{"id":15908,"date":"2013-11-18T00:00:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T00:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=15908"},"modified":"2013-12-30T17:11:46","modified_gmt":"2013-12-30T17:11:46","slug":"feature-saxon-11-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-saxon-11-13\/","title":{"rendered":"SAXON – Orchestral \/ Acoustic Thunder (November 2013) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAXON – Orchestral \/ Acoustic Thunder<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nNovember 2013<\/span><\/p>\n

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Saxon (l-r): Nibbs Carter, Nigel Glockler, Biff Byford, Doug Scarratt and Paul Quinn<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nNovember 2013 studio compilation Unplugged And Strung Up<\/em> \u2013 issued courtesy of Yorkshire, England-based heavy metallers Saxon \u2013 consists of 14 previously authored compositions, compositions the outfit have lent either a fresh arrangement, a fresh recording, or fresh mix to. The cuts in question span the depth and breadth of Saxon\u2019s back catalogue, new arrangements including acoustic as well as orchestral interpretations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been messing around for about five years with acoustic tracks,\u201d discloses Biff Byford, vocalist of Saxon. \u201cWe did an orchestrated \u2018Crusader\u2019 when we made the Lionheart<\/em> album (September 2004), so it\u2019s been around for about nine years altogether. We were gonna do another Heavy Metal Thunder<\/em> edition (September 2002) \u2013 which was of re-recorded classics \u2013 but then we had an idea to do some acoustic tracks. Basically, it\u2019s a culmination of different ideas we\u2019ve had really. Rather than just do an acoustic album, I thought that it would be cool to do a mixture of different styles, to make it more interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuts orchestrally reworked include the aforementioned \u2018Crusader\u2019, \u2018The Eagle Has Landed\u2019, \u2018Red Star Falling\u2019, \u2018Broken Heroes\u2019, and \u2018Call To Arms\u2019. \u201cI picked songs for the orchestral parts that were obviously big and epic but had a lot of space in them for the parts to fit in, really,\u201d the frontman explains. \u201cI think sometimes when people put orchestration or orchestras on songs, they tend to be too busy. They clash with the guitars sometimes. I think the versions that we\u2019ve done are quite sympathetic to the tracks, so I think it works quite well.\u201d<\/p>\n

A somewhat remixed version of \u2018Stallions Of The Highway\u2019 inaugurates Unplugged And Strung Up<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s basically the same version,\u201d Biff contends. \u201cWe just tried to get a bit more power on the sound with it, and obviously it\u2019s me singing it now rather than singing it 35 years ago. It\u2019s just a different twist on the song, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Stallions Of The Highway\u2019 aside, musical parts were generally re-recorded for the full-length compilation. \u201cThey were all re-recorded, yeah,\u201d the singer confirms. \u201cI think the \u2018Crusader\u2019 one is Nigel drumming, and the one on Heavy Metal Thunder<\/em> is Fritz Randow drumming. A few things changed. I think the one that we maybe didn\u2019t re-record is \u2018Red Star Falling\u2019, which I think is probably the original track. We just remixed it, if you know what I mean. I didn\u2019t re-sing it. We just remixed it with the orchestrated parts in there, so yeah, pretty much everything is… Even \u2018Requiem\u2019 is a different version on this album than the one that we recorded for Feast<\/em><\/a> (March 2013).\u201d<\/p>\n

As much as almost 35 years separate certain newly recorded versions from their original counterparts, a timeframe during which the human voice can diminish in power. \u201cPretty similar, really,\u201d Biff submits, critiquing his 1979 voice against his 2013 voice. \u201cActually, I suppose there\u2019s a little bit more depth to my voice now, but I think the high end is pretty much the same really. I suppose I\u2019ve learnt to sing a little bit better than I did on the first Saxon album, but I still scream away at full volume, so that\u2019s not changed (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

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Not all fellow veteran vocalists have been so fortunate. \u201cI think you\u2019re probably talking more live than in the studio, aren\u2019t you?,\u201d the Saxon mainman queries, which is answered in the affirmative. \u201cMore singers can get it right in the studio, but yeah, I have good times and bad times. Generally though, on average I\u2019m pretty good. I don\u2019t have many bad days, but that\u2019s just because I\u2019m lucky I suppose.\u201d<\/p>\n

The numbers \u2018Forever Free\u2019 and \u2018Just Let Me Rock\u2019 simply appear in re-recorded fashion, the pair having originally appeared on May 1992\u2019s Forever Free<\/em>. \u201cForever Free<\/em> was a strange album for us,\u201d Biff remembers. \u201cWe made it in some old factory in Austria. The guy that produced it (Herwig Ursin) was a bit whacky. We\u2019d be there all day; he used to turn up at 1am and just say \u2018Let\u2019s do it,\u2019 but we\u2019d been there since 10am (laughs). It was a bit strange. I thought the drum sound wasn\u2019t great on the Forever Free<\/em> album. We just fancied doing it again, really. It\u2019s a great track. Again, I think it\u2019s a little bit forgotten. It\u2019s in between Solid Ball Of Rock<\/em> (February 1991) and Dogs Of War<\/em> (August 1995), so it\u2019s a little bit forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Selecting further tracks from Saxon\u2019s catalogue to simply re-record hasn\u2019t been altogether ruled out. \u201cI think some of the songs off of the Destiny<\/em> (June 1988) album could probably be re-recorded quite well,\u201d the lyricist reckons. \u201cThere are a lot of keyboards on that album, quite sickly keyboards in my opinion that were put on after we recorded them. It was just a bit of a shock, really. Some keyboard sounds can make things sound very sweet, if you know what I mean, and take away the heaviness. I think it just took a little bit of the heaviness away from the guitars, really. Underneath it, there are some great songs on that album. It\u2019d be nice to go back to that album and revisit the songs, really. We could just easily remix it if we could find the tapes, but it\u2019s difficult to find the tapes these days. They seem to be all over the place. We\u2019ve just had a phone call from somebody in Atlanta who has some Power & The Glory<\/em> tapes (March 1983) for whatever reason, so they\u2019re all over the place, these things (laughs). Yeah though, I think Destiny<\/em> would be great. Some re-recorded tracks off that would be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

An outfit in Saxon\u2019s vein exhibits raw power. Therefore, outfits in Saxon\u2019s vein must approach musical sounds in the ilk of keyboards with caution. \u201cThat\u2019s why the orchestrated ones on the new album sound so good, because we took great care in making sure they don\u2019t distract from the original parts,\u201d Biff stresses. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of space in \u2018Crusader\u2019 and \u2018The Eagle Has Landed\u2019 for keyboards to be fitted in, and orchestra as well. It works really well, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of Unplugged And Strung Up<\/em>\u2019s new interpretations, \u2018Frozen Rainbow\u2019 happens to be the composer\u2019s favourite. \u201cThat\u2019s a one take vocal, and it just sounds great,\u201d he enthuses. \u201cMy voice is pretty cool on that, I think. I just captured something on the day, so I was quite pleased with that one. We do have a music video for \u2018Frozen Rainbow\u2019, as well. It\u2019s the three of us \u2013 me, Paul (Quinn, guitars) and Doug (Scarratt, guitars) \u2013 sat around with some candles and things. It\u2019s a pretty laid back one, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all vocal tracks are cut in minimal takes. \u201cSometimes it takes a little longer,\u201d Biff admits. \u201cThat one I did more bluesy, so it was just one of them ways that I sang it at that particular time on that particular day. I sang a different way a couple of times, but on that particular take I just sang it that way and we all liked it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Requiem\u2019 as well as \u2018Coming Home\u2019 round out the effort\u2019s acoustic studio renditions. \u201cWe basically used two acoustic guitars,\u201d the vocalist informs. \u201cThere\u2019s just a little bit of Moog pedal and a bit of bass guitar on a couple of them but they\u2019re not electric unplugged, if you know what I mean. We took unplugged to mean unplugged, so it\u2019s just acoustic guitars with microphones in front of them. I suppose in that respect, you\u2019re tied down to the guitars sounding plentiful if you know what I mean, because you\u2019ve got no effects on it. So yeah, I think we can say that they\u2019re true, pure acoustic tracks. I think they sound great, really. I think they transpose nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Not all attempted acoustic interpretations experienced success. \u201cWe tried an acoustic version of \u2018Princess Of The Night\u2019, which didn\u2019t sound very good,\u201d Biff chuckles. \u201cNot really, though. There weren\u2019t too many duds, but maybe that one didn\u2019t sound right. We haven\u2019t been working on acoustic tracks for five years, per se. We\u2019ve been doing different things; acoustics, some orchestration, and some re-recorded. Just to make it interesting really for people. We zeroed in on the first album and re-recorded three tracks from that, because that\u2019s an album that\u2019s a little bit forgotten sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The acoustic take of \u2018Iron Wheels\u2019 is a live affair. \u201cWe liked it,\u201d the frontman reasons. \u201cI think it\u2019s from Belfast, and the audience were particularly great. I think it works well. It\u2019s always nice to have one live track, just to hear the reaction of the audience to the track. We just finished mixing Manchester from the Sacrifice<\/em> tour, St. George\u2019s Day in 2013, and that sounds fantastic as well. I have no idea where it\u2019ll end up. We just do them basically as part of the contract. It could end up as an extra on something, or it could end up as a live album. We\u2019ll talk about that later when we listen to it. I\u2019ve just done a Dio song as well with Mot\u00f6rhead for the new Dio tribute album that\u2019s gonna be coming out soon. It\u2019s \u2018Starstruck\u2019 (by Rainbow, and from May 1976\u2019s Rising<\/em>). It\u2019s one that Mot\u00f6rhead recorded and Lemmy couldn\u2019t sing a couple of months ago because he was ill, and so they asked me to sing it. I think Lemmy\u2019s playing bass; it\u2019s the Mot\u00f6rhead band with me singing. It was quite nice to be asked to sing it, actually. So hey, we\u2019re doing all sorts of stuff mate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biff guested on March 2013 full-length The Mystery Of Time<\/em>, the sixth full-length outing by rock opera project Avantasia, appearing on the compositions \u2018Black Orchid\u2019 and \u2018The Great Mystery\u2019. \u201cIt was great,\u201d he compliments. \u201cI only sung a segment of the album. It wasn\u2019t the full orchestra version I was singing to. Tobias (Sammett, composer \/ vocalist) came to Brighton. I went down, and we did it in a studio down there. It was really nice, yeah. It was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unplugged And Strung Up<\/em> was recorded, mixed and mastered with Andy Sneap in Derbyshire, England. \u201cHe\u2019s great, Andy,\u201d the singer commends. \u201cHe has a really good ear for our genre of music. He\u2019s a big fan of ours, actually. He\u2019s a big fan of Saxon and a lot of the 80s bands, but yeah, he was great. He mixed a few, but he did the mastering over the whole album. So yeah, he\u2019s involved with Saxon now, and probably will be on the next album. I\u2019ve been talking to him a bit about it, so we\u2019ll have to see what his schedule is like. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, the Mot\u00f6rhead tour\u2019s been postponed until February. We were going into the studio in February 2014, but we\u2019re gonna go into the studio in November now and start writing for the next album. I\u2019d imagine the next album, you\u2019d be looking at maybe early 2015 I would think. In 2014, we\u2019re doing the Mot\u00f6rhead tour. We\u2019re doing the second tour of America. We\u2019re doing festivals in the summer, and we may do a 35th anniversary tour in November. We are talking about maybe doing some shows with maybe two keyboard players, and doing orchestrated versions off of the album. We\u2019d maybe do an orchestral gig at one of the bigger festivals we headline, so we\u2019ll keep our fingers crossed really. It\u2019s something interesting that will happen, I think. We\u2019ll be busy in 2014, so we\u2019re gonna be writing in between playing really.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certain anniversary performances will be marked by a specially composed setlist. \u201cThe headlining shows we\u2019re having in February around the Mot\u00f6rhead tour, I think we have like three to four of,\u201d Biff shares. \u201cThey\u2019re gonna be different, because obviously we\u2019ve got more time when we headline. We\u2019re gonna basically feature all of the albums up until Crusader<\/em> (April 1984) in that set, because it\u2019s Crusader<\/em>\u2019s 30th anniversary. Obviously we\u2019re gonna play Sacrifice<\/em> tracks and other things as well, but we\u2019re gonna feature the first six albums more \u2013 tracks that we haven\u2019t played for quite a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Saxon (l-r): Paul Quinn, Nigel Glockler, Biff Byford, Doug Scarratt and Nibbs
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Mixing orchestral parts perhaps differs from mixing conventional heavy metal sounds. \u201cI think so yeah, because mixing isn\u2019t like recording, if you know what I mean,\u201d the mainman analyses. \u201cWe mixed some of these tracks, and the other people mixed the other bits. When you\u2019re mixing, it\u2019s how the guy that mixes interprets it. Andy mixed the songs how he thought they should sound. Obviously some of the songs had already been mixed before, like \u2018Crusader\u2019 and \u2018Call To Arms\u2019, so he just mixed them differently. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s a massive difference. Mixing is just down to the levels of things, and the sounds that go on there. It\u2019s quite difficult to mix an orchestrated track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally issued in September 2002 as a stand-alone release, Unplugged And Strung Up<\/em>\u2019s digipack version includes a bonus disc entitled Heavy Metal Thunder<\/em>. \u201cWe did it during the Lionheart<\/em> album,\u201d Biff recalls. \u201cWe were gonna make a Heavy Metal Thunder, Part Two<\/em>, but we decided not to. Then we were gonna do an orchestrated album with an orchestra from Poland, but we didn\u2019t do that. Then we were gonna do an unplugged album, but we didn\u2019t do that either. This album, like I said, is a culmination of all of our ideas really. I think that\u2019s why it\u2019s so diverse and interesting, because there are different styles on there.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sequel to Heavy Metal Thunder<\/em> is a possibility, but not a certainty. \u201cI don\u2019t know, actually,\u201d the wordsmith ponders. \u201cI don\u2019t know about that. We could definitely re-record some of the tracks from some of the albums, but I don\u2019t know if we will do or not. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve got time these days. We\u2019re obviously getting more popular as time goes on, so it\u2019s finding time really around the touring and the albums to do these things. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saxon perhaps favour authoring and recording new material, as opposed to revisiting past compositions. \u201cI think the Unplugged And Strung Up<\/em> album is a sort of labour of love, really,\u201d Biff contemplates. \u201cIt\u2019s stuff that we\u2019ve been into, and have all put together on an album. On our next album we\u2019ll be obviously competing with Sacrifice<\/em>, so it\u2019ll be different. It\u2019s just different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unplugged And Strung Up<\/em> was released on November 18th, 2013 via UDR Music. <\/p>\n

Interview published in November 2013.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAXON – Orchestral \/ Acoustic Thunder Anthony Morgan November 2013 Saxon (l-r): Nibbs Carter, Nigel Glockler, Biff Byford, Doug Scarratt and Paul Quinn November 2013 studio compilation Unplugged And Strung Up \u2013 issued courtesy of Yorkshire, England-based heavy metallers Saxon \u2013 consists of 14 previously authored compositions, compositions the outfit have lent either a fresh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[535],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-saxon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15908"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16118,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15908\/revisions\/16118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}