Drummer Shaun Drover on leaving Megadeth, his new band and touring the UK. Just don’t call AoD a side project
After leaving Megadeth, was it always the intention that you and Chris should carry on working together?
Once I decided to quit that band, I confided to Chris what my plans were, turns out he was thinking of quitting the band as well, so we decided at that point we should team up and form our own band, which is exactly what we did. We worked very hard to make BIRTH AND THE BURIAL the best Heavy Metal record we could and we are very happy with the end result.
Tell us just a little of how you got together with the other two guys?
I have known Matt [Blanchard, ex Shadows Fall] for 15 years, so when I found out that Matt was looking for a new band after Shadows Fall had stopped touring, I contacted him to see if he would be interested in playing Bass for AOD, Gladly he was and he joined us right away. Henry we found on Youtube among several singers we were looking at-Henry was by far the most dynamic singer, so we snatched him up as well. We are glad to have the both of them on board with us.
Henry Derek came to everyone’s attention with Scar The Martyr, you must have been pleased by how he worked out?
Absolutely!!!! Henry has a lot of different vocal styles which is exactly what we were looking for, so he has really worked out well for us!!
Were these songs specifically written for Act Of Defiance or were they ideas you all had kicking around from previous times?
Chris had a few ideas he had already written, but other than that most of what you hear on BIRTH AND THE BURIAL is all new material, certainly for my songs!!! We were both really inspired to write new music, so it was not very hard to write really heavy songs. The only blueprint we had was to make sure all 10 songs were totally 100% HEAVY METAL. All of the songs on this record sound different from each other yet they are all total Metal, which I am very happy about.
The album seems to have been really well received. Does this still worry you or you at the stage of your career where it’s not a priority?
At the end of the day, you always try to make the best record you can and hope that the fans who like real Heavy Metal will enjoy it as well. AOD intention here with BIRTH AND THE BURIAL was to make a pure, uncompromising Metal record, and thats exactly what we did. the fact that so many people seem to like it is the icing on the cake, really.
The live shows you have coming up, are you looking forward to taking Act Of Defiance onto the road?
Of course!!!!! We are chomping at the bit to play live and let the fans of Heavy Metal hear our music in a live setting. we plan on touring a lot to promote this record, for sure!!!
And on that point, can we look forward to any British shows?
We are making plans now to tour well into 2016, and the UK is certainly a territory we need to hit for sure. We want to tour as much as we can to promote this records you can bet we will be in the UK at some point in 2016.
All the guys are busy, I’m sure, but is Act Of Defiance very much an ongoing band now?
Yes!!!!! this is no project, this is a real band!!!!! we plan on touring a bunch for this record, then go right back and begin writing for the next AOD record once the world tour is over then do it all over again!!!!
Act Of Defiance “Birth and the Burial” is out now on Metal Blade
