Interviews

Duane's World Issue 8: Michael Barber from Gloryhammer

Duane James

Oct 23, 2023

7 min read

It’s been almost a decade since Gloryhammer graced our shores, and if you didn’t catch them in 2014, then anyone who was fortunate enough to catch them on their first trek down under will tell you that you missed out on a display that had to be seen to be believed.

Much has changed in that 9 years with a new singer in Sozos Michael and a much grander stage show, Gloryhammer are bigger and better than ever before. With the recent release of their fourth album Return To The Kingdom Of Fife, plus a slew of huge headlining shows under their belts including stints in festivals across England, The United States and Europe, this is Australia’s most opportune time to catch Gloryhammer at their best when they land here in next week.

Wall Of Sound got the opportunity to catch up with Keyboardist Michael Barber on the eve of what should be an epic and momentous tour to our fine shores. HOOT!!!

Duane’s World: Hey Mike, nice to meet you mate. You’ve had a huge year so far, including the release of your new album Returned to the Kingdom of Fife back in June. How's the reception to the album been?

Michael Barber: Yeah, really good. So we had a lot of build up to it. We just did two massive tours with Alestorm. A big one around Europe, and then our biggest ever around the USA as well, and pretty much as soon as we got back from the USA, the album came out. We just finished festival season in Europe. We've got this Wacken cruise thing. Then off to Australia.

DW: A Wacken cruise? That’s insane

MB: Oh, yeah, we did it once before, I think 2016 or whatever. And I was I was a bit younger then. I still felt pretty rough afterwards. So I'm a bit scared of it this time.

DW: You guys were here last in 2014, and that show is talked about as one that, if you weren’t there, you definitely missed out. I know you weren't in the band at the time, but for those who I have spoken to who were there, it was a show that they’ve bragged about seeing.

MB: Yeah, I've heard I've heard so many things around that tour. It's kind of become like the stuff of legend

DW: Now on the back of the huge year you've had touring in Europe and the US, you’re coming to Australia for the first time in nine years. How has the show been progressing since that last legendary tour down under?

MB: I joined the beginning of 2016 and most of it was just kind of made up on the spot and no one really knew what we were doing. It got to the point where like maybe 2019 or 2020, we kind of like got into the swing of things. We thought well, we should probably start behaving like a real band now because people seem to be coming to the shows. So since then, it's just gotten better and better and better. This will be the first time in Australia I guess where it'll be the full Gloryhammer package, proper headline experience. Not just a bunch of pissed up lads in tights.

DW: Well, when you are in Australia, we are known to have the odd beer or two.

MB: I'm well aware.

DW: But when you get here with Gloryhammer, it won’t be your first time here. You are coming here in October with Ingested as well for the Tech Trek Australia Tour.

MB: That's right. Yeah, I've been filling in for those guys since June this year.

DW: So are you intending to come here in October and stay til November, or are you going back and forth between tours?

MB: The Gloryhammer tour was already planned. Then Ingested’s one was coming up with Archspire. As soon as I got the I got the dates and I was like, Oh, this is kind of annoying timing really. And then I was like, well, it's only two weeks in between them. I've got mates in Brisbane. I've got mates down in Tasmania. I've never been to Australia myself.

DW: Wow

MB: So I'm gonna go spend a week in Tassie and then go and get pissed in Brisbane for a week and then do the tour.

DW: Well if you’re going to Tasmania, I hope you like the freezing cold.

MB: I’m used to it. I should show you the lovely London weather right now. (Pans the camera out the window to a bleak looking skyline) Obviously, I'm gonna see quite a lot of the cities and stuff on the tours and going to Brisbane as well. I live in a city. So it's nice to nice to get out in the nature and I just want to go hiking and do something a bit different.

DW: Yeah I heckle Tasmania, the cold and all that, but it really is an outstanding place. To get a week there, you’re very lucky mate.

So I’m a tattooist at Higher Ground Tattoos and Records in Kurrajong, northwest of Sydney, and we're a very visual sort of a mob. Now we've gotten into the habit of buying records, without even listening to the music, just based on the artwork on the album covers. Like, I’ve got a bloke getting a Ghost Rider back piece and I’m going to suggest to him to get the castle/warrior tower from your album ‘Legends from Beyond the Galactic Terrorvortex’ in the background.

MB: That’s cool man. I think our artist actually borrowed that from Lord of the Rings as well. So he'll be working its way through the various stages of the copyright infringement.

DW: HA! All the best with that. To me, that style of artwork, it really lends itself to graphic novels and even video games. Has there been any talks to develop either or both of those?

MB: Yeah it's almost like a running in joke. The band email account gets bombarded with so many, almost like daily offers from people saying they want to do this and want to do that. We always check them out. It's so hard to find the right kind of person. A complete package where you’re like, OK, you’ve got the right attitude to the person we want to work with. They also have to understand the history. Like we had an offer for a series a while ago. They just kind of wanted to pull a Witcher on it, Just sort of do their own thing and sort of butcher the story a bit. We were just like, no, we don't want to compromise on that.

I don't know if you've seen that video for ‘Keeper of the Celestial Flame of Abernethy’, like the animated one we did a couple of months back. I mean, that guy was originally a fan. An Alestorm fan. And he just made this video for the hell of it. I remember Chris selling it to everyone. He was like, look at this. This is Disney-quality animation, and this guy's just pulled it out of his arse basically. Or not quite, but he just did it for fun. So he did one for Alestorm which turned out great. So we were like, right, we’ve got to ask him to do some for Gloryhammer, and turned out better than we could have even imagined. So when it's like this once-in-a-blue-moon thing where someone is into the band, but they also have the skills to reach the standards that we've kind of set for ourselves, then we'll be open to it. But then it's just a chance meeting because otherwise, if we're trying to approach people at that standard, and they don't know who the band is, and they've just thought alright, it's just a job. They're probably gonna charge us a fucking million bucks or something like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O5TxWQkfr0

DW: It’s amazing that a fan has made that and you definitely do have some diehard fans. I heard about a diehard fan from Australia. He went over to one of the Euro music festivals and was handing out plastic swords, steering the crowd to see Gloryhammer.

MB: I know exactly who you mean. That was last summer in Finland. Tuska Open Air Festival.

DW: So you've got these you've got these diehard fans around. I’ve seen the footage of the guys decked out in costume, swinging the axes around, much like the Alestorm fans dressed up as pirates. But I'm keen on seeing the fans come out. Does that give you an extra thrill when the fans come out dressed up in their battle gear?

MB: It’s always nice to see. It’s cool because most of the time we're just having a laugh. But it's strange to see it has such a massive impact in people's lives. It kind of gives you that little boost of like, well maybe we're not just taking the piss. Maybe what we do has some meaning for some people.

DW: With all the characters on stage, you play Zargothrax, the antagonist in the story. When I read comics or watch movies, I’m always drawn towards the villain. What's it like to be the bad guy on stage?

MB: I kind off spent my entire life from 19 years old onwards, playing in like black metal bands and death metal bands and stuff like this. So I'd already kind of fully developed this stage persona. So once I kind of stepped into costume most of it was already there. Obviously it's there's a tiny bit of like comic relief there as well. So I don’t have to stand there and be deadly serious all the time. I can pull a stupid face now and again. I'm kind of the same I'm always after the bad guy.

DW: Yeah, even like watching like wrestling,

MB: Exactly. I love like Kane and the Undertaker and guys like this.

DW: YES! I like the bad guys. Darth Vader, the Joker in Batman comics. So I always thought being the bad guy on stage in any capacity, It’d just be cool. Anyways I'm dead set looking forward to seeing you guys in November. I’ll be the one swinging the rubber sword around in the air. Thanks heaps for your time.

MB: No worries mate, I'll see you there.

Interview by Duane James @duanejames666

Gloryhammer kick off their Australian Assault on November 2