ever played here?

Raymond-We keep up with our Facebook, ReverbNation, Youtube and MySpace pages. We are on Itunes, CD Baby, hellridemusic, shadowkingdomrecords.com, brainticket.com, and several other locations on the web. We have also recently created our own official band website: www.projectarmageddon.com. There are links to listen to and buy our music, shirts, and other band merchandise, as well as info about our upcoming shows and events. We also have a blog with info about past events and a fairly extensive photo gallery. From our site you can sign up to become a "Fan" & receive notifications of upcoming events. We have not yet played Washington State, but we do plan to do more touring this year and the next, so check back with us at the website to stay informed. Thanks, Raymond Matthews. THE END.