John: So I`m sitting here, in the water, with two out of four Valkyrie. Who are you and what do you play?
Jake: Jake Adams � vocals, guitar
Gary: Gary Isom � drums
John: Gary, when did you join the band?
Gary: It`s now... How long have I been in the band?
Jake: I think since February.
Gary: February of 2006.
John: What happened to your last drummer?
Gary: Bizarre gardening accident.
Jake: We saw the world in different ways. We weren`t in agreement with the way the band was going. I mean, it`s been me and Pete`s band and we have a vision the way things like to go. The bass player and the drummer, they were really good friends so they had I think a similar vision too. And we kinda butted heads because of it. I think it went over really well as far as when that era kinda ended. Everyone was real friendly. They`re good guys, real good guys.
John: And they were the ones who played on the self titled?
Jake: Yeah. So y`know, forever indebted to them for their services and their playing � thank you.
John: Speaking of the self titled, how`s that doing for you? Getting out there?
Jake: I think that people that do hear it are pretty positive about it. We hear a lot of positive stuff. I think it`s a little different than what people are used to maybe.
John: And how would you describe the Valkyrie sound? Keep in mind that this is for StonerRock.com, so if you say Circle of True Doom, people are going to make fun of you.
Jake: (laughs) No worries. (In a stoner voice) Y`know, fuzzed out guitars, bong-ladened riffs.
The original spark was when I said I`m going to do this band was pre-metal, like before metal. I didn`t want to do any palm muting. I wanted an earthy, organic kind of type.
John: Like back in the time when either you were playing rock or you weren`t.
Jake: Yeah. I`ve always had this kind of weird connection with stuff like Tull, Zeppelin, and Sabbath in the sense that some of their music... I`ve always lived in the country and it seems to go really well together. I don`t know if you`ve ever noticed this, Gary.
(Gary swims.)
Obviously Jethro Tull has that real pastoral feel to it and stuff. I`ve always wanted to created that organic, earthy kind of rock.
John: Is that what you saw in it when they asked you to join?
Gary: As far as the sound? Yeah, sure. Definitely. I really like it a lot. The guitar harmonies, the vocals are great, the song content`s good. Good arrangement of songs. Solid.
John: Do you find having someone who used to be in Spirit Caravan gives you a little bit more marquee status?
Jake: You can`t deny that people thrive on some Gary Isom drums and people thrive on some Spirit Caravan. You can`t deny that. It`s just how it is. Just me personally, I`ve always been a big Spirit Caravan fan, so it`s cool.
John: It`s gotta be cool having one of your idols playing with you.
Jake: It`s cool, man. Luckily, we live close to DC and Maryland, so I`ve been able to hang out with some of these guys.
John: Are you contributing to the writing of the new album? And what sort of influences are you bringing?
Gary: Yeah, definitely. I know the Spirit Caravan thing is the Spirit Caravan thing, but I`ve also played drums for Pentagram, I`ve also drumming for Unorthodox for a long time. We`re all from Maryland. Me and Sherman, we`ve been friends for years. Me and Sherman were in two bands before Wretched was even a band. I`ve been lucky to play with these bands, being from Maryland. I went to the same high school as Joan Jett. Joe Lally from Fugazi went to Wheaton High School. I`ve been lucky just from living there. I met Sherman years and years ago, and he`s the one who turned me on to The Obsessed and Vitus. But I was friends with the guys from the band Indestroy � they were called Fatal Sin before they were called Indestroy, which is the name of an old Obsessed song. So I knew those guys, and that`s how me and Sherman got together. He came down to Wheaton, and came over to this house where I was hanging out with this guy Rob Cougan � one of the best drummers � and I was jamming with Dale and Jeff Parsons, who is the guitar player for Wretched. They`ve gotten back together again; they`re working on some new material. And Sherman saw me playing drums, and it was at the same time where his buddy Tony, who was in his band called Pendulum, went out on the road to roadie for Trouble. So he was looking for a drummer, and me and him got together. I mean, me and Sherman, we`re seriously like brothers.
John: So how many songs have you written for the new album so far?
Jake: As far as brand new stuff? We have an older song that we`re going to work back in there, and we have almost together two or three others. It`s all going to be new stuff. We have probably about four or five songs that are new.
John: When do you think you`ll get the new one out?
Gary: As soon as possible.
Jake: Exactly. I`m thinking realistically it`ll be done this winter hopefully.
John: Any chance of the Spirit Caravan stuff being reissued?
Gary: I don`t really know. That would really be a question for Wino.
John: Well, he`s not in the water with us right now. What are the bands that are playing this weekend that you`re excited to see?
Jake: It`ll be fun hanging out with King Valley and Admiral Browning. I don`t know too many of the bands that are going on tonight. Unfortunately we won`t be here tomorrow, and I would`ve loved to see Eternal Elysium and a couple other bands.
John: Like Acid King.
Jake: Yeah. Those two are the ones. They`re legendary. I know Acid King is playing with Gary`s other band, Nitroseed, and The Hidden Hand.
John: Speaking of Nitroseed, you guys just did some recording, right?
Gary: Right.
John: What`s the story with that?
Gary: We did it all on our own, financed our own record. We`ve got 1,000 copies at Rob Hampshire`s house just waiting to be put out to wherever they need to go. I really like it. It sounds great. It was a good day, we really captured what we`re capable of doing. It came together real nice.
(Pete shows up at the pool.)
John: Here`s a nice one to get you going, Jake. How do you feel about the success of bands like The Sword and Wolfmother?
Jake: (laughs) I don`t know. Without going deep into things...
John: I can go swim down there and back. You can keep talking.
Jake: I think it`s sad that music... I don`t know the best way to put it. My whole thing now is we have the machine of capitalism chugging along and I think bands that are keen to that and the formulas that are involved with that can get very quick success. I`m not saying those bands you mentioned are horrible or anything. What they`re taking their influences of, there`s so much other good stuff that just blows it way out of the water that will never see the light of day.
John: So you don`t think there`s a trickle down effect?
Jake: I really don`t think so. To me, I wouldn`t use that system to get my success. I wouldn`t do it. I think if you`re so � what`s the word? It`s clever. It`s calculated. Right place, right time, using the right elements to appeal to the crowd that you want, and it`s using that machine of capitalism that`s destroying the world.
Pete: Easy, easy (laughs).
Gary: Oh c`mon. Well, I hear you.
Jake: It does. People need to be saying that more. Me, music is richer, it`s more important than that. I don`t want to be associated with any kind of machine.
Pete: My whole thing is there`s not enough conviction and soul and love for it anymore. That`s not across the board � I`m not trying to make any kind of general statement. There`s just not enough of it. There`s not enough people joining because they love it.
John: I will say it`s kind of weird that The Sword played in Boston to a sold out show of people I don`t see at other shows. And when you played, you had a loving audience of one.
Pete: It`s so funny when we showed up, it had just snowed, and the only promotion we got was our name on a piece of slate that they put in the window. You had to wipe the fog out of the window to see who was playing.
John: Not to blow too much smoke up your ass, but you had an audience of one, but you played like there were 500 people there.
Gary: It happens to everybody. And that`s really all you can do.
John: Would you say that was your worst gig?
Jake: No. The vibes were great. Everybody was really cool, and I felt really good that night. I felt really relaxed. It`s like the quality, the feeling of it all for me. I`d rather have a good time with three people than a shitty time with a lot more than that.
Gary: That`s what it`s all about for me � if we can hang out and get fucked up and have a good time, that`s all I need.
Pete: I don`t care how many people are there. I never will, I don`t think. If those people are loving being there, I`m feeding off of that. It only takes one or two to fire me up. Even if there`s that one person in the crowd who`s got his eyes closed and is just rocking out, you`ve done your job.
John: Speaking of eyes, you got shrapnel in one of yours. What was that like?
Pete: The whole experience or just getting blasted?
John: Hell, the whole experience.
Pete: Let`s see. I had a very, very cool experience over there. A very wild experience over there. I was part of the first group of people that hit the streets, the first people on ground in Baghdad. It was a whole new world. A lot of them had never seen a white person in their life, especially armed American soldiers. I was recon. I worked in small unit, doing reconnaissance and security and shit like that.
John: How did the people react to you?
Pete: Tremendously. It was wonderful. They treated us like kings. [There were] parades that were thrown for us in the southern desert on the way up to Baghdad by Iraqis. They wanted us to go there. They were in the streets parading. They would be running alongside the Humvees, screaming for you. They were all about it. Baghdad was a trip. It was a whole other world.
John: Did you get to see any of the palaces?
Gary: He slept on the front doorstep.
Pete: Yeah. Pissed on the front doorstep the very first night I got there. We fought for the presidential complex � it`s like their Whitehouse � and that was our objective. That was our task force`s objective, and that`s what we secured. We fought for Baghdad for three days at that point; it was a three day battle for all that shit, to gain security. I got to roam through all those palaces. Being recon, we were the ones who had to clear everything. It was like, you guys are the one clearing every room, going through everything. Finding intel, weapons, whatever you could fucking find. Tunnels, whatever. Leave no stone unturned. That sort of thing.
I was in Baghdad for about a month and a half. I had already been in the desert; I was in Kuwait for about five months. Before the war even started we were in Kuwait already. And when we staged on the border, I was in for eight, eight and a half months. They sent us out to Fallujah � I don`t know if you read about Fallujah. We caught a lot of Syrian terrorist training camps there. Heavily gunned. It was a whole different world, a very militant place. They had sent us there because we had done such a good job throughout the rest of the shit.
I was a gunner on this Humvee, and my machine gun was this MK 19 fully automatic grenade launcher. It launched about 370 rounds a minute of solid grenades. You could hit a target at a little over a mile. Pretty heavy duty machine gun. That`s what I fired. That was my baby.
That morning we were doing some routine shit. Destroying ADA guns, melting down the barrels with thermite grenades. And then we found a radar site out there, so we were burning that place down.
So we out doing that shit, and we get a call that one of our sections was under heavy fire. And my section was the closest section. So we burned on out there and met up with these guys. We took this hill that was right above them. Right on the Euphrates River Valley, overlooking the river, actually. Anyway, guys were scattering up the hill when we rolled up. I unloaded on this hillside. There`s a couple of concrete bunkers and buildings and guys would pile into them to take cover and I was wiping them out with these grenades. Just taking the buildings straight down.
There was one building left. The building cleared and there was a tiny building right behind it. My sergeant was like, �Guys just dove in there. Just take it down too.� So I lobbed one more grenade and then I had a misfire on my machine gun. Never gotten a misfire on that gun in particular. So I lock and load a new grenade, take the old one off. It`s hot as hell. It`s 125, 130 degrees out there. Everything`s just solid heat. I get to go fire this gun again and it blows up on me. Blows right up in my face.
They said later that it was so hot that the rounds had expanded. When that second round went, it jammed right into the barrel and detonated right there. And these things have a kill radius of five meters and a wound radius of 15 meters.
I got hit with two pieces of shrapnel in the eye. One went into the side and the other went straight back and blew everything out.
John: Did you feel it or did you black right out?
Pete: Painless. All I remember is going completely deaf and everything went... I saw that black puff of smoke, I went deaf, and the next thing I know is I`m on the ground at the back of the Humvee, just sitting there, trying to take it all in. I knew I was hit, but I didn`t know what the deal was yet. I was pouring blood out of my face. And I`d been hit in the thigh too, so my leg`s on fire at this point. I`m just cussing - �What the fucking fuck?� Going crazy. Sure as shit, when it hit me, it hurt, I could feel the metal in my legs. I knew I was hit but I didn`t know how bad. Then I got the morphine and my life became so much better. Everything was fine after that (laughs).
They sent me to Germany and I went through all these reconstructive surgeries and ended up coming back to Walter Reed in DC. Got the shrapnel out of here [the front of the eye] but the other piece is still back there, but they were able to save my eye. They stitched this up a hundred different ways until they were like, �We don`t have to give you a glass eye.�
John: Now how long do you think the troops will be out there?
Pete: As long as Bush is in office. That`s a long time. Well, it`s a different situation than when I was out there. It`s gotten heavy. It`s gotten a lot worse since I was out there. Yeah, we fought the war out there. I fought four major battles and fought three days for Baghdad and then had to deal with different odds and ends � ambushes, sniper fire. You did you fair share of shit after the war was over. But this stuff that`s going on picked up right when we were out of there. They replaced with other troops and shit went crazy.
John: You think they could`ve done something different, military-wise? Policy-wise?
Pete: Well, I think first of all, our regular US troops were not trained for guerrilla tactics whatsoever. And that`s what this is. It`s a guerrilla war out there, in the streets and in the villages. And our regular troops who are out there are getting burned up every day. They`re not trained for it. I`ve heard a lot of stories and I`ve followed it some � I try to stay away from it to a degree, just because. But what I have followed, I almost know exactly how that happened. I know exactly why those two soldiers were taken prisoner. People aren`t used to that shit. You have to get in the mind for it. You cannot become complacent out there. You have to maintain at all times.
John: How exactly do you even fight a group of people who are willing to die?
Pete: They`re not wearing uniforms. You don`t know who the fuck`s who. You really don`t. They greatly outnumber you. You don`t know who`s lying to your face, you don`t know who`s sending you in the wrong direction. Because of the absolute language barrier out there. It`s so hard to communicate. A lot of it is using your best judgment. And that`s really what it comes down to, it`s using your head as best you can and staying as clear and focused as you can.
John: Now people have been throwing around that it`s a modern day Viet Nam. You think that has any merit?
Pete: Fuck yeah. We said that as soon as we got in there. The first battle we ever fought, we were not fighting anyone in uniforms. They had civilians, armed, running out into the street, getting shot, that were completely innocent. They weren`t even firing. It turns out a lot of these guys were going into homes and like, �Take this gun and you`re going to run out into the street and you`re going to fight.� And if they refused, they would get shot. It was a bad deal. Viet Nam? Sure. It`s some nasty stuff going on out there.
How long will troops be out there? Who knows. We`re in it now. We`re very much involved. Once you`re in it this far, it`s hard to back out. I pray for the best, and I appreciate every son of a bitch who`s out there in that desert. No doubt, I really do.
