MAD ALEISTER interview

 Hi! Mad Aleister is a pretty loaded name, and it immediately makes people wonder where it came from. Was there an actual story behind it, or did you simply find something that sounded right? And who came up with it?

Scott: I’ve had the name around since my early teens. The time just never seemed right to use it. When we were throwing around names for this band, one day I brought up Mad Aleister, and after a little thought, that’s what we went with. It seems to work.

Allan: It was frustrating, it took forever to come up with a name, Scott and I were going back and forth for a very long time and nothing seemed to be the right name. One day out of the blue Scott texted me, MAD ALEISTER, it struck me immediately, it sounded very old school to me and the more I thought about it the more I liked it, so it stuck.

You describe the band as “Anarchy Metal”, but you've already said that basically means there are no stylistic rules. At what point does that freedom become a problem for a band? Is there anything you would not put on a Mad Aleister record, even if you liked the song?

Allan: I don’t think it will ever become a problem, if there is anything that isn’t good metal then we don’t use it. It’ll always be a collective effort and a band decision. A song is either good or it isn’t, if it excites us when we listen to it then we do it. Perhaps someday we will realize that Anarchy Metal does indeed have its limits, but we’re not there yet.

“Throne of the Dark”, “Crisis” and “Memos for Another Day” are surprisingly different from each other. Looking at them now as the first three pieces people have heard, do you see a common musical DNA running through all three, or were you deliberately trying to show three different doors into the band?

Scott: There definitely is a common DNA running through the songs, but, all three do take a slightly different direction…it’s just kind of what we do !  It wasn’t intentional that they all took a different route, the whole album will be somewhat like that. All of the songs fit well together however, and it will always be heavy.

Allan: Nothing was particularly deliberate about it, it’s just that these three songs were fully completed first and we all felt really strongly about them as a first release and demo. We have so many songs that we sometimes forget about some of them, it’s really weird because sometimes one of us will come across a track that we hadn’t heard in a while and we’ll bring it back into focus and everyone will be like “oh yeah, that’s a great riff, lets’ work on that”.

There is also a pretty interesting difference between the two-guitar setup and Allan's history with Exciter. Two lead guitars can easily turn into a competition for space. How do Scott and Armin decide who takes the riff, harmony, lead or vocal part when a song starts getting crowded?

Scott: Oh, I can’t see us ever fighting over who takes what solo, or any vocal parts, we are both pretty easy going with that…no big rock star egos here!

Armin: I think Scott and I are pretty easy going. I don't think either of us mind doing a lead or sitting back. We kind of just hammer out in our recordings where we think we can make a difference. Then when we jam, we figure out who plays what parts. Scott does the majority of the singing, so if I can take a bit of the load off him, then I try to do that.

Allan: That’s what I love about this band, everyone is so great to get along with. I’m sure we’ve all known what it’s like to be in a band with difficult people, it’s not fun. MAD ALEISTER is fun.

And with two guitarists who are both involved in vocals, how much of the arrangement is actually worked out before you record, and how much of the Mad Aleister sound comes from trying things in the studio and keeping whatever works?

Armin: So far, it's been a mix of things. There are several songs that were 90 percent complete when I joined and offered to do the production. For the existing songs, I offered some suggestions. Some worked, some didn't. We bounce off each other, came to a consensus, and then went with that. Collaboration is the cool part because you usually tend to come out with something better than if it's all just one person. Everyone has a voice. In later songs, we demo them and have an initial draft arrangement, and then adjust after several listening passes and vocal ideas. Sometimes we just write a part on the spot in the studio and it sticks. Recording is the fun part because we all try to get the best performances out of each other. We all live pretty far apart, so for the lead vox, Scott will record at home and then I drop in the tracks, do some arrangements/edits and boom, great track. It all flows pretty well.

Allan: I suppose you can say that the whole Anarchy thing is part of everything we do including writing and recording. We’re constantly throwing ideas out there to see what sticks and what doesn’t. The collaboration part is what I love the most, our writing and recording processes are whatever works in any situation, and even when we get into the studio a lot can change on the fly. It makes it really interesting and fun in the end. Having two guitarists that work so well together is fucking magic.

“Throne of the Dark” has an interesting credit situation, with Daniel Dekay contributing part of the lead and Rik Charron playing drums. Was that song recorded before the final Mad Aleister lineup was completely established? And did the arrangement change once the four-piece lineup was in place?

Scott: Throne was recorded before this lineup was finalized, yes. I believe the plan is to re-do the drums with James for the final album version. I’ve known DK since he was just starting to play gigs, when he was basically a kid, and of course he was in Exciter for a while. Allan and I just decided to ask him if he’d like to throw a lead on the track. He did a smokin’ job!

Allan: Scott was somewhat of a guitar hero to a young DK back in the day, he looked up to him, thought he was great. I wanted to bring him in on the recording in whatever way possible, Scott had already written a wicked solo for Throne and so I was hesitant to replace it but I also knew that DK would do an amazing solo as well which he did. Rik was our drummer at the time and he’s a machine, fantastic at what he does but unfortunately it didn’t work out, we still keep in touch all the time, whenever we chat we exchange horror stories about Exciter.

There is also a small mystery around the drummer's name in the band's current documentation: some places list James Kane, while Metal Archives lists Justin Kane / Justin James Kane. What's the correct name you want people to use, and where did the James/Justin confusion come from?

Armin: Haha, when James came on board, I was just as confused as you. It took me three jams to get it all right. That doesn't say much about me, but I'm glad I'm not alone. I'll let "James" tell you what's what.

James: I have no idea where the confusion came from. I go by James Kane. I used to go by the name Jim Thrasher back in the Joe Thrasher days. But that was a long time ago. So I guess we will have to get the archives corrected. I think someone must have made a typo.

Scott has apparently written almost all of the lyrics so far. That's quite a different situation from a traditional four-piece where everyone throws ideas into the lyric pile. Does that give him almost complete control over the band's lyrical identity, or do the others sometimes tell him that a particular line or subject simply doesn't belong in Mad Aleister?

Scott: I have no problem taking lyrical ideas and suggestions, but yeah, at the end of the day I have to sing those words, and I’m not singing something that I’m not feeling, or that I don’t agree with.

Armin: Scott's a great lyricist and singer. As I said earlier,  a lot of the songs have been written a while back by him and Allan. When I came on board I added some sauce, but there was no need to mess with already great lyrics with cool themes. As we progress through the album, I have thrown out some vocal ideas that have stuck, but they are mostly backing vox and harmonies. For one of the latest songs, which I wrote, Scott asked if I had any vocal ideas and lyrics, so I did a draft for him and said, "Use what you want, make it yours". Singers need to be comfortable in what they are singing and how they sing it. So he has free reign, as it should be to my mind.

Allan: I’m a big fan of Scott’s songwriting and his lyrics, there’s never been anything he’s done that I haven’t loved. I’ll sometimes throw a few lyric ideas out there just to see if it’s useful but mostly I come up with choruses, that’s my thing, that’s how I come up with a song usually. If I can bring in a catchy chorus to the table then let everyone else take off with it, sit back and watch where it goes, that’s the part I love. Let the singer write the lyrics he’s comfortable with.

“Memos for Another Day” is probably the most interesting title of the three because it doesn't sound like a traditional metal title at all. Was that deliberately meant to break the expected “evil metal” vocabulary, or is that simply the way Scott naturally writes?

Scott: That was how my mind was working that day I suppose!

Allan: See?!, Anarchy Metal, fuck it, if it’s cool then we do it. As soon as Scott told me the name of the song I was like “yeah, cool, no one will ever expect that!”, and when you hear the title for the first time you really don’t know what to expect, what kind of song is this going to be? and then it blows you away.

Allan, you've said that with Exciter you often had to compensate for the lack of a second guitarist, whereas Mad Aleister gives you two guitarists. Has that actually changed the way you write bass parts, or is it more a case of finally being able to play the way you always wanted to?

Allan: Yeah it’s always been an annoyance with me. With Exciter there was always a rhythm guitar track going through every solo of every album, so live if the bass wasn’t cutting through it sounded like just guitar and drums. I’ve watched a lot of our live videos and when the solo starts and you can’t hear my bass, it’s just dumb, I was always at the mercy of the sound man. I’ve always wanted to have two guitarists, it’s way more interesting. It hasn’t changed the way I write though and I always just play the way I want to no matter what.

Armin is handling the recording and production, which gives Mad Aleister quite a lot of control over the finished material. How do you avoid the danger of polishing an old-school metal band too much? Is there ever a point where somebody says, “No, leave that mistake/noise/rough edge alone”?

Scott: Yes, absolutely. I’m not a fan of clinical production at all. I don’t think there’s a point in recording eight guitars that are all identical and have zero feeling, when you can record two tracks that aren’t exactly the same, but have some real feel to them. Same goes for vocals, etc…magic can be in the “mistakes”.

Armin: While the production may be more modern, it does stick to traditional treatments where effects are concerned. We are old school and that shouldn't change, and we try to keep the guitars raw and not everything is a 100% polished take. The differences in how Scott and I play adds to it and maybe even gives a bit of a punk feel in spots. Mistakes that sound cool are OK, mistakes that distract have to go.

The band members come from different corners of the Canadian metal underground. Do you think there is still such a thing as a Canadian metal scene with its own character, or has the internet completely erased those geographical differences?

Scott: I don’t think the scene has any kind of “Canadian Metal” sound anymore really. Not sure if it ever did. Most of the old-school Canadian bands had their own flavor, and there was a lot of good stuff!

Armin: My old band Infrared is still going and others from our era have reunited recently like Witchkiller and Faulkwolf, so from that perspective, the character still exists. But in the end, I think most bands will fall into a genre, Power Metal, Speed Metal, Thrash, Death, etc. There will be similarities to what others are doing around the globe. I do think Mad Aleister does have its own voice though. Scott sings in multiple vocal styles, then you have mine adding to his. I think it's different enough to be so bold as to give it a new genre name. Anarchy Metal!

Allan: I agree with Scott on this, did the Canadian metal scene has ever had its own character? Its own sound? I doubt it. You can look back as far as the 80’s and all of us were what we were, in our own way, and you couldn’t pin point something that made us all sound Canadian. Not to me anyways.

You've all been around long enough to have seen several metal cycles come and go. What is something about today's underground that you genuinely prefer to the 1980s/1990s scene - and what is one thing about the old scene that you think today's bands have completely lost?

Scott: I don’t think I prefer anything about the modern scene…and completely lost? I dunno, there’s still lots of passion for metal out there, and if anything I see lots of bands looking back to take some pointers from the past.

Armin: I just recently played an Infrared show with Slackjaw. Raven was the headliner. Slackjaw really impressed me and they brought a great crowd. I think metal is well and alive and I think the next generation is bringing it. I think I like that the production is better now than it was in the 80s and 90s for the most part. I know some people really like that raw unpolished sound or really reverb heavy, but even back then, the albums that made it really big all had decent production that used effects tastefully. It's subjective I guess, but I like a big ballsy production, yet still raw and dangerous. I wish we had more of that back then, and the ability to do it ourselves like we do now.

Allan: I’ve always been pretty removed from any sort of scene, I like what I like and that’s it. I don’t know anything about any underground and what’s going on. All that I know is that there’s new metal bands coming out every day and to me they all sound the same, it wasn’t like that in the 80’s or even the 90’s for that matter and I thought the 90’s were going to be the end of Heavy Metal. It’s like there’s a lot of bands that adhere to the same cookie cutter way of doing things and that’s why they all sound the same. There’s a reason why a huge part of the Heavy Metal community is either stuck in the 80’s because they experienced it and know it was the best, and the new generation who know deep down that the 80’s was the most magical era of metal and desperately want to know what it’s like to experience it. 80’s metal is still #1 and always will be.

The current singles are short and direct, and Armin described the songs in the Wormwood interview as having “no fat, no wasted time”. When you start putting together the full album, is that still the rule? Or are there songs coming that deliberately take more time, slow down, get stranger or otherwise break that compact formula?

Armin: The short answer, yes! There will be a variety. Slow chug song, slightly longer mixed moody song that turns into a barn burner, etc. We even have Al doing a bass solo in one song. He wasn't happy with me pushing for it lol. But it turned out great. He is too humble sometimes. Great bassist, great song writer and very capable.

Scott: I definitely have no plans on writing anything long and drawn out, or adding parts just to add parts. There’s nothing wrong with a long song, but, purposely adding stuff to make it longer, I think is just ridiculous.

Allan: I have no desire to do any more bass solos LOL

And finally, when the first full-length is finished, what would disappoint you more: people saying “This sounds too much like Exciter”, or people saying “This doesn't sound enough like Exciter”?

Scott: It really doesn’t matter to me. Obviously the Exciter comparison is going to come up, and I’m fine with that. There will be times it sounds a bit like Exciter, but overall it’s a pretty original sound. I hope the Exciter fans dig it, as well as all old-school metalheads.

Armin: Great question. For me it doesn't matter. Good songs are good songs, but what I do know is you have a third of Exciter in this band and he writes songs. So the Exciter flavor will be there organically for sure. But then you have Scott and myself also writing and James putting his drum signature on everything, so it also sounds like us and a bit fresh. A cool mix of these different backgrounds. I think you will definitely feel and Exciter vibe on at least 3 songs which at this point would be a third of the album. There is a good energy throughout, even on the slower tempo songs. I'm excited to finish this up and get it out there via a good label/distributer.

Allan: Either one would disappoint me equally, however I can’t imagine that any one of those scenarios would actually happen. From 2014 to 2024 I was writing Exciter songs for an album that never happened, will never happen. So if any of that music gets used by this band then you’ll hear it and know where it came from, but that’s just a small portion compared to everyone else’s contributions, this is MAD ALEISTER.

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