{"id":28791,"date":"2015-03-10T00:00:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-10T00:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=28791"},"modified":"2015-04-30T17:14:23","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T17:14:23","slug":"feature-motor-sister-03-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-motor-sister-03-15\/","title":{"rendered":"MOTOR SISTER – Fooling Around (March 2015) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOTOR SISTER – Fooling Around<\/strong><\/span>
\nAnthony Morgan<\/span>
\nMarch 2015<\/span><\/p>\n

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Motor Sister (l-r): Pearl Aday, John Tempesta, Jim Wilson, Scott Ian and Joey Vera<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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\nOn December 31st, 2013, Scott Ian \u2013 guitarist for New York-based thrash metal group Anthrax \u2013 celebrated his 50th birthday. To mark the occasion, the axeman wished to perform as part of a reunited Mother Superior line-up. Los Angeles-based, the rockers had disbanded during 2011. Although a Mother Superior reunion featuring Scott handling guitar ultimately never transpired, a fitting solution was reached.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing he wanted to do for his 50th birthday was he wanted to jam Mother Superior songs,\u201d remembers bassist Joey Vera. \u201cHe wanted to do it at his house, and he wanted to have Jim \u2013 Jim Wilson (Mother Superior vocalist), who\u2019s a friend of all of ours. He wanted him to be involved, and basically just threw the idea out there. Jim was very honoured and excited to do it, so after that was done, Scott went around and basically picked the band. He asked me to be involved, and he asked John Tempesta (drums, ex-Exodus \/ ex-Testament); he asked us if we wanted to do this, and we said \u2018Sure.\u2019 I\u2019ve been a fan of Mother Superior for years, so it was kind of a treat for me too. That\u2019s really how it came together. Scott chose the songs. We had one rehearsal, and then we played at the party. It was just a blast.\u201d<\/p>\n

That New Year\u2019s Eve 2013 performance \u2013 rounded out by Ian\u2019s wife Pearl Aday \u2013 eventually led to the formation of Motor Sister. \u201cWe just did this party and didn\u2019t think anything of it really, other than just the fact that it was so much fun to do. It was just a completely good time doing it,\u201d the rhythmist admits. \u201cWe didn\u2019t think that there was anything beyond it or anything, but we sorted of joked around at the end of the night, like \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be great if the world could hear this?\u2019 Mother Superior\u2019s a little bit of a band that\u2019s kind of under the radar, and we all thought that they were such a great band that we wished that other people knew about them. At the end of the night, we wished that there was a way to share this with the world, especially just what we did. We were just kind of a jam band that got together and played these songs. like \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be cool if the world could hear what we were doing\u2019? <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was really the end of it, but the following week, Neil Zlozower the photographer was on a phone call about something unrelated with Mike Faley over at Metal Blade. He just sort of mentioned \u2018Hey… Last weekend I was at Scott Ian\u2019s birthday party, and let me tell you about this. It was amazing.\u2019 He told him all about it, so Mike Faley immediately went into my wife\u2019s (Teresa Vera\u2019s) office \u2013 who also works at Metal Blade \u2013 and said \u2018Hey… Why didn\u2019t you tell me about this? Why were you keeping this a secret?\u2019 She said \u2018What are you talking about? It wasn\u2019t a secret. It was just a party. Nothing\u2019s going on. These guys just got together, and it was completely incredible and magical and everything. It was great.\u2019 He said \u2018This sounds like an amazing thing. What a great story, and what a great band.\u2019 Basically right then and there, he said \u2018Let\u2019s see if they want to put a record out.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe got the call, and were pretty much just blind-sided that a label called without even hearing the band and just said \u2018Make a record.\u2019 We had to think about it, and said \u2018Well, this is great, but if we do this record, then it\u2019s gonna be done in the same spirit as this party was, and basically that means live.\u2019 We just basically tried to recreate the party in the recording studio; we all played live, and we all played in the same room. We didn\u2019t do any overdubs, or fixing, or building tracks \u2013 everybody played at the same time. We even invited friends down; there were probably about ten to 14 friends that came to the recording studio. We basically just tried to recreate that whole vibe that we had at the party, and these 12 songs are the 12 exact same songs that we played at the party. This is what we documented as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motor Sister\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve 2013 performance not only spawned the outfit\u2019s formation, but led to the recording of March 2013 full-length Ride<\/em><\/a>, a studio opus consisting of Mother Superior cover interpretations. \u201cThe party was what it was,\u201d Joey recalls. \u201cWe were drinking beer, having a good time \u2013 totally not taking it serious at all… Taking it serious, but we weren\u2019t onstage. It wasn\u2019t like a big pressure; it was just super-relaxed, a good time. The studio was a little bit different at first, because you sort of realise \u2018Well, wait a minute. We\u2019re recording. I don\u2019t wanna make a mistake, because it\u2019s live.\u2019 You feel a little bit hesitant at first, but after we got into it, it was the same thing. We just kept it loose, and just tried to recreate it, and just have fun with it. The energy is a little bit different when you\u2019re actually doing it \u2013 when you\u2019re playing it \u2013 but when I listen back to it, it sounds live to me. It sounds like it is live; it just sounds like the same vibe and energy that we had at the party.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In forming Motor Sister, the four-stringer, Scott, Pearl, and John were afforded the opportunity to work with a man previously responsible for standing behind the microphone as part of one of their favourite rock assortments. \u201cPart of this is a big fan thing, because we\u2019re big fans of Mother Superior and Jim, but we\u2019ve also known Jim for quite a few years.,\u201d he notes. \u201cWe\u2019ve probably known him for almost ten years now, so we\u2019re just good friends. He\u2019s a guy, a guy that I like hanging around with. He\u2019s just a great person, and a super-talented guy. I work with him in other areas; I work with him on his solo stuff as kind of an engineer and I sort of help him mix a few things for his solo stuff, so we\u2019re just good friends. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe part that strikes you is when you\u2019re actually playing; I\u2019m playing these songs, and I\u2019m like \u2018Wow\u2019 \u2013 \u2018Get That Girl\u2019, for instance. I\u2019m playing the song \u2018Get That Girl\u2019, and I actually mixed that song on their record. I mixed the song on that record and then I\u2019m playing the song, and I\u2019m thinking to myself \u2018Holy shit. I\u2019m actually playing this song, and I\u2019m in Jim Wilson\u2019s band. This is crazy.\u2019 It\u2019s awesome though, a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott had introduced Joey to Mother Superior\u2019s material. \u201cHe discovered them I think around \u201999 or 2000, when they were Henry Rollins\u2019 backing band,\u201d he shares. \u201cThey did a couple of records with Henry Rollins, and that\u2019s when Scott first discovered them. I think he became friends with them around 2000, 2001, or something. When I was actually playing in Anthrax in 2004, Scott turned me onto Mother Superior. He just said \u2018Hey, you\u2019ve gotta check this band out. They\u2019re right up your alley.\u2019 I\u2019m a kid who grew up in the 70s, so everything that\u2019s a part of my fabric started in the 70s. All of the hard rock that I first started listening to when I was a young kid was from the 70s, and Mother Superior has a huge influence in the 70s. <\/p>\n

\u201cMe, I just gravitated towards it right away, and so he introduced me to them about 2004. They were a Los Angeles band, so I would go and see them play. I saw them play several different clubs in LA. I\u2019d go see them live, and I bought a few of their records. I just became totally stoked on their music, and totally into it. Right around the same time, I met them right away \u2013 within literally a couple of months, we were just getting along like old friends. We just had a lot in common, and became friends right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision as to which Mother Superior compositions surfaced in retooled fashion on Ride<\/em> fell to Scott. \u201cThis is Scott\u2019s wish list, because it was his birthday,\u201d the musician explains. \u201cHe started a list, and I\u2019m sure it was more like 20 songs when he first started it because there are so many songs. There\u2019s a lot of songs that I would\u2019ve chosen, if it was for my birthday. There\u2019s a song called \u2018Gorilla Monsoon\u2019 I would\u2019ve loved to have done, for example \u2013 that\u2019s a great song. He first had a large list, and then kind of whittled it down. Then he talked to Jim, and said \u2018Hey… These are the songs that I\u2019m thinking about for the party.\u2019 Jim probably helped him kind of narrow it down to 12. That\u2019s really how it came about, choosing the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albeit the same tracks, Motor Sister\u2019s interpretations naturally bear differences. \u201cIn general, I think our versions feel a little bit more off the cuff,\u201d Joey describes. \u201cEven though the Mother Superior versions were also done very quickly, I think the songs were written in a way where they wanted to treat them more like they were recording them for a record. Even though I think the same might be held true that some of those songs were recorded live as well, they were playing as a trio, and we have an extra guitar with Scott in there. That\u2019s adding a whole different kind of element, so I don\u2019t know. They\u2019re different. They\u2019re different, but they\u2019re the same. I don\u2019t know how else to say that. They have a different life, but they\u2019re the same great songs. We didn\u2019t go in there, and try to change them. That wasn\u2019t our intention, to sort of make them different, or better, or worse, or anything. We just wanted to redo them as is, and that\u2019s just what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little forethought was devoted to cutting the opus. \u201cWe just wanted to respect the songs,\u201d the composer reckons. \u201cWe only did a couple of things, like we maybe changed an ending or we changed an intro slightly, and maybe we added an extra chorus on one song. That\u2019s really about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As referenced, each respective Motor Sister member is an admirer of Mother Superior\u2019s works, although each have their individual favourites. \u201cI\u2019m kind of partial to when I first got introduced to them,\u201d Joey divulges. \u201cI\u2019m kind of partial to Three Headed Dog<\/em> (April 2007), and maybe Grande<\/em> (January 2008). Those two records I think are great. When I started working with Jim Wilson as well, I really got to know them and could really see what they were doing. I think I really, really gravitated towards that period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schedules permitting, Motor Sister hope to become more of a live entity. \u201cWe want to, if we can fit it in somehow,\u201d the bassist tells. \u201cWe are doing some shows. We played in New York a couple of weeks ago (on February 12th at Saint Vitus in Brooklyn); that was the very first show of the band, which was amazing. We\u2019re playing next week here in Los Angeles (March 11th, The Whisky), and then the day after in San Francisco (March 12th, DNA Lounge). Then we kind of have to put it on hold, because we\u2019re doing some other things with our other bands. Scott\u2019s doing some dates with Volbeat, and I\u2019m doing some shows with Armored Saint \u2013 playing with Saxon here in the US. We have to wait until we get an opportunity that opens up, but we do want to. We would love to come to Europe too and do some shows there as well, if we can make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Motor Sister (l-r): Scott Ian, Pearl Aday, Jim Wilson, Joey Vera and John Tempesta<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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The prospect of a second Motor Sister full-length is high. \u201cWe just recently started talking about doing writing together,\u201d Joey informs. \u201cWe just get along so well as friends and people that we want to see what we can do in this band \u2013 what kind of music we can write and what kind of songs we can write. It\u2019s possible that it could lead to another record, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rhythmist\u2019s central musical concern is Armored Saint of course, whose seventh platter Win Hands Down<\/em> arrives in June. \u201cWe\u2019re super-excited about it; the music is killer,\u201d he enthuses. \u201cWe\u2019re just very, very stoked on the record. It came out really good. It\u2019s mixed by Jay Ruston, who also mixed the Motor Sister record. And yeah, we\u2019re just super-excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armored Saint fans are naturally curious as to its musical stylings. \u201cIt\u2019s hard, because I\u2019m so close to it,\u201d Joey ponders. \u201cTo me though, John and I feel like we really pushed ourselves to write some great songs. We just really wanted to take it two notches higher than where we\u2019ve been in the past, so it\u2019s got a little bit of everything. It\u2019s got some stuff that\u2019s just really, really heavy, and really just energetic. It\u2019s got shades of old, classic Armored Saint grooves \u2013 there\u2019ll be some familiar grooves to different people \u2013 and then some of the songs are on the long side, for us anyway. We just really wanted to write music, and not be concerned with \u2018Oh, the song has to be three minutes long, and it has to go verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and we have to have a lead guitar solo,\u2019 and blah blah blah. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just wanted to write the music, and let the music just take off \u2013 a no-holds barred kind of a thing. As a result, some of the songs are a little on the long side and gives the whole record sort of this giant, epic feel. This is my impression, but to me it just feels huge, and epic, and just big. I don\u2019t know how else to explain it (laughs).\u201d<\/p>\n

Such comments suggest Win Hands Down<\/em> boasts aspects of each and every Armored Saint record to date, as well as aspects unheard on previous jaunts. \u201cAgain, it\u2019s a funny thing about our band,\u201d the four-stringer observes. \u201cMaybe not so funny, but a peculiar thing about our band perhaps is that every record we make is very different from the one preceding it, so our records are a little bit all over the place in a way. We haven\u2019t gone completely whacko with our songwriting style, necessarily; we don\u2019t put out an electronic record one year, and then a thrash metal record the next year, and then a post-rock record the next year, and then a country rock record the next year (laughs). <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that crazy, but we do tend to challenge ourselves to just take some chances here and there, and even in the production of the record \u2013 the way the record sounds in the end. Each record\u2019s been a little bit different from the one preceding it, and this one\u2019s no exception. This one is just its own life, another snapshot of where we are in 2015. There\u2019s a line, something that runs from March Of The Saint<\/em> (October 1984) all the way through to where we are today, but we want to feel like we\u2019re progressing and learning, and becoming better songwriters \u2013 evolving. This is just another place, another evolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Production duties for Win Hands Down<\/em> fell to Joey, once again. \u201cI produced it, and I did a lot of the engineering on it as well, but we also had other people recording drums and guitars,\u201d he credits. \u201cI did all of the vocals here, though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armored Saint release albums infrequently nowadays, causing some to hope Armored Saint would issue fresh material more often. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, because La Raza<\/em> (March 2010) \u2013 the last record \u2013 is five years old,\u201d the performer acknowledges. \u201cTo be honest with you, those five years went by super-fast for me. It takes us a long time the way we write music; it takes us a good year and a half just to write the music and record demos, and actually fine-tune everything. We don\u2019t work very much quicker than that, so I don\u2019t really think that it would be possible for us to write, record, release, and do dates in three years. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s possible (laughs). Five years is pushing it for us. I mean, the record before that was ten years (Revelation<\/em>, March 2000), so I think we\u2019re making progress in that department.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armored Saint and Motor Sister aside, Joey\u2019s time is additionally consumed by other musical preoccupations. \u201cI\u2019m still involved with Fates Warning of course, and Fates Warning is writing a new record right now,\u201d he discloses. \u201cWe\u2019re just hanging out, doing that, getting the ideas together, and trying to get that writing process going. Fates Warning will be doing some dates in the fall and other than that, I\u2019m mixing a record for a band called Seven Witches. I\u2019ll start that in the next week or so, and I will probably start writing for Motor Sister. I\u2019m probably gonna start writing for Motor Sister within the next month or so too, so there\u2019s that coming up as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

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David Prichard (left) and Joey Vera performing live with Armored Saint in 1986<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Prior to wrapping up this feature, it would be remiss not to touch upon late Armored Saint guitarist Dave Prichard. February 28th, 2015 marked 25 years since the axeman\u2019s passing. \u201cI thought about this the other day and I\u2019ve often thought about this, because he was a big musical contributor to Armored Saint,\u201d Joey attributes. \u201cHe was one of the main songwriters obviously back in the day. He wasn\u2019t a real… He wasn\u2019t \u2013 none of us were, in fact \u2013 very keen on music theory when we were growing up and learning to play, even in the early years of Armored Saint. I didn\u2019t study music theory until I turned 30 and Dave never did either, but Dave had a great sense of knowing instinctively what was going on with theory, and so he would get very elaborate with the way that he wrote music. He would write parts… And his leads as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember towards the end, he was always pushing us to write very melodic and sort of busy parts for him to solo over, because he felt like it would be more interesting for him to solo over a chord progression that was moving rather than chug, chug in A, chug, chug in E \u2013 one or two chords. He was already pushing us musically towards the end of our period with him and so I always often wondered where he would be if he hadn\u2019t passed away, like where he would\u2019ve gone as a musician. I can only imagine that he would\u2019ve just totally blossomed into this amazing songwriter and player. I always wondered that, where he would\u2019ve gone. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure that it would\u2019ve been something great, but I just always wondered what it would\u2019ve been, because he would\u2019ve made a mark somewhere. He would\u2019ve kept going, because he was a talent. He had a lot of natural talent in terms of being very creative, and thinking outside of the box, and figuring things out. I think eventually, he probably would\u2019ve taken theory, and that would\u2019ve opened up a thousand other doors for him \u2013 just like it did for me. I often wonder where he would\u2019ve taken himself just as a musician. I think it would\u2019ve been interesting, to think about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though Dave has passed, he is nevertheless still an influence upon Armored Saint\u2019s musical fabric. \u201cWhat I just explained to you, about what he was trying to make us do with some of the songwriting,\u201d the composer begins. \u201cA good example is a song called \u2018Legacy\u2019 on Raising Fear<\/em> (September 1987), which is like an orchestral song. The way the guitar parts are written, it was pretty elaborate. At least for us at that time, it was elaborate, and so that\u2019s a hint as to where… That\u2019s an example of how he was pushing us, that song. That very idea about challenging yourself and making things move outside of your comfort zone, that always stuck with me. Aside from Dave, I was the other primary writer in Armored Saint, and so I\u2019ve taken that with me \u2013 that sort of idea from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave\u2019s worth as a guitarist and composer is immortalised on disc, although many fans both old and new will sadly never know the man behind the music as a result of his untimely passing. \u201cHe was pretty hilarious,\u201d Joey remembers. \u201cHe was a very funny guy, very personable. He\u2019d walk into a room, and you\u2019d gravitate towards him \u2013 he was just that kind of a person. He was a smart ass. He was a jokester, playing pranks all the time, had a great sense of humour. He was super-friendly, totally approachable \u2013 he would talk to anybody. The wild guy; he could get totally wild, as well. Never in a bad way, but just a crazy way. So yeah, the people that met him would attest to those things, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ride<\/em> was released on March 9th, 2015 in Europe, and subsequently on the 10th in North America, all via Metal Blade Records.<\/p>\n

Interview published in March 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOTOR SISTER – Fooling Around Anthony Morgan March 2015 Motor Sister (l-r): Pearl Aday, John Tempesta, Jim Wilson, Scott Ian and Joey Vera On December 31st, 2013, Scott Ian \u2013 guitarist for New York-based thrash metal group Anthrax \u2013 celebrated his 50th birthday. To mark the occasion, the axeman wished to perform as part of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1747],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-motor-sister"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28791","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=28791"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29008,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28791\/revisions\/29008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}