PipemanRadio Discusses Highly Anticipated New Album Concord with American Power Metallers JUDICATOR

0:04 Hey, you have done to censure for wow cra you you. Whycoume America. It's time for the Adventures of pipe Man on W four c Y dot com. West pomp Beach is number one Internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man. God must. God for people starting a brood and Sir, I need to. See you as si a sir in a silence more from the contry song.

0:55 This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio. And I'm here with our guests who has some piller new music. And boy, from what I was reading, a lot of people were waiting for this and so I'm very excited to bring on with us. John from Judicator, how. Are you doing great? Thanks for having me. Hey, my pleasure. So I one thing I do love. That's cool as I've been into metal since like the late seventies when I was a kid, and usually the power metal bands that you would think of always came from Europe. And now you're and you're an American power metal band that's going to Europe.

1:44 Yeah. Yeah, very happy about that. That's been a big goal of hours, so to finally have that opportunity Thanks to the crew at epic Fest. We are just over the moon happy about it. How did that happen anyway, because you know European festival festivals pun intended are yeah. Yeah, yeah. Really, it's just as simple as one day I got an email from the one of the people who runs epic Fest, and in that email you expressed, you know, introduced himself and expressed his interest in getting Judicator to come over and perform. But he put an asterisk with all of that, which was, I know that you might not be able to do this because it's a big ask and we probably can't pay you exactly what you know you might need to get over here.

2:36 That being said, it's the biggest guarantee that we've been offered so far in our music career. So I was like, actually, this has been a big enough goal, we really want to do it. He said that it was as simple as him and the other guy who runs epic Fest we're just sitting around talking about who they would like to invite their sort of dream list, and Judicator was on there. So they took their shot and we were very happy to answer the call. That is so cool, And you know, I go and I do radio coverage at festivals all over the US, UK, Europe, and it is a different animal over there, Like even the way a lot of times you hear how artists are treated like it's they're treated the way they're supposed to be treated and rest are treated the way they're supposed to be treated.

3:25 So it's pretty. Cool to hear a story like that because I find that even with the big festivals, it still is like kind of I don't know how you would describe it, localized acting, you know, like you said, it's two people, you know, and posted like this big corporate thing that's handling everything. It's basically just people that really have a love for the music and a love for the whole life of a festival. Yeah, and the guys who run Epicfest have done a tremendous job so far. I've been following epic Fest for the few years that it has been operating, and they have taken it from relatively small to it's really growing now, and I think they have a very unique and resonant vision.

4:18 I think a lot of people are really into what they're offering. That's pretty cool. I love it, And obviously that means they're into you because they're offering you there, So there you go. So let's talk about the new album, Concord. And I got to watch the video for Concord and it was pretty badass. Yeah, thank you. We were very fortunate. I went to film school with a buddy of mine who now works for a production house, and he really enjoys making music videos, so I give him the opportunity to flex his muscles in that regard. So we had a blast making this.

5:00 We have another video coming out March seventh, so there's more to come. But yeah, that was a fun video to shoot. We shot it in my uncle's barn. Nice, and we brought Nicki Rowe from Aon's Enthroned and Rebel's Ghost. We brought her out from California to do some guest vocals in this song and she has a unique and fun role in the next music video as well. Nice. See. I love that's how it is today, Like I find that so often, you know, artists, it's like one big, happy family, Like everybody's making these guest appearances on other bands songs, and I think it's pretty cool. It's showing the unity and the family of metal and rock.

5:46 Yeah, that's one thing also that has been very awesome in the metal community. Is Yeah, like you said, there's a lot of cross contamination, and I've just been so blessed to have worked with so many really talented and awesome people. Yeah. Absolutely, So tell us a little bit about the new album from your point of view and how it's different from stuff you've done in the past, and you know, just a whole viewpoint of it. So Concord is not like some of the other concept albums we've done, which is to say, there's a point A and a point Z and this happens, and this happens in this character in that event. This is more it is a concept album, I guess you could say, but it's all just a smattering of songs that deal with the American West, the Wild West, and maybe the West in general. So there's a lot of stuff on there.

6:47 Like we cover Wovoka, the Payute prophet who started the Ghost Dance. We have a song about like the Homestead Act, a song about Bass Reeves, the first black US Marshall west of the Mississippi, if I remember right, He's a very interesting character. And then we have some songs basically like commenting on where we are at in general as a people in America, I guess you could say. And the last thing I would say that I think is kind of funny and interesting for me is I was studying abroad in Germany back in twenty fourteen, and I was there for like over a month. I had been there a while, and I think I was starting to get homesick, and I found myself just fantasizing about Wyoming, the Sawtooth Mountains, the beautiful desert of Nevada, and I was like, this is so strange. Like for as much as I love Germany and the German people and the German culture and food and music, I think I'm just a red, white and blue American deep down and sad and I just can't help but there's a lot of love in my heart for the American West. So and not touch on media too. I mean in the album, we have a song about the movie Three Tender Yuma.

8:06 So and fun fact too, my name is John Wayne Yellend, So yeah, my dad was a big fan of Westerns, and so yeah, I think this album, broadly speaking, could be described as a love letter to the American West. Well you know what's funny about that is because when I was a kid. My dad used to watch all those Westerns and it bored me to death when I was a kid. But now, like you pull up with these like networks and the streaming that has had old stuff. I've watched some of it and like get hooked on it. It's pretty wild to different perspective. And I think that's what we find too as people in general, is like we may not understand our parents till we get to the place that they're at where we're not understanding them.

8:59 Yeah, And I think I have no idea what I'm talking about here, but in my experience, my experience is similar years where my dad grew up watching True I grew up with like my dad putting on True Grit and The Shootest and all of these other the good, bad and the ugly, And to me it was always just like can we please watch Cartoon Network or something? Right? But the older I've gotten, so I speculate, I wonder if there's something about Westerns that is just more that resonates more with mature audiences. It's probably what it is really or even kind of getting it, Like you know what's cool that I can't remember who it was, but I saw somebody being interviewed and they talked about the old Western movies and you never saw blood ever. Ah yeah, And I never thought of that, and so like I when I heard that, I put one on.

9:54 I'm like, oh man, she's right. It's like it was all like pretty fake but realistic without having the real blood and gore. Yeah. So I mean that you might say there's something that I don't know you can touch all audiences or something I don't. Know exactly exactly, and you know it is to your point too. It's funny because I travel all over the world and there's times where I felt like, oh, I'd like to live here, I'd like to live there. But then there's times when I'm back here and I think, wow, like I as many people do travel all over the world to see these cool things, and we just have so many of them here in the United States. It's but we take it for granted because it's here, even if it's on the other side of the country.

10:51 It's like we could always go there. But you know there, if you road trip this country, there's so much cool stuff you can see. Oh yeah, I mean the US is huge. Germany is about Germany, for example, is about the size of Montana if. I remember right. So, yeah, I mean you go from east to west coast and there's a huge variety of cultures and dialects or you know, ways of talking all that kind of thing. Oh yeah, and upbringing and like, to me, all the states the United States are like all the countries in Europe. That's the way it's like to me. That was one interesting thing to me is when I did this study abroad, thing I would encounter other Americans and when they were asked by Europeans where they're from, they would normally not say the United States. They would say, oh, from Colorado, And sometimes the Europeans would get it, and sometimes they would be.

11:47 Like where exactly. It's just interesting to me that, like to what you were saying, most people from the US identify as Utah or Californian or a New Yorker, that kind of thing. One hundred percent. You know, it's funny you said that, because I think about it, I'm the same way. I think we're all the same way. If somebody asks, oh, where are you from, you say your state. You don't really say the country, whereas there they say the country. Yeah, I suppose so. So that's pretty cool. And I also to the point of what I was saying in the very beginning, I love that you're talking about US history American history, because a lot of power metal from Europe they're talking about the European history. So it's just it just makes sense. And we have lots of stories. We may be a young country, but we have a lot of stories to tell, and I think that's what's really cool about your music.

12:47 Yeah. I think that's an interesting take too, because when we listen to European bands who talk about Viking history or you know, British history whatever, like, we we love that and we celebrate it and we part anticipate in it. So yeah, I'm very happy to put something forward about like here's what's badass about American history, or here's what's awesome about the American West. You know, the cowboy is mythical in a sense. The Europeans have nights in shimmering armor and we have cowboys, so. Right, and it does take going somewhere else sometimes to appreciate. Where you're at.

13:28 Yes, absolutely, So how do people reach out to you guys on socials, how they pre saved the album, how they check out all your tour dates by your merch because that's the most important because bands don't survive today without merch, so give them all the details. Well, I would say, visit whatever your social media platform of choice is. We are probably their Facebook, Instagram x formerly known as Twitter or whatever. We have presence on YouTube. We are on TikTok, but not as much. We should probably change that, come to think of it. But yeah, find us on social media and pre order the album.

14:11 It's a hoot and there are a lot of interesting and fun things that lie in store for you. Nice and is there anything else you want to share with everybody about anything going on twenty twenty five that we haven't touched on yet. We will be performing at Epic Fest, like I said, which will be our first European performance ever. We're very grateful for that opportunity. We'll be performing for a full hour and we'll be wrapping up the entire festival, will be the last band of the festival. Aside from that, we'll be performing another international date, an international festival. I shouldn't say it yet, but if you're in Canada, then keep your eyes peel because we'll be going back to Canada in twenty twenty five as well.

15:04 Nice, one of my co hosts, will be very excited about that because she's Goodadian. Where does she live. Up in Calgary, albert. Maybe maybe maybe I'll see her then because yeah, that's that's not too far from where we're playing. Nice, I love it. And how far is epic Fest from Copenhagen? If I remember I epic Fest is in a town called Roskilda, which is about a twenty or thirty minute train ride, so if you live in Copenhagen, it's just a hop and a skip away. And I love Copenhagen. Yeah, it's one of my favorite places on this planet. I've never been, but I'm very excited about the opportunity.

15:48 You know, I have fun. It's gonna be a great place, and you're gonna have a great set. And it says a lot too that you're doing an hour set, because a lot of times I have festival that's not the case. So I love it. Yeah, we're gob smacked and just over the moon, super excited about it. Very cool. Well, great way to do twenty twenty five. Love the new music. Everybody's got to check it out. And thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Absolutely take care. Thank you for listening to the adventures of Pipemin. I'm w for Cui Radio.