Before their WorldWired tour stop at BC Place in Vancouver, Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett spent 10 minutes to yap with CFOX.
Hammett talks about the setlist creation for their current WorldWired tour. His favourite song to played off Hardwired….To Self Destruct, how they still love playing the classic Metallica songs for the fans, being inspired by jazz legend John Coltrane, taking guitar lessons from Joe Satriani in the early 80s, and his collection of horror movie memorabilia.
Shout out to CFOX producer Jello and Jeff O’Neil Show producer Adam for being part of the team. And thank you to Charlotte and Scott at Warner Music Canada for the hook up.
Kaleo is in town for two sold out shows at The Orpheum tomorrow and Wednesday.
We talk about moving from Iceland to the United States. What he loves about living in the US and how the two cultures aren’t as different as we might think. He talks about what he misses most Iceland, his inspiration for music and how he crafts a song. We yap a little about the album A/B and specifically the song “Broken Bones.” We also talk about his travelling bar on the tour bus and his love of a classic craft cocktail. He ways the guitar tech mixes up a choice whiskey sour. Also the dude is friends with UFC fighter Gunnar Nelson. Huh.
Sam Roberts Band is in Vancouver for a show tonight at The Orpheum. Before the show… Sam stopped by CFOX for a little chit-chat and I asked him, of the 6 Sam Roberts Band albums….which one is your favourite?
Wild Cub principle Keegan DeWitt took a pause in the rock & roll tour schedule to call into The Zone. Here are a couple clips from that chit-chat.
Keegan shares the origin story for their much mega hit, “Thunder Clatter.” Keegan says the idea for the song happened the week he met the woman who would eventually become his wife!
Then I asked Keegan about the song “Colour” which also touches on relationships. But this song talks about those tumultuous partnerships we enjoy in our 20s.
We’ll get a chance to see Wild Cub when their tour with Bleachers rolls through Vancouver on November 8th. The concert will be at The Rio Theatre.
I had the chance to yap with Mark Foster of Foster The People last week. We chatted about a bunch of stuff including some world travel the man got up to. He talked about going to India, and how that changed the way the man will operate his life! Sounded like quite the spiritual journey. Back in LA, the man decides to call the new Foster The People record Supermodel…why is that?
Foster The People will be at Squamish… hit it up.
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Interesting story out of NPR the other day. Imagine Dragons’ “radioactive” has sat on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for a record 77 weeks. Why is that? According to NPR…. religion. NPR Pop Critic Ann Powers says, “It taps into one of rock’s favorite subject areas, and that is religious or spiritual imagery. It’s like an apocalyptic theme. It’s end times. It’s straight out of Revelation.”
And she says its not the only mainstream song on the charts borrowing from God. Check out OneRepublic’s new Much Megahit “Counting Stars.” Powers says, “That’s the power of pop music in America. It can absorb all of the most important influences in our lives. And certainly, for many, many people, spirituality [and] religion, specifically connected to Christian traditions, are important. It’s hardly a new thing, but we always seem to crave it again.”
Yesterday JP Maurice stopped by the Zone Afternoon Show for a chit chat and live performance. He played his song “Nothing Like a Good Feeling.” Have a listen.
JP then put in my palm an ep of 7 songs… or I guess small LP? (does it matter in the year 2012? It DOES TO ME!) for the group Noverdubs.
JP put the Noverdubs together as a project for the Peak Performance Project last season. The session led to a solid 7 songs and a glorious cover of the Fleetwood Mac classic “Dreams.”
I asked JP if I could offer the song as a free MP3 download and he said yes! Nice. Thank you Jean-Paul.
“Dreams” is a hard song to tackle. You are taking one of Fleetwood Mac’s most iconic songs off one of rock & roll’s most celebrated albums. I think this version does justice. It is by no means a reinterpretation… just a beautiful showcase of talent from Victoria.
Maurice performs this Saturday night at Lucky Bar. Doors at 8PM.
One of my modern rock best friends… Dallas Green from City and Colour and Alexisonfire called into my radio. Here is the complete unedited conversation.
The things we talk about: His new record, Little Hell and the maturity of the direction of his sound. hmmm, does that sentence even make sense? The album art (see above) looks awesome, what’s it all about? How the vinyl for Little Hell will be impressive. We talk some fragile bird and breakup songs and his little house in Toronto. And Dallas Green of City and Colour, what about Rifflandia? You playing that this year?
Rise Against‘s 6th studio record, Endgame, debuted at #2 on the Billboard Chart. Guitarist Zach Blair also tried to tell me that it was number 1 in Canada and Germany! That’s something right. I like Canada, and Germany, you’re alright.
Zach and I had a little chit-chat over the phone as the band is currently in Berlin.
We talked about all sort of stuff. The record Endgame is kinda of a dark, concept record that is a bit heavier and faster then the previous couple records. There is a savage Grapes of Wrath quote when you open up the compact disc (do people still buy those?). Zach talks about the significance of that then delves into the some communist utopia mumbo-jumbo.
That leads the conversation toward “Help is on the Way” and he talk’s about making small changes in the world and taking care of yourself. because if you wait for someone else or the government you’ll be disappointed.
I gushed a bit about how the video is AWESOME so he explained that a bit.
Then… I dunno, we talk about some other things like Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio being on the record and Bill Stevenson of Black Flag and the Decendents producing it in Colorado and we end by reflecting on the time Rise Against came to Victoria and the guys hung out with the Darth Fiddler on Government Street. Oh the times we shared. Please find our conversation below in its unedited entirety. If that’s of interest to you or you work at another radio station you can download it and use a clip it if you want.
The Morning After 