From yesterday interview with Fozzy’s Chris Jerico:
What can we expect from the new Fozzy album, Do You Wanna Start a War?
The only rule we had with this record is that we had no rules. We didn’t want to make a record that was like anything that we had ever done before. We wanted to take our sound to the next level. You know, a lot of bands can kind of fall into a trap of doing the same record over and over again, and that’s fine. We love bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica, we love Avenged Sevenfold but we also love Queen and Pink Floyd, Zeppelin and the Beatles, bands that would make a different record every time. There was really no rules or chains as to what kind of songs they would do.
I mean, if you look at a Queen record, there would be a metal song, a rock song, a pop song, a dance song, a rockabilly song, a ballad. It was all good, because it was Queen. That’s what we wanted to do, just make a really diverse record with good songs. I think that’s the difference. There’s some songs that are more danceable songs, you could hear them at a dance club. There’s songs that you could hear at a strip club, there’s songs you could hear at an R&B club, but they are all good, they are all heavy and they’re all Fozzy, and that’s what we wanted to do.
So, I have to ask about you guys doing a cover of “S.O.S.” by Abba. How did that happen?
We were listening to music in the dressing room, an iPod on shuffle, and that song came on. We just realized that there are some really cool riffs in it. Great chord changes, great chorus, and it would be perfect for us to do a heavier version of it.
It’s such a dark song, it’s such a depressing song, it really lends itself to being a heavy rock song, and again, nobody would cover Abba. Most rock bands would cover Sabbath, or Maiden or whatever, and we thought that this song fits perfectly, it’s completely outside of the box. Everybody knows it, and when you hear it, you go “Holy shit, does that ever sound good!” That’s why we did it, it really fit the whole vibe of what we wanted to do…no rules.
It’s always amazing when bands find inspiration from what some would consider unlikely sources. The results are usually pretty surprising.
Yeah, ’cause a good song is a good song, man. It doesn’t matter. You could take the heaviest song of all time…take “Raining Blood” by Slayer, and break it down just to the melody, and you could have five guys standing around the fire in downtown New York City singing that as a doo-wop song. A good melody is the same whether there are drums and guitars on it or not. That’s all that matters.
Fozzy’s brand new LP, Do You Wanna Start a War? arrives in stores TODAY, 7/22—and we have a copy signed by Mr. Jericho himself to put in the hands of one of you.
Enter to win Do You Wanna Start a War? in the comments below by convincing us you’re Fozzy’s biggest fan and that you deserve to have the new LP—autographed!—and on your shelves. We’ll choose one over the top entrant with a North American mailing address one week from today, 7/29!
