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A few years after the release of “Chasing The Dream” and, as obvious, many inner changes, we now have an updated version of Mr. Slaughter and Skull Fist,with whom I was extremely happy to talk about, since Skull Fist is one of my favorite bands.
Hello guys! What a pleasure to talk with you, I’m Crystal and I welcome you to Metal Invader. How ‘s everything? Is life treating you nicely?
Life is a highway bro, I wanna ride it all night long. All is well, got the fist train rolling again and I guess it feels solid. Life is a dick, but so am I.
There has been silence in the Skull Fist house for the past 2-3 years. Departures, surgeries, session musicians, yet you’re back and stronger than ever. Do you feel like talking a little bit about all those that happened ever since the “Chasing the Dream” tour was over in 2015?
Not really, haha. A lot of stuff happened, dealt with a bunch of personal crap; fought some demons, won some, lost some, ate some. That tour in 2015 definitely set everything on a completely different course, that’s for sure, but who knows man. This is where I am now, I’ve picked a direction and I’ll start walking you know? Got tired of just sitting around at the cross roads trying to make up my mind.
Your newest record “Way Of The Road” will be out soon. You released the first video for the first track and I have to say I’m quite impressed by this new, more serious approach of oldschool heavy metal. What led you to the decision to take it a little easier this time? What will be different from the previous records?
I suppose it’s just a natural progression. Well I don’t know exactly, I was living in a van and maybe just realized that I should probably start doing things a little more serious in my personal life, so I guess the music just reflects all of that. You’ll definitely know it’s Skull Fist, I don’t want to change styles drastically or anything like that. The fist will always remain the fist, but I’m not going to release the same record twice. At least I don’t think so. I listen to a lot of different styles and so I think records for us will always be different from the previous one. As I said, I don’t wanna release the same album twice. We’re not AC/DC haha!
While Head Of The Pack and Chasing the Dream have been really successful, there is a big amount of fans that talk about the uniquity of the “Heavier Than Metal” E.P, which is my personal favorite as well. What makes this record unique for oldschool metal fans?
It was recorded in a basement, it was the first thing we did and the raunchy sound just feels more warm. It’s no surprise that after a million super production records you find yourself getting into the charm of the weird obscure E.P. stuff. Like that Helloween EP or the Queensryche one you know? Not that ours is anywhere as popular haha but It’s all apart of that thing. Diggin up gold. I think our first two full length albums never came out exactly the way I wanted them to. This new one actually does though, its still raw for me but not too raw.
The NWOTHM has known a great growth the past few years with so many bands conquering stages all over the world! Why do you think this is happening?
Spandex are on sale? Round and round? Cause love will find a way, just give it time? I think every genre has a good pile of bands that will always in that style you know? I don’t think anythings coming back but I don’t think anything’s really gone away. Seven billion people on the planet, definitely always going to be some music that exists in this style. I just feel like everyones jumping up and down saying this nwothm thing is exploding but dude, I’ve been all over the world and I know a lot of what’s going on for the biggest bands in this new genre. It’s not exploding anywhere dude, no one is selling out big ass venues, in truth we’re all playing for anywhere to 100 – 800 people. Rarely is it in the highs. Nothings exploded, we’re all still poor and probably will remain that way.
Meanwhile, there has been big tension among the bands. Members of one band dissing others, why is that?
I’m 31 years old dude, not in high school. Some people get bored I guess? I’ve not always been an angel but I got no beefs.
Let’s talk about “Nature Never Lies”. Did you feel the need to create something more “peaceful” , let’s say, while you had been resting from the vocal surgery?
Well I’ve always been playing around with different mellow styles of music. I guess thats primarily the kind of stuff I listen to over the last few years. I used to be a pretty angry guy for a while and cranking up heavy stuff was just pissing me off more and more haha needed to mellow out for a while I guess, still do.
In 2017 you performed at the Wacken festival. Did it feel a little weird, since you were only handling guitar duties?
Dude yeah. It sucks not singing man… It’s weird having another dude singing my shit, Jerry is a wonderful guy though. I love him incredibly, it’s been like 3 years of this though, I don’t know. We’ll see how the voice turns out on this next europe tour.
What is your personal favorite Skull Fist record? Which song is important for you, which song speak for your soul?
Most of them do. Most songs I write are about something that happened at some point in time for me. Occasionally some songs are just written with no emotional attachment but more of them are about something from my past or whatever. When I’m singing them sometimes the memory pops back up, sometimes it doesn’t.
You’re planning a tour with Striker after the album is released. What songs will we hear this time? Is it easy to create a setlist that will keep the audiences pumped up?
Ah I have no idea, probably a few new tracks, most of the old ones. I feel like we need to play some of the weirder ones like “Commanding the night” and shit. This is only our 3rd album now though so it’s like were always just talking about what songs we still like playing you know? We just pick a song, ask ourselves if we still enjoy playing it; if not, we cut it out of the set. Nowadays I don’t think about the songs that will pump people up, more just deciding what songs I still enjoy playing and then basing the set around that.
That’s all from me. I really do hope to see you in Greece this time, since shit happened in 2015 and I couldn’t make it. Any last words? Maybe some advice to new musicians when on tour? A message for the fans?
Don’t smoke, don’t drink too much. both of those were impossible goals for me up until now but maybe they’ll be possible for you!
