If the music doesn't make you crazy, this interview will

Interview by Damien Ellinghaus

Photos by Rodrigo Terco Fredes

Rising from the ashes of the eclectic King Hell, Driven Mad is a nod to the era of classic thrash (when singers actually sang cleanly and guitar riffs were discernible.) Following the release of last year’s “Committed” (their second EP within a two-year time frame,) Driven Mad was recently featured in a two-part episode of the documentary series “NYC Rocks TV” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JewV5Yg48fs )by Damian Kolodiy.

A whirlwind of energy best describes Driven Mad’s live set. In support of their EP, the band will headline a series of tri-state shows, having recently opened for likes of Shai Hulud and Lich King. The video for the first single off the EP, "Gripping The Third Rail" is set for a Spring release. Jersey Beat's Damien Ellinghaus hd this somewhat sarcastic conversation with frontman Sam Walter. (-D.Draisin)

Q: I want to address some of the grave accusations that I’ve been hearing circulating about the band. It’s been brought to my attention (thanks to an unnamed source,) that you do not actually perform any of your own vocals. Do you have a statement prepared?

SW: I do not, as I confessed to today on Facebook that I am the unnamed source. You have no unnamed sources, but it’s a nice diversion that we can play the Watergate game. Yes, my African gray parrot in fact provides all of my vocals. He’s backstage right now doing blow and fucking eating cats.

Q: Which brings us to the bigger question: how long has this been going on? Has this been going on since King Hell; does it go back before King Hell?

SW: I had a shockingly talented terrier who actually sang for me in King Hell, but sadly, he passed away, so the gray seemed like a safer bet with a 30-year life span.

Q: God rest his soul. Now, do you and Max have a thing worked out for royalties or something like that? Or is it like: he doesn’t know English, so you’re just gonna sign for him?

SW: No, he’s fully in control - he could terrify Peter Grant. On good days, he even lets me out of the basement, which is nice of him.

Q: Well, thank God that Max is a generous and loving master.

SW: Yes, a generous and loving African gray parrot….they really are motherfuckers!

Q: Now, for anybody who’s unaware of Max’s exploits, please follow Sam on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sam.walters.100?fref=ts )because it’s seriously all that he talks about. On a more serious note, Driven Mad has been going strong now for - what is it - just shy of two years now?

SW: We’re coming up on the two year mark - closer to a year and a half, actually. We played our first show in September of 2012, but yeah: coming up on two years.

Q: And in that time frame you’ve had two EP’s: 2012’s “Disorder” and last year’s “Committed.” With the newer one, I’ve noticed a big evolution in the music. This is not to say that the first one was in anyway bad, but I’ve noticed the second one showcases the band becoming a lot more technical. The single,” I’m the Mountain,” (the first time I heard it was about a year ago at one of your shows,) has got a lot of big Sabbath-y vibes to it. Did you feel like you pulled from any newer influences for this EP as opposed to the first one?

SW: Well you know, that song, and some of the material on the new EP, were sort of written in the era that the first EP came out. Some of it, we generate by getting really drunk on cheap wine and jamming out: that song in particular was written over the course of two 30 minute jams. Definitely the stuff that’s not written in drunken jams, the riffs you are speaking of, are written by Dimitri, our guitar player, while he’s holed up in his room and challenging himself more and more. Still, we very much have our focus on wanting people to have a positive and really high energy live experience that’s not overly complicated: we’re not here to make you break out your abacus. Just to get into the pit, you don’t have to do any homework. So, as technical as it ever gets, we try to keep it so that you can bob your head the whole way through.

Q: You, in particular, have always been a high energy performer, even back in the King Hell Days. Do you feel kind of weighted down a bit now that you are the only person on stage? Do you feel a need to do more, whereas Doc took over in King Hell and helped you along?

SW: I feel fucking exhausted, is how I feel! I spent five years in a band with two singers, so I only had to sing half the shit. It was like: “This is my verse and now it’s Miller time and oh, here’s the guitar solo.” This is a lot more work, and the vocals, for me, are a lot more challenging, actually, but it’s allowed me to really come into my own as a frontman, in that the music demands that I be high energy. So, all in all, it’s been a good transformation for me, but it is also more difficult and demanding of me as a performer in a way. Although King Hell took a certain theatrical direction that I had to have going with Doc, so that also was challenging in its own way.

Q: Yeah, it must be hard to not have the anvil anymore, you have to rely on the PA now.

SW: Yeah, now I need the monitor that rocks, and I end up falling on my face, but you know I got all that shit from Bruce Dickinson. Bruce was my inspiration for starting to sing with that incredibly high energy performance that he puts out and the operatic timbre of his voice, so I made my bones imitating him.

Q: I’ve always thought that you were this nice mix of Bruce and Joey Belladonna - specifically in the way that you pronounce and enunciate certain words. Certain ways that you hit the high notes is much like Belladonna. Do you ever find it hard to balance the vocal style that you have - the strong powerful power metal vocals - with the amount of energy you put into it?

SW: Yes (laughs.) Let’s not beat around the bush: I’m usually pretty close to puking when we’re done with our set. I have to pay really close attention to what I’m doing onstage, because I do put out a lot of energy and if I get winded, then my instrument goes and I’ll strain my voice and I’m potentially done for the night, so it is very hard to juggle. I could stand to get in better shape, but yes, it’s a challenge.

Q: Recently, you played a huge show with Lich King and Exmortus: two very good, very well-known bands that came around. Lich King has this tendency to…hate every band around them. For their song “We Came to Conquer,” where they yell at Manowar and Gama Bomb, did they shout you guys out at all?

SW: I’ve never read the lyrics - I really like that song. I can’t remember my own fucking lyrics, so God knows if they put us in there at all, but they were very nice to us - them and Exmortus. So, they were great and it was a pleasure to play with them - and a lot of fun.

Q: Speaking of Lich King, I always liked them for their internet presence: funny guys, answer their fans, and that’s what I feel like you guys have going on. You’re very good with your Facebook: you’re attentive. You’ve got your own website - well put together, by the way. I can’t tell you how many people (like myself, but don’t tell anyone,) try to make a website and it’s blank text and Photoshop. Do you feel like bands should cater to their fans more, at least on social media: respond to them, etc.?

SW: Yeah, I personally definitely do. I mean, I understand if you’ve got 100,000 fans, and you get 156 comments on a post, that you can’t necessarily answer, but I think absolutely make an effort. Frankly, I’m blown away anytime anybody comes to see us. You listen to the music at home, we obviously try to provide value in person. It’s a pain in the ass to get off your sofa, maybe you’re broke. So, anytime anybody walks through that door and gives me energy of their own, it really makes it a two-way street. It’s not me performing, it’s us and our Metal Church. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude, so it’s the least I can do to try and answer your comments if you show interest in my music. I love engaging with fans; I’m so grateful whenever they come out. I think everyone should do that, and if you don’t, you’re kind of a dick.

Q: You heard it first guys, I can see the headline now…

SW: RITCHIE BLACKMORE YOU’RE A DICK!

Q: Aw, poor Ritchie, he’s so old now.

SW: Yeah, but he was a dick. You know why Dio was nice? Because he was like “Yeah, I was in a band with Ritchie Blackmore, so I’m the other side of it.” But that’s a really good fucking lesson for you: Dio was always outside his tour bus for two hours at two a.m. signing autographs, taking pictures, remembering people’s names (which I’m terrible at.) Some of those fans will stay with you through those years when maybe you’re not selling a lot of records or whatever, but Dio was still selling out B.B. King’s, so that means that the man was doing something right and paying his mortgage. Then, he was back with Heaven and Hell, on top, and that wouldn’t have happened if people forgot about him, and they would’ve if he was a cock. So there you go.

Q: Now, do you guys have any - without giving away spoilers - big plans coming up for a tour or something that the people would like to know about?

SW: We’re definitely trying to branch out of New York City, trying to get together a tour run, like a Northeast tour for the late summer. You have to book these things kind of far in advance, and we’re pushing it back just so we can have a bit of time to write, maybe have a new EP ready in time for that. I think I can report this, but if not, edit it out (Editor’s note: No.) We’ll be on a bill with Overkill in Connecticut on September 28, I believe. If we move enough tickets (and we will, because that’s how that shit works, Kiddos,) we’ll be on the main stage with them. Bobby Blitz is the man! Best going right now - I like to watch my old masters. He’s like fifty-something, two percent body fat. He sounds ridiculous even now, and their last two albums have been the best they’ve ever put out.

Q: Obviously the EPs are short little snippets of what you guys have up to this point. Do you have any plans, at least in the immediate future, to start working on a full length, another EP in mind? If not, I know people are really big into covers albums, and I’m not saying I wanna hear Driven Mad cover a couple of Krokus songs, I’m just saying if you wanted to cover a couple of Krokus songs, throw the dog a bone.

SW: I will take that into consideration. I’m currently working on an absolutely devastating cover of “We Will Rock You” that my guitar player doesn’t know about - it’s all sketched out in my head. So, that’s gonna be amazing, and will be on our new EP as soon as I record it behind everyone’s back. Like I said, I wanna get an EP done before any touring or anything - more exposure.

Q: You can hear the influence in your music: you can hear the Exodus, the Anthrax, the Black Sabbath. Are there any newer bands that you guys feel (and I hate asking questions like this, it’s like what a reporter has to ask) really blow you away - that you felt has in some way influenced the process?

SW: You know what’s funny for me? I listen to a lot of local bands, and I think I get so much metal. We’re here tonight, and our drummer also plays in a band called Lies Beneath, and I think they’re phenomenal, and they have a new EP out that you should check out that’s the best stuff going. I also listen to stuff outside of metal, just to reset my ears. My favorite in New York is a band called Bound by Substance - who have been around a while and played Irving Plaza - and they’re hard to describe: more of a rock band. There’s also another more funk rock experimental band called From Below who are fantastic and should be checked out. It’s interesting stuff. Lately, all I’ve been listening to is Zeppelin, for four months straight.

Q: For those who are unaware, Sam is a big wine connoisseur. Do you feel judged at bars - because metal fans have this thing where you have to match this certain kind of look and do the right things - when you walk up and order a little bottle of Pinot Grigio? Do the angry Slayer bartenders look at you strangely?

SW: No, I don’t give a fuck and everybody knows I’m an idiot, so it doesn’t really matter. My reputation precedes me; I’m the guy at the death metal show with the glass of abysmally bad wine, and I’m such an idiot on Facebook that there’s no shock. You know, if you wanna make interesting metal, don’t take yourself too fucking seriously, that’s not what we’re in this for. None of us are living in fucking refugee camps – it’s a privilege to be playing this great music with these incredibly expensive amps and wonderful people. Nobody’s bummed out at a metal show.

Q: We’ve spoken about your alcoholism, we’ve spoken about your songwriting, your stage persona. But we haven’t spoken about…

SW: 9 inches. To say nothing of the girth. A picture says a thousand words.

Q: We’ve spoken about a lot of things, but we haven’t spoken about….you. Where do you fit in this weird, weird world that we call Heavy Metal? Start from your childhood.

SW: Well, it was just a blaze of rape and I’M SO ANGRY. No, my foundations are, I guess, in classic metal, because it was so riffy and the vocals so strong. I got into Swedish death metal and those kinds of extreme vocals as well. That’s what I’m working on right now, as a vocalist, since I already know how to do the operatic shit, but here on the new EP, there are death metal vocals thrown in for spice. The great stuff about the death metal era is that it was juxtaposed against melodic kind of stuff, and it let the guitars do really ridiculous stuff.

So, I’m trying to grow as a singer. One of the reasons that I’m still singing clean is because I don’t hear a lot of people doing it in extreme metal, which I still consider us a part of. I think, for myself as a vocalist and for the band as a whole, I think we seek to offer an alternative. Maybe deathcore is the biggest thing going right now, and that’s great - I have no hatred towards any genre unless your hair is really fucking stupid. If I can’t tell your style apart from One Direction’s, then no. I think we seek to offer an alternative to the people by trying to do something different. I’m learning from a lot of the bands that are going now with the more extreme vocals, but I’m continuing to do what I’ve always done: bring in those kind of classic sounds and classic thrash, even though it’s progressive too. You know: influence people to branch out and do something different.

Q: Give the old records a spin maybe.

SW: Yeah. I mean, when I was sixteen or whatever, I was listening to nothing but Sabbath. It’s time for something new, and I hope we can contribute to that movement.

Q: It’s funny how cyclical things are. We’re talking about something new: clean vocals in extreme metal, and that’s where it all started out.

SW: That really is where it all started out, and rightly went in a different direction, because you couldn’t listen to a fucking record in the eighties without some ridiculous power metal tenor who sounded like he should’ve been in a Bud Light commercial. It’s some of my favorite singing, but I like a select crop of those guys. Napalm Death happened for a fucking reason, but I think it’s time for people to reinvestigate some of those roots of metal.

Q: Remember that at one point in time, the singer did actual, you know, singing.

SW: Hey, you can sing on the verse, not just the chorus! You might be a better singer if you sing on the verse too.

Q: Do you have any…I’m not gonna ask for words of wisdom, I’ve asked one too many clichéd questions for tonight. Is there anything you want to tell up and coming musicians to never, ever do? I’m asking for the dirt (aside from illegal stuff.)

SW: Don’t molest children - at least not at the show, it pisses off the bouncers. Be professional, and be kind. Be nice to your sound man, even if the guy is a dick, which I’ve actually found to be very rare. If you’re a dick to him, he’s just gonna turn you down. I try to make that how I am, but especially in this setting, there are a lot of flakey dudes. People are really shocked, like “Oh my god, thank you for being so professional.” And it’s like “Of course!” So do that, and when you work with promoters, actually promote your shows, because it’s not the venue’s responsibility to get asses through the doors, it’s yours. And that’s it. Do that shit, and do it hard. IN ALL CAPS.

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