Interview

Striker On Touring With Artillery: It’s Cool To Be On Tour With Someone Who Is Sort Of An Influence.

When Metal Underground.com last spoke with Striker the band had just released its full-length album “City of Gold.” CROMCarl spoke with guitarist Adam Brown who was their latest had just joined the band. The two also discussed a tour with Onslaught and Artillery that Striker later cancelled. Fast forward a few months later and the band is experiencing many of the same things. I talked to Dan Cleary about the cancelled tour and how the group eventually stepped out on the road with Artillery, a tour that is taking place at this very moment. Now that “City of God” has been on shelves for eight months, we were able to discuss how critics and fans view the album. In the following interview we also discuss new guitarist Trent Halliwell who replaced Chris Segger.

Rex_84: How is your first tour in the States going?

Dan Cleary: Not bad so far. We stopped in Vegas before the tour, so that set a good tone for everything. We had a good time there. It was the first time I’ve been there so it was pretty crazy. Our first show in L.A. was really awesome. Since then we’ve been having a good time. The first couple of shows in Texas were pretty cool. Al in all it’s been a positive experience so far.

Rex_84: How did Vegas go? Did you win any money?

Cleary: Yeah, I won enough to drink all weekend. I kind of broke even-ish or fairly close. Some of the other guys didn’t get so lucky. That’s their fault. They didn’t know when to stop (laughs).

Rex_84: Have you gotten to see any sights?

Cleary: We drove through L.A. Stopped at a restaurant, saw a lot of Mexican people hanging out there. When we drove by in our van they all waved at us because our van looks like a work van or something. We were like “sorry, we’re just a band.” That was interesting. We didn’t get to see much of L.A. We just drove in and played and drove out. That’s kind of how it goes on tour. You really don’t get to see much, back alleys and stuff like that. It’s pretty cool. This is our fourth or fifth show, so we are still early on in the tour.

Rex_84: How do you feel about touring with Artillery? Have their fans embraced Striker?

Cleary: Yeah, I think. I was a pretty big fan of Artillery before we did this tour, so I was pretty excited to get going on it. We were suppose to tour with them and Onslaught, but it fell through for us. They still went ahead with it. The Artillery guys are super cool and we’re sort of on the same page as them. We’re influenced by a similar genre. I don’t think their influences are our influences, but bands like them and speed metal and thrash metal that came out of the 80s influenced us. It’s cool to be on tour with someone who is sort of an influence.

Rex_84: Can you talk a little about the last tour your dropped off of? What was that due to?

Cleary: It was just weird booking stuff. We were already going on a European tour. It didn’t get finalized fast enough, so we didn’t want to be unsure of it, so we dropped off when we had the chance because we didn’t want to be in limbo, “are we going on tour when we get home or not?” You got to prepare for that, take time off work and stuff like that. It didn’t solidify for us like the way it should have. There were too many questions up in the air so no, we can’t do it.

Rex_84: You filmed a video for “Crossroads.” What was filming this video like?

Cleary: It was cool. We did it ourselves completely. We shot it in my parent’s basement if you can believe that. It was a total D.I.Y. kind of video. We wanted to make a music video but we’re a band without too much money so we were like, “Oh, we’ll figure something out.” I had this idea to do simple lighting. You can go on You-Tube and watch the songs with the album cover there. We figured why not have a video? People are going to listen to it anyway, so might as well see the band.

Rex_84: How long were in the dark for this video?

Cleary: (laughs) Quite a while. We set the fire alarm in the basement off a couple of times because of the smoke machine. It only took a day. We drank some beer, had some fun and shot a video. We got the lasers hooked up. We’ve had these laser for six years. When we started out we had to have lasers. Then we bought them and never used them because we never brought them on tour or anything like that. We finally used them for something, which was the solo section of the video.

Rex_84: How do you feel about “City of Gold” now that’s it been out for 8 months. What are you hearing from fans and critics?

Cleary: So far the reviews are really good on it. We haven’t ever really had any bad reviews. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing. I’m used to pretty positive. Usually, they say if you’re pissing people off then you’re doing the right thing. We’re not pissing anybody off, so I don’t know if we’re doing the right thing. The reviews have all been good, but some are saying it is too modern sounding of album. We weren’t sure if people were going to take that as a negative because old school metal heads like old school metal sounds. We’ve done that in the past. This time it was like “whatever, let’s find this different approach.” Everyone seems to like it. If they don’t, they’re not telling us.

Rex_84: What kind of stuff are you hearing? Who do you get compared to?

Cleary: Yeah, the Artillery guys say we sound like Vicious Rumors, which is a big influence of mine, so I would say that’s pretty accurate. Our influences are all over the map. Sometimes it’s hard to find “this band sound like this band.” We get Iron Maiden all the time but that’s the untrained ear. We get the random “you guys are like Iron Maiden.” Not really. There are small parts that are pretty Iron Maiden-y. And the setup. The setup is Iron Maiden like in the twin guitar.

Rex_84: Guitarist Chris Segger split with the band. Who did you get to replace him and how is he doing in the band?

Cleary: We got our buddy Trent [Halliwell], a friend of Adam’s [Brown] and a friend of the band. He seemed like the logical choice for us since we knew him and he’s a great guitar player. So far so good. Its’ been fun. He bought a new guitar with a pointy head stock just for the band. Dedication. He has one of those John Petrucci signature guitars. It’s got the small, little head stock. We called it the Robert Plant bulge. That’s just what it looks like. You know like those live videos where he’s completely unashamed wearing the tightest pants possible. We were just like “you need to get something for that pointy head stock.” He was like “yeah, sure.” He went ahead and got a super nice carbon guitar. Dedication (laughs).

Rex_84: What does the band have in store for after this tour? Are you writing any new material?

Cleary: Yeah. As soon as we get home we’re going to start working on a new album. We have to work out the details for when it will be released. We’ve got lots of material ready to go. We’re working on it. I’m thinking hopefully in the fall sometime. It just depends if we can get everything lined up with the label. It takes a bit of time.

Rex_84: Is it going to come out on Napalm Records?

Cleary: As far as we know, yes. Unless they don’t like the demos and tell us to fuck off or something like that. We’ll see. Our relationship with them has been good. I think we’ll probably be going through them.