A stormy Thursday night, a sky full of clouds and a lost evening. But at the end of the tunnel there is a bright spot – or rather at the end of a Zoom connection. The guitarist, songwriter and singer CLINT LOWERY from SEVENDUST appears on my screen and talks about unbreakable family connection, which exists for nearly 30 years with SEVENDUST. Fans are missing concerts so much and nowerdays learn about livestream concerts, which is the same for the members of SEVENDUST which need to learn about the “new world”. This is why CLINT LOWERY is talking about the livestream on the 23rd of October, which will be their first concert for this year and the release date for their new album. We are also talking about the personal perception of “Blood & Stone”, the true meaning of the cover of Soundgarden and the solo project of CLINT LOWERY. Despite Covid-19 and social distancing the personal talk with the artist brought an interpersonal nearness, which I normally experience in concerts and I was even more aware of how much I miss the personal contact to the musicians.

Sarah-Jane: What is the difference between this album and the other albums you did before?

Clint Lowery: I think the main difference is, we always try to advance our sound, we try to do things we haven’t done before, there is always a couple songs on it that have, that really go left to sinner to what we usually do, so there a couple songs on there. I think overall there are similarities that we can’t get away from. There’s always, Lajon is always gonna sound the certain way, we all gonna play together collectively. The same way it’s the same agree. What we really try to advance is the sound, the producer really try to push it some more different sonically than the other records. There is more differences, but there is a lot of the same as well. We try to preserve what it is that people like about it, but we got to take the chances on every now and then we get pretty melodic on this record. So anything I said this is more a melodic record in a long time.

Sarah-Jane: Would you agree to the statement that the album is darker and more personal?

Clint Lowery: I think that lyrically it’s a little darker than the other one. But there is always a splash of hope in some of the songs. Like There’s a lot of songs that are about our band internally, like our relationships with each other, the things we’ve been through together, we have been talking about that a lot on these last few records and I think if you are a band who has been around as long as we are, is like you start really appreciating what it is: have all the original members and be able to do it together.

Sarah-Jane: So it’s a personal album for your band?

Clint Lowery: Yeah I think it is, I mean in terms of the topic, and the things we talk about with blood and stone. Blood and stone is basically the title, it was the name of a songs “Blood from a stone” and then we just thought this two words really symbolizes us as a band. That blood is the connection, what we sacrifice, our bond and the stone is the foundation of our bands, our fans, the thing we’ve kinda built together. And it just seemed like two strong words and they, like I said, symbolize what we are.

Sarah-Jane: How long did it take to produce the album?

Clint Lowery: We did in October last year, we did it a year from today. We were in the studio, I haven’t thought about it, but we were in the studio, we were kinda doing on, not being secret about, but we had finished our “All I See Is War” tour cycle? And we were like you know what we feel pretty good, we are getting along with each other, maybe we just go to the studio and do this record. I was working on my solo album, and I had some songs that kinda felt like they were more Sevendust songs than solo songs. So I had some songs in rehearsal and John did, so we just went, so we did the hole record in October and it took about two months to get it written, preproduced, tracked and then mixed the mastered.

Sarah-Jane: Did you face any problems due to Covid-19?

Clint Lowery: No, I’m glad we did it when we did it, because then it would be a little different to try. But I mean if you think about, once you’re in quarantine, we in the studio don’t see anybody for the most part. So it would have been a prime time kinda to be just locked away. I’m sure there are a lot of bands doing that right now and doing some great records right now.

Sarah-Jane: Let’s talk about the upcoming livestream. What's the challenge of doing a livestream performance? Do you need the reaction of the audience for the performance?

Clint Lowery: Yeah you just said it, the challenge is gonna be like giving the energy that you really depend on, the people, the faces, the heat of the room, the interaction is such a powerful fuel and if you don’t have it, it’s a different thing. I think it’s more of let’s focus on playing good, let’s focus on our parts and not so much the moving around and let the cameras do what they gonna do and let’s just really play the songs together, because we are the only people we have. I think just not being together for a long time and finally getting in a room is gonna provide a little bit of magic and help us kinda have fun with it. It’s a new world right now and we are trying to figure it out.

Sarah-Jane: Do you need the reaction of the audience in the livestream chat?

Clint Lowery: Well yeah, it will be focused on that. It will be weird to stop and look at the chat and “Heey”. I think just knowing that they are watching helps. But it will be a different type of energy. But yeah I would much rather be there with the people. We are an insecure band. We need people to tell us it is okay.

Sarah-Jane: Since you already were working on your solo album, did that support the creativity for Sevendust?

Clint Lowery: There was a concern from the other guys that I would be burn out. I had just recorded my solo album and probably should wait before we go in, but I felt like it helped me doing this record right before the Sevendust record. It helped me, because I had a stronger relationship with the producer which did my record too, Elvis Baskett. So I was excited to be around with the guys again and the studio environment. And I had songs that I was working with Elvis and he would be like “Ah I don’t know man, this kinda sounds like it could be a Sevendust song.” So parts of my record, that was a little bit of a preproduction for the Sevendust. We ended up using a good amount, I had three or four ideas that gonna be on my solo album but ended up being Sevendust songs.

Sarah-Jane: I thought that too that some songs of your solo album could be Sevendust songs.

Clint Lowery: I’m one of the writers for Sevendust, and there is gonna be with my solo stuff and Sevendust, there is gonna be things even similar, just because it is how I play and how I write melodies.

Sarah-Jane: Would you like to do a tour with your solo album?

Clint Lowery: I did one with Alter Bridge and it was great and everything got shot down. I was gonna do tour in May, then in July and it all kinda went away. And that’s fine. I was very disappointed that I wasn’t able to play, but at same time I’m glad that it’s kinda coming back around and hopefully I will be able to do shows in the future.

Sarah-Jane: In my opinion “Nothing Left To See Here Anymore” reminded me of a song for a movie, because it's dramatic and expressive- was that the intention?

Clint Lowery: It’s a different song from what we usually do. That was one of my favourite songs. It was actually a song that John started musically. And him and Morgan were together and Lajon they were writing. They had sent that demo to me and it was like, I think Morgan sang some melody line on it, and I fell in love with it. It’s such a different song. I didn’t even care if it was gonna be a Sevendust song or not. I just thought it was so brilliant and the key changes and the melody and all that. It is very syntagmatic like you said. I’m a huge fan and I can’t wait to play guitar on some at that songs. Yeah that was the idea. Let’s do a song, John had it written, and it was more like “is this Sevendust, can we pull it off?” and when Lajon sings that is when it really becomes a Sevendust song.

Sarah-Jane: What’s your favorite song or songs and why?

Clint Lowery: That is one of my favourite song and “Kill Me”. It’s really cool. It’s got a really dark love story, but there’s is another song called “Love”. That I really like a lot because it talks about the downfall and the vulnerability of falling in love with someone. How you get yourself in something so much that it can easily turn it around and hurt you on a deep level. So I thought that was interesting in taken instead of doing the typical “love-sappy” song.

Sarah-Jane: Sevendust did a cover. Why did you want to stay very close to the original “The Day I Tried to Live”?

Clint Lowery: There was a few reasons. I think we changed it enough. The entire key is a lot lower than Soundgarden did, just because Chris Cornell could sing so high. That was challenge. We brought it down to a more comfortable zone for us, that changed. But everything else we wanted to preserve and keep the same, because it such a great song. But if we really try to do exactly, we would never get the same vibe and energy that Soundgarden had originally. We just thought it was more a respect thing. Let’s do it like the original and it will be us. We could easily done a whole record of Soundgarden covers.

Sarah-Jane: Would you like to do more cover songs?

Clint Lowery: Soundgarden for sure. We have never done a lot of covers. A lot of people doing covers. We don’t want just jump on some “bandwagon” and what everyone else is doing. But we just wanted to pay respect to Chris Cornell and Soundgarden as a whole.

Sarah-Jane: Is there an advantage to work in another band or to work solo besides Sevendust?

Clint Lowery: Yeah I think it is always. For me personally it’s really been. I needed this other creative outlets, I always done things on the outside of Sevendust. I just don’t want waiting two years, three years to do a record. I think that might being able to branch out from Sevendust helps me be a better member for Sevendust that helps me just be happy. I enjoy working on different things and working with different guitar, different band members and different people and creative minds. It’s really cool to be able to explore that and learn. I learn so much with every project I have done outside of Sevendust. I learn a lot and bring some of that back to Sevendust. I tried to find my own voice. It wasn’t about an ego or trying to take over the world, I just wanted to approve to myself that I can step out of that fear and stand on my own two feet.

Sarah-Jane: Is it hard to have a band with many band members which work in different bands?

Clint Lowery: We have a lot of time than it seems. We have a lot of off time. I think it’s important for us to be able to explore and go away and do other things, otherwise we get stuck. That’s never good. You want to keep everyone happy and give everyone freedom.

Sarah-Jane: What is your personal experience during the time of production?

Clint Lowery: My personal experience during the record was great. Sitting on the record for so long, it’s definitely been a different energy. It is good that the record is finally coming out, but it’s odd that we can’t go and play shows around it. The whole thing is been weird. It’s been a rough year. I lost my mom early in the year, you know things like that. It’s just been very offsetting. Music is always a priority, but it’s forced it back and you are forced to look at yourself, because you don’t have the escape of music in the way we have always had when we played shows and so on.

Sarah-Jane: Is it important to you to raise the awareness in Europe?

Clint Lowery: Sevendust unfortunately hasn’t been over there a lot. We are working on that. That is definitely on our gender to do. We wanted to go over there as much as we can, when we can. There has been a bunch of reasons why we haven’t gone, but we’ve been working some progress in getting over there. So hopefully we will continue that.

Sarah-Jane: Thank you very much for the interview and have a nice day!

Clint Lowery:Thank you too and have a good night.