MUNICIPAL WASTE – Alcohol, music & Boston
- Posted on 24-03-2012
Five albums in and Municipal Waste are still thrashing hard. We sent Peter Loftus to join the party with frontman Tony Foresta and get the lowdown on their upcoming release "Fatal Feast."
What news from Municipal Waste?
We just returned from LA yesterday. We were out there filming a music video for the song "Fatal Feast." It was fun as hell. Lots of gore. Tomorrow we start recording for an ep and rehearsing for the tour with Gwar. Things have been real busy for us lately but that’s just the way we like it.
Tell us about the new album.
Well I like to think that it has a little something from every Waste album prior but it still seems to come across a lot differently than anything we’ve ever done. I really like this one. I had to step away from it for a couple months and not listen to it after we recorded. During the recording process I must have heard it 1000 times. So I stepped away from it for a while and when I came back to it and listened to it for the first time. It gave me chills. It seemed really powerful at parts. No Waste record has ever done that for me. So I think that’s a good thing.
It looked like things were getting pretty serious there with ‘Massive Aggressive’. Does this album mark the return of the band to ‘Party Thrash’?
Nah it’s just another Waste album. Label it what you want but its basically 4 guys writing the kind of shit they grew up listening to. We do have a couple of drinking songs thrown in there for good measure though haha!
I got the feeling that with ‘Massive Aggressive’ you wanted people to feel your lyrics had a bit more depth…
We werent really trying to get deep or anything. We were just sick of writing songs that people expected from us. It felt good to do something unexpected and out of everyones comfort zone. I still like that album a lot. Theres some really good songs on it.
Do you remember English Dogs ‘Where Legend Began’? What would you think of reviving the thrash metal concept album ☺. Double gatefold of course…
Me and Ryan just saw The English Dogs "Forward into Battle" line up play the other night. It was soooo amazing! We were stagediving and slamming like little kids. English Dogs stuff like "Forward into Battle and To the Ends of the Earth" are huge influences on Municipal Waste. Not so much the "Where Legend Began" stuff though. I do however fully support a Double gatefold!
Do you enter the studio with a specific outcome in mind or just thrash it out and see what happens? How does the song-writing process work in the band?
For this album we just wrote a shitload of songs and just picked our favorite ones to put on it. We did know we were going to space on this one though!
I guess the writing process is Ryan and Phil write guitar parts, Dave writes drums and I write the majority of the lyrics. Every one pulls their weight. There isnt just one dude writing all the stuff for us. I did write one guitar part on this record too haha I was pretty stoked about doing that.
It seems like more and more bands are playing thrash these days. Who would your favourite of the modern bands be (excluding MW!)?
Toxic Holocaust is like our sister band. I love those guys like family. Their new album is great. I also dig Midnight a lot but they’re really not a thrash band. I think Vektor is doing good stuff
too.
(I think mine would be Vektor too!)
Do you think the scene is in danger of becoming oversubscribed like it did last time round?
I think it already is. It doesn’t really matter. The good ones will stick around and the shitty ones will die off. You’ll be able to tell in a few years who was really just trying to cash in on a trend on who are in it for the long haul.
Please tell us about 3 major influences on Municipal Waste and explain why they are important to the band.
1. Alcohol. I think alcohol is a huge influence. It’s sad but true. We have a good time with it and having a good time keeps everyone productive and happy. Haha.
2. Music. Finding new bands on the road. Listening to records. Talking to friends about what theyre listening to and just getting out and playing is what fuels all of our lives. I don’t think any of us could live without it.
3. Boston. Not the city. The band. Boston makes us want to rock.
What are you listening to these days?
I’ve been listening to a lot of Carcass and Graveyard. I saw Graveyard in Richmond recently and they blew my mind. I’m also really excited for the new Torche record.
Playing live – do you prefer festivals or club gigs? What was your favourite gig of the last year?
It doesn’t really matter for me if it’s a festival or a club. It’s all about the audience and if they’re having a good time. Even if I feel like shit or think I’m not performing my best as long as the crowd is having a good time that’s all that really matters to me. My favorite gig last year was Hellfest hands down. I couldn’t believe the response we got. It was unbeleivable. Plus that was one of our only gigs we played last year so it was pretty exciting to play something that massive as one of your only shows at that time.
What next for Municipal Waste?
TOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!
We’re going to come to your town and mosh you.