HailMetal.Com - 6.66 Years of Reigning Metal

Jon Schaffer and IcedEarth.com got together on March 13, 2009 for an update on the band's forthcoming live DVD as well as Jon's plans for the immediate future.

Regarding the immediate plans for ICED EARTH:

“Well, right now I’m wrapping up the post-production for the, “FESTIVALS OF THE WICKED” DVD which I expect will come out late Summer or Fall of this year. I don’t know that for sure, it depends on when we wrap things up, but that’s the plan. That’s the next project.”

“ICED EARTH is going to be taking some downtime. I’ve been very, very busy. I haven’t taken any kind of vacation in six years and I have been non-stop ICED EARTH for three-and-a-half years - from the beginning of the writing of both of these records through the recording, the touring – and there has been a lot of touring…it’s just time. I need to step back from it a little bit. And I’ve got other things planned for this year which I’ll be announcing in due course, but my goals are for right now are to get the DVD finished and (then) to get away completely – no cell phones, no e-mail, no contact with the outside world, just me and my family at a very nice isolated place, no music business, no nothing, and it’s going to be awesome. That’s going to be cool and I plan to come back completely recharged and ready to kill.”

Regarding the kind of projects Jon will be working on after returning from vacation:

“You’re going to have to wait and find out my man. I mean, I’m just not ready to divulge yet. I’ve got a few irons in the fire and some things I’m very excited about. Hansi and I have planned late in 2009 to get together to do DEMONS (& WIZARDS) stuff so that’s going to be cool. We saw each other in Cologne (earlier this year) and made plans and I think it’s realistic to say that there will be a third DEMONS & WIZARDS album probably mid- to late 2010. We’re going to have two song writing sessions. We are committed to doing the bulk of this in-person. One of the things I felt like from the last Demons album was that we had this window of opportunity where we had to get it done and we kind of let time dictate the schedule instead of our feelings and that was probably a mistake. I mean I’m proud of that record (“Touched by the Crimson King” 2005) and it sold killer and it’s a good album but I think Hansi and I are capable of a lot more especially when we get back to the root reasons of why we did this thing together.”

Read the rest or listen to the interview in FULL here. (8.4 MB)

Thanks: IcedEarth.com