Now on their third studio album “Whales and Leeches” Portland metaller’s Red Fang have been slowly making a name for themselves with their humorous videos, dirty riffs and extensive touring. Just before their Manchester show I caught up with bassist and frontman Aaron Beam to chat about their tour, gear, videos and beer…
How’s the tour going, it’s quite a long one isn’t it?
A: It’s going fantastic, it’s long but we broke it up into two pieces so it’s pretty tolerable.
You’ve done plenty of festivals but this tour is mainly small venues, do you prefer playing smaller gigs, or big shows?
A: Um, when I’m doing small gigs I like them better, but when I’m doing big gigs, I like those better…
You were out in the US with The Shrine (tonight’s support), you’ve toured with them quite a bit now, good guys?
A: No! Ha, they’re awful… Nah, they’re great, ya know they’re a bunch of whippersnappers, I think that the oldest one is 34 or something. We’re all, well, there’s only one of us under 40 right now. But no they’re mellow dudes. We did the US tour with them, and then 3 weeks earlier in Europe, and now this is the 5th show of the current leg.
You’ve got quite a lot of dates ahead of you, all in this van?
A: Pretty much, it’s 4 weeks on this one. The end of it is just us, The Shrine and Lord Dying aren’t coming with us, and we’re playing 4 shows in Finland and then 2 in Russia.
Your videos are always humorous, you work with Whitey McConnaughy a lot…
A: Yeah, pretty much all of the videos we’ve done so far have been with him, although we have I think 3 new videos in the works. We’re just getting treatments for them now, none of them are with Whitey.
Can you give us a little sneak?
A: I can tell you what songs they’re for! We’re gonna do one for “Crows and Swine”, I think that’s gonna be an animated one. So I don’t think Whiteys done any computer animation stuff before. And then we have a new song, we just recorded 2 brand new songs for a 7inch, one of those is gonna get turned into a video, and then we might do one other thing. But we haven’t settled on treatments yet so I can’t really say what.
So there’s new material? Are we going to hear any tonight?
A: Two brand new songs already done, but no, probably not tonight. We’ve been practicing them at sound check, but they’re not ready to go.
You bumped onto the scene here with the fantastic “Prehistoric Dog” video, which features quite prominently, beer. And then your latest video “Blood Like Cream”, again beer, so fans of beer then?
A: Yeah to some degree, although actually I don’t drink beer any more! I have sort of a digestive issue, so I wasn’t drinking at all for most of last year but then I’ve started working in some clear liquor again. Also John (drums) prefers wine and vodka over beer. So yeah, that’s the one sneak peek I can give you of the videos, is that we’re trying to move away from the beer imagery a bit. Even though I can’t drink it, I still love beer.
So what are Red Fang’s top beers?
A: It depends on the season, and how hot it is outside or if it’s snowing. For the summer I like the Mexican beers like Pacifico is one of my favorites. There’s a springtime beer a brewery called Ninkasi outside Portland make called “Maiden The Shade” like Iron Maiden. I’ve always liked the creamier style beers like Boddingtons and Guinness, two of my favorites. But right now it’s no beer, ah oh well. And another good summer beer is like the Czech beers like Budvar.
Also in the “Blood Like Cream” video you’ve got Fred (Armisen) from Portlandia, how’d that come about?
A: He asked us to be in the video...
So he’s a fan then?
A: No no, he didn’t actually. He’d just finished shooting Portlandia and I think that Whitey just asked him if he’d do it, he’s an old friend of my wife’s actually, I’m acquainted with him and he knows of the band, but it’s mainly the Portland connection.
And Zombies feature heavily in that video too.
A: Yeah we’re friends with lots of zombies!
Are you zombie film fans?
A: Of course, yeah! I love George Romero, that very first Night of the Living Dead is one of the greatest movies ever I think, I love a bunch of the zombie movies. Maybe my other favorite which, is not technically a zombie movie, but Evil Dead 2, I’m gonna say that Bruce Campbell’s hand in that movie is basically a zombie.
A: It’s going fantastic, it’s long but we broke it up into two pieces so it’s pretty tolerable.
You’ve done plenty of festivals but this tour is mainly small venues, do you prefer playing smaller gigs, or big shows?
A: Um, when I’m doing small gigs I like them better, but when I’m doing big gigs, I like those better…
You were out in the US with The Shrine (tonight’s support), you’ve toured with them quite a bit now, good guys?
A: No! Ha, they’re awful… Nah, they’re great, ya know they’re a bunch of whippersnappers, I think that the oldest one is 34 or something. We’re all, well, there’s only one of us under 40 right now. But no they’re mellow dudes. We did the US tour with them, and then 3 weeks earlier in Europe, and now this is the 5th show of the current leg.
You’ve got quite a lot of dates ahead of you, all in this van?
A: Pretty much, it’s 4 weeks on this one. The end of it is just us, The Shrine and Lord Dying aren’t coming with us, and we’re playing 4 shows in Finland and then 2 in Russia.
Your videos are always humorous, you work with Whitey McConnaughy a lot…
A: Yeah, pretty much all of the videos we’ve done so far have been with him, although we have I think 3 new videos in the works. We’re just getting treatments for them now, none of them are with Whitey.
Can you give us a little sneak?
A: I can tell you what songs they’re for! We’re gonna do one for “Crows and Swine”, I think that’s gonna be an animated one. So I don’t think Whiteys done any computer animation stuff before. And then we have a new song, we just recorded 2 brand new songs for a 7inch, one of those is gonna get turned into a video, and then we might do one other thing. But we haven’t settled on treatments yet so I can’t really say what.
So there’s new material? Are we going to hear any tonight?
A: Two brand new songs already done, but no, probably not tonight. We’ve been practicing them at sound check, but they’re not ready to go.
You bumped onto the scene here with the fantastic “Prehistoric Dog” video, which features quite prominently, beer. And then your latest video “Blood Like Cream”, again beer, so fans of beer then?
A: Yeah to some degree, although actually I don’t drink beer any more! I have sort of a digestive issue, so I wasn’t drinking at all for most of last year but then I’ve started working in some clear liquor again. Also John (drums) prefers wine and vodka over beer. So yeah, that’s the one sneak peek I can give you of the videos, is that we’re trying to move away from the beer imagery a bit. Even though I can’t drink it, I still love beer.
So what are Red Fang’s top beers?
A: It depends on the season, and how hot it is outside or if it’s snowing. For the summer I like the Mexican beers like Pacifico is one of my favorites. There’s a springtime beer a brewery called Ninkasi outside Portland make called “Maiden The Shade” like Iron Maiden. I’ve always liked the creamier style beers like Boddingtons and Guinness, two of my favorites. But right now it’s no beer, ah oh well. And another good summer beer is like the Czech beers like Budvar.
Also in the “Blood Like Cream” video you’ve got Fred (Armisen) from Portlandia, how’d that come about?
A: He asked us to be in the video...
So he’s a fan then?
A: No no, he didn’t actually. He’d just finished shooting Portlandia and I think that Whitey just asked him if he’d do it, he’s an old friend of my wife’s actually, I’m acquainted with him and he knows of the band, but it’s mainly the Portland connection.
And Zombies feature heavily in that video too.
A: Yeah we’re friends with lots of zombies!
Are you zombie film fans?
A: Of course, yeah! I love George Romero, that very first Night of the Living Dead is one of the greatest movies ever I think, I love a bunch of the zombie movies. Maybe my other favorite which, is not technically a zombie movie, but Evil Dead 2, I’m gonna say that Bruce Campbell’s hand in that movie is basically a zombie.
You’ve got some pretty specific amps?
A: Yeah they’re late 70s early 80s, solid state Sunn amps, definitely pre buy out. Every single one of those is different, all the ones we are using right now are mine, I started collecting them.
So you have backups then, because aren’t they pretty rare?
A: They’re fairly rare but they were made just outside Portland in Tualatin. So there’s a lot more where we live, so if I need to find one I’ll find one. I may have to pay a little more than I used to pay for them, I got one of them for free for example.
You have some very striking tour posters and artwork, Is there always a drive from someone for a certain look?
A: Not necessarily, the artistic inspiration rarely comes from us, but we all have pretty strong opinions about the imagery that’s associated with the band. We get lots of submissions from people all the time, so sometimes we seek out artists that we like. In many cases people send us their artwork and we hone in on the ones we like. We’ve been pretty lucky with the amount of artwork we receive unsolicited.
Your “Wires” video features a cameo from Brian Posehn, is he a Fang fan?
A: Yeah, we met him in Tampa or somewhere in Florida when he was doing a show not to far from ours. He’d heard of us and knew the band we were playing with, so Chris (manager) and Bryan (guitar) went over to his show, found him afterwards and invited him to our gig. We knew he was a heavy metal fan, he came over, we all met him and when it came time to do that video, then we we’re trying to think about who would be right to cast as this convenience store clerk. We weren’t coming up with any ideas that were clicking and then John mentioned he had tickets to see Brian perform the week we wanted to shoot, we ended up sending him a message on twitter and he said sure.
While we see a fashion for a lot of bands in metal using increasing numbered stringed guitars 7, 8 and 9’s Bryan uses a 5 string guitar, is there temptation to follow suit? What kind of tunings do you use?
A: A lot of our songs are in standard tuning, a few are in drop D, and another couple where the whole guitar is tuned down to D standard and then we drop down to C. But Bryan has been playing with a 5 string guitar for 15, I dunno a long 20 years, he actually tunes the highest 2 strings to the same note also, so he’s basically playing a bass with a doubled note on the top. So it means when he plays those single notes there’s a little dissonance on them and makes them a little louder and stand out a bit, it’s a pretty cool idea.
A: Yeah they’re late 70s early 80s, solid state Sunn amps, definitely pre buy out. Every single one of those is different, all the ones we are using right now are mine, I started collecting them.
So you have backups then, because aren’t they pretty rare?
A: They’re fairly rare but they were made just outside Portland in Tualatin. So there’s a lot more where we live, so if I need to find one I’ll find one. I may have to pay a little more than I used to pay for them, I got one of them for free for example.
You have some very striking tour posters and artwork, Is there always a drive from someone for a certain look?
A: Not necessarily, the artistic inspiration rarely comes from us, but we all have pretty strong opinions about the imagery that’s associated with the band. We get lots of submissions from people all the time, so sometimes we seek out artists that we like. In many cases people send us their artwork and we hone in on the ones we like. We’ve been pretty lucky with the amount of artwork we receive unsolicited.
Your “Wires” video features a cameo from Brian Posehn, is he a Fang fan?
A: Yeah, we met him in Tampa or somewhere in Florida when he was doing a show not to far from ours. He’d heard of us and knew the band we were playing with, so Chris (manager) and Bryan (guitar) went over to his show, found him afterwards and invited him to our gig. We knew he was a heavy metal fan, he came over, we all met him and when it came time to do that video, then we we’re trying to think about who would be right to cast as this convenience store clerk. We weren’t coming up with any ideas that were clicking and then John mentioned he had tickets to see Brian perform the week we wanted to shoot, we ended up sending him a message on twitter and he said sure.
While we see a fashion for a lot of bands in metal using increasing numbered stringed guitars 7, 8 and 9’s Bryan uses a 5 string guitar, is there temptation to follow suit? What kind of tunings do you use?
A: A lot of our songs are in standard tuning, a few are in drop D, and another couple where the whole guitar is tuned down to D standard and then we drop down to C. But Bryan has been playing with a 5 string guitar for 15, I dunno a long 20 years, he actually tunes the highest 2 strings to the same note also, so he’s basically playing a bass with a doubled note on the top. So it means when he plays those single notes there’s a little dissonance on them and makes them a little louder and stand out a bit, it’s a pretty cool idea.