An Interview with The Revolutionary Ward
- BuzzSlayers
- 17 minutes ago
- 6 min read
A set of songs released from The Revolutionary Ward brings out a massive and sonically driving array of rock music that takes all kinds of different directions, touching on everything from alternative rock to classic rock, and most things in between.
Throughout these singles, you can hear some southern undertone; shredding guitars, drums that don't just sit in the pocket, but rather give songs a lively energy and push them forward, and plenty of experimental songwriting along with added instrumentation peppered in, to give songs an almost theatrical tonality.
A perfect example of this is a trap called "Goodbye America, Pt 1", which features trumpets and some wild and almost psychedelic synthesizers.
Again, these particular elements are sort of sprinkled in but they do give an extra flair to the song and also let you fall deeper into its sentiment and message.
The vocals are robust and sort of in your face; they belt out, but they're very melodically driven, so you get attached to plenty of the hooks that are delivered throughout, not just the song, but the whole set of releases.
One of my favorite tracks throughout the whole set is one called "Howlin' Zombies", as it delivers this ferocious sort of guitar riff while still maintaining both elements of a thrashing rock and a classic rock approach all at the same time.
This one has a very forward-moving pace, and I feel like the vocals really take over. The vocals on this track and many others really rise above, and the energy levels of everything are just intense a lot of the time.
This is something I thoroughly enjoyed because this is sort of classic metal and hard rock combined, and the energy of both of those genres needs to be pretty up there.
This track in particular doesn't have as much of an experimental approach as some of the others, but I do love the catchiness of it and how powerful it actually is.
I think the guitar work on this track and throughout the whole record is absolutely outstanding.
You always have these great guitar lines or breakdowns, bridges, or main riffs that sort of throw a surprise at you.
This track has awesome guitar work that feels like a flurry of notes. Hammer-ons and pull-offs, augmented notes giving things a haunting undertone, and all the while the vocals are giving you a belly laugh, all leading back to that theatrical soundscape I mentioned earlier.
This track also has an outstanding bass guitar tone. The bass guitar work on a lot of these songs is ridiculous. Not just the tone itself, but the performances, that energy lining up with the rest of the band, and how it all falls together like puzzle pieces.
There are certain tracks where that bass guitar is really the driving force behind almost everything.
Throughout listening to all of these tracks, which by the way, there are 13 in total, you can definitely feel and take in these different influences. You can hear the classic influences, but you can also hear the newer ones as well.
Classic heavy and hard rock, along with 90s outside the box and experimental stuff like Primus, for example.
All of it shows face in different parts of different songs, which I found to be really refreshing, simply because you usually don't get this much variety or diversity, but still all the songs feel so consistent.
"G.I. Drone" avant-garde, experimental, art-heavy rock song that definitely breeds some of those underground '90s soundscapes, if you were someone who listened to that kind of stuff during the time.
Aside from the guitar and bass guitars pulling off all this crazy stuff, the drumming really came through in such a brilliant manner, because some of the time signatures are just amazing. This track is a perfect example of exactly that.
This is also an example of a track that puts you there, in the moment with the song itself. It feels almost like a lot of these were recorded live on the floor, and everyone involved was just feeding off of each other's energy the entire time.
So let's get into how this is actually made.
There's one man at the helm of the entire project named Chris Fazio. He is the main songwriter but is also a guitarist and vocalist. Throughout the songs, he plays all the guitars, performs all the vocals, and also performs some of the bass guitar work throughout.
The rest of the record was taken up by world-class musicians to finish the record off.
Christopher considers the songs to be modern rock, which they absolutely are, but again, they breed a lot of influence from different eras of rock music in general, all rolled into one, depending on which songs you are listening to.
Certain tracks like "Zany Orbit" feel much more light-hearted, with a funk approach, and come through as insanely danceable.
Others like "Free Peech" have an amazing Americana, folk, Southern tonality to it that feels both Whimsical, lighthearted, and inviting all at the same time.
Throughout this set of 13 tracks, you don't really know what to expect next, especially after you've listened to at least two or three.
Some of this songwriting is extremely in-depth, with messaging and sentiment that can hit certain nerves.
"Goodbye America" is definitely pretty heavy-handed in that sense, but is also an amazing track in terms of some of that guitar work and powerful, outstretched vocals that just give you this anthemic sound.
Rather than releasing them all as one record, these singles are dropped one by one, and you can listen to them all on Spotify.
Upon listening to these songs more than a few times, I knew I wanted to have a sit-down with Christopher to find out exactly where these songs may have come from, what the driving force was, what his influences were, and how it all began for him.
So, while you roll through these tracks, have a read through of our interview with Chris Fazio below, and remember where you heard all this first.
Hey Chris and thanks so much for taking the time! Let's get into the recent set of songs released from The Revolutionary Ward project! There are 13 in total and each one has something to offer! My favorite was probably Howlin' Zombies.
I am hearing a few different styles on these tracks. Who are some of your biggest musical influences?
My biggest influences for guitar is Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen Neal Schon. Songwriting wise my biggest influences are anything Top 20 Mainstream Radio from the 1950's to the mid 1990's. It seems everything after that became a bit Barbaric and Dark and less on the musicianship side and more on the shock value. I like well written songs with great hooks, solo's bridge's. Everything from Beatles, Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Survivor, to Burt Bacharach.
What are you performing on these songs?
I perform all Guitars - Lead Vocals - Bass on most songs - Synth on Zany Orbit - and Drums on Howlin' Zombies.
Do you play live at all?
No, It's all studio work lately
How did this all start for you as a songwriter?
I've done the band thing a few times. It's hard to get everybody on the same page consistently. I recorded some music in 2002 where I did all the instruments myself and I was pretty surprised at the outcome so I kept it going. Kinda like Dave Grohl, Lenny Kravitz, Hunter Hays. Write songs and record yourself and hire musicians to play it live. And now I'm 25 years into doing the songwriting myself and I hire musicians to play some studio work here and there. I 've met some great musicians along the way.
What's next for you? Working on more new releases?
Always working on new material and trying to record the backlog of material I sit on like every other musician out there. There is never enough time to finish recording.
You did a number of songs in one session at a studio and others over time. Where did you record these?
Out of this World Studio's in Miami and Purgatory Studio's in Broward
What kind of advice would you give to other up and coming songwriters or artists trying to get heard?
Put on your boxing gloves and get ready to fight A.I. Soon there will be no more musicians on the radio at all. It will all be A.I. generated music.
How long did it take you to finish all 13 songs?
The first project lasted about 3 months and the second project lasted 2 1/2 years.
What would you say people can expect to hear on these songs?
Big hooks, well written music, great musicianship (I HOPE) and some experimental boundaries being pushed. All being packaged in a radio friendly format. It is my belief that the only way Rock Music is going to get back on mainstream radio is were gonna have to tone down the violence, tone down the tempo remove the screaming and bring back more melodies and harmonies to compete with what is getting played now. Think late 1970's rock like Boston, Van Halen, Journey Foreigner. Stuff like that.
Before we go, what would you want to express to fans of the music?
Big thanks to Tommy for letting me crash on his couch for a few weeks, Thanks to Melissa for paying my phone bill last month. Thanks to Mike for giving me rides to practice and letting me raid his fridge, and a Big Big thanks to everyone who has come to the shows! Your the Best!
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