Anthrax Interview

hi I'm Mitch Gallagher welcome to the Sweetwater minute we have special guest with us here today's anthrax three of you guys here thanks for having this Pierre Frank Charlie Scott John Joey it is a real pleasure to have you here at Sweetwater so tell us what you're doing here what's what's happening to bring you here to Sweetwater we only have a minute one minute is all you do the tour bus got stuck along the road and you guys but here we are right helpful thank you we just finished playing Riot Fest this weekend in Chicago right and then Sweetwater there was a person that's the name his name is sweet his last name is water he invited us down here to do a little Q&A right with you I think we're recording a couple of songs and for a bunch of people people are gonna get to watch the process how we do our thing workshops right yeah runs be in there yeah yeah those are those are a lot of fun people come in and sit right there while you're doing your work so you can be under the microscope while you're well you're creating them know they're under the microscope see how good of an audience they are cuz we're judging now because after it take we said did you like that you know it's really important that we you know all right so Frank you're almost a regular here man I know I'm here too much I'm sorry guys yeah I like it here it's it's very comfortable and friendly I know a lot of people here know so it's an you guys are always you know soup to nuts is everything's done here so it's it's done right that's how I get commercial now right yeah we like it though but I appreciate that so I tell all my friends to come through Sweetwater's that's awesome thank you thank you so much enjoy you've been here before as well that's right nice little tour of everything is so so well put together all right it's sweet it's sweet yes glad the whole band is a band is here now so take us back a little bit it was a from about the same era and I remember that new wave of British heavy metal and what was going on with Iron Maiden and which find and Saxon and all of the bands that I Motorhead and Diamond Head and all those bands and then Charlie you've mentioned fast as a shark with accept and agnostic front Dan cro-mags and some of these different bands how did you guys bring all that together to create this new genre of thrash we're gonna distill the secret down that's kind of the written form put it in a book and then Sweetwater will sell million copies there you go I mean during like the early eighties I think all of us here sitting here we all loved rock music from the 70s to kiss the Zeppelin the Sabbath's and all that stuff and then once 1979-80 came around all this stuff from England was happening as like what is this you know and like Judas Priest and and then iron made in and it completely just took heavy metal and gave it a real big kick and I think we all love that and I we would see each other at shows but we didn't know each other so we were we were on line to see Judas Priest at the pier we were at the venom show and Staten Island Maiden yet all the main engine a third road Maiden probably really close to that main show we were first but anyway there was uh then there was this band that came out and like 82 called accept and then they did this song called fast as a shark and at that time it was the fastest thing that we heard double based he was awesome and in the world of metal yeah yeah I set the bar yeah right at the time and I remember like when Scott and Danny Luca came over to I guess it was my audition audition but Gillian and Anjali's bedroom and I'm like are you guys gonna make me play fast the shock that he's like can you play it so then he played it faster then the except version and I remember looking at at Danny we both it was just looked at each other our eyebrows were up girl we were like yeah they want to be in the ballet we had never heard any one place that's fast double bass before and that was you know we were absolutely judging right people judged you by that back then like how fast double kick could you play or you know that was it that was important in right 1980 what the goat is it was and you do fast as a shark I could do it but that was the music we wanted to play you know that's so what I said before by priests and made and took metal and gave it a kick then we decided that we were gonna give that a kick and then that came out to sound like thrash metal right there was a couple other bands doing - sure sure well that's an interesting thing though because when I seem like that comes together and something emerges from it what are the ingredients that bring all that together - all of a sudden you have this new genre that kind of occurs on the scene kind of gets built around it yeah you just work your hardest to get people to pay attention in any way possible because nobody cared about what we were doing in 8283 except for the dudes in the band and some friends right you know but then you start finding out about other scenes developing around the world like in the Bay Area you had I don't know why go like this like that's what you had you know obviously Metallica and Exodus is just to name two but you know you had Slayer also on the west coast you had merciful fate over in Europe and we became aware of these other scenes and people involved in these scenes and we started tape trading with people sending our demos to them getting their demos and so then all of a sudden you'd have people writing you from Europe asking you you know when are you gonna have more this and that and just getting your name out there any way you can playing every show you could possibly play it play back then anywhere we could play but it it wasn't really until our first manager Johnny Zazula he he was a guy who had money and put his money where his mouth was he loved this music he owned the record store and he said I'm gonna start a record label because no one else is gonna put these records out and he signed us and he signed Metallica and he signed Raven back then and you know he released kill them all and he released Fistful of metal and we're not yeah merciful fate and listen was like you know really by him doing that really spearheaded you know a lot of you know what this was all gonna become by the end of the 80s but he was the one who actually took the risk by you know literally using his own money to do it right right there were several hallmark hallmarks to what I think differentiate anthrax for some of the other thrash bands and one of those is melody and of course a lot of that comes from the vocals a little bit about how you incorporate melody into those heavier faster styles oh you just got by the way you know write a lot of words and some some of the riffs are really hot so fast and it's really hard to get it all in but you find a way you know right that's I don't think there was any method because when I walked in I didn't never heard of these guys before so to be able to just say you either funny disease was a little bit worse it was space you know at first and then once we had among the living it was on you know right but it was definitely a style that I had that somehow became part of what we're doing now I don't know I had no idea what I wasn't gonna sound like sure any of this music yeah yeah the blend of that melody and the vocal harmonies and things that you guys are doing is just different than some of the other the thrashings and I think separates that from from what's happening there some of the other hallmarks are of course the double bass the double kick cymbal chokes kind of things for accents but a big part also is the you guys typically will have a mosh section in your songs where the groove will kind of break down and making that work requires locking the basin of the drums together talk a little bit about that how do you guys lock together when you're creating those parts I think we're still working on it how about Joey no these these guys are related so they they know how to relate that's the one that's a lot youth so we pretty much know each other I know what he's gonna do and he knows what I'm gonna do it's pretty much just making sure it works for the song right I don't think we even think about it I think it just happens don't I think that's a big part but don't think too much just do you know you can't just take the little parts you know and go with that it's good stuff yell sing - yeah it's a few though sections - would uh like one whenever we go to see shows and stuff and like these certain bands would break into parts like that like the hair and the back of our neck or on arms would stand up and would be like something about these parts these sections that just made us get people nuts which is great that's what you want you want to get some going that's the whole idea we I'd be completely mistaken but I don't think we ever sat around ever and made sure why when we were breaking down into any part that like the kick was with the this or that we just played it right and the way we naturally did things is the way it sounded in the way it turned out I think that's also a part of our the reason that makes us just sound not different than other bands but just sound different is because we none of us were those type of musicians as a band we definitely were much more I don't know if if that's a New York thing or but we definitely we weren't like Muzo metal dudes you know what I mean real loose like we just we lose ya play and we want it to be natural and we wanted to just feel like anthrax and that's why like for so many years people would try and get us to play to a click in the studio that would always come up at the beginning of a session and rough you know we would literally Rage Against The Clique cuz we like it just doesn't work like a chicken things should naturally you know things are gonna naturally speed up things like Jen actually slow down it's just the way it is you know something we've never worried about I tried to click remember and they just it was hurting the song it hurted the vibe of the song that's why we had to pull and you just let him only let him go lately the last couple of records we've been yeah and now to fit - you know there's a design and it's like okay well we got to make sure that here it's gonna bump up and then come down so right but sometimes it'll just pull it out you know we'll start the click and I'm like take it out yeah even halfway through the song sometimes you'll just leave the click and fade it out and just go on his own and that's the vibe of the song the feel and if it drives that way let it go just let it be that's the natural thing you know when you're doing that in the studio do you all hear the clicker do you just you hear the clicking I do I do i yeah if it's in I have it especially the beginning of the like we're gonna start let's start let's air it is okay and then Jay will just pull it out Jay Rustin and all of a sudden it's not there and you just go with the song and right that's cool because you don't know where it's gonna kind of go and I like that I like the feel I love playing to a click like I don't even know what's there right how how developed are the songs when you go into the studio have them pretty well completely mapped out or are you going in and doing a lot of the actual arranging and writing in the studio no they're arranged yeah pretty much we go through a good demo process and stuff we're doing that now who can have we can't afford to spend studio time arranging songs I mean maybe a tease one from monthly just going yeah I mean stuff would be done I don't know I feel like we just be wasting a lot of time if we were sitting around a recording studio trying to arrange well and it's expected no that's expensive drum rooms are expensive now that's the bottom line so you could do everything else after that right so I think though not the last record but the one before that I redid drums on certain songs member because just right it wasn't right right and that's the beauty of how he did the last record we did it in two different sections we did six songs and then we waited a couple of weeks maybe a couple of months and then we did the other sections you reset up to yeah it was really cool to do it that way because we weren't stuck there it's all so fresh so and then these guys had just six songs to do so they you know you don't get burnt out that way right right John you came into the band in 2013 and we talked about the new wave of British heavy metal but you kind of came out of the new wave of American heavy metal as a tank all with shadows fall it's also a little about coming into a band that's so established now such a legacy of recognizable parts and recognizable songs well it's cool for me cuz I grew up listening to it mm-hmm so I get to play play the songs with the original members like that's a big deal because a lot of bands were around this long when we have a couple guys left right now zero yeah I look over I'm the only fake guy dude did you feel pressure coming in to exactly recreate the parts that we're on the record so that the players before you had done well usually when I learn other people's leads I kind of use it as a blueprint and I throw my own stuff into it I'm horrible going no for now but I use it as a skeleton and throw on my own flavor right at what point do you put the vocals and the leads and those things into the process do you guys track as a as a rhythm section and then add the rest of the top or how do you do that yeah how we do it okay I mean there's sometimes I wish sometimes you did actually in past you were as I am therefore and in the booth singing a little bit yeah it's not like we got in a room we start early that they come up with the riffs we got the parts I did just get out of mic start blasting away something you don't do any of that fact I get in the studio and I got a sheet of paper with a lyrics I don't we just go in and fire away you know we have the little little blueprint but it's just kind of off the cuff which is kind of neat you know right right but you've already got kind of a finished track to work on yeah at that point in the same thing with a tar leads right you do this on the basic tracks no I just do I'll demo them then send them to these guys and they dig it then yeah I'm for all Kings he was sending us like lots of ideas for the different songs all the time which is great so I'm curious with again a band that's been around for a while and had several different very recognizable players what were you looking for when you chose John to be the new lead guitar player in anthrax we knew he was the guy there wasn't even a yeah we knew him yeah we've known John for a long time and so when we knew that that change was afoot we spoke and we said there was no question just John's name was the only name that was brought up and is the available Betty van Halen to it anybody it was up between him and you know it's hard he was that good Johnny but yeah was the only it was just is he available and does he want to do it that was it are you play hardball he played about where the where the songs come from we talked about the production of the zones but what is the process of writing them and putting together the arrangements back in the old days we would go into rehearsal and then do it that way these days like all you to send an idea or something like that and then just build on it lately I've heard these other bands come out with songs and I just don't feel it they put their heart and soul into them anymore like it's just I'm like oh I've been waiting all this time for a new record by this band and it comes out and say what band's name is know where nobody's this is gonna see this yeah you wonder if the ideas just become stale for someone that they can't can't find anything new you know everything's got to come from the heart cuz you have to live these songs and we play them how many this is three and a half years we're on this tour this this last record is three and a half years you have to play these songs every night well I mean for the most part especially when the record first comes out and you better love those songs because if you have to you know play them and not live them then it gets it gets old fast right so what goes with technology now and all the new gear let's say in the last five to seven years it just makes things on I think on the songwriter level it doesn't necessarily make it easier because you still got to write a song but like when Charlie will send like a demo he'll email us a demo and mp3 or something and it's like you know it's got really great sounding drums on it and great guitar tones playing riffs and so just in my head when I hear it that makes it easier because it already sounds a little bit more realized than back in the old days with a tape recorder because playing record on a cassette and you don't even have any you just playing an electric guitar without an amp in you and and it's like yeah that riff seems cool but one day we'll get in a room and we'll start jamming on it but so when you get an idea in an email and already sounds great it's more exciting for me in general it's just like oh man that sounds killer like let's dig in so geology helps a lot now even even me I'm really bad with all that but to do yoga rajab and things just to send them ideas it's so much easier right so much just pushing it though I just I push myself hard and I don't think people push themselves as hard anymore mmm is there is there a danger of doing too much on the demo and then having what we used to call demo itis where you're trying to beat the demo or no because this parts that we when we get together like Scott will do something different it'll modify something or he'll change something you know will things are always up for suggestion what's better for the song this point in our career you know it I mean we've been doing it long enough what's gonna help that it's not about I'm the best bass players best guitar whatever who cares what's best for this song and what's gonna make it pop really I like my songs too I'm sorry I like long as much there's nobody's gonna play this on a radio yeah that's not gonna happen you kind of have that going in its no radio play for anthrax that's fine we'll get on without him but as a live set we stopped when we had so many long songs and get that hour or 45 minutes set and it's like and people complain about why don't you play this people know about the we just did at Riot Fest and they voted for it [Laughter] what do you want us to do you said you want to do what songs do you pick you ask the fans what you want to hear and then you can't make everybody happy right and it also be happy doing it you know it's tough is there you guys were explored a lot of different things during the course of your career you've done some classic rock covers you've done obviously the rap and hip-hop kind of thing and some punk kinds of things is there an area where anthrax shouldn't go where where you feel like it isn't anthrax anymore you haven't go because soon as I hear you shouldn't do that of course it makes it right and I also understand that yeah there are certain things that there are any plenty of people out there doing it really well that we really wouldn't need to put our toes into that water you know what I mean like I don't know that we need certainly need to make a bluegrass record let's say I don't I don't think that's ever gonna happen right and I like bluegrass music but you know we don't need to do that sure I have no no desire to you know to do something like that kind of stain or Lane but sometimes go out a little bit you know it's yeah I mean it's not to me we would just make album after album of 70s covers hard rock yeah covers we could do that all day long we have a couple of Records Phil we should just put out like those old compilations that you used to buy on Cato on TV Kara it just be us covering although we try to that's another one we try to do them well too I mean we really care about the song the covers that we do stuff you'll new trim your legs actor with any band ever well alright right you talk a little bit about how you have to maintain the passion and staying fresh and touring and being in the studio and trying to come up with new material what is it that drives out what is it that makes you want to continue getting out there on stage and getting into the studio I mean being a musician is this fun to be able to do that there's your opportunity to to do that one for one thing we're looking at is you get to do it yeah you know so I always go back to an interview I read with Keith Richards a long time ago and they asked them well when do you think you're ready 60 something years old when do you think you're gonna retire you know how long could you do this for and he's like why would I ever retire I feel exactly the same way like I get to do this I get to play guitar in a band that's what I get if you want to hear you do it they're like we do we were lucky enough to do this we know we're lucky enough to do it i mean we've worked hard yes but also there's a lot of luck involved with this business too so it's better than digging ditches yes sir that's the way I look at it right so there's a luck involved but that's when you guys started and you were talking about the tape sharing and some of the things that went on in playing shows today bands are doing somewhat similar things with social media and things do you think it's easier now was it easier back then is it the same or who knows anymore I think it's harder nowadays yeah you don't so records in you don't so records so that's but I don't know how that changes for bands so getting signed I like does that what does that mean it anyone mean anyone happen anymore or there's no tour support for these young bands which I feel horrible for because they can't go on the road to support the record they just worked really hard on how do you how do you get out on the road because you have no money but youth but on the other hand you can just put your music out there by yourself and it doesn't there's essentially because you don't need a label aka the bank to front you a bunch of money to go make a record the art-school way you could literally make a record in your bedroom and put it online for people to hear it we certainly couldn't do that in 1983 mm-hmm we had cassette tapes that we would literally throw at you right you know how to try and get you to hear it so I guess in some ways it's just different I don't know that it's easier or harder but it's a completely different world that's for sure sure there's there's been a lot of talk recently about rock being dead and seems like you hear that every few years there the rock is dead but it you guys are out there playing sold-out shows and you're doing big festivals you're off to Rock and Rio and in a couple of weeks and things what is your take on the health of rock and metal these days somebody yeah it's funny how that seems to come up every couple of years so it must sell magazines or for these days it must get a lot of it's good clickbait something to do with I guess every couple of years the rock is dead thing has to come up because someone must be profiting off of that otherwise it would go away I would theory about it the reason why they say it is because there's been an influx of different types of music that have come in the last 20 years to almost replace it or it's like you have country music which is taken America by storm and places that you would never think country music would be popular you have rap music which is taken America by storm you know what I mean you have EDM so you have all these different forms of music so where is rock and it goes gonna be pushed a little bit back to where it should be you know the underground you know so I like go see Iron Maiden when I go see Slipknot when I hear tool has a number-one record I don't say rock is dead so I can't say it's dead because I it belongs for me I don't want it out there like the hip hop stuff and I think it's cool it's my thing on the ground and that's always been cool because it comes it'll rise of course it's all cycles and so it'll come back again with some big there'll be a Guns and Roses one day that'll come back make this amazing record they're black by the way No there'll be another another Guns N'Roses a younger you know and there was there is something happening like that well there was a young bands like that Greta Van Fleet and stuff like yeah rock is not dead can't write them off you can't write rock off and it never will die for people who say that I think it's about you know they hear people say that and you really know what's going on are you listening right maybe you you just just listening to what's out you know in social media don't do that my last question for you guys is the question I'd like to ask when I have a band or an artist who's operating on a high level and travels in circles with other high level bands in it and that the question is what is it that makes a great artist or a great musician just to look man you just you could just you know you could a band you never heard of and you could just go on and see them onstage and it's like there's something about that that that dude right there or that chick she's she's got it and survived you know that's the thing people don't back it up with good songs anymore you know so that's the problem a lot of gimmicks too right we've been seeing a lot of that on festivals like these bands will have more of a show than a song and it's like well they're gonna change right right gotta have the substance right it's got to start somewhere you know and then you build that and you can put all the goop and stuff on at all that you know yeah I mean I'm still a strong believer and originality more real stickler for that I mean look I know everything comes from somewhere you know any anything that really comes out in any genre of music it pretty and it existed before in some way shape or form is red super rare that you hear something you could actually say I never heard anything like that but still something original and I think all the best artists and all the best bands are doing something where you instantly recognize it as that person from one note whether it's a guitar player you could play a game where you listen to one note and know it's Eddie or one note and know it's Daryl or one note and know it's Jimmy Page or one note and know it's ace frehley or like just a signature sound songwriters their voice you know just I think to me that's you know that's when you know because it's just it's so good you could it's undeniable right right like I could only imagine being like a teenager like when Elvis hit yeah where's that I mean it existed and honest much smaller and different level with black artists but then here comes Elvis it's just like he just looked like like nobody the package and the beat and then the Beatle sir no sir that's it that's the thing I think about that sometimes how like that can never happen again never happen again there's nothing nothing that's gonna come out and own the world like in in that level but because everything is so instant gratification and because of the internet and everything else you can't it'll just never have it'll never happen it's also the attention span these also nobody has that attention span to focus on one thing there's so many different things distractions coming at you what the Beatles did in eight years no body will ever do that alright you could never recreate that Beatle mania itself could have been that's it for them but they didn't stop they did you know Rubber Soul revolver and then they go on to do what you know right yes sir sir I'll tell you wanted Paul McCartney to go back to your artist the question about I mean we just saw him a few months ago at Dodger Stadium and I had to say is the best three hours I've spent at a show ever in my life I mean because he opens his mouth in it it's your whole your whole lifetime I feel like that music it's just a part of our DNA right yeah it's a celebration when you go see him and the crazy thing about that dude is I never saw him take a sip of water and throughout the whole show you just doing it and every song you know it's like a nursery rhyme that's amazing you know that's that's great writing came when old John saw him a couple months ago and I was just like I couldn't believe it right yeah one after the other just weird emotions to when you put you hear a song it's like it was that day you could stop to basically write they wrote our lives pretty much to think about that those guys and thank thankfully they're in our lives you know and still here absolutely so music is important yes absolutely speaking of will we see new music for you guys I'm going to the studio demo duh we demoed a bunch of arrangements Friday in Chicago so yeah we're moving forward nice I have to look forward to that and as I mentioned you guys are off to rock and Rio yes really October and the first time next year you'll be off touring Malaysia I saw there's some things happening there some different stuff going on so yeah we're kind of doing one offs in between writing and then eventually getting into the studio and and then eventually the record I would assume the record will come sometime next year and then and then the whole cycle you know starts again everybody's asking us about the new cycle that's when it all starts again so this has been three and a half years so you know it's coming so I figured people waited 13 years for a new tool record they could wait a little bit a few more months owner amazing they can do that that's awesome that's awesome guys thanks so much for coming in we're glad to have you here and held a recording workshop is I think it's sold out are gonna be a big success so cool you're gonna have some fun doing that as well and we very se you coming by great job thank you thank you and thank you for joining me for the Sweetwater minute I'm here with anthrax and I'm rich Gallagher

Channel: Sweetwater

Views: 36,308

Rating: 4.9658766 out of 5

Keywords: cat:guitar, anthrax, mitch gallagher, joey belladonna, scott ian, charlie benante, anthrax (musical group), video interview, thrash metal, shure, anthrax interview, anthrax sweetwater, sweetwater, sweetwater anthrax, anthrax interview 2019, anthrax 2019, interview, anthrax band, anthrax live 2019, sweetwater sound, #sweetwater, #anthrax

Id: MO9gzLWC7wc

Length: 30min 12sec (1812 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 20 2019