The Last Parade. An interview with Clint Lowery of Call Me No One.

Once a musician is successful, most tend to ride out their career not taking any chances. You can’t really say that about Clint Lowery. Clint has been a part of Sevendust for years. He’s spent time with Korn. He also had a band called Dark New Day, which featured his brother Corey. He also ventured out with Hello Demons Meet Skeletons. He played every instrument on that EP. So, to say Clint is not afraid to take chances would really be an understatement. All that brings us up to this point. The release of Call Me No One. It’s a project with fellow Sevendust drummer Morgan Rose. The Last Parade is the name of the album, and Biggest Fan is the first single. I was fearful that this record would be a mixture of tossed aside tunes from previous projects. After hearing this record, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Clint and Morgan have created their own sound, while staying true to their abilities. This record is much more of a rock record than anything Sevendust ever released. It’s more alternative, than Dark New Day. It’s something entirely new from Clint, and I feel it is one of his best efforts. Call Me No One has created a truly varying sonic landscape that brings to mind the Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, and even a little Motörhead. With crunchy guitars, blistering drums, perfect melodies, and some of the best songwriting around, should we expect anything less from Clint Lowery and Morgan Rose?

Joining the Unsung Melody family today is Clint Lowery. Clint is the vocalist and guitarist of Call Me No One. First off Clint, thanks for joining me today. Call Me No One is the new project and The Last Parade is the album title. I’ve been really excited about this project. Have you been pleased with the reactions so far?

To be honest with you, we always hope for a good reaction. You know, when you put music out, you hope there are at least a few people who understand what it is you’re trying. Morgan and I, coming from Sevendust, we know that there are going to be people that always just want us to do that, and won’t be really open-minded to this. This has been received very well. Everyone has said amazing things about it, and it’s really humbled us. We worked very hard on this, and for me, it’s a very personal record. I really want this record to be received well. I put a lot into it emotionally and physically. Morgan did too. It’s just one of those things where we want it to do well, and just the fact that we were able to release it was a great success to us. It was hard, we had to jump through a lot of hoops to do it legally. So, it was cool. We finally got it out, and people are very kind and have been very warm to it. So, it’s been cool.

The album is definitely more rock oriented than Sevendust. It’s definitely heavy, but a different kind of heavy. If I had to tell someone my thoughts on the record, I’d say if the Foo Fighters wrote a Sevendust record, this would be it.

(laughter) That’s a good comparison for sure! Which either one I don’t mind.

How would you describe it?

I think it comes from the two different types of music that Morgan and I had, that we really couldn’t do with Sevendust. Songs like Hillbilly, and Pleased to Meet You, those aren’t really songs that would have ever flown in the Sevendust world. I think it’s a hard rock record, in a time when there are not a lot of hard rock records coming out. Let me rephrase, they’re coming out, but they aren’t getting a lot of attention. I think it’s really hard to come up with something new and I think it has it’s own little personality. I saw the Foo Fighters in Cleveland with Morgan, and it was just one of those things where I saw them, and I thought to myself; Dave Grohl is not the best singer on the planet, but I think he does the best with what he has. So, that just kind of pushed me to really want to do it. I thought, I’m going to try this singing thing. I’ve been writing stuff for Sevendust and other bands for a long time. It will be a good opportunity to do it myself.

You mentioned Morgan, and in my opinion, there’s two levels of drummers in rock music. Morgan Rose, Shannon Larkin, and Tommy Lee are on one level, then there’s everyone else.

That’s good company. Morgan adores both Shannon and Tommy. He looks at them, completely as the innovators. I think Morgan is equally as innovative, and inventive. Stylistically, he has his own thing too.

How involved was Morgan in the songwriting of this record?

Morgan was super involved. He was the other 50%. It would basically be him and I sitting in the very room that I’m in right now, here in the studio. I’m sitting exactly where I sat, right in front of his kit. You know, he would get behind the kit, I’d have my guitar, and we’d just throw an idea out. We’d just write it on the spot. Write it, arrange it, and track it. It was a really amazing process. He’s there a lot on the music end. Vocally, I came up with a lot of stuff, and then when I would hit a wall, he would come in and help me break through it. It was a team effort. Totally.

Biggest Fan was the first single. Can we expect a video for that one, or is that sort of a dead medium?

I would love to do a video. We have limited resources. We don’t have a lot of backing that a lot of bands get. I’ll be honest about it, we put money into different things. Video would be great. I think videos are great. Whether they get played, or how they get played is different than how it used to be, but I still think they are a really cool way to present the band to people that don’t know what they look like or don’t know what their vibe is like. It’s interesting when people do really good videos, so maybe one day we can do one, but not right now.

There are some killer tones on this record. What did you record through on this album?

I play through EVH, so I definitely used some of that. I played Diezel. I had a Diezel in there that I really loved. There were a couple different amps. I’ll use a couple different amps for different tones, but mainly it was the Diezel and EVH. We didn’t use a lot of different amps. We just tried to get a really good tone and stick with it through the entire record.

I’m curious about your thoughts on the trend to incorporate a lot of electronics into music.

I think, ultimately, it depends on the user and the people that are creating it. I think there is amazing technology out there. There’s amazing sounds that people can create. Electronic music is just another instrument, in my opinion. It’s something that you still have to use your mind to do. Some people get really involved with it and make new sounds and new approaches. Some people just use it as a crutch. They just hit a few buttons and use whatever is stock. I think it just depends on the people that are using it. There’s people that are using it that are making sincere music, and some people making it and not really digging into it. For an example, there are people using a guitar, who really woodshed and spend a lot of energy on it. Then, there’s guys who are just hacks. They don’t spend a lot of time on it. They just strum along. They just don’t come up with anything new. I’m not going to turn my head away from anything. I think people that don’t use any electronic music at all, can make boring music. I think the problem, the reason for it seeping in, is people are just getting tired of the same old thing. They are trying it, looking for something new to incorporate in it. I don’t know if it’s a very healthy state right now, but it’s going to turn from the electronic style, to something else. Then, maybe that’ll be the new pioneers who take rock and roll to a different place. I don’t want rock and roll to stay the way it is. That’s boring. It needs to advance and evolve. 10 years from now, I’m not going to like young music. I’m not going to like what people are doing, because it’s not going to be made for me. It’s going to be made for young people. There are older people who love young music too, it’s not isolated to that. I just think that is the beauty of some of this rebellious music. It offends people. It’s dangerous. Kids don’t want their parents to like the same music that they do.

That’s the spirit of rock and roll right there.

Yeah man. That’s the whole thing. When people were listening to Zeppelin, they didn’t want to listen to Zeppelin and their parents vibing out to Jimmy Page too. They wanted to be completely disconnected and escape.

Alright, I always end on a random question, so here’s yours; In your opinion, who’s cooler: Frank Sinatra or Steve McQueen?

That’s a hard one man. Both of them are completely badass. Frank Sinatra. I’m just more familiar with Frank. I love both those dudes. They’re both intimidating.

Fair enough. Well, the site and myself wish you and the band nothing but the best out there on the road. I thank you very much for your time.

Call Me No One members:
Clint Lowery – Guitars, Vocals
Morgan Rose – Drums, Vocals
Rek Mohr – Bass
Alan Price – Guitars

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