Hailing from New York City, LOST LEGACY released there as of yet only album „The Aftermath“ a little more than a decade ago. Since the record was also self-released it is more than likely that so far no more than a few German metalheads have heard of the band. Now might be the time for that to change: LOST LEGACY not only have a new album called „In The Name Of Freedom“ ready for release but also inked a deal with German underground specialists Pure Steel records. We took the opportunity to talk to guitarist Jorge Pulido.
Hi and thanks a lot for taking the time for this interview! How are you doing? A decade has passed since the first LOST LEGACY album came out. That is quite some time. What have you been up to in all these years or: Why did it take you so long to put out a new record?
The band went through some changes in personnel and around 2011. Dave Franco took a small break to recruit new members and re-establish the band again in the local circuit. The band started to regroup again in 2012 and since then we’ve had a few changes. It’s tough sometimes to keep a consistent lineup because people’s priorities change. Around 2018 we were ready to record a new album and we had written what we believe to be our best work to date. Going forward our plan is to release every two to three years a new album.
Your new album “In The Name Of Freedom” will come out shortly. How would you describe the record, also in comparison to its predecessor?
In The name of Freedom is a follow up to the theme from the first record “The Aftermath”. On this record, we really focused on melody and aggression in each song. The lyrics are deep in the sense that this time, Dave wanted to write about the men and women in our armed forces who fight these wars to protect our freedoms and are often forgotten about. We do not glorify or are for war at all, we just simply wanted to honor these gallant people. We are very proud of “The Aftermath” record. The songs on that album are great songs. The band sounds a bit different because new members bring their personal stamp to the equation. That album did not have the same level of production our new record has. That cd was a bit darker sounding. The sound and production on “In the name of Freedom” is crisp and punchy. We wanted to have a live feel to the recordings and a heavy guitar tone that was aggressive yet clear. Dave did his best singing on this record and, Scotty, AJ, and Jochen did a great job. We did pre-production for five months prior to entering the studio. As a result, most of what you hear are first or second takes with minimum punch inns. Most importantly we played through an EVH 100 watt Stealth pushing the volume to 11 to get really crushing guitar tones. We recorded at Coney Productions and Tom Tulotta is an amazing engineer.
Tell us a little bit about the songwriting for “In The Name Of Freedom”. How did that go down?
Dave had about 40% of the music written and 100% of the lyrics are his. Angel Vega contributed to some songs and I wrote the music to Take me Away. Someone brings a written song to the band and then we typically, arrange each song as a group. Everyone contributes and it helps shape the songs much faster. Plus collaborating on new music is very good for building a strong team within the band.
In The Name Of Freedom” will be released on Pure Steel records. How did this collaboration come to pass?
Hard work! LOL… We had a friend that was in a band at the time that is signed to the label. He gave us the introduction to the label and from there on we worked on establishing a relationship. This was not an immediate ok sign here you’re on the label. They watched us through social media, and we sent them a demo of the new songs. They liked what they heard. It wasn’t until we returned back from our tour with Metal Church in the summer of 2019 that they contacted us and told us they wanted to have us be part of their family.
Your new album has really cool artwork. Who painted it?
The initial idea was Dave’s. He wanted to have two buildings coming down and an archangel descending in the middle of it. I took his idea and created a basic design. I then commissioned an artist by the name of Pzychopart. I asked him to give it some fire and earth tones and he did a fantastic job with it.
The lyrical content of “In The Name Of Freedom” picks up where “The Aftermath”, which is a concept album dealing with the catastrophic events of 9/11, left off. What is the album about?
We wanted to dedicate this record to the men and women of our armed forces that have endured great sacrifices after the US declared war on terrorists. We are not for war. But we stand behind these gallant people that sacrifice everything to protect our freedoms.
Why pick such a difficult subject for a metal record? Are LOST LEGACY a political band?
I would say we are not a political band. However, we are highly aware of the politics in our country and have something to say about certain topics. While our goal is to entertain metal fans and fans of music in general, when there is a situation that we feel strongly about we won’t shy away from writing about it.
From your perspective, what’s the current state of the metal scene – both national and international?
Well since you’re asking me, I can say it seems like there has been a resurgence of metal in the last few years. And the reality is that there are so many sub-genres of metal that some are more popular than others. In New York, we find it’s very hard and very competitive because there are not a lot of venues left that have live metal bands. We are lucky that we have a loyal following that supports our shows locally. We get to play many shows supporting National acts. The only reason we do them in NY is that we have help from our friends that keep buying tickets from us. Otherwise, if we don’t sell its pay to play. Now, playing outside NY we found big crowds supporting metal events. I mean sold-out venues. Then you have some bands like Judas Priest, Saxon, Iron Maiden that are having a phenomenal resurgence and packing up stadiums. Which is great for all heavy metal fans. Slayer’s farewell tour also did a lot to get people into metal again.
What about your upcoming live schedule? Any chance to see Lost Legacy in Germany?
We have a few shows booked including our cd release concert on 3-20-20 at BT51 in Queens NY, We have a show opening for Whiplash on 4-25-20 at Club Revolution in Amityville NY and opening for Flotsam and Jetsam on 5-11-20 at Dingbatz in Clifton NJ. At the time of this interview, we have signed an agreement to tour with a national act, however, we have not been given the green light to announce until their managing agent gives us the ok to do so. Check our socials to find out soon! We will end up adding those dates to the shows we shared with you and package them as “In the name of Freedom US 2020 tour.” We have talked a great deal about playing in Germany and doing some festivals in Europe. It’s a goal of ours. We need our fans in Europe to ask promoters and radio stations, online metal magazine followers to request us on the radio. That always helps!
Thank you for the interview! Please let us do a short brainstorming at the end of this interview. What comes in your mind first reading the following terms:
Pay To Play: Not great, but if you do the work and sell the tickets totally worth it.
Major Label: Wider audience, bigger reach.
Beer: Friends, relaxation!
Hitman: We’ve got some riffs that are ideal for a hitman movie.
Power Metal: Strength, melody, harmony, heavy riffs, kick-ass music
LOST LEGACY in 10 years: Our goal is to have our music reach many people around the world. We want to tour and visit other countries. Record new music. It would be nice to have some recognition for our contributions to helping people through our music. We most definitely want to do big festivals. That would be amazing.
Once again thanks for your time. The last words are yours – is there anything left you want to tell our readers?
First, Thank you for taking the time to have me here representing the band. What you do is extremely helpful not only to the bands that have the honor to be interviewed but for the fans that want to know more about their favorite bands. What you share with the community strengthens our music genre and gets people interested in the greatest music on earth. Heavy Metal. Thank you. Stay Metal …
29. April 2020 Thomas Meyns
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