Mr. Brian Tatler of Diamond Head is something of a legend in his own lifetime, or as he put it, “There is almost a myth around Diamond Head” Whenever I interview older rock guys I'm never sure what to expect, they tend to be bitter and angry, sad at the way the world has betrayed them in recent years. Tatler though seemed stoked on well… Just about everything. He was incredibly charming and spoke at length about the good will surrounding Diamond Head and seemed enthusiastic about the incredible future that the band has and how it will fit into their overall legacy. Hell – the man even was able to give me a positive view on Lars Ulrich! If that doesn't tell you something about Brian Tatler, then I don't know what will.
Suffice to say it was an honor talk to him about his bands new record Diamond Head, which is out now on Dissonance Productions and if you have a place in your heart for driving hard rock, then you should stream it below
How the hell are you?
I'm well! How are you?
I'm doing great! So obviously the new Diamond Head record has been out for a while now, how do you feel about it?
The press has been amazing – some of the bet press of my career. It's so encouraging. You can never be sure what people will think – all you do is make the best record possible with the tools and people you have. WE get a kind of overall feeling that we made a good album though and that's been so encouraging. WE are all really excited about it. It's going very well so far, it's turning out to be a good year.
There was quite a gap between this and your previous record… was any of that due to the negative press the previous release received?
Not at all. Diamond Head has actually always had pretty good press and we have always had good will around this band. We never had this amount of press though, this new company that we are signed to, Dissonance Productions have really been going for it press-wise and making sure that they could get it out to as many people as possible, more so than on the last couple of albums. It has been a long time but we have a had a change of singer, and our last singer moved to Australia which made it to difficult to get together to write and record. He lives thousands of miles away!
You mentioned that there was a lot of good will towards Diamond Head – how much of that stems from Metallica's praise?
Some of it. But that being said the band started in a very innocent honest way. The band was formed between school friends in my bedroom. I was using my brother's guitar and our drummer ad a drum set made out of biscuit tins. We recorded little songs just for us. It started off in a very genuine way. Then of course it grew and we got a record deal and we made Lightning For The Nations which is a record that stood the test of time for 35 years. Metallica cited us as an influence right before they became the biggest band of all time and it made it so that there is almost a myth about Diamond Head.
Is it weird being the man behind the myth?
It's a bit weird. I'm grateful for it. Not every band can b successful. I've seen so many sides of the music industry and I can see how difficult it is to become very popular and to maintain it as well. It's a rare skill. There's hundreds of thousands of bands and only a few become this thing like Metallica. It is a bit weird I suppose, but to be influential and to be part of the story of heavy metal is great. Heavy metal has grown so much since it started with like Black Sabbath. I always felt that Black Sabbath were the originators. They invented the genre without realizing .It's grown all over the world. No one knew that was what it would become.
I totally get that… there's a couple things I want to pick apart there. You mentioned you started Diamond Head for 'all the right reasons'… what are the right reasons to start a band?
Not to be famous, or to do drugs, get girls and party. It's for the music. I love music. My older brother played guitar in bands and he started me up on guitar. He was a big influence on me. I had an older sister who liked music as well. It's a cliché but there was a lot of music being played in the household. I had access to my brother's albums and I would listen to weird bands like Gentle Giant. My brother had Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd too – you name it! I didn't just listen to one band. I feel like nowadays people get together because they all like the same band and they know exactly what they sound like and they get tunnel vision. With Diamond Head we all liked different things and listened to a lot of different things, we weren't bothered about genres. Nobody had really invented heavy metal. Rock was everything from The Eagles to Black Sabbath. There was a lot to take in and it helped make Diamond Head original.
With regards to the new album, you have a lot of politically charged lyrics… where did those come from?
I've never written a lyric in my life. I'm a music guy – I've always provided music for the singer. I think it's better if the singer can write lyrics because it's more personal. Because our new singer Rasmus is a younger guy, he's 31, he's in a different generation to me and he has a different take on things. He's interested in the environment and ecology and things like that. There's quite a bit of 'don't blow up the world' in there. Upon joining Diamond Head he listened to everything we had ever done – he went through te whole back catalog and took an overview at what is good about Diamond Head and what works and how the lyrics are. He wanted to get that right and carry on the tradition and not just say “I want to do what I want to do. I like how Diamond head has become an influential and important band.
What makes a lyric the 'right lyric'?
I don't know. It's got to make sense and have power. Certain words just go together phonetically. The opening line on the first song is “Lightning strikes the earth” and as soon as I heard that I was like “Wow, that's a great way to start the album!”
I didn't realize Rasmus was that much younger than you… what is it like working with someone that much younger?
It's great because he has a lot of energy. It's also great because he does a lot of production and composition so he could put together the string parts. He had a lot of good ideas. Some of the things he suggested as we were writing would almost be what a producer would request. He could help us figure out what bits wouldn't really work .We would take notice of what he was saying. He wasn't always right but a lot of time he helped guide us forward.
You came to him with 45 song ideas… do you normally have that many ideas going into the record?
No. It was more than normal because of the gap. Since 2007 I have been coming up with riffs and ideas. I have a Pro Tools rig at home. I would also visit my friend Dave Nichols, he's the front of house engineer for Slipknot, he's around my age and him and I would get together and write songs. We must have done 20-30 pieces at his house. I had all this stuff and I was able to do two CD's of stuff for Rasmus to have a good listen and after a few weeks, we got together and decided. WE went at it like that. I let Rasmus choose because he had to sing on it. We kind of approached the songs that suited the band and sound the most like Diamond Head.
With so much material is there a chance we could get an EP in the near future?
I don't think I'd do that. I'd like to do another album if anything. We have a lot of dates coming up, we already have 26 dates lined up this year and we are looking to do America in November. In the meantime, we can start the process. It takes a while, though. We spent nearly a year writing and recording this album.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're doing most stuff yourselves, right?
Well, we have Dissonance Productions but we paid for everything ourselves in terms of mixing and mastering. Then they came along and offered to help us put it out. They said “We would be very interested in releasing this on our label. They agreed to also put out the last two albums which were out of contract, so they took on all three. They are great. We are getting on really well with the guys!
Obviously, you've been around enough that you've kind of seen it all – how do you handle a band in 2016 after having been doing it for so long?
I think we all just want the best for the band. I still enjoy playing guitar and writing. There is a camaraderie between us. We've got each other back .There is a lot of respect. We can all play. There's a lot of times when you can rely on someone to do their job. If you're having a bad day we can watch out for each other. I have been with the drummer and bass player since 91 so there is a lot of shared history. It's a really good lineup. We all want to get bigger and better. The timing has been great. We just want to keep the band going forward. We've done some cool festivals like SwedenRock and 70,000 Tons of Metal. I think sometimes you have to do the little gigs to keep it rolling so that when you do get offered something great you're ready.
What do you love so much about music?
I don't know. That's a good question. Obviously, I have my favorite bands and players, but I think good music has to have good vocals and pay attention to the craft of a well-written song which really appeals to me. I know it's hard, I've done it myself. Try and write a song like Bohemian Rhapsody, it's very difficult to do. You look up to certain benchmarks so you can aim high.
I have one last set of weird controversial questions don't feel obligated to answer… What do you think of modern Metallica and more specifically Lars Ulrich?
I think Lars is fantastic, I think Metallica would not be where they are today. I think James is great but he needs Lars, that being said, Lars needs James. I think they are a very good team. They have probably had a lot of ups and downs but at some point, they must have realized America is their band and they are both important and they both need each other. I quite liked some of the songs on Death Magnetic. They're a great band and very powerful. I've seen them live at least 20 times. It's almost like they get better and better for me!
Man, I was hoping for a controversial answer!
Oh no! (Laughter)
Do you have any final words of wisdom?
Write good songs! The songs I wrote when I was 18-19 are still making money today, after 35 years. They are still providing income and allowing me to play across the globe and have taken me to places like Japan and Canada that I never would have been to otherwise. Without the songs, Diamond Had would be nothing. That's why I focus so heavily on writing and crafting the songs. There is no point just being the fastest gun in the west or learning to do super fast solos when you could learn to write good songs. You can write a good song with 2-3 chords and people have done it and still do it. Sometimes the simplicity is what people want. It has to be real and touch you in the right sort of way. Once it's had that effect on you, it never leaves you.
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