LIFE OF AGONY Guitarist On Of Next Studio Album: 'The Process Is Going To Be Super-Slow'

Rock Nightmare recently conducted an interview with LIFE OF AGONY guitarist Joseph Zampella (a.k.a. Joey Z). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Rock Nightmare: Are there any plans for a new LIFE OF AGONY CD?

Joey: Well as a band, we write like turtles. On our own, we write a lot. But when we get together, we take a long time. I don't know what it is. If it's how we're structured or how we formulate as a group. We are very hard on ourselves as a group. Occasionally we can be hard on each other when it comes to writing. That's fine because we come out with really good stuff that way. And you weed out all the stuff that just isn't gonna make it. And lately everyone has been so busy and concentrating on their side projects. Keith [Caputo, vocals] has his solo project that's been going on for years. Alan [Robert, bass] started a comic book series called Wire Hangers. And Sal [Abruscato, drums] has a project going called A PALE HORSE NAMED DEATH. He's finishing up his CD right now. I have had the studio going for years now and I'm also writing some of my own stuff as well. So everyone is kind of busy, so there is not that much time to write a new LIFE OF AGONY record right now.

Rock Nightmare: Have you guys got together at all to where you're at?

Joey: I don't want to mislead you. We got together a few months back. We have thrown around some ideas. It was cool we were just testing out the waters. It was alright. I think it was just scratching the surface of where we can go. And what we can really do as a group. Nothing really stuck and until that moment happens, until there is a piece of music in front of the four of us, where everybody is like "this feels good," until that happens, I think the process is going to be super-slow getting there.

Rock Nightmare: How does it feel to be in a band that has been around for as long as you have?

Joey: We just spoke about this recently, how much we appreciate each other and how happy we are that LIFE OF AGONY is still around. If you think about, you only live once and we are grateful for what we have as people. Yes, we worked hard and it wasn't handed to us, that's for damn sure. We're grateful that we were able to build this name, this brand on a real foundation without being a bunch of bullshitters. We only did music that felt was real. We really are proud of our history.

Rock Nightmare: What's going on at [Joey's recording studio] Method Of Groove? Who have you been working with lately?

Joey: MISERY, we just finished a full-length album. It will be coming out this summer. Sometime in August. It's on Super Metal Records it will be distributed by Megaforce. I have another band coming in to Method Of Groove called TRUTH AND NEEDLES. I have another band coming in called END ALL and we'll be doing a full-length with them. There's a lot of good stuff going on I'm looking forward to this year and all the bands and everything.

Read the entire interview at Rock Nightmare.