Kory Clarke – Warrior Soul/Trouble – Interview Exclusive
Written by Attila Timár
Thursday, 04 August 2011 05:00
Urban prophet and one of the last true great frontmen of rock ‘n’ roll, Kory Clarke does not seem to be the type who enjoys just sitting around: currently involved in two legendary bands, Warrior Soul and Trouble, (both are making a new record these days), plus he is releasing a new spoken word CD, selling his iconoclastic original art work… oh, and finding some time to reveal details about all these and his relationship with Michael Monroe to Uber Rock in his usual passionate way.
Kory, let’s start with the current doings of your band Warrior Soul. A few days ago you aired some new WS demos on your Facebook profile. How would you describe the direction of the new songs for those who missed the 24-hour pre-listen chance? Are the songs going to be as kick-ass as ‘Destroy The War Machine’, or can fans expect some psychedelic tripping infiltrating into the new WS output?
It’s going to be a Warrior Soul album, and due to the title (‘Rubicon’) and theme, we will probably be once again Majestic, Soaring, Aggressive, Proud. I went to the studio at Christmas in Stockholm with Rille Lundell (Warrior Soul guitarist) and we tracked about 8 songs. It might have been more, I can’t remember. It was great writing and we found a de
al and we are getting ready to release in mid September 2011. The album is called ‘Rubicon’ which means “past the point of no return”. Some of it was written in Salon, Sweden, most of it in Rille’s apartment.
Warrior Soul has a UK tour scheduled for September. Is the record going to be out by then?
Yes. At least reviewed and ready to go. We want to be finished by August 15, 2011.
Will the tour reach other parts of Europe?
Yes, we are booking the tour now.
Great! In January it seemed that your other band started to make a new record with producer Bill Metoyer (who had worked with Slayer, Trouble and Fates Warning.)
YA! and it is AWESOME!
So what exactly is the situation with Trouble now?
We are still finishing the record.
And how are you feeling yourself in that band?
Well, I feel myself in every band. (laughs out loud) Irrate! I mean… great! (more laughing) This is going to be one of my proudest/best records. To work on a debut with Rick Wartell and Bruce Franklin is pretty amazing. To be able to cross genres and truly speak a new language and excel at it is the ultimate fulfillment. By the way, we did a cruise in January 2011. We did the 70,000 Tons Of Metal Cruise in January. It was great to play with all those guys and we used the time as well to record in Chicago.
Which Trouble songs do you enjoy singing live most?
Mine!!! (laughing) But seriously: ‘At the End Of My Daze’, ‘Come Touch The Sky’, ‘The Sleeper’, ‘R.I.P.’, ‘The Eye’. Fuck, man, I wanna go on tour!!! The new album is soooo cool as well.
Glad to see you are so driven! Some years ago you said that out of all Warrior Soul records you are happiest with ‘Space Age Playboys’ (big favourite of mine, too, by the way). Do you still feel this way about it?
No! I would say now that ‘Rubicon’ rules now!!! Really, all of the records have their own unique qualities and all the different musicians add different flavours for me to work with. I have used a broad stroke from that palette and the catalogue truly holds up well. Actually, I listened to ‘Drugs, God and the New Republic’ top to bottom the other day and I wouldn’t change anything, it rocked!!!
Is there any record you have ever made and not feeling entirely satisfied hindsight?
No. Every record I have made is seriously thought out. You cannot be an artist at my level and let things to fall through the cracks. If I put out something weak it would ruin all I have worked for, my whole credibility.
The last Warrior Soul record (which was great, btw) had such a great original title (smiles) – Why was ‘Chinese Democracy’ used only in the first print run of the record?
Because it was stolen by some guy from Ohio. Ohio is the state they should give back to the Indians. (W. Axl Rose actually comes from Indiana, another Midwest state, so Kory must be having some fun on the ginger singer’s background now.)
I have read that recently you were living in Berlin. Please, tell us about your Berlin experience. Is it true that you actually run a Rock Cabaret and a pub, as well?
Yes, it’s true, so what? Why, what do you do? You are obviously not an interviewer full time (laughs out loud).
Last year there were some rumours floating around that you may be working with Michael Monroe. These were actually denied by Michael in a previous interview he did with us (which you can read here), but it would definitely be an exciting combination. So does it mean that this project was not even talked about by you and Michael?
Dude, I talk to Mike all the time and we are always talking about doing a project of one kind or another. I’ve sung on his records and he’s played on mine. We did talk about doing a record together but that was sometime ago, a couple years anyway.
Which song(s) you would like to be remembered as a song-writer?
I’m happy with my body of work.
Your artistic versatility is clear from your current activity: you have a new spoken word CD coming out, you sell your original artwork, plus photos of you. Please, tell us about all these projects. Are you the one who takes care of the business part of all these, or you have someone handling this?
I’ve decided just do art and be creative and expand the horizons of what an artist can do. All the “Kory The Words” pieces and projects have been successful on many levels and I enjoy making them. I have wonderful people that help out on the business side and I’m truly indebted to them for their dedication to my projects. I also have close friends like John Dryland from Cargo Records throwing out ideas to me all the time. I started painting in preparation for a gallery show in London while waiting for tours to start and people started buying my stuff so the idea was to have a limited run of these as a special collection up until the beginning of the tour dates.
Then I was reading some of my new poetry I was working on and thought why not put it out with the paintings. Then the ‘Warrior Soul for Download’ Facebook page got my attention as I was receiving so many messages and decided to make “We Are The Government Flags” to protest not being allowed to play and they started selling! Now I’m expanding on all of it and introducing my first “Metal Flag” this week and it looks great in person, I’m still trying to get it photographed properly. I’m also working on a Kory “The Words” Acoustic Album that many of my friends will play on. I’ll have a teaser up on Kory Clarke Facebook page in a couple days as well as some other fun stuff for free like my new Kory’s Compliments and Warrior Soul Ring Tones. If anyone is curious about “The Words” project go to [email protected] and someone will answer all inquiries about showings, solo performances, my art pieces, all that stuff.
Which three records would you rescue first if your house got on fire?
Mahavishnu Orchestra – ‘The Inner Mounting Flame’
Sex Pistols – ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’
Bad Company – ‘Straight Shooter’
Great ones! And, finally, what is the meaning of life?
Be kind and try not to hate people. But it’s really tough because there are so many assholes out there!!!
Well, that’s just the kind of life philosophy one would expect from Mr. Kory Clarke!
I guess it is also good to know that now everyone can find some nice prezzies from Kory, although what fans would probably love most is a great kick-ass Warrior Soul record and a heavy as fuck Trouble album in their player soon!