Following a sold out UK and Eire tour in October 2017 which culminated in a sold out night at London’s Electric Ballroom, Inglorious have been chosen again as main support to Steel Panther during their UK tour.
This quintet succeeded to climb UK Rock Charts at No 1 and UK Album Chart at 22 with Inglorious II released on the 12th May 2017. This new album has been highly acclaimed by all major press so far. It has been produced by the band and mixed by the legendary Kevin Shirley. This is an album that shows the band’s influences of 70s rock ‘n roll mixed with a truly contemporary feel, all overlaid with the unique and powerful vocals of Nathan James. Today we get to have a chat with Nathan after their sound check before the well-awaited show with Steel Panther at the Eventim Apollo in London.
RAMzine: How did the tour with Steel Panther happen and how’s that going so far?
Nathan: I think that it happened because we supported Steel Panther on tour in Europe eighteen months ago and we got that gig thanks to my friend Helen who brought a friend to one of our shows and that friend was Paul Geary, Steel Panther’s manager. I think he enjoyed the show, at the time he was also managing Glenn Hughes, so when Steel Panther needed an open act in Europe he picked us and hopefully we did a good job on that tour, that he asked us to do this one too.
It’s been really good so far, it’s nice being back with Steel Panther.
RAMzine: Did anything particularly fun happen during this tour?
Nathan: I had food poisoning for three days so that wasn’t fun. Apart from that, just playing in these venues has been fun, it’s one of those things that you put on your bucket list. These venues are all iconic, I’ve seen some of my favourite artists playing here before. Just last week I saw Black Country Communion here at Hammersmith Apollo.
RAMzine: What’s one of your biggest achievement so far?
Nathan: As a band, I think what we just announced… which is Download Festival main stage! This is like everything you wanted as a kid, so to say that we get to walk out on the main stage at Download it’s definitely going to be a big achievement.
But also we sold out our last London show at the Electric Ballroom, there were 1100 people there and that to us is very special because it means a lot that all those people have spent money to come and see us and have a good time.
RAMzine: What are your all-time favourite bands?
Nathan: Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Foreigner, Journey, Guns ‘N Roses, Queen, Rainbow.
RAMzine: You made a name for yourself having appeared on reality shows and having sung for Uli Jon Roth from Scorpions and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, how did these experiences help you grow and eventually form Inglorious?
Nathan: I’ve learnt different things from different experiences. From the reality TV, I’ve learnt to have a thick skin and to not always listen to what people say because a lot of time they are wrong.
From Uli, I have learnt the importance of keeping your music live, in fact when we recorded his DVD and album it was all 100% live and I really like that, in fact, I use it in my own band too.
From Trans-Siberian Orchestra I’ve learnt professionality, musicianship and that you have to be good on tour. You have to have stamina to do all those gigs and you have to stay professional but also be a nice guy backstage, making good impressions really matter.
RAMzine: Which one of your songs makes you particularly proud?
Nathan: I think that’s gotta be ‘Holy Water’ just because everyone knows it and even the people that are seeing us for the first time will be hopefully leaving with that catchy riff stuck in their mind.
RAMzine: What kind of impact and feedback has your second album received?
Nathan: Amazing, really good feedback and that meant a lot to us because this time around it was just us writing the album, we had no guest writers so we are glad people liked the songs. And also we got to work with Kevin Shirley who is the best. To have him mixing the album has been an honour especially when you think about who he has worked with. Bands like Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Iron Maiden. It’s a lot of pressure but it’s definitely a step up from our first album.
RAMzine: You’ve recently gone on tour in my home country, Italy, supported by the guys from Dobermann. How was that experience?
Nathan: Good fun, I really liked Italy. We did that one show in Milan and it was great fun! They are such nice guys. We’ve been in Italy a couple of times before, in Rome with The Winery Dogs and then again we’ve done Milan with Steel Panther and with Frontiers Rock Festival too. We love Italy!
RAMzine: What’s next for Inglorious?
Nathan: Writing and recording the third album and then playing Download of course!
