ICED EARTH's Jon Schaffer - "We Would Really Like To Shoot For An October Release For The New Studio Album" Geeks Of Doom's Obi-Dan has issued an interview conducted with
ICED
EARTH mastermind
Jon Schaffer. An excerpt from the chat follows:
Q:
Iced Earth is pretty much booked up for the summer in Europe,
then in January you are coming back for a big tour. Do you feel more at
home here, is there a bigger response when you come to Europe?
A: "I don’t know, man. I mean, we are as successful in the States as
we are in Europe, I would say they are equal. Clearly if you look at
the per capita, the population, in a country like Greece we are much
bigger there compared to anywhere else in the world, but that’s a very
small market. Our goals are this summer we’re going to be recording the
new studio album and in between the weekends where we perform festivals
we’re going to be tracking. First we’re going to be rehearsing, working
on the new songs and doing some in-person writing together. We got about
seven songs finished so far and I think we’ll have another six or
seven. We’re going to track in Europe and play festivals on the weekend
and at some point I’ll be flying to Florida to mix the album there at
Morrisound then we have a big announcement to make in the next week or
two about more touring that’s going to happen in October, November, and
then our headline world tour starts in January. So we’re starting in
Europe but we’re going to be doing North, Central, South America, Asia,
Australia, hopefully New Zealand this time around, so it’s a process.
But we do love Europe, we love coming there, we’ve been coming there for
23 years now and have a lot of very loyal fans. So it’s cool but I
wouldn’t say that it’s necessarily different or bigger than the States.
You have to look at it in a market base. But Germany is certainly like a
second home to me just because I’ve been going there so long and I have
a lot of very good friends there."
Q: And so are we looking at a new album end of this year early next year?
A: "Yeah. I mean, if we can stay on track, if we don’t have any
delays, we would really like to shoot for an October release for the new
studio album. If we end up having some kind of a delay because it’s
going to be such a tight schedule and tight timeframe in order to hand
the master into the label in order for them to get it prepared for an
October release...then it’s going to be January when the new stuff comes
out. But I think we’re going to make the deadline happen, I feel pretty
confident about that. I’ve already got the theme happening, the album
cover art concept is happening, the artist is starting to work on it
this week. We’re really ahead of the curve on a lot of that stuff so
we’re in good shape and I think unless something crazy happens we should
be able to stay on point and have that October release."
Read the complete interview at this location.
Earlier this week,
Iced Earth announced that Brent Smedley will be
stepping down from drum duty for personal family reasons. The new
drummer will be Raphael Saini and will be performing with the group
starting this summer.
“I have family members that are elderly and frail and need my help
here in Jacksonville,” Brent Smedley says. “It’s been one of the hardest
decisions of my life but I simply cannot commit to the kind of schedule
the band deserves and requires so I decided to ask permission to step
down from my post.”
Iced Earth comments; “Brent has been a valued member of the group
for a long time. We thank him for his contributions, friendship and
energy and wish him all the best for the future. We want to welcome
Raphael with open arms and are expecting for our fans to give him the
welcome he deserves”
Iced Earth just released a concert from their World Dystopia Tour in
many different formats, including BluRay, DVD and CD. Entitled Live In
Ancient Kourion, it shows the band playing to a rabid, packed house in
an ancient amphitheater in Cyprus and storming through an encompassing
setlist of both fan favourites and deep catalog material.
The summer will be spent recording and mixing a new studio album
entitled Plagues Of Babylon and playing various summer festivals. A
headline tour has been announced kicking off in January 2014.
Jeu 25 Avr - 16:24
