Godsmack Bringing 'Modern Rock' to Stadium
By: By Rebecca Coudret, Courier & Press Staff Writer(812) 464-7509 Or mailto:coud@evansville.net - Evansville Courier & Press
September 20th 2001 11:47am
Godsmack guitarist Tony Rombola says he's "going kind of crazy" with all the traveling the band's been doing. Crazy enough that he doesn't always check to see what city he's in. Crazy enough to admit he misses being at home. "We've been out for about three months now, and I'm looking forward to going home to my wife and kids," he said, adding that he'll make that trip home to the Boston area a couple of weeks after Friday's show at Roberts Stadium. Although Rombola has seen his wife and three children (ages 11, 12 and 18) for a couple of quick visits during the tour, it's not the same as being with them all the time, he said. "I'm someone who loves to be home with the family." Home also means getting back into the recording studio. Godsmack -- Rombola, lead singer Sully Erna, Robbie Merrill on bass and Tommy Stewart on drums -- will be working on ideas for the group's third CD, Rombola said. It should be ready in eight months to a year, he said. Like most musicians, Rombola doesn't like labels. Rock? Pop? Metal? Jazz? Blues? R&B? Continued from Page C1 "There's a lot of crossover, so it's hard to put anyone in just one category." But the 36-year-old Rombola knows labels are inevitable, if for no other reason than "stores have to know what section to put your CDs in." If he could decide the appropriate label for God-smack, it would be dubbed a "modern rock band." "We're sure not heavy metal. In fact, are we any kind of metal? I wouldn't even go that far. We're a 'modern rock' band. Metal has a little more screaming, heavier guitars. "We've already proven ourselves as a hard rock band, and we're kind of (in transition) now. There will be some changes in our sound on the next (CD). We don't want to just put out a whole record of heavy riffs again. "We probably would have done some different stuff sooner, but what everyone dug in our live shows was the heavier sounds, so we went that way." Any coming changes, he said, will be a look at who the band is at its core. "We're all serious musicians. That's who and what we are. ... I've got a guitar in my hands four or five hours every day, whether there's a concert or not." And, he said, he's always writing music. But, Rombola said, he's a music man -- with "no desire to write lyrics. I'll leave that to Sully and others. "Maybe, on the next CD, you'll hear some more melodic stuff. Maybe you'll hear some acoustic stuff. But we'll be powerful; we don't do any (wussy) stuff. We like all kinds of music, and that's why our third CD will be us -- but a little bit different us." Friday's concert, though, will be today's Godsmack: music from the first two CDs, maybe a hint of what's to come, but mostly just Godsmack. "It's gotten us where we are," said Rombola. "We like it and we're proud of it." For more news and information, visit us at http://www.courierpress.com
| 
