Forged In Ohio

It’s $1 Steak Night at the Pearl Road Tavern in Old Brooklyn, and I’m sitting at a table with red bearded singer Gary Kane and shaven headed guitarist Metal Jay Bonnel; representatives from what I’ve been told is the stoner metal band to watch out for, Cleveland’s Forged in Flame. Absent are bassist Jay Clark and drummer Jon Vinson. Also in attendance- Trip from Studbulls Disco Biscuit. The beers are cheap, the steaks are bloody and the interview is laid back. We talk a little about the Jigsaw Saloon days, when self-proclaimed business guru Phil Lara sponsored their first self-titled four song EP and essentially helped give them their start. When Lara’s empire fell through, they remained, and have been aggressively playing shows with everybody from Chimaira to Pentagram. Their most recent release is a split 7-inch with friends Ohio Sky titled Forged in Ohio.

I was reading some of these reviews and it seems like people are all over the place trying to describe your sound. I read everything from Corrosion of Conformity to Clutch, Down, etc.

Metal Jay Bonnel- Everything in music is relative- what sounds like Soundgarden to you, I could say it sounds like Kyuss. We get a lot of southern metal band, stoner metal band comparisons, which is what we do, but we’re trying to stay away from the Down or Clutch kind of sound and forge our own thing.

Gary Kane- We’ve got a lot of different roots- everybody in our band has been in a hardcore band or something at one time, lot of variety of likes and dislikes. We’re never playing to fit a genre, like to what sounds like stoner metal or whatever. With the 7-inch we just put out with Ohio Sky, you can really hear where we’re going with our sound, really hear the evolution. The mindset we have is different.

Most of the metal bands I’ve been hearing lately are doing like ‘70s down tempo doom stuff.

G- Yeah, I see that.

J -I’ve always done death metal bands. I like that stuff but my favorite band is probably Iron Maiden.This is the first time that when I’ve written things I can write directly for a real singer. Now that I am, it’s like a dream come true. Whenever I write I have Gary in mind- I wanna make the best possible guitar riff I can, but at the same time I want him to have the space to write a fantastic vocal part over it. To me, he’s the most important person in the band.

G- See that’s scary to me ‘cause I have really no clue what I’m doing (laughs). I like heavy music, screaming, sh*t like that. Being brutal and heavy vocally is pretty simple and, kind, of very one dimensional. I’m just trying to do what comes natural to me as opposed to just doing that formula.

J-Scream the verse, scream the chorus, scream the verse or vice versa. From my experience doing death metal there’s a point where it’s like- how can you tell whats more brutal? There’s no dynamic. These new songs, Gary’s really stretching out here with his voice, trying new things.

G- They [the other members] bring this large, great sounding music, and I gotta ice the cake. You gotta step it up every time.

When can we see the album?

G- The goal is to have the full-length out by the end of the year. We definitely have the material, it’s just sorting through it; because there’s a lot of it.

J- If we could record reel to reel, that’s the way we would do it. That’s my big goal for the band, is to one day have the budget to record reel to reel like it’s supposed to be. We wanna make a Chinese Democracy. We wanna record and rerecord, forever. We wanna make sure it’s perfect so nobody buys it (everybody laughs).

So who’s Axl?

G- Well I’m the only ginger, maybe Jon’s (Vinson, the drummer) a little ginge (laughs).With the album though, there’s a lot of thought put into it. We’ve talked about putting it out ourselves, not shopping it around, not trying really to get a distribution deal, just putting it out on our own terms.

What do you think about the current metal scene here?

J-What makes me happy is the resurgence of metal and the old sound coming back. Thin Lizzy, you know, these guys are getting the props they never got in the ‘90s. As far as what bothers me, I’m kind of annoyed by all these clone bands. If you’re going to do something, be original.

G- Some bands that really impress me- the new Skeletonwitch album is awesome.

J- DeathCrawl is awesome. Anything that reminds me of old school metal.

G- Cleveland’s great. A lot of the great areas to play, Chicago, New York, Nashville, are within reach. This is a great city to be in, a lot of the musicians around here don’t really realize how awesome it is. For places to play, I really enjoy the Grog Shop- the sound is great, the stage is perfect.

J- We’ve got a lot of resources here that other cities don’t have. For example, you go to some place like LA, you gotta rent rehearsal space by the hour, here there are places available everywhere. You get a newfound appreciation for your city when you live somewhere else. How many Motley Crue or Guns’N’Roses knockoff bands can you have? LA is the only place where glam rock still matters- you play like Dokken here, you’re playing a rib cookoff. I couldn’t find a decent band in LA to save my life.

The Jigsaw was a good place for metal. Whats the deal with Phil Lara?

Trip- There is no deal (laughs all around).

What are some shows you’re looking forward to?

G- We got a cool party show we’re going to throw August 14th with Studbulls Disco Biscuit, it’s gonna be a kegger and a f***ing riot. It should be insane. The other bands are still in the works, 10 bucks all you can drink- so keep your eyes out for that. We’re playing a few stoner rock fests too.

What do you think about the Lake Erie UFO?

G- I’m kind of a nerd for alien life. When I was a kid, there was a burning green meteor that illuminated my house and lit up my whole backyard. Don’t put that in the interview though. I love the thought of intelligent life coming here. Do I believe it? Maybe.

J- I’m kind of the Stephen Hawking school of thought- just leave it alone. When Columbus came to America, it didn’t really work out for the Indians.

I wonder why would they even come here…

G- (without hesitation) They want the new Forged in Flame album.