WARRIOR SOUL

Warriors At Warwick

(Kory Clarke & X Factor Interviews - Taken From Black Velvet 5 - Aug 95)

By Shari Black Velvet

After a storming Warrior Soul show at Warwick University, I headed backstage where eventually I for an interview with Mr Kory Clarke.

Above: (L-R) Pete, Kory & X Factor

I started off by asking why they were on their second tour of England in less than three months. Why two consecutive headline tours?

Kory: "Well, the headline tour was to come back as an encore for the Almighty tour, where we only had forty-five minutes to play and we didn't get to play all the stuff that people wanted to hear. So we came back and we did that swing and we went and did Germany and Holland, Switzerland, Italy, France and then we came back here to do Camden Palace really. To do London as our final stop before we went back to New York. Between that, there was some space and we thought why don't we go out and play some places we've never played before, like do four shows. And we had a bet with Kerrang! that we wouldn't do that gig for £20 at that one place. And that was great, and this is great, and Monday night will be great at another college, and then we do Camden Palace. I don't really consider this a tour, I consider this a movement into new market."

Earlier on Kory had been telling me that they would return again in June: "We're going to be on a Kerrang! tour with Clawfinger, Misery Loves Company and Headswim." I guess they must like it here in England!

Kory says "I think it's one of the coolest places in the world. It's fun to watch people when the sun comes out here! For the first time all year, and they walk around and they turn all pink! (A comment on my fluorescent pink fun fur jacket which Kory loved! - Shari) Everybody you see are all pink! I get along with most people here. They have my sort of nature."

I ask Kory if English fans differ to American fans?

"Yes, they do." he replies. "I think the rock people at this point in time are more open-minded, and I think that rock is resurging here right now, since the start of the year. It's a new kind of rock - Oasis, The Stone Roses, The Wildhearts, a lot of bands like that, and the punk bands that are playing here. I think it's a new kind of rock, it seems to be vital, it seems to be interesting, and it's more interesting than what's going on in the clubs, the techno clubs and the hip-hop clubs. The people on stage are tripping people out and they don't have to be on a record or a tape, there's more action. I think people are having more fun with it, and fashion has gone away from what was coming out of America, from the West Coast and Seattle, nobody's dressing down anymore, there's no more the black leather jacket, it's not hip anymore with the guys with the beards and the long hair. It's all fading and now we're getting more and more colours and shining, it's more exciting and psychedelic."

Because of that, I think a lot of glam fans are turning on to Warrior Soul. Well, there's me for a start! How does Kory feel about that?

"Great. They should be into our band. There are Hardcore Punk fans into our band, there are heavy metal kids into our band, and now there are starting to be dance kids into our band, because the music and the look and the vibe works with everybody. They know that we're having a great time, and in consequence, they have a great time. And everyone gets together. And it reminds me of the time that Hanoi Rocks brought everyone together here years ago. We're very fortunate to be in this position right now.

I move onto the subject of record companies. As Warrior Soul only moved in with Music For Nations with this latest album 'Space Age Playboys', I ask Kory what he thinks of them. Are they a good record label to be with?

Kory: "They're the best record label to be with right now. I wish we could tap into a large bank and be able to finance things a little bit harder and put pressure on the BBC and NME and Melody Maker, but we don't have those resources. We're doing the best we can with the resources we have. I'd rather have people that don't have unlimited resources than the ones that have unlimited resources who don't work at all. MFN works as hard as they can to help us out.

Warrior Soul's support band on the last tour was a fellow MFN act, Apes, Pigs And Spacemen. What does Kory think of them and other support bands? Does he get to see any of their sets or hang out with them?

"We did quite a bit with Apes, Pigs And Spacemen. I consider Paul and the boys all friends and they're really great artists." Kory praises. "Their attitude is amazing. I would love to work with them again at any point. I think people should go see 'em."

And from 'Spacemen' to 'Space Age Playboys'. I ask Kory what he hoped to achieve by writing the album.

"Well, a lot of things." he muses. "X Factor was moving into a new realm on this record, so was I, so was Pete. And one of my objectives was to be able to stretch out lyrically to a new way of singing, a new approach lyrically. I think I could say for everybody, our overall approach to writing this was, we wanted each song to have the potential of being a radio single and be able to get out there, because after we did 'Chill Pill' we got out all that Hardcore artistic stuff that was not very commercial at all, and we were in the mood to write more commercially. So that's what we tried."

Any plans for the next album?

Kory: "No, because we've got to finish the year with this album."

And my final question - I ask Kory "Is there one question that you are never asked in an interview, that you wish you were asked?"

He laughs. "There are questions they ask, that I wish they wouldn't ask, I can tell you that! But, actually no, you might want to talk to X about that!" At which point our attention turns to X, who is sat drinking beer a few metres from us. I repeat the question and X answers "Yeah - What would I like to be in my next lifetime?". Kory laughs.

I'm intrigued. What would his answer be?

"A rock." he madly proclaims! Kory laughs again. Strange guy that X Factor, I think to myself. I ask why and Kory replies "Oh boy, have you got enough tape!?!". I had, but I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out for yourselves why exactly X wants to be a rock!!!! Maybe you can ask him yourself sometime!

Prior to the Manchester show, I found myself in conversation with X Factor. And while I hadn't gone to the gig with any intention of doing an interview - far from it - we started talking about the band, what they'd been up to since last month's Warwick Uni show and so on. Luckily I had my tape recorder, so I decided to record a little to share with you, since I had the opportunity. Bear in mind, that I had no questions planned, what follows are just the topics that arose....

BV: Which single are you going to release off 'Space Age Playboys' next?

X: We haven't decided yet. If Radio 1 would play it, we'd like to release 'Let's Get Wasted'. But because of the title of the song, they might not play it; 'Get high, get wasted'. I don't know if they'd play it. It's too risqué.

BV: Is it the band's decision which single is to be released?

X: Oh yeah, everything we do is the band's decision, right down to what colour socks we wear! We pretty much control any creative flows that go through the band, whether it's the way to record a record, what the song is, what producer we use, down to what equipment we use.

BV: Who comes up with the concept of the videos then? You?

X: Well, the last two videos were made by a guy called Chris Haftner. He's a twenty-six year old, super-talented wiz kid from California. He's a great friend of the band and the last two videos, we just gave him a vague idea of what we wanted, a real loose concept. He throws it altogether, shoots a whole load of film and we'll go in, Pete, Kory and I, and edit it with him. The next video's going to be different, we've done two band-action-studio shots, with fast imagery. For the next video we'll probably do something a little bit different.

BV: I really liked those videos.

X: They're good, right? They're fun, they're fast-moving, but if we do 'Let's Get Wasted', we'll do something totally different. We'll take it in a completely different direction. Also it depends what happens in America. The record's being released on July 11 in the States, so we're going to go to California.

BV: What label will it be on over there?

X: There's a label that was partially funded by Martin Hooker, who owns MFN, our label, here. They've done such a good job with us here, that, when he said he was going to get involved with a label in America, we figured 'Well, why not? Why not keep it in the family?' so that's pretty much what we did. We signed a deal just before we left, it's called Mayhem Records and we're happy with it. They have the same game-plan as Music For Nations. And they've done everything they said they would.

BV: Do you think you'll go down well in America?

X: If it's given the right amount of promotion, the right amount of exposure, and we're allowed to tour the same way we tour in Europe, then yes. Yes, I really believe so.

BV: Do you have many fans in New York?

X: In New York yeah, we have hardcore fans, infact all through America we have a hardcore base, a very strong base of fans. So we want to capitalize on that through touring. It's worked here, y'know.

BV: When are we going to see you here again? Are you going to have a break from England for a while?

X: We'd like to come back. We always seem to do well here in late Fall, early Halloween, around October. We always seem to do good tours in October. We've done it the last two years and it's just been great. We're going back to New York after this tour, taking ten days off for vacation, we'll go our separate ways, go off writing, and then meet up again in New York and start rehearsals. I think we're going to LA., California, for a two week bash, to make a noise, to pretty much do what we did in London - which was be very high profile, put our face around town every night, and make a racket, get f**ked up, run around, go crazy, make people notice us. It worked in London. We'll do the same thing in L.A. and maybe people will take notice. Maybe tour there, go up through Canada.

BV: Have you played L.A. before?

X: Yes, we've a lot of friends there, but Warrior Soul hasn't toured properly in the United States, really, for quite a few years. For some reason we weren't allowed to, the management thought it wasn't a good idea. We need to tour America. We think right through October, through Halloween, then come back to Europe and do a quick hit, maybe preview our new album a little bit.

BV: Have you written any songs for the new album yet?

X: No, but we're starting already to get ideas. We've been talking about it. It's going to be interesting. Roughly we know where, creatively, it's going to be taking us. We have quite a clear idea. Plus, the process now, of Kory, Pete and myself, working together, now we've done an album, and now I've been with them for two years, we've done five or six tours, the process is pretty set now. We've written one album, but this one should be alot easier.

S: What about the other two guys - are they actual members of the band now?

X: Peter Jay is, for sure, and Scott, the drummer, is. Peter will be involved in the writing process on the next record. We'll see how that goes. There's a lot of people to write, there's already three of us, and that will be four, and that'll be nice. The more ideas the better.

BV: How do you go about writing songs then?

X: It comes from different sources. Kory and I'll get together, and we'll jam maybe at my apartment, or in a studio rehearsal room. He plays drums, he'll sit and sing some melodies and I'll play some riffs. Or I'll sit at my 8-track, I have an 8-track at my house, and I'll build up a song on my 8-track, then take it into the studio with no vocals on it, and Kory will jam on it there. Or we'll be in a rehearsal room with the whole band and we'll just jam. Or Kory will bring something in by himself. Or Pete will bring something in by himself. There's a multitude of different ways to write, and all of them work.

BV: Are you going to have anything different on the next album, different instruments etc.?

X: It's funny you should say that, yes. Yes. It's interesting you should say that. I can't tell you what it is, but it's something on Warrior Soul records that hasn't been used much. I would like to use it on the next record and I intend to. We're going to expand the direction of where we're heading.

BV: You just played at the Dynamo Rock Festival. How was that?

X: Oh man, it changed my life, in so far as, to see that many kids, and to experience something as intense as that, it was pouring down with rain, and there was a thunderstorm during one particular band, and to see kids coming together, they were tearing the tarpaulin off the fences and four guys would hold each corner and everyone would pile in underneath it, and they'd keep doing that until half of the whole field was this blue tent that these kids had made, super intense and creative and that was awesome. I don't want to sound like a hippy - I'm not, far from it - but it was beautiful, to see kids coming together like that, people who would normally walk past each other in the street, everybody was like everybody else.

BV: It was a little like that at the Rock Am Ring. Out of nowhere came a blue sheet of tarpaulin which a few people near me held over our heads to cover us from the rain.

X: It's good, isn't it? But to see a mosh pit that was so intense, that had steam rising from the heat of their bodies. The guys at the front were hosing them down, because these kids were super hot. There was a cloud of steam coming up from the mosh pit - that's how much energy they were putting in to it.

BV: How did your set go?

X: We were really happy with it. We weren't really expecting anything 'cause we really stuck out like a sore thumb. The majority of it was like L.A./rap/metal/thrash/hip-hop metal, and we didn't really expect anything. We thought 'we'll just go on and play and do our thing'. A lot of it was very serious, and chants, we just went on and ran crazy and did a fun set. An up-beat, high-energy fun set and people really liked it. So we were very happy.

BV: How long was your set?

X: We were scheduled to play about forty-five minutes/forty minutes, but we ended up playing about thirty-five minutes. We thought that was enough and we went off. Everybody was going crazy, saying 'Why are you going off?'. We thought we'd done enough. It was fine. It was a very high profile event. We did an MTV walk-around backstage, that was about half an hour's worth. We introduced a segment onstage. There was a lot of press there. There was a big press conference with a lot of media. So we're getting out to a lot of people. Hopefully on the next record, perhaps even this one, I don't know, we'll build on the foundation that we've already established, and capitalise on the fan base that already exists.

BV: Did you get to watch any of the other bands?

X: I made a point of it. I saw a lot of bands.

BV: Did you like them?

X: It's funny you should say that, because if I listen to the records, I've got to be honest, a lot of the bands there, their albums, I couldn't get past the first song. But somehow, being there, being part of it, it was amazing, I really enjoyed it. Yeah, it was great. The sound was amazing. But I still wouldn't go out and buy the albums of the bands that were there! But now I regard most of the bands there as my friends.

BV: Did you get to hang out with them then?

X: Oh yeah, everybody. I also made a point of meeting all the bands. It happened very organically. It was very organic, I met people and didn't sleep for two days.

BV: Are you going to be doing any more festivals in the future?

X: If we don't do any more festivals this year, we'll definitely gonna be doing them next year. There's no question about that. I'd like to see us doing the whole festival circuit, which is maybe eleven/twelve festivals and just go from one to another. That's something I really want to do next year. Definitely. It's just such a high, plus of course it sells records! A little added bonus! Selling records - yeah, there's a concept!

Yeah, there's a concept - buying Warrior Soul records! Isn't that a cool idea!? Why not go out right this minute and buy the entire Warrior Soul back catalogue!? Go on - do it NOW.