D-Day's Revenge....
Speak Your Mind!
D-Day speaks with Warpath
Warpath is another band that was introduced to me by Metalchick Lana. From the moment I heard the music and then met Pete on the radio chat during my show, I knew that I needed to get an interview for D-Day's Revenge! Read on to find out about the accomplishments they've already had, the plans for a future album, and the thoughts about my mentioning Madonna in the interview! Good stuff....
D-Day: Thank you very much for speaking with D-Day's Revenge metalzine!
Rich: No problem. We’re looking forward to talking.
Pete: Thank you for having us (do we get our money now?) Hahaha :p
D-Day: After reading the Warpath bio, it appears that you have accomplished quite a bit in the last couple of years. First off, what was the recording process like for the album, "Damnation"? It seems like the album was in good hands. Tell us about that.
Rich: The recording was hard. We would do between twelve and fifteen hours a day, every day for a few months until it was completed. It was during the summer, so it was extremely hot and we couldn’t have the air conditioning on because the sound would pick up on the microphones. We wanted to kill each other by the end. As you said, we have accomplished quite a bit so it was definitely worth the work.
Pete: I remember the sweat dripping from my arms and tips of my fingers were shredded at the end of the solo recordings, but it’s all in the name of Metal!
D-Day: What is Scuzz TV? I assume that they played a big part in getting Warpath out to the public, along with Terrorizer Magazine and the mighty Bruce Dickenson.
Rich: Scuzz TV is the main rock and metal TV channel in the UK, alongside Kerrang. We have the No.1 highest rated music video on there, ahead of Slipknot, Machinehead and a whole load of other major name bands.
D-Day: What is it like having your song on Rock Band 2?
Rich: It’s a big opportunity to spread the name of the band further and everyone seems to be enjoying playing our music. The feedback from fans so far has been great, they’re having a blast and it’s a really challenging song to play. We’re working on getting the rest of the album on there.
D-Day: I see that you have a USA distribution deal with The End Records. How is that working out (first off..) and also, are you on the market for finding a regular record deal? And do you have a preference between a major label or indie if approached by either?
Rich: The distribution deal is good. It’s working out well for everyone so we’re happy with it. We are always keen to hear what record labels have to offer us. If they want to talk business seriously then we are certainly interested. So far they all seem to want to jerk around and bullshit. As for preference, a major label is our goal.
D-Day: You've had the opportunity to play along with some heavyweights at festivals like Slayer, Iced Earth and others. If you had the power to arrange a world tour with any three bands, who would it be and why?
Rich: Metallica, Megadeth and Testament. They’re my heroes, my main influences and the crowd would be unbelievable.
Pete: Iron Maiden has always been my biggest influence and I’d also love to play with the likes of Dio because…. well it’s Dio! But for a thrash metal bill I would love to play with Annihilator, Testament and Flotsam & Jetsam!
D-Day: To get back to some of your accomplishments, mainly the airplay and appearing on music charts.... How would you feel if you discovered that thousands of people had downloaded your music for free? Would you see that as stealing or as promotion? There are many views on this by every band I've asked, and I'd love to know your opinion.
Rich: We are fully aware of the illegal downloading of our album and the situation for bands in general. It stinks. It’s theft. Last time I checked, we’d had between 300,000 and 400,000 illegal downloads of the album and obviously have not earned a penny from it. We have had to finance everything for the band ourselves through loans and part time jobs etc and work our asses off to pay everything back. I’d like to see any of these people try to steal the album from us in person. I can fully understand people wanting to hear the album before buying it but that’s what the likes of Myspace, Youtube, Spotify etc are for.
Pete: Haha, well they wouldn’t stand a chance, simple as that! We’ve had people write to us and admit they downloaded the album from torrent sites but loved it so much and were so impressed that they then bought a physical copy of the CD straight from us. Which is cool because I think it shows that our really music speaks for itself, other than that illegal downloading is just plain stealing.
D-Day: Let's lighten things up a bit. Every band seems to have some moment that sticks out in their minds that has happened while performing. Do you have some zany episode that has happened to a band member or the band itself such as any drunken episode, crazy fan, promoter problems, wardrobe or equipment malfunction, someone shit their pants on stage, etc.... you get the idea.
Rich: Well we have had promoters trying to leave before paying us. One guy we had to take outside the venue to get the money we had been promised which looking back was kind of amusing. He didn’t expect us to catch him out. We had a show last week where our drummer nearly set the stage on fire. It was really hot in the venue, our drummer took his T-Shirt off, threw it to the side unaware that it had landed on a bare light bulb! After around ten minutes we could smell burning, really bad, we thought one of the amps was on fire. Turned around and there was smoke coming from his T-shirt where it was burning! As far as I know, no ones shit themselves onstage yet. Give it time.
Pete: If the stage had caught fire I’m sure I would have dropped a big one right there! We’re yet to have our Spinal Tap moments. That means we’ve got dancing midgets and exploding drummers to look forward to!
D-Day: Let's try a multiple choice question: Which of the following would you consider to be the most horrific thing to happen musically in the last 10 years?
a) Metallica touring with Limp Bizcuit and Linkin Park for the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2000
b) Tom Araya needing back surgery and putting a scare into the future "Big Four" shows this year
c) Dave Mustaine suffering an injury and disbanding Megadeth temporarily in 2002
d) Madonna living in the UK
Rich: Damn, that’s a tough choice. Health wise I’d say Dave Mustaine’s arm injury. I’m a massive Megadeth fan so that really sucked at the time. Aside from that it’s a tie between the complete and utter shit of Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park or the wrinkly bitch that is Madonna. Tough call.
Pete: I can’t believe you mentioned Madonna in a metal interview! Shame on you!
D-Day: Are you currently working on a follow-up album at this time?
Rich: Yeah, we are in full writing mode. I have six or seven half finished songs that I’m working on and the rest of the guys have wicked material that we’re going to jam soon.
Pete: We are all very excited about the next album, it is really going to raise the standard of technical fast metal up a bar!
D-Day: Do you have any shows coming up that you would like to tell us about?
Rich: We have a bunch of UK headlining shows throughout July with more being booked for August. For the full list, check out our myspace or website.
D-Day: What is your current goal for Warpath within the next 5 years?
Rich: Global domination and to bring some much needed guts back into heavy / thrash metal.
Pete: Agreed! We could talk for ages about musical integrity and bettering ourselves as musicians blah blah blah, but dominating the metal scene and like Rich said, putting some balls back into a genre which has gone very limp recently!
D-Day: Thank you once again for speaking with us! Any final words for the metalheads out there?
Rich: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, we enjoyed it, keep rocking and supporting real metal and D-Day!!
Pete: Thanks D-Day, yourself, all your readers & the listeners at Wicked Spins rock!!
Keep up with Warpath at these locations!
5/10/10
