Pipeman Radio Interviews NILE at Graspop Metal Meeting 2024

0:04 Hey, you have done to censure? Wow? Crazy you why kind of America. It's time for the Adventures of pipe Man on W four c Y dot com. Wis pomp Beats is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the pipe Man. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio at grass Pop and I'm here with Hey. I'm Carl from now Nice. Nice, and you guys are performing here today. I think the rain is supposed to be gone by time you go on stage. Well, one could wish yeah, right, or it will be one hell of a mud pit. Right. Oh. Man, I had to change shoes today because I totally ruined mine yesterday. And I hate shit a few times too, Dude, I hate getting mud on my shoes at the festival because then you gotta play in muddy shoes, right exactly, and it doesn't go away. So you've been around for a long time.

1:18 Have you played grass Pop before? Several times? Nice? So you must do a great job that they keep bringing you back here, you know. Well, at least that's my takeaway. I don't know if it's the actual takeaway. That's what I'm gonna take away. There you go, tell the listeners who have never heard you, which I find hard to believe since you've been around since the early nineties, what you're all about as a band, of what your music's all about. Well, Nile is first and foremost to death metal bands, brutal, fast, heavy, and we have a lot of exotic influences the name Nile. We do a lot of songs concerning Egyptian mythology, history, blah blah blah. Yeah, and you know, I also read something that like, it's kind of surprising that there aren't more death metal bands talking about denial or Egypt or anything like that. So I don't mind that at all. You were pretty smart because you picked up on something that makes sense. Well, you know, there's there's so many bands that are doing the exact same thing that we just wanted to do something a little bit different, something we were interested in, and you know, critics be damned, you know what. I love that what you said, though, because as somebody who has been a metal head for more years than probably most people even here, you know, it was different in the beginning, Like

2:52 even the Big four Thrash none of them sounded the same, but they were all thrash you know, and basically nowadays it's almost like sometimes there's an algebraic equation to make a metal song, and that's weird to me, you know. S Craig Zaler, a famous music critic from New York, said the same thing. He said, there's a four ingredient chemistry that goes up to making a band's identity, and depending on what balance of those four elements determines, you know, where they fall on the spectrum. So what got you into death metal from the beginning before you even had a band? What got you personally into death metal? Well, it was already in bands before death metal even existed. Yeah, So a good friend of mine, David Vincent from Morbid Angel, turned me onto a whole entire new genre of music that was completely unaware of that even existed, right, And it was so challenging musically and technical, and I was like, yeah, this is the next level. That's what I want to do. Well, you know, I started out in the LA scene, went to the first Slayer show ever, first Metallica show ever, and then they left us with all the bands and so me and my bro we used to take either a greyhound or hitchhike up

4:23 to the Bay Area to go to the real shows, and that's where I discovered Possessed. When they first came out, Oh my god, I was like, wow and great story. First I went to the first ever punk and metal show where they were both in the same house. You know, how'd that go? It was fucking nuts? Okay, it was at Okay, it was at the Sun Valley Sportsman's Lodge. It was basically an Elks lodge and there was no security if you can imagine. And you had the three bands that were the punk bands were coc pre Pepper and Suicidal pre Crossover Wow and the Descendants. And then on the other side was Savage Grace who wasn't they actually just put out a new album after thirty years, but they were like big thrash in La. Toured with Motorhead but they never got to a point like Metallica or Slayer. And then there was Dark Angel, who I love yeah, come on, oh my god, yeah, one of my favorite bands ever, and Possessed And if I could paint a visual for you, the ceiling was about as high as this tent and there were rafters up there and people were climbing up to raffers and doing stage dives from the top, like and all I remember in my head is people flying through the air. Dude. It was like that in the Metroplex in Atlanta back in

5:56 the late eighties. Just like that was an old train station have been converted into a venue and there were three levels and people would be flying from the rafters and the balconies. It was nuts, hey, Les, Yeah, but you know what was great about that first show. It was nuts. As far as people that aren't into metal, they would probably go and go, you know, because there's no place to hide, right. But there were no fights. Like I was a long hair I would get my ass kicked going to punk shows that I wanted to go to because you weren't allowed to, right. So it was so cool to have all of us in one place, no fights, becoming more of a family like we are today, because I always thought it was stupid. We should have been a family together. I'm not into divisiveness exactly. Big metal is a great uniter of people from every culture every place. Let's be metal, that's right, like this, I am metal, you are metal, Your metal as fuck, You're it's screwed. Yes, you were in his teacher and growed, saying, I am metal. I know that's badass, right, So tell me also about you have a history of creating song titles that are long. What made you come up with that? I think it's actually genius to be because again makes you stand out. Well, sometimes the title is descriptive of you

7:30 know, what's in the song, So sometimes you need a title like that to actually, you know, capture what it is that the song is about. Yeah, like Chapter for not being hung upside down on a stake in the underworld to maybe eat Thesis by the Four Apes would not be the same if you just called it chapter. That's what I was thinking of my head as you're saying, I'm like, I hope he's gonna say just chapter because that that's a perfect explanation. Nobody would have any clue what that means right now, one of these titles, you know what the song is about. The other one it could be anything exactly. Let's talk the new album because it's badass. In fact, that was how I got through the rain to get the festival today. Was I put it on because I always do that to get pumped up for an interview. I'll I'll just listen to the music and then I'm like in the mode. So tell us about the new album.

8:24 Well, it's called The Underworld awaits us all. It's coming out August twenty third Napalm Records. It's our tenth nine album. That's amazing, And how is it the same? How is it different from previous albums? From you the artist, how would you describe your evolution as a band and the music you're creating now? I think this one is very focused, it's very streamlined. There are many Nile albums where there's lots of extraneous and instrumental, but this one's really streamlined. It's it's metal as fuck, takes no prisoners, crushes you from the get go, doesn't let up till the end.

9:09 Nice if you, as the artist, would say the one thing. Of course, there's multiple things, but if you were to pick one thing that separates you from all other death metal bands, what would it be? We're Nile. That's the best answer ever. Funny about that. When I was in college, I was in a philosophy class and we had the final exam and the question on the essay, and you had like three hours to write your essay was why some chick gets up in like ten seconds and walks out, and I'm like, what the hell she got the best grade in the class because her answer was why not? Why not? For there? It is? There it is? And so one story good and bad, good or bad, not good, bad, good or bad, crazy, wild, whatever you want to pick that really sticks out in your mind over all these years of being musician. What would it be if I had to pick one? I know, That's why it's a hard question, right. It would be back in the early days when we did our first tour across the States, and when we had made it all the way to the West coast and we're standing there on the seaside looking at the Pacific Ocean, and I realized, Wow, this is a milestone moment. Our music has taken us

10:43 all the way across the country. Wow. Never forget that feeling looking out across the Pacific Ocean, watch the sunset. My music took us all the way across the country. Wow, that's something that meant something to me. Now you're here in Belgium at grass Pop to kick our butts tonight talking with another Bay Area guy. There it is I'm from South San Francisco. Nice, Nice, So who is your favorite band you saw in the Bay Area? Would you say, my favorite band saw in the Bay Area? Then Santana back in the day. Wow, that's cool, that was very cool. Yeah, I was the type. It's funny you should say that because I was the type that used to go a Slayer show on Friday night and a Dead show on Saturday. I experience it, all right, that's the thing too. There's all these gatekeepers. But don't we all like different kinds of music. It doesn't have to just be one. I don't get people.

11:39 It's like, I only listen to this if you're into music. You're into music. Yeah, come on, it's a universal language, no doubt, it's the universal unit. Or I think the one thing I take out of COVID is maybe they shouldn't have shut down music and everybody wouldn't be so pissed or depressed or anything that's gone on for several years because they had no outlet. Bands like you give us an outlet. We can go in the pit, get out our frustrations so we're not pissed off in the world or hurting people because people don't understand. We don't hurt people in the pit. We help people in the pit. That's right. It's a healthy outlet for all of life's frustrations and stresses. I highway advocate harder forms of music because you get all your angst outs. Let it go. Yeah, No, it's crank up the Metallica, crank up the Slayer, put on Cannibal Corpse, feel the violence, let it go exactly. And I think for me it gets my adrenine pumping. So I'm also a motivational speaker, and to prepare for my seminar, as i'm driving to it, I'll crank up the most brutal music there is, so I get all pumped up, and to me, it makes me feel positive. And I think that's the most understood thing about metal is and I think it's because people don't really read the lyrics.

13:05 That don't aren't metal heads. They just hear certain words and like, oh, it's about this and that, and like yours is historical, you know, and there's real subjects we're talking about that people really can relate to. And I think that's what's important. Well said, Sorry, thank you and thank you for being here at grass Pop. Tell everybody your how they can reach out to you. Guys. Check out your tour dates, your new get your new album and merch all that good stuff, socials. Whatever you want to give us, well you just look us up just on Facebook or go to our website Nile Dshcatacombs dot com. Uh no, nileofficial dot com. Yeah all right, cool, Well listen, I am so excited about your set tonight and thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man.

13:56 Thanks for having us. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Papemin on wur Cui Radio.