They say that you should never meet your heroes. Well, all I have to say to those people is: you need to choose better heroes. In my experience, this has always been bad advice (well, with one exception). One of the joys of interviewing a band on behalf of a fanzine or other publication is the anticipation of which band member(s) you’re going to get. No offence to Alan, John or Charlie but I was delighted to see (Lodestar vocalist) Heitham Al-Sayed walk into the Hope & Ruin for a chat with yours truly before their recent Brighton gig. Whilst short of stature, the guy has always been a giant in my eyes – ever since I saw him jointly fronting rap-rock pioneers Senser back at the Phoenix Festival in 1993 (Glasto ‘94 and ’95, and headline gigs in 2008 and 2009). He also wrote (co-wrote?) one of my favourite songs of all time (and we’re talking top 5): “Age of Panic”.
After introductions (mispronouncing his name – not the best start) and while I was setting up the voice recorder, Heitham commented on the Bloodywood T-shirt I was wearing.
I just saw this band at an exhibition of heavy metal in Paris… a big cultural event which I got invited to. I saw a little bit of it and it was mind-blowing, I mean it’s a great idea.
After agreeing that there are a lot of innovative acts around the world now, combining metal with other flavours, and in the name of full disclosure, I started by addressing the elephant in the room, stating my love of Senser and the first album, Stacked Up, in particular. I wasn’t sure if it would be a delicate subject and their PR didn’t pick up on my subtle prodding beforehand.
I love it when bands mash up different styles to good effect, were Senser one of the first?
I think so, and Pop Will Eat Itself maybe? Consolidated… but they were kind of parallel to us. And Disposable Heroes (of Hiphoprisy) but they weren’t doing the same thing.
Lodestar were first formed by Heitham, Alan ‘Haggis’ Haggarty (who was the sound engineer at the time), John Morgan on drums and (original) guitarist Jules Hodgson, when they split from Senser back in 1996 to scratch their metal itch. Was the band formed so that you could focus on the heavier aspects of what Senser were doing?
I wanted to do singing “vocals” (rather than rap), to do a different type of song, and so did Johnny and Haggis. In hindsight, we probably should have done it in parallel (with Senser) and taken six months off but we decided we had to do it full time. We just wanted to do something different. We like a lot of different types of music and that (self-titled) first record came out pretty good I thought.
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I confess that I don’t really remember hearing their first album but, having checked it out on YouTube recently, I thought it was a lot more similar to what Senser were doing anyway, at least compared to the new material.
Well, there’s only one track that really has that kind of rap delivery. I wanted to break from the machine-gun rapping and do more melodic songs. And sing in a different way as well, exploring darker, more mysterious, heavy music.
I mentioned that I hadn’t seen any lyric sheets for the Lodestar songs but couldn’t really work out what a lot of them were about.
I don’t think there are any. The songs are about specific things (sometimes more specific than others). Senser had nicely turned phrases, poetry and metaphor and so on, but everything is delivered. With Lodestar, there is ambiguity, so the listener can imagine and project a little bit more. It keeps things a bit more mysterious. Either you unravel it or you don’t, or you care about it or you don’t, but nothing is at face value.
I explained a bit about my creative past and agreed that the most interesting writing has an element of ambiguity or double meaning.
That’s the idea of art, isn’t it? It can be about anything or nothing… a song can be about the decline of modern society or your cat or whatever… Actually, on this record (Zonen) the songs do have meanings but they have the quality where you are allowed to interpret what they are about, which is great. Senser is very direct, in fact the new album has a chorus which says “I am speaking directly to you”.
Heitham confirmed that he was still involved with Senser (noting the How to do Battle sticker on my notebook) and, in fact, they never actually stopped. Haggis was, initially, Lodestar’s sound engineer but he played his first gig on guitar for them at their London date, yesterday! I asked how the first gig went and what reaction they got from the crowd.
He was really good, yeah. Things went well. Last night, (the crowd) were a little bit older but I think there will be a few younger ones today.
My friend at Hailsham FM played one of your new tracks the other day, I think it was “Bring me the Head”, and Matt (PR) sent a copy of the new album (an incredible 27 years after the first), which made me think ‘ooh this is pretty good’. I like the fact that there are still different elements mixed up in it and it’s not just straightforward. It sounds beefier than Senser, with bits of Sabbath, Zeppelin, psychedelia…
It’s a completely different sound. Psychedelic? Oh you mean the last track – yes it has more of a Donovan influence and it’s actually a cover version of a Sensational Alex Harvey Band song (“The Harp”). If you listen to the album, there are a lot of influences from the 90s, stuff that we love… Bitch Magnet… I won’t list everything but we’re all influenced by different things – we don’t hide it. Some of it people know, some of it they don’t but, in the end, you just do what sounds good to you. We’re not going to do a tribute band but some people really try to hide those influences and we just don’t.
Zonen sounds a lot heavier than the first album. Do you think you will reintroduce some of the different (Senser-like) elements into future Lodestar material or keep it heavier and beefier?
I think they are separate things. There is no need for them to be overlapping. It’s much more fun to have two very separate things, it keeps things interesting.
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We talked a bit about different festivals and the fact that some of the most enjoyable acts I have witnessed have been those who don’t quite fit in with the typical sound or demographic of the overall festival (Ferocious Dog at Bloodstock Open Air as an example).
Festivals like Hellfest and Download are so varied because that universe is so wide, it encompasses everything now. Music is a dynamic medium and if you’re listening to a whole day of the same thing it loses that dynamic. Having said that, I do like watching a band like Mayhem but, even in those black metal bands there are dynamics. I’ve never been but am curious to see if what we do would be suitable at Bloodstock, whether people would go for it?
I certainly think they would. I mention that one of the best received bands at last year’s Bloodstock was Royal Republic (a Swedish guitar-driven rock/pop band)…
I think it’s obviously something very subtle that speaks to people… even a band like Ghost, when you actually listen to their music, there’s just a little something in there that appeals to people but I don’t really think of it as ‘metal’. It just has to be some strange, indefinable thing. And if you could define it, then everyone would be doing it. I think heavy audiences are very loyal… I’ve seen some big bands do three bad albums in a row and the fans will still come back for more because they are very loyal. That’s the magic of it.
So, talking of touring, have Lodestar just got the four dates lined up at the moment? Is it, effectively, an album launch tour?
Yeah. We’re just really kind of starting again. We just made a really good record and we want to play it. We’re just starting to play gigs again but there’s no big machine behind us.
What made you get back together to make this album, was it a particular person’s idea?
Well, we have all stayed friends and have always been in touch. Haggis is an excellent sound engineer and producer and he started making these demos and little pieces of music, which we started putting voices and drums to, and that was it.
So will you mainly be playing tracks from the new album tonight?
Yeah, so we are mainly playing tracks from the new album, with a few from the first album.
Will you be playing “Another Day” (an absolute banger from the first album)?
Yes.
Ok, I’ll stay (mutual laughter.) Do you have pre-gig rituals, a bag of dead crows to sniff or something like that?
No, I try and warm up my voice a little bit because what I’m doing is quite varied… just regular stuff. I don’t have any vapoury things. It might be nice but I don’t do that, I just get up and do it.
I mention that I intend to buy Charlie’s book later (Charlie Beddoes is the new bassist and formed Rub Ultra, among others, back in the day.) There is an excellent quote on the dust jacket which states “More ambition than sense”. I love that. Did you approach her to join the band or did she approach you?
She’s amazing. The fact that she’s involved in this has made the whole thing much more exciting. I had known her on and off over the years in the scene and said ‘would you be up for doing it?’ We sent her the songs and she said ‘yeah.’ We are proud and lucky to have her on board.
And with that, I let Heitham go back to his preparations, as the doors had already been opened by the time we finished (although I could have carried on for some time). What a scholar and a gentleman… my desire to carry on meeting my heroes remains intact.
