Interview: Joey Jordison On Scar The Martyr

On 30th September legendary Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison unleashes his new project Scar The Martyr’s self-titled debut album. Featuring Henry Derek on vocals, former Strapping Young Lad guitarist Jed Simon, ex-Darkest Hour axeman Kris Norris and one time NIN drummer Chris Vrenna on keyboards, as lead songs ‘Blood Host’ and ‘Soul Disintegration’ prove, the heavy metallers are an extremely enticing prospect.

Ahead of ‘Scar The Martyr’s release Joey has filled us in on the band’s background, what to expect from their blistering debut album and why they’re the real deal…

Joey on how the band formed: “Scar the Martyr came together through a collaboration of friends and songs I’d been working on in my off time from Slipknot. I went to the studio and compiled a bunch of songs, during that time I needed a vocalist and a mutual of mine put me in touch with this guy named Henry Derek. I sent him the songs, and he came back with the perfect way that I wanted to approach the vocals for the record, his voice was amazing. From then on it was just basically me and him, and then I needed to get some lead players so I reached out to Jed Simon from Strapping Young Lad and Kris Norris of Darkest hour. Those are the two guitar players we have in the band now. And also on keys, a good friend of mine that’s an amazing musician, Chris Vrenna you might know from Nine Inch Nails and Tweaker. So that’s the band that I have right now.”

Joey’s love for his bandmates: “The guys that are involved in the band are extraordinary musicians. I really have a great line-up with me and I can’t wait to get this out on the road and have all the songs projected live, have the band together live. It’s a really killer group and I think that everyone’s going to dig it because these guys are really good. I think that the songs speak for themselves and I couldn’t ask for a bunch of better people to play with on this tour.”

How the album ‘Scar The Martyr’ came together: “As far as the writing process went, Henry and I wrote all the material ourselves. I started out with probably for this record about ten songs. Henry contributed around five songs for the record, but when it came to choosing for the album we mixed and matched. That was basically it. Once we got into the studio was when the real writing took place, so that’s when it became not just his songs or my songs, it became a collective so they were written together at that point. That’s what made it a strong collaboration. Now with that, it was just the drums, the rhythm guitars and the bass, the vocals, with all the candy that we had to put on it – the leads, the keys and all that stuff. Chris wrote all his own parts and the leads, of course those guys wrote all their own leads. That’s their flavour to the records, that’s the candy to the records. The meat and potatoes was handled by me and Henry, but everything else – all the ear candy – was all those guys. That was when the record really started to flourish, that’s when all the colours came out, that’s when it really felt special.”

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The standout album tracks: “That’s hard… we have to see how they play out live, there’s a trial and error there. Favourite tracks of the record? I love ‘Blood Host’, ‘Dark Ages’, ‘Never Forget, Never Forgive’, ‘Soul Disintegration’, ‘White Nights in a Daring Cruel Ocean’. I really like ‘Last Night on Earth’, the last song on the record is punishing. There’s so many, I wouldn’t put them on the record if I didn’t like them.”

Scar The Martyr’s live plans: “We can’t wait to get this out live, we’ve been in the studio for a long time and now that it’s out we want to take it to as many cities as possible, get it to as many people as possible. That’s the whole point of making the record in the first place, we wouldn’t be doing it if we didn’t want to tour.”

The broad musical scope of Scar The Martyr: “The good thing is our singer Henry is new, he’s fresh and very unique. If you like Slipknot you could like it, if you like Nine Inch Nails you could like it. If you like Neurosis you might like it too. It’s got a lot of layers, the whole album is like a movie. It’s a bunch of different scenes, it’s got a start, a climax. It’s gotta go through a bunch of different areas. You can’t get to here without going through this point, you have to go through all the motions to get to the conclusion of the record. It’s not linear, there’s a bunch of soundscapes to go through before the end. That’s what I wanted, I wanted a record that not every song sounds alike, I wanted every song to have its own unique adventure.”

How Joey takes Scar The Martyr extremely seriously: “I don’t like doing anything as a one offs, it seems like you’re only half-assing it and don’t have a commitment. Anytime I put music down for the public, I put my heart and soul into everything I do 100%. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t want to continue, ‘cause there’s no point in doing it. I’d rather do something fulfilling that’s going to last a long time than something that’s short lived.”

Scar The Martyr will make their UK live debut supporting Alice In Chains this November. Tickets are on sale from Kerrang Radio Tickets right now!

See them at the following shows:

NOVEMBER 2013 London Alexandra Palace – Sat 9th Leeds O2 Academy – Sun 10th Manchester Academy – Mon 11th Birmingham O2 Academy – Wed 13th Glasgow O2 Academy – Thu 14th Newport Centre – Fri 15th

Scar the Martyr - Soul Disintegration