Dragon Siege is a traditional heavy metal and fantasy project from the Canadian mastermind Jesse! Celebrating his most recent release “The Tower” we thought it would be a great time to find out more about the project and find out what is yet to come!

TheNwothm:  Hey there how are you doing! Before we get stuck in can you introduce the band and where you are from?

Jesse: Hey Rob! Good ’n’ you? My name is Jesse, I do the vocals. Right now it’s just me and producer/composer extraordinaire Jeff Black. I’m from Victoria BC, Canada. He’s from Vancouver.

TheNwothm:  You are a brand new band or should I say project pretty much so how did the idea come together?

Jesse: I’ve always loved Traditional Heavy Metal and high fantasy. Even, and sometimes especially the cheesier aspects of those things. I wanted to do something fun and awesome with that same spirit. I wanted to sing about dragons, sex, magic, in the most authentic way I could, capturing the spirit of the time as best I could.

TheNwothm:  And where does the name Dragon Siege come from? How did you get that idea?

Jesse: I was just sitting there one day having a beer, thinking about D&D, old fantasy novels, looking at 60’s to 80’s fantasy art and it came to me. It was just the perfect amount of cheesy and was also a decent sexual inuendo. It was perfect. I was surprised it wasn’t taken.

TheNwothm:  Do you have any other bands or your involved in anything else musically?

Jesse: I was in a Folk Metal Band called Winters Reach for many years. I moved on to a Melodic Death metal project called Krypteia after that. The music video I did with them just released not too long ago and is receiving quite a bit of attention. Right now I’m focusing on some Prog Power Metal with some friends in Vancouver that will hopefully release within the year. 

TheNwothm:  You are based in Canada where some of the great Nwothm bands come from! Who are your favourites and are there any you would love to play with in the future?

Jesse: Oh man! What a great question! My favourites currently are Striker, Gatekeeper, Iron Kingdom, Cauldron, Axxion, Skullfist and Riot City. Some people say these guys fit in THM due to their obvious influence, some people say their just prog power, but I think they’re worth the mention either way, Unleash The Archers is up there on the top of that list. I love those guys so much. They’re amazing. I would absolutely love to play/tour with anyone on this list, especially UTA.

TheNwothm:  After a bit of research you explore themes of fantasy and “other” themes so can you expand on that. How did you decide to go in that direction?

Jesse: I’ve always loved fantasy. My mother introduced me to movies like Willow, Labyrinth, and The Dark Crystal very early. My dad had me reading Dragon Lance and playing AD&D as soon as he could. I was playing MTG at the age of 8. I stood no chance. The other themes have a lot to do with kink. There’s a bit of a redneck element to it as well. I grew up very beers, trucks, and backroads. That never really left me.

TheNwothm:  So lets go into you new single “The Tower.” As mentioned we cover a little bit about the themes, but you worked on this song with Jeff Black. Could you tell our readers who he is and how did the whole collar come together?

Jesse: In my opinion Jeff Black is the man to know! He is really good at what he does, he knows music, he knows how to write a great song, he knows the NWOTHM genre so well, but is not just stuck in that one area of music. He’s very diverse. He’s all over this scene as well. From producing bands, to putting his guitar skills to work in them. He’s in Gatekeeper, Spell, and Glyph who you’ve probably heard of. Probably more that I don’t remember right now too. I just took a listen to things he’s worked on and produced and knew he would be the perfect person to hire as the producer for this project.

TheNwothm:  So you can tell our readers bit about yourself and your musical background growing up?

Jesse: My dad was a singer, and I would go to his practices. Some of the best times we had together came from that. I guess that inspired me. I tried singing for a while, but I was never very good at it, so I just went with growls and screams which I was kinda naturally good at. I didn’t really get even ok at singing until I was almost 30, after going to school for classical. I was never naturally good at music. I could easily get by with growls and screams, but getting to where I am now as a singer took a lot of work over many years. I’ve always loved singing though and have never been able to stop. Something just drives me to it.

TheNwothm:  As a vocalist where do you mostly take your inspiration from? What other vocalists do you look up to?

Jesse: Oh, that’s tough. There are a lot across metal sub genres, and even outside of metal. But if I were to narrow it down to a few… This may come as a surprise (due to the genre differences, and I don’t sing like him at all), but one of my biggest inspirations is Roy Khan. His singing just cannot be compared to. Brittney Slayes of UTA as well. She is such a powerful singer with so much skill. Jorn Lande, Rob Halford, and very recently Rev Taylor of Greyhawk. His work on Thunderheart was powerful. Learning the songs for the Greyhawk vocalist audition (they’ve already chosen a new singer, but I’m still finishing up my recordings for fun, and because I love singing on these tracks), Rev and I are both classically trained and in close to the same range. Singing these songs has really been helping me learn how to sit comfortably in my own voice, instead of striving for something more trebly or strained.

TheNwothm:  If you were in a role playing game what would be your character and why? What would be your ultimate mission?

Jesse: I think I’d likely be a Bard-barian. My characters ultimate goals would have to be to have as much fun as possible, in battle, between battles, experience as many of the worlds pleasures as possible, and break the chains of oppression wherever I found them.

TheNwothm:  So we have talked about the song! Let us talk about the music video for “The Tower!” You had a number of guest musicians and friends join you to create the video! And I must say the theme of knights fighting in the background while your playing in the foreground is pretty! What can you tell us about the video as a whole?

Jesse: That was so much fun to film! When we planned it, it was just a bunch of friends (and some really great local talent who also happen to be friends), some beers, and my cell phone for a camera. I was thinking “this is going to be a terrible music video!” Not in a bad way, that was what I was going for. But people seemed to really like it, and that made me smile. For some of the shots the Buhurt (The guys in armour from the local Buhurt Team The Company of the Blue Dragon) fellows were just having some fun. But some of those shots they were REALLY wailing on eachother. It was fun to watch, and definitely inspired me to want to join Buhurt. We’re absolutely planning to team up for future videos.

TheNwothm:  Moving forward are you working on more singles, or do you plan to put out an EP or album next? And if so what ideas do you in mind?

Jesse: I was planning to just do singles, but Jeff and I are both really busy on other projects and I don’t want to make people wait too long between releases. I’m working on an EP next to give the people who’ve been waiting something to hold on to while I work on an album. I don’t want to say too much more about it though. I’d like to maintain the element of shock and surprise haha.

TheNwothm:  Are you planning on working with Jeff Black again?

Jesse: Oh yes. If not always with Dragon Siege, then as often as possible. He’s a great guy, with incredible talent. It’s a dream, and a pleasure working with the guy.

TheNwothm:  Would you like to take the project towards being a live band in the future with friends or guest musicians?

Jesse: Absolutely, that is the plan. I’ve had fun just working from the home studio (living room), but I miss playing shows a lot. I’ll be back out there doing it as soon as I can.

TheNwothm:  If people want to get their hands on “The Tower” or any other music/merch you plan to put put where can they do so?

Jesse: The Tower is on all major streaming services, and Bandcamp. I have not yet made merch available, but I’ll be working on it for the future EP.

Bandcamp: https://dragonsiege.bandcamp.com/track/the-tower

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dragonsiegemusic

TheNwothm:  Anything else you would Like top mention?

Jesse: Thank you very much for the opportunity for this interview! Sorry it took me so long.

Thank you to everyone who enjoyed the song! And thank you to everyone who bought it on Bandcamp! It means a lot to me that there are people out there just having a good time to the music I’m trying to put out to the world. If you liked that song hold on, because what’s to come has me even more excited.