LAMB OF GOD Guitarist On Songwriting And Changes In Music Industry

Alissa Ordabai of Hardrock Haven recently conducted an interview with guitarist Mark Morton of Richmond,Virginia metallers LAMB OF GOD. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

Hardrock Haven: Do you think enough time has passed for you to take an objective look at [LAMB OF GOD's latest album, "Wrath"] or are you still very much attached to it? How long in general does it take for you to detach yourself from your work?

Mark Morton: Yeah, that's a pretty good question. I don't know. Yeah, I haven't spent a lot of time listening to it since we made the record. Once we get all the mixes through and everything, I don't spend a lot of time listening to my own music. But I think I've got a pretty good feel as to where it sits in the scheme of things. I think it was the right record for us to make at this time. It was definitely a response to "Sacrament", the record before it. We took a very different approach sound-wise.

Hardrock Haven: And songwriting-wise as well.

Mark Morton: Yeah. The big thing that stands out for me songwriting-wise is that we have incorporated some more melodic guitars and acoustic guitars, clean sounds and that kind of thing. There is a little bit more dynamic on that level. But the way we wrote the songs, the objectives we had while writing the songs never really change. We just try different things within that context.

Hardrock Haven: Do you ever listen back to a song you wrote or a guitar part and feel that you have learned something new about yourself, some new aspect to your character?

Mark Morton: Yeah. There are some times when you can take your head out of it for long enough just to listen to yourself objectively. And I don't mind saying it, sometimes I hear some stuff that we did and I'm like, "Wow, it's really cool." That's what you hope for.

Hardrock Haven: How do song melodies come to you? Do you have to isolate yourself or do they come to you as you go about your daily business?

Mark Morton: Either or. Sometimes I just sit, pick up the guitar and the song will write itself; it's just comes out. And then sometimes you've got a nagging melody or an idea in your head for months, and it takes a long time for you to put it together. There is no rhyme or reason. I wrote the song "Redneck" in two hours one morning before going to band practice. "Walk with Me in Hell", I worked on that for two years before we actually put it together. They are all different, they all come together differently.

Hardrock Haven: What do you make of the changes that are happening in the music industry right now? The way fans are recruited, the way the bands relate to their fans? A part of the recording process of your latest album was made available to view online. Did you feel pressured to do that?

Mark Morton: No, I think from my perspective my goals don't change. They are just to write cool songs that interact with ourselves first and then hopefully with our audience. I'm glad I'm not in the business of trying to sell records. I'm glad I'm not a record company because they are the ones who are really confused as to what to do about file sharing, downloading and all that kind of stuff. You know, if we were sitting here 15 years ago, I'd probably be selling a lot more records.

Hardrock Haven: You'd be rich.

Mark Morton: But as it stands, it's not the nature of the industry anymore, and you have to find other ways to keep yourself going. And we do. I'm not complaining. I make a very comfortable living playing my guitar and selling tickets and t-shirts, and I'm lucky to be able to do that. The music industry is changing; technology has made it very simple for people to get music for free. That's not going to go away. You can't legislate it away, you can't do anything about it, so you just have to keep moving forward doing your thing.

Hardrock Haven: I have a strange question for you. You don't have to answer it if you don't like it. Do you ever play for yourself? Not for practice, not for anybody else, but for yourself?

Mark Morton: Yeah! Absolutely! All the time! I'm a guitar player. I didn't pick up the guitar because I wanted play at a festival in Belgium or to hang out with groupies in Japan. That wasn't why I started playing the guitar. I started playing the guitar because I love the instrument, I love the sound that it makes, and I love the feeling I get when I'm playing it. That's all I ever wanted to do. All this shit just came, and it's cool, but it wasn't my objective, it wasn't my motivation, so yeah, I play guitar a lot.

Read the entire interview from Hardrock Haven.