Up The Irons Interview By The Slosh Brothers

INTERVIEW WITH UP THE IRONS, Rochester, NY
by Ragin' Rick Dyson and Paul 'skull' Rappleye from Slosh Brothers Inc.(formally Word Of Mouth)

Slosh Brothers (SB) :What do you think of the music scene in Canada compared to the
United States?

Carlos Dickinson(CD): Well, I think there's a lot of things going on in
Canada, but the U.S is still the place to rock.
Matt McBrain(MMB): Yeah, a lot more than Canada.
Marc Harris(MH): Yeah, there's more Metal scene, there is one in Montreal but
the rest of Canada is kind of very quiet on HM music, so if you
wanna travel west you gotta go through the States and do some
U.S cities which really rock like Buffalo, Rochester, Albany,
Poughkeepsie. These are cities that are really good for HM, so
it's way better than some towns in Canada.
Fred Murray(FM): There are two cities in Canada that really rock: Montreal and
Vancouver. From what I heard there's lots of good bands from
Vancouver. Actually I bought some CD's from bands from Vancouver.
We got David Thomsen, he's really a master of much anything that's
done in Canada. And in Montreal you gotta admit that there's Voivod
that's doing an impression in the international scene.
SB: Oh, they're great! I've been listening to them since the 80's!
CD: Yeah, and you got Cryptopsy...
FM: There's good stuff in Montreal. In Montreal you got lots of influences from the
States and from Europe, so sometimes you get something like "The Jam", getting out
of everything that's really original, but lots of bands are copying what's done in
Europe or the States. Maybe some of them are able to add a Canadian flavour, you
know? Voivod is something really different from everything that's done anywhere.

SB: Now, you guys are canadian, so what do you think about Rush?

CD: Hey, one of the best bands in the world!
FM: I went to see them last week!!
Sebastian Smith(SM): That's the best band in the world!
SB: Well, other than Iron Maiden!
SM: Yes, of course!
MMB: Rush, that's my school!
FM: Hard to say wich band is better. In my heart is the same, you know, is two bands
equally, but technically Rush is much better than Maiden, that's for sure. The
vocals are better in Maiden, so it's kind of, you know, trade offs. The drumming
and the double rithm section is much better in Rush, is incredible!
MMB: I learnt almost all my drumming with Rush. I listened to all the albums going
"hey, what is he (Neil Peart) doing now?", just picking it off by ear, every album,
in the drums, then I got technically really better, way better! So Rush is my school.
SB: Rush, as far as times go, them freaking guys a rule!
MH: Oh, in the bass too!
SB: Yeah, Geddy Lee...
FM: Word of Mouth, don't miss Rush if they come to your town! (laughs) you'll miss
something!

SB: You met Iron Maiden. How was it like?

CD: Well, I met Steve Harris in Montreal in 1992 during the "Fear of the Dark" tour
and it was great! The guy is so humble, you know. I've been inside Steve's
tour bus having a beer with him and Laz and a couple of friends. I had such
a great night!!
MH: Yeah, they were really nice!
SS: Adrian Smith speaks french, he's married to a girl that comes from Montreal.
MH: When we met them again in 2000 during the "Brave New World" tour, we had
our pictures and all the promotional material from Up The Irons. And Bruce
Dickinson was kinda looking at our stage, he saw we have all the "Live After
Death" scenery, the whole stage with the pyrotechnics and all that, so he went
"wow, you guys are crazy to do this thing!, it's exactly like us!". They were
really flattered about the big thing that we set for them, you know, as a tribute.

SB: Have you ever performed with them?

MH: Not yet, not yet, we got some projects going on for Holland...
CD: Yeah, we're probably gonna participate in an Iron Maiden Fan Club convention in Holland,
you know, in 2003, so there might be a chance that Maiden get to see what we're gonna
do there. This project is currently in the hands of "The Show Must Go On Productions",
our production company and Eric Van der Hurt the producer for the FC convention.

SB: How long Up The Irons have been together?

CD: Seven years now! Seven years...
FM: With a couple of changes in personnel. Like, the new line-up, the most recent line-up
is four years, except for Matt who just came in the band.
CD: We started in 1995. In '95 we had nothing.
FM: Carlos is the basis of it all! he's from '95 (laughs)
CD: Yeah, I'm the only original member.
SB: The old guy in the group!
FM: The root of all evil! (more laughs)
SB: Well, that's a good thing, though!

SB: Any other bands you came from?

FM: Well, you know, I have a project now called "Tears for the Dead Gods" with which we
will record our first album in February 2003. Everybody has other bands 'cause you
know, sometimes you have an urge to do originals, not just covers.

SB: What's your favorite Iron Maiden song?

FM: The one I enjoy playing the most is "Die With Your Boots On"! It's not my favourite
to hear, but I don't know why, I love to play that song!...I just don't know man,
it's hard to say...it has to come from "The Number of the Beast"...
CD: One that is good is "The Evil that Men Do", that song man, rocks, I love it!
MH: To me would be "To Tame a Land", I mean, is so different, well, except for "The
Nomad" which is in the "Brave New World" album. "To Tame a Land" is really something,
I mean, to play it in bass is a challenge, so each time we do this song is always
like "I gotta get it right!", you know, because is really one of the hardest bass
lines on a Maiden song. That one I would say, for me is one of my favourites.
FM: "The Duelists" is not too bad on the bass line either!
CD: And is very tough to sing too! very tough that one.
MMB: I really like "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", a long song, conceptual. I really
love that song, and one of my favourites too is "Somewhere in Time".
SM: For me is hard to make a choice between "Phantom of the Opera" and "Hallowed Be Thy
Name". For me the most difficult song to play is "Hallowed Be Thy Name", so I think
that's gonna be my favourite one.
SB: See? my favourite song is "Albatross"...
FM: "Albatross"???
SB: "Albatross", I mean, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner"!
FM: Oh, ok, because "Albatross" is a song from Corrosion of Conformity, which is not
too bad either!
SB: I tried to get ya...(laughs)
FM: You won't get me with your phony titles! (laughs), I know every fucking HM song!
SB: Ok, you got me on that one, I fucked up!

SB: Any other performances in the States?

MH: Yeah, yesterday we played Buffalo, we played Rochester quite a few times now,
was not at the Penny Arcade but at another place called Tremors.
SB: Yeah, we know that place well!
MH: And we played many shows in the NY state. We've done The Chance Theatre
in Poughkeepsie, West Sands lake, The Northern Lights in Clifton Park; we
really like the States because the crowd is always good and screaming!
CD: Actually we are planning to tour the States in 2003, here in the East Coast
and if everything goes well, the West Coast too.
SB: Yeah, that'll be sweet!

SB: Any favourite spots you like to play in Canada?

FM: The Medley.
CD: Winnipeg is great too!
MH: Yeah, Winnipeg is a nice place. The "Live Wire" is really a good place to play.
But "The Medley" is mostly where we can have our complete set-up on, it's a
really, really nice venue, it holds about 1800 seats and we get it packed
most of the time so is really something, and is home, you know?
SB: That's a big place!
FM: And is where, personally, I see we get the youngest crowd, in Montreal, I just
don't know why. Montreal rocks!
SB: Is good to turn on the young folks to the good music.
FM: There's lots of young folks in front of the stage slamming like they would do
at a "Race Against the Machine" show, they do that at an Up The Irons' show
too like you wouldn't see in the 80's!

SB: You didn't see many young kids here at "The Penny Arcade", did you?

FM: Here? yeah, there was a couple...
SB: Yeah, but I mean, other bands come here, like, a local band, they got like 50
other friends that come, it's nothing but little guys, man, but you guys
freaking rock dude!
The Whole band: Thanks a lot!

SB: Do you have a big following in Canada?

FM: Yeah, mostly in Montreal.
CD: Yeah, actually when we play Montreal and that we play at this place called
"The Medley" we usually have about 1500 people. The venue is packed, it's
great, it's huge! And we played Winnipeg, everytime we go to Winnipeg there's
a lot of fans there.
FM: Canada is still a territory to develop for us. There are a few cities we did
not play yet, you know? Montreal is where we come from, is where we started,
we have a big following down there.
SB: Sounds like I'm gonna have to come up and hang out with you guys for a
week!
FM: Sure! you have to see that!
SB: I mean, I've been to Canada but only like to Niagara Falls, 1000 Islands,
Upper Canada Village...
FM: You'll get blown up!
MH: You gotta see Montreal, really!
SB: Yeah, I've never even been in Toronto, so...
FM: Montreal is the city of sin! (laughs)...or maybe New York city, but NYC
is in the States...in Canada it's Montreal.
MH: You gotta see Montreal, that's for sure! Is a city that has lots of
history, I mean, the city started in the 15th century, so it really has
old buildings; you can feel the history when you go in some different places
in town. Is an international city also, I mean, you have all kind of
of stuff going on, all kind of festivals, the Jazz festival, the Blues
festival, all different cultures, so is really the place to see and to be
in Canada, that's for sure!

SB: Well, we'd like to thank you for being with Slosh Brothers. You are a great
band, we had a great night, exellent musicians.

The whole band: Thank you and to all the fans: check out Slosh Brothers (formally Word Of Mouth)!!
Up The Irons' gonna get you, no matter how far!