Barney Stackhouse & Phil Hammond of Burn

by Marija Brettle
— Sr. Columnist —

Away from the music scene for nearly 10 years since the release of the critically and commercially well-received third album Global Warning, acclaimed British Hard Rock band BURN are back with their melody drenched follow-up Ice Age, lined up for the U.K. release by Melodic Rock Records, on the April 6th..

The album was produced by Barney Stackhouse and mixed by the Grammy award-winning Tobias Lindell (Europe, H.E.A.T).

After five years invested in creating its new record, the band is incredibly proud of their latest product. They are also thrilled to announce bands new members; frontman Steve Newman, who is well known in the Rock community for possessing one of the very best voices in rock, and Chris Green (current member of Tyketto), who brings his incredible lead guitar skills to the band.

Following the release of the first digital single ‘Irontown,’ taken from the new album, we manage to catch up with the keyboardist Barney Stackhouse and guitarist Phil Hammond; to discuss their comeback, working dynamic in the making of the new record, what they’ve been up to in the last 10 years and what’s next for the band…

Hard Rock Haven: Hey, thank you for taking the time for this Interview!

Band: Hi Marija. Thanks for having us!

HRH: From what I can gather it’s been a very busy and exciting time for the band so far. Would it be fair to say that this is a new era for Burn, considering the timing and release of your new album?

Barney Stackhouse: Yes, it’s very much a new era, with the line-up changes we’ve had and, we feel, a change of direction into trying to stay fairly modern, but at the same time retaining the heavy, melodic elements that represent the more ‘traditional’ side of our music.

Phil Hammond: I suppose it will be seen as a new era as we have a new singer, and the style of the material and sound has changed a fair bit from the Burn of the past. Global Warning was a step away from the earlier AOR sound and I guess Ice Age is charting different territory from that. But good bands evolve and don’t stand still.

HRH: You said that it took you five years to finish your new album, Ice Age. So it’s been quite a while for the band to get back to the studio with the new record. Why so long?

BS: Well, we had to deal with Jeff Ogden choosing to retire from singing original material, which was always going to be a hard act to follow, and Julian Nicholas was finding his other commitments difficult to reconcile with producing quality lead guitar work for us, so we had to look elsewhere. We were stunned when Steve Newman and Chris Green agreed to join us and produce the vocal/lead guitar performances you hear on this new album.

PH: It is actually very difficult to write and record an album that you are going to be proud of these days. We all do other jobs of some sort, and all of us have kids, family and outside interests. It is not like we are all young and doing nothing else so it takes a long time to get things done. In reality, we were in the studio on and off from 2011 to 2016 and 2017 was spent mixing, mastering and getting deals in place. Time just goes by.

HRH: How has the reaction to this record been so far? I hear some of your loyal fans saying that they can’t wait to hear your new record and see your back on stage…?

BS: So far, the reactions we’ve had have been very positive, with certain individuals effectively saying that they’re looking at us in an entirely new light.

PH: Most people that have passed comment really like it, which is rewarding as we have been away so long. Some miss the more AOR side of the Burn legacy but there is a fair bit of variety in there for most of our fans to hook up with. Getting back on stage is another story…….

HRH: Could you take us through the creative process and working dynamic in the making of this record?

BR: That’s fairly straight-forward, Phil generally comes up with (dreams up) nearly all of the material, then I step in providing an ‘arrangement/producer’ angle, as quite often Phil will try to cram so many hooks into a song that it’s possible to rearrange them into two separate songs. I kind of edit things. Phil will record a guide vocal, Steve then does a ‘proper’ job on it and Chris provides the solos. Then we get it all back, Phil, myself, Marc and one of my sons, George, will sing a stack of backing vocals. George ‘Drum meister’ Stackhouse will conjure up the drum tracks.

PH: We employ all the tricks that we can find to make a piece of music sound like it was recorded in a multi-million-pound studio when in fact it was recorded in much more economic surroundings. We also do what many bands do now and get band members to record their parts in their own time and their own space. I reckon this results in much more relaxed and expressive performances than when you are all cramped up in a studio with the other guys getting bored with your 23rd take of a vocal or guitar part. Steve and Chris’s performances on Ice Age are a testament to that!

HRH: How did you end up working with the incredibly talented, Tobias Lindell on mix and Barney (Stackhouse) as the producer?
PH: Well, Barney being in the band made him a nice cheap option, which is the main reason we used him!(Laughs) But having said that, Barney has a rare natural talent for taking a raw piece of music and lovingly turning it into something special. However, to get an album to sound really epic you need a Grade A mixing engineer, which is where Tobias comes in.

BS: The connection with Tobias Lindell came about as a purely commercial transaction really. Our late and much-missed friend Ian Barker of Formula One Records (who were originally going to release ‘Ice Age’) had asked us what we wanted from the overall ’sound’ of this new record and, having recently listened to the track ‘Last Look At Eden’ by Europe, we said “Like that.” Suffice to say the next thing we knew, Tobias Lindell had been commissioned to mix all the tracks.

HRH: What are you bringing to your new record? Tell me how Ice Age differs from your last record, ‘Global Warning,’ musically and lyrically?

BS: ‘Ice Age’ is musically much ‘heavier’ in terms of the style, we’ve also tried to employ lots of keyboard textures and sequencers as part of the arrangement to give it a ‘modern’ aspect, whilst trying not to stray too far from the well-trodden path of guitars, drums, and melodic vocals. Lyrically we feel it’s a further development of how much of Global Warning was with content that can only really be derived from people of a certain age who have some life experience to look back on.

PH: People have described ‘Ice Age’ as a ‘dark’ album, both lyrically and musically, which kind of goes against the Burn AOR heritage, but I think it just reflects who we are and what modern life is about. The songs are about subjects that we have an interest in and characters that we have met or are around us. Like Barney says, the older you get the wider a range of subjects you have had experience of so you have the right to describe them in songs. I am naturally a really positive and optimistic character but writing happy go lucky songs about love and fast cars are not our thing. The music is still melodic though. A mix of melody, power, and intensity with interesting lyrical content is what we were after. I like to think we achieved that.

HRH: There been some serious shake-ups within the band lately, with new people joining the band. What would you say your new vocalist, Steve Newman bringing into the band since the departure of the Jeff Ogden?

BS: Steve has brought a style and quality of vocal which, whilst brilliant in its own right, is sufficiently different from Jeff, that people can’t really say anything negative about it. Steve has also enabled us to maintain the ‘Male British Rock Singer’ vibe!

PH: Burn is an English band. We hail from the Midlands where the legacy is Sabbath, Priest, Led Zep and so on. I like to think that we identify with that heritage in that we all grew up with those influences. Our music has always had a bluesy influence and is based more on the 70’s bands than anything later than that. Steve’s voice fits the music so well because he is a classic English vocalist in the mold of Paul Rodgers, David Coverdale and so on. It just works and he is just so good it was a breeze to work with him. We considered some singers from other countries when Jeff left but it would just not have felt right.

HRH: How did you come to work with the Tyketto guitarist Chris Green?

BS: In fairness, it was Steve Newman that pointed us in the direction of Chris Green.

PH: Steve had known Chris for a while but had never worked with him. He suggested that the material needed an incendiary lead player and that Chris would fit like a glove. I gave Chris a call and managed to persuade him to do the majority of the solos on the album. Chris is a magnificent player and a lovely bloke. A dream to work with. We gave him tracks and said play what you want. He did just that and I reckon he put some of the best performances of his career on this album. Stunning!

HRH: ‘Irontown’ is the first single release from Burn’s new album Ice Age. What were the reasons for choosing this song?

BS: We felt that as the first ‘song’ on the album after the prologue ‘Global Warning’, it had great riffs and a great chorus so why not?

PH: A suggestion from people who had heard the album prior to release suggested that the song had the sort of impact needed to get casual listeners’ attention on the radio. It is certainly a statement of intent.

HRH: I listened to your awesome new record and I already have few fav songs like; ‘Jealousy,’ ‘The Girl Who Wanted Everything’ and ‘Payback’ … Is there any song you would like to talk about that has had some special meaning?

BS: Well they all some relevant meaning but I guess ‘Love Song’ might be the one as most Rock lyrics tend towards the ‘love and relationships’ angle. With this one, Phil wanted to explicitly say he’d ‘Never Write A Love Song.’

PH: Like I said before I like to write about different stuff. They all have some meaning and I hope they make sense to anyone who investigates the lyrics. There is a story behind each of the songs on the album. The secrets are in the photos that back the lyrics in the CD booklet.

HRH: Your last album, Global Warning was released back in 2007, so it’s been over 10 years since we haven’t heard much from you… What have the band been up to in that time?

BS: Where do we start? Running businesses, bringing up families, finding new members, recording, arranging, editing, singing… (laughs)

PH: Being in a band when you have all the stuff going on that Barn just listed is very difficult. We did no other music. We just did what everyone else does. We did, however, continue to write and record in snatches, which is why we managed to come up with Ice Age.

HRH: Back in the heydays of the band, you were one of those bands who push the boundaries of the genre while still retaining the core elements of power and melody. How do you view the current rock scene and are there any bands around that are carrying your style and legacy?

PH: It has been extremely difficult for many years for Rock bands playing similar music to Burn to make any kind of headway commercially and to develop. Much heavier younger bands have a good following of people and softer rock acts seem to do OK, but the middle ground where we reside is not too popular. Strange really as songs such as ‘Living On A Prayer,’ ‘Final Countdown’ and ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’ seem to pack the dance floor when dropped into a party playlist. It is like our genre of music did some terrible damage to mankind and has been ostracised to small distant enclaves forever, never to be heard on the mainstream radio again. Against this background the pickings are thin. There is some decent music out there but I would struggle to name too many bands really delivering great creative melodic hard rock at the moment. A possible exception is H.E.A.T. who try some different things and I think do them really well.

HRH: You’re the band that has influenced the industry and has made a lasting impression on the Hard Rock/Melodic Rock genre. Looking back now, what would be the highlight of your career/work and why?

BS: The success of Global Warning, playing some great gigs at the time like The Rock n Blues Festival and FireFest. It’s going to be almost impossible to replicate the live thing again cos we’re all spread out geographically. If Ice Age proves as popular as Global Warning we’ll be well pleased.

PH: Ice Age is definitely the highlight for me. I am so proud of what we have done!

HRH: Going back to the late 90’s, can you tell me more about how Burn got started and emerged in the British Hard Rock music scene?

BS: Burn got started many years ago with four lads who were friends from school days. Then Rab Devenney joined us and we developed into the band that produced So Far So Bad and Spark To A Flame. Then we tragically lost Karl Bee to a road traffic accident (2001, during the writing of songs for was to become ) and that was a defining point, because certain members of the band took an unofficial hiatus, leaving me to pick up the pieces and get Global Warning finished. I hooked up with Phil, we rearranged/re-recorded a lot of the existing tracks and co-wrote some new ones. Julian Nicholas joined us to provide lead and rhythm guitar. The rest became history.

HRH: What’s next for Burn, tour, maybe a new video for the song, live shows…?

BS: We’re looking at ways of producing a video, but in reality with touring costs being prohibitively high, realistically, playing live is unlikely, which is a shame as a lot of the riffs are eminently ‘playable’ and the songs anthemic in places.

PH: I would love to play this and older material live, but the likelihood of us being able to do it is pretty low. It’s a shame to say it but people just do not come out to see bands. Even at the time of Global Warning when we had an album that got overwhelmingly good reviews, sold pretty well relatively speaking and we still had a fanbase that remembered the first album, we struggled to sell tickets. However, when we played to 1200 people at Firefest we went down really well. I suppose playing a few festivals would work but logistically it would be challenging.

HRH: Thank you guys for making the time for the Interview. It’s been a real pleasure talking to you!