Sometimes the bio says it all: “JD McGibney is a warrior guitarist that conquers is battlefields on the wings of dragons. Uniting with the forces of likeminded individuals, he fights to strengthen worldly brotherhood and lays his experiences bare for others to see the power of one’s trials and tribulations. With a humble beginning on Long Island, New York, JD McGibney developed a strong bond with playing guitar. He found that the anxiety and inner turmoil growing within him throughout adolescence was kept at bay with the power of music. This act of self discovery began his mission to help others conquer their own inner demons. Through his candid transparency JD McGibney uses the communal bonding power of music and entertainment to remind people that no matter what their struggle, they are never alone.” We had to check out such an inspiring story and here it is…
Mark: Hey JD!
JD: Hi Mark how are you?
Mark: Not too bad, how are you doing?
JD: I’m doing well. Things are good.
Mark: It’s strange times we’re living in but I guess one day we might look back and wonder about it all? Thanks for taking the interest in talking today anyone who catches my attention I try to catch up with and the ‘Chinese Folk Metal’ you mentioned did it for me.
JD: Thank you so much for agreeing to chat.
Mark: No problem. Let’s talk music! ‘Angels on the Battlefield’ I’ve watched your videos, I’ve read up a bit on the Project but for those that haven’t heard about it tell us about the Project and when it begin for you?
JD: Well AOTB started I would say maybe about ten years ago give or take, my judgement of time went out of the window with covid a little bit! I was in a band on Long Island and the band basically disbanded and I knew I still wanted to pursue music but at the time I was still figuring out how to go about doing it professionally. So AOTB came about as my artistic release to go about pursuing a career in music.
Mark: It’s an interesting project and the more I listen, the more I like it. How would you describe it to someone unfamiliar with what you do?
JD: The concept?
Mark: Yes the concept is a great place to start.
JD: Well the concept behind AOTB really is to remind everyone that no matter what is going on that you always have the strength and the ability to kind of take on life as it approaches you. That you’re able to conquer your battlefields whatever they may be. Even though there are no lyrics.
Mark: And musically how would you describe what we’ll be listening to?
JD: I would definitely describe it as ‘Epic Instrumental Metal’.
Mark: Let’s dig further – when someone mentions in the second line of their email that they’ve toured with Chinese Folk Metal bands it conjures up some wonderful images, I know Metal is pretty diverse these days and some of the descriptions are rather wonderful, I think my favourite recently was a pitch about ‘Industrial Folk Metal’ – I sat there thinking surely those two things are hugely at odds?
JD: I’m trying to imagine that and it sounds like it would be the craziest mist awesome thing to be listening to! (laughs)
Mark: (laughs)
JD: (laughs)
Mark: So tell us about Chinese Folk Metal – we see a lot of Folk influences these days – how does Chinese Folk Metal differ from lets say the more familiar Scandinavian or Northern European?
JD: Well the band that I that I played with was called Voodoo Kung Fu and I played guitar with them on a tour that they did back in 2017. And basically when they say Folk Metal they take Chinese Folk music and incorporate it into the music, so you have a lot of those melodies and time signatures – which go into teh arrangements and there’s also a lot of traditional instruments thrown in there – there’s like a two string instrument with a horse head, like a horsehead cello played with a bow. There’s also a lot of Western classical instruments in there and some Asian drums. And they all sit there with the traditional Metal electric guitar and the bass and regular drum set.
Mark: We do get some Indonesian and Pacific Islands Metal so I’m assuming it’s quite similar.
JD: I think so, there’s bands like Alien Weaponry from New Zealand which have that rhythmic element.
Mark: So where did it begin for you JD? Take us all the way back – where did first of all the love of the guitar come from and then the Metal?
JD: It’s kinda funny actually I hated Metal when I first got into music – I used to think “What is this yelling stuff?” I actually didn’t like music for a really long time because my mother controlled the radio and she used to listen to a lot of 50’s ad 60’s bubblegum pop. There was lots of Lesley Gore on the Radio! (laughs)
Mark: It’s my Party? (laughs)
JD: I mean it’s classic, just not my cup of tea. But where it started was I actually discovered Ozzy Osbourne – I was watching the movie ‘Little Nicky’ – I was like 12 or 13 and they played a lot of Ozzy and I thought “Oh my god they’re doing this in music! This is a thing? And when I came out of the theater I said to my Dad “DO you know this Ozzy guy?” and he said “Oh yeah” and he started showing me all these Black Sabbath records that he had that were in the house that I had no idea they even existed. So then I stated going through his whole record collection. I really got drawn into the Classic Rock realm and got really big into bands like Steppenwolf and Santana. And I actually got inspired to pick up guitar after hearing ‘N.I.B.’ by Black Sabbath on the radio. I was like “I want to do that” and I then slowly got into the heavier stuff because I wanted to challenge myself and it just happened that the people I was hanging around with were listening to Metal and the more difficult things tended to be heavier and heavier. And then I went to Ozzfest in 2004 – my first concert ever and I just saw nothing but heavy metal from like 9am to 11pm and it was like something clicked inside of me – I got the yelling part then – I understood teh intensity. Then it was down the rabbit hole – it just got heavier and heavier for me.
Mark: Going instrumental always interest me, I always imagine as an artist its quite challenging not to have the lyrical content. But your music seems to me to be quite enticing, some great guitar but also many other layers and a story to it, albeit without words.
JD: Thank you very much!
Mark: It’s interesting for me because like you for many years I avoided Metal. I loved everything from Blues to Hard Rock but the heavier stuff I avoided until many years ago the band that got me interested was Trivium and the appreciation grew from there.
JD: They’re a great band.
Mark: I guess the next question is – what are you plans for AOTB? Where are you taking it? Obviously we’re in strange times at the moment but what do you hope to do with the music? What’s the next step?
JD: The next step is I’m currently working on a live stage show. I’m in teh middle of putting together a budget that way I can approach it like a business rather than just say “Hey look I can play guitar!” (laughs) So that’s kind of the next step and once I have the budget and know how much it’s gonna cost I can start talking to teh industry people and say “Hey I have an actual business proposition.”
Mark: So what are you thinking for visuals for the project?
JD: Definitely a dragon – that 100% needs to be there, so definitely a very large dragon on stage. Each of the stories, or songs has a narrative that goes along with it – so there’s an actual story that’s playing out. And the plan is also to do a series of narrative music videos so that you see the story unfolding along with the instrumental music.
Mark: Now that would tie it all together beautifully.
JD: Thank you.
Mark: So how can people support you with the project? Can they help you with it?
JD: Of course. I have links and information on my website, so you can go there and check out music. I’m also in talks with two mental health organizations to partner up.
Mark: That was something I wanted to touch on because you mentioned NAMI was one of them. A great cause and a lot of people if not everyone are touched by mental health issues at some point either directly or indirectly.
JD: Right now I’m working on a side project – just one song, to build up that partnership with NAMI – basically that song that will come out later this year, I will be donating a portion of the profits to NAMI to help them provide education to people on mental health – basically for them to provide connections to professionals for those who do need that assistance.
Mark: It sounds like Covid has given you some spec to plan everything out?
JD: You’ve definitely got to be adaptive in these crazy times, and I feel like sitting around just twiddling my thumbs, not being able to leave my house would drive me insane. So i found something to keep me busy.
Mark: So let’s track back again. We heard what inspired you to pick up that guitar, but tell us how it happened.
JD: I was 14. My Dad picked me up from school one day and we were driving home and N.I.B. like I mentioned earlier by Black Sabbath comes on the radio. And I was listening to it and something just clicked and I was enthralled the entire way through and the song literally ended as we parked in the driveway. And I just turned to my Dad and said “I want to play guitar.” (laughs) And he said “It just so happens that I tried playing guitar when I was like 10 or 11 so I think your Grandparents still have my old acoustic.” They did, so we went and dug it out of a closet somewhere and the thing was just beat up, because it wasn’t stored properly the bridge was coming off, the action was like three miles away from the neck, but I picked it up and basically I’ve played guitar almost every day since picking up that beat up acoustic.
Mark: So where did it go from there, where did you start? What were your first bands like? Have things changed very much over the years?
JD: Oh yeah, very much so. (laughs) I was born and raised in Long Island New York, which is cut off from the rest of the World because it’s literally an island. It’s big enough that it’s almost self-sustaining, bust it’s small enough that everyone knows everyone’s business.
Mark: Something I imagine is quite unusual for New York.
JD: Oh yeah.
Mark: Strangely I’m not sure I’ve ever been to Long Island, I don’t think.
JD: You don’t ever need to go to Long Island! (laughs) Wait, have you been to Brooklyn or Queens?
Mark: I have,
JD: Then you’ve technically been to Long Island, though people from Brooklyn and Queens will never admit that they’re part of the same body of land! (laughs)
Mark: (Laughs) So what’s the next thing you’ll be releasing from the Project?
JD: The next thing will be a single called ‘Voices in the Dark’ and we’re looking to get it out at the end of October.
Mark: I shall look out for it. Let’s close out with a few tricky ones. If you could have been a ‘Fly on the all’ for the creation of any great album from any point in time, what would you have loved to have been in the studio to have seen being created?
JD: That’s a hard question… I think I’d have to go with ‘Alive or Just Breathing’ by Killswitch Engage because that album is the album that made me want to play music for the rest of my life.
Mark: I was just listening to that the other day. Very high praise indeed!
JD: A great album. I love that album.
Mark: What makes a great song? What draws you in?
JD: Musically what draws me in first is some sort of hook. But I feel like for me a hook is a variety of things – vocally I think I like a lot of Punk as well as a lot of lyrics that make me thing, but equally I love my meathead metal and the meat and potatoes. But what I love most I think is when I can tell that the musicians are giving a real performance and letting themselves go, I think that’s what I like most. You can tell if someone is good but when they really let their emotions flow out, there’s nothing like that. You can hear that on the recording.
Mark: And the really easy one to close. ‘What is the meaning of life?’
JD: I believe that the meaning of life is for us to understand ourselves, and to understand the universe around us. But I don’t think we’re meant to fully understand everything at any specific point – we’re meant to go out and explore. We’re meant to go out and meet other people and build connections with people. I think it’s that we’re meant to experience and explore what we have.
Mark: A nice open answer. Thank you. Now I think it’s time for us all to go and check out ‘Angels on the Battlefield’. I shall add the link to the site.
JD: Thank you. I keep everything updated on the website – news, videos, links, it’s all there and go there and interact!
Mark: Sound good I know I shall enjoy watching how things go for you over the coming years.
JD: Thank you.
Mark: And I shall be looking out for that stage show. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us JD.
JD: Thank you so much Mark.