Jarvis Leatherby je basist u heavy metal bendovima Night Demon i Cirith Ungol. Za knjizevnost.org govori o svom poslu kao promotora koncerta i audio kazetama i ponovnom okupljanju Cirith Ungola.

1. To begin with, can you introduce yourself to our readers and say something about yourself?

I am a heavy metal musician best known for my work in the band Night Demon, but I also play bass for Cirith Ungol, have a small record label, and manage bands like Midnight, Visigoth, and Satan.

As a teenager, you were involved in music, as an active musician and concert promotor. Please tell us more about it.

I had a hard time getting proper gigs for my own bands, so I just started putting on concerts myself. It grew from there as I began to meet some booking agents. I was booking hardcore and punk bands, then started doing bigger metal bands like Slayer,King Diamond, Merciful Fate, Ratt, WASP, Cannibal Corpse, and so many more.

3.Together with Armand John Anthony (guitar) and Dusty Squires (drums) you founded the band Night Demon, which was based on the sound of the New Wave of British Metal. Could you tell us more about Night Demon?

The band was actually founded by myself and another guitarists named Brent Woodward. It was purely our live of NWOBHM that brought us together. We never had any idea that anyone in the world would care about what we were doing, but thanks to the internet, our music reached a lot fo people around the world, and the rest is history.

4. With Night Demon, you play in Cirith Ungol. In an interview with the drummer, R. Garven, he told me that you are actually the key person for the reunion.

I’ve been friends with those guys for a long time. I spent years trying to convince the band to reunite, but it wasn’t until the international success of Night Demon that the guys in Cirith Ungol started to realize that there was in fact a worldwide audience that took notice to the band after all these years. With my experience in touring, concert promotion, management, and playing in a band myself, it made it a lot easier at that point to convince those guys to get started again.

5. You run Iron Grip Records, a record label that releases albums by lesser-known heavy metal bands on cassette. How did you come up with the idea to start Iron Grip Records?

I just wanted to release albums that I loved that wither nobody else was releasing, or titles that labels had stopped releasing on physical formats. I guess part off it was for my own selfish reasons to be a small part of the story of some of my favorite albums of all time, but really it feels good to get this music back out into the public in front of some new eyes. Great albums need to be circulated forever in my opinion. I’m happy to do my part.

For the end, what would you say to our readers? Will we ever see Night Demon and Cirith Ungol in Split, Croatia?

We really hope to play there. It’s one of the few places out that way that we haven’t played. For all the fans out there, please tell the promoters we are interested, and maybe something could happen. Thanks!

1.Možete li nam se za početak predstaviti i reći nešto o sebi?

Ja sam heavy metal glazbenik najpoznatiji po svom radu u bendu Night Demon, ali također sviram bas za Cirith Ungol, imam malu izdavačku kuću i upravljam bendovima kao što su Midnight, Visigoth i Satan.

2. Kao tinejdžer bavili ste se glazbom, kao aktivni glazbenik i koncertni promotor. Recite nam više o tome.

Bilo mi je teško dobiti prave nastupe za svoje bendove, pa sam jednostavno počeo nastupati sam koncerte. Od tada je to raslo kad sam počeo upoznavati neke agente za rezervacije. bio sam naručivanje hardcore i punk bendova, a zatim su počeli s većim metal bendovima poput Slayera, King Diamond, Merciful Fate, Ratt, WASP, Cannibal Corpse i mnogi drugi.

3. Zajedno s Armandom Johnom Anthonyjem (gitara) i Dustyjem Squiresom (bubnjevi) osnovali ste sastav Night Demon, koji se temeljio na zvuku novog vala britanskog metala. Možete li nam reći nešto više o Night Demonu?

Bend smo zapravo osnovali ja i još jedan gitarist po imenu Brent Woodward. Okupio nas je čisto naš život u NWOBHM-u. Nikad nismo imali bilo kakvu ideju da bi bilo koga na svijetu bilo briga za ono što radimo, ali zahvaljujući internetom, naša je glazba doprla do mnogih ljudi diljem svijeta, a ostalo je povijest.

4. Uz Night Demon svirate u Cirith Ungolu. U intervjuu s bubnjarom R. Garven, rekao mi je da si ti zapravo ključna osoba za ponovno okupljanje.

Dugo sam prijatelj s tim dečkima. Proveo sam godine pokušavajući uvjeriti bend ponovno okupiti, ali tek nakon međunarodnog uspjeha Night Demona, dečki iz Cirith Ungol su počeli shvaćati da zapravo postoji svjetska publika koja je primjetila bend nakon svih ovih godina. S mojim iskustvom u turnejama, koncertima promocija, menadžment i sviranje u bendu, to mi je puno olakšalo to uvjeriti te dečke da ponovno počnu.

5.Vodite Iron Grip Records, izdavačku kuću koja izdaje albume manje poznatih heavy metal bendova na kazetama. Kako ste došli na ideju pokrenuti Iron Grip Records?

Samo sam želio objaviti albume koje sam volio, a koje nitko drugi nije izdavao, ili naslove koje su izdavačke kuće prestale izdavati u fizičkim formatima. Pretpostavljam da je dio bio za mene vlastitih sebičnih razloga da budem mali dio priče nekih od mojih najdražih albuma vremena, ali stvarno je dobar osjećaj vratiti ovu glazbu u javnost pred nekima nove oči. Po mom mišljenju, izvrsni albumi trebaju kružiti zauvijek. Sretan sam što mogu uraditi svoj dio.

Za kraj, što biste željeli preporučiti našim čitateljima? Hoćemo li ikada vidjeti Night Demon i Cirith Ungol u Splitu, Hrvatskoj?

Stvarno se nadamo da ćemo svirati tamo. To je jedno od rijetkih mjesta na tom području gdje nismo svirali. Za sve obožavatelje vani, recite promotorima da smo zainteresirani, i možda bi se nešto moglo dogoditi. Hvala!

by Barezi