Heavy rockers bloodsimple are a blend of all that is rock. Not just straight-up heavy metal…not just straight-up anything…the diverse sounds of bloodsimple can take their listeners on quite a ride through almost every genre of music.

The group was formed when Mike Kennedy (guitar) and Tim Williams (vocals) of Vision of Disorder (VOD) were ready to branch out and explore their musical diversity. Recruiting Nick Rowe (guitar), Kyle Sanders (bass) and Chris Hamilton (drums), Mike and Tim put together the group of musicians who would become known as bloodsimple.

Gibson man Nick Rowe has been credited with the group’s “three-dimensional” songs and brings a certain energy and musical force to the songs and live performances which sets this group apart from the metal masses. Nick, a classically trained guitarist, spent most of his life studying jazz but kept his roots in rock. Such a diverse training background lent nicely to bloodsimple’s quest to blend the lines of musical genres.

Bloodsimple’s recent album, A Cruel World, was released on Bullygoat Records (March 29), Chad Gray’s (of Mudvayne) label creation and a division of Warner Bros. The album spawned a video for “Straight Hate,” the opening track, and launched the group on an “Alliance of Defiance” tour which will last through May 27^th and take them around the world.

Nick Rowe took some time out of bloodsimple’s crazy schedule to chat with Gibson.com about running around in bras, keeping musical integrity, and wanting to be Eddie Van Halen.

CG: When did you first begin to play guitar?  
NR: I was five years old actually. My dad played guitar - the family was a bunch of musicians. There were always random instruments lying around. My dad got me my first electric guitar for my birthday when I was five. When I was young I wanted to be Eddie Van Halen so that was the first step. And then I started taking lessons when I was eight or nine - still mostly rock stuff, and as I got further into it, I got into jazz and classical as well. I did that for 10-12 years - took jazz lessons, but still took up with rock the whole time.

CG: What led you from rock to jazz and classical?
NR: I think it was just that I wanted to keep learning the instrument and there is sort of a limited vocabulary with rock and roll. You learn so much and every rock song is the same three chords anyway. I was fortunate enough to have a teacher that was extremely knowledgeable. I just asked questions and wanted to know more which gave into theory and wound up in jazz and classical. I liked it and wanted to keep learning.

CG: You were trained classically, how did you get into such hard rock?
NR: It was definitely a change of pace. I always listened to heavy music growing up. I would come home from school and play along to Pantera records. I was always sort of in that world. But it was definitely a different environment being in that world. I started recording and producing demos and stuff at home in the studio and that’s how I met [Mike and Tim]. I met them through a friend of mine. I had recorded his band and he knew Mike Kennedy and knew [Mike and Tim] were looking for [a guitarist].

CG: How did you first know that this was “it?”
NR: I think the first instance was when I recorded Tim, who I had never met before. Mike dropped him off at my house to record some vocals on a song we had written together, and eventually the song kind of took a different shape from what it was before. When everybody heard it in the end, they said it was definitely a new direction we could go. The jazz and classical training sort of created a cool, weird mix of sounds we could do with heavy music. And that was the first time when we really knew it would work.

CG: Tell me about your Les Paul.
NR: I only have one but I love it. I’ve had it since I was 14 or 15 and it’s a Classic. I love it. I’ve been playing it since I got it. That has been my main guitar. I can’t seem to find anything else that I really like. All the other guitars we’ve been offered endorsements by, they just feel light and cheap. The Les Paul is heavy and thick and it’s like, ‘Yes this is a rock guitar.’

CG: Do you like it better for live shows or recording?
NR: For both it’s easy to play. I love the way Gibsons feel and play. And for both recording and live as well, I think it compliments our sound because our other guitar player uses a lighter guitar. So the Gibson provides some meat in there which is always a good thing. You can’t beat the sound. There’s no substitute for it, you can’t replace it.

CG: Any good stories from the road?
NR: I’m not sure how much of this information I’m supposed to be giving away. On this tour we’re having funny moments with American Headcharge. We’ve had guys running around in underwear and bras and taking pictures. It’s the kind of thing where we looked at the pictures the next day and we’re like, ‘What the hell was going on last night?’ Nothing too weird has happened, just the usual debauchery and all that stuff.

CG: Tell me about A Cruel World and “A Cruel World.”
NR: That was actually one of the first songs we wrote together, me, Mike and Tim when we first got together. So that’s definitely a good example of the kind of blend I was talking about between our styles. Tim decided it would be a good name for the record. The record is cool. It opens up with the heavier tracks and then around five or six it starts to go to a different place, more mellow stuff, and then it closes off with another heavy one and then an acoustic number. It’s definitely a good showcase of all the things we’re able to do as a band. We’ll be on tour with Mud Vein through May 16^th. And then after that we’re gonna go to Europe with Life of Agony. It’s gonna be a lot of fun, and then we’re not sure what’s going on after that. The tours have been great and everybody’s been really receptive to the music.

CG: What is your ultimate goal as a guitarist?
NR: It would be…I guess to write songs that are accessable to the public, and that anybody can listen to. You don’t have to be a musician or super-technical genius to get it. But at the same time maintain a certain level of music integrity and write stuff that is musical and challenging and that hard core musicians can also listen to and also get some cool stuff out of it.