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12 май 2025
KIRK WINDSTEIN Says Music For New DOWN Album Came Together Really Quickly: 'You've Got Five Dudes That Can Write Riffs'
Windstein, who is joined in the long-running heavy metal supergroup by vocalist Philip H. Anselmo, guitarist Pepper Keenan, drummer Jimmy Bower and bassist Pat Bruders, went on to discuss the evolution of DOWN's songwriting, beginning with the band's 1995 debut album "NOLA" and running through DOWN's last two releases, 2012's "Down IV Part I – The Purple EP" and 2014's "Down IV – Part Two" EP. He said: "[Philip and I] talked about it kind of jokingly and stuff, but I'm, like, 'Dude, at some point I think you were just overthinking,' because it went from the simplicity of 'NOLA' where there's so many open areas of just big, simple riffs and shit to really being complex on a lot of songs on 'Down III: Over The Under', where he's almost singing over every part of the song but the guitar solo or something."
Circling back to the writing process for the next DOWN album, Kirk said: "We were out at the [Nodferatu's] Lair [Anselmo's home studio] and I'm, like, I said, 'I haven't been out here writing with you dudes since… It's been, like, since for the first EP,' so maybe 2011, early 2012… So it's kind of like we haven't written together in so long that it was so fresh. I mean, we got together on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and I think we had seven songs written. Because you've got five dudes that can write riffs. I mean, your drummer can write riffs too. And Pat writes great, and Phil writes great. And you've got me and Pepper on guitar. So when you've got five dudes that can write riffs — there's some songs that we all kind of have a riff in it even, or a part or half a riff or something."
As previously reported, DOWN will headline night one of this year's edition of the Milwaukee Metal Fest. The show follows the band's recent Western U.S. tour with DANZIG.
In April 2024, Windstein, who is also the frontman of CROWBAR, told Concrete Spew about the musical direction of the new DOWN material: "It just sounds like DOWN. I mean, it sounds refreshing because we haven't done it in so long, gotten together with me and the guys and done it in — fuck — 12 years or something. So it sounds like DOWN, I think, to me, it sounds more old-school DOWN. And the reason I say that is I think we got to a point where… Like, the 'NOLA' record is so simple, and it just wrote itself; it was so simple. And that's how this is coming about, which is great."
He continued: "We're not overthinking it. We're not trying to make things too complex. Phillip's not trying to write so many lyrics and things. We just kind of got away — I hate to say 'got away', 'cause anything we do is DOWN, but, to me, we kind of got a little bit… We needed to go back and look at each other and just go, 'Let's just get in a room and do it like we did from the beginning.' And that's what it feels like to me. It's very magical. The ideas and the working together, just bounce off of one another, it's a natural thing."
DOWN played its rescheduled concert at Inn Of The Mountain Gods Resort And Casino in Mescalero, New Mexico on September 27, 2024. The band was originally supposed to perform at at Inn Of The Mountain Gods on June 20, 2024, but the show was called off due to a pair of rapidly growing wildfires which were converging on a village inside a tribal reservation in the state. As a result of the postponement, DOWN played two pop-up shows in Louisiana — on June 20, 2024 at Southport Hall in New Orleans and on June 21, 2024 at Varsity Theatre in Baton Rouge.
Prior to Southport Hall, DOWN's last concert took place in September 2022 at the Blue Ridge Rock Festival in Alton, Virginia.
DOWN made a handful of rare live appearances in the spring and summer of 2022. The band launched a three-date U.S. run of shows in May 2022 at the Welcome To Rockville festival in Daytona Beach, Florida. After playing in Atlanta and Dallas immediately after Rockville, DOWN took a three-week break before regrouping for three European festival appearances in June. The aforementioned appearance at that year's Blue Ridge Rock Festival followed in September 2022.
In August 2021, DOWN took part in a very special in-person live and virtual experience. "NOLA Town Throwdown" was held at the Fillmore in New Orleans, Louisiana and featured fans attending the show in person as well as watching it in real time from the comfort of their living room.
In August 2020, DOWN celebrated the 25th anniversary of "NOLA" with a special livestreamed event. Dubbed "The Quarter Century Throwdown", the high-production, multi-camera event took place using cutting-edge streaming technology to create a one-of-a-kind virtual concert experience.
A founding member of DOWN, Windstein left the band in 2013 in order to focus on CROWBAR and his family life. He was replaced by Bobby Landgraf, DOWN's former guitar tech who was previously in GAHDZILLA MOTOR COMPANY, a 1990s outfit also featuring Jason McMaster (DANGEROUS TOYS, WATCHTOWER),and HONKY.
Windstein announced his return to DOWN in 2019, with the band confirming a number of festival appearances for 2020 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of "NOLA", all of which were later canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic which swept the globe.
Prior to the August 2020 livestream, DOWN's last live appearance took place in August 2016 at the Psycho Las Vegas festival in Las Vegas.
"Down IV – Part Two" sold around 10,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release in May 2014 to debut at position No. 23 on The Billboard 200 chart.
The band's previous EP, "Down IV Part I – The Purple EP", opened with around 12,000 units in September 2012 to land at No. 35.
"Down IV – Part Two" was recorded at Nodferatu's Lair and produced by Michael Thompson. It was released via Down Records/ADA Music.
Photo by MetalDave Media
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