Take a look at the chat that SOM had with the lead singer from the band Job For a Cowboy, Jonny Davy, when the band played at Summer Slaughter Fest 2012, at the House of Blues, West Hollywood.
You guys have played tonight the first Summer Slaughter Tour 2012 concert. How was it? What do you expect for the rest of this Summer Slaughter tour?We’ve done a lot of Summer Festival tours so we are kind of used to this. We haven’t really had a good LA shows in a while. We’ve run into tons of technical difficulty shows… it’s been years. Tonight felt awesome. So, we are all pretty relieved and feeling good about tonight’s set. Especially because it is the first night of the show [of the Summer Slaughter tour] and you know, [at] the first night bad things tend to happen so the fact that nothing did, that feels pretty good.
How do you think the rest of the tour will be like?
A lot of alcohol… I mean, we’ve known Cannibal Corpse for years, The Faceless for years, Goatwhore… We’ve toured with everyone on the tour or at least with 75% of everyone on the tour [before] so, it is like Summer Camp. It is like going to Summer Camp and seeing all your old friends so, it’s really cool.
Ok. This is the second interview today that a band tells me that this will be like Summer Camp (laughs). [See the interview I did with Between the Buried and Me].
It really is. It is the best way to describe it. I don’t know… I feel like I am 14 years old at Summer Camp.
There are many bands on the bill… is that a key for success or disaster?
Humm… it can be disaster but I feel like this Summer Slaughter has kind of (obviously it is all metal) a lot of different genres kind of floating around allover the place, especially in the first half of the package.
Cannibal Corpse and Between the Buried and Me are so different. It’s cool. I feel like Summer Slaughter has never really been like that before. Summer Slaughter has always been very similar bands all the way from start to the finish. And now it is like, you get a break from a certain genre, you see something else. It benefits everybody.
Is it hectic to have so many bands on the bill?
Today yes, because it is the first day but after day 2 or 3 we know what to do so…
Your bass guitar player will not be playing to
night (Nick Schendzielos). Mike will be playing the bass tonight. Is he ready?Yeah. It is a shitty situation. We went to play Porto Rico. Nick [Schendzielos] from Cephalic Carnage, who is our permanent bass player, had a family member who got in a really bad car accident. He flew home to be in the hospital with her and try to take care of her. We did Porto Rico as a 4 piece, we came back. Recovery is about a year. That’s how bad of a car accident.
So, we asked our friend GunFace (Mike McKenzie) from the Red Chord to learn the set. We are only going to play 30 minutes so, he learned the set in about a week. He is a great friend. So yeah, it’s been great.
You guys have released Demonocracy back in February. Could you say a few words about the main concept(s) of this album?
Musically, I feel that we have become a much more technical band. And it just happened naturally. We started the band when we were in our teens, playing in the parent’s garage. So much has changed, so much growing has happened. So, I feel like it is a very natural progression (the music change).
The concept perspective it is a very political album. So, I don’t know… so many death metal bands are singing about zombies, ghosts, gore but we really like the punk rock attitude that Napalm Death, Misery Index, At the Gates have. I grew up in a very political family so that has always inspired me to go that route. I feel like when you really go deeps into politics and what’s wrong with the world there is so much evil involved. That’s real and people don’t know about it. I really like to talk about that over the fantasy world of mummies, zombies, gore. So… that’s pretty much where it [the album] comes from.
You talked about your inspirations to create the lyrics for this album. What about musically? What were your main inspirations for this album?
That one is really hard because we all listen to different things. So many bands say they only listen to metal or death metal. We listen to everything and inspirations come from allover the place. From Radiohead to Björk. Obviously these influences don’t really come in the music but they inspire us. So, I mean, we just try to keep open ears. We are not the type of band who is close minded towards music. We like to l
isten to everything and get a grasp of what’s going on you know?How have the fans reacted to the album so far?
Very good, which is surprising. Everyone has their own opinions but the majority has been really positive, saying how much we progressed. So many death metal bands throw out the same album over and over again, which it is fine if it works for them but, we always like to progress and challenge ourselves. So, I feel like people are slowly starting to respect the fact that we are doing that.
You guys have been doing really well with album sales. Do you guys follow these numbers? Is it important to you?
No. We or specially me, personally, I never expected us to sell as many records as we have. I never expected to be in the Billboard Top 100, my entire life. We are just the type of band who just do what we want to do and it has kind of been working. I don’t know. We are just having fun with it and challenging ourselves. Apparently the albums have been selling pretty decent so…
Besides music… any other passions?
Humm… I mean, music is a big part of my life. Honestly, I’m the type of guy who downloads a lot of music and listens to what is going on. Outside of that: fitness, I play with my cats… I don’t know. I’m a home body. When I’m home I like to be at home a lot. So, it is not very exciting…
Since you download a lot… any favorite albums so far this year?
Ahhh… I wish I had my phone on me. I don’t know. Beneath the Massacre went very under the radar… Very awesome good technical death metal band.
This is a hard question… The new Napalm Death is amazing to me, always one of my favorites.
Going back to the band now: Talking about your agenda: you are doing a European tour after the Summer Slaughter. Anything planned after that?
We have Summer Slaughter. A week after that we are going to Europe with Dying Fetus and Revocation. Everything after that is up in the air.
Any messages to the SOM readers?
Yeah. Please check out "Demonocracy" and listen to it. If you like it, show it to your buddies. Spread the word.
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Interview done by Deesse_de_la_nuit
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