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Interview with
Scooter Ward of Cold
and The Killer And The Star
Tell me about the new project you’re working
on.
The Killer And The Star; it was something when Cold disbanded in 2005 – I always write music
so I came home and started creating some piano songs because I was by myself and I had a couple of pianos around. So
I started doing that; all of a sudden I had fifteen really beautiful songs… so I wanted to see if I could do a record
with it. So I got a hold of Ross Robinson and he was down; kind of created a small band around it and developed it…
and it’s coming out Tuesday (July 14, 2009).
It was supposed to come out last year, wasn’t
it?
It was supposed to come out a while ago; what happed is… I believe the label we were on at
the time with Ross had some complications and I kind of got stranded out there and didn’t really know what I was going
to do…I was sitting here with a three-hundred thousand dollar record in my hand – and I just decided to create
my own label and get everything out ourselves. And everything just started happening; so we’re in a good place
right now.
You’ve gone through multiple names through the years; what made you stick with The Killer
And The Star?
It’s funny; it’s kind of the same thing when I’m doing a record –
I always give it up to the fans early and I’d mention the title of the record and it changes five times before the record
comes out because I think the music basically tells me what to do or what to call it. So it evolves; and that’s
kind of what happened with the name of the band, The Killer And The Star – I named the project initially The Witch then
I moved it to When November Falls then it gradually became The Killer And The Star. It kind of made sense to me; at
the time it was a two piece… it was me and John Otto from Limp Bizkit… it just kind of made sense. Now
it’s just me and Michael Harris from Idiot Pilot – and we’re evolving drummers and other musicians
throughout the touring trek… trying to keep it a little fresh and experimental.
How is this different
from anything you’ve ever done with Cold?
When I write songs for Cold; I definitely write either
on an acoustic or piano… a few times I would get out there and play guitar back in the day, but it evolved later on
in Cold’s career into a more mellower Cold. With this album I was anti guitar; I have one guitar in one song called
“Symphony For A Mad World” – I wanted to try to create a rock record without guitars on it.
It sounds like it’s hard, but actually we just use different keyboards and tweak the bass… stuff like that, but
we didn’t use any actual guitars.
Will this be an ongoing project for you, or just a one time thing?
I think this is going to be just an outlet for me throughout my career; people seem to really like it right now –
it just feels good. I can see Killer And The Star doing another record for sure.
Are you going to
be touring at all?
For sure, we’re actually going to be touring with Cold again – we toured
with Cold a few months ago for the resurrection tour and we start a new tour in September…the end of August –
it’s going to be The Killer And The Star, Taproot… I believe another younger band… sorry, I don’t
remember the name.
And when can Cold fans expect another CD?
Cold CD… we’re
going to start a little hype with that because we start the actual recording in about a week, so by January the new record
will be out. It’s amazing; I trip myself out every time I write a Cold record because with Cold records…
we always bring another level to another record… and that happened with this one, it sounds very epic. Every
time we complete a record with Cold I always go: “Man, that was awesome, but that one song… or the song that
I thought was that song isn’t on here” – and on this record we have three of those already, so it’s
really something to look forward to.
Who’s in the Cold lineup?
The lineup…
it’s the original lineup. Jeremy, Sam and Terry – Terry moved to Evanescence, but he’s doing
double duty kind of like I am. The only member not there is Kelly Hayes, he’s doing his own thing. It’s
pretty much the original Cold.
Was it easy to get all the guys back?
I was actually
in Arizona in Scottsdale hanging out with my little girl – I was talking with Sam; he just called out of the blue and
was asking what was going on with The Killer And The Star – and I was like: “Man, we’re going on tour and
have no idea who I’m going to match this band up with…” and he said “Why don’t you put Cold
back together and do a resurrection tour?” – so I thought “Is that possible?” So I called everyone
up; it was really easy – it was awesome. Everything happens for a reason; it took a long time to get to where
we are at, but that’s great – we love it.
And what else is going on for you this year?
The Killer And The Star record is coming out this week, the Cold tour and making a new record is pretty much it.
And being the label definitely puts added stress – tons of work… very busy, but it’s really awesome because
I’m a workaholic; I hate sitting around – I never have.
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