Warrior Soul: More democracy for China
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Özgür Öğret
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 14, 2009 00:00
ISTANBUL-’Chinese Democracy’ is the title for two albums this year. One is for Guns N’ Roses’ first studio release in 15 years and the other for Warrior Soul, whose front man Kory Clarke has an axe to grind with the groups’ shared label, Geffen Records
From performance art to rock’n’roll, Kory Clarke has a warrior soul.
In the 1990s, the band Warrior Soul had high expectations for the future. After all, they were signed to Geffen, one of the biggest record companies in the world, with a $500,000 contract. Their videos were on MTV, music magazines were describing Kory Clarke, the front man of Warrior Soul, as an emerging genius, life in general was good.
Things started to go wrong when Geffen failed to promote the band as needed and a stream of rock tribute bands prompted the demise of Warrior Soul, which had a unique balance of hard rock and punk both in terms of attitude and sound. Clarke wrote songs about the government, religion and the streets as regularly as he wrote about drugs, alcohol and decadence. Album titles such as "Last Decade, Dead Century," "Salutations From the Ghetto Nation" and "Drugs, God and the New Republic," included tracks such as "Let’s Get Wasted" or "Punk and Belligerent." Warrior Soul always gave a humane side to their most political songs and a sense of humor to their most aggressive ones, and they still do.
The obvious question to ask the band is about the album title, "Chinese Democracy," also the name of the new and much anticipated, Guns N’ Roses album released by Geffen. Clarke said it was done just for publicity. He said, "There is no way to get publicity from record companies, so... I thought Axl is a ...," he said an unprintable word and continued, "...who cares? It certainly would not hurt him anyway, but it certainly would help me. There was no help for me from Geffen, so I said, it is my turn." He said the title was only used in the first print run of the record. "Now, it is going be a really rare record. I changed the name and it is now going to be called ’...and We Rock and Roll.’"
They will play in Istanbul
Warrior Soul will start a world tour this March and there is a possibility they will play in Istanbul. "I know a lot about the eastern Roman Empire and I understand relations between the United States and Turkey, as governments go, pretty well. The people that run the United States seem to get along with the people who run Turkey, for good and bad. I do not really know much about the people. I did not even think there was rock’n’roll there."
As to whether Barack Obama will really be a symbol of change or just a front to clean up America’s image, Clarke said, "Bush stole the first election so I do not consider him as a truly elected person. Let’s face it; the elections in the United States are rigged. Period." He said the regular Joe in America would have voted for a Martian to get rid of Bush. "To answer the question, I think it is extremely evident that it was a good message to send to the world that the American people do not like what is going on here. He did not vote for the war when he was in the Senate. So I would say its an incredibly positive thing that we have elected a black guy. Will it change anything? No."
Clarke is not positive about his homeland’s future. "It is a polarized society you know, we are definitely being lied to on a daily basis and controlled by television and media conglomerates. It is run by a ’corpocracy,’ a coalition of corporations and banks that control the money supply. They took over in 1930 when they created the Federal Reserve Bank. The economy has turned the most Western democracy Ğ supposed democracy Ğ into a death-oriented society that they call capitalism and it is rapidly running out of money."
Clarke does not believe in 9/11 and wrote the lyrics, "Stop the rise of the Fourth Reich with the truth from 9/11." Clarke said, "To get Americans to fight wars for the leaders of the ’corpocracy,’ they have to come up with these events like Pearl Harbor, 9/11, you know, killing off civilian leaders like Kennedy. The people of the U.S. continue to watch football, drive their cars around, thinking that they are rich when in fact they are in debt. The whole thing will come to a crashing end and I am not going to be there."
In the 1990s, the band Warrior Soul had high expectations for the future. After all, they were signed to Geffen, one of the biggest record companies in the world, with a $500,000 contract. Their videos were on MTV, music magazines were describing Kory Clarke, the front man of Warrior Soul, as an emerging genius, life in general was good.
Things started to go wrong when Geffen failed to promote the band as needed and a stream of rock tribute bands prompted the demise of Warrior Soul, which had a unique balance of hard rock and punk both in terms of attitude and sound. Clarke wrote songs about the government, religion and the streets as regularly as he wrote about drugs, alcohol and decadence. Album titles such as "Last Decade, Dead Century," "Salutations From the Ghetto Nation" and "Drugs, God and the New Republic," included tracks such as "Let’s Get Wasted" or "Punk and Belligerent." Warrior Soul always gave a humane side to their most political songs and a sense of humor to their most aggressive ones, and they still do.
The obvious question to ask the band is about the album title, "Chinese Democracy," also the name of the new and much anticipated, Guns N’ Roses album released by Geffen. Clarke said it was done just for publicity. He said, "There is no way to get publicity from record companies, so... I thought Axl is a ...," he said an unprintable word and continued, "...who cares? It certainly would not hurt him anyway, but it certainly would help me. There was no help for me from Geffen, so I said, it is my turn." He said the title was only used in the first print run of the record. "Now, it is going be a really rare record. I changed the name and it is now going to be called ’...and We Rock and Roll.’"
They will play in Istanbul
Warrior Soul will start a world tour this March and there is a possibility they will play in Istanbul. "I know a lot about the eastern Roman Empire and I understand relations between the United States and Turkey, as governments go, pretty well. The people that run the United States seem to get along with the people who run Turkey, for good and bad. I do not really know much about the people. I did not even think there was rock’n’roll there."
As to whether Barack Obama will really be a symbol of change or just a front to clean up America’s image, Clarke said, "Bush stole the first election so I do not consider him as a truly elected person. Let’s face it; the elections in the United States are rigged. Period." He said the regular Joe in America would have voted for a Martian to get rid of Bush. "To answer the question, I think it is extremely evident that it was a good message to send to the world that the American people do not like what is going on here. He did not vote for the war when he was in the Senate. So I would say its an incredibly positive thing that we have elected a black guy. Will it change anything? No."
Clarke is not positive about his homeland’s future. "It is a polarized society you know, we are definitely being lied to on a daily basis and controlled by television and media conglomerates. It is run by a ’corpocracy,’ a coalition of corporations and banks that control the money supply. They took over in 1930 when they created the Federal Reserve Bank. The economy has turned the most Western democracy Ğ supposed democracy Ğ into a death-oriented society that they call capitalism and it is rapidly running out of money."
Clarke does not believe in 9/11 and wrote the lyrics, "Stop the rise of the Fourth Reich with the truth from 9/11." Clarke said, "To get Americans to fight wars for the leaders of the ’corpocracy,’ they have to come up with these events like Pearl Harbor, 9/11, you know, killing off civilian leaders like Kennedy. The people of the U.S. continue to watch football, drive their cars around, thinking that they are rich when in fact they are in debt. The whole thing will come to a crashing end and I am not going to be there."