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queenlua · 4 years ago

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Ace Attorney case tier list

so, in the past year, i finished replaying games 1 through 5 for the first time in forever, and also played game 6 for the first time ever

so here’s where i ruthlessly rank each of the cases based on that most scientific metric of all, My Opinions:

OPENING CASES

S-tier: Turnabout Trump (4-1). I already knew this case, and I still gasped with surprise when Phoenix showed up, and when Kristoph showed his true colors, and when Apollo realized OH SHIT OH FUCK I REALLY AM ACCUSING MY BOSS OF MURDER HUH... what a wonderful, splashy, shockingly concise case to open up the post-O.G. trilogy world. Marvelous.

A-tier: Turnabout Memories (3-1). Seeing Mia Fey (finally!) in action is a long-awaited delight; seeing Phoenix being a total dumbass was an unexpected-yet-perfect and fitting delight.

B-tier: The First Turnabout (1-1). Solid lil’ case with some conventional-but-well-executed humor. I’ve got a soft spot for Larry Butz.

C-tier: The Lost Turnabout (2-1), The Foreign Turnabout (6-1). The former’s fine but a little forgettable; the latter has some fun gags (Payne’s ridiculous new outfit, dude absolutely shredding on the mandolin, etc) but is marred by how uh... kinda silly the game’s core conceit is, lol

E-tier: Turnabout Countdown (5-1). The context surrounding this introduction is just sloppy (badly handled in media res + let’s lowkey retcon game 4 isn’t a great setup), and also the case itself is just. irksome. ted tonate is just fundamentally irritating to look at

FINALE CASES

S-tier: Bridge to the Turnabout (3-5), Turnabout Goodbyes (1-4). No explanation needed. God they fuck so hard

A-tier: The Cosmic Turnabout + Turnabout for Tomorrow (5-4 + 5-5), Turnabout Succession (4-4).

The former two cases are what makes AA5 worth it, and they make for a tremendously fun ride. It fumbles the execution in some notable ways (Apollo’s sudden j’accuse moment feels a little forced/awkward/inadequately foreshadowed, and damn it sure would’ve been nice to know Clay Terran at all before he died, and also The Phantom’s final meltdown could’ve used a bit more emotional heft)... but okay let’s be real, I’m here for Simon Blackquill, and this case gives me so much of him so who gives a shit. (And Aura! Condescending obnoxious engineering queen! I love her!)

As for Turnabout Succession... while I earnestly wish the game had explored more of Klavier’s feelings about this whole setup, and some more emotional beats for Apollo, the case still makes for such a satisfyingly twisty and fun investigation overall (the poison stamp! what a ridiculous murder method! I love it!) that it’s a more-than-worthy finale.

B-tier: Turnabout Revolution (6-5), Farewell, My Turnabout (2-4).

The former does some cool stuff—I particularly��like the opening half, where Apollo’s being real snippy and coping with Frankly Bizarre Dad Feelings, and giving Apollo a chance to finally throw down against Phoenix is a blast. The latter half of the case starts feeling a little... ridiculous? cramped? idk? like, they didn’t do nearly enough foreshadowing about Nahyuta’s whole deal for me to care about his drama, this justice system is so obviously silly and the manner in which the revolution is playing out strains my already-suspended-sky-high disbelief... fun, and flashy, but more noise than signal in the last part, I guess.

As for Farewell, My Turnabout: of course I love Edgeworth rolling back into court goin’ through SOME kind of bizarre emotional arc of Hey I’m Totally Healed Now and obnoxiously preaching about Truth TM. And it’s cool that the game set up a case where you want to lose. But the net result is a bit strange tonally—it’s trying set up some kind of message about It’s Not Just About Winning, It’s About Pursuing The Truth, but it feels really muddled when that’s combined with Okay But Maya’s Literally Being Held Hostage Like Right Now, Surely A Reasonable Justice System Has A Process For Dealing With This Obviously Complicated Situation, Right?

but also Franziska takes a fucking bullet (how did I forget about that) and then gets to roll in like Ms. Save The Day so, really, lots of good shit here

FILLER CASES

S-tier: Reunion, and Turnabout (2-2), Turnabout Beginnings (3-4). Look, the first one gives me all the Fey family drama a girl could ask for, and the latter gives me young Edgeworth being a total shit in an obnoxiously shimmery outfit. The whole enchilada is here

A+ tier: The Magical Turnabout (6-2). DELIGHTFUL! MAGICIAN! SHENANIGANS! Like you get to guess the trick behind a magic act as part of the case, how fucking fun is that, and also the Apollo & Athena duo’s chemistry is perfect, the villain is a FANTASTIC bastard, and even the bit characters you meet during the investigation are total delights... Probably the best “standalone” case in the series, in that it doesn’t rely on any emotional connections to previous cases (unlike 2-2 and 3-4) to still totally and completely rule.

A tier: Turnabout Samurai (1-3), Turnabout Reclaimed (5-DLC).

For Turnabout Samurai, I remembered before this replay how delightful the TV SHOW STUDIO investigation and actor-fandom stuff was; I had TOTALLY forgotten Vasquez calling in her mob connections to try and wreck you. What a fantastic villain; what a fun case.

Turnabout Reclaimed is just good solid goofy nonsense. Probably receives a boost for me in particular because, yeah, Simon Blackquill. But then again who isn’t giving cases a boost on that account; they are MISSING OUT

B tier: The Stolen Turnabout (3-2). Ron and Desirée are so great sighs into hands

C tier: Listing roughly in order of preference: Turnabout Academy (5-3), Turnabout Serenade (4-3), Turnabout Sisters (1-2), Recipe for a Turnabout (3-3), Rite of the Turnabout (6-3), Rise from the Ashes (1-5).

Four of these (5-3, 4-3, 1-2, 3-3) are perfectly solid cases; I just don’t love them quite as much as “thievery hijinks” or “Hollywood hijinks” or other such particularly delightful flavors. Everyone has a favorite flavor of Jolly Rancher and all that.

Rite of the Turnabout is interesting and connected with the larger themes of the game in a cool way, and makes good use of the divination mechanic. However, the last bit gets twisty enough to actually be kind of confusing, and said larger themes of the game are... kinda hard for me to take seriously... which, yeah, leads to it feeling a little stilted when it really should be singing.

Rise from the Ashes landed awkwardly for me. I know it was added well after the first game’s release, and it does a good job of continuing some of the cool stuff from that game—it’s neat, in isolation, to see Phoenix and Edgeworth working together (while still sniping at each other!), and some of the DS-specific mechanics are neat. However, I just didn’t feel like I learned quite enough about Ema and Lana to care about them like I should, and retconning “(almost certainly true) rumors that Edgeworth was involved in Shady Shit TM” into “actually Edgeworth was totally ignorant of Shady Shit TM, like at worst his crime was willful ignorance / incuriosity, he was just been manipulated by the Police Chief”... makes Edgeworth less interesting to me! Like, it’s cool to see Edgeworth caught off-guard and under pressure, but I wish the circumstances had been different? Also Gant’s theme song is annoying as shit, which is petty but hey this is my blog post so

D tier: Turnabout Storyteller (6-4), Turnabout Corner (4-2), Turnabout Big Top (2-3), The Monstrous Turnabout (5-2).

Turnabout Storyteller has some fun gags with My Dude Simon and also Taka, but was heavily marred by Everyone Talking Down To Athena The Entire Fucking Case Oh My God Can You All Just Shut Up.

Turnabout Corner has... lots of fun elements but... look the fucking stolen-panties setup just grates ok

I don’t think I hate Turnabout Big Top the way most people seem to, but I did find the final murder setup more annoying that I remembered this playthrough—bro you were really sure the dude was going to conveniently stand right there and the heavy statue was definitely going to strike a killing blow and not just give the guy a concussion? ok lol

The Monstrous Turnabout suffers mostly from poor puzzle/investigation design, being too hand-hold-y, and also having a core gimmick/setting that just wasn’t really my thing. Alas!

#ace attorney #obviously these are just opinions. love what u love #but this was entertaining to type up lol

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diveronarpg · 5 years ago

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Congratulations, BREE! You’ve been accepted for the role of BIANCA. Admin Rosey: I think the first thing that came to mind was how powerfully you captured Bunny's voice, Bree. You. Absolutely. Killed it. Your plot points built upon one after the other which shows how you plan to lay the foundation for her and force her to grow, no matter how much she kicks up her heels about it. It can be difficult trying to force a character like Bunny to grow without taking away from what makes her so intriguing and fun, but wow. Am I so very glad to have her added to the ranks, ready to bring us chaos and absolute ruin. Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

Out of Character

Alias | Bree.

Age | Twenty.

Preferred Pronouns | She/her.

Activity Level | I’m studying engineering and running collegiately, so the short answer is that I’m not entirely sure. The long answer is that my activity will ebb and flow depending on my schedule; some weeks are easier than others. But I’ll do my damnedest to be around, even if that means firing off ugly-formatted replies on mobile (or having Rosey or Kiersten format them for me… we’ve done it before).

Timezone | CST.

How did you find the rp? | English class my senior year of high school, with the help of Rosey (no, seriously). I’ve been watching from afar, and I couldn’t stay away.

Current/Past RP Accounts | here, here, and here

In Character

Character | Bianca; Bernadette “Bunny” Dupont

What drew you to this character? | Well… originally, I wrote her. But since that sounds like a cop-out and I can never pass up the opportunity to wax poetic about one of my literary children, I’ll bite. ;)

She’s a piece of work. No, not that kind of work, not artwork—given her art forging expertise, that would be a cliché, and neither I nor Bunny are particularly fond of those. I mean that she’s single-handedly both the easiest and the most difficult character I’ve ever written and, I might argue, will ever write. Self-absorbed and yet oddly self-aware, vulgar in the delicate way only someone with a face like hers could be, and so tenderly cruel it’s endearing—she’s awful, but writing her has never been an inkling as heavy as writing equally diabolical characters has been in the past. She’s somehow able to be a light-hearted character in an environment where that sort of label tends to be reserved for characters like Maeve, all flower petals and naivete and ripe for the slaughter—without encompassing any of that. I don’t know, maybe it’s her youthful appearance, maybe it’s her love of candy and strawberries and her tendency to act so much like a child, or maybe it’s that careful balance between what she appears to be, what she’d like to be, and who she is, but she manages to check off some boxes that appear at first glance to be mutually exclusive. She lacks any concrete ambition outside of being revered, yet she possesses the potential to climb, to do some terrible things, because of that unfocused ambition. Her selfishness makes her a target for manipulation while being an avid manipulator herself. Her priorities are bottoms-up and she’s hardly got what most would call a good head on her shoulders, but damn if she isn’t a coquettish kind of cunning.

I thought I wouldn’t even know where to begin, but I’m having trouble finding where to end. The point is, I love this little brat.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? | Where do you see this character developing, and what kind of actions would you have them take to get there? 3 future plot ideas would be preferable.

Piss off, Picasso: It’s only fitting, I suppose, that a little girl so proficient at mocking her sister (and her friends) behind her doting parents’ backs should grow up and learn to put that art of imitation to good, more mature use in the mob. She’s got it all going for her, really; wealthy upbringing, an eye for detail, and a shameless disregard for plucking coins from the purses of others to feed her own greed—what could go wrong? Plenty. And while I’d definitely like to explore the aftermath of what might happen if she got sloppy and was found out, she’s got her fair share of trouble on her plate right now with her—er, bad publicity. So first, I’d like to see her do well. I’d like to see her get overconfident, make connections, be successful. Once she’s finished throwing her little tantrum about my next plot idea, she’ll probably be inclined to hone her skills, sell a few more paintings to get out of the hole she stumbled into. After all, respect isn’t earned in Bunny’s world; it’s bought.

Paparazzi: It’s not what it looks like. Come on, he isn’t even that cute. Bunny’s moment of weakness, if it can be called that, presents obvious potential for her to either pull herself up by the bootstraps (imagine) or dig herself even farther. This might be the first time she’s gotten into any real trouble, especially the kind that Daddy Dupont couldn’t fix, and she’s not going to handle it well. But her knee-jerk reaction should make for good comedy and some even better plots. How far will she go to prove that she’s still just as loyal to the Capulets as she’s always been (which is to say, not particularly?)? What other mistakes can she make? It’s time to get her pretty little hands dirty, I think. She’s too proud to ask her sister for help, but all bets are off when it comes to Cyrus. Hell, maybe even her connection to Boris can come into play here (counterproductive, probably).

This Is What Makes Us Girls: The relationship Bunny has with Maeve and Juliana is one of my favorite parts about her, because it’s one of the best means for me to flesh out and play with all of the different sides of Bunny. They’re a pretty integral part to the image she keeps up—both that of a dignified daughter and a girl still steeped in candy-lacquered youth, and it’s for that reason that her secret dislike/jealousy of them both is so… telling? Bunny’s conceited, sure, but she is—at her core—insecure. And insecure people—insecure teenage girls, although she’s aged out of that territory—do pretty terrible things. I want to explore the dynamic within this friend group. I want to see her sabotage something important to Juliana. I want to see her have Maeve do her bidding, see her put her friends in harm’s way. Betrayal doesn’t always call for bloodshed; sometimes cutting deep doesn’t call for a knife.

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | Eh… as much as I’d love to give the usual “yes, give me all the angst,” I’m not really sure that Bunny is the type of character whose death will serve a purpose/further the plot, to be honest. Only the good die young, and she’s anything but.

If at any point the plot calls for it, we can talk about it, but I don’t foresee her developing in such a way that I’d suggest it.

In Depth

What is your favorite place in Verona? |

That’s a stupid question, she thinks, smoothing out the hem of her skirt and settling contentedly into the plush armchair, half-business and half-play. It’s a copout, almost—the daytime equivalent of asking someone’s favorite color in truth or dare. It’s a wasted turn, a missed opportunity. If she wanted to write love letters to the streets of Verona, she’d pick up the noble art of journaling.

In any case, the answer was most certainly a harrowing tie between her clawfoot bathtub and the half of her king-sized bed farthest from the window—but that sounded so infantile even she might’ve quirked an eyebrow at such a response. This, she realizes, is what it’s like to grow older: to make terrible small talk over lukewarm tea and lie in more dignified ways than she had in her youth.

(She��s twenty-one years, two months, and three days old. This is middle age. This is melodrama.)

“There’s a little candy shop a few blocks from the foot of the Castelvecchio. Their chocolate-covered strawberries are to die for.”

What does your typical day look like?

She likes this one—likes the way it sounds like a question straight out of the magazines she reads in her near-infinite free time, all gloss and understated glamour. In fact, she’s spent a perhaps embarrassing amount of time crafting responses to such a question in the event that she were ever asked, and although this isn’t exactly the avenue she’d had in mind, it’ll do.

Let it never be said that Bunny Dupont cannot compromise.

“I like to wake before the sun,” she lies elegantly, matter-of-factly, knowing damn well that just this morning she’d slumbered until noon but eager to portray the image of a young woman with her shit thoroughly together. The corners of her pink lips turn up in a smile, as if the very thought of a sunrise sways her to cliché thoughts of new beginnings and second chances, of the kinds of phrases befitting the tacky dollar-store decorations Maeve collects like an old man does stamps. How very carpe diem of her.

“I wash my face, have a cup of tea, and try to get a bit of reading done.” When she puts it that way, it sounds quite a bit more like a sophisticated heiress devouring novels in the early morning light than the slightly-less-respectable-but-nonetheless-true alternative of a troublemaker surveying last night’s damage, pastries piled with whipped cream within arm’s reach.

“I like to meet my friends for brunch. Juliana and I are regulars at The Phoenix and the Turtle,” she says delicately, deliberate with her inclusion of the Capulet girl’s name and her exclusion of any others. “I’ll paint a bit in the afternoons…” The little blonde trails off, green eyes darting about as if calling the remainder of her routine to mind. The truth is that she’s already grown bored, and perhaps that’s her own fault; it can get exhausting, pretending to be responsible, truly exhausting—but playing pretend is too fun. “And home for dinner, always.”

What has been your biggest mistake thus far?

She twirls a strand of cotton-blonde hair around her finger, a coy display of sheepishness befitting a schoolgirl. What was her biggest mistake? The question demands a certain sort of humility, a level of introspection and honesty she’s never had the need to stoop to in all her years as the Dupont family darling, and if she were a tad less shameless it might even be a little—what’s the word?—unnerving. There was a reason she’d been dutiful enough to go to church on Sundays with her father but had avoided the confessional like her mother avoided carbs, and that reason had nothing to do—okay, fine, but only a little— to do with an aversion to being on her knees.

But she’s nothing if not an opportunist, a performer, and she treads the line between timid and cruel when she remarks, “I held a Montague boy’s hand once. Went home and went through two bars of soap.”

What has been the most difficult task asked of you?

“Firing a gun,” Bunny admits, leaning in as if to let the intern in on a secret, “It’s harder than I expected. “Pulling the trigger, I mean. Takes a bit more pressure than they show you in the movies.” Leave it to her to turn such a grim discussion to something a bit less uncomfortable, a bit more palatable. Leave it to her to dodge the—well, difficult—questions. When have you failed? When have you struggled? How have you grown?

In two words: she hasn’t. (In another two: not yet.)

What are your thoughts on the war between the Capulets and the Montagues?

Lingering in the air like her favorite perfume was a rule oft-spoken and waiting to be broken: no politics, it’s simply not lady-like. Her father’s banks backed the Capulets, and where the money went, the Duponts surely followed. For all her selfishness and disdain for anything which drew the attention away from her and her needs, Bunny Dupont understood the necessity of these things—of petty grudges and not-so-petty crimes—for people like them. Wars, even wars like these, needed money: a lot of it.

“I don’t feel I know enough to say much about it,” she says carefully, the gleam in her green eyes looking more like a trick of the light and less like a clue. “I only wish there weren’t so much blood.”

Why? It left a nasty stain.

Extras: If you have anything else you’d like to include (further headcanons, an inspo tag, a mock blog, etc), feel free to share it here! This is OPTIONAL.

Headcanons:

When she was little, she wanted to be an actress or an only child: the former, she told her parents, and the latter, she told her sister.

Her hard liquor of choice is vodka, the flavored kind—the sweeter, the better. She’s mastered the art of taking shots of it with a straight face after many years of practice.

Strawberries are her favorite. Chocolate-covered, in champagne—you name it.

In high school, she got her kicks by scaring off boys who approached her to get a leg-up on wooing Juliana. So many potential suitors shot down, convinced that Cosimo would have them shipped off to some foreign land without their heads or their manhood.

Once, she promised Maeve she’d get her crush to ask her on a date. She was only half a virgin after that. He never called Maeve.

She’s a Gemini (May 30th).

#accepted: bianca #accepted

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rockrevoltmagazine · 8 years ago

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INTERVIEW: George Lynch

KXM, the band featuring drummer Ray Luzier (KoRn), guitarist George Lynch (Lynch Mob, Dokken), and vocalist/bassist dUg Pinnick (King’s X) just released their sophomore effort Scatterbrain on March 17th to rave reviews. The follow up to their 2014 self-titled release, which landed at #31 on the Billboard Top 200, features 13 tracks behind the engineering of Chris “The Wizard” Collier (Flotsam & Jetsam/Prong/Last In Line). Drawing inspiration from prog, punk, metal, and ska, Scatterbrain is sure to take the listener on a musical journey. We had the opportunity to talk with guitarist George Lynch about their journey to KXM’s second record, how this band of three diverse rockers came to be, and yes we did ask the infamous question, what’s next for Dokken?

You just released your sophomore record, Scatterbrain; can you take us through the writing process and how it might differ from some of the other projects you’re involved in?

The philosophy behind KXM, anyone that follows the band pretty much knows it, we do not pre-write anything. We are not a band that sits around, lives together, rehearses and goes on the road. We just kind of meet up every couple of years in a recording studio and see what happens. We improvise, and that improvisational effort turns into a record after ten to twelve days.

I’m sure it must be a bit different from some of your other projects. If so, do you like it better this way?

Well it’s not entirely different from my other projects. Lynch Mob did something similar to that when we did the Sound Mountain Sessions. A lot of the Shadowtrain record was written that way as well. Quite honestly, my writing style is pretty much a jam session. The only difference with some of the recent records, when I say recent I mean recent decades, that differentiate those records from KXM would be that after the initial idea, we’ll spend more time arranging. But generally it’s kind of how I write. Basically the seat of my pants, spur of the moment, improvisational writing.

With Scatterbrain, are there one or two songs that you would say have the George Lynch stamp on it?

Ah, I think I’m all over everything. I think the whole point with a KXM record is that it’s not Lynch Mob; it’s not Dokken or anything else. It is its own unique thing. It’s a product of the chemistry between the three of us who are very equal in our contribution to the end result. Whereas most of my projects I’m taking on a bulk of the work on myself because of the fact that I have a guitar in my hands. The guitar player is writing the riffs. But in the case of KXM, that’s not the dynamic. The dynamic is that I’m a third of the creative force. Ray and dUg are equally contributing, and it’s a really interesting dynamic. A different dynamic than what I’m used to. I had to learn to take a little bit of a backseat. So, we have this record that is just not all me, which is wonderful. I was able to learn by getting outside my box a little bit. Reacting to Ray’s crazy tribal syncopated drum patterns and off times is something I normally don’t do. Normally I come up with something that’s a little more pedestrian; then the drummer comes in and matches my riff. Just adventurous as far as the drummer is concerned. KXM, a lot of times that song started with Ray, with some crazy tribal beat (laughing) that I had to adapt to. It was really fun, interesting. So, it was a whole different way of doing a record for me. And the results are quite different from anything I’ve done other than the first KXM record.

In terms of equipment, do you change up what you use with KXM. Are there stylistic differences?

I don’t really change my gear; although, I’ve got to say that my gear selection is pretty wide. In other words, I bring in a lot of options. I’ll bring in a truckload of different speaker cabinets, amplifiers, guitars, and pedal boards. Then I’ll do a lot of mixing and matching, changing up mid-stream with this amp and that amp, different configurations. But it’s nothing out of the ordinary; I just got a big mess of stuff up there (laughing). Whatever is best for that particular song or that day is what I do with most projects.

Obviously those that are familiar with KXM know the story of how you got together. You were attending Ray’s son’s birthday party, and late night the three of you started jamming. KXM came together from that, is that right?

Yeah but that’s a pretty boring story; we need to come up with a better one. Let me think of something here. Sometimes I lie about it and make up this crazy intricate tale about how we heard about this wizard on Mahollow Mountain in Tomacapeek. We had this secret map and made this quest, followed all these clues, and we were able to find this wizard. He doesn’t really accept anybody to get his direction, so we had to pass a series of tests. It’s kind of like the musical Karate Kid (laughing), you know wax on wax off. You know he’s a real wizard, he’s got a white beard, pointy hat, and a wand with special powers. He lives in a cave in a mountain. And we did the record there. So, that’s a better story then I was hanging out at a little kid’s birthday party (laughing).

Where did the name KXM come from?

Oh that’s another boring story; it’s just an amalgamation of our other band titles which is Korn, Lynch Mob, and King’s X. It’s kind of crazy all these different projects I’m involved in and so much creativity involved in them as far as the songwriting and the arrangements. Then at the end of the day, we could never come up with a decent band name; we fell flat on our faces. I have such a block about that; I don’t know why. All these younger bands – alternative bands and metal bands -have these cool creative names, and the only thing we can come up with is our initials.

Video for BREAKOUT

That seems to follow you around from Dokken to Lynch Mob and Sweet/Lynch.

I know T&N, Lynch, Lynch Mob, Lynch this Lynch that, and I’m like wtf? Here’s the problem with that quite honestly for us to do records and to monetize that we have to have record deals. The labels want to call the project something that is identifiable and that is my name or the others on project names to be able to sell it. They don’t want the Invisible Pumpkins; they want the George Lynch and Pilson or Sweet and Lynch or whatever. Something that is identifiable. That’s the problem I’ve had in recent years in coming up with a creative band name. For instance, I did a record in 1999 or 2000 called Smoke This, and actually the band was called “Lynch Mob.” It shouldn’t have never been called “Lynch Mob” as it wasn’t Lynch Mob really; it was a whole different band I got together in Phoenix, AZ, and these guys were more into the rap/metal kind of vibe. That’s kind of what the record was to an extent. The thing is the record company insisted that if they bought the record they would be able to call it “Lynch Mob.” So that’s between a rock and a hard place that I get caught in sometimes. I can stick to my guns and say I’m not calling it that, but guess what? Then we get no record deal. It’s a tough position to be in sometimes.

Your name has built a brand, right?

Yeah, but if a product is really cool, people will find it. If you build something that is valid, they will come. You know the label is important. You want something that really identifies in a cool way. Music is not like a widget; music is a creative endeavor, so we want to have kind of a creative cool label on it. A name on there that is imaginative, trippy and cool and describes it in a creative way rather than just a stale way. It’s one of my biggest frustrations in music actually is this little problem with having the naming thing.

Any tour dates being kicked around?

For KXM, no. Our philosophy on that, we debated this endlessly, is that if we sell enough records, we will be forced to tour. Make us tour basically. If we get to 40,000, which is a big number these days, then we will absolutely find a way to do some meaningful touring. Actually get across the country and hit most markets, which would take about two and a half months out of the year. A couple weeks to prep for it then to get out and hit 15 or 20 cities.

That 40,000 mark should happen as it is an amazing record. RockRevolt gave it our top rating.

Well that’s a big number these days. There’s a lot of internal reasons why that’s difficult. It’s not the 80’s anymore; we’re not on a major label. Major labels own the radio stations, well not actually own them but own access to them. If you’re on an independent record label, you have no access to radio, any kind of mainstream radio. You have college and internet and specialty shows. That’s a big deal because without that access people aren’t aware that you exist. There’s a lot of music coming out every month, thousands of releases, it’s hard to get through. Everybody is struggling to climb over everybody else to get noticed and heard. It’s a tricky tricky business. We do everything we can; I do dozens and dozens of interviews. I never deny an interview. I’ll sit here all afternoon and talk to people about the record. We’ll do anything in our power to make people aware that this record is out there. It’s definitely an uphill battle for all of us out here, new bands, older legacy bands. Name a band from the 80’s. Ratt puts out a new record it gets noticed but not by the same amount of people that bought Out of the Cellar. It’s a tough game.

Did you ever think of what you would be doing if you didn’t make it as a guitar player?

Oh yeah. I never thought in my wildest imagination that I would play guitar for a living. I’ve had every job on the planet, and the concept of doing this, making money at it, seemed ludicrous and never even occurred to me. It was just kind of a thing I fell into almost accidentally. I was playing music obviously but just to enjoy it because I loved being in a band and playing with my friends, writing songs, and playing guitar. I wasn’t trying to be a Rockstar or anything. I still had a job. I was managing fast food restaurants (laughing), worked in warehouses, a factory, I was a teamster truck driver, a plumber’s assistant. Then I was into construction. I’ve done just about everything you can think of. What else did I do? I worked in a furniture factory where I built furniture for a while. I worked in a factory that built toilets for airplanes and boats. I had a lot of weird jobs.

You’ve held down quite a few jobs. Do you recall the moment when you realized playing guitar would be your living?

Yeah, well it wasn’t really a clean transition; it was a couple year transition. In my late twenties, I was a teamster driving a liquor truck, and I actually continued to drive after Dokken signed our first record contract. Even our second record contract I was still driving a truck. In fact, I remember the day I signed the contract. I had to drive my work truck to Hollywood to the record company, go in sign the contract, and then go back to work. I kept working for maybe another year or so. In our experience, it wasn’t we went from one thing to the other immediately. It was a very slow transition. We ramped up. Our first bunch of shows and tours that we did we didn’t make any money. Our records really didn’t make any money. It took a while for that to kick in.

Not to get too much into it, but everyone is always curious about Dokken. It’s well documented the volatility of the relationship between Don (Dokken) and yourself. Do you think with Don being the founder of Dokken and the focal point then when you came in, maybe you took some of the spotlight away from him? Did that create some tension between the two of you? Or was it creative differences?

(long pause) Ah I don’t really want to re-litigate the whole Dokken thing. You know we did the little reunion thing last year. We’re working on a live DVD, a live record with some new studio tracks. Talking about doing an acoustic record. Maybe thinking about doing some more dates in 2018. For us we’re just putting all that garbage in the past and not holding on to old shit. The only reason I ever talk about it is because I do interviews with people, and they bring it up. I’ve got to stop being the unfiltered, open-book guy. I’ve got to learn to start filtering that.

Well I along with many others would love to see the four of you onstage together, so I won’t push the issue any further.

For that to happen, we’ve definitely got to let go of the old bullshit. It’s like the exes getting back together and arguing over why the broke up in the first place.

What about some of the other projects you have going on; is Lynch Mob working on anything at the moment?

That record has been in the can for a while and will be released in June. It’s called The Brotherhood. It’s a great record. Lynch Mob is a solid band; that’s my tour band. Oni (Logan-vocals) and I are the core of the band. Jimmy D’Anda (drums) and Sean McNabb (bass), they were in the band in the early 2000’s. We’re like brothers; this feels like the real band. It’s gelled, and it’s tight – a machine. Our records are consistent; our performances are consistent. That’s really my foundation at this point. So we’ve got a record coming out in June.

What about Sweet & Lynch?

Sweet & Lynch, I just finished writing that. We are in the studio right now on the East Coast tracking the drums with Brian Tichy and bass with James LoMenzo. That will be done probably in the next few weeks. Michael’s got almost all the lyrics and melodies written. That will go to mix soon.

Are you going to tour on it?

That’s always the million dollar question, a tricky one. When you’ve got four guys from four different bands, they are all busy and working. That’s a tough one.

What about your documentary, Shadowtrain: Under A Crooked Sky.

Yeah that’s Shadownation; we changed the name. Shadowtrain is the band; we put a record out a couple/few years ago. Until There’s Justice There Will Be No Peace is that name of the album. It’s an amazing album; it’s a two record, double CD with twenty songs. A very personal record for me. I wrote most of the lyrics and melodies. I’m not saying that to brag; I’m saying that because I’m proud. The subject matter is something very close to my heart. I’m passionate about and spent decades working on. I just felt compelled to express myself. In a less one-dimensional way than I normally do with just the guitar. That’s really a jewel of a personal record, something that might have gone under the radar a little bit. I would like to see the movie come out, but it’s just been a struggle as I’m not really an experienced movie person. I’m learning via the school of Hard Knocks what not to do the hard way. We’re hopefully getting close. The film has been done, but making a film without a plan and without any money is a difficult process. We’re getting there; hopefully this film will be out later this year. We’ve got Tom Morello and Ted Nugent; Serj from System of A Down is in it. I interviewed Noam Chomsky from MIT, a personal hero of mine. John Trudell and I wrote a song on the soundtrack. He passed away recently; we dedicated the film to John. He was a major force in the American-Indian movement. Hopefully Shadownation will be out before the end of the year. I have a few other projects, and I hesitate listing off all my projects because I think it gives people fatigue. They’re like, oh my god we can’t keep track of all this. But I’m just going to throw it out there. I’ve got a project called The Banishment that I’ve been working on for about five years. The singer is Tommy Victor from Prong, and it has an industrial vibe to it. Not pure industrial, but it is industrial like. I’ve always been a big fan of that kind of music. I always thought how awesome that would be to hear a band like that but with what I imagine a guitar doing. Or with Eddie Van Halen in it or something, that kind of feel. And I thought I would love to create that someday because I never heard anything like that before. That’s what we tried to do. Lastly I have this project called Ultrafonics with Corey Glover from Living Colour and the rhythm section from Tower of Power and War. That is basically an extension of Project Nfidelikah, which is a record I put out about two years ago that has a lot of funk elements and trippier elements with the singer from Fishbone, Angelo Moore. On this record we decided to change the name of the band because we got a new singer. It’s an incredibly fun record with all the funk elements but also some of the 70’s hard rock, trippy elements. The way I like to describe it: it sounds like early Chili Peppers meets old Judas Priest meets King Crimson. It’s even got some prog elements to it. A very interesting piece of work. So we’ve got all the music written for that and just finishing up on arrangements. We’ve finished three songs with Corey and another eight songs to finish up vocally. Then we’ll mix it. That will be coming out later in the year.

What do you think of the current political state in the U.S. and the building of the wall on the Mexican border?

Well without alienating any of my fans or potential fans on the right, we’re living in a very scary time potentially. I think people in some sense have lost track; I think really when you get down to it foundationally you have to agree on is the fact that when we take care of each other we are at our best. That form of altruism is why we’ve succeeded as an organism long term. And when we start taking the view that we want to be selfish, fearful, and greedy and pick up the philosophy of “I’ve got mine, fuck you” that’s when things start falling apart. That was the fall of the Roman Empire and the decline of Western civilization. We really need to treat ourselves and the planet that sustains us compassionately and with intelligence and new science based logic to manage ourselves. We need to be an educated society and a compassionate society and work for the greater good.

Well stated, I couldn’t agree more. Any final words for the fans?

I would just like to express my appreciation to you and to the people that read your magazine for tuning in and giving a shit. Keeping rock n roll alive. Music is such an important thing in these trying times. Music is really a sort of medicine for all of us. It’s kind of the wilderness of the mind I like to describe it as. It has that thing that we really can’t completely understand, but it’s so absolutely essential to all of us for our mental health and well being. We’re all creative beings and we share that whether you’re a guitar player or you appreciate music or whatever. We are all on the same wavelength here.

Well I’ve been a fan of yours since the early 80’s, and it’s been an absolute privilege to speak with you today. I look forward to all your projects and of course your new KXM record, out now, which is fantastic. I wish you the best of luck going forward and hopefully will see you on the road with one of your projects in the near future.

We’ll definitely be out there with Lynch Mob. And thank you.

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INTERVIEW: George Lynch was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

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