Sempre! Quando torno a casa mia... beh, in verità non ho un vero e proprio posto dove andare, vivo da homeless, possiedo un deposito e pago l'affitto di mese in mese... vivo in macchina, on the road, ma ho la mia band e sono felice.
Passion, sincerity, brotherhood: words that seem to belong to a distant era, in which the attitude, the authentic one of rock n' roll, was enough to give life to the whole scene. If today we rediscover the magic of those years it is thanks to bands like Night Demon. The american combo rejoices not only for its calls to the most genuine heavy metal: their records, as well as their live acts, trickles sincerity like few things nowadays. Curious then, as their story intersects with that of a cult band from the epic metal scene like Cirith Ungol. Taking advantage of the European tour as special guest with Accept, we met the leader Jarvis Leatherby in the Live Club backstage and had the confirmation of how much genuineness and life flows in the veins of these guys. The ingredients are all there: the vinyls, the church, the marginalization, the dreams of a young metalhead. A story that it's worth to be told and that we hope being far from the end.
This is not your first time in Italy, is it?
No, on our first two tours we came in Italy, Brescia Milano... I can't remember the other places we came. It's been a while, you know, 2014 and 2015 we came here. It's funny because, you know the metal scene in Germany right? On jour first tour, we couldn't get any date in Germany, it was three weeks long while now is three months, we've been playing in Spain for two weeks, all the small towns, you know? It's crazy because we like Keep It True festival of course, but I would like to be back here anyway.
You come from the other part of the world. What's the feedback? Did you find any differences in several countries?
I realized that metalheads are metalheads, all over the world. We've gone to South America, Mexico, Canada, we toured in the States a lot, I think people celebrate differently... you can go to Germany, and there's like a huge crowd, a guy in the back with his arms fallin', and that guy probably all the songs and he got all the records, right? Then you go to Spain and the guys are fuckin go crazy and they see you for the first time... then you go to Brazil and they bite their arms because they're getting crazy, they're climbing the walls so the speakers were coming down, people just give their culture they celebrate differently, but metalheads are metalheads wherever you go, that's why we like to play in small towns, we've gone to Switzerland and played in a little bar, we've gone also to Oklahoma City in America, in the middle of nowhere where everybody vote Donald Trump, there were three but they fuckin' love it! No bands come here, Puddle Of Mudd come here, not real metal, right? Everybody is the same... If you love metal, we don't care where you are born, or what your family is like, or where you're from, if you love metal we all feel the same, what moves you inside is the passion, everybody deserve it. Some pople are more privileged than other because they're part of a bigger scene, we had no scene when we started, we grew up in punk rock, no metal where we come from, Cirith Ungol and nothing else, in early nineties nobody came to see them, nobody. I saw on the newspaper an article, the title said: "Cirith Ungol: metal = ten", supposed this band has fans all over the world, they played in a bar on "Paradise Lost" tour, nine people, three friends. I know what is like to feel like an outsider. We're happy to do what we like, there's no stage too big or too small for us.
What has brought a guy from Ventura, California, the sun, the chicks and all that stuff, to embrace european heavy metal music?
I think it was my dad, he was in a band when we were young, I was grown up in an house with Van Halen, Deep Purple and stuff like this, then I went to a Christian School, so I grew up in a Church, all the time, I grow up with the same thirty kids most of my whole life, and they're pretty good really good friendship to these days, and I had a copy of the Bible always with me... when I was thirteen years old and they showed us a movie called "Hells Bells", you should check it out, it's a movie made by christians, it's a three hour documentary about the evil in rock n'roll, it was made in 1999 or something like this... it had nothing to do with the Government or PMRC, it was strictly from the Church...
I can't believe this happened in California, which is known all over the world for being open minded, tolerant, and so on...
It is, but when you live an hour outside from Los Angeles, in Suburbia, and you're in a Christian school with the same thirty kids for fuckin twelve years, you're sheltered, you know? Watch the store by yourself, you're sheltered... so they showed us the movie, and showed everything... Metallica, there's a song called "Fade To Black" it talks about suicide, here's the lyrics, "Better By You, Better Than Me" from Judas Priest, look that guy, he killed himself... here's Ozzy Osbourne, "Suicide Solution", he's the son of the devil.. Led Zeppelin "Stairway To Heaven" and so on... twentyseven kids of the thirty kids I went to school with, the next day they brought CDs and cassette and they had a big party, they smashed everything with an hammer... me and two other guys were like "this is what we need to do"... so the christians exposed me to all the bands. Metallica? Yes! Judas Priest? Yes! Ozzy? Hellyeah! Slayer? Fuck yeah!, so this movie had an opposite effect, I finally found something in rock n'roll, man. They tried to get me away from that, but they sucked! I'm thirtysix now, I was thirteen, it's a three lifetime ago, but I never forget. I wouldn't reccomend this lifestyle to anybody, you don't have money, you don't have a home, if you want be respected in society, don't play rock n'roll! But if that's who you are and you like be sleeping on this floor and meet some ladies, that's for you.
As a band you have collected many good feedbacks in the years. In few words: why?
I have no idea. When we started, we have never tried to be a full time band, we wrote the first EP in one reharsal, we didn't do the band for about a year and a half, and friends said "hey, it was ok we need to do it", "ok let's try it", and people said "fuckin' awesome!"; we didn't know about sound culture happening in Europe or anything, we had no knowledge, we didn't about Keep It true, we didn't know about the festivals, we didn't know about anything, we thought that people didn't care about this, to finally find out that there was an audience for it. I started the band when I was thirty and I said "ok this is the time I get a real job, or I just go for it", then I said "Ok, I go for it", I quit a job in 2013 and we never look back... we just fuckin' stayed on the road and said "let's go,"we knew it was the fuckin' right thing to do... it was though, but if you have food at the end of the day, you win the day! You cannot take your money or your possessions to the grave, you're not gonna be remembered for the things you have... sometimes we played with big bands, classic metal bands, but they had no spirit, we live by the passion, when don't want to make history in heavy metal, but I'm sure that as Night Demon we'll have our place in history of heavy metal.
Do you have new ideas for a new record?
We always have a concept before we do an album, also for "Darkness Remains" artwork, video and lyrics... I think we need a year and a half... we like old school, we give you every thing you want, we tour the world twice on every album, I think the best material for all bands comes from the first four or five releases... after that, I did my homework on this, they all my favourite bands had the same matters... we don't want to make five records in our first five years, we want make five records in at least ten or eleven years, and quality, any of our songs is good for me, we've never written a song that didn't go on the record, we put time and quality on it, I don't have a concept for a new record but... I think about it every day. Night Demon have twentyfive originals songs released, it's a good body of work, right now.
How did you know the guys Cirith Ungol?
We're from the same town, the town is known for being a strong area in punk rock and ska, some of the most important bands are from there... my first memory goes to a second hand store, looking for Judas Priest, and you just found "Cirith Ungol... Cirith Ungol... Cirith Ungol... one dollar!" original pressing. Every band, every store, now they're one hundread dollars each. I received the hugest legacy of the band in town... so I became a friend of the band a decade ago, I've been trying to reunite the band for a long time, but people told me "these guys quit music all together, they don't play instruments, they don't have an instrument, they have another life, they're not interested". When Night Demon started having success, they had become my drinking mates... "hey, where are you today? In Milan, look at the pic, look at these chicks, hey this guy has a Cirith Ungol tattoo".
And they couldn't believe...
At first edition of Frost And Fire Festival in Ventura and I said "hey guys, you don't have to play, just an autograph session, ok?" And people flew from every part of the world just to get the autograph from these guys... It was good for them to reconnect. Then they said, fuck, we want to do that! There will be a DVD coming out tris year and a live album from the Keep It True and Hammer Of Doom show. I know Heavy Load will be back right now, let me tell you something... I respect Heavy Load, but they are not Cirith Ungol, they are not as big as Cirith Ungol and they'll never will, they can do what they want and that's fine, but Cirith Ungol is the golden goose, is the band that everybody told me "they're never coming back together, don't even try" I told them for years "I'm gonna do it" and they said "you're fuckin' dreaming, don't waste my time" and I did it.
Can you see differences between European HM scene and US?
No, not really..
Can I share you my point of view? Historically, US heavy metal bands are a little more professionals and technically more advanced, and they have put the level a little higher every time...
I agree but, there's a different philosophy in life, from being American and being European: Europeans are always looking for the safe and secure before doing everything, they want guarantee, Americans have the American dream, where they take the big risks and say: "You know what? The only person I can trust is myself, I'm not gonna trust my government, I'm not gonna trust the scene, my manager or my agency, I got a job and it's a leap of faith". That's how I see it, I see a lot of Swedish bands coming out that are great bands, but they're missing one element that British and American bands have always had, the Swedish bands have the government that take care of everything for them, Swedish people have a lot of talent and they're very smart, but they are very calculated, they don't have the rebellion in, they don't have the fire inside that makes you do that. Cirith Ungol and Heavy Load are very different, there is American hard work, and Swedish expectactions and privilege, as Americans we don't have privilege, we have just freedom and that's the reason for being successful. Consider Amon Amarth, they worked very hard but they only talk about vikings... Visigoth they're epic metal, Cirith Ungol never sang about vikings, there's nothing wrong with vikings, but why talking only about vikings... why don't you make songs about chicks? About fuckin' Dracula? We don't want to be a one dimensional band... Amon Amarth had a lot of help from Germany, Metal Blade worked hard for them, they sacrificed a lot and I respect them for that, but they pushed it so hard.. just like Sabaton... a Swedish band speaking of fighting in the beaches of Normandy in 1944. I saw Sabaton in US during their first tour and they said "thank you for saving us". You're Scandinavian... just be who you are! I don't wanna be the guy talking shit on bands, but if you ask me what I feel about that... we won't be successful as those bands, but the thirty people coming to jour show are there because they really want to be there, they're not there cos' it's cool, they're there because it's the right thing to do! And when they come we'll give them the best show that thirty people could ever have!
What you said remarks the big difference between Europe and US, which is becoming bigger and bigger nowadays...
Your government takes the half of jour money, but they also make some things easier than Americans do... hospitality is easier. In America you got to do your own thing, in America the government gives you nothing... NOTHING! Every government is corrupted, all of them. Consider the shutdown, it's all fuckin' bullshit and we all know it. We're here for the same reason, just is rock n'roll... the reason why we don't talk about politics is... let me tell you: what are we doing about it? Nothing. We should be outside the White House yelling "get the fuck out!", but we're travelling the world, We're here now drinking jack & coke, right? We're not in that position, we choose to ignore it. It may sounds unresponsable, but it is. It's so ridicolous, it seems urea it always makes me angry, but that's enough.
Last question: you talked about risks. Do Night Demon take risks?
We always have! When I go home, I have nowhere to live, I'm homeless, I have a storage facility, that I pay monthly... we live in a car, on the road, I have a band and I'm happy!