Interviews

Ian Hill - Judas Priest 'Invincible Shield is Busier, More Intricate Than Other Albums'

Gareth Williams

Senior Writer/Ranga

Mar 5, 2024

7 min read

Judas Priest surprised literally everyone late last year with the announcement of their new album Invincible Sheild. The band made the best use of their time locked in to write and record the album.As was most of the world's experience during the COVID lockdowns this legendary metal band had to do things a little differently. With band members spread across the world getting together in a studio was not even remotely possible.We covered a lot of ground in this interview kicking off with bass player Ian Hill describing how the writing of this album was done in a completely different way.

"Ritchie and Rob and Glenn started coming up with ideas right after Firepower... And then COVID comes along and sort of prevents everybody meeting up. You've got the band, Rob (Halford) and Richie (Faulkner) living out there in the States. There's Glenn (Tipton), myself and Andy (Sneap) living in Britain so we couldn't really get together. But was great from a certain point of view because Richie is sitting there, bored out of his head for two years. So he's perfecting the songs and it was great, by the time Scott (Travis) and myself got the definitive songs they were really polished up. We just had to put his drum track and his drum patterns and my bass lines down, and nothings easy, but less of a hassle than it could have been ... And so it was all done separately, Rob. Ritchie and Scott were recording mainly in Phoenix and Nashville, where Rich and Scott live."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLPaGqGzdY0Ian goes on to explain how his bass parts weren't recorded in a studio or even at home."What I did was done in a hotel room on the last tour because we went straight from COVID straight into the 50th-anniversary tour, we were a year overdue. Well, the plan was to try and get the album out before that, but COVID came along and stopped all that happening. So we're sitting there on days off and Andy's with us, he's got his laptop. And he said, 'well, why don't we put the baselines down on these days off?' Put them to some good use so that's the way we did it! And it was a great way to work. I just bought a bass with me, I plugged straight into the computer, which is what I do anyway in the studio. I don't go through any effect boards or nothing like that. It's just straight in. Any effects are done afterwards, you know. And it was a great way of recording..."Given Ian just plugged straight into Andy Sneap's laptop I asked him about what pedals and effects he uses, both in the studio and live on stage."There's a couple of effects that I do use, but my technician does that for me backstage. The other thing is obviously the bass pedals down there that I play on some of the songs as well, but there's no great effects. But when you got two sort of distorted guitars the last thing you want is a distorted bass as well. So I'd like to keep a nice clean rich sound just to just to cut through and gives you the platform for everything else to go on top."The chat on the internet from some fans had them thinking Invincible Shield was going to sound a lot like Firepower - take it from me it doesn't. For me the album is a grower, I asked Ian's thoughts on that."It's busier than other albums have been. A lot of the songs like 'Invincible Shield' have lots of different parts. 'Giants In The Sky' is the same ... Lots of different parts and they go a little bit more intricate than it has been but that's the way it evolves.

You know we try and do something different with each album try and move forward at least. And not consciously try not to have it sound as the last album you know, not completely. Obviously the core sound of the band is always going to be there. But just upgrade this a little bit and keep yourself current. Keep yourself relevant and it just works out really.

But I mean if you look down at the fans these days and there's a hell of a lot of young faces there, you know which is great news."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YqZuo1WKk4With a career spanning over half a century, I asked Ian if he would follow Rob Halford and former bandmate KK Downing in writing his memoir."No, not really. I mean, like you say, Rob's got two books, Ken (KK Downing) wrote a book - I didn't read Ken's because I was there at the time. And what I've heard, you know, all seems to make sense. And I've been through Rob's books, of course. But what are you gonna say? You gonna say the same things again? And it really if there's anything that I didn't agree with in those three books do I really want my legacy to be some whinging ... If there is a book, it'll probably be in the early days, my family days right up until probably Rob joins. Because that that that hasn't been covered a great deal, so that would be it..."Staying off topic I spotted a double bass leaning up against the wall behind Ian and decided to wrap up the interview asking him how often he played it and if he'd slipped a bit of upright bass into a Judas Priest album."No, it hasn't been on a Priest album, I do play from time to time, just go and have a plunk on it, you know it needs setting up actually. It needs taking apart, putting back together again and I don't have the inclination to do it. You look things over as you're walking by but I don't think I've had any opportunities in about a year."

‍Interview by Gareth Williams

Judas Priest's Invincible Shield is out Friday, March 8.Pre-order/save here