Stumpfest 2014: An Interview with High Priestess Rynne Stump

Take a glance at the lineup for Portland's Stumpfest 2014 and it's difficult to make sense of how such a staggering three-day bill came together. Spend just moments speaking with the event's founder and organizer, Rynne Stump, and it's immediately evident how easily she can pull off such impressively heavy company. Words like friends, magic, and love dominate her vernacular more than fans or money, and a disarmingly genuine nature bleeds through each sentence.  Heavy Planet enjoyed an opportunity to gush as Rynne opened up about the annually-expanding Stumpfest and its past, its future, and its purpose.

Heavy Planet: This is the third year for Stumpfest, right?

Rynne Stump: Yep, third year!

HP: What are some of the origins of the festival?

RS: It just kind of came to me. I used to do booking in Portland and I did production there with my best friend, Chantelle Hylton, back in the early 2000's. And I used to do my own little shows around town. I guess the origins would be from that and moving to L.A. and not really having much of a scene down here. Some people could argue that with me, but I've lived here ten years and if you wanna go to a heavy show you've gotta drive to Pomona or somewhere on God's green Earth out there. A lot of my friends I met in Portland who do play in heavy bands, they'll come stay at my house when they're in town but usually they don't have a good venue to play down here. So a couple years back, YOB was doing their first stint out with Tool and I asked them on the last show, "What if I had a festival? Would you guys play it? If I booked a gig up in Portland, would you guys headline?" And Mike (Scheidt) was like "Absolutely!" And I thought, Well how cool would THIS be? Do a show every year with my friends, bands that I like, bands that I don't get to see. Maybe my friends from down here come and play up there, we'll just get everybody connected. So really it was just the idea of bringing my friends together and actually getting to see all these amazing bands that I'm missing living in Los Angeles. That's probably not a very nice answer, but it's the truth! [laughs]

YOB

HP: 2012 was one night, 2013 spanned a weekend, and this year's three day lineup is fucking killer! How big is this thing gonna get?

RS: I don't know! This year I was like, Maybe we'll go back to one night. Then I just had an outpouring of requests from bands that I really love, bands that played the first two years and I can't say no to. They're my brothers. The Rieseberg's in Norska, my best friend Mark (Bassett) in Diesto...  "Of course you guys are gonna play because I wanna see you! I never get to see you!" So aside of that, Ancient Warlocks came outta the woods and I love them, I love their record. Bands like Drunk Dad, who I just got turned onto a couple months back. I wanna see them, y'know?! One of my friends from elementary school, Kevin Spafford, is the drummer in Honduran. He sent me their album a while back and I was like "Oh my God, you guys have to play!" I got excited and I cast the net kinda broad and wide because bands like Trans Am, you don't know if they're gonna say yes or no. You don't know where they're at in their creative process. They haven't played shows in a while. The last time I saw them was actually at Mississippi Studios. A year and a half back they did a show for their record label, it was like an all day thing. They've been friends of mine for years, we worked together and booked them at Berbati's a long time ago. I reached out to those guys and it just so happened they finished their tenth record (Volume X) and they're lookin' for a show. The only thing was Sebastian (Thomson) is now drumming in Baroness. So I was like, "Can we get Seb out?" And Seb said "Yeah, we can do it." And he's gotta fly back for Moogfest in Asheville (NC) like the day after. They're friends and they wanna be a part of it and it's really exciting, but I had NO idea they would say yes. Red Fang, we were negotiating with them last year. Pretty much everyone that plays this knows me or is one degree away from a close friend.

Ancient Warlocks

HP: It seems so tightly knit, the entire thing...

RS: Absolutely! It's a total family affair. I had a lot of requests from bands I've never heard of or don't know and that's really exciting that people wanna play it. That makes it awesome for me because I get a chance to discover new music and see new bands myself and that's exciting. But for right now, it's really just... family. [laughs]

HP: I keep seeing the term "Bro-love."

RS: It's SUPER bro-love! And that's the cool part! If you're there, it's cool. You can experience it and be a part of it. It's really an intense thing. People in the crowd, the audience, they feel like they're a part of something, they feel connected to the musicians, they feel connected to the vibes that are being procured. Every band, so far, has brought an incredible set. It's insane, it's leveling! Everyone is rehearsing, getting prepped; they really take it seriously and I think that's the inspiration of love, friendship. It's not a competitive thing, it's not like we wanna sound better than anybody else. To me, it's Stumpfest. We all just wanna get a quality thing together. And I love that! It's happening naturally, it's something I can't explain. It's magic. That's the magic and power of love and friendship. And I have no idea what's gonna happen in the next couple of years! [laughs] It's its own animal, it seems like it just keeps morphing and evolving into this bigger, cooler thing. Hey, I'm just holdin' on for dear life here!

HP: Our readers are familiar with Norska, Black Pussy, everybody loves Red Fang. I'm not even able to attend and I was stoked to see the lineup, especially when Ancient Warlocks were announced. Are there any bands there people would be foolish to miss? You'll probably say all of them...

RS: That's such a tough question. That's the reason I set it up, these are ALL bands I would NEVER miss. Trans Am, who's gonna argue with that? They're one of the best bands on the entire planet! Unequivocally, Trans Am is one of the best of the best. It's been over fifteen years they've been together and they still just deliver. If you miss Trans Am, you should just... [sighs] That would be the one for me. I would NOT miss Thursday night. That's a hard question, that's not funny! [laughs]

Trans Am

HP: Sorry!

RS: I don't know, YOB? Red Fang in a 300-capacity venue? When I first saw Mastodon in 2001 or 2002 in Seattle, they were playing at this tiny club up there. It was mind-blowing! Seeing YOB in a small place, Black Cobra, I just can't say enough about this year. I don't even know how I did it. I have no idea.

Black Cobra

HP: When I first saw the bill, I think it was on Cat's instagram or something, I thought, You've gotta be kidding me! But it seems so much a celebration of the Pacific Northwest and an increasingly prolific scene, if you wanna call it that. What would you say is special to the area compared to other hotbeds of heavy music like New Orleans or Savannah?

RS: What I think is of utmost importance to these musicians is that they care, they give a fuck about what they sound like. And like I said, not in a competitive format. Not in a "We wanna make it big" format. They care because the music means so much. The tone, y'know? The carving of the tone, the heaviness. They respect the heavy. They respect their craft and, as you well know, anyone who respects what they do has the integrity to do BEYOND. You wanna evolve. You wanna transform, right? Isn't that the idea of art? To transform, to transcend. THAT'S what comes out of the Pacific Northwest. Transcendence through quality. These guys work jobs. They go home and work jobs. They take care of their families, they take care of this or that. But they can tell you exactly their pedal board systems, their handmade cabinets from dudes that MAKE cabinets in the Pacific Northwest. It's just such a beautiful place, it's like a garden. A garden for quality, heavy music and rock n' roll. I just believe all that rain, all those clouds...

HP: There's something about it!

RS: There's something about it, right!

HP: I've been told not just Portland, but the Pacific Northwest in general, is a strange and special place.

RS: They know how to cultivate sound, and that's the beauty. It's the respect, it's that respect for the craft. And that's art, that's the DEFINITION of art. It's not to bastardize and make thousands of dollars being a jerk, not knowing what the hell you're doing.

HP: And a lot o' people make a lot o' money doin' that shit...

RS: I know, I KNOW! You see bands like Yes and old school bands that are still doin' it for the love. They're not out there tryin' to make money, and I doubt they ever were. It's the integrity of the art.

HP: And you've got bands coming out retirement because they have bills. And it sucks.

RS: It depends on what band you're talkin' about! You know what I mean, we gotta watch it! [laughs] But there's nothing wrong with making money, either. The money is not the evil. The evil comes with how you're motivated by the money. It's what you choose to sacrifice to make that money. If you just so happen to be completely devoted to your craft and you happen to be able to make money on it, fuck... more power to you! And if you happen to make money without that? More power to you, but I'm not gonna listen to your shit. Good music is good music, it doesn't matter what it is. I listen to EVERYTHING! I listen to MUSIC, I'm a MUSIC lover. I sang bluegrass when I was a little kid and I still listen to bluegrass. But, like I said... with anything, with art, when it's really, truly there....people know it. And that's the beauty of being a human. ONE of the beauties.

HP: Yeah! I was raised on my dad's old Mountain and Allman Brothers records and it's funny now, I love this heavy stuff, this sludge and doom. But I was fed a lot o' good music as a kid. And like you said, good music is good music. It doesn't need to be categorized.

RS: No, it doesn't! It can, but it's not necessary. You know when something's good, you know when it hits you right in the sweet spot. I think that's one of the beauties of this year's festival: every band has a sweet spot. Every band that's on this bill has the potential to be headliners. Or ARE headliners!

HP: Right! I could ask which of these bands are primed to explode, but I look and I can answer my own question. ANY of them!

RS: Yeah, any show could have been developed over any number of these bands. I got lucky. The powers that be aligned and here it is. The beauty is that when things are right in the world, everything just works. It's a problem when you try to force things. Fortunately, the magic was in the air and everyone said yes! Everyone I asked said yes. Except Sandrider, because they were having a child or something. And I was like, We need to get some more days at Mississippi, because we love it there and they take great care of us. And I feel like if we have to move to a larger venue at some point, maybe for a night, we might do that in the future. But Mississippi should and will always be our home. I like the intimacy and I don't wanna have to start charging people a lot of money for tickets. That's another huge point of contention. I'm trying to keep the cost of the festival livable so people can come.

HP: And the tickets are modestly priced.

RS: I want everybody to have a chance to come to all the nights. It's all about the whole picture. Maybe some people don't wanna come to the same venue every night. But the people who ARE gonna be there all three nights are gonna experience something really special.

HP: Looking through photos from the first two years, there's nobody there that isn't smiling and loving the shit out of their life at that point.

RS: [laughs] Well, yes! It's fun! Everybody gets paid, everybody gets fed. I give a free t-shirt to every member of the bands. Usually I screen-print the t-shirts by hand but this year I'm gonna actually go down to a shop in town and have them do it because it's red and black and really intense with a red washout. I'm a printer, by the way. That's my college degree, printing. I have my own little set up here at my house but this year's artwork demanded a little more attention than I could provide with the time frame because I just got home from tour with Tool and I didn't have enough time to actually screen-print the number of t-shirts I'll need. So that's kind of a drag. I just went down and had a meeting with the printers yesterday and they said, "Come on down, you can help us!" So I'm actually involved, but I won't be doing them all by hand. But everybody gets a little love. My sister and I make handmade laminates out of nudie magazines for all the bands. High Times, Playboy, National Geographic... little collages for each band member. It's fun! Everybody is involved because they want to be. Our artist who's done the artwork every year, one of my dear friends, Gabriel Shaffer out of Asheville, North Carolina... he's done artwork for us at our home, and naturally he was the first person I asked to help me with this because it's a family affair! It gives us all a reason to get together. It's easy when it's just all your friends. [laughs] Everybody just likes to see each other and it's like a big reunion. And we get to bring other people into the fold. We make new friends, new relationships get forged, bands meet each other that maybe otherwise hadn't in the past. I know Floor is taking out Hot Victory, that happened because they all met last year. I think that's why it happened, at least. It's just cool. New bonds are made, that's the whole idea.

Hot Victory

HP: I wish more festivals were like this one. The way it's presented, the way it's arranged and delivered. It's difficult for me to describe as an outsider. I won't ask you to sell the festival, it seems to sell itself. But is there anything people may not know about Stumpfest that you feel they need to know?

RS: Not really! They just need to be armed and prepared to open their hearts, connect, and have a blast!

HP: Can they get in if they don't have a beard?

RS: [laughs] Absolutely! I don't discriminate! There's a lot o' hair goin' on, it's amazing! John Theodore, when I asked Life Coach to come up... We already had Phil (Manley) from Trans Am, and I was like "Come on, Johnny! You gotta come up!" And he was like "Man, Stump! That's a lot o' heaviness there, I don't know!" I told him he'll be fine! Because I want each night to have its own identity. What's a festival if it's one big clod and everybody sounds in the same ilk? It kinda gets to you after a while. So it's nice. That's maybe one thing that I'll leave you with. Each night crafts its own sound, its own style. And I've tried to cultivate it that way. We have one night that's different to keep it fresh for everyone who does want to come for three days. You ARE getting a different vibe on stage each night!

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Don't sleep on this one, kids. It seems there's no over-stressing the heart that goes into Stumpfest at every angle. From Ms. Stump, through the bands, and directly into the lucky few in attendance runs a stream of unity and passion. If only the rest of the world would catch on, eh?

Stumpfest 2014 | Facebook | Southern Cross PR | Trans Am | Red Fang | YOB | Federation X | Lord Dying | Black Cobra | Black Pussy | Life Coach | Norska | Diesto | Drab Majesty | Ancient Warlocks | Drunk Dad | Hot Victory | Chron Goblin | Honduran

Interview with Dave Chandler of Saint Vitus, cont.

 

Here's the last part of my interview with Dave Chandler of Saint Vitus. We talk about New Orleans super groups, punk rock, and some new bands he digs. 

Justin Gish (JG)- Outside of this tour, you guys are still going strong in Europe at the big festivals right?

Dave Chandler (DC)- Yeah those are really fun because that was something back in the 80’s we always dreamed of doing, and now it’s really cool to be able to do it. The only bummer is that if you do one you have to wait three years before you can do it again, and that’s just a weird thing. So it’s like if you play Hellfest in 2013, you can’t play again 2016, unless all the sudden you’re the best band in the world. Which, I understand Because they want to keep it different but there’s still quite a few that we haven’t done yet.

But those are hard to do, there’s some difficulty because there are so many bands, and there are road crews you’re not used to, and it’s really hard but it’s really fun when you walk out there and raise your hand all all these people are screaming, it’s a blast.

JG- I can only imagine. Are you seeing younger folks at the shows, thanks to the “Doom Revival” we seem to be in now?

DC- Yeah, and that’s a really cool thing that we dig. Apparently between the time that we ended and now you know there’s been like a couple generations and that’s really nice because parents are bringing their kids. I have pictures of me with little tiny kids with Saint Vitus shirts on and that’s really bad ass. And the old fuckers will say they only go see one concert a year and they get in their wheelchair or their hoveround and they go to our show.

JG- Must make you proud

DC- Yeah, and they come up to the stage with the shirts they brought thirty years ago.

JG- The fall is going to be a big month in Grand Rapids. Monster Magnet is opening their North American tour here, we get you guys, and Church of Misery-

DC- And Kylesa's been there we’re doing a tour kick off thing with them in Oklahoma.

JG- So do you work a lot with Season of Mist bands?

DC- It just kind of depends. LIke this one, we just did four days in Australia and that was with Season of Mist, one of their bands, which is Monarch. And then we did local bands who opened up, but this tour is kind of like we’re trying to work with new people to get more of a new crowd, so everybody was like okay, you need to do either this band or that band, which is Pallbearer and Zoroaster, and both of them couldn’t do the whole thing, so we split it up, because these are really big upcoming bands and we wanted them on. But usually we don’t care, the only thing we don’t want is a band who is going to make the stage messy, before we play because if we’re going to slip and fall, on something it is going to be our fault, not some Satan band’s fault.

JG- No pig’s blood?

DC- Yeah, if they want to play with us, we don’t care, we’ll just play before them. And they can mess up the stage after. That’s fine. We just don’t want to slip and fall. But that’s the only thing, we don’t really give a shit who we play with.

JG- Yeah, you guys were on SST and with the whole punk thing, you guys are no strangers to playing with bands that don’t exactly sound like you.

DC- Yeah, we played in front of numerous audiences that really couldn’t care less about us, and some really angry ones who really wanted us to get off the stage and showed it very violently.

JG- Just wanted you to play a little faster?

DC-And we didn’t which made them madder, but that got our rep going.

JG- And that’s punk rock, playing by your rules and sticking to your guns.

DC- Yeah, it’s funny you say that because we were doing an interview one night and this one guy asked Wino “how would you classify yourselves?” and Wino goes, “fuck doom metal, we’re actually a punk rock band, cause we don’t really rehearse and we just go out and piss everyone off.” And I thought that was great.

JG- Pallbearer is slow. They are really great.

DC- I’ve heard they are really outstanding. I’m looking forward to seeing them.

JG- And you're living in New Orleans, right? How’d you end up down there?

DC- I moved here to get married. Bottom line was I met my wife in California, we were both working in the same place, I was a bartender, she was a waitress. And it was going nowhere, it was just going to be absolutely nothing, and I was doing Debris, Inc which was our stupid fun band, and she said she could get us a place to live in New Orleans, would you be willing to move, and I said yes. There was nothing in California, the bar was going to fire me anyway, so I said fuck it and we moved. And it’s been great.

JG- New Orleans fits the Saint Vitus vibe.

DC- Yeah, and ironically, I moved here in 2005 and then Katrina hit. But we lucked out cause we first moved here we lived in apartments that were in a cemetery. Which was the highest point in the city, because they don’t want the bodies to float around, so our house was dry, we just had no power or nothin’. For a few months and we stayed in Chicago with friends.

JG- You ever run into Phil Anselmo down there?

DC- Not really, he lives way out, but when we play he’ll come out to the show. Main person from Down that I hang out with is Pat the bass player, he’s a good friend of mine and he lives close.

JG- It seems like in New Orleans it be real easy to put together a supergroup.

DC- Yeah, but everybody just kinda does their own thing. But me Pat, and Jimmy Bower were fucking around for a while but it wasn’t serious, we would just get real stoned and fuck around it was nothing super serious. And there’s a lot of people that do that around here, so it’s just not something I want to do.

JG- I read in old interviews that you don’t listen to new music, that still the case?

DC- Yeah, I don’t listen to music really unless I’m on the road. I listen to the music I always have, and I’m more of a TV person. I watch TV that’s my thing, and I get a lot of musical influences from that. But I do like some new bands, well, Red Fang and Devil aren’t new anymore, but I really dig them. And there was a band in Australia that opened for us that was badass called Zodiac, they remind me of Witchfinder General kind of, I just thought they were really good. And I asked them for their record and they gave me a cassette and I said I like you even more now. They really impressed me. And I don’t like bands where I can’t understand the singer. And I could understand them. It’s fine to have a gruff voice, I mean look at Lemmy, but you can hear what he says.

JG- The cookie monster stuff can get pretty old.

DC- Yeah I don’t like that GRRR GRRR UHHH GRRR GRRR. I’m just like sorry, I don’t know what the hell you said.

JG- So what television shows do you watch?

DC- Well I’m like an old TV fan. But newer shows I like Big Bang Theory, I watch a lot of Nickelodeon, iCarly is one of me and my wife’s favorite shows, and cartoons, and my favorite show on TV, of all time, is professional wrestling. 

Zac's "Double Dose": Howl / Tar Halos

 

Howl: Bloodlines 

Howl are a five piece band from Rhode Island who have transformed the sub-conscious brain waves that our meager minds use to create nightmares into sound-waves... burdened, doom-laden, sludgy sound-waves. This isn't Howl's first rodeo though, they released a respectable full length LP (with some of the best cover art ever) a few years ago entitled Full Of Hell. If you aren't familar with that release, now is the time to check it out. Why? Because the Rhode Island boys will be releasing their sophomore follow up at the end of April, entitled Bloodlines, and this will give you, as a listener, just enough time to become familar with what Howl has done and where they are headed. 

Immediately upon pushing play I realize that Bloodlines is a completely new, faster paced, monster that has grown apart from Full Of Hell. Howl certainly have changed their style, everything is more extreme, although not necessarily heavier. You see, to this listener, Full Of Hell had an ancient, medieval, dark ages sort of feel... stones, fire and brimstone style of heavy (which I greatly enjoyed, Full Of Hell was on my Top 2010 list). Bloodlines blasts through those stones from ages ago with the intensity of a mechanized weapon. I guess the guys have departed from the classic doom end of the spectrum and reinforced with doses of thrash, groove and even some blackend metal. Don't let this shy you away from Bloodlines though, Howl stay RIFF-centric. I believe that Howl's dedicated touring schedule with some killer new wave metal bands (Black Tusk, Kylesa, Red Fang and Skeletonwitch) have strongly influenced the Rhode Island quintet aiding in their evolution to Bloodlines. In place of that archaic sound is a clean and clear production. The percussion side has added blast beats to the foregoing ancestral tone and the vocals are more wretched and more angry. So, there you have it a fresh, fast, and scary extreme release from a band that's not afraid to step outside of their box. Check out their lyrical video for Attrition below and if interested Relapse is taking pre-orders here.

 

Members: 

Jesse - Bass 

Jonathan - Guitar 

Josh - Guitar 

Timmy - Drums 

Vincent - Vocals // Guitar

I bandcamp I facebook I relapse records I twitter I

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Tar Halos: Winehand 

This weeks second dose, Tar Halos, are a heavily psychedelic, rock band, whom with the power of disconcerting lyrical passages, harken back to the Syd Barrett days of Pink Floyd. The five-piece call San Diego head-quarters and prefer "old drum machines over young drummers". This becomes plainly noticeable through Winehand. The beat of the percussion and overall electronic nature build an oxymoronic vibe of despondent ecstasy. My favorite track is Arrival of the Second Center Moon, be sure to listen below. The track is immediate, as if your conscience is roused to the chaos of a blasting alarm at the moment your space-craft is losing pressure through a tremendous hole in its hull. This is the track I find the greatest correlation to old 'Floyd's cosmic poetry. The alarm continues to alter your thought process throughout the entire song while a steady beat of percussion inflame a bravery within the depths of your soul. The vocals are buried and glazed over giving the track a truly '60s psych vibe and the guitars have a deserted and arid tone creating a confusing sensation. Quite the unique and excellent track... Quite the unique and excellent album. Get a copy from Volar Records or download at bandcamp and be sure to check out Volar's video for Broken Clocks here.

Members: 

Frank Melendez - Guitars // Vocals // Drums

Jay Margart - Keys // Vocals // Drums 

Josh Bohannon - Guitar // Drums 

Joshua Quon - Bass // Drums 

Tyler Detwieler

I bandcamp I facebook I soundcloud I

GODHUNTER: The Heavy Planet Interview / Exclusive NEW Track

Talk all you want about sludge and metal in the American South. It's a hot spot, it's where this band or that band started, it's where the spirit breeds, whatever. Making its own statement as a burgeoning regional metal community is the American Southwest. Spearheading the Southwest's metal cause and upping the fucking ante is Tucson's Godhunter. With a critically lauded album under their buckles, a new slab of heavy in the works, and an absolutely massive fall metal festival filling up calendars, these five miscreants are giving fans plenty to be excited about.

Heavy Planet pulled in the reins on Godhunter's David Rodgers, gnawing on everything from the Southwest scene and their tenacious fans to new tracks and the upcoming album. Hell, he even discussed why the name Godhunter was chosen instead of... Well, David can tell you all about that one. And let's all get a listen to a live take on a new Godhunter track! Here goes...

Heavy Planet: First, I wanted to say congrats on winning Heavy Planet's March Bandness!

David Rodgers: "That was pretty cool!"

HP: You guys beat out Clamfight.

DR: "It was a pretty fun contest to do. Tons o' good bands in there. It was cool to make contacts around the country."

HP: You guys are coordinating the Southwest Terror Fest, right?

DR: "Yeah, it's mainly myself and a fella named Dave Carroll from a band called Inoculara that's also from here in Tucson. We're in a band together called Diseased Reason with some guys from Oakhelm and Noisear. We'd both been to a bunch o' different fests like Maryland Death Fest and South By Southwest and what-not. We always kinda wondered why there wasn't something like that in the Southwest. So we just kinda got a hair up our butt and decided to go ahead and throw one this year."

HP: Awesome. Who's on that bill?

DR: "So far, there's 32 bands on there. A lot o' great bands from around the Southwest. Godhunter is on there. Other ones you guys have reviewed before like TWiNGiANT and Powered Wig Machine is on there. We also have a few nationals on there... We're gonna have Sons of Tonatiuh from Georgia are comin' out to play it. Hull from New York, the band -(16)- from California, and Pigeonwing from California, too. Ryan form Pigeonwing has actually been helpin' us do a lot o' stuff with the fest as well because he's been in the scene forever and done a lot of events like this."

HP: There's a lot made of the Southern metal scene or the Georgia metal scene. What's goin' on in the Southwest? What's that scene like?

DR: "That's a good question. Quite honestly, we're kinda trying to replicate what those scenes have done. There's a really tight-knit group of bands down here that go across a wide span of genres. You've got guys like our friends in Sorrower that are a pretty extreme grind band. On the other hand, you've got Powered Wig Machine, who's really like a stoner-rock band that kinda sounds like Clutch and The Toadies. But we're all pretty close down here and there's a lot of amazing bands. So we've kind of all banded together in the last few years and instead of all just fighting for ourselves, let's kinda try to fight together. So we can collectively get a little more attention on ourselves rather than just... all of us out there fightin' on our own."

HP: Aside from the Terror Fest, what other dates do you guys have set up? Any, right now?

DR: "Not a whole lot for this year. We're doing a local show in August. We've been writing a lot for the new album so once we've got that...We'll do a few shows in our hometown here and there, try the songs out live and make sure they don't suck, basically. So we're doin' one o' those in August and then we're kinda takin' it easy until the Terror Fest. Um... We do have two awesome shows in the fall, but I probably shouldn't... I don't know if I should say anything because they're not necessarily confirmed quite yet. But we do a Halloween show every year and this year we're trying to get a certain band from Portland and a certain band from Georgia to play that both have similar name structures..."

HP: YES! Yes, awesome!

DR: "And in November another awesome band from Texas, from Austin, is comin' through...that we played with before. Hopefully,they might be doin' that show again. Y'know, I'm kinda in charge of the band, not just in it. So I know a lot of things before they even happen. So I gotta sit on information a lot."

HP: Well, that has absolutely NOTHING to do with my next question... But, you guys have played with some prominent bands like Crowbar, Saint Vitus, RED FANG, BLACK TUSK...

DR: "Yes."

HP: Which live show or tour has been the most exciting for you guys?

DR: "Oh, man... We've played some really incredible shows. On our last tour, we played a show in Flagstaff that was a house-show at a place called The Big House. We played it with our friends up there in Swampwolf. There's video from this house on YouTube. If you look up Kylesa on YouTube and put in, like, Kylesa House Show, an awesome video from the same place comes up. It was just one o' them things where the place is packed and people are in your face while you're playin' and beers are gettin' spilled all over your pedal-board and people are fallin' all over themselves. I live for shows like that when there's a little bit o' chaos in it. We opened up for Saint Vitus and Crowbar for that Metal Alliance Tour last year and... I mean, I have a Saint Vitus tattoo on my arm, so opening up for Saint Vitus, for me, is like opening up for Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath or something like that, y'know? I mean, we've played some amazing shows here in our hometown, too. Last year, we opened up for Red Fang, we opened up for The Sword. They were at Club Congress, which is an amazing old venue. It's the place where John Dillinger got captured, there used to be shoot-outs in it and what-not. Every time we play there it's just a giant party because everyone in town comes out. We've definitely played some shows that are very memorable."

HP: Aside from the obvious... You've mentioned Saint Vitus, Sabbath, but who are some of the more influential artists on, not just you, but also Godhunter as a band?

DR: "Obviously, Black Sabbath, Black Flag, Neurosis... not that we'd ever get a chance to open up for any of those. But those are pretty big ones for us. We have a few different influences in the band... myself and Charlie are more comfortable with the hardcore scene. So we kinda bring in some stuff every now and then that sounds like Coalesce or somethin' like that. A lot of reviewers will pick that up and they're like 'this is like stoner-doom but I kinda sense a hardcore influence here.' They're pretty dead-on with that when they get it. Dick, our bass player, I think he literally listens to four bands. Like Slayer, Pantera, Black Sabbath, maybe Hank III. I don't know that he listens to anything else. Our drummer, Spyro, on the other hand, comes from a straight metal background. Basically, that's what he listens to. And Jake's kinda all across the board. He listens to a lot o' crazy stuff. We have a wide variety of influences but when you really boil it down, like I said, you get Black Flag, Neurosis, Black Sabbath, definitely stuff like that."

HP: Let's talk a little about the band's formation, was it 2008 you guys formed?

DR: "I think it was 2008. In 2008, it might have actually been a band called Blood Regime which was what Godhunter was before it was Godhunter. But, funny story... After a show one time, a girl walked up to us and looked at either me or someone else in the band and she goes 'So, Blood Regime. Do you guys mean like a girl's period?' And we all looked at each other and we were like 'Ohhhh! We have to change this name.' So shortly after that, which I think was January... I know we played a show in January of 2009 as Godhunter. So somewhere in there, the name changed. The lineup has kinda changed a little bit. I'm the one person that has been in the band from the beginning and will be 'til the end. A lot o' bands have that. They have the one dude. As bands go, you kinda have to build for a while and change out parts so you can get into the right formation that actually works, which took a couple years. The last year and a half or so, we've been there. And since we put Wolves out, we've just been chuggin' along."

HP: That kinda led into another question I have. The Godhunter name, who came up with that? And has that been met with any religious hostility or anything like that?

DR: "The actual name Godhunter was picked out by me and my friend Max who used to be in the band. He and his dad own a family business and he couldn't get on the road as much as we needed to, so he eventually  left with another guy who used to be in the band, Loren. And they formed a new band called Thorncaster that's pretty awesome. But Max and I came up with that name. It's actually from a comic book. Beta Ray Bill that's in the Thor storyline of Marvel books. They did a three-issue series and it was called Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter. And when it came out we were sittin' there reading it and we just kinda looked at the cover and we were like 'Wow, that's a GREAT name for a band.' And I think that was when the band was actually named Blood Regime, so when the time came to change it we were just like 'Well, how about Godhunter?' and everyone was like 'Oh, yeah. That's...' It's a pretty iconic name, it's easy to remember, it kinda sticks out. Have we had religious problems about it? I'm sure. Our shirts make people stare at you. We've had kids that have been kicked out of school or had to turn their shirt inside out. We had one kid that was actually suspended for three days. They wanted to kick him out for the day and his parents said 'No, freedom of speech,' stuff like that. And they're like 'Well, there's no freedom of speech in junior high,' or high school or whatever grade he was in. So anyway it came down to a stalemate. They kicked the kid out for three days over one of our t-shirts. We've definitely had religious people in... it might have been at Chick-Fil-A, actually. I was wearin' one of 'em one time and, straight up, the girl at the counter wouldn't serve me. The manager came out and did it and was just really abrupt the whole time. There's another place here in town, a local sub-shop, that's Christian-owned. I know someone else in town that's had problems wearin' one of our shirts in there where they just flat-our refused to serve 'em."

HP: Wow...

DR: "Y'know, people are gonna take it how they want. The term 'Godhunter,' to us, doesn't necessarily mean we're hunting, specifically, the Christian God. With Charlie and I being the main lyric-writers... we come from hardcore so we like to write lyrics about things that are real. We don't like lyrics about dragons or swords. Nothin' wrong with that, but that's not our thing. So a lot of what we write is socially relevant, from our point of view. Just kinda being a little anarchist and whatever. We're against gods of all forms, like McDonald's or Shell Oil Company or Apple. In our eyes, if you look through our lyrics... a lot of 'em are tellin' people to wake up, there are things wrong with the world. There are things you can do to make the world a little bit better place if you just unplug and get back to reality. So when we think of the name, that's definitely what we're thinkin' of. Do we use the religious connotation? Absolutely. We slap upside-down crosses on anything. A couple of our shirts we've put out are highly, highly offensive, I would say. Especially our last one, I don't know if you've seen it. It has Jesus flipping off... Jesus is flipping the camera off and in the other hand he's wearing a detonator and a terrorist explosive belt and there's a church burning behind him. So we'll pretty much throw out anything we can on a t-shirt because they're fun. Whatever people wanna throw at us for it, we're willing to take. Charlie and I will openly get into debate with anybody that wants to debate us about any of our artistic aesthetics."

HP: I think you'd win, that was pretty convincing. That ties into another thing I was gonna ask. I've read that the goal of the band is to show the world for what it really is: an ugly place. Personally, what's some of the ugliness that has made its way into your music?

DR: "Just... PEOPLE! Our biggest thing we'd like to point out to people is that we're not that special. We're animals. People are gonna do terrible things. It's animal nature. Chimpanzees... one tribe will go after another tribe because they think the other chimpanzees have better hunting grounds. Scientists are just now starting to realize we're actually not the only animal that goes to war. So maybe it's not just a human thing, we're just animals. We need to wake up to this thing. If we realize what we are, we can probably be better to each other in the long run, y'know? The person that actually realizes he's a jerk can somehow, sometimes prevent himself from being a bigger jerk. Or you get that completely oblivious asshole that never realizes it and that dude is gonna be an asshole until he dies. So we just want people to wake up. Like the song (Stop Being) Sheep. That's exactly what that song is about. Stop it. Stop buying into everything. It goes even for things like... conspiracy theorists. Everyone in my band... we HATE conspiracy theorists. If you believe 9-11 was an inside job, we probably think you're the dumbest person working that day."

HP: Yeah! Put a bumper sticker on your car that doesn't really mean anything. But you see 'em all over.

DR: "Yeah, and all that stuff is just used for division. It's just like political parties. We only have two here, which is a shame. It just divides left and right. People vote Republican because their dad voted Republican and their grandfather voted Republican and they don't even really know what Republican stands for anymore but they're just gonna keep voting it because they like country music and they like Ford pick-ups. So that's what they do. And I love country music and I have a Ford pick-up, but I really don't give a crap about bein' Republican."

HP: It seems like the press is starting to pick up on you guys. It's all pretty positive. How are you guys responding to the increased success and attention?

DR: "We're all really happy with it. We're pleased that things are generally positive. The things people point out, 100% we agree with them. I'm sure you've talked to bands that look back on an album six months or a year after it's done and they say 'Well, we should've changed that, that could've been better, we should've done that part totally different.' We pretty much agree with the criticisms that are out there. We're happy with the praise that we do get. We've gotten reviews from Germany, The Netherlands... I've shipped stuff to six, seven continents now, for mail order. So it's exciting when someone in Malaysia or Bangladesh orders one of your t-shirts. You start wondering to yourself how a band like Godhunter get into Bangladesh in the first place."

HP: You guys confirmed Procession of the Equinoxes to be the opening track of the new album, right?

DR: "The song, as it's played, will be. We actually just got into a discussion... we've had long arguments over the name. I named that one and Charlie actually wants to name it Despite All. So when the album comes out, it may be called Despite All, but that WILL be the song. That's definitely gonna be the first song on the new album. We're kinda playin' it in a live version. The way it is presented on the album will be different. I don't give it away too much, but there'll be a more extended intro to it. We like big lead-ups; if you listen to Wolves, you listen to Sheep, the vocals don't even start until four minutes into the album. I like building that tension, getting it worked up until something just slaps you in the face."

HP: Yeah, it's great the way you guys did that. I love artists that are patient and don't insult the listener by throwing the point directly in their face, they let it build. This Will Not End Well is also gonna be from the new album, right?

DR: "Yes, that definitely be the second song on the album. Procession or Despite All, whatever it ends up being called, I'll go with Despite All 'cause I think that's what we're gonna end up with... Despite All and This Will Not End Well are kinda parts A and B, the same way that (Stop Being) Sheep and Wolves of the North are kinda parts A and B of one grander song. Once you're able to read the lyrics, you'll see how it all ties in together. The new album is gonna, loosely, be a concept album. It's basically about living in Tucson, in the Southwest, the desert. The middle of nowhere in the age that we're living right now. Climate is changing, jobs are disappearing. You're in Illinois, you guys have had a big drought this year, right?"

HP: It's been terrible. All our corn is dead, our crops are dead. It's gonna be rough for these farmers, everything is gonna skyrocket in terms of price.

DR: "Our desert is getting more desert. What little rain we had is going away, it's coming at odd times. Things like that are affecting the extreme places quicker than they're affecting the temperate places. We have the second-lowest in education, the greatest number of vacant houses, per capita, in the country. We have an unemployment rate... we're not like Michigan yet, but we're a little bit higher than average here. We feel like it's kinda worse here right now. This is one of those places, so close to the border and us having really incendiary legislation like SB-1070 being passed and people like Sheriff Joe Arpaio being around. We almost feel that Arizona is a tinder box of what might happen to the country as a whole. If you see some actual... I don't wanna throw around the word revolution, but... if you see something like that happening, we feel it might happen here first."

HP: So that's what the concept is focused on?

DR: "Yeah, the album is gonna be called City of Dust. It's just about... we're watching our city turn to dust right now. It goes from Beverly Hills to Beirut in the space of two blocks."

HP: You guys have some pretty rabid fans. Talk about them for a minute.

DR: "I love our fans. A lot of 'em, like you said, they're rabid. Some of them are idiots, we're totally cool with that. We're idiots, too. Our fans kinda remind me of EYEHATEGOD fans, they're extremely dedicated.  But you never know when one of them is gonna throw a bottle through a window and set off a fire alarm. The one show we played here in town with Red Fang, we had fans pushing each other out the fire exits and building fire alarms are goin' off in the middle of Red Fang's set. Red Fang just kinda looked at each other and just played through it. We're just in the back like 'Man, everyone we know are fuckin' idiots! It's awesome!' So we'll take it, y'know? I love people that are dedicated, and our fans are extremely dedicated. I don't know how much o' this you wanna print, but I'm gonna tell you the story 'cause it's a great story. We were doin' a show in California in Palm Desert and some of our fans showed up. We do like to smoke weed, everyone in the band smokes except for Charlie. So they showed up with a mason jar packed full o' weed. And I don't mean like a little baby-food jar, I mean like a mason jar almost the size of a two-liter bottle o' soda. Packed. Full. And then they had another mason jar, a smaller one, baby-food sized, of this black oily liquid. I'm like 'I know what's in that big jar, what's in that little jar?' They said it was an oil of weed or something like that. I was like 'What do you do with it?' They're like 'just take a sip of it.' I took like a teaspoon full of it. Y'know, I fell back into the couch laughing. Like I was twelve years old, first time I got high again. They're tellin' us 'You guys should take this home,' and I'm like 'Our next stop is back in Arizona, we can't cross the border with this.' They're like 'No, take it! Take it all, really!' We literally had to give it all back to 'em because we're like 'Look, this is like six or eight felonies, we don't know. But whatever it is, we can't get caught with this crossin' the border, y'know?' They were like 'Okay, but next time you come back we'll have more, so plan on it!' We're like 'Jesus, I can't smoke this much weed!' So I will NEVER complain about our fans, they're amazing people!"

HP: Is there anything else you wanna share for our readers or your fans?

DR: "Just that if you're in the southwest, come see us in October for the Southwest Terror Fest. Literally, it's the best bands from six or eight states. A couple from the other side of the country. Other than that, we'll see everybody on tour in March. We're gonna do a giant run and hit South by Southwest for a few days. So we'll see everybody once we get out on the road."

HP: Well, Heavy Planet loves you guys, you've got some fans with us. Shit, you won the damn competition. So thanks for everything.

DR: "Thank you, man! We appreciate you guys. Ever since you guys featured us a couple years ago it's been a cool relationship. Thank you very much!"

And here's that new shit!

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BARONESS: The Heavy Planet Interview

You can compare your band's gold-nugget with their sub-par releases all you want. Fans fall in love with their favorites and expect Point A to meet Point Fuck in an encapsulation of everything the band never quite achieved. The standards aren't met, the fans aren't pumping fists, and the whispers drive you crazy.

Holy fucking hell. Enter Baroness: Sludge/Swamp/Progressive juggernauts that have cemented their status as stone-carved metal kings. Their new double album, Yellow & Green, is heavy enough for your fist-pumping uncle and accessible enough for your aunt Judy to say "I could listen to that." I'm not saying this is fishing music. I'm saying this is a gorgeous, expansive, and far-reaching double-serving of the best song-craft you'll hear in 2012.

Heavy Planet recently snagged Pete Adams for a coiled spell and discovered the band's connections to the new record, touring perspectives, and heavy music in the modern era.

Heavy Planet: Yellow & Green was released on July 17th. These songs are consistent with the Baroness sound and fit alongside the band's catalog, though listeners will detect a broadened scope. What was the approach to writing Yellow & Green and how does this approach compare to those of The Red Album and The Blue Record?

Pete Adams: We had a more streamlined approach on how the songs would be composed. In the past we would add as much as possible to create a technically progressive sounding song. We wanted to create songs that could be focused around vocals and have a broader range of dynamics.

HP: Yellow & Green contains noticeably more melody, more harmony, and an increased (and seemingly effortless) focus on song-writing. Is this the product of any deliberate shift or more the band's (and band members') natural trajectory?

PA: It is definitely a natural progression. We have grown a lot as songwriters since we started this band almost 10 years ago. You grow a lot as a person in that amount of time as well, which will change your creative process and outcome. We are not the type of band to just make the same record over and over. We will always shift and challenge ourselves to create something compelling.

HP: You guys brought back John Congleton to handle production and engineering on Yellow & Green. What separates him from his contemporaries and what drew you guys back to him?

PA: John has a great ear for authenticity. He is a producer that believes in the humanistic value of recording. He can capture the real essence of a musician down to their raw form. This was important for this album, since so much of the music on this album is very personal; it opens up a new side of Baroness.

HP: Every listener has favorites, tracks that immediately strike a personal, emotional chord. To which tracks from Yellow & Green do you have the strongest personal connection?

PA: There are a lot of different emotions happening on this album. Each song creates a different vibe. I think that ‘Back Where I Belong’ has always hit close to home for me. I remember the first time I heard the lyrics and I listened to the demo over and over, it really struck a chord with me.

HP: What experiences (be they personal, professional, even super-conscious) most heavily influenced and shaped the songs on Yellow & Green?

PA: We always try to push ourselves as musicians to create something that challenges us. We all have grown as songwriters and wanted to try and create something. Writing this album was a different process which needed different inspirations: from life or from other music that we had not taken influence from before. This is Baroness stretching its arms out and trying new paths to create a broader palette of music.

HP: Describe the band's connection to the city of Savannah. How does that compare to the connection to Lexington? Where on Yellow and Green (and in the band's entire catalog) are these connections most strongly evident?

PA: We all grew up as kids in Lexington, that’s where our roots are. This is where we started to learn about music and would go to great lengths to discover new bands. You had to work hard to get out and see live shows or even to buy albums. Savannah was the town where we started the band, so there was a lot of influence from the community there as well as the vibe of the city.

HP: You guys just began a tour of Europe. How's the new material being received by audiences?

PA: Most people know the singles that were released a few weeks before the album came out. We are throwing more and more songs into the set. It's interesting to see the reaction, and if people sing along you know they have listened to the whole album.

HP: What was it like playing between two unrelenting, undeniably brutal acts like Meshuggah and Decapitated?

PA: We were the light and fluffy cream filling in the middle of a brutal sandwich. It wasn’t easy to play in between such acts but I think some people who never had heard of us enjoyed our set.

HP: What have been some of the most rewarding tour experiences? What acts have you shared the stage with that you feel audiences shouldn't miss?

PA: I really like doing our own headlining tours. Mostly because our fan base is so diverse that we get to meet so many different types of people. Its very rewarding to connect with your own fan base. We just recently played some festivals with Red Fang. You should definately see them live. It’s a lot of fun.

HP: Describe what you believe to be the current state of metal/heavy music. In what directions do you see today's bands going and how do these compare to their forerunners and influences?

PA: There have been some really huge strides in heavy music from bands experimenting and going outside the boundaries. Metal can be a very conservative music style. The fans want it the way it always has been and it takes a while for people to latch on to a new way of looking at heavy music. I respect bands that push the limits and try new things. I think that newer influences are becoming more broad, alas shaping heavy music to be a more rounded experience than in the past, where at times was very one sided.

Many thanks to Pete for allowing Heavy Planet to interrupt his European touring schedule. Look for Yellow & Green in stores and online NOW!