Back catalog is big business in the music world. Anniversary celebrations, remasters, bonus tracks and even remixes are clever enticements to drum up excitement for a previously released album. But imagine putting all that and much, much more into one incredible package and you have Night Demon’s new limited edition Curse of the Damned – Ultimate Edition Box Set. The heart of this is obviously the band’s 2015 debut, Curse of the Damned, which is included here in three different iterations (and on both colored vinyl and CD): “Original Master”, “10th Anniversary Remix” and the previously unavailable “Run For Your Life” session.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because the band also gathered a shit-ton of archival material—demos, video, interviews, live recordings—from this era and have crammed it in here, as well. We won’t go over every detail, but you can check it out for yourself and order it from the band’s website here. It’s being self-released in a limited run of 1000 copies by Night Demon on September 5, and the care and effort that went into it is mindblowing. We wanted to get more details about the making of it, so we contacted bassist/vocalist Jarvis Leatherby via the interhole and got the full lowdown.
Let’s start with a little backstory or scene-setting regarding Curse of the Damned, your first full-length. Tell me about where the band was at when going into the making of it. You had a new drummer and you had a label/labels to release it. Did you feel like you were poised to take a step forward?
When we started the band, our only goal was to write and record an EP of NWOBHM-inspired music, and that’s pretty much it. Growing up as metalheads in the Southern California punk scene, we were hard pressed to think anyone in the world would ever care about this stuff in the 2010s. At some point we had many “punk” friends tell us how good they thought the EP was, and how it was criminal that we weren’t doing more with the band. We took that to heart and spent the next year and a half writing the songs that would become Curse of the Damned. Our new drummer [Dustin Squires] actually came into the band the day before the original version of the album was recorded. Talk about trial by fire! As far as taking a step forward, anything back then as simple as Night Demon playing a live show was a step forward, so to write and record a full-length album was a leap forward! And, yes, the fact that multiple respected labels in various territories of the world stepped up to release it was another brain breaker. We honestly did not understand why there was a hungry market for our style of music. It went against everything that we were surrounded by in our bubble.
There is a remixed version of Cursed as part of the box set. What did you feel like needed to be improved, and was this something that you were dissatisfied with at the time of the recording? Like you ran out of money to make the album the way you wanted?
I know this is at times a sore subject with music fans, but as an artist I know most of us would love a chance for a do over on the finishing touches of our work. We ran out of money long before the initial post production back then! What we really ran out of, that we would’ve liked more of, is time. We had very strict deadlines to meet for production and touring. We weren’t completely dissatisfied at the time by any means, but we’ve always wondered what the gift of time would have given us in that situation. The cool thing is that this 10th anniversary remix was done by Roger Camero, who was at the helm for the original. He was very happy to be able to take another shot at it a decade later, and he really knocked it out of the park.
Tell me about the “Run For Your Life” sessions. Why were those never previously released?
The short answer is we lost the plot. The longer answer is we put too much pressure on ourselves to make a “professional” album that would be a 100% improvement from our first EP, which was essentially a demo recorded in an afternoon. After three or four months in the studio laboring over the overuse of a click track, layers upon layers of backing rhythm guitars, keyboards, perfecting drum sounds, etc. we ended up with an album that was a poor representation of what we really were. At our core we are a raw power trio. When the labels heard it, they thought the same. The redeeming factor was that they liked the material a lot, so we ended up touring Europe for the first time, then headed home and re-recorded the album mostly live in about three days. It sounded like Night Demon again. It was authentic to who we really were, and at the end of the day that’s the right thing to do. This conversation would be happening a lot differently had that original album been released. I’m grateful we all had the foresight to go back and do it the right way.
Most bands just maybe remaster an album for an anniversary edition, what made you go all out—remix, DVD, comic book, posters, tour program, etc.—and do a multi-faceted box set?
We’ve always done things outside of the box, since day one. It’s not out of rebellion against the standards or anything, I just feel like we collectively have so many ideas floating around at all times and we are disciplined enough to implement them and see where it lands. Not everything works, but we’ve always been able to follow our mission statement from day one which is “always over deliver for the fans.” With the box set we really wanted to release a definitive edition, not anything novel or cheap. We always think from a fan’s perspective first and foremost. If I was a Night Demon fan and have been on this decade-long journey with the band, how would I want to celebrate this album, and how would I like to remember it? The band and our fans have always been very good about archiving our career, so we felt it our duty to make it as cool and comprehensive as possible.
There are a lot of unreleased demos and live recordings—both audio and video—included in the set, either on cassette or available as downloads. Are you the keeper of the Night Demon archives, and do you foresee similar treatments for subsequent ND albums?
Yes, we have a very large archival storage vault at our headquarters. The other band guys refer to it as the “Jarchives.” [Laughs] We absolutely plan to give this treatment to all of the albums in the catalog. As a matter of fact, we have already started compiling some things that we know will require a lot of attention to detail and work from third parties to complete. We have even gone as far as to make sure that we used long standing and reputable manufacturers for every piece in the current box set, with the goal of keeping future album box sets consistent through and through.
You originally released Curse of the Damned on Century Media and Steamhammer so why is the box set being self-released by the band?
The labels had different ideas of how they wanted to do it. At the end of the day our visions didn’t meet on this project, so we had no problem licensing it from them and doing it ourselves with the quality and treatment the fans deserve. It was a very big investment for us, but one well worth it. The feedback so far from everyone has been overwhelmingly flattering. [Our fans have] invested a lot in us as a band and in our minds they deserve the highest compliment in the form of the assets we can deliver to them.
In your estimation, what’s the single coolest thing about this box set, something you think Night Demon fans just shouldn’t miss out on?
That’s really tough to answer at first, but if I had to choose on the spot, it would be the Curse Em All home video. It spans the entire world touring cycle for the Curse of the Damned album, and really captures the vibe of how we were living at that time. Empty bar shows, then a television performance the next day, followed by a half full bar, then followed by a festival appearance. Personally it’s nice to have that stuff documented. It’s a good reminder of how hard we worked to make something out of nothing. If we can do it, then anyone can.
Order the limited edition Curse of the Damned – Ultimate Edition Box Set here.
The post Q&A: Jarvis Leatherby on Night Demon’s <em>Curse of the Damned</em> box set appeared first on Decibel Magazine.