Interview By: Brian Cross | Photos By: Diana Guay

After Blackguard opened for Symphony X at the Worcester Palladium on April 23, 2011, we pulled aside vocalist Paul “Ablaze” Zinay to pick his brain about the band’s slight change in sound, his thoughts on concept records, which song is the most important off of their latest release Firefight, and much more. (On a random note, this interview took place in between discussions of the Mega Man video game series. I’m not kidding.)

MPJ – The new Blackguard album Firefight has finally hit the shelves, and there’s a noticeable change in tone from your last record. What can you tell us about the songwriting process this time around?

PAUL – A big reason why the songwriting was a lot different on this record than on the last record is that Joe (Lefrancois-Leduc, ex-keyboardist), our former keyboard player…well, he’s our former keyboard player! He’s not in the band anymore, and he was our principal songwriter on the last two records. When he left the band, we really had to sit down and re-analyze what we wanted to do. We didn’t want to just recreate his style, per se; we wanted to grow, we wanted to evolve the sound a little bit more. We did want to take a step away from the folky elements in the music. We wanted to make a meaner record, and in the end, I think that’s what we got. We wanted to expand on some of the elements that we’ve already used in our music, but bring them to the forefront. We toned down the folk elements a lot, but we brought up the symphonic elements. That’s something that we wanted, and we wanted to experiment with tempos and do some slower songs on this record.

MPJ – Like “Cruel Hands”? (Editor’s note: “Cruel Hands” is one of the fastest songs on the record.)

PAUL – Yeah, right! (laughs) No, but “Wastelands”? We’ve never written a song that slow before! It’s very weird for us. Tonight was the third time that we’ve ever played it live, and we’re only just starting to get a feel for it. The first time we played it live was in Philly two days ago, and we all got off stage and were like, “How did that feel? I think it was okay. I’m not sure, people seemed to like it…” I was asking people at the end of the show, “What did you think of the slower songs?” and people seemed to dig it. Tonight it got a pretty good reaction, so I was very happy.

MPJ – So, there were no hard feelings when Joe left? No steel cage match?

PAUL – No, nothing like that. (laughs) He just felt it was his time to step away, and I respect that. God knows there’s been enough times when I’ve been in the middle of a tour and I go, “Is this still for me?” You can only do it for so long, and your priorities shift as time goes by. The more and more you see your bank account drop, sometimes seeing the same cities over and over again becomes less exciting. I’m not necessarily speaking for him, but there’s various reasons why people become disinterested. The touring pace that we kept up over the past two years was pretty tough. It was tough on everybody! He felt that it was his time to step away, so it was fine. It was cool, there was no bad blood or anything like that. Unfortunately I don’t get to talk to him too much anymore, but he came out to a few shows that we did in Montreal a few months ago, and we hung out and had a beer. We’re still friends with him, and there’s definitely no bad blood.

MPJ – Were the new symphonic parts on Firefight programmed in, or were they recorded by a session keyboardist?

PAUL – Kim (Gosselin, guitarist) programmed all of the symphonic parts on the record. Kim’s a bit of a freaky genius when it comes to music! He’s got a very good head about it; he wrote pretty much all of the music, including the orchestration, and he put the record together. I came in and I wrote the lyrics, and it came together relatively quickly. We had a bit of a fire under our asses, and we had to work at it pretty quickly as we didn’t have that much time off. The time that we did have at home, we worked very diligently to get the record done. It’s been a little too long since that last one! We really wanted to get this new CD out and start playing new tracks.

MPJ – Does Firefight have any unifying theme behind it?

PAUL – Not particularly. No record that I’ve written lyrics for has ever had that kind of concept; each song is really it’s own thing. Every song one way or another has a sense of struggle, and there’s a very human element to each and every song. If people read the lyrics, I think they’ll be able to get something out of it. I don’t really like writing concept records, but I’ve actually thought about writing one for a while now. I’ve been thinking about the next CD, and that one actually is shaping up to be a concept record! But this has been the only time I’ve ever been inspired to do something like that. The next record may follow a very loose storyline which would be somewhat connected to the song “Firefight” off of this record. We’ll see how it turns out; we’re only in the planning phases!

MPJ – Do you have a favorite track off the new record, or one that has special meaning for you?

PAUL – My favorite song is “Firefight,” for sure; I really love it, and it’s really kickass. I’m really looking forward to playing “Cruel Hands,” as we haven’t played it live yet. I’m excited to see how that’s going to translate live. Maybe it’ll become my new favorite!

MPJ – Yeah, that’s a damned barnburner!

PAUL – It’s fucking brutal, man, I love it. I love “The Fear of All Flesh,” but the song that hits home the most for me is “Wastelands.” It’s one of the most introspective songs I’ve ever written, and every time we play it, it really means the most to me out of everything as it’s a very personal song. It’s really directed at the touring lifestyle and a lot of the shit that we’ve been through as a band over the last two years. It’s sort of like my critique of being in a touring band. So if you read the lyrics to “Wastelands” with that in mind, you’re going to see it! It ain’t pretty, either; it’s not like “Oh, I love touring!” It’s not an easy lifestyle, and the song is just me contemplating “Where’s my place in music? Where’s my place on the road?” You know, just read it and check it out.

MPJ – Unfortunately, Soilwork and Nevermore had to drop off of the tour before it even started.

PAUL – I was really disappointed. Soilwork dropped off first, and I was really pissed off about that because I knew that they would bring a slightly more aggressive crowd. It’s Soilwork, they’re melodic death metal. When the lineup was first announced, I was really excited to have Soilwork there just because I like the band, and they’ll bring some guys that are going to want to mosh and get violent! I got really excited when I found out Nevermore was on the bill because we toured with them a few months earlier, and we became good friends with them. We love those guys to death. It was really heartbreaking when they dropped off the tour, and then subsequently Jeff (Loomis, ex-guitarist) and Van (Williams, ex-drummer) left the band.

MPJ – And Peter Wichers (guitarist) from Soilwork has a herniated disc.

PAUL – Yeah, it sucks, man; I wish they could’ve gotten a touring guy to take his place, but they did what they felt was right, and more power to ’em. I can’t wait to see them back here. Maybe we’ll get to tour with them!

MPJ – Have you gotten a longer set time as a result of this?

PAUL – Normally we’d be getting thirty minutes, but I think we’re getting around forty minute sets for most of this tour. Even with the local band playing first tonight, we got a forty minute set! We’re doing like a seven-song set every night, which is great, because we normally only get to do five. We’re playing a lot of new stuff, and it’s great; we’re really getting an opportunity to push the new record, which is what we wanted.

MPJ – And you ended your set with that Swashbuckle song, which was pretty cool… (Editor’s note: Blackguard finished their set with “This Round’s on Me,” but Swashbuckle have a song called “This Round’s on You.”)

PAUL – A Swashbuckle song?! (laughs) “This Round’s on Me” isn’t a Swashbuckle song! Man, don’t even bring up pirate crap with me! (laughs) It’s about drinking beer, man, it’s got nothing to do with pirates. Pirates can kiss my ass. (laughs) You hear that, Admiral NoBeard?! Kiss my ass!

MPJ– Swashbuckle crashed the interview we did with you last year, so we have to give you a chance to get some revenge.

PAUL – (laughs) I love those guys to death. Except Admiral NoBeard, he can kiss my ass.

MPJ – Will Blackguard ever get to relax and take a break?

PAUL – We’re planning on it. We want to take a step back, and we don’t want to tour as much this year as we did last year. Last year was a little bit ridiculous. It was our first record on an international label, so we wanted to just get out there and do as many tours as we could. Death metal tour, power metal tour, whatever; we just wanted to get out there and show our music to as many people as possible. This time around, we sat down and discussed that we want to slow it down a bit and we don’t need to be here every other weekend anymore. I think you’re going to see a little bit less of us, but hopefully that’ll make it that much better when we do show up. We need some time at home, too. As much I love touring, I’m a little burned out right now. We’ve pretty much gone nonstop since September. This tour just started, but it’s been going great, and I’m really excited about it. I’m sure this is going to be fun, but I’m also looking forward to going home and having a summer, and chillin’ out and finding a job and making money! (laughs)

MPJ – I heard you guys got your asses beat in a snowball fight with Deicide.

PAUL – We didn’t get our asses beat! (everyone laughs) I did that interview with MetalSucks and I told them that we got into an epic snowball fight; I didn’t say who won or lost! (everyone laughs) But I did get (vocalist Glen) Benton really good. I don’t know if I got him in the face or the back of the head, but when I did, I was like “Where’s your Satan now?! POOM!!!” (laughs) That was fun. That was easily one of the highlights of my touring career, hands down. I’m never going to forget that. Who the fuck ever thought something like that would happen?

MPJ – That picture of you standing next to Glen with a cross drawn on your forehead is rapidly becoming the stuff of legend.

PAUL – I had the idea for that photo when the tour started, but I only took it at the very last show. I had to ask a lot of people about it. I asked Ralph (Santolla, guitarist), Steve (Asheim, drummer), and Jack (Owen, guitarist): if I was to do this, do you think Glen would laugh? Do you think he’d take it well? They said to give it a shot. So when they did a signing session at the end of the show in Arizona, they were nearing the end of the crowd, and I was like now-or-never, I gotta do this! I’d been waiting for weeks to do this! I got our drummer Justine (Éthier) to draw a cross on my forehead, and I got in line. There was maybe three people ahead of me, and when there was only one left, Glen looked over and saw what I had, and he just started laughing. We ended up taking the picture like three times; there’s another one out there that’s even better. I think the tour manager for Deicide has it. Glen was really cool about it. I just thought it was the funniest thing.

MPJ – The expressions on your faces were hilarious!

PAUL – I hope that picture outlives me! (laughs) I hope it goes down in some sort of metal history as one of the most ridiculous photos ever. “Who is that guy?” It doesn’t even matter, it’s just a funny picture.

MPJ – Any last words for the Blackguard fanbase?

PAUL – Especially for the fans in Worcester, thank you guys so much for coming out and having such a good time with us tonight! Every time we play here, it’s absolutely amazing, and I’m always in awe. I just want to live here. I love the fans in Massachusetts, you guys fucking rule! Thanks a lot for supporting us! The new record Firefight is in stores, so go check it out. Catch us on the next tour! We’ll be out in August and September with Kamelot, Alestorm, and The Agonist. Should be a great show!

MPJ – Thanks again for your time, Paul!

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