WARREL DANE Says SANCTUARY's Deal With CENTURY MEDIA RECORDS Is 'Imminent'

Rock My Monkey TV conducted an interview with SANCTUARY/NEVERMORE singer Warrel Dane on October 2, 2011 at El Corazon in Seattle, Washington (where EVERGREY and BLACKGUARD were performing). You can now watch the chat below.

On his recent comments about former NEVERMORE drummer Van Williams ("I mean, I could give a shit about our drummer we never got along anyway"):

Dane: "I was taken aback by things I had heard by certain friends, and I may have said some things that I might regret. But at the same time, we were never the best of friends. And is that a bad thing to say that we were never the best of friends? No. Not really, in my opinion, anyway."

On former FORCED ENTRY guitarist Brad Hull's addition to SANCTUARY:

Dane: "Brad toured with SANCTUARY back in 1990 when our original guitar player, Sean Blosl, quit the band just before Jeff Loomis joined the band. So it was kind of a natural thing for us to go back to him. And he fits so well. He showed up at the shows wearing the stretched jeans and the white high-tops and he had the uniform on and he just rocked like crazy; it was great. We did one show in Seattle a warm-up show that wasn't the best in our career and then we went to Atlanta and we did ProgPower, and that was crazy. That was great. And then we did two shows in Greece, which were just astounding."

On SANCTUARY's future plans:

Dane: "We're gonna do a new record. We've got a lot of new songs written and we're working on a deal with Century Media; it's kind of an imminent thing. I've been with that label since 1995, so I know the people that work there, I trust them, and I have a very good working relationship with them, so it makes the most sense for me right now. And for the rest of the guys, too. So we'll see. Nothing's ever written in stone, but it looks like that's what's gonna happen."

On whether guitarists can still send audition videos to be considered for the vacant lead axeman position in NEVERMORE:

Dane: "Yeah, they can still send them, but it's really kind of challenging to wade through all the stuff. Some of these kids are amazing; some of them suck. It's just kind of overwhelming. To tell you the truth, I'd rather have Jeff [Loomis] back, but you never know what's gonna happen with that. He's been calling me. We still talk. But I don't know"

Hull and Shannon Sharp, one of the moderators at Metalguitarist.org, were the top picks for the SANCTUARY second-guitarist position. Brad, having previously toured with SANCTUARY, was given the opportunity to play the dates in Atlanta (ProgPower USA XII festival) and Greece.

Hull has spent the last two years playing the role of "James Hetfield" in the METALLICA tribute band BLISTERED EARTH, which plays "classic songs ranging from 1983's 'Kill 'Em All' to 1991's self-titled 'Metallica'."

SANCTUARY's current touring lineup:

Warrel Dane - Vocals
Lenny Rutledge - Guitar
Brad Hull - Guitars
Jim Sheppard - Bass
Dave Budbill Drums

In a recent interview, Dane stated about how SANCTUARY's reformation came about, "[SANCTUARY guitarist Lenny Rutledge and I] always talked to each other, but never really been friends again. And when the whole thing came about, that we were actually friends again, that's when we started talking more about doing it. And it definitely wasn't because NEVERMORE was imploding... which it was, at that point . . . We all just started talking with each other again. That was kind of the groundwork for it. And then we started saying, 'Well, gosh, let's make music again.' And my god! Lenny is writing some stuff that is so friggin great! Obviously, he's been bottling this up for years, because he really hasn't been doing anything... Well, he's had bands here and there. But he's really writing some great stuff that's really inspiring me, and making me fall in love with music again, with the creative process... everything that revolves around that. Really inspiring me to write really evil lyrics."

Regarding the sound of SANCTUARY's upcoming studio album, tentatively titled "The Year The Sun Died", Dane said, "This record is not going to sound like the other two. It might sound very similar to the second one ('Into The Mirror Black'). It's definitely not going to sound like the first one, because we're all a little bit older and I can't come up with a c-clamp for a scrotum and a helium tank . . . It's not going to sound like the old ones... it's 2011. It's still gonna be that good, I think, and there's gonna be high-pitched screaming. I'm making sure of that. With NEVERMORE, high-pitched screaming was never really called for. You know, with SANCTUARY... of course it is."

SANCTUARY played its first U.S. show in more than 20 years on January 21 at El Corazon in Seattle, Washington.

Fan-filmed video footage of SANCTUARY's September 25 performance at Gagarin 205 in Athens, Greece can be seen below.

Interview:

Photo credit: Louis Konstantinou

SANCTUARY performing live in Athens, Greece: