CHRIS CAFFERY

Metal Heaven Signs CHRIS CAFFERY

Metal Heaven Records has issued the following press release:

CHRIS CAFFERY truly is one of the most respected and versatile guitarists in the Metal world today. Starting in 1984 with the band HEAVEN, he first met producer Paul O’Neill who introduced Chris to US Metal legends SAVATAGE in 1987 and in 1996 Savatage's song 'Christmas Eve Sarajevo' led to the formation of the extra-ordinary US Platinum act TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA. The latest TSO tour, in which Chris was the frontman as well as lead guitarist, sold one million tickets.

After numerous tours and recordings with these bands and other projects the time was finally right for Caffery’s first solo album entitled Faces (2004) which was right away followed by the CD W.A.R.P.E.D. in 2005. These releases for the first time saw Caffery also taking over the lead vocals duties. His band consists of Paul Morris (RAINBOW, DORO) on keyboards, Nick Douglas (Doro) on bass guitar, Jeff Plate (Savatage, METAL CHURCH) and Yael (MY RUIN, FIREBALL MINISTRY) on drums as well as Dave Z on bass guitars.

Pins And Needles exactly continues here. The songs definitely are deadringers for any Savatage fan once again. However, there is a more powerful, aggressive, experimental and focused attack that is sure to catch the ears of any metal fan. The album was produced by Caffery together with Nik Chinboukas at Nik’s Hot Tracks Studio, Spin Studios and Happy Beaver Studios, Astoria, NY.

The limited edition first pressing of this release will be a digi-pack includiing the bonus track 'Once Upon A Time'.

Pins & Needles (artwork pictured) tracklisting:
'Pins & Needles',
'Sixty-Six',
'Torment',
'Walls',
'YGBFKM',
'Sad',
'Chained',
'Worms',
'Crossed', 'The Time',
'Metal East',
'Qualdio',
'The Temple',
'Once Upon A Time' (bonus track).

CHRIS CAFFERY Touches Base On Fanclub Issues, Logo Search And Copyright Infringement


SAVATAGE / DOCTOR BUTCHER / TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA guitarist Chris Caffery has issued the following update:

"Hi all!

Had a great time last night at the Metal Church - Overkill show in NYCity. Tons of friends in the building. Great to see Jeff with the guys. Blitz was amazing as usual! Gotta love an Overkill show in NYCity.

A few things to touch base on...

#1 - Fan club issues. I still hear that there are lots of people who have not received all of the items they were promised. I asked people to e-mail me directly on this matter. Talking amongst yourselves and placing blame is nothing I can stop, but I still think you need to know few things. I was unaware of many of these situations. I had sent money from my pocket to cover items that were supposed to be shipped. I have not made a dime from the club and have like I said spent money on trying to make things right. So...here is what I can do. If you still have an issue and are missing things email me and let me know. I will either refund you your money for the missing item/s immediately or determine if the amount of money is equal to that of the price of the new CD. I will send you the CD when I get copies to sell here. This whole situation was and is very embarrassing to me. This is why there is no new fan club sturcture even being discussed now. Until this is solved and everyone is settled I will not move forward on this matter. Once again, I am very sorry for this and will do whatever it takes to make sure each person gets what they paid for.

#2 - Many people have been making notes about me and the lack of a logo on my CD. Well, as I have said I did not like anything I had enough to put it on the CD. Anything I saw took away from Seth's art! SO!!! I am encouraging anyone with logo ideas to send them to me or post them in the graphic hounds forum. If there is a logo I would like to use it will wind up on the US release of the CD!

#3 - My new photos are copyrighted and are not to be used anywhere for any reason without permission. Please email me if you would like to use them. Please be aware that places like My Space you cannot use copyrighted photos without permission. This can and WILL terminate your account there so please do the right things with stuff that you do not own or have permission to use.

Back to work, my interviews start tomorrow. I am really excited to begin talking about the new CD."

Peace
C

As previously reported, Caffery has signed with Metal Heaven for the release of his new album, Pins And Needles.
The tracklist is as follows:
'Pins & Needles',
'Sixty-Six', 'Torment',
'Walls',
'YGBFKM',
'Sad',
'Chained',
'Worms',
'Crossed',
'The Time',
'Metal East',
'Qualudio',
'The Temple',
'Once Upon A Time' (bonus track).

CHRIS CAFFERY - Sorting Out Setlist For Upcoming European Tour

SAVATAGE / TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA / DOCTOR BUTCHER guitarist Chris Caffery has issued the following update:

"One week 'til I leave for Europe. Should be yet another adventure!

Yesterday Paul L. stopped over and we had what was kinda the first rehearsal for the Pins tour. He was playing great. I think this stuff will be a lot of fun live. Trying to figure out what to do from the 'old' stuff....funny to think of Faces and WARPED as the old records!

You know that 'Pisses Me Off' will be there. I love to play 'Abandoned' as well...'The Mold', 'X', 'Fool', 'Darknses'...I think these may surface...

New CD...hard to say...'66', 'Time', 'Torment', 'Chained', and I think I want to open with 'Sad'.

Not sure what Sava to do because Zak and Jon are both touring; don't want to make it too much of a Sava fest...there will be something. I was thinking it would be fun to play 'Wake Of Magellan' because I could solo for a long time at the end and have fun with that! Not sure...

Johnny Mac will come here tonite to get his CD and then it will be full on rehearsals in March...

CHRIS CAFFERY - "Metal Is Still Metal, But What It Says And How It Is Being Said Has Changed A Lot"

Greek online mag Metalzone.gr recently caught up with SAVATAGE guitarist Chris Caffery to dicuss his new solo album, Pins And Needles. The following is a brief excerpt from the interview:

Metalzone: Black Lotus (Caffery's former label)... the label doesn’t exist any more. What do you think was the reason that the label didn’t go well? Were you satisfied while you were a member of it?

Chris Caffery: "The reasons were simple. The business has changed and it is difficult for any label to stay operating. Black Lotus I feel tried to grow too quickly. They were great to work with and did as good of a job as you could have expected but I think there were too many bands on the label and there was a tremendous amount of money going out without the same money coming in. Studio budgets, promotion, etc. They were more than fair and the world-wide CD sales market was not strong enough to give them the capitol to continue. It is a shame because I really feel with a little luck they could have grown into a very strong label."

Metalzone: You have been part of the Heavy Metal scene more than 20 years. What’s the difference between Heavy Metal in the early years of 1980 and nowadays?

Chris Caffery: "Hmm...I think back then it seemed to be a bit more light hearted and fun. In general you had a scene that was about partying, girls, MTV. Now it is dark, realistic and a bit more angry. I think the music matches the mood of the world. 2007 is a very aggressive time and this attitude shows in the new metal. Overall, metal is still metal but what it sez and how it is being said has changed a lot. Funny thing is what I have been doing I have really not changed much at all! I have always had more fun making the heavier, darker music!"

Metalzone: Do you believe that heavy metal in our days has to do more with money than feelings as it was used at the 80’s?

Chris Caffery: "I think it was the opposite. I think in the 80's everything had to do with money...but there was so much to go around that things were not as stressful. A new band on a major label would get more money than a multi-platinum act gets now for a CD. So, nowadays I think you pay attention to money more and the business is so fragile that people can't afford to lose money so I think it may seem like things are more formulated at times, but people are scared of losing their jobs, their whole companies. It is a way more conservative, reality based business."

Metalzone: What’s your opinion about nu-metal?

Chris Caffery: "I like new metal. A lot of it. It is agressive and the bands are getting more into the musical side again. It is funny because the trends change so fast...one year it is power metal, then a few years later grunge, then goth, then thrash/death...now it is a bit of a combination of them all. But, darker and heavier. I like it! Even if sometimes I cannot understand what the singers are singing!"

To read the entire interview go to this location.

CHRIS CAFFERY Drummer YAEL Launches New MySpace Page; Instrumental Demo Of 'Mettle Eastern' Available

Ex-MY RUIN drummer Yael, who performed on SAVATAGE / TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA guitarist Chris Caffery's new solo album, Pins And Needles, has launched a new MySpace page. It features audio samples of her work, including an instrumental demo of the song 'Mettle Eastern', which appears on Pins And Needles. Go to at www.myspace.com/drumaddictinc to check it out.

Yael performed on all tracks for the album. To hear audio samples of the songs 'The Time' and 'Pins And Needles' go to this location.

Caffery's touring drummer is John Macaluso.

TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA/SAVATAGE Guitarist Chris Caffery Says Illegal Downloading The Cause For RIAA Assault On Internet Broadcasters

TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA/SAVATAGE guitarist Chris Caffery appeared on The Classic Metal Show (www.theclassicmetalshow.com
) on Saturday, May 5th to promote his latest release, Pins & Needles. During the course of the discussion, Caffery was asked about his take on the RIAA and their attempt to raise royalty rates for internet broadcasters to the point where it would force most internet radio broadcasters out of business. The always candid Caffery discussed the issue in detail, indicating that illegal downloading has forced the music business to desperately reach anywhere they can to make money, even if it forces avenues of publicity out of business in the process. Caffery, a strong supporter of Internet Radio, indicated that it’s just the unfortunate circumstance of a much bigger problem in the music community today.

The Classic Metal Show: You are definitely an artist that has used the internet and internet radio to help promote your projects. You do a lot with your website, and you have hosted internet radio shows as well as doing interviews like you are doing here. What is your take, as an artist that uses the internet, on the raise in royalties that has been imposed by the RIAA?

Caffery: The industry is so achy right now, and everything has gone so toward the digital medium now that I guess there’s just a lot of people that are trying to find a place any way they can to get paid. If you look at what’s happened to record sales, they’ve taken a percentage nosedive that’s pretty much unfathomable. If you would have asked anybody back in 1990 what record sales would be like in 2007, I don’t think anyone would have guessed they’d be where they are now. It’s a really difficult time. The bottom line is that somebody somewhere has to get paid in order for the industry to continue. It’s really a difficult thing. Unless it’s all going to go independent, which it almost looks like it might lean that way. But at that point, how do you even assemble who is on TV? How do you assemble who is going to advertise? The record companies have always been the channel to the mass media. They’ve kind of been like the organizers. It’s like in the international community. If you have all the soccer teams, somebody has to hold the team together and get it together. Someone has to go out and work out the deal with Nike. Somewhere, there’s got to be some kind of organization. Right now it’s just this freeform thing. The only bands that are going to make any money are the ones that are going to be touring live and will try to generate music sales off of the net. But if people keep stealing, that’s going to disappear more and more. It’s like when my record started appearing on the MP3 sites. People were going, “well, your record is available here for X amount of dollars, and it’s not illegal in Russia.” You know what? You don’t live in Russia. Just because something is not illegal in Russia doesn’t mean that you should download something for free from Russia living in the United States, because it is illegal here to download it for free. If the majority of bands were selling [back then] what they are selling now, they would have never even gotten deals. They would have been laughed off the major labels. There were hundred thousand dollar deals and million dollar deals being handed to just about anybody when you had a record deal in the late 80s and early 90s. Now, record companies want to basically only hand people enough money to pay for the food in the studio."

The Classic Metal Show: We’ve asked this same question several times to people like yourself, KK Downing (JUDAS PRIEST) and Don Dokken (DOKKEN), and each time downloading has come up. Is it your position as a musician that Internet Radio is allowing people to download music illegally?

Caffery: "Oh no, not at all. I don’t have a problem with the internet radio. I just think that what the RIAA is trying to do is trying to assemble something, somewhere. Like I said, somebody needs to get paid. If everyone was buying…if there was no illegal downloading, then what would be the problem with anybody playing somebody’s music? There wouldn’t be. Then, there’s absolutely no difference between internet radio and commercial radio other than the fact that commercial radio does pay. I think that’s what the RIAA is going after is the fact that with commercial radio stations, artists get checks from BMI and ASCAP and the publishing companies and things, and the majority of the up and up stations will pay for that. The whole thing is that basically, the industry has gotten so bad, and there’s so many people that aren’t being paid for so many things that it comes to a point where somebody has to come in and try to put a foot down. Fortunately, internet radio is helping tremendously to pick up the slack for artists who’s record companies are not able to afford to get them airplay on commercial radio because it costs a friggin’ fortune. On commercial radio, you’ve got to buy a top 10 song. No matter what anybody says, you have to buy ads to get time back. You don’t get on the radio for free unless you are a friggin’ superstar. So it’s like, how does a band get going? It gets going through the internet radio, and then all of a sudden, people want to take the money from internet radio. It’s weird. Everybody, all the way around, is suffering from the illegal downloading. Unfortunately, the internet radio stations are going to feel what the artists are feeling too in this. We’re feeling it huge. You used to be able to buy a house on a publishing advance. Now, you’re lucky if you can buy a friggin’ used car. It’s changed so much. It’s gone from shitty publishing deals being worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, to now a great publishing deal might be ten to twenty thousand bucks. It’s really changed a lot because of what’s happened in the industry. There’s a lot of older artists out there, and they have their lifestyles and their “wife styles” as I like to call it. Ten years ago, you used to make X amount of dollars for a record, and now you’re making X divided by 20 on it. I think people are in panic mode. I’m fortunate enough because TSO seems to be one of these things that doesn’t seem to be effected by any of it. We’re lucky enough to be doing so well that as an artist it doesn’t put me into the panic mode. I like to pay attention to what’s going on, of course, because I do have solo records and I do work with people that are in that situation. That’s what makes me go back to having as much respect as I do for Paul O’Neill. He puts a tremendous amount of time and money into the shows and a tremendous amount of time and money into the records. The fact that people are buying the albums and the concert tickets; it just shows that maybe people need to put the same type of effort into making these same kinds of things happen. Back in the old days, you recorded seven or eight songs, threw a couple of filler tracks and a cover tune on and you threw a record out every eight months. You slapped some wacky cover on it and everybody bought it and went to see your concerts. The industry is just not like that anymore."

To hear this interview in it’s entirety, go to this location (Real Player Required).

The next episode of The Classic Metal Show, which will air live on Saturday, May 12th, will feature new music from TROUBLE and THUNDERBREW, as well as an interview with MEGADETH guitarist Glen Drover. Go to www.theclassicmetalshow.com to listen.

CHRIS CAFFERY To Perform Solo Set In Toronto Before Taking The Stage With DORO


Inertia Entertainment has just announced that SAVATAGE / TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA guitarist CHRIS CAFFERY will perform his own solo set in Toronto prior to taking the stage with DORO PESCH that same evening.

This remarkable event will take place at The Fun Haus on June 13th. THE AGONIST and JUKE are also on the bill that night.

Caffery's new solo album, Pins And Needles, will be released in North America on June 5th via Locomotive Records. Visit MySpace.com/ChrisCaffery for further details.