Catching Up With ELECTRIC AGE - An Interview With Jason Ogle

Jason from NOLA/Sludge/Stoner Metallers – Electric Age – contacted me recently to do an interview where Jason wanted to discuss the band's future plans for 2018 and beyond.

If you don't remember Electric Age, they released a superb album – Sleep Of The Silent King - earlier this year. You can read my review here and a previous interview that I did with the band earlier this year.

Lets see what Electric Age have in store for us in 2018. Read on for more info.

Hi Jason. How are things with you today.

Great man!! Beautiful weather in South Louisiana!!

So what have you been upto since the release of your new album earlier this year.

Playing some shows and writing the new album. We slacked off shows a bit after summer to finish the album. It was nice get back in the rehearsal room and just play and have fun. There was a point were we kind of hit a rut by going too hard. Now we have the fire back!!

You're about to head into the studio to record some new material. Can you give our readers what will you be recording. Album, EP, Single of some sort.

Yes we hit our friend Kib from 4Mag Nitrous studios on Dec. 2 and couldn't be more excited to get going. It's gonna be a full length but not nearly as long as the last one. This one is more of a straight up rocker.

What can people expect from this record.

Just a heavy rock record. One thing about us is we aren't scared to break out of genres. Although it will be heavy we have two acoustic songs and some interesting things on it. They listener will have to interpret it their own way.

Will it be different from your last album. Can we expect some different sounds.

Well when Sleep Of The Silent King was written I was actually playing guitar. We lost a bass player or 3 and being my natural instrument is bass, I stepped over to it. So the last album was a two guitar concept record. The band now has jelled as a 3 piece and this record will be more stripped down and less orchestrated. It's just 3 guys jamming

When will you be releasing this new record.

We are shooting to be finished recording by Christmas and mixing right after. As far as a release date, we are still working on that stuff. No later than spring I'm sure

Do you have a title for the record yet?

Well...nobody knows it yet, we have been messing around with artwork and ideas but I'll give you the scoop. The record will be called Painter of Saints and we have some cool artwork stuff we are getting ready.

Will Argonauta Records will be releasing this record. Or will you be releasing it by yourselves or via a different label.

Actually I sent Argonauta some pre-production demos about an hour ago. We just got started with "the business" side of all that. Argonauta is a great label and we have had nothing but positive things happen with Gero and the crew. We are not sure which way we are going yet but we should have all that and release details coming up by the first of the year.

So do you have any exciting plans happening in 2018 that you like to share with us.

Nothing super special get back out and play some shows and push the new record. We are working on getting a worldwide web store up and we shall see what the new year holds. I wanna do a live record later next year but I'll have to talk the guys into it. Ha!!

Looking back on 2017, what have been your high points and low points as a band.

High was finally getting that last record out after so long. As far as low points we really didn't have any except maybe a little fatigue. We are all such good friends we never have any problems or drama in this band.

Would you change anything at all in 2017 what happened to Electric Age.

Other than getting a couple of big shows we wanted nope.

What have been your favourite albums of 2017.

The Age Of Truth's new record Threshold has been in constant play lately, everyone check it out. Let me see, Forming The Void-Relic, Paramaya-Love, Fire And Dangerous Things come to mind. I really listen to a lot of older stuff and talk radio.

Before you go, do you have anything to say to your fans.

Thanks for all the support from everyone. I still smile when I see people from all over the world digging our music or messaging us and liking the record. Don't worry the new one will be good!!

Thanks for doing this. All the best with your future endeavours.

Thank you brother!! Anytime and be safe!!

Words by Steve Howe and Jason Ogle.

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp

An Interview with Electric Age

Progressive Sludge/NOLA/Stoner Metallers – Electric Age have just released their fantastic new album – Sleep of The Silent King. Electric Age bring something different to the scene as they blend progressive sludge/stoner riffs against a backdrop of legendary NOLA based sounds.

Newly signed to Argonauta Records, I wanted to find out more about the band and I'm happy to say that Shawn Tucker (Lead Vocals, Bass, Guitar) and Jason Ogle (Guitar, Bass, Vocals) have agreed to do this interview.

Hi guys. How are things with you today.

Jason - Great!

Can you give a brief history of how the band came about and where it is today.

Jason - We started about 3 years ago with me and Kelly just jamming. We tried out some singers and bass players but no one that stuck. On the recommendation of a friend we called Shawn who I've been in several bands with and known for 20+ years. He came and jammed and it immediately worked out.

Shawn - Yeah, I had been playing metal for years in other bands and was getting away from it and getting into the whole acoustic singer-songwriter thing when they called and asked me to come and sing over some stuff they had been writing, my only request was that I had to play guitar also, being that I had only been singing for a couple of years and the whole idea of being the “singer” was still foreign to me. Jason was playing guitar at the time, so we did go through a couple of bass players, but even though creatively things were happening, things didn’t really start cooking until Jason took over the bass, that’s when it really clicked.

How would you describe your overall sound.

Jason - I like to say just Heavy Rock/Metal but we get lumped into other genres. Some recent reviews compared us to COC and Thin Lizzy which I’ll talk all day long!!

Shawn - Heavy rock with elements of all the styles of music we love to play and grew up listening to, it’s hard to get away from the Sabbath thing because in a way it all evolved from there, but we all have a wide range of influences that probably found it’s way onto this album from blues to classic rock and all things stoner.

So we are here to talk about your debut album – Sleep Of The Silent King. What can people expect from the album.

Shawn - We wanted to write an album that could be listened to all the way through as almost one piece of music and also have each song stand on its own, so I hope we succeeded in that, but really something you can have playing in the background while you’re drinking a beer on one listen, then completely dive into on the next.

What influenced you all when recording the album.

Jason - The usual Sabbath, The Sword, and I was listening to a lot of The Winery Dogs/Richie Kotzen around that time

Shawn – Beer

The album has quite an epic and progressive feel to it. Even though you include a wide range of different sounds. Was it a fulfilling or frustrating experience recording the album.

Shawn - This album was written mostly with a two guitar line-up, so the overall sound, layering, and final production ended up being something way more progressive and dynamic than we thought we would end up with, and although we have a slightly different approach to songwriting as a three-piece now, the epic feel just kind of happened naturally and lent itself perfectly to the overall content. Much appreciation to Zeuss, who mixed and mastered the album, he played a huge role in creating a weight to the sound that we may not have noticed before then.

Jason - Both! it was fun to write and kinda tedious to record but the end result is fulfilling because we accomplished what we set out to do.

What is the overall theme of the album.

Shawn - It’s about one person’s journey towards whatever it is that that one aspires to find, in whatever lifetime they find themselves in. This one person just happens to be a king and his particular aspiration is the truth of existence, the meaning of life and death, the reality of the divine or the lack of that reality, and whether that ultimate enlightenment is attainable, played out in a kind of mythological storyline. We decided to go with some light subject matter for the first album and then go from there.

The albums received some pretty good reviews so far. Has that surprised you the way people are reacting to your album.

Jason - Yes! I mean thought it was good and believed in it, We knew our friends/people close to us said it was good but you never know until you send “your baby” out how it's gonna be received.

Shawn - Absolutely. I didn’t know if anyone beyond our friends would end up hearing this album in the beginning, so everything’s a win at this point.

Will you be touring this record heavily in the United States.

Jason - No we will just be doing regional stuff for now

The album is being released on Argonauta Records How did that come about.

Jason - We had talked to another label that was booked up for 2017 and they recommended Argonauta. Gero and his staff have been great to us and they are really on a roll at the moment.

Did you have any offers from other labels.

Jason - Nothing that went into serious negotiations

You're from Louisiana and that city is synonymous with the legendary NOLA Sludge/Doom/Stoner Scene. Is being from NOLA a blessing or a curse.

Jason - We live outside of NOLA but we have a lot of friends there and play there regularly. NOLA’s been great to us! We had Mike Holderbeast (Down,Crowbar, etc.) do our first video with Kyle Thomas (Trouble, Exhorder, Floodgate) acting in it. Those guy’s are synonymous with the NOLA scene so that really helped put us on the map. Crowbar gave us a couple of show in big venues to help get us kicked off so everyone has been great to us.

Do you get the chance to perform gigs in your home-town on a regular basis

Jason - Oh yea we play around the state regularly.

What are you favourite bands from the NOLA scene.

Jason - As far as NOLA of course all the bands everybody knows about Crowbar, Soilent Green, Down etc. but what's cool is there are some bands technically outside of NOLA that are doing really good like Big Frank, Forming The Void, Sideburner, Paramaya, White Light Cemetery, Ambassador etc.. I could on forever there is so many good bands down here and someone's gonna be mad because I left them out haha,

Are you all involved with different musical projects or is Electric Age your main band.

Jason - I'm always messing around with something me and Shawn were about to start up an old project we had recently but Louisiana was hit with a major flood and 3 of the members houses were destroyed.

Before you go, do you have anything to say to your fans.

Jason - Thanks to everyone that's enjoyed the record. We have a good bit of new tunes written and should have a new one out late this year! Cheers

Shawn - Thanks to everyone!

Words by Steve Howe, Jason Ogle and Shawn Tucker.

Sleep Of The Silent King is available on CD/DD from Argonauta Records now.

Links:

Facebook | BandCamp