Richard Christy made his first comedic contribution to The Howard Stern Show in October 1999, just a few months before joining Iced Earth. The drummer, who recorded three albums with the Florida-based metal juggernauts between 2000 and 2004, was simultaneously recruited by Iced Earth guitarist Jon Schaffer for his side project, Demons and Wizards.

Previously, Christy spent three years with metal legends Death, and appears on their 1998 album The Sound of Perseverance [Nuclear Blast, 1998], not to forget a number of other musical groups, including the death metal act Burning Inside.

When he became a full-fledged regular on Sirius XM-Radio in 2004, after being selected to replace the infamous Stuttering John, his music career took a slight side step. But that doesn’t mean the desire to create music went away, nor does it mean he really stopped.

With the change in career path came a change in location, and Christy, originally from Kansas, headed for New York. As you can well imagine, drums aren’t entirely practical in the Big Apple, and he found another outlet: the guitar.

“I’ve played since 1992, but I really started practicing a lot more and treating it a lot more seriously since I moved to New York,” Christy says. “And then I got to a point, about two years ago, where I felt I was comfortable enough to start putting together songs of my own and really pursue it.”

He pursued it all the way to a new band with one killer lineup, a catchy new album, and a deal with Metal Blade Records. So yeah, he hasn’t exactly been site seeing.

Charred Walls of the Damned – named after the response to a prank phone call he made on The Howard Stern Show – released their self-titled debut Feb. 2 and features Christy behind the drum kit, vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, bassist Steve DiGiorgio, and well known producer Jason Suecof on guitar.

“I had kind of been out of the metal scene, as far as recording and touring, but stayed in touch by going to shows, and I still played the drums every day in Brooklyn, at a rehearsal space called the Sweatshop,” Christy explains. “ I had offers to play in other bands, but because of my day job, I have a limited schedule.”

Factor in his work as a stand up comic and movie actor, and it seems even more limited.

But as many musicians are well aware, music “is something that once you’ve done it and once you love it, you never want to stop doing it.”

He chose to make it work.

“I figured if I put a band together myself, I can control my schedule, when to go on tour and when to record.”

Christy first met producer Jason Suecof 10 years ago when he was living in Florida.

“And just for fun on the weekends we’d get together and write music,” Christy recalls. “We became good friends, and I realized he’s an amazing musician, and we’ve talked about putting a band together since then.”

Fast forward a few years. Christy had completed six songs on his own, “and that’s when I really thought I should do something. That’s when I called up Jason and asked if he’d be interested in playing in the band and recording an album with me.

“At that point, I didn’t really have much more planned besides that, I just wanted to see what his thoughts were.”

Turns out Suecof was into it, and Christy started writing more riffs.

When it came time to complete the line-up, the choice wasn’t difficult. Christy had worked with both Owens and DiGiorgio before.

“And that was part of the reason that I contacted those guys right away. Not only are they amazing musicians, but they’re also very good friends of mine, and we have a great chemistry together.”

And having Suecof as both guitarist and producer was just natural.

“He’s a great engineer, great producer, great at mixing, and he’s a shredding guitar player. I’m really excited for people to hear Jason as the sole guitar player on this album. He’s very well known as a producer, and I hope now he’ll be just as well known as a guitar player.”

Christy is quick to praise his band mates, those he’s working with now, in Charred Walls of the Damned, and those who inspired him to the musician he is today.

“I really learned a lot playing with Death and Chuck Schuldiner, and playing in Iced Earth with Jon Schaffer. They’re two amazingly talented guys, and they’re incredible songwriters. They’re also amazing business men and they taught me how the music business works, how to run a band and how to write songs, and how to do that while having fun and being laid back,” Christy reveals. “I’m very thankful for that.”

Just don’t expect Charred Walls of the Damned to sound like a copy of any of Christy’s former bands.

For starters, he’s not using the monstrous kit he used with Iced Earth and Death.

“I had four high hats and just a crazy set up. I wanted to try something a little different for this. I wanted to strip it down and use a five piece. I still have a lot of symbols, but Jason was very excited to hear that I was open to using a small drum kit because, as an engineer, it’s much easier to get a good sound out of a few drums than it is 20 drums.

“Our set up time was one-fifth the set up time it usually is,” he laughs. “And the thing was, I was able to come up with a lot of new fills that I wouldn’t have thought of if I had a bigger kit. It was inspiring for me to go back to the basics.”

Christy agrees that some listeners might be a little surprised, “to hear blast beats along with melodic vocals, there’s some progressive stuff, some straightforward stuff and I love stuff like that. I love not being limited to what people think a certain genre of music is all about.”

Most of all, Christy hope people will get it stuck in their heads.

“That’s one of the things I love about metal. It doesn’t matter how heavy you are, you can still be catchy. Some of the heaviest bands in the world, like Morbid Angel or Dismember, have written some of the catchiest metal songs. Hopefully that’s what people will take away from this album: they’ll love the songs and just enjoy listening to them and get that same great feeling that I get when I listen to them.”

The band’s first single, “Ghost Town,” is definitely getting remembered by radio listeners requesting it on Liquid Metal, and we teased Christy a bit on how tough it must have been to get airplay.

“Yeah, I had to do walk about 20 feet down the hallway from my office and say ‘Jose, can we play “Ghost Town?”’ And he was like, ‘Hell yeah!’” Christy chuckles.

“I’m very fortunate. Not only do I get to have a blast every day working on the Howard Stern Show, but there are so many great music channels and music people that I work with, including Jose [Mangin] and all the DJs on Liquid Metal. I’m a huge fan of the channel and I’m really honoured to have them play the song. I always jump up and down when I hear the intro come up.”

And contrary to popular rumours, one does not have to be on a major label or have a highly paid publicist to get on satellite radio.

“Not at all. I get a lot of CDs at the Howard Stern Show, and if somebody asks me to pass it on to Jose I do, and he’s always really cool about listening to stuff,” Christy says, although he recommends it’s best to go to the Liquid Radio fan page on Facebook and write something about your band or submit a song. “They’re definitely open to independent bands. There’s this band that I love from the Philadelphia area called The Hixon, and they get played on Liquid Metal all the time. They’re not on a label, they’re just really big supporters of Sirius-XM Radio and Liquid Metal.”

While he admits it helps to have label backing, “it never hurts to try.”

But even with a major label, Christy isn’t slacking off.

“Every night I come home, I turn on the computer and start promoting. I answer every email, I try to think of ways to get the word out about the album, I try to network as much as I can and go to all the metal shows out here in New York. It takes a lot of hard work and lot of networking, but in the old days, it took people months to find out about stuff. Now, luckily with the Internet, you’re worldwide.”

Charred Walls of the Damned was released worldwide Feb. 2, 2010. A limited number of autographed copies are available at Metal Blade’s online store.