Band Photos Credit: J. Duarte Design
When he’s not busy pounding the proverbial pavement with his regular touring commitments with NORTHTALE – whose sophomore album Eternal Flame is due for release on November 12 – and TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA, six-string hard driver Bill Hudson is hosting family visits at his pad in the Sunshine State while prepping for upcoming UK/European tours with DORO PESCH and handling four interviews a day including this one I’d gotten the opportunity to conduct with the legendary Brazilian guitarist. We chat about NORTHTALE’s new album, their new singer, tales from the road (including that fateful UDO interview attempt from 2018), how he was floored by the performance of a local Ottawa power metal band and other fiery topics!
KNAC.COM: How’re things?
HUDSON: Things are good. It’s a full day of interviews!
KNAC.COM: Oh, I can imagine.
HUDSON: Yeah, and then I fly out to Germany. It’s been pretty crazy. I woke up, took my mom to the airport, then started the interviews and when I end the interviews, I’m just bored, basically. (laughs)
KNAC.COM: Yeah…that’s really a busy day (laughs). So, first of all, I wanted to congratulate you on landing your most recent tour slot with DORO PESCH, playing guitar with her on her upcoming UK/European tour with MICHAEL SCHENKER and I also wanted to congratulate you on the upcoming release of NORTHTALE’s sophomore album Eternal Flame. How has the response been so far on the two new tracks “Only Human” and “Midnight Bells”?
HUDSON: Oh, I mean it could not have been better because I was so worried about people having a problem with us because we don’t have the old singer with us anymore – you know, Christian?
KNAC.COM: Uh-huh.
HUDSON: He does have a lot of fans and a lot of people were disappointed when he left, so my main thing was, y’know “are people gonna accept a new singer?” And now the numbers, y’know don’t lie! (laughs) “Only Human” is our most viewed video ever.
KNAC.COM: Cool.
HUDSON: So, it has more views than anything else we’ve ever put out. And then…y’know, obviously that paid off, that worked out for us. But, also, the actual response – the people are actually saying about the songs is very…unexpected. Like, “I was expecting the best but not quite as good as it’s been”. It’s awesome – knowing that we were right in our choice.
KNAC.COM: That’s good to hear, because I’m actually in the midst of reviewing the album as well for KNAC.COM, and so far – spoiler alert! – it’s also been getting a lot of spins and a lot of positive reviews from my end as well, and I found that it was actually quite a lot more different from the previous album, especially with a lot more lengthier songs, and you really got to progress a lot – especially with the one track which I’m trying to find the name of because I was just reviewing it…I think the one song I was looking at…I think it was probably track 6 or track 7. That was the one which had a lot of the samba/choro music influences that you have.
HUDSON: That was “Land Of Mystic Rites”
KNAC.COM: “Land Of Mystic Rites”! Shit!
HUDSON: (laughs)
KNAC.COM: (laughs)
HUDSON: Yeah, ”Land Of Mystic Rites” was a very good example of, a more extreme example of what I wanted to bring into the music. The first album was….we got some criticism, with people saying that it wasn’t original, that we just sounded like HAMMERFALL or STRATOVARIUS. And they’re not wrong, it was by design. The first album I wanted it to be like that. I wanted it to be something that could’ve come out in ’97. Now, right now I want to have more of my identity. I want to be like “this is what I do with power metal”. So this is why I’m bringing out these thrash influences, this Brazilian stuff and more progressive, and I just want to add more and more with each album, but still stay true to that happy power metal sound.
KNAC.COM: Oh, I agree. It definitely made a significant difference to what Welcome To Paradise had sounded like, because, like you said, it was really more of a basic, typical power metal type of album, which is really a way of testing the proverbial waters, but now you know what NORTHTALE are capable of.
HUDSON: Right.
KNAC.COM: And, in this case, that is why you wanted to actually explore and be a bit more creative and innovative. Did you find that you already having Guilherme as your new singer definitely assisted with that entire progression?
HUDSON: Oh, absolutely. He’s a big part as to why we went in that direction. I had “Land Of Mystic Rites” written before he was in the band, but the chants, all those Brazilian chants in the middle, he brought that in.
KNAC.COM: Cool.
HUDSON: He also wrote the lyrics. That’s his song title. A lot of his signature is in this album for sure.
KNAC.COM: Awesome. So, obviously, Guilherme has been perfect with adjusting to NORTHTALE’s sound. Because I do understand that you had about 40 different applicants from 11 different countries when you did the auditions and he made the cut, and obviously, when listening to Eternal Flame, it’s easy to see why because he’s got that perfect dynamic range, and he’s been contributing a lot to the sound of the album overall. So, I guess my next question would be once COVID restrictions finally get lifted, how soon are you guys planning on touring?
HUDSON: Oh, man! (laughs) As soon as possible. That’s all I’ve been working on right now is trying to go on tour, trying to get on festivals. Because, yeah, I’m very happy with the album and I’m pretty sure that people will like it, but it’s also very, very doable nowadays to make a great album. You have the talent, the songwriting and all that and it still makes a difference, but a great sound like on this album is really easy to make. So, until we play this live, until people see us play live, we’re just a studio project or something, and I don’t wanna be that. We’re definitely not that.
KNAC.COM: Fair enough. I mean, some bands in the past – bands like, say maybe BOSTON – they, at one point, had played live gigs, but they usually found themselves to be a lot more comfortable in the studio, and sometimes they can sound almost a bit too comfortable and maybe even a bit too predictable, but it’s good that some bands like NORTHTALE in particular, are just about to progress from beyond the studio.
HUDSON: Yeah.
KNAC.COM: Because I recall that your first live performance was actually at the Sabaton Open Air Festival in Sweden. How did you decide afterwards that you thought “well, maybe we’ve got a good thing going with doing a live set” even though this was with Christian Eriksson at the time? How did you know when this would be the best moment for NORTHTALE to be more of a live band?
HUDSON: Well, we’d always wanted to. From the very beginning when we came out, people referred to us as a supergroup, and I had a problem with that. I was like, “yeah, I get why you’d say that” but also, we don’t want to be like a studio thing. We want to be a band. We’re just a band that has a bunch of people in other bands. That’s how I say it. Unless everybody in the band is lying to me, this is like everybody’s baby in a sense. We all do other things, but this is like our band and what we wanna do. Everybody has creative input, everybody makes decisions…we don’t wanna be Bill Hudson and NORTHTALE, if you know what I mean. (laughs)
KNAC.COM: Of course not.
HUDSON: The only way to do that is to get on the road and play to a bunch of people. Otherwise, it’s just people talking shit on Facebook. (laughs)
KNAC.COM: (laughs) Yeah…and elsewhere on social media, apparently. Because I remember around that time I’d first heard of your playing was when you were playing in the power metal band CELLADOR and then afterwards you’d progressed to CIRCLE II CIRCLE and then you did a few stints with TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA and then afterwards with UDO.
HUDSON: Yeah.
KNAC.COM: Yeah…as I do remember that fateful day when I was trying to interview him. (laughs)
HUDSON: Oh, yeah! (laughs). Oh, man…that guy (UDO’s soundcheck person at the time) was a douchebag. We got a couple of festivals with him which I think we’re doing next year with UDO, and I want to run into him again. Luckily, the one time we did a show in Sweden, UDO was there but the sound guy was a good one – not the douchebag. They’re both good, but one is a douchebag and one is nice. (laughs)
KNAC.COM: Yeah…I mean, at least in this case, the one sound guy that UDO has now, but, I mean, the prime thing is to be able to talk to people, to be able to communicate, and I guess that was one of the reasons why this previous guy didn’t really last as long with UDO, because I remember he’d been in charge of doing the setup for the stage, and how it happened – I don’t know if you’d heard about this – but I’d mentioned in the review that Sven – that’s UDO’s son – had this gigantic drum riser which took up the entire stage for him to play on it. And, I mean, I kinda get that as well that UDO is a headliner, but it seemed like the sound guy was the one who was calling all the shots. His treatment of the other bands was rather pitiful, like LYCANTHRO and the Australian band ELM STREET….
HUDSON: They were on tour with us.
KNAC.COM: Yeah…I remember that because I ended up chatting with Nick (Ivkovic) from the band, and I think I remember at around that same time that ELM STREET had to get a replacement guitarist – I think, someone from California….
HUDSON: Luke.
KNAC.COM: Luke?
HUDSON: I can’t remember his full name but he’s an amazing guitarist from California.
KNAC.COM: I’ll probably have to revisit that review one of these days and check to see where he fell in, but I just remember that a lot of the local bands like LYCANTHRO…they really got screwed by that whole decision-making from the whole.
HUDSON: Oh, yeah…I can totally see that. It’s funny because I met James (Delbridge) from LYCANTHRO maybe six months ago and we actually went on his live stream show.
KNAC.COM: Cool.
HUDSON: And we talked about that.
KNAC.COM: (laughs)
HUDSON: And I was “dude, you guys were the guys who played on the floor!” (laughs)
KNAC.COM: Everyone played on the floor! (laughs) Except for UDO!
HUDSON: Dude, I never forgot that, y’know? I told James “I don’t know if you guys felt bad or anything from that show, but know that I remember that and I always will because you guys came out and rocked out anyway!”
KNAC.COM: Yeah.
HUDSON: Because there are two ways you can do it. You can bitch and show up and play with a weird face and shoegaze or you can rock out like they did, and I saw that whole show because of that. I remember just standing there watching them.
KNAC.COM: And at the time, LYCANTHRO were, I think they were still a three-piece band and have since expanded to a four-piece band.
HUDSON: Yeah.
KNAC.COM: Luckily, I think that with a three-piece band, they had a lot of space where they could communicate and connect with the audience.
HUDSON: That was true.
KNAC.COM: That was fortunate as well for them. I think it was in a way as well also fortunate for the other bands as it just seemed like UDO was on a bit of a higher plateau, proverbially speaking, and I think that was kind of a bit intimidating as well, so I kinda get that.
HUDSON: Yeah.
KNAC.COM: I do recall that after that tour that you ended up doing some shows with I AM MORBID. How did you land that particular type of gig because you’re kinda more in the power metal realm and MORBID ANGEL were more known as a death metal band. How did that come about? Who did you end up talking to and being able to land that gig?
HUDSON: So, oddly enough, in that band I’m a founding member. I mean, I’m not a MORBID ANGEL founding member, of course, but I started I AM MORBID – I didn’t “start” the band but I am the first guitarist, and the way that that happened was that back in 2008, when I was even less of a death metal guy, I got an opportunity to audition for MORBID ANGEL.
KNAC.COM: I see. Cool.
HUDSON: But the thing is…well, an audition is not fair because I never got to play with the band. Basically, I was referred to MORBID ANGEL’s management because they were looking for a guitarist and then I met David (Vincent), and we started talking. And David came out to some show that I had in Tampa at the time and he saw me play and he was like “Dude, you’re a really great player but you’re not what MORBID ANGEL is looking for”. And he was right – I mean, quite honestly, if I tried to be MORBID ANGEL back then, it just wouldn’t work. I didn’t understand that music.
KNAC.COM: Uh-huh.
HUDSON: I was looking at it as an opportunity. And we stayed in touch, and a couple of years later a promoter friend of mine from Brazil who knew David had asked me if I would be interested in coming to Brazil and playing some shows, so we put a band together around him and we played a bunch of MORBID ANGEL covers. And at that point, he was already out of MORBID ANGEL.
KNAC.COM: David was?
HUDSON: Yep. So, I asked him and presented the situation and he thought about it and he was “Yeah, that sounds cool – if you play”. And I was like “Fuck yeah! I’ll play!”, and then we got some other guys, and then the more we thought about it, David said “I don’t think it’ll work with some random Brazilian guys, man. Let’s just start a band here – y’know, us. Let’s just do that”. So, we did. We got Tim (Yeung), because he came from MORBID ANGEL already, and, at first we had Ira Black, who’s also not a death metal guitar player.
KNAC.COM: I think I recall that he played with LIZZY BORDEN and then afterwards…what was the other band he played in?
HUDSON: METAL CHURCH?
KNAC.COM: Yes, LIZZY BORDEN, METAL CHURCH….more of the realm of Sunset Strip metal, like LIZZY BORDEN.
HUDSON: Yeah…Ira is the 2010’s version of the Sunset Strip. (laughs)
KNAC.COM: (laughs)
HUDSON: That’s Ira. He even has a cover band right now. But he’s a fantastic player and a really good friend and we had a great time touring, y’know, until he left. But I AM MORBID started from that, from this offer from a Brazilian promoter to get David to do some shows. Like, “Let’s just start a band”, y’know? So, I’m a founding member, even though I didn’t play in MORBID ANGEL.
KNAC.COM: That’s cool. Because I think at around the time when MORBID ANGEL peaked musically around the mid-90’s, I think by then David had wanted the band to go in a more industrial metal type of direction if I recall. But, the thing was, even though he had control of the name, I think there were some sort of issues with regards to songwriting royalties, and what had happened, I guess, was the other guys did not really want to go in that particular direction and wanted to go full-on death metal, and I think that was when things just started to fall apart. But nevertheless, I think David Vincent was able to keep the MORBID ANGEL name – he had the rights to it – and I guess for a while, he decided that he wanted to take MORBID ANGEL in that particular realm, so, luckily, that was kinda where you came in.
HUDSON: Yes.
KNAC.COM: Have you pondered doing any more shows with I AM MORBID in between whenever there’s a hiatus with NORTHTALE and with TSO?
HUDSON: Oh, absolutely. I AM MORBID…we tour quite a bit. Without the pandemic, we probably play about 40 shows a year or something like that. We have a European tour booked – it just got cancelled; it should’ve been in September but now it’s booked for March.
KNAC.COM: I see.
HUDSON: And I’m hoping that that happens. There was also a South American tour that had to be cancelled because of the pandemic which I’m hoping we will reschedule, but I don’t know when that will happen.
KNAC.COM: Fair enough. I keep hearing that a lot of these shows that are cancelled are really postponed even though the promoter says it’s going to be cancelled just because of a lot of logistics.
HUDSON: The European tour is already on its second postponement.
KNAC.COM: Oh my God…
HUDSON: I hope it happens this time.
KNAC.COM: And there was also that tour you were supposed to do with UNLEASH THE ARCHERS and STRIKER, I believe at one point, but that got postponed.
HUDSON: Yeah….I know.
KNAC.COM: UNLEASH THE ARCHERS I know, are doing a North American tour and they’re supposed to hitting up my neck of the woods. I think they’re playing Ottawa around November. LYCANTHRO are opening the show.
HUDSON: Cool.
KNAC.COM: And I think another couple of local bands are opening the show as well. LYCANTHRO will probably end up being the co-headliners for the Ottawa show.
HUDSON: Okay. Hopefully they’ll get the full stage and sound. (laughs)
KNAC.COM: (laughs) Oh, I would imagine that they would, because I was actually at the Brass Monkey this past weekend when I saw BUCKCHERRY play there and the stage is reasonably large enough, although I remember one time as well that – I think it was STATIC-X and DOPE – more nu-metal bands, who were both supposed to play the Brass Monkey about two years ago, but apparently the problem was that the ceilings were too low because they were going to do a screened homage to Wayne Static – and apparently, the Brass Monkey didn’t have high enough ceilings, so the owner and the guy who was promoting the show – Skotti – ended up moving the show a bit more downtown to a place called Barrymore’s which actually is a larger-sized venue, so they were able to bring in the screens and do the homage.
HUDSON: (laughs)
KNAC.COM: I remember that because I was one of the people who ended up helping everyone pack everything up afterwards for about four hours after the show had ended that night.
HUDSON: Geez!
KNAC.COM: Have you ever had those types of weird situations at any show you’ve been at where all of a sudden you had to scramble at the last minute and had to try and find any alternate venue to play in?
HUDSON: Oh, yes. There was a bad one in Brazil. I was actually flown in to Brazil to be a guest with this band – I don’t know if you’re familiar with IMMORTAL GUARDIAN?
KNAC.COM: Yes, I am. I think I reviewed one of their albums, actually. I think the lead singer’s Brazilian.
HUDSON: Yeah. That’s the thing. He’s in another band in Brazil, and I was going down there to be a guest. His name is Carlos Zema. And I was going there to be a guest of his band, and we get there, and the show is cancelled.
KNAC.COM: Oops.
HUDSON: We were coming from the States, and it was me and my buddy Vern, who is also a guitarist that was going to be a guest. Anyway, we both get there, and suddenly the show is cancelled and they’re talking about rescheduling and all that. As it turns out, they can’t reschedule and Andre Matos, the first singer for ANGRA, he had a solo act that was also at the show, and he’s like a celebrity in Brazil and there were a lot of tickets sold. And then, people started getting pissed off, and it was like “what the fuck?”
KNAC.COM: Understandably so.
HUDSON: So, literally, we had to get in Andre’s bus and basically flee the place!
KNAC.COM: Holy fuck!
HUDSON: Yeah, because there couldn’t be a show. From what I understand, the promoter took the ticket money and vanished.
KNAC.COM: Oh no!
HUDSON: But that was a couple of thousand tickets and there were a couple of thousand people, like freaking out. And I think the police kinda escorted the bus to where it was safe. It was really crazy!
KNAC.COM: Oh my God….(laughs)
HUDSON: It was also with CIRCLE II CIRCLE one time, but it was cool. We were in this place in Hungary and we had this show at this place called Barba Negra and we get there and it was this giant fucking venue in like a race track. And I was like “What the hell? Are we playing for like 50,000 people or something?”
KNAC.COM: Wow!
HUDSON: And at the last minute, it was like “No no no no no! You guys are playing at this other venue with the same name!”
KNAC.COM: Oh no!
HUDSON: So we hop in the bus and we go to this other place and it has the same name and it was a little smaller, but it was a pretty big place, but we’re like as far as we knew, we thought we were playing this race track! (laughs)
KNAC.COM: (laughs)
HUDSON: And were there all day, like setting it up, hanging out and then it turns out that it was at this other venue across town with the same name.
KNAC.COM: Still cool in a way because you have this small venue and you can still play like you were playing to 50,000 people compared to 500 people.
HUDSON: That was the thing – we could and we would’ve because there were 50,000 fans of us, but we were gonna play for nobody here! And the funny thing is that somehow the other people at the big venue were “Where are you guys? Are you coming for the show?”. There was no communication to know that the show was in the other venue.
KNAC.COM: Oh dear.
HUDSON: A lot of this shit happens in Europe sometimes anyway.
KNAC.COM: Communication is key, after all.
HUDSON: Exactly.
KNAC.COM: I mean, they should’ve been relaying to you that you would be playing here instead of at another venue. There’s a festival here called HEAVY MTL and I remember one year I’d went – I think MEGADETH were headlining – and they ended up doing two shows that one night. First, they did their regular headlining set at HEAVY MTL and then they went to a small club afterwards called Foufonnes Electriques, where they ended up doing a more intimate show. And the guy I knew who used to more or less promote HEAVY MTL at the time, Mitch Lafon, he ended up telling me about the secret MEGADETH show that was going to be at Foufonnes Electriques and that your two-day pass was valid to get into the show. So, sometimes, these sets of shows are sometimes very flexible for anyone who didn’t really get a chance to see MEGADETH in their entirety got a chance at least to see a more relaxed version of MEGADETH – I think they were playing all of Rust In Peace in its entirety at the time.
HUDSON: I remember that tour.
KNAC.COM: I remember the first time I actually got to see MEGADETH was in 1995 when I was living in Spain. It was them and CORROSION OF CONFORMITY and they ended up playing in this small bullring in Zaragoza where I was living in at the time. Actually, what had happened was that the show had almost ended up getting cancelled because of noise complaints, but I think their managers were still able to persuade city officials and tell them “We promise to keep the noise down”. Turns out, they were just playing inside so the sound wasn’t reverberating outside.
HUDSON: Now that’s a hustle!
KNAC.COM: Did you ever have any situations like that in NORTHTALE or CIRCLE II CIRCLE when you were playing a show and it was considered to be too loud and there was a risk of bylaw officials telling you to turn the noise down?
HUDSON: Yeah. Actually, there was. But it wasn’t with CIRCLE II CIRCLE – it was with UDO. We were somewhere in eastern Russia and that same guy – that asshole from the show.
KNAC.COM: Oh no!
HUDSON: He was getting into shit with them because the show was supposed to be low…it was crazy.
KNAC.COM: So, he pretty much had the volume turned up to 11 and, of course, they have certain types of noise restrictions in Russia – very far eastern Russia – and he just didn’t comply?
HUDSON: To be honest, I don’t know what the deal was. There were some people yelling and the guy didn’t hear them and he was yelling at them in German and it was “okay…there’s some kind of problem”….I don’t know. (laughs)
KNAC.COM: (laughs)
HUDSON: I just remember it had something to do with the decibels and the meter.
KNAC.COM: Tell me a bit more about this European tour that you’re doing with DORO. Apparently, MICHAEL SCHENKER is also playing on this tour as well. Is it the UK strictly or the UK and Europe?
HUDSON: We’re supporting MICHAEL SCHENKER in the UK for four shows and then I head to Germany for some headlining shows. It’s really two different tours, because it’s like with the corona restrictions, she’s not able…from what I understand, it was supposed to be a full European run, but because of restrictions, in between countries…you know, the same reason that our tour got cancelled. She’s doing like two different things: We’re doing the UK and then we’re flying to Germany and doing shows inside of Germany.
KNAC.COM: Hope it doesn’t complicate matters because, not even with Covid but with Brexit as well because I’ve even heard that some bands had trouble trying to get a visa to even play in the UK.
HUDSON: Yeah…they sent me a work permit and I was like “I never needed this before”.
KNAC.COM: There was an interview, I think, with Tom Hamilton of AEROSMITH where he said that was also one of the reasons why AEROSMITH in general were thinking about curbing the number of tours they were doing in the UK overall because at one point, like yourself and like any other band that played the UK very often, they never had to worry about visas or any of the sort, and now, all of a sudden, now everyone has to get a work permit to play. It’s like really gotten a bit screwed up there.
HUDSON: Yeah.
KNAC.COM: Hopefully that gets resolved in time but Brexit was kinda politically made anyway. It’s not something you can blame Covid on.
HUDSON: I consider that, though not really “we’re not going to the UK anymore”. If it happens, great, but I just consider it a no-go zone now. (laughs)
KNAC.COM: Hopefully, once all of these restrictions are lifted, we can finally start doing these types of interviews in person.
HUDSON: Yeah…I’d love that, man. And we’ve been chatting on Facebook for so many years that now it’s about time that I get to meet you in person. (laughs)
KNAC.COM: Hopefully, it’s either with I AM MORBID, or with NORTHTALE, or, hell, even with DORO, one of these days you’ll have to start doing a real Canadian tour again and I’ll definitely be there waiting. As will James and everyone else from LYCANTHRO. Thanks again for the interview and give my regards to DORO and MICHAEL SCHENKER.
HUDSON: Shall do, brother. Thanks for the opportunity, my friend.
