It was announced today that William Morris Endeavor Entertainment has inked an international representation agreement with ex-KORN guitarist Brian "Head" Welch. The initial term of the agreement is for three years. Ember Rigsby Tanksley of WMEE will be principally responsible for spearheading representation duties from WMEE's Nashville, TN office.
Currently, Head and his band are in Nashville recording Head's next album with Grammy-nominated producer Rob Graves (RED, PILLAR). The album is targeted for completion February 2010, with a release shortly thereafter on his Driven Music Group label (with distribution through Ryko/Warner Music Group).
Reached at the Nashville recording studio, Head commented on the WMEE deal: "I'm really excited about my deal with William Morris Endeavor, and I'm honored to be on the roster of one of the largest and most storied agencies in existence. I would like to publicly thank Ember Rigsby Tanksley and her entire team at WMEE for their belief in what I am trying to do. I feel like this is the final piece in the puzzle that we have been working on to take us to the next level."
According to James "Munky" Shaffer (guitarist for Korn), Brian "recently" contacted Korn, asking to rejoin. The band denied Brian's request citing that it's "not the right time for us."
UPDATE Head has made an official response via MySpace:
"I recently learned of an interview that Munky gave where he said that I came to KoRn and asked to be taken back in the band. That's definitely not a complete and accurate picture. The full truth is that for about a year, ever since Jonathan publicly said he wanted me back in KoRn, KoRn's managers have been requesting my manager to work on getting me back into KoRn. The calls were initiated by KoRn's managers, not my manager. I shut the door on their requests many, many times over the last several months, through my manager.
JM: Now that you've been on your own for the past few years, how has your songwriting evolved?
Brian: I don't know. I'm writing the next record, like, in the next couple months. I haven't wrote anything.
JM: Like, as opposed to when you were with KoRn, and how you are now. How has your songwriting evolved from there?
Brian: Oh! Well, I don't shove, like, twenty beers down my throat, now. Well, before, we'd all get in a room, drink beer, stuff like that, play guitars, and just jam it up and come up with some parts in new songs. But now I write all of my songs. I see all the chords, I hear all the melodies in my head, and I go to a computer and get a keyboard, and I write it on my Macintosh just to get a rough idea of a demo. So that's how I do it. But I may try to write with these guys [the band], a couple of songs for the next record.
JM: How often do you experiment with different tones and effects to make up your playing style?
Brian: Quite a bit. In the studio, we just go nuts. I have four different amps. I have an Orange, Mesa Boogie, a Bogner, Marshall. We just went nuts and tried everything. I do four different tracks of the same thing, and blend them all together to get a really cool sound. Pedals, and stuff? I experiment on every record. It's one of the fun things, like Christmas, that the dealer I go to at the guitar store, and I just shop. I plug in pedals for hours and say, “Is there anything new? What's this, and what's this?” Then I just buy new stuff [for] a new album. Some times I get stuff that's been around for fifty years, like I never tried before. So it's fun. It's a guitar player's Christmas.
Brian "Head" Welch became ill during the past few days, cutting short his August 19 concert in Modesto, CA. As he feels it would be unfair to his fans to appear less than 100%, he will be unable to complete this week's dates. Head wants everyone to know that he'll be fine and just needs to recuperate. His goal is to be well enough to perform at the August 27 Tucson and August 29 Las Vegas shows.
HEAD'S FIRST SOLO TOUR
04.24.09 - Phoenix First Youth Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ
04.25.09 - Phoenix First Youth Pavilion, Phoenix, AZ
05.14.09 - The Black Sheep, Colorado Springs, CO
05.16.09 - Gator’s Bar and Grill, Farmington, NM
05.18.09 - Tequilla Jungle, Lubbock, TX
05.19.09 - The Door, Dallas, TX
05.21.09 - Scoutbar, San Antonio, TX
05.22.09 - Salem Auditorium, Tomball, TX
05.23.09 - Midnite Rodeo 3, Abilene, TX
07.02.09 - Cornerstone Festival, Bushnell, IL
07.24.09 - The Clubhouse, Tempe, AZ
08.01.09 - Haileyville Football Stadium, Haileyville, OK
08.14.09 - Whisky A Go Go, West Hollywood, CA
08.16.09 - VBF Campus, Bakersfield, CA
08.18.09 - Babylon Club, Fresno, CA
08.19.09 - Fat Cat, Modesto, CA
08.21.09 - Tom Festival, Camas, WA CANCELED
08.22.09 - The Grail, Spokane/Coeur D’ Alene, WA CANCELED
08.23.09 - El Corazon, Seattle, WA CANCELED
08.25.09 - Club Vegas, Salt Lake City, UT CANCELED
08.26.09 - Orpheum Theatre, Flagstaff, AZ CANCELED
08.27.09 - Mainstreet Concert And Event Center, Tucson, AZ
08.29.09 - Thomas & Mack Arena, Las Vegas, NV
08.30.09 - The Sanctuary, Westminster, California
Head started about 10pm at fat cats, a nice turn out the opening bands were local. only i can remember was sleepnoise reminded me of a metal foo fighters, Head came on the crowd was pumped up ready to hear what he can play, I talked to a few people they haven't heard his cd, Played very well his mic was alittle low. in the middle of the set he threw his mic because it was not working. he didn't talk much during the set just played he thanked the crowd for coming out and told us it is hard to sing but we all enjoy it. Right after washed my blood there slated to have a encore of "Flush" but head stormed off stage (i think cuz of the mic issue) and we waited chanting head for about 10 minutes until Scott "SVH" Von Heldt came out and told us pray for head, He is having some issues right now and that will be our last song of the night. he told us something about he having a problem with playing in front of 30 thousand fans and now playing in small clubs, people started yelling at scott. A few fans were outraged, but overall head gave his heart to his music also cried during washed my blood, it was a awesome night
Setlist,
Adoni
Home
Rebel
Save me from myself
Money
Washed my blood
(Head walked off stage)
Overall on Head's show was great i give 4 out of 5 stars its not his fault with all the mic issues, He has great potential with this band a talented group on his hands i see him going far. He puts alot of love into his music, crying during the song "Washed my blood" he only quit with one song left not that big of a deal.
The first time I went to see a band at the Whisky A Go Go was last year. I went to check out Godhead and saw two opening bands DMT and Ironklad. I had a pretty good time there and ran into Shane Gibson, as you never know who's going to show up.
So I pick up Khris from Kornspace and we arrived there just as Orphues set ended. The next two bands up where DMT and Ironklad and I thought "what the hell? the same two bands must play here a lot!" I didn't mind since Ironklad puts on a pretty entertaining live show for an unsigned act. While waiting for Head's stage to be setup I talked to some of the opening bands. It turns out Ironklad hadn't played the Whisky since last time I was there. One of the other bands learned the hard way that some asshole in Hollywood walks around supergluing locks shut so they couldn't enter their bands trailer without a dremel.
