Like father, like son? Not really. Bruce Dickinson together with Iron Maiden ruled the world with classic heavy metal, will his son Austin and his alternative metal band As Lions do the same? We had a pleasure to briefly talk with Austin just after the first As Lions show in Poland, supporting Alter Bridge.
DeathMagnetic.pl: Hi Austin, a little bit late but huge congratulations on your debut album with As Lions!
Austin Dickinson: Hey man, thank you so much!
You’re just after your very first gig in Poland, which in my opinion was fucking amazing, I wasn’t headbanging like that in years. I saw it on your faces that you’ve enjoyed it too.
(Laugh) Thank you very much man. It was great, I fucking ripped my pants tonight! I had so much fun, like my fucking trousers ripped in half of the leg, and I was like „Fuck!!”! But it was really great, I loved it. Everyone in this town clearly is down to fucking party and to have fun. So yeah, we loved that, great times and so much fun.
Great to hear that! So, As Lions was formed from the ashes of your previous band Rise To Remain where you played with Will and Connor (Homer and O’Keefe – guitarists of As Lions). Weren’t you thinking at the time when Rise To Remain disbanded that finding new musicians for the band will be a better idea than forming a new group?
Well, I think that Rise To Remain is a different band and I didn’t wanna half ass the band. Since we lost our guitarist I was like „Is there any point in continuing to do this? Is it still the band we want to do?” and the answer is „no”. We wanted to do something that’s kind of… You know, a lot of bands are waiting to like a fifth album to do something they really wanted to do, and than they release it and they’re like „Oh no, fans are not gonna like it”. We were at the position where we done one record and we went „You know what? Let’s just do what we want.” It’s the one chance we gonna get. And we’re happy we did it man, it’s been a total fucking trip. It’s grown really quickly and we’re thankful for that.
Your debut album „Selfish Age” contains very melodic, catchy and heavy songs in my opinion. Please tell me what were your inspirations behind this record? What inspired you during the recording process?
I think I’ve always sucked at writing about getting drunk, girls, I suck at writing that kind of stuff. I wait for the right stuff that I think it’s socially and sort of culturally relevant to where I am right now, or where we tour. It’s like try to sort of create songs that, you know, could be relevant to some of the situations on our lives. And that was kind of the inspiration behind „Selfish Age”, the world is still the size but it feels a lot smaller, we’re a lot more possesive, we’re a lot more paranoid, we’re a lot more selfish. That was the inspiration behind it.
So, I know that this question is a bit of pain in the ass and you propably know what I’m gonna ask you now. You’re still compared by many people to your father Bruce despite playing essentially different styles of music. Does it bother you? What does it mean to you?
I have no control of that, you know. If someone wants to compare me to fucking Eminem, that’s up to them. I have no control of that other than what I do. What I do is I try to create the best songs I can, I try to be the best singer I can, I try to make sure people have the best time and if that somehow translates to them going „Oh, he’s like this person! Oh, he’s like that person!” – fine. It doesn’t really mean much to me, as long people have fun.
You’ve been touring with many different bands like Shinedown, Five Finger Death Punch, now Alter Bridge. Please tell me, playing with which band find you the most exciting? Which tour you enjoyed the most?
I mean they’re all different, but this European run is spectacular. I mean Europe is like second home to me, you know. It’s been amazing for us to be able to come back and do these shows, because it’s the best feeling, but touring America with Shinedown and 5FDP was a huge deal too, we’re very lucky, it was a whole new level of touring for us.
Ok man, thank you very much for your time and for the great show, enjoy the rest of the tour and all the best!
Thank you very much brother, see you!
