An interview with Steve Henningsgard of Iron Thrones
In March Minneapolis metal band Iron Thrones beat a long list of band from across the country to win the national Scion No Label Needed contest. As a result of their victory, the group received a power up for their newest EP: new artwork, a new website, new merch, and studio production from The Machine Shop’s Will Putney and Machine.
Iron Thrones are now heading back to Minneapolis, and guitarist Steve H. fills us in on early Iron Thrones, winning “No Label Needed”, and some Minnesota metal:
How long have Iron Thrones been playing?
We started out as a band called “Everest” back in 2005, releasing an EP through Mascaret Records in 2006. When it came time to release our first full-length, “Visions of Light” in late 2008, we’d decided to change our name to something less common. We had a new sound, new members, and were looking at some potential legal issues with another “Everest”, so we felt a name change made the most sense.
Could you believe you won the Scion No Label Needed contest?
Having entered with a 12-minute song, we really didn’t expect to win. We had shorter, potentially more accessible songs, but we liked “Cover of Smoke” and so we put what we felt was our best song into the contest. Essentially, we took a chance and didn’t really give a shit what anybody else thought, and it ended up paying off in spades!
The new artwork created for the album is striking — did the band have much input in the aesthetic direction of the artwork/font choices?
We were consulted at different parts of the process, and we went through several logo choices. We had complete control over the text, of course, but when you’re working with an artist, it’s always a bit of give and take. They’re creative individuals as much as we are, and essentially it’s their job to interpret what you’d like to get out of the album packaging, and do what they do best. That’s why it’s so important to select an artist who has a body of work that you enjoy at least some pieces/aspects of. Overall, we’re happy with how it turned out, and it’s translated to the Digipak packaging, as well as online in places like our myspace page, extremely well.
The musical/vocal style that’s on “Visions of Light” — progressive, somewhat technical, at times complex and layered, but still straight forward brutal metal approach — seems to have been brought over into the new single “Like a moth to flame”. How has your music changed before and after winning the contest?
I can say with certainty that winning this contest had nothing to do with the direction we’ve taken our music, although working with producer Will Putney had some obvious effects on the recording of “The Wretched Sun”. We knew that by agreeing to take part in the No Label Needed contest, we were agreeing to bring him into the creative process. It was interesting and sometimes difficult to get used to having a non-band-member have so much influence, especially as a band of creative and often hard-headed dudes, but we ended up learning quite a bit.
Being who we are, we’ll likely incorporate some parts of how he did things that we feel could make us stronger musicians, and continue doing other things the way we prefer to do them.
It’s interesting that you use the word “brutal”, as I typically associate it with bands like Cannibal Corpse or most of the stuff on the Sumerian roster. Perhaps at this point it’s more of a Dethklok-inspired replacement for “heavy” for the new generation of metalheads? I’m not sure! I feel old.
I feel old, too. It’s probably from too much drinking. And drugs. I think of “brutal” for bands with a lot of intensity like Cephalic Carnage, in addition to Cannibal Corpse and grinders like Pig Destroyer. Any bands like that who are particular influences?
Different members are influenced by different bands, as we all have a pretty wide range of taste, but for myself I can say that for the new record, I was listening to a lot of Mastodon, Cynic, Gojira, Thrice, classics like Led Zeppelin, random post-metal bands like Consciousness Removal Project, and a bunch of random stuff. I tried to keep myself from listening to too much Opeth/Cult of Luna/Between the Buried and Me this time around, as I felt we owed it to ourselves to branch out a bit more from the material on Visions of Light.
What have been some of the best/your favorite recent shows that you’ve played in Minnesota?
Ignoring trends and just making whatever sort of music you want has its advantages and disadvantages, and one of the biggest challenges has been cultivating a local fanbase. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we play a strange sort of music that’s sometimes hard to get into.
We enjoy nearly every show we play, and it feels good when we perform well and the crowd seems to dig it, but we have some things up our sleeves that will hopefully get a few more people interested in getting off of their couches to check us out. In a world where live music has to compete with the latest Call of Duty, bands will have to start upping the entertainment value of their shows, if they want to stay alive.
You’ve got a gig coming up at the 7th Street Entry on the 15th, what’s it like to go through the Scion process and then come back to your stomping grounds? Have you seen any local exposure from winning the contest?
It was somewhat strange to essentially be treated like an important artist with money and a label and all of that for a couple of weeks, then to come back to our apartments/parent’s basements/etc. Sort of a glimpse of what could be, before coming back into the real world and realizing just how much work you have to do!
We have some pretty huge ground to cover and likely many years before this band isn’t costing us significantly more than it makes, like any business really. Locally, it seems as though quite a few people have heard about the contest, but with such a dwindling heavy music scene, we’ll really have to work to make the most of this contest locally.
Online, and in other areas, things seem to be going extremely well, thanks to the work and support of the contest partners. We have a lot of people interested in what the hell we’re all about, and that’s a good start.
Local metal: who are the metal bands you like playing with in Minnesota? The Crinn? Impaler? Hate Beast?
Wolvhammer, Mourner, Empires, and Frontier are always a good time. The Crinn are good dudes that write and play some insane music, and I definitely respect their talent.
I don’t think we share a remotely similar audience for the most part, but the few times we’ve played with them it’s a good time. Impaler has been around forever, and I hope they continue to play for a long time, member changes be damned! I’ve heard of Hate Beast, but don’t think I’ve ever played with them.
I feel bad because I have a genuinely shitty memory, particularly for concerts (ironic as hell, I know), and I know I’m missing a few local bands that we’ve played with that have been really fun. I’m hoping the metal scene starts to grow again, but for now it looks like we’re stuck with children’s music for the most part.
Iron Thrones are playing at the 7th Street Entry with Enshrined on Thursday, July 15th.
