by Vpower
The Band: Traitors Gate
Country: U.K.
Answers by:
Andy D’Urso (guitars)
Traitors Gate is one of those bands that every
fan of the NWOBHM wished it would be back. Well, that wish is now accomplished,
the guys are back with their new album "Fallen", a great homage to
their past. And no better narrator for all the new and the old things than Mr.
Andy D’Urso, the guy would make for a great teacher for sure. Enjoy his
comments!
Hello Andy and congratulations for your new and
first full-length album. How do you feel releasing your very first LP after so
many years?
Hi Alberto,
thanks for the review also. It’s crazy to think that we reformed to do a single
one-off reunion show at Brofest 2017, and now we’re here! Obviously, we are
really excited to have the opportunity to release a full length album, thanks
to the guys at No Remorse of course, and we are really proud of the work. We
are definitely here to stay.
Traitors
Gate was formed in 1982, what original members remain active?
Actually,
in terms of anyone associated with the band in the early days, only Steve, Paul
and I are playing at this level. I think
Hugh still plays, doing covers in local bars, which I think he’s completely
happy doing, and our old and good friend Andy Turner lives in the US, but I don’t
think he’s actively playing live.
What do you remember of the 80s? How was the
scene compared to the current one?
Great
question. The easy answer is we remember a lot! You have to think that the
whole rock scene in ‘79/80 was still heavily influenced by bands like Led Zep,
Deep Purple, etc.
We had also
had the punk explosion from ’77, which I think kind of paved the way for what
was to become NWOBHM. If you listen back to early NWOBHM, there was no fuss,
just riffing and straight ahead drum beats, but now we were getting to hear
guitar solos again.
It was a
very vibrant scene, plenty of festivals, gigs, to go to, and no shortage of
bands breaking through. Learning to play guitar in the late ‘70s, you had no
shortage of inspiration.
As for the
current scene, I’m sure the younger fans today feel the same as we did back
then, because metal has always been a movement more than a genre, and it’s so
evident that today is no different. It’s a testament to the passion every
generation has shown to rock in general.
Traitors Gate’s first ep Devil Takes the High
Road was originally released in 1985 and is now considered as a collector’s
item. Maybe it would be the right time now to remaster or re-record it,
wouldn’t it?
Well, there
are a few different versions of that EP that have been produced by people over
the years, and we still meet people who ask us about tracks that weren’t on the
original version. So, to answer your question, with the amount of different
versions out there, we do run the risk of not being able to please everyone. Of
course, if the demand was there for something like that, we would consider it.
The problem though, is that you have to wonder if re-recording the original EP
tracks would take something away from the original. Do people love it for the
tracks alone or the fact it was a genuine recording from 1985, and maybe seen
as more of a collector’s piece?
A hard question truly. If I’m not wrong, you
decided to resume your project in 2016 after many years of silence. What was
the motivation and what are your expectations in this new stage?
Correct, we
talked about it around mid-2016, and finally decided to do it around October
2016. The motivation was purely down to being asked to do a one off reunion
show at Brofest early 2017. Before that we had all raised families, and pretty
much got to where we were in our jobs. Time just has a way to consign memories
to the past, where they just become things to talk revisit over a few beers
every once in a while. The one thing that never leaves you though is the
feeling you get picking up a guitar and revisiting all the music that excited
you as a teenager. Put that in the hands of a bunch of guys with an opportunity
to get back onstage and crank up once again, and you basically have the
ingredients of renewed obsession. Simply put, we did the one off show as
planned, realised we really missed being on stage, and literally decided the
next day that we would dive right back in head first. As for our expectations,
we’re not naive enough to think there’s a fortune to be made, there are far
more established bands that will benefit from that I’m sure. For us, playing a
decent number of festival type events each year, maybe getting a support tour
at some point, and continuing to write and record new material, are all things
we want to push for going forward. One of my personal ambitions is to secure a
decent time slot on the Wacken main stage (well I can dream can’t I?).
Essentially, playing live and producing new material is our thing I guess.
It would be great to see you playing on Wacken
main stage and with new album I thin k that dream is nearer than before. Your
new album "Fallen" includes several songs from your ep Only the
Strong from last year. When did you start composing new songs? Are all of them
new brand? How was the composition after so many years?
Yes, we
decided to include the 2017 EP tracks purely because they were written in 2017,
and the EP is still a fairly recent release. Adding them to Fallen seemed a
good way to make sure they reached a wider audience. We actually remixed those
tracks for Fallen, to match the other tracks on the album, which have a more
aggressive guitar sound.
All of the
current set includes material that was written from late 2016 to yesterday
(literally). Including the tracks on Fallen, we have around 26 new tracks to
choose from at the moment, but for live shows in 2018, we will be concentrating
primarily on the Fallen material (plus a couple of classics of course).
Composing
after so long was a little strange. I decided to shut myself away in my home
studio and just play anything and everything for a few weeks to see what would
come out. I also made a conscious effort not to listen to anything else while I
was writing.
Surprisingly,
the process worked really well, and we managed to get a set of fairly good
tracks in around a month. It was really a time of trying to realise what our
natural style would be after 30yrs away, so not all of those tracks have
survived, but it did allow us to get started. Second album anyone? J
Hopefully so. "Fallen" is a very
varied album, we find old school British heavy metal but some songs with a more
modern approach
I’m very
comfortable with that description. Considering where we came from, I think the
fact that there is a traditional British Heavy Metal feel to some of the
material, proves that we have a way of writing that brings out our natural
influences. I think that offers listeners some degree of honesty, especially
when you consider there was no intention to write in any particular style. The
more modern approach you hear is probably a result of listening to a few fairly
current bands, but I also think it results from wanting to bring an aggressive
edge to some of the writing. Not forgetting of course that Sy’s vocal talents
open up the freedom to just go with the flow and see what comes out.
Any favorite songs in the albums, Andy?
Yes, all of
them! Well, if I had to pick a few, Retribution, Fall from Grace, Solar Plains,
and Homeland are stand outs for totally different reasons. Now I’ve said that,
I feel the need to add Edge of Destruction, Fallen, Deceiver, Sign of the
Cross, and Only the Strong (he he). I really do like them all and all for
different reasons.
Hahaha a good selection! Sy Davies is the new
voice of the band and he defends his position with authority and credibility.
Where or how did you find the guy?
Sy was an
amazing find. When we needed to find a new singer, I remembered how difficult
it was to find good singers in the past. I literally put a brief advert on a
website called something like www.joinmyband.com. I briefly mentioned we were
an original band from the NWOBHM era, and that we were looking to play shows in
and out of the UK.
Well, that
must have done the trick because I got a call from Sy only a few days after
placing the advert. A few weeks later, we were in rehearsals and listening to
this guy that could literally sing anything, loved all the same stuff we did,
and had the same outlook on what he wanted to achieve in the current scene. It
couldn’t have worked out any better.
Sy’s
arrival has allowed us to write without restrictions, knowing that he will do
justice to anything he’s given. He really is a true singer, and just a little
crazy, which definitely helps.
And a good publicity for that website. The
cover artwork has all the feeling of the 80s
The credit
for that lies with the team at No Remorse. Their artist produced something
really special. The guys at No Remorse know their market, and what sells in the
current scene, better than we do, and their vision was to produce something the
evoked the original imagery from the Devil Takes the High Road EP, but bring it
full circle. I think that was a good decision, and they captured it perfectly.
You performed many live shows from 1984 to 1989
and it seems people are still eager to see you live. What gigs from the past
you remember with more affection?
We did some
quite memorable shows with bands like Marillion, Angelwitch, and Saxon, which
I’m sure we remembered more than they did! To be honest we played a lot of our
own gigs, using local support for a lot of the shows. There were a lot of
venues back then, so getting gigs was fairly easy. I seem to remember most gigs
were ‘memorable’ to us. If not for the show, then always for the enjoyment of
travelling together and having fun. Back then, we were young and so we took
every opportunity to go a bit crazy.
The right time, the right place to be. Any tour
dates for the promotion of your new album?
Well, we
kind of miss timed our plans for 2018, and we’ve learnt the hard way that
events book bands way before the event. We were lucky to be included for Up The
Hammers this year, and we’re really looking forward to that one. We’ve
supported Saracen and Anvil already this year, and we’ve played a few of our
own shows also. We have support slots with Eden’s Curse and Powerquest coming up this
year, and we are booked for the Mearfest, Grimm Up North, and Seven Sins events
here in the UK.
We definitely need to get organised for 2019. There are so many festival type
events to appear at, so maybe we need to get some management?
The NWOBHM was with no doubt one the most
brilliant moments of heavy metal ever. Even there are some movements that try
to take momentum or inspiration on that, as the New Wave Of Swedish Heavy Metal
I’m all for
any metal movement that exists to create honest and pure quality metal. It’s
very easy to just focus on the NWOBHM era as somehow being the ‘true’ birth of
metal as we know it, but there were a lot of European bands that turned out to
be just as influential. Bands like Krokus, Picture, The Scorpions, Europe, etc, all played their part at the same time, with
bands like Accept and Helloween, providing momentum. Today, you can see how
bands from Germany
and the Scandinavian countries in particular, are still very true to the
traditional metal styles.
If you could travel back in time would you
change something in your history?
I would
definitely start playing earlier. I started at 15yrs old, so even starting a
year earlier would have got me ready to take more advantage of the NWOBHM era.
The other thing I would definitely change is for the internet to have been
invented in the ‘70s. It’s easy to see how the web has given the power back to
bands. We never had anything like that to allow us to get noticed, or to get
our music out. So, in some ways, it was definitely an exciting time, but in
reality, bands had no real say in their futures back then. At least now, you
can reach anyone, anywhere in the world. Back then it really was about having
to be in the right place at the right time if you wanted to be noticed.
Andy, what are your plans for the future?
That’s
easy…
· Second
album.
· Lots more
festival type gigs in and outside of the UK.
· Support
tour with a known band.
· Try and
attract decent management.
· Keep
enjoying what we do.
It’s enough for a year or two, at the least. Andy,
thank you very much for the cool speech and history review and congratulations
for your new album, if you wish to add something…
Thank you
Alberto, we hope others will like the album as much as you seemed to, and we
look forward to many more live shows in 2018 and beyond.
As always,
we are grateful to everyone who has shown their support for the band since we
reformed and, as always, we are humbled by the dedication and passion shown by
all those working every day to keep the movement alive, and allowing it to
grow.
