John Lutzow from Leviathan reveals that Leviathan will stay alive afteir their brand new release!

13 years after their last studio effort, entitled “Scoring The Chapters”, one of the most charismatic US Power/Progressive Metal bands return with a live CD/DVD. Leviathan from Colorado, have just released their first live album, “Resurrected” and guitarist John Lutzow, reveals more details concerning the release but also the band’s future.

How did the Leviathan reunion come about?

The live shows were basically a natural progression for us to go back in time and attempt to begin again where we left off when we went our separate ways in 1998. The last "Braver Since Then" record we did brought Trevor Helfer back into the band with Derek Blake and I. Ron Skeen and I have remained in contact with each other after the Leviathan break up. I have asked him to come record with us or play out many times. He always turned us down until we found Jeff Ward. It was very difficult to track him down. He had moved back to Texas with his family. I found a phone number for his dad and was able to get a message to him. From that point on it wasn't about a live DVD or anything. It was mainly just to record together again for a new studio album. Live performances or rehearsals are obviously difficult when the band members live thousands of miles apart. So for a band like us just getting to play with great musicians again was the main motivation. I feel Leviathan finally had reached the pinnacle in our band chemistry and talent on our Scoring the Chapters album. I just wanted to experience what we could do now if given the chance. You don't find those connections very easily in life so it was worth twelve years of waiting to get to play as Leviathan again. So we are working on the new album and that will be a continuation of where we left off.

What does the new DVD/CD contain?

The DVD portion of the set contains the full live concert, bonus tracks and a photo collage of the history of leviathan. I wanted to add many more things to the disk but ran out of space on a single layer DVD. The budget did not allow me to do everything I wanted so I have many extras for a future release to friends that want to see more. The CD only contains the live songs. I only chose to put the CD in the package as a bonus. It is more a supplement to the DVD. Making the DVD was the most time consuming project I have ever worked on. It was a learning experience. I think once I got it done I finally was getting a grasp on how to work with editing and syncing everything together. Once again. I wish I could do it all over again. Next time, maybe?

Tell me your impressions from your live gigs? Did you have a chance to meet old friends and fans of the band?

The whole week we did the live shows seems like a blur and a dream. It all happened so fast. Jeff flew in from Texas on a Wednesday. We practiced that night with the band. That was our first full band practice since 1998. The next day we played a private show at Vikan auditorium and began recording. On Friday, we opened up the doors for a free all ages show. This was a big deal for us. I don't think Leviathan ever got to play more than a handful of All ages shows through out the years. Giving our families a chance to see us play was a major reason for doing all of this. We recorded most of the audio that went to the live set, that night. The next night was our show at the Buffalo Rose. The Saturday show is where we filmed most of the video that went into the set. Sunday morning Jeff flew back to Texas. It was a very busy week for sure.
It was great getting to see each others families. After we broke up, many of us quit playing music for a while so our families never got to see us play. All of our children got to finally see us play. They finally saw the reality of what their dads did with music. That part of it was worth the whole thing. People came out that I hadn't seen in ten to fifteen years. There was even a few people that drove in from other states to see us. It was like a family reunion or something.

Do you plan to give more concerts in the near future?

I would love to play more shows. We are playing a DVD release show locally here on April 10th. It will be a Leviathan/ Braver Since then show. Jeff can't make the show because of school so Derek and I will be singing lead on the Leviathan songs. Ron will be playing with us so that will be fun. The only problem to playing more shows as Leviathan is overcoming our geographic distance hurdle and scheduling. Jeff and I both are in school and work full time. Ron runs his anodizing shop and a motorcycle racing business. Derek and Trevor both work full time and have families. Derek and I have always talked about going to Europe and playing acoustic shows if it wasn't possible for the whole band to go. So no matter what, I will come to Europe next year after I graduate. Leviathan really wants to play some of the music festivals next summer, but the money isn't there for us to be able to pay for it. We are hoping to find a label that will believe in us enough to give us a chance to play where we sell most of our music. That is Germany, Greece and Japan.

Give us details on how can someone order your new release and also the names of some shops and distributors.

Anybody interested in purchasing the DVD set can buy it direct from the band. Contact us at inkpenexor@msn.com. The price is $15 US. Shipping is included. They can pay via PAYPAL. The distributors that have order product from me so far are Hellion Records, No Remorse, Pure Steel and Laser's Edge. The Set is also available at CDBABY.com and Digstation.com.

Many fans of yours want to know if you plan to work together for a studio album.

Yes, we are working on the new album right now. All the songs are already written. The whole Reunion thing has really been an inspiration for me. Once I had to start learning our old songs again it really put things into perspective for me as a song writer. The old songs took me back to where I was as a musician and song writer and woke me up to where I need to be. Within a few months of learning the old songs I had written three brand new songs. These songs are the heaviest and most technical songs I have ever played. So for the new album I am trying to do the recording process differently than I have in the past. All of the Braver Since Then albums I have recorded over the last decade have just been studio albums. We recorded them, then once the CD was finished we learned how to perform them for live shows. Now, we are trying to go back to the old days when we would be playing all of the songs as a band then recording them. I have done rough demos of my songs so that the rest of the band can learn what I am doing and establish their parts. Many of the songs will be sent to Jeff without the lyrics structured so that he can arrange the vocals the way he wants. This is a very big departure for me. In the past I used to do everything myself and hand everyone a finished song. A couple of Ron's songs for the new album were tunes we used to play as Leviathan in the beginning, back in the early nineties. These songs were never really recorded or released.
The new Leviathan CD will take over right where we left off after Scoring the Chapters. I promise fans it will be heavier, more technical than anything we have ever done. I will be posting updates for the new album as they happen on our web site. http://www.leviathanresurrected.com/

Dimitris, Thanks for helping us reach former Leviathan fans and hopefully some new ones.

Dimitris Starakis