Nick Lee | Moon Tooth
Moon Tooth – Long Island, NY
This episode is a phone call w/ Moon Tooth guitarist, Nick Lee. You can hear all sorts of metal influences in Moon Tooth such as Mastodon, Lamb of God, Pantera and a many others. There are moments during the “Crux” album where you can hear King X like textures.
We have known Nick & drummer, Ray Marte, for many years and have watched Moon Tooth grow incredibly over the years. All of Moon Tooth’s achievements have been the culmination of a serious work ethic, immense talent, pursuit of greatness and the undying passion for music.
Nick talks about the growth of Moon Tooth over its 10 year existence, new album this Spring, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, working with The Machine Shop & Mark Morton (Guitarist/Lamb of God), playing acoustically, touring globally as Riot’s guitarist, gear and a more.
Update 2022:
The much anticipated follow up to the Crux album was released May 2022, entitled Phototroph courtesy of Pure Noise Records. I have full intention to do a proper write up on this record once I get a few more spins under my belt and have 100% focus.
In a nutshell, Phototroph is a beast of a metal album with unbelievable band chemistry, musical chops and is quite the hard rock metal rodeo cluster of prog madmen at work. All metal heads & metal musicians need to give this album a listen love it or hate it.
I have read many reviews of people praising it, hating it and everything in between. What I really dig about this album is that it is not Crux two. This album completely stands on its own and will most likely reach an entirely new audience helping break MT even further. Check it out!
Who is Moon Tooth?:
Revolver caught up with Moon Tooth and here is a solid summation of the Long Island Metal band’s origins of which Carly & I had the pleasure of playing the same scene of bands.
Courtesy of Revolver interviewing vocalist John Carbone:
“Nick Lee, Ray Marté, Vincent Romanelli and myself on guitar, drums, bass and vocals respectively. We formed when Nick and Ray’s previous band Exemption ended as their singer-bassist Tom Moran was moving on to make incredible music of his own. I was playing drums in our brilliant friend Derek Smith’s band Rice Cultivation Society. Nick had joined that band on second guitar so that’s how I met him [and] Exemption and fell in love with their music. When they had disbanded, they made it clear that Ray and Nick were gonna keep going. So I wrote Nick a letter telling him how passionate I was about his music and that I knew I was the singer for the job. I got the gig after they watched me sing with my own band and saw what I did with a demo of theirs. Vin was their friend, playing bass in a band called Give Up the Goods and they said he was the first choice both musically and personally. I met Vin at the first practice and we both immediately felt like we had found a brother in each other. Then it was writing and playing 100 shows all in the first year. It all clicked right away because it was clear that the four of us needed to not only make music but throw absolutely every part of ourselves at it. It’s been life or death for us from day one.” – John Carbone (Moon Tooth Vocalist)
Previous Moon Tooth Releases:
Follow Moon Tooth:
Support Vanzig Studios
“Rock N Roll for Airheads”
#vanzignation
Spotify as Vanzig Studios & Carly Quinn – Guitarist/Bassist for: Midnight Mob & Misfit Saints
Email: Airheads@VanzigStudios.com
Bands Mentioned:
Moon Tooth, Riot, Exemption, Midnight Mob, Misfit Saints, Lamb of God, Mark Morton, Mastodon, Pantera, Black Label Society, Kings X, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Michael Schenker Group
