"This project kind of came out of nowhere for me, but I'm really excited about it," vocalist Brett Scallions tells Noisecreep. Scallions – who is famous for his work fronting melodic rockers Fuel – is referring to World Fire Brigade, the new hard rock supergroup that also features Smile Empty Soul singer/guitarist Sean Danielsen and producer Eddie Wohl (Anthrax, 36 Crazyfists).

"Eddie had produced my wife's band, Slunt, so he I met him through that and we've become great friends. Sean I had first met when Smile Empty Soul supported Fuel on our Natural Selection tour. Eddie knew Ken [Schalk, drums] from his work with Candiria. Once I heard him play drums, I was like, 'Dude, I'm not letting you go!' That's how good he is," laughs Scallions who has since brought in Schalk as a fulltime member of Fuel.

Spreading My Wings, World Fire Brigade's debut album, features guest appearances by Pearl Jam's Mike McCready and Anthrax's Rob Caggiano, but it's the songs, not the players, that will keep you coming back for more: "When we were writing these songs, we very focused on writing strong melodies and hooks. It was never about just trying to get screams in there, or whatever. Sean has a great scream, and we used it on the record, but when Sean and I were singing on the record, we always made sure there were a lot of catchy melodies on there."

Listen to 'Take Me Away' from World Fire Brigade


Scallions says recording with World Fire Brigade was a much different experience than what he's normally used to: "Spreading My Wings was the most collaborative record I've ever done. We literally sat down on the first day of recording it, and had zero material written. We looked at each other and said, 'OK, who has a riff?' But we took it from there and as the music was being created, we would all pitch in vocal melodies to see what worked. Everything was up for grabs, and I liked that."

So yeah, Spreading My Wings is packed with gargantuan vocal hooks, but the album has enough bite to satisfy Noisecreep's metalhead readers. Scallions digs heavy metal, but he's not pretending to be a fan of Deicide or anything: "I grew up in Tennessee, in the Bible belt. It was a very conservative environment and they thought that metal was the Devil's music. So it was hard for me to find music at times.

"As I grew older, I got into bands like KISS and Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath. But I never really got into the really heavy stuff. I actually had never heard of Candiria when I met Ken. The heaviest metal I probably got into when I was younger was Metallica. I've always tried to listen to as many types of genres of music as possible. I think this World Fire Brigade album is a great hard rock record and we just hope people check it out."



World Fire Brigade's debut album, Spreading My Wings, is available now on iTunes.

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