They have influenced Metallica and went on to record one of NWOBHM’s defining moments. Savage are now back with a brand new album, Sons of Malice. Mick Burgess chatted to Chris Bradley (CB), Andy Dawson (AD) and Kristian Bradley (KB).
You’ve just released your latest album Sons of Malice. Are you pleased with how it’s turned out?
CB: It’s all gone really well. We’re very pleased with the final product. The songs and production have turned out how we really wanted it to. The feedback and responses we’ve had from all over the world have been phenomenal.
The reviews have been really positive so far. Do you take any notice of reviews or do you not really bother with what the press say?
AD: It depends how good they are!!
CB: Of course you do really, fortunately most of the reviews have been really good but occasionally there are bad ones and you can really take it to heart when you read those. What the press thinks does matter as you are the guys who communicate to people who might want to buy it so it is important.
The majority of reviews have been in the Metal press and websites. Have you come across any reviews in unusual places or the mainstream music press?
CB: We’ve had a few reviews in mainstream American newspapers that were quite strange. We also had some reviews on some general sites that covered music, books and theatre which was nice as it’s good to get coverage outside of our usual circles. There’s been one or two surprises so it’s been really gratifying.
It’s been 12 years since your last studio album, Xtreme Machine. Why did it take so long to do the follow up?
CB: Life got in the way, personal stuff….births, deaths and marriages. It was difficult stuff to deal with and time slipped away so the band was on a hiatus for quite some time. Also the label we were on folded and if they’d still been going and asked us for a new album that would have prompted us to do something before now. At some point we decided that it was time to get on and do a new record. Life still keeps throwing things at us but we’ve managed to navigate our way through it.
Did you keep up playing during your downtime or did you just leave music behind for a while?
CB: We kept playing individually, not as a band but we were still in touch with each other as we are in close proximity to each other and there’s a family connection too so we were always in touch. We still kept an eye on the music business and what was in the press.
AD: We’re all music fans as well so we were still listening to new music. We were still doing side projects or making music in some form so we were fairly active but individually, not as a band. The break gave us time to re-evaluate what we were doing.
There’s 13 new songs on the album. Were these all new songs written for this album or were there some that you’ve had written for a while?
CB: The songs are all brand new. We started writing in 2009 and finished a year later. We wrote 16 songs and used 13 on the album. The plan was to put 12 on the album but we couldn’t agree which 12 to use as the standard was so high so we ended up with 13. We wanted to come fresh to recording and work from scratch.
Is there a theme running through the lyrics or are they standalone songs covering different issues?
CB: It’s all of the above!! Somebody recently accused us of being very political but I never see us like that. We like to see ourselves more like Phil Lynott and write about things that really matter. We look at the human condition and write about that rather than the demons, wizards, sword and sorcery stuff.
It’s been almost 30 years since your classic debut Loose n’ Lethal was released. Has your approach to songwriting changed since your first album?
CB: Not really. We used to do things differently but now we’ve returned to how we did things at the start. We now go into the rehearsal room as a band. We’ll come up with a riff and kick it about and an hour or so later we’ll have an idea of how the song will be like. We have our own internal quality control system so if we like something then we’ll take it further and develop it from there. We’ll have a basic two-track recording on a CD that I’ll listen to in the car. I’ll then give feedback to Andy and get his input and see if we’re heading the right way and that’s pretty much how we write songs and that’s how we used to do it. Generally Andy comes up with a riff and I do the melodies and lyrics. We then bring them back and kick them round as a band again until the song is finished.
Musically, Sons of Malice seems less raw but has more of a Classic Rock/Bluesy feel to it but still with plenty of punch to it. Does this reflect the music you are listening to these days?
CB: It reflects the music that we started out listening to. We were big fans of the classic Heavy Rock bands like Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, and UFO. Loose ‘n Lethal was post Punk era so we were a little more gritty and a bit more dirty and we were young kids so we didn’t really know any better. This album has gone back to our pre- Loose ‘n Lethal days looking at our influences and what we grew up listening to and putting that influence back into what we do.
AD: The recording of Loose ‘n Lethal was very rough and to be honest sounded shite but it is a very raw, nasty sounding album. This time round we wanted to bring in more of a Bluesy sound to add more flavours to the music. It’s still essentially the same band but we are not trying to go with what’s current we just wanted to reflect what we liked in music.
CB: We find that when we play live, the previous 5 or 6 albums that we’ve done all seem to gel together and sound cohesive and that’s the way we wrote the music and wanted it to sound. The sounds that we could get in the studio depended on the budget that we had and we always thought Loose ‘n’ Lethal sounded dreadful but that’s what the fans seemed to like about it. That’s not our sound now but our sound now is the closest that you’ll get to hearing what Savage sound like in a live situation.
You produced the album yourselves. Did you decide to do that rather than bring in a producer because you prefer having total control of the recording process?
AD: That’s the official line but we really couldn’t afford to bring in a high flying producer. Having said that the technology is now available and the studio we used had a fabulous hi-tec set up with Pro-Tools so everything was in place. We knew what we wanted to sound like and Mark, who engineered it, is the drummer in our band so we were in total control of how the album sounded.
Were you a little wary of unleashing a drummer to engineer your album?
CB: Knowing drummers as we do then maybe!! Mark however, is a guitarist and singer as well so he’s a rounded musician and doesn’t just sit listening for the drum kit. He wasn’t doing it in isolation either, we were all involved together in the whole process and we trusted him to do it but we still had final say.
AD: Mark would do the mix and we’d all get together and give him our feedback but Mark did most of the work on that and did a great job. I’ve engineered for other bands before and I realised that Mark is better at it than me so it was nice not having to do it knowing that someone like Mark would take on that role and do a brilliant job. It also meant we could focus on the music and the arrangements rather than running around plugging things in and fiddling with sound levels and things like that.
Have you produced other bands in the past?
AD: I’ve worked with a few bands. I worked on a Witchfynde album a while back and also a Death Metal band called Evoke. I’ve done lots of local, unsigned stuff too
How long did it take to record the album?
AD: We did pre-production in January and started recording in April and the final mixes done into August. We probably spent a month in total in the studio spread across a few odd days here and there.
Chris and Andy, you have been with Savage since the start what do Kristian and Mark bring to the band since they joined?
AD: Well, Kristian brings long hair and youth!!
KB: Like Andy said I bring the long hair and tattoos as well. Everyone knows Savage is Chris and Andy’s band and I hope I’ve come along and added a few touches that maybe they hadn’t thought of before. I did co-write one of the songs and kicked a few ideas about. I’d like to think that my input may have contributed to the album being slightly heavier than it would’ve been. I bring a slightly more modern slant to the guitar work with pick slides and squeals and little things like that and perhaps some harmony work here and there. It’s always Chris and Andy but hopefully I’ve had some influential input into the album.
CB: This is the first time we’ve had a second guitar player that can play the stuff that Andy plays but without copying what Andy does. He helps Andy out and gives us such a bigger sound.
Do you ever bump into Wayne Renshaw and Mark Brown from your early days?
CB: I’ve not seen Wayne in a couple of years although he does live in the town next to me. We’re still friendly and do bump into each other from time to time but it has been a while since we last saw each other. Mark lives in London now so we don’t see him much at all. Every now and then we’ll get an email but I haven’t seen Mark for 4 or 5 years now.
Going back to those early days, your debut album Loose ‘n’ Lethal is considered a New Wave of British Heavy Metal classic. When you were recording that album did you realise at the time you were creating something that would stand the test of time?
AD: We had absolutely no idea back then that people would think what we were doing would be seen as something of a classic. We had a good idea of what we wanted to do but we couldn’t have anticipated that 30 years later we’d still be talking about it. We’re frustrated that it sounds so rough but every interview and every feature has talked about it so we must have done something right. We’re really grateful that people have taken it so closely to their hearts.
CB: We always go into the studio hoping that we’ll create something that will be liked and hope that in time to come we’ll be sitting here talking about what a good album Sons of Malice was.
It was such a creative period for Metal in the UK at the time. Why do you think Metal made such a resurgence at the beginning of the ’80’s with NWOBHM?
CB: We never really felt part of that. Although we were formed around that time it was purely coincidental as really at that time no one really knew there was a movement. There was a strong scene locally, but there was a strong scene locally for 15 years so it didn’t really seem that different to us at that time. I think it was also a response to Punk. Towards the end of the ’70’s Rock music was getting very pompous and polished. Punk came along and seemed more vibrant and “now” and seemed a lot more relevant to young people. Metal was influenced by the more straightforward raw approach. We actually thought there were some great bands that came through at that time but an awful lot of them weren’t that good at all. The bands that survived like Maiden, Leppard and Saxon, had the quality. With any bandwagon that comes along, a lot of people jump on it but it’s those bands that were doing what they wanted, that really meant it are those that are still around today.
Metallica famously covered “Let It Loose” on one of their early demos. Do you think their association has helped you as a band?
CB: I think it has but not in a real practical sort of sense as we don’t have a connection with them and haven’t spoken to them in years but to be credited as one of the influences on the biggest Rock band in the world is fantastic.
AD: Perhaps if they’d done it in some other way other than being on a demo but on one of their albums it would have been a big boost for us. I did hear that “Let It Loose” was going to go on the Garage Day EP but they put on “Am I Evil” instead and that gave Diamond Head the biggest push that you could possibly imagine. I heard that the subsequent Garage Days album went on to sell 6 million copies. If you look at the photos on the album cover you’ll see set lists from back in the day and see “Let It Loose” on a couple and “Dirty Money” on some too. If they’d used one of our songs we’d have made more money than we’d ever made in Savage.
You played with Metallica in the early days. What were they like back then?
We played one show with them in Holland in 1984 and it was great. We got on well with them. We met up with them again in London years later at a Kerrang event. We didn’t really know them that well but people seem to have latched on to this connection between the bands.
Do you hope to do some serious touring now that the album is out?
We’re playing at Hard Rock Hell this year December 2nd and we’ll be going over to Europe before Christmas for a couple of dates and we’re communicating with festivals for next summer. Hopefully you’ll see us on the road quite a bit next year.
What’s next? Will you start thinking about a follow up to Sons of Malice or do you have any other projects lined up?
We’re looking at maybe doing a live album next. With it being the 30th anniversary of Loose n’ Lethal we thought that a live package would be a good idea. We’ve always had that thing about the recording of Loose n’ Lethal so maybe the way to put that to bed is record it live in front of an audience. It would be fresh for us and we’d enjoy doing it and the people that enjoy Loose n’ Lethal would enjoy it again. We also have new ideas developing all the time so hopefully we’ll have some new music to record at some point too. We’ll also have a double vinyl version of Sons of Malice out next year featuring the extra songs that weren’t on the CD version.
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