When ex-Judas Priest veteran K.K. Downing first saw Tailgunner in action, they had a wow factor he hadn’t heard in years.
“They have an unashamed appreciation for what came before them,” Downing says. “There was the original New Wave of British Heavy Metal – bands like Priest, Maiden, Saxon, Def Leppard, Venom and Diamond Head – but after punk, things changed. Tailgunner definitely have that NWOBHM sound; if they were around in 1983, they would have been very popular.”
He also felt that with his expertise he could give them a better shot at the success they clearly deserved.
“Every new band needs some kind of mentorship or guidance,” he says. “That whole ‘Come this way and things will be better’ type of thing. So I decided to offer up the knowledge I’ve accrued over the years, and now everything seems to be going in the right direction.
“Production-wise, I knew it would be fairly straightforward. I didn’t want to fix anything that wasn’t broken. They sound and play great, so it was just a case of polishing it up a bit. That’s how you get it across to the masses."
After so many years at the forefront of metal evolution, Downing is proud to still have younger musicians looking up to him. It’s been a lot of hard work, and he’s glad it doesn’t go unnoticed.
“Today’s musicians know I’ve got a lot of miles on the clock,” he says. “They can see how many albums I’ve made, how many songs I’ve written and how many gigs I’ve played.
It might look like I’m looking from the future toward the past, but there’s plenty of good stuff still to come from me.”
- This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.
