Some music is misunderstood. In the fifties and sixties, older generations didn’t understand rock ‘n’ roll. And in the thirties, preachers had a problem with blues. But metal has seldom been understood throughout the generations. And the cool thing is that metal actually enjoys it. Defiance to the norm is on the underside of every nickel-wound string and dropped D.
Faced is a metal band, and they’re one to watch. With an album out in 2020, they came through the other side of ‘crazyville’ to lay down brutality in the studio. I sat down with Faced’s Jordan (Jordo) Simpson to talk turkey.
RRX: You released II Coming in September of 2020, which was a pretty crazy time. I won’t ask how hard it was to put it together during that time; old news. But it touches on a point. Metal is about insane shit, apocalypses, general doom and whatnot. Does it feel different singing about, well, dystopia, where we’re living in it?
JS: A lot of the material was written for a couple of years. On this record there is a range of topics from out of the mind and body experiences to straight up anger, loss of will and hope, smoking weed, the list goes on. So, the timing of it fit the period in all of our lives.
RRX: Faced has a really tight sound, not clean in the sense of like clean guitar, but clean as in maybe streamlined, well put together. And yet the sound is chaotic. And people who don’t listen to metal think it’s all chaos because their ears aren’t trained to it, but some metal is cleaner, tighter, than other metal. How do you control the chaos?
JS: That’s a good question. We have always been musicians that push the edge. Always trying to zero in on how to do things better. So, with drive and practice combined we just strive to be the best metal band we can be, and the result is that tight sound you hear. We just try to be ourselves and true to the art. We don’t follow trends or fads. We just pour ourselves out there.
RRX: I love that guitar sound. So maybe we talk shop for a second. Let’s talk pedals. First off, do you guys use them, or is it all in great amps? If you do use them, what do those pedal boards look like? And how do you manage pedal boards in a live show – punch them during the show, or set and forget? If no pedals, what stops you?
JS: Glad you like the tone!! I’ve worked many years to find my sound. Live and in the studio I use a Randall RM-100 head with a 4 x 12 loaded with Marshall Celestions speakers. In the studio I use a few pedals. For delay I use a DD-8 Delay pedal for leads. For wah, I use a Dunlop 525Q. I also use a stereo chorus from the 80’s made by Arion. Which is a diamond in the rough. But everyone loves the sound. For live I use a Headrush pedalboard thru my loop in my Randall. It sounds great and doesn’t kill my back.
RRX: I’ve listened to Faced from the studio and Faced live on one of the Booze Cruises. There’s a lot of similarities, and differences. I don’t think it’s even possible to recreate a live metal sound in the studio unless you record in a venue and let people mosh in the recording booth. Do you try things to bring the live sound into the studio?
JS: The studio is a different beast. We always try to capture the Faced sound. That’s what we aim for. We don’t want to sound like another band live or in the studio. So being true to ourselves is what comes through live and in the studio. Live we throw different things in there and take risks. We try to always outdo ourselves. If you came to a show to hear what’s exactly on the record what good is that. We always want it to be an experience. You never know what you will see or hear at a Faced show. Like to keep the fans on their toes.
RRX: Metal in the Capital Region is a tight group. Part of that is the music itself. Metal is a music that doesn’t mix well with other music. You wouldn’t see a metal band booked with a folk or a blues band. That said, metal does mix very well when it’s mashups with other genres, like rap, country, blues, folk…pretty much everything. Why is that?
JS: Well, I can only speak for our music. We have played with many genres under the sun. We love many types of music. We have shared the bill with many different acts playing many different genres. Hell, we even played a rave once! Our thing is as long as you have a dream and you’re doing everything possible to make that dream a reality we back you 100%. Musicians stick together.
RRX: Most music, or most musicians, have a theme. Just basic, there’s stuff we care about, so there’s stuff we sing about. If I think the CIA implants radios in peoples’ fillings, my albums might be me revealing that belief in 4/4 time. And that’s a stupid example but Faced probably has themes to its music. What is the Faced message?
JS: We have many messages through many songs. We tell stories about life through real experience. It’s real songs with twists and turns through the mind. We scream about things we have lived through and have seen. Pretty much it’s all left up to interpretation. We make the listeners think about what it all means to them in a lot of songs.
RRX: This is where you answer the question I didn’t ask. Comments? Shout-outs? Educate, enlighten, emote – the floor is yours.
JS: Come out to a show and party with us. We don’t bite…much! Check us out on every streaming platform there is. If you dig it, pass it to a friend.
We would love to give a few huge shout outs to our manager Bear without him some of the things we have done wouldn’t have been possible. We would also like to give a shout out to the social outcasts, the misunderstood and the bullied. We love you all and embrace every last one of you. A Faced show is where you are accepted for who you are. Come out and be part of it. Thanks for all the support!!
Originally published in The Xperience Monthly
