Guitarist Jon Schaffer Checks In With The Latest Iced Earth Happenings
By
Sefany Jones,
Contributing Editor
Monday, January 27, 2003 @ 4:14 PM
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Iced Earth songwriter/guitarist Jon Schaffer checks in on the band’s official website, IcedEarth.com with the latest happenings:
“Greetings,
“Well, now that the deal is finally done studio arrangements are being
made. We are getting a later start than I wanted but that's rock ‘n roll.
We should be recording in mid March and we're shooting for an
August/September release. This past Monday was the 18th anniversary of the
band – man, it's been a long and intense ride. Since we're approaching the
20th I thought it was about time to have a book published about the Iced
Earth story. Bill Murphy will be writing it and obviously I will be very
involved in this undertaking. He will be compiling info and doing
interviews with key people and some past members in the next year and a
half to two years so that we can have it out sometime in 2005, the 20th
anniversary. I want this to be an inspirational book that will show people
that there's nothing you can't accomplish when you give it your all,
whether you're a musician, an aspiring writer, actor, doctor, lawyer or
whatever. A strong work ethic, realistic short term and long term goals,
honesty and balls will get you whatever it is you seek. We also have
something very special planned for the Demons & Wizards release and Bill
will be the one who is going to put it together, it was his idea and Hansi
and I think it will be very cool for the fans. He will be documenting a
good portion of the creative process and the recording and all kinds of
cool stuff. More to come on that later.
“We will soon be auctioning off the drum kit that has been used on all the
American tours, and was used on the Tribute to the Gods recording. It
will be on Ebay and all of the proceeds will go to two of my favorite
charities, the Vietnam Veterans and to the Firefighters of New York. For
those that are interested in owning this piece of IE history, stay tuned --
I will have Neil announce it when the auction starts. This will happen in
the next month or so.
“The record is coming along very well, I'm really into this one, and it's
going to be great. It's funny how things morph and change as the writing
moves along. You can expect The Glorious Burden to be an album based on
lots of history and some deep personal stuff. From the American
Revolution, the Civil War, Waterloo (Napoleonic Wars), Attila the Hun to
WW1 fighter ace Manfred Freiherr Von Richthofen aka The Red Baron, we're
covering a lot of very cool and tragic historical periods. This will be a
very unique and special record, that's for sure. Like I said in one of my
previous posts many of the titles were working titles and just that. I've
shelved some of my earlier song concepts till a later date; these topics
flow very well together over all and fit perfectly with the title. I
really wanted to challenge myself on this record lyrically and musically.
Most of my songs have been about dark fantasy and sci-fi or horror, but
this is a challenge because we are focusing on real life and often very
tragic events, so in a way it's new for Iced Earth. There will be alot of
that personal emotion that touches many of you as well, don't worry, but
overall this has developed into something different. Don't let different
worry you -- we won't come out with baggy pants rappin', it ain't gonna
happen. This is a very metal record!
“I'm really, really busy right now so I won't be starting the reviews of
all the songs on all the records until after the album is done. Sorry, I
just don't have the time.
“However, one thing that we will be doing that will help keep you updated
on stuff is posting an interview with me by Bill Murphy about every month.
He's volunteered to do that for me so that we can do this a bit more
regularly. It's much easier for me to run my mouth than to do all this
typing, and it's faster, and he'll stay on top of it because that's the
kind of guy that he is.
“I hope you all had a good time over the holidays and hope your new year is
going to be a great one.”
Take care, Jon
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