On August 15, 2012, Baroness were traveling in the U.K. when their bus’s brakes failed completely and sent the band and crew plummeting down a 30-foot cliff, smashing into the ground below. The horrific accident left some of those on board seriously injured but all survived. Vocalist-guitarist John Baizley had to have his arm rebuilt with two titanium plates, 20 screws, and a foot-and-a-half of wire, and then he spent the next couple of weeks confined to a wheelchair once he returned home. The crash also put a halt to the Georgian rock band’s plans to tour on its then-newly released double album, Yellow & Green. Finally, rehabilitated and ready to go–although without bassist Matt Maggioni and drummer Allen Blickle, who recently split with the group–Baroness have just announced an upcoming U.S. tour, the first shows since the accident (for the dates, scroll to the bottom of this post). Revolver caught up with Baizley to talk about coming back to the stage.
Baroness' bus after crash
REVOLVER This is the first tour since the bus accident. Are you nervous?
JOHN BAIZLEY I’m both nervous and excited. I view that as a good sign. I’ve been touring for 15 years but it’s kind of fun to be nervous again. We feel cooped up when not on tour. It couldn’t come soon enough, as far as I was concerned.
What percent recovered would you say you are? You must be feeling significantly better, otherwise you wouldn’t be headed out on the road.
Yeah. Feeling better. It’s going to be a long time until, at least personally, to say I’m at 100 percent. I’m far from 100 percent at this point but I can play. I’ll keep the back-flips to a minimum with no full body contact and I’ll be fine. We are well enough to play and we are excited to do it. It’s good to be able to have a pulse and play music.
Seeing the pictures from the hospital, it must have been hard to play. You’ve been up on the stage here and there. What did that feel like?
It feels awesome! I guess, before August 15, I definitely didn’t have the same level of gratitude that I do now for the act of being onstage. It felt like the stage was too high, that we were physically too far above people. There was an odd distance there, but now having been confined to the house or wheelchair, I have a lot of respect for it. I really feel lucky that we were able to have played as many shows as we did up to this point.
In the update you put on the website in October, you described the crash in detail saying that even though you felt pain, it meant you were alive. How has that changed your life?
I’m sure that I have changed. I’m sure that I look at things differently. It’s not as much as a 180 as it has been a reaffirmation of things I thought to be true before. I guess, having gone through all of this, it’s been the best proof for me that we can have purpose in our lives. Music, it’s a gift. It’s a great beautiful thing to be able to perform it, write it, and play it. With a little bit of skill and a lot of tenacity, you can find the good fortune to be a good touring band. I think in the past year or two, we’ve experienced even greater fortune. It’s been motivating for me in terms of getting better.
Baizley's arm after surgery
But on a bigger scale, each morning when I wake up, I have truly been able to access that feeling of just being glad to wake up. I’m just trying to get back to normal. Of course, life changes you, but at a certain point, you beg for normalcy. All I can say, since the initial injury and crash and going through that with my friends and crew, it’s been a goal to get back out on tour as proof that something this serious and that traumatic doesn’t have to prevent you from continuing by physical or mental means. It’s important for me to continue playing because it will allow me to overcome any stresses or anxieties that have developed as a result of this.
America never really got to see Yellow & Green live before the accident, so how are you planning these live shows?
Not even one show. It is our intent to highlight those new songs that represented for us that was new and interesting. All the stuff off Blue and Red– there’s been thousands of shows with those songs. It’s just good to play new material an furthermore I thought the songs were more engaging with our audience. So when we get back to touring, it’s going to be hyper-loaded with our new material. If we’re interested in what we’re doing, we’re going to put more into it. If we put more into it, that translates from the stage to the audience. The weird thing is we’re doing our first U.S. show on this record almost a year after its release. That’s bizarre. It makes things hard to anticipate but fuck it. I don’t want an anticipatable lifestyle. I wouldn’t be playing music if that’s what I wanted. I like the fact that things change on a dime. So it will be nice to tour and not to know exactly what we’re doing. I imagine that first week of shows are going to be difficult and nerve-wracking and frankly we haven’t experienced that in a long time.
Yellow & Green made a ton of end of the year lists–Revolver named it No. 4 on our Best of 2012 list. How has the reception hit you?
We were in Europe when the record came out and the reception there was pretty overwhelming on the positive side of things. We felt confident and then all the sudden August 15 happened. It was sort of like being sidelined for six months. I was almost anticipating more negative reaction than we got so I was almost disappointed I didn’t get to defend my point as vehemently as I would have liked to. That would have come with a U.S. tour directly following the record. That way if people doubted our direction or intent, they could have come to our show and fucking prove them wrong by shoving good music down their throats. But now we’ve had more time to reflect and rehabilitate. But either way, whether it’s a basement or a venue, we’re going to go out there and perform it because these are songs that we wrote and they meant something to us. If the record had really gotten the Spinal Tap-esque shit sandwich review, we still would have played it. I don’t want to end up with that one signature song that we’re, like, required to play.
What were you thinking about and confronting at the time these records were written?
One of the things I had to come to terms with in recent years is our open honesty in songwriting. I think that good music is borne out of struggle. A good musician can only access his full potential and creativity when he or she is struggling with like anxiety, pain, frustration or heartache. The stuff that made songs great in the ’50s and ’60s still holds true today. So I think the whole focus has gotten muddled. What I was trying to do on Yellow & Green lyrically and with the songs was just humble myself in front of songwriting. I would listen to old songs and I would end up with kitchen-sink style songwriting.
It’s intentionally an overly-ambitious record. It wasn’t meant to be easy to digest. I made sure we all understood there may be some huge missteps on this record. But if we don’t have the balls to put that out there and willfully make a mistake as long as our intentions are pure, then we’re just kind of catering to the crevasse that is commercial music where you’re just kind of pandering to the lowest common denominator of what the audience expects.
Your last few albums are all named after colors. Why does Baroness do this, and do you ever foresee not naming an album after a color?
I can answer that question very easily. To speak to the first part—the reason we chose the color thing was pretty simple. We wanted a simple concept that could work across a couple of records. And when I would make album art, it gave me a good starting point visually speaking. It’s not too much brain power. Where we felt like our records were dense or heavy in some direction, we thought one moment of levity would be good and that’s the album title. We’d joke too before we did Red and said if we did a couple of records, our merch table will look real nice. Now, three or four records into this idea…it’s done. No more. We’ve driven that nail home and there’s nothing left to do with that. So we will discontinue the chromatic titling and we will come up with something else next.
Speaking of art, it’s easy to recognize it’s your artwork, whether on your own or on others band’s records like Kvelertak, Kylesa, or Black Tusk . What inspires you when it comes to your visual art?
When I first started doing it, within the genre of music I found myself in, there was an alarming number of this macho aggressive, really blunt stuff. When Baroness first started playing, which is the reason I started making art again, there was only a handful of bands trying to do something different. That idea appealed to me, that we could be playing metal but with the ethics for the do-it-yourself functionality that punk rock had taught me throughout life. One thing that I always felt was the purpose of music and art was to challenge the observers and listeners. So I thought initially it would be interesting to take this imagery which doesn’t typically exist in the genre or what’s presented in this macho fashion and take it and present it in this alternate light. So if it’s a woman on a rock-and-roll cover, where the tradition is, like, hypersexualized, then for me, it became interesting to strip that away, find something a little more realistic and being less eyes-poppin’ out of the head. My intention is to keep pushing outwards from the center in all directions.
Baroness Yellow & Green tour dates:
May 24 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
May 25 Baltimore, MD Ram’s Head Live
May 26 Norfolk, VA Jewish Mother
May 28 Charleston, SC The Music Farm
May 29 Atlanta, GA Center Stage
May 31 Dallas, TX Trees
June 1 Austin, TX Chaos in Tejas (Mohawk)
June 2 Houston, TX Free Press Summer Festival
June 4 Lawrence, KS Granada Theatre
June 5 St. Louis, MO The Firebird
June 8 Grand Rapids, MI The Pyramid Scheme
June 9 Madison, WI The Majestic Theatre
June 11 Indianapolis, IN Deluxe @ Old National Centre
June 12 Cincinnati, OH Taft Ballroom
June 14 Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Small’s
June 15 Huntington, WV V Club
June 13 to 16 Manchester, TN Bonnaroo (performance date to be announced soon)
August 10 – 11 Montreal, QC Heavy MTL (performance date to be announced soon)
Inter Arma opens May 25 & 26; True Widow opens May 28 – 31; Coliseum opens June 4 to 15
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Relapse Records has announced a compilation in memory of Pat Egan.
The compilation called Patlapse features artists such as Dillinger Escape Plan, Mastodon, Baroness, Pig Destroyer, Death and many more.
Egan, Relapse’s Director of Sales, passed away on February 18 after a struggle with pneumonia and related complications.
The bands on the compilation have agreed to waive royalties for the tracks so all of the proceeds of Patlapse will go to a college fund for Egan’s teenager daughter. The album can be found on Bandcamp for $5, but more can be donated.
The label released this statement: “If you were lucky enough to know Pat, you will remember him as a fun, funny, hardworking, passionate lifelong metalhead who left an impression on EVERYONE he came in contact with. If you never got a chance to meet him, but you’re familiar with Relapse Records or some of the bands on the label, Pat was instrumental in the success of almost all of the bands and records Relapse has released over the past decade. ”
You can check out and purchase Patlapse here.
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Leading up to the end of the year, Revolver has asked some of our favorite artists to pick their Top Albums of 2012 and tell us why each record rules. Here, Jeanne Sagan (pictured left), bassist of All That Remains, selects her faves.
5. Early Graves, Red Horse
“I just love this band and every song on this is awesome. It’s fast, aggressive, angry, and has some ripping guitar riffs.”
4. Motionless in White, Infamous
“I was eagerly awaiting this one and they went the direction I was hoping. Dark, heavy, angry, and with more hints of industrial.”
3. Halestorm, The Strange Case of…
“An overall awesome rock album, and Lzzy Hale is a new hero of mine.”
2. Converge, All We Love We Leave Behind
“They are one of my all-time favorite bands. I like that the band as a whole is exploring and expanding more on their sound on every album.”
1. Baroness, Yellow & Green
“This album just hits all the right spots with me: the tones, the lyrical content, and the musicianship.”
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At Revolver, we are bringing this year to a close and making lists like we’re starring in a metal version of High Fidelity. Our January issue of Revolver (on newsstands now) features our Top 20 Albums of the Year. Online, we have posts and polls (like Best Music Videos), as well as a tribute to some musical heroes we lost this year.
In the meantime, we’re asking you to choose 2012′s Song of the Year. We’ve put together a list of the biggest and baddest songs in hard rock and heavy metal below; all you have to do is pick the best. And feel free to vote as many times as you want–until the poll ends on January 1.
UPDATE: The poll is closed. For the results, click right here.
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Leading up to the end of the year, Revolver has asked some of our favorite artists to pick their Top Albums of 2012 and tell us why each record rules. Here, Anders Fridén (pictured left), vocalist of the metal band In Flames, selects his faves.
5. Torche, Harmonicraft
“I guess I’ll never see a new Handsome album but, this is a awesome and great substitute.”
4. Baroness, Yellow & Green
“Been a fan since I heard Red album. This is a hard, heavy, sludgy, melodic piece of art.”
3. While She Sleeps, This Is the Six
“Heavy, melodic, and smart.”
2. Deftones, Koi No Yokan
“The best album from the Sacramento boys since the fantastic White Pony album.”
1. Witchcraft, Legend
“Fantastic!!! The best thing coming from Sweden–well, since us.”
Leading up to the end of the year, Revolver has asked some of our favorite artists to pick their Top Albums of 2012 and tell us why each record rules. Here, Cory Brandan (pictured left), vocalist of the metalcore band Norma Jean, selects his faves.
5. The Smashing Pumpkins, Oceania
“I’m not a traditionalist by any means so I don’t care about original members or anything like that. If the music is good then that’s all you need. This record reminds me of Smashing Pumpkins’ earlier days of Gish and Lull. Definitely left me wanting more.”
4. Silversun Pickups, Neck of the Woods
“Noisy, loud, melodic rock with whispery voices. I’m a sucker for it. The drummer for this band is my favorite.”
3. Bear Colony, Soft Eyes
“I’ve been waiting for this record for a long time. It’s a great record all the way through. You will hear a lot of different influences here, but all the songs are played with a lot of raw intention. This is a very special record.”
2. Deftones, Koi No Yokan
“Like most Deftones fans, I knew I was going to like this record before I even heard it. Easy pick.”
1. Baroness, Yellow & Green
“I love when a record doesn’t meet your expectations. I think of it as a nice surprise. Listeners shouldn’t be instantly satisfied all the time. This was an unexpected release but Baroness didn’t cut any corners. Great listen.”
Yesterday Baroness frontman John Baizley (pictured left) went into detail on the band’s website about their harrowing bus crash back in August in England.
Baizley said he hopes this experience brings the band together and that they will tour again when everyone has recovered.
The bus crash was due to brake failure while on a steep hill in Monkton Combe, England. They hit a perpendicular guardrail going about 50 mph, where the bus plowed through many trees and fell down more than 30 feet to the ground below.
Some of the crew was asleep when the accident was happening, but Baizley was up front with the driver. He suffered a broken leg and a completely shattered arm. The driver was airlifted to a hospital with many breaks. Other crew members were treated for injuries as well.
Last week Baizley returned home to the U.S. where he is wheelchair-bound and will undergo physical therapy to regain use of his arm and leg.
“I cannot lift a glass of water to my lips to drink with my left arm and hand… In spite of this and against my logic and reason, when I pick up an instrument, my hand remembers exactly what to do,” says Baizley.
Perhaps the most haunting paragraph in his statement is the last where he says, “I realized in that moment that life can be seen as a light switch: ‘on’ or ‘off.’ When the moment passed and I heard the screaming, felt the pain, and tasted my own blood, I was overcome with joy. I was ecstatic to be back amidst all that chaos and horror because it was alive and real”
“The support of our fans, our friends and our families has real meaning to me now. I say that now honestly, without false humility. Thank you. Everyone.”
You can read the full statement here.
A picture from the bus accident can be seen below.
Earlier this week, Baroness were involved in a serious bus crash while on tour in Europe. Their bus reportedly fell over 30 feet off of a viaduct, trapping two people and sending all nine people on board to the hospital.
After some tense hours of waiting for fans, the band posted the following update yesterday detailing the condition of the band members:
“John Baizley has broken his left arm and left leg. Allen Blickle and Matt Maggioni each suffered fractured vertebrae. All three remain in the hospital as of this writing. Pete Adams has been treated and released from the hospital.
Three of the five crew members who were on the bus have also been treated and released. One member is still undergoing testing. The driver of the bus remains in critical condition.”
Meanwhile, the band have cancelled the remainder of their European tour dates. Their website currently lists a handful of U.S. dates slated to kick off August 29, however it seems unlikely at this point that those will take place.
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BBC is reporting that Savannah, Georgia’s Baroness have been involved in a serious bus crash, which saw their tour bus fall 30ft from a viaduct. The band were travelling between gigs in Bristol and Southampton.
The crash, which took place around 11:30 BST, apparently left two of the nine individuals on board trapped, including the driver, although they have now been freed by firefighters.
“It is with great regret that we have to inform you that Baroness were involved in a very serious road accident earlier today and will not be able to perform at Talking Heads tonight,” read an official statement from the band’s tour promoter. “Our thoughts are with the band at this time and we wish them and their crew a speedy recovery.”
Everyone on board has reportedly been receiving medical treatment at area hospitals, with two reported as being in “serious condition.” We’ll continue to update this post with any status updates.
Police are now investigating the cause of the crash, which was likely due to heavy rain and low visibility.
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Savannah, Georgia’s Baroness have just debuted a brand new music video for their track “Take My Bones Away.” Check out the clip — which features live footage shot by Revolver‘s own photo director Jimmy Hubbard — below.
“Take My Bones Away” is taken from the band’s expansive new album, Yellow & Green (buy on iTunes), which was released last week on Relapse Records.
For the full story on the band’s epic new double album, check out Guitar World‘s complete interview with guitarists John Baizley and Peter Adams at this location.
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