by Alexandra Mrozowska
— Senior Columnist —
Music can be therapeutic – even more so these days than ever before. Opening up, sharing their personal experiences and revealing inner struggles by an artist may serve as a healer for both themselves and the listeners. Especially if it’s a shared experience, like an aftermath of a generational or a social turmoil – which sounds an awful lot like 2020.
Nathan James, the lead singer of Inglorious, knows it well. The British five-piece has just released their fourth album We Will Ride, recorded in the least fortunate circumstances of coronavirus lockdown. And as it turns out, Nathan hopes to reach out to the band’s listeners in what are the most personal songs on the album, so as they don’t feel alone with their own problems. “I think it’s important to be honest and to share these feelings ‘cause I think other people are going through them as well,” says the singer as he checks in with Hardrock Haven on the release day. We talk music, pressures of being at the forefront of the new wave of classic Hard Rock and collaborations with the big names of the Rock industry – but most importantly, the cathartic experience of sharing personal feelings with the audience…
Hardrock Haven: So, today’s a big day – the new Inglorious album We Will Ride is released via Frontiers Music SRL and the band’s new video “Messiah” is out as well. How do you feel?
Nathan James: I feel overwhelmed by the reaction from the fans. It’s been unbelievable, like I haven’t stopped replying to people’s amazing messages. So yes, it’s a really good day for the band.
Hardrock Haven: It’s not the first time we catch up with you on Hardrock Haven, the first time being back in 2018 when you were interviewed by one of our colleagues – Marija Brettle. Back then, you discussed being in a band in terms of the “undying need to continually keep going and pushing in what sometimes feels like a fucking rollercoaster.” Two years and two albums later, do you still feel the same way about it?
Nathan James: Yeah, completely. I’m so busy and so focused on this band and right now this album – but also other albums. We started work on another Inglorious album last week, so we are just gonna keep on moving, keep on going, keep on pushing… keep making music. And that’s what we’re gonna keep doing.
Hardrock Haven: A real rollercoaster indeed. So, with the band’s fourth album finally out, do you feel We Will Ride marks another step in your evolution and are you happy with it?
Nathan James: Absolutely! To me, I knew this album was great. But now I’ve also seen the reviews we’ve had – I’ve seen twenty five reviews or maybe more, up to thirty reviews – and every single one has been good. So I feel like we’ve taken it to the next level, and now we’re here, we’re gonna try for the next level again. Every time I wanna improve what we’ve done previously, so it’s good to know that people are seeing how much effort we’re putting in. Anyone who has a band will know it’s a lot of love and time that goes into all of this.
Hardrock Haven: Definitely. We Will Ride is also the first album with new members on board – guitarists Danny Dela Cruz and Dan Stevens, and bassist Vinnie Colla. What do you think each of them added to Inglorious musically?
Nathan James: I think especially the guitarists have added something that we’ve always been missing and that is like two lead guitar players. We now have two standout guitar players with their own style who work together to create great songs. So this isn’t about one guitar player being a star, it’s about two guitar players playing the best they can for the songs. And both of these guys now really do play so well as individuals and together. So yeah, I’m really excited about people hearing that – hearing just how good they are. I must say Danny is so young, he’s twenty-one years old. So when you hear these solos on some of the songs on the album, like “She Won’t Let You Go” or “Cruel Intentions”, you have to remember he recorded these when he was twenty years old, and they’re amazing.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. And how do you think all these line-up changes that happened in Inglorious throughout the years influenced the band’s dynamics and music style?
Nathan James: I think the changes kind of happened for us to grow – because when changes happen, the influences change, the dynamic of the band changes, the relationships between the band members change. And that had to happen, because it wasn’t working how it was. So to know now that I’ve got this group of guys around me who have the same goal as me and who have this amazing respect for each other is really cool, I think. That’s the one thing that I would say about the new album actually… We recorded it in lockdown during the pandemic. However, we had the most fun doing the album because we just enjoyed every minute of it and we were so excited to make this album and show people just how good Inglorious is. Now, what people say is that it’s a new line-up, but we’ve been in this line-up for two years, you know.
Hardrock Haven: We Will Ride is also the first time the band has worked with a producer – Romesh Gogandoda. What kind of experience was that and why did you actually decide to do that after three self-produced albums?
Nathan James: I thought that we needed change in what we were doing. We did well producing ourselves with the previous line-ups, but I did felt like it would be good this time around to make a more modern-sounding album so that I could prove to people that we’re a band that can do everything. You know, we can track live, we can do this and that, we can make a great studio album, we can write more a modern kind of riffs, we can do all sorts [of things]. And that’s why we kind of chose to work with a producer and it definitely worked for us.
Hardrock Haven: It did – and worked for the album as well. You’ve already mentioned the album being recorded in lockdown, and obviously that’s a question I hate to ask, but what kind of impact did the ongoing pandemic have on the process of making and recording We Will Ride?
Nathan James: Firstly, it pushed the album back, so it got moved twice – which was annoying, but it worked out for the best ‘cause it meant we had more time to write. Also, just when we were recording the album in the studio, it was very tricky to make the album with only two people in the room. Usually we have the whole band there, involved in the process, but we just couldn’t do that this time. It’s very, very hard to make an album during the pandemic. Also, we’re a band that likes to go to the pub after we finish a long day, and none of the pubs were open… So it was a very weird experience for us.
Hardrock Haven: And do you think the album might have been different musically if the situation was normal and there were no delays in the process?
Nathan James: I think it would have been the same, truly. I guess the good thing about the pandemic is that it made me write about different things that I wouldn’t have written about before. The songs that are a lot more emotional and a lot harder for me to write came easier, because I was so depressed during the lockdown.
Hardrock Haven: It’s been said about the songs on the album to have been inspired by stories from the outside, like documentaries you’ve watched. Do you write such songs from the perspective of a passive observer, or do you filter these stories through your personal experiences?
Nathan James: Sometimes I just write stories about people and sometimes I write as if I am that person. So, this time around, I wrote a lot of stories about people who I found to be interesting – usually that’s people in my life, but like you say, I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries about serial killers and all sorts of horrible people. After watching all of them, I’ve decided that it was cool to kind of make stories about them.
Hardrock Haven: Is there any story or lyric on the album you’d like the listeners to pay extra attention to for some reason?
Nathan James: There’s a couple. “Eye Of The Storm” is a very personal lyric to me – it’s kind of my story about my battles with myself and my insecurities and the way I act like I do, so that’s quite an interesting song. “My Misery” was written about my depression, when I was really down a couple of years ago. And also title track “We Will Ride”, it’s got a fantastic story about a highway woman who used to kill people on the way to London after she lost all of her family’s money… so she was quite an interesting character and that’s why I wrote a song about her as well that became the title track of the album.
Hardrock Haven: So with some songs on We Will Ride being so personal as they are, do you feel comfortable opening up to your listeners?
Nathan James: I didn’t do it on purpose, but it just felt like the right time to write about these things. After the last year that the whole world has had, I think it’s important to be honest and to share these feelings ‘cause I think other people are going through them as well. And if someone can hear the song and think, “Okay, it’s not just me who feels this way,” then maybe they can talk about it as well, like I did.
Hardrock Haven: There was much buzz around a songwriting collaboration with Whitesnake’s Joel Hoekstra on your second single “Medusa” and it was actually two songs you wrote together this time. Having previously collaborated on Inglorious’ “You’re Mine” a few years ago, what made you renew your songwriting partnership with Joel?
Nathan James: I think that he’s amazing musician and songwriter. And what made me think of him was that I wanted this album to have the variety that previous Inglorious albums – that people loved – had. So I thought, “Why not speak to Joel…?” Also, I’m doing another project with Joel at the moment, and I thought it just fits our story nicely… You know, Joel’s written for our first album and now he’s on the fourth album, and now me and Joel are doing an album together with some other people. So it just makes sense to me and it’s cool that this song [“Medusa”] has actually got a lot of radio play here in the UK, ‘cause that’s the first one for Joel that he’s been on with us.
Hardrock Haven: Right, while catching up with Hardrock Haven Joel mentioned that it goes both ways – that such collaborations are actually each of you helping one another. Do you agree with him?
Nathan James: Definitely! I’m younger than Joel – he’s got a wealth of experience and he was alive when the music I love was created, so he comes from a very different place than myself or Danny who’s only twenty-one years old. So if he can give us a riff or something, it’s usually something that we’d never come up with ‘cause we haven’t lived through what Joel has lived through. And similarly for Joel, it’s cool for him to work with guys kind of our age, because it means that lots of people are going to hear his stuff and his writing, and maybe it will benefit him [in terms of] people listening to his music or checking out his YouTube videos or getting a guitar lesson [from him]. So, it definitely helps both of us. I’m so thankful to have so many co-writes with him now and I’m looking forward to this new album with him, Tommy Aldridge, Marco Mendoza and, of course, Michael Sweet from Stryper.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely! And in general, how important is it for you to be supported by the established musicians of the older generation? Do you think there should be more support among generations of artists overall?
Nathan James: Yes. The thing with this older generation is that it’s usually these guys who are saying “Rock’n’roll is dead”… so maybe it wouldn’t be dead if they helped the younger guys out a bit more. And I think it’s very easy for multimillionaires to claim something is dead, but in this day and age it’s a very different world than it was in the ‘70s and ‘80s. I think when you get support or have someone nice saying something nice about you – like when David Coverdale said nice things about me, Paul Rodgers, Brian May, Glenn Hughes… whoever these guys are, even just one compliment makes you feel great and also, tells other people that these guys like it and they really know what they’re doing, they know what they’re talking about. So it’s all about helping out and paying forward… because I’m a big fan of those guys, so to have them say that about me is mind-blowing… it makes me so happy.
Hardrock Haven: Speaking of that, giants of the music industry you’ve just talked about have called Inglorious a new Deep Purple or the best band since Led Zeppelin. And while it’s obviously a compliment, does it put any pressure on you as well?
Nathan James: Yes! (laughs) Lots of pressure. But I’m just trying to do what we do, you know. I’m gonna try and keep doing whatever it is that make people talk about this band, whether it’s our album or, I don’t know, my shiny jacket… (laughs) Whatever it is, I’m gonna keep on doing it and keep being true to myself. So when those guys say those things, I try not to enjoy it too much, because they’re still just a person at the end of the day – just like you, me, any of our fans. So you have to take it with a pinch of salt.
Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. So, Inglorious is one of the leading bands in what we could call a new wave of classic Hard Rock. Do you think it’s possible for bands like yours to draw new listeners – our generation or perhaps even younger – to this kind of sound and style?
Nathan James: I think so. I think eventually this will happen, because I think people are getting bored with hearing computer music. The human ear is so bored of hearing things that are perfect, so I think it wants to hear rock’n’roll, it wants to hear things that are more interesting than just computer drum beats. So I think kids are gonna realize that and also, during lockdown lots of kids have picked up the guitars. There’s been a lot of kids who thought, “I’ve got time and I’m at home now, maybe I’ll pick up the guitar… or I’ll start playing the piano, or I’ll start singing and making YouTube videos…” So hopefully that would be a bit of the old meets the new, you know?
Hardrock Haven: Fingers crossed for that to happen! And speaking of the contemporary music market and Inglorious’ place in it, was it always easy for the band in terms of promotion, recognition, media support and things like that?
Nathan James: No! (laughs) Quite the opposite. At first it was good, but then… Well, Rock hasn’t got its place that it used to have in the ‘80s, so in order to be seen on television or to be played on the radio now, you have to be really lucky. I know great things that are being played on the radio, but I think it’s a difficult one. So hopefully, people will wake up and realize that Rock is not going anywhere, and then it can be back on the TV. That would be amazing to see [it] on TV again. So hopefully, one day… who knows?
Hardrock Haven: Hopefully! Classic Hard Rock influences of yours are quite obvious and I think they’ve already been discussed a lot, but are there any of your peers on the music scene that you find inspiring as well?
Nathan James: Yeah, there’s quite a few bands that I like. The band that inspired me to create this band was Rival Sons. I loved how they were originally doing such a vintage-sounding thing, but with great talent. Jay [Buchanan] is such a wonderful singer… So they kind of showed me it can be done, you know… They played great shows at the great venues all over the world, [got] Grammy nominations… so, they were kind of the band that I suppose is closest to my age that I thought of, “Wow, these guys are doing it and that’s amazing.”
Hardrock Haven: You’ve also mentioned that later that year you’re going to be a part of a new project alongside Joel Hoekstra, Michael Sweet, Marco Mendoza and Tommy Aldridge. Joel revealed in our interview it’s probably going to be a collaborative effort, with equal involvement in songwriting. Any update on that from you?
Nathan James: I know they’re writing the material now and they will be sending me songs to record soon, so hopefully I’ll be able to hear them soon. I kind of know the vibe they’re going for and it’s very much my style, so hopefully I’ll be able to do some co-writing with that. And it will be great – there are so many great writers [in the project], like Michael Sweet, and Alessandro Del Vecchio’s producing the album. It’s a very exciting bunch of people and I think it will be something really special.
Hardrock Haven: Sounds like a dream team indeed. And which artists are on your dream list when it comes to possible future collaborations?
Nathan James: I’d love to tour with Guns N’Roses. I’ve been a fan since I was born, really… Also, I love Lady Gaga and I think she’s amazing, so I’d love Inglorious and Lady Gaga to do a song together. I think that would be amazing (laughs).
Hardrock Haven: That’s quite an interesting idea… it could definitely work! And what are your plans beyond the project we’ve just mentioned and promoting We Will Ride?
Nathan James: My plans are just to keep busy and keep healthy, because obviously at the moment it’s very hard to keep yourself active. And I can really struggle and become overwhelmed if I’m not singing, so I just wanna think about singing and about the future of this band. I also have lots of animals at home that keep me very busy. I have lots of pets that I look after and I love dearly, so I’m just gonna think about myself really, my animals, my family and a new Inglorious album that we started just like week. It’s a very exciting time – I’ve got this new album coming out today (Feb the 12th) and I’ve got an album with Joel and Michael Sweet and then, a new Inglorious album that we’re recording. So it’s a very exciting time.
Hardrock Haven: Definitely! So before we wrap it up, looking back on your career so far, which experience beyond Inglorious was the most valuable one in terms of adding to your arsenal? Was it singing for Uli John Roth, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, your TV appearances, musicals…?
Nathan James: I think it was TV, because being on TV is such a weird thing – you sing to millions of people, so it’s a huge pressure and it’s not just about singing… It’s about performing, it’s about looking at cameras, it’s about speaking clearly… And also, about dealing with the bullshit of what people say about you. ‘Cause when you’re on TV or in the newspaper, people feel like they own you and they can say anything about you. So learning how to deal with that I think was invaluable. It gave me a very thick skin and I am thankful the reality TV for that.
Hardrock Haven: Any last words?
Nathan James: Just how proud I am of this and that I really, really hope people will enjoy this album. And if you support a band, go and buy some of their merch. It’s really simple, but no band – not just my band, but no band at all – have been touring for the last year, so people are struggling. We earn no money from touring, so if you have some money in your pocket and you love a band and you’ve been listening to their music on Spotify, go and buy their album, their T-shirt or whatever just to support them, ‘cause I’m sure they’d really appreciate that.
Photo credits: Paul Harries
