Dead Rhetoric: What types of goals does the band set out to accomplish with Vermithrax? Do you also believe that it’s important to have friendships and relationships outside of the band activities to grow together in terms of chemistry and a career?
CRoy: That really hasn’t changed from when I was younger. I like to be in a band with people that are my friends because I’ll relate it to comedians. When a comedian goes on the road, a lot of times they bring an opener. And they don’t just bring the most popular guy to open for them – they bring a friend of theirs that’s trying to come up through the industry. So that they can have fun on the road and be around people they can trust. You are traveling to another city to play, you are probably going to be sharing hotel rooms, being in vans and buses for a long time- with your gear being left alone. You need to know when you walk away, is he going to be watching the stuff?
We don’t have to talk to each other – this is our little village and we protect it. We are all friends. We don’t have any fights – we may disagree, and I may have the final say. They practice often without me – since I travel a lot for work, I can’t rehearse three or four times a week. I’m in once a week, the principal is here – and I will remind them how the parts go. Everybody wants to be the best they can be. We don’t hang out as much outside of the band because between work and families, this is the only other thing we pretty much do. Jere has some hobbies, he rebuilds cars, vans, and boats – probably rocket ships for all I know. When we do hang out, we are friends. When I need a hand, those are the guys I call within my friend circle.
If you don’t have that, it’s a time bomb. It’s just a matter of when. I think the same thing goes for the friends you have in the industry too. If you can’t rely on them, then they probably shouldn’t be in your inner circle. That’s what is going to keep your band alive. Who wants to be in a bus and miserable? I hear road stories from everybody, there are certain people that have egos that are so much bigger than the bus that they are on that they’ll barely fit on it. It ruins everything for the whole tour.
Dead Rhetoric: Describe Vermithrax when it comes to a live show experience? What have been some of the more memorable shows that you’ve done either on a local or national scale?
CRoy: I don’t know if I can explain the experience, it would have to be something more of the audience trying to explain. I think we are pretty driven, and we try to write our setlists similar to our albums. We come out swinging, we can bring it down a little bit, bring it back up- there’s tons of dynamics. There are quite a few parts where the crowd gets involved, that’s pretty important. That fires everybody up in the band.
Obviously some bigger shows have been great, playing with Queensrÿche, Metal Church, and Overkill. Massive crowds, those were cool. Playing with Evergrey was great because of the personal friendships that I’ve had with those guys for a long time. To be playing and seeing them in the front watching me play is pretty cool- because I’ve been in the front row watching them play many times. That was cool.
The Metal Church show where I fell down the fire escape from our band room carrying merchandise. I couldn’t see over it, I fell and it dislocated both of my shoulders and cut my face and arms up. I was pretty beat up- and we had been promoting the hell out of the show. Mike Howe had just rejoined the band, and I had to see them. We were not going to miss the show- I had to go to the ER while they got the gear there. I got to the hospital and they wanted to pump me full of drugs, and I was worried that they would give me something that would make me forget the lyrics. So I said no drugs, they put both shoulders back in, and gave me a sling because my right arm was really bad. I needed to wear it for weeks, I got to the show, I had my sling on, they gave me the mic and it felt weird to have that arm in the sling.
After the first song, I took my sling off and thought I just should keep my arm by my side. As soon as the first song goes, my arm automatically went up and popped back out of its socket while I am on stage. I have five more songs to do – I wanted to get my sling back on. I put it on half-assed, it was murder. It hurt even more than it did before, and I didn’t think that was even possible. I made the joke about the fact that I killed myself to be there that night. I don’t think anybody understood what the band went through to do that show. I went back to the ER, and as soon as I walked in they said, ‘you took the sling off, didn’t you?’ (laughs). I’m like, ‘yes I did’. I bet you want some drugs now? They loaded me up, popped me back in like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz. We got home at 2 am, and had to leave at 4 in the morning to drive in New Hampshire for a situation that happened. I am driving ten hours, with an arm that’s been dislocated twice, trying to drive with my good arm, all the way back to New Hampshire. I earned my metal stripes that night.
Dead Rhetoric: What are your views on the metal landscape currently? If you had the power, ambition, finances, and time to change things, what area(s) do you believe need the greatest attention to move things in the right direction for the better of all parties?
CRoy: That’s a huge one. I don’t know that one person is going to have that answer. I’m hoping that what was just signed into law apparently to pay people royalties is going to relate back to Spotify and streaming services that are making millions of dollars and are paying out pennies to the artists that are creating all of the content. I’m shocked that I know our laws are behind, but there has been nothing in place all of this time. That doesn’t greatly affect me, but it certainly affects artists that have been around for a while. It will affect future artists. Somewhere down the road it would be nice to know if music is generating revenue, it will be shared with the artist. You are not getting rid of streaming and downloading.
Bands need to find unique and personal ways to make their product more appealing to their audience. I didn’t just make it all up- I looked at what other bands did, Lords of the Trident and Dethlehem, they had done some successful campaigns, Seven Kingdoms- I spoke to Camden (Cruz). What did they feel were some of the things they did that created some of the biggest impact? I got some good feedback, see what packages really sold well, and develop our own best packages that we could create. If somebody is buying physical product at this point, they are doing it because they have a personal connection to the band. The first 666 pressed CD’s were hand-numbered and hand-signed by the band members – those went to the pre-order customers and the last 300 were sent to Europe.
I remember buying picture discs of Metallica “Creeping Death”, and I was all excited. It was a limited edition- and I have a couple of different editions. A gold one, the album cover, the No Exit– Fates Warning one. I’ve never gotten rid of those, some of them I’ve had for over 30 years. I’d rather starve then sell them- and I think that is what bands today may be missing.
Dead Rhetoric: Can you think of any specific failures or setbacks that have happened either in your personal or professional life that have set you up for a better outcome down the road – and that you are thankful in a sense for having gone through that experience?
CRoy: Talking earlier, going through contracts in the past and different deals – not signing a deal and seeing friends bands sign that deal, and watch it tear the band apart. They are running up hill both ways, and they don’t even realize it. At the time, I remember band members feeling like we were giving up an opportunity. Later, when I was able to show them what we have now, this is what we would have – they are glad I didn’t let them do that. Holding people accountable that make promises to the band. We are not little kids, you aren’t going to make promises and not keep them. We are all here to do a job, this is a business. I’ve learned a lot of what makes a promoter through Glenn at ProgPower. What makes him one of the best promoters in the US for metal is that if he tells you that’s the way it is, that is the way it is. There is no spin, it’s the exact way he told you. It may not be what you want to hear, but it is exactly the way it will be. The event now goes four days long, sometimes six-seven bands a day. All the work that goes into that, and I’ve known Glenn since the very beginning. He keeps up his end of the bargain of making things happen, we may go through hoops of fire to make it happen, but we did it.
Dead Rhetoric: Does it concern you that some of the legacy and veteran artists are breaking up or retiring from the scene – so much so that we may be losing a lot of those arena/stadium level acts on the live circuit? Or do you prefer shows scale down to more of a theatre-level experience?
CRoy: I love both. The fact that there will never be another Pink Floyd, another Led Zeppelin, another Rolling Stones – another Rush. There will never be arena selling bands unless there’s a massive change in the industry. America has decided a while ago, parts of America, that the arts didn’t have a value. A lot of those same people think that sports maybe has an inflated value. Where is the dynamic? The open market is doing what it is doing- people will go to a lot of sporting events, but they don’t necessarily to go to as many concerts. You don’t see concerts on tv either – like they do a football game. It’s going to be very hard to imagine anyone selling out a stadium.
Meanwhile comedians- they are selling out stadiums. Bill Burr is selling out Madison Square Garden – he would never have been able to do that twenty years ago.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s next for Vermithrax over the next year? Do you already have plans in the works to get your next release out a little quicker than the time between releases this go around?
CRoy: (laughs). Well, it definitely can’t be any slower. The bulk of the new material for the next album is already written. We have the diversity, the storylines, the moods – we want to beat our last record. Everyone wants to make their own Master of Puppets. We’ve never been this far ahead of our cycle before. We want to do a bunch of shows – maybe do some festivals and shows in Europe. And not come home broke. We have a bunch of writers in Europe who are pushing behind the scenes to make this happen. We want to get the next album out within the next two years. If the opportunity comes to play out a lot, we are going to do it- it’s time. If it’s a little slower cycle, that will give me the push to finish this sooner. We don’t have a bunch of stumbling blocks with the studio gear, we can mix our own stuff – the Flotsam and Jetsam medley was all us, doing everything 100% on our own.