J a g P a n z e r - The Official Website

Exclusive Interview with Jag Panzer Guitarist Mark Briody

This is the first of out fan asked Q&A's that will be appearing on the Jag Panzer website. Questions were submitted via email & the official Panzer forum, & feature questions from fans all over the globe.

Thank you to all the fans that took place in the interview!

1. I know that you and Jon Schaffer have been friends for a long time. My question is how did you're involvement with the "Gettysburg" DVD come about? And, can the fans look forward to future collaborations, especially musically, between 2 of the best rhythm guitarists in power metal?

Submitted by: Trevor Lane | Colorado Springs, Colorado

My involvement started with me answering some questions from Jon and producer Jim Morris. They know that I had produced a commercially released DVD, which is very different from burning a home video. They had a lot of questions, which were the same kind of questions that I had to work through on the Jag Panzer DVD.

Jon and Jim had put a lot of time into the surround mixes for Gettysburg. Jon thought about the 5.1 mix as he was writing the songs. A large portion of the recording process was done specifically for the 5.1 mix. Basically, this was a much more involved surround mix then your typical music DVD.

The original idea was to show some on-screen Civil War photos while the surround mix played. I explained to Jon that we could take that idea much farther with some motion graphics. I did a quick demo and he liked what he saw. Jon expanded on my ideas and we eventually spent over a year on the visuals for Gettysburg. I’m very proud of my work on the project and I’m looking forward to the release.

As far as a musical collaboration, I doubt that this would ever happen. The problem is that we perform basically the same thing role (musically) in our respective bands. We both enjoy songwriting and we both play rhythm guitar. This would make it very difficult to work together on a metal project.

2. What are the tour plans for Jag Panzer in 2005?

Submitted by: Kelly

Our January 15th show in Denver and the Bang Your Head festival in Germany are the only shows currently scheduled. We are just wrapping up the details for a North American festival appearance, so we should be announcing that one soon.
We’re in the process of booking some European dates around June.

We’ve been offered the chance to play some countries which are new to Jag Panzer. But to have a successful tour, you need to fill in all the dates. For example, suppose we wanted to play in Eastern Europe 10 days after Bang Your Head. We would need to book at least 8 shows in between those 2 dates. Sometimes booking concerts is easy to do, sometimes it is not. This is what we are working on right now. Trying to book shows so that we can make all of this happen.

3. Are there any plans for Jag Panzer to tour Australia?

It would be very difficult for us to play Australia, but we would LOVE to do it.
The problem would be the expenses involved. Flying us to Australia, renting gear and covering expenses would cost a lot of money. I’m not sure we sell enough albums in Australia so that a promoter would make his money back on the shows.
Often a band will play a country and the tour will lose a lot of money.

The record company will cover these loses and consider the tour a promotional expense. I’ve asked our record company about this and they aren’t interested.
But anything is possible. Look at Greece in 2003. We had never played Greece before, but we really wanted to. Finally a promoter in Athens was able to work out a small tour and we were able to play 2 shows to Greece.

Perhaps an Australian promoter will find a way to make a Jag Panzer show a reality. We would be very happy to play Australia. We would go there even if we weren’t doing any other touring at the time.

4. What was the first Rock/Metal show you saw live?

Submitted by: Harry (Not The Tyrant) | Stuggart, Germany

'Yes' was my first rock concert. The 'Tormato' tour I think. Ted Nugent was also an early concert for me. I had seen non-rock acts earlier, I saw Harry Chapin live when I was 10 years old. My first metal show was UFO. It was incredible. I've always been a big UFO fan, so that show was very special for me. John & Harry both saw Kiss and Rush at early ages, but I missed both of those concerts.

5. You recently picked up an endorsement deal from Dean guitars, the same guitars endorsed by Dimebag Darrell. I know that I am still bothered by the incident, but how much impact, both personally and professionally, has the shooting death of Dimebag had on you? Do you think this will have much of an effect on future Jag Panzer shows and/or the scheduling of shows?

Submitted by: Jim | North Carolina

What happened to Dimebag was a terrible tragedy. It’s had a big effect on me; it made me realize how quickly everything can end. I think it’s made me appreciate things a more.
I had only met Darrell once, so I didn’t know him personally. But I know people that were close to him. And they all said the same thing – that he was a warm and kind-hearted person.

As a guitar player, he was incredible.He played with attitude. He could rip your face off with one note, or floor you with 1,000.
I’m not sure what effect the death of Dimebag will have on our shows. Perhaps more security.I don’t know.
I’m sure I’ll have this tragedy in mind every time I go onstage. But I think it’s important to keep playing.

6. How does Jag Panzer usually determine a setlist for an upcoming tour?

Submitted by: Sean Arborne | Baltimore, Maryland

We look at a few different things – what songs do people want to hear and what album are we promoting.
Over the years we started seeing which songs got the best response from the crowd and which songs were the most requested. We then break those up into ‘must play’ and ‘should play’ categories. There are only a handful of ‘must play’ songs. Songs like ‘Black’ and ‘Take to the Sky’ are songs that you will hear at any Jag Panzer show.

We have many ‘should play’ songs. These are songs that we know people like and we try to play as many of them as possible. But we can’t play all of them. Tracks such as ‘The Moors’, ‘Licensed to Kill’ or ‘King at a Price’ are examples of these kinds of songs.
We also like to throw in a track that surprises people. For example, we played ‘The Crucifix’ at the Bravewords Fest in Cleveland.
As far as new material, we start off by picking some tracks based on reviews and email. We see how well they are received live. Some songs don’t go over as well live as others. For example ‘Frozen in Fear’ was a popular studio track, but not as strong live.

7. What cuts off the new record "Casting The Stones" are you guys going to be doing live?

Submitted by: Jared | Valencia, California

We’re going to start out with ‘Feast or Famine’, ‘The Mission’ and ‘Legion Immortal’. We’ll judge audience reaction and determine whether these are good or we should add, delete or change one of them.
Sometimes you think a song will go over really good live and it doesn’t. Other times you’re not sure a song will be a good live track, but it ends up being one. A good example of that is ‘Iron Eagle’. I didn’t think that ‘Iron Eagle’ would be a good live song. I thought that the audience would lose interest in the long sections in the middle of the song. I was completely wrong on that song and it’s became one of our most popular live songs.

8. You played lead guitar on the E.P, why don't you play leads anymore?

Submitted by: David Daneen | Brooklyn, New York

I played all the leads on the e.p. and some of the leads on ‘Ample Destruction’ and even ‘Chain of Command’.
I’ve always been a fan of really good lead guitar playing. So I thought it was important to always have a good lead player in the band. But with a guy like Chris, we no longer have a ‘good lead player’ but rather a world-class lead guitarist. Chris is in the league of guys like Gilbert and Satriani.
I can play a decent metal solo. Not bad. Nothing amazing, but respectable. If I played a solo on a new Jag Panzer track, it wouldn’t contribute much. It would just fill some space. I want solo sections to be exciting. So Chris does them.

9. Which song off "Casting The Stones" is your personal favorite?

Submitted by: Jeff (Necromance) | Allentown, Pennslyvania

Probably ‘Precipe’, although I like a lot of different songs each week.
My favorite metal songs growing up were ‘Heaven and Hell’ and ‘Sign of the Southern Cross’. Both are from Dio-era Black Sabbath. I like the long epic feel of these songs. I got so bored of the rock and hard rock on the radio and both of these songs were totally different from the ‘party with my baby’ music (like Van Halen) that was popular at the time.
These 2 songs became a HUGE influence on my songwriting. I spent me early years trying to write songs like this. Most of them sucked, but I got better. Nowadays I try to write one long metal epic on each album,

10. Do you plan on reissuing or remastering older album like "Dissident Alliance" or "Ample Destruction" ?

Submitted by: Jeff (Necromance) | Allentown, Pennslyvania

There is no interest in a ‘Dissident’ reissue. The production is horrible and it was our poorest selling album by a wide margain.
There is considerable interest in an ‘Ample Destruction’ reissue. However we can’t legally release one. The rights to the album have reverted back to the musicians involved in the record. So a reissue would require the signatures of myself, John Tetley, Harry Conklin, Joey Tafolla and Rick Hilyard.
Century Media tried to negotiate a reissue but couldn’t come to terms with Joey Tafolla. Unless Joey consents to a reissue, the album can’t come out again.

11. Will there be another concept album released in the future?

Submitted by: Elvis Presley | Bayamon, Puerto Rico

We have no plans for one, but I think that the answer would be ‘Yes’.
Recording ‘Thane to the Throne’ was a great experience for us. We had a lot of fun doing it. It’s also one of my favorite Jag Panzer albums to listen to.
Despite our love for Thane, we didn’t want to do another concept album right away. We didn’t want to copy Grave Digger and start doing just concepts. What Grave Digger does is fantastic. I’m a huge fan (‘Tunes of War’ is a classic). I consider the idea of doing a lot of concept albums to be a trademark of them.
So we decided to wait a few years to do another concept. Maybe we’re due for another one.

12. Are there different recordings of Ample Destruction or do all the bootlegs come from the same recording?

Submitted by: Thomas Schopf | Vienna, Austria

The bootlegs came from one of two different recordings. They come from either the original masters – meaning that they come from the original vinyl or from the official British cd release of the album OR they come from the Metal Blade release.
The Metal Blade release was a full remix from the original multi-track master. I spent 10 days on the remix compared the only 4 days for the original mix. The Metal Blade mix is the best sounding version of Ample Destruction.

13. Are there plans to provide fans a list of all rare Jag Panzer recordings that are not available on official albums & bootlegs? For instance the (not really) "live" song you recorded with Bob Parduba back in the 80's?

Submitted by: Thomas Schopf | Vienna, Austria

Yes, I will eventually put most of them on the website.

I say ‘most of them’ because I need to make sure that I have the legal rights to put any songs on the internet. For example, I would not be able to release the demos recorded right after ‘Ample Destruction’ unless Joey Tafolla agreed.

We have several very early demos that I would like to put on the website. I don’t think that anyone has ever heard these.

15. Are you a fan of any forms of extreme metal? (black, death,etc) and if so which bands?

Submitted by: Iced Ray | Metal-Rules.com Forum

I do like some of the more extreme metal, but I’m always many many years behind. For example, I’m starting to enjoy early Tiamat. I’m not sure how old it is – 10 years? 8 years old?

I have so much music to listen to and not enough time. There are bands that I like a lot, such as Skyclad, that I have cd’s that have not been opened yet. I am so far behind in listening to music. I need some more free time!

16. Is Jag Panzer looking into doing another long, segemented epic track in the vein of "The Crucifix" ?

Submitted by: Jean-Pierre | Detroit, Michigan

The segmentation on ‘The Crucifix’ was done after the fact. That song was based on an earlier demo track called ‘The Fall of the Arch Angel’.

We changed the bad parts of that song, reworked a few things and came up with ‘The Crucifix’. There was never any mention of segments during the songwriting process. I think that Harry came up with the segment idea right before we did the credits for ‘Ample Destruction’.

17. What vocal techniques has Harry used to keep his voice in such excellent shape for 20+ years?

Submitted by: Jean-Pierre | Detroit, Michigan

He’s not singing nearly as loud. That gives him more control and helps keep his voice in shape. He used to sing VERY loud. It didn’t sound any better and it caused him pitch problems and problems keeping his voice in shape.

Since we started working with Jim Morris Harry’s voice has gotten in better shape. Jim has worked with so many great vocalists, he knows all the tips. Jim has given Harry a lot of suggestions to help stay in shape.

18. I know that Harry is a very theatrical frontman & puts of alot of emotion & such in his performance. However I have also noticed some times that he has some pretty bizzare & often humorus stage antics. Do you feel this is something that may be turning people off to Jag Panzer? Despite the bands's excellent musicianship?

Submitted by: Mattias Aufermann | Germany

His stage antics definitely turn off some people. I’ve got emails about people complaining about this or making fun of some of these stage moves.

But to me it’s most important to be original; even it means some people may not like a stage move. Fixing stage moves is easy – you just look at what the top frontmen do on stage and you copy it. I’ve known lots of guys that do that. Soon they start copying vocal lines too. Eventually they aren’t original at all.

A good example is some of the hair bands of the 80’s. Some of those singers were direct clones of David Lee Roth, David Coverdale or Steven Tyler. They looked, sounded and acted just like them.

Harry is original on stage, and he’s original with everything he does. His vocal lines are unique and different. That’s whats important to me. I can deal with some stage moves that I may not like because he brings a fresh approach to the band.

19. Where the hell is the Jag Panzer live album? And can the fans help get one?

Submitted by: Marco | Boa Vista, Brazil

Good question! That one needs to go to Century Media. We’ve been ready for a live album for 3 years. People keep asking for one.

We have one in our contract, so I know that there will be one. But there are disagreements on the budget. The current budget we have been given is less then 1/20 of what ‘Alive in Athens’ costs. I realize that Iced Earth sell a lot more albums then we do, but you simply can’t do a live album for what they proposed.

I don’t want to hook up a tape recorder to the live mixing console and say ‘Here’s our live album’. I’m no fan of bands that re-record everything in the studio, that isn’t really live. But it needs to be properly mixed and not sound like someone snuck in a tape recorder.

I’m hoping that these issues can get resolved soon and we’ll record a live album in the near future.

20. What can fans expect in the future from Jag Panzer.com?

The skys the limit! Zac is very talented, so I think anything is possible.

I have some big plans, so we’ll see what can be done. I’d like all of our show posters to be online. All of the old demos. Tabs for every song. A huge photo gallery. I like to show photos of all of our old band shirts.

It would be cool to make jagpanzer.com the best metal website. Zac is the guy that can pull this off.