Embedded Files
2 interviews here.
Interview #2 is from 2022
Interview #1 is from 2007
GUY RITTER & GARY LENAIRE INTERVIEW #2
2022Heaven's Metal Exclusive: Guy Ritter & Gary Lenaire InterviewBy Chris Gatto
Like many of you fellow middle aged metalheads, I discovered metal young and I’ve listened long and loud for decades. New and older metal bands appeal to me, but I can’t deny that there are some bands that were so good, their music so meaningful, that it left an indelible imprint in my brain, and those songs are irrevocably linked to times and places in my life, emotions that come back with a roar when evoked. These classics, and the musicians who created them have become old friends to me, and probably for you, as well. I’d like to introduce you to a new band FLOOD, made up of some old friends: Guy Ritter, Gary Lenaire, and Erik Mendez of the classic Tourniquet era: rounded out by the talented Anna Sentina (YouTube) and David Husvik (Extol/ Azusa).Many of our fans last heard Guy, Gary, and Erik play together on Pathogenic. Please tell us about Echo Hollow, Cripple Need Cane, 2050 and any other post-Tourniquet musical pursuits.
Gary: Guy and I formed Echo Hollow in 1996. The music was decidedly different from our earlier stuff. It was more Rock-Metal than Thrash. We were very busy in those days raising children and really didn’t have a lot of time to develop and record songs. There were some good songs there, however such as “Through the Veil,” “Diet of Worms,” “Thursday,” “1973,” and “ADHD.” “Superficial Intelligence” is a tune Guy and I like a lot.Cripple Need Cane was a band I formed in Los Angeles around 2002. The band was very mainstream Rock/Metal with a lot of vocals. We did one record and then disbanded due to interpersonal reasons. During that time, I began to implement a lot of new gear in my rig. I was using multi-effectors and other machines that offered some cool signal processing.Working with Roland / BOSS in those days, I composed and recorded many songs that can be heard in various products such as the Roland VS-2480 and BOSS Micro BR. I also produced hundreds of tone patches and audio files for various effectors such as the BOSS GT-8, GT-10, GT-100, JS-8, JS10, Roland VG-99 and GR-55. I had the pleasure of performing in many videos with really talented players including Steve Stevens.Around 2005 I had a dinner party at my home in Los Angeles and invited Guy, Victor, and Erik. It was a great evening. We laughed and shared old band stories, catching up with one another. That night we discussed a possible reunion. In the following weeks, Erik, Victor and I started jamming in my recording studio. We played with various drummers and took a casual approach—we just wanted to jam! We stopped playing around 2006 without doing any final recordings. 2050 yielded two songs: “In Remission” and “Darfur” and those songs were recorded for the FLOOD debut record. I am so happy that those songs were finished properly. “Darfur” is perhaps the most intense vocal performance I have ever done.I have released a couple of solo records in recent years. Symphonic Liberties was released in January 2020 on digital and CD. That was a wonderful experience for me. I recorded Metal, Rock, and Classical music for the album. You can hear my Classical influences that drove some of those songs in the 90s. The Classical pieces allowed me to perform on many beautiful instruments. I utilized the Fishman MIDI Guitar System for some of those performances. I recently composed “The Rose of Sharon” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_X0YC8N_iw) in honor of my late mother, Sharon.You guys reunited very quietly. Few people were aware of FLOOD until Polarized was ready to drop. How did you start working together again, and why all the secrecy leading up to the album?Gary: During a trip to Italy and Greece in the summer of 2019, I was capturing video and photo content in anticipation for my next solo record. You can see those videos and photos on some of the videos for Symphonic Liberties. It was on that trip that I began thinking about a reunion project. I spoke with all the early band members and discussed it. Then, in early 2020 the pandemic happened. I was at home writing and recording new material for the reunion project and it soon hit me, “this is not a reunion, this is a new band with a new sound!” I called Guy and we talked for quite a while that day. I explained to him what was happening with me and the songs that were emerging from those experiences. Guy and I formed FLOOD in September 2020. As far as secrecy leading up to the album, I was actively talking about it on my social media channels but people really started hearing about it on January 1, 2022 when we released Polarized.Anna and David (of the mighty Extol!) fill out the bass and drums in the band quite nicely. How did you come to work with both of them?Gary: I have worked on many projects with Anna. She was featured in some of the music videos I produced. She’s a great bassist and a great person. During that time, I wasn’t actively recording music and Anna encouraged me to start making music again.David was highly suggested by many fans on social media, so we reached out to him. We recorded “Stop the Bleeding” with him, and we knew he was the one! We continued recording from there. David is a very genuine and cool person. His drumming is really inspiring.Victor Macias played on the most recent Deliverance record. Was he considered to play with you guys, or have you been in touch with him?Gary: Victor is our brother; he’s family and we love him. We asked him to join us on this project and though it didn’t happen, perhaps he can do a guest appearance on the next record, if Anna is cool with that!Tourniquet was one of a very few Christian bands who were groundbreaking in metal, and not just following (years behind) what the mainstream was doing. Your new music clearly has all the distinctive hallmarks of those first 3 Tourniquet albums (except perhaps Guy’s falsetto screams), yet sounds refreshingly modern. Was there a conscious effort on the band’s part to reach forward or reach into the past when making the record?Guy: Actually, there are falsetto vocals on three of the FLOOD songs, but I tried to do it in a way that didn’t sound dated. “Stop the Bleeding” was a song title I came up with on the same day that I came up with the band name Tourniquet. It seemed so obvious and appropriate, but I never finished a song for it. We thought it would be cool to do a FLOOD song “Stop the bleeding.” For the Polarized record, I don’t think we tried to copy the past, and a few times last year we threw out song ideas or parts that sounded dated. Gary and I have been doing this together since 1985, so I guess it could be easy to slip into old styles that are comfortable. Most known musicians have some kind of signature to their sound, whether good or bad. When Michael McDonald sang backups on several Steely Dan songs, Toto, Christopher Cross, and Kenny Loggins, I doubt they asked him to sound different. Even if they had, he probably wouldn’t have been able to pull it off. When you hear the first snare hit and first guitar note to any Van Halen song you say immediately, “That’s Van Halen!” All that said, I think it’s hard to move too far away from the sound that you enjoy or that you have done in the past. Fast forward to FLOOD…hmmmm, maybe I hear a few things in “War in the Sky,” “Free Loading Larceny” and “Stop the Bleeding,” but this is an 11-song album. There are eight other songs that I don’t really hear the old influences. Now someone listening to the debut FLOOD album might think different.It’s obvious to the listeners that Gary and Erik have been woodshedding. There is some fantastic axework, including several instrumentals- all of it quite technical and breath taking. How were the songs written? Guitars first, and then lyrics or vice versa?Gary: Thank you for those really gracious comments. Erik and I have always had a great chemistry. As I said earlier, “Darfur” and “In Remission” were written years before. When David tracked the drums for “Darfur” the song was truly realized as I intended it. David just crushed that performance. For the other tracks I wrote for the FLOOD record, I utilized a more refined approach. Percussion is the backbone, base, feel, and vibe for many of my Metal songs. I write guitars with percussion and melody in mind. I am a riff writer. I sometimes have a lyrical premise in mind, but those specific words usually start flowing once I can truly feel the rhythm and hear the melody of the song. While walking on Grace Bay beach in Turks and Caicos last summer, I wrote an entire song in about 60 minutes – it will likely be featured on the next FLOOD record.Guy: There is a lot of back and forth between Gary and me. He may listen to my rough guitar tracks and change them up. And when I sing vocal parts for songs that Gary writes, I sometimes change up the melody, or timing or the enunciation. That back and forth is really what makes the songs evolve way beyond the basic song idea. I will send a track to Gary and say, “Check this out.” Gary responds back with something like, “Well that is totally unexpected, but it’s cool!” At the end of “My Last Ride,” Gary played the end of the song different than I had written it. So, I couldn’t sing exactly what I was planning. So, I just sang “Now It’s too late.” Now it seems meant to be. For the songs I write, I typically come up with the vocal melody of the verse or chorus first and go from there. I am usually walking or hiking when I come up with my ideas. Often I stay away from specific words when developing the vocal hook so that the melody isn’t constrained by any words or vowels. I may kind of mumble a bunch of nonsense. Then I might listen back to that idea on my iPhone and say for instance, “Hey, it sounds like I am saying a gateway to my mind… maybe I should say that.” I also try to think up the basic ideas for the guitars and drums when I am writing as I walk. Once I feel like I have the intro, verse and chorus, I then lay down a rough demo with the Intro, Verse 1, Bridge (if applicable) and Chorus. I lay down a click and then play a live drum track as I hum the song to myself. After that I put down a rough guitar track and some vocals. I might repeat that process two to three times until I find the right tempo and key for the song. Half of these rough demos end up on the heap pile. When I feel I really like one of the ideas, I send it to Gary, and he sends it back with better guitars and I sing another rough vocal track. At this stage is when we can really hear if the idea is going to work or not. Many times, in the process of writing a song, I get to the point whereas I am laying down rough tracks, I stumble upon a better intro or verse, so I replace those parts. By replacing those sections, it may trigger a different melody for the chorus! By the time a song is done, it might be completely different from the original idea. But in the long run, the original idea did something to get the wheels turning. One thing I always tell young musicians is that the key to writing good songs is knowing when to throw away entire songs or parts of songs.I‘m torn. Our Christian walk is rarely a straight line. Sometimes we walk, sometimes we crawl. Sometimes it’s one step forward and two steps back. On one hand, I’d like to let Gary’s lyrics on “Design” and “War in the Sky” speak for themselves as his statement of faith. However, as Gary publicly renounced his faith some years ago, fans are not going to give me a pass without asking what transpired to bring him back into the fold? (Whether or not he chooses to answer, we’re glad to have him back.)Gary: Thank you, that you’re glad means a lot to me. Your words, “statement of faith” are directly applicable. God inspired me to rejoin the fold, by faith.In the late 1990s, in addition to working as Commandant for a Military Department at-risk youth program, I was also the volunteer Chaplain. I also taught two other Bible studies each week at various churches. I was attending Bible college and studying history, exegesis, theology, and the origins of scripture. I was incredibly happy with a wife and two young sons. I was being blessed in many ways, serving God and His community.In 1999, a series of events sent me down a path of doubt. Those events were traumatic, and I began to question everything, including my faith in God. Over the next few years, I became hardened and angry about some of the things I went through. “Why would God let those things happen to me?” I asked. For years I walked without faith. I eventually thought that faith in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit was not necessary to live in harmony with God, or the universe.In June 2020, I lost my cat who was very close to me. He was my dear friend, family. The pandemic was happening, and I could tell my life was changing. Then in 2021, both my parents died within 90-days of each other. Those events didn’t impact me the way the events in 1999 did. Instead, I started to reconsider faith, something I never thought I would ever do again. It seemed impossible to me. I now know that many people were praying for me, and those prayers were answered.During my years outside of faith I wrote down some thoughts. Back in those days if you read or heard anything I was stating about faith and God, please know that I was not looking in the right direction concerning God. I wasn’t listening to God either, an act of rebellion. Those writings were my way of dealing with what I was going through and trying to justify my path. I was wrong about faith because I wasn’t looking to God by faith. In my error, I was looking to humans: Human evidence, human history, human writings, human scholars, human science…all of those things that humans do can be very beneficial. However, concerning faith, only God authors that in us. When we try to “prove” God’s existence through earthly / human methods, we will not be able to find God there. I looked for that proof using non-faith methods and was not able to find it. Hidden are the things of God from this world. God reveals Himself to His people and by faith His people recognize, know, and serve Him. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” Hebrews 11:1-3
People can make really clever arguments for God’s non-existence using worldly methods. Without faith we are blind and cannot see God. This fact is utterly amazing, and the evil in this world influences people to believe the human devices that point to no…or inconclusive “proof” of God. That is precisely why many people lose faith during their scholarly pursuit of God. The lack of “evidence” seems so clear, so right; it is extremely compelling. It appears to them on many pages that it is simply humans that have created the God narrative and the writings about God throughout history. It is so compelling that they are often driven to agnosticism or atheism. Their focus becomes more about love for themselves (self-centered and / or selfish) and less about their love for God and others. During my years outside of faith I thought that sincere believers could lose faith because of what they find when they study church history and the early formation of scripture, and I was partially right, some people do lose faith in that quest. That is because they are looking to earthly evidence for God rather than seeking God by faith. Only God can grant faith in us to see Him and to escape this world and the evil that is in it. This humbling fact should build compassion in us to pray for and help those around us. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6When we look with our human eyes at the things of this world, we are not looking to God by faith. The words I am saying now are said by faith, and not by the world. All of us on the path must listen to God, by faith alone. Our God given conscience checks everything about us and the information we are pondering. Even religious information can be deceiving, especially information that wasn’t given or received by faith. “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Cor 5:7“My Last Ride” takes you on an emotional ride, especially once you realize what the lyrics are talking about. We’ve always known Ted Kirkpatrick as the animal rights activist. Guy, is this something close to your heart as well? Have you seen any progress on this issue since the “Ark of Suffering” video all those years ago?Guy: Animals have always been close to my heart. I have owned dogs, cats, chickens, horses, bullfrogs, and turtles. Gary and I were the only band members who had animals living with us during the first three Tourniquet albums. I had an Airedale named Maxxers and Gary had a huge Golden Retriever the size of a pony named Chopper. Maxxers was actually filmed live on the stage during the “Ark of Suffering” video, but we never used that footage in the MTV video. I just found the old master tape so I may be transferring it soon. I have never tried to watch that tape because it would be too emotional. She was like my best friend from age 12 to when she passed away when I turned 26. I am looking forward to seeing it in the near future. During the early Tourniquet days, I also became close with a barn owl named Wesley that my girlfriend at that time, a biologist, had raised as an abandoned baby chick. I never discussed it back then because of his safety. After Wesley passed away, she wrote a New York Times best-selling book about what she learned about owls, by living with one. She mentions my relationship with Wesley in the 90’s and also mentions the band Tourniquet several times. For reference, the book is called Wesley the Owl by Stacey O’Brien.“Ark of Suffering” was a song that was more about how movies, circuses, cosmetic companies, and testing labs were abusing animals. Yes, I think there has been great progress in that area thanks to countless regulations and of course social media has helped as well. Yet, for every two victories won each year for animal rights, there seems to be one more new atrocity exposed. “My Last Ride”, however, is more about what happens in the home. It’s about the abrupt breakup of a dog and his master. The song drives home this overlooked atrocity by allowing the dog to sing this song from his own desperate point of view. I came up with the song idea one night as I drove home from work listening to the radio. There was a report that during Covid in 2020, many people were buying or adopting animals as they were stranded at home and feeling a bit lonely. These pets offered great comfort during this scary time. And as people started going back to work in 2021, there was an all-time high of animal drop-offs at shelters. By the end of 2021, the shelters were at full capacity. We were finishing the FLOOD album right as I heard of this. Frantic to bring light to this epidemic, I called Gary and said, “we need to do a song about what is happening at the shelters.” Even though the album was already at 10 songs, we rushed back to the studio one more time and the song just barely made the album.With so many artists using their platform to espouse leftist ideology, it’s encouraging to see conservative values shine in “Freeloading Larceny.” How has living in Cali affected your personal freedoms these last couple years?Gary: I lived in California for 27 years. As a young musician I worked in the legal field, giving me close insight into the Los Angeles criminal, civil, municipal, probate, federal, and family law court systems. I went on to work for the Department of Defense / Military Department. I don’t speak lightly about law, society, and civil rights. In recent years the United States and other countries have experienced some movements that threaten the very core of ethics and freedom; those groups advocate violence and wrongdoing in the name of good and progress. We see those ideologies as evil, of course, because they are evil. Freedom fades when we lose our courage to stand up and say no to that evil, regardless of our political or religious affiliation. Decent, civil, hard-working, family members are the majority in numbers. We must stand together and not cower to political and ideological evil. Let us not be polarized by the culture war. While we reject lawless evil, it is also important to really listen to people that have different views. Remember, we persuade people to God by living in his image, by faith. As we listen and converse with our neighbors, we are in position to persuade people to consider God. “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” 2 Cor 5:11Has the covid era permanently killed off the normal means of touring for bands?Gary: Touring was crushed because of the pandemic. When was the last time you were really thankful to see a live show? Our generation has been enjoying nonstop live music for our entire lives. Growing up we were conditioned to think that concerts were a never-ending market we could enjoy at any time. Then COVID struck and everyone, except essential workers, stayed home. No more shows. That is how frail this world is, it can change overnight. Wars, natural disasters, and other events can change the course in an instant. I feel for my friends on the touring circuit who were negatively impacted by COVID. At the same time, I study history, and it’s fascinating to see the massive reset in activities and the acceleration of E-commerce, both in music and other industries. As for normal means of touring, we will find out. I think this world changed a lot in the last two years and in some ways it may never return to its previous normal.I’m told Polarized is selling well, so clearly the fans are quite interested in FLOOD. What’s next for you guys?Gary: We are very thankful for the folks who purchased and are enjoying the FLOOD record. Like us, maybe get a 2nd copy and give it to someone who perhaps doesn’t know God. I have given the CD to a number of my friends. That’s what this is all about, right? The next step for FLOOD is the 2nd record. We are already recording it! Live shows can happen when (if) the pandemic stuff goes away.Psycho Surgery is my all-time favorite metal album. Congratulations on making music that stands the test of time and still speaks to metal fans today. For whoever wants to answer- what is the song or album you are most proud of creating as an artist?Gary: I am very thankful for all the music I have been a part of. I once wrote a song for my sister’s wedding 20 years ago and performed it at the ceremony. There are no recordings of that song, but I remember it was a touching ballad. Years ago, Guy and I wrote and recorded a Christmas song. I can’t find a recording of that one either. Both of those are examples of songs that were done simply out of love, love for God, people, and music. I wrote the solo record title track, “No Time Now” (https://youtube.com/watch?v=OOLMOfEH-18). That song touches me as it reminds us to love today and not wait for a tomorrow that may never be. “Forever in a Second” is another tune I’m thankful for (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg6AKAQu6b4). The last lines show the hope we have in God:Twilight has fallen on you
The sun will shine once more
Beyond the horizon dwells foreverIn my opinion, FLOOD Polarized is hands down the best record I have ever been a part of. It celebrates sounds from the past, speaks to present-day issues while fearlessly rips into the future. It is also the most personally meaningful record I have ever done. Working with Guy and the other band members is a very special thing.Guy: This is a tough question. They all have great memories. I would have to say Polarized. If you would have asked me last year during the production of FLOOD, I might have answered differently. Just being honest. Putting together an album can be an emotional journey. One day I was loving a song and the next day I was ripping out the bridge or the chorus and we dropped many songs from the album altogether. For example, the keyboard part I played at the beginning of “My Last Ride” was muted for a while and then we put it back during the final mix. Your mind plays tricks on you when you work on a project like this. They say an album is never done until you run out of time or money! We knew we had to stop the changes so that we could get the album out by the end of the year. It’s a relief once you move out of the recording and into mixing because you are rebooting your mind into listening mode. I remember sitting in my car doing a car test with all 11 songs for the first time, and I was texting Gary and saying wow, it feels like an album now. Where did all this come from? To answer your question, I think I like the FLOOD album the best because of the variety of the styles. If you heard “My Last Ride”, “Darfur”, “In Remission” and “The Order of Melchizedek” at a backyard BBQ, all spread out with 40 other songs, and not played all in a row, and had never heard FLOOD before, I don’t think that you would connect the dots that these four songs were all from the same band. Yeah, I think that’s why I like this album.Gary & Guy: Thank you, Heaven’s Metal, for giving us the opportunity to do this interview.God bless and Godspeed on all your future musical endeavors, guys. It’s been a pleasure
Chris Gatto
GUY RITTER INTERVIEW #1
2007
Heaven's Metal Exclusive: Guy Ritter InterviewA Conversation with Guy RitterBy Todd Walker
Hello folks! It is time for the second edition of “Where Are They Now?” This time we looked up Guy Ritter, founding member and vocalist for legends Tourniquet, as well as Holy Danger and Echo Hollow. All I can say is that this is the definitive Guy Ritter interview. We covered all the bases of his long career. Guy went in depth into his beginnings in Christian metal and the founding of Tourniquet. He also gives some advice to the new bands that are out there from the perspective of someone who has been there before. Guy updates us on his current musical projects and his spiritual life. So please get comfortable, sit back, and enjoy this in depth conversation with Guy!4/10/07TW: Hey Guy!GR: Hi, Todd.TW: Let’s go back to the beginning.GR: Ok. I was Six lbs. and Four oz…(LAUGHTER)TW: When did you know you wanted to be in the music industry and how did you get started?GR: Probably back in the late 70’s I started to see bands like Keith Green and Daniel Band and Petra. I saw bands like that playing music and that was it. I saw how powerful music was in concert, and to be able to add the extra dimension to the music. You could play and good concert and then you could have that extra dimension of you could have a relationship with the living God. When I saw that with some of those bands back in the late 70’s and early 80’s I said, “Oh my gosh! This is powerful! This is what I want to do!” I had always played music from a young age. I played drums and any instrument that was around I would always try to play music, but it was really when I saw those Christian bands play that I really wanted to get into it. This was probably around junior high I started getting serious about it.TW: Would you list those bands among your influences as well?GR: Well, in the beginning bands like Keith Green and Petra were the main ones…Servant and some of those other bands. There weren’t too many good hard bands out there. Rez Band and Daryl were some others.TW: I guess if you look back, the Holy Danger demo was about what 1985?GR: It was ’85 and that was probably, the single “One Way” to my knowledge, one of the first fast Christian metal songs. Really, really fast…considered thrash. Up to then there wasn’t really any fast music like that.TW: Yeah. Really the only other metal in the Christian genre at that time were Stryper and Saint and Messiah Prophet came out with albums in ’84, so you were right in that window.GR: Yeah, Messiah Prophet. We opened for Saint in ‘85 I think up in Salem, Oregon. That was the only time I ever played long. Saint was really mad at us because we got done with our little 3 songs and I said, “Wow, they really like us”, so I said, “Let’s do another one!” And they clapped again, so “Let’s do another one, and we’ll try this song” so we played another song. (laughing) And we got yelled at so bad and I was like, “What is their problem?” Of course when Tourniquet went on the road one band did that to us and I realized I had done that before. It’s easy to do when you get your little chance play in front of a real audience. You have to remember that you are playing in front of somebody else’s audience. That was a Saint audience we were playing in front of, but we were just milking it. We never did that again! (laughter) But the guitar player we met at that show was Dee Harrington. And eventually he wasn’t happy in the band (Saint) and he joined us. And the glam metal thing was really taking off. We weren’t really glam…but we wore Spandex and a little makeup. We were doing stuff that was more melodic and with a little faster pace. We called him up and he came down and he ended up moving his whole family down to Eugene, and we started the band. Gary and I and Dee started…we worked on that demo.TW: I did not realize that you were already working with Gary back then.GR: Before Holy Danger, I was playing keyboards and writing the music but I couldn’t sing at all. I met this singer who was working on an MTV video in Portland and he had just become a Christian and he was a long-haired rocker and a really good singer. We hit it off and he starting living with me down in Eugene, Oregon and we started recording songs at my parent’s house. One weekend he was really nervous and he said, “There is this Satanic band that I left and I really think that they are going to try to kill me since I became a Christian.” Of course I thought he was crazy. He said, “I am going back to get my tax returns and will be back in a few days.” And he went to a party that night to hang with some friends and this kid came up and shot him and killed him. It was weird ‘cause this kid actually knew him. I think some kids had paid him…they gave him some drugs and said, “Kill him. Kill him in the bathroom and we will give you these drugs.” So he shot him in the bathroom at this house and he was dead. The weird thing was I was trying to finish one of his tracks about a week later and all of a sudden I could sing! Before I could only sing real simple pop stuff. I never really understood that whole “heavy metal scream”. What button you had to push to make that happen? He was really good at that Michael Sweet stuff and I just couldn’t get it. After he died it was literally days later I tried to do some of the stuff he was doing to finish that track and that is how it started. I dropped that keyboard thing…it was kind of dorky anyway! (laughter) I started singing. I met a guitar player in Portland I started jamming with and we were driving around Springfield, Oregon looking for a job for him. I told Dan to go over to this apartment complex and ask them for a job. Maybe they need a groundskeeper. He went up and asked for a job and the guy said, “Yeah we actually do need a groundskeeper” so he got a job at this apartment complex. Believe it or not Gary was living there. So he ran into Gary every day for a few months and would talk to him and say “Hey man, we are in a Christian band” and Gary would kind of say “Uh, yeah…whatever”. At that time Gary’s best friend and guitar player in his band died in a car wreck and it was just perfect timing. God reached out to Gary at that time. Dan kept saying to me “You have got to met this guy, Gary. He’s interested in Christian music and a good guy and is really cool and has got long hair.” I was thinking that at that point we did not have time to disciple somebody from the ground up, that we needed to get this thing moving. I kept saying that. But I guess God had other plans. One day he said, “Come on, we are in the area. Let me introduce you to Gary.” And that’s how it all started. He started coming to our studio and hanging out and eventually he made a decision to change his life. Overnight he was a different person. It was like night and day. His friends at work were all making fun of him everyday at work. “Hey Christian boy.” They were all rockers too in heavy metal bands. But that is basically how it all happened.When I started music, the Christian bands that were our there were bands like Daniel Band, Rez Band, Keith Green, Matthew Ward, Kansas, when they started doing stuff with Christian lyrics. And the secular bands I listed to at that time were Rush, REO Speedwagon, Van Halen, Toto, Cheap Trick, U2, Billy Joel, ELP, YES, Scorpions, those kinds of bands.TW: When that vocal button clicked, how your unique style develop? You have that nice baritone, and could switch gears and hit that high falsetto. How did that begin?GR: I don’t know. I just listened a lot to Eric when he was singing. Lots of Michael Sweet, Bloodgood, Rez Band. I could just never understand how you could click over to that heavy metal scream. It just happened overnight and I really don’t know. I know it sounds like a crazy story, but that is pretty much what happened. Also, Michael Black was one of the guys I had sent a cassette to. Key word “cassette” (laughter). He worked for Frontline in the Nashville office. I think he actually worked for Benson Company. He was a rep for Frontline, but was always in the office over at Benson trying to help out with all the products. I talked to him many times before because I owned a Christian mail order store for music for years. After my first album he told me “I really don’t like all the high vocals.” I was kind of offended and asked why. He thought it was just “too much”. I had never focused on anything in the lower end of vocals at all. I was more comfortable in the high stuff. So I was a little offended. So when Michael came to Frontline in LA he became kind on of an A&R guy. So I said ok. And that was the best thing he did was that he taught me to sing lower because that…well I don’t even like to listen to the first album anymore, but I liked the stuff where there is more low, or predominantly low and the high stuff comes in where there is a bridge or something else going on.And it is true, A lot of people used to ask me, “Have you heard King Diamond sing?” And seriously I had not ever heard him sing until after Stop the Bleeding came out. So many people said, “Oh come on, you probably listened to a lot of King Diamond.” Finally I was at Ted’s apartment and he pulled out a CD, and he said, “OK. You have got to listen to this King Diamond and see what you think.” And I had to agree that “Wow this is kind of similar” (laughing). “But I don’t want to listen to him. He is too dark for me.”TW: I honestly had never heard King Diamond either until I heard the talk about how much you sounded like him:GR: I was always a little sheltered anyway. I never hung out with the “metal crowd” per se. I hung out with the “musician crowd”, but I was never really in that crowd that had to listen to everyone out there and own ever album and had to have it all.TW: You liked what you liked and that is what you stuck toGR: Right.TW: How old were you then were you started Holy Danger?GR: In 1985 I was 19.TW: Where did you come up with the name “Chuck Pepper” for you in Holy Danger?GR: There are some questions I should just be able to avoid! (laughter) You know how we were back in the 80’s…we had these stupid stage names. Everyone had an alias. I was so used to my name that I did not think it was cool sounding so I needed a cool name. Then people would come up to me and ask, “Who is Guy Ritter?” and I would say it was my real name. They would say, “I don’t understand. Why would you use the name Chuck Pepper? Guy Ritter sounds cooler.” And I would say “Really?!”TW: Chuck Pepper sounds to me like the name of a local TV sports anchor. “And now Sports with Chuck Pepper!”GR: I will admit it. I have done some stupid things. You should hear the demos we made for Holy Danger. I mean…ugh. And pre-Holy Danger before I met Gary was even worse! I actually had some calls recently asking “Would you please let us re-release the Holy Danger full album?” And I just wonder “Why?” It was terrible. It is embarrassing!TW: Hey now. It was a beginning. We all have to start someplace, right? I did hear that album once. My friend Rich found it at a local Christian bookstore when they were cleaning out their demos.GR: They were probably using it as a coffee coaster! (laughter)TW: So Holy Danger lasted for 2 years and then we see you pop up again when Tourniquet debuts in 1990?GR: To tell you the truth, it is kind of funny. When we actually went to…Well let me tell you how I ended up in LA. Gary had decided he wanted to go to Bible school. So I decided so there so no musicians left to play with here (laughter) so I moved to LA. I had put off moving to LA before and I was ready to move right before I met Gary and Eric, so there was a reason why I was supposed to stay. But his time I moved to LA. Gary was trying to become a Pastor. He had a congregation he was working with. The first week I was there I was looking for a bed and there was this futon for sale. It turns out the futon is owned by this girl band, I think they were called “Bevy” and their producer was Thomas Gray. They told me to call this guy, so I called him and he starting paying for all our rehearsals. For a while I didn’t even have a band but every week I would meet this guy. He really wanted to get into the Christian market because of Stryper. I put an add in a magazine called “Music Connection” and a drummer had called and said he wanted to be in the band. He kept pressing me because he had this other band he waned to join and I told him, “OK I will give you and answer by 10 tonight.” I had already found another guitar player to work with and just needed a drummer to get going. Ted called me about 5 or 6 that day and said he was interested in what we were doing and I said, “Well you need to come over tonight” and Ted responded with, “Why? It’s already 6 o’clock?” And I told him I promised this other guy I would give him an answer tonight. Ted thought it was a little weird but he drove all the way over to Burbank. I really liked Ted and he played this drumming video he had done. That night Ted and I decided to move forward with this and the other guitar player named Jay. So that’s how it happened. We finally convinced Gary to come back to LA and start playing so he hooked up with us again. Ted really like some of the stuff we had done, and really liked Gary, and so after Gary moved back to LA, we put together this demo that had “Whitewashed Tomb, “Tears of Korah” and “You Get What you Pray For”. So we talked to Ron Goudie, who had produced Stryper’s Yellow and Black Attack for Enigma. This Thomas Gray guy was still paying us to work with Ron, so Ron Goudie called Frontline, because Deliverance was on the label and doing well as was Vengeance. He said to Frontline “Why don’t you sign these guys, Holy Danger” to get back to your question of “how long was Holy Danger around?” We did not even have a name yet. Jim Kempner, the owner of Frontline says, “I’ve never heard of them.” So we get this guy who calls us and says, “I need a tape.” All I could ask was, “What did you do with all the tapes we sent? We sent three to this office and one to your Nashville office.” They gave us the, “We never got it” response, so we sent one and the next day we had this meeting with Jim, who wanted do something, but said there were too may bands like Holy Soldier, Holy Rite…there were too many “Holy” bands. So I told Jim we had 2 ideas. One is “Testify” and the other was “Tourniquet”. And he said “Tourniquet! That’s it.” It was immediate. He didn’t even have to think about it. So I said I have an album idea Stop the Bleeding for the first title. Everybody has to have their first album as self-titled. We want a real title. We always wanted to do things a little different. I still have that little medical dictionary where I circled the name “Tourniquet”. Even before I knew that Ted would one day write a lot of songs in medical terms. I used to read through dictionaries just trying to put together two words to come up with band names. One day I was doing that through this little medical book and circled it.TW: That is a cool tidbit.GR: There is a funny story too about being on Frontline. When we were signed to Frontline there were a bunch of other pop artists. There was the Power Team, Crystal Lewis and a bunch of others. We got invited for some reason to the Crystal Lewis record signing party. We were so delighted to be signed on Frontline for our first album. We had not even finished the album yet, but we thought this would be a great way to network and meet other people and show support. So we stood at the table and got all the way up to where Crystal was signing autographs. So I said, “We are here to show our support! You are a pop artist and we are a heavy metal band on the same label and we came to show our support.” So Crystal just looks up and us and kind of stares at us for a minute and just says “Okay” (Guy imitates a very meek and perhaps frightened response) (laughter!) Then she looked past us to do another autograph. She was done with us! (more laughter). There were no questions about “Oh, what is the name of your band?” or “When is your album coming out?” She was just ready to move on. (laughter again)TW: Well, that debut album was unlike anything else on the market at the time! It blew me away that’s for sure. How did you guys develop that sound? Mixing classical with the metal riffs?GR: Well, really we were doing that in Holy Danger back in Oregon. Dee Harrington was the classical influence on the first Holy Danger album. Saint didn’t like all the melody. Plus, it was too fast for Saint’s style. Ted was even better at meshing classical with metal. In the beginning, Gary and I kept telling Ted, “You have great ideas. You should get a guitar and start writing songs.” I loaned Ted my Les Paul copy for a while until he bought his own guitar.TW: What was it like, recording your first major album?GR: It was a lot of fun. Plenty of good stories and challenges. We were in the recording studio with Bill Metoyer. Right before we left, were almost done mixing Stop the Bleeding, there was something wrong with the software. This was way before Protools. There was something wrong with this separate software and computer that controlled the flying faders on this huge mixer board. Bill said “Whatever you do, don’t turn off any computers, don’t touch anything because it won’t save.” I said, “OK, Bill, no problem.” So he goes home around midnight and me a Gary went into the drum room in the studio and slept on the floor, and it was pretty much dark in there. At about 3 am we are still trying to sleep, all of a sudden the lights go completely out in the studio! Gary was like, “What was that?” And I said, “I think it was a power failure!” (laughing) And we looked at each other and went, “UH-OH!” We called Bill and he was screaming, “WHAT?” He had to come back in and mix a lot of the stuff over because of that power outage.Another funny time was when we were recording “Tears of Korah” and we completely forgot a verse! We did not even notice it ‘cause, well, the song is like 35 minutes long! We used to have the joke, “Oh, it’s a Gary song.” The whole second side of vinyl would be just Gary songs or maybe just one since they were so long! (laughter). Harlot Widow was like 12 minutes, Tears of Korah was like 8 minutes or something. So anyway, we didn’t even notice it was missing it was so long. And remember we were recording on 2- inch tape, so it’s expensive to do, to put an eight-minute song down. So I am in the vocal booth recording my parts when all of a sudden I go to sing the third verse and there is nothing there. I was just stunned! The guitar solo was there and I was supposed to sing another verse. This is back in the days of tape. So what Bill did was he switched over to a couple of tracks and I recorded the vocals to the third verse to the second verse on different tracks. I was going “How are you going to fix this, how are you going to fix this?” when we were mixing the album. He bounced down the second verse to half-inch tape and then he bounced the same verse again to the third verse to half-inch tape and then the rest of the song to half-inch tape and then got out a razor blade and cut it up and spliced it all back together so we had a complete song.TW: For me, personally I think the combination of the low vocals trading parts with the high stuff helped create the atmosphere of that first album. One of my college roommates, Ron, who was a music major (at Florida State)…I was listening to the CD and he came in and says “That’s genius! I have been listening to this from the other room. This whole album sounds like controlled chaos!”GR: (laugher) I like that. That’s a good name for a band!TW: Band Name! (laughter)GR: It’s better than “Testify!” (laughter)TW: He was a drummer and loved Ted’s drumming, but also the guitar tones that Gary was laying down, and then the way you would go back and forth between the low and high vocals.GR: In some of the early demos of those songs there were lots more high parts. That whole first verse on “You Get What You Pray For” was all high. Only on the final versions in the studio are all the parts lower. So we did tone it down a little before we recorded it. I think before this interview comes out I will post some of the demos of these songs just for fun. I think people will get a charge out of some of this stuff.TW: What website can our readers go to for that?GR: There will be a link from www.guyritter.com and I will put something up there like “Tourniquet Museum” and put some demos up there and some picture and I will make it fun. A little surprise to support the interview.TW: I wanted to ask you about “Ark of Suffering” and the video controversy.GR: Ted and his animal songs, which is really great. I applaud Ted. That was brilliant. The whole animal thing was great! Up until we came on the market Christians were never part of the animal movement to protect the animals. So basically the animal rights people hated Christians because all Christians worried about were babies. (laughter) And the only things metal bands ever did was sacrifice animals (more laughter) so Ted had this brilliant idea for this MTV video “Ark of Suffering” and they loved us because we were a metal band not sacrificing animals and we were Christians. So it was brilliant that Ted did that, but every album had to have an animal song, which again, is great! It was a whole different market for us. But Ted, Gary and I were all, through the process of writing each album we were very hard on each other. “Oh, that sucks!” or “Oh that kippered!” referring to kippered snacks. “Oh that really kipped!” So we were making fun of each other and would make fun of each other’s songs and say, “That song is dorky” and we would change the lyrics. One night Gary and me were listening to the 8 track version of “Whitewashed Tomb” and I got this idea so we turned on the recorder. We sang all these different lyrics over the top of “Whitewashed Tomb” and called it “Animal World.” It was the funniest thing I heave ever heard. It was so bad I was almost crying. The lyrics were like, “Supercalifragilistic Friends of Yours and Mine.” I think I will post it up on the website just for fun for people to hear. Ted please forgive me! But it was so funny. It shows that we really did have a great time doing what we did. We had a great relationship while we were working together and we made fun of each other but in a good way. We had fun doing it.TW: I still think that is one of the great ironies of “Ark of Suffering” is that you’ve got a Christian band whose video was banned by MTV. What a paradox!GR: Well, they did play it. A quite a few times as a matter of fact. We had people like Tom Scholz (Boston) and Paul McCartney and Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane/Starship) calling MTV saying, “You have got to play this video.” So what was happening was that “Animals Agenda” and some of these other magazines were calling these celebrities that they knew and saying, “We need you to call and get this MTV video on the air.” And that is how it got played. By these stars, who we never got to meet! I can’t take credit for that. (laughter) And there was an interview too, I think in “Animals Agenda” where they interviewed Ted Nugent and then they interviewed us and put is back to back in the same magazine. He talked about slaughtering the animals and then we would come back and say, “don’t slaughter the animals.” I still have that article. It was pretty cool.TW: Roger Martinez co-produced the album too?GR: Roger Martinez was asked to co-produce our first album. I think he asked to do it. (Imitates Roger) “I need some uh co-producing points here. I would uh like to uh co-produce Tourniquet. Yeah that would be really great uh, if I could uh co-produce Tourniquet, yeah.” So they let him. It was kind of weird and we were okay with it just for the name on the credits. Everybody in the world at that time loved Vengeance Rising, so if they saw his name on the album, more power to Roger. But we would be in the middle of a session and Bill Metoyer would be getting everything perfect and everything set up great and Roger would turn to Bill and say “Yeah, um, Bill, um, yeah, can I have one more DB please on track 2, um yeah, one more DB?” And so Bill would pretend…I don’t think he would even change it and Roger would say, “Yeah, sounds good, Bro.” (laughter) That, to us was one of our favorite things. And we did that continually on the next 2 albums. We would always say to Bill, “One more DB please.” (laughter)TW: Now, you guys were fairly prolific. You put out 3 albums in three years from 1990-1992. Did this enable you to do much touring?GR: The thing is, we were so overwhelmed. It was overnight we were pretty busy. It was pretty fast, and I hear that happens to people the first time. We were all trying to support…we were all on the phone calling the “CMJ” or the college music charts or journal whatever it was called. We were all creating binders for each member and were on the phone calling all the stations saying, “Please play this song “You Get What Your Pray For.”” And we were all doing these interviews and basically doing a lot of administrative work trying to get this band off the ground. We did not have any tours lined up so we were just doing the show here or there in LA where we could. Luckily we were already starting the next album and trying to get that out, so we did not do any major shows or touring until the second album was finished and coming out. Then we started to do the shows like Cornerstone, fly-outs and other Christian festivals and the first real tour after the second album to the Midwest.I have to throw in this funny story about playing Cornerstone. One of the funniest things that happened…Erik Mendez yelled to me one day (while we were there). I was trying to walk across Cornerstone. The place was pretty big and he yells, “C,mon. You don’t have to walk all the way over, just jump in!” So I jump in this golf cart with Erik thinking that he had permission to drive this cart! (laughter) So we go riding across this field, looking crazy. I looked at Erik and said, “Who gave you this golf cart?” and he goes “What do you mean?” Now I am really intrigued, “Who gave you permission to ride this golf cart?” And he looks at me and says “Nobody!” I just started laughing. “You can’t just take a golf cart! Whose is it?” And he says, “ I don’t know!” (laughter)TW: Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun on the road.GR: We did! Another funny story is when we were on tour for Psycho Surgery and we stopped at a mini-mart and were back in the coffee area. Everybody, Erik and Victor, were back there for quite a while mixing up their little creamers in their coffee. Every time someone would mix their coffee we would be looking around and there was no garbage can! So there was this little metal canister with ice in it, so we just started throwing our trash in that. So it was now full of stirrer sticks and empty creamers and paper and sugar packets and this guy was really serious who was running the store. He sees all these long haired guys back there mixing up their coffee. We were on our way to a show. Somebody, Erik I think, asked for more creamer (imitates Erik asking for creamer) so this guy walks back to where the coffee stuff is and looks down and sees all this garbage in his ice container and yells out, “OH MY GAWDDD”. There were like five “d’s” on the end of gawd. (laughter) We felt so bad! But we couldn’t help start laughing and he was so upset with us. But it was just the funniest thing. It was one of our favorite stories to always reminisce and try to re-tell. So whenever we threw something out at a restaurant or a store or get coffee everyone would always say “Oh my gawd.” Of course not directed towards our God in Heaven, but rather the god of coffee, so we couldn’t get in trouble for using the Lord’s name in vain. (laughter)TW: OK. I hate to move from the good times to the bad, but…regarding your departure from Tourniquet…did you leave during or after the recording of the third album?GR: It was actually right after we finished. Otherwise I wouldn’t have had any vocals on that album. (laughter) We had just finished the album and it was not too long after it came out.TW: Do you want to go into why you left at all or do you want to leave that alone?GR: Well, basically for me…I am not being critical of the band or where the direction they went, but for me the band was always more of “this is a ministry and we just happen to play heavy metal.” I got into music for that reason. As I said before, I was originally into pop music, but when I saw what Stryper was doing with music I went and tried to learn that style because it was a tool to reach people. Ted and Gary were always great metal players before I met them. They are just phenomenal musicians. I have never really been good at any instrument. I play a little of every instrument…drums, guitar or keyboard. I am not great at anything. But I learned a style of singing and tried to write the songs that I wrote for Tourniquet on guitar because I felt like it was a tool to reach people. By the time we finished Pathogenic I felt like we were more of a metal band, we were Christians in a band. That is the way I felt. It was my personal opinion. We weren’t praying as much as we were before and weren’t doing things like we used to like meeting with a musical pastor. Our focus was just different. Couple that with the music…I really just wasn’t into the thrash vocals as far as the yelling type shouting vocals. I wanted that to be a compliment to the singing. I just felt like there was too much yelling on the POD album and I sat down with Ted and Gary and I told them that if I was going to stay that I wanted to do less yelling and maybe do some more ballads or some more commercial stuff. I remember Ted saying if anything it was going to get heavier.I think another thing…the label was not paying us for royalties at all. Almost nothing. Just enough to probably be legal about it. And I really wanted to audit the label. We got paid maybe $3000 in royalties the whole time I was in the band. Then we got a letter saying, “We paid you too much so we are going to have to take payments of a thousand or more back!” It was crazy. And I couldn’t get the band to agree with me that we needed to audit the label. So I had some disagreements there. It wasn’t like this big fight or anything. You never would have thought there would be the tension there was after I left the band. Gary and me were friends and Erik and Victor for a long time. But there was definitely some tension because I wanted to go a certain direction and felt like I had the right to have that opinion being one of the co-owners of the band. Interestingly enough the next album that came out from Tourniquet did have a ballad on it, so the direction did change. But I was constantly telling them that I really think thrash is on its way out and we need to be in front of the curve, not behind the curve. Thrash will always be there for the people that want to play and there will be a crowd that will want to hear it. But it did change quite a bit after that.TW: Are there any misconceptions out there about you through the years that you want to clear up?GR: It is common for band members to have disagreements after going separate ways. When we parted ways, we had an agreement to respect one another and to avoid any negative talk going forward. However, there were some comments made by both sides that shouldn’t have been made. The things I said were out of frustration from hearing stuff that Tourniquet had said about me, mainly after shows. That said, it would be nice if Ted called or wrote me someday. He can reach me through www.guyritter.com. I am sure that if we talked, we would have a great conversation. We have a lot to reminisce about. I would apologize too for anything I’ve said to hurt his feelings out of frustration. I am sure it will happen someday. I would also like to ask Luke why he wrote “Caixa de Raiva”. I would prefer that we all make amends for the things we have said or done.TW: So what did you do after that? Did you wash your hands of music or the industry for a while?GR: No. I was constantly writing music in LA. Then I ended up moving back to Oregon thinking that I was done here. Seeing that the band was done and I wasn’t hanging out with Ted and Gary anymore. They were my closest friends and they were too busy playing concerts and I never saw them. So I moved to Oregon because my girlfriend at the time wanted to go back to Portland State. After a few months that relationship was dying and I got a call with a job offer at a motion picture academy make-up school so I moved back. That was totally the Lord saving me from getting married to the wrong person (laughter). I started jamming with some people. So I was just writing music with several guitar players and eventually Gary quit Tourniquet and we started playing and started working on the Echo Hollow stuff.TW: Well, being a life long Lutheran, I really enjoyed the title track “Diet of Worms” from that first Echo Hollow album.GR: (laughter)TW: That track definitely had a Tourniquet vibe to it, but the rest of material was going in a different direction.GR: Right. Definitely more commercial.TW: If I remember the interviews when that album came out you both said that this album was definitely just a ministry outlet and not intended to be a touring band right?GR: Correct. That was not our initial goal of the band.TW: So right after that album came out to positive reviews there were reports that you already had three more songs demoed and another album would be coming out shortly. But then…nothing. What happened?GR: Well, what happened is I sold my house where the recording studio was and had bought another house. I spent a couple of years building a new studio from scratch in the garage. So I had to sound proof it and all that. I had my first child at the same time. My first. My daughter. So I was pretty busy. That took up a lot of time. What also happened was that we recorded the album with a Roland drum set, which we thought was going to work. We finished most of the album and said, “We don’t like the drums. It just doesn’t sound good.” It didn’t have the punch that a real drum set has. So we scrapped the album and started over. We re-wrote and re-worked and came up with some new songs, so the process started all over again. It took forever to get that album done (laughing).TW: Only six years!GR: Six years?TW: Yeah. Diet of Worms was released in ‘98 and you did not release Superficial Intelligence in ’04.GR: Well, the album got done way before that, but we had a period of not knowing what to do with it. I think we probably finished in 2003 but we didn’t know what to do with it because the rest of the band had moved on to start another band. Gary, Rafik and Matt had started another band (Cripple Need Cane) because I was still busy with having my kid and dealing with that.Actually we talked with Bill Metoyer and he was going to mix the album but he was busy doing something for Blackie Lawless (WASP) at Blackie Lawless’ house. And so he asked Blackie if we could come up and finish the mix at his house. So we drove up there and did that for maybe four or five days and finished mixing it. I had mixed most of the stuff at my studio and got it all ready ahead of time and all he had to do was go through each song and kind of tweak it a little bit and we were done.TW: There you go! A little known factoid about Superficial Intelligence…mixed at Blackie Lawless’ house.GR: Interesting house! (laughing) It is out in the middle of nowhere. Who would have known that this guy is a real estate mogul. He buys houses and then…interesting guy. He did walk in once and say hi. It was interesting that he let us come in a do that. I guess he asked Bill, “Do you trust these guys?” and Bill told him that he did.TW: Let’s move on to your professional life. How did you get started? You said you had the job at the make-up school? I assume that got you into the motion picture industry?GR: (laughing) Let’s call it “special effects” okay? (more laughter)TW: Got it!GR: Yeah, I guess I was kind of in that industry. Then I got a call from a friend who I had known for a long time and he was doing this thing called “Avid” where people were actually editing movies and TV on a computer, which was a new thing. It seemed like it was going to take off. It sounded interesting to me so for about 3-6 months I took all of the technical manuals that they could loan me and I just read through all of the manuals. I would show up for all of their technical meetings and just waited for an opening and eventually there was one. So I had interviews for about a month trying to get into this place. I had no idea how to fix a computer or fix an editing system. I just kind of snuck my way into this place. Only by going out into the field to places like Universal and NBC and these places…Warner Brothers on the lot. I just followed the other techs around until I learned it. I was with Avid Technology for three years and then I got hired to Fox Sports over in Santa Monica. When that office closed I moved to the Hollywood office. Avid is basically a computer based editing system. Usually a Macintosh, but not always. It can be a PC, especially the high end now that there are high-def Avids…more of them are on PC. I have worked with a lot of people. I have worked on a lot of movies like Fifth Element, Titanic, Prince of Egypt, Jackie Brown, Frost, Babe, Nacho Libre, and Astronaut Farmer. TV shows, stuff I deal with every day here. They transfer films from “CSI,” “Numb3rs”, and “House” every morning. They start at midnight and go until morning. They start wrapping up usually by the time I get into work every morning. So it is a combination of feature films and TV shows.TW: Cool. It sounds like you enjoy your job. It must be interesting work.GR: It’s very fun. I get to deal with audio, video, computers, everything you can imagine. You get to deal with people, talk to editors, producers, and directors and hopefully be able to project a good influence on an industry that can be pretty dark at times.TW: You also used to have a website called “the Avid guy”. What was that about?GR: That site is down right now. I am moving it. It is for the consulting work I do for the Avids.TW: Do you consider yourself successful and are you happy?GR: I thought about that this morning. By the world’s standards I probably would say that yes, I am successful in my job. I make great money and invest in Real Estate on the side. But as a dedicated Christian I don’t think the term is really applicable. “Success” sounds like a finish line to me. As Christians we really don’t have a finish line. I have never met a missionary that said, “We did it! Let’s go home!” (laughter) A pastor isn’t going to say “We’ve got enough people now, we can stop taking tithes. We are doing a great job.” My goal is always to be on the right track, but I don’t know if I could ever say I’m successful, period. I make a lot of mistakes like everybody else, but never get off track. I’m constantly trying to stay on track. I might get off track for a week or two, but I can’t imagine getting off track for six months to a year. We all have friends who say, “Oh, I kinda fell away for a couple of years.” That is not going to happen. Since success for me is to not fall away and always to be trying to figure out, “What does God want me to do right now?” and to be open to that.TW: Have you been a life-long Christian?GR: Yes. Ever since I can remember…back to 4 or 5 years old. I grew up in the church. I was sprinkled! I was sprinkled at probably eight months. (Don’t worry I was sub-merged four years ago).As far as happy? I am always happy. I make it a point to be positive. I don’t like to be around people that aren’t happy, myself. So I do my best to be happy. I know that most bad situations will turn into good opportunities if you wait long enough. There are always things that happen that can make you depressed. The thing that happened with Gary turning in his faith, that was depressing! But I am still generally happy. I am a happy person that has things he can be depressed or sad about. My test for happiness is I tell the Lord when I am praying, not everyday, but I remind him from time to time that he can have it all. My house my cars, my studio, my side business, my day job. He can have my family. Even if my whole family was killed in a car accident, I told the Lord “Don’t test me on that, but if you have to, go ahead.” I have told the Lord, “Don’t test me on that, because you know what my response will be.” I have told him if he takes everything I’m still gonna follow Him. And that for me is the test. If I can say that consistently then I know I am truly happy. A happy person, if they are not truly happy, they are not going to be able to say that. Because once those things are taken away they lose everything. If their friends leave them or their wife leaves them, then they turn away. And it happens all the time. People say, “I am going to turn away.” The water got too hot.TW: So are you still active in your local church?GR: Oh Yeah! Definitely very active in my church. Right now I lead a “college life” Bible study group at my church that we have anywhere from 12-20 college age, anywhere from 18-35 year olds in a college group setting. We have a workbook, we go through the Bible. It’s an accountability group and it’s under the umbrella of my church, which is Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, CA. That is very important to me. Every other week we have a Bible study at my house and people don’t go home! They stay till 10 or 11 at night and tell us their problems and it’s all very good. It’s a good time and very encouraging. It’s good for me too, to be involvedTW: Do you do anything musical at your church?GR: I don’t. I don’t do anything musical right now at the church.TW: And I understand you have a family. You’ve been married close to 10 years now, right?GR: Yes, just 9 years. My son just turned 2 years old. I have a son and a daughter and she is 4. They are both really creative and really funny kids, but they are both strong willed children. They say you are supposed to have one strong willed child and the second one is not supposed to be strong willed. I got two.TW: I totally understand. I have 2 boys about to turn 7 and 5, and both are very strong willed.GR: Really? Sorry! (laughter) The most important thing is that I try to maintain a proper balance. God is always first, my wife is always second. My wife understands that. The kids come third and the job comes fourth, although sometimes it switches around a little bit. Job sometimes comes right after God, cause I have to go to work everyday, but when it comes down to it, if I have to leave my job I would do it to keep the order of God, wife, kids, then job. But it’s tough. It’s a challenge having kids in this world right now.TW: Yes it is.GR: It’s always been difficult. Even more difficult now with the internet, the kind of games that they can play now. The distractions. It scares me that my daughter is 4 ½ and she’s got this ugly world waiting for her.TW: Yes, it is a very scary and daunting feeling isn’t it? To see the way the Lord keeps getting pushed further and further out and humanism moving closer and closer in. You wonder what kind of world we are leaving for our children and what kind of future they will be facing as Christians.GR: I know I can’t protect her forever, but my wife has taught her well. During the day she’ll say to her, “Don’t look, there is a commercial coming on.” Sometimes I forget what she is doing and she’ll be sitting there with her eyes closed asking, “Is this a bad commercial?” And it will be something like 1-800-flowers or something like that. (laughter) I will tell her it’s ok and she will ask again, “Are you sure?” It’s so cute that she is so innocent. I wish that she could always be that innocent. But it also reminds me how dark we have become. We have all seen more than we need to see and sometimes we can’t get rid of those memories because we have allowed ourselves to see things we shouldn’t. My daughter is scared easily and she is so pure.Cute little story… somebody gave my daughter a Peter Pan book. I think it was last summer. Everything in her world changed when Pirates of the Caribbean 2 came out. My wife would buy her the normal energy bars, fruit snacks and goldfish snacks and they all had Caribbean 2 pirates on the side. It really freaked her out. Then someone gave her that Peter Pan book and she was really freaked out by all these pirates. She woke me up at 6am one morning. I woke up to her staring right in my face and she says “Daddy? Can we pray for the pirates?” (laughter) I was like, “Sierra, can we please do that around 8?”TW: Let’s go from complete innocence to loss of innocence if you will. I would like to ask you about Gary’s current situation. I don’t want to ask you to speak for him. He has already made his public statement. But I wanted to take it in a different direction. Being such good friends with Gary, how have you dealt with his sudden reversal? How do you deal with a friend who is going through something like this?GR: This is a really tough question.TW: If you don’t want to answer I am fine with that. The purpose of this interview is Guy Ritter, not Gary. This is a very personal issue for you and I completely understand if you do not wish to answer this one.GR: Well, let me say this. Gary will always be my friend. We have been through the best and the worst times together. We went through some hard times and that is what solidifies a friendship. I guess in all respect to Gary, because he will probably read this…let me turn this around. If Gary was being asked this question because I was the one who turned away, I know for a fact that Gary, with all of his knowledge of the Word, would say something like, “It just goes to show that anyone can fall away from God if they are not daily cultivating a relationship with Jesus. If you want to resist the enemy it is vital to stay in the Word and in fellowship with believers.” I think I will leave it at that. And that is the Truth for me. It may not be for Gary right now, but it is for me.TW: So what were the highlights and lowlights of your musical career?GR: Highlights would probably when we were playing Cornerstone. That was an amazing rush for somebody to play a concert like that. I remember we had so many people in the tent the year that I played there were people on every side of the stage, including behind, and I couldn’t even see the people past the tent, because they were beyond the tent. That, for me, was an incredible rush, to not be able to see the people you were playing for. Also, any show that we played, the highlight was just hanging out with kids after the show and just being able to talk to them and encourage them. That was the highlight for me. That was always the most important thing for me. Performing the show was OK, but the most important thing for me was after the show. I would get so excited about after the show. I would get nervous onstage. “Oh my gosh, there are so many people and they are all staring at us and we better remember all of our parts.” But after that show, that was “it” for me. All the stress was gone. I didn’t have to remember any lyrics, I just had to talk to people and encourage them. That was the highlight for me.The lowlights…leaving Tourniquet. Leaving friendships with the band. Ted and I and Gary did everything together. We were always together. From going to the beach to going to Catalina Island and going on road trips. Just hanging out as friends. We were really close friends. We had a blast together. We all three had the same sense of humor. And then with the addition of Erik and Victor it was even more fun! These are my friends. And when I left the band it was dark for a while. It was one of those instances when everybody comes to a place in their life and they go, “OK, what I am doing now doesn’t feel right. But it is right. But it still doesn’t feel right.” And that is difficult. Sometimes you think when you are doing things right it is supposed to feel right. And it is difficult, but you have to do what you feel like you are supposed to do. So that was a dark time.TW: So do you have any musical projects in the works now, or future plans to do any more music?GR: I am actually working on a project. It is children’s music right now. I have a website called www.playtownrecords.com. I have 3 songs posted right now. Just samples about 30 seconds each. They are just demos. They are not the actual songs yet. I will be recording them with some musicians. So go there and check it out. I would love to hear what people think. They can email me at heyguyritter@yahoo.com, or from the link at the site. I am looking forward to possibly doing children’s music full-time someday.TW: I am looking at the site now. Is that you on the drums in the picture?GR: Yeah that’s me with my nephew, Andrew! I actually play the drums and the guitar on the samples, but there will be someone else doing the final recordings. I am also wanting to work on TV and movie soundtracks. I am working on a song right now I think would be good for TV. So I am trying that kind of stuff. And also another band may be in the works in the future. Maybe in the future I will do something different. Maybe there is a band out there that already has all the music together and just needs a singer to come in and sing. That would be fun too. Sometimes I think I get too involved in writing music and with my schedule it just takes too long to get everything done. I have too much going on in my life. I try to squeeze 30 hours into a 24-hour day. That is the Hollywood life. Sit in traffic for 5 hours a day, working 10, and then go home and try to get some sleep. Maybe after this reading this interview I will hook up with some people I haven’t talked to in a while, or have lost contact with. I am open to what’s next. But I really am working on the children’s music. I would love to hear from people who have kids and get some feedback on the songs that are up there on the website and that I am working on.TW: After all of the years in this business, is there anything you would like to pass on to the bands that are out there now?GR: Sure. I think that as I look back and sometimes when I read some of the interviews with the younger bands I think, “Man I hope they are doing this for the right reason and I hope they stay strong.” Because it is so easy to get off track when you get busy and you start to be successful in music. The better the band the harder it is. If the band really is successful it gets even harder to stay on track. We just need to remember that we are not called to be Christian musicians. We need to be able to wake up each morning and say, “Lord what do you want me to do today? Where do you want me to go today?” That means even if you have to quit the band that you are in, or change jobs or move to a third world country. Before I really started playing Christian music I escorted a band called Servant. Probably most people reading this article won’t remember them but some might. I escorted them to their show. After the show we were eating and I asked, “What’s the secret to staying committed to God?” And they said, “You have to daily work to keep your relationship with Christ fresh.” And that is done in several ways. For me it is praying for others every day and praying for other people, thinking of other people and serving other people. Leading a Bible study. And not missing church every week because I have to go skiing this week or go surfing this week and I have to do this next week. The only reason I would miss church is if I was sick or on vacation. Of course reading the Word. Surrounding yourself with people who keep you accountable and staying close to the Lord. But you have really got to seek that fresh relationship with the Lord all the time and say to yourself, “Where have I gone the past six months? Am I closer to God or am I farther away?” Always evaluating where you are. I think a big problem with Christians in this country right now is that there is too much information and too many distractions. The distractions prevent us from having a deep relationship and we have too much information. If a person who is a Christian in this country starts going down the wrong path and starts doubting Christ is the Son of God he can just go to Google and it will provide a thousand spiritual Bro’s to move you along. I call it “Google affirmation.” (laughter) And I think that is where some of our Christian friends have gotten off track. We have way too much information now. And when information is positive, it is never even reported. All we hear is, “Negative, negative, negative”. How many people really knew that in Super Bowl 2007 that both coaches were Christians? Both committed Christians who had great attitudes and were going to praise God whether they won or lost?TW: Right.GR: As far as Christian bands, most pastors will tell you that if you are not accountable to a ministry of some kind, there is probably a 99 percent chance you are going to fail. You might go on and continue to provide Christian music and to play music, but if you really do want to be fruitful and that is your focus for playing Christian music, then you really do have to be plugged in. You cannot be this little island. You are so busy. We were like that in Tourniquet sometimes. We were so busy we didn’t have time to catch up with Pastor Bob and stay plugged in to one church or one ministry and that is dangerous. Make up your mind. You are either doing it as a ministry or just be a band.TW: What was it like living and working in the “golden era” of Christian heavy metal?GR: Some people have said that the “Christian metal movement,” and I agree with this, was the biggest movement in Christianity since the “Jesus movement.” There were a lot of Christian bands before Stryper, but it took Stryper to blow the door into the secular market. And for Christians like myself, who were tired of the world making fun of our dorky alternative music, Stryper created a real excitement among the Christian youth and youth groups and kids at school. Everybody wanted to be involved. All of a sudden everyone at school was talking about Stryper or in the youth group, whereas before, you really couldn’t get excited about any of the music. It was like an empowerment. When Stryper came out they were coming to high school auditoriums all across the county and the silent Christians and the fence riders were also rising up. The guys who never did anything were all of a sudden excited. Before Stryper I was pretty critical of all the bands that I liked. I liked Daniel Band, Rez Band, Allies. But I was always critical of them. In the back of my mind this is what a lot of us musicians and Christians did back then is we would say that they were great but we always kind of held back. They were great but would never say they were the greatest. I used to think that Petra just released the same album every year with different lyrics. (laughter) The closest this prior to Stryper was when John Elefante joined Kansas and came out with “Fight Fire with Fire” and that was a hit song on the pop charts. I used to walk in and say, “Did you hear that Kansas song? They are preaching now. Cool!” But that was rock and roll. Stryper was the first metal band that actually you could say not only sounds as good as secular metal but actually sounds better than a lot them. But as I recall the world was always waiting for Stryper to blow it. “They are hypocrites,” even though they were not. And when they did fall, the world was quick to jump on it and Christians were embarrassed to be associated with them and wanted nothing to do with them. And that is what I recall in that situation. It was not too long after Stryper fell we were going into the studio for Stop the Bleeding. And I am NOT saying we were a replacement for Stryper. We never thought we were. But I think the timing was good. We offered hope for the extremely heavy, hardcore metal heads. And I think Vengeance Rising and Deliverance did as well. The timing was great for all the Christian metal bands after that, giving somewhere for the people to go who were Stryper-heads. It would have been bad if there wasn’t that explosion of Christian metal after Stryper because there would have been a lot of fallout.TW: Anything else before we end this?GR: There’s plenty more stories but I have to go see what Sanjaya is up to on American Idol…just kidding. Thanks a lot! This was fun. It was fun to go back and look through this stuff and try to remember some of this stuff. I have been thinking as I have been reading articles recently in HM that it would be fun to hear again from “so and so” who has been around for a while and can offer some encouragement from mistakes and who can encourage some of the younger bands. I was thinking I would like to do that. How come nobody ever asks? I guess I’m a nobody now…TW: Well I tracked you down and you claimed only the second interview in this series, so you were near the top of my list and not forgotten at all.GR: I really appreciate it. It was fun.TW: Thank you, GuyGR: Thanks! Good night.www.guyritter.com©2007 HM Magazine - All Rights Reserved©2007 Heaven's Metal Fanzine - All Rights Reserved
Interview #2 is from 2022
Interview #1 is from 2007
GUY RITTER & GARY LENAIRE INTERVIEW #2
2022Heaven's Metal Exclusive: Guy Ritter & Gary Lenaire InterviewBy Chris Gatto
Like many of you fellow middle aged metalheads, I discovered metal young and I’ve listened long and loud for decades. New and older metal bands appeal to me, but I can’t deny that there are some bands that were so good, their music so meaningful, that it left an indelible imprint in my brain, and those songs are irrevocably linked to times and places in my life, emotions that come back with a roar when evoked. These classics, and the musicians who created them have become old friends to me, and probably for you, as well. I’d like to introduce you to a new band FLOOD, made up of some old friends: Guy Ritter, Gary Lenaire, and Erik Mendez of the classic Tourniquet era: rounded out by the talented Anna Sentina (YouTube) and David Husvik (Extol/ Azusa).Many of our fans last heard Guy, Gary, and Erik play together on Pathogenic. Please tell us about Echo Hollow, Cripple Need Cane, 2050 and any other post-Tourniquet musical pursuits.
Gary: Guy and I formed Echo Hollow in 1996. The music was decidedly different from our earlier stuff. It was more Rock-Metal than Thrash. We were very busy in those days raising children and really didn’t have a lot of time to develop and record songs. There were some good songs there, however such as “Through the Veil,” “Diet of Worms,” “Thursday,” “1973,” and “ADHD.” “Superficial Intelligence” is a tune Guy and I like a lot.Cripple Need Cane was a band I formed in Los Angeles around 2002. The band was very mainstream Rock/Metal with a lot of vocals. We did one record and then disbanded due to interpersonal reasons. During that time, I began to implement a lot of new gear in my rig. I was using multi-effectors and other machines that offered some cool signal processing.Working with Roland / BOSS in those days, I composed and recorded many songs that can be heard in various products such as the Roland VS-2480 and BOSS Micro BR. I also produced hundreds of tone patches and audio files for various effectors such as the BOSS GT-8, GT-10, GT-100, JS-8, JS10, Roland VG-99 and GR-55. I had the pleasure of performing in many videos with really talented players including Steve Stevens.Around 2005 I had a dinner party at my home in Los Angeles and invited Guy, Victor, and Erik. It was a great evening. We laughed and shared old band stories, catching up with one another. That night we discussed a possible reunion. In the following weeks, Erik, Victor and I started jamming in my recording studio. We played with various drummers and took a casual approach—we just wanted to jam! We stopped playing around 2006 without doing any final recordings. 2050 yielded two songs: “In Remission” and “Darfur” and those songs were recorded for the FLOOD debut record. I am so happy that those songs were finished properly. “Darfur” is perhaps the most intense vocal performance I have ever done.I have released a couple of solo records in recent years. Symphonic Liberties was released in January 2020 on digital and CD. That was a wonderful experience for me. I recorded Metal, Rock, and Classical music for the album. You can hear my Classical influences that drove some of those songs in the 90s. The Classical pieces allowed me to perform on many beautiful instruments. I utilized the Fishman MIDI Guitar System for some of those performances. I recently composed “The Rose of Sharon” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_X0YC8N_iw) in honor of my late mother, Sharon.You guys reunited very quietly. Few people were aware of FLOOD until Polarized was ready to drop. How did you start working together again, and why all the secrecy leading up to the album?Gary: During a trip to Italy and Greece in the summer of 2019, I was capturing video and photo content in anticipation for my next solo record. You can see those videos and photos on some of the videos for Symphonic Liberties. It was on that trip that I began thinking about a reunion project. I spoke with all the early band members and discussed it. Then, in early 2020 the pandemic happened. I was at home writing and recording new material for the reunion project and it soon hit me, “this is not a reunion, this is a new band with a new sound!” I called Guy and we talked for quite a while that day. I explained to him what was happening with me and the songs that were emerging from those experiences. Guy and I formed FLOOD in September 2020. As far as secrecy leading up to the album, I was actively talking about it on my social media channels but people really started hearing about it on January 1, 2022 when we released Polarized.Anna and David (of the mighty Extol!) fill out the bass and drums in the band quite nicely. How did you come to work with both of them?Gary: I have worked on many projects with Anna. She was featured in some of the music videos I produced. She’s a great bassist and a great person. During that time, I wasn’t actively recording music and Anna encouraged me to start making music again.David was highly suggested by many fans on social media, so we reached out to him. We recorded “Stop the Bleeding” with him, and we knew he was the one! We continued recording from there. David is a very genuine and cool person. His drumming is really inspiring.Victor Macias played on the most recent Deliverance record. Was he considered to play with you guys, or have you been in touch with him?Gary: Victor is our brother; he’s family and we love him. We asked him to join us on this project and though it didn’t happen, perhaps he can do a guest appearance on the next record, if Anna is cool with that!Tourniquet was one of a very few Christian bands who were groundbreaking in metal, and not just following (years behind) what the mainstream was doing. Your new music clearly has all the distinctive hallmarks of those first 3 Tourniquet albums (except perhaps Guy’s falsetto screams), yet sounds refreshingly modern. Was there a conscious effort on the band’s part to reach forward or reach into the past when making the record?Guy: Actually, there are falsetto vocals on three of the FLOOD songs, but I tried to do it in a way that didn’t sound dated. “Stop the Bleeding” was a song title I came up with on the same day that I came up with the band name Tourniquet. It seemed so obvious and appropriate, but I never finished a song for it. We thought it would be cool to do a FLOOD song “Stop the bleeding.” For the Polarized record, I don’t think we tried to copy the past, and a few times last year we threw out song ideas or parts that sounded dated. Gary and I have been doing this together since 1985, so I guess it could be easy to slip into old styles that are comfortable. Most known musicians have some kind of signature to their sound, whether good or bad. When Michael McDonald sang backups on several Steely Dan songs, Toto, Christopher Cross, and Kenny Loggins, I doubt they asked him to sound different. Even if they had, he probably wouldn’t have been able to pull it off. When you hear the first snare hit and first guitar note to any Van Halen song you say immediately, “That’s Van Halen!” All that said, I think it’s hard to move too far away from the sound that you enjoy or that you have done in the past. Fast forward to FLOOD…hmmmm, maybe I hear a few things in “War in the Sky,” “Free Loading Larceny” and “Stop the Bleeding,” but this is an 11-song album. There are eight other songs that I don’t really hear the old influences. Now someone listening to the debut FLOOD album might think different.It’s obvious to the listeners that Gary and Erik have been woodshedding. There is some fantastic axework, including several instrumentals- all of it quite technical and breath taking. How were the songs written? Guitars first, and then lyrics or vice versa?Gary: Thank you for those really gracious comments. Erik and I have always had a great chemistry. As I said earlier, “Darfur” and “In Remission” were written years before. When David tracked the drums for “Darfur” the song was truly realized as I intended it. David just crushed that performance. For the other tracks I wrote for the FLOOD record, I utilized a more refined approach. Percussion is the backbone, base, feel, and vibe for many of my Metal songs. I write guitars with percussion and melody in mind. I am a riff writer. I sometimes have a lyrical premise in mind, but those specific words usually start flowing once I can truly feel the rhythm and hear the melody of the song. While walking on Grace Bay beach in Turks and Caicos last summer, I wrote an entire song in about 60 minutes – it will likely be featured on the next FLOOD record.Guy: There is a lot of back and forth between Gary and me. He may listen to my rough guitar tracks and change them up. And when I sing vocal parts for songs that Gary writes, I sometimes change up the melody, or timing or the enunciation. That back and forth is really what makes the songs evolve way beyond the basic song idea. I will send a track to Gary and say, “Check this out.” Gary responds back with something like, “Well that is totally unexpected, but it’s cool!” At the end of “My Last Ride,” Gary played the end of the song different than I had written it. So, I couldn’t sing exactly what I was planning. So, I just sang “Now It’s too late.” Now it seems meant to be. For the songs I write, I typically come up with the vocal melody of the verse or chorus first and go from there. I am usually walking or hiking when I come up with my ideas. Often I stay away from specific words when developing the vocal hook so that the melody isn’t constrained by any words or vowels. I may kind of mumble a bunch of nonsense. Then I might listen back to that idea on my iPhone and say for instance, “Hey, it sounds like I am saying a gateway to my mind… maybe I should say that.” I also try to think up the basic ideas for the guitars and drums when I am writing as I walk. Once I feel like I have the intro, verse and chorus, I then lay down a rough demo with the Intro, Verse 1, Bridge (if applicable) and Chorus. I lay down a click and then play a live drum track as I hum the song to myself. After that I put down a rough guitar track and some vocals. I might repeat that process two to three times until I find the right tempo and key for the song. Half of these rough demos end up on the heap pile. When I feel I really like one of the ideas, I send it to Gary, and he sends it back with better guitars and I sing another rough vocal track. At this stage is when we can really hear if the idea is going to work or not. Many times, in the process of writing a song, I get to the point whereas I am laying down rough tracks, I stumble upon a better intro or verse, so I replace those parts. By replacing those sections, it may trigger a different melody for the chorus! By the time a song is done, it might be completely different from the original idea. But in the long run, the original idea did something to get the wheels turning. One thing I always tell young musicians is that the key to writing good songs is knowing when to throw away entire songs or parts of songs.I‘m torn. Our Christian walk is rarely a straight line. Sometimes we walk, sometimes we crawl. Sometimes it’s one step forward and two steps back. On one hand, I’d like to let Gary’s lyrics on “Design” and “War in the Sky” speak for themselves as his statement of faith. However, as Gary publicly renounced his faith some years ago, fans are not going to give me a pass without asking what transpired to bring him back into the fold? (Whether or not he chooses to answer, we’re glad to have him back.)Gary: Thank you, that you’re glad means a lot to me. Your words, “statement of faith” are directly applicable. God inspired me to rejoin the fold, by faith.In the late 1990s, in addition to working as Commandant for a Military Department at-risk youth program, I was also the volunteer Chaplain. I also taught two other Bible studies each week at various churches. I was attending Bible college and studying history, exegesis, theology, and the origins of scripture. I was incredibly happy with a wife and two young sons. I was being blessed in many ways, serving God and His community.In 1999, a series of events sent me down a path of doubt. Those events were traumatic, and I began to question everything, including my faith in God. Over the next few years, I became hardened and angry about some of the things I went through. “Why would God let those things happen to me?” I asked. For years I walked without faith. I eventually thought that faith in God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit was not necessary to live in harmony with God, or the universe.In June 2020, I lost my cat who was very close to me. He was my dear friend, family. The pandemic was happening, and I could tell my life was changing. Then in 2021, both my parents died within 90-days of each other. Those events didn’t impact me the way the events in 1999 did. Instead, I started to reconsider faith, something I never thought I would ever do again. It seemed impossible to me. I now know that many people were praying for me, and those prayers were answered.During my years outside of faith I wrote down some thoughts. Back in those days if you read or heard anything I was stating about faith and God, please know that I was not looking in the right direction concerning God. I wasn’t listening to God either, an act of rebellion. Those writings were my way of dealing with what I was going through and trying to justify my path. I was wrong about faith because I wasn’t looking to God by faith. In my error, I was looking to humans: Human evidence, human history, human writings, human scholars, human science…all of those things that humans do can be very beneficial. However, concerning faith, only God authors that in us. When we try to “prove” God’s existence through earthly / human methods, we will not be able to find God there. I looked for that proof using non-faith methods and was not able to find it. Hidden are the things of God from this world. God reveals Himself to His people and by faith His people recognize, know, and serve Him. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” Hebrews 11:1-3
People can make really clever arguments for God’s non-existence using worldly methods. Without faith we are blind and cannot see God. This fact is utterly amazing, and the evil in this world influences people to believe the human devices that point to no…or inconclusive “proof” of God. That is precisely why many people lose faith during their scholarly pursuit of God. The lack of “evidence” seems so clear, so right; it is extremely compelling. It appears to them on many pages that it is simply humans that have created the God narrative and the writings about God throughout history. It is so compelling that they are often driven to agnosticism or atheism. Their focus becomes more about love for themselves (self-centered and / or selfish) and less about their love for God and others. During my years outside of faith I thought that sincere believers could lose faith because of what they find when they study church history and the early formation of scripture, and I was partially right, some people do lose faith in that quest. That is because they are looking to earthly evidence for God rather than seeking God by faith. Only God can grant faith in us to see Him and to escape this world and the evil that is in it. This humbling fact should build compassion in us to pray for and help those around us. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Hebrews 11:6When we look with our human eyes at the things of this world, we are not looking to God by faith. The words I am saying now are said by faith, and not by the world. All of us on the path must listen to God, by faith alone. Our God given conscience checks everything about us and the information we are pondering. Even religious information can be deceiving, especially information that wasn’t given or received by faith. “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Cor 5:7“My Last Ride” takes you on an emotional ride, especially once you realize what the lyrics are talking about. We’ve always known Ted Kirkpatrick as the animal rights activist. Guy, is this something close to your heart as well? Have you seen any progress on this issue since the “Ark of Suffering” video all those years ago?Guy: Animals have always been close to my heart. I have owned dogs, cats, chickens, horses, bullfrogs, and turtles. Gary and I were the only band members who had animals living with us during the first three Tourniquet albums. I had an Airedale named Maxxers and Gary had a huge Golden Retriever the size of a pony named Chopper. Maxxers was actually filmed live on the stage during the “Ark of Suffering” video, but we never used that footage in the MTV video. I just found the old master tape so I may be transferring it soon. I have never tried to watch that tape because it would be too emotional. She was like my best friend from age 12 to when she passed away when I turned 26. I am looking forward to seeing it in the near future. During the early Tourniquet days, I also became close with a barn owl named Wesley that my girlfriend at that time, a biologist, had raised as an abandoned baby chick. I never discussed it back then because of his safety. After Wesley passed away, she wrote a New York Times best-selling book about what she learned about owls, by living with one. She mentions my relationship with Wesley in the 90’s and also mentions the band Tourniquet several times. For reference, the book is called Wesley the Owl by Stacey O’Brien.“Ark of Suffering” was a song that was more about how movies, circuses, cosmetic companies, and testing labs were abusing animals. Yes, I think there has been great progress in that area thanks to countless regulations and of course social media has helped as well. Yet, for every two victories won each year for animal rights, there seems to be one more new atrocity exposed. “My Last Ride”, however, is more about what happens in the home. It’s about the abrupt breakup of a dog and his master. The song drives home this overlooked atrocity by allowing the dog to sing this song from his own desperate point of view. I came up with the song idea one night as I drove home from work listening to the radio. There was a report that during Covid in 2020, many people were buying or adopting animals as they were stranded at home and feeling a bit lonely. These pets offered great comfort during this scary time. And as people started going back to work in 2021, there was an all-time high of animal drop-offs at shelters. By the end of 2021, the shelters were at full capacity. We were finishing the FLOOD album right as I heard of this. Frantic to bring light to this epidemic, I called Gary and said, “we need to do a song about what is happening at the shelters.” Even though the album was already at 10 songs, we rushed back to the studio one more time and the song just barely made the album.With so many artists using their platform to espouse leftist ideology, it’s encouraging to see conservative values shine in “Freeloading Larceny.” How has living in Cali affected your personal freedoms these last couple years?Gary: I lived in California for 27 years. As a young musician I worked in the legal field, giving me close insight into the Los Angeles criminal, civil, municipal, probate, federal, and family law court systems. I went on to work for the Department of Defense / Military Department. I don’t speak lightly about law, society, and civil rights. In recent years the United States and other countries have experienced some movements that threaten the very core of ethics and freedom; those groups advocate violence and wrongdoing in the name of good and progress. We see those ideologies as evil, of course, because they are evil. Freedom fades when we lose our courage to stand up and say no to that evil, regardless of our political or religious affiliation. Decent, civil, hard-working, family members are the majority in numbers. We must stand together and not cower to political and ideological evil. Let us not be polarized by the culture war. While we reject lawless evil, it is also important to really listen to people that have different views. Remember, we persuade people to God by living in his image, by faith. As we listen and converse with our neighbors, we are in position to persuade people to consider God. “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” 2 Cor 5:11Has the covid era permanently killed off the normal means of touring for bands?Gary: Touring was crushed because of the pandemic. When was the last time you were really thankful to see a live show? Our generation has been enjoying nonstop live music for our entire lives. Growing up we were conditioned to think that concerts were a never-ending market we could enjoy at any time. Then COVID struck and everyone, except essential workers, stayed home. No more shows. That is how frail this world is, it can change overnight. Wars, natural disasters, and other events can change the course in an instant. I feel for my friends on the touring circuit who were negatively impacted by COVID. At the same time, I study history, and it’s fascinating to see the massive reset in activities and the acceleration of E-commerce, both in music and other industries. As for normal means of touring, we will find out. I think this world changed a lot in the last two years and in some ways it may never return to its previous normal.I’m told Polarized is selling well, so clearly the fans are quite interested in FLOOD. What’s next for you guys?Gary: We are very thankful for the folks who purchased and are enjoying the FLOOD record. Like us, maybe get a 2nd copy and give it to someone who perhaps doesn’t know God. I have given the CD to a number of my friends. That’s what this is all about, right? The next step for FLOOD is the 2nd record. We are already recording it! Live shows can happen when (if) the pandemic stuff goes away.Psycho Surgery is my all-time favorite metal album. Congratulations on making music that stands the test of time and still speaks to metal fans today. For whoever wants to answer- what is the song or album you are most proud of creating as an artist?Gary: I am very thankful for all the music I have been a part of. I once wrote a song for my sister’s wedding 20 years ago and performed it at the ceremony. There are no recordings of that song, but I remember it was a touching ballad. Years ago, Guy and I wrote and recorded a Christmas song. I can’t find a recording of that one either. Both of those are examples of songs that were done simply out of love, love for God, people, and music. I wrote the solo record title track, “No Time Now” (https://youtube.com/watch?v=OOLMOfEH-18). That song touches me as it reminds us to love today and not wait for a tomorrow that may never be. “Forever in a Second” is another tune I’m thankful for (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg6AKAQu6b4). The last lines show the hope we have in God:Twilight has fallen on you
The sun will shine once more
Beyond the horizon dwells foreverIn my opinion, FLOOD Polarized is hands down the best record I have ever been a part of. It celebrates sounds from the past, speaks to present-day issues while fearlessly rips into the future. It is also the most personally meaningful record I have ever done. Working with Guy and the other band members is a very special thing.Guy: This is a tough question. They all have great memories. I would have to say Polarized. If you would have asked me last year during the production of FLOOD, I might have answered differently. Just being honest. Putting together an album can be an emotional journey. One day I was loving a song and the next day I was ripping out the bridge or the chorus and we dropped many songs from the album altogether. For example, the keyboard part I played at the beginning of “My Last Ride” was muted for a while and then we put it back during the final mix. Your mind plays tricks on you when you work on a project like this. They say an album is never done until you run out of time or money! We knew we had to stop the changes so that we could get the album out by the end of the year. It’s a relief once you move out of the recording and into mixing because you are rebooting your mind into listening mode. I remember sitting in my car doing a car test with all 11 songs for the first time, and I was texting Gary and saying wow, it feels like an album now. Where did all this come from? To answer your question, I think I like the FLOOD album the best because of the variety of the styles. If you heard “My Last Ride”, “Darfur”, “In Remission” and “The Order of Melchizedek” at a backyard BBQ, all spread out with 40 other songs, and not played all in a row, and had never heard FLOOD before, I don’t think that you would connect the dots that these four songs were all from the same band. Yeah, I think that’s why I like this album.Gary & Guy: Thank you, Heaven’s Metal, for giving us the opportunity to do this interview.God bless and Godspeed on all your future musical endeavors, guys. It’s been a pleasure
Chris Gatto
GUY RITTER INTERVIEW #1
2007
Heaven's Metal Exclusive: Guy Ritter InterviewA Conversation with Guy RitterBy Todd Walker
Hello folks! It is time for the second edition of “Where Are They Now?” This time we looked up Guy Ritter, founding member and vocalist for legends Tourniquet, as well as Holy Danger and Echo Hollow. All I can say is that this is the definitive Guy Ritter interview. We covered all the bases of his long career. Guy went in depth into his beginnings in Christian metal and the founding of Tourniquet. He also gives some advice to the new bands that are out there from the perspective of someone who has been there before. Guy updates us on his current musical projects and his spiritual life. So please get comfortable, sit back, and enjoy this in depth conversation with Guy!4/10/07TW: Hey Guy!GR: Hi, Todd.TW: Let’s go back to the beginning.GR: Ok. I was Six lbs. and Four oz…(LAUGHTER)TW: When did you know you wanted to be in the music industry and how did you get started?GR: Probably back in the late 70’s I started to see bands like Keith Green and Daniel Band and Petra. I saw bands like that playing music and that was it. I saw how powerful music was in concert, and to be able to add the extra dimension to the music. You could play and good concert and then you could have that extra dimension of you could have a relationship with the living God. When I saw that with some of those bands back in the late 70’s and early 80’s I said, “Oh my gosh! This is powerful! This is what I want to do!” I had always played music from a young age. I played drums and any instrument that was around I would always try to play music, but it was really when I saw those Christian bands play that I really wanted to get into it. This was probably around junior high I started getting serious about it.TW: Would you list those bands among your influences as well?GR: Well, in the beginning bands like Keith Green and Petra were the main ones…Servant and some of those other bands. There weren’t too many good hard bands out there. Rez Band and Daryl were some others.TW: I guess if you look back, the Holy Danger demo was about what 1985?GR: It was ’85 and that was probably, the single “One Way” to my knowledge, one of the first fast Christian metal songs. Really, really fast…considered thrash. Up to then there wasn’t really any fast music like that.TW: Yeah. Really the only other metal in the Christian genre at that time were Stryper and Saint and Messiah Prophet came out with albums in ’84, so you were right in that window.GR: Yeah, Messiah Prophet. We opened for Saint in ‘85 I think up in Salem, Oregon. That was the only time I ever played long. Saint was really mad at us because we got done with our little 3 songs and I said, “Wow, they really like us”, so I said, “Let’s do another one!” And they clapped again, so “Let’s do another one, and we’ll try this song” so we played another song. (laughing) And we got yelled at so bad and I was like, “What is their problem?” Of course when Tourniquet went on the road one band did that to us and I realized I had done that before. It’s easy to do when you get your little chance play in front of a real audience. You have to remember that you are playing in front of somebody else’s audience. That was a Saint audience we were playing in front of, but we were just milking it. We never did that again! (laughter) But the guitar player we met at that show was Dee Harrington. And eventually he wasn’t happy in the band (Saint) and he joined us. And the glam metal thing was really taking off. We weren’t really glam…but we wore Spandex and a little makeup. We were doing stuff that was more melodic and with a little faster pace. We called him up and he came down and he ended up moving his whole family down to Eugene, and we started the band. Gary and I and Dee started…we worked on that demo.TW: I did not realize that you were already working with Gary back then.GR: Before Holy Danger, I was playing keyboards and writing the music but I couldn’t sing at all. I met this singer who was working on an MTV video in Portland and he had just become a Christian and he was a long-haired rocker and a really good singer. We hit it off and he starting living with me down in Eugene, Oregon and we started recording songs at my parent’s house. One weekend he was really nervous and he said, “There is this Satanic band that I left and I really think that they are going to try to kill me since I became a Christian.” Of course I thought he was crazy. He said, “I am going back to get my tax returns and will be back in a few days.” And he went to a party that night to hang with some friends and this kid came up and shot him and killed him. It was weird ‘cause this kid actually knew him. I think some kids had paid him…they gave him some drugs and said, “Kill him. Kill him in the bathroom and we will give you these drugs.” So he shot him in the bathroom at this house and he was dead. The weird thing was I was trying to finish one of his tracks about a week later and all of a sudden I could sing! Before I could only sing real simple pop stuff. I never really understood that whole “heavy metal scream”. What button you had to push to make that happen? He was really good at that Michael Sweet stuff and I just couldn’t get it. After he died it was literally days later I tried to do some of the stuff he was doing to finish that track and that is how it started. I dropped that keyboard thing…it was kind of dorky anyway! (laughter) I started singing. I met a guitar player in Portland I started jamming with and we were driving around Springfield, Oregon looking for a job for him. I told Dan to go over to this apartment complex and ask them for a job. Maybe they need a groundskeeper. He went up and asked for a job and the guy said, “Yeah we actually do need a groundskeeper” so he got a job at this apartment complex. Believe it or not Gary was living there. So he ran into Gary every day for a few months and would talk to him and say “Hey man, we are in a Christian band” and Gary would kind of say “Uh, yeah…whatever”. At that time Gary’s best friend and guitar player in his band died in a car wreck and it was just perfect timing. God reached out to Gary at that time. Dan kept saying to me “You have got to met this guy, Gary. He’s interested in Christian music and a good guy and is really cool and has got long hair.” I was thinking that at that point we did not have time to disciple somebody from the ground up, that we needed to get this thing moving. I kept saying that. But I guess God had other plans. One day he said, “Come on, we are in the area. Let me introduce you to Gary.” And that’s how it all started. He started coming to our studio and hanging out and eventually he made a decision to change his life. Overnight he was a different person. It was like night and day. His friends at work were all making fun of him everyday at work. “Hey Christian boy.” They were all rockers too in heavy metal bands. But that is basically how it all happened.When I started music, the Christian bands that were our there were bands like Daniel Band, Rez Band, Keith Green, Matthew Ward, Kansas, when they started doing stuff with Christian lyrics. And the secular bands I listed to at that time were Rush, REO Speedwagon, Van Halen, Toto, Cheap Trick, U2, Billy Joel, ELP, YES, Scorpions, those kinds of bands.TW: When that vocal button clicked, how your unique style develop? You have that nice baritone, and could switch gears and hit that high falsetto. How did that begin?GR: I don’t know. I just listened a lot to Eric when he was singing. Lots of Michael Sweet, Bloodgood, Rez Band. I could just never understand how you could click over to that heavy metal scream. It just happened overnight and I really don’t know. I know it sounds like a crazy story, but that is pretty much what happened. Also, Michael Black was one of the guys I had sent a cassette to. Key word “cassette” (laughter). He worked for Frontline in the Nashville office. I think he actually worked for Benson Company. He was a rep for Frontline, but was always in the office over at Benson trying to help out with all the products. I talked to him many times before because I owned a Christian mail order store for music for years. After my first album he told me “I really don’t like all the high vocals.” I was kind of offended and asked why. He thought it was just “too much”. I had never focused on anything in the lower end of vocals at all. I was more comfortable in the high stuff. So I was a little offended. So when Michael came to Frontline in LA he became kind on of an A&R guy. So I said ok. And that was the best thing he did was that he taught me to sing lower because that…well I don’t even like to listen to the first album anymore, but I liked the stuff where there is more low, or predominantly low and the high stuff comes in where there is a bridge or something else going on.And it is true, A lot of people used to ask me, “Have you heard King Diamond sing?” And seriously I had not ever heard him sing until after Stop the Bleeding came out. So many people said, “Oh come on, you probably listened to a lot of King Diamond.” Finally I was at Ted’s apartment and he pulled out a CD, and he said, “OK. You have got to listen to this King Diamond and see what you think.” And I had to agree that “Wow this is kind of similar” (laughing). “But I don’t want to listen to him. He is too dark for me.”TW: I honestly had never heard King Diamond either until I heard the talk about how much you sounded like him:GR: I was always a little sheltered anyway. I never hung out with the “metal crowd” per se. I hung out with the “musician crowd”, but I was never really in that crowd that had to listen to everyone out there and own ever album and had to have it all.TW: You liked what you liked and that is what you stuck toGR: Right.TW: How old were you then were you started Holy Danger?GR: In 1985 I was 19.TW: Where did you come up with the name “Chuck Pepper” for you in Holy Danger?GR: There are some questions I should just be able to avoid! (laughter) You know how we were back in the 80’s…we had these stupid stage names. Everyone had an alias. I was so used to my name that I did not think it was cool sounding so I needed a cool name. Then people would come up to me and ask, “Who is Guy Ritter?” and I would say it was my real name. They would say, “I don’t understand. Why would you use the name Chuck Pepper? Guy Ritter sounds cooler.” And I would say “Really?!”TW: Chuck Pepper sounds to me like the name of a local TV sports anchor. “And now Sports with Chuck Pepper!”GR: I will admit it. I have done some stupid things. You should hear the demos we made for Holy Danger. I mean…ugh. And pre-Holy Danger before I met Gary was even worse! I actually had some calls recently asking “Would you please let us re-release the Holy Danger full album?” And I just wonder “Why?” It was terrible. It is embarrassing!TW: Hey now. It was a beginning. We all have to start someplace, right? I did hear that album once. My friend Rich found it at a local Christian bookstore when they were cleaning out their demos.GR: They were probably using it as a coffee coaster! (laughter)TW: So Holy Danger lasted for 2 years and then we see you pop up again when Tourniquet debuts in 1990?GR: To tell you the truth, it is kind of funny. When we actually went to…Well let me tell you how I ended up in LA. Gary had decided he wanted to go to Bible school. So I decided so there so no musicians left to play with here (laughter) so I moved to LA. I had put off moving to LA before and I was ready to move right before I met Gary and Eric, so there was a reason why I was supposed to stay. But his time I moved to LA. Gary was trying to become a Pastor. He had a congregation he was working with. The first week I was there I was looking for a bed and there was this futon for sale. It turns out the futon is owned by this girl band, I think they were called “Bevy” and their producer was Thomas Gray. They told me to call this guy, so I called him and he starting paying for all our rehearsals. For a while I didn’t even have a band but every week I would meet this guy. He really wanted to get into the Christian market because of Stryper. I put an add in a magazine called “Music Connection” and a drummer had called and said he wanted to be in the band. He kept pressing me because he had this other band he waned to join and I told him, “OK I will give you and answer by 10 tonight.” I had already found another guitar player to work with and just needed a drummer to get going. Ted called me about 5 or 6 that day and said he was interested in what we were doing and I said, “Well you need to come over tonight” and Ted responded with, “Why? It’s already 6 o’clock?” And I told him I promised this other guy I would give him an answer tonight. Ted thought it was a little weird but he drove all the way over to Burbank. I really liked Ted and he played this drumming video he had done. That night Ted and I decided to move forward with this and the other guitar player named Jay. So that’s how it happened. We finally convinced Gary to come back to LA and start playing so he hooked up with us again. Ted really like some of the stuff we had done, and really liked Gary, and so after Gary moved back to LA, we put together this demo that had “Whitewashed Tomb, “Tears of Korah” and “You Get What you Pray For”. So we talked to Ron Goudie, who had produced Stryper’s Yellow and Black Attack for Enigma. This Thomas Gray guy was still paying us to work with Ron, so Ron Goudie called Frontline, because Deliverance was on the label and doing well as was Vengeance. He said to Frontline “Why don’t you sign these guys, Holy Danger” to get back to your question of “how long was Holy Danger around?” We did not even have a name yet. Jim Kempner, the owner of Frontline says, “I’ve never heard of them.” So we get this guy who calls us and says, “I need a tape.” All I could ask was, “What did you do with all the tapes we sent? We sent three to this office and one to your Nashville office.” They gave us the, “We never got it” response, so we sent one and the next day we had this meeting with Jim, who wanted do something, but said there were too may bands like Holy Soldier, Holy Rite…there were too many “Holy” bands. So I told Jim we had 2 ideas. One is “Testify” and the other was “Tourniquet”. And he said “Tourniquet! That’s it.” It was immediate. He didn’t even have to think about it. So I said I have an album idea Stop the Bleeding for the first title. Everybody has to have their first album as self-titled. We want a real title. We always wanted to do things a little different. I still have that little medical dictionary where I circled the name “Tourniquet”. Even before I knew that Ted would one day write a lot of songs in medical terms. I used to read through dictionaries just trying to put together two words to come up with band names. One day I was doing that through this little medical book and circled it.TW: That is a cool tidbit.GR: There is a funny story too about being on Frontline. When we were signed to Frontline there were a bunch of other pop artists. There was the Power Team, Crystal Lewis and a bunch of others. We got invited for some reason to the Crystal Lewis record signing party. We were so delighted to be signed on Frontline for our first album. We had not even finished the album yet, but we thought this would be a great way to network and meet other people and show support. So we stood at the table and got all the way up to where Crystal was signing autographs. So I said, “We are here to show our support! You are a pop artist and we are a heavy metal band on the same label and we came to show our support.” So Crystal just looks up and us and kind of stares at us for a minute and just says “Okay” (Guy imitates a very meek and perhaps frightened response) (laughter!) Then she looked past us to do another autograph. She was done with us! (more laughter). There were no questions about “Oh, what is the name of your band?” or “When is your album coming out?” She was just ready to move on. (laughter again)TW: Well, that debut album was unlike anything else on the market at the time! It blew me away that’s for sure. How did you guys develop that sound? Mixing classical with the metal riffs?GR: Well, really we were doing that in Holy Danger back in Oregon. Dee Harrington was the classical influence on the first Holy Danger album. Saint didn’t like all the melody. Plus, it was too fast for Saint’s style. Ted was even better at meshing classical with metal. In the beginning, Gary and I kept telling Ted, “You have great ideas. You should get a guitar and start writing songs.” I loaned Ted my Les Paul copy for a while until he bought his own guitar.TW: What was it like, recording your first major album?GR: It was a lot of fun. Plenty of good stories and challenges. We were in the recording studio with Bill Metoyer. Right before we left, were almost done mixing Stop the Bleeding, there was something wrong with the software. This was way before Protools. There was something wrong with this separate software and computer that controlled the flying faders on this huge mixer board. Bill said “Whatever you do, don’t turn off any computers, don’t touch anything because it won’t save.” I said, “OK, Bill, no problem.” So he goes home around midnight and me a Gary went into the drum room in the studio and slept on the floor, and it was pretty much dark in there. At about 3 am we are still trying to sleep, all of a sudden the lights go completely out in the studio! Gary was like, “What was that?” And I said, “I think it was a power failure!” (laughing) And we looked at each other and went, “UH-OH!” We called Bill and he was screaming, “WHAT?” He had to come back in and mix a lot of the stuff over because of that power outage.Another funny time was when we were recording “Tears of Korah” and we completely forgot a verse! We did not even notice it ‘cause, well, the song is like 35 minutes long! We used to have the joke, “Oh, it’s a Gary song.” The whole second side of vinyl would be just Gary songs or maybe just one since they were so long! (laughter). Harlot Widow was like 12 minutes, Tears of Korah was like 8 minutes or something. So anyway, we didn’t even notice it was missing it was so long. And remember we were recording on 2- inch tape, so it’s expensive to do, to put an eight-minute song down. So I am in the vocal booth recording my parts when all of a sudden I go to sing the third verse and there is nothing there. I was just stunned! The guitar solo was there and I was supposed to sing another verse. This is back in the days of tape. So what Bill did was he switched over to a couple of tracks and I recorded the vocals to the third verse to the second verse on different tracks. I was going “How are you going to fix this, how are you going to fix this?” when we were mixing the album. He bounced down the second verse to half-inch tape and then he bounced the same verse again to the third verse to half-inch tape and then the rest of the song to half-inch tape and then got out a razor blade and cut it up and spliced it all back together so we had a complete song.TW: For me, personally I think the combination of the low vocals trading parts with the high stuff helped create the atmosphere of that first album. One of my college roommates, Ron, who was a music major (at Florida State)…I was listening to the CD and he came in and says “That’s genius! I have been listening to this from the other room. This whole album sounds like controlled chaos!”GR: (laugher) I like that. That’s a good name for a band!TW: Band Name! (laughter)GR: It’s better than “Testify!” (laughter)TW: He was a drummer and loved Ted’s drumming, but also the guitar tones that Gary was laying down, and then the way you would go back and forth between the low and high vocals.GR: In some of the early demos of those songs there were lots more high parts. That whole first verse on “You Get What You Pray For” was all high. Only on the final versions in the studio are all the parts lower. So we did tone it down a little before we recorded it. I think before this interview comes out I will post some of the demos of these songs just for fun. I think people will get a charge out of some of this stuff.TW: What website can our readers go to for that?GR: There will be a link from www.guyritter.com and I will put something up there like “Tourniquet Museum” and put some demos up there and some picture and I will make it fun. A little surprise to support the interview.TW: I wanted to ask you about “Ark of Suffering” and the video controversy.GR: Ted and his animal songs, which is really great. I applaud Ted. That was brilliant. The whole animal thing was great! Up until we came on the market Christians were never part of the animal movement to protect the animals. So basically the animal rights people hated Christians because all Christians worried about were babies. (laughter) And the only things metal bands ever did was sacrifice animals (more laughter) so Ted had this brilliant idea for this MTV video “Ark of Suffering” and they loved us because we were a metal band not sacrificing animals and we were Christians. So it was brilliant that Ted did that, but every album had to have an animal song, which again, is great! It was a whole different market for us. But Ted, Gary and I were all, through the process of writing each album we were very hard on each other. “Oh, that sucks!” or “Oh that kippered!” referring to kippered snacks. “Oh that really kipped!” So we were making fun of each other and would make fun of each other’s songs and say, “That song is dorky” and we would change the lyrics. One night Gary and me were listening to the 8 track version of “Whitewashed Tomb” and I got this idea so we turned on the recorder. We sang all these different lyrics over the top of “Whitewashed Tomb” and called it “Animal World.” It was the funniest thing I heave ever heard. It was so bad I was almost crying. The lyrics were like, “Supercalifragilistic Friends of Yours and Mine.” I think I will post it up on the website just for fun for people to hear. Ted please forgive me! But it was so funny. It shows that we really did have a great time doing what we did. We had a great relationship while we were working together and we made fun of each other but in a good way. We had fun doing it.TW: I still think that is one of the great ironies of “Ark of Suffering” is that you’ve got a Christian band whose video was banned by MTV. What a paradox!GR: Well, they did play it. A quite a few times as a matter of fact. We had people like Tom Scholz (Boston) and Paul McCartney and Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane/Starship) calling MTV saying, “You have got to play this video.” So what was happening was that “Animals Agenda” and some of these other magazines were calling these celebrities that they knew and saying, “We need you to call and get this MTV video on the air.” And that is how it got played. By these stars, who we never got to meet! I can’t take credit for that. (laughter) And there was an interview too, I think in “Animals Agenda” where they interviewed Ted Nugent and then they interviewed us and put is back to back in the same magazine. He talked about slaughtering the animals and then we would come back and say, “don’t slaughter the animals.” I still have that article. It was pretty cool.TW: Roger Martinez co-produced the album too?GR: Roger Martinez was asked to co-produce our first album. I think he asked to do it. (Imitates Roger) “I need some uh co-producing points here. I would uh like to uh co-produce Tourniquet. Yeah that would be really great uh, if I could uh co-produce Tourniquet, yeah.” So they let him. It was kind of weird and we were okay with it just for the name on the credits. Everybody in the world at that time loved Vengeance Rising, so if they saw his name on the album, more power to Roger. But we would be in the middle of a session and Bill Metoyer would be getting everything perfect and everything set up great and Roger would turn to Bill and say “Yeah, um, Bill, um, yeah, can I have one more DB please on track 2, um yeah, one more DB?” And so Bill would pretend…I don’t think he would even change it and Roger would say, “Yeah, sounds good, Bro.” (laughter) That, to us was one of our favorite things. And we did that continually on the next 2 albums. We would always say to Bill, “One more DB please.” (laughter)TW: Now, you guys were fairly prolific. You put out 3 albums in three years from 1990-1992. Did this enable you to do much touring?GR: The thing is, we were so overwhelmed. It was overnight we were pretty busy. It was pretty fast, and I hear that happens to people the first time. We were all trying to support…we were all on the phone calling the “CMJ” or the college music charts or journal whatever it was called. We were all creating binders for each member and were on the phone calling all the stations saying, “Please play this song “You Get What Your Pray For.”” And we were all doing these interviews and basically doing a lot of administrative work trying to get this band off the ground. We did not have any tours lined up so we were just doing the show here or there in LA where we could. Luckily we were already starting the next album and trying to get that out, so we did not do any major shows or touring until the second album was finished and coming out. Then we started to do the shows like Cornerstone, fly-outs and other Christian festivals and the first real tour after the second album to the Midwest.I have to throw in this funny story about playing Cornerstone. One of the funniest things that happened…Erik Mendez yelled to me one day (while we were there). I was trying to walk across Cornerstone. The place was pretty big and he yells, “C,mon. You don’t have to walk all the way over, just jump in!” So I jump in this golf cart with Erik thinking that he had permission to drive this cart! (laughter) So we go riding across this field, looking crazy. I looked at Erik and said, “Who gave you this golf cart?” and he goes “What do you mean?” Now I am really intrigued, “Who gave you permission to ride this golf cart?” And he looks at me and says “Nobody!” I just started laughing. “You can’t just take a golf cart! Whose is it?” And he says, “ I don’t know!” (laughter)TW: Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun on the road.GR: We did! Another funny story is when we were on tour for Psycho Surgery and we stopped at a mini-mart and were back in the coffee area. Everybody, Erik and Victor, were back there for quite a while mixing up their little creamers in their coffee. Every time someone would mix their coffee we would be looking around and there was no garbage can! So there was this little metal canister with ice in it, so we just started throwing our trash in that. So it was now full of stirrer sticks and empty creamers and paper and sugar packets and this guy was really serious who was running the store. He sees all these long haired guys back there mixing up their coffee. We were on our way to a show. Somebody, Erik I think, asked for more creamer (imitates Erik asking for creamer) so this guy walks back to where the coffee stuff is and looks down and sees all this garbage in his ice container and yells out, “OH MY GAWDDD”. There were like five “d’s” on the end of gawd. (laughter) We felt so bad! But we couldn’t help start laughing and he was so upset with us. But it was just the funniest thing. It was one of our favorite stories to always reminisce and try to re-tell. So whenever we threw something out at a restaurant or a store or get coffee everyone would always say “Oh my gawd.” Of course not directed towards our God in Heaven, but rather the god of coffee, so we couldn’t get in trouble for using the Lord’s name in vain. (laughter)TW: OK. I hate to move from the good times to the bad, but…regarding your departure from Tourniquet…did you leave during or after the recording of the third album?GR: It was actually right after we finished. Otherwise I wouldn’t have had any vocals on that album. (laughter) We had just finished the album and it was not too long after it came out.TW: Do you want to go into why you left at all or do you want to leave that alone?GR: Well, basically for me…I am not being critical of the band or where the direction they went, but for me the band was always more of “this is a ministry and we just happen to play heavy metal.” I got into music for that reason. As I said before, I was originally into pop music, but when I saw what Stryper was doing with music I went and tried to learn that style because it was a tool to reach people. Ted and Gary were always great metal players before I met them. They are just phenomenal musicians. I have never really been good at any instrument. I play a little of every instrument…drums, guitar or keyboard. I am not great at anything. But I learned a style of singing and tried to write the songs that I wrote for Tourniquet on guitar because I felt like it was a tool to reach people. By the time we finished Pathogenic I felt like we were more of a metal band, we were Christians in a band. That is the way I felt. It was my personal opinion. We weren’t praying as much as we were before and weren’t doing things like we used to like meeting with a musical pastor. Our focus was just different. Couple that with the music…I really just wasn’t into the thrash vocals as far as the yelling type shouting vocals. I wanted that to be a compliment to the singing. I just felt like there was too much yelling on the POD album and I sat down with Ted and Gary and I told them that if I was going to stay that I wanted to do less yelling and maybe do some more ballads or some more commercial stuff. I remember Ted saying if anything it was going to get heavier.I think another thing…the label was not paying us for royalties at all. Almost nothing. Just enough to probably be legal about it. And I really wanted to audit the label. We got paid maybe $3000 in royalties the whole time I was in the band. Then we got a letter saying, “We paid you too much so we are going to have to take payments of a thousand or more back!” It was crazy. And I couldn’t get the band to agree with me that we needed to audit the label. So I had some disagreements there. It wasn’t like this big fight or anything. You never would have thought there would be the tension there was after I left the band. Gary and me were friends and Erik and Victor for a long time. But there was definitely some tension because I wanted to go a certain direction and felt like I had the right to have that opinion being one of the co-owners of the band. Interestingly enough the next album that came out from Tourniquet did have a ballad on it, so the direction did change. But I was constantly telling them that I really think thrash is on its way out and we need to be in front of the curve, not behind the curve. Thrash will always be there for the people that want to play and there will be a crowd that will want to hear it. But it did change quite a bit after that.TW: Are there any misconceptions out there about you through the years that you want to clear up?GR: It is common for band members to have disagreements after going separate ways. When we parted ways, we had an agreement to respect one another and to avoid any negative talk going forward. However, there were some comments made by both sides that shouldn’t have been made. The things I said were out of frustration from hearing stuff that Tourniquet had said about me, mainly after shows. That said, it would be nice if Ted called or wrote me someday. He can reach me through www.guyritter.com. I am sure that if we talked, we would have a great conversation. We have a lot to reminisce about. I would apologize too for anything I’ve said to hurt his feelings out of frustration. I am sure it will happen someday. I would also like to ask Luke why he wrote “Caixa de Raiva”. I would prefer that we all make amends for the things we have said or done.TW: So what did you do after that? Did you wash your hands of music or the industry for a while?GR: No. I was constantly writing music in LA. Then I ended up moving back to Oregon thinking that I was done here. Seeing that the band was done and I wasn’t hanging out with Ted and Gary anymore. They were my closest friends and they were too busy playing concerts and I never saw them. So I moved to Oregon because my girlfriend at the time wanted to go back to Portland State. After a few months that relationship was dying and I got a call with a job offer at a motion picture academy make-up school so I moved back. That was totally the Lord saving me from getting married to the wrong person (laughter). I started jamming with some people. So I was just writing music with several guitar players and eventually Gary quit Tourniquet and we started playing and started working on the Echo Hollow stuff.TW: Well, being a life long Lutheran, I really enjoyed the title track “Diet of Worms” from that first Echo Hollow album.GR: (laughter)TW: That track definitely had a Tourniquet vibe to it, but the rest of material was going in a different direction.GR: Right. Definitely more commercial.TW: If I remember the interviews when that album came out you both said that this album was definitely just a ministry outlet and not intended to be a touring band right?GR: Correct. That was not our initial goal of the band.TW: So right after that album came out to positive reviews there were reports that you already had three more songs demoed and another album would be coming out shortly. But then…nothing. What happened?GR: Well, what happened is I sold my house where the recording studio was and had bought another house. I spent a couple of years building a new studio from scratch in the garage. So I had to sound proof it and all that. I had my first child at the same time. My first. My daughter. So I was pretty busy. That took up a lot of time. What also happened was that we recorded the album with a Roland drum set, which we thought was going to work. We finished most of the album and said, “We don’t like the drums. It just doesn’t sound good.” It didn’t have the punch that a real drum set has. So we scrapped the album and started over. We re-wrote and re-worked and came up with some new songs, so the process started all over again. It took forever to get that album done (laughing).TW: Only six years!GR: Six years?TW: Yeah. Diet of Worms was released in ‘98 and you did not release Superficial Intelligence in ’04.GR: Well, the album got done way before that, but we had a period of not knowing what to do with it. I think we probably finished in 2003 but we didn’t know what to do with it because the rest of the band had moved on to start another band. Gary, Rafik and Matt had started another band (Cripple Need Cane) because I was still busy with having my kid and dealing with that.Actually we talked with Bill Metoyer and he was going to mix the album but he was busy doing something for Blackie Lawless (WASP) at Blackie Lawless’ house. And so he asked Blackie if we could come up and finish the mix at his house. So we drove up there and did that for maybe four or five days and finished mixing it. I had mixed most of the stuff at my studio and got it all ready ahead of time and all he had to do was go through each song and kind of tweak it a little bit and we were done.TW: There you go! A little known factoid about Superficial Intelligence…mixed at Blackie Lawless’ house.GR: Interesting house! (laughing) It is out in the middle of nowhere. Who would have known that this guy is a real estate mogul. He buys houses and then…interesting guy. He did walk in once and say hi. It was interesting that he let us come in a do that. I guess he asked Bill, “Do you trust these guys?” and Bill told him that he did.TW: Let’s move on to your professional life. How did you get started? You said you had the job at the make-up school? I assume that got you into the motion picture industry?GR: (laughing) Let’s call it “special effects” okay? (more laughter)TW: Got it!GR: Yeah, I guess I was kind of in that industry. Then I got a call from a friend who I had known for a long time and he was doing this thing called “Avid” where people were actually editing movies and TV on a computer, which was a new thing. It seemed like it was going to take off. It sounded interesting to me so for about 3-6 months I took all of the technical manuals that they could loan me and I just read through all of the manuals. I would show up for all of their technical meetings and just waited for an opening and eventually there was one. So I had interviews for about a month trying to get into this place. I had no idea how to fix a computer or fix an editing system. I just kind of snuck my way into this place. Only by going out into the field to places like Universal and NBC and these places…Warner Brothers on the lot. I just followed the other techs around until I learned it. I was with Avid Technology for three years and then I got hired to Fox Sports over in Santa Monica. When that office closed I moved to the Hollywood office. Avid is basically a computer based editing system. Usually a Macintosh, but not always. It can be a PC, especially the high end now that there are high-def Avids…more of them are on PC. I have worked with a lot of people. I have worked on a lot of movies like Fifth Element, Titanic, Prince of Egypt, Jackie Brown, Frost, Babe, Nacho Libre, and Astronaut Farmer. TV shows, stuff I deal with every day here. They transfer films from “CSI,” “Numb3rs”, and “House” every morning. They start at midnight and go until morning. They start wrapping up usually by the time I get into work every morning. So it is a combination of feature films and TV shows.TW: Cool. It sounds like you enjoy your job. It must be interesting work.GR: It’s very fun. I get to deal with audio, video, computers, everything you can imagine. You get to deal with people, talk to editors, producers, and directors and hopefully be able to project a good influence on an industry that can be pretty dark at times.TW: You also used to have a website called “the Avid guy”. What was that about?GR: That site is down right now. I am moving it. It is for the consulting work I do for the Avids.TW: Do you consider yourself successful and are you happy?GR: I thought about that this morning. By the world’s standards I probably would say that yes, I am successful in my job. I make great money and invest in Real Estate on the side. But as a dedicated Christian I don’t think the term is really applicable. “Success” sounds like a finish line to me. As Christians we really don’t have a finish line. I have never met a missionary that said, “We did it! Let’s go home!” (laughter) A pastor isn’t going to say “We’ve got enough people now, we can stop taking tithes. We are doing a great job.” My goal is always to be on the right track, but I don’t know if I could ever say I’m successful, period. I make a lot of mistakes like everybody else, but never get off track. I’m constantly trying to stay on track. I might get off track for a week or two, but I can’t imagine getting off track for six months to a year. We all have friends who say, “Oh, I kinda fell away for a couple of years.” That is not going to happen. Since success for me is to not fall away and always to be trying to figure out, “What does God want me to do right now?” and to be open to that.TW: Have you been a life-long Christian?GR: Yes. Ever since I can remember…back to 4 or 5 years old. I grew up in the church. I was sprinkled! I was sprinkled at probably eight months. (Don’t worry I was sub-merged four years ago).As far as happy? I am always happy. I make it a point to be positive. I don’t like to be around people that aren’t happy, myself. So I do my best to be happy. I know that most bad situations will turn into good opportunities if you wait long enough. There are always things that happen that can make you depressed. The thing that happened with Gary turning in his faith, that was depressing! But I am still generally happy. I am a happy person that has things he can be depressed or sad about. My test for happiness is I tell the Lord when I am praying, not everyday, but I remind him from time to time that he can have it all. My house my cars, my studio, my side business, my day job. He can have my family. Even if my whole family was killed in a car accident, I told the Lord “Don’t test me on that, but if you have to, go ahead.” I have told the Lord, “Don’t test me on that, because you know what my response will be.” I have told him if he takes everything I’m still gonna follow Him. And that for me is the test. If I can say that consistently then I know I am truly happy. A happy person, if they are not truly happy, they are not going to be able to say that. Because once those things are taken away they lose everything. If their friends leave them or their wife leaves them, then they turn away. And it happens all the time. People say, “I am going to turn away.” The water got too hot.TW: So are you still active in your local church?GR: Oh Yeah! Definitely very active in my church. Right now I lead a “college life” Bible study group at my church that we have anywhere from 12-20 college age, anywhere from 18-35 year olds in a college group setting. We have a workbook, we go through the Bible. It’s an accountability group and it’s under the umbrella of my church, which is Shepherd of the Hills Church in Porter Ranch, CA. That is very important to me. Every other week we have a Bible study at my house and people don’t go home! They stay till 10 or 11 at night and tell us their problems and it’s all very good. It’s a good time and very encouraging. It’s good for me too, to be involvedTW: Do you do anything musical at your church?GR: I don’t. I don’t do anything musical right now at the church.TW: And I understand you have a family. You’ve been married close to 10 years now, right?GR: Yes, just 9 years. My son just turned 2 years old. I have a son and a daughter and she is 4. They are both really creative and really funny kids, but they are both strong willed children. They say you are supposed to have one strong willed child and the second one is not supposed to be strong willed. I got two.TW: I totally understand. I have 2 boys about to turn 7 and 5, and both are very strong willed.GR: Really? Sorry! (laughter) The most important thing is that I try to maintain a proper balance. God is always first, my wife is always second. My wife understands that. The kids come third and the job comes fourth, although sometimes it switches around a little bit. Job sometimes comes right after God, cause I have to go to work everyday, but when it comes down to it, if I have to leave my job I would do it to keep the order of God, wife, kids, then job. But it’s tough. It’s a challenge having kids in this world right now.TW: Yes it is.GR: It’s always been difficult. Even more difficult now with the internet, the kind of games that they can play now. The distractions. It scares me that my daughter is 4 ½ and she’s got this ugly world waiting for her.TW: Yes, it is a very scary and daunting feeling isn’t it? To see the way the Lord keeps getting pushed further and further out and humanism moving closer and closer in. You wonder what kind of world we are leaving for our children and what kind of future they will be facing as Christians.GR: I know I can’t protect her forever, but my wife has taught her well. During the day she’ll say to her, “Don’t look, there is a commercial coming on.” Sometimes I forget what she is doing and she’ll be sitting there with her eyes closed asking, “Is this a bad commercial?” And it will be something like 1-800-flowers or something like that. (laughter) I will tell her it’s ok and she will ask again, “Are you sure?” It’s so cute that she is so innocent. I wish that she could always be that innocent. But it also reminds me how dark we have become. We have all seen more than we need to see and sometimes we can’t get rid of those memories because we have allowed ourselves to see things we shouldn’t. My daughter is scared easily and she is so pure.Cute little story… somebody gave my daughter a Peter Pan book. I think it was last summer. Everything in her world changed when Pirates of the Caribbean 2 came out. My wife would buy her the normal energy bars, fruit snacks and goldfish snacks and they all had Caribbean 2 pirates on the side. It really freaked her out. Then someone gave her that Peter Pan book and she was really freaked out by all these pirates. She woke me up at 6am one morning. I woke up to her staring right in my face and she says “Daddy? Can we pray for the pirates?” (laughter) I was like, “Sierra, can we please do that around 8?”TW: Let’s go from complete innocence to loss of innocence if you will. I would like to ask you about Gary’s current situation. I don’t want to ask you to speak for him. He has already made his public statement. But I wanted to take it in a different direction. Being such good friends with Gary, how have you dealt with his sudden reversal? How do you deal with a friend who is going through something like this?GR: This is a really tough question.TW: If you don’t want to answer I am fine with that. The purpose of this interview is Guy Ritter, not Gary. This is a very personal issue for you and I completely understand if you do not wish to answer this one.GR: Well, let me say this. Gary will always be my friend. We have been through the best and the worst times together. We went through some hard times and that is what solidifies a friendship. I guess in all respect to Gary, because he will probably read this…let me turn this around. If Gary was being asked this question because I was the one who turned away, I know for a fact that Gary, with all of his knowledge of the Word, would say something like, “It just goes to show that anyone can fall away from God if they are not daily cultivating a relationship with Jesus. If you want to resist the enemy it is vital to stay in the Word and in fellowship with believers.” I think I will leave it at that. And that is the Truth for me. It may not be for Gary right now, but it is for me.TW: So what were the highlights and lowlights of your musical career?GR: Highlights would probably when we were playing Cornerstone. That was an amazing rush for somebody to play a concert like that. I remember we had so many people in the tent the year that I played there were people on every side of the stage, including behind, and I couldn’t even see the people past the tent, because they were beyond the tent. That, for me, was an incredible rush, to not be able to see the people you were playing for. Also, any show that we played, the highlight was just hanging out with kids after the show and just being able to talk to them and encourage them. That was the highlight for me. That was always the most important thing for me. Performing the show was OK, but the most important thing for me was after the show. I would get so excited about after the show. I would get nervous onstage. “Oh my gosh, there are so many people and they are all staring at us and we better remember all of our parts.” But after that show, that was “it” for me. All the stress was gone. I didn’t have to remember any lyrics, I just had to talk to people and encourage them. That was the highlight for me.The lowlights…leaving Tourniquet. Leaving friendships with the band. Ted and I and Gary did everything together. We were always together. From going to the beach to going to Catalina Island and going on road trips. Just hanging out as friends. We were really close friends. We had a blast together. We all three had the same sense of humor. And then with the addition of Erik and Victor it was even more fun! These are my friends. And when I left the band it was dark for a while. It was one of those instances when everybody comes to a place in their life and they go, “OK, what I am doing now doesn’t feel right. But it is right. But it still doesn’t feel right.” And that is difficult. Sometimes you think when you are doing things right it is supposed to feel right. And it is difficult, but you have to do what you feel like you are supposed to do. So that was a dark time.TW: So do you have any musical projects in the works now, or future plans to do any more music?GR: I am actually working on a project. It is children’s music right now. I have a website called www.playtownrecords.com. I have 3 songs posted right now. Just samples about 30 seconds each. They are just demos. They are not the actual songs yet. I will be recording them with some musicians. So go there and check it out. I would love to hear what people think. They can email me at heyguyritter@yahoo.com, or from the link at the site. I am looking forward to possibly doing children’s music full-time someday.TW: I am looking at the site now. Is that you on the drums in the picture?GR: Yeah that’s me with my nephew, Andrew! I actually play the drums and the guitar on the samples, but there will be someone else doing the final recordings. I am also wanting to work on TV and movie soundtracks. I am working on a song right now I think would be good for TV. So I am trying that kind of stuff. And also another band may be in the works in the future. Maybe in the future I will do something different. Maybe there is a band out there that already has all the music together and just needs a singer to come in and sing. That would be fun too. Sometimes I think I get too involved in writing music and with my schedule it just takes too long to get everything done. I have too much going on in my life. I try to squeeze 30 hours into a 24-hour day. That is the Hollywood life. Sit in traffic for 5 hours a day, working 10, and then go home and try to get some sleep. Maybe after this reading this interview I will hook up with some people I haven’t talked to in a while, or have lost contact with. I am open to what’s next. But I really am working on the children’s music. I would love to hear from people who have kids and get some feedback on the songs that are up there on the website and that I am working on.TW: After all of the years in this business, is there anything you would like to pass on to the bands that are out there now?GR: Sure. I think that as I look back and sometimes when I read some of the interviews with the younger bands I think, “Man I hope they are doing this for the right reason and I hope they stay strong.” Because it is so easy to get off track when you get busy and you start to be successful in music. The better the band the harder it is. If the band really is successful it gets even harder to stay on track. We just need to remember that we are not called to be Christian musicians. We need to be able to wake up each morning and say, “Lord what do you want me to do today? Where do you want me to go today?” That means even if you have to quit the band that you are in, or change jobs or move to a third world country. Before I really started playing Christian music I escorted a band called Servant. Probably most people reading this article won’t remember them but some might. I escorted them to their show. After the show we were eating and I asked, “What’s the secret to staying committed to God?” And they said, “You have to daily work to keep your relationship with Christ fresh.” And that is done in several ways. For me it is praying for others every day and praying for other people, thinking of other people and serving other people. Leading a Bible study. And not missing church every week because I have to go skiing this week or go surfing this week and I have to do this next week. The only reason I would miss church is if I was sick or on vacation. Of course reading the Word. Surrounding yourself with people who keep you accountable and staying close to the Lord. But you have really got to seek that fresh relationship with the Lord all the time and say to yourself, “Where have I gone the past six months? Am I closer to God or am I farther away?” Always evaluating where you are. I think a big problem with Christians in this country right now is that there is too much information and too many distractions. The distractions prevent us from having a deep relationship and we have too much information. If a person who is a Christian in this country starts going down the wrong path and starts doubting Christ is the Son of God he can just go to Google and it will provide a thousand spiritual Bro’s to move you along. I call it “Google affirmation.” (laughter) And I think that is where some of our Christian friends have gotten off track. We have way too much information now. And when information is positive, it is never even reported. All we hear is, “Negative, negative, negative”. How many people really knew that in Super Bowl 2007 that both coaches were Christians? Both committed Christians who had great attitudes and were going to praise God whether they won or lost?TW: Right.GR: As far as Christian bands, most pastors will tell you that if you are not accountable to a ministry of some kind, there is probably a 99 percent chance you are going to fail. You might go on and continue to provide Christian music and to play music, but if you really do want to be fruitful and that is your focus for playing Christian music, then you really do have to be plugged in. You cannot be this little island. You are so busy. We were like that in Tourniquet sometimes. We were so busy we didn’t have time to catch up with Pastor Bob and stay plugged in to one church or one ministry and that is dangerous. Make up your mind. You are either doing it as a ministry or just be a band.TW: What was it like living and working in the “golden era” of Christian heavy metal?GR: Some people have said that the “Christian metal movement,” and I agree with this, was the biggest movement in Christianity since the “Jesus movement.” There were a lot of Christian bands before Stryper, but it took Stryper to blow the door into the secular market. And for Christians like myself, who were tired of the world making fun of our dorky alternative music, Stryper created a real excitement among the Christian youth and youth groups and kids at school. Everybody wanted to be involved. All of a sudden everyone at school was talking about Stryper or in the youth group, whereas before, you really couldn’t get excited about any of the music. It was like an empowerment. When Stryper came out they were coming to high school auditoriums all across the county and the silent Christians and the fence riders were also rising up. The guys who never did anything were all of a sudden excited. Before Stryper I was pretty critical of all the bands that I liked. I liked Daniel Band, Rez Band, Allies. But I was always critical of them. In the back of my mind this is what a lot of us musicians and Christians did back then is we would say that they were great but we always kind of held back. They were great but would never say they were the greatest. I used to think that Petra just released the same album every year with different lyrics. (laughter) The closest this prior to Stryper was when John Elefante joined Kansas and came out with “Fight Fire with Fire” and that was a hit song on the pop charts. I used to walk in and say, “Did you hear that Kansas song? They are preaching now. Cool!” But that was rock and roll. Stryper was the first metal band that actually you could say not only sounds as good as secular metal but actually sounds better than a lot them. But as I recall the world was always waiting for Stryper to blow it. “They are hypocrites,” even though they were not. And when they did fall, the world was quick to jump on it and Christians were embarrassed to be associated with them and wanted nothing to do with them. And that is what I recall in that situation. It was not too long after Stryper fell we were going into the studio for Stop the Bleeding. And I am NOT saying we were a replacement for Stryper. We never thought we were. But I think the timing was good. We offered hope for the extremely heavy, hardcore metal heads. And I think Vengeance Rising and Deliverance did as well. The timing was great for all the Christian metal bands after that, giving somewhere for the people to go who were Stryper-heads. It would have been bad if there wasn’t that explosion of Christian metal after Stryper because there would have been a lot of fallout.TW: Anything else before we end this?GR: There’s plenty more stories but I have to go see what Sanjaya is up to on American Idol…just kidding. Thanks a lot! This was fun. It was fun to go back and look through this stuff and try to remember some of this stuff. I have been thinking as I have been reading articles recently in HM that it would be fun to hear again from “so and so” who has been around for a while and can offer some encouragement from mistakes and who can encourage some of the younger bands. I was thinking I would like to do that. How come nobody ever asks? I guess I’m a nobody now…TW: Well I tracked you down and you claimed only the second interview in this series, so you were near the top of my list and not forgotten at all.GR: I really appreciate it. It was fun.TW: Thank you, GuyGR: Thanks! Good night.www.guyritter.com©2007 HM Magazine - All Rights Reserved©2007 Heaven's Metal Fanzine - All Rights Reserved
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