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Interview with Robert Berry

Ron

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Robert Berry who’s career has been nothing less than spectacular working with the likes of Keith Emerson, Carl Palmer, Sammy Hagar among many more. Armed with a multi-instrumental way of life, Robert has been doing his thing for over 30 years now.

Empire Extreme got to talk to Robert about his past, present and future.

EE: Hows it going?

RB: A little rainy, but the sun is out so it’s not to bad.

EE: How was it like working with Hush?

RB: Those were a lot different times, we could play a club here like in Silicon Valley in the early 80s and bring in 500 people and make $2,500. Apartments were like 250$ a month and food and car payment. The band would play twice and week and after all the cuts for managers and stuff, 800$ a week in your pockets. You wasn’t getting rich but you could pay your bills and make a living just doing that. It’s crazy to think of the lifestyle back then compared to now that was only 20-30 years ago. What I worry about now the younger generation like my son, where the game has changed so much.

EE: How was it like to work with Emerson and Palmer on the 3 project?

RB: That was great to, because they were a huge arena band being in ELP. They both wanted to start something new and build from the ground up, that was great for me, we were playing 1,000 seat places and most people haven’t seen those 2 up close like that before. It was always sold out and rushing to get in. To see Keith and Carl get close to the Audience and shaking hands, going back to their roots and they treated me very well. They empowered me to just be myself and do what I love to do. The only problem was they wanted to play these smaller places but didn’t bring the smaller equipment. They had the huge amps and huge drum sets, and I was Squeezed in between them. We even had a grand piano on stage. We also played places like Madison Square Garden. We had a successful time for the short period it lasted a year and half, we had a #9 Record, we made a lot of money, it was really something. The real ELP fans didn’t want to give it a chance and wanted to bring Greg back. The Emerson fans were so critical of him, which unfortunately they were critical of him right before his Suicide. He didn’t do well with the criticism, he had surgery on his arm and couldn’t play up to par that he wanted to and it effected him emotionally, although he was still fantastic. I don’t know why people had to do that being with the fact he was so great and left such a great catalog of music.

EE: Hows was it like working on the 3.2 album after he passed away?

RB: That was difficult, while he was alive and working on it. It was easy to communicate with each other and work on stuff over the phone. We both work on parts and send each other digital stuff and when we wanted to work we could instead of just setting studio time. When I got the word from his ex wife that he was gone, I couldn’t believe it and we were having so much fun. We got works he had another surgery on his arm, and had some heart problems and he was depressed. The record company was really excited about this project.

EE: Did you feel satisfied with the album after it was finished?

RB: I didn’t know what I really had. I spent about 6 months not wanting to do after he died. I think we wrote 4 songs before he did. We had the ideas and the album laid out and the blueprints were done but only 20% of his stuff finished, I didn’t know what to do. I had an idea that his son Aaron would want to do other with me, that would be a good idea. I sent him a really hard song and he couldn’t play it, but it gave me the spark to want to play with myself. I knew what Keith wanted, and I know how he plays and I wanted to finish it but didn’t have any plans on releasing it. The record label really wanted to put it out, but I didn’t know what I had and if it was good or bad. So before we did that I checked with two people, the guy who runs the 3 Facebook page Rolf and he knows everything about the band 3 and know a lot of people that talk about it, I sent him some songs and he loved them and said I needed to put them out. Then I sent it to a girl in Scotland that knows Keith and she plays keyboards and would be a critic, and I sent her the whole album, and she replied “How did you do that?” With a big question mark. I feel like Keith was there. I let the record company release it.

EE: How was it like working with Sammy Hagar?

RB: In the mid 90s, Van Halen was planning on kicking Sammy out, and they didn’t want Sammy to use Michael Anthony on his solo shows. So Sammy asked me if I wanted to play bass for him and I said “Of Course”. Working with Sammy was amazing, everything he touched turns to gold. I just seen Sammy’s band The Circle last year, and when they do Van Halen songs, Jason Bonham puts on headphones and I’m playing the keys on the Van Halen stuff, even though I’m not on the stage it’s all done digitally.

EE: Is there anyone you haven’t worked with, that you would love to?

RB: I’d love to work with Jeff Beck. Jeff doesn’t know how to play the guitar… he is the guitar. I don’t know how he does it. He’s amazing. I would love to play with McCartney, he plays the bass and uses cords and notes that aren’t typical ones. The most important thing to me now is this Tour for 3.2, I’ve put a band together and playing my 30 years of my rock career. I’m just going to go out and do me, and play music and hope everyone enjoys it.

EE: Do you have any dates lined up yet for that?

RB: We have about 8 dates or so lined up in October on the East Coast. We haven’t posted anything yet, we want to wait and post them all at once. We do have one big one I can mention and that’s ProgStock.We are headlining the Saturday Night.

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INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

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Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

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INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

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Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell. 

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything. 

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs. 

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.  

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters. 

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with. 

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music. 

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan. 

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know…  but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”.  Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.

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FIRST JASON: LOVEDRAFTS INTERVIEW

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EMPIRE EXTREME GOT TO SIT DOWN AND TALK TO ARI LEHMAN OF FIRST JASON AND TALK ABOUT STARTING THE CULT OF JASON VORHEES FANS

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