Armored Saint Vocalist, “We’re proud of our latest live record”

Armored Saint vocalist John Bush recently spoke with Metal Wani about the band’s new live album available February 27, 2017. Here are a few excerpts from the interview (transcribed by Full in Bloom Music):

Regarding the new live Armored Saint album, “Carpe Noctum”.

John:  We feel really good about it.  It’s a great sounding record, awesome production.  We think that we’ve captured Armored Saint in its most comfortable world, and that is live.  After the last live record we made, which is “Saint will Conquer”…that record came out in 1989 and we put out a bunch of records after that.  We’re proud of our latest live record; we think it sounds really good.

On why the live album includes performances from Wacken:

John:  Well it’s also from a show in Aschaffenburg, Germany.  Aschaffenburg was a headline show so we played longer and played more songs, whereas Wacken was a festival, we only played maybe nine songs, perhaps ten.  The reason why we wanted to use songs from both of those performances, we had more songs to choose from, make sure there were songs that were good enough to put on (the album) because maybe there were fewer errors, mistakes, sour notes if you will.  And both of those shows were filmed and recorded.  Those are the choices we had.  There has been some complaining that there’s not enough material on this record and I understand and empathize with that.  But it was only two shows and we only had those songs to choose from for the record.  In the end I think it ended up sounding great albeit maybe not enough songs but good sounding songs.

The secret to keeping the band together:

John:  It’s just a lot of loyalty to Armored Saint.  The friendship that we have goes back to when we were kids.  Even Jeff (Duncan) who I guess is the new guy, I’ve known him since 1982.  We all have.  He was in Odin, Odin and Armored Saint at the Troubadour, that’s a 3 decade relationship right there.  Armored Saint just has this crazy loyalty to one another, for better or worse (laughs).  Everyone has an emotional investment in this and that’s the beauty of it.  That’s not to say that we don’t butt heads and sometimes disagree….we’re human.  Being in a band is like being married to four other guys….marriages have challenges.  We don’t always think alike and that’s a good thing, we’re not robots.  I just think this is just the way we are, this is the band, this is Armored Saint.  I wish Dave was still alive and that he could be in it too.  Everybody has to do what they have to do in the world of music and heavy metal and rock.  Sometimes you’ll go see a band and you’re like ‘who’s in this band, I don’t know any of these guys’.  I don’t think that’s ever the case with Armored Saint, you know when you go that it’s going to be the same guys.

If you had one experience to live through again, whether making an album or tour.  What would it be?

John: I think it would be cool to get together with Dave Prichard and write some songs.  I certainly miss his void that was left when he died, he was super creative, a fun person to be around, really humorous, awesome artist….in various ways.  We wrote a lot of awesome songs together.  So if I could get five months with Dave again and write some songs, that would be real fun.  See what we could come up with in 2017.  That would be a really fun thing to do, to get together with him and write some tunes.

“Carpe Noctum” tracklisting:

01. Win Hands Down
02. March Of The Saint
03. Stricken By Fate
04. Last Train Home
05. Mess
06. Aftermath
07. Left Hook From Right Field
08. Reign Of Fire

John Bush: Vocals
Joey Vera: Bass
Phil Sandoval: Guitars
Jeff Duncan: Guitars
Gonzo Sandoval: Drums

As previously announced, Armored Saint has teamed up with PledgeMusic to give fans a new live album: Carpe Noctum. Having toured with Metallica, Whitesnake, Alice Cooper, The Scorpions, and many other artists since their inception in the early 80s, Armored Saint has always been a highly regarded live act – not only in their hometown of Los Angeles, but also around the world. The only official release to capture this, however, is 1989’s live album, Saints Will Conquer – until now, with Carpe Noctum, which was recorded at the band’s 2015 Wacken festival set, as well as their headlining show in Aschaffenburg, Germany.

Armored Saint ‘Carpe Noctum’ available February 24th, 2017. You can pre-order the album at Metal Blade Records