LIGHT THE TORCH Vocalist HOWARD JONES Talks Demise Of DEVIL YOU KNOW: 'It Was A Rough Ride'

Prior to LIGHT THE TORCH‘s October 19 performance in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, vocalist Howard Jones (ex-KILLSWITCH ENGAGE) spoke with Cameron Buchholtz of the city’s 100.5 The KATT radio station. The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the delay between the release of the group’s debut album, “Revival”, and their current tour with TRIVIUM and AVATAR:

Howard: “I had some stuff in the pipe, and we switched [to] new management. It was basically just kind of making plans and getting everything solidified. Now we are up and rolling.”

On the “headache” of ending DEVIL YOU KNOW and starting from scratch with LIGHT THE TORCH:

Howard: “It was beyond that. Changing a band’s name and dumping trademarks and merchandise… I personally threw away hundreds of shirts. It’s done. [I] had to kind of walk away from it — for the best. It was very unfortunate. It’s not fun to lose a band member/friend, but these things happen, I guess. But wow — it was a rough ride. Basically, we all owned a portion of the name and wanted to buy it out. A member who had his portion decided he didn’t want to, and we said we’d rather go on without the name. It wasn’t a money thing — just too much hassle after removing him from the band. It just kept going and going. So, we changed the name, and we were kind of without anything. We didn’t really have a contract; we didn’t have a band name. So, we just started writing at the beginning of 2017, so on our own dime, we went in and recorded the album. Once Monte [Conner, A&R for Nuclear Blast Entertainment] heard we were recording, he was like, ‘You’ve got to stop. We don’t have a contract or anything.’ Well, we’re about a couple hours away from being done, so I’m not going to stop now. I’d had about five names or so, so we chose, wrote it on the disc and mailed it to him. That’s pretty much how it worked out.”

On KING FIGHTER, his new band with Peter Wichers (ex-SOILWORK):

Howard: “Peter filled in for Adam D. when I was still with KILLSWITCH [ENGAGE]. Adam had back surgery; Peter filled in; we became friends; and we had talked about doing a project down the road. Down the road happened to be some years, but here we are. The first single is finished and will be coming out probably some time after the [TRIVIUM/AVATAR] tour is finished. There will be more stuff coming from that, too.”

On contributing to Dee Snider‘s new album, “For The Love Of Metal”:

Howard: “I got to write for him and got to sing with him on one song. That was really surreal. It was awesome, but still surreal — like, ‘That happened?’ Surreal, but very, very fun, and had such a great time doing that.”

On his other musical projects, including his guest appearance on the new KILLSWITCH ENGAGE album:

Howard: “I’m never doing one thing… I’ve been writing [for] CROBOT. Fantastic band. I’m writing for some bands on Century Media, and also I’ve hooked up with a guy who writes some theme music for some wrestlers. That’s something else that’s coming down the pike. I flew up and sang on a song with Jesse [Leach] and the [KILLSWITCH] guys. That was fun.”

“Revival” was released on March 30 via Nuclear Blast Entertainment.

In addition to Jones, LIGHT THE TORCH features guitarist Francisco Artusato (ALL SHALL PERISH), bassist Ryan Wombacher (BLEEDING THROUGH) and drummer drummer Mike “Scuzz” Sciulara (EXTINCTION A.D.).

DEVIL YOU KNOW‘s name change was prompted by a dispute with the band’s former drummer, John Sankey, who left the group in June 2016.

DEVIL YOU KNOW released two albums through Nuclear Blast Entertainment: 2014’s “The Beauty Of Destruction” and 2015’s “They Bleed Red”.

In addition to playing songs from its debut, LIGHT THE TORCH is performing DEVIL YOU KNOW songs at its live shows.

Fonte: Blabbermouth.net