You guys are playing tonight in LA. It’s been a while since you played here last time (Nov 2010). What are your plans for tonight’s concert?We are going to play a bunch of new stuff from the new record, which came out last Tuesday [February 14th 2012]. It’s pretty much the first time that we kind of headline too so, we will be able to play a full hour [Goatwhore headlined the concert that night. Hate Eternal played just before them]. We’re going to play 5 new songs and we’re going to play a mixture of the other material as well. That’s pretty much it.
We haven’t been here in a while [because] the Watain tour was pretty much the end of our touring cycle for “Carving out the Eyes of God”. Then we have just been home all last year writing and stuff, in the studio, recording. We did a little run back in October, or so, with Exhumed last year but it was like 3 weeks and it was mostly in the East Coast. We try to get out here as much as possible but it depends on all the tours and things like that.
You guys started this tour a few days ago, with Hate Eternal. Before that you were touring with Lock Up. Is 2012 going to be entirely like that… lots of tours?
It is… and it isn’t. I mean, we are open in April but then in May we are going to Europe with 3 Inches of Blood and Havok. In June we are open and then late June/ early July we are supposed to go to Australia. Then we are doing the Summer Slaughter for the summer. We don’t know anything else actually … yet. So, things will kind of fold and more tours will line up.
As you mentioned before, “Blood for the Master” was released a few days ago. Have you guys been playing the new songs for a while or did you wait for the album to be released to start playing them live?
We’ve been playing 5 new songs since February 6th, when we started touring. So, some of the material will basically be new to people. We want to kind of get it in there, get it in the set, get the feeling of it and introduce people to it, even though the record wasn’t out quite yet.
It’s been going pretty well, you know? The feedback from it and everything it’s been really good.
So, about this new record: is the final result what you were aiming for when you started to work on it?
I would say pretty much. For every record you have these ideas and you try to complete it. Then when you finish it you always kind of think: “Oh, it would have been cool to do this and to do this”, you know? You try to prepare as much as you can and little things slip here and there. But overall, the way everything fell into place, how the songs were laid out and everybody’s performance within the recording was really, really good.
Everybody went in there pretty level headed, focused on everything. Working with Rutan [Erik Rutan] for the third time helped out too because we were in a comfortable environment. We knew each other instead of going to some studio and it’s some guy that we don’t really know, first time we meet, and we don’t know how he is about certain things and how his ideas are about doing some metal record.
So, having that bond helps, it makes everything more comfortable in the studio, because it is already kind of a stressful situation, in a sense, you know? You are going in there and you are kind of under a magnifying glass and you want to get everything proper. So it adds when everybody is in the same “wave length” and moving in the same direction.
Even during what we call “pre-production”, when we record rough tracks of some of the new material. We sent it to Rutan so when we got in there [studio] he would be familiar with the material. He kind of knew how the flow was and what to expect.
So, everybody is really happy about how everything came out. We really enjoy playing a lot of the songs live. It’s going to be awesome to finally get to play every single song from the record live. Right now we are playing 5 and we have 5 more t
o choose from for later tours.So, how is “Blood for the Master” when comparing it to your previous works
Humm… I would say that it is definitely the next logical step in what Goatwhore does musically. It is not too far of a jump from “Carving out the Eyes of God” but it is almost like we are slipping into our own skin now. Instead of being a band like “this band is influenced by this, this and this”, now it’s like “this is what Goatwhore is, this is what they sound like and they are starting to be their own element now”.
This is us evolving into the band that we are at this point, you know? With every band it’s all an evolution process: when they start and how they evolve into what they do. And I still think, just by listening to old releases and listening to the newer stuff, that we still have a lot of room to evolve and kind of manipulate what we do as a band.
When I listen to your albums I have the impression that each of them has their own “essence”. They are all Goatwhore but they are different from each other. Is this something one could say about this new record too?
Yes it is. I think it’s a growth. You know, it’s funny because a lot of people are so used to categorizing metal. When you start locking things in the grids like that, people kind of expect something and then you get pigeonholed into that.
The thing is: Goatwhore does have a black metal thing to it. But, a lot of people, when they think of black metal nowadays, they think of the whole Norwegian thing (Dimmu Borgir, Emperor, etc). We are more influenced by the traditional black metal like Celtic Frost, Venom and things like that. We are more influenced by classical metal like Judas Priest, rough stuff like Motorhead, some old punk stuff like Discharge. So, that variation adds to what we do and makes us a little bit different.
I think sometimes that that’s why we get kind of snagged. The black metal extremists may think we are not black metal enough to be black metal and the trash dude might think that we are not trash enough to be trash metal, you know? So it’s like you fall in the crack somewhere in between. But, that’s how we do it and that’s how we like to do it.
Do you think that the fans are looking for something a little bit more “simple” now, after the big “symphonic era” (Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir)?
I think with anything, something gets burned out or worn out too much. It has its cycles and eventually you see that cycle come back up again. And maybe because we are more “simple” based it’s kind of appealing [now] and then [there] will come a cycle where it won’t be what people are into anymore. They will move on to the next thing.
That’s the thing about music: it’s always in cycles and it flows. And that’s what make and break bands because, some bands just stick out and they stick in there for a long time, even throughout the cycles. And some bands when it gets to that cycle where it lows, they just give it all up.
So, you decide to get into it at the pick and when it’s going down you don’t want to be involved with it? I mean, it’s a lot of hard work. I can’t say that everything comes off easily because it doesn’t always. Some bands get it better than others but you know… that’s just the way the ball rolls.
You mentioned that you guys have a lot of influences from old school heavy metal. But do you get inspirations from anything besides metal?
Ahh…. I don’t think so. I mean, individually we each might get something different from something else. Zack listens to some other things outside of metal, as a drummer, you know? Sammy is kind of rooted in a lot of extreme metal and stuff like that. I like a lot of metal but I check out other things… vocals interest me. I like Tool stuff sometimes because of the way Maynard [James Keenan] projects his voice. Him and Mike Patton [Faith no More, Mr. Bungle]. I can’t sing like any of those
dudes but the aspect of what they do is kind of an influence: how they place words, how they layout lyrics within a song. So, it doesn’t necessarily have to be metal that I brought influences from.So, everybody [in the band] has got their own little things but then we have the “joint” thing which influences is old school metal.
You guys worked on this album last year… how did you organize your schedule? Did you have to “squeeze” the recording in between tours? Did you write something while on tour?
Actually we don’t really write (hardly) anything when we are on tour. So, if we tour for two years abundantly we don’t get too much writing. People ask: “Why did it take 3 years?” or “Why did it take 4 years?” Because when we tour… well, look at this situation! [He shows me the van that the band uses to tour in the US] There is not much room to sit around and go like “Alright, let’s put together this little idea”. And a lot of dudes like to drink and partake in the novelties of the road so, there’s not much getting done around that either.
So, usually when get home and we are comfortable and “solidified”, we start throwing around ideas. If we don’t put a record out every year or every two years, it is because we tour a bunch and we focus on all the material when we get home. We don’t want to get rushed either. I guess that’s good with Metal Blade because they don’t really rush us. They just go like “How is the writing going?” and we can say “It’s good but it is still at half way point and we don’t really want to throw a bunch of slop together”. And they would say “Ok, take your time. Do what you have to do”.
Ok… I HAVE to ask you: Goatwhore! How did you guys come out with this name?
There are all kinds of stories though, man. Ok, it is mostly rooted in [this one]. There is a friend of ours back home… everybody has a friend like this. He gets really drunk and he gets kind of boisterous and obnoxious when he gets drunk.
Sammy, him and a bunch of the guys went out to the strip club one night. They were all hanging out and our friend got pretty wasted. They say that there was a stripper that had her hair on like pigtails or something [like that]. She had a really long looking face, like a horse or goatish looking. She came around, she did her dance, she came around to get tips and when she got to our friend, who was a little obnoxiously drunk, he stood up and kind of knock the table over and said “Get out of my face you Goatwhore!” So that name kind of like… stuck in place.
So, is your friend charging you royalties for the name now (laughs)?
Ohh yeah! We have to pay him like 100 dollars a month (laughs) … just kidding. I think he just likes the credit in every interview, you know?
So… any messages to the SOM readers?
I wish I could speak different languages because I would say all kinds of weird shit. Ok: I appreciate everyone who supports us (fans, interviews, etc), because a lot of people don’t really like extreme metal. It isn’t this huge glamorous thing, you know?
All these bands [extreme metal] work hard and there isn’t a lot of money out of it, you know? So just support when you can! Come to the show, buy a shirt or whatever. If you can’t afford anything come support them at the show. We work hard. Not just us, any kind of extreme metal band.
If you do happen to download of the internet… come and support them in some sort of way. I mean, the whole internet piracy thing is something that you can’t put a grasp on it. To me, I don’t even get aggravated with it anymore. The only thing that I wish that people would do is: if they took it [the band’s music] of the internet, when they come to a show… even if they went to the merch area and gave them [the band] one dollar or two… just a little support. Come to the show, buy something, buy a shirt… or anything. Just help them out. They work hard.
r>
Interview done by Deesse_de_la_nuit
You must be logged in to add a comment