Without Warning -- Interview

It's funny how many bands go by unnoticed today with the many independent and/or foreign labels. This band from New York is a talented 4-piece that's released its third full-length album and there are many people including myself who haven't discovered them or even heard of them. Recently, they just got picked up here in the U.S. on Progressive Arts and that should be a good starting ground for this progressive metal outfit who goes by the name Without Warning. Here's a chat with guitarist Ted Burger:

By Wayne Klinger

WAYNE KLINGER: This is already your third release and I take it that the other two are also imports?

TED BURGER: Yeah. Actually, they were officially released first in Japan and then in Korea; the second one I think was strictly out of Japan. The only way you've ever been able to get them over here is just on import.

WAYNE KLINGER: Do you plan on re-releasing them at all?

TED BURGER: We're going to re-release the last album, which is called "Believe." There's no date yet over here for that release. We're going to wait and see how this new record does, then when the time comes and we're done touring to support this record, then we'll probably put out that one, maybe with a couple bonus tracks from the first record. But we probably don't plan on re-releasing the whole first record.

WAYNE KLINGER: I take it that you're heavily influenced by Dream Theater.

TED BURGER: (Laughs) Yeah. It's weird. It goes different ways. A lot of times, people who are familiar with progressive music and stuff like that---obviously, there are influences there with that type of sound and everything. It's weird because some people who are really into Dream Theater don't think we sound anything like them and some people who aren't into them say that we sound exactly like them. So what are you gonna do? There's no denying the influences there. It's just the kind of thing we do.

WAYNE KLINGER: The three kings it brings to mind are Queensryche, Fates Warning and Dream Theater.

TED BURGER: Yeah, I can handle that.

WAYNE KLINGER: Do you handle lead or rhythm guitars?

TED BURGER: We're just a five-piece; guitar, keyboards, drums, bass and vocalist. It depends on the songs. I'm the only guitarist in the band, but there are a lot of tracks with keyboard and guitar solos.

WAYNE KLINGER: Your singer has his own sound. Does he take any instruction to better his voice?

TED BURGER: Yeah. He actually teaches vocals, believe it or not---which you wouldn't think as raw as his voice is. I don't think he necessarily sounds like anybody. He is really raw, but he's not into the whole operatic thing and that's one of the main reasons that we like him as a singer. He sounds ballsy, he sounds a little more straight-up. I love Geoff Tate's and James LaBrie's vocals, but I don't think I'd necessarily want them singing for this band.

WAYNE KLINGER: You guys have been around for how long now?

TED BURGER: We've been together in this form of the band since '91. The first record was in '93, the second record came out in '95, but then we went through a ton of changes at that point. We all moved down to New York and then we went through all the problems with our Japanese label and that's why it's been so long between records.

WAYNE KLINGER: That surprised me---I'd never even heard of you guys and here you're right out of frickin' New York! Why is it so low-key?

TED BURGER: Well, we're originally from way upstate New York in a little college town where we met. I think at the time, when the first two records came out---unfortunately, we got surrounded by a few people who we shouldn't have been surrounded by. We had a very high-priced lawyer who supposedly was going to work deals on those records and help us get something out in the U.S. and something out in Europe, and basically, nothing ever happened. At that point---after the last record came out, we moved down to New York, where we all had to get jobs and survive. So I think we never really did any support for those records in the U.S.

WAYNE KLINGER: There are so many fanzines here in the U.S., I thought for sure you guys would either run an ad or even make flyers and spread them around. I see that with a lot of progressive metal bands.

TED BURGER: Yeah, it's weird. I don't know what it is. I guess there are a million reasons and a million excuses. We're learning this side of the business as it is, just like everyone else is. I think it's really just over the past year or two since I've been down here that we've really started to realize that there is a scene for this kind of music.

WAYNE KLINGER: Conquest is going to be re-releasing "A Step Beyond," right?

TED BURGER: No, "A Step Beyond" is the new one. They're going to re-release "Believe."

WAYNE KLINGER: The reason why I'm asking is because Dave from BallBuster was telling me that this was originally on "Inside Out."

TED BURGER: Oh, yeah, it is. We did it as three separate deals. The Conquest deal actually came together the same time that "Inside Out" did.

WAYNE KLINGER: Are all three versions going to be the same thing, then?

TED BURGER: As far as music goes, at least the European version and the U.S. version are going to be identical. You might have a bit of a difference as far as pictures and stuff like that go, but musically, it's going to be the same. To be honest with you, we can't afford to do anything else like bonus tracks and things like that.

WAYNE KLINGER: It seems like you guys don't know how to write a short song! (Laughs)

TED BURGER: (Laughs) Well, we do, believe it or not, but it's one of those things where we just really got tired of worrying about it---which is also probably why I think there's playing in longer sections on this record.

WAYNE KLINGER: The shortest one on there is 4:24.

TED BURGER: We got tired of worrying about whether we'll get radio play here or radio play there. We finally just said, "Fuck this." We're writing exactly what we want to write, we're playing these songs because we want to play them. Really, this is the first time that we've gotten a better reaction from this record than anything we've done. Even from people who have heard all three records. It's by far the best record that we've done. So we're just going to stick with that. We do what we want to do and if somebody doesn't like it because it's too long or whatever---and I don't mean this with a bad attitude---but we've got to please ourselves first. If those songs end up being long, but that's how we want to have them, we've just decided that we're going to go with that because we've spent too much time in the past going, "Oh, maybe we should cut this or that down so it's shorter." As we see it, we're not going to get airplay on any mainstream radio anyway, so we don't care.

WAYNE KLINGER: I just did an interview with Savatage and John Oliva explained that to me pretty well.

TED BURGER: I know John, actually.

WAYNE KLINGER: He mentioned how the media doesn't even know The Trans-Siberian Orchestra from Savatage.

TED BURGER: Exactly! they don't even know that it's them! It's fucked up, isn't it?

WAYNE KLINGER: As a guitar player, what are some of your influences?

TED BURGER: Man, I don't even know!

WAYNE KLINGER: I was hoping you'd say Yngwie.

TED BURGER: No, not me. I'm a big Yngwie fan, but he definitely was not an influence on my playing. Do you think you hear that in my playing?

WAYNE KLINGER: No, it's just that a lot of people look up to him for speed and I still think that he hits his notes pretty clean.

TED BURGER: Oh, are you kidding? The guy is one of my favorite players. I don't know if I would say that he was an actual influence just because I've never been into playing like that. Believe it or not, I was always more influenced by Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, that kind of stuff.

WAYNE KLINGER: Steve Morse?

TED BURGER: Definitely. He's probably the only guy that I own instructional videos by and who I actually go to see play live. I think he's an incredible player---however, I don't think I would ever even come close to being the kind of player that he is. Eddie Van Halen is probably the reason that I picked up a guitar when I was a kid. I was always copping Van Halen riffs when I was young.

WAYNE KLINGER: Do you plan on making any videos or anything like that?

TED BURGER: I don't know. It really depends upon how the record goes and how it sells. At this point, obviously, we don't have any money to do a video ourselves. There are some things in the European contract and the U.S. deal where if we start selling a decent amount of units, we'll get a little support. In that case, we'll probably shoot some videos.

WAYNE KLINGER: So you guys met in high-school or college?

TED BURGER: It was in college, actually.

WAYNE KLINGER: Basically, you've had the same lineup for all three albums.

TED BURGER: Oh, yeah, definitely.

WAYNE KLINGER: You pretty much have almost a brotherly thing.

TED BURGER: Yeah. It's basically like a family or a gang, if you will. (Laughs) It just so happens that we met through playing music, but we're definitely all like brothers and it would be really difficult if anyone left the band. Sit down sometime when you get all three records and listen to them in a row and you'll hear a definite maturing on each record. We've learned that together, so it's tough when you've all learned from the beginning how to do things together. It would be hard to lose anybody. Hopefully, we won't!

WAYNE KLINGER: Any last comments?

TED BURGER: I think people will see that there's a bigger scene out there for progressive music than a lot of people realize. Plus, I think the main thing is that we don't necessarily view ourselves as a progressive band, which I guess some people would think is kind of ridiculous. But we really have always been a rock band, and if we happen to play some solos or use some weird time- signatures because that's what we like to do, then that's cool. I don't even know if the progressive label necessarily fits all the time as far as we go. The main thing is that hopefully, people will start coming back out to clubs, coming to hear some music because they're not going to be beaten to death with the same three chords and be bored! I'm hoping that this can build into more of a scene. Nobody expects to be big rock-stars and no one really cares about that, but we're just doing it because we want to have fun and hopefully, it will catch on.