Ex-VIRGIN STEELE Guitarist JACK STARR Offers Update On New GUARDIANS OF THE FLAME Album

An audio interview with former VIRGIN STEELE guitarist Jack Starr conducted earlier this month by Greece's Metalzone.gr is available for download at this location (MP3 file; 54 MB). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Metalzone.gr: Let's start [with] your current [activities]. Tell us a few things about your new album (to be released under the GUARDIANS OF THE FLAME band name).

Jack: We started about two years ago and we're almost finished with it, we're going to … just do two more things with it. We're gonna do the vocals and the lead guitar but everything else is done and [it will be released through MANOWAR's] Magic Circle label.

Metalzone.gr: So is there any chance of seeing you at the Magic Circle Festival in Germany along with [MANOWAR and other bands signed to the Magic Circle label]?

Jack: Yes, well, this is what Joey [DeMaio, MANOWAR bassist and producer of Jack Starr's new CD] told me in the last e-mail I got of him about three weeks ago. He basically said, "Don't worry, Jack" 'cause we wrote him an e-mail. We were like starting to say, "I'm not getting any younger and no one's getting any younger and I'd like, you know, to play in Europe and get this album done." And he told me, he assured me, that the next festival we would be playing. So I hope that this will happen. I know Joey is a man of his word and he and Joey and Heinrich from Germany are the owners of this record label. And I think it's gonna happen.

Metalzone.gr: Well, actually they're planning a huge event as far as the Magic Circle Festival because they're going to play with a very [low-priced] ticket and they say that they are going to play all the MANOWAR albums so I guess it's going to be [well-attended].

Jack: Yeah, I'm sure, I mean they have a lot of fans in Europe and so, yeah, I'd be happy to be a part of that. You know, just to play, it doesn't have to be in a big place, it can be a small place. It doesn't really matter. And sometimes I enjoy playing in small places better than a big place. I really do at times because very often in a big place it's not personal for the band and you don't have that communication.

Metalzone.gr: With the fans.

Jack: Right, exactly. So either way, but I mean I have to believe for what Joey has told me and I don't think he would lie to me, I think he is pretty sincere.

Metalzone.gr: So, when do you feel that your next album will be out?

Jack: I think in about… I think six… months. I have to finish the guitar and that can be done pretty soon and the vocals are almost all done. The songs sound good now but Joey… I don't know if this is a problem… but the problem is… I don't want to say the word problem. Forget I said the word problem, OK? The thing is Joey is a perfectionist. Now, I would have put the album out two years ago, I was OK with it. Joey's standards are very, very high, everything has to be perfect. The recordings have to be in a certain way, the drums have to be perfect. I like things to sound good but I'm not a perfectionist. I don't really care about that, I care more about the feeling. So the thing was, when I talked to Joey about this… [He said] "Jack, you've done it your way all the other times so why don't you try it my way once?" So I said, "You know what?! Let's do it."

Metalzone.gr: The way you say it, it's as if he feels that there was something wrong with the twenty previous albums [you've done].

Jack: The only thing that he felt was wrong and I agree with it is that they didn't reach the number of people that would have been great to reach. And instead of being like a cult, you know, cult metal band, we could have become bigger if we have done certain things a little bit differently. So, I said, "Hey, why not?! We'll try it your way." Because, you know, everybody would like more success, everybody wants that.

Read the entire interview at www.metalzone.gr.