Dead Rhetoric: Do you believe the newer generation of young metalheads will be able to sustain the movement as the old guard have (and currently continue to do) – as there seems to be so many choices of entertainment/passions coming from all angles?
Peck: As a musician performing is such a powerful drug. There is the human experience that can only do so much. You can skydive, you can ski down the mountain- I’m an avid snowboarder. I can hit 65 mph on a couple of runs last year. There’s the adrenaline rush from that. On stage and hearing the roar of the crowd is right up there. That is a drug that will constantly keep musicians chasing that dream, that feeling. New people will chase that feeling, so there will be an endless cycle of musicians enjoying that feeling. And then being a fan, that experience of being in the crowd – that’s how I got into this. When I went to my first Judas Priest show – my first concert was going to see Dio and Dokken in Anchorage, Alaska. I was completely into Dokken, the Tooth and Nail album. When you see a band live for the first time and you are totally into the record, you go nuts and air guitar. The feeling of an insane live concert, that will never get old.
We may watch things on a virtual reality headset, but it can’t get that same emotion. It will continue on and on and on.
Dead Rhetoric: How are you able to be so productive – as you also sing for Denner/Shermann, Death Dealer, and Warrior beyond your activities with Cage? Do you ever run into trouble with your voice because of singing so high and with such passion and power?
Peck: You can run into trouble with your voice all the time. For me, I’m always working on switching up my technique because I got sick on the last Three Tremors tour, it was so damn irritating. I hadn’t been sick in two years, I’ve lost weight and training like Rocky in a movie montage. Ready to go, we hit the tour and for no reason, I was sleeping good, not being in the cold, I got sick after the sixth show. Singing is 90% psychological – people told me to drink honey, drink whiskey, this and that. And that’s all a big mind game. I don’t go out there to be perfect, I just go out there and do whatever I can when I get on stage. We were on tour with another band that opened for us, and this chick tripped out every day for singing. I’m into this for the live performance. I did a Death Dealer tour once where I could barely even talk- people still enjoyed it.
My touring has picked up a lot- but still with all those bands, it’s not that we are touring like crazy. It’s about making new music and touring when we can. I went from only being in one band my whole career and now I am a giant music whore. There are three other bands that are trying to get me to join their band- and I’m seriously considering one of them. I need to be in six or seven bands (laughs). I saw some comment on Blabbermouth when we announced the Three Tremors- ‘Sean Peck ruins another band!’ (laughs) It’s like, awesome.
Dead Rhetoric: Does that frustrate you sometimes, with the internet and the access to it, that people can give their opinion when they want even if it’s not necessarily informed?
Peck: For Cage, we have had zero… we were spoiled for so long. Maybe the occasional freak, but good reviews and the same with Death Dealer. Denner/Shermann was the first time where some people didn’t like that I wasn’t King Diamond, and they just hated me. Some people were asking to please release an instrumental version of this album. When you are filling King Diamond’s shoes, it’s a no-win situation. Especially when you are under instructions to not sound like King Diamond. For the most part, the Denner/Shermann albums have sold really well and we’ve gotten good reviews. I’m expecting some negativity, but I feel confident within my own head and metal barometer. I know when the song is ripping, I know how to write good metal songs. If it doesn’t make the hair stand up on my arms, it’s not good enough. I’ve been listening to some of these songs for over five years and I’m still not sick of them.
I would love to do a thing similar to when celebrities read mean tweets, I want to grab all the Blabbermouth ones for us and read them (laughs). ‘This is a train wreck’… the first lyric video we put out, some people tripped out. ‘They are singing over the top of each other- it’s too much’. I was raised on heavy metal where there was no such thing as too much. We did want to freak people out- that’s why there are three singers, so we can overlap each other. We want to perform the songs that can’t be performed with one guy. I write that way anyway. The hate is part of the game – but you click on some of the profiles of these people on Blabbermouth that are calling you the worst singer ever. They have two pictures on their profile, and these guys definitely never got laid in high school – the biggest nobodies, no pictures, it’s part of the game.
Dead Rhetoric: Another aspect that people should appreciate is the fact that you can pull this off live, without the aid of backing tracks…
Peck: I’ll never use backing tracks. Maybe some sound effects, but never vocals. I grew up with Iron Maiden/ Judas Priest blueprint. We use some orchestration in Death Dealer, but that’s cool. We want this to be built to me the most ultimate, lethal live experience.
Dead Rhetoric: Being a long-time faithful follower of the LA Chargers (formerly San Diego), how do you see the evolution of the team and are you hopeful for a long run in the playoffs based on how this season is unfolding?
Peck: I like it, Charger talk man. The move of the team, we are just pawns in the big game of life. We have no control, we have no influence on whether the team moved. I think it happened to increase the value of the team, then sell it off. I can’t believe that they thought that LA was just going to embrace them. No one in LA cares about the Chargers. We now have the smallest fanbase in the NFL, without a question. I know a lot of older diehards that have burned everything, won’t watch another game for the Chargers. I can’t just say I’ll be a Seahawks fan now- it’s in your DNA. Juan Garcia from Agent Steel and Body Count, he was a diehard Rams fan. Well he didn’t quit being a Rams fan when they moved to St. Louis.
I just drove to the game yesterday – it’s not like they move to San Antonio. I’m still rooting for Philip Rivers- and being a Chargers fan is like one of the worst things you can be. We have the worst luck, the shittiest breaks. If something happens and goes against us where they have to make a new rule about it, it will be because of the Chargers. This year, besides the one Denver game we are finally getting the breaks. The game yesterday against the Bengals, we got an ugly win against a horrible opponent that we should have blown away. It’s refreshing so that we are getting some of the bounces and some of the calls- we never got that in the past. We are known as the San Diego chokers – we have blown so many games in so many impossible ways of doing it, I could go on and on. Up 17 points with 4 minutes left against New Orleans – we did have one classic loss against Denver when we were up and Rivers decided to throw a ball into the ground for no reason instead of burning up the clock, and Denver won it with 3 seconds left.
The AFC is wide open – there is no one super powerful team. If we can get some breaks, who knows. We do have an AFL championship ring, but no Super Bowl ring. We take a wait and see attitude and approach. We have a good secondary, our offense is pretty strong. Rivers is playing one of his best years, real great decisions and very accurate.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s in the pipeline for The Three Tremors and all of your other band/live activities for the next twelve to eighteen months?
Peck: Three Tremors announced a US tour in February/March, that’s going to be cool. We will go to Australia and Japan as well, some other Asian countries. We will go back to Europe in the summer for some shows and festivals. Probably keep writing another record and then we will release the three solo records. Cage is pretty much The Three Tremors – we just played a show locally that was pretty packed. We have a ton of leftover material – we are remixing a couple of the old albums right now. They will be re-released – Unveiled will be coming out on vinyl. Death Dealer- we are almost done with that new album. We will put that out towards the end of 2019. Hopefully next year we will start working on the new Denner/Shermann album. I just ran into the bass player from Warrior – Joe wants to do this and that. I’m just a guy that filled in, but I think Perry doesn’t want to do things period. We started working on a new album with three or four songs, but lost steam. There will be all kinds of things coming out.