Mick Priestly is delightfully English, in that his humor is mischievous and dry, and his manner is charmingly boyish, stretching clear across the Big Pond. But that bit doesn't make him a spineless pushover. In fact, he can be as crass as he is charming, gritty as he is gentlemanly. One minute you want to introduce him to your mother, the next you are afraid to mingle in mixed company fearing the barrage of expletives falling from his lips.

Underneath the leather and studs, Priestly is a thoughtful, intelligent, and ambitious musician, fueled in part by his voracious appetite for reading, his training as a classical guitarist as a young boy, and his one time desire to becoming a dentist.

It's hard to imagine the combination of classical training and a penchant toward dentistry could produce a heavy metal hitter like Priestly. But that is exactly what it did, and from the minute Priestly heard Ozzy belt out "Mr. Crowley", like many other pubescent boys, his life was forever changed. He traded his dreams of playing with scalpels for another instrument capable of delivering quick slices into the flesh, the guitar, and started stretching his vocal chords. It's a good thing he did too for Priestly can scream.

Green River Project has yet to break the States but has developed a loyal following in their home country and is on a fast and furious path to dominate the airwaves. Looking toward a future where their mugs are plastered on all the covers of the trades, Green River Project amps up their appeal and plays tirelessly, amassing fans throughout the continent. antiMusic was able to catch up with Mick Priestly in between appearances.

antiMusic: What's the story behind the name Green River Project?

Mick: Along with a lot of things with the band, there's a serial killer link behind it…I've always been a bit of a serial killer freak. I was never really into the whole Roald Dahl thing as a kid…I read a lot and it's all true crime. Gary Ridgway was the Green River Killer and was particularly horrendous, I guess it gives the whole thing a bit more of a personal touch for me to give the band that name. It was either gonna be that or 8213 Summerdale…but I thought that kinda sucked as a band name and there was no way to pronounce that number without it being a mouthful. I'll let you work out what that one means.

antiMusic: What is different from this project than from other projects?
Mick: It's certainly a lot different from any projects I've had in the past – the music is a lot more technical and, mature-sounding…or at least I like to think so. I think something that sets us apart is the infusion of classical music – you hear that with some other bands too but I don't think that they tend to do it to the extent that we do. We don't want to sound like anyone else – we have our own visions in mind musically and that's what we set out to achieve. We don't particularly strive to sound like anyone else – we have our own thing in mind and that's what we do! There's a lot of different styles going into the mix – I like to think that's something that sets us apart.

antiMusic: Where do you find it easiest to be most creative?

Mick: Most of my writing will be done at home – some guys carry notepads around and stuff to capture their 'inspiration' whenever it comes to them or whatever but I've never done that. I've got a recording studio in the house which is cool for capturing ideas on, or messing about with whatever riff I wasn't happy with until I can make it sound cool. I tend to lock myself away, smoke too much, drink my bodyweight in Red Bull and hope for something that sounds cool.

antiMusic: How do you blow off steam or handle "creative differences' with your band?

Mick: To be honest with you, we don't really have any particularly big disagreements with the band. Certainly not musically. If there's any sort of disagreement it tends to be over other issues – and being an unsigned band it usually comes down to some sort of money thing. How are we gonna get to the gig? Should we use this company or that company? Can we afford to get back into the studio when we have to pay for *whatever it is* coming up? .. but it's not usually a big deal. It's nice to be in a band for once where everyone is somewhat professional and dedicated – by the time we've got our heads together with whatever problem it is we're having it usually turns out ok.

antiMusic: Some people have referred to your music as "Sleazemetal" what are your thoughts on that?

Mick: Have they? I've read a few things where they say "Mick Priestley has a glam metal background" or whatever but it tends to be bollocks – the first band I was in was with Muggsy too, and it was more dirty rock n roll. People said Motley Crue but I always thought we were more like Motorhead with big guitar parts. We played a load of gigs with guys who did the whole big hair and leopardskin thing so I suppose to a certain degree people stuck us in the same category. I was always more of an Ozzy Osbourne fan, that's the sort of stuff I always listened to growing up, then Yngwie Malmsteen and stuff like that came afterwards. I think the people who might refer to it as 'sleazemetal' tend to already have that in mind because as soon as they heard me and Muggsy were in the band they've decided that's what they'd expect. I doubt they'd say that if it was just some band that was entirely new to them. I like to think we sound more heavy metal / borderline-power metal in places, but then I wouldn't be too thrilled if somebody was to refer to us as 'power metal'…it tends to conjure up an image of cheesy sword-waving garbage listened to solely by men who own a copy of World of Warcraft. On the other hand, I'm not particularly bothered how they might label us as long as they like it. I like to think we have our own sound, so as long as you like what you're hearing you can call it what you want!

antiMusic: What musician do you respect the most and why?

Mick: Personally, I've got loads and from loads of different genres. Ones that would spring to mind would be Randy Rhoads, who for what my opinion's worth was the first person to do a major heavy metal/classical music crossover. Ritchie Blackmore did it too, but to a lesser extent. Malmsteen comes after that, and probably sits at the top of my list of favorite guitarists. I respect a load of guys like Steve Vai, Michael Angelo and Paul Gilbert…but I can't say I've ever been much of a fan of their music. The difference between the first guys mentioned and the latter is that the first ones can actually write a song, or a brilliantly flowing piece of music. Even I find it difficult to listen to what is effectively a two-hour guitar solo, often over a fairly boring backing track. I admire people like Gene Simmons or Marilyn Manson, but more for the way the whole band is run rather than for their musical talents. They got to where they are solely through hard work and entirely off their own backs which is admirable. I like a lot of guys like Eminem, who I would consider to be something of a genius lyrically, and guys like Antonio Vivaldi or JS Bach would be in there too. Not only were these people able to write astounding pieces of music, they did it on a huge scale – even in the world of classical composers Bach's work output is highly impressive and always of an awesome standard. That was before you could record music too – which only makes it more impressive to me.

antiMusic: Who would you compare your sound too?

Mick: I like to think we sound like a mix of our influences...which would be between Ozzy Osbourne Nicolo Paganini and including everything in-between. When we're compared to modern bands people tend to liken us to Dragonforce, Children Of Bodom or Avenged Sevenfold but I don't particularly think we sound a great deal like them – I think it's the guitar playing that puts us in that category.

antiMusic: Was there a pivotal moment in your life when you realized you wanted to play?

Mick: I used to get classical guitar lessons as a kid – I played the cornet at school but it sucked so I quit to play the guitar. I remember one day me and my friend Paul were sitting in the front room of my parents' house digging through the old vinyl record in the cupboard…found Blizzard Of Ozz on vinyl, didn't have a clue who Ozzy was but stuck it on anyway. As soon as I heard the guitar solo from 'Crazy Train', flipped it over and heard 'Mr Crowley' everything changed. It was honestly one of those life-changing moments. I knew at that point I was going to play the guitar. I was going to be a dentist when I was studying at school, or that was the plan anyway. From that point on I didn't really feel like I had a choice…one way or another, all I wanted to do was play the guitar…and to sound as cool as that!

antiMusic: Do your songs tell a particular personal narrative?

Mick: Yes, I think the best songs tend to come from personal experience – even if the listeners don't necessarily understand what the experiences were on hearing them. 'Dig Your Grave', lyrically, was based around the feelings I might have had with the old band breaking up and doing something new, while everyone around you tells you you're going to be a failure. People always like to tell you that and I was never particularly into it. The 'I'm gonna dig your grave' idea was kinda me sticking two fingers up at those that said you'd never amount to anything.

'Nowhere To Run' was written about a girl I used to date – we'd known each other for ages but she stitched me up and was a real bitch to me. She started working as a hooker without telling me and I found out by complete chance, and I told her I was concerned about her and that she should watch what she's doing – I didn't go berserk like I think most guys would have-- she got real nasty about it, gave me that whole "who do you think you are? It's none of your f***ing business anyway" lecture, told me to f*** off and then spent the next few months basically laughing at me.

Anyway, the scene got uglier and uglier and the song is basically written about killing her. I don't necessarily think that's unnecessarily morbid or says anything about me – I think most people feel like that from time to time about certain people. It's a natural response you might feel to an extreme situation where you may have been upset, humiliated or whatever. And I didn't do it! In hindsight, strangling her and dumping her in her own back yard would have been counter-productive with the music career so I decided to stick into a song instead. If you listen to that again and knew the story behind it, I like to think the lyrics make sense.