Q and A: Marc Lopes (Ross the Boss)

By BRIAN GIFFIN

MARC Lopes is one of the busiest frontmen in the business, currently holding the vocalist spot in no less than three actively touring and recording bands – Boston metalcore unit Let Us Prey, Seattle’s legendary Metal Church and former Manowar guitarist Ross the Boss’s eponymous solo band. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Manowar’s iconic Sign of the Hammer album, Lopes is touring here this week.

Hot Metal: It’s great to speak with you again, Marc. I talked to you last when you were coming out here with Metal Church. This time you’ll be here with Ross the Boss.
Marc Lopes: “Yes, this will be my third time down there.”

HM: You’re a bit of a regular visitor here now.
ML: “Oh, I love it!”

HM: It’s better late than never, because you were originally supposed to come out sometime last year.
ML: “Yeah – that was a mess… That was a mess. Bad business, that’s all that was.”

HM: What’s it like bringing an album like Sign of the Hammer to life, especially for an audience like in Australia where Manowar has never toured?
ML: “Last time we came we did the Hail To England record, and that was awesome. This time, being the 40th anniversary of Sign of the Hammer, which interestingly enough, four songs off that record were already in our set for years … so it was pretty easy to add a couple that needed to be added to play the whole record. Now, one thing is, we don’t play the whole record in succession, because it doesn’t work with the set. Plus, I’d wanna hear other songs too, so it’s pretty cool, we mix in a couple of others and then go back to it. There’s a lot of epic-ness to it, and it’s a pretty long set. We want to make sure that we get down there and everybody gets their worth, because we don’t know if we’ll ever come back. It’s anybody’s guess these days.”

HM: What’s it like for you to sing these songs, because they’re pretty different from what Metal Church does.
ML: “Oh yeah! The running joke with me and my buddies is that, “You couldn’t have picked an easy guy to sing. You had to pick three of the hardest guys in metal to sing, to do their material.” But of course! Why would it be easy? I’ve been doing this a long time with Ross so it’s comfortable and it’s just become muscle memory. We’re doing a couple tunes that we’ve never done before, except on this last run, and that’s challenging to learn new stuff, especially when you don’t have a lot of time for rehearsals. So it’s kind of like you wing it and learn it as you go along, but it’s interesting, and it’s real! It doesn’t get any more real than that. But all I care about is that I honour the source material and do the best that I can in a way that works for me. It’s our interpretation of the songs anyway. The other two guys weren’t in Manowar, so they’re going to play it their own way, too.”

HM: People are going to dig it because they know the songs, and they know that it’s not the original guys doing them so they appreciate that it’s going to be a little bit different.
ML: “Of course. This will be the first time we’ve come down there with our new bass player, Dirk from Gamma Ray. Last time we went with Mike Lepond, who’s amazing but he had the Symphony X stuff so we recruited Dirk, and Dirk has the sound down! He’s a Manowar fan too, so he’s really particular. It’s really funny because we didn’t see eye to eye for a while. It was like there was two chiefs in the village. But now we help each other and make fun of each other – it’s ridiculous. We’re like a bunch of brothers and kids, which makes the experience that much better because that’s what it’s supposed to be, right? But he just has that sound down, and it works really well. People are going to really like it. It’s got a little bit more authenticity.”

HM: Gamma Ray was one band that was massively influenced by Manowar, so that makes total sense.
ML: “Yep. And we’ve got our drummer Shaun Elg from KK’s Priest coming down because Rhino has a regular job and couldn’t get the time off. But that’s OK. We got to play some stuff with him last year, which was cool. And Shaun’s my dude and he was in the band for a while, so it’s fun to play with him. He’s got that younger spirit, you know, and that helps energy-wise. Both drummers are great, obviously, but Shaun’s just got a different flair.”

HM: What are your favourite songs to perform off that album? Do you have some that you really love doing?
ML: “Um… ‘Sign of the Hammer’, ‘The Oath’ … All of them! I really, really like that album and Hail To England. I love Hail To England, as well. You could tell me to play anything off those and I’d be happy to do it. It’s a funny story, and I’ve been saying this in all the interviews, because it’s pretty funny: For the longest time, I was getting asked, ‘Dude, play ‘All Men Play On Ten’” and I was like, “I’m not doing that shit! That’s shit’s fucking ridiculous!” I would always get onto Ross and be like, “Who came up with that shit?” All in good fun – honestly. When we were presented to do that, I was like, “OK, I got it, we have to do it.” Then I started to dive into the song, and then I thought, ‘This song is awesome!’ It’s got a crazy groove, a sick bass slide thing in the middle… It’s like their version of a breakdown, way before there were breakdowns. Oh my God, dude, it’s amazing. And the lyrics made sense, finally, to me. This is just a fun, eighties-era song. It’s just great and it’s ridiculous. I’m so happy we’re doing it, and we’ll probably keep it in the set now, because it’s a lot of fun to play. The one thing that’s new to us, because we were trying it in rehearsals – it was too stiff. We’re playing all these straight majestic metal songs, and this one isn’t supposed to be that way. It’s a grooving, good time type of song. When you lock into the groove, it’s a really fun song. It’s a lot of fun to play. I like it!”

HM: It must be enormous fun to present those songs every night.
ML: “Manowar was one of my favourite bands, growing up. This is surreal … there’s always an ounce of surrealism, sometimes. Especially when we’re playing the festivals, to look over and there’s Ross and here we are in front of 30,000 people playing these classic songs. I would have never believed you if you told me I was going to do that. Never mind also being in Metal Church! The other time it was really wild was when we did Bloodstock and we had KK with us. I remember looking over, and there’s KK from fucking Judas Priest, and there’s Ross The Boss, and I’m like, Oh my God, this is really weird! But it was awesome. And it went by like swish! I have to watch a video to remember it!”

MAY 1: The Zoo, Brisbane
MAY 2: Crowbar, Sydney
MAY 3: The Croxton, Melbourne
MAY 4: The Gov, Adelaide