Interview with Artizan drummer

 Ty Tammeus

THE METAL PIT: Hi Ty, I was really impressed with the camaraderie between the bands on the Uniting the Powers of Metal tour when I saw the show in NYC and I thought it was a very ambitious tour to undertake. Now that the tour is over, what are your overall thoughts on how it went?

TY TAMMEUS:  The 2011 ‘Uniting the Powers of Metal’ east coast tour went very well. This was the first small tour that Artizan was on, and the response was very positive. Logistically, everything went great. We travelled with Creations End, who are from New York, and met up with the two other bands, Seven Kingdoms and Widow. All of these people are professional and supportive one another. I think I can speak for everyone by saying we had a tremendous time. We are currently organizing future tours, so we encourage the fans to stay up to date at our facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/artizanmetal

Your debut full-length album, Curse of the Artizan was released a few months ago. I was very impressed with the musicianship, packaging, and production on the disc. How did the concept for “The Artizan” character come about?

The concept for the Artizan character actually started to develop in my mind after I came up with the name of the band. I initially wanted to have a unique, fantasy character that fans could identify us with. The word Artizan is derived from the word ‘Artisan’ which essentially means skilled laborer, or creator. It seemed fitting to have this awesome character that sculpts massive statues, paints, and is generally a creative force. The lyrics to the title track ‘Curse of the Artizan’ depict the evolution of the Artizan character, and what the curse is. The ‘Beast’ that you see behind the Artizan on the album artwork is also integral to the Artizan storyline. Don’t be surprised to see more of the Beast as well as the Artizan on future artwork.

You are once again working with your former Leviathan vocalist Tom Braden. Can you describe your musical partnership with Tom and how he came to be the singer for Artizan?

Tom Braden has always been a close friend. Tom was the original singer for Leviathan, a progressive metal band from Denver, and I was the original drummer. He and I took care of most of the booking and promotion for Leviathan. I would say that we have always had similar visions and goals and he is someone I have always been able to count on. His voice has the strength and most importantly the clarity that I want to have for this band. I have read several reviews referring to the clarity of Tom’s voice, and how you can understand all of the lyrics. This is what I am always striving for when I write lyrics for Tom, so I am quite pleased with the results. I always knew he would be the ideal singer for a project like this.

 
  What are your tour/festival plans for the rest of 2011-2012? Anything you can share with our readers yet? 

As I was stating before, we definitely have plans to tour much more. 2012 will be a very active year for us with intentions to start touring in the early spring. We were just approached for a tour by an artist that I have always respected, but I cannot give out the specific details until we confirm this. We know that the European fans are anxious to see us perform, and we are making it a priority to get overseas in 2012.

Being a new band on the national metal scene, how difficult is it to come up with ways to market Artizan to the new wave of metal fans?

The state of the business is completely different than when I was writing and performing twenty years ago. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it is difficult to market Artizan, we just have to utilize the most relevant resources for our style of music and the concept that we are trying to market. I am currently exploring some new strategies to get us the proper exposure. The first thing I wanted to achieve was having a strong, viable product for our genre of music. Now that I know the overall response to our music has been very strong, and that a majority of the metal fans appreciate what we are doing, we simply need more exposure, introduce our music to many more people. The fact that we already have well over 30,000 fans on facebook has been a great foundation to start with. Touring is essential. But, this is not as easy as it might seem. We all have families, jobs, etc., and lining up logistics with other bands to tour with is not an east task. Also, the availability of venues, time of year, conflict with other bands touring at the same time, all make an impact on planning and implementation. One thing that is happening now is that MANY bands are wanting to tour to get exposure and make money from ticket and merchandise sales. This is happening now, more than ever before, because of the RAMPANT music torrenting. The illegal file downloading is literally destroying the profitability for small and larger bands’ physical CD and digital sales.  I have studied the data extensively enough to know this is an absolute fact.  Bands want to tour more to counteract the loss of album sales. Since so many bands are wanting to tour, it is harder for up and coming bands to get on tours. Most of the support slots get taken quickly by bands that are more established. This is part of the reason our management/booking company has had the idea to put bands from our management family together on tours, i.e. the ‘Uniting the Powers of Metal’ tour. I believe we will see more creative ways to market our music which can lead to more exposure and possibly more people buying the physical CD. The inclusion of the high quality poster that we have in the current CD has been one way of giving the fans more for their money. I plan to provide even more for the fans on the future projects.

I have noticed a multitude of positive reviews for “Curse of the Artizan”, including my own review for The Metal Pit. Are you happy with how the album is being received so far?

We definitely appreciate the overall feedback that we have had for the album. The fans can read an extensive list of reviews at our website: http://artizanmetal.com/music.html

In closing, is there anything you would like to say to our readers who may be unfamiliar with Artizan?

The best advice I could give would be to listen to the album a couple of times. Read the lyrics and enjoy the awesome poster that artist Marc Sasso created for us. Many fans have stated that they were blown away by our live performance, so we would greatly appreciate more people getting out to the shows. We hope to see you somewhere in 2012! Thanks to the Metal Pit for supporting Artizan.