Garza Podcast - 87 - CATTLE DECAPITATION | Travis Ryan: Pioneering Extreme Metal Vocals

Episode Date: July 17, 2023

Garza sits down with Travis Ryan. Singer of San Diego deathgrind band Cattle Decapitation. Their new album Terrasite is out now! https://www.cattledecapitation.com SPONSORS: distrokid.com/vip/garza 30% OFF! emgpickups.com Promo Code: Heavy 15% OFF! TIME STAMPS: 00:00 - San Diego Brutal Death Metal Scene 07:50 - Brutal Death Metal Uniform & Keeping Your Ass Clean on Tour 11:00 - Becoming Vegetarian (Working at Arby’s) 14:11 - Starting Cattle Decap in 1996 as Vegans/Vegetarians 15:44 - Dean McGraw (Drummer) Joining 18:23 - Staying Consistent Throughout the Years & Evolving 23:58 - Travis Paving the Way for Extreme Metal Vocals 31:49 - First Song With Melodic Vocals, Working with Dave Otero 36:33 - Evolving Beyond Death Metal 41:58 - Not Wanting to Be Influenced by Other Bands 47:54 - Gravity Blast Beats Origin 50:41 - The Members are Spread Out All Over the Country 53:52 - Reinvention & Inspiration 01:01:42 - Depression & Childhood 01:04:16 - Pig Slaughter Outro “Men Before Swine” 01:08:50 - Surviving Throughout The Journey 01:17:45 - Reconnecting with Dave Astor & Dealing With Grief 01:24:29 - Beauty & Emotion in Cattle Decapitation Songs 01:30:30 - New Record, Terrasite 01:33:45 - George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher Christmas Tree

A lot of people talk about you, Travis. You know, how extreme kind can the vocals get? People say, we included. Travis was doing this like 20 years ago. You were a myth. We've been the tortoise, you know, the whole time, and the hairs just keep running by and falling off and didn't it? We're just like, do, do, do, do.

I saw no point in doing what everybody else was doing. Use EMG pickups because they help you get the heaviest tone possible. Head over to EMG pickups.com and use my promo code heavy. at checkout and get 15% off. And then once you write the heaviest song of all time, head over to distroKid.com slash VIP slash Garza and save 30% off your membership to get all your songs on all streaming platforms.

And now to the heaviest podcast of all time. Some people are proud of where they're from. I'm proud to be from there because, you know, I mean, you probably play Showcase a bunch. Oh, yeah. And it's like, man, I miss that place, man. It sucks. It sucks is gone.

It was a fucking incredible venue. Yeah. Now that I've seen quite a few, it was like, damn, I was spoiled. All these sick bands just down the street. And it's just weird that there was never anything that came along to take its place. That's what I never understood. No. Because that was a sick spot forever.

Everybody knew to go down there or go up there from San Diego. Yeah. Like it was that middle point between, say, like San Diego or North County where I'm from and L.A., you know. But you don't have to go all the way up to the five and get stuck in traffic and all those crap. You can kind of go up to the 15 and there's a little bit of stuff in the inland empire or whatever, which is massive. It's just weird. There's not more stuff going on like in that area as far as like music goes because I felt like showcase proved that they want it. I've been to goth clubs and shit up there, you know.

Of course you have. You know, I've been to stuff like that up there back of the day, but, you know. It's so weird. I heard like when they closed that place down, I heard like the city was like celebrating as far as like City Hall. behind the scenes they were like they were trying to close that place down

for quite quite a while so sounds a lot like where I grew up Escondido and North County you know San Marcos and Vista it's all still very conservative

and but really they just don't I mean they've proved they don't want it they don't want to deal with the potential of stabbings or or fights and the liability

and all this stuff they just don't they don't want it I've tried I tried in the 90s to do, you know, venues around town and stuff and promote bands and bring in shows and stuff. And I mean, there was one time, this is Escondito, dude, like 96. We were doing this venue called The Library. And straight up, somebody from the city, I really don't know.

I can't, we can't blame any, we don't know who to blame. But we got shut down by them putting somebody made up like these like white supremacist, like pamphlet type things. things, you know? Yeah, it was just like a sheet of paper with all this bullshit, you know, about, you know, white supremacy and stuff. And then they flyer just the, just the parking lot behind the venue to where it was just like, this is very obvious. And then they blamed us for it. I was like, this is impossible. But nobody here is like that. This is, in fact, I've never even seen it. I still haven't seen that kind of shit with my own eyes. You would hear about it. You'd hear about skinheads and all this crap. But I just never personally ever saw it. So it was shocking

to us to be met with that and I still never figured out who it was but that to me I can't help but think might have been from the city or somebody just just proved that they don't want it there they don't want it there so San Diego's always had

and that's that's North County that's a county thing San Diego proper's always had this weird relationship with 21 and up in all ages you know Soma had the monopoly they had their the stranglehold that seemed like

on it for years just yeah what is it I mean I mean you you know like the history with San Diego and the metal scene like if so if you're an outsider list and kind of want to set that to stage

like a quick second like San Diego is when you are in San Diego it is like the most chill spot totally ever is California and for some reason it may it stays separated

from here, LA, I don't know how. And somehow it created almost, not single-handedly because suffocation really started it, but the brutal death metal scene that we know of it as, you know, disgorge and cephalotripsy

and bands like that. There's more deprecated. There's older ones, you know. And, yeah, I was fortunate to be able to sit and watch all that stuff play out in real time. You really saw it play out in real time. You and you and Diego go to high school together.

Yeah. Like, what the fuck? Yeah. That was funny because it was like, I didn't, I felt really kind of alone in the, as far as being a metal head or whatever. I didn't know too many people around. I went to Orange Glen High School in Escondido and I didn't, like, I was just one of the, there was no like, like, they had the, you know, the goth tree, the, the, the, the, the, the jocks that, you know, and. It's a real thing, man. Diego, I made friends with him.

He was this very brightly colored, as far as his clothing, this really bright skater. He wore these like bell bottom-bottom-looking things, you know. Do-bottoms? They weren't bell-bottom. I guess there were maybe Jinkos, before Jinkos were a thing. I really don't know. He's got sold out here, too.

They were yellow and orange. No, what I'm saying was, Diego Sanchez was the most popular. guy at school. He is, I'm pretty sure I have a yearbook that, I know, I know he was prettiest eyes. Yes, he got prettiest eyes. He got prettiest eyes. It's his lashes. Anyways. Pretiest eyes and I think he was like voted like most popular or some shit. So then I'm talking to him one day and he's like, yeah man, you like a incantation, suffocation, by the all these, all these bands. It was just like, you're into that shit? Because I must have been

wearing a Cannibal Corp shirt or so I don't know something. You know, it's probably 92, 93 or whatever it was. And I was just like, dude, you're into that stuff? So we bonded over that. And then I was in a band called Stigmata and he came over and joined and we changed it to strangulation. Did that for a couple of years. And then I was just like, that was the typical hyperactive drummer, like just kind of a pain in the ass. And they finally let me go. And him and Ben Marlin, they became like best buddies and then they couldn't find a suitable real

replacement around drummers are hard to find not that I was back then yes I was more into the Sean Reiner type stuff they wanted Mike Smith they wanted you know and I was doing all this jazzy symbol work and jazzy symbols so that didn't work out

and then they couldn't really find anybody and they ended up going over and joining Discord and put doing she like gutted and the rest is pretty much brutal death history really i guess it's it's so bizarre that that it comes from san Diego because literally bands are around the world Travis look to this they they talk about west coast set metal and uh we're we're talking bands from germany like what how did the fuck did that happen dude i don't know i don't know and you saw a play out in like

real time yeah and i'm unironically wearing the uh sort of uh today i noticed the quintessential brutal death metal uniform That is the uniform Camille shorts Banana pouch The banana pouch

You want to talk about this for a second? Okay let's do it I don't Okay I'm gonna be What do you think's in here? A gun gun on my head Uh quarters

And pennies No But it's Roughly the same size God I shouldn't be doing this. People are going to think this is gross. What do you think that is?

What the fuck is that? This is called a cullo clean. What are we talking about right now? What is that? You take a bottle of water and you put this on top, put this in there. Yeah.

It's a portable bidet. Do you have a... Why do you have a portable... Why do you always carry it with you? You've toured? Yeah. You just live with the chafing? on your butt hole? Yeah, dude. Oh, dude. No way, I can't. I can't do it. You would think it would get all poopy and gross and stuff, but it doesn't. Look, he's sitting there looking at me like,

dude, this is disgusting. This is fucking... Look, cool, clean. 899 on Amazon. And I, you know, you wash it every time, just in case, just to be safe. Okay. And it worked out great. It's a thing. Coolo clean. 899. You get two for 15 bucks. What's even more bizarre, Travis, is that you have to look for this. You have to look for this thing. Dude, a week before I leave. What happened to you? I had been thinking to myself, because I'm 48 years old trying to keep up doing this bullshit.

You don't got to clean your butt to keep up with the bug and metal scene, man. You do when you're walking around going, oh, fuck. Dude, you go to Japan once. I went to Japan, played the tour, and came back. I think we were home for like three hours. I was already at Home Depot buying a bidet. So I got used to having bidet. And now I just, maybe I, the natural calluses that come from.

Now this calluses. Scraping your butthole with paper. Yeah. I mean, come on. This is like obviously the more, the best way to do it. Actually, to your credit, I have heard that bidetes are, they feel amazing. Well, yeah. That's what I've heard.

I have never, ever tried it. Yeah. This country prized itself on. being this, you know, first world paradise or some shit, but we're all walking around with dirty assholes. Poopi but holes, man. Yeah. It's disgusting.

But not you, though. No. I rock the cullo clean. I have, I have, what do you call it, badeas at home. And you have backups. Both toilets, too. And now I have this, this, you know. You're like, okay, what am I going to put this thing in?

Oh, you know, a banana pouch. A banana pouch. It's, come on, it's obvious. Dizzy, though, because, I mean, how long have you been vegetarian? Oh, shit, almost 30 years. 30 years. Almost. What was that moment?

Because most, from what I understand I hear, is like, they have, like, a moment where they see something or they... Well, it took a while for me to actually give, you know, stop the foods that I had, that I was cool with eating, that had meat in them. working at Arby's dude as a teen It's like my first job ever was at Arby's So you're at so you're 17, 18 working Arby's I think it was like 16 Okay

Dude Dude it's disgusting There's this What was going on back there? The thing that I hated the most was Had this You've got this gigantic mound of meat

Of the ground beef or whatever And it comes with this This is back Sorry, this is, they may have changed, I don't know. Some guy may be out there going, I work at Arby's and this is bullshit. Okay, well, and 90, whatever it was, 90 or however old that it was, but yeah, 91, I think this, you know, I was born in late 74. What was I saying? This mound would come with this disgusting, they called it, all they, I was like, what is this?

And they're like, it's a protein gel. Oh, no. About that thick, like an inch thick. that you had to pack into the meat. And it took like 10 minutes each rump or roast or whatever the hell the thing is. It's just a big, it's what they make. Shit, I don't eat the shit, so I don't know.

It looked like just a mound of filler and crap, you know. Oh, no. And then I have to pack that into the meat to where it would go in the folds of all the meat and stuff and you weren't done until all that gel was gone and packed into the meat. And just doing that, repetitive, Repeatedly, it'll turn you off, dude.

Yeah. Just nasty. Just nasty. It's like I'm never going to eat meat again. Yeah. And then the people that I worked with, you know, like my boss was, I would watch him drop patties on his way to like, you know, put a bun on it or whatever the hell it would fall on the ground. He'd look, make sure nobody saw put it back on. I was just like, dude, no.

So. I hate that. You run that risk with every. sure friggin whatever every place you go I guess well I mean it kind of like your your job kind of helped you you know maybe join the band that you're in now like a weird way because you end up joining like a which you guys kind of get like the unfair tag up like they're vegan

and what people are just like well I understand it's the extremity of it all sure at least the you know of the the nature of the thing I didn't know until I talk to your research And it's like, it's so silly what your brain does You just put tags on people I remember I ran into like a hardcore singer And I thought he was straight edge Yeah, yeah

I told him I told him I thought you were straight at it's like, dude, what? It's like I drink, I'm like a lot, I'm okay But I did my research And I was like, okay You and Josh are vegetarian And I think what So Cattle started in 96

Which with the prominent vegan members, correct? So you kind of got stuck with that tag? Dave Astor and Gabe Serbian were just vegetarian, from what I could tell. Okay. Maybe that's his wiki. And then there's periods where I was vegan and or Gabe was vegan, whatever. That's just tough, dude. Fuck that.

What being vegan? Vegan? What broke me was, yeah, I'm a picky eater by nature anyways. So going to Europe and then realize, for me, it was harder for me years ago to go and, you know, make it happen. over there. There's stories of Derek Green he's being in and he was like back in the 90s like you're like carrying around jar of

peanut butter. Yeah. Like do you know what I do? Credit to you man. I couldn't do it. Well one time we showed up at this German club and they're like the guy who puts down just a block of tofu a jar of peas and a jar of carrots and he goes

Wigan and walked away. I was like basically he was saying this is your this is your meal for the night and we were just like you're stoked and everybody's looking at me like fuck you I'm like sorry dude

you know we maintained an all vegetarian band until like past 2006 Dave McGraw came in and you know all made everything visibly not vegetarian

well he's a big you know yeah of course brutal dude Dave McGraw do I mean he how did you find him or meet him because he took

your band to like a whole new level He was playing a band and We just kind of You know I kind of saw the writing on the wall with that And We stocked him like cats Josh and I

Yes You got to stock your drummers There you go Yeah No but we just knew that you know Like We could do some stuff with this guy And it worked out

Everything worked out The plan worked perfectly So his first record was Harvest Floor Yeah And there's a noticeable difference. I mean, just the first track, you hear that blast. Yeah.

Like, what did you think when? Because he's like, he was like one of the best at doing the gravity blast things. When he goes into gravity, dude, I was watching him. And, okay, so Dave's already, he's already, he's, he's already blasting, right? He's going to blast me. It's already fast. And then it goes into twice as fast. You're just looking at him.

I'm like, what the fuck are you doing, dude? What are you doing? but that's a that's i guess the term is called gravity yeah just the way he does is like you're you're already blasting and then you're like it's already extreme and then you do it even twice as fast well the way like dude that's insane the the the attack on his snare that too is unmatched i don't i haven't seen anybody else do it as gnarly and like those gravity parts at least yeah you hear like you can almost hear every single hit where some guys i think you know kind of they rely on the ghost notes or whatever, you know,

to try to give off the appearance that they're doing, that they're doing it super sick. But his, it's almost like you can hear them all like, same with his kicks. It's just ridiculous, dude. What was it like jamming with them for, like, the first time? Um, I mean. I like, we're like, because I remember when we got.

I think if I was even there. I don't jam with the guys. I don't practice. I don't go do much with them. Maybe once or twice before we leave or go into the studio, but that's it. but just like all right cool like we obviously we made the right decision but also like this is you know we're gonna be able to do stuff we've been wanting to do for years I guess you know yeah and we gave him we gave him some creative uh liberty or whatever as far as songwriting and shit something that he didn't have before so interesting that that that was a um something positive I guess for him or whatever because what's what's really special about you just Travis and your band is this might be like like a hot take but it's really extremely

difficult to find like a consistent band like let's say like the definal scene like they kind of have like a golden arrow like a record or two they're like that's like oh my god but like the I mean you go only name a few like obviously cannibal is in there but when but what's even crazier about you Travis is like you guys have had this like not only consistency but it's gotten better out of like we're talking you guys you're at eight records but if you want to count you know the first two 10 you know i mean that's 10 like how do first of all how do you like stay consistent but not but also evolve like how do you do that dude well the i don't it's i can't it's hard to answer that because i want to say i know what people want and that we we go and we make

it happen, I don't know what the hell these people want anymore. I don't know what people want anymore, man. Like, my favorite stuff of ours was Death Atlas. I mean, not to knock the new record. I was kind of mentally in a different place, a lot of this record. I mean, I think everybody kind of was shaken up by COVID and then, you know, certain other events and stuff. So when you When you put out a new record, though, you will see people either they go, oh, I love the last one more or whatever. And I've seen people like kind of pan Death Atlas in a way that kind of was surprising to me because they're talking about the stuff that I like the most,

that it's like long-winded or the weirdest one to me was that, oh, the melodic stuff, the vocals were predictably placed and stuff. I'm just like, man, it's called songwriting. Sorry. I know that this isn't usually the kind of music that or when you're playing at these kind of speeds and that kind of stuff like songwriting and melody and shit usually doesn't have a place. We've created a place for it in this band, I guess. But how did you do that? I mean, you said, boredom. Timing. Timing. I think it was just timing and boredom, dude. Because like, well, I call it this. Okay. This is weird. I call it the Doom EP effect. Okay. It's not that Job for a Cowboys Doom EP was this magnificent piece of work.

I think, I feel inarguably, but maybe arguably the stuff after it was just objectively better. Like, it was just more, they put a lot more time and effort into it and stuff, and they were making actual stuff that sounded like kind of sick technical death metal. Interesting. So that's my favorite kind of stuff. is the tech kind of stuff. Yeah. But that album popped, that EP popped in a way that, like, really resonated with a

group of people, a large, massive group of people. Yes. At a time, a certain time in their lives, a certain time in this culture, you know, that we have here, this death metal and extreme metal stuff. Yeah. So it's not that it was this amazing, unwaverable piece of art. I think it just hit people at the right time. And that's what I'm talking about with monolith of in humanity, our record, after Harvest Floor.

That one gave us a whole second career. We already had a whole career behind us, I felt. I went into that record thinking, well, you know, throw the script away. Let's just do something new. And if people, you know, hate it, then we had a great career. You know, we already had, I've already done at that point what I kind of wanted to do with music, tour the world and and you know all that stuff um and then it was very liberating on a creative level to be able to just go you know what who cares what people end up thinking about

this the other guys might have had a whole different mindset sure this is coming from me you know i can't speak for them they they may be like what the hell is he talking about but this is what i how i felt about it and what i witnessed so i mean i think everything we've done done since that record has been better and better and better every single record. Maybe even Terasite, too. Crazy. But I'm still just wrapped up in Death Atlas. I just feel that

that album got hosed a little by the pandemic. A little bit. You got a good year in, but I mean, records like that only come in your career like, once, twice, and then like the fact that it got a little bit of hose, but also, like, records like that last a long time. I'm surprised

you guys kind of came back. Well, that's stupid. Bring Back the Plank song really helped, you know, keep people paying attention, I guess, through the two years where, let's face it, man, whole new subgenres and shit have been created and bands have popped off out of middle of nowhere during those two years off. I thought that was actually going to kill bands. It created bands. Interesting. That's how I honestly thought this was going to probably shed some of the fat, trim some of the fat, because it was just, there's so many damn bands doing so much of the same shit.

And now everything's been flipped around and there's all sorts of people totally, completely changing the game. Just within that two years of being off and, you know, people not out there working or something maybe. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, especially like the, like the, it's especially like an art genre. It's more like the vocals game. And a lot of people talk about you, Travis, and how, like, because it's, like, very like, you know, like this, you know, how extreme can the vocals get? And a lot of like people say, me, me included.

It's like, uh, Travis was doing this like 20 years ago. And like that's because I mean, when I was a kid, Travis, I will see you here or down, down the street. Like, you were, you were a myth. And it's crazy. Honestly, it's crazy because having someone tell you that. But like literally, like, we would go to a chain reaction. And like, everyone was just waiting. Like, because I haven't seen you guys before.

And I'm like, do you wait? Like, wait till you here to sing. He heard a singer. He's like, he's crazy. And I remember you walked out with two mics taped and like shit. Like you, you were already on your own thing. It seems like you're always doing your own thing. As opposed to maybe bands right now, what they have is that they already kind of

have like this road paved. And you didn't have a road paved. You kind of, you kind of just seems to me looking at what you were doing. It just seems like you're just doing what you wanted to do. Like people would talk about you as a myth. And now and you're still doing. even crazier vocals now and then there's this whole wave of bands they're doing that but but like i just i just remember what what you have been doing like the past like 20 years i appreciate that

it's crazy i mean i yeah i've been touring cyclically for uh since 2002 it's good word and that that's well you know cannibal corpse was was like uh the way they approached business or whatever i hate to called dither it down to be in a business or something because that's not how I'm trying to say this but um they kind of set that that was our model for for how to do this as far as you know all right you you write a record and and record it and release it tour for two two two and a half years whatever repeat you know and we all did that you guys did the same thing yeah everybody was doing that for a long time you know some fell fell off said screw this and some kept going. We never stopped. That's the thing. Like, we just never, we never stopped. A lot of

bands, we have been around and watch whole subgenres come and go and come back again and, and, you know, it's, it's weird. I often think, man, should we have, like, taken off for a few years or something like that? Just, like, we've kind of always just, we've been the tortoise, you know, the whole time, and the hairs just keep running by and falling off and, you know, and we're just like, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, you know, doing our own thing. I just, I just always wanted to do my own thing. I didn't want to ever, I didn't want to do, I saw no point in doing what everybody else was doing. Although I was heavily influenced by, you know, people, that sound you're talking about, the tongue-oriented, you know, mouth sounds or whatever.

Yeah. Was all, that, that was inspired by the sound of two vocals at once. So, deicide layering vocals. Glenn Bent layering vocals in the studio or the sound of, more specifically, the sound of Jeff Walker and Bill Steer. That combination, I get chills. Just even thinking about it still, like,

crazy. Still to this day. That was the combo. That was the thing that made me go, you know, do all that shit. And then you can't, I mean, I'm one person and I'm not going to use backing tracks, but this is back, well, before anybody started using backing tracks even,

you know, I was just like, Well, I got to come up with a way to try to mimic those sounds of two vocals at once. And then I started getting shit in the later 2000s. Why? Just people being like, well, why do you sound so much different live? I'm like, well, that's because I haven't been able to capture the, we'll call them pterodactal highs. People got all sorts of stupid names for them, but the taredactal highs. That's what everyone called them back then.

Yeah. And I was just, well, oh, because I'm doing, when I'm in the studio, I'm an air-conditioned room. I'm able to sit there and, you know, especially with these melodic vocals. Yeah, it's going to sound different live, dude, because I'm doing all six vocal styles or whatever within a 40 whatever minute show, our plus whatever show, it's going to sound different. Especially now. Because I'm in a, when I'm laying it down, what you're hearing in the studio is I'm in an air-conditioned room. I have tea and water and whatever at my disposal.

I don't have to worry about running around. I'm just standing there being able to lay it down. So it's a different thing. We were never able to, I was just never able to, until Dave Otero came along, I was never able to really effectively capture that sound, those vocals without it sounding weird. It always sounded like paper was being ripped or something. I could never get around that. So we tried all these weird combinations.

I think when we first entered with monolith of inhumanity, it was just like, I need the live, like let's try to recreate the live scenario as much as possible. I actually had a monitor, like a vocal monitor. for a while. I think we ended up getting rid of it, but it was just like, I don't know what else to do. I'm just trying to get these things laid down. It wasn't even until we didn't really affect, like really correctly lay them down until probably 2012. But I'd been doing it since 2000, probably 99, actually, because I started doing that live when we would do shows up the coast or whatever, just local shows or whatever. All the parts were it would be, you know, low and high layering on the record or whatever. I would just default into a, you know, kind of thing, sort of.

Wow. And then I started realizing you can get these two separate tones using your tongue in a certain way. I always called it air displacement, which whatever. I don't know, even what that means. You're creating like a pocket of air in such a way that kind of creates this like sympathetic tone. So you're hearing what's, and then with amplification, you hear what sounds like two vocals at once. or whatever. And now Melissa Cross has, you know, there's tutorials and shit out there,

and whatever, I'm sure, I don't know how to do all this crap. Yeah, but you didn't have YouTube. No, no, no. You just had to figure it out. It all has a history, yeah, it has a history. You had to have literally two fucking careers and see... Yeah, and get bored with the first half.

Because that's what it was. That's why I started doing melodic vocals was... I started... I was like, hey, I want to try to... Like, I was already doing it live for years when I would go in a certain high vocals and I would hear like the natural reverb of the room certain rooms would just sound a certain way and I would hear this like

there would be like this tonality in the in the slapback like it would be like I would actually hear notes and that got me thinking oh shit what if I was able to pitch this stuff you know do the actual like pitched high vocals and stuff and then I started doing pitch low vocals like where do you know let's really do this

and you can do whatever with layering I've always been a fan of the layering thing you know. Albums are historical documents. It's going to outlive all of us. You are. Why not make it the best you can, you know? That's kind of how I look at it as far as like, you know,

just laying down the stuff and the actual process and making everything as perfect as you can. Yeah. Because there's also something to be said about like, nope, we go in there and we lay it down and, you know, all the imperfections and stuff, there's obviously something to be said about that too, you know. But we, and we're a weird, it's a mixed thing because Josh and I come from an older school, Dave McGraw brings in more of a modern element. And we wanted that. I wanted that. I wanted that. I wanted that juxtaposition.

What was the, what was the first song that you actually lay down that had that, I don't even want to call it. but I've been thinking about this the past two days and I still, I was like, okay, I'm just gonna see what happens in the moment. I still can't put a word the way those vocal sound. They're like melodic. The Ghalm? People call it Ghalm or something?

Yeah, they're not cleaned. I don't get that. I was like, there's this primal and menacing sound to it. I can't, I don't know, I can't put a word to it. I can't.

But, like, when you first did that, like, what, like, what do you and the guys think? I actually have a good, I mean, not a good story. It's not, nothing, you know, spectacular or nothing. But I remember specifically, it was the song, a living, breathing piece of defecating meat on the monolith of inhumanity. And I, the way we do demos is they record with, like, shit, I think at that point we were using just a little Zoom. Fuck, yeah. MP3 recorder. Mm-hmm.

and they would put it in the middle of the room or whatever. And then they'd give it to me, and I would put it into my, you know, take the stick and put it on my laptop and download it. And then I just finally got garage band and started. So I'd literally I just sit there. Here's our demos. I take my MacBook. I'm sitting there.

I go, blah, la la la, into the, into the onboard mic or whatever. And that's how I come up with the melodies. And then later on, I just make them sound, you know,

I just, make them sound obviously better than that. But I just sit there and just hum the melody or whatever, blah, blah, blah. So I actually cut a full-on demo of me, you know, really leaning into it and doing the vocals for that part. And I said, all right, Dave, I want you to have an open mind. Like, it's not going to sound anything remotely like this. This is garbage. What I'm about to show you is absolute trash.

it's it's just just you just have to hear the melody you know we should be used to hearing the writing the stuff and hearing these demos and going and knowing what it's going to sound like you know labels had to had to learn how to do that over time because they'd get such shitty demos you have to be able to hear through the shit to see if there's something that's true actually there so i'm like please dave it's going to suck and you're going to go what the hell he's like all right show me and then everything i said he'd do, he did, he goes, well, I'm going to have to trust you

because that sounds like absolute shit. I'm like, I know, I know. Really? It won't. He's like, yeah, that's, yeah. And then we laid it in the studio, and he was just like, night and day. I can't believe it. I can't believe that's the same thing you showed me when we were on the crappy demo. But that's because I know that, like,

shit, I've been doing this one since I was a child. When I would take my parents karaoke machine and I would put one tape, I'd play dude, I would take like Megadeth, like old thrash, back in the 80s, you know, every thrash band had, every album had to have a instrumental or something. So I would take into the lungs of hell or whatever, you know, whatever, uh, Megadeth, uh, or whatever band Testament or whoever the hell would do instrumentals and I would write lyrics to them and perform vocals to them and shit like that and come up with lyrics and stuff. And so I got, I've just always had that in my blood of, of, of,

actually how to, you know, what to do and laying stuff down. And Otero and I have a great relationship. I'm able to, we're practically telepathic at certain points halfway through the recording where we don't have to, I just know, he just knows what I'm saying. I just know what he's saying. And we're not even like speaking full sentences. Just like, you know, I would do that one and we'll start at the, and it'll be like whatever, you know, we'll start at a decapitation.

Okay. so I know that we start at the word decapitation and do the next part and all that kind of crap so for that reason I love tracking with that guy it's the best yeah I mean he so he obviously did your past four records yeah and you just stayed

and like just built and it's built and built yeah that's crazy it's like it's like it's like it's like it's like it's like it's like it's like it's like a whole career over at that point well he gets better his skill sets his skill set improves every single record So that's why the new one sounds better than the last one that sounds better than the one before it. What the fuck? Travis, it's so, it's, I keep going back to that because it's just so, like, mind-blowing to me because it's so rare.

Like, how does a band get better? One, not get burnt out and kill each other and fucking quit. And then in a scene that's so rare to even stay consistent and stay in the game, you just had a second wind. And that's insane. And I don't pay attention too much to what my peers are doing. I don't listen to modern metal. I kind of never have. I stopped in the early 2000s.

I was into a lot of the carcass cloney bands, you know, and all that stuff back then. I thought that was cool. That's what we thought we were just going to be. We thought we were just going to be one of these carcass clone type bands. But, and yeah, this band is. had a, usually like you're starting to say earlier, like the older bands,

I noticed this with the 80s and the 90s at least, where it was like their first four records. After, they were good for maybe four records. And then after that, it either just became the same, and you're getting the same record every time, or they switched, straight up switched genres or just got out of the game entirely or whatever, you know,

or just shit. I think Deasides even said they had an album where they were just, they wrote it just to get out of the contract or whatever, that kind of shit. Yeah, there's all sorts of, yeah, there's all sorts of variables that lead to, these outcomes for these bands' careers or whatever.

And that is the elephant in the room, as I've noticed, like, dude, we've done the opposite. Like, people are, like, more and more into each record. You have a backwards career? How's this going to, yes, what the fuck? And it's bizarre. And I think that helps lend itself, or that also helps lend to the idea

that we're doing our own thing that's separate from from this genre. Like there's no, we're not doing the same thing, I guess, as everyone. I don't know what the fuck we're doing. I wouldn't call it death metal.

I can't call it death metal, dude. I have not been able to call this death metal since the mid-2000s or something. Holy shit. Just because it was just, and I, well, I also had a lot of people around town or whatever in San Diego

that were just like, screw these guys. Sick and tired of hearing of our name. We're on every day. tour, you know, that would come through. We're on every damn national. We're just like, dude, can they just go away, please? And I'd hear a lot of the gripes and a lot of people being like, this isn't fucking death metal and this and that. And I'm like, you know what, they're right. They're actually right. Like, death metal was a certain time and place, or a certain

atmosphere, not even a certain time, because it's timeless. But it seemingly died. I was just reading that article with all the death metal guys revolver I think just put out and hearing their side of the story of like what you know there's like a section where it was like talking about like it just seemed like around 94 95 bands the scene started to like die

a lot of things a lot of bands were just starting to imitate others you know like the we saw it with you guys you know you guys came out with job and changed the game and created this whole other basically a whole other separate subgenre

whatever and next thing you know everybody's trying to be you know job for Cowboys suicide silence and and all these bands and that's like an echo chamber of their own of their own stuff yeah and I could never get behind that that was the main problem I had with with that stuff but you can my argument falls flat because you could attribute it to any genre of music reggae you know yeah Reggae sound. Every bit of it sounds the same to most people. But, you know, there's a ton of different forms of it. So that is true, huh? Yeah, absolutely. And so that's not an argument anymore, you know, like, it's just, uh, we grew up different times, you know. So even in, in your home area around like the San Diego County, even like they were giving you shit? This is like after signing the Metal Blade. And there, I have.

I mean, I agreed with them. It was just like, yeah, dude, we have this booking agent that was, you know. Throwing it. Throwing us on every damn tour. We were just a workhorse, you know, just every, we were on everything. You know, it was us and goat horror, just always on tour. Sick. You know, we're just that, that band.

And there was probably people that were just like, ugh. Again? Yes. Yeah. It happens. I couldn't blame them at the same time. I'm sitting there going, yeah, that's right, bitch. You know, whatever.

Yeah, it happens. So, monolith, that's the first record that you incorporated these, like, I don't know the word, it's still, that... Melodic. Sure, whatever. That's dull. People say clean, but it's not. It's not. You isolate them, and you realize, no, it's not.

It's fucking crazy. It sounds clean because it's melodic and it's backed up against this wall of, not noise, but, you know, well, to our parents. parents it probably is. Of course. What the fuck is trap? It's doing in his room right now. He's like jacking off. So that might, yeah, that might sound like, clean to somebody, but it's not.

I mean, so it sounds like you were just doing your own thing. You really weren't paying attention to what was going on around you. And, uh, am I, that's... Dude, I don't even like, like, when we go on tour and shit, I don't watch the bands before us. I don't want to be, I don't want to be influenced. I don't want to be influenced in any way. I want it to be as pure as possible. I don't watch them.

I'll go and I'll check them out for like five seconds. And it's only going to be if it's a band I really want to see, like BlackBraid. I watched them a ton of times on this tour because I was extremely interested in them. And I like the music. Interesting black metal band. Yeah. And I just thought that was cool. So I would watch a little bit, but I make sure to dip out.

I'm not going to sit there and watch a whole set. I never even, dude, I've been trying, I've been waiting a tour with Carcass. for how fucking long our entire career. We finally did it in November. Finally did it in November. And I didn't watch like one set. Like I wanted to the whole time. I didn't even watch it matter with you.

I don't know. Well, for one thing, you know, after doing it 100 something times tours, the luster's worn off. But a lot of it does have to do with mindset. I don't want to be influenced by the people before me. If they're killing it, cool. I don't... Interesting.

I want to go up there and have it be as... As... Pure as a stupid word to use for it. But, like, just untainted. I don't know. I don't know how else to put it. You want it to just be you. Yeah.

Yeah. So, too. I mean, was... But obviously, I mean, that that record came out. 2012. 2012, boom. And then... So what were you listening to that wasn't metal?

I was too much I used to work at a record store Jamming him something Well I But that's a thing dude It's like I am I find it

Hard to call myself a metal head nowadays Or maybe for the last 20 something years Only because Metalheads are so much more open-minded than me Yeah That's sick And I'm Stuck in the 90s or something

I guess In the 80s you know when it comes to that kind of stuff, I still go back and listen to that stuff. There's a lot of new, like, black metal or symphonic, or not symphonic, but like atmospheric type stuff that will come across, like that's the kind of shit. If I'm going to listen to it, that's going to be the kind of stuff.

It's going to be kind of stuff where, like, them and their fan base probably hate bands like us. Yeah, of course. But, like, I like that stuff. You know, I don't really listen to much of our peers or the bands we go on tour with or that are inspired by us, or whatever. I don't, I mean,

and it actually freaks me out every time we put out a record, or when I go to write songs, sorry, when I go to write lyrics, I have to Google everything. Because I won't know if, you know, I don't want to name any bands, but I won't know if, whoever,

shit, any given modern metal band has a song called, you know, We Eat Are Young, or whatever, just another body, or whatever the hell. You know, I wouldn't know. I have to go and Google this shit. at first because I just don't pay much of attention to that shit.

I know like every square inch of the sound of symphony's the sickness by carcass, but I don't, when it comes to like the lyrics and stuff, and I know the layout almost by heart just by looking at it, but I don't know what the lyrics are or even the song titles half the time. I just, I don't know. Your mind just gets directed to certain things and that's how it is. I'm a riddle-in trial kid of the 80s. I've just always been kind of messed up a little as far as, you know, as far as that goes, I guess.

And you have, like, you have the two, like, bugaboos, like, you're a drummer, but also a singer. Yeah. Your mind's fucked up. Yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, that was the thing. Which I think is important. I think everybody, I think everybody should play drums first. Yeah, it does, yeah, it kind of teaches you some.

Rhythm. You get that built up that internal, you know, clock or rhythm or whatever. Like, I don't play to a click. They do now. I don't play to a click, and I'll go off once in a while. I'll find myself slipping, but I can find myself right back in into the pocket where I'm supposed to be just based off the fact that I feel like I played drums for 11 years.

Yeah. 11 years, huh? Yeah, so probably 13 till 20-ish. Yeah, 24, 23. Well, around the time I joined cattle, I kind of gave up. Yeah. Well, I was doing all sorts of other shit, too. I was starting to get in electronic music.

and playing that kind of stuff and playing just other weird crap. Really? Well, I couldn't do the wrist. Like I was saying, man, I could never get that the blast wrist. See, even when I go to do it, all the work is going on back here

because that's not your wrist. I couldn't get that. I think it was a lot of the skateboard injuries is really, I think, what it was. I was a skater, and I gave up skating for drums. And I gave up drums for vocals. But I gave up skating

because I got, you know, I kept falling and getting hurt and whatever and screwing up the ends of my long bones. And then I was like, I'd rather play drums. You do kind of have to make a choice. Yeah. When you're young and you want to pursue either like some kind of instrument,

there is like a thought process. Like, okay, I can't. It's over. I did it to the same thing. Skating, you're skating with your friends, your homies, you're fucking 14. But like, you want to play drums. You know, it's like, can't have a broken wrist

or a broken arm and try to do a gravity with Diego Sanchez. You can't. God, that would have been sick. If Gravity Blasts were around back then, that would have been nuts, man. When actually did Gravity Blass coming to play?

I'm probably wrong about this, but the first I remember hearing about it would be John Longstreet. Origin? I know. Andrew's on it right now. Oh, well, okay. Yeah, but see, that's the thing. Tony Williams. That's a thing, though, dude.

Yeah, you could go back to, what's his name? No, but that's a blast beat, though. That's a thing, yeah. Gravity blast. When did the gravity? I think it was John Lonstrith. That's what I feel like. Well, actually, hey, go up, Andrew.

The hammer blast became popular in death metal music of the early 1990s. The freehand blasts, also known as. The Gravity Blass utilizes gravity. Hmm. I don't think it's out there. It doesn't really say. What the, I wonder.

I mean, it could be John from origin. I feel like he was the first one to put it in a beat or something. Because, yeah, you can sit there and be like, oh, Buddy Rich in my in 1960.

Shut up, dude. We're not talking about that. When people start doing that, I tune out. Yeah. Now, you're trying, it's called try hard. Well, like,

history is what it is. Yeah, sure. We all get it, dude. The way people reinvent it, or the way people reimagine it is what's funny. Okay, who reinvented the gravity blast? Yeah, you got to be really besides with... I really do think it was John Longstroth. And then, like, you know, a lot of other people came along and started doing it or whatever.

Wouldn't that first figure come out? Origin? Yeah, it's just self-sutitled. Honestly, I didn't even pay attention to it into that technique until Dave McGraw came along. And I was just like, oh. Yeah, shit's sick. Jesus. And then he's doing it.

The way he's doing it. Yeah. And the mother. Bastard. I remember, I think it was Death Atlas. I was just like, wait a minute. There's no gravity's on this record. He was just like, yep.

You son of a bitch. You got you. Yeah. Just like with our new, one of our new songs, I don't know if it was weed or young or scourge of the offspring, but one of them doesn't have a blast beat in it. And that freaked me out. Again, not paying attention. I just wasn't really paying attention to it

I just it sounds, the stuff sounds good to me or it doesn't, you know, I wasn't thinking, I wasn't writing citations for ourselves going, you have negative five blast beats. I don't know why I did it in that accent, but, um, it's, yeah, it's, but that was weird to me and I'm just like, all right,

I told them I'm like, you're making up for it on the next week, you got to do some gravity blasts, you're bastard. It sounds like Dave McGraw brought in some like, some needed like energy new blood is always good new fresh blood

is always good and he's a great guy as well yeah so a big huge help but yeah Mike Loughlin the drummer before him was extremely creative drummer and then he

stepped aside but we had been really we knew that you know Mike was kind of wanting to probably

it kind of get out of the game, you know, so we started looking at Dave and there's just like, or started thinking like, well, who would we get? This guy over here is insane, man. Like, I couldn't, you know, he's still one of my favorite drummers. What's he from? He's from Chile, San Diego, Chile. Really? Mm-hmm.

I didn't know that. He moved to the United States. I probably shouldn't speak for him. I'm going to get this wrong. But it's roughly right. 2001-200-ish, something like that. And didn't really speak much English. Really?

Yeah, he's an amazing story, this guy, actually. Holy shit. Amazing story. So by the time I meet him in 2006, like, I was just like, he's telling me all this. I'm like, that's amazing, dude, because you sound like, like, you know, like a Californian or something. He sounds like from California. Yeah, or something, you know, at least West Coast or whatever. He's always hovered around Seattle.

He just moved to Chicago, actually. Chicago? Yeah. You know, our band is completely like all over the place. All over. We can't do one-offs. Like, please stop asking us to do one-offs. Josh lives in Berlin.

Ollie's a Montreal native in Quebec. In Quebec. And then me and Bell live in San Diego where San Diego is all hell. But Josh, he moved out to San Diego from Chicago area back in 2001. And, you know, sometime during the pandemic, he started. started dating this gal in um that was my first guest in Serbia so he lived in Serbia for a while actually whoa yeah interesting you know turns our our band took but we've made it to we've made it work none of this hinders our band sure we can't do

one-offs and whatever who cares we've done we used to do a million of those you know there's a time where it was just like we do too many we would do a show in San Diego once a month or Anaheim or wherever LA and all that shit. So that was cool, you know, but we also don't need to do that. It's a professional touring act now, you know. Yeah, you and Josh always

had this like really special connection musically because you're all kind of, you call it kind of bubbled up like around the same time. Because even like we're talking about your like the vocal style, if you look at his guitar playing was also like I wonder those chords like

invoked something. Because it if because uh you look like you listen to uh to death atlas like that i mean chavis like i've been listening to your band the past three weeks and it's really helped me uh fall in love with the genre again and uh cool and i just it was like what genre oh you got me that's the question i was like it may it's this you get you get these burst of moments that make you re-fall in love with heavy music again. Yeah. You know, like, this was like a very fresh record,

and I found, and I found myself crying. Good. And I say good because that's a, that is a, that is a real reaction. That's my favorite reaction. Yeah.

Because I've seen it. I was like, what the, like, how did, since Anthropocene, I've seen it. How did, like, you guys are evoking emotions, which is extremely rare in heavy music. As, as far as I'd,

this extreme. Like, how did you do that? I mean, we're talking, like, for me, it was like the self-title track, which is nine minutes long. Yeah. But you don't mind. And you're, you're just going on for, like, this,

you're just going on, like, this journey. Yeah. It's like, like, how did you do that? Well, we, we just really, um, we, see, I love that record, man. It sounds like you put, it sounds like you put a lot into that record. We did. in particular. We did.

It was very, we crafted it a little carefully. We spent a lot of time trying to craft it to be the right thing. Like, you don't just, well, Terracite's interesting because we, we actually, what you hear on the record, the sequence of songs are what, how are they were written. Oh, wow. Yeah. In the same sequence that they were written with two songs switched. and so we

for terracite at least we wanted I wanted to do like the 180 degree opposite of what we did on death atlas so and it was a little bit more like with what we did

with monolith for terracite where death atlas was like um you know well we knew we didn't want to repeat this you can't we're not going to be able to we're not going to just repeat

this. People didn't want another downer record. I didn't want another downer record. I wanted it and I that's my favorite shit. I love depressing you know, for lack of better word, suicidal sounding stuff. I'm really into the suicidal black metal or whatever, all that kind of shit and funeral

doom and all this kind of crap. But we couldn't do that again so we had to do you know, we wanted to be a lot more energetic on this one or whatever. I wanted personally was hoping that Death Atlas would stand on its own, you know, with that being said.

So we, I don't know, man, we just had a lot to say. We were really, I'm really into, like I said, depressing kind of stuff. It's a very depressing topic. You know, the world is destroyed and everything's gone. What do you do? So that's why TerraSite is the way it is. It's serendipitous and incredible that it came out during spring of this year, which is beautiful.

I, that was an accident. I wanted this record to, to conceptually in the cover and everything to exude this, you know, springtime feeling. New, new life, rebirth, you know, all this stuff. Everybody came out of the pandemic. Can you imagine if we just doubled down and did more, you know, super depressing, you know, shit? It'd be stupid. I watched neurosis do it back in the day when they put out through silver and blood.

It had all these, those like their monolith. It had all these like parts that people liked, but it didn't just, focus on those parts in the way that I think Death Atlas, people have complained that Death Atlas does. I don't see that as a deal breaker. Complained? Others might. I have. But that's a thing, dude. It's a sea of positivity and then

as an artist or whatever, the ones that stick out to you are always going to be the shitty comments. They're always going to be the ones that are the negative because it's a bunch of positivity. Sure. You know? And I'm thinking

my lucky stars that, you know, I'm very fortunate to that we've gone this, things have gone this way for us. It may not again. It may go on a, it may go on a different trajectory next. We don't know. People's mindsets and stuff change constantly. Like I said, I don't know what people want anymore. I don't. And I don't really even see eye to eye musically with a lot of people in this kind of genre specifically. Not that I think we're doing some amazing thing and they're not. It's not that. It's just, it's just weird. I was starting to say it earlier. I worked at a record store and for years, many, many years, different record stores.

Back in the day, when we didn't have, you know, Spotify and algorithms and social media directing us what to listen, you know, putting it, effectively putting us in our own echo chambers, creating echo chambers for us that we, you know, through algorithms, fuddling stuff that like-minded stuff that you've clicked on before or whatever. Yes. We had to, you know, like, well, shit, look at album covers and hope it didn't suck. And anyways, I worked at a record store. And I was able to, I worked with all different types of people that listen to all different

types of music. I never thought I would get so into, say, like, world music, uh, music from around the world, different, so like Indian film track soundtracks or psychedelic, Turkish psychedelic or Prague rock from Turkey from the, you know, 60s and whatever. There's this label called soul jazz that they're kind of like, this is like an algorithm before algorithms where funnels, they put out all this awesome stuff from around the world that you never would have thought existed. And a lot of it's just really mind-blowing.

And you get to learn about other cultures and stuff through this. at least that's how I looked at it. So I was exposed to so damn much and when metal I feel like is already running through my veins and I play it every damn night on a tour cyclically for over 20 years. Sick. It's not going to be what I come home to.

I'm not that metal, unfortunately, I guess. We've noticed something about bands, touring bands over the years, metal touring bands. The ones that are like the rookies, or just haven't been doing it long are the guys that are driving at the end of the night saying, all right, see you later,

and they're blasting death metal leaving the parking lot. The people who have been on the road, plenty of times, they're blasting Brian Eno or Godspeed you black emperor or something very, you know, mellow and pretty.

I think we're all as musicians and artists or whatever. I think we all, most of them, have, mental or emotional illnesses or deficiencies or whatever,

I think we all kind of have something going on upstairs, you know? And I've noticed, you know, like the most, the biggest artists or whatever have some of the most problematic past, whether it's mentally or,

or like even in their relationships or whatever. Yeah, I'll look at freaking John Lennon, you know, shit like that. Yeah. I think musicians just tend to be, kind of fall on that side of things. What do you fall? Oh, I'm 80, you know, I grew up, I'm the depressed person. Yeah, what was your upbringing like?

Totally fine. Middle, middle to, you know, middle class, middle to, well, I found out that my parents were way poorer than they made me think we were. Really? Yeah. But they were working their asses off to get to a point to make a better future for themselves and their kids. And I didn't really even know until the last 10 years or so when they start telling, oh, back in, you know, blah, blah, blah, we were, you know, destitute. We had like, what, 50 bucks in the account? I was like, really?

Okay. Well, you did a great job of, you know, raising us and also making us think, like, you know, that we were fine. my dad grew up very poor and didn't want his kids to feel that way you know and stuff um so yeah but so i honestly it's chemical i have no reason i've been given no there's been nothing that's happened in this life um to make me feel the way i do and that that just tells me it's it's it's chemical um you know and i think that's one reason why i've that I write these lyrics and stuff. I think I'm just kind of acting out, you know.

I'm most mellow when I'm on the road because I get to go up there and scream every night at everybody. And the next day, as long as I don't have a bunch of stuff to do, you know, like I t-M'd our portion of the amount of art tour and that just sucked because it was just like, dude, I've got to do all this stuff on stage. Luckily, it was only 30 minutes or something. It's a lot.

But, yeah, it's lame. So I'm at my most, like, resting phase or whatever when I'm on the road the next day and stuff, because I was able to physically, literally physically get out any kind of, you know, demons or whatever, dude. I'm not trying to be old. No, I think everyone in house has demons, even if you have a good, I bring in a bad one, It's like I think like everyone has like like a family. There's like big ones. There's little small ones.

I was just thinking like today, which you actually awakened this like the first time. It's been a while because you know I do, you know, I, you know, pepperoni pizza and stuff. So I do eat meat. But but not like a lot. And right when I dove into your catalog, there was it's either. I believe it's. outro to a record. Oh, dude.

And there's, there's, uh, I know you're talking about. Yeah, so there's like a slaughter of pigs going on. It's a, this was the, and, and, and, and, and the sound was so horrifying. Yeah. And I literally, I, I was, I was in the garage where we jam. I was like, I was pacing around my, my room. I was like, just like, listening to this thing.

I was like, and I haven't felt that way in a while. My damn, what, what, what the fuck you were eating, man? Yeah. It may it wishes what you want, you know, good art to do. You want it to make you stop and, like, feel, feelings and face your own demons and, like, think about shit differently. I was like, you guys did that. Talking about this thing, is it like a 10 or 12 minute outro? It's a long outro, too.

Yeah. It's just funny because it's like, I'm sure that ends up on Spotify and people are like, what in the hell is this nonsense? Yeah. It's just, it's great. It's getting slaughtered with the sound of, I believe this guy, John Weiss did the electronic, like, noise and stuff. like an ambient soundtrack to it to make it a little more unnerving and then we just kind of mix it all around and i've always been into like experimental kind of you know avant-garde noise and crap like that too you know do you think that was maybe even like a precursor to what you would even do

a couple of records later like that kind of like which people have spoken about you and cattle in this way where like you do like it's obviously extreme but there's like this emotion evoking element to it. Well, yeah, we did on the harvest floor, we started with that, with this woman named Jarbo, who was a massive fan of. She was in a band called Swans, who's one of my favorite bands

of all time. So, that was an amazing feat to get her on the record. And so I created this, like, you know, it was supposed to sound like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a funeral march type thing. And

so we, composed it. I did all, you know, synths or whatever. I'd have to go back and look and see credit, give credit to who actually did it. But, um, um, and it was supposed to just be this long buildup to the last song. And then, I personally liked that model a lot, so we did it again, and then again, and then again, monolith, Anthropocene, death atlas, all have that. somebody was I did an interview like a couple days ago and these guys are with these guys in Mexico and they were saying hey you know I noticed there's no they said they called a ballad

ballad yeah there's no ballad on that on this record I'm like actually I realized oh they're talking about the intro the separated intro track to the last song that we've been doing on the last few records yeah and I was just like actually you're right but the last song pretty much is just another body is pretty much as dirgy and it's it just it's the same kind of way that we've been

ending our records just it's all condensed into one song now that's why it's 10 whatever minutes because it has like the long you know pretty piano intro or whatever connected to it kind of thing instead of separating them death Atlas was one of those things we had like all these peaks and valleys and stuff but the valleys were really low

and you know half the time we're doing those so we can use them as live I hate talking to the crowd man I'm not a front man I'm a vocalist there's the difference I'm interesting if it was up to me

I just hate hear my voice dude like I'm even going back and watching this I'm like God I hate the sound of my voice I think I sucks I hate it I got this yeah this high little me neat voice I hate it Yeah, because you can't even drink caffeine.

I can't. You got your mind's going, huh? I do. I just, I need to not is what it is. I need to not. Especially, mostly coffee. Yeah. Because a good can of Coke or once in a while is the shit or the bottle, you know, bottle of Coke.

Isn't it kind of, do you have to look back like when you were, you know, a kid hanging out with, you know, like eventually people that will go and, and have. have some notoriety in like the heavy genre and like literally like over 25 years later like you're like the band's even bigger now like it's kind of a you you lived a crazy journey man yeah and that's why i was kind of getting out earlier with the whole like we never went away sort of thing it's just like it's insane it's a lot longer uh i feel to me than it might have been for other people like some bands you know came out pop did a lot of touring went away and then came back out, you know, and did it again or whatever. And it's like we never, I feel like they might have been afforded a, you know,

stopping and taking a breath of fresh air and then come back reinvigorated or something. But we've done it cyclically in the same way that Cannibal Corpse did, you know, since, you know, 1990 or whatever. It's insane. Your career is, I keep going back to it, this makes no sense to me. This doesn't make any sense. It's bizarre. It's timing.

and just, well, see, that's the thing is I'm not, that's not, that doesn't, that's not fair to the guys, because they're the ones writing this music, you know, I come in and I write the melodies, and then Otero will do some little, he might have some things to say about certain things. But, lots of bands have put out awesome records

and didn't get as much attention or whatever. So I feel very thankful. that people, for whatever reason, we've been able to still connect with the youth. The youth is, I mean, you have to, you have to still stay in their peripheral, you know? Yeah.

You have to be in front, you have to, not that you should, you know, pander to them. Don't pander to anybody, anybody, you know, not even really, you've got to do it to your fans to some extent because you don't want to alienate them. but you know do what you want you got to do what you do which you take risks

you know it's it's important I think it's important to take risks and just definitely do what you want if you're not doing it for yourself or first you know at least primarily you can make it a job later fine

if it brings in money great you win bonus but you gotta like what you're doing and it has to mean something to you Or else, I mean, I don't know, pose or shit. Otherwise. I guess that. I know that's a bad word now.

No, no. I don't know. It's very fitting. It's very fitting. You got to do what you want. And I hope that, I guess, if you're trying to make a career out of it or whatever, then hope that it resonates and maybe it will. And, you know, not everybody's supposed to do this.

No. No. No. Just from the physical factor, no. Yeah. And then the psychological factor that comes with that, you know. That's the thing that, that's the part that people don't, that doesn't get acknowledged enough because I think people automatically assume, shut up, dude, you're fine. You have, you have legions of fans or whatever, or you make money at this.

You get to, you've been to Perth, Australia and swam in the waters. I haven't, you know, that kind of thing. It's like, yeah, but everything comes with a price, you know. Everything has a price. Yeah. no matter how good it is or how bad is everything in life has a price yeah you know and there is there's a price to what what you do and like i and he just never took a break yeah and didn't get burns out and still went up that's the thing i don't i still like dude when when when i don't get it on this tour

this tour in the last one um specifically this one uh that's a decibel tour we just did at the end i have a ritual i basically get off stage i go and i take a shower and then i go and i sit there pretty much naked on the bus with a towel around me. Beautiful. Yeah. I always have to close the curtains. Yeah. And I sit there and I add stories and I, the people posted, you know, and I'm sitting there watching these going, who is that person?

Like, what in the hell? And how long do they have to do this shit? Talking about myself or Josh or Dave, you know. We're all getting up there. Dave specifically, how? I don't, it's insane this man. he's just he blows my mind um the physicality involved with what he's doing uh and then myself too and i'm watching these videos going how are we doing this like i don't know either like yeah it's crazy

um and i'm not talking about like you know the music or any kind of mind-blowing thing or anything like that it's no i'm just talking about the physicality of it like i'm 48 years old like how much longer. How much longer can I even do this? Luckily, I don't feel like I look like it. I get told a lot that I don't look 45 or 48 or my age or whatever. I don't really, I didn't really start feeling that way until even, you know, I guess coming back from COVID. That put a lot of things in a perspective. Yeah, a lot of perspective. You're just like, dude, this is tough. Like, this isn't easy. Touring is so much lamer now than it used to be. Have you noticed? I mean, it's, It used to be so much more fun or something.

Now just there's logistical things. Have you been to Europe since COVID? Yeah. I mean, that was a little bit different. That was troubling. At least the festival season last year. Yeah. Like broke me in half, dude.

Really? It was just brutal. Just, and more so like the logistical things. Just even showing up and then 35 hours later going, where's our equipment? Just that kind of shit, you know? Just the stuff nobody really thinks about. It breaks you down over.

time, I think. Little things will just break you down and see yeah, you listen to little things, he just fucking eats there, and it's little fucking manifest. Yeah. You know? Usually a manifest to you wanting to quit, but it looks like you guys haven't got it. Well, that's a thing. Yeah, I can't tell you how many

times I've said that's it. You know, or I'm done or blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, I think everybody, most bands go through that shit or whatever. Terracite has completely reinvigorated us. Last year was just tough. That's great. Last year was just brutally tough.

I want to forget about 2022 for the rest of my life. It was just stupid. But it produced a record that we're going to be able to, you know, reap the benefits of, I guess, and go on tour and continue doing our thing. It's great. I mean, yeah, I mean, we're talking, you know, at that list. Like, your seventh record in, like, you're getting, like, you know, now you're playing in arenas.

who would have fucking thought well that yeah the the Kia forum yeah you guys like Kia what the fuck I mean I'm just gonna assume that'll never happen again just because you know I'm a pessimistic asshole

but also a realistic asshole and I that was I told my parents I was just like guys if you're ever gonna come out to one of our shows

you should probably do this one you know let's do this one We're never going to be able to do anything like this again, I don't think, unless we never know, man. I know, never say never, I know, but at the same time, it was just like, we shouldn't be. I mean, we're allowed to play here? It's crazy. I mean, I'm pretty sure we were the first band with blast beats to play that stage, I think, you know.

I don't know of any other tours or whatever that had, it was all death metal at least. Like how fast you, I mean, you literally, you chose, like, the tortoise road and it's, like, climbed up there, dude. Yeah, well It's insane It's insane It's insane It's You know

I probably look like it's taking a toll on me But Um We also just got off tour And I'm like I'm like Fresh off COVID And had a few beers last night

A few Yeah Well I brought home from Three Floyds Back from Indiana Oh shit It's like the best Yeah

So Heavy shit Yeah I love my beers heavy yeah i i finally came around to the hoppy thing i was a pilsner guy for a while but i like i want to drink less and have it mean something see oh that's a good way that's a dangerous good way to put it that's what i'm starting him when i want yeah so same is have like a you know one or two have heavy-ass beers and okay it's chill but people make a mistake then they want they want to keep going yeah dude because it's just tastes so good

and your judgment is decreased and that that alcohol now doesn't taste so biting it's true It's true. I love it. What was also fascinating is that you recently reconnected with one of the co-founder's Dave. Yeah, I did. You have been plagued with Dave's. Right? That sounds like a song, A Plague of Days.

You're just like surrounded by days. I just want to tell you, congrats, you know, it's having, you know, after a what, he hasn't been a band for 20 years. I assume you guys haven't talked since. Oh, well, so, okay, yeah. Dave and I, I haven't talked about this much. I think I only mentioned it in like this one interview or whatever. We stopped talking to each other in 2003. You know, we parted ways or whatever.

We let them go. And no reason to even talk about any of that at this point. Of course. the we it's just really cool and I'm not like this I hold grudges dude I hold grudges

I'm a grudge holder I'm a petty bastard sometimes when it comes to that if I feel like I've been given a reason and over time I just felt like that you know this one didn't really need to be like this but what happened was I'm at

you know Gabe's our other co-founder of the band Gabe Serbian, played drums for the locust for many years, and he passed away the day, actually the day before we were leaving to go in the studio. And

so, to record Terasite. You know, we get there shit week, week and a half later, Trevor passes, you know, and I was in a real bad spot mentally and emotionally. Just a, just, my head was just swimming, you know.

Um, lots of pressure, you know, for the record and this and that and then loss, you know, and having to process that. And I get to, I, you know, it was a few weeks later, uh, Gabe's memorial happened at the Casbah in San Diego. I wasn't going to miss it. So I left the studio. I flew, flew home. Um, and went to the Casbah.

And, you know, I'm standing there, you know, I was a wreck. I was an emotional wreck. dude. And I'm standing there, or I go to walk to the bathroom and I hear this, hey Travis, and I look over and it's Dave Astor. I haven't seen this guy since 2003-ish. Oh my goodness. You know, we hate each other this whole time. I talked a lot of shit about this guy. He reciprocated. He did the same. I held a grudge severely. And there was something, you know, death of a friend. we'll make this, we'll put things in a perspective, I guess, you know,

so I'm walking and I hear this, hey Travis, he's like, what's up, man? And I just hugged him. And it was weird, you know, like, when I say weird, what I mean is it's weird for me. It's, it wasn't a weird thing. This is how people recover and get through loss and stuff and process it. And that, you know, meant a lot to me. He said some things at night that meant a lot to me. And so I just, you know, everything was cool from that on and out.

And I'm, it's weird to talk to him now. Like, it was like, we spent the rest of the night together hanging out. It went to a party afterwards. And it was just like, I'm transported back to 1998. Whoa. You know, I'm just, it's, it's him and I again talking about the same shit. He's the same dude. And I'm very sentimental like that.

So it meant a lot to me That's a lot of things he said and I was happy to squash You know Squash the beef There's people that I will I will go to the grave Um

Keeping the grudge against Because they were that shitty But this just wasn't one of those situations I felt you know Which just wasn't And um You know I'm happy that

That it wasn't just I spent weeks going Did I do the right thing? Was that right? did he do the right thing? Did Dave do the right thing by saying hi? And I'm just glad he did. I'm glad he did.

It helped. I mean, it's just part of learning about yourself. 48 years in, I'm still learning about yourself, you know? It kind of sucks that someone has to die to bring people together. It sucks when that when that should happen. But then there's like, there's like this beautiful thing comes after that. It's so bizarre. Well, and I realized I had wanted this to happen.

for a while. Really? You know, I, yeah, that's kind of part of the processing of it. So I realized that I had actually wanted to squash this. It didn't really realize it. But I can say, yeah, there's definitely people that have, nope. There is no. Some people are deserving of your hate.

Absolutely, there are people. But that's between you and them, you know. I remember people being like, oh, come on, squash it. No, dude. Shut up. Get the hell out of here. Not this one. No.

No. But, yeah, it was cool. I mean, I've had to send them money over the years and stuff like that. It's like, now I can just be like, hey, Dave, what's your email? Yeah. What's your PayPal instead of like having someone else do it and having this degree of separation? Is there, is there like a, there's a part of you where like, I don't give a fuck about anything or what anyone says about me. But for some reason, when it's someone that you had that kind of history with, when they send you something nice to you,

it just hits you. Yeah. You know, yeah. We, you know, past band members with, with Suey,

like when they say something very nice, you're like, thanks, man. Yeah. It just means something. Yeah.

Yeah. Because then you, you just go back to that time period when you're like a kid, you know, like one of your childhood friends, you know, sees you growing up

and has something, you know, positive say about you. It just means a lot. Yeah. You know, it's crazy. Yeah.

Um, I've experienced that, yeah, and didn't really expect it. And then it's nice to hear, you know, but I don't know. Well, life's weird. Oh, life, life is... Relationships are weird. People are weird. I'm definitely, I feel like I'm weird, you know?

Yeah. Just. But Travis, you are the best version of weird I ever seen. Thanks, babe. You're awesome, man. I appreciate that. I mean, again, I just thank you for, you know, kind of re-emingrading my, you know, love for heavy music, you know, it's, you know, I'm in a weird spot in my life and my, my, my, my, my, my career as well. So doing, you know, just listening to to you guys has meant like a lot, you know, just drive, driving up here and, you know, crying. Now I was like, damn, this is, I cannot wait. I don't handle it, this is sick. Dude, that is like, seriously, that's the best. The thing about that is you can't fake.

You can't. If you're faking, crying to someone's music, then you're opposed. You got some problems. You might want to, you know, re-evaluate. I would turn it off and go, let's get to the bottom of why you're crying, why you're faking like you're crying here. But I've seen people do it, starting with the Anthropocene songs, mostly in Europe. That's where I first noticed it, playing this festival, and I'm seeing these two people up front

crying and turning to each other and like really crying. I'm like, holy shit. holy shit, that is the sickest. And I know they're doing it because it's on this emotional part of the song. It's not like, you know, it was evoked by us playing something. You know, maybe they're like, oh, we're finally seeing this band. We, you know, we're, mom really liked this band and she's gone. So we're getting to see it for them.

Everybody's got their reason. Sure. But when it's because of what you're playing, it's amazing. It's just the best. It's my favorite feeling, dude. It's my favorite thing to see. And I know that sounds, that might sound kind of sociopathic. But the reason why I enjoy it is because that's, you can't fake that.

You know, that's a genuine response. That's a completely genuine response to something. And it's beautiful. There's something beautiful in that. Death metal and the words beautiful, we're never supposed to be together. And that's kind of like, I think that's a cool thing. I mean, for me, that's what I'm happy. about being able to, when I first saw it, I was just like, I do, I only want this now.

I only want people to cry and blah, blah, I honestly, that's, that was the, that was, that was us, death atlas was us paying attention to the response from, from the crowd. And like, we, we did, it did lend itself to why, or lead to why there was so much, uh, emotional stuff in that record. having gotten so you know being so like stoked with how that stuff went we

there's still little moments of it in Terra site but it's a little more fewer far between and not so heavy handed on that you know on the emotional side of things it's not just total like head in the dirt you know

um it they find they find their place into it Like you were saying earlier, how it's like mixing melody and stuff with something that's raw and visceral sounding or whatever. Intense or whatever sounding. Those are two flavors that go great together, but you don't really know until you try or whatever. And I don't know. I'm really stoked that people, that that kind of stuff resonates with people and they're not just going,

oh, God, there he is again, doing this stupid weird gallum voice or whatever, blah, blah, blah. Complete opposite. I hope so. I mean. Complete opposite, man. It's fascinating to me how you even found that voice. Well, it's just... I haven't heard anything like it.

It was just wanting to be... Wanting to do something different for myself or whatever. And it actually helped... I noticed, like, our presence in Germany... Or fan presence in Germany kind of ramped up. I think they just like, you know... They like their... Except the thing.

I've noticed with Germany is they like their... They want their grind core to be grind core. Their death metal to be death metal. They don't really want the death grind. Or whatever. They want their tech death to be tech death. And not too much crossing the streams. But so, you know, I don't know.

I don't even know why I was mentioning that. But I noticed that they're a good gauge for, you know, if you're doing something right within maybe the metal sphere, you know, because they just get so much it's a ingrained in a lot of their lifestyle over there it's not over here it's a little more flavor the month

where you know there's not too many people in their 70s going to metal shows but go to Valkin you'll see plenty of them there you know like yeah these are lifers like

so I think that's that was kind of cool and it was like oh well shit we're making finally people in Germany are starting to give a shit and I think maybe had a lot to do with writing, they were writing catchier riffs and I was following up with

catchy sounding choruses, or we call them choruses on even, you know, melodic parts and I'm glad that they resonated with them because I thought, it was an experiment I mean, at least in my mind it was, I don't, maybe the rest of the guys had a different

opinion, but to me it was, to me was very much an experiment and talking about monolith and we'll see what happens and it worked. Can't fake that. Gave us his second career and you know, I liked what we, I liked the sound of it, I liked what we were doing

or at least I was having fun doing it. It sounds like it. It's not so much, not so fun live when you gotta do 20 voices. We can't hear yourself and you're doing the rest of the stupid voices. Yeah. God. Oh my goodness. Dumb, dumb corner of painted myself into. So a new record came out in May.

People are loving it. You know people are loving your record when you go on spot up by and it's just it's all like the new record. Yeah. Can't fake that either. See, I'm so lost when it comes to the Spotify thing, dude, or like streaming numbers. It's endless.

They say out of it, dude. It's not worth it. It sucks. It'll drive you insane. As long as Steve Davis or somebody's paying attention to it, that's all I care about. Let them do it. Well, I'll tell you. you that people are jamming it so it's great man it's it's it's really cool to see you know you know

for me watching you as a kid and then even later on in your second one in your career like people are still jamming those records you know that's aspiring for it's weird for for for me it's weird huh yeah yeah well like you said i mean it's weird to have this backwards trajectory or whatever of how things usually go yeah backwards career it's so it's so weird yeah man but that's how it should be I mean, it makes sense. We're a backwards band. I mean, like,

well, shit, we tune at standard. We tuned to E flat or whatever, standard tuning. Nobody, bands just haven't been, they just weren't doing that. That's sick.

Everybody started doing drop A or whatever, you know, drop Z, which I loved. I always loved that sound. But we always stayed with E flat, which is interesting. Most bands don't really do that.

That's your sound. Yeah. And, cool. you know, talking about, we've got albums that are concerned with, you know, animal welfare, and it's very what people would consider non-death metal type things. And, you know, we just kind of stayed in that lane and did our thing. And now, shit, I mean, if we came out now with that stuff, it'd probably be received a lot better.

Who knows? Just people with more open minds or whatever now about things. it's the main reason why I'm probably one of the main reasons why I'm willing to be open now about mental health you know yeah and my struggles with it or whatever um it's okay to do now it's like you know because everybody's dealing with it dude like it seems to some degree it's hard being is this hard being a human in general man it's hard being a human we're all trying to be our own human it's weird it's a tough mental emotional spiritual journey man yeah It's tough. Well, Travis, I just want to thank you for making the drive here. I've wanted to sit down with you for quite some time. Same here, man.

Well, over a year. I had a lot of people, like I told you, I saw the Glenn Benton one. And I just thought it was, I don't know, I liked it. I liked that episode. I thought it was great. It was the first one I saw, and then I saw, like, another one. Both times you were wearing a dystopia shirt, so I wore my dystopia shirt today. Oh, I know it was, but it was.

That's sick. Oh my goodness. So I was, I thought that was funny. And I was, and then I had noticed, like, you know,

like I said, half the time we were talking about, obviously, it's the cat's out of the bag. I'm not paying attention to the, to my peers.

Yeah. And a lot of people, when I, when I was mentioning it on Twitch or whatever, like, I started seeing people go like, dude,

will you please do Chris Gars's podcast? And I was like, weird. I just saw an episode the other day. Like you said, it's legit. You've got multiple cameras and everything looks... I don't know what this is about, though. Can you please explain this? Real quick.

We were... Is this episode coming out in December? No, this is going to drop next month. So the reason why this tree is here is because we play Florida and the gentle giant George Christopher Hunter Fisher comes out to his show and he decorated our bandwagon with

Christmas lights. This was in Christmas, during Christmas time? Oh, that's cute. And he gets this tree. So once we came home, I took the tree and I put it here. Yeah, yeah. I do that too. Yeah. The band hates it.

Well, I'm pretty sure they talk shit. Of course. I, you know, people give us stuff or whatever and it's like, cool. I put it up in this little thing. Yeah, yeah. Get home and I just take it. Yeah, yeah. I'm a hoarder.

I have a hoarding in my blood. No, man. Y'all gifts are rare, man. So if you could hold on to your gift, man. Yeah. Yeah. And then we have some interesting ones once in a while. Can't imagine being your fucking band, dude.

When it's very topical, when there's topical stuff, you get all sorts of weird shit. Oh my goodness, dude. Well, Travis, again, thank you for making a drive. I am honored to hang out with you. We've got to do it again. Please. We've got to do it again.

It's so close. I mean, I'm right there. It's not bad, huh? It's not that far, no. And I just want to publicly say, you know, thank you for everything that you've done for heavy music. I mean, you pioneered this style of vocal that is very common in today's

extreme scene and this none of this would exist without you Oh bud So I really appreciate that Thank you It's hard to accept praise like that sometimes for me It's real man since it's happening And appreciate it

And you also inspired me to Just remain a tortoise Yeah It's real shit dude It works dude the tortoise always beats the hair bro That's what's up It's just what happens

You know Travis where people find you Well shit Because I know you can barely work your phone. Well, I'm not that boomer. Or boomie.

Shit, I'm on Twitch. Travis Ryan Cattlety Cap. Boom. Twitch.tv.tv slash Travis Ryan Cowleycap, you know. I run the band socials and stuff. That's the only reason. It's the only reason why I have a social presence is because I have to run the band ones.

So, you know, yeah, you can get all of me there, begrudgingly. I just, you know, I really wish I could just opt out. I need to find a, social media manager or something i just want to opt out of it completely you should that's something that you want to do for your mental for your mental health i mean that's the that's the best reason right there like it's you know we're all human dude so you got you got to step back for sure yeah all right Travis again thank you and uh until thank you dude until next time for sure

all right one that's it later Travis fine