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Push to Fire Interview: Malefice
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D: well never anything enchanting but we do an evil deed everyday as part of our daily ritual! I mean evil deed, everyone does something fucked up everyday, like last night we trashed a service station. That was a bit of an evil deed! (laughs) | |||
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Congratulations on the release of your 2nd album in February this year! How do you feel ‘Dawn of Reprisal’ has been received by critics and fans? D: it’s been good, like well across the board. Everyone’s been well into it. We went for a bit of a different vibe this time; it’s a bit more of a mature album. So we were really chuffed when people were into it basically because we spent a lot of time on this one didn’t we? T: Yeah Entities, was a bit more rushed. D: It was a bit more of a mish mash because we’d never written an album before. I mean this guy [points to Tom] joined about 2 or 3 months before we went into the studio, so this is our first album that we’ve all written together. So it was really important to us for people to like it and they did so we’re well chuffed. T: It was a lot more focused in the studio and we spent a lot longer on everything really, guitars were done over the span of a month, and the drums over a week, where as Entities was like, right, quick lets get it done and get it out. Does that sound good, whatever. |
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What influenced this album? Was it personal experiences? D: Lyrically? Lyrically I write for myself. I really get into my performances so I have to be singing or screaming about something I actually give a shit about. If I was to go on about politics over and over again I really would be mugging myself off, I wouldn’t be into it at all. You’ve just been nominated for best new band by Metal Hammer's Golden Gods congratulations! How do you feel things are progressing for you as a band? Is this what you hoped for when you formed this band in college way back in 2003? D: Thank you we’re really stoked!!! We keep smashing our personal targets, we just going onwards and upwards, that’s the way Malefice has always worked and I’m sure that’s the way it will always stay. We’re hardworking geezers, we all get on with each other, there’s no egos in this band, there’s no dicks. We all get on, we all help each other out and that’s the secret to our success. We’re 5 normal blokes and normal mates. Do you feel a bit more like you’ve ‘made it’ now you’ve been signed by such a large label (Metal Blade is a subsidiary of Sony BMG), and now you’ve got your nomination? T: it never really sort of does, it just feels like another step. D: it’s because you never get all of this at once if you know what I mean. Its here’s a tour, here’s an award, here’s a massive label, here’s 20 million pounds. You never get that all at once, you get the tour, and then that tour leads to an award, and that leads to a big review, so you’re always going up the ladder. I suppose if we sit here and think about how we’ve got here now, we’ve achieved an awful lot. T: it’s always sort of building a bit at a time so it’s never a massive shock; it feels like a natural progression every time something good happens for us. | |||
But do you think you’ll win? I mean how exciting would it be if you did!! D: seriously if we won I think I’d be drunk for a fucking week! T (laughing) yeah I’d have to say I’d be the same! D: we’re not into winning, we’ve always been the underdogs, and we’ve always been fighting for the little guy, so if we win brilliant, if we don’t it’s no skin off our nose. T: it’s just great to be nominated really. D: we’re proud to be nominated! Who are you influenced by musically? T: oh shit that’s always a difficult question because we all listen to drastically different stuff. There are only a few bands that we all agree that we like. I suppose there are the typical ones like Pantera, Slayer, the classic ones. D: (laughing) we listen to Black Eyed Peas on the bus a lot! We aren’t really influenced by bands; we’re influenced by the whole genre so we don’t give ourselves any limits. If we were a death metal band then I couldn’t sing if I wanted to sing, or we couldn’t bring the section down or do some progressive stuff, we would be limiting ourselves. So we will always be just a metal band, if people want to call us a metalcore band then they haven’t listened to our latest album. Is there any band you aspire to become like? D: I think Lamb of God at the moment. They’ve got the same kind of ethics as us, like they’ve always played the music that they’ve wanted to play; they’ve never succumbed to any trends. The same as Machine Head, they’ve got to where they are from being honest with themselves, and at the end of their run when they pack it all in they can say to themselves, we did it the right way, we never sold our fucking soul for anything. Do you have any advice for metal bands that want to be where you are? D: get a van! T: be prepared to work very hard for very little money. D: it’s all about the right place at the right time but you have to put yourself in that right place. You’ve got to be there for that to happen, so like I said, get a van, go out and tour, play anywhere for anything, just get your name out there. T: a lot of small bands come across hurdles, and for some bands that’s like roadblocks and that will just be it. As far as we’re concerned you’ve got to persevere through those times because if you don’t you aren’t going to get anywhere, you’ve got to have the good times and the bad. You’ve got to hope you can all stay strong together and come through it as a unit. D: that’s why it all works with us being such good mates, because if one of us is down there’s always someone to pick you up and say come on mate its not that bad. We’ve been bummed out on this tour because we’re all missing our girlfriends but them we’re like we’re on a fucking tour bus, touring the UK, and we’ve just been nominated for a Golden God, fucking shut up.
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You’ve already toured with bands like SikTh and Devil Driver, are there any other bands you are itching to be support for? T: well Metallica would be good. (laughs) just so I could see them without having to pay 80 fucking quid for a ticket! D: and going back to Lamb of God as well I think. They’d be a perfect band for us to tour with at the moment. Who would you choose for your support on your own headline tour if you could choose anyone, dead or alive? T: Pantera, Metallica, Machine Head, erm Faith No More. D: basically every band that’s wicked! T: (laughing) it would have to be a festival I think! You opened the 2nd stage at Download last year, have you got any plans to return this year? D: erm no we won’t do it this year. We’ll be there partying and to see Faith No More one way or another but I don’t think we’ll play it. We played quite a high slot last year so for us to get a higher slot it would have to be main stage, and considering American bands are over for festival season unfortunately British bands miss out. We can’t really moan, we’ve got a lot on at the moment so we can’t block up our busy schedule. T: (laughs) And what have you got planned for after this tour? D: aw we can’t really say!! Oh no! D: We’ll be touring a lot though! | |||
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