Guitarist RON MARKS Talks About Playing With CELTIC FROST

Former CELTIC FROST/current SUBSONIC guitarist Ron Marks has announced the addition of second guitarist Brandon Park to the SUBSONIC touring lineup. "Within the first few minutes of the audition, it became obvious that he's more than talented enough to cut the gig and also offered the level of commitment the project requires," Marks writes on the group's web site.

"I'm also in the studio laying down tracks for a song intended for the next release, entitled 'Christin'. Wow, those acoustic parts are tough! Who's the smartass that put heavy strings on my guitar? I got blisters on my fingers!"

In a recent interview with Australia's Inside_Out666, Marks spoke about his time with CELTIC FROST and SUBSONIC's eventual formation. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Inside_Out666: I want to talk to you a little about your time with CELTIC FROST. What comes to mind when you look back on those experiences?

Ron Marks: "Pride! Like with any musical movement, something happens and a million bands jump on it. FROST has fared very well as time goes by. I'm really glad that the legend continues and all the rest of it, but the thing I am most proud of is that you can put a FROST CD on today and it still sounds really cool, it's still competitive and sounds fresh to me. I'm a musician to a fault and that always comes first to me. Tom [Fischer] and Martin [Ain] are geniuses when it comes to writing; I love how intelligent the lyrics are. Reed St. Mark is one of my favorite drummers on the planet. I was a lucky [son of a bitch]; I knew it was great band when I sent them my demo. I could have been in a lot of other bands that were apart of that movement that didn't fare as well as FROST. I was very fortunate that they asked me to join."

Inside_Out666: What can you recall from the first performance you did with CELTIC FROST?

Ron Marks: "[Laughs] The very first show we did together was in a nightclub in Zurich before we officially went out on tour. It was really cool and was on a smaller scale of course. The first tour we did was in the U.K. and we headlined; it was amazing. I still have fans emailing me and keeping in touch from the tour. We played this amazing show in London at the Hammersmith Odeon; a lot of my heroes had played there so that was a big honor to me. The morning of that show we were sleeping on the tour bus. As we pulled up at the Hammersmith I woke up and the bus was shaking back and forwards. There was a bunch of kids outside the bus waking us up [laughs]. I loved that, we went out & said 'Hi,' signed some autographs and we were the centerfold in Kerrang! that month as well which was a really cool thing. About six months ago I received an email from one of the fans saying, 'I was one of the kids shaking the bus.' [laughs]. It really warms my heart that all these years on they would remember something like that. I have great memories from that tour."

Inside_Out666: Are there any funny stories you can share with us about the time you spent on the road with the guys?

Ron Marks: "Oh, there was one show were we opened up for ANTHRAX on the U.S. tour. We were playing in Boston and after the show we went out and had a little party and the bus call was for midnight. We had to be back because we were heading to Philadelphia. So about two, three o clock we all came back to the bus. When our road manager walked onto the bus he was wearing a policeman’s coat with a badge, we're like, 'What are you doing?' Laughing, he said 'A cop gave me a ride home and I was cold.' The bus takes off and he had passed out in the back. When we finally arrived in Philadelphia some seven hours later, we went to the venue and it was lined with cruisers ready to take us all away [laughs]. It was one of those fun little rock 'n' roll stories [laughs]. There are other ones but I don't know if you can print those [laughs]."

Read the rest of the interview at Inside_Out666.