This is not a drill. Death Punch album number ten is underway Knuckleheads. We repeat, Death Punch album number ten is underway.
Thanks to our friends at Book Intro’s, we got the chance to catch up with Five Finger Death Punch guitarist (and fellow Brit!) the one and only Andy James.
Book Intro’s is a new platform that connects you with artists and unlike Cameo where the message is pre-recorded, Book Intro’s is a live one-to-one chat allowing you to ask all the questions you want, and believe us, we had many questions for Andy.
So let’s jump right in…
On the status of Five Finger Death Punch’s tenth album:
We’ve kind of started in the studio on the next record. So album number ten, it will be my second with the band [Andy’s first full-length album with 5FDP was 2022’s ‘AfterLife] but yeah it’s going to be really cool. It’s going to come together pretty quick I think because we’ve been working in the shadows on music and bits and pieces before going in [to the studio]. I’m confident it’s already going to be a good record.
On how he’s been collaborating with the other members of Five Finger Death Punch to write the new album:
Zoltan [Bathory] has been moving house and stuff so we haven’t really had chance to jam too much together recently but yeah usually, like especially in his old place, we would be in the studio all the time just jamming. We jammed out quite a few ideas for ‘AfterLife’ when we were there.
But I’m always sitting around just writing bits and pieces. I get these ideas in my head and I have to get them out. They might either be like ten seconds or a whole song, it just depends on what happens. And then, usually either Zo or Kevin Churko [5FDP’s longtime producer] or, both, will listen to it and be like “Oh yeah, thats cool!”.
I’ve had a back and forth with Ivan [Moody] on a couple of ideas as well ’cause obviously he’s the one that has to bring his magic to the song, so he has to be feeling it, or not, if he thinks it’s sh!t (laughs) or whether he’s still going to do it. (Laughs)
But yeah, it seems to be going pretty well at the moment. We’re hoping to get most of it [the album] done before we start touring again. [Five Finger Death Punch goes out on the road again from May 2024 – see tour dates here]
On whether he’s changed his approach to writing compared to how he approached ‘AfterLife’:
I was a fan of the band before I joined so I think when I first started writing stuff for the band it was very much reminiscent of stuff that had already been before. It’s funny, like me and Zoltan sat down and he was kind of like, “I like the fact that you can kind of contribute ideas that are fairly similar to what we’ve done before”, but he’s like, “…when you do your instrumental stuff, there’s stuff in there, obviously because you’re not writing for the band, it’s cool, and it’s stuff that could actually be used on Death Punch writing and stuff.”
So I think I’ve relaxed my approach towards trying to sound like anything that the band has done before and I just sit down and just write stuff that I’d naturally do. I think out of some of that stuff has been more appealing than say trying to sound like the band if you know what I mean. So its definitely relaxed my approach to trying to impress them with stuff they’ve already heard instead of doing something that I would naturally do and see if they like it or not.
On how much he’s looking forward to playing his first UK show at Wembley Arena in May 2024:
It’s going to be my very first [UK] gig with the band since joining them. I met the band, well I knew Zoltan before and Charlie [Engen]. Chris [Kael] and Ivan [Moody] I’d never met before so I met them at Wembley Arena which was in 2020. So it’s kind of mad that four years on it’s going to be my first show with the band. It should be good. I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be good as well as I’ve been living in Vegas for the last three years, or whatever, so there’s a bunch of people I haven’t seen for a while so it’s going to be good. My guest list is going to be fairly chocca! It’s going to be weird but great at the same time.
Other fans that caught up with Andy got to see his new signature BC Rich Guitar series (up close and in all of the colours) and one young shredder also learnt that ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ is one of his favourite 5FDP songs to play because of all the fire on stage.
If you’re interested in chatting to Andy James yourself, we recommend that you get over to BookIntro’s and join Andy’s waiting list so you can be among the first fans to join his next round of calls. The first round of Into’s sold out, so make sure you’re signed up up to get notified for upcoming slots. Fans can book sessions ranging from five minutes to 15 minutes either as one-to-one slots or, with up to four of your friends. The choice is yours. We did five minutes and covered a lot of ground, but we’d definitely suggest going for the longer slot (if you have the funds) or have extra questions you want to cover or specific guitar nuances you’d like to explore with Andy. The time goes very fast!
Hangouts are priced at $75 and $125 with a portion of every intro booked going to support MusiCares. MusiCares offers preventive, emergency, and recovery programs and is a safety net supporting the health and welfare of the music community. Founded by the Recording Academy in 1989 as a U.S. based, independent 501(c)(3) charity, MusiCares safeguards the well-being of all music people through direct financial grant programs, networks of support resources, and tailored crisis relief efforts.
To book a slot with Andy, all you need to do is head to the BookIntro’s website (linked below), sign up, select from the available times to secure you space and then on the day join the hangout.