'I Don't Really Accept That At Face Value' - Baroness' John Baizley Challenges the Notion of Losing Intimacy With Bigger Venues

Baroness have enjoyed a big summer of touring in support of their Red and Blue albums and by design, fans have been seeing them in venues similar in size to what the band played when those records were just starting their career.

In speaking with Full Metal Jackie for her weekend radio show, frontman John Baizley said it's been a thoroughly enjoyable experience playing more intimate shows and while he wishes more bands would go back and do that once they achieve a certain sense of fame, he's not ready to accept the notion that you can only achieve intimacy in smaller venues.

"I think it's easy to say yes, that when you scale up your audience and when you scale up the size of the venue that you do lose something of intimacy. But I don't really accept that at face value because I think it's our job as musicians, as good musicians, as seasoned veterans of playing live shows, it's our job to make the bigger room feel like it's a smaller club. And I think that's what great bands do is they still [treat it that way]," said the singer.

While sizing down the venues has made achieving that intimacy with the crowd that much more easier, it's also helped him in feeling up to the challenge when it comes achieving the same vibe with bigger venues.

"I think if you're a dutiful artist and if you recognize the fact that that intimacy can be lost, it is your duty and it is your obligation to create that sense of intimacy wherever and whatever scale you're at."

Elsewhere in the chat, Baizley discusses being the lone member of the band still around from their first two albums and how that's been to now approach the music with different musicians. He's also spoke about his appreciation for the current lineup, discussed what's been inspiring him of late and he gave Full Metal Jackie a tease of when we might see a follow-up to their most recent album, Stone.

Check out more of the chat below.

It's Full Metal Jackie and on the show this week, we welcome back Mr. John Bazley of Baroness. John has been taking us back in time this summer on the "Red and Blue" tour, performing in their entirety two of the band's most beloved albums from early in their career. John, given that you're the only current member of the band to have played on those records, how enjoyable has it been to see how your bandmates approach playing the material live?

It's been a blast. Before we book these tours, we just make sure that everybody was comfortable with it. I think that was sort of the most important first step in order to making sure this experience was enjoyable.

We'd talked the idea over for a while and so the Northeastern run, which we've already completed, was really fun, you know. I don't want to speak for anybody else, but I think we all enjoyed the challenge of taking these two records and treating them in a way that we've never really done or that no iteration of this band has ever treated the music, which is to present the records in full and in the sequence and to try to make sure that nearly every note on those records is represented in the live show.

That is not always the easiest thing, considering there's acoustic songs, there's electric songs, there's different tunings that happen pretty constantly and then there's a lot of interstitial bits of music. I think we just wanted to put it together in a way that was as cinematic as possible.

But the way I kept explaining it, even to the audiences, is that the show itself is less a show or concert and it more properly feels something like a performance, because there is essentially a script.

There is a set amount of stuff that has to happen and then, you know, it's our job as musicians to try to find the moments where we can be musical or we, where we can improvise a little bit. And fortunately for us, these records offer quite a few moments to do that.

Baroness, "Wanderlust"

John, I'm sure in some ways 2007 seems like yesterday and other times it feels a million years away.

It sure does.

Having this opportunity to revisit the first two albums, what memories does it bring back to you about those early years with Baroness and are you able to see the points of evolution that led to where you are now?

Well, let me answer the second question first. When playing these two records especially, it's very simple to see the evolution. I think it was based on Red and Blue, those two albums specifically, that when we started writing Yellow and Green and really all the records after that. I felt like we needed to intentionally distance ourselves from that style of writing because it is so physically, technically intensive and I really didn't know that until this tour. I couldn't really see that.

Those records have so much guitar playing on them. It's almost like when you first learn to ride a bicycle or something and you take your first ride. You just put your hands on the handlebars and start pedaling. You have no idea how fast you're going or where you're gonna stop, .

You just gotta hold on for dear life and that's I think part of the beauty and part of what makes those records special is that they just don't quit. The music never quits. There's always something technical happening with almost all four members. We definitely learned how to put space into our music after those records.

So that part is very easy for me to define that.

Baroness, "A Horse Called Golgotha"

John, in terms of those early days of yours with Baroness, and I was again wondering if you're able to sort of see that point of evolution that led to where you are now. Are you at all nostalgic?

As far as feeling or reliving or nostaligizing what was happening 2007, I think to a certain degree we do that. I don't wanna assert that we haven't. I think that the way we set up the tour also was with that in mind, so we intentionally are booking these shows in smaller rooms that we conceivably could have played either of these records in.

We're touring in a fashion that is more akin to that era of the band than it has been in more recent years. So we're with a very small crew in a van and trailer and we're tour managing it ourselves, I do all the driving and so the day, the workflow of the days feels like the early years of the band, which I think were, you know...

I think back and romanticize because it's just a lot of work. Every day you're doing a lot of work and you're not giving yourself a lot of rest, so there's a kind of scrappy energy and sort of hunger that comes with touring like that. So it's been fun to do that and I'm really thankful to the rest of the band for doing this because they enjoy touring in that fashion as well.

It's been a really nice experience. But I do wanna say that we have never left, There's a few songs off of Red and there's a few, there's many songs off of Blue that we play almost every show for the past 20 some odd years. So it's not like we're digging too far into the past, But just because a lot of these songs are like standards for us onstage, it's not asking too much digging into the past. However, there is so much music that we've never played onstage that were studio songs or putting the set together in a way that pays attention to the sequencing of the records.

We play Red first, we take a short little break, I talk and we play Blue. But other than that, there's no speaking, there's no mic sets. It's just a pretty continuous flow of music and it's really intense. It's nice.

It's Full Metal Jackie. Jon Baizley of Baroness on the show with us this week. And in one of you past interviews you spoke about playing basements, VFW halls and backyards early on and never wanting to lose that spirit of those years. One of the things you've done on this tour is to schedule venues similar to the size of what the band was playing when you were more of an unknown act and people were just discovering you.

How has it been to reconnect with that experience and do you feel something is lost in the intimacy when you moved to playing larger venues? As a music fan, do you feel this is something you wish more bands did once they got bigger?

I do wish more bands did it. I love seeing intimate experiences in smaller venues, because you as an audience member feel more connected to the show. You're more legitimate, legitimately and literally a part of the performance.

However, and I think it's easy to say yes, that when you scale up your audience and when you scale up the size of the venue that you do lose something of intimacy. But I don't really accept that at face value because I think it's our job as musicians, as good musicians, as seasoned veterans of playing live shows, it's our job to make the bigger room feel like it's a smaller club. And I think that's what great bands do is they still [treat it that way].

I heard Bruce Dickinson speaking about this decades ago, but he was saying part of the reason that an Iron Maiden show, once they had achieved arena status or stadium status was this big dynamic thing because he knows that as a frontman he's got to speak to the back, the nosebleed seats.

I think when you scale up, you're in danger of losing that intimacy, but I think if you're a dutiful artist and if you recognize the fact that that intimacy can be lost, it is your duty and it is your obligation to create that sense of intimacy wherever and whatever scale you're at.

However, going back on a thing that I just said, when you play small clubs, it just is immediate. There's no doubt about it. I think that we love doing that, so it's, it's always fun for us to do that. We do it every so often in order that we don't lose touch with that more primal aspect of performing.

John, we've spoken in the past about you not having a broad exposure to music in your youth, but you've more than made up for it as a true student of varying types of music. What have been your latest discoveries or loves musically that have moved you?

I think anybody that follows my personal social media account will know and this may not be a new thing, but I've always had a real soft spot in my heart for punk and hardcore. What is happening right now in the underground, the DIY scene, is as exciting as it was in the early 2000s.

I think that there has been a real sea change at the DIY level where sometime, within a year or two of the post-pandemic, it did feel like kids all of a sudden started guitars and plugging them into loud amps and playing savage music again. That's kind of where it begins and where it ends for me. That's how I got invested in music was when I discovered punk.

So to see that there's a new new breed of musician playing that Who's generations removed from what I discovered, and my being generations removed from the early movements of punk, I think it's really exciting and invigorating to see that that, That's happening again.

I feel like the underground kind of flip-flops between punk, hardcore and metal, depending on what's happening in the more commercial aspects and the more commercial sectors of music. So right now what's happening with young bands just playing simple, effective, powerful, vibrant, dynamic music is really exciting to me, because it doesn't...

Unlike when there was a flourishing of death metal, you don't necessarily need to know how to play that well. Now, I think it's great when bands level up and learn how to play their instruments with more technical competency, but I think the most important thing that's happening right now is there are basement shows, there are VFW hall shows, there are small shows and it's young bands who maybe started a week ago.

There's a very strong demo tape scene, especially in the hardcore scene right now, and I just think that's it. When I see that happening I get excited about music because that's where my love is. And to see the version of it that's happening now with a new generation of kids who have a new outlook and the makeup of the scene is a little different, I really couldn't be happier.

John, we touched on this "Red and Blue" tour of course, which is great, but I also know part of this year has been dedicated to writing new music. We broke the color wheel with the last album, Stone. I realized that it's early, but does Stone start a new series or do you even limit yourself to try to fitting an idea that'... ties it all together. Also, just checking also, of course, for an update on where things stand for a new album.

Well, I'll put it this way. I do enjoy being part of a series. I do think that is it's a good structure to work within for me creatively. So hopefully that's not too vague. As to the development of new music, I am currently with with our guitar player, Gina Gleason, and we are in the middle of a session. So I think 2026 is gonna be a big year.

That is great to hear. John, you've been with this current lineup now for several years, toured the world, found that musical chemistry, even lived together for a period working on new music. What is it about these three other humans that make up Baroness that have made them the perfect partners to take this musical and life journey with?

I think it's a variety of factors, but the first and foremost is the four of us love playing music. We love each other. We love to see what happens when the when our four creative minds collude to create new Baroness music.

But then there's things that aren't quite as exciting, but the four of us, what we are is we're good at touring. We're good at living on the road. It's all well and good to love one another and to love playing music, but you also have to be able to coexist with your bandmates and with your crew when you tour as much as we do.

And I think that something that this lineup is exceptionally good at is we understand how to have fun on tour. We take the show extremely seriously and we understand how to live amongst one another without devolving into barbarism and disputes and fights. That's not to say that we don't fight.

In fact, what one thing that is really special about us is we know how to argue with one another in a way that is not destructive and is not antagonistic.

Many thanks to Baroness' John Baizley for the chat. You can stay up to date with Baroness through their website, Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok accounts. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio show here.