In a recent interview with Andy Hall of the Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3, AVENGED SEVENFOLD bassist Johnny Christ spoke about the making of “Life Is But A Dream…” Written and recorded over the span of four years, it was produced by Joe Barresi and AVENGED SEVENFOLD in Los Angeles and mixed by Andy Wallace in the Poconos, Pennsylvania. The album is a journey through an existential crisis; a very personal exploration into the meaning, purpose and value of human existence with the anxiety of death always looming.

“Yeah, I guess it was a little different this time,” Johnny said about the “Life Is But A Dream…” writing and recording process. “Yeah, we got off the road in 2018. We had to cancel a tour that we had lined up with PROPHETS OF RAGE. Unfortunately, Matt (Sanders, a.k.a. AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows) had messed up his vocal cords from the long, grueling cycle that we did for (2016’s) ‘The Stage’ (album). And by the end of it, we were just exhausted. So we took a couple of months off — some recovery time — and then got to writing pretty much right away at the beginning of 2019. So we’ve been demoing and working on these songs since then, and it just got released last year. So it was four years in the making of that stuff before anyone got to hear what we had been doing.”

He continued: “Yeah, we approached it very differently. We wanted to do some different sounds and challenge ourselves creatively to trim out the fat and still keep it exciting throughout. Yeah, going in and recording, obviously by the time it was time to do that, we had time set up in studios and everything like that, and the whole world shut down, as everybody knows. And that gave it some more challenges to complete the record in the time that we wanted to. And each time it got pushed back, actually, we looked at it with a silver lining to it, and it elongated the time for us to work on the music and to work on it sonically and make sure the album as a whole flowed and did what we wanted it to do. And then we put it out and it was up the listeners to decide if we did a good job or not.”

Christ also elaborated on his previous comment that he and his AVENGED SEVENFOLD bandmates want “Life Is But A Dream…”” to be a full experience as an album”. He said: “Yeah, well, I think that comes from this record, just like all of our records — it’s not unique in this sense — but we definitely take the time to figure out what perspective we have on life and where our muse is based on where we are. We’re all new-ish parents with families, all of us now. We’re getting into our early 40s. It’s not the same thing as when we were 18 years old to start this whole thing out. So you get a different perspective 20-plus years later. And it’s fun to tap into that and use it as a muse. And when you do that and you find stuff that’s real in life and can touch everyday people and every person out there, and because it is very human, the perspective and the topics that we have on this record, that you’re gonna get people who are probably of the same age, possibly, with the same life goals, just trying to make it and grow their tribe and do the good things. And I think that’s why we’ve gotten that feedback from guys like yourself, and some others and ladies and everybody. I feel like there’s something to grab on to on this record that definitely is very human and very common for many of us living on this planet.”