interview with Riffer Madness
Have any of you played in other bands? Other than Riffer Madness, my brother Jay and I play in a hard rock band called Black Magnolia. I also play in a cult thrash band called Cretus(Pavement Music) from New Orleans.
How is it that you started playing music? Jay and I are brothers. We were raised on classic rock from a very young age. Jay started learning drums and I started learning guitar soon after. We've played together from very young ages; primarily influenced by classic rock, hard rock, and classic metal bands.
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?
Jay Wesley-Drums
Shane Wesley-Guitar
Brandon Kneipp-Bass
We are all in our 20's.
Have you had other previous members? Brandon Carroll played guitar with us for a long time and participated in the writing and recording of our debut album "Sinister Smoke".
Where are you from? The we formed the band in the small town of Poplarville, Mississippi where Jay still resides. I currently live in New Orleans, Louisiana.
What year did the band form? There is no official date of band formation. We've all been jamming and playing together for a very long time.
What's your style of genre? Groove/Thrash Metal
What inspires you? Riffer Madness is primarily inspired by classic metal bands. Everything from Deep Purple, Rainbow, Dio, Slayer, Metallica, Pantera, Black Label Society, Ozzy Osbourne, and Black Sabbath.
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Nothing currently with a product out. I'm very interested in creating artistic audio books with scoring and proper voice acting. Jay is currently building an experimental drum set to create forms of electronic music in a live environment. We are both very interested in sampling and sound design. This interest is brought upon influence from Amon Tobin.
Are you looking for a label or booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Labels serve a purpose and do a lot of work which they should fairly be compensated for. As much as we would like to tour the world creating more Riffer Madness music, there is not enough fan interest generated for this project. We will keep making the music we like. If it ever reaches a point to where it makes sense to sign a record deal or hire booking agents, then we will concern ourselves with those matters then.
What made you decide to make this music? Our love for playing metal and studying/learning songs from the bands that inspire us.
What are your songs about? Our songs are primarily instrumental, so they are about whatever the listener interprets them as. However, all of the songs do contain elements of extremism. We are always pushing ourselves as musicians to play challenging things. The overall goal of Riffer Madness is to create some of the most technical, challenging, and grooving riffs without sounding like a nerdy band. We play loose and free and try to distance our style from the way most modern metal guitarists and drummers are playing. Although our music is metal, there is a strong amount of classic rock influence in the way we play.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? We all contribute to the writing process.
Have you done any covers live?
We love learning cover songs and playing them live. Some of the ones we've done are:
Shattered: Pantera
Painkiller: Judas Priest
Battery: Metallica
Whiplash: Metallica
Take No Prisoners: Megadeth
Children of the Grave(Randy Rhoads Tribute version): Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne
Hourglass: Lamb of God
What language do you sing in? Our last record was entirely instrumental. We will have some vocals on the upcoming record. Interestingly enough we have a song titled "Morbi" for the new record. Which is Latin for "Of the disease". Also the album title "Sinister Smoke". Go see what "Sinister" in Latin means!
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We always try to learn new songs and change the set list for every single show.
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? We started merchandising when we released our first album "Sinister Smoke". The album is available on our bandcamp page, riffermadness.bandcamp.com/ for free download! You also can purchase physical copies, posters, and t-shirts featuring the album artwork.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? People should be able to acquire any and all kinds of music by any means necessary! I still buy CD's! I'd be proud if I had a fan who was willing to break the law by stealing my record!
How do you think the music industry has changed because of this? The music industry has always been shifting. There never was a "golden age" or perfect time to be in the business. Any band or business that has every made it in the industry has had to work very hard at some point.
What do you think of my work? Its great man! Anyone promoting and seeking out newer bands and music is great!
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Generally speaking, older bands are definitely more inspiring(there are exceptions). There wasn't so much classifying and labeling of bands back then, so it was easier for them to be original and creative without pissing fans off. The elitism that modern metal fans have, partaking of one specific genre, is definitely having a negative impact on the metal artists of today. They only listen to Black Metal, or Death Metal, or Folk Metal, or Power Metal, or Thrash Metal... it goes on and on. It doesn't encourage a friendly community, and more importantly does not encourage newer musicians to step out and try new and creative things. Its just music man! We should all be getting along... who cares if it has high or low growls, or lyrics about death or Satan, or drop-tuned guitars or not... Throw all of that shit together and make something happen!
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Work hard at it. Learn the business and make friends. Learn cover songs the correct way, and then write songs as good as those covers. Don't copy and paste your music in Pro-Tools. If you must play to a click track then don't "grid the it out". Use real drum sounds. Don't make your guitar tones sound like every other record coming out today... be inventive. It's ok if it sounds bad sometimes. Don't make/record your music entirely perfect, people aren't perfect.
Do you have any new material?
We are currently working on our second album. It is going to be incredible! It's gonna blow "Sinister Smoke" out of the water... next level shit here!
What are your web sites?
riffermadness.bandcamp.com
How can people reach you? [email protected] or by messaging us on Facebook.
What are your plans for the future? Release new music and get some videos up!
Do you have something to add? Thanks for the interview!
