After their consecutive exits from Megadeth last year, Chris Broderick and Shawn Drover have just released Act Of Defiance’s aptly titled debut record, ‘The Birth And The Burial’.
Chris and Shawn’s similar reasons for leaving Megadeth threw them straight into a new joint-venture. “We started writing it in early December. A big part of the reason, for us leaving, was because we didn't feel like we were getting to be that creative, or have that much input. When we decided to leave, we thought, now we can get creative and have some input, so let’s do it.”
Completing the four-piece metal powerhouse are Shadows Fall guitarist, Matt Bachand, on bass, and Scar The Martyr’s Henry Derek, on lead vocals. Henry was chosen out of 30 possible vocalists, after flexing his chops on the demo version of ‘Legion Of Lies’. “They were all great vocalists. It came to narrowing it down through things like: what is their schedule going to be like? Do they play with other bands? Is their voice suited for where we want to go with this band? We narrowed it down to five people, and sent them our first demo. When Henry's came back, we knew he was the guy.”
The band are about to embark on their first US tour, which will be Chris’ first tour in over 12 months. “It's going to be fun – just hitting the clubs – getting to know the fans again and reacquainting myself with that whole vibe and that side of life. It's going to be on a more intimate level and we're going to build it from there. We're going to make it as big of a party atmosphere as possible.”
Chris is pretty confident that Australia and New Zealand will be added to their list of dates. “I wish I were heading there tomorrow. We don't have anything confirmed just yet, but I know that we've talked about hitting the Pacific Rim, and that of course will include Australia and New Zealand. I'd definitely like to get down there sooner rather than later.”
With their respective years of industry experience, Chris and Shawn know their way around the business-verses-pleasure debacle of our times. “You have to do a lot more leg-work to get things done, and there is less in return, monetarily. You have to produce ten times the amount of content, but at the same time, the pay has gone down. For me, personally, that's not at all what Act Of Defiance is about. We definitely want to make a living from what we're doing, but that’s not our goal at all. We just want to be creative musicians, and hopefully people will dig it.”
Despite their strong partnership, Chris is adamant that Matt and Henry will be making equal contributions to the band. “I have a feeling we're going to be letting go more and more, in some of those aspects and decisions, as we get to know Henry and Matt better. We're already working with them on what decisions we should make on tour … the more time that we're together, the more time we will become an all-in, equal-member band.”
For ‘The Birth And The Burial’, each member recorded their individual parts remotely; an approach Chris finds more efficient. “There's no real need for anybody to be in the same place at the same time, watching each other record their parts. There's always a trade-off… it’s great to get that vibe from hanging out with them and seeing what they think. But at the same time, with everybody having independent schedules, it really helps to be able to record whenever you have the time. It's a lot less stressful than having to take time out of your calendar, and designate specific time to record.”
Another occupation Chris undertakes remotely is guitar teaching, via Skype. “You’ll have to give a shout out to Raouf – he’s one of my students. He’s a great guitarist; his band is Dark Symphonica. He’s right there in Brisbane, and I’m in LA... I do all my lessons on Skype.”
‘Birth And The Burial’ is out now.
