METALSHRINE - Intervjuer

Intervju - John Bush, Anthrax

När vi besökte Sweden Rock Festival fick vi tillfälle att sitta ner med John Bush en stund. Han tog emot oss i turnébussen och visade sig vara oerhört trevlig och sympatisk. Vi diskuterade allt från New York till den olagliga nerladdningen av musik på nätet. Här har ni resultatet!

JB: I have a question first!

Go ahead!

JB: Are there people here from Stockholm?

Oh, most definitely!

JB: How far is it?

I guess it´s about 500 km. I have no idea what that is in miles.

JB: Ok, cool. I saw some people from Japan here.

Alright! So are you doing mainly festivals this summer?

JB: No, we´re doing some headline shows. Tomorrow we play in Oslo on our own and then we do Helsinki on our own. We´re playing in Russia for the first time in our career. Two shows, S:t Peterburg and Moscow, and then Bulgaria on our own. But we´re doing a combination.

So, how´s the tour been so far?

JB: It´s been great, but we´ve only played two shows. But we played Budapest and that was amazing and then we played the Rock Hard Festival yesterday and that was really good too.

Had you ever been to Budapest before?

JB: Once, seven years ago, "Stomp" record! That was the last time we played in Sweden too. We haven´t played in Sweden, Finland or Norway for seven and a half years.

Yeah, because you toured with Motörhead recently, but you never came to Sweden.

JB: It was only Germany and England really. We had a gig in Paris and Holland as well.

So, how do you like it, being out in the middle of nowhere?

JB: I actually did this festival with Armored Saint and it was not a good show for me. It wasn´t really a good show for the band. I don´t know if too many people really know the band here, but regardless, it was fun to be in Sweden. But I think today´s gonna be really good and it´ll be a good show. I think everybody has to stay. They wanna see Twisted Sister so they gotta stay. Today is the final day, right? Is it a holiday tomorrow?

Yes it is!

JB: So people don´t have to go to work?

No, no, no! So people can get as drunk as they want to.

JB: That´ll be good. You know, Scandinavia is a very important market. It wasn´t like we didn´t wanna come here, but on our last record we toured Europe all about three weeks, period, so we´re trying to make up for lost ground and we´re kind of in a rebuilding process, quite honestly.

Do you ever get to see anything or is it just the bus, play, in the bus and then you leave?

JB: We try to. The other day we went from Budapest and the Rock Hard Festival was near Cologne, so we couldn´t make that drive in one stretch...so we stopped in Nürnberg and the Rock am Park was there, so we got to see Metallica play and it was great and we got to hang out a little bit. It just depends. Like today, we got here so late. It took us longer than it should have. We got her like 3.30 in the afternoon, went to the hotel, showered, we ate and we´re here doing interviews and play and then we´re out of here. Not that there´s anything to see here other than a lot of beautiful trees. It is beautiful scenery, but I think we´re gonna try to go...we play Oslo and then we´re gonna go to Stockholm, because it´s like a halfway drive. Stay there because we take a ferry to Finland. Prepare us because the ferry leaves at eight in the night, so it kind of ruins our day off and so some of us are talking about maybe flying. So we might be able to hang out in Stockholm.

Stockholm´s nice!

JB: Yeah, it´s a great city! Nothing against Sweden but I´d rather be here than January. It´s still already too fucking cold out here.

It is! And about the new album...does it get easier or harder through the years to come up with new stuff and write new songs? Do you write constantly or do you sit down like a couple of months before the recording of it...?

JB: Not really! Since I´ve been in this band and I´m sure before that, everybody´s goal is always to try to write on tour, but it never happens. It´s just tough. Like I described our day. When are we gonna fit writing in here and then you go home from touring for a length of time and you wanna not see eachother. You know. Anybody!!! So you need to recharge your batteries, but then you get in the mood of writing again. It took us a while for this album, but I think it was because we knew that this was a pivotal record. Quite honestly every record is, especially for a band that´s been around for as long as we have. But for new bands the second record is a pivitol record so...so it just turned into a little longer than it ought to and then after a while we thought; wow it´s five years! But after four and a half years, what are we gonna do? Rush at that point? It´s already gonna be five years, so the goal is just to make the best record you possibly can make and we really scrutinized it and put it under the microscope and really made sure that if there was something within question that we fixed it. So I am really proud and I think the record is a great album. You know, it was worth it. So now we just have to come back and; hey, remember us? I mean seven years is a long time to not play somewhere and there´s a lot of bands that are in that time filling those spots. You think seven years, someone that was twenty is twenty seven now, someone that was fifteen is twenty two. A lot of time has taken place and a lot of things happen in people´s lives. As I was explaining to this other guy (another interviewer), he was asking me about...there´s a resurgence to some degree about a lot of the old thrash metal bands. Which is great, but the truth of the matter, for a band like Anthrax to keep going, realisticly we need to attract new people. That´s the reality...because when people get older they stop buying records. They just do! We have people coming up to us and they´ll say; I used to listen to you guys! So why did you stop? Well, you know, I don´t know...I got maried and had kids. Well, yeah! Does that mean you can´t listen to heavy metal music? But it´s true! That´s what happens, but fifteen year olds who are just discovering music, they´re the ones! You gotta get to them! Taking nothing away from anybody who wants to see us. If you´re fucking 80...come! We know, to keep it going it´s probably not in our best interest to follow Wishbone Ash, but today we´ll make an exception. It´s kind of funny! To tell you the truth we feel pretty young.

Ha, ha, ha! How do you feel about the musicscene today? Because like you said, a lot of stuff happens over just a few years. Now there´s the whole nu-metal scene with Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit and they´re huge in America and big here as well.

JB: Of course! But they´re tested now too though, because both those bands just cancelled their tour here in Europe. For different reasons, but already people are saying that Linkin Park, you know, how is it? Their second record...they sold seven fucking million records in America! It´s tough and you gotta be on it all the time and I tell you...those bands cancelling here is a big...you know. The guy in Linkin Park has a back problem I hear and...understanable, but personally speaking...the rap metal thing, that´s way over as far as I´m concerned. I´d rather hear bands like The Datsuns and White Stripes. I think that´s way cooler and way more cutting edge. When somebody starts rapping over something it´s like; shut up! Except for Anthrax and "Bring the noize"! But you know, it´s always changing as you say. But as long as it sounds fresh. Strangely enough I really believe that our record sounds really fresh, but it still sounds metal and it still sounds like Anthrax. But it sounds fresh and that´s not easy to do because it´s easier to go back and go; ok what worked? But you know what? "Among the living" was amazing, but it´s 1987 and this is 2003! We´re not going back, we´re going forward.

But is it more difficult these days? Because you have all the record companies that just seem to be looking for the next boy band. Release one album and sell millions!

JB: At this point we´re not gonna fit in with that and we should not even try to. The worst thing we can do is to go; what´s cool right now? Let´s make a garage sounding...I mean, we´d be fucking shot! So I think the goal is to modernize, absolutely, but don´t lose the roots of what we are. And I think we did that very well on this album. I think that there are some really crushing things that sound like vintage Anthrax and there are things that sound like we took a chance and you know what? We want to. We don´t wanna repeat ourselves, so look around but don´t let that influence us in a way where we gonna lose our own identity.

Do you have any other projects, bands, music that you´re involved in?

JB: Our record just came out, so it´s all about Anthrax. Even things that we did, I don´t think anyone´s even thinking about that. We wanna see this through and we wanna make this happen.

What do you think about the internet and the whole down loading thing? Metallica released their album earlier since it was already out. Do you see it as a positive thing or negative thing?

JB: I think of it as a negative thing. The reality is that record sales are down, so how is that positive? Anybody who says it positive...why are record sales down? Somebody said rcord sales are down 40% in Germany. So how is that positive? Bottomline is, stealing is stealing! That´s the reality of it and if people are not buying records, then bands are not gonna sell as many records, hence there´s gonna be a lot of bands not making records. Because this is people´s livelyhood. Look, if people see things and hear things and that inspires them to go buy records, that´s great. And I´m sure there are some people that do that, but I think there´s a lot of people that don´t do that. They just say it´s free, I´ll take it. I´m not gonna buy it! Why am I gonna buy it? It´s fifteen bucks! And that´s wrong and that´s why record sales are down. So anybody who argues it, who could they? The record sales are down! But you know, the companies should have seen this coming. The movie industry is seeing it coming now but they have the fucking break of seeing the record industry take a hit. I don´t know! I always praise Metallica on the whole Napster thing because they didn´t have to do that. They´ve already sold millions of records and made millions of dollars. They didn´t have to champion that cause. Who cares if it were them. They did that and it was the right thing to do. Thay took a lot of shit for it.

But it still seems like a lot of artists are totally for it.

JB: Well, are those artists selling a lot more records? That´s the only question! Are they selling more records than they were, are thay? Because nobody is. Nobody is selling the kind of records that they were and anybody who puts out one record and says it; fuck them because they don´t know. They have nothing to compare it to. So, somebody that´s got a couple of records out can say something. Somebody that put their first record out and says; I´m for it! Fuck them, that´s what I say because you need to figure out again...record sales are down. That´s all I need to say and if they´re down, how is it helping? Sure, it´s exposing certain people that maybe you wanna hear about. Baby bands might be affected the best by it. But anybody who puts a real record out, even on an independent...someone distributed it, they´re gonna be affected by it. They´re going to! Someone who doesn´t have a record deal, probably will benefit because they can put their shit up on one of the sites and nobody knows them, so somebody might take a chance on their name and...sounds like a cool name. That could help them, but anybody who has somewhat of a history in the music business and I´m talking about one record, I can´t see how they can argue that cause, personally.

Something else now. Do you live in New York or...?

JB: I live in LA, Scott lives in LA. We live about a half a mile from each other. Charlie and the new guy Rob lives in New York and Frankie. But Charlie´s actually moving to Chicago. He´s married a girl now and he´s moving there.

You´re all over the place! Is it hard to get together or...?

JB: Well, we´ve always been based out of New York, so I don´t know what´s gonna happen now. Charlie´s talking about building a studio in his place. He´s gonna have to convince me to go to Chicago in January.

Well you did this thing for 9-11 together with Twisted Sister, Ace Frehley, Sebastian Bach...You don´t live there, but people say that it is a totally changed city and that you can notice it when you come to New York.

JB: I don´t live there, but the last eleven years I´ve been in Anthrax I´ve spent a lot of time in New York and it feels very close to me. Yeah, it´s a different city...I mean how could it not be? You know, more shit´s gonna go down and New York´s a target and believe me, I was in the subway not too long ago and I felt kind of scared. I don´t know, there´s targets and lots of them. So, I don´t know what they´re gonna do about things like that and I don´t know if it´s gonna persist. I think it´s gonna happen and hopefully they can calm that down before it does. But who knows, we´ll see. Shit´s gonna go down and I don´t know if it´s even gonna go down in New York. I keep thinking shit´s gonna go down in LA. LA hasn´t been hit yet so...It´s gonna happen, I mean a bunch of Germans just got killed the other day. I don´t know where it was. I´ve been trying to follow the news, but I haven´t had a chance in the last couple of days. So, it´s a different world that we live in.

Yeah, I mean it could happen here or anywhere...

JB: Well it depends on the politics involved. Look, I could probably spend another hour talking about it. But American politics, a lot of them are fucking bullshit and terrible. We meddle in everything and there´s a lot of things...American corporations that are bigger than the government or probably leading this fucking cause and that creates a lot of resentment. You would hope that things like 9-11, things that are happening, would make people go; well why do they knock down buildings...I don´t know. The Iraq thing...who knows? They may never find any fucking weapons, but you know what? If that place can be turned around and they can live better and maybe...I´m trying to be positive here...hopefully the world can become a little better place. I´m optimistic, I hope. We´ll see what happens!

Well I guess that´s it!

JB: Good interview guys. I thank you! A lot of your questions were different and it was more like a conversation.

Thank You!

Anthrax - Official website

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