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Interview With Mick Priestley (The Green River Project)
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Interview With Mick Priestley (The Green River Project)
Having seen former band Nothin' To Lose bite the dust after an established run on the London circuit, guitar supremo Mick Priestly is back and badder than ever with The Green River Project. Promising a return to the kind of classic heavy metal that made Mick pick up a guitar in the first place, things look good for GRP, and you'd have to be a fool or a My Chemical Romance fan not to get involved. Raise your pick...
First and foremost, what in the hell is a Green River Project when it’s not at home?
There’s a somewhat sinister meaning behind it - I’ve always been a bit of a true crime/serial killer freak and Gary Ridgeway was something of an influence behind the band name – he’s a very naughty boy. There’s a lot of similar sorta references throughout the Green River Project…from certain parts of the songs, a lot of imagery and even the band logo. When I was trying to think of names for the band it was either gonna be ‘The Green River Project’ or ‘8213 Summerdale’ but I couldn’t find a way to pronounce that number without it sounding like a mouthful…
Tell us about how you guys came together.
We all met through projects we were doing before – Muggsy and I had met Andy through shows we’d played together. We knew we wanted to put a new project together, but it was just a case of finding the right people. Andy had probably the most insane singing voice we’d ever heard so that was pretty much a no-brainer.
When Adrian (Erlandsson) put the drums down on the demo there was obviously going to be a problem as to who the hell would be able to match him! We had a bit of a nightmare trying to find the right guy to get behind the kit, until we were introduced to Alex through Mick from Monsta Ents, who had seen him play with Social Head Removal and knew he would kick some ass – we all met over a coffee (very civilised) and the rest is history…
How did Adrian Erlandsson become involved?
At the time I’d written the three tracks for the demo, Andy had said he wanted to stick the vocals down but we still didn’t have a drummer. I’d met Adrian through friends a while before, played him the tracks and he was kind enough to come down to the studio to stick the drums down – he’s a really cool guy. Check out Nemhain.com and see what he’s up to.
You’ve made a break of sorts from the sleaze-metal tendencies of Nothin’ To Lose and delved into a sound that is much more NWOBHM-oriented. Why the shift?
It’s kinda weird really – everyone in NTL was into heavier stuff than we were doing – influences ranged from Ozzy Osbourne to DevilDriver and somehow we were writing dirty rock n roll songs! Which was cool, but it wasn’t really us. By the time we put out the ‘Devil Man’ EP with Nothin’ To Lose I think it was pretty clear we were all pushing for a heavier sound. We had a track called ‘Going Down’ that never actually got finished in the recording studio but always went down well live…it had a much edgier sound than the rest of the set but was a favourite within the band.
When NTL parted ways after the Hotter Than Hell tour we all kinda went back to the drawing board. I wrote ‘Dig Your Grave’ and ‘Nowhere To Run’ and for a while we considered going out again under the same name, but scrapping all the material and coming back with the new sound. Eventually we decided it was best to leave the past where it was and get out there and do it again, but properly!
The sound that we have now is definitely a much better representation of our personalities within the band – certainly from my point of view. I grew up on a diet of Yngwie Malmsteen and Ozzy Osbourne and those are definitely influences that I think cut through in the music a lot more now.
Which of the two styles were more of an influence on you growing up as a guitar player?
NWOBHM, by a mile. To be honest with you, I’ve never been much of a ‘sleaze’ fan. But then again when the word ‘sleaze’ is mentioned is conjures up images of Poison, Warrant and crap like that. Those bands were a joke. I always thought those guys were basically the 80s version of emo – nowadays you’ve got Lamb Of God at one end of the spectrum and My Chemical Romance at the other, they’re both getting coverage in the same media, but one kicks your ass and one is just an embarrassment. Much like if you had Guns n' Roses and Ozzy Osbourne in the 80s squaring up to Poison and Cinderella.
When I was learning the guitar, originally, I started with some 60s stuff – The Beatles, The Kinks, stuff like that. After that it was Guns n' Roses, but then I heard Randy Rhoads on ‘Blizzard Of Ozz’ and it just blew my head off. Suddenly the bike stayed in the shed and I was playing guitar all day, every day. I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever heard until I heard ‘Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force’. I was always into a load of guys like Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert etc but they will always be the main influences.
What do you feel Andy brings to the table as a singer that matches the band’s direction so well?
It was pretty obvious with the new musical style that we were gonna need someone with the lungs to match it – and Andy was obviously the dude for the job! He’s got a ridiculously huge vocal range and one of those power voices that mean he can hit the highest note and still keep the energy behind it – that’s kinda rare in a vocalist. A lot of the stuff we’re recording now is pretty intense, so one of the best things I suppose is that we never get to one of those moments where we have to re-write the vocal ideas because he can’t sing it. He’s something of a wizard with vocal harmonies too – a lot of the stuff we’re doing might have a triple vocal harmony and it really gives the music an extra edge. It’s something he can just pull out of the air in the studio. Once the music is written, Andy tends to take all the ideas away and inevitably returns with something that kicks your ass.
In what ways do you feel you can express yourself musically in GRP that wouldn’t have worked as well with Nothin’ To Lose?
If I’m writing a song now there’s something of an ‘anything goes’ approach to it. The barriers have been torn down musically and it allows me to really experiment with a load of things that I wouldn’t have been able to do before. The music has a lot more depth to it which opens the door for more instruments in the mix, guitar harmonies that would have been absent before, and vocal arrangements that we probably wouldn’t even have attempted. There’s definitely a much fatter sound. It’s more aggressive and there’s more of a neo-classical element to it in parts too. That’s cool for me because I’ve always been a bit of a classical music buff - I’m as much of a Paganini / Vivaldi fan as I am of any metal bands so it’s nice to be able to throw that influence in there too.
Does this currently mean that there’ll be no more rock `n` roll partying for Mick Priestley?
I wouldn’t say that! As long as there’s mayhem to be caused, parties to be had and girls to be screwed we shall be there, my friend.
You’re extremely established on the London circuit and beyond, has that made it easier to get GRP out there?
I guess so – if people liked what you were doing before then they’re kinda eager to check out the new stuff. But I think the main thing that might make it easier is the experience we gained beforehand – through working so hard with Nothin’ To Lose we started to learn the right and wrong ways of going about things….which magazines to contact, which promoters to work with (or avoid), basically learning the right way to go about promoting yourself and how to find the right people to get it all moving. Plus already we knew plenty of good people! After all the stuff we’d already done, it didn’t feel like we were starting from scratch - people already knew who we were, it was just a case of getting the Green River Project out to them.
Have Nothin’ To Lose fans been receptive in the change to direction?
Definitely. But to a degree I think that a lot of people who were around at the early Nothin’ To Lose shows, who were involved in that whole ‘scene’ were moving on anyway. That whole scene was great while it lasted but has since disappeared. There were a lot of great bands around at the time, and people tend to underestimate the ‘buzz’ that was around it – NTL shows were wild and we met a lot of great people. Even if we always got labelled as something of a cock-rock band which I don’t really think was the case – some people said Motley Crue but I always considered us more like Motorhead with big guitar solos.
The old-school fans are still there and I think they’re really happy about the change of direction – it’s an entirely different musical style but it’s definitely something that suits us better and it’s something that we’re much happier doing. It seemed like a bit of a nightmare when NTL broke up but with the benefit of hindsight it was the best thing that could have happened for us – it was great while it lasted, but The Green River Project is where it’s at.
Where do you see The Green River Project in five years’ time?
Staring from your magazine covers and blasting from your stereos…we’re working our balls off and we mean serious business! Debut album ‘From Hell To Here’ is on the way and we’re gonna make sure that you hear it. We’re playing some festivals this year, getting ourselves all over the UK and invading the media…there’s no escape!
Finally, is Mick Priestley actually your real name? Cause if it is, that’s pretty bad ass.
You know what? That’s not the first time somebody’s asked that! Yes, it is my real name...
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