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an Interview with Jon Shaffer
by Adam Kohrman
Back in high school, I used to pass the time during class by doodling the names of bands I knew all over my notebook. Oftentimes, I didn’t actually listen to the bands I doodled down, but I just thought they had really cool names, and one of the most common names was Iced Earth. It was about three years later that I finally picked up Night of the Stormrider, their classic dose of American power/traditional metal. Like many fans, it took me many listens to be able to stomach, or even get into their obscurely dark, unique form of power metal. By now, however, I’ve truly come to understand what such an influential band has had to offer metal, and what their place in metal history is. Not long ago, I was treated with the task of interviewing the mastermind behind Iced Earth, Jon Schaffer. As I looked at my caller ID, with his name on it, I knew I was in for a metalhead’s dream.
GASP: Hi.
Schaffer: How are you?
GASP: I’m doing good. How are you?
Schaffer: Good.
GASP: Let’s talk about the new album, first of all. You wanna give us a quick synopsis of the storyline?
Schaffer: Well, this picks up where Something Wicked left off. You get a sense of what Set goes through as a child and as a young man and to find out what is revealed to him, and in reaction to that the struggles that he has. They deal with Christ, mankind, and the human race. He learns about possession culture and what happened, and what his purpose is. He goes through a coronation…you know, it’s a step by step process. The difference between this album and the last one is that the last one covered such a big fat part of the story, and it had this very ancient and tribal-esque themes. This one darkens up quite a bit and has more classical overtones and more pointed storytelling because we’re getting into now, instead of having narrative type of storytelling, this is from his point of view most of the time, I’d probably say 70, 75% of the album is from Set’s perspective.
GASP: How does it compare musically, not storyline-wise, but musically to the previous album and Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Schaffer: Well, the music is all in relation to what is going on in the story. I told everyone when we were doing a press report for part one that it would be much darker, and more focused, and very heavy and still that different dynamic, which is a typical Iced Earth thing. The lyric is what dictates what the music does in this instance. I wrote the books of part one and two at the same time in the same year and I started with the titles of the songs first—the themes of the songs. They were the major points to the story that I had been focusing on, which is what made it sound like that. So I really started off with a specific theme, and the music just took me in that direction. The way I see it in my eyes is that’s how it should be said in music. You know, so that’s why. The lyrics and the themes dictated how the music goes. It wasn’t like I set out to make it sound like…you know. I mean, there are some specific melodies from the original trilogy that flow through both parts one and two, but there’s also what I call “Set’s theme” which is melodic movement that happens throughout part one and two, and that’s his melody, like you know Darth Vader has his own melody?
GASP: Yeah.
Schaffer: And you know, that happens. It can be a vocal melody at one point. It can be a guitar melody. It can be played on the sitar. It can be strings. It happens with various instruments throughout the epic.
GASP: Okay. Now, it’s definitely entrenched in classic science fiction, and as an English major, I’m wondering were you influenced by any classic sci-fi literature or films?
Schaffer: No.
GASP: *Laughs* Not at all?
 Schaffer: Nah, it just came from my mind. I actually don’t even know how it happened. But it started with Al Simmons who was the guy I became friends with who was the namesake for the comic book character Spawn. The original idea was, he said “Jon, we should do an Iced Earth comic book.” He was talking about something about the band. And that sparked me into thinking, “yeah that would be cool, but I have a different idea.” I had this character in mind, this Egyptian dressed warrior, kind of mummified looking. I talked to Greg Capullo about how I wanted him to look and gave him a very brief view into what the story was, but it just hit me all at once. I don’t know where…it’s freaky actually. It hit me hard and fast and I was like “Wow. This has got so much potential.” With the original Something Wicked trilogy, the original plan was to this big two part saga after Something Wicked This Way Comes. That’s why the title was Something Wicked This Way Comes. I ended that record with this trilogy. But, it was because of our contract situation with Century Media, and I knew that the Something Wicked saga was gonna be a shitload of work and was gonna be the pinnacle of my career and I wasn’t willing to give that to a record company that had let us down time and time again.
GASP: Do you feel that Century Media would have done that?
Schaffer: Oh, absolutely.
GASP: Really? Okay.
Schaffer: They did that with everything we ever did. You know, they ruined a lot of good opportunities that I handed them. [At this point, Jon drops out for about 30 seconds to receive a package]. Sorry about that.
GASP: It’s okay.
Schaffer: What the hell were we talking about, man?
GASP: Century Media, and how they screwed you over on many occasions when you had very inspired ideas.
Schaffer: Oh, yeah, yeah. I handed them the perfect cross promotion thing. Dark Saga with Todd MacFarlane—I got Spawn on the album cover. The guy wanted to put a CD with one of his action figures with the song “The Dark Saga” on it. He even offered to pay for the manufacturing of those CDs, and then, you know. The label then decided to get greedy and ask for a royalty rate, and Todd said “Fuck these guys,” you know. So we could have had half a million Iced Earth CDs in stores in one of those action figures back in 1996, and they blew it, and that kinda shit went on all the time. So I was not gonna give this up. So it went on hold. I did Horror Show. We got out the contract.
GASP: Well, it’s good you’re done with them. One thing I’ve been curious about is that you’ve been in Iced Earth, what is it? 20 years now? You’ve toured a great deal and had a lot of life experience. Does that really change the way you approach the creative process?
Schaffer: Absolutely.
GASP: Yeah, how so?
Schaffer: Well it is the…to me it is the only true way an artist should be influenced; through life experience, not worrying about what other bands are doing.
GASP: Of course, yeah.
Schaffer: That’s kinda horseshit. It just doesn’t matter. If you’re worried about what trends are happening…or what is this band doing? We’ve gotta do that. You’re going about it all wrong. Art should be portrayed honest and true, and that’s the shit that makes people get goosebumps. It makes people cry when they hear it. It makes people throw their motherfucking fists in the air and their heads hit the wall. Whatever it is, that is all based on real, raw emotion, and the way that you grow as an artist is to grow as a human being, and it will directly affect your artwork. I don’t look for anything else for inspiration other than life.
GASP: As a writer, I couldn’t agree more. It doesn’t matter what emotion it comes from. Whether it’s sorrow, whether it’s glee, as long as it’s natural, it’s gonna come out through the artwork and be even stronger.
Schaffer: Absolutely. I agree.
GASP: Now, in Iced Earth, the lineup has been shifting a lot, and the new members that are on the album now. What do they bring to the table?
Schaffer: Well, actually these guys aren’t on the album. Well, obviously Matt [Barlow] is and Brent [Smedley], the drummer is. Troy [Seele] did a couple guitar solos on this album. That’s all he did on part one as well. That’s all the other guitar player in Iced Earth has ever done. It’s a pretty limited role, actually. Live is one thing, but in the studio, I do like 99% of the guitars. There’s very little of anyone else involved. And I did most of the bass, actually. I did 90% of the bass on part one, and about 70% on part two, and the only reason that there’s someone else playing on the other stuff is because I wanted a finger player, I wanted that touch on specific songs. But Freddy [Vidales] is great. He came along after the album had already been done. That’s the bassist, and I think he’s gonna be in the band a long time. I hope so. He’s a good guy.
GASP: That’s great.
Schaffer: Great stage presence. You know, we have a lot of fun together. He’s very intelligent. That’s nice and kinda rare in musicians (laughs).
GASP: (Laughs) Yeah, I know what you mean. So, now with Barlow back in the fold, and I’m sure you’ve been asked this a million times, but what do you expect with such a blockbuster news story in metal. What do think he, his voice in particular, how do you think he will affect the story aspects of the new album?
Schaffer: Well, it actually didn’t affect the story at all. I mean, it wouldn’t. His voice certainly didn’t change anything or the way I write anything. I mean, I write the way I write, and it’s up to the singers that I work with to be able to deliver what it is that I write as a writer and producer of the band. But I mean, I know that they’re able, or they wouldn’t get the gig. I mean, it’s a requirement for a singer in Iced Earth to have many, many voices because the music is very dynamic. There’s a lot of mood changes.
GASP: Yeah:
 Schaffer: I mean, if I wanted to have limited vocals, I would have just been the singer myself. I mean, I probably have about four or five voices that I can sing with and that I can use. But I knew years ago that what I was writing and what I was hearing in my head was way beyond my ability as a singer. So I put that right out of the question, of me doing vocals. You know, there was a point where a lot of the guys in the band thought I should do them.
GASP: Interesting.
Schaffer: Yeah. Years ago. We were looking for somebody after Matt. Before Matt came into the band, the guys in the band were like “you should just do it man.”
GASP: So back in the post-Greely era, right?
Schaffer: Yeah, right after Greely. But anyway, Matt brought, what he did was…because I had to finish the lyrics after the Framing Armageddon tour. That’s the only thing that wasn’t finished was the lyrics and vocal melodies. I had been working two years on this thing, solid. I was getting kinda burned out. I asked Matt if he would contribute some lyrics. So, that was the only thing that was obviously different because the way he would write vocal melodies is very different from the way I do. So those songs, they came out great though. He wrote, I think, four songs of lyrics. You know, I gave him the bullet points and told him “this is what the title of the song is. This is what it has to be about. You have to mention these things in there. This is where we’re at in the story.” And that gave him the bullet points and he ran with it. I had to make a couple adjustments, but it worked out really good. Matt knows the story from the old Something Wicked days.
GASP: Yeah, and I’m sure Matt has kept up with the band, even as he’s been a police officer.
Schaffer: Yeah, to some degree, I’m sure.
GASP: Okay. On another note, is there anything brewing with Hansi Kürsch and Demons & Wizards? Or is that on hold right now?
Schaffer: It’s on hold right now. It’s just one of those things we do whenever we get a chance. We’ve never done it as a pressure type thing. We just do it when we can do it. And that’s kinda where we’re at. Unfortunately, we’ve gotten to the point where…well, years ago, Hansi and I ran pretty much the same schedule. Our releases would happen pretty much within the same months as each other. That made it so we would be taking down time at the same time, and that would give us the opportunity to work on Demons. But now, he’s taking down time and I’m balls deep in this. So, that makes it really difficult, man.
GASP: Now, the upcoming tour. You’re touring with some artists you’ve never toured with before. Any comments on that?
Schaffer: Nah, I mean, we’re looking forward to getting out. It’s gonna be cool. It’s been a while since Iced Earth has toured America. It should be great.
GASP: Well, I’ll be there. I’ll see you in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Schaffer: Sounds good.
GASP: Alright, man.
Schaffer: Alright, brother. You take care of yourself.
GASP: Thanks a lot.
Schaffer: Okay, Bye.
GASP: Bye.
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