Corbin King. The Master Axeman himself ! Dude, you freakin' SHRED ! How are things ? You just came off of DragonCon.
- Thanks!!! Things are going great! Here at the Vainglory camp we're gearing up to knock out some new tunes for a new CD that we hope to have surface sometime in the early months of '08.
Yeah, Dragon*Con!! What an amazing experience! I've never seen or been a part of something like that! It was unbelievable, I recommend everyone to check out a Dragon*Con at least once. The scale of that event is really hard to put into words. We made a shitload of new friends and fans and just had an incredible positive time there. All the staff and crew were kick ass and went above and beyond with us. The sound engineers were a blast! I hope to see some pics and video of the show very soon! We hope to be a part of Dragon*Con next year too!!
First off, let's get into history. You've been around for a while, and Vainglory in itself had a life of it's own
before Kate joined. Tell me about Vainglory's inception. What started it all ?
- I set my goals at a young age to have a Heavy Metal band! I devoted my life to playing guitar and writing music. In my early twenties I ran into David Chastain at a concert here in Atlanta. I spoke with him very briefly to say hello and he gave me one of his business cards for Leviathan Records. I called him about a week later in hopes I could submit some demo tapes for a development deal for a band. I did, and he gave me some great advice and pointers to refine the material. About another year passed and I had what I felt to be a pretty happenin CDs worth of music written and so I resubmitted it to David and he liked what he heard. As time passed from there we basically formed a band around me and the music. I always wanted a real band and everyone to be local so we could rehearse and play shows. Unfortunately this wasn't possible. Everyone lived in different states for the most part. So we made the band as best we could but it was definitely more of a studio band than anything. The name Vainglory came about between me and David. We would just brainstorm long lists of possible names and one day I was going over some names he sent and it just caught me eye. It just looked metal sitting there on the page! I know that Vainglory has some meanings that certainly don't pertain to me or any of us as far as our attitudes or dispositions, but I honestly just chose it because of how it sounded. I mean Vainglory just sounds metal to me! Also the way the logo came out just solidified it all and I'm very happy with it!
And so then Kate joins the picture. I understand you held auditions and Kate auditioned several times. What made the decision to go with Ms. French ?
- I did hold many auditions. After the 1st had been around for a while I decided to try again and get some people in my area. The process of writing a new CD had begun and from start to finish this next rebuild of the band would prove to take years in the making. When I had the music written and scratch track recorded I began the hardest search of all, the vocalist! I went thru singer after singer. Some sounded great, others weren't my style. In the end I still felt unsatisfied like I was settling for less than I wanted. I did that on the 1st CD and decided that I'd rather not make a new CD than to have it come out any other way than exactly how I wanted it to. It wasn't until David brought up the idea of sending Kate French a song to demo for me. I said sure, I hadn't really thought about the idea of a female singer but I was open to the idea for sure. A few weeks passed and I received a CD in the mail. Upon first listen I actually said out loud "This is the fucking one right here!" I told David I didn't care what we had to do to make it happen but Kate had to sing on the CD. Kate and I began corresponding thru email and phone after that point and I do suppose the rest is history!
Do you feel Vainglory would be as popular as it is now without the Corbin/Kate killer combination ?
- No I don't. I mean, you just can't deny the chemistry and the perfect counterpart match that we have. For the 1st time in my life I feel totally happy and at rest with our musical companionship. I can rest in the fact that I know anything she does is the equivalent of me doing it myself, you know... job done 110%! I think we compliment each other very well in our musicianship and overall foresight of the band and its direction and sound. I really feel fortunate to have been so lucky as to have her involved with this band and the music. I think that people can hear, feel, and see the difference in this band now!
Tell me a bit about the new self titled CD :
- I think each and every song is strong and can stand on its own. There are some very heavy hitters on there and over an hour of killer heavy fuckin metal with the utmost musicianship from each of us. I think anyone that is a fan of real deal metal will dig the shit out of it! Nothing is watered down, no one told us how to write or what to include, we made a CD how we wanted. There's cool sound effects before some songs, like the war montage of sounds I made for Walking Dead, and the bad ass Chevy 350 engine my dad build that I recorded for the intro to Midnight Hellfire! So all I can say is pick up a copy and see what all the fuss is about! Hahaha! Oh yeah, also if you put the CD in your computer there's a video for the song 'Burdened' on there!
Vainglory as it is now Kicks Ass ! That's certain. You're a very powerful group. You're guitar playing in particular stands out on the CD. It's been said you are a guitar virtuoso, and I agree. Who taught Corbin King what he knows ? Self taught ?
- Well thank you very much. I certainly don't get all caught up on myself or anything but I do take pride in my playing and it means a lot to me. It means even more when something I played affects someone else. That's a real honor!
I got my first guitar at age 5 or so but of course didn't play it or anything at that age, it was just for fun. I begged my parents for a long time and got and electric guitar and amp when I was 9. I loved them! I got a Les Paul copy and a 12 watt Marshall practice amp. I wanted to play so bad but had no idea what the hell to do! I would literally just beat on the strings and make a buncha fuckin racket! It wasn't until I was 11 that I decided I had to learn how to play guitar and particularly lead guitar. I got into my mom's albums like Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, and Black Sabbath. I hear those records and became possessed to play. I used guitar magazines, books, and any other reference guides I could find on guitar. I literally just played and taught myself for years to come. I gotta tell ya it's not the easiest way to go about the craft, but I do feel there is some very important things you learn by discovering things yourself. The only thing I wish I could've had was a good teacher early on that would have shown me some shortcuts and to prevent some bad habits! Anyway, this went on until I got into high school. I got involved in music theory class we had at school and I met a great guy that became my guitar teacher until I was about 18. I took lessons from Howie Bentley (Cauldron Born) from when I was around 15-18 years old. He was single handedly the guy that steered me in the right direction as to what the fuck Yngwie was playing and all those guys like Jason Becker/ Marty Friedman, Paul Gilbert etc.... The combination of Howie and a great theory teacher really propelled me into overdrive towards my guitar goals. Of course hours of ritualistic daily practice had a lot to do with it too!! I finished a college level theory class in high school and actually had a scholarship for classical guitar/ theory when I graduated high school but I never went...I wanted to play guitar in a metal band!! From that point I was able to continue my musical studies on my own and I have somehow made it to where I am. I will say to any of you aspiring guitarists out there...there are no quick fixes or play like a pro overnight type courses, so don't be fooled out of your money. The only way to get where you want is by busting your ass and puttin in the hours!
I understand you do your own Studio work. That's admirable. Which is more difficult, coming up with new material or mixing ?
- Coming up with the new material is a pretty natural process. It's a creative flow that fuels itself for the most part. Just some good ole inspiration and a great attitude and the music just pours outta me, but if I'm stressed or my mind is cluttered with too much, I find it hard to create. The engineering/ mix/ master process is probably a little harder I'd say. With technology ever changing there can be some huge learning curves to all the various softwares and what not. Aside also from there being so many variables in sound, tones, and mixing/ effects you can sometimes become overwhelmed with too many choices. We all know too many choices isn't healthy!! In regards to the mixing stuff, I've found you just need to keep it all in check from the simplest train of thought you can. Most importantly make sure the product you've recorded is as good as it can be going into the whole finishing process. If it's good quality going in you can get a great product going out. But if it's shit in, you know what they say...shit out. You can't polish a turd!
So, in conclusion I'm going with the writing and creative process is easier than the post production work!
Do you see a King Recording studio opening up for Bands anywhere on the horizon ?
- I'd love for that to happen. I have offered my studio to a select few already but due to other commitments from them all I haven't done a lot of studio work for other bands. My first band aside from something I've played on that I did was the Cauldron Born CD 'And Rome Shall Fall'. It was actually my first full production CD from beginning to end. For the time I think it came out very well. Of course my abilities and the studio have grown 100fold, so I am able to produce just about anything at this point I'd say. we are in pre production of the next Vainglory CD right now too! It's sounding about 10 times heavier than the current CD if you can imagine that!
But yeah...any bands interested just send an email to me at info@vainglorymetal.com and we'll talk about your ideas.
Every guitarist has a wide range of influences, so let's narrow this down : Which ONE guitarist is the biggest influence on you and why ?
- Well, if I can only choose one I will go with Yngwie Malmsteen. Overall he has impacted me the most. His complete and total command of the instrument is absolutely not of this earth. I have never witnessed another guitarist breathe the instrument as he does. I know lots of folks shit talk him and whatever, but I can assure you he is the real fuckin deal. I have many other influences that cover all the aspects I have digested over the years to mold into my own, but to stick with the requirements of this question I must go with Yngwie.
You're into theory, instruction, technique, and kicking ass on guitar. One could say you are one with the guitar. Do you play any other instruments ?
- Guitar is the one and only instrument that I will actually profess that I can play well. But I can keep some fairly good beats on the drums and playing bass isn't that big of a deal, at least the way I approach it! Hahaha....just basically playing the same type of lines as I do on guitar except I think it out a little different /harmonically/ melodically so the bass covers with the drums more and also compliments the guitar lines with harmony where needed.
How about songwriting ? Are you really into that, or are they just something to wrap guitar licks around ?
- I am 100% into the song. I've certainly gone though the guitar craze phase years back, but I am all about the overall picture of the song nowadays. If you don't have a great song then there's no reason to play at all. A guitar solo is supposed to compliment an already strong song not be the strong point with a piece of shit song. You can bet your ass the new Vainglory CD we're working on right now with lay you out with the intensity and the massive riffs! These songs will not pass inspection unless every single track could stand as the only track on the CD. The guitar solo side of things will follow at that point.
You've played in quite a few Concerts. Any special moments stand out ? Good and Bad. And feel free to give us the dirt.
- They were all great ones. Trust me there has been drama involved with most of them, like any job in life, but at the end of the day they have all been a positive experience for us in some way. Monterrey Metal Fest III kicked fuckin ass all over the place! Those fans were absolutely amazing! We loved our gig with Doro Pesch also, she was very nice to us and we made a lot of friends. The only thing I didn't understand about that gig was it was supposed to be a festival for female fronted bands. We were co-headlining for Doro and yet at the last minute we had to go on sooner than scheduled because Chris Caffery wanted to play 5 or so songs of his own where he sang and played guitar. It really didn't make any sense and kinda fucked up the vibe for the night, at least for me it did. It was actually fuckin lame to be honest. But anyway, we love playing and we are now working with a new booking agent and have some killer shows coming real soon. DragonCon was unbelievable! I've never witnessed anything like that before! We rocked the fuck out at that gig and made tons of friends and contacts from the convention, primarily the sound crew and vendor relations! We had some drama there too with one of the CD vendors, you know just some mindless babble bullshit that doesn't amount to anything. You just have to expect things like that when you associate with individuals that don't take real life shit into consideration and aren't playing with a full deck to begin with!
All in all, things have been amazing for us and we are very appreciative of everyone we've worked and played with and we look forward to playing many more great shows very soon!
When you do play a live show, which song is the one that you enjoy belting out the most ?
- I love our opener 'Walking Dead' because we have the war sounds blaring out at first just to get the mood going and then that song just rips the shit outta you from first note to last! I also enjoy ' Face Of Death' and ' Blackened Soul' a lot!!
So is it safe to say Corbin King gets his pick 'o the babes after a show ? Yeah ? Come on...you can tell us. We'll keep it secret until this gets published. Then we'll tell thousands of people.
- Hahahaha....well this would ring true if you take the word 'babes' and change it to 'babe'! I am happily married and have absolutely no interest in anyone but my beautiful wife. I am a lucky lucky man trust me!!
Okay then, how about something, anything exclusive. Tell us something you've never told any radio station, website, or magazine about you :
- I love animals!! Our house is actually filled to the hilt with more pets than we can handle! We have 6 cats and 2 rabbits! We used to have a chicken! Hahaha. I rescued a kitten I saw walking down the street a few winters ago, it was tiny and freezing in the icy weather. I couldn't stand to see it suffer out there, so I used food to get it to come to the house and it ended up in the garage that night and I have raised it ever since. She recently had a litter of kittens and that's where the other little ones came from. Not to worry, they are all in the process of being fixed so it doesn't happen again. I built a huge rabbit habitat for the 2 rabbits we have, mostly for my step son to enjoy out there with them. But I take care of them all. The chicken just sorta showed up one day I don't know where the hell it came from! We live out in the country so, anywhere is my guess! It nested here for a few months, laid eggs every mornin, and shit everywhere! Hahaha. I took it to my uncle who has a rooster and now they have a nice little family with little chickens runnin around!
I grew up as a child with a full blooded black labrador retriever and she was my best friend. Had her for 13 years and had to put her to sleep. That affected me a lot and I've always taken care of animals since then. I absolutely cannot tolerate people being cruel to animals. I would love to crush the fuck outta anyone that does shit like that. And guys like Michael Vick that fight animals for money and kill them if they lose...all I can say is when he goes to prison I hope someone gives him what he deserves.
You have a popular MySpace Profile with lots of friends. You also have a popular Website. Which do you think gives Fans the better impression of what Vainglory is all about ?
I feel they both are great sites. Probably the MySpace site keep folks up to date a bit better because it is updated virtually everyday. The main real website is only update every so often but it much nicer of a site and definitely more pro. We also have a great fan site that was recently started by a couple of our biggest fans. We owe them huge thanks for caring so much and taking the time to do something so nice!
You can check out all the sites here:
www.vainglorymetal.com - main site
www.myspace.com/vainglorymetal - myspace
www.vaingloryonline.com - fan site
What do you do for kicks when you want to relax ?
- Hang out with the family. Drink beer, play some guitar!
Here comes the inevitable meaningless question. Give me your opinion. If Steve Vai and Joe Satriani were to get into a knock down drag out guitar fight, who do you think would win and why ?
- Satch for sure. Don't get me wrong Vai is a sick player, but in my opinion is a bit more eclectic. Joe gets up there and just rocks his ass off. His playing is down to earth, technical, and entertaining. But primarily he just is a no frills rockin guitarist, he doesn't fuck around and get the job done. He also doesn't wear lace flower print pants that show his ass cheeks either! Hahaha
Where can the people find you on the Net ?
- Pretty much only on the MySpace pages or by email thru the Vainglory site. I don't have the time sit around on a whole lot of different sites. I certainly don't like to do the message forums and such. I tried in the past and those things are nothing but a stroke waiting to happen. I get so damn mad at the genetic defectives that sit on those damn things all fuckin day long. You can't talk to any of them hardly and all they want to do is piss and moan about this and that and make fun of every damn thing. I used to cruise around on those when I would find posts about the band, but that isn't healthy for me. My blood pressures gonna pop one day readin that shit. My music and my band I take very serious and bust my ass at it and when I get on some of those pages and read something that some kid or nut bag wrote while probably sittin in his fuckin underwear in his parents basement whackin off...just runnin their mouths about shit...I honestly can't deal with it! Hahaha! I want to reach thru the screen grab them and choke em to death! So I've learned to look at it a different way...at least they’re talking about us, at least we are imbedded in some part of their brains and taking up part of their day where they have to talk about us!
I can't say they're all bad though. I do have a lot of friends on forums that are very very cool people! You know who you are!!!
Any words for the Fans ?
- Yes! You all rock, you are the reason we do this. If it weren't for you we wouldn't be here! I/ we owe it all to you and we will always take time out of our day to make you happy and treat you like family. We are a fan oriented band and we will always see that the fans know and feel like number 1!! Thank you all so much!!
Thanks Corbin ! You freakin' rule brother ! When I do get around to seeing you live, and I will, throw a guitar pick my way !
- No bro thank you!!! I am honored to be able to do this interview for you! It was my pleasure. And yes, you can bet your ass I will fly a pick your way!! Looking forward to hangin out with you sometime soon!!
Corbin King on MySpace
