Interviews: Interview with HOUSE OF LORDS Frontman James Christian
Posted on Wednesday, October 15 @ 09:40:44 EDT
Topic: Interviews
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James Christian:
Reigning in the Kingdom of Melodic Rock
by Tommy "Hashman" Hash
Having risen out of the ashes of Guffria in the late eighties, House of Lords were a band that showed massive melodic strength in the days of hair metal gloss and glam, spawning hits with "Love Don't Lie," "I Wanna Be Loved," and the Blind Faith cover of "Can't Find My Way Home," and today, they are one of the crown jewels in the world of melodic rock/AOR. Under the guidance of Gene Simmons the band released two records on the RCA/Simmons label, but when they released their third record, the epic Demons Down in 1992, regarded as a long lost melodic rock classic, the era of anthem choruses, big hooks, and slick riffage gave way to the 'new mainstream sounds' of grunge and alternative rock.
Fast forward to the era of now - when we have several bands out there carrying the torch for arena ready rock and metal, record companies such as Blistering, Frontiers, Lion, Angelmilk, AOR Heaven, Escape, etc... keeping the spirit alive and well, not to mention the whole 80?s rock taboo 'being' gone - House of Lords is still a mainstay in the melodic rock world. Having went through a hiatus for years, the band returned with an album The Power and the Myth in 2004, then a lineup change would occur; still, nothing would phase frontman James Christian who with the blessing of Greg Giuffria, would continue the House of Lords tradition of big choruses and a monstrosity of melodies.
"I feel that (the new record) fits in the mold of say, the tradition of the Demons Down record," begins Christian about Come to My Kingdom, "but probably with a little more edge because now rather than focusing on the keyboards, we focus much more on our guitar player (Jimmy Bell), he is a "sound within himself." So it's shifted a bit towards that (guitar based) grandiose sound, we feature the guitars more."
The major lineup change occurred after the The Power and the Myth album; it happened as a new reality would set in on the status of the band, one that would have to change in order to keep the focus of Christian's musical vision alive, which was one that meant picking up where they had left off over a decade earlier and not bowing down to any 'flavor of the day.' "The House of Lords brand and name has always been out there for a lot of years after Demons Down which was one of my favorite records," explains Christian, "But the music scene had changed so drastically, that record never got the chance it deserved; (at that point) I kind of just backed off a little bit and I just wanted to see what was going on, take some time off. As the years progressed, everybody went their own way and I always felt that we could pick up where Demons Down left off, that's what my intention was. Until a couple years ago when Chuck (Wright) and Lanny (Cordola) had asked me if I would be interested in recording a 'reunion' record; which I thought "Ok,' that would be great." I got involved in it, but didn't do any of the writing and although the record was a great musical record, it just didn't do anything for me song wise and as a singer; hence that's when we knew House of Lords became a different reality because I realized that the guys were not interested in continuing the Demons Down tradition, they really wanted to go into the more modern alternative sound, which was not for me."
From his days hunting for a record deal from New York to LA, to being signed with Gene Simmons' 'Simmons' record label, he has paid his dues - having seen good days on tour to sadly having to witness the downfall of mainstream melodic rock first hand when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" & "Jeremy" hit the charts, "In my career the early days, the things that honed me and got me ready for the things that I was about to do when I would go to California was all the years I spent playing nightclubs in Connecticut. It was literally seven days a week," elaborates Christian about his career, "I was playing four sets a night and doing this for many, many years so I had all my chops together before I took my step into trying to get a record deal in Los Angeles, although I tried in New York; my band at that time (Eyes) were not having any success at getting signed, I didn't know what the reasons were, I really don?t think about it these days, but there was something not happening where record companies just weren?t interested - so that's why I packed up and went to California for a fresh new start and within one year after playing for a band called LA Rocks, which got me some exposure, I then auditioned for this new supergroup that Gene Simmons was putting together and at that point I was down to 'pennies' so I really thought that this is my last shot here before I go broke. I did the audition and it turned out great, I got the gig, and things turned around for me. The years I spent with House of Lords were the best years for me as a singer because I really got to play with the bands I loved; we got to open up for bands like The Scorpions, Ozzy, and Cheap Trick, those bands would stand in on the side and watch us play when we warmed up for them. Out of the three albums that we did (in our first era), Demons Down when it hit, radio stations were throwing out just about anything 80's or even early 90's related, anything melodic rock related; it was the alternative wave coming in and it crashed and hit so hard that nothing could stand in it's way and sadly we didn't stand a chance."
Even with alternative, punk, singer/songwriter taking most of there street credibility in the mainstream, as well as different forms of so called nu-metal and even extreme metal garnering most of the attention for all things heavy these days, the frontman does state that melodic rock still remains a major staple, regardless of commercial appeal saying, "It has its place in history; it can never be taken away because melodic rock is the basis of all music, especially the melody. I still think hard rock is hard rock, Ozzy can be considered melodic rock, Metallica can be considered melodic because they have done things that have a lot of melody although they are on the darker side. So that term is kind of a wide term. For us, I think we write with melodies in our verses and have huge choruses, so we fit that label 'melodic rock' quite nicely. I think it's going to be around forever - will it be all the older bands? Probably not; It will be newer bands, younger bands that hear this type of stuff and say "wow, that was great" and start taking from it, the same way we took from Zeppelin, The Who, and The Beatles ? they?ll take from this era."
At this time he is currently working on a reworking of his wife's (Robin Beck) long out of print album Trouble or Nothing (the album that features the cover of Kiss' "Hide Your Heart"). It's a sad case where the record sold several copies and has shown demand ($20-$50 on eBay), but Universal Music (Mercury/Polygram's parent owner) refuses to really give a damn about it, "It's the twentieth anniversary of Robin's double platinum record," states Christian, "One of the reasons for re-recording it is because Polygram would not give us the rights to license it and basically they are holding onto it, not doing anything with it, and so we are not able to market it at all. So Robin said "you can't stop me from re-recording it" so that's what I am in the process of doing right now. I am also going to be producing the new House of Lords Record."
Europe has been a stronghold for AOR/Melodic Rock, as House of Lords has found good success touring abroad over there - not to mention that they have just come off a successful first-time tour of Brazil. You do have major festivals like Firefest and the USA's Rocklahoma that are fine examples of big gatherings for all things melody, where the band played the latter this past year during a massive rainstorm. "Once the (upcoming record) is finished, we will start planning another tour," says Christian about upcoming tour dates, "It will probably be a four-month tour, mostly Europe because quite honestly, most Europeans thrive on melodic rock; you can still fill a room with thousands of people. Here in the states you have to get on those festivals to make it work. Rocklahoma was great, unfortunately we had a monsoon happening while we were playing, we still had to play and be out there because of scheduling, so because of the heavy rain there weren't a lot of people out there, but the people that were there were having a good time; it was amazing."
So not even nasty weather could stop the band from rocking out; and when it comes to rocking out, the next new album is in the works, this time with a special collaborator. "I'm teaming up with Mark Baker," concludes Christian on the follow up to Come to My Kingdom, "he actually wrote Demons Down with me. That's going to be a special occasion for me and I think that this will be one of our strongest records. We?re working towards just enjoying what we are doing and appreciating the fact that there is a 'second wave' going on here and just kind of riding it. Writing music is what we like to do, unfortunately there was a twelve-fourteen year period where people didn't even know about it, and so having it resurface right now is wonderful for us."
Copyright & Publishing: 2008 Tommy Hash for Ytsejam.com
CLICK HERE to read a Review of Come to my Kingdom.
CLICK HERE to read a Review of Live in the UK.
CLICK HERE to read a Review of World Upside Down.
Please Visit:
James Christian/HOL Website
James Christian at MySpace
Blistering Records
Blistering Records at MySpace
Frontiers Records
Frontiers Records at MySpace
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