Yeah! Now Scotty being younger, I think his first Metal album was like ‘Cowboys From Hell’ so when we started playing together I was able to turn him onto all the stuff my brother turned me on to. He was blown away as he probably wouldn’t have “discovered” this stuff, especially OverKill and Vio-Lence until years later, if ever.
But having that wide range of influences in the band is great…collectively we love Entombed, Death, I like Amon Amarth a lot. Derrick loves Immortal and Darkthrone and our bassist likes D.I.Y. Swedish Death Metal and other crusty stuff.
We get along great, ever since I’ve been a teenager and started playing guitar we’ve just gotten along, like I said great.
The early self released stuff was limited, we knew what songs were the best received from playing live all the time. We wanted to re-record the ones we knew people were into and the way we saw it, these were the songs that got us signed, why waste them as limited releases?
We wanted a record out and didn’t want to rush new songs just to release something. I think the album would’ve suffered if we had come up with all new material as we would’ve hurried it without living with the songs.
I’ve written one song that I really like a lot so I need to get the whole band to let me know what they think, I write a lot of the stuff and will run it by the guys.
Do you show them the riffs at practice or do you work one on one with the guys?
Everything I write I write with a drum machine and record it to my little four track. Then I can get the guys tapes of the songs and let them know my ideas and we work on them from there. Chance works on the titles and lyrics and everyone adds what they can.
What’s the feedback from your people, are they looking forward to hearing some all new stuff from you guys?
Just on this tour it’s started! People will come up to us and ask when we’ll have some new stuff out and we don’t even know what to say to them, you can say “OK, but it’s going to be another 9 or ten months of touring” you know?
Before you guys inked a deal with Prosthetic had you been shopping your stuff around?
We sent out a lot of shit to a lot of labels. We got everything from “we’re really interested” to “We’ll see” kind of responses. It definitely wasn’t a fucking bidding war that I can tell you (laughs)!
Prosthetic, we just liked what we saw and heard and when we call the office we get the man himself, that’s what we like. We started with modest goals at a label where we weren’t going to get lost in the shuffle, I mean why do a debut album with a label where you’re going to be in debt for the rest of your life?
We’re happy with what’s going on and as far as where we’re at, well were a lot futher than we ever thought we’d be so that’s a plus.
Let’s talk about touring…you guys tour a LOT..I mean a fucking lot. Even if I hate a band’s music, if I see they’re just road dogs and work hard at their craft, I end up respecting them. Is touring and the grind everything you thought it’d be?
We never started out thinking shit was going to be handed to us. When we signed to Prosthetic we knew we weren’t getting a $40,000.00 advance and we knew it’d be just as hard as doing it yourself, but with much better distribution and a solid profile in the press.
As far as our end, we saw this as an opportunity to work harder than we’ve ever worked before…that’s the only way you can do it on an indie label. Prosthetic thankfully has been great to us, but we went into the deal with them knowing this was the one thing that would cause us to drop out of school, quit working and basically live on the road. If we didn’t do all these things we feel it all won’t amount to anything.
So back to the question, touring is what it is. Some of it has been really good, some of it has been really challenging. There are all kinds of things that can make it either great or horrible but it’s what we love, yeah it can be hard at times but it’s much better than a regular job, you know? But our van is our home and that’s the way it is.
How was the local scene when Skeletonwitch was coming up?
There were some good bands for sure, there were some good shows with killer support but it was no different than any of the scenes in the towns we’ve played ourselves. But our thing was always to just go for it, our first tour was back in 2004 and it was completely self booked. We paid $1,000 to play the Milwaukee Metalfest and that was the first date of that tour.
You know what? Our core audience still remember those shows, that’s how it all began. We were in a pick-up truck and a trailer and we loved it!
What do you see happening in the immediate future? More touring I assume.
We’re going to Europe for a month with
Hate Eternal and
Cephalic Carnage and after that we’ve got nothing booked yet, but we’re stirring the pot as we speak because I don’t want to stop yet. I’d like to fill the rest of 2008 up with touring and then maybe take a short break at the beginning of 2009…I don’t ever want to tour in the Winter again!
So whenever we can we’ll take six months to write and record another album and try to make the best one we could.
God forbid this happens, but if your tour van had a faulty wire and was about to blow up, and you could save only 1 album from inside, what album would that be?
Wow! That’s a tough one, I’d have to say ‘The Years of Decay’ by OverKill or ‘The Avenger’ by Amon Amarth...