Metal-Roos: Are you excited about the Soundwave tour, and are there any bands you’re looking forward to seeing on the bill?
Yeah, we’ve been waiting for this for years and trying to make it happen. I haven’t seen Green Day live yet, so I’d like to see them. They’re a good band.
Metal-Roos: What can we look forward to in the new album?
We’re writing a new album. We started getting together, and just putting riffs together over the last couple of weeks. It’s hard to know where it’s going yet. We were not looking at booking any shows this year until we did our record.
But we got offered Soundwave, so of course we got to take it. We’ve been trying to get that for a while. After Soundwave, maybe.
Metal-Roos: I was just listening to Dark Roots on the drive here. What was the idea behind it?
The live one we just did? Yeah, we did it because we also wanted to be like writing stuff on the side. We really wanted everyone to see where Testament is at today. We’ve been touring a lot, working a lot harder. We just thought it was time to do a live record.
Metal-Roos: I actually saw you guys in Brisbane at the Hifi a couple years ago. You were great.
Thanks
Metal-Roos: How do you keep your voice in shape after all these years? You sing pretty hard.
I just do warm ups before the show. But I think being in the band for as long as we have, and just years of doing it. The sound just kind of builds up, and you just do what you do. Anything you do a lot, after 30 years,you’re probably pretty strong at it.I just do warm ups before the show. But I think being in the band for as long as we have, and just years of doing it. The sound just kind of builds up, and you just do what you do. Anything you do a lot, after 30 years,you’ re probably pretty strong at it.
Metal-Roos: You have pretty much played with my dream list of drummers, with Bostaph and Lombardo. Is there anything in particular you look for in a drummer?
I always liked them to have a creative style. Like when we did the gathering, and he (Lombardo) did such a great job, and pushed himself a bit more writing songs on that album. It’s always the strength of the drummer, the ability to push the songs to get the best out of them. But it’s hard, like performance. It can be spur of the moment. We’ve been very fortunate to have great drummers over the years.
Metal-Roos: Do you have a favourite album?
I think that as far as songs go, New Order was a very strong second record. I just think production wise, perhaps the quality wasn’t as good. The songs were structured that way, as we were so hungry at the time. And all the songs were all fast and furious, lots of energy.
Metal-Roos: What was it like being part of the San Fran bay area scene in the 80’s? It was such a great era of bands.
Yeah, we were introduced to Exodus. It’s kind of a cool thing. Around the bay area, 81, 82, there was a lot of punk rock, not a lot of metal bands. So a lot of the metal heads evolved from the punk rock, and developed the punk rock attitude. So it was kind of interesting, to be part of what was happening. So great bands came out of that; Vio-lence, Exodus, Death Angel, all these great bands coming out of that thrash metal scene.
Metal-Roos: What do you prefer – touring or recording?
Touring for sure. Recordings fun now but there’s the process of getting the songs laid out, getting them so they’re perfect, but it’s not as fun as touring. When you’re on tour, you play the songs, you have, go to parties. Can do whatever you want.
Metal-Roos: Do you have a favourite Australian band?
I don’t know that many, but mostly bands we’ve played with, like 4ARM. We took them on an American tour with us. They were real nice guys. We had a great time.
Metal-Roos: Do you have any advice for up and coming bands in this very unusual climate?
I haven’t really heard much of anything, but I know there’s always new bands out there coming up. Out here we got serious radio, so there’s always a new record, a new band coming out all the time. There are such great labels out there now for metal. When we started, I got the manager and booking agent, and part of having people find bands like that, is having bands who are really committed to what they are doing.
Metal-Roos: OK, last question – I was only watching Anvil the other night. Is there any band you would like to see get more recognition (new or established)?
Yeah, Testament (laughter). We are the band that came out in the 80’s, right when that whole grunge thing came out, and we’re signed to a major label, and starting to sell records, and right in that, waiting to be one of the next bands that you know, get a gold or a platinum record, things changed so we kind of got caught there in the middle of all that crap. It seemed unfortunately, we fought our way forever from where we were to get where we are today just to stay alive with putting out records and touring. Those bands like the big four were just ahead of us, but they were making those records at the right time. We’re always a little bit like the underdog.
Interview Date: 2014-02-04
Interviewer: Matt