Playing a large part in the resurgence of the Thrash Metal scene in the modern day, Evile were one of the torch bearers for the rejuvenation of the classic genre. The early incarnations of the band showcased breakneck riffing, blistering solo’s and some truly inspired song writing. Deciding to leave his cohorts the main man Ol Drake himself decided to go it alone. We were lucky enough to be able to speak to the infamous shredder about his brand new solo album, what the importance of Thrash Metal is in the modern day and what exactly hearing artwork is…

How was the recording and writing process for the album? 

The recording was pretty straight forward, I tracked most of the stuff on Evile stuff at home but the writing was difficult. When I started , I didn’t intend to make any more music really, then Earache offered to do a solo tng so I thought why not! When I actually sat down to do it, I couldn’t do it because everything I wrote started to sound like an Evile song! I would I write to the point where I would thi ah here is where the vocals are going to come in. I didn’t want vocals so it was really hard to get out of the Evile way of doing things and it took me about six months of writing. I tried to do like metal instrumental stuff, it just wasn’t working. It sounded really cliché and crap. So I tried doing rock stuff with some random riffs, kind of making fun of cheesy rock really, and it ended up sounding good! So I just picked it up from there! 

Having been with the band for such a long time, it must have been hard to break out of that..

It was really hard because, I think it’s been like what, we started on about 2003 I think writing our own stuff and it was just really there were points where I would just give up. I would turn off the computer and say I can’t do it, I’m not doing this anymore. I think I was watching the Jason Becker documentary, Not Dead Yet, and I thought why the hell am I just sat here thinking I’m not doing my album when he’s an amazing musician and he can’t play music anymore. That’s when I was like right and that made me get off my arse and proper try again and that’s what made me get into it. 

So are the classical guitarists like Satriani and Vai all that sort of stuff, are they big influences on you? 

I wouldn’t say big but it’s mainly Vai and Satriani for me. I didn’t grow up listening to them but I had a few of their albums. Like when I heard Passion and Warfare by Vai and 

Surfing With The Alien? 

Yes! And Flying In Blue Dream as well, I actually did that song for my college performance piece. I was like fifteen, I can’t remember how old I was but there was this feedback bit during the song, I think it’s that song, but I didn’t understand feedback or guitar tones or any of that in school. So I was just kind of stood there holding one note thinking why isn’t it making the same sound as on the CD? Hahaha so yeah they are an influence definitely but not as much as like Metallica and all of them. 

One thing I have noticed, which you touched on earlier on is that there is a great sense of humour in the record. Was that something that you were actively aiming for or was it just a by product. 

I wasn’t aiming for it because I was just concentrating of the music at first and then song titles started coming. A lot of them were working titles because I couldn’t think of anything. Then the more I wrote the song, it became a part of it and I didn’t want to not call it that like, “Onions” was going to be called “I Really Don’t Like Onions” because I don’t like onions haha, just because I don’t like onions at all. I thought that just sounds stupid so I called it just “Onions” hahaha! I guess it was an pd it wasn’t, it became intentional so I just thought I’m just going to make fun and have laugh really. 

So what made you decide to call the record Old Rake?

All throughout Evile fans would joke about Ol Drake, if you would move the D would be Old Rake and then I was like “aha it is haha that’s quite funny” people just kept doing it an saying it so I just thought, I didn’t want some kind of prentious song title. A solo album is pretentious enough as it is! I didn’t want some Dark Black Sky thing I thought it kind of sums up the album. It’s just me playing ! 

This is merely an excerpt of our chat with Ol to listen to the full interview click the Soundcloud link below!

Ol Drake’s solo album Old Rake is out now via Earache Records.