Heir Apparent -- Interview


The Seattle band HEIR APPARENT are back together after 10 years, and are going to be playing the WACKEN OPEN AIR FESTIVAL in Germany next year. I interviewed guitarist Terry Gorle about the reformation, along with a few questions regarding the past, present, and future of HEIR APPARENT.

By Jym Harris

JYM HARRIS Let's start from the beginning. I heard that Kerrang magazine once called "Graceful Inheritance" one of the most influential Heavy Metal albums of the 80's. What is your take on the early material?

TERRY GORLE: Really? KERRANG!? When the album came out, they gave it a bad review. At the time, we were just trying to play music that we hoped people would appreciate for not being like anything else. We were all self-taught, so we wanted it to be difficult enough to challenge ourselves to improve as players, but also be able to play it live without having to stand still. We had influences from Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Dio and Black Sabbath. There were a bunch of metal bands in Seattle in the early eighties all doing their songs. Culprit was the first real Seattle heavy metal band. Where do you think Queensryche (as The Mob) got their ideas? The difference is, we did it without two guitars. Derek got to play a lot more than the standard "thump thump" bass lines. We wrote songs to accommodate Paul's vocal style, while keeping it interesting for us to play. I'm really not aware of Graceful Inheritance's impact on other bands throughout the years. If it inspired anyone, that's great!

JYM HARRIS That album was on Black Dragon in France. Are they still printing it over there?

TERRY GORLE: They breached the contract by September of 1986, and we gave them legal notice it was terminated. They ignored that, and released the album on CD in October 1986. They also ignored that within the contract it stated that their rights expired on December 31, 1990. They never paid us anything. They printed albums into the 90's illegally. Who knows what else has gone on without our permission or compensation. I know at one time a company in England was pressing CD's for them, long after the contract was terminated. I was told a few months ago that Metal Hammer magazine gave free Graceful Inheritance CD's away as promotional items for their magazine in Greece. It would have been nice for them to ask first! I'd like to know where the money for licensing and publishing has gone, it sure never came to us! There's no control over what happens overseas. It sucks! The money from the reissues will go toward the $20,000 unpaid debt that we owe our friends and families from supporting our existence in those days.

JYM HARRIS How will the reissues differ from the original releases?

TERRY GORLE: I've added both studio demos with Paul's voice into the original "Graceful Inheritance" tracks. The demos came from cassettes. I digitally re-mastered them to bring the noisy cassettes closer to CD quality. Then, I did a few things to the entire album to give it more depth and punch. If you play the original and reissue back-to-back, the new release sounds better than ever! Also, we will be totally remixing One Small Voice for it's reissue. It will sound a lot more like a metal album when it's done. It has way too many keyboards and vocal overdubs, they take away from the power of the songs. I can't wait to fix that, and a few other things...

JYM HARRIS What happened between the debut release and "One Small Voice"? Your second singer, Steve Benito had a bit more Geoff Tate in him. Was the Queensryche-style change intentional?

TERRY GORLE: No, but when we were being unfairly compared to Queensryche with Paul, we knew it would become more of an issue with Steve. The fact is, we were extremely lucky to find Steve. A decent vocalist is the hardest thing to find. We had a concert scheduled for a live album/concert video when Paul quit a few weeks beforehand. Steve was able to join the band before that show. We made the recordings, but couldn't afford to complete the mix down and production. The record company, Semaphore, wouldn't provide the $5000 advance we needed to finish it. Steve has an amazing voice, great range and intonation, the similarity to Tate was incidental, not intentional. It's impossible to sing that well if it's not your natural voice. The fact that Tate had established that vocal quality as being useable in a rock/metal context, gave people with that ability a way to use their talent. In 1987, there were two or three guys on the planet that naturally had that kind of voice. Steve was one of them. Now, 8 out of 10 "Progressive Metal" bands are intentionally trying to sound like Tate, they've had 10 years to learn to emulate that style. Very few of them actually sing that way with their natural voice. Steve talent was natural, not contrived. The fact that the musical direction of One Small Voice changed so dramatically from Graceful Inheritance was probably due in part to our desire NOT to be compared to Queensryche anymore. But, it was inevitable, if for nothing else than because we were from Seattle, too. If we'd had a major label behind us from 1983, maybe we would have been setting the trends instead, who knows.

JYM HARRIS I remember when that album came out, and they were playing 'Screaming' all over the radio (Z-ROCK I think). I later heard an early demo version by 'French Kiss' featuring Benito and Ronn Chick (ex-Harder! Faster!). Were any other songs brought to Heir Apparent from previous bands?

TERRY GORLE: I never knew any of that record ever made it on the radio! I thought "Screaming" was the weakest track on the album! Most of Graceful Inheritance was written when we had a different singer, Cory Rivers, and our name was "Nemesis". Before we had Cory, I wrote 5 of the tracks when we were called "Sapien". Cory brought "Hands of Destiny" and "Tear Down the Walls" from his band with Derek, "Helm's Deep". For One Small Voice, we recorded 3 French Kiss songs. They were a part of our set from the time of Steve first joining the band. We needed more material that he could remember the lyrics to, so we played those songs to fill time in shows while he was learning our other material. I also liked the challenge of trying to learn some of Ronn's chops. But, Yngwie's not my thing, and Ronn was very good at it.

JYM HARRIS I know there was a band called 'Dr. Unknown" with Ray Schwartz. What else happened after your follow-up album? We haven't heard from Heir Apparent in some time!

TERRY GORLE: Ray and Derek played in Dr. Unknown. They formed after Heir Apparent dissolved. We dissolved due to several reasons, but primarily because of certain members' reluctance to acknowledge our responsibility to investors and the people who helped the band exist in the first place. No drug problems, just egos and lack of commitment. Then came the coup, and a small matter of Copyright and Trademark Infringement ... and One Small Voice was released without my photo or song writing credits on it, as if I were never in the band. To make a long story short, Heir Apparent is my band. Now, after 10 years, we're going to straighten a few things out, and try to do it right this time...

JYM HARRIS What exactly is the "TRIAD" album? These were originally studio demos?

TERRY GORLE: TRIAD is primarily the "live to 2-track" we made at our rehearsal room at Triad Studios on January 17, 1988. Tom Hall engineered the session, he mixed it on the fly, directly to cassette. So, it was actually a 6-man performance. We had 14 songs, and we wanted a decent recording of the set to analyze the material and the arrangements we wanted for a second album. It was also made to test our "live" sound, to determine what areas needed work at the time. As it turns out, the demand for "rare unreleased material" made this album possible. Eleven of those tracks were suitable for release in terms of mix and performance, although several of them are still rough around the edges. Five songs have never before been released, which is nice for the fans. The other 2 tracks, "We, the People" and "Keeper Of the Reign", were taken from Steve's first studio demo recordings after joining the band in 1987. I gave them all the same "cleanup" to bring the old cassette tapes closer to CD quality, and digitally re-mastered everything to make it sound as good as possible. A lot of the songs ended up on OSV, but the real energy is captured here on TRIAD.

JYM HARRIS Like me, you live in the part of the country that killed everything good about rock and roll in the early 90's. Was the resurgence of Heavy Metal responsible for the resurfacing of Heir Apparent?

TERRY GORLE: Yes. Actually, about 8 months ago I bought my first computer, did a little surfing, and found people looking for Heir Apparent albums. I answered a few message boards, introducing myself and offering to make tapes for a few people. Then everything went crazy! I've learned about computers as fast as I could, and built websites for the band. I'm amazed at the requests and attention we're getting now. Actually, the reunited band is the result of a 19-year old Italian fan, Paolo Vermllino, who contacted us by phone and talked Derek and Ray into contacting me. We hadn't spoken for 10 years. Now, we've reconciled, and we're moving forward with plans for reissues and concerts.

JYM HARRIS I know there has been a lineup change since we heard from Heir Apparent last. Who will be playing the Wacken Open Air Festival with you?

TERRY GORLE: The core of the original lineup: Ray Schwartz on drums, Derek Peace on bass, myself on guitar. And we'll be introducing our new vocalist, Michael James.

JYM HARRIS When and how did you first learn about your new singer, 'Chief' Michael James?

TERRY GORLE: He came highly recommended by Ray and Derek. They met him during their Dr. Unknown days. I met him for the first time a few weeks ago, he's a great guy, and I think he's got the perfect voice to cover the older material. It's a small world. He's a long time friend of Steve Benito, and he worked with ex-French Kiss guitarist Ronn Chick in the band "Harder! Faster!" back in 1994. He's got a great attitude, and I'm really looking forward to working with him.

JYM HARRIS Do you plan on recording a new album with Heir Apparent? If so, can we expect something in the traditional Metal vein?

TERRY GORLE: Yes! And YES! Our focus for the Wacken show is specifically to give the fans of Graceful Inheritance what they expect to hear. We intend for the new material to follow where Graceful left off, with the benefit of "Chief" as our vocalist. If Graceful Inheritance is now considered "traditional metal", we're taking the tradition into the next century.

JYM HARRIS Any last comments?

TERRY GORLE: Just know that the disappearance of Heir Apparent for the last 10 years was not my idea. We plan on making up for lost time! Check out the website at http://www.heirapparent.com! Thanks Jym!