Their story began back in 1999 and their are here today to describe to us these years of music and great successes: Les Fleurs du Mal WebZine is proud to present a chat with Scott Leach (Lead guitar and backing vocals from Crystal Ball band)!
Hey man, thank you for this interview and for appreciating our review.
Les Fleurs du Mal: Your story started in 1999 with "In The Beginning” full length, How would you describe your path since to 1999 to now?
Scott Leach: It’s been quite a long road with some turns and detours. But right now we’re on the left lane and taking over and picking up speed. We’ve learned a lot from our experiences and we’re kind of relaxed when it comes to our future.
LFdM: What are the main differences between “LifeRider” and your all past ones?
Scott Leach: It’s the second album with the new line up and therefore the first album the was completely written with that new sound in mind. We got to know each other better, experienced how the bands works live and tried to incorporate that into the music. For those reason I think it’s really the best records we’ve made so far. Also the sound is really powerful and represents the band well.
LFdM: Could you tell us something about the lyrics of “Liferider”, is there a general concept running through every song?
Scott Leach: The concept is the journey of life analog to a train ride. So like on a train ride some people join you for a little while, travel with you and then get off the train again. You might stop at some stations, get off and get back on the train later on. All songs are about things that happen in life but in no particular order and with no connection or story.
LFdM: When you compose a song where do you get your ideas from and how does a song evolve?
Scott Leach: There are many different possibilities. Most of the time it’s a musical theme like a guitarriff, a melody, a groove or some chord changes. When I play guitar I come across a lot of ideas, sometimes a movie or a book inspires me. Sometimes it’s a lyrical idea like on memory run or antidote. Also classical music and movie scores are very inspiring to me.
LFdM: Crystal Ball successfully melt heavy music with more classical moments. Was this a conscious decision when the band started out or has this sound developed during the course of writing songs?
Scott Leach: I’m not sure if you mean really classic music or just classic rock? In any way it’s not a conscious decision. We do just what we like like. We like those influences, but not exlusively. Basically we’re open to all good music.
LFdM: How do different types of music such as heavy metal rap or country affect a person's behavior?
Scott Leach: This should better be answered by a psychologist, haha. There are metalfans who look look like obvious metalfans (hair, clothes, tattoos, etc.) and other who look totally normal. I guess there is no rule for that. And I think it’s the same with behaviour.
LFdM: Which famous musicians have you learned from?
Scott Leach: I’ve learned a lot from many musicians and composers when I played in coverband, and studied and analysed many songs. Among those are musicians from bands like Queen, Scorpions, Def Leppard, Whitesnake, Dokken, Europe, Y. Malmsteen and many others. I also read everything I could find about songwriting. From musicians I know personally I have to mention our producer Stefan Kaufmann (ex-Accept, ex-U.D.O.) from whom I learned a lot.
LFdM: What caught your attention about heavy metal scene?
Scott Leach: My older brother bought all the cool records and he played guitar. So I got infected at the age of 5 by Queen (We will rock you). Soon more bands like Rainbow, Def Leppard and others followed. 10 years later I heard Y. Malmsteen who inspired me to pick up the guitar myself.
LFdM: Were you influenced by old records & tapes? Which ones?
Scott Leach: At the time when they came out and I listend to it, they were not old. A lot of metal stuff form the eighties. From Bon Jovi to Helloween. It was much later when I kind of researched bands like Led Zeppelin, but I didn’t grew up with them.
LFdM: You play heavy metal. Could we say is a good business card. Do you think that not being able to classify certain sound into a certain genre hurts the ability to promote a band and attract a new audience?
Scott Leach: I think we suffer from the same problem. Some call it metal, others hardrock. Sometimes we’re labled as powermetal. So we’re not so easy to categorize. The clearer a certain style is, the easier the marketing is, that’s true and visa versa. But we do what we like and don’t think about that to much.
LFdM: What are your plans for this summer?
Scott Leach: We will play a couple of festivals and prepare for autumn were we plan to do more shows, maybe a bigger support tour as well, but at the moment I cant tell you any details. It’s in preparation.
LFdM: Thanks for the interview.
Scott Leach: Thanks a lot, see ya!
Scott Leach: Thanks a lot, see ya!
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