Lazarus AD interview with Alex Lackner

by Adam Warner – 2009

 

Hey Alex
What’s going on man, how are ya?

Good. So, what’s the meaning behind the name Lazarus AD?
Let me start from the beginning on terms of how was came up with it. When we started the band, we were originally just called Lazarus which I’m sure you’ve heard of. We put out our first disc which we made all by ourselves under Lazarus, and then we found out there was another band out of New York that had the name Lazarus. They had it for a while and had the common law trademark and we had talked with them early, well, attempted to talk to them and basically what we got was a letter in the mail saying that if we don’t change the name we’re going to see you court. Ok, so we’re like all right, well, a simple no would have done just fine but apparently we have to change the name. So around that time Metal Blade had picked us up and they wanted to keep Lazarus in the name and we did as well too. So we were looking at some different possible names and we came up with AD. It was simple enough to throw on there and the main focus of the name is still on Lazarus, and most people still know us as Lazarus. The AD can basically mean whatever the hell you want it to mean, some people look at it as After Death, which is the misleading term of the time after the death of Christ. Ya know, Lazarus after death, it’s cheesy but it works. You can look at it as Alcohol & Drugs, we like to smoke and we like to drink. Always Drunk, ya know, whatever you want it to be, we don’t care, it’s up to you really.

You guys just formed about 4 years ago, do you guys have a long history together or did you meet to form the band?
Jeff and Dan actually have the biggest relationship together right now, they knew each other back in I think it was 4th grade; so that is quite some time. I think I remember Dan saying at one point that when they first met, he pretty much hated Jeff because he was a looser and kind of a tool. So they never really hung out but after a while, Jeff saw that Dan was getting into metal and was playing the guitar. He was like “dude, that’s cool, I really like metal and I wanna get involved in this” and they started playing together, they played in a few bands here and there. And then they came across Ryan and they were in a band for, I wanna say maybe 2 years. Then at the same point when they were jamming, I was in another band and we had played shows together, so I knew of the guys but I didn’t really talk to them much but I knew of them. Then they were looking for a rhythym guitarist and I had just quit my band, so basically out of the blue they’re like “hey, we heard through the grapevine that you quit your band and we’re looking for a guitarist, you wanna jam?” and I was like yeah, do you guys got anything I can listen to and it goes on from there. They invited me to one of their shows, in fact the first show they ever did as Lazarus without me, and they basically did it for me. Ya know, to see if I liked what they were doing, and I did. After that I went and tried out for them and they said “yah dude, you’re in, your just the guy we need” so it’s gone pretty much from there.

With you guys being from Kenosha [Wisconsin], is that considered a Chicago suburb?
Kind of, it’s actually right in between Chicago and Milwaukee. So it’s actually a really cool area because you have both big cities right there.

Are all of you from Kenosha then or…
Yeah, I used to live out there in Kenosha County, and that’s when I initially met those guys. But I actually live in Grayslake which is in Illinois, it’s a real small suburb of Chicago.

With “The Onslaught” being released on Metal Blade, this is actually a second pressing of this album, so did you write a bunch of new material for this one?
No, actually it’s all the same material, but what we did was remix and re-master. On the original recording we had James Murphy [Death, Testament, Obituary] just master it, then we and Metal Blade wanted a bigger, better sound and we gave it back over to James, and he remixed and re-mastered it basically sounds like we re-recorded it. We moved around some of the tracks, it’s all new artwork, the whole layout and everything is all new, but the songs are all the same.

Describe in your own words what your style is like for people who may have never heard of you before?
I can honestly say it’s fast, it’s heavy, it’s thrash metal but more of a modern thrash metal. I’m glad a lot of people are picking up on that too because I’ve talked to a few people already who have said that it’s definitely a throwback to the old Bay area sound of the 80’s like Testament and Metallica, but we don’t sound just like them. It’s a lot more modern, has a lot more modern elements, it’s the way we play.

Are you guys big fans of Amon Amarth?
I’ve never met any of those guys, I’ve been listening to those guys for a while, so I’m actually really stoked to hit the road with them. The other guys are big metal fans too but I don’t think they got into much the overseas stuff, I know they listen to Arch Enemy and In Flames and stuff like that, but I don’t think they were really a huge fan of Amon Amarth. But I’m really the only one who listens to them.

You guys have previously scored gigs with Anthrax in 2006 and Testament in 2007, but what kind of touring have you done prior to the upcoming tour with Amon Amarth?
We’ve done not major tours, but there was a while where we were playing a lot of shows in Milwaukee with these guys Gates of Ruin, to be honest I don’t even know what they’re doing anymore. But they invited us to go out and do a week tour with them and at that point we had never really done anything so we were really gung-ho about it, ya know fuck it, let’s do it. So we jumped on board and it ended up being a disaster, most of the shows weren’t promoted at all and there was nobody there, but it was a good experience and you learn from it. So we did that, we’ve done a stint in Colorado, we played a couple shows out there; we’re good buddies with the band Havoc. We played a Dime[bag Darrell] tribute show in Omaha, NE that we had been invited to and so we did that. Then the most recent tour was with Within Chaos and Rikets, we went out on a 2 week stint with them that started in Texas and went all the way across to Florida then came back up through the states.

Oh, that must have been a nice warm tour?
Surprisingly, I was kind of disappointed. There wasn’t really that many warm days. It was a total fucking bummer, at that point dude it was snowing, there were blizzards and it was just freezing out HERE, and we get to Texas and it was pretty cold. We got to Florida and one of the nights off it was rainy and it was kind of a bummer, but…

Well yeah, for being mid-westerners up here like we are, we get a chance to go south and that’s supposed to be just fantastic, but then you get down there and it’s snowing and you just think “damn it, I could have had that at home”.
*laughs* Exactly! The worst part was after that tour, we get back home and the weather had given us the worst welcome home gift ever. There was like 6 inches of snow and it was freezing below zero and we were like “we don’t even want this, let’s just hit the road again”.

Earlier we had mentioned the viking metal legends Amon Amarth, however with me being in [Minnesota] Viking country and you being in [Green Bay] Packer country, do you follow much the rivalry between the two?
Kind of actually, we are pretty big football fans. When the football season comes around, that’s what we do. Ya know, we play music, we drink beer and we watch football. What’s really funny about this is, 50% of the band, me and my drummer Ryan are [Chicago] Bears fans. I used to live out here for most of my life so I followed the Bears. Ryan actually grew up in Gurney which is right out here too. Then when both of us moved out there [to Kenosha], they had lived out there their entire lives, so they were hardcore Packer fans. So have kind of a rivalry going on within the band.

So for you guys it’s more like Chicago vs Green Bay?
Really yeah, but we’ll watch the Vikings game, we don’t really care what’s happening cuz we’re still going to watch it, especially since they are right next door.

Earlier you had mentioned the Bay area thrash scene, but what other bands really influence your style?
We listen to all sorts of music, everything from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to rap, which is weird to say a metal band that listens to rap, but we do. As far as influence goes though, it would definitely be the older thrash bands that really made a name or metal, Metallica, Slayer, Pantera which is a fucking huge one, ya know, stuff like that. Those are the bigger inspirations but like I said, we do listen to everything.

What is your career goal for say the next year?
To do as much as we possibly can man, with these tours coming up we’re looking to tour and tour and tour and promote the shit out of this album. We really wanna make a name for ourselves and we really want the best, we are an extremely hard working band and we really want nothing but the best. As cheesy as that sounds, but it’s really what we strive for. We wanna make a name for ourselves just like Metallica and Pantera did back in the day. Nothing is set in stone, but probably a year from now we’ll be looking to get back into the studio.

Seeing as Lazarus AD has formed in the modern digital world, what is your stance on the downloading of music?
It sucks, I mean, I can’t say that I’m one that doesn’t do it cuz I definitely do. And I know everyone does, it’s hard not to. I still go out and buy the albums; that’s one of my biggest things. We’re all huge music fans and we know that’s how musicians survive is by the fans going out and buying the album, they gotta go to the shows. Back in the day we used to buy the CD’s religiously, I mean all the time. And now that new stuff is coming out, everyone is downloading everything. It’s hard to get past and like I said it does suck because we’re in the business now too, and people are going to download our shit which is fine to a certain extent, cuz as long as their listening to our music and come out to the show, at least we’ve got that.

What would you guys describe your stage show like?
Full on dude, we really pride ourselves on our live show. If you think the music is good on the album, come out to the live show. We practice all the time and get tighter and tighter, we really like interacting with the crowd. It’s like a big family when we get together and do that stuff, should be fun for everybody. So when we hit that stage dude, we get out there and just have a blast.

Speaking of the fans, is there a certain message that you are hoping your fans get from your music?
Not particularly, because with the way that we wrote the lyrics, they do have a lot of meaning towards us but at the same point we made them so that they had a very wide meaning for everyone. We really enjoy the fact that someone may listen to our lyrics and relate to them on their own level as opposed to trying to figure out what we’re trying to talk about.

Leaving it open to interpretation.
From personal issues to political issues to just a huge spectrum.

Alex, I thank you very much for your time.
Thanks a lot, we appreciate it.