Behind The Scenes: Bang Bang Firecracker - Hail Waco (Official Video)

Hail - Waco is the first track off our third studio album!

We are releasing this next album as a Septology entitled SEVEN DEADLY SINGLES. All tracks will be released individually throughout the year as limited edition CD singles. There will only be x100 CD singles printed for each of the seven releases.

We've done nothing different as regards our writing process. This song was roughly composed by myself at home, I'd recorded a basic demo of the track and sent it through to Marcus (Bass) and Bobby (Drums). We'd all approved the demo and decided to jam the track at our rehearsal space (Riff Factory, Stoke). During rehearsals the track quickly evolved into a monster... Marcus put down a powerful bassline and suggested dynamic sections before the verse. Dropping the rhythm guitars out in those parts really added to how menacing the track sounded and it added a serious punch to the verses when they kicked back in. Bobby synced in perfectly with the riffs and created some killer beats in those aforementioned pre-verses. I'd decided to exclude a guitar solo this time, but added in a breakdown section towards the end of the track to make things interesting. We'll eventually lengthen the breakdown for our live rendition of this track. The intro to the track was the only tricky point. We had a bizarre idea for Bobby to simulate gunfire using his snare drum! Bobby gave the idea a whirl and created something very cool. Shaun Lowe (our producer) was able to take this concept to the next level. He added sound effects and used studio techniques to create our vision perfectly. I think anyone that understands the concept of the track along with the video will quickly see why the track starts out the way it does.

We went on to record "Hail Waco" with our producer Shaun Lowe at Prism Studios in Hanley - Stoke-On-Trent. Everything was layered down as normal, with the addition of an extra two tracks of guitar. We have now introduced LaBoga amplification into the guitar mix alongside our Peavey 6534 amplifiers. This combination of guitar sounds adds serious size to the guitar tone. There was one section of bass that was double tracked, this was introduced to add clarity & melody in the chorus.

As previously mentioned we took time to create sound effects over the gunfire drum intro. We'd put down layers of guitar sounds using a 'Throbber'! This is a rarely heard guitar effect made by Line6 and was utilized to create helicopter-type sounds. Marcus added the intro vocal line "This is not an assault" using a Megaphone! Shaun Lowe used every ounce of his expertise to craft all of these ideas together to create something that pushed us into the realms of creative experimentation!

'Hail Waco' is written about the Waco Siege which occurred in Waco, Texas, USA back in 1993. I'd spent a year or so prior to writing the song, reading every book I could find about the events. I'd soaked up all the news stories from that time and watched every documentary that commented from both sides of the tragedy.

The video was conceptualised by and Jess Boothroyd, it was shot by director Tim Paling who we have worked with previously on Welcome to the Slaughterhouse and Unleash the Devil. We decided to approach a local venue (Eleven in Stoke-On-Trent) as a base for the shoot. We went for a performance-type shoot, utilizing historic footage from the siege that we would play on the stage screens in the venue. We'd used our band merch as a uniform for the day and modified our look using military-style face paint and clothing. We threw ourselves into the shoot and all gave it maximum testosterone!. It was great to use different instruments for the day too. Marcus had his ESP Explorer-type Bass Guitar and I'd decided to use my Scott Ian signature Jackson guitar that I'd modified for the occasion. Prior to recording; the stage was dressed with flags and banners and all of our amps and instruments were pasted with bullet hole stickers It was a fun but exhausting shoot; Bobby was breaking drumsticks, we were all sweating profusely and I managed to embarrassingly fall over a huge speaker that was luckily not captured on film!

Jessica Boothroyd created the amazing artwork for the CD. The single is NOT available on streaming sites! The single features a live version of our track G.F.Y (recorded Live at The Freebird in Newcastle under Lyme) these are selling out fast - but they are available to purchase via our website. www.bangbangfirecracker.com