interview by: Hasad Freitag foreword and transcription by: Roberto Martinelli

Forbidden has the unfortunate distinction of being an excellent band that influenced bands to come, but never really made it. As Russ Anderson, Forbidden's singer, puts it in this interview, it may have been a case of bad timing, coming into the Bay Area thrash scene in the late 80s, when things were starting to die down. Regardless of the band's fortune, Forbidden provided the metal world with two excellent albums, the full length debut Forbidden Evil and the essential Twisted into Form, the latter of which is largely considered the band's best work, before greatly changing directions (negatively) and releasing two more albums (Distortion and Green) before calling it quits in 1996. Hasad Freitag caught up with Russ Anderson after a show with his new band, Parking Lot Prophets, to talk to the man about what it was like being involved in Forbidden. Anderson's story has its sad side, as he explains the frustrations he went through being in a metal band, and the conflicts that posed with what he feels is his true artistic calling. This candid look into Anderson's metal past provides a sobering look at the nostalgic thrash 80s, but also is a testament to sticking with one's dream and achieving it.

Maelstrom: How did you learn to sing like you do?

Russ Anderson: I learned from putting records on, and I made a studio in my back room when I was 14 years old. I listened to Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, even some glam bands. Really good singers, like Dio. I was trying to copy them. And learned to do that, and then I started doing my own thing. It was weird, though: The thrash movement was happening, and I came up here to do the thrash thing. I wasn't a glam guy, so I couldn't fit into the glam thing. And I'm glad, cause that shit ended right away. Not that I wanted to do it in the first place; I liked more heavy music, hard music: like what Black Sabbath was doing with Dio.

Maelstrom: Did it take along time to learn to copy your favorite singers?

Russ Anderson: A couple years. I felt like I had it down. My friends would go: "Fuck, dude, you're dead on!" Ozzy was one of my favorite guys.

Maelstrom: Did you have good pitch when you started?

Russ Anderson: Yeah…a natural singer is what I am.

Maelstrom: I figured that.

Russ Anderson: No one ever told me what to do. I just learned on my own. I had a real passion for it. To hear people go: "It's really cool what you've done." We were doing records. Even more than that: We were starting to do shows…

Maelstrom: You mean with Forbidden?

Russ Anderson: Yeah. That was when I found myself.

Maelstrom: Was that your first band?

Russ Anderson: Forbidden was my first band; My first real band. I jammed with people before, but it wasn't the kind of band I wanted. I grew up in L.A. and I moved to San Francisco in 1984. "That's my scene, right there!" My first show, it was at Ruthie's Inn, it was with Exodus and Possessed. At all the shows in L.A., I was missin' the whole fuckin' thing. I had no idea. It was like Poison and a bunch of crap like that. It was like: "These guys are fucking fags! These guys are fags." You know? That's not me. When I was at Ruthie's Inn with Exodus and Possessed, that was the most brutal show. "That's where it is!" That's when Forbidden Evil started.

Maelstrom: But you were a singer, and those guys (in Exodus and Possessed) were yellers and screamers.

Russ Anderson: Yeah. But, they had their own right. They were better at what they did than what I did. I was just finding myself at that time.

Maelstrom: How did you wind up in Forbidden?

Russ Anderson: I put an ad out in music stores when I first came down here. I didn't know anybody. Rob Flynn called me and said: "Hey, man, I wanna check out your singing talents." I went down there, and he was like: "Wow, cool!" And we started Forbidden Evil at that point.

Maelstrom: You told me you wrote all your own melodies and collaborated on the lyrics.

Russ Anderson: As far as I can remember. Forbidden was a real flash in my brain. It happened so quick, and we were throwin' out so fast, it was hard to remember. As far as I know, I wrote all my own melodies. Me an' Craig collaborated on lyrics here and there.

Maelstrom: How did you decide which voice to use with which part? Cause you were always changing!

Russ Anderson: The thing is, I always listen to what the music tells me. That's what I do with all my music. Now, with Parking Lot Prophets, I'm getting more into writing melodies as I go along. Back then, they came up with the riffs, and I'd basically follow them in my brain - the way my brain works. (laugh) That's why you have a lot of back and forth stuff. I always tried to sing, because I always liked good singers. I tried to nail Rob Halford, and tried to nail Dio… Those are my two favorite singers, actually.

Maelstrom: I knew Halford was in there.

Russ Anderson: Halford was really good 'cause he hit the high notes, which Dio never did, but Dio had the real (gravelly vocal impression)

Maelstrom: More gravelly, aggressive?

Russ Anderson: Yeah. I wouldn't say more monotone, but it wasn't jumping…

Maelstrom: Dynamic?

Russ Anderson: Yeah, it wasn't so dynamic, and it wasn't jumping around as much. I loved Rob Halford, so I'd always do those. I even did Motley Crüe screams.

Maelstrom: Like the intro to "Chalice of Blood" (from Forbidden's first album, Forbidden Evil)?

Russ Anderson: You know, that album was put in the right hands, and was done by the right producer. Not to put anything against John Cuniberti, I mean he was a great guy, and everything else - everyone says I hate the guy. He'd done a lot of Satriani's music on Relativity [Records], and they put us with him. You know, there was a real bad thing that happened. I was on the road, I was real tired. People would come up to me and say this or that about him, and he got really mad about a couple of interviews. I thought he was really great. It was more like, [with] the budget: "Ok, now, you gotta get it done." We were thrown into doing house parties by Relativity. They should of took a little more time, but they thought it should be done right away. We weren't one of the last bands to be signed of the thrash movement, but more towards the end, and that always followed us and haunted us a little bit, you know?

Maelstrom: I agree.

Russ Anderson: Craig said it best in a couple interviews. He said he felt like we were from the other side of the tracks [from other thrash bands in San Francisco], but we were from the same fuckin' town.

Maelstrom: That's how I felt about Forbidden. I felt that Forbidden was the best band that got the least recognition.

Russ Anderson: No hard feelings against anybody. Everyone was just trying to get their own thing done. So we just jumped on and had fun.

Maelstrom: Were you ever asked to join any other bands?

Russ Anderson: No.

Maelstrom: Really? No one ever approached you and wanted you to be in their band?

Russ Anderson: Never. Never.

Maelstrom: Rob Flynn was an original member.

Russ Anderson: Rob was a great guy, He had a lot of his own ideas, but they were different from mine. I'm glad he did what he did. He had the right idea at the right time when he came out with Machine Head. Actually, he had mentioned to name the band "Machine Head" when it was Forbidden Evil.

Maelstrom: That's a Deep Purple album…

Russ Anderson: Yeah, I actually have a jacket where it says "Machine Head" on the back. He wrote it on there. Waayy back when.

Maelstrom: He co-wrote "Chalice of Blood." Any other ones on the albums?

Russ Anderson: He wrote it, but we changed it.

Maelstrom: So those aren't his riffs we're listening to?

Russ Anderson: Um….you'd probably have to talk to him about that.

Maelstrom: We'll say he co-wrote it, though.

Russ Anderson: Yeah, he definitely did. I remember him singing "Chalice of Blood!" with (does chords). That was the only part I used. Hahahaha! (Russ has an explosive, infectious laugh) He had a long list of things, but the melodies and everything were totally different.

Maelstrom: I always thought Forbidden was by far the best band around: the best vocalist, some of the best guitar players, best melodies, best sense of melody… And to see bands - well, even Vio-lence - that were chromatic, not in key, just a lot of fast stuff.

Russ Anderson: Now looking back on it, I think that a lot of the movement - I didn't even realize we were in a movement when it happened - was kind of stage stuff. That's probably why I'm doing what I'm doing now. They always told me to yell and scream. I just wanted to do my own thing: singing music; I've been waiting to do this for a long time. You know, it was me, but, eh…they were kinda pullin' in another direction at the same time.

Maelstrom: That's probably what I was alluding to. Why do you think that Forbidden, to me and many of my friends being the best band of that whole genre, with the most talent, considered to be nowhere near the most popular?

Russ Anderson: I can sit back and look right now and say that everyone who was in Forbidden is doin' something killer right now. What are these [other] guys doin'? I don't know. I think because we felt like we were aside from thrash - and we really felt that way - it really was a hard time for us; a lot of the time. I think that's what made the [former members] do what they're doing now. Bringing new music to the table instead of being caught in something. We weren't quite caught in it, and I don't know if we wanted to or not. It was very strange, because we felt we were aside from a lot of people. Testament took us on their tour. Exodus took us on a tour… We never felt like we were quite doing our job as a thrash, thrash band.

Maelstrom: Do you think you guys were like thrash/power metal or melodic metal? Kind of a hybrid of the two? Because there was a lot more melody and vocal talent and musicianship.

Russ Anderson: Well, like I said, I really don't know about that. I really went along with the flow, and did my own thing.

Maelstrom: How much did Glen Alvelais contribute to the songwriting?

Russ Anderson: I don't think Glen really contributed a lot to the songwriting. I mean, I love Glen. Glen's a great guy. I might start working with him again. Craig didn't think that Glen was cuttin' it as being an original guitar player. It was actually not too cool at the time.

Maelstrom: My interpretation is that on the Forbidden Evil album, there was kind of like the thrash songs: "March into Fire," "As Good as Dead," "Off the Edge." Then there were the more melodic metal songs: "Through Eyes of Glass," "Forbidden Evil." And there's quite a difference between the two styles.

Russ Anderson: It comes down to my style. That's what it really comes down to. And I'm doing the same thing right now. In my new band I'm doing harder music, I'm doing real light music… I think it all comes down to where I personally as a singer listen to the music. When the music comes out and I listen to it and I go: "Ok, that's good enough to use." That's saying something to me. And I portray that. No matter what it is. And that's where that diversity comes from.

Maelstrom: I see you're still doing everything from the high, melodic stuff to the heavier, lower stuff, which I'm really happy to see. That's what Russ Anderson fans, at least from the metal side, want to hear. We want to hear your voice and all the different ranges you can do.

Russ Anderson: That's what great about my new band. I'm actually singing now in my band, and producers are liking it. And I don't get the hassles, because I got hassled doing metal. "Dude, you gotta sing heavier there," or something like that. I think what I'm doing now is what I should be doing. Even Craig and all the other people in Forbidden knew that for a very long time, that I was a little bit out of my element. That's probably where that all comes from. I have the talent to where I can actually do (does Chewbacca grunt), but why should I do that when I can sing beautiful melodies.

Maelstrom: That's how I feel.

Russ Anderson: That's why I'm doing what I'm doing now.

Maelstrom: Glen said he left because he wanted to do more of a guitar hero-style thing. Like Yngwie, Satriani, Steve Vai…and that was part of the problem.

Russ Anderson: Glen was really into doing something like that from the very start. Relativity was doing the guitar hero stuff. That could have been part of why that happened, too. From my point of view, what happened was he wasn't happy. That could be very, very true. When we were on tour in Europe - our first tour, they sent us to Europe - we did six to nine weeks. Glen, at the very end, seemed very unhappy with a lot of it. He stayed to himself; separated himself. He might have been thinking that. That's probably why Craig felt distant from him, you know? It's time to do a second album, it's time to kick ass, and he's not there for him.

Maelstrom: Then Tim Clavert came in and auditioned. Was his style more acceptable to Craig?

Russ Anderson: Tim is a team player. Tim just kinda went along with the flow. He found gratification in the whole thing. His lead style was more like Alex from Legacy.

Maelstrom: Alex Skolnick.

Russ Anderson: Yeah, [from] Testament, but I always call them Legacy because I'm from the Bay. Legacy was one of the baddest bands I'd ever seen. Actually more like the style that Parking Lot Prophets are doing now. Tim was more of that kind of a guy. He was hired, for one thing. He wasn't part of the band. A hired guy has less tendency to put his input in; He got to the point where he did that, too, but he was always the guy that stayed to himself and did killer guitar riffs.

Maelstrom: Did he contribute to the writing of Twisted into Form?

Russ Anderson: You'd have to ask Craig about that. Like I said they'd bring those songs to me. I really wasn't there when they were writing. I always felt a little separated.

Maelstrom: I went to see you guys before Twisted into Form came out. You played two songs, "Step by Step" and "One Foot in Hell." "Step by Step" seemed much more commercial sounding.

Russ Anderson: Yeah. It wasn't done on purpose. It was something that just came out. That was the [song] that the label fucking jumped on. It wasn't the songs I wanted to do. It was "step by step by step"; I had no idea that New Kids on the Block were doin' the same fuckin' thing, cause I never listened to that shit! It was a weird fucking coincidence. It got to be a joke after a while.

Maelstrom: What songs did you want to promote?

Russ Anderson: I really liked "Twisted into Form."

Maelstrom: There's a part in the middle of "Twisted into Form" where you sing (building to a high and coming down) "eyes stare, with empty but evil glances." You know the part, right? That voice is very different from any of your other ones. When that part comes on I go, "holy shit." I mean, that's beautiful singing. Like, "where did that come from?" There's a lot of different stuff on there.

Russ Anderson: That was where this whole thing with my new band is coming from. All the producers and everyone I've ever seen, people in the audience, when we were doin' shit like that, when I went into these parts, they fucking glared. That's what I want to hear from you. I wasn't a Bayloff. I found myself at the end of Forbidden sayin "fuck, man, I could do really good singing music. Set me free. Don't fucking tell me what to do. Set me free, and let me just sing. Sing." Maybe that's where it all came from where we felt like we were aside. That wasn't what we [were] in our hearts.

Maelstrom: Why was there so much emphasis on having to yell and scream? I like the clear and melodic voices.

Russ Anderson: The heavier you get the more you're gonna sell to a heavy audience. That's where I think we dropped the ball.

Maelstrom: What about bands like Queensryche, Vicious Rumors?

Russ Anderson: They were never like that. They were never part of the thrash, heavy…

Maelstrom: But you could've gone in more of that direction.

Russ Anderson: …we were always put with hardcore bands, we were never put with someone like Queensryche. A couple times we played with Sanctuary, but, you know, that wasn't what I wanted to do either. Really. Toward the last three years that we were playing, things going way downhill…Everyone else quit. We were doing it [for] two years afterwards. I was going: "I need to sing. I really need to sing." It got harder and harder and harder for me to go out and go "ruh ruh ruh ruh" and do anything like that. I just wanna sing. In the last part of Forbidden, I think I started going: "this isn't right for me." I'd walk out on stage, and I'd listen to the bands before us, and think that spiritually, this is really harmful. It would get to the point where I'd go: "wow! What the fuck is going on around here?" That's why I like good singers, 'cause they bring something out spiritually; more touching, that feels good. Something that doesn't feel bad.

Maelstrom: And the whole mood of the scene in general?

Russ Anderson: The whole mood. You'd go out there, and you'd be out there every day. You gotta be pretty fuckin' ready to go: "I love this thing." How could you love something that is so…unloving? But, that has a part in people's lives. If you wanna hear it, you wanna hear it. If you wanna have something to pick you up. To me, to hear Satan lyrics, it's so negative. And I heard a lot of that. That's why I got to the point where I said: "hey, man, I quit." I quit Forbidden. The band broke up because I quit.

Maelstrom: So, you're more of a peaceful type.

Russ Anderson: Yeah.

Maelstrom: Who was responsible for you not singing high anymore? On Distortion you quit singing high, except for the first song.

Russ Anderson: Part of it was everyone looking to find that niche that we never got. I did it myself. I said: "Ok, I'm gonna sing really heavy." I felt myself falling away from what I really wanted to do.

Maelstrom: Listening to Distortion and Green, I like the albums (no, you don't! - Roberto) but I want to hear the high singing like you used to do.

Russ Anderson: Even in this band, I'm doing some of the stuff I used to do in Forbidden. It's probably from my roots.

Maelstrom: I noticed that. The song "Tossed Away" was also a little bit different.

Russ Anderson: We thought "Tossed Away" was one of the greatest songs. It was very commercial. What it came down to was the labels didn't have the push, no one had the money, shit was going downhill. At the time when we started getting really good, experimenting with doing different things - it wasn't commercial music but it was more…you could hear it on the radio.

Maelstrom: You mean stuff from Twisted into Form?

Russ Anderson: No, more like…

Maelstrom: Distortion?

Russ Anderson: It started on Twisted into Form. That was the wrong time for it. That was when people wanted to hear the heavy music.

Maelstrom: In metal circles now, that's regarded as your best album.

Russ Anderson: I think what it is: we started a little late; hung around too long afterward (laugh).

Maelstrom: Since I hear a lot of Halford influence I'd like to ask you about the Priest covers you used to do. Your "Victim of Changes" cover is amazing.

Russ Anderson: "Victims of Changes"? (laugh)

Maelstrom: Is that what it is?

Russ Anderson: I definitely was off the hook.

Maelstrom: You got those vocal parts done so well. That's a hard song to cover.

Russ Anderson: I told you, I sang to that for a couple years, so I know all his little tricks. I could do that if I wanted to. Led Zeppelin is another one. I'm using it right now in my feeling in some of the songs. With screaming, there are high notes.

Maelstrom: And you're not doing falsetto. That's your voice.

Russ Anderson: Yeah. To a lot of people it would be very hard [to do].

Maelstrom: It's very hard. I know.

Russ Anderson: But to me, it's what I always shoulda been doin'. From the fuckin' start.

Maelstrom: That's what I thought. There's a new Priest tribute out called Delivering the Goods.

Russ Anderson: Hahahaha!

Maelstrom: You're on there, doing "Dissident Aggressor"!

Russ Anderson: Oh, really…

Maelstrom: You didn't know about this? It's on Century Media.

Russ Anderson: No. No. Oh my god…HAHAHA!

Maelstrom: You kinda took a different vocal approach. You toned the melodic part down a bit and you sang heavier.

Russ Anderson: It was probably Forbidden trying to get into the heavier vein. Forbidden got heavier a little too late. I thought Green was the best thing we ever did (what is he saying? - Ed.). It just was the wrong time. If we had come out with something like Green when we first came out, it woulda been so good for us.

Maelstrom: You didn't miss doing the highs, then, with Green? The first song has 'em.

Russ Anderson: It has 'em in there. It's not a high like a falsetto high. Those highs [on Green] are actually harder to do, because they're really gritty. When you have grit in the high it makes them harder to do.

Maelstrom: That's true, yes. Since you're a big Priest fan and Rob Halford fan, how do you feel about Rob Halford coming out of the closet?

Russ Anderson: Well, I really don't care, to tell you the truth. Everyone joked about it, and I heard stories about them on the road. It was actually kind of funny, because I never thought about it when I was singing to their records. It never crossed my mind. Part of it was me trying to get music down instead of listening to what it was. You know what I mean? (laugh)

Maelstrom: I notice on "Victim of Changes" he says: "Plug me," you changed it to "suck me."

Russ Anderson: HAHAHA! I really don't remember.

Maelstrom: I found that interesting.

Russ Anderson: You heard me tonight. Shows like this, things are not very serious. I can get really unserious. I'm almost like a comedian. I just want people to have a fun time and not take things so seriously. But if it's a real big show and there's something on the line, I'm gonna go out there and do my shit and it's gonna be real serious. I find myself a little light-hearted a lot. Hahahahaha!

Maelstrom: Whereas in metal, you can't be that, or they try to discourage it. The only kind of emotions are hard ones.

Russ Anderson: Yeah. Yeah.

Maelstrom: Distortion. What's your take on that album? Metal had died almost by that point. You guys continued.

Russ Anderson: Of course, man. It was kind of a joke after a while. Craig said "we beat that horse down until he was more than dead." HAHAHAHA! You know? At that point it was really weird because we really didn't need to work.

Maelstrom: You didn't have to work? You were making money off the band?

Russ Anderson: No, I wasn't making money off the bands. We had girlfriends taking care of us. We kinda stretched it out a little bit. Hahaha! It was kinda fun, in a way. Hahahaha!

Maelstrom: Why five years in-between albums from Twisted into Form to Distortion?

Russ Anderson: I could never comprehend that. I have no idea. I know we found ourselves fired from Combat [records] and we had to get another record label. We wrote the whole time. You said five years; to me it was more like two or three years.

Maelstrom: What would you say your top ten favorite albums of all time are?

Russ Anderson: Kansas The Point of No Return is probably the baddest album I've heard in my life. Hahahahaha!

Maelstrom: Really.

Russ Anderson: I think so, yeah. That was one of my favorite albums. I would always listen to it. I would never do anything like that. That's probably why: it was so different than anything I would do. Some of those 70s bands were so fucking bad. Styx, stuff like that. Sick. It's phenomenal how they'd keep coming out with these badass songs. They're not heavy or anything like that; they're good songs, the kind of shit that appeals to everybody and touches something in your soul. I think that's part of what I like about Thin Lizzy.

Maelstrom: I read an interview with Gorefest. They said "Forbidden came on tour with us, and they got booed off the stage on almost every show, and we don't like Forbidden."

Russ Anderson: Hey, there you go. The Gorefest fans, they don't wanna see us! They don't wanna see a singer. It was very discouraging. We didn't get booed off the stage all the time. That's bullshit. Those guys [in Gorefest] were really cool. I really liked touring with them. I can't believe…

Maelstrom: It was one member.

Russ Anderson: I would say the rest of the members of the band would probably disagree. Well, it was the same tour, and they weren't drawing any more people than we were. So we were all fucked. At that point people started pointing fingers at everybody else. And I loved Gorefest, but as far as singing goes it was nothing for me. One of the things I wanna tell you is: when I was on tour, hearing these [death metal vocalists], as far as a singer, I had nothing to learn from these people. I'm not saying they were beneath me; I'm saying that they were totally different than what I have in my brain. Totally. For me, I could have done [death vocals] all day long and it wouldn't have done anything for me. Spiritually, nothing at all. Maybe I was the one who pulled Forbidden down.

Maelstrom: Did you ever listen to other melodic bands like Crimson Glory, Lethal, Queensryche or Fates Warning?

Russ Anderson: I listened to Queensryche and I really liked it. That's probably the only band I really listened to.

Maelstrom: Fates Warning? No?

Russ Anderson: I listened to Fates Warning.

Maelstrom: So you never listened to any of those other bands?

Russ Anderson: No. One thing I do is to purposely not listen to bands when I'm writing. I learned from singing to records. That killed it all for me. I only want to do my own thing. And for me to listen to anybody else, it's more of an influence, so I don't want to listen to anything.

Maelstrom: What do you listen to currently?

Russ Anderson: ……

Maelstrom: Or, you're not listening?

Russ Anderson: Like I said, I try not to, 'cause I can be more creative without listening to other music. I'm a very influenceable person.

Maelstrom: So what happened was: you guys came on the scene a tad too late, then Combat died, the Record Vault closed, the metal scene was dropping out, and the only kind of metal that was acceptable was death metal.

Russ Anderson: Yep. Exactly.

Maelstrom: And then after that grunge and alternative killed everything. So what do you think of bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn and Deftones calling themselves metal?

Russ Anderson: I like Limp Bizkit somewhat. I don't like Deftones at all. I think Limp Bizkit's pretty cool, actually.

Maelstrom: Do you think that style's metal?

Russ Anderson: Definitely. Definitely metal. It's definitely a metal band. They took a twist.

Maelstrom: Have you heard the new Halford album?

Russ Anderson: No.

Maelstrom: Did you hear his industrial project?

Russ Anderson: Hahaha…yeah, I heard that.

Maelstrom: What did you think of that?

Russ Anderson: I didn't like it very much. That's all. The old Halford stuff is the greatest. The guy was just phenomenal: the clarity, the notes that he was hitting was something I wanted to strive for. Now I feel that I can kind of pull that thing off in my own thing.

Maelstrom: Those Priest covers are fuckin' great. The one song you played tonight, the Forbidden song that never made it on Green…

Russ Anderson: I had some old lyrics, and I went through them. It was something we didn't use. I changed some of the lyrics and threw it into a song that we're using now.

Maelstrom: Ok, but it still kinda sounds like that "arrh, arrh…"

Russ Anderson: Craig was a little harder to work with lyric wise. He kinda had an idea that he could write better lyrics than me, I think. It was more like that. I don't quite like to say it like that, but maybe to make better sense of it. He probably wanted more control of what was going on. We'd band heads on lyrics.

Maelstrom: How do you feel about the resurgence of traditional and melodic metal that's going on right now? It's all over the internet, it's in Europe, Yngwie Malmsteen is back touring in the U.S….

Russ Anderson: All I know is the labels, I won't say who they are, the big labels are looking at us a lot more seriously than they're looking at something like that. I'm just doing what I feel is right.

Maelstrom: You're happy doing what you're doing, and if metal is doing that, then that's fine for them.

Russ Anderson: I think I've found what I need to do right now.

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