This interview is the continuation of the one posted at this link here.

GB: A lot of people say, “Hey, as band members you get to travel a lot,” but we don’t get to see a lot. We’re in and out. We’re like gypsies. We just get the promoter of the show telling us a little bit about the area, he takes us to a couple of nice restaurants and he points a couple of things out to us, like what’s what, take notes, take it home with you, and have it down, but you always have memories.

MI: Haha, if you ever get to Israel no one is going to let you do that, everyone is going to want to take you everywhere.

GB: That’s really ______ to me, we’re excited when we go to places we haven’t been before, you know. It’s really cool. Japan is one of my favorite places. They’re real polite to us over there. It’s a lot like New York City but it’s their culture and it’s amazing how the bands are over there, they’re just really good-hearted bands and I really respect their music.

MI: Speaking of music, I see you’re really into Queensryche but, especially as a bassist, who are your influences?

GB: My influences… I go back a little earlier, to like the 70’s, Black Sabbath, a band called Yes, Rush, the early 80’s metal, I kinda grew up on it, it’s funny because I’m actually playing with a lot of guys I idolized. It’s been kind of a dream for me to actually be face-to-face with guys that I actually would play an album to and listen to and it would have a big inspiration on me.

MI: Who are those big time idols?

GB: Actually, Steve Harris.

MI: Steve Harris, he is the king.

GB: Yeh, I’m shaking his hand and I’m like, “Hey, I’m playing the festival with you, it’s good to be here,” He’s like, “Well, it’s good to have you, lad,” and I’m like, “I listen to your records, and I developed my own style now, learning from you…” It’s kind of like you try to create your own identity as you become influenced by different musicians, you try to separate yourself and be your own musician, take what you learn from that and make your own identity.

MI: How would you describe Kamelot to someone who never heard you?

GB: A lot of high-energy, we’re definitely a high-energy show. We have great chemistry. I think as a band, everybody does their job –

Roy (Khan),

Tom (Youngblood),

Casey (Grillo),

Oliver (Palotai), the new member.

We all know what we need to do and what we need to do to get it done. We express our energy as individuals onstage and just kind of melt together. We’re thinking of bringing more theatrics to the stage, and bigger venues, and DVDs – we’re trying to add more elements to our show and we’re just trying to get more people, to let people know who we are, about our music, more CDs…

MI: Do you have a name for the new DVD yet?

GB: Not really. We’re working on it with the label. It’s just like a bonus track re-released, y’know, here’s the CD again with some videos to go with it. I think the videos have really opened a lot of doors for us. I was kind of wondering why other bands are still not doing it. Like, a band like Queensryche, they already have a name, but do they really need to make videos, because they’re known, you just say their name. But with being a new band and you’re trying to come up between all these other popular bands into the next level you really need to market yourself, that’s why we’re trying to push the band, to get people to know who we are.

MI: But how many channels do you really have anymore, it’s like Headbanger’s Ball and that’s it, no?

GB: Yeh. It’s one of the biggest markets for a band, especially in the US. It’s tough getting over here in the US. If you want to tour here so bad, it really depends on the album sales, on the CD sales that you’ve actually produced based on touring. We started with a local show in our hometown, and we were surprised at how many people actually came out. Here I am… we all live like ten minutes away from the venue, and it’s amazing to see the support we get. From all over the world, it’s amazing. We’re a band that’s kind of universal to a lot of people. And with that, I know a lot of bands don’t have that, and we are fortunate that we do. You either like us or you don’t like us. And there’s a new generation. The kids you see at the shows now, it’s an all-ages tour this tour. And I’m surprised that a younger audience is actually starting to come out to our shows now. I think they’re looking for a certain type of music, and we’re trying to bring that to them, darker, and yet melodic, and keeping it classic. Good music.

MI: Good music.

GB: What’s your favorite track off the new album?

MI: “The Human Stain,” hands down. It’s good music.

GB: We’re really excited. It’s been a long year, as far as the tours that we’ve been through, and we’ve been staying together as a unit, and we have a really hard crew that comes with us along the way, with the managers, and the label, I think they’re really pushing the band and are on top of the CD right now, pushing that type of music.

MI: Yeh, it seems they really care about the band.

GB: And that’s important because we really haven’t had that in the past. But now we’re kind of getting it and going, “Wow, people are really starting to know who we are now” and it’s like, alright, let’s take it up another level, y’know?

MI: Do you think that you have a different appeal to audiences in Europe over audiences here? As far as I saw, I always saw it as kind of divided, like your kind of music was always great in Europe and Israel, over there, while here everyone was more into like, the Slipknot, the nu-metal Korn kind of stuff. What do you think of that?

GB: Well there are like all kinds of genres of metal. It’s funny, I just had a guy ask me the other day, “What type of music do you play?” And he was a Frank Sinatra fan and Mick Jagger, and he was like, “I never could really get into metal,” and being condescending, I was looking at him like…there are ALL types of metal. I think comparative to Europe and America, I guess it was big back in the day, everyone was coming from the metal scene when I grew up and I was a kid learning all this stuff, all the concerts, seeing how big it was –

MI: How old are you?

GB: How old am I? Actually you have to check out the website for that. I ain’t gonna tell my age.

MI: AAaaaah c’mon. I didn’t see that, I only saw your birthday.

GB: It’s on there.

MI: Alright… but if it’s on there then how come you won’t tell me?

GB: I’m old enough and I’m just now getting good at what I’m doing, so…

MI: That’s cool. I’m 30 myself, I have no qualms. So if I grew up at the same time as you, then you’re talking about like arena rock. Like Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and that.

GB: Yeh, yeh, yeh, exactly.

All photos were taken by me. There are some more here. I don’t have patience to put them all up, if anyone has some good gallery code I can use on WordPress let me know. I want to give a public shout out to Nina Chiminec of SPV because I appreciate the fact that she really tries to work with the writer with scheduling and is just good people.