Godsmack is coming to Russia. The metal band will do 3 headlining shows in Russia: on June 22 in Yekaterinburg, June 24 in Moscow, and June 25 in St.Petersburg. And that’s right after a few dozens of West-European festivals. Apelzin.ru got a chance to talk to the drummer Shannon Larkin about new bands, the changes in music industry, the “1000hp” album and the tour, and their visit to Russia.
Hey Shannon! What’s up?
Hi! How are you doing?
I’m good, thank you. And, how are you?
Oh man, I’m cool.
Thank you so much for your time. We know you are very busy right now. It’s an honor for us. How is the tour going by the way? You are in Poland now, right?
Yes, we are in Poland and the tour has been going great! We played at the “Rock Am Ring” and “Rock I’m Park” festivals, which are really good festivals. We got to hang out with the Foo Fighters and we had a lot of fun. And we went to Holland, they had a festival there. We got to see Venom, which was a trip. We had a night off last night in Poland, we drank some whiskey and had a blast. So tonight is the first Polish show and we are very excited about it.
Sounds fun. So Godsmack is going to be playing 3 shows in Russia pretty soon, right? And we all know that the last time you had to cancel a few dates in Europe. So how do you feel about coming back to Europe? Have you gotten used to all these little weird differences?
Yeah, we love it! And that we cancelled last time.. that was just unfortunate… you know Sully got ill. But we didn’t cancel it because we didn’t want to or whatever. In fact, we’ve been dealing for many years and have a record label over here, and then last year we signed with “Spinefarm”, and it’s been a hundred percent different. This is just the first of many rounds that we’re going to make in Europe. We’re going to start coming back every year. And we love to tour over here.
Cool! So do you guys expect something from Russia? Maybe you would like to go to some places or try something really Russian? Like Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit said that he can’t live without Russian vodka anymore.
Oh, man! Absolutely! I mean we get to go to Moscow and St. Petersburg. We’re going to definitely walk around and drinking the sights and the vodka (laughing). And look at the pretty blonde-haired blue-eyed women. We are really excited to go to Russia.
Yeah.
I mean, me personally, one of the coolest things about being in a band all my life has been to experience new places, you know. Like I always say, oh man I’ve got to get to Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and so finally I’m going to get to go to Moscow and it’s a huge honor. We heard from friends that played there, like Soulfly, and they say that the crowds are amazing.
Yeah. So now you are playing on festivals and it’s a bit different from solo concerts, right? Are you are going to prepare somehow before doing concerts in Russia, like 3 in a row?
Well, the good thing about it is… You know, at festivals we are given an allowed time slot, so we might have 45 minutes to play, we might get an hour to play, but on the headlining shows in Russia we can play for as long as we want. It’s not a festival, you know, it’s our show, so if we want to play an hour and a half or two hours whatever it is, that’s what we’ll do and that’s great.
Yeah, that’s cool. OK, so let’s talk about your last album. It came out a year ago, but your fans say that it’s like a bottle of fine wine that’s getting better and better. How do you feel about it today? Does it sound maybe different from what you heard when you just finished working on it, or not?
Nah, you know, well the thing is that we took a long time to write the songs. So by the time our record finally gets recorded and comes out we’ve been already living with some of the songs for a year. But I do love that the fans are saying that. Because the thing that you want to happen with your music is that it stands the test of time, so that later on it still sounds good to you. So if people say that it’s like a fine wine it’s just gets better with time, then that’s the best compliment that I could get. So I’m really happy about that. I do feel the same way, I feel that this record should stand the test of time. It’s not a trendy record, it’s not breaking any new ground or anything, but it’s what we do and it’s probably the best record we’ve ever made, and all four of us feel that way, it’s the best one we’ve ever done.
Yeah, cool. I heard that Sully doesn’t deny that he would like to record the second solo album? Does it affect somehow the band and relations between you guys?
No, man. We are, I guess you know, my guitar player Tony and I we do all kinds of music together. We have a band called Another Animal, and that came out about the same time as Sully’s solo album. And you know, Tony and I continued, we have a blues band. We don’t let that affect us because we are musicians and like yeah Godsmack is a main thing in life, and we are like brothers, we don’t get mad if someone does other things. In fact, we were really hoping for success for his solo album, because honestly then we get more time off (laughing). It didn’t cause any kind of problems. In fact, he’s going to make another one, I think. Once we’ve done this “1000hp” round, he’s going to make another record, and Tony and I we’re going to make a blues record, with that band Blue Cross, which is fantastic.
Yeah, that’s great, that’s great. One more question about the last album “1000hp”. It couldn’t reach the first place in charts, like the previous three albums did, but it did get pretty nice reviews. And the question is, when you’re working on the new material now, do you feel concerned about how it’s going to sell? Do you feel any pressure from your label?
No. It’s that we can’t tear our ass anymore. Because we’ve been around for such a long time, you know. We are working for 20 years, I’ve been in this band for 13 years, 6 records later, and we just feel lucky to be able to do this for a living anyway. So we’re at the point in our careers where we don’t need money and that’s why we don’t give a f..ck with our label thing (laughing). We are in this good place as a band where we can pretty much make music for us and our fans, and we don’t care about critics and the radio, we’ve already done all that shit, man. We are lucky, man, we are so lucky, and I’m saying this in a very humble way, you know. We are lucky, and we are so happy to be where we are, that where we can put up a little finger up at the labels and everybody else, and make exactly the record we want to make for ourselves, and our fans. And we don’t give a shit as long as we continue to be able to go out on tour and play this shit live, man we’ll be happy as clams.
Yeah, that’s cool. Do you have any new bands that you follow and you could recommend to your fans? What do you listen to now?
Well, you know we tour and take bands with us in America. On the last tour we had Papa Roach and they are really good band. Then we had a band called In This Moment, and they were really good. They’ve got a female singer and they are just kind of like freaky you know, and the band is really good and heavy. Hm… New bands? Just let me think. Oh… Oh, man! Nah! You know, I like Lamb of God, but they are not really a new band. I don’t know, man. It’s really tough now to be a new band, especially in America, it’s just really hard.
Yeah.
It’s not like it used to be. You know, where you would start a band, and start playing live, and then have a record label coming to see you and sign you. That whole dream is dead now with the internet. So now you kind of just start your own website and you don’t really have to play live, you put your own record out. I definitely feel like I’m getting old. We are all in our late 40s now, we’ve been doing this all our lives and we came from the whole different school, the whole different generation of how you start a rock band, and the work that you have to do to make it to a record deal. Everything’s changed so much that I don’t even have a advice to give to new bands, you know (laughing).
Yeah. Talking about the Internet. We have so many online music services now, both for listeners and music bands. What do you think about the changes in the industry?
I’ve got to say, that even being old or old-school whatever you want to call us, I do love the access of being able to just go right online and to download a new record, and all of a sudden 10 seconds later it’s on my phone. My problem is I always look at records as pieces of art, and I remember buying vinyl records as a kid and…
Yeah…
I picked the first Iron Maiden record just because of the artwork on it and then it turned out that Iron Maiden actually was a great band too. But I bought that record because of the artwork. So I guess the thing I miss the most about it is the artwork, and when you pull that record out and inside there would be lyrics, pictures of the band. It was just a cool package. But now I must say it is really great to be able to just download the record and it’s on your phone in 10 seconds, you know..
Yes.
But I do miss the artwork. Also as a collector of stuff — you know I love to collect records, CDs and horror movies, that kind of things — it’s really cool to have something that’s physical, that you hold in your hand.
Yeah…
When you download the record you get the music and that’s awesome, but it’s on your phone, you know. You don’t have a piece of it to hold in your hand, you know. (laughing)
Yeah, I get it. OK, thank you so much. We don’t have much time anymore. Have a great day and thank you!
Thank you for the interview. See you in Moscow!
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