Editor’s Note:
Art Of Anarchy is formed from the dust of Guns ‘N’ Roses, Creed, and Disturbed. They are the latest supergroup that is bound to take over the masses, as they combine each element of the aforementioned bands and stir it up, and Art Of Anarchy is created. Scott Stapp of Creed joined the band after Scott Weiland(formerly of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver) passed away to a drug overdose while on tour with The Wildabouts. Here, Bumblefoot was gracious to interview with us after rescheduling. Check out Art Of Anarchy on tour! Here is our conversation with Bumblefoot, legendary guitarist of Art Of Anarchy.
Bumblefoot: I apologize that it’s been a crazy couple of days.
M.T.C.: That’s all right! All is good man! How is the tour with Art Of Anarchy going right now?
Bumblefoot: It was wonderful and we really tightened up, and we got a great feel for being together on stage with an audience, it was a big growth spurt for the band. Our next batch of shows are coming in July, and we’ll be hitting up a lot of places that we haven’t got to, but that’s good, and I’m looking forward to that definitely!
M.T.C.: One question that I want to ask is that you have different elements of your career, Scott Stapp of Creed, John Moyer of Disturbed, and “the twins”, how is the writing process differ from a supergroup so to speak, as opposed to the writing process of a band that is cutting their teeth and starting out.
Bumblefoot: It’s actually very similar, its the musicians and what they bring to the table, that’s what every band does when they are writing together. The only difference is dealing with the background of the members more and identify them within in the music. You get to hear John Moyer’s really cool modern grooves in the songs, you get to hear Scott Stapp’s melodies and the sound of his voice, which is completely undeniable, even the Votta brothers have this old school thrash-y attack to the way they play and the way that they write, and I have this left-of-center, weird sound with chord changes, and things like that, and what I’m doing guitar-wise, which is we do what we do, and that is get together, it’s just like what every other band does if they are truly writing together, when we started the record that we did, we were just alone, five of us in a room recording ideas and have them develop into songs as we wrote.
M.T.C.: Let’s talk about “The Madness” record, which was released this year, what can fans expect from this record and where do you see Art Of Anarchy three to five years from now?
Bumblefoot: What can they expect from the record, they can expect each member, and if they know what each member has done in the past musically, put those together in a mixing bowl, stir it up, and what you’re going to get is that it’s going to sound like Scott Stapp of Creed, Moyer in Disturbed, and me with most of my solo stuff than the Guns ‘N’ Roses stuff. If you’re familiar with my solo stuff, it has its guitar moments, but it’s not all about that, varied vocal melody, and just multiple melodies all at once. A little bit of a modern groove, a little bit of the tip of the hat to the Creed sound, little bit of that energy from the Votta Twins, it’s not like we went into it saying, “let’s try to write like this or let’s try to write like that”. We just wrote. We did what we did to express ourselves the way that we always do, and when you take people who do that, and every musician does that, you get a certain combination, it does something special. Every band is special because there’s no other thing like it in the universe. You’re not gonna find any other band with those particular members that you do with spirits, that’s why we love bands! Hopefully, people will get that from Art Of Anarchy too, that same memory that they love about those bands, they will love it and that it came through on the album. From what people have said, they have gotten it, so that makes me really happy.
As far as what to expect in three to five years, I never think that far ahead. I don’t know what to expect in three to five days. I’ve learned that when we make plans, God laughs! *laughs*
M.T.C.: To quickly digress here, do you have any Chris Cornell memories?
Bumblefoot: I met him once at a rehearsal place in Burbank and it was a quick “hello, how are you doing”, that was really it, but as far as personal memories, it was something about Chris Cornell or Soundgarden or Temple Of The Dog, or Audioslave, or anything, I remember the first time back in 1991, and it was late at night, watching MTV, and the band comes on, and it sounded like Black Sabbath with Dio singing, and it was just so cool, I was just entranced by it, and it was the song “Outshined”, I became an instant Soundgarden fan, but just a sound, that I’m looking for in rock. It was back when grunge wasn’t really at the forefront yet, and everyone was like, “you can’t do this, you can’t do that”, but that was what was real to me, and when grunge came around, that’s the stuff, that’s the sound, that’s what I’ve been waiting for, and Soundgarden was at the height of it, it was the one band that did it for me, his voice, their approach, I thought his solo album was a masterpiece. It’s a tremendous loss when someone’s music affects you so much, when you’re listening to them, it felt like they did it for yourself. I get it. That’s what it felt like, that surprise that came. I just hope that his family and loved ones are okay, I really feel for them.
M.T.C.: I understand that you have a show to play coming up, so we’ll need to wrap this up. I’m giving you the floor to wrap this up and say what you want to say about Art Of Anarchy and a message to the fans. Anything really!
Bumblefoot: First, huge thank you to you and to everybody who has taken an interest in Art Of Anarchy, they’ve been so supportive and so positive when it comes to the shows and enjoying the album, a huge thank you to them, because that’s what it’s all about. You make the music, you put it out into the universe and you hope it means something to the music that you hear. It’s all you can really ask for, so I’m grateful of everyone that has given it a chance. You can find out about Art Of Anarchy at www.artofanarchyband.com , www.facebook.com/artofanarchyband and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/artofanarchy, and on Instagram, it’s just www.instagram.com/artofanarchy , you can also find me at www.bumblefoot.com or any hashtag using “Bumblefoot”.
M.T.C.: Thank you so much for the time Bumblefoot!
Bumblefoot: It was a pleasure speaking with you M.T.C. and I hope we can chat again soon!
Go pick up a copy of “The Madness” by Art Of Anarchy wherever music is sold, and check them out on tour! Tour dates are listed below!
Saturday, July 15th at The Warehouse Concert Lounge in Clarksville, Tennessee
Sunday, July 16th at The Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia
Monday, July 17th at The Throne Theater in Wilmington, North Carolina
Wednesday, July 19th at Jergel’s Rhythm Grille in Warrendale, Pennsylvania
Thursday, July 20th at Wire in Berwyn, Illinois
Saturday, July 22nd at Sanctuary Events Center in Fargo, North Dakota
Sunday, July 23rd at Wooly’s in Des Moines, Iowa
Tuesday, July 25th at The Waiting Room in Omaha, Nebraska
Saturday, August 12th at America The Beautiful Park in Colorado Springs, Colorado
