I’m honoured to speak to you. The first thing I asked myself, was: you are a famous, busy musician as guitar player in Judas Priest. When and how and why did you decide to form another band besides that?
Well, when I first joined Judas Priest, Glenn Tipton told me: ‘I wished that Judas Priest has 20 years to 25 years left, but that’s not the case.’ I joined the band on a farewell tour. Luckily we are still going, almost thirteen years later, so we are very fortunate that Judas Priest is still around, but from what Glenn said, it made me think I should at least consider what I was going to do after Judas Priest, you know. So it has always been on my mind, what I am going to do musically when Judas Priest is no longer making music. Since that I dedicated my musical life to Judas Priest, as I said, it is almost 13 years now, it was not earlier than around the pandemic I had some time; as we all did, you know, with lockdowns and stuff like that. We did not tour. The Judas Priest album was pretty much written for the most part, so I had some time and I could focus on my creative outlet somewhere else. So I got all the songs together that I have been working on. I am always writing, I am quite a creative guy, so I am always creating riffs and melodies and song ideas. So I put all those ideas together to see what I have got. Do I have any songs? Do I have an album? So it started there really. It was very important to me that it sounded like its own entity, having its own identity. It didn’t sound like Judas Priest, otherwise there would be no point. When I started putting the songs together, it was clear that the songs were pretty good and they had their own character, and I decided to record them and I went from there really.

Indeed, one of the things I wanted to tell you is that I think that we can see this as a kind of revelation of your true spirit and your own personality in music…
Well I think I have always been grateful that I had the opportunity in Judas Priest to write music with them. That’s always been a part of my musical DNA. So it was just another outlet, so there is a part of me in everything I do. Judas Priest is one of those bands. It is a very organic band. In the past, with the albums I had the pleasure to co-write with them, we all did what came from the heart and what came natural. That’s a part of me as well. It is just a different side I think, it is a bit more blues in this record. I think you can hear all the influences in it. You can hear Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, the blues side of things and UFO. It is just another outlet really, during the pandemic to put something else down and see what I have got.

Did you write the lyrics as well or did you wait until Ronnie Romero joined the band?
I didn’t write the lyrics, no. I am not a great lyricist. I don’t enjoy writing lyrics as much as I enjoy writing music, so I let that to other people. You might know this: when you record your voice, and hear it back, it sounds strange. It is the same with me with my lyrics. When I hear my own lyrics, I don’t enjoy hearing them or writing them so much. I contribute, but I leave that to other people, so I had other people writing lyrics on this and it was all written before Ronnie came on board. Ronnie came on board when the music was written and recorded his vocals with the lyrics that were already there. He did a great job. He took a few days to kind of digest the lyrics and the meanings of the songs, so that he could do a great performance and really embody the message of the lyrics, which was a great thing for him to do.

Yes, I applaud it that you chose a permanent front man, not different singers…
Well, it is important to me to have a band. We have a line-up on the record which I am blessed to have: Rex Brown, Scott Travis and Ronnie. Then obviously moving forward, when we tour, I got a band together with musicians that are able to tour, but it is important to me to – at least – try and have a band spirit where people contribute and their own characters make the band a more unique entity, rather than just a solo project. Obviously I initially put it together, but it is my goal to have a band of people who contribute and add their musical identities to that band.

I think that is very important for the musical chemistry, also when you play live.
It becomes unique if you’ve got four or five different musical characters in a melting pot. The result is obviously different than what it would be when you did it on your own. And that is important. It is important to have a band that evolves and grows and maybe breaks new territory in terms of how they sound or what music they can do. It is an exciting thing, rather than just one person who does everything.

That’s true and then you can have a kind of interaction between each other…
Exactly. If you look at bands like Judas Priest… Obviously Judas Priest is an institute, a very unique thing, but the musical characters in the band, Ian Hill, K.K. Downing, Glenn Tipton, Rob Halford,… they are very individual characters. When you put them together, they make Judas Priest what it is, so it is the combination of those characters which makes Judas Priest. So I try to take that in this band as well.

That is a fine goal. In that time in the past, the time of all the heroes you mentioned, every band had a kind of signature sound. Now – also due to modern production I guess – there are many bands who sound more or less the same. I think you have been striving for that authentic sound…
I understand exactly what you mean. I often think that about the way guitar is these days. You have millions of guitar players with millions of different amplifiers, but it is hard to find their identity, whereas back in the sixties or with Black Sabbath, you didn’t had many guitar players and maybe two or three different amplifiers, but everybody had a different identity. The technological advances don’t seem to pull out identities. That seems to kind of blur them a little bit. Way back in the days, the identity came through the fingers and the soul, via the heart when things were created, even though it was on the same amplifier, it was sounding different. But again, taking this further to two or three or four different people in a band, capturing these characters and creating something new, I think that is an important thing if you want the longevity of the band based on character.

In the beginning I was a bit worried, because we all know that you have been seriously ill in September 2021 with instant surgery for your heart. How are you doing at this moment? Are you strong enough to face this challenge, together with being a member of Judas Priest?
I am doing well, thank you for asking it. I really appreciate that. I mean, it was a shocking time really, when it happened. It happened out of the blue, there was no warning and I was lucky to come through really, but I am doing well now. I am strong. We have been on the road since then. Actually I had to go in the hospital again to fix a complication and then we went out back on the road again. So I am doing well. I think there is obviously a balance, you can do too much, but I think when you keep active, it kinds of motivates me at least to keep going. Work on this record, work on the Judas Priest record, look forward to upcoming live dates and what we are going to do with Judas Priest in the future. It gives me kind of focus and motivation to do other things and it keeps you going.

I can understand, being busy with music makes you feel richer…
Well, it is part of who I am, it is part of my life. When it happened, I came out of the hospital and one of the first things that I wanted to do was pick up the guitar and start playing again. It is who you are, so you want to get back to who you are as soon as you can. It is a part of my life, it is almost like a medicine. Whatever happened, getting back to the guitar and music in some capacities is like a medicine, it is kind of healing you know.

Indeed, it is a benefit for your recovery let us say…
I would definitely agree yes, 100%

Choosing a name for the band is always something crucial. To me the name Elegant Weapons may sound a bit like a contradiction, because weapons are brutal, elegant is the opposite…
Well you are right, I like the juxtaposition between the elegant and the weapons. There are a couple references on the album, ‘Horns For A Halo’ is like a juxtaposition between good and evil. It came from, if you imagine like a Samurai sword, an ornamented Samurai sword, that might be an elegant weapon, but it came from the guitar and the instruments that we play really. Our words can be weapons and we can construct sentences and songs that influence people and the guitar is almost like a weapon, to be able to do that. I got inspired by the guitar and it is kind of a reference to that really. A guitar is an elegant piece of machinery that we use to create feelings with and it is also a reference to the light sable that Obi Wan Kenobi gives to Luke Skywalker. It is a weapon to crown an era. These electric guitars were much more available in the fifties. They are from the past, like some of this music. Like us. We are type of relics from a far gone era, but the goal is to bring them back in the modern era to be sure that they will never be forgotten.

Ah then I was not so far from your vision, because I have written down: ‘maybe the guitar is a weapon to conquer hearts and territory’.
Exactly. They are kind of these instruments of beauty. There was a time when I went through an airport security and I was checking the guitar through the machine and the lady didn’t know what it was. Sha sked me what it is and I said: ‘it is a guitar’ and she said: ‘a real one?’ and I said ‘yes it is a real one’. Not everybody is familiar with these instruments. I grew up watching Jimi Hendrix and Richie Blackmore and Tony Iommi with their guitars, maybe they will be lost in history, like the light sable in Star Wars. It is a relic from another age, but they are inspiring and the main reason I play music is the guitar. It is inspiring, I love it, so yeah it is a real reference to that.