{"id":40607,"date":"2014-05-21T06:10:01","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T11:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=40607"},"modified":"2014-05-21T06:10:01","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T11:10:01","slug":"interview-with-jens-shredmaster-jb-basten-of-gloryful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/interview-with-jens-shredmaster-jb-basten-of-gloryful\/","title":{"rendered":"Jens “Shredmaster JB” Basten of Gloryful"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Jenn Carbaugh<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Gloryful was formed in the summer of 2010, and they continue to catch the attention of head-bangers everywhere. Merely 10 months after the prominent release of their first album, The Warrior\u2019s Code<\/em>, the band is at it again with their second album. Ocean Blade<\/em> is full of metal hymns that have a stomping speed metal sound. The lead front man and band\u2019s main songwriter, Johnny La Bomba, helped to generate an album with lyrical concepts. A fictional adventure takes place throughout Ocean Blade<\/em>, and it is presented in a somewhat classic heavy metal style. Gloryful is certainly more than just another early 80\u2019s sounding power metal band. They have an intense ability to bring liveliness and create stories that are animated within the metal.<\/p>\n

\"Gloryful\"<\/p>\n

HRH: Welcome to Hardrock Haven. Let\u2019s begin by discussing your new release, Ocean Blade<\/em>. How did you come up with the title and concept?<\/p>\n

Jens: Johnny came up with this whole story about this Cpt. McGurkin sailing the seven seas on a ship called \u201dOcean Blade\u201d on the hunt for the Sedna monster. I liked \u201cOcean Blade\u201d as an album title from the first moment he told me about that idea and the fitting lyric and cover concept.<\/p>\n

HRH: About how long did it take for such a concept to be formed? Tell us about the story writing process that is within each track.<\/p>\n

Jens: It didn\u00b4t took so long due to the fact that there is a concept you can deal with. It is way more heavy to do all the lyrics for 10 tracks if you have to think about new ideas for each song. Johnny is always a fast creator, and that\u00b4s a main reason why I like to work with him in this band. In some way it\u00b4s a reason why this band exists and released two albums in 22 months. If you have a look inside the booklet and read the lyrics, you will see that there is no fixed story with one fixed starting point and one clear ending, but that there is a little more information of the story in each track.<\/p>\n

HRH: Were there areas of the fictional adventure within the music that were easier to compose? How did the music and the story pair together in the creation process?<\/p>\n

Jens: We don\u00b4t finish music and lyrics separately. We start always with recording the pre-production guitars, which can be very spontaneous, process with some beers, on Cubase-programmed drums. So the basic music of a song is finished before Johnny starts thinking about its vocal lines. He is doing most of the melodies and vocal arrangements by singing to the basic tracks in his car. The lyrics are coming along with or following shortly after the main vocal hook-line and strophe ideas are set. The only problems show up when we are close to the studio recording deadline and there\u00b4s a whole track without lyrics, ha-ha. By the way did you know we recorded one more track for \u201cOcean Blade\u201d as you can find on its track-list now? <\/p>\n

HRH: How do the song titles get created in relation to the story? Are the basic plot lines incorporated into the songs?<\/p>\n

Jens: No, not really. As I said it\u00b4s always a spontaneous process in the order music, vocal arrangements, lyrics.<\/p>\n

HRH: So many songs tell stories, but to create a comprehensive tale is a great feat as a musician. This seems to be a reoccurring action that you have mastered as a band, even this early. Why is the story important to the listeners?<\/p>\n

Jens: I personally don\u00b4t like many albums that are real concept albums, maybe because those long and complex stories are nothing for me. You know I am not reading a lot of books, haha. I like Macabre\u00b4s \u201cDahmer\u201d and King Diamond\u00b4s \u201cThe Graveyard.\u201d But these are the only ones I know I own and like. But for our album Ocean Blade it feels right, it\u00b4s a more simple and entertaining story that\u00b4s full of heavy metal spirit. <\/p>\n

HRH: What would be the key elements in the story, like the rising action, falling action, and climax? Are these areas important in the creation process?<\/p>\n

Jens: \u201cHiring The Dead\u201d was chosen as the album opening track, as it\u00b4s story deals about the crew-recruiting process. \u201cOcean Blade\u201d and \u201cCradle Of Heroes\u201d both deal very focussed with ship, captain and crew, so these songs lead into the story very well. \u201cMcGuerkin On The Bridge\u201d is about the Captains\u00b4 special power, soul and his character generally, \u201cSiren Song\u201d is about navigation techniques and it\u00b4s problems, \u201cBlack Legacy\u201d is about the calm before the fight, \u201cAll Men To The Arms\u201d is about the final fight with the creature, a.s.o.. But we didn\u00b4t sort the tracks by storyboard. That\u00b4s not a good idea because you never know how good a song turns out until you hear the final mix and mastering.<\/p>\n

HRH: Will there be any touring soon?<\/p>\n

Jens: I don\u00b4t know if there will be a full support tour, but we play a few cool shows nearly every weekend. There are nice shows coming up just as the Out & Loud festival with Blind Guardian, some more open airs like the famous Dong Open Air (a.o. Arch Enemy, Grace Digger, Annihilator) and the B\u00e4\u00e4\u00e4m Festival (a.o. Bullet, Grave Digger, Cage) a club show with Powerwolf.<\/p>\n

\"Gloryful<\/p>\n

HRH: How will the story play into the performance?<\/p>\n

Jens: Not so much as we play both tracks from our first and second album. But at some shows we will bring Cpt. Carl McGuerkin with us as merchandise-guy and helping hand. He will be dressed as on his portrait in the CD booklet, and he will be available for autographs of course.<\/p>\n

HRH: With all of the members being skilled and experienced in playing for modern metal bands, why did you decide to become Gloryful and play traditional music?<\/p>\n

Jens: As I did nearly every sort of Metal before, I felt that it\u00b4s now the right time to try the most important, the classic heavy metal stuff, and it feels damn right.<\/p>\n

HRH: Your musical influences can be heard through the \u201880s heavy metal style. How have the metal giants like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden shaped your musical direction?<\/p>\n

Jens: My elder brother (also guitar in Night In Gales) bought the classic vinyls like Number Of The Beast, Holy Diver or Battle Hymns in the mid 80ies, so I was in the age around 8 when it all started. He had a lot of metal tapes with acts like Anthrax, Slayer, Helloween and WASP already so I was fixed right from the start. In the fourth year in grounding school a got my Painkiller vinyl. The classic Metal releases are still my most important influence. Later I got back in history a lot when I found out that there was real heavy metal by Thin Lizzy and Rainbow even before it was called heavy metal.<\/p>\n

HRH: You have a traditional style, but you still manage to bring something new to the table. The idea of originality is massive because you have animated a story with music with a style that isn\u2019t new. Many albums are a musical story. How do you think this idea is important during the writing, recording, and performing process? <\/p>\n

Jens: Well, that\u00b4s not the main idea to be original. We are a very spontaneous composing band. We love classic heavy metal and we know that we are a little different from the known standards. But regarding the concept-album idea: Johnny told my already he\u00b4s working on a nice one for album no. three!<\/p>\n

HRH: Thank you so much for your time.<\/p>\n

Jens: It\u00b4s always a pleasure to do interviews. Thanks for supporting Gloryful and heavy metal in general. All readers should check out our new album Ocean Blade and www.gloryful.net<\/a> where you can find all info on the band members, videos and of course tons of merch-items in our official webstore. Don\u00b4t hesitate to get in touch on Facebook or via contact@gloryful.net. Cheers & keep metal alive! <\/p>\n

Band:
\nJohnny La Bomba – Lead Vocals, 12-String Acoustic Guitar
\nJens “Shredmaster JB” Basten – Lead And Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals
\nAdrian Weiss – Lead And Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals
\nDaniel Perl – Bass, Backing Vocals
\nHartmut Stoof \u2013 Drums<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jenn Carbaugh – Senior Columnist — Gloryful was formed in the summer of 2010, and they continue to catch the attention of head-bangers everywhere. Merely 10 months after the prominent release of their first […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":40611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10850],"tags":[9227,203,9338,9228,9339],"class_list":{"0":"post-40607","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcint2014","8":"tag-gloryful","9":"tag-interview","10":"tag-jens-shredmaster-jb-basten","11":"tag-ocean-blade","12":"tag-the-warriors-code"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}