SOCIAL MEDIA

TM - What's your favourite memory of watching another bands play live?

AK - The first time I saw Judas Priest in 2005 in Helsinki, it was great it was my first real heavy metal concert and I really enjoyed it. I also sawManoWar it was great from d starts to the Finish the setlist was great and there were no unnecessary moments.

PM - We did about 24 or 25 dates of opening up for Hailstorm in Europe Paris and it was incredible. Madrid was amazing it was just insane it was a treat to be playing with them. They have played with us when they came to New Zealand. We got a really good repporwith them said they invited us to Europe to open up for them it was like Christmas for us and a lot of fun. 

We went to an island and the first night we got there we went out drinking and then we went driving down the road. I looked to my left and I saw this massive billboard and in my pissed state, I rubbed my eyes look again. It was us on the billboard and then we go play the show the next night. The next day we got told that the mayor wants to see us and have a chat.

RS - I loved watching Prince and George Michael play rock in Rio and then David Bowie was playing Glastonbury. We played just before him and me when we played Hallelujah and time of stage. David Bowie said to us that it was very eclectic and I nearly fainted I'm not normally Starstruck but I was with him.

We finished a show in Bristol and we had a day off to travel and the next gig was in Newcastle. We had a whole 24 hours off and Bradley wanted to see John Bonham grave because it was on the way and we were like yeah ok lets go find it. We got lost this little Country Lane and this lady was walking down her driveway and paul said i am going to ask this lady walking down her driveway if she knew where the chapel was.

We don't have much time to visit stuff  when we are on tour so I'll just go to stuff around were we are playing. I am normally the first up in the morning and try to visit as much as possible.

​

​

​

​

In 1991 one I opened up for Judas Priest on the operation rock and roll tour in the United States, my mother came to the show with my family and she knew Rob Halford was my hero. I was playing as his opening act and she wanted to meet him. I said I will make that happen but it will have to be after our show, I took a shower after the show and left my mum sitting at the table and Rob Halford was talking to someone across the tent.

TM - Can you tell us a tour story?

TS - We got lost one night in tilburg in the Netherlands we went went drinking with these two guys at a bar called the little devil.

TM - No way, I love that bar! I went to watch Steel Panther in Tilburg one time and my sister and i typed in rock bars near me into Google and came up. We started walking down a back alley and i said to her this doesn't seem right. It was right around the corner. It has a sweet room at the back for gigs too.

John Petrucci is the guitarist in my group Dream Theatre, there is a lot of great things we do together but we really great writing partners. My favourite thing is when I meet him in the studio and working on unison fast line that we play together.

MAX - I think Sepultura is more metal and sofly is more tribal group and kill or be killed is more Melodic with three singers. I think it's fun having all these projects it keeps me Sharp and relevant in the metal world each project. I gave my heart and soul too and Kill Or Be Killed we have a demo ready for next year so we will prob be releasing a album next year at some point.

I meet Mickey Dee in Oslo as he was dating an old friend of mine. I didn't know Mickey dee was Swedish, I thought he was an English man so I was talking to him in the English the whole night. When we were leaving he leans over and says to me hey let's go to the Rock bar in Swedish.

BW - we are looking forward to trying foster beers! Every since we saw the add on TV we have wanted to try it.

​

TM - I'm sure you can try it in Australia. I love how they have all those band beers in Europe with Iron Maiden on it and other bands. I saw the beers in France when i was over at Hellfest.

One of our trailer Wheels ripped off the trailer and dropped down onto the ground. It was grinding and pulling the car all over the road, thankfully all was ok and we pulled over.We were stranded on the side of the road with a trailer full of gear and no way to transport it.

The best part to me was  influencing kids to make music last week. We played with great white under Ross and there were some little girls in the front row singing along, these girls were 4 and 6 years old. They were really little and my singer had them come up sing sweet child with us. They almost brought tears to my eyes seeing these two little girls come up sing sweet child and be a part of the concert.

Mike Cortada designed it. He took my vision from the very Inception that I wanted to create, a very 80s slasher aesthetic and really have a provocative look to the cover. It has a VHS look that I grew up gazing upon in the video stores, such as Creepshow Friday the 13th and Halloween.

There are 2 theories as to how we came up with the name, depending on who you ask. The first one is that it came from the story of Absalom from the bible, the son of king David and supposedly the most handsome man in the land. Our guitarist and singer dug the name because the story is full of revolutions and deception and battles. The second theory is... 

We played at Monsters of Rock This Summer and Gene Simmons band was playing after us. Matti had Gene Simmons biography in his hand and he really wanted it signed 

My oldest brother was my biggest influence because he was a Prodigy and played drums before I did I didn't want to play drums at that time but I just enjoyed watching him.

We have done a lot of work on that and I have got a lot more to do. Probably two and a half years more of filming. It is not going to just be the typical footage of the band, We will also be interviewing people whose lives have been affected changed or touched dramatically by the band, so it is going to be quite an extensive and deep documentary.

"We will be down in Australia with a new singer and hopefully our last singer, he hasn't really infectious personality and a really positive guy it's infectious for the rest of us."

The first time we played outside Norway was in February 1995 in the Austrian capital of Vienna in a club called Arena. That feeling of performing in another country amazes me when I walk up on stage, i love the feeling!

There's a British company called Stylo Rouge they did all the work for Trainspotting and they are really up for doing our album so I sent them all our previous albums and discussed what we wanted and they came up with the rest.

The response has been really good, it kind of comes back to that honesty thing people have been thankful that it's finally getting to a place where it's very honest with my personal stuff not the perspective of someone else.

In 2000 we finished our contract with our our other record label, then Nuclear Blast contacted us and said we really love your music we want to sign you.

​

​

 I don't know what to expect anymore because there has been some interesting developments that have happened over the last 24 hours. you can expect some shredding solos awesome vocals.

It's going to be 11 rock and roll songs with no ballads on the album and we have released three of these songs of our new album so far I love those songs but they are not our best songs.

"We are always writing, you never stop writing. We have two producers in our band with their own Studios and we all get together to record songs."

We got to know the itinerary guys very well and we did a lot of body building backstage, they are really nice guys. We also did some Club shows with Arch Enemy in between touring with Nightwish, a lot of good times and red wine.

we are set to go into the studio in August to start recording.

Recently our song writing has taken a more 60’s UK blues rock turn not too dissimilar to The Rolling Stones but at the same time Ben came up with a really simple heavy groove for a track called Killing machine that is a kind of tension and release hypnotic style.

Our songwriting is heavily influenced by The Beatles. Every single song has to have catchy melodies with catchy chord progressions. We try to take the best sounds from every era of rock'n'roll

There's not really a process, it's just to be inspired and motivated to write music. We recorded our album at Dave Grohl studio 666.

​

​

I see so many people, even who are way older than me, who are still looking for something in their life for what they are able to burn, something they can do with passion.

TS - I met Dee Snider, except not when he was recording. He did the recording by himself. I got in touch with him, to me Dee Snider was always the figure of rock and roll in a way because he was flamboyant and different and he didn't seem to give a s*** about conventions. As a kid he was every parents nightmare. Not my parents, they are very old and my mother is still alive but the snow that was so anti-establishment and immature and that what I really liked about Dee Snider. To me he is a really cool figure in rock and roll. I went on stage with him about 2 years ago and I didn't know until two minutes beforeI had to go on.

DS - Bro-Am is our a local charity foundation and every year we do a concert on the beach and a surf contest and all the proceeds go to local charities. It has gotten so big that we had to start a foundation to bring all the money in and we give it to all local kids charities we are so proud of Bro Am it's been growing for 14 years and we have about 18000 people come out to the beach every summer. 

LS - It is me its all me sometimesI help out Danny too. I have an idea and give it to a designer or sometimes I will just see it online and go yes that's the piece. same with had dresses I have done a lot of work with Hysteria machine and I used to make my own head dresses. same with the makeup and all the fine details. It is direction and my vision its very rear that i let someone dress me and do my make up.

WT - For this album we changed our music. We took it  in a new direction this time a little bit less symphonic but there was still be symphonic elements going on in the background but the changes bigger than we had with the previous album.
 

CG - CM Punk heard our song when he was a kid they played it on the field when he played Little League so it has a sentimental value to him. When he decided he was doing WrestleMania he decided that would be his entrance music.
 

I remember seeing Marilyn Manson playing at the lime light in New York City and not knowing if martians crash landed a UFO in the back of the pub that night. Marilyn Manson walked out onto the stage i remember him very clearly that night had no idea who he was everyone was like what the hell is going on.

We would drink a lot of beer and shred as hard as possible we would sit down and come up with ideas lever it was Riffs or the full song then we would sit down listen to them and see what we had on the table then we would pick out the best songs and start working on those a bit more and eventually we came up with a CD turned alcohol into gold

SW - A lot of people have covered my songs over the years and I think some of them are fascinating. I think what I love is when someone approaches the music with a completely different perspective, there was one guy who was a cello player and they recorded my songs is only using a cello and it was absolutely incredible. I didn't know this guy, I didn't know his music I was completely blown away with what he did with the music.

JC -  I always know there are a certain amount of songs that we have to play, otherwise people will get really mad. Then you know there are songs that aren't really radio songs but they are a crowd favourite and you get a sense of that so I always try and do those too.

I went to a U2 concert a couple of years ago and they didn't play In the Name of Love and I was really bummed that I thought ok if there's a really big radio song it has to be played.

BFMV - There was part of the set when I was doing a drum solo and the band went off stage. Jamie our bass player needed the toilet he walked out the door and went to the toilet and the door locked behind him so he had to run all the way out the venue all the way through the crowd and find his way back on stage.

Maybe you can talk to James Hetfield for me and make that happen(Laughs). I really wish for the Australian people that we could have a big 4 show you because it is so special. Let's face it, all four bands have grown up together. The way I look at that I would love to bring a package, I am not the big man on the totem pole though. We have to make that happen because I love playing with all those guys I really do.

one time when we were playing in the UK I was connecting from LA to New York and there was a strike at the airport and that was the weirdest thing cuz when we got off the plane the airport was just empty normally JFK it's like a mad house in there everyone's just running around it's loud is all these different smells but it was like a ghost town

 JV- Originally we wanted to have some graphic elements, but the record company thought it would be better to have pictures of us. Floor said let's do all these cool angles of photography and we screamed at each other and tried to look at an angry as possible and that was our favourite photos and we thought it was really cool.

L- We had a good time in spain and the crowds are really good over there, That was our first mosh pit. Another good festival was bang your head, we played in the afternoon and didn't expect people to watch us but there was a massive crowd and we got alot of interest from the audience.

Seeing a lot of bands that I wouldn't normally get to see. There is a lot of power metal bands on the bill that I am excited for it, so i plan on staying up all night and partying.

When we did our last European tour we started at Download Festival and someone found this dildo though the size of my forearm. It somehow ended up in our van and we were driving from Hungary to Bavaria in Germany.

It is our resume of our entire career so far, on our last album we were trying to explore different genres of music and we went in a really heavy and in a electronic direction and for this album we wanted to bring back some of the heavier elements and technical aspects. I was really trying to encapsulate everything that defines us as a composers performers and a band in general.

The songwriting took place in 2016, for almost the whole year I wrote the song at home and when I finished I send it to the drummer without the drum backing.  He comes up with the drums and the rest of the band adds their bits.

We had an idea of putting some 80's elements in the album, one thing from the 80's that kids probably don't even know is Polaroid pictures, so he asked the company to send us to polaroid cameras and we ended up using these in the cover.

We played a festival called Berserker festival up in Michigan, we were approached by a Beer Brewery and they wanted to make a king parrot beer because they know how passionate Australians are about drinking beer.

 I used to be in Caligula's horse and the Last gig i ever did with them we were touring with Opeth and we were playing a venue in Perth which has a top mezzanine level and got to watch over from up there now drinking beers they are my favourite band of all time.

A band on fire, we always want to bring the best show wherever we go and always try and give our fans the best experience possible. We are really excited to join our fans in Australia tour.

well first of all if you like the band before you can expect the same as the first two records and you wont be disappointed but if it the first time you have listened to our music you can expect a very violent raw Display of Power.

"When the music director approach me with this particular situation i thought i'm a big fan of Peter Buck from REM and guitar playing was very influential on my guitar playing."

​

​

We tour so much so we tend to write a lot of stuff on the road, and when we have days off. When we decided to make the album we got together in a rehearsal room

Bleeding Through Is all about the music and the people who enjoy it. That was lost for a while and now it‘s found.

​

​

The producer played the piano and guitar with us and gave us ideas. We would start a song and drop it and start working on something else and came into the studio with a fresh mind every day.

Coachella? Hahaha....... I don’t know to be honest, I probably would’ve said Soundwave as it’s close to home but that’s obviously not going to happen. I reckon Wacken would be awesome, so massive and so many awesome bands. 

We thought of the idea of a deserted old prison cell, the gate was ripped off and the shackles were left behind.

It's an acoustic record, so for us it was very different. we sat down with acoustic guitars and came up with some chord progressions.

Essentially my entire life  I always kept a journal and wrote. I used to be a dancer so I mainly expressed myself physically and creatively.

The recording process was very old school, we played live in the studio, all bass tracks and drum tracks were kept for a few touch ups here and there and I did my rhythms and Leeds all live.

Amos our bass player came up with our album cover.

​

​

​

​

BP - There was an instance when Stone Cold Steve Austin was driving a zamboni one of those machines that comes out and flattens the ice. Steve came around the corner and when he did they were pipes and Drapes set up backstage. He came around the corner the pipes and Drapes covered his face and he couldn't see. Steve had the pedal to the metal and was going as fast as he could.

TM - Have you created The Duck Song yet?

CB - No not yet, but I think I am going to on the next album. There will be have to be a song about giant inflatable ducks. These days the duck is the most important part of our show. Thank You for the suggestions there will be a duck song on our next album.

When we did our first American tour in 2002 we were out with Hypocrisy the singer Peter decided to hire a limousine for the afternoon and emptied the bar driving around Manhattan. He came back 5 minutes before the show and he was so drunk that they had to carry him on stage, he thought he was singing into the mic but it was 1 meter to the left.

Yes we did, we couldn't have a conversation with them because there was a language barrier and we couldn't take any pictures with them they were very particular about their privacy. It was great we played ping pong with them, on one occasion Eric got excited because he was about to score a point and he wacked one of the balls and it skidded across the table and hit one of the girls in her throat. All of us immediately were like "oh no" and she was laughing it off and from behind you could see her bodyguard tense up and step forward but it was fine and the shows were madness it was great.

Isaiah now lives in a different city so once every three days he would come down for three days at a time and we will play and come up with ideas. Then we would take home the ideas and listen to them then the next time we meet up we would pick out the ideas that stood out the most and work on those and take it from there.
 

Argentinian painter called Santiago Caruso. I have always liked his artwork and I thought it would be a perfect fit for us. We gave him the lyrics a recording and he said he will get right to work. Then we got the artwork back we were blown away,  I can describe black frost to you like this, Frost comes from the sea when Frost builds up on the bottom of a ship, it is really cold and that Frost can get so heavy, that causes to ship to capsized so we transfer that frost on to a human being it represents the bird and that some people carry around.

N - We were on a tour bus once that exploded. We were coming up to Germany and the bus driver screens us to get off the bus it was 4 in the morning and we had just gone to bed because we had been drinking. We got off the bus in our underwear and the bus just exploded like in a Hollywood movie so we went to a fire station and they gave us all these old clothes they had as we lost everything the gig after was canceled.

JM - Me personally I would like to collaborate with my good friend Jeff Loomis, we collaborated on some song ideas a few years ago but I've always wanted to do something with him again.

As Fifth Angel maybe Accept I would love to open for Accept.

RM - I did the drums for the album I was finished over 2 years ago for my bit there was a real flurry of activity towards the end of the Kablammo! tour. We finished off touring Japan about two and a half years ago and Tim our singer stayed in Japan and started the writing process there. A bunch of songs that jumped out and it felt like they all fit together musically and lyrically so we all got together and the drums were recorded in 4 days.

I gave him my ideas for a guitar and he gave me this look like give me one second, he will survive and was back with essentially the exact guitar I had just described it was 3 hours old they made the guitar like 99% of what I had envisioned.

 MC - There's a million crazy tour stories, on the flight over here I forgot I had mushrooms in my pocket and I almost took them on an international flight. That would have been a big mistake so I ate them all instead and I was hallucinating Out of My Mind the entire flight over here.

TM - What expect from your set from Hysteria Halloween?

HJ - I am bringing my full band that we have a four piece band it's going to be harmonies and guitars.

TM - How did you pick your songs for your setlist?

HJ - We are doing a bunch of newer and older songs with the band.

ZP- when I was a kid I was a massive fan of the skid row albums. Michael Wagener helped work on the new album and he just lives outside of Nashville.  I go out and see him quite regularly and he is the nicest guy you could imagine. We are going into his studio to do our new album he's really professional he's on another level.

I was doing merch for a friend's band one time, a young man came up to me at the Merch table and told me he had some problems in his life and told me he enjoy listening to Conan because he had a really difficult time. It really touched me,  It wasn't even a Conan show and someone came up recognized me and spoke to me about how Conan. It had an affect on me  and it has really stuck with me.

My first Instinct was to say Iron Maiden because Bruce could definitely sing it, but it will be cool to have Paul McCartney to sing a song that I co wrote because then you could say a Beatle sang one of my songs.

 We all produce music for other artists as our job. We went on tour with Deftones across Europe and we thought, OK this is a big deal, we should just release our version of the album while we are on tour and make a big deal of it.  At the last minute we stopped ourselves self-releasing it. I thought to myself is this the best version of the album it could possibly be.

Chuck was notorious tight with money and one night in Birmingham he was locked in his dressing room and refused to come out and the crowd was chanting, We want chuck, we want Chuck. Chuck refused to come out on stage till he had his money in his hand, so the promoter was on his knees sliding notes under the door and when Chuck had enough money he came out and performed on stage.

you know what, when I was 5 years old I had seen something on TV about kangaroos and Koalas and all the creepy animals and was really thrilled about Australia. I lied to my neighbours and said "oh I'm going to move to Australia" so everyone on my street was like to my parents, oh I heard you are going to move to Australia why didn't you tell us so I've always had a thing for Australians.

In 2010 i was on a festival and Parkway Drive were on the same lineup. As the guitarist had broken his leg he was playing his guitar while he was in a wheelchair. That was a real inspiration to me and ever since that say I swore if I ever broke my leg or obtained another injury I would also come out on stage and play. 

It is part of our DNA, we will always play covers and it's normally something that people won't expect. We sometimes play covers for our VIP meet and greets and people don't expect that.

His dog haha, He is great to work with.  We have an intro into one of our albums, it is just vocals and machine guns firing.  We are Canadian and we don't have any guns up here.  He is American and he has a full Arsenal of guns, he took us into the woods and brought a bunch of shotguns and rifles and we got to shoot all of them. He recorded the sound of the guns and we added it into the beginning of the album.

It was amazing, i have know them for a long time. I invited Jonny over for a cup of tea and asked him to bring his cut guitar and within 10 minutes we wrote Plastic Machinery and played on some other songs.

Our tour bus broke down and the bus company would not get us a new tour bus, so we had a choice of whether to cancel that shows or find a way to get to that next show.

TM - If you could pick any song title as a biography title for your band what would it be and why?

party machine that sums it up

TM - Anything else you want to announce to your Fans?

We are excited about our show it will be fun.

TM - Thank you so much for this Interview today,  we really appreciate it.

We were very very lucky we were at the end of our time with our last record label and came to get signed by nuclear blast.

​

​

I signed the first time in 92, with pain I signed in 96 and then released the first album in 97, after that I went to Universal and then in 2007 I want back to Nuclear Blast Records.

We pitch your idea to Barney Buick and he designed our album covers.

We are really excited to go back in the studio and are in full writing mode at the moment. We have the shell of about 20 songs even though the album will be less, there are all these song ideas and concepts flying around. We are still not sure what the final result will be.

Ken our guitar player came up with the idea he said he only wanted to have something that was black, red and white. Chris from Sabaton who is a really good designer, so Ken and Chris sat down and Ken told Chris what he wanted.

We had an interesting experience in northern PA for our first show. We played at a biker bar with a bunch of hard looking guys that stood there with their arms folded waiting to be impressed.

There has been a mission statement with this album to go back to a heavier side of Seether, we always get told we are heavier live band recordings so we wanted to show that side on our albums.

​

​

 We were all sitting around talking one day and we knew that we wanted our banner in to be themed around pirates and boats