Interview by Victoria Llewelyn
Metal Panther are again – an album full of latest songs to be launched on twenty fourth February, a UK tour and a bunch of outrageous plans. Michael Starr talks all issues hair and make-up, the best way to recruit a bass participant man sufficient to be in Metal Panther and what to anticipate from the band in 2023. Buckle up, youngsters, it’s fairly a journey!
MGM: Michael, we’re very a lot trying ahead to welcoming Metal Panther again to the UK this Might. Aside out of your Obtain present final yr it’s been three years because you graced a UK stage. A variety of followers can’t wait to see you partying over right here once more, how are you and the blokes feeling about your return?
MS: Obtain was tremendous thrilling to do, to get again in entrance of all these folks and carry out collectively, so we’re actually trying ahead to coming again and doing our personal exhibits. We’re bringing Winger alongside to play with us, they’re going to be wonderful – it’s simply going to be an important night time to rock out!
MGM: Metal Panther all the time have actually high-quality bands on as their help, Winger being a high quality instance; how do you resolve who has what it takes to open a Metal Panther present?
MS: We’ve got sturdy concepts about this; we don’t wish to convey out an 80’s fashion covers band as a result of we have already got that coated ourselves. We would like a band which might be merely into taking part in rock and roll, wish to have enjoyable and are excited to be with us. We’re gonna be hanging out collectively quite a bit, it’s essential. It’s quite a lot of enjoyable to see new bands and each band that opens for us, I’ll exit and watch, I wish to see what they’re doing. There are such a lot of nice new bands.
MGM: A Metal Panther present is kind of not like every other, it truly is a factor to behold, with no limits on the glamour, the comedy and the risqué onstage banter; to not point out the musical expertise and hellacious songs you carry out. Do you may have any surprises in retailer for the UK audiences this time round?
MS: The primary huge shock can be that there’s no Lexxi Foxx. Lexxi is not within the band, so while you come to the present, you’re going to see a brand new band member – his identify is Spyder. Spyder performed Obtain with us earlier than he joined, it was shortly afterwards that we requested him to be within the band completely and fortunately he agreed!
We’ve got our new file popping out February twenty fourth, ‘On The Prowl’, so we’ll be taking part in a few songs from that, and our typical basic songs that folks have come to listen to. We picked 5 new songs that work very well for a dwell present. We could do a few album tracks as nicely that folks have been requesting for a very long time. And we’re going to convey a tiger. We’re named Metal Panther, we love cats, we had been pondering of bringing a bunch of cats alongside to the meet and greet after which we thought why don’t we convey a brilliant enormous tiger to the present? Tigers are superior they usually’re very pleasant. I feel we’re going to make use of a UK based mostly one to economize, we’re nonetheless searching for the suitable tiger.
MGM: You now have Spyder, Metal Panther’s new everlasting bass participant, and I perceive he’s not all that new in spite of everything actually, and also you guys have identified one another and performed collectively for round 20 years! How has he been doing since he stepped ahead and took up this coveted mantle?
MS: Oh, he’s not doing too good in any respect. Joking! He’s actually doing an important job. Previous to him becoming a member of after we performed Obtain, he was Lexxi’s fill in, going approach again to round 2004 once we had been taking part in as a daily covers band. We all the time had subs in case anybody was sick or tremendous hung over. He got here to fill in on the European tour final summer time and while we had been on the market, we realised he was the man! We’ve identified him over twenty years, performed collectively all that point, so it’s nice to have somebody that’s been working alongside us, working behind the scenes additionally, which makes him an important match. To start with we had been pondering okay, we’ll get some scorching younger 25-year-old man that appears quite a bit like Lexxi… the thought of that was cool however while you’re within the room with anyone that hasn’t had as a lot expertise working like this it’s fairly totally different. Spyder is a good dude and we love him! I had to assist him out together with his costumes, I put him in contact with my seamstress and we designed some stuff for him, he additionally has his personal emblem which may be very cool. I helped him out together with his hair and make up for final summer time’s tour, I used to do that for Satchel too, however Satchel can do it on his personal now.
MGM: You had an important choice course of while you had been in your quest to discover a bassist to fill the considerably giant and sparkly footwear of Lexxi Foxx. Speak us by how this took form, and the way you ultimately determined that Spyder was the person for you.
MS: After we put on the market that we wanted a brand new bass participant we bought round 600 submissions. A great 20% of these couldn’t even play bass. They stated – give me the job and I’ll learn the way! We went by each single one in all these submissions, twice, and we whittled it down to some folks we thought could be an excellent match. Then we took them out on the street and ‘take a look at drove’ them. They needed to provide you with their very own characters, and we had some nice submissions, actually humorous guys and superior gamers. We ended up choosing this one man and he was scheduled to come back on tour, but it surely ended up not figuring out, which is why Spyder joined us final minute and we got here to ask the query, why are we not simply giving the job to him?
After we do a present, we exit and we improv, and we discuss to the gang, we make folks chuckle, and that’s such an essential ingredient to the job of being the bass participant in Metal Panther. You’ve got to have the ability to discuss to the viewers, have interaction with them, and likewise be related with everybody else within the band. There’s quite a bit happening. It might appear to be we’re simply screwing off and having an excellent time, however we take what we do very critically, we put quite a bit into it, and that offers us the flexibility to fuck off and get excessive quite a bit so it’s superior.
MGM: The eagerly anticipated new album ‘On The Prowl’ is popping out on twenty fourth February. Written and recorded in the course of the lockdown interval it’s full of all of the joyful Metal Panther magic – a boisterous, celebratory escapade of nice music and pure comedy. Followers can be delighted to get their arms on it, so what are you able to inform us in regards to the new songs?
MS: Everybody that’s in a band will say the identical factor after they make a brand new file – ‘that is the perfect file we’ve ever finished’. I’m not going to say this as a result of I like all our data. This one, it’s a brand new set of songs that had been born within the time of the pandemic, once we all had such uncertainty in life. All this dangerous shit was happening and we had been writing and recording these songs to mirror what life was like at the moment, what it meant to us and the way simply it might all be taken away. And what got here out in these songs was actually, the identical factor as we all the time write about, which is having intercourse with girls.
We’ve got an important, up tempo opening monitor – ‘By no means Too Late (to get some pussy tonight) – it’s filled with power and offers a constructive message. ‘Mates With Advantages’ is a track about some particular girlfriends we’ve who include, nicely, advantages; with out getting too graphic. It’s all surrounded by love. I consider in a factor known as love. We’ve got male mates with advantages additionally, like free cocaine.
‘Magical Vagina’ celebrates the circle of life, a tribute to all of the mothers pumping steel youngsters out of theirs, after which the way you become older and all you do is try to get again inside different ones. It’s our appreciation of the vagina.
MGM: Have you ever ever written a track about something aside from having intercourse with girls?
MS: No. I don’t assume any band has ever written a track that isn’t to do with love or intercourse. It’s a humanitarian factor. Individuals wish to have intercourse and folks wish to fall in love. We simply go away the love half out and discuss in regards to the intercourse. It’s like The Darkness stated, I consider in a factor known as love. Simply take heed to the rhythm of your coronary heart.
We’re not on the market with any sort of agenda, we’re simply having enjoyable and speaking about stuff that most individuals take into consideration naturally. If folks come to a present they usually don’t actually like what we’re about they go away, simply as if I had been listening to a track and I don’t actually take care of what it’s singing about I don’t should take heed to it. I’m not going to complain about it, I simply gained’t take heed to it.
There’s one track on the brand new file known as ‘1987’ that’s a bit totally different, it’s extra of a reflective track about that point in our lives, it’s already out so you’ll be able to go take heed to it now. I feel folks will actually join with it.
MGM: You’ve stated that 1987 was such a good time to be alive, the place everybody laughed, nobody fearful, and folks wore quite a lot of Spandex. Makes me surprise what you had been doing in 1987?
MS: I used to be going to gigs and taking part in in a band! I began taking part in music in 1979 when Van Halen 2 got here out. I’m fairly previous. I don’t look it. That is right down to Lexxi Foxx, he offers me a complete bunch of skincare and make up suggestions, contouring, taking care of your eyebrows. Eyebrow safety is so essential. You don’t need your eyebrows to go away so that you moisturise the fuck out of them.
MGM: Protecting throughout the realms of what’s printable, what’s probably the most outrageous factor Metal Panther have ever finished?
MS: Again in 2009 we performed a competition in Arizona, and the promoter stated – ‘hey, I’ve an important concept. You guys are gonna skydive in out of a aircraft, proper? We’ll have instructors with you to take you down, and also you’ll put on these smoke cannisters which might be related to your toes, so it leaves a path.’ I feel Van Halen did this again within the day, however they used stunt doubles. We didn’t. We jumped out of a aircraft, and we parachuted down and landed onstage. We might have finished something to play at that competition. We had a brand new file and we wished to make a press release, and we did. Heavy steel guidelines. You possibly can’t hold it down.
MGM: You all clearly love the 80’s rock and steel period, Metal Panther epitomise that point completely with the look, sound and essence of the band. Do you assume the 80’s had been the final word era for rock and roll?
MS: For me, it’s bought to be the 80’s, however I like quite a lot of new music that’s popping out now. I like the brand new Metallica track. These guys are kicking ass proper now, they sound like they did again in 1987 with a little bit of Van Halen and a little bit of Motley Crue blended in. It’s a real heavy steel track and it’s nice that Metallica have lastly seen the sunshine. I really feel like Metal Panther has been capable of present them the best way to go extra heavy steel. I used to be speaking to James (Hetfield) about it actually, he stated to me – ‘Dude, you guys rock.’ We confirmed them the best way. Somebody needed to do it.
MGM: Once you’re not offering steerage to Metallica who else do you wish to take heed to by yourself time?
MS: I like Corey Taylor, his solo stuff, Slipknot and Stone Bitter, I like Disturbed, they’re one in all my favorite bands. I like Papa Roach quite a bit too. There are quite a lot of nice bands which have been round a very long time and are actually placing out all this superior new materials they wrote and recorded over the previous two, three years, and sometime we’ll look again on it and realize it because the pandemic period. Everybody bought artistic they usually did it with little or no cash, some bands broke up and a few bands excelled. That’s what we’re seeing now.
MGM: Having been round for thus lengthy now and nonetheless holding the immense reputation you may have, the place would you wish to go from right here? For the band that’s seen all of it, finished all of it, laughed at all of it and purchased the T shirt, what does the long run maintain for Metal Panther?
MS: Clearly, we wish to take over the world, and I really feel like we’ve put our footprint in quite a lot of international locations which is an achievement in itself for us, and we’re extraordinarily grateful for that. However it’d be cool to fuck some new bitches on the street, that’d be enjoyable, after which expertise some totally different events and stuff. We all the time wished to have a track that may very well be performed on the radio however that’s by no means going to occur with out compromising our values, which we might by no means do. Fortuitously, ‘1987’ doesn’t compromise our values as Metal Panther and it’s now within the prime 50.
We wish to go on for so long as we are able to, we adore it. I feel it’s an enormous a part of why folks like to go to see dwell music – as a result of the folks which might be doing it, the legacy bands which have been collectively 40 years or extra, they’re doing it for the love of it. Bands like Metallica – they don’t want the cash; they’re up there as a result of they adore it. When folks come to see us carry out, we aren’t there all bummed out as a result of we’ve to play a present. We’re fucking stoked, we’re joyful, it’s enjoyable and I feel it all the time can be for us.
I suppose you’re going to should kill us to get us to cease. That’s been our attraction, by no means going away. It’s like a very persistent man till the lady goes, okay, I’ll go on a date with you. There’s an important track on the brand new file – ‘Ain’t Lifeless But’, and that’s who we’re. We simply don’t cease. We hold going, hold going, hold coming again. Heavy steel guidelines.
Metal Panther’s new album ‘On the prowl’ is launched on twenty fourth February
www.steelpantherrocks.com/
www.fb.com/steelpanther
Their UK & Eire tour runs from 14th – twenty eighth Might
Tickets and data: https://steelpantherrocks.com/pages/tour
Might 14th: O2 Academy, Glasgow
Might fifteenth: O2 Metropolis Corridor, Newcastle
Might seventeenth: Manchester Academy
Might 18th: O2 Academy, Birmingham
Might twentieth: O2 Discussion board, Kentish City, London
Might twenty first: O2 Academy, Bristol
Might twenty third: O2 Academy, Leeds
Might twenty fifth: Ulster Corridor, Belfast
Might twenty sixth: Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Eire
Might twenty eighth: Vicar St, Dublin, Eire
Inform Us How You Really feel
