FOZZY's CHRIS JERICHO Embraces Digital Music: 'I'd Rather Be Ahead Of The Curve Than Fighting Behind It'

In a new interview with Fish of the Q105.1 Rocks! radio station in Fargo, North Dakota, FOZZY frontman Chris Jericho was asked if he thinks releasing music digitally helps bands like FOZZY in the long run or if he believes that the goal is always to get the physical copies into fans' hands. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I've never felt that. You've gotta ride the wave. You've gotta be ahead of the curve. It's just not prudent to have physical copies in this day and age. What's the physical copies even of? It's great to have the vinyls for fans who wanna hold those those records in their hands and get them. I'm a big fan of that. But in this day and age, nobody really has anything physical — books and movies and music, it's all on your phone. And that's kind of the way of the world right now, and to kind of want physical copies, you're almost a dinosaur at this point in time and you could probably try and get your 8-track cassettes reinvigorated as well. So, I don't have a problem with the way the world is now."

He continued: "Obviously, I loved buying records when I was a kid, waiting for that record to come out. Things have kind of changed in that way. And it's more about, like I said, the convenience and the short attention spans. And I think right now on TikTok, our new song ['Spotlight'], which is probably about a 15-second version of it, is blowing through the roof. They haven't even heard the whole song, and they don't even want to — 15 seconds is enough. 'We like this 30-, 15-second clip and we'll listen to that.' So, it's just kind of how the world is and the way the new world, the way people consume music. And I'm cool with that. I'd rather be ahead of the curve than fighting behind it."

This past May, Jericho told Rock 100.5 The KATT's Cameron Buchholtz that he believed FOZZY's "days of doing full-length records" were "done. We spent the better part of three years on [2022's 'Boombox' album] and we had three Top 10 hits — 'Sane', 'Nowhere To Run' and 'I Still Burn' — and we played three other songs live: 'The Vulture Club', 'Purifier', 'Relax'. But the other six songs are kind of gone; they're, like, residing in the FOZZY dead-song burial ground. Because you can't really play them live, 'cause you can only do so much new material live, 'cause we have so many other songs we have to do. And they weren't released as singles, so you spend all the time on 'Army Of One' and 'Omen' and 'The Worst Is Yet To Come' — those are all great tunes — 'My Great Wall', 'Ugly [On The Inside]'; those could all be hits. So instead of releasing those types of songs on an album where they're not gonna be heard, we're gonna, I think, start releasing one song at a time. And instead of waiting two years for a new FOZZY record, there'll be a new song every four or five months. I think that's the way to do it. And that's what we're gonna start doing. We're actually working on our new song right now, which should be out hopefully in the fall."

Jericho previously floated the possibility of FOZZY focusing on singles in an interview in April with the ALT 105.1 radio station. He said at the time: "I think [what] we're gonna try to do [going forward] is just release a single every three or four months and keep the product always there and not waste the songs. 'Cause that's what you're doing when you put out a great record. You spend so much time on every one of these songs, meticulously creating them and they're your children, and then they just never really… unless you buy the record and listen to the record. There's only so many songs you can play live from a new album when you have as many albums as we do. So that might be something we will look [to do] in the future — just doing one song at a time… And then every song you can release as a single and give it its chance to go where it's gonna go."

Jericho added: "I'm from the generation where you would go… When the new IRON MAIDEN [album] is coming out, you'd go down and take the bus every Saturday: 'Is it out yet? No.' And then finally you walk through and you hear the music and you see the wall of MAIDEN records. That was such a great moment in a kid's life. But things have changed. No kid knows what a record store is now. You just go on Spotify and listen to the songs you wanna hear. So you've gotta roll with the times. Obviously, putting out a new record is a piece of art, but I think song by song you can do the same. Plus you get a different cover for every one. So I think it just adds to more of a marketing plan. I think it's just better for the music itself as well."

FOZZY's new single, "Spotlight" was released earlier this week via Madison Records/The Orchard and can be streamed below. An accompanying music video for the track will arrive on Thursday, October 26.

"Spotlight" was helmed by FOZZY's longtime producer Johnny Andrews (THREE DAYS GRACE, ALL THAT REMAINS, HALESTORM) and sonically refined by mixer Jacob Hanson (VOLBEAT, AMARANTHE, ARCH ENEMY).

FOZZY's latest album, "Boombox", came out in May 2022 and featured the song "I Still Burn", which recently eclipsed two and a half million views on YouTube. It also included the Top 10 singles "Nowhere To Run" and "Sane".

This past spring, FOZZY spent time on the road with UGLY KID JOE as part of the latter band's first tour of the United States in 27 years.

In January 2022, FOZZY parted ways with longtime drummer Frank Fontsere and replaced him with Grant Brooks (THROUGH FIRE).

Fontsere was a founding member of FOZZY, having formed the group in 1999 with Jericho and Rich Ward (guitar).

When FOZZY announced Fontsere's departure, the band said that he was "stepping down to focus on his family and other projects."

FOZZY is Jericho, Ward, Brooks, Billy Grey (guitars) and P.J. Farley (bass).