by Mark Kadzielawa

Heathen is a well oiled heavy metal machine. Since the very beginning the band was known for its uncontrolled riffing and blasting lead work. When the band came out in the mid 80s, it had everything required to make it. Breaking the Silence (1987) was gaining good reviews; MTV was playing their video (Set me Free), the future was bright. The band failed to materialize the momentum on the road, and faced some difficult time.
The follow up, Victims of Deception (1991), took a few years to make and to get released. By that time, death metal was making rounds, and the Bay Area sound was not the flavor of the month. Heathen split up in the early 90s, only to re-form in 2000 to play Thrash of the Titans, a benefit show for Testament’s Chuck Billy and Death’s Chuck Schuldiner. It was supposed to be a one off show, but things gradually progressed from there. The interest was still there, and the newer generation of fans was curious about the Bay Area sound. Needless to say, the band is still with us, stronger than ever.
The Evolution of Chaos is Heathen’s new album, and it is a monster release. The band sounds incredibly powerful, and tight. The material is a first hand Bay Area style metal. Inventing riffing, rich song structures, outstanding lead work, and audible powerful vocals is what makes this new record a milestone. Once again, Heathen has a hot record on their hands. It is very well received by their fan base, and the future definitely looks bright.

Vocalist, David White, is very enthusiastic about the new album and the current state of the band.

After a few listens of the record, I’m under the impression this is the most authentic Bay Area sounding album as of late, what thought process went into writing these songs?
David White: I thing we wanted to make the best sounding record that we possibly could. It’s been such a long time since we put out a record. We wanted to be strong musically, and we wanted to be current lyrically.
Some people were saying Heathen only has two original members left, but it appears it is the right two.
(Laughter) I think when you are talking about the band itself, Lee (Altus) and I had been predominant songwriters from the beginning. Because I’m the singer, it’s good that continuity with the records is there. Once you start changing singers it really changes things. And then when you are talking about the writing styles. Lee started the band; he was really the guitar player that got everything going. A lot of the sounds in our music really come from him and his brain.
After few years of inactivity, how did you go about rebuilding the band?
Well, it was actually quite a process. When we put the band together to do the Thrash of the Titans, we brought Ira Black, who was playing with us back in 1993. But after little while, we had a conflict of interest if you can call it. He left the band, and we started to do the demo. We actually had some different guitar player come in just to play some solos. One of the guitar players was Terry Laurderdale, and he shredded on the demo. After that we asked him to join the group. He played with us for a few years. We did a tour with him in Europe. But, his rhythm playing was not what we wanted and expected it to be for out type of music. And he wasn’t ready for the task. So, when we were getting ready to write this new record he took a pass, and gave us enough time to find somebody else. Also, going backwards a little bit, we also asked our original bass player, Mike Jastrzemski, to re-join the band. He did the Thrash of the Titans, and he also played Wacken Festival with us. Mike had a very bad drinking problem, and went into rehab because he was having health issues, and once he got out of the rehab he felt being in a band would be detrimental to his health. So, he quit the band, so we hired John Torres to play bass. Jon was a local guitar player in Warning SF. And then when the band was not really happening I got a call from a group called Prototype, and they were interested in my services. I played with them for a while, and as Heathen was coming back together I went the Heathen way. And as we were looking for a new guitar player, I called the two guitar players from Prototype to see if they were interested to try out. Kragen (Lum) answered the call, came up, and basically aced the audition. We asked him to join the group right there on the spot.
Was there ever any consideration in bringing back your original guitar player, Doug Piercy?
We talked about it. There were some different business issues where Doug had caused us some problems. Some hurt feeling with friends of ours in the business. We just felt it was not in our best interest to continue with him because of the scars that were left behind. We just needed to start fresh. We didn’t need that baggage.
After you played the Thrash of the Titans, what was the initial spark to keep the band going?
The Thrash of the Titans brought back the fun of it. As far as that goes. Then we were invited to do the Wacken Festival a year later. So that was something to look forward to. It’s a very big festival in Germany. It had three different stages and attracts 60,000 people a year. So, I think the excitement for that sort of fueled it. And the simple fact that people were interested in listening to heavy metal again, Heathen in particular too. It’s not like we didn’t want to play, but there was just not an audience for metal music for a while. And if there is nothing going on, what the point? Now, all of a sudden they were reasons to live. We wanted to be part of that. We’re still young enough, and still full of health. We can still come out and make a dent. Make a killer record, and be relevant again. And there we are.
This brings me to my next question. The Evolution of Chaos sounds incredibly fresh as if it was made by a new band, and not the group with 20 years under their belts.
I don’t think we ever lost that spirit. It just sort of runs in our veins, and we spill that blood out on the tape.
What was/is the biggest challenge in keeping Heathen operating?
The biggest challenge is to get everyone on the same page. Kragen lives in Los Angeles, and he has to fly out to be with us. Darren (Minter-drums) lives up in Sacramento. Just getting everybody together in one room can be a challenge. Everybody has their own lives. Scheduling and making it happen is not always easy for us.
How long did this line up play together prior to recording the album?
I’d say we were working on this record for almost two years.
The band sounds very well rehearsed and prepared on the record.
Thank you very much. We definitely were prepared. I have to say musically, the group consists of great players, and they are professional. And when it’s time to go they are gonna strap it up and give it their best.
No Stone Unturned off the new album has an absolute epic quality to it. Were you aware of this track’s potential when you were writing it?
You know…..I think so. To be honest with you, yes we were. Lee was writing something that was pretty epic, and the song was growing like some kind of a monster. When I started writing lyrics for it I wanted to make it strong lyrically. It had to be something that would be memorable, and it actually flowed very naturally. When I finished working on the song, Lee was busy touring with Exodus, and he didn’t hear what I came up with until I recorded my parts in the studio. He was very skeptical before I even showed him what I had written, before I even sang a word. He didn’t get a chance to check it out before, or get a feel of it I think he was very surprised that it came together so well.
Earlier you’ve mentioned that you wanted the album to be relevant lyrically. How did you approach the lyrics as opposed to what you used to write about in the past?
I hope I have grown as a writer. In my experience, I think it’s very important to write about what you know. You can definitely research things and come up with topics. And I’ve done basically both in the past. I think more so with this record, it’s just very honest and straight forward. There are some metaphoric things on the album, but mostly it’s straight forward. It’s telling the story, and touching upon the current issues that are relevant. That’s what we wanted to come across as. We didn’t want to write about some bestial things that happened long time ago, and make no sense to kids today. We wanted to have something they could identify with.
What sort of sound were you after for this album?
We definitely wanted to have a big and crunchy sound. That’s always been our philosophy. We wanted to be crunchy and we wanted to be big. Holding back was not an option. We are not afraid to lay our guitars and have lots of solos and whatever. We wanted to express ourselves fully in ever aspect of the music.
During your down time, were you connected to music in any way?
I did different projects over the years. Mainly, it was playing with friends. I did do a project with Defiance. At one point, there were looking for a singer, and with me in the band it sounded completely different. We ended up writing new music, and the music really grew from there. The band became Inner Threshold. Once again, there was no room to market it. It was all about the Seattle scene. What’s funny about the music Threshold was doing, it was very reminiscent of the bands that popped up shortly after we split. Bands like Godsmack for example. Godsmack sounded so much like Inner Threshold, it was as if someone got hold of our demo and said this is going to be the new thing. And took it, and ran with it. Whenever I hear Godsmack, I’m amused. You just never know where the spark is going to hit.
What were your lives like during that time away from all the glamour of being in the band?
I was raising a son. I had a family. My son was born two weeks after we finished recording Breaking the Silence. My drive for the music was really strong because I really wanted to provide for my family. After doing that for a while, and after the metal thing died out, I had to work. I had to provide for my family. I think everybody did that, but I just never stopped playing music. I play different instruments; I even played drums in a band for a while. Just doing whatever you can do to keep the creative juices flowing. Basically, I was raising a family. My son is grown up now, and it’s a perfect opportunity for me to travel again, and the timing couldn’t be better.
In the past, Heathen was not known as a touring band. You only did one U.S. tour, so your presence in the States was minimal. Do you see this changing this time around?
Yeah, we did one U.S. tour, and that had a lot to do with the management. It really did. We were young at the time, and different thing happened. Not everything turned out as we had hoped for. On the first record (Breaking the Silence, 1987) we were supposed to go out with Motorhead right away. The label didn’t get the record out early enough. They didn’t want to put us on the tour until the record was on the shelf. Consequently, we missed six weeks with Motorhead on the Rock ‘n’ Roll tour (1987.) And that was devastating to us. It could’ve made a huge difference. We had a really good booking agency that wanted to put us out on the tour before the record came out. Andy Summers approached us to do our booking, but the manager that we had at the time sort of forced us to go with this other agency. What they did, they sort of dangled the Motorhead tour in front of us. And that looked really good when you’re twenty something years old. You think you’re making the right decisions, but when that tour didn’t happen, things started to fall apart. When we finally did come out, we had a new agent who was a novice to the business. Some of the dates were really cool, and some were not. We were definitely happy to be out. It’s just one of those things. You have to be in the right hands. It is a difficult business to be in.

Lee is pulling a double duty as a guitar player in Heathen and Exodus. How does that work out for everyone?
It is definitely a challenge for sure. It is for him too. Heathen is his first love, and he is very busy with Exodus. They are on a very good roll right now. They worked really hard to get where they are now, and things are looking good for them. He is a part of it. They want to be as busy as they can be because they need to make money. Unfortunately for us, we have a very strong record, and this band needs to get out and tour. We need to break that cycle, we need to get out, and make the best of it.
Was Europe a better market for Heathen?
I don’t think so. We sold a lot of units of Breaking the Silence in the U.S. Set Me Free was a big song; it received a lot of airplay on MTV. If we would’ve toured properly on that first record things would have been so much different now. We went out five months after that album was released, and even then we did very well. It’s one of those things, especially with metal; you have to be on the road.
With everyone being in different locations, and Lee sometimes out with Exodus, how often do you rehearse?
It just depends. Basically, we rehearse when it’s relevant, when we are getting ready to do things as a band. Kragen has to fly out of LA. We get together and play for few days, and then we do it again the following weekend, especially when we have a festival coming up or a tour. But, we try to play as much as we possibly can. Everybody is professional, we commit ourselves, and everybody does their homework, so when we come in it’s just to get the continuity together.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/heathenmetal