John 5 Rising
Photo courtesy of john-5.com
By FW staff
What do you get when you cross Bela Lugosi with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?
You get a twisted, dark genius of a musician known simply as John 5. The enigmatic guitarist who provides the shred behind the immortal Rob Zombie’s latest album Venomous Rat Regenerator Vendor (which hits stores on April 23rd ) shared his thoughts on the new album and on scoring Rob’s new film The Lords of Salem during a recent phone conversation.
“We are all very excited about the new album,” said John. “We tried some new things that all just felt…right. We are all best friends, which makes our writing process that much easier. When you’re on the same page with everyone else in the band it isn’t work, it’s a pleasure.”
Photo courtesy of John-5.com
Egos are in no short supply when it comes to musicians; even the mediocre or completely untalented ones can have an [unearned] air of arrogance about them, so it’s only natural to expect a bit of narcissism from an acclaimed virtuoso like John 5. Being known primarily as the guitarist for another musician ~ a hired gun, if you will ~ can be awkward for someone of such talent, but John not only acknowledges it sans ego, but also embraces it wholeheartedly.
“Rob is a super guy and great friend, we work very well together but at the end of the day it comes down to a mutual respect. He’s the boss, I understand that. My solo work allows me to shred the way I need to, playing the Zombie stuff is fun…it’s just good music and we all understand it’s about the music. This was a huge challenge for me,” he admitted. “It was like 10 times the intensity of writing a record. It took months and months as the timing is key to each scene. The music was very challenging and sometimes there was no key signature or time signature for this music, which is all orchestral and acoustic with the exception of one Death Metal song. You had to be able to follow the story and create emotions for each scene with the music.”
Photo courtesy of John-5.com
While the jury is still out on the success of the score, and while we’re forced to stifle our anticipation of the film’s release for another month, the rate at which the first single ~ “Dead City Radio and the New Gods of Supertown” ~ off the new record is climbing the rock chart makes it pretty safe to assume that the John 5/Rob Zombie collaborative will be rocking our world for some time to come…And that no creative medium is safe from this diabolical duo.