Mosh: You’ ve publicly expressed that you did-’ t have any interest in making a new Diamond Head album until you met new singer Rasmus Bom Andersen in 2014. Brian Tatler: That’ s right. Our last singer( Nick Tart) emigrated to Brisbane in 2008, and since then we sort of kept the band together to do live work. We would pay to fly Nick backards and forwards for projects. I didn’ t want o make an album like we did last time where t was done by sending files over the computr and the drums were done separately and e didn’ t get in a room together and write or reate in that way. When Ras joined, he said e should definitely get into a room together nd try to capture the magic. It’ s the way iamond Head used to work, we would make usic as a band. It seemed to be working fine n the past, so we thought we’ d do it that way his time.

Mosh: The album seems like yet another new chapter in Diamond Head’ s career. Brian Tatler: We do seem to have a few chapters, and we’ ve been doing it for quite a while now. I think when you get in a fresh singer, they’ ve got new ideas. He’ s a younger guy than the rest of us so he comes from a different generation of lyrical ideas. We just wanted to try first of all, we weren’ t going to try and make a new album or anything. We just said let ' s try and write songs and see if we can do it, and it grew from there. We started in January 2015 and we spent about six months on and off ehearsing and coming up with this material. y July we were booked to go in the studio nd record it, and it went great. Rasmus has a ot of good ideas and he’ s done production in he past for other bands, and I think he brings hat to the table and offers an overview and elps mold the way things should sound.

Mosh: All of the tracks have the band’ s oldschool roots embedded in them. Was this a conscious effort or did it just happen naturally?

Brian Tatler: We had quite a lot to pick from. I had written 45 pieces of music that I was able to give to Rasmus, and he just picked the ones that he liked and the ones that we thought were the most like Diamond Head. He has this ability to sing on almost anything. No matter what I threw at him he was able to come up with something. A couple of times he would say if he thought it didn’ t sound like Diamond Head, which I think is fair enough. Mosh: The orchestrations on tracks“ All The Reasons You Live” and“ Silence” are new elements that the band hasn’ t really tried before on a Diamond Head album. Brian Tatler: We wrote those songs in rehearsal and Ras said he could do some orchestrations to that, because he can play various instruments; drums, guitar and keyboards. He has a home studio and he sent it to me and it’ s almost like a real string section, and it did sound great. I was all for it and I encouraged him, and I think I said to do more. I gave him free reign to experiment with it. Those two songs are slightly different to what you’ d expect from Diamond Head, but they both got my seal of approval. I really like them.

Mosh: The end part of“ Our Time Is Now” sounds like the beginning of“ Am I Evil?” Brian Tatler:( laughing) That was a little musical joke. I just suggested that because we were trying to think of an ending, and I played it and everybody laughed. But I thought,‘ Does it really matter if somebody spots it?’ It was just a musical joke for someone to spot, like yourself. It’ s only a few seconds, but it’ s there. It’ s for the connoisseur.

Mosh: Going back to Diamond Head’ s origins, what was it like to be a part of the whole NWOBHM explosion in the late ' 70s? Brian Tatler: We’ d been going for like four

years, starting as absolute beginners in my bedroom. We’ d done a few local gigs, and then when the NWOBHM happened, suddenly Samson are on the front cover of Sounds and then you got Iron Maiden and Angel Witch. I thought that we could be part of it and it would be a good way to get a record deal. Record companies were suddenly signing Def Leppard, then Iron Maiden. I had no idea how to become a successful band. You’ d look up to your idols like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, but you had no idea how to become successful like those bands. And when the NWOBHM happened, I thought it was a lovely opportunity for Diamond Head to be part of this thing. Sure enough, We had a big feature in Sounds by Geoff Barton, who gave us a fantastic review of our debut album. Attention started to be focused on the band, so it was very useful to us.

Mosh: Diamond Head’ s first two albums had a hand in defining the NWOBHM sound. But your third album, Canterbury, had sort of a different all together sound and feel. Brian Tatler: I think it was just time, really. The songs on the first album were all written in’ 78 and’ 79, and then by the time we got to Canterbury in’ 83, we kind of grew out of those early songs and were experimenting a little bit and were trying out new things. Three or four years had passed and we weren’ t as successful as we would’ ve liked to be because nobody even wanted to sign the first album, we ended up releasing it ourselves and selling it at gigs and through mail order. But the Canterbury album in hindsight was probably an overstretch. I don’ t think we were really capable of making that kind of album at that young age. A lot of fans didn’ t really like it, they liked a couple of songs, but I think they

expected us to be a bit more like the first album. Because we did change style quite a lot between Lightning … and Canterbury

Mosh: Talk about the Metallica connection. Their Diamond Head covers seemed to generate more interest toward your band. Brian Tatler: Of course you get songwriting royalties, which has helped no end. It gave Diamond Head a lot of credibility that we’ d been influential on this hot new band called Metallica. I’ ve only ever seen it as a good thing. So many people have come up to me and said they got into Diamond Head through Metallica. They’ d maybe listened to“ Am I Evil?” or“ Helpless” or something, and then realized it was a cover because of the credits or maybe someone told them. They would then seek out this band who’ d written the song in the first place. So it’ s only ever been positive I think, the connection with Diamond Head and Diamond Head’ s connection with Metallica.

Mosh: The new album is getting numerous positive reviews. Rasmus definitely brings a new dynamic to the band. Brian Tatler: It’ s true that he’ s added a new energy to the band and has brought lots of new ideas. He’ s given us a kick up the ass, really. Our old singer split in 2008, so we looked around and a friend of our bass player knew Rasmus. So we got him up to the Midlands to audition and I thought he was the best of the guys I saw. I voted for Rasmus. We had gigs coming up, so we got him on board to do the gigs, and then during the tour we offered him to join full time, and he said yes.

Diamond Head appears at Tailgaters in Bolingbrook on Saturday, November 26.