Here in overdrive, we have a killer treat for all you Blistered fans with an exclusive interview with the bands lead singer Jonny Darkness about his new album, times on the tour and the recent passing of the band’s drummer; Alex ‘the Gov’ Milligan.
Overdrive: hey Darkness, thanks for coming out.
Darkness: no problem, great to be here
Overdrive: right so, you took a blow recently with Alex’s passing but you’re back with a new album, can you tell us a bit about it?
Darkness: yeah well the album is called Hellbound and it’s the darkest record the band has ever released both lyrically and musically. It’s tied in to the emotions we all went through with the recent events and he died during the making of the album so we have dedicated Hellbound to our brother Alex. I think the record is painful for a lot of people to listen to, including myself but it’s a great album with a lot of anger and like, frustration coming through into the songs themselves. But yeah, the album comes out in February and it should be awesome to see how fans react to the new line up and new style we are putting forward.
Overdrive: sounds amazing, you have a large fan base here in England and we have seen loads of hype about the album and despite the introduction of the new drummer, Mike Portnoy to drum in The Gov’s place, He will never be forgotten, can you share with us some of your favourite Alex memories?
Darkness: My god there is so many! I mean pretty much every time we went out with that guy there is a story to tell. I remember one time in the New York subway, Alex wanted to do a handstand on the train; I mean we told him not to but he really wanted to seize the opportunity to do something crazy. So he did this handstand and Alex’s heel caught on this guy’s bags of groceries and food went all over the inside of the train and all over everybody. It was so embarrassing but we all laugh about it now.
Overdrive: it sounds like he was amazing fun to be around...
Darkness: Yeah totally, he was a really great guy and nobody has been hit as hard as his family and the rest of the band. We just want people to remember him as the great, fun loving guy that he was.
Overdrive: he is remembered very fondly by all that knew him. And I mean it’s great that you’re comfortable to talk about him with a smile on your face and still go out and make new music and go on tour with the same confidence and presence you had before. In fact could you tell our readers about your new tour?
Darkness: yeah well it was a hard decision for us to tour at all; I mean we turned down loads of tours because obviously something like the passing of Alex knocks everybody back. And morale was low but after a while we realised that people needed to hear what the Gov had written and he deserved us to go out there and perform his music. So eventually we all agreed we would start a new tour. It’s called the Rage on stage tour and we are already a few shows deep and it’s been amazing, the fans have been truly great and it’s a killer buzz to see the amount of support for the new Blistered. So we’re just gonna try continue to kick ass like we always do but keep our brother in mind while we do it.
Overdrive: like I say, Blistered have some great, devoted fans. And finally Jonny, could you maybe touch upon what may be in store for the future with the band?
Darkness: uh yeah, like i say it’s all about moving forward, we need to recover and get back to full form, we always had a strong bond with all of the guys in the band and mike has been brilliant so we will just do what we do best and that’s writing new material and giving amazing shows to all our fans.
Overdrive: excellent news, thanks again for this opportunity.
Darkness: no thank you, it’s been awesome.
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