PipemanRadio Interviews War Curse

0:04 Hi, you have done to censure? Wow crazy you whycoume of America. It's time for the Adventures of Pipe Man on W four C why dot com wis pomp Beats is number one internet radio station. Here's your host, the White Man at JOAB. It's to your messing. Then I carry on with permission, I'll gil with. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four C Y Radio. Here with my next guest, who has some badass new music coming out tomorrow the twentieth. It's like a birthday present for me because my birthday was last week. So let's welcome to a show justin for more curse. How are you? Thank you man? Good, thank you for having me. So my first question is do you have a favorite guitar behind you? Uh No, it's like asking favorite children, right yeah, yeah, well all my good guitars. I shouldn't say good, they're all good. Yeah. My stage guitar is like the stuff I use is actually at my rehearsal space. But I will say like my bootleg like makeshift Tom DeLong stratocaster right there. I was jamming on that a little

1:37 bit. I got the new Blink one eighty two album a day early, so having a lot of fun. Very unmettal, but very fun. And I was just about to comment on that as somebody that's been around metal since the beginning and was around all the gatekeepers and used to be one of them, because you know, back in the eighties you had to be like your friends wouldn't let you not be a gatekeeper. I absolutely love that you started this interview talking about that you got the Blink album because back in the day that wouldn't be allowed. Yeah, I'm a postman. I don't hear tomatoes. Yeah. And you know, one thing that's and that's why I bring it up that's cool about this new album coming out is that it's kind of like it's not more of the same of what you've had previously. And you guys kind of have this attitude of you know, so if it you know, it doesn't hold true to hardcore thrash metal heads. Oh well, and yeah, I love that because you're an artist, you should not be boxed in. Nobody should tell you how to make your music. You make your music from inside and what you feel and what you want to do and listen, you know, we go back to Metallica. I'm one of those old school I went to a first Metallica show ever, So when Black came out, me and my friends were like protesting it, you know, and like, oh my god, you're twenty five hardcore fans are never going to listen to you again. You need to change back. And meanwhile, we're all

3:09 back, and they got millions of other people and you and I probably wouldn't be sitting here today if they weren't for that Black album. It's very true. I give that album a lot of credit for people can crap on it, but yeah, without it, I mean, most of your favorite bands wouldn't exist today. You know. That's that's kind of the one that brought most of us to the dance, you know. Yeah, I love I loved, I loved that album as a kid, you know, I got into Metallica very early on. I was probably five or six years old. My parents were into different styles of metal. Their friends were in a metal so I was kind of raised around it. And as much as I mean, I think right the Lightning's probably their their finest moment, but as much as I love the other albums, there was just something about the production of the Black album. There's those songs, they've really just stood the test of time, you know, especially the B sides on the album that no one talks about. You know, I just think that album gets a lot more shit than it should. It's an amazing album. So yeah, and I gotta tell you, like, I didn't like it then, but I like it now that it did bring mainstream people to metal, because otherwise metal wol have never survived. And now I go cover festivals where there's like one hundred thousand metal heads there, and it's like, that's awesome because we're like the coolest people. People think we're like something, it's funny, but like you go to a metal show, there are no outsiders, there's no bullshit.

4:36 There's ninety other stuff that's going on out in the world that's just pissing us off or making us depressed. We're just one big family, and like we're an example I think for the rest of the world. Yeah, and to your point, you know, with pissing off some of the purists or whatever. You know, we never set out to be a thrash metal band. It's just that's what we wrote. You know. It's like if you hand me a guitar and you say, play ay something like inherently, what will come off of my hands onto that guitar will be something that kind of sounds like our first two albums. You know, you're sitting in front of the backdrop of our first album, which was like a very thrash metal album. You know. Writing this album, it was a little more collaborative and Blaine, who is our vocalist. Blaine is a phenomenal musician and just an amazing guitar player. You know, he contributed some riffs to this album, and I worked with him on vocals and just thinking about writing songs versus writing you know, something that needed to check boxes. You know, I think that rash metal is kind of its own worst enemy and that it is like very rigid with what you're allowed to do before the purest you know, get upset.

5:44 You know, you're not allowed to talk about certain things. You can have clean vocals, but they can't be too clean. You can have heavy vocals, but they can't be too heavy. You know where they start casting you off their little side subgenres where you become like a power a thrash band or everybody gets all dorky with these these genre labels. You know, honestly, we just we just wrote some songs, man, We just wrote some songs that we wanted to write that we liked. And you know, if people like them, hey, and if they don't, the will you know. And to your point today, I hate like how there's so many subgenres and micro genres and it does make a lot of bands like sound the same. I remember being metal head in the eighties and you know, my dad saying, oh, it just all sounds the same, and I'm like, no, it doesn't. And now I listen to some bands nowadays, they almost use like an algebraic equation the right metal, and it does sound the same, whereas you know, thrash metal. To me, because I'm an old school thresh, metal head shouldn't have rules like Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, Exodus, Layer, they are completely all different bands, like completely, so I don't even get where some of the purists, and I'm from the beginning of it, get their ideas. And I think that's what would bring metal down. I think artists like you that are just playing what they feel with their passion and experimenting. That's what metal was about, experimenting yeah,

7:14 and I think there are a lot of great bands out there that are doing that. And I think that there are actually there's a lot of young thrash metal bands that are really really good bands that don't sound the same. You know. I think that some of it comes down to lazy journalism. And I don't want to like point fingers, but you know, like you read album reviews, and the laziest thing that a reviewer can do is just immediately like throw another band name out there. Oh it sounds like Testament, Oh it sounds like Slayer. You know, that's what they do. But it's like, what about the song sounds like that to you? You know, if the vocals are in a certain kind of style, but they don't sound exactly like the guy, why do you even have to throw some old band's name out there? You know, I think you can look at young bands like what we're doing. We don't sound anything like you know, Hatreots a good a really good young band, you know, and they have their own thing. You know. The vocalists is the son of Zetro of Exodus, so he you know, he can't he can't. He can't help that he was born with the with the vocal cords. You know, he's gonna sound like his dad, you know, ship My dad could probably pass for me on the phone. But you know, but they don't sound anything like us.

8:20 And there's a you know, like young band called Tyrant that I'm a big fan of. We've toured with h from Lansing, Michigan. They don't sound anything like either of us. You know, there's a lot of young bands that there's a diverse array of sounds out there. I think where things start to become maybe a little repetitive to your point, is a lot of these guys, they all have their albums mixed and uh neared by the same four guys, you know, so the sound becomes a little repetitive when they sample replaced the drums and everybody has the same drum sounds on their album, and reamped the guitars, and they're all ramped with the same amp and the same studio, with the same speaker, cabinet, microphone. Yeah, it's kind of hard to not, you know, have a uniform sound. So we made it a point to break out of that, go to a totally different studio, shoot for a totally different sound and confessions the end result, So I hope people love I love it, and you know, I want to say something about what you said because it made me laugh because I was just covering Bloodstock in August and this somebody says to me, Oh, I'm in the press area and they're like, oh, man, there's this band plane right now. They sound just like Exous. You should go check them out. And I just happened to not have an interview then. So I went over there and they were really badass. These these kids were kids.

9:37 They were teenagers, just like when I was a teenager seeing Metallica as teenagers. But uh, to your point, I didn't hear so much the Exodus, Like I heard similarities, but if that person didn't say it to me, I wouldn't say, oh, they're Exodus, you know. But now you put start that thought into people's heads because it was another press person, then they automatically they're trying to make it sound like Exodus, because that's what happened when I first walked over. I'm like trying to compare in my head instead of just listening to them. Yeah, so you're you're spot on with that. Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's one of those things where you can take it two ways, and I think I try to take it both ways. I find it annoying and I find it lazy. But at the same time, you got to understand, like they're compared you to some of your favorite bands, They're compared to some of the greatest bands to do it. So it's also a compliment, you know, it's not I'm not I'm not saying it's a bad thing. It just seems to me if you want to say something about a young band, like, talk about that band, talk about another band, you know, talk about the band that's right in fronty of and what they sound like and what they're doing, and maybe maybe try to pay a little more attention and and maybe you'll find some nu oances. There's some things they're doing that are that are a little different than you know, the band you're going to compare them to right off the bat.

10:58 So yeah, and I'm less saying to your new music. And I don't sit there and go, oh, they sound like this, they sound like. My viewpoint is your your music sounds like just bad ass metal. I don't even call it thrash metal because it's got thrash components, but it's got other components. And that's why I love nowadays is music can have like all his mixes into it, of all the influences. So I'd rather not narrow a band down to a genre because that just puts an artist in a box. Well as a musician, I sincerely appreciate that, and I appreciate the kind words. I think what that comes down to is we have a lot of influences as a band. You know. I mean, you got five different dudes writing this stuff together, and you know, all five of us listen to different stuff, you know. I mean I could go down the list and tell you what everyone's listening to. But you know, I mean Murphy's really into you know, stoner metal, and he plays in like a pretty good stoner metal band and blains very into like modern metal. You know, he got into metal much later than you know, like James and some of the other guys, so he definitely has a more modern influence.

12:05 And I guess I'm kind of the traditional thrash guy. But you blended all together and everybody contributes parts. It's like, again, we didn't set out to like make a thrash metal album ever, It's just that's what we wrote. So yeah, yeah, and see I love that. And that's another difference between nowadays and the old days, because the old days you weren't all your friends had to listen to the exact same music you listened to. Like I, I'd rather be exposed to other music and maybe you'll find another new favorite band, like Funny as Can Be. I found this one band playing at Download when I was covering Download that I would never gone to see, but like one of the other press people was like, come on, come with me, we got We're gonna go see this band. I'm like, okay, And they were badass and they were they were so not typical of what I normally listened to. But now I'm like playing them on my you know phone all the time, you know. And that's I think what people need, and that's what we have today. Is like, just because you're a metal head doesn't mean you only have to listen to this type of metal or even just metal, you know, Like you mentioned, the Stones are coming out with a new olum there's nothing wrong with them. Metal head and listening to a new Stones album, you know, hey man, Yeah, if you can't get down to the Rolling Stones, my drummer. Actually he hates the Rolling Stones, but he's fucking wrong. He's wrong. Rolling Stones are awesome. So yeah, but that's the thing, you know, it's like we're just fans of music, you know, like Murphy and myself.

13:35 We've been in bands together for like twenty years now, crazy as it is, me and the other guitar player, and I mean, man, we've ran that the gablet. We've played everything you can think of. I mean, we were in a band a long time ago that, you know, kind of sound like Fallout Boy. You know, we've played hardcore bands together. We've played in punk bands together. You know, we've played in a ton of different bands together over the years while always listening to metal. So it was like, as funny as that, it was kind of the last thing we ever got around to doing was playing the music that brought us together in the first place. But yeah, our influences are just all over the place, and you know, if you allow some of that to seep in without going you know, crazy with it, I think you make something that's maybe just a little more interesting than trying to stick, you know, very rigid to the rules and write something that sounds exactly like the one little box they want to put you in. So yeah, and the way you wrote music for this album, to me is kind of like if you take some of the best songs in history and the best albums in history, they were written the same way. It wasn't a formula. It wasn't it has to be like this. It was just a bunch of musicians that that's what they were feeling and that's what they wanted to hear, so that's what they wrote.

14:48 Yep. I mean you can hear on some of the songs like I might have been in a better mood when I wrote a couple of versus some of the other ones. You know. Yeah, that's what it is. It's your emotions and it's your creativity. It's your feeling that day captured in a you know, and into a computer or however you write your songs, you know, captured into your cell phone or whatever. But but those are just like little snapshots. There's a little moments of time in your life that you put down on paper, you put down you know, through a guitar and to a recording you know, program and hopefully they age. Well that's the only thing you can hope for. The nice you don't look back on it, you know, two years later and wonder what the hell you were thinking. But but yeah, I think we're pretty proud of the album that we wrote, and so far it's been received well, so yeah, we'll see, we'll see how it goes. So I also read that like people are considering this like your black album. I hate that. I know, That's what I was gonna ask you, how do you feel about that?

15:48 And like I would probably feel the same way as you was, like, it's just like what we were talking about comparing bands, like you know, well I addressed this earlier today, I'll just talk to talk rest it again. I hate that so much because this is how that gets started. Okay, that's like record label talk, and that's like, that's like publicist talk. You know. Those are the people that work for you on your team that just want to sell albums and they want to get as many people to open that email as possible and review it or check it out. So you know what, what better bait to throw out there than the black album, right if you want to get somebody to pay attention to it. So we had nothing to do with that comparison. I don't buy into that comparison. But you know, if if that again, you know, it's almost like one of those kind of weird comblem that sort of things. If somebody wants to draw a comparison. Cool, You know, that is the single most successful metal album in history and nothing will ever come close to topping it, So there are worse things to be compared to. But yeah, I don't.

16:42 I don't hear that, man, I don't hear that at all. And see, you know, for me, it was different, okay, Cuz like if it said kill them all, then I would have opened the email, but black Dot and didn't make me open the email. What me open the email was listening to your music, and like I clicked on like the newest music, and then I wrote back, Okay, let's set up this interview. Cool. You know, like I agree with you with that stuff. I'd rather listen to a band's music themselves and decide if I like it, because I can't interview bands I don't like. My job is to make you look good, and I'm not going to bullshit and say, oh, you're the greatest band ever when I think you suck. Yeah, Well I'm glad. I'm glad to hear that there's still some journalistic integrity in the world. But yeah, I sincerely do appreciate that, and I think that's the way it should be done. Let us let us, you know, live and die, you know, on our own merits here. You know, I don't I don't think I need. I don't think I need to be compared to the Black album for people to listen to it. But if it helps, fuck it. Yeah. I guess they're just trying to sell albums, right, They just trying to They're just trying to make me money.

17:51 I shouldn't be mad about it, right, right, Yeah, So let's tell everybody how they connect to you guys on socials, on the web, how they check out the new album by your merge, all that good stuff, all right, So, first and foremost, the new album is called Confession. Comes out October twentieth. I don't know when this airs, but that'll be tomorrow, Friday, October twentieth on Metal Blade Records. You can find it pretty much anywhere music streamed or sold, but you know, go to your local record store and request a physical copy. Go buy that thing from a from a small independent guy. You can find us on all your usual platforms, you know, Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram.

18:33 We're terrible at Twitter, but we're on there. We've got a tour coming up if you want to come see us live, and that that, I think is is where we thrive as a band. If you want to, if you want to know what Warhurst is all about, come see us up close and personal and we'll put on a hell of a show for you. We're going to be going out with a band called Arm for Apocalypse. That tour starts in Sacramento and uh, it's kind of like a West Coast in a Canada run. That'll start November first, and information for that is also available on our social media or on our website. Nice And I can't believe in twenty twenty three, Armed for the Apocalypse is still appropriate, Like that was the whole theme back in the eighties and I can't believe all these years later, we're still talking about that crap. Maybe more relevant than ever, right, I know, right, So, but man, everybody's got to check you guys out because you're badass. Thank you. And now after talking to you, I like even more because you're real and that's what counts in music, especially in metal. So thanks for giving us great music and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man Dude. Thank you for having us, it's been a great conversation. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on w for CUI Radio.