Living Wreckage is joining up with WABY for a toy drive to benefit Unity House. In the middle of a three date run through the northeast, they will be at Empire Underground December 20 th . I recently got to chat with Matt Bachand about the upcoming show, previous projects and what lies ahead for Living Wreckage. The supergroup, consisting of Matt Bachand and Jon Donais (Shadows Fall), Matt LeBreton (Downpour), Jon Morency (Let us Pray) and new singer Sage King comes back to Albany for the first time in 9 months. You can expect some thrash inspired riffs from Jon and Matt LeBreton, while Matt Bachand and Jon Morency fill in the groove heavy backbone. Sage King has a vocal range from gentle soothing melodies, to gritty metal aggression and hard rock choruses. Both times they have previously come through Albany they put on a show you wont want to miss. Be sure to bring an unwrapped toy to benefit the Unity House and come rock out with WABY and Living Wreckage.
I had a friend that grew up in CT and he was fortunate to see you play at a hotel
there as well as at a music store in Chicopee. It sounded like a blast – any fun
stories from your time as Kobra Kai?
- Those 2 shows you mentioned were a couple of the more memorable ones for sure.
Of course, the whole idea of Kobra Kai was to get as drunk as possible and try to still
get through the gig, so a lot of memories are a little fuzzy! There was one show that we
did NOT get all the through which was at JJ's Tavern in Florence, MA. Anyone that was
at that one sure got so see some shenanigans!
Everyone in the band has been in the music industry for a while and has seen it
change drastically. It feels like the “middle class” of music has dried up. Touring
now seems to be either huge corporate stadium shows, or DIY shows pieced
together locally – making it harder for artists to go on long tours. With your recent signing with FM Music Management, how will this help Living Wreckage going forward?
- That is really hard to say right now. Our ties to them are still very new and have not
even done one show yet with them. Obviously, we are hoping for the best outcome
possible. It should help to at least open some doors that would have otherwise been
closed to us. It really doesn't matter what bands we are in or have been involved with in
the past. Living Wreckage is still a new project and it is just like starting all over again
like we did 30+ years ago.
Jeff Gard did a great job on the band’s first album, and now you’ve teamed up
with Sage King. Sage has such a dynamic voice - how will that impact the next
album, and how did you get linked up with Sage?
Yes, we love Jeff to this day, our split was simply a business matter. We have certainly
explored some new territory with Sage but it is not changing our writing style at all. His
input has certainly helped direct the material into where we are today. I have known
him a little bit for a while now through the local scene as one of my cover bands played
a few shows with him. We needed a last-minute fill in for a show and the fit seemed to
work out great.
You’ve always shown a lot of love to Albany. I personally caught Shadows Fall
many times when you guys were absolute road warriors. Last year you rocked at
the Extreme Music Awards during the Jason Bittner All Star Jam. Thanks for
being part of celebrating the local music scene - did you guys have a good time
participating in the EMA’s?
- Oh yeah it was a really great time. It's a really cool thing you guys have going there
that you don't usually see in other local scenes. It just goes to show how strong the
music community is there and I am glad that we get to be a part of it.
The last couple of years has been busy for you and your bandmates. With
Shadows Fall having worked on new stuff, Jon working with Anthrax, Jason
doing Category 7 stuff - What’s the plan for fitting Living Wreckage into 2026?
- Well, that remains to be seen. We do have a few shows booked already for the spring
and we are hoping to get a lot more live shows under our belt, as well as getting some
new music out there ASAP. We still don't have anything released yet that has Sage on
it so we really want to make that happen soon.
