Charred Walls Of The Damned – an interview with Richard Christy

Charred Walls Of The Damned is the new project of drummer Richard Christy.  Best known for his work with Iced Earth and the legendary Death, it was an honor to speak with Richard on a wide variety of subjects – including his gig with The Howard Stern show.  The self titled Charred Walls Of The Damned CD will be released on Metal Blade Records, and features Tim “Ripper” Owens (Beyond Fear, ex-Judas Priest) on vocals.  And now, here’s Richard Christy…

What made you decide to start your own group Charred Walls Of The Damned after many years of being in other bands?
I’ve really been wanting to get back into recording and playing shows in the past five and a half years since I moved to New York City to join The Howard Stern Show. Since I moved to New York I’ve had offers to play in a lot of bands but unfortunately because of my work schedule at my job I couldn’t commit to someone else’s schedule so I figured the best thing to do is to start a band where I can make the decisions about when to record and when to tour so I can plan it all around my work schedule. I’ve also been playing guitar a lot more in the past five years and a few years back I finally got to a point where I was comfortable enough in my guitar playing that I felt like I could write a full album.

Describe the music of Charred Walls Of The Damned to someone who has not heard it yet.
What I love about our music is that people who have heard it have had a hard time describing it, which I like. I would like to think that our music is original enough that it is hard to categorize. It is definitely heavy metal and I’m proud to call it heavy metal but I don’t think it fits into a certain type of metal because there are elements of death metal like blast beats and super heavy riffs but there are also clean vocals and tons of vocal harmonies and guitar harmonies similar to power metal. I guess the best way to describe it is just to call it Heavy Metal for Metal Heads who like their Metal Heavy! Haha!

How easy or difficult was it to come up with a band name for this project?
It was very difficult. These days it seems like every cool band name has been taken. Over the course of about a month I made up a list of around one hundred possible band names but none of them really stood out to me and every time that I would think of something that did stand out to me, I would Google the name and there was already a band who had it! It was very frustrating for a while because I didn’t know what the heck I was going to call this band. Then one day the Metal Gods shined down upon me while my comedy partner at The Howard Stern Show, Sal Governale, and I were making a prank phone call. We were prank calling a Religious Christian Radio station in the southern part of the US and we were getting them to say really goofy stuff that they didn’t realize was dirty, for example, we had them read birthday listings on air for our friends Curly Pubes, Mike Rotch, and Eaton Beaver. A few days later they found out that they had been pranked and the two Christian hosts started ripping into us on the air and saying how we were going to hell because we prank called them. They then said that if we don’t change our ways that we’ll be putting our nails into the Charred Walls of the Damned! Sal and I looked at each other and said – “That’s an awesome band name!” I immediately Googled the phrase and not only were there no other bands who had that name, but the phrase didn’t even exist on the internet! I asked my friends what they thought of the name and they said they loved it so the rest is history!

Where did you get the ideas for some of the lyrics? Please cite a few songs examples and what the lyrics are about.
I’ve written lyrics before for my band Burning Inside and they were mostly horror based. When I sat down about a year ago to write the lyrics for Charred Walls of the Damned I wanted to go into a different direction but I wasn’t sure what exact direction I wanted to go. I sat down with a blank writing tablet and after about thirty minutes of jotting a few ideas down I thought to myself, writing lyrics is hard as hell! Then I realized that I was making it a little too hard for myself and that I should probably just write about things that I can relate to and things that are very personal for me. That’s when the lyrics started flowing. One day after a rather scary turbulent flight to California I wrote lyrics to a song called Fear In The Sky which deals with my fear of flying. One day I was playing drums at my rehearsal space in Brooklyn and I look down and one of my drumsticks was covered in blood because a blister on my finger popped. I went home and wrote the lyrics to “Blood On Wood” which deals with my love for drumming and how I am so passionate about it that I am willing to bleed for it. The song Manifestation” is about my fear of dying and how I really would like to have a supernatural experience where I see a Ghost or Apparition so that I can see that there is an afterlife and I won’t be as frightened about dying. The song Ghost Town is about a near deserted town suffering from lead poisoning in Oklahoma near where I grew up that I drove through last year. Voices Within The Walls is about how when I’m in the rehearsal room or studio with my band mates/friends and making music, once we shut that door and starting jamming, that’s all that matters and for those few hours the problems of the life are shut off.

Will you be doing any touring with your new band once the CD is released?
Yes we are definitely hoping to play live. It’s going to depend on everyone’s schedules because we are all very busy but I’m talking with some booking agents soon about setting up some shows for late spring and summer. I’d love to do some festival shows since we can’t really go on tour for a month at a time because of our schedules, but we could definitely do some festivals or go out for a few weeks at a time when our schedules permit. It will be a very special thing when we do get to play live and I’m really excited to get out there on tour and play these songs!

Tim Ripper Owens is such an amazing vocalist. What is it about Tim that makes him a perfect fit for your project and did you keep in touch with him after you left Iced Earth?
Tim and I became good friends when we were both touring in Iced Earth and I’ve been a huge fan of his voice since I first heard his work with Judas Priest in the 90’s. Tim just has that perfect metal voice that sounds both brutal and at the same time very melodic. He’s so much fun to work with too, he’s a hilarious guy and we had so much fun in the studio and pretty much spent the whole week laughing and joking around when we did his vocal tracks. A big consideration for me when I started contacting guys for this project was not only their musical abilities but also the fact that all three of the other guys in this band are really laid back and are playing music for the love of it and just to have fun which is really what’s it’s all about.

When you look back on your overall work in Iced Earth, what do you think of it now? Do you still keep in touch with Jon Schaffer?
I’m very proud of the work I did with Iced Earth. I was a huge fan of the band even before I joined. I think Something Wicked This Way Comes is a masterpiece, I love that album and it was so fun to play those songs live. I really learned a lot about how to run a band from both the musical side and the business side while working with Jon and also Chuck Schuldiner. I’m very thankful that I got to work with two of metals greatest songwriters and musicians. I haven’t talked to Jon for a while but I thought the last Iced Earth album was really good and I recently heard a bit of his new solo band and it sounded pretty cool too. Jon is one of the fastest down picking guitarists I’ve ever seen, he’s definitely right up there with James Hetfield and it’s pretty amazing to watch him play live.

The Live In LA tour by Death is a concert that legends are made of. What is it that you remember the most about the night and that entire tour you did?
Thank you, yes I am VERY proud of that concert and all of the work that I did with Death. The specific thing that I remember about that gig was that I was very sick with the flu that night which I was super bummed about because I had been looking forward to playing The Whiskey for the whole tour because it’s such a legendary venue. My drum tech Jon Lee even found a bucket that he sat next to my hi-hat so I could puke in it! I think that’s probably one of the reasons that the songs at that concert are much faster than normal, because I was trying not to puke and not keeping my mind on the tempos! Another crazy thing about that night was that we paid something like 70 dollars for the house soundman at the Whisky to film our set while we were playing because he had a pretty good camera set up and could also record the show through the soundboard. Little did we know that the video would become a live DVD that fans all over the world would see! I think Death Live in LA has the cheapest production costs of any home video ever but still looks and sounds amazing!

What are your thoughts on Control Denied and is there any news on the release of the 2nd album?
Yes we are definitely working toward finishing the album. There were some legal issues with Chuck’s former label for several years that now finally appeared to be cleared up so that we can move forward to finish the album. I’ve talked with Chuck’s family, Jim Morris, and all of the members of Control Denied about coordinating our schedules so that we can travel to Morrisound Studios sometime this year to finish the album. One of Chuck’s last wishes was for the fans to be able to hear the second Control Denied album so we are definitely going to fulfill his wish.

What has it been like working with Howard Stern and how intense was the Get John’s Job competition?
It has been incredible to say the least. I never ever thought that I could go to a job where I get paid to have fun. I was an electrician for 12 years before I worked for Howard and I used to listen every day as a fan while I would dig ditches in the Florida heat to lay underground electrical pipes and I never dreamed that one day I would be working there! The Get John’s Job contest was very intense, there was tons of material that all ten of the finalists had to create in order to fill up their week long auditions on the show and I worked my butt off to come up with material that I felt confident enough about. I’m so thankful that Howard hired Sal Governale, another Get John’s Job contestant, two months after I got the job because I couldn’t think of a better friend and a better comedian to work alongside on the show. He really is an amazing talent and I’m so lucky that we both get to work at a job that we truly love.

Tell me about Inside The Porn Actors Studio and who has been your favorite guest on the show?
Ashley Blue was my favorite guest on the show by far. I wasn’t really familiar with her before I interviewed her but the producer of Inside the Porn Actor’s studio Will Murray told me that she would be a home run and she definitely was! She talked about the craziest stuff that I can’t even repeat here! She was very honest and a lot of fun to interview and I think she was just perfect for that show.

Do you enjoy doing standup comedy and have you ever toured just as a comedian?
Yes I love doing standup comedy although the first time I got up onstage to do it in New York City was probably one of the most frightening nights of my life! To be onstage with nothing but you and a microphone and to try to make people laugh for 10 minutes to an hour is really one of the hardest things in the world to do. It is extremely intimidating to do but very rewarding if everything goes right. I did a lot of touring in the past four years as a comedian and I have to say my favorite show was opening up for Artie Lange in front of 4000 people at the Lakeland Arena near Tampa Florida. My parents and my sister flew down for the show and I was so nervous that they were in the crowd but my set went great and the crowd was awesome! Unfortunately my good buddy Sal Governale fell off the stage during his set and broke his wrist but he healed up pretty quickly.

You were recently asked to become a spokesman for a gout organization. Is your gout under control now, and how has it affected your drumming?
Haha, thanks for asking! Yes my Gout is definitely under control now! I went a little crazy with my eating over the Thanksgiving holiday and now I know to control myself whenever I attempt to pig out! It didn’t affect my drumming because luckily I went to the doctor and it went away after about three days.

What was your favorite CD of 2009 and why?
Though technically it was released in Europe in 2008, it was released in the US in 2009 and that’s Volbeat’s Guitar Gangsters and Cadillac Blood. I’ve never really been a fan of rockabilly music but I love how Volbeat mix Elvis style vocals with really heavy Metallica style music. Their songs are super catchy and I recently saw them open up for Metallica at Madison Square Garden in New York City and they were great. A good friend of mine from Denmark turned me on to them, they’re really popular in Europe and I could definitely see them getting popular in the US.

Will we see you showing up as a guitar player in a band somewhere down the line?
Haha, that’s highly doubtful! I don’t really consider myself a great guitar player. I can play good enough to write music and I love to play every day but I’m definitely not good enough to get on stage and play guitar, unless it’s a band that only plays the beginning of Smoke On The Water over and over, that I think I could handle!

Any final words of wisdom?
Always keep it metal, follow your dreams, don’t eat yellow snow, and please pick up a copy of the debut album from Charred Walls of the Damned! Hopefully we’ll see you on tour this year!

(Interview by Kenneth Morton – Photo by Joel Plotkin)

Charred Walls of The Damned on Myspace