MP3 Evolution - METAL: Power Metal

What do Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford, and Ronnie James Dio do when they need inspiration? THEY LISTEN TO THE NEW BREED. Evolution is one of those great cdâs that give you shivers as you listen to it. Nu-metal clones beware...actual guitar solos ahead.

10 MP3 Songs
METAL: Power Metal, ROCK: Hard Rock



Details:
CHRISTMAS IN OCTOBER!!! I have made my D.O.A. cd (now out of print) available for free download on my site at www.johnnylokke.com. Go to the news section to get the link to it. It was originally only available to members of the the Johnny Lokke fan club as a thank you cd, and includes covers of songs by Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, UFO, Krokus, Thin Lizzy, Armored Saint, AC/DC, KISS and an original thrown in for good measure! I constantly get e-mails asking how to get a hold of this cd, so here you go...get it while you can!

PS - If you own a cd by Korn, Limp Bizkit,Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Hoobastank, Blink 182, or any crap similar to that, or if you actually liked St. Anger by Metallica you are not allowed to download. You don't respect the masters and you wouldn't understand it anyway. All you other rejects, misfits, losers, outlaws, bikers and metalheads...WELCOME!________________________________________________________

The New Breed is back with their unique style of heavy metal, once again drawing heavy comparisons to Dio, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. "Evolution", The New Breed's second cd, features vocalist Johnny Lokke, Tim White (from the 90's powerhouse band "Future's Child") on bass and Solomon DeWitt on drums. Sweden's own Robban Ollson also makes a guest appearance, contributing 4 stunning guitar solos.

"Evolution" takes you back to where you want to be...back when music had power and melody...back when guitar solos where an important part of every song...in other words, back to the days of classic heavy metal.

"This is music I love and music I believe in," says Lokke. "I don't like what I hear on the radio today, and the video channels on tv are either playing reality shows or rap music. I do this for people like me who need somewhere to turn."

Evolution - The Future of Metal

"Evolution" combines influences like Black Sabbath, Dio, Maiden, Megadeth and Priest to deliver 10 hard-hitting songs. "This time I let my influences shine through instead of trying to be completely original. I like what the bands that came before me did, and I just tried to carry on and take it to the next level, thus the title "Evolution".

A special treat on this cd is that Robban Ollson contributes 4 amazing solo's to it, including the lead off single "Back to Black". "Robban is a mix of John Petrucci and Michael Schenker, and what he plays is incredible. It was great to work with a talent like that," exclaims Lokke.

If you have been disappointed by the music scene lately, you owe it to yourself to check out "Evolution". You'll have your fist in the air and a smile on your face from start to finish. Plus, for a limited time only, if you purchase "Evolution", you will recieve an e-mail giving you instructions on how to download the now out-of-print Johnny Lokke cd "D.O.A." absolutely free! So what are you waiting for?

---------------------------------------------------------
Interveiw with Johnny Lokke by Jonas P. Ringo

JR: The last time we talked you were working on the next Johnny Lokke cd, then Scot (Goacher, drums) had an accident and you got sidetracked. Give me a brief rundown on what happened.

JL: Yeah, Scot and I had a good run with âWrecking Ballâ, and we were about 6 songs into the next cd when he decided to go and break his hip! He had 3 big screws put in to hold it together and was confined to his bed for a long while. Needless to say that threw us into a standstill. Worse than that, though, was the fact that as a full-time drummer, Scot was losing a lot of income. I decided to put together a benefit cd of sorts, which became the âThe New Breed Bound by the Threadâ cd, which featured friends of mine and Scotâs that wanted to help out such as Stefan Leibing of Primal Fear, Al Atkins, who sang with Judas Priest pre-Rob Halford, Mike Campese, and Chris âWahWahâ Watson who are both great guitarists. We raised some money for Scot and his wife, and had a blast doing it.

JR: You must have, as you are getting ready to release another New Breed cd.

JL: I am. Itâs called âEvolutionâ and once again I have friends helping out such as Tim White (ex-Futureâs Child) on bass and Solomon DeWitt on drums. Also contributing four guitar solos to the project is Robban Olsson, who is an awesome guitar player out of Sweden. He has a completely different style than me and he just rips.

JR: Why didnât you finish up the Johnny Lokke cd first, and then do another New Breed cd, or why not combine the two into one solo release?

JL: For one thing, the songs I write for The New Breed stuff are different than what I write when Scot and I play together. The New Breed stuff is more straight ahead âAmericanâ metal like a Dio or WASP with a little Black Label Society thrown in for good measure, whereas what Scot and I do is more âEuro-metalâ in the Maiden / Priest style with the harmony guitars and the high, screaming vocals. They wouldnât really fit together. Secondly, Scot wasnât ready to record yet. He was still doing some serious rehab work and getting back into his teaching, but to ask him to sit down and start doing 5 minute double-kick songs just wouldnât have been possible. We recorded a few things just to test the waters, and although it sounded killer to me, he said he wasnât quite up to speed yet. So while he was exercising and getting his chops back, I decided to do another TNB cd and kill some time with that.

JR: So the next solo record is still underway?

JL: Oh definitely. Iâm doing some PR things for âEvolutionâ and enjoying Christmas, then weâll start back up and have something ready to go for late spring or early summer. The new Lokke songs are fast and heavy, by the way, really killer stuff. I think with Scot being held back for so long, he is just going to kill when itâs time to turn loose on the new stuff.

JR: Tell me about âEvolutionâ.

JL: Well, it has a lot of songs that start with the letter B (laughs). Not sure why that is, but it just happened. Itâs a pretty good mix of songs really. Itâs got some up-tempo stuff, some mid-tempo crunchers, and then the lead off single âBack to Blackâ is a slow vibe. It has that 90âs Tony Martin-era Sabbath feel. I didnât expect to have it be the lead off single, but itâs the song that everyone went âI canât get that out of my head!â and it was my favorite too, so I just picked it. The other thing is the overall feel of the cd. It has a lot of energy to it that the last one didnât. Itâs really the closest you can come to a live cd without actually doing one. The rule was that if the song had the vibe and the energy, it was a keeper. It didnât matter if there were missed strings, or a flat note here or there, we werenât going to work it to death, and it really comes across. The songs also have different sounds to them. Microphones got kicked over, or I changed amp settings, just stuff I never do when Iâm working on a solo project, but stuff I always think about trying, so itâs a great outlet for me.

JR: And you mentioned a new cast of characters involved as well?

JL: Yeah, a whole new group on this cd. Again, itâs fun for me to mix things up and work with other people for a change, so The New Breed will always be a revolving door. Tim, Soloman and Robban were absolutely fantastic to work with though. The only thing I missed was having Stefan Leibing on there. Heâs worked with me on my last two releases, and when he plays on a song itâs just magical. He is such a great guitarist as well as one of the nicest people. I hope someday he gets the recognition he deserves, because he is light years ahead of 99 percent of the players out there right now.

JR: Did you ask him to be a part of âEvolutionâ?

JL: No, I knew he was busy. I talked to him a few times and he was doing the new Primal Fear cd and touring plus trying to be a great new father, so I didnât even put him on the spot. He had enough on his platter without helping me out too.

JR: Speaking of other bands, what are you listening to right now?

JL: There is so much crap being released right now that I cherish a good cd when it comes out, but itâs few and far between. I picked up âRapture of the Deepâ by Deep Purple the other day, and itâs very good. In my car stereo is the new TNT release âAll the Way to the Sunâ, and I loved the Helloween release âKeeper of the Seven Keys III The Legacyâ. Iâm not sure I would have lumped it in with the other two âKeepersâ, but it is a very good cd. Primal Fearâs âSeven Sealsâ is excellent, as is the new UFO live cd âShowtimeâ with Vinnie Moore doing some amazing things. Others include Machine Men âElegiesâ, Jon Olivaâs Pain, Saxonâs âLionheartâ, and Tribuzy âExecutionâ. Other than that I stick to a lot of old classics by Maiden, Priest, Sabbath and the like.

JR: Do you think the overall metal movement is coming back around in the states?

JL: I hear that all the timeâ¦âItâs coming back, itâs coming back!â but you know what? It isnât. Maybe someday it will, but right now it just isnât. There are loyal diehard fans out there that love metal music, old school metal music Iâm talking, not the new crap that they call metal with the growling and no guitar soloâs, and they keep it alive. They support both the old classic bands and the independents like me. Iâm one of those people myself. I love to find stuff by new bands that do metal proud. Just like I mentioned a little bit ago, the German band Machine Men. A guy that was interviewing me told me about them, so I looked them up and ordered a cd, and they are great. The hard part is that most bands in our genre are based overseas, and getting their stuff is hard. People donât like paying 25 or 30 dollars for a cd by an established band, let alone band they havenât heard. Iâm the same way. Thatâs why with my stuff, I do free shipping, whether itâs to Georgia or Japan. I want people to be able to hear my music wherever they are. Sometimes I make some good money, sometimes I lose money, but itâs cool getting an e-mail a couple days later from someone in Hong Kong or Denmark or wherever telling you how much they like what you are doing. Iâve made some really good friends over the years through my music, and wouldnât change it for the world.

JR: So does that make the digital download wave like Itunes appealing to you? Will that make it easier and more profitable to get your music out?

JL: First of all, profit should never be the motivator in art. They donât mix. Gene Simmons will argue until heâs blue in the face, but heâs wrong. 99 percent of the artists I know, whether itâs music, painting or whatever, they will tell you as long as they make enough money to keep doing what they are doing, itâs all good. The one percent that try to make the fast buck and get rich quick are here today and gone tomorrow. They donât survive, and thatâs good. Thatâs how it should be. So are digital downloads good? Yes and no. I like the fact that someone can listen to a clip of my music 24 hours a day anywhere in the world and decide if they like it or not before they drop ten bucks on the cd. On the negative side, I donât like the fact that you donât get anything tangible for your money other than an mp3 file. I like buying a cd. I like the anticipation as I open the cellophane, I like checking out the disc art, and I like looking through the booklet. I like the whole package and I think it adds to the music. Nowadays, you pay your 99 cents, download a song and file it away on your hard drive. Whereâs the art in that? Plus a lot of mp3âs sound like crap. People are just getting used to it, but if they took all their mp3âs and listened to them back to back with the cd, they would be shocked at the quality difference overall. My stuff is on all the big download sites, and I make more money when someone just downloads a track from me, but I wish they wouldnât. If you want to do one or two songs to check me out, fine. But if you are doing the whole cd, buy the real thing and get the whole package.

JR: Thatâs interesting, I had never really thought of it like that.

JL: Most people donât, but the whole download thing is really just a way for the music industry, the guys in the offices, to make more money. Itâs so much cheaper for them to throw a low-quality mp3 out on a download site than to invest money on a nice complete package.

JR: So letâs move from legal downloading to illegal downloading. Where do you stand on that?

JL: It doesnât really affect me as an individual, but it does affect the music community as a whole. It hits the mid-level artist the hardest. Artists like me who have a small but established loyal fanbase arenât really downloaded much. My fans talk to me on a regular basis and buy the product when it comes out, enabling me to then turn around and re-invest that money into another release, and Iâm ok. Same with the mega-stars. They are downloaded left and right, but still have enough of a fanbase that buys their music and tickets to their shows that they make a bundle no matter what. Do they want more? Sure they doâ¦they want every penny, or at least their record labels do. The ones file-sharing really hits hard are the artists that have decided to break out of the âundergroundâ and want to take it to that next level. They are using every bit of money they get from cd sales to stay on the road and put food on the table, because they arenât getting much help from the labels. Every time someone takes a song from them instead of buying it, they are literally helping to put that band out of business, which is very sad. What kills me though is how the musicians are complaining about all of this without taking any of the blame. So much junky music is released now, so many cdâs that have one or two good songs, that people donât really care if the band lives to put out another release. The people I talk to that download, and I have this conversation a lot with people being a musician, they tell me that they wouldnât buy a lot of the music they download anyway. They download it, listen to it and realize itâs a load of crap, then forget about it. If musicians would put more effort into what they write and what they record, they would survive. The strong survive, whether itâs in the desert or in the music industry. Put out strong material and people are going to support you. So musicians need to be more proactive and make sure they are releasing strong material, then give people samples of the whole cd so they can make an objective decision without having to go find an illegal download site somewhere. It would also be nice if they offered money back guarantees. I do. People I talk to about that say âOh I couldnât do that. People would buy my cd, record it and send it back and get their money back.â Thatâs BS. Iâve offered a no questions asked money-back guarantee on all my releases for 15 years now, and you know how many refunds Iâve given? Zero. Iâd sure like Metallica to give me my 15 bucks back for St. Anger, though!

JR: Well Johnny, itâs been informative and enjoyable. I want to thank you for talking with me, and good luck with âEvolutionâ.

JL: Thank you!