K.K. Downing kertoo kirjoittaneensa lähes kaiken musiikin KK’s Priest -yhtyeen tulevalle debyyttialbumille: ”Seuraavasta albumista tulee enemmän bändilevy”

Kirjoittanut Arto Mäenpää - 14.6.2021

Englantilaisesta heavy metal -legenda Judas Priestista tunnetuksi tullut kitaristi K.K. Downing julkaisee uuden yhtyeensä KK’s Priestin kanssa debyyttialbumin nimeltä ”Sermons Of The Sinner” elokuun 20. päivä Explorer1 Music Groupin kautta. K.K. Downing on antanut levyyn liittyen hiljattain haastattelun KNAC.com:lle, jossa on paljastanut kirjoittaneensa koronapandemiasta johtuen yhtyeen debyyttialbumin materiaalin lähes kokonaan yksin. Kitaristi kertoi levyn teosta pandemia-aikana haastattelussa seuraavaa:

”I think it’s probably been at least 18 months since I first sat down and thought, ’I wonder if I can write a record.’ And it just came to me so fast. So, I had basically all the songs and the contents and the direction and everything within four weeks. So, that is when I really started to press buttons and get everything into motion. At that time, I think there was an option. If we could’ve delivered the record up in, like, six months, then we could’ve gone out and done some shows. And that was what was happening back then. And we did have some offers on some shows, but the COVID thing started to dig in, and everything kind of ground to a bit of a halt. I kind of took the pedal off the metal for a little bit then, and I thought, ’Okay, what’s there is really good, and I like it, but now, with time, manpower and money, things could always be better.’ So I afforded myself the luxury of pulling back, taking stock, and just making sure that it was as good as it could be, really.”

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Kysyttäessä, tekikö K.K. Downing kokonaisuudessaan itse materiaalin ”Sermons Of The Sinner” -albumille, kertoi kitaristi seuraavaa:

”Well, originally I didn’t because we were spread miles apart, with the travel restrictions. But to start off, it wasn’t too bad, but I didn’t know what I had — or didn’t have — in me. The last thing you want to do is to present music that isn’t very good to fellow musicians, because they would know the difference between something pretty good and something crap. So, I kind of got stuck in myself, because I felt the onus was on me in a big way. Having written so many songs previously, over so many decades, I had to kind of turn the tap on, to see what came out, if anything at all. [Laughs] And it came out, and I just ran with it, but you need to embellish it, and embellish it. And so I got the other guys together as best I could, but everything had been demoed. And we were fortunate enough to get Ripper and Sean for just a space of time to complete the task, really. So, that’s kind of what happened, because I do feel the material had a lot of the essential ingredients. In my mind I kind of have this little switch for quality control, and I either like it or I hate it. It is difficult. And so I didn’t know what it would be like either to write with other people after being used to a songwriting trio for so many years, you know? So, I wanted to see what I could do with just myself. But now already, the way things are, I’m working on material for the second album, and we’ll be doing that together, obviously.”

Voit kuunnella albumilta hiljattain julkaistun singlen nimeltä ”Hellfire Thunderbolt” tästä:

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