JNQP 81 031422 NJ Midnite Hellion Interview

Summary: Drew Rizzo is the drummer and founder of Midnite Hellion(2011). We spoke about Drew getting his first drumkit and schooling he received over the years. He has been trained to play the piano, violin, tenor saxophone, and trombone. On his own he learned to play the drums, bass and guitar. In his High School years, he studied drums under Tony DeNicola. He got accepted into college playing tenor saxophone. He told me about his sound system to listen to music. During the playback for Kingdom Immortal he listened back on different sound systems to check the levels. We discussed which three albums Alex Perialas was a part of that made him realize Alex was the right choice to record his album. Drew discussed how he wanted an old school approach to recording this album and was not recorded with a click track. All the preproduction was done before the sessions with Alex. A lot of the album was recorded on a 1980 Les Paul Custom that Alex had at his studio. We discussed the Lich King show in Baltimore as well as thoughts on the current national/worldwide concert discussion after Japan’s Loudness show was postponed to 2023. He spoke about his most cherished musical possessions which do include some major Megaforce related rarities. We finished the dialogue with a fun urban legend from New Jersey.