Stereoboard Talk To Alter Bridge Ahead Of Their Headline Show At Wembley Arena (Interview)
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Written by Heather McDaid
Alter Bridge are going up in the music world – quite a feat when you consider how acclaimed they were to start with. 2011 not only saw them annihilate Download Festival in one of the weekend’s best sets, but embark on their biggest headline tour to date. On November 29th, we caught up with drummer Scott ‘Flip’ Phillips a few hours shy of their mammoth headline show at Wembley, set to be one of the defining and memorable shows of the band’s career.
“[Tour] has been amazing,” begins Scott. “This is, of course, the last night of the tour but we’ve been in the UK and Europe now for almost six weeks, I think it is. It’s just been an absolutely amazing tour; a lot of great fans and great venues. We couldn’t be happier right now. Playing arenas has been absolutely incredible. These six shows we’ve done here in the UK are by far the biggest headlining shows that we’ve ever done together as Alter Bridge. It’s been very inspiring. It’s nice to see the fruits of your labour come to fruition and have it all sort of pay off - all of our hard work we’ve put into it; our blood, sweat and tears. To see us hit this point for us where we have the opportunity to play arenas and headline has just been an amazing experience.”
“We have increased in scale, but not a lot,” he continues. “We’ve increased production that we normally do. For the most part we’ve always used what the venue had on hand rather than tour a large kit. Some things we carry with us. For these arena shows, we carry a lighting rig and a video rig including a PA as well. For the likes of Wembley we’ve pulled out a few extra gags, some light rigs and some fire. We’re very excited to finally get the opportunity to use those.”
“I think it is,” he says, referring to whether or not the evening ahead is set to be their biggest headline show to date. “I want to say actually the show we did in Manchester or Birmingham... the venue size may have actually been a little bit bigger, but there’s certainly few places as legendary as Wembley. It’s in the middle of London, we’re set to have a pretty packed house tonight and it’s likely to be one of our career defining moments. I don’t know how many countless legendary bands have already graced that stage. I guess Wembley is home to a facelift or two over the years or even been torn down and rebuilt, I’m not 100% sure of the history because everybody, as a band or not, you’ve just heard of Wembley - be it stadium or arena. I’ve known it since I was a kid; just the name Wembley in itself... In association with bands, I’ve always found it to be something larger than life, so finally getting the opportunity to perform there is something pretty special.”
The band were set to record the show that evening for a live DVD. Does that create an added pressure prior to a show? “You know, it can do,” replies Scott. “I think that the biggest key is to just completely forget that the cameras are there. I think that’s what everybody was able to do with the last DVD that we shot, which was ‘Live in Amsterdam’. I think that was back in 2008. I mean, sound check before it can be a little tense because we’re already looking at the cameras and the crew and the staff, but once the show starts you sort of forget about that and are just playing for the people who are at the show. It’s for them – we want to give them the best performance we can and not worry about what the camera’s doing, we don’t pick up on that. We just go out there to have fun and make sure people who are there to see you enjoy it. I think that definitely translates on the film and makes it that much better for anyone who buys the DVD.”
The main headline for this tour was the fantastic Black Stone Cherry, who the band have found themselves touring with for the majority of the year. Asking whether familiarity with a band can result in a better tour, Scott was more than complimentary of the guys. “Oh, yeah; absolutely, absolutely. As you say, we’ve spent the bulk of this year on the road with those guys out with us and they’re all fantastic kids. They’re young – they’re all like ten to twelve years younger than we are – we feel like old men around them! They’re a great band, great guys and all have great senses of humour. It’s just great fun to get to hang around with them all day. We’ve said that over this year, it’s like man it’s not going to be the same going out on tour if we’re not together! We feel like we’ve been touring with them forever.”
“They’re not far behind us in terms of being a major headlining act over here, both in the UK and Europe,” he continues. “They’ve got a tonne of fans that are at each of these shows that I think is pretty cool. There’s people here who are into all three bands that are playing. I think we see a lot of mutual fans and because they’ve been playing with us I think we’ve found a lot of new fans from their fanbase and vice versa. They’ve got their own fanbase and hopefully they’re being introduced to Alter Bridge and the same back at them. I feel like we’re putting our best foot forward and maybe opening their eyes a little to what we do. So, it’s been great having them out with us this year. It’s been more fun that I can possible describe.”
While 2011 has been a big year for Alter Bridge, 2012 is set to be notably quieter as the band return to projects including Creed. “I think at this point once we finish up this tour we have one more tour as Alter Bridge in Australia through the end of February and early March,” he explains. “It’s a really large festival run that hits most of the major festival cities in Australia and we’ll have a couple of shows that we’ll do on our own between them. After that, different things. I mean Myles is working on a new record with Slash right now, which will probably be coming out – I’d guess – sometime in the Spring or Summer next year and then there’ll be a tour that’ll follow, so we’ll be losing him for the bulk of the year.”
“We’ve also decided to work more on some Creed stuff and do some new material,” continues Scott. “I’m not sure if we’re going to end up with a full length CD or not; certainly at least an EP or something to at least keep the momentum going with that. There are several tours planned throughout the rest of 2012 but I would definitely assume that 2013 is when we will reconvene as Alter Bridge, get some new material out and have a tour sorted to follow.”
Does having time apart for other projects allow for a fresher return to Alter Bridge? “It’s a possibility,” he admits. “We kind of did that between the ‘Blackbird’ record and the ‘AB-III’ record where Myles started working with Slash at that point, we started working on our band, put together a tour in 2009 and immediately shifted gears and went back to the world of Alter Bridge. Sometimes a little time apart can give you some perspective on things; sometimes it can bring you back fresh, sometimes it can take a little while to get back in the groove of things. I think we’ve all been doing this for so long with each other that it won’t take much to get us back into the world of Alter Bridge and the groove of Alter Bridge since we love it.”
Alter Bridge recently release ‘AB 3.5’, which featured a documentary DVD of the band. “After a while you forget that there’s cameras around,” he begins. “There’s a guy who’s just been there with a camera and documented a lot of stuff that we’ve done. I think it’s great for fans to have, it’s great for the four of us to have too because we’re all quite bad at documenting things we’ve done in our own lives – taking pictures, making a video or writing up a commentary type thing. It’s fun for me to go back and watch it and relive those moments and relive those memories. I think it’s a great addition to the music that we’ve done to sort of show a face and a personality to the music between the four of us, something that the fans can connect to us by as people.”
Just prior to this interview, the band were presented with an Alter Bridge bible by some fans. Moments like this remind the band just how fantastic a fanbase they have. “I actually just got it like three minutes ago, right before this phonecall...” he begins. “It’s very tough to put into words. I can’t express how thankful we are how blessed we are to have a fanbase like we’ve got. These are people that are more diehard about a band than I’ve ever been, and I’ve been a huge fan of lots of bands that I would want to go see in concert multiple times. We’ve literally met so many people who take weeks or months out of their lives to follow us on the road and stand outside a venue for hours on end just to say hey, get an autograph or get the opportunity to let us know how much they appreciate us. You can’t ask for much more than that as a band or as a person. Everyone always hopes to have a strong fanbase, but I feel that Alter Bridge fans are above and beyond.”
“I think [2011] was a really big year for us,” continues Sott. “I think we’ve done well between starting on labels. We’re now on our third label in three albums as a band and it’s nice to finally have found a home that appreciates Alter Bridge for what Alter Bridge is and not wanting us to be something else. That’s probably been one of the biggest obstacles we’ve faced and to have that finally come to fruition this year or the end of last year has been really nice for us. It gives us a lot of comfort in moving forward with an established home with people who get us and know how to represent us.
“From there, we’ve done – especially in Europe – a lot of live shows with our attendance rising and seen our popularity go up. It’s starting to do that in the US as well; we’ve had some better success this year than in previous years past as far as the venues that we’ve played in and the size of crowds that we play for. It just feels like we’re right on the verge of moving to something bigger and better, which I think is something really cool.”
As for the future, Scott explains, “You know, each of us have our own thing. I think we’ve got a lot of different paths we’re heading on in 2012, like I hit on earlier. Myles will be doing a new record and a new tour with Slash, which will be the first proper thing, whatever it is... the Slash and Myles experiment. I don’t know if they’re going to have a band name of just tour as Slash. The first record with Slash featured Myles on a few tracks with a lot of other singers, but this is the first time that it’s going to be Myles and Slash, and I’m sure that he’s very excited about that.”
“From there, you’ve got Mark, Brian and myself that will be working on Creed stuff and doing Creed tours. Mark’s got a solo record that he’s almost finished with. That will probably be coming out about Spring next year; I think that’s his goal for that. He’ll be diligently working on that as well as Creed stuff. We’ll certainly be visible next year, but it’ll be on various projects and then, like I said, probably 2013 will be the reunion there of Alter Bridge and we’ll diligently get to work on a new record and tour as soon as we can.”
Anything else he’d like to add? “As far as the fans, we as a band can’t ask for better fans. You guys have certainly given us a tonne of inspiration and the will to carry on, if you will. It means so much to us to have fans as strong and dedicated as the ones that we have. You’re the reason we get to do this and we really appreciate it!”
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“We’ve also decided to work more on some Creed stuff and do some new material,” continues Scott. “I’m not sure if we’re going to end up with a full length CD or not; certainly at least an EP or something to at least keep the momentum going with that. There are several tours planned throughout the rest of 2012 but I would definitely assume that 2013 is when we will reconvene as Alter Bridge, get some new material out and have a tour sorted to follow.” 
