JOEY VERA Interview Page 3
by Martin Popoff
When asked about working with Fates versus his main gig Armored Saint, Joey explains that it's "a lot different; I actually learned a lot from how Jim (Matheos) works. Armored Saint started out as a garage band; we truly did. That's really how we started out and really what we were. You would go to band practice for five days a week, work on these riffs, try to write a song, a very laborious way of doing it. And the Fates guys - maybe they started out the same - but at this point they work a lot differently. Little or no rehearsal for anything. Jim basically writes all of the music and like 80% of the lyrics. My part is, I get a demo CD and I learn the tunes, basically as they are, and then I don't have any rehearsals, and then I show up at the recording studio and I add my own interpretations of it, play it the way I saw it, and whether he agrees or not, we would end up doing it a certain way. He would say 'Oh, that's great,' or we would find a middle ground somewhere. So we kind of work it out right on the spot and then you're actually recording right then too. And I've applied that to Saint more recently, where we don't really go do the band practice thing anymore. Everybody does writing at home and then we submit tapes to each other and trade tapes. And, at least for Revelation, I sort of acted as director and said, 'OK, let's work on these songs because they're essentially cohesive with these other songs that everybody has submitted.' And some would get rejected, mine included, if they didn't fit with the vibe. So I learned a lot from Fates; it's a very efficient, easier to work."
And yes, there is indeed new Armored Saint product for your perusal, a little thing called Armored Saint Magazine. Joey explains... "Basically, in a nutshell, it's a continuation from the first VHS or DVD that we put out, A Trip Through Red Times, and it chronicles the band in bootleg form, from Symbol Of Salvation until now. Even though the band wasn't really active a lot of those years, there are a bunch of shows we did on the Symbol Of Salvation tour, and then when we got back together for Revelation in 2000 as well. So it's a bunch of videos that fans shot from those shows between those years, '91 to 2001. And there is some additional bonus footage, from old things we did for the label."
