LAMB OF GOD's MARK MORTON: 'More Than Anything, I Enjoy Being In The Studio, Writing And Recording'

Ireland's Overdrive recently conducted an interview with LAMB OF GOD guitarist Mark Morton. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Overdrive: First of all, let me congratulate you on making an intensely passionate and powerful album [with this year's 'VII: Sturm Und Drang"]. It must have been somewhat of a cleansing of the soul to finally put it out after everything that has happened?

Mark: I think it's always a good feeling to get a collection of new songs together and sounding the way they are supposed to. Actually, that's my favourite part of the whole process of being in a band. More than anything, I enjoy being in the studio, writing and recording. That was always my dream, you know? Just to create music for me is everything and was always my dream, from the start. Although I enjoy performing, the creative process is something that I really enjoy and get the most out of. I really enjoy the energy of performing live, but I'm really a studio rat. I like creating music, and with this album, "VII: Sturm Und Drang", it was such a good feeling, as I'm just really proud of the finished collection of songs. In the context of the events that happened with Randy [Blythe, vocals; referring to the singer's 2012 arrest in the Czech Republic] and everything else that surrounded it, there had been quite a bit of time. Honestly, since all of that stuff happened and us getting back into the studio, most of that stuff had really settled down. That experience particularly through Randy's eyes is referenced a bit, in the lyrics on the new album. It's not all the way through, but it touches on the subject in a few songs here and there. So in that sense, I think it gave him a bit of an outlet to explore things musically and lyrically. I can't say that the album is necessarily that heavily tied to that experience, because there was a fair amount of time between those events and when we actually began to record the album. I will say that in the context of everything that happened, I feel truly blessed that we are in a position of still being a band, to be active, to pursue our music and to keep doing what we do. We are all feeling very blessed that we continue with things, especially when I think about the length of time that we have been able to produce music. I've realized that there really are not a lot of bands that have the kind of longevity that we have. I mean for a band to have the longevity of success in our career in this day and age, is something that we are all so thankful for and feel very blessed being able to do in our lives.

Overdrive: Do you find that when writing that it's a cathartic thing for you and helps you focus and detour away from the negativity in life?

Mark: Absolutely, I mean it really does help with dealing with stuff. It's not just about escaping the negativity or the strife that life throws at us, but I use it as a chance to engage and process it. Randy and I were actually talking about this the other day. The fact that we happen to be in a "heavy metal" band, not all of our life is negativity, rage and conflict. However, it gives us a place to put all of those things and deal with it our way. As artists, we naturally and intuitively look for ways to sort of express our lives and being in a heavy metal band, gives us a place to put that stuff, so certainly as a lyricist, I reference these parts of my existence and as a musician, that's always been one of the things that attracted me to the music, because it did sort of take me away from "everyday life" and gives you a place that is almost your own, where you can go to exist and really sculpt things into the way you really want it. So that has been one of the most attractive aspects of music over the course of my life.

Read the entire interview at Overdrive.