The Downbeat - Alessandro Venturella - Slipknot

Episode Date: August 19, 2019

My guest this week is Alessandro Venturella, aka V-Man. V-Man plays the bass in a band called Slipknot. If you don't know who Slipknot are I don't think I can help you with this podcast. Me and V go back around 10-15 years so we spend a lot of time reminiscing about the UK scene from back in the day, our similarities as UK-based techs who are now playing in US bands, as well as HOW EXACTLY ONE JOINS SLIPKNOT. We also of course talk about the new Slipknot album 'We Are Not Your Kind' and its recording process.

What's up, my little maggots? That's not me being offensive. If you don't know what a maggot is, then why are you listening to this episode of the podcast? How's everyone doing out there in Internet World? What have I been doing? Been working on new merch. There's probably some up right now at www. The DownBee.8.

So it says the downbeat. We got tanks, literal tanks on tank tops. You know, there's a gorilla deadlifting on top of a tank with corpse paint on and it says blast beats. We got the original t-shirt that says blast beats on the back. There's a lot of blast beat merch because I love me a blast beat. Go check that out. I'm going to stop plugging stuff, I reckon. What else have I been doing?

Just podcasts, really. Hanging around. Straight from the path isn't on tour until December. So, you know, I'm just sort of sat on my ass. doing nothing. We are touring before then, but it's not been announced. I've got to pretend that we're not. You know how it is. You can still get tickets for that December tour, though, Only Death Is Real.com. And the Fortune Teller single came out. If you haven't checked that out, go and check that out. Again, if you haven't checked out, why are you listening to this?

I know why you're listening to this if you haven't checked out my band. It's because you like the band Slipknot, and my guest is from Slipknot. V-man. He's an old friend of mine. We've known each other for a while and it just so happens now he plays the bass in Slipknot and I had to call in that friend favour. Hey mate, come on my podcast, go on, it'll be fun. I went round his, we had a lovely chat, he cooked me a fantastic Italian meal. God, I can't believe it. It was like I was in a restaurant. I think his dad used to own an Italian restaurant. So he sort of learned all the tricks. Not just a pretty mask.

Anyway, Alessandro Ventruella, aka V-Man. As I've already said, he plays the bass in Slip-Bot. He's done that for a while now. We talked about the brand new album, We Are Not Your Kind, which came out on August 9th. We talked about the recording process. It's a different world being in a band that size. So I was pretty eager to learn about the recording process.

like, do you still do demos? Does someone, is someone sat at home on a computer? Or do you all meet up? You know, I wanted to know. We talk about how on earth someone goes from being a British guitarist slash guitar tech to being the bassist in one of, if not the biggest metal band in the world, which, you know, is an unlikely story.

And, you know, I relate to it a bit because I'm also British in an American band. So we talk about what we like about American. tour in America as British people, mate. That of course is my impression of an American person doing an impression of a British accent. I really appreciate him taking the time

to talk to me because he's just embarked on a gigantic US tour until September. Then in October, they're doing Australia with Metallica. We talk about that for a bit because we both love Metallica. Because if you don't love Metallica,

again, just turn this podcast off. And then they're doing South America in November and then UK and Europe in 2020, TBC. But, you know, that's a long amount of tour in. So we talk about how gruelling tour can be at the various different levels because funnily enough, straight from the path and slip knot are not the same size band. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. VMA on the Downbeat podcast. Hello. Hi. Does everyone in your bank call you V-Man? Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. That's not me starting with a question straight away,

but I don't know if just all the good people from back in the day call you V-Man, or it's actually your nickname Globally. Well, I think globally, it's recognised. I think, well, when I was a kid, everyone called me V-Man, and I think it's stuck, even sometimes when my mum and dad will call me V-Man. but with the band I don't know you probably get the odd Alex

but I mean normally it's just a nod or a grunt what hang on you said when you're a kid people call you V man yeah like how young surely it should be V child V child no

I can't remember I can't remember the first was that said it but it was definitely since I was really young V man though at an age where you were a child okay I mean maybe like teens.

Still, being called a man. Yeah. It must have been quite good for the... It's been forever. I always find like an old email or something. Every now and then like I keep mixing up finishing with Alex or V-Man and someone's what should I call you actually V-Man or Alex?

It's an absurd nickname. Yeah, and then I love it. Then when I was in the industry tech and then people would always be like oh how do you want to be called? I think I just got to the point. I was like, fuck it, it's just V-Man. Do you know, architects used to call me, when I first started working for architects,

they used to call me Mini V-Man. Mini-V-Man? Because I had tattoos, and I was a liability. And that's why they started calling me that. It was just like we got, like, V-Man's gone, and we've just got another one, but he's a drum tech. Yeah, Mini-V, that makes sense.

It was good, though. Yeah, I mean, back in the day, Tekin, I did a lot of fuck-ups at the beginning. What was the biggest fuck-up you ever done? I don't know, it was like silly shit. I remember when I was with Charlie, when he just finished doing Busted. I think we were doing like some festival

with fight starts somewhere in England. It was one of those weird Scottish ones where tea in the park or something like that. Do they still do that? I think so. Oh really? Okay. I feel like in that side of the music industry,

there's always these festivals I know. never I mean once you're in the metal ones you just concentrate on them you never think that there's anything else apart from what did you do with what did you fuck up you fuck up big on stage? Yeah I think so where is it tea in a park

and we had all day but I think I just dicked around and drank all the rider forgot they called me mini V forgot to restring guitars panicked because I was like oh shit can I do it in

10 minutes. You know, shit went wrong. Didn't, you know. But then I got, I think I got scalded for that one. So this is... And I never got fired. They gave me another chance.

So this is what... I mean, this is probably about six or seven questions deep, but I'm just going to escalate it to now because it works. So we were both techs. Yeah. Massively nerdy. Probably in our fields,

guitarist and drummer, the nerdiest people. we know in terms of like gear. Yeah. So we naturally started out as techs, but then also there's a sort of a must party and I'm in the band but I'm not in the band mentality

and eventually here we are in two bands. Yeah, I mean, obviously there's been a maturity. I've got more, well, let's just say, I got the progression as being a professional tech came kind of quick because you were letting

people down and that feeling was shitty. So I slowly learnt my lesson quick. So it wasn't, you know, I think you know, but there's those days where you're kind of oh, I want to party with the band. But if I do

that, I've got to be up really early to set up all their gear. It's the worst, isn't it? The band can sleep in. Yeah, I mean, even like we're I would pay Darren Sanders, who's now my tech. He's also one of my best mates. I mean, I'd give him my day's wage, and I'd just sleep in my bunk until like six o'clock, yeah. That's so fucking funny.

Because I was so hung over. So you go out partying with the band, and then you'd be, you would pay, what was his job? He was like stage manager, but he was also like Troy and Bill's Tech, stage left, and I was stage right. Then you would just pay him. Yeah, I'll just be like this, 100 bucks or something. I'll be like, I'm not getting up. And tall manager would be like, well.

The job's getting done. Well, Brent would be like, I'm not going to, I think of a fucking shit. Yeah, he doesn't seem like that. I mean, I wouldn't get him to do like my actual gig, like in the sense of restringing my guitar. Yeah, he'd just do like load it. And I'd turn up and be like, whoops.

That's the dream. Yeah. But I mean, that was like once every blue moon. So, all right. You don't have to go back to tech in, don't know? You said that as if I actually might need to go back to Dek again. You're in the biggest metal band in the world. So, hang on, let's talk about the timeline.

So there's... There might be a bit of a jumping around for stories because there's so many bloody stories. So there's V-Child. And then V-Child filled in for viatrophy. Yes. When I wasn't in Viatrophy. No. But I went on that tour for some of it.

for job for a cowboy was it job for a cowboy job for cowboy who were those weird kids that were following us around at the time did you remember then that blonde one

that was always hanging around with Bailey Granny Granny that's the one Me like smashed up some girls house it was like some house party

it was like Yeah we didn't have anything to do with that No we didn't That was other people That was other people So And then

so this is We're still V-child at this point, but I think that's how I got to know you. You're talking that's 2006. That tour was 2006. I think that's when we got... Did we know each other kind of before or not? I don't know.

I think maybe from just being virtuoso musicians on MySpace.com. Oh, that's that fucking twat with that stupid guitar rig. Yeah. Oh, that's what I remember. Yeah, it was. It was like loading in to the King's Tavern Redding with your fucking... massive flight case.

Diesel, eight string guitars. But this is what I, this is what I, like, when I do drum clinics as like a section of it where I talk about,

I do like a Q&A and it's always like, how come you're in a band now? How come you're in a band? And it was because I was the nerd with all the, like even back then, like you were,

turning up to play to three people with a full diesel rig and eight string guitar. just because you love the equipment and you love playing and then it gets to the point where word gets round yeah

like who could like we needed well I say we but I wasn't in the band then but actually we needed a guitarist and it was like well we use that twat with the fucking massive rig because he obviously knows what he's doing well I mean but then again there's a lot of people that were massive twat rigs

that don't know what they're doing true there's a lot of that now massive twat rig is like a real that's like saying well who thinks that I'm the bet I mean you know I'm not it's one of those I don't know I'd always spent a lot of money on gear

I didn't come from a rich family or anything like that I mean they did alright but I'd always just keep selling I'd always buy something and then sell something to get something better and then that's devil boy well yeah there's devil boy music and I regret selling a bunch of shit but you'd kind of go

up and up and up and up the you know once you made a bit of money on a profit and a bit of gear you'd buy a bit of it yeah get something better And you must have sculled through drums, like crackers. So many. So many. And then you think about those ones that you sold, you're like, fucking, why do that?

But yeah, no, and then, I don't know. Yeah, I just always had silly gear, but I was also always because it sounded great. It wasn't because it looked crazy. And it was silly back then, but now your silly gear back then is now a normal local band opener, eight-string guitar. Yeah, everyone's got fucking in-eas

playing in front of, like, 200-cap venues. I was like, I used to... All right, let's take it down, 200 let's say 50 cat i'm playing some 200 caps man i mean it's crackers it's like i don't know that's uh that's i don't know that's another topic completely but no let's stay on the topic i like no but yeah i mean gear the gear is one of those things that

when we when we were growing up we rehearsed in my parents front room and it was and it was uh disclaimer by the way this is uh my dog making loads of noise. Yeah, your dog's going nuts. Yeah, it was, you know, we didn't have any monitors or anything like that, so you'd have to kind of play as loud as you could to fight each other. I feel like when you play kind of like that, you pick up a different technique or... Different style. It's a different style, but it's also, I don't know, like, it's like motorhead. If you gave them in ears, you know, if they were still around today, I don't think they'd ever,

it'd be weird. Imagine that, motor air with a click. Yeah, it's just pretty fucking shit. We've got main stage running, Lemmy. Ableton live. Ableton's running for the light show. But you know what I mean? It's that kind of thing. So I grew up around that.

So like when I first was in, you know, Slipknot, it was the first. Well, no, I heard in it is before Tekin because it was like, well, I'd only have like the guitar in there. So it wasn't like enjoyable. It wasn't like I had a fucking front of house mix going, oh, this is great. Slipknot played it with a click? No.

Nothing. No songs. songs to a clip. We did, on the last album cycle, start playing with the idea of set tempos and then starting the songs with a click. But, you know, there's so much push and pull in the band that it's almost, I feel like it would just be sterile. It's not... That makes me feel really sorry for Jay. Well, I mean, it's just, you know, like when you listen to Eilis or something like that, you know, Like, da-na-na-na-na-na-k. You know, it's like, that is the right song, isn't it?

Yeah. I just said a fart for a sec. You know, like that, sometimes it can be like, you know, it could change whenever you want or however you feel like it. So I feel like if you had a click playing, it would just sound fucking pants. For you, but for the drummer,

that must be such a nightmare for it being different every night. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, that's just him. I think that's his style of drumming. That's his way of playing. And I think that's how Slipknot's always been. Have we talked about what I've done? I've talked about on the podcast loads.

Me. Me? Yeah, hang on. Me. Because I wanted to play do a click, but we've got the same thing. We got all these ups and downs. So I just recorded a whole set.

Yeah. Like with a GoPro. And then I programmed a click that goes, woo, all over the fucking shop. Yeah. So then I can practice at home. what's going to happen on stage, but it's not like 180 the whole way through.

It's like 180, this bar is at 170, this bar is at 182. It was a fucking nightmare. It took forever. And I don't know if it's going to work yet because I haven't tried it live yet. Well, I mean, Dan, Lord Ford in sixth, you know, he does, here's his crackers.

He's got like, one, he under two, he ended, three, and four, and he's like him talking, and he's like going, one, two. before sections and like I'm like how that and especially playing and he doesn't have any guitars in his ear and if it's just him and a click track so I don't know how

then that's you know people are different that's weird isn't it because that's like you're not even playing a show well yeah I feel like now he might have a little bit of guitar bleed but I don't when I was working for him or just being friends and hanging around with him from the beginning it was like

no it was just him and a click track I had Matt from periphery on him here and he plays to a scratch guitar live. Really? Click on a scratch guitar. None of what's actually happening. But they all, to click, though, because now Nolly's not... Yeah, the whole thing's to a click.

They got... But he's just playing a scratch guitar. Misha could be playing fucking happy birthday, and he doesn't know. He wouldn't know. I don't know about that. But then against horses for courses, I mean... Different strokes. Different strokes.

Different strokes. Different strokes. I went off peace then. I was doing the timeline. Do these all just normally jump around it? Oh, this is the most unprofessional podcasting the world. That's good. 20,000 listeners.

Then you know it's genuine. A month. 138,000 total. You know, if you're a maggot and you don't know who the fuck I am, I'm going to add something to the beginning of this, which sort of promotes me more. So I can sort of, you know, get some of you in to the Downbeat podcast crew, you know, buy a t-shirt or whatever.

And you'll get, you'll also get a bunch of people going, the bass player is English. I get it all the time as well. I still get that to this day. They still don't know I'm English. And then they're like the name, Alessandro. Are you Italian? I am Italian.

And then they go, but how do you practice? As if fucking aeropanes don't exist. But whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. The bassist is English. I do a lot. Then they don't practice. A lot of flying.

People imagining slip-knot getting together every Saturday afternoon for a fucking practice. I'm off with my parents' front room. In your parents' front room. Everyone, round V-Man's, V-child. I kind of would really love to do a small gig, though, with how we are. I think that would be amazing. What's the smallest gig you've played with Slipk? I think it was in, like, Taipei, maybe.

Yeah, it was in Taipei. And I think it was only, like, 3,000 people. That's a small gig for you. I think it was free. I could be talking shit, but I'm pretty sure it was, like, a really small... Is it anything? under like 10,000 to you small. Yeah, but then this is, I was having this

conversation on my girlfriend every day. Oh, got to get up. Oh, love me. If I don't have my glasses, I don't, I can't see once to take my glasses off pretty much. So like, all I can see is up until the security guards in the front row pretty much, and the rest of the crowd just, it's a big blur. It's just like one, it's just a giant one of people.

Does that help for nerves or anything? Yeah, because I just walk in Sauge and I'm like, I'm playing this as some security, I just can't see anything. So, and then obviously I've, you know, the lights and everything flashing around. Did you not think of maybe just sort of implementing some glasses into your mask? I was thinking about that, but then I was like, it's like when you go paintball, it would just steam up. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, because you could have done like gas mask style, but they're made in prescription. Yeah. So you're not, we're talking about Matt not, he's playing the guide guitars. No, you're playing. You're playing to do nothing. You're playing to no ice. No, I mean, it depends. So who's really playing a show?

We played a show the other day, and it was in Quebec, and it was quite light out, and I was just like, oh, fuck, how many people, that's amazing. I could see, I could kind of see that one. But, like, download, it was... Was that a festival? Was that rock festival? Yes, yeah.

That was a fucking wicked festival. That was a great festival. And, like, the crowd were nuts. And it was like, first time I've really seen on this run, a lot of, like, it's been dark, pretty much, most of the places. Can you just move that closer to your mouth? Just, you know, to use one of those yeah that's fine

keep talking dark it shows of dark yeah so I don't know I mean I suppose there's like that adrenaline thing that I get but I'm more worried

about playing every note correctly so I'm just so concentrating on playing everything that I'm like da da da da da da da da da da you know it's and if I my bass is so loud in my ears but like not loud

like it's distorting is it hard to go because I don't know because I'm a fucking drummer is it hard to go because you obviously before the child

was a guitarist yeah cry for silence yep great band Dan Mumford artwork before it was cool in at the Dpen

was it in at the Dpen record 30 days in a visible noise oh visible noise you were fucking you were on big boy shit

no they didn't really like our stuff we had to kind of like beg them to release it that was so much but anyway But anyway, you were a guitarist. I was. Is it hard to play the bass if you're a guitarist

or is it actually quite easy? It depends how you approach the bass. How do you approach the bass? Because I'd grown up with James from Sixth. Oh, I love Sixth, Sixth, Sixth, Sixth. Because I've always been, he's been like my oldest mate, pretty much, with Steve and Lags and all them not. He's a phenomenal bassist.

He's just a ridiculous place, probably the best metal bass player, I would agree. Yeah. I mean, it's Dave Ellison. He's pretty amazing, but he really is fucking nuts. He's in Megadeth. Well, I don't know Megadeth, do I? Megadeth got a good bassist?

Yeah, he's fucking crackers. Is he? Sorry, crackers, by the way, is crazy. I don't, not the American way. That would be weird. Yeah, it's like, yeah. So, I've never knew that. Yeah.

Has he always been with them? Yeah, Dave Ellison Should I just know who he is And I don't Yeah, he's a monster There's great videos on YouTube Of him I think they're doing

I can't remember what the show is But like it's when Marty Was still in the band So it's That's a lineup Yeah And Nick Menza on On the old drums

Is he the guy that had the chains I can't remember He had someone in Megadeth One of the Megadeth drummers Had his symbol suspended by Oh yeah, he had that, yeah. That's sick. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it was him.

I feel like I know the Megadeth hit, but I should delve deeper. I feel like I'd like it. Tornadoe of Souls is probably one of my favorite guitar sailors all time. That's how you got found out that you were in Slipknot, wasn't it? Because your Megadeth on the... Some little nerd, whoever you are, listening to this, was like,

well, that's actually... I think it was probably... someone that was in the industry because you know some tech must have said something probably visible noise trying to get back at you I think that relationship

died way before I even went ventured into slipnot so um I've still I've gone off we went off piece with where were we've we were talking about periphery drum tracks live

your eyes approaching the bass approaching the bass approaching the base why how do you approach the base? This is a professional podcast, people. This is often number one in the music podcast, okay? I know what I'm doing.

Yeah, so watching James play and all that stuff for more life. He just, you know, he uses a pick. Oh, picks are for losers. Well, they're not. They're great. They sound better. Even though I know that from when I used to record bands. You know, you could spend all day playing metal with your fingers,

and it does sound great for certain things, but I want to play tight metal and play down. picked and stuff like that. You need the frequency from a bit of plastic. A bit of plastic helps if you're playing as well, doing in chopped in B. Has anyone ever... Like drop A with your fingers just sounds like a big... Is that what tuning in Slipknotes in? Yes, we've got drop A and we've got drop B. You know? That's low. Has anyone ever tried... Sorry if this is a redundant question. Has anyone ever tried like inventing something in the way I'm going to go with this? Like the little, like little thimbles.

Fimbals. Thimbles for your hands. But it means you play like, play with your fingers, but it sounds like a pick. Like if you just dipped your hands in a candle wax, do you what I mean? Like it makes a little hard plastic and you can just flop them off every. And you can go, go do it. Yeah. Well, this is we were talking about technique.

Like the way. See, we're back on subject. Back on subject. No, but it's true. The way that I approach, and the same as James, like he hits, he picks really hard. and what that does, the tonality, the, you know, it's just cuts through really well in the mix.

If you play with a floppy pick down in B and you'll go and downpicking and you're not really putting much effort in it, but you're compressing the shit out of it, it's just going to go, po, po, po, po, po, po, po, po, po, po, po, po, but if you're using, like, 0.88 or something like that, you know, if you want to use something else close.

Yeah, I know what that means. know about you listeners. But, you know, and you hit that and you... Is point eight eight how thick it is? Yeah, yeah. The gauge. The gauge of the pick. Okay, carry on.

You know, and the way you dig into it, it completely changed the tone. You know, that's why David Gilmore, such a fucking great guitar player is because he's got so many different dynamics of the way he plays. But because I'm playing metal, I'm not going to start dropping out into comfortably numb. So... Imagine that. Do you reckon you'd get fired or do you reckon you'd get... You'd get seriously scolded because the logistics of firing you would be so much work, but it's a really bad fuck up to do.

I don't. Well, me and Clown always talk about Pink Floyd and how that's like our favorite in the world. But I'm talking about like halfway through. Halfway through. I don't know. I mean, spit it out. I think Jim would probably like it as well. He'd probably join in or something.

Probably get away with it. Yeah. Well, there's, you know, if that happens, then. If anyone ever sees that, that's my fault. I've got once, right, imagine, do you reckon people with Tourette's? Yeah. And if anyone's got Tourette's listening, who's a musician, do you reckon that could happen? Like, you could be playing, spit it out by Slipknot, and then your Tourette's kicks in and suddenly you play.

Wish you were here. Wish you were here. Fuck me. Because I want the only time in the world, the world, the only time. only time ever in my life. I was really hung over in Newbury. I was in the Kennett Center, Newbury. It was 4.55pm. It was about to close. It was only me and this woman at opposite sides of the mall. Yeah. She dropped her keys. And for some reason, which has never happened before or since, I screamed, dropped your keys. Yeah. Like I just suddenly had Tourette's for a second. It's never happened before or since. Well, a funny one

When I was 13 V child At V child at school It was a Watford Boys grammar school Funny one's from Watford And I was doing like a Not a talent show But like it was like

We had a little band that we put together And I did some Nirvana covers Nice Yeah And I played The same solo In both songs Both different songs

so I'm not a very big Navana fan now but I think it was Is there solos in Nirvana songs? Yeah it was Dada Dan What's that one? Yeah, that solo Yeah

You played that over I played that in Cummage The doom doong do Doom do do Doon do do And it would work And I played the solo in that

So I played the same solo twice In two different songs Now Would you be fired if you paid that at like not fest 60,000 people The only bass solo I've got Is in a track AOV after the last record

And the last time Oh no, when was it? There's the one when I ate shit on stage I had a... Yeah, when you fucking had a fit. I had a fit. No, it was severe dehydration. Everyone was like,

Oof. I just wasn't looking after myself And we did a... It was like all these hot... amphitheaters and me being it was one of your first tours isn't it yeah kind of well was it yeah kind of pretty much I mean like first couple

of years I started doing like working out and gym in the back of the trucks and all that stuff and cutting carbs like clever stuff and I also like sticking my head in the fire so I think my body kind of like did a little shutdown whilst I was playing the silo actually of AOV and whoever some clever clogs can

find a video of me online I think I've seen the video because I was worried about my friend. Yeah, my tech at the time, Dave, he said to me, it sounded like someone gave your base to a child and threw him down the staircase. And I was like, oh, okay. And I've been trying to find that clip, so if anyone... So what happened? Did you just like start freezing up? Yeah, the clip exists. I've definitely seen it. Yeah, the hand start, like, it was weird. I thought it's having a heart attack, so probably there was a bit of panic in there as well. Yeah. Which added to the stress of the dehydration. Also in front of so many people, like,

I always say this. You know when someone dies on stage? I think that exploited drummer died on stage or something. And everyone's like, oh, at least he died doing what he loves. Being fucking terrified and embarrassed, no. Like, if I have an art attack on stage, let it be known that is not doing what I loved. Because I wasn't playing the drums at the moment I died.

I was freaking out about am I dying? Yeah, I mean, every show to me is, I don't like walk on stage and go, this is a breeze. Do you know what I mean? It's like every show is. you get off and I'm like straight away to the front house guy goes

how was that how did it how would you know do I mean it's like every night it's stressful so I can imagine like my head was just like I'm fucking up and playing all the notes wrong

and it was early in and it was like four songs in as well and then yeah he just said you sound like just got thrown down a staircase wow that was it you went to hospital and they said you got deodoration

severe deumaderation and they said a... Drink more coconut water? No, I was... That was a problem. The coconut water. Too much potassium? I wasn't putting enough

actual water. Oh, really? Yeah. So, you know, like, pediolite and stuff like that? Now I take pediolite quite a lot, but I've noticed, even now doing so much pediolite,

oh, sounds like a drug. Sounds worse than a drug. That it's like... that's not good for you. Do I mean? So you just drink water. That's the thing. Just drink water all day.

And then I just take a sashet of bea, and then that just... Because the set must be, what, hour and a half, two hours? Yeah, an hour and 40 minutes, something. In a mask. In a fucking boiler suit. Yeah. Playing, rocking, and you're walking through fire,

because I saw that the other day at Download. I did a bit of fire. I literally just walked through it. Well, I mean, it's touch. I can feel it's... spitting on the back of my head, like the fuel. Safe? Yeah, but it's...

Are the masks fire retardant? Well, the last one's fire retardant on the last record, but now I've got my own one. That's not fire retardant. And I always keep getting warned that if you caught up in fire, that it would melt to your face. Wow, okay. So that's a bit worse than dehydration. Yeah. We'll get to the mask later, because I do want to talk about that.

but so we're still on the timeline V child cry for silence you're a guitarist yeah good check out cry for silence

if it's on Spotify or whatever because it is sick and V-Man played the guitar and wrote it who else was in it Steve did a lot of I was kind of like the

I don't know I mean Steve Sears producer Steve Sears did he's done some gallows he's done you know he's a good

lovely guy lovely guy very talented he's in always in Gold Key. Check him out if you like a bit of chilled music. It's going to be radio-headed vibes. Radio-headed, it's good. Yeah, cry for silence.

There's one track. I need to check what it's called because I don't want S-Send people down the wrong path to finding it. So let me just type it in. Am I allowed to type? You can type. It's already dead air.

It's dead air. The typing, ideally with keypad tones on so people know that's actually happening. Okay. What's the song? The album's called The Glorious Dead. And the song is called Beneath the Storm. And it's an instrumental because I didn't really like our singer.

So that was like my favorite track already. The favorite track, yeah. Dan Munford artwork. Dan Monfort. Dan Monfort. Legend. Yeah, he's a great artist. But yeah, I mean, when was that?

When did that come out? That came out. 2008. Right. And then you guitar tech for architects, correct, from there? No. I went to, no. I was doing like local, like gallows and stuff like that and all that.

And then, but I knew architects from touring with six. And I was like that at first, like Tom was like, who the fuck is this cunt sitting in the corner of the stage shredding? And like, he's not even in the band. And I remember the first couple of weeks. They were just like, not a couple of weeks, couple of days. They're like, an idiot. And at the end of it, we were all best mates.

But that was, uh, that's how people feel about me as well. Who the fuck was this guy? Yeah, it was saying, well, I was sound checking Dan's kit, and I was just shredding on it. It's like, if I remember Dave Witt, is that how you say his name? The guy from Municipal Waste. Yeah, yeah.

And burned by the son. It's like an amazing drama. Great, man. So he, when I was sound checking Dan's kit once at some festival, He went up to Dan thinking Dan was my tech and was like, oh, what bands is? Just fucking being the techs the shred on stuff. Anyway, then you did architects. Did architects.

I mean, the order is very vague right now. Loose. A loose leaf tea. Then I did a bit of sick properly. Teching. Yeah, not just getting pissed and hanging around. But by this point. to outsiders like me, it was very weird how the best, possibly, possibly joint best with Josh

Mineran, guitarist that I know, doesn't really have a band. And it was almost annoying. Just touching. Yeah, because I just got, it's not, I got fed up with my band. I was just like, I could make money and I like fixing shit. And that's how I went down that path of learning how to fix shit. So it wasn't just like, oh, watched a couple of YouTube videos

on how to refret a guitar. Like I studied how to do it. And then, I don't know, I just felt I didn't mind, because I kept practised. I was always that twat. And I was the fucking tech got a Steinberger. That's kind of like how I met Jim in Slipknot as well.

Come on, we're getting to that. We're getting to that. We're getting to that. We're getting into that. I want to build a nice sort of. Building into it. People are there, V child. It's 2008.

Like, you're doing architects. And then I did architects after you. I think I did the first tour after you'd quit or something. Yeah. Then you went from, did you go from architects to Macedon? No, I think I went to, was Gallows already? I don't know. Gallows was big around then, so maybe.

Because after that I did Gallows, or maybe at the same time I was either doing both. And then Gallows did Grey Britain. Yeah. And then during Grey Britain, I sold all my H-strings to fund partying. That was actual. Nice. So some shitheads got, like, loads of black machine eight-strings.

Fuck me, they'd be worth like 20 grand. I found my insurance thing in my drawer when I was cleaning up my drawer the other day when I came home. And it was like 10 grand with all the black machines. Yeah. Yeah. All the H-string fan threats and all that city shit. So how did you meet? master on.

So I, no, I've got it's got to involve Slipknot now. So, Slipknot gets involved here? Yeah,

Slipknot gets involved here. So I, well, I've known Jim for a while probably actually from 2008. And yes, I did.

Okay, so we were doing Gallos, Grey Britain. Halfway through Great Britain, I got a message from a guy called

Oh, what's his fucking name? Johnny, Johnny. He was the manager of my band, and I've forgotten his bloody name. Anyway, from Wales. Johnny Phillips. There you go. Name rings a bell.

Yeah, he worked for SJAM. I'm sure I know the guy. Yeah. So he rang me up and was like, hey, can you tech Coed in Cambria? Because they were doing four nights at the Astoria in London. Chris Penny Coahead and Camry.

Chris Penny Coahed and Pam. Yeah, that's my favourite era. Chris Penn. anything Chris Penny does. He's a good friend and he's a fucking monster drummer. He's a good friend from this moment we're about to talk about. Let's go then. So it was the fourth day and some guy outside was doing construction work,

the Astoria, on one of those, you know, the diggers. A pneumatic drill. Neumatic drill. He went through the mains and died. The guy actually died, I believe. And anyway, so the show got postponed that night. And then it got moved the next day. Now, the next day was like Kevin Allen, who was actually later on,

who's a good friend of mine of tech, he became Mix Tech, Mick Thompson's Tech from the last album cycle, a very good friend of mine. He had to go to Australia to do a show. So he left, so I got called in to fill in. So I didn't know anyone in the band, got there. And I got sat down there like, right, don't fucking change anything. mean, don't be a rock star and fucking think you can fix everything. You know what I'm like.

Yeah, you tried to fix something. Oh, yeah. So there's this fucking ground hum on all the rigs, and I was just like, this sounds like shit. So anyway, they all fucked off. I went and did a bit of-co-heed. Co-eed, yeah. And I did a little bit digging around. Got rid of all the ground hums.

Fixed a few things with some of the guitars. Sorry, Kevin Allen. And then, yeah, I got a call, like, a week later, saying, hey can you come and text for us in the States you did a great job it's on the slip not tour and I was like Jack of fucking Nakanoori

Yeah here we go In 2000 2008 this is 2008 2008 2008 2009 It was the All Hope is gone tour And they got me an O1 visa

Nice For one tour For one tour is the O-1 the one that lasts for three years? Yes I wish I am, and I've got all my music shit so I studied music

and all that stuff and I've got my Oh, he's got a, he's got a two, he's got his, You got a degree? I've got stuff You got a degree of music? I got my piano stuff

So So you're on that tour Yeah, we're on that tour And then setting up one day And then What I would do is I'd get all the shit done

And then I'd weed all the, you know, the rigs in place and stuff. And then everyone's just like fucking around waiting. So I'd grab one of Claudio's guitar. And he just let me like shred on it and noodle away. So I was just sitting there going, do it on my little... And then, you know, Jim was like, what fuck is that? I was like, oh, hey, whatever, chatting. And then literally it was like a week later, he's like, do you want a guitar?

And I was like, what? He's like, well, you haven't got a guitar out here. And I can see you shredding away. I'll give you a guitar. So he goes off in his rack and he just gives me one of his like prototypey kind of tellies. That's nice.

And he goes, there you go. And he goes, I'm got a case for you at the moment. I'll get it soon. And I was like, so I kept it like, it's like my little thing. I was like,

stay the fuck away from it. It's my guitar. Like a dog with his dog toy. This is my pint of bitter. That's fucking nice of him. Yeah. And then we just, you know, and I played him like my band and shit.

And then it came back. actor, he actually saw my band years and years ago. And this is a story that I want to release later on. I'm not going to tell anyone about it, but there's something that involved MTV and myself, which involved Slipknot, back when I was like 18. Right, but you're not going to tell the stories. I'm not going to tell the story.

I'm not going to, I want people to watch the video because there's a fucking cassette and I'll try and find it. Oh, so, okay. Yeah, and I'm just, so once I find the cassette, and then I'm going to make it public. But anyway. I can imagine this is something to do with MTV2 or something. No, I mean, it's quite old.

But anyway. And he went and saw cry for science at the underworld, like years and years ago. So it was kind of cool. So anyway, we would hang out, we'd chat, talk about music, and he's got a massive love for, like, British, like the blurs and the oasis and stuff like that. So we had a lot in common. That was it. I mean, and we just kind of stayed in contact and, you know, that kind of like started the...

Kick the ball in motion. Well, not really. I mean, because it was... No, because you're in the back of their mind. Yeah, I suppose. It was as, oh, there's that guy of, you know, well, you know, and that's how later on in life it was... I then went on to do... I finished off with Co-read for like a couple of tours after that, maybe, maybe a couple of years we did.

And then, uh, master... they saw me I was tech in I built these like crazy rigs for Travis and Claudio and it was like

a 20 year rack full of pedals and I would do all their fucking twisting all the controls and like one of them had a chaos pad

in there and like weo solos and all that you know so it was a Mastod saw me at that

and then that kind of pushed me over into that camp you know I mean so it was and then

it's quite important to know that your relationship with gym was 100% natural because you had stuff in common. Yeah. And that was like,

because you get some people that might want to get into a band or whatever that when they meet Jim Root or whoever would be like just agreeing with everything they say or trying to have something in common, but you actually had something in common. and I always like to talk about on the podcast or whatever don't try and fake a relationship

because there's not going to last if you've got a genuine connection with someone it might be what was it five years later that you ended up in Slipknot because you had an honest connection yeah I mean even like now in the band and that I am who I am and I don't if someone doesn't agree with what I say

I'm not going to go okay it's not I am like Like, I don't want to say alpha male or anything like that, but the way that I am is I stand my ground with things. If I see a different opinion or whatever like that, you know, I, I just, you know, I just, that's it. This is me. This is how I, is there a funny story about you and Master Dom? There's loads of funny stories. No, but I mean, when you first started working for them, I'm sure there's a story about you nearly getting sacked on day one or something.

Brent, Brent got me fucking, he would not let me sleep. We stayed up to like 10.30 in the morning. And he was like, keep drinking. Keep drinking. And I was like, oh, I can't drink anymore. I need to go to bed. And like, but then that day, like, he just got fucking, he was, he was on fire. And he said something to me or what I was like, it got funky and like you.

And I just said, I just stood my ground and I said, this is what's up, whatever. and me and him are like fucking best mates but you're initially had a fight no I mean we've always had our different things it wasn't like we never like it's never been like nasty or vicious or whatever it's just a couple of big personalities on one bus it's just the thing it's just personalities

and it's two different people the way you approach things and the way they're different you know we'd stay up all night and I'd be fucking I'd want to listen to Metallica or I want to listen to pet shop boys but he wants to listen to country music. You know what I mean? It's an argument there.

But it does, you know, and it's the way that you deal with things, the way that you are. And even though I was getting paid to be a tech to be with them, I'd still be like, fuck you or whatever. It's like, but that's why we're friends because I am how I am. Yeah. And you probably, without knowing it, you being who you are, meant you missed out on certain opportunities. earlier on, but they wouldn't have been right for you anyway. Do you what I mean?

No, for sure, yeah. If you'd have met someone, let's say someone that we won't talk about them or whatever, but if you'd have met someone that you didn't really get on with, but even if they were in a band, you could have been the guy that's like, oh, really nice to them, and you end up working with them for a million years,

even though you hate them, then you never join Slipknot. Yeah. Always be yourself. All right. You should always be yourself. It's the only person you can be, really. No, for sure, but, you know,

know, it's a big industry. I've met a lot of fucking people. You can tell a faker immediately. I can spot a fucking moron a mile away. Yeah. And it's just... A networker. Oh, I love a network.

Someone that's just like, oh, we should, we should connect some time. Like, immediately. You don't care about me. You just want a stepping stone. Yeah. And it's music, I get it. It's a fucking job for some people. But for me, I love it.

Passionate every night. I fucking play. I've never like... You know, we always have the little joke. like, oh, my back hurts or it's going to be a tough one. Yeah, sure. Fucking with human beings. But.

Was it hard? I mean, yeah, I mean, I'm not the most athletic human being on the planet. So, yeah, it does. To go from... To go from... Cry for silence and holding guitars for other people. Yeah. To playing for an hour and 40 minutes in a full fucking suit going nuts.

I mean... I mean, obviously it was you got fucking hospitalized. Yeah, but I mean, you know, when you see someone like Ben Wyman, like, I love Ben, he's fucking great. And I'll watch him and I'm like, how the fuck do you do that? And still play.

And still play. And it's just like, that's just, I think it's genetics. Yeah, maybe. But he doesn't have a mask on. No,

Ben Wyman in the mask. No. But he's still, I'll be, I've been watching his suicidal, he's in them now, right? He's not just playing for a laugh.

No, I think he's like fully in him, yeah. That's interesting. And I watch him still in that. And I'm like, Fucking out. Is he going as nuts as Dillinger?

He goes pretty crazy. Yeah, because he was in Prodigy, and I think he went too crazy for them. That's fucking sick. Is that all he's doing music-wise? I believe so. If anyone doesn't know, Ben Wyman is the brain of the Dininger escape plan.

I'll talk about Dinninger on the podcast all the time. Yeah, they're really good Ben. Calcutting Infinity. It's probably one of my favorites. Do you want what I found, I went to my parents' house the other day, and I found to perfect condition

1999 I might have actually been 2000 no it was late 1990 calculating infinity tour posters A1 perfect condition I was like fuck I forgot out then and then I remembered how fucking old I am I just remember hearing them and going

what the fuck is that yeah I walk past them playing Redin Festival and I was like what the fuck is this it's the best thing I've ever heard I don't know what's going on and then he's shit in a towel and threw it in the stage

Yes, I was at a show That was like the first time I'd ever heard him I was just like This guy's brave I didn't understand it I was like I don't understand it But it's the best thing I've ever seen Yeah I mean

I kind of I'm sure there's bands out there That are very extreme But I kind of Oh I'm old now Oh I don't like new music But I kind of miss a lot of Some

What bands could get away with back then I think now we're If he shit on a town now, I'm immediately cancelled. Yeah. I used to work for Wattain for a bit. Oh, yeah, they had some brains. And they, uh, I mean, when I was working for them, that was, I was, I, some days I felt like just leaving. But, I mean, the bloods.

Throwing pig's blood on the crowd. Well, human blood as well. What? Yeah, I mean, some kids, they were saying would kind of give them, like, would come to shows and give them their own blood. I'm like, yeah, fuck. But, I mean, I don't know if that ever made it into the crowd or whatever, but. Definitely did. I'm sure.

That's a massive hygiene issue for me. Yeah. Getting sprayed with some random's blood. I mean, I don't want that stuff. And I'm sorry if people think I'm telling secrets of people's stuff. But, I mean, just... That's not really a secret.

We know they're pretty evil. Yeah. Didn't they have... They've never washed their stage clothes. Yeah, so they had this big flight case just full. The stinky box. Yeah. And like, the moment it would go in the venue,

I was just like, and I refuse to pick up. up. I was just like, I made of re-string guitars and fucking clean shit. I even bought myself like little butcher's apron as well. Just so you fit in. And I'd have to wear tattoo gloves just in case I didn't get fucking

disease or something. Wow. They got some wrists though. They were great fun. Yeah. I can't remember if they're in trouble for anything, so I'm sort of on the fence. You never know of blackmail. They drank quite a lot and they were very serious. I went to their like HQ in Sweden.

It was like this, I think it was like on a train line or something but it was like one of those fucking side rooms underneath a train yeah I mean of course yeah and it was like

they turned it into like their black metal bar as well so like they'd have parties in there and it just stank it just stank of like metal like

it smelled like you couldn't be any more metal about what that band was about and that's fucking cool I thought it was great and add a bit of pyro to it when they did the bigger shows it was fucking cool

are they're still going on there are still going I wonder if they'll do a sort of behemoth style resurgence because behemoph is so fucking big now. But they've been going forever. I saw them. They were on a few of our shows that we were doing at all the festivals across this Eurofest.

And the cool thing about them, other than the fact that they haven't been cancelled, which is a bonus in black metal, they've gone more black metal now, even though they're bigger. there's like the first sort of three or four albums that were super black metal and then they went like black and death like yeah demigod amazing album and then now is that what sort of down yeah that one yeah no that's the one after that's evangelical on but that's the one yeah that's like pretty death metal as well and then now they're like back to black metal but they're fucking huge I like it I'm here for it I saw they're wearing masks as well yeah is it for the whole show or is it just I think it's just the first song but I was like oh masks. Which brings me to my next point. Let's talk about the mask. Okay. So, Jim Carrey, Cameron Diaz,

did you design it? Was it your choice for it to be great? No, did you design your new mask? I designed it with a guy called Richie Beckett. He's a friend of mine. Is it Richie Beckett? Yeah, Richie Beckett. We're shouting out the whole of the UK right now. Yeah, Richie did shape by fate, which cry of science used to play around with back in the day. I always, auditioned for shape by fate. Did you? And I got it, but it was at the same time Viatrophy needed a drummer and I picked

Viatriatriary. Well, you wanted to... I wanted to blast, yeah. And also, Shaped by Fate, exploded, like, imploded not long afterwards. Yeah. But they were wicked. Yeah, no, I mean, it was weird

because his appearance changed quite a lot. And so I remember, like, bumping him at, like, a Mastodon show because he was doing some Mastodon artwork. And I was like, that's Ritchie. And he said, oh, we used to play bands together. and I was like, oh, fuck, I've done it again.

Because, you know, it's not like I don't care, I just forgot. You just meet five billion people a year? Yeah. So, and then I was like, fuck, no way, shape, by fate. And then we started reminiscing of all the shitty venues that we played and, like, club eye for back and all that shit. They had a residency there, I think. Yeah, club eye for back with an 8 by 10 up that fucking staircase.

With your rig up that staircase. Yeah, everyone hated me. So, yeah, uh, yeah, we co-designed. designed that. Obviously he did the design, the drawing, I'm not really much of an artist in that respect. And then someone else made it out off of his drawing. Yeah, and it's like a company that the band would use to produce the, but I'm now got to that point where I love it, but now seeing it, you know, there's all very well designing something and then you put it out and you're like, oh, there you go, the whole world's going to see it. you know, you get the old comments

someone might say, oh yeah, it's sparkly red or I don't like that or whatever, but I love it, I think it was great. But then, you know, I saw the gold and I was like gold now and the gold works, you know what I mean? And it's like, that works better. And that's something that,

you know, it's like with everything. Bruce, you're trying to have a chat here, mate. That's my dog, dude. Oh, he's going to come over to have a chat. And you were on a roll there. Yeah. Bruce has ruined it and then I've sort of vicariously ruined it. Yeah, so...

Gold mask. So, yeah, and then you see photos and you see how it looks live and stuff like that. And then now you can change things or you can mutate it or do whatever you want. And, you know, coming out the bat with something awesome, which I think I have, you know, I think it's great. I love it. It's wicked. Yeah, and thank you. It's all right on the front cover of Metal Hammer today.

Yeah, I saw that. Looks great. Got your in ears in? I noticed that. I know you, because we were just back on fucking stage. Really? Yeah. I wondered that.

I was like, is that an endorsement thing? Or is that literally just before you about that? No, I was like, I got me in here. Did you want to take him out? He's like, nah, don't worry about it. I was like, cool. It does look, because they're just black. It looks a bit like.

Well, like they're geometric. You can see the geometric pattern. I didn't see. I didn't look close enough on that. I did. I'm trying to buy donuts. Just saw your face in the magazine. Oh, well, it's in the shop.

Yeah. come out today I think I should probably buy that your mum will buy it is your mum like my mum yeah she does she watches all the YouTube videos someone said this about you

yeah I'll get a text from my mum like when I'm on tour it's like oh I watch I watch the show at Jack Pot alright Jesus no yeah mask

no it's been been good I get a lot of positive comments there's some negative ones but But that's just the internet But then again

You can't like everything And everyone's got an opinion To a certain True Yeah but you You couldn't It's like if anyone thinks Baithoven shit

You're an idiot You couldn't cure A disease And post about it on the internet Because someone would be like Well actually Well actually that disease is The overpopulation about that

Let's do some Talking about Slipknot Because I imagine Although, you know, I've got a bunch of listeners, but I'm going to get the maggots on here. And the maggots will be like, I don't give a fuck about the late, early to late 2000s Reading and London metal scene.

I want to know about we are not your kind. Yeah. And I want to know, like, is it good? No. Only one single, what I've heard, thus far. Yeah. unsainted everyone who's

listening to this already knows they've listened to that song so I don't have to go I find the break gown was very good

which is very good but let's talk about the recording process okay because it interests me because Slipmot's the

biggest metal band in the world I want to know Metallica Metallica up there as well yeah but if you think

about Ramstone are doing really well as I really love that new Ramstein record. It's fucking unbelievable, isn't it? And the video is just amazing.

Me and my wife, my wife hates it because she thinks I'm joking. But I think Deutschland might be one of the best songs ever written by a human being. I can't stop listening to it, especially when I'm going really fast in the car. I like to put on some Ramstein. Do you know when I listen to Ramstein?

Yeah. In the shower? Every day. In the shower? In the shower. And I fucking march around like I'm the synth player. I got the shower going and it's like And I'm like pretending I'm on a wobbly synth and stuff

I like that one in radio Radio That sounds like a video Video game It's nuts So I worked it out on the piano And I was just like I spit

That's a fucking You know That's a The little gap It goes It's almost funny Which again I like Anyway

Anyway recording process Recording process was I just want to know Is it the same Because if you don't play To Click Live I'm thinking Is there a very

Old School vibe Do you get together And have a jam Or is it demos Well the last record Was You know I turned up there

Oh We didn't really do How I got into the band Didn't we? Didn't we I thought I was done No That's how

I I've Became friends With Jim it. Oh, fuck. Yeah, you should probably

finish that bit off before we do this bit. Go on. Professional. Right. Yeah, so, hold on. What happened?

Mastodon, blah, blah, blah. Did all that. And then I was in, we just got back from Australia doing sound wave. And I think that was like my eighth sound wave. That was a fucking,

All right, but he's Sandwave. Yeah, well, I headlined the last one. So imagine that. Teched eight of them headlined the last other one. That's funny. So, yeah, we did, got back from that. I was in Atlanta, I was living with Darren. And Darren Sanders, my tech, who's also Troy's brother.

I got a call from Jim at like 3 in the morning. I think we was all hanging out on the porch. And it was Jim, and he said, do you know any bass players? And I was like, yeah, what band? And he was like, you know what band? I was like, what's Stone sour? He goes, no, the other one. And I said, I'll do it.

Of course you did. And he's like, well, do you know any other bass players? He's like, no, I'll do it. I think he's documented. He's got the actual whole conversation thing still on WhatsApp. Yeah, there's no way I'm giving you a suggestion. when if I know I can do something Yeah

And I knew I was like I fucking smashed this easily Yeah So he was like Well I learned four songs Someone are getting in contact with you Someone did Book me a flight

And I stayed up till fucking 8 o'clock in the morning Every day What four songs do you remember Well I didn't do four songs I went and learned more Oh Of course you did a little nerdy boy

Yeah So I look for every video Fucking kids playing it Stuff like that You would though If it's slip night It's a Slipknot audition. I mean, I really, like, dissected every,

watched as much stuff as I could, like free-framed stuff and checking threats and stuff, slowed it down on apps and, you know. I respect this. I, you know, I really fucking tried to go for my best. So anyway, I asked Troy, if he could lend me his bass, and he let me the Zon base of his.

Got on a flight, got there, got to the audition, saw Jim. I was like, man, good to see you, man, it's been ages. blah, blah, blah. Then, so I'm sitting in, standing in the studio, and I'm, like, playing through the rig.

They're like, right, to dial in a sound that you want. And I think I had, like, some old AD orange head and a, what was that? Ampeg 8 by 10. I believe it's the one that I still use on the records today. And then I was like, this sounds like shit. Can I get a... Blamining is taught.

Can I get another head? And they were like, so they hired a Mezabugge 400 plus for me, which took like an hour and a half. So I'm already like, probably annoying. Already a fucking diva, princess the child. And then I was like, I'm not really hearing the kick drums enough. So then they got in some wedges for me to get the drums through. And at that point, I could imagine everyone just being like, who the...

Is this a practice, though? It's not recording This was to audition Yeah But is there a band playing There's a band in the band's waiting for me And Jay is in at this time Jay's in there

Yeah J's a done deal at this point I'm not too sure at that point Interesting And then you're being a diva I was being diva Then they got some round M&Ms only Yeah they got wedges in for me

And then I was like fucking kick drums through You know And I'm like Yeah ready to go and like you could just see people like how the fuck is this cunt nice but that's been your whole thing that's always been me

who the fucking yeah he is good I don't know I'm not going to say that but yeah and then I just picked all the fucking brutal ones you know what did you pick E-or it's a fucking brutal one

I can't remember the exact songs I'll be honest but I'm pretty sure you know it was it was a good mix of solid double pedals and, you know, riffs, you know, like the workout stuff, the stuff that when they come up in the set, a band would be like,

oh, you dehydrated. So, and I fucking just downpicked as much as I could, fucking just, you know, steamrolled through. Where was this? This was a sunset sound on,

in LA. Yeah. In Prince's room, actually. And that's where we've been, we did some demoing there for the new record and that. Nice. Right, so that's how you joined Slipknot. Okay, so, wait, hang on. Got that out of the way. Did they go?

Yeah, right. Was it really anti-climactic? No, everyone was like, all right, we'll keep you around. So then what I did is, because I'm, I don't know, it's probably, I felt a bit bad because I left, you know, mastodon, just like, whatever. I flew back. And they were like, why are you flying? back and I was like, I just need to do something.

And I went back, took as many of them I could out for lunch, said thanks for having me and all that, I'm going to be doing this. Picked up some of my bits and bobs. They were going to ship it. Well, it was like, whatever, I'll just go over there. And then Brent drove me to the airport, but then he pretended

that his car broke down on the motorway. We pretended. He pretended, then he got his gas tank out. Oh, that's loads of cars on the freeway, trying to get past. I've got the video of it, by the way. If anyone goes on my Instagram you can find said video

why did he do it because he thought it was funny that is funny it is hilarious I love that video but anyway I managed to get there in time I was like

whoa fuck oh shit so you were trying to get back I was trying to get back to the airport so hang on do you know you're in by now yeah they've said that like how did that happen phone call it was no we was sitting outside the house we had this big mansion

with everyone staying in it me clown was sitting outside on a and gym I think a few others I don't think Corey no Corey wasn't there and then he was

clown said right do you want to do this and that was it and you said no I said no I'm gonna go back the crowd for silence

fucking it's you know what I forget because obviously we're mates we're mates for a while but then even this morning I was in the gym busy fucking

dislocating my shoulder or whatever I've done and fucking wait and bleed coming on in the gym and a couple of boys behind the fucking thing at the gym are talking about it talking about slip knot

and I was like you're in slip knot that's mental and I was like I'm going to interview the basis of this band right now and there's two people over there chatting about it yeah it's weird I mean like even for me like

I'll see stuff and I'm like oh yeah shit I do that don't I Is it still weird? It's not like weird like I'm like a school girl about it But it's I'm still like every time I see something I'm like wow fucking that's nuts isn't it

So I'm always forever grateful Should I say Yeah it's fucking cool I'll never forget I'm sure he's forgotten this But When I came to see you for the first time In 2013 I think it was

Oh where was that Notting in a motorpoint arena Oh yeah I remember that maybe your first UK slip-knock thing before download or something I can't remember

but we went and had a look because you got a little jam room where you all jam Oh yeah that's right Me and you had a little jam And then Jim popped in Popped in picks up his guitar Start having it I always think about this

He probably can't even remember it We started having a little jam Me you and Jim Which is fucking You know to me that's like insane and being a little kid that grew up with a slip or whatever. But then afterwards, Jim's like, yeah, that thing you were doing with the kicks was really cool.

I think if we could like weave in and out of that some way. And I was like, you do know I'm not your drummer without a mask on. And I'd never know if he got that joke because you laughed and he didn't laugh. And I was like, fuck. Does he hate me? I think as well, like, there's probably people listening to this who were big slip-knock, you know, slip-not fans. and they're like, we might sound like the biggest

assholes on the planet, but it's just the way that we are. Who, me and you? Just the, you know, like the way that we're, the banter, the banter that we've got. You don't sound like assholes. You're doing the classic guest thing, where I hope I don't come across bad.

No, but you know what I mean? Like, the way that you, I don't know, maybe. You are just, you're over thinking it. I overthink it. You're overthinking it because you're in one of the biggest fucking metal bands in the world. Whereas I am a pauper. You're not a pauper.

So I can just, you know, I could just talk shit. I think it was cool. I remember Jim being really nice, but I always in the back of my head, I'm like, does he think I'm a twat? Because I made that joke. He did say afterwards how great you were at drums.

I mean, it's the same as Chris Penny. He came to a New York show. Don't upstage me with Chris Penny. Let's leave it on that. Let's leave it on that. Jim thinks I'm an excellent drummer, and he doesn't much care for Chris Penny. Recording process.

Yeah. We haven't even got there. So the first record we did, it was like, I did some ad libbing, did some little bits and bobs, you know, like little bass lines or whatever. But the brunt of it, you know, is, you know, Jim has stuff, Jim has ideas. And I just like, here's demos, learn that. You know, and then we'd sit and we'd record as like me, Jim and Mick and Jay. then clown would be like there and you'd like

So you demo as in like Someone has a riff And you jam on it Demoing for Jay to play drums too So you're sat in front of a computer No no So like we're all got our own stations So kind of like this

This is me You'd be gym And then Jay's whole kit's fully mics up Yeah And we play to him Okay so you are jamming Yeah but it's for his drums For the main tracking

for the album. I want to know the writing. The writing. Well, I wasn't involved in any of that stuff. But if I came... Oh, we're talking about the first record. Okay, I'm talking shit.

So I was just getting that record out of the way. Get that out of the fucking way. Get that's old news. All right. So yeah, this one was started with, you know, same again. Jim has ideas of where it comes from

and whatever. But Clown asked me, you know, he wanted to put my musical knowledge, you know, because I play piano and I've a shit like that. So he was just like to, you know, I've got these ideas, can you see what you want to do with it? So, you know, fuck around with them. I worked on stuff here and that was like for about a year and we came up with a bunch of stuff and, you know, it was great for me. It's hard to work on the texts sometimes, you know, like if you're in a room and you go,

do do do do and dun dun dun dun dun dun dun i want it like i want it dun dun dun dun dun you know so sometimes it's a bit of a fucking long process so and sometimes it's like i don't know what you want me to do or you know because i want it to be the best you know i mean i want to make him happy i want to but you don't want to tread on anyone's toes at the same time there's that as well yeah so it's you know so when we we then meet up and everyone's ideas we did a lot of jamming one of the track spiders

So hang on now we're talking about the new one New one Right So there's a track spiders on that And it's You know Jay was there And Jim

And clown and me We're in Where the fuck were we Sunset Sound Same studio where I auditioned You know And like A lot of memories

Yeah But you know Baselines Bomp Bump Bump Bump Bunt Bunt Bunt Bunt Bunt Bunt Bunt Bomp Bunt Bunt Bomp Bunt Bunt Bomp Bum, bomp, boom, boom, boom, and like, Jay puts a beat to it. Boups to seven, nice. I like that.

That's what I'd have done. Carry on. So, you know, he puts his beat to it, so he's matching mine, so it's not like a straightforward, you know. Yeah. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and. I mean, that sounds sick. It does sound sick, but, you know, it's, you know, he matches to how I'm playing it. So there's that, and then, you know, Jim put some fucking killer fucking silo on it.

And then it just kept evolving and evolving, and then, So that is a jam It's jamming, yeah And then how does that get put down into a demo? So then Greg, who does all the producer, he'll take stuff And then he'll, you know, he'll be like, let's do it like this, let's chop it up like that

Or why don't we try this section And why we do that? And you know, Greg's such a fucking, he's a master what he does, Greg Fiddleman. And it's the sonics that he gets And, you know, I was having a conversation with a company recently telling them that we still

you know used guitar rig which is like fucking yeah even I know that it's like but it's like not the best shit in the world is it you wouldn't expect it to be on the record but we did something on it

that couldn't be fucking replicated and it sounds great so we put it on the record do I mean oh what it was done in demo stage you couldn't recap for the way it just doesn't sound good no matter what you

I know that fucking feeling especially with like a guitar effect you make it on your fucking computer with whatever you've got and then when you go to try and make it again with like thousands of pounds of equipment it doesn't have the vibe of that moment and that's the thing like we had a room with fucking crazy mics amazing drums and stuff like that

but some demo guitar that was done on a 50 quid software what's the part that you're talking about because by the time this comes out the album will be out I can't remember but there's a no because there's a bunch of it there's a ton of shit like a little clean guitar or something like that any quirky guitar might have been guitar rig you have a million people going out maybe yeah yeah i think there's some maybe guitar rig bass on it could be fucking wrong but don't quote me on that but i i know for a fact

that we were in the studio and i'm like oh what is that is that my tone no i know it's that's that's fucking guitar rig di bass so you did a lot of a lot more writing on this one than you did on last Yeah, I mean, we were together for a lot, you know, four months we were in L.A. Four months writing? No, four months recording. Well, the writing was included within that because we were taking developed songs in demo format, which we jammed in December. Yeah.

And in 2019, we started playing those songs to record. But, you know, we were still like adding stuff. And then it changes, yeah. And then it changes again. Which is kind of what we do as well, similar thing. Yeah, it just evolves and it keeps growing. and but what we started off was fucking awesome you know what I mean like the basis of it was great

from fucking years ago so now when you get to that you're like oh that's a fucking killer idea or we'd get like Jay's drums we'd be like oh instead of fucking you know we'll just keep it simple and the impact you're like wow that riff fucking hits way more you know stuff like that and it changes the feel of the song there's a bit of that on unsainted there's like there could have been space for a busy

drumbeat but there's not. There's not. It's just that classic fucking slip knock. Yeah, exactly. And that's, that's, that's Greg's fucking vision. You know what I mean? And it's, so when you're tracking,

yeah. Is it drums first, everything else over the top? Or do you track live? So we're tracking with Jay like, like we did on the last record, the record before. Yeah.

So we've got our own station. they're getting recorded whilst he's playing to us so that's what's giving you that push and pull thing again but obviously he's... But then later the guitars are overdone

we recorded some click tracked and then we record some without a click and do you know... On the fucking record without a click? Most, you know some song sounded better without a click some song sounded better with a click

I think the majority is it without a click they felt more live without a click Wow. Yeah. And that's 100% listening back. I could totally hear it. I'm like, that fucking goes really good then.

And it pulls back when you needed to pull back. See, when we're in the studio, that does happen. But it's always like I was saying earlier with me doing my click tracks live, we'd always still click track it and then we would just change the click speed. So it would sometimes take Fucking 20 minutes to figure out What the push and pull that you want is But I think that's more

So editing is easier later on Oh for sure 100% Because we don't have four months Yeah because we don't have four months In a fucking studio I mean yeah And it's just I mean look

The Rage Against Machine Evil Empire I mean that's a live album That sounds fucking nuts It's the fucking best Is that your favourite radio? Yeah. Same.

And it's, that's live, no click track. I could be fucking wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's no track. I'm pretty sure it is. Just full on. And you get, that snare is just so. Yeah, it's fucking crazy. It's just, and that gives a fucking in-your-face, nuts feel to the song that I feel like if they played that to,

it just would sound shit, personally. Yeah, I think I'm just, as a drummer it's so much easier to play to a click because it just takes takes one bit away from your brain so I don't have to worry about time maybe I'm just lazy but that's what makes

playing live fun I think I would love to play to a click as well but yeah I just want my thing we're playing live is like I just want to be the best that I can be and with a click I can be but it's that thing I can say about motorhead

if you took the gave them a click it'd be fucking shit yeah not if you programmed it imagine lemmy sitting there with fucking logic out programming it RIP lemm big lemm I mean I love that Ben and fucking I still love him but I mean like you know what I mean

right where were we at the recording process for that and then sorry I just I don't want to keep waving out no no it's good because someone needs to keep me on track as I was, it'd be three hours long and it's already one hour and 20 minutes long. Do you normally talk about how long you've been doing it for?

Yeah, all the time. Oh, good. And then sometimes I'll be like, yeah, it's about three hours long, and then it comes out and it's an hour and 40 minutes, and people are like, why is it an hour and 40 minutes long? And I'm like, because loads of it was crap. Loads of it was either crap,

or people said stuff that they don't want the public to know. I feel like this has been quite constructive. I feel like this has been excellent. Excellent. And it's going to bring me, we can you got anything else you want to talk about

that album? Yeah So we had two studios Obviously Are we in one of them right now? Well this is where I do my My music This is where I did some of the bits in here

Like fiddling around You know It's not fucking It's not Abbey Road But I mean it does have a nice ceiling I'd like to hear a drum kit in here No this is like

And then you know Back there I've got the the workshop where I do the guitar repairing. Don't do that anymore. See a nice Dremel. Dremel. Right, carry on, you got two studios.

Right, yeah, so we got this, it was like, you know, the creative lab, and that was like clowns, we were everyone's rooms, but it was, you know, clowns in there doing his stuff, and he's got loads of modular simps and experimenting with top sounds, and he's got this really beautiful Gretsch kit, and, you know, it was a place where you could go, and that whole, I'm here, record my parts, go home.

It was to get rid of that kind of feeling. It was like, it's going here and make music, come up with shit. So me and Clown did a bunch of the in-between songs. We did a lot of synths. There's a bunch of simps and shit and melodies and the opening track. You know, it's instrumental. It's kind of like how the bands have always started. their album

and you know I don't want to give away what it is because I don't want to ruin people I want people to listen to it and think what they think it comes from or whatever but you know we did shit in there that I was like what is that going to be on the record yeah it made it on the record you know

it was nuts it was experimental yeah I mean it's you know when how do I describe it? Have you seen walk hard Joey Cox? Yeah. You know, when he takes...

Yeah, when he takes acid, and he's in his acid stage and he's got fucking 700 people in the recording studio like elephants and stuff like that and fucking did you do's. It was like that. It was like that, you know,

and it was just like anything goes, kind of, it was good, it sounds great, you know? Make something of it and clown, you know, that guy fucking... Hats off to him. He was in there, fucking first thing, last one out. And, you know, what he came up with and his vision of taking what we did. Fucking nuts.

Because he's originally a drummer. Before Slipknot, he's a drummer, right? Yeah, he plays, yeah. It's weird how drummers sometimes, I don't know if he can play or just dabble with other instruments. But I'm sort of the same. I'm a drummer. I'm not comparing myself to clown from fucking Slipknot here,

but I'm a drummer. I can sort of dabble on other stuff, but I'm pretty good at having ideas as long as I've got someone with me that can carry out that idea. Yeah, I mean, he's really into these modular synths at the moment, which are those little cards,

the slots, you slot it into a big flight case. Pansimmer shit. Yeah, and he's just like tweaking on that and you're playing around with that, and he's got all these effects, and tape machines. You know what I mean? It's like a fucking...

It's old school shit. Very old school stuff. Like we'd take... I'd play a fucking simpth part and then it would get put into the tape machine then it would get fed through something else and then it would get... The speed would be brought all the way down

but then a volume pedal would be inserted something like stuff that I was like... Wacky. Yeah. And then you hear the sound of it and you're like, that sounds fucking all. awesome. Four months of tweaking around with stuff for that. You're going to get some good shit.

Yeah. And then that album's out now. Let's move off that bit. It gets the point where I'm like, I don't know what else I can put in unless you want to say anything else about it. I'm really proud of it. We've all done.

And then you've got a lot of touring. Now we've got loads of touring. On the back of that. which brings me to my next thing see how I've done that, segue, yeah? Number one music podcast in the UK occasionally. I wonder how many maggots

will listen to this and don't know who I am and do actually, like you were saying earlier, think I'm an arrogant asshole. That's what I meant. It's part, yeah, you meant me, you said both of us. I mean, even like, you know, just the way that we speak. It's a character though, isn't it? It's the way that we are.

I am like this, and this is what we're talking about. People think that you're a fucking stuck-up cunt or you're being a sarky shit. It's not just the way that we are. It's an acquired taste. Some people get it. Right, that brings me to my next thing. So you, obviously, you are English, but you are in a band what is American.

Yeah. Like me. Yeah. Let's talk about that. America. Let's talk about touring America as an English man. Likes Tate's. I love how every day you can wake up and everything's the same.

be the rider and the consistency of touring in America is excellent. At your level, yes. I mean, you know, we just did a Euro tour and, you know, some days you're just like, wow. What, they're fucking up the rider? No, not on our end, but like, you know, some festivals where, you know, we was in Italy of all fucking places. and, you know, being Italian or Sicilian. I'm pretty sure I've only got two listeners from Italy because I've looked at the figures before,

so you can say what you want. No, and like my missus, she took me to Osteria Francescana, which is Massimo Boutura's place. Or Osteria. That's a very posh restaurant for anyone that doesn't know. Yeah, and afterwards got to the site and there's fucking catering company

gave baked beans with meat. So literally baked beans and they put some sort of meat inside of it. That was the main meat dish. For slipknot? For slipknot. For slipknot? They had pasta with like just pepper,

ground pepper in it and like the cheapest olive oil ever. Your slipnots. That was it. Italy rider is the same Australia from the third of Italy rider. I didn't even have any dinner. Poor me. Poor me. I was just eating at a fucking Michelin

the twice Michelin-style restaurant. Three times actually. Three, sorry. I think it's three. Sorry, I've got it wrong. Right, so you like the consistency of touring in America. What do you dislike? Wow.

Bruce. Hello, Bruce. Fucking hell, mate. I'm going to turn the noise gate off for that so we can get that on it. Bruce is like, I hate it when he goes to America. Yeah, he's been all right, actually. Don't slag America off because America gets well on when you slag them off And my girlfriend's American

I live in America at the moment I'm so hard I'm thinking we can relate On this Yeah I mean Your band is stratospherically more big than my band I think some things I don't It kind of

Everything gets a bit repetitive I because I miss a little bit of The old d'y ways. You know, like, you can go to, like, Italy and you see something old, or you go to Norway or something old. On Euro tours, there's always like, oh, should we walk to this cathedral? It's fucking 800 years old. I find, like, in America, though, we're always playing. It's always like, fucking ass end outside of town. And it's a bit like, oh, it's another amphitheater, and the nearest

thing that's around is... You can walk to Chipotle, and that's about it. Yeah. No, you can't even walk to Chipotle. There's nothing around. There's nothing. I don't know that's like, whatever, but... I mean, after a while, it's kind of like, what should you do on your day off? Luckily, you know, if we're in a place where the day, because sometimes the day off, it's just a stop. So it's like the bus pulls in.

We stay there till 12 o'clock at night. And then off you go again, do the next drive and you're at the next venue. So, you know, sometimes on the day off, it would be nice to be somewhere where if you stopped, it's like. America just how big it is, though, there is like huge. areas with nothing. Yeah. Driving through New Mexico.

You can go to Roswell. I haven't been there yet. I've been to Roswell, but I haven't seen the, like, all the... You can go to Walter White's house. I'm trying to think, but I can't remember why it is, but our routing always goes, or routing, if you're American, goes through New Mexico,

and I just remember we're like in the van for like eight hours, and there's nothing. I know that American bands hate touring in Europe. They fucking hate it. And I'm the opposite. I don't hate touring in America. I love touring full stop. And especially at a band of our level,

you get looked after a lot more in mainland Europe. And then in America and in the UK, they treat you like shit. Really? Not like shit, but it's like, there you go, there's some waters. Whereas Europe's like, we have put on this spread for you.

Here they do. I do miss the days. I don't know why this sounds like a fucking vampire. In Transylvania, the fucking riders unbelievable. Is your band big in Transylvania? Oh, huge, man. I miss the days of when I would play and I'd sleep in a parcel van, post van.

You miss those days. I mean, I'd love to relive it for like one day. If I could just do it like one day of it, just so I can show people what it was like touring. Just to remember what it was like. Yeah, just so people would know that. It's like I wasn't just fucking, oh yeah, here you get. You, Jim, clown, Corey play the barfly in Camden,

and then you're sleeping a postal van. I mean, even worse venues than that, like one of those hardcore Aldeas where there's like 10 bands. Everyone wants to use your gear because you're the only company with a dual rectifier, and they just use it anyway. You're talking about the world I'm still in? No, you're not.

An Aldeia. I fucking hate an Aldeer. especially now it's like playing last at an all dayer no one wants to see you I remember once getting three walkers crisps and four bottled waters which were boiling hot that was it that was a rider and our base player

went to Burger King because he had no money and ate ketchup cessettes do you still have to go to the visa office like paupers like us or is there a magic one there's no magic one for visas you still want to go you still have to go to the well they've moved the embassy now.

It's not there anymore. Where is it? In London. Well, it's kind of near there. It's not the same one. I remember the first time going in there was shitting myself. Even though I haven't got a criminal record or do anything sketchy. Do you ever get stopped at customs when you go in?

What? In America. They ever like, because what happens for me? Sometimes they're like, what are you doing? I'm like, musician. And they're like, what band are you in? And I'm like, Slipknot. And they're like, I've had like four times someone to go,

you're not in Slipknot. And I was like, what? I am. Yeah, and then they Google it. And then they've obviously got a computer there. And they're like, oh, wow. I'm like, I wouldn't like, I mean, I've done a V's. I've been vetted.

Yeah. Someone's interviewed me. I get it all the fucking time. And then the same thing, even though I've been in the band for four fucking years, they'll Google it. And then they go, well, none of these people are you. It's like, well, that photo's from fucking 2010. Yeah.

And then like, well, why are you in this band? You're American. And I'm like, well, because it's a number. fucker in America that could do it, right? So they had to get me. Because that's legally what has to happen in the visa process. They need to prove that no one can do it better. I was just wondering if maybe it was easier for you,

but it might actually be harder. In terms of people going, you're not in Slepnot. No, I mean, it's, I think once it's, I think I'm on my fourth 01. And like now the process is very easy. But some places, like going, flying into New York, I've noticed like if you fly into certain places it's fucking shit like flying at JFK

Oof they shit They long lines They fucking hate you Do you know what else is the real shit one When you do the customs at Dublin You ever do that If you have a stopover in Dublin You do American customs

In Dublin It's actually kind of sick And it means when you get into America It's like a normal flight You just fucking walk out Really? It's pretty cool but they vet you like crazy

because those people are terrified of losing their jobs because they're not in America they're pre-approving you to go into America but in Dublin so they grill you So they have the same machines as in America? Everything

and they're all American Oh they're all American Oh so it's like it's literally like you're in America but it's a part of Dublin I remember once I I think it was the first bit of touring and I stuck

a banana in my bag in the top pocket and I forgot about it and I also forgot that my passport was in the same pocket and it was one of those army bags so it was like sealed it didn't like seep out so I could get to the problem after a couple of days yeah it fucking melted half

my passport and it melted yeah it turned to this black it turned into black brown black acid it was like four weeks it was in there oh shit and because the bags like sealed army bag it like didn't fucking and I was like didn't need my passport. So anyway,

it ripped up the fucking the page with my O-1 on it. So we flew to Japan, managed to get there like, okay. And then they, I was fuck getting back. It's quite funny doing customs in Japan because no one speaks English and they,

you just have to like, mime guitar or whatever. And they go, yeah, come in. So they, so I had to go the American embassy and like no one was in that day. Someone came in because it was like, they, like, I don't know how it got sorted. But someone pulled some strings for me.

Some slip-knock strings. So we put like the two customs people on the guest list. They put it in, yeah. Nice. Did they come? They did come, yeah. Come backstage? No, I didn't see that.

Didn't let them backstage. We've got a thing, you see. So if people don't turn up on your guests, this goes out to anyone that's, if I ever put them on a guest list. If you don't show up, I get in trouble. because at the end of the night tour manager comes in and goes your guest didn't show

I like that though that's good yeah and then like we could have lost we could have made some money on those tickets they make you feel bad wow that is fucking no it is good that's why I didn't hit you up about download

yeah but you couldn't get guests lit up I was you there anyway then I was but because I already knew there was probably another way in I was like you can always ask me I know but how many people did you personally put on the download guest

list. 10. No, more than that. Yeah, it must be more than that. I didn't want to be just another number

so I just figured it out elsewhere. You're not just another number. Just another number. We're going to fucking close it out here but something we do on the podcast which is you can tell me

your top five bands or artists of all time. No pressure. No order. No order unless there is an order. No, that's the fucking order because sometimes I'll just, No, pink Floyd

Has to be on there Right, so then we're going to pause on that Top Pink Floyd album My favourite Pink Floyd record Oh, that's tough Would you classify Medals a Record?

Surely not You're going to put that above I really love that one Well no, that's what I'm saying You must have a number one That would surprise me if that was your number one It's up there, it's up there, but probably wish you were here or animals. Really?

Yeah. Where are you putting dark side? I like dark side, but... Bit obvious, bit petrily. What's your favourite Pink Floyd record? Greatest hits. Greatest, greatest hits. I would go wish you were here, dark side animals.

Yeah. And then I would almost go as far as don't care, don't care, don't. Don't care, don't care. I hate Roger Waters so much. I like his bass player. I think it's an excellent bass player. On echoes, where it drops the boom, bam, bam, bam, bam, down, bam. That's fucking sick, especially on the life in Pompeii.

It says a lot when Gilmore sells all those guitars, donates all the money to a climate change charity Roger Waters left the UK to protest the ban on fox hunting that's the two people in Pink Floyd Anyway we've done Pink Floyd next That's my political statement Oh he's so political

Politics I've got an opinion Go on It's never going to change it You need to give me four more artists You need to give me Okay, Metallica. Yes.

Yes. No one ever says Metallica. Metallica are my favorite band of all that. And people say Lars Eurek's shit, fuck off. Yeah, fuck you. It's almost a recurring theme on every episode. You don't know what you're talking about. Lars Eurek is amazing.

And if you don't think he's amazing, Thomas Hucker would disagree as well with you. He's the fucking, he's the man. And he's a great drummer, so. Fuck off. All right, go on. Give me Metallica albums in order. Come on, you must have thought about it.

I think about this once a day. Number one, justice for all. Yes, we're best friends. Justice for all, but if it was injustice for Jason. I don't care. I know, but I do like it with the bass turned up sometimes. Does that exist? It does, and justice for Jason, listen to it.

It's fucking awesome. How can I listen to that? It's on YouTube. I think some clever clogs did it from, like, guitar hero maybe. It could be wrong. Oh, yeah, took the bass noise. Yeah Right

Okay Right Number two Metagam Then we're gonna go To Master of Puppet No ride the lightning Yes

And it's always Those two For me They swap On number two Yeah I'm like I'm really

In a ride the lightning Time right now But sometimes Puppets goes there I'm gonna say Ride the Lightning Purely for Call the Kutulu

And just the Mosh Rifts Yeah If you took those riffs And put them in a hard band. Trapped under ice. Every song is great.

Actually, now, I want to listen to the whole... We'll do that in a minute. Right, we're two for two. Number three. Then Master of Puppets. Yeah. What are we at? Four. Four, you've got...

Realistically, you've got two more. Black album. You're going to put Black Album Four? Yeah. Okay, this is the only time we differ. Because, yeah, I like Killer Moore. I think it's a great reference. record but I actually prefer the black album if I'll be honest

of wolf and man's probably one of my favorite tracks off of that and then you got Killamore 5. Killamall 5 with very similar except for I actually like loaded as well but I'm not putting that up in there you didn't put it in top 5 you're allowed to like it I like death magnetic I'd listen to the black album more than Killamore so I'd say you go yeah I feel like maybe that's true for me as well and I'm just being an elitist little bitch. Yeah, I'll kill them all that. Dan and Dan and Dan and Dan and Dan and Dan and Dan.

All right, Metallica, we've got two bands. Mega deaf. I don't know enough to have a big conversation. We've already had a conversation about how I should know the basis. Rust in peace is the best record. Holy Wars, is that on that? Yes, it is. That is a banging time.

Also tornadoes souls, which I said earlier. I also feel like I know that song It's the greatest solo It's so good Holy Wars is fucking sick Is it? Yeah, n-n-n-l-l-l-l-l-n-dh-h-h-h-h-h. Right, okay, that's enough because I can't...

Pantera? Yeah. Definitely pantera. What's your... Give me top three pantheras. Fabian Driven number one. Yeah, correct. Then...

Cowboys from Hell then vulgar and then fourth would be I really love um say it oh are you gonna say it

are you gonna say it are you gonna say reinventing the steel yeah I was I love it I love that record there's so many fucking riffs on that record

the great great southern Trenkel is great don't get wrong and Floods is one of my favorites but but that is the best song on that the fucking riffs on

on fucking I can't remember the name of it fucking reinventing steel. The fucking, the cowbell song. I can't remember what it is track three and it comes back in with the first riff but there's just a gigantic cowbell on it.

It's sick. If anyone's listening, put on reinventing the steel from the beginning. And just listen, listen to the fucking riffs and get all that crap out your head that.

Give me another band. And what my left with? I think you've got... Pink Floyd, Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera. You got one more. What do I listen to? I know one, which is pretty left field, that you love. Left field?

Not the band Left Field, but... I'm going to say sixth. You're going to put them up there? I'm going to put them up there. Not just to shout out your boys? No, and I'm not going to say my own band because that's lame. I mean, he's fucking lame. I'm bad you didn't say your own band.

No, so I'm going to say six. Favorite sixth album? Death of a Dead Day I don't think many technical metal burns have touched that Do you know what It's fucking great

But The vocals is just too much for me sometimes Yeah well I just cut the vocal It's like necrophagous I just cut the vocals Oh Necophagia vocals are amazing I mean

It's the same with all deaf metal Sometimes the singing Just fucking rapes my mind But I don't know if I've got a knack I've got some ability to just... Zone it out. It zones out and I just listen to the music.

It's not either one of the vocalists' tones. It's just there's so much going on. I can't process it out. I don't have that plug-in that V-Man has in his head. Yeah. I mean, for some people just listen to music and all they can hear are vocals and that's it. You know, like, some people just know the lyrics to everything.

I'm just not that person. I think I've trained my brain to just... Then that doesn't mean that I... ignore melodies or something obviously I understand there's vocal melodies there I get it

but it's like Metallica I don't know the fucking lyrics and I've got half Metallica's artwork tattooed all over my body but still don't Metallica you got you got fucking there's a pushead on your hand

I've got KH3 offers ESP Kirk Hammett's ESP that's on my hand I've got one Sanitarium fucking pushead on that arm isn't it

Damage Incorporated that's off the black album I think that was I'm inside, I'm you That was a random poster And then I got Justice for All on the ribs Wow, fuck me And then Sabatry on the neck

Fuck me I didn't realize quite how many you had I like Metallica Are you boys with Metallica now? No, but there's a funny story With Mastodon We were supporting them And Brent was like

Look, come downstairs, Kirk's here Like, I said my text Like a big fan of yours But you know, pop down like they want to meet you and shit I was like oh wicked so so I come to the front door the bar and it's like all shut off just for them

and they got like fucking big meany security guard and he just fucking stops me what the fuck are you doing in it I thought it was like some Metallica fan slipped in covered in tattoos like the guy fucking was like you're not coming in it I was like oh tech for Brent

Masters on he's like what he's like Brent he's like yeah yeah but then you could just see him Lars and Kirk Hammett just looking at me going Hey man Punisher Yeah

Before I was the Punisher But then they just was like After I bought Kirk Hammett Two stupidly expensive vodka drinks It was like Norway or somewhere And at that time At that time I wasn't making much money

So for me I was like I bought Kirk Hammett A couple of drinks Nice But he never bought me a drink in return So Kirk Hammond So you're not boys now I would have thought maybe you'd crossed over

and you played some shit together. No, we don't talk. No. Are you both? Well, we've got that talk coming up, so hopefully we can be friends. Slipknot Metallica? Yeah, in Australia. Yeah, well, you're going to be boys.

I hope so. I'm going to play their guitars. Do you mean boys in Metallica? I'll show them how to play. If you're boys in Metallica, that's unbelievable. Some guitars. I wonder if they'll remember you from that punisher in Norway. I don't know.

I always wonder stuff like that, because it's like, I used to work for John 5 for a bit In John Madsen Well Rob Zombie at the time Yeah Like does he go Oh that guy that tech for me for a bit

He joins Slipnoff Or does he not know? Or do they not? Because I saw him Like Piggy D the bassist I know him And like we're friends And he came up to me

And he gave me a big hug But Piggy D is his name Piggy D Well I call him Or I call him Piggles But that's what I call Pig Destroyer, the band

So that's confusing I know, yeah, he's called PiggyD, I call him PiggyD. And he just walked past me. Well, you've been blanked. I got blanked by John 5. I have that same, to bring it back around, I have that same situation every time I see Richie Beckett. I'm like, you don't know who I am, but I've auditioned for your old band.

You can't say hello. It's always weird. Sometimes we get that. We get that as musicians. I've toured with so many fucking people, and I know them. And I've definitely done it to other people as well. I just feel... No, I don't know.

Maybe like once or twice but the majority of people I remember Like I'll go up to like a monitor guy That I used to work with And go hey man, how's it going? They'd be like, oh, I thought you'd forget about all that slot Yeah, I think my band was a bit like that with you as well They were like, oh, you remember us

Oh I'm not like a fucking, I'm not like a fucking magical creature I don't know, you're in a fucking gigantic band We're just having a legitimate conversation of the fact that you might be friends with Metallica soon. That's how big your band is. Yeah. That's cool anyway.

You got anything else you want to say? I'm probably going to call it there. We're going to call it? Sort of about, think about dinner. We can go for a curry, maybe. Do you want a curry? My favourite Chinese is now shut that's down the road. I'm pissed off.

Bastards. Do you want to shout them out? What's the name of the Chinese? They're called Imperial China. And they did the best, proper dim sum as well. Oh, I hate you when you get like a frozen dim sum. Give me a nice steam This was proper steamed

Like Hong Kong style Dimsum And they're fucking shut Cunts So to round up the podcast Fuck you To V-Man's old Chinese restaurant

What are we gonna do Are we gonna go out for a curry Or are we gonna get Are you gonna cook? I can cook If you don't want to leave But then you want to go For a drive in the motor

Don't you? I don't care You do have a nice car It's not talking about How nice your car is But I did turn up And I thought Oh VMA's got a new car

It's very nice. I'm turning into Alan Partridge. Thanks for coming on, mate. You're welcome. The reason it's happened so late. Yeah. I have to say this to my friends is because I didn't want to put you on the spot. On the spot?

Like as in when I started the podcast, obviously my intention is to get my mates that are in big bands on it. But then I don't want to put them out and make it feel like you have to say that, oh yeah, but then you don't want to do it. No, I appreciate you doing this. I do think this is kind of funny though, because this is the first podcast I've ever done. And it feels like I'm talking to people, but I'm not. You're just talking to me? I'm just talking to you in my kitchen.

And this fucking aeroplane's ruined everything, so we're going to end it there. Thanks, mate. Oh, that's a loud. That's a loud one. It's fucked the whole podcast. I'm going to trash the whole thing. Bye. Bye.

Peace out, maggots.