New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Peavey) Hard-hitting rockers RED accomplished more of their career goals with one album than most bands ever do in their lifetimes. From hit singles to touring with their musical heroes to a Grammy nomination, they nailed them all.
If RED's 2006 debut, End of Silence, brought the band to the forefront of modern rock, their third and latest album-Until We Have Faces-will surely solidify their place as one of the most inventive hard rock bands to lay down tracks this century. But instead of setting the controls to idle following two successful records and tours, RED found itself in the midst of writing an ambitious new album that challenged them musically and conceptually.
"We had the title before anything else," said bassist and Peavey endorser Randy Armstrong. "We didn't set out to make a concept record. But as I sat and listened back to the final record, it's amazing how much of the content, pretty much unintentionally, deals directly with the title of the record. From start to finish, it's about all the emotions people go through trying to find their identity."
With Until We Have Faces, RED accomplished another major feat-debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, barely missing the top spot. With major touring underway for the successful new album, Armstrong recently added the Peavey PXD Tragic bass guitar to a full Peavey rig that includes Cirrus basses and VB-3 and Tour 700 bass amplifiers.
"I saw the PXD Tragic bass on Peavey.com and [thought] it looked really cool," he said. "I actually picked it up the morning we flew out to L.A. for the Conan O'Brien show. I thought, 'Why not play it on national TV?' The first time I played it was on the show, and I really loved the sound and the way it looks.
"I'm a pretty straight-up bass player and I like a lot of attack in the sound," he added. "I'm running through Peavey VB-3 and Tour 700 heads, and each one goes through its own Peavey VB-810 cab. I really like the fact that I can set the cabs up side by side. I pull the low end and some mids through the VB-3 head and cab, and the high end through the Tour 700, and it's just thunderous. Combining them, you get the best of both worlds. The high end attack combined with low end creates the tone that I call my own."
