Interview with Jeff Loomis of Arch Enemy
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ต.ค. 2024
- Just before their set at Rebel in Toronto supporting Amon Amarth, we had the pleasure of chatting with guitar virtuoso/legend Jeff Loomis about his musical beginnings, who he would have in his dream supergroup lineup, and more. We even played a little game of "Would You Rather".
(C) 2019 www.metalmasterkingdom.com
October 9, 2019
Toronto, ON, Canada
@ Rebel
Full Toronto show coverage: www.metalmaste...
i miss nevermore
I really get the feeling that Jeff joined on with Arch Enemy (and has stayed so far) because of the massive success they consistently have worldwide. Thusly, providing a very secure and constant paycheck which is completely understandable. Is it his dream job? I absolutely think not, but he’s a very loyal guy it seems so he does his job and stays positive. It’s interesting though that he finally said he would like to have more involvement in the writing process. He hasn’t been that straight forward in any other interviews that I’ve seen. Perhaps it’s finally starting to get to him. Jeff is so massively talented and creative it’s a shame for him not to have like 5-10 more albums of his own material out at this point. This guy is a rare gem in the metal world. An amazing musician, shows up to work SOBER, works very well with others, and doesn’t speak out of turn. He’s the perfect band mate. I’ve never been an Arch Enemy fan, and I’ve tried several times to enjoy them, but I hope they appreciate what an amazing musician they have in their presence and release the reigns on him and let him write songs for them. If not, I’m thinking this will be his last record and tour with Arch Enemy. A great paycheck doesn’t always keep people happy for long.
He's living a dream life, getting paid handsomely to record albums, touring the world , making a good living as a professional musician. He's extremely fortunate and to believe that he would give that up just to release solo work (wich he can do anyway) if he can't contribute more to AE songs is nuts. He's been in AE for 10 years next year, AE is Ammot's band and while i personally would like to see Loomis more involved i don't think he would leave if that doesn't happen. On the current album deceivers he recorded leads only due to travel restrictions but it's AE's heaviest album for a long time, so hopefully that will continue so there's more room for Loomis style if he can adapt it into the AE "formula".
I also think there's far too much Ammot leads/guitar melodies on deceivers, there was more balance when his brother Chris was in the band who even wrote a few songs. Compare his situation to whatever though, why is there still drivers in the worst Formula 1 teams with no chance of winning ? They get to do what they love so they stay anyway, no one is forcing JL to not release solo albums but the last project he was involved in was conquering dystopia from 2014. He's not exactly the most productive musician in the world.
I can’t believe I wrote my comment 3 years ago already…where does the time go?? Well after 3 years since I posted that, I have to agree with you on Jeff staying with Arch Enemy. You’re totally right in saying that he probably values being in a band that tours the world constantly getting paid extremely well. Why would he want to change that at this point? I have heard him say that he finds it difficult to find time to write for his own record because of how busy he is with Arch Enemy. But at this point I have changed my mind and think he must be happy enough because he’s still with them. There’s little chance that he would equal those types of paychecks going out on his own at this point. He could start a massive progressive metal band no doubt, but it wouldn’t have the history or following that arch enemy has. They legitimately seem to be one of the top earning bands on the entire world. He’s got a good situation even though I still don’t like that he is criminally underutilized in my opinion. I don’t feel like Michael Ammot should do ANY solos EVER personally. I get it, it’s his band. But it could be so much better. And I’d like even more singing from Alyssa as well though from what I understand she did do more singing on this latest album? I’ll go back and listen to it again and give it another chance.
@@LifeHawkeye Agreed, eventhough Ammot is a capable leadplayer he's no match for Loomis. Ammot seems to view himself as the melodic "feel" player but i don't think he is. Kinda boring/repetetive and he oversaturates the songs. Sometimes the bandleader just HAVE to play leads for some reason, fine with it in this case but he should play less. Atleast it's not as bad as the Tygers of Pantang Spellbound album where Robb Weir who's an absolute joke as a guitarist thought it was a good idea for him to have solo duels with John Sykes... It's laughable, like a Kung fu beginner sparring with Bruce Lee lol.
@@Sunedosa Lol! What!? Rob Weir did dueling guitar solos with John Sykes??? Lol I’ve got to hear that because John Sykes is a MONSTER player and I can only imagine how badly he smoked Rob Weir wow. It’s funny because I know exactly what you mean though. About 20 years ago I was in a successful band and the frontman who got us all the gigs and owns most of the PA equipment, well he had an ego problem. He was a decent frontman but to be honest a horrible guitarist. I played lead and every time I soloed o would get standing ovations and people would come watch us play due to my playing. I’m not trying to boast or anything that’s just how it was at the time. Well our frontman didn’t like me getting most of the attention so he began insisting on taking more and more leads until he literally had over 30 solos each night and only gave me 2. I told him I was quitting because it made no sense. He finally listened and everything worked out for several years. But yeah Ammot should be giving Jeff much more guitar duty. Jeff must be the most patient man on earth because my goodness why wouldn’t you want him taking every lead? It doesn’t make much sense. You’re right Ammot is a decent player but it’s laughable that he even wanted Jeff in the band to just make him play easy rhythm guitar over his simple leads. I hope Jeff is getting very very wealthy at least.
@@LifeHawkeye th-cam.com/video/nC6-R0xLWLk/w-d-xo.html
yes dude I KNOW
The 2020 AE album ought to come out soon, and there must be some Loomis on it.
I loved Nevermore and I loved Arch Enemy. The idea of Arch Enemy with Jeff Loomis seemed like a match made in heaven, but I have not enjoyed any of the albums with Alyssa (and not because of Alyssa, but because of the music not being interesting). Jeff's solo stuff was good, but sometimes non-stop shredding can get a bit boring for me. Would love to see Jeff contribute more to the writing of AE, or start his own band.