It was from out in the peaceful country in Lawrence, Kansas last week, and before the tenth show on their current U.S. run, where vocalist John Baizley sat down to contemplate his last few years.
With the four-piece storming Australia in December, it was the perfect time for the frontman to reflect on just how far Baroness have come since appearing at Soundwave two years ago.
“I think since that particular tour, we really have come leaps and bounds ahead of where we were then. At that point, we felt very confident and now with the new record (Purple) and having toured pretty consistently since it’s come out… The tours are going really well, and as a band we’ve really become more cohesive than I anticipated.”
Baizley’s surprise stems from the heavy uncertainty surrounding the band when their tour bus crashed back in 2012, injuring nine on board and leaving three members in hospital for almost two weeks. Still suffering permanent nerve damage and with sizeable metal plates in his arm, the vocalist reflects on having to medicating with painkillers, and struggling with the temptation to overdose earlier on in his recovery.
“Everybody’s got a history, and I have one. It’s not something I’m particularly proud of, and it’ll be a weight on my shoulders for the rest of my life. But currently it’s not as much of an issue as it has been over the rollercoaster ride of the past four years. Things don’t necessarily get easier in terms of what I wake up feeling, but I have no choice but to get used to it. There’s a variety of ways of treating it and I’ve tried them all… I’m just trying to be responsible, a decent person and to not lose myself in the situation I’ve been dealt.”
While the ordeal was too much for former drummer Allen Blickle and ex-bassist Matt Maggioni, Baizley has never given up on Baroness, and the musician bluntly drops an analogy that continues to resonate with him.
“What I believe happened was that we were injured on our way to work, just like anybody else out there goes through. If you’re a carpenter on the way to a job site, you get in a car accident and can recover, you’re not going to quit being a carpenter. So even though everything became much more difficult and will remain so, that didn’t lessen my drive to push forward. In fact, the record for me was a rehabilitation process, proving to myself and myself only that it was possible when there were initially doubts. I didn’t know if it was going to come out alright, but we just worked hard. It wasn’t always easy, but there was never any dip in our interest in our music, even with our new lineup.”
“Every night on tour, we play every song from that record, and I’m proud that we made it.”
Here Baizley is referring to Baroness’ fourth effort released last year, a profound resurgence for a group left broken and scarred. Making the record wasn’t only a chance for the four-piece to make a musical statement, but for the highly creative Baizley to work alongside model Hattie Watson on the album cover.
Watson stated that the frontman gave her free reign to do what she wanted, and Baizley whole-heartedly agrees that it ended up matching his own vision.
“The initial idea for the artwork was fairly ambitious. Before we had anything, there was the idea that I could do this thing where we could split it into four quadrants and each one would stand as its own unique piece. At the time I thought it was a cool idea and that I could do anything, but the reality of it was daunting to say the least. There are some guidelines that I have with making art, one of which is that I work from life. So the idea that I’d have to find four models and have them interact in some way wasn’t realistic.”
“When I was working with Hattie, it became obvious immediately that she could adapt to the role of four people simultaneously. I said ‘You’re just going to have to pretend that there are other versions of you that you’re interacting with’.”
“It took a phenomenal amount of work and research, but that’s no different to anything else that I do, so I was very happy with it. It’s easily my favourite piece.”
Purple is also the first album to feature newer members Nick Jost (bass) and Sebastian Thomson (drums), making their live debut in mid-2013 on the band’s first US headlining tour since the accident. According to Baizley, it was those horrific circumstances which gave their shows new life.
“I think the most interesting and obvious thing to me that’s happened this past three or four years through touring is I’ve seen a marked difference in the attitude, energy and enthusiasm of our audience… There now has become this elevated sense of positivity that people have and when that exists in a room, it drives us further. That’s a goal that you can really set out to achieve, it’s there or it’s not, and those nights that it is we’re thrilled.”
“We’ve seen the gender gap narrow, the age gap broaden, and there’s just a wider variety of fans. With our mindset being that we want to be highly inclusive in what we do, I think our new record and the one before that stands the testament that we’ve written music that is so.”
It’s that solidarity between the fans and the band alike that has kept the guys pushing on, and Baizley maintains that “the mark of any decent group of people, and especially with the way we do things, is that everybody’s looking out for everybody else. That’s the cornerstone of our band.”
“The type of music that we play and the way we devote ourselves to it requires full commitment from everybody, and part of that is that we genuinely have love for one another. With any relationship, if people don’t have your back, you’re not in a good situation. So Pete (Adams, guitar) and I made sure we reassembled our band, crew and team with people who had that mindset.”
Something that never factored into that mindset was wanting to “make a living” out of playing music. In fact, considering this Baizley admits “that part was sort of a symptom of our passion for doing this. The initial idea that we had, and this was like six lineups ago, was that we could use the band as a creative outlet where we could express ourselves in any form we wanted.”
“That has never changed, and I think the fact that it hasn’t is surprising for me, because everything else in life tends to change. But if you can retain passion for something and for that long… It’s just nice that something can be stable and positive.”
Baroness are a must-see when they take their latest album live on tour with them in December, alive and stronger than ever before.
BARONESS AUSTRALIAN TOUR
Tickets available through Live Nation
