What’s better
than being in one hugely successful metal band? Being in two, a feat AxeWound
are working for with their debut album Vultures. Instigator Matt Tuck (Bullet
For My Valentine) got together Liam Cormier (Cancer Bats), Jason Bowld
(Pitchshifter), Mike Kingswood (Glamour Of The Kill) and ex-Rise To Remain
bassist Joe Copcutt to push metal to it’s limits. Here Matt talks us through
the changes in metal music and how he lost his confidence when he had his
tonsils removed.
How did the group come together?
It was something
I had wanted to do for a long time and I had know Jason from when he stood in
at some Bullet shows. We kept in touch ever since as he was the guy I wanted to
do it with. We had an opportunity to do it December last year so I just phoned
him up and we kind of just did it there and then. Then after the music was
written and recorded then we kind of put the band around it.
Which song do you think most defines the
bands sound?
If I had to pick
one it would probably be Post Apocalyptic Party. It’s got a little bit of
everything that AxeWounds is about. There’s a lot of swagger in that song, it’s
brutally heavy but it still something you can nod your head to which is a nice
thing to be able to do.
You recorded Vultures in 11 days, with no
pre-writing or rehearsing, what was the motivation behind that?
We just didn’t
have the luxury of time or budget. We did it all in my downtime from Bullet and
we funded everything ourselves, then it was coming up to Christmas so we just
gave ourselves a goal of 11 days. We actually dropped one from the album
because we weren’t too sure of it so we put it to bed.
How do you balance being in two bands at
once?
It’s always a
little bit difficult doing what I do, but considering how quickly we did the
record, it didn’t really take that much time anyways. We’re not doing extensive
touring with it at all. It’s more just whenever we can do something we will,
because everyone else in the band has got their own thing going on as well.
It’s kind of difficult me trying to juggle getting everyone in the same place
at the same so it’s not going to be a full time touring job, it’s just
something to do when everybody has some time off. It’s still going to become
something because it’s really good and I think it would be a shame not give it
the time and effort it kind of deservers now. It won’t take any time out of
Bullets schedule or Cancer Bats, we are fully committed to our day jobs but we
do want to take this as far as we can.
What do you think are the most
significant changes in the metal genre in the past 10 years? Why do you think
Bullet has had more success in America than other British metal bands?
I just think
more musicianship has come back into the game, I thinks everyone’s noticed
that. The new metal thing and the grunge thing that was happening in the 90’s
and early 2000’s, it was definitely more kind of swagger and image kind of vibe
whereas now it’s gone back to more of an old school vibe with technicality and
guitar solos. That’s something that we wanted to introduce from our first EP so
I definitely think we are kind of responsible a resurgence in the old school
sound, I truly believe that. That’s probably the biggest difference especially
with the European and British metals acts, we’ve definitely put an old school
flavour back on metal and I think a lot of people appreciate that and the
trends since then has kind of been almost the same vibe, there’s been more
extreme acts and more commercial acts I think at the end of the day Bullet was
a flag flyer bringing old school metal back to the UK and Europe really.
What do you think about illegal
downloading of music?
It’s a double
edge sword, we as well as every one have taken a massive hit in sales ever
since the first album and obviously it’s not something we condone. It is
technically anonymous theft, you wouldn’t go into HMV and steal a Bullet record
or any record really, you just wouldn’t do it. So the fact that people can do
it anonymously online, makes it worse in a way. It’s not something I condone,
there’s no way of controlling it unfortunately. It is what it is. If it
inspires someone to come to a concert eventually then that’s kind of cool
anyways, it works both ways. We’ve just got to get on with what we can do and
that’s play live and do great merch and make a living elsewhere as albums just
don’t cut it these days.
How was it starting this project compared
to when you started Bullet for my Valentine?
It was kind of
the opposite really, it was just something I wanted to do, there was no real
intension of it actually becoming something of a big deal or anything. We
didn’t really know if a label would even want to release it. It was just
something that I had wanted to do for a while and can of have a laugh with some
other dudes for five minutes, as soon as we finished it we were like ‘its
pretty good’.
How is it not being the front man of the
group?
It was a little
weird at first, I’m still talking to the crowd a lot, I still have quite a few
vocal parts, but it is nice not to have the entire show on my shoulders, it’s
kind of the best of both. I didn’t want to not do anything vocally as I thought
it would be kind of stupid to have the tool and not use it.
Do you ever suffer from writer block?
Yeah, we didn’t
really on the AxeWound record because we were kind of in a whirlwind of work
really and working with Jason was just bringing out a load of fresh ideas. He
is so creative on the drums I was getting inspired to write certain guitar
parts listening to drum parts, which is something I have never experienced
before. But in Bullet, we have been doing it a while now, we have just finished
our 4th album. When you get that far in your career then it does
kind of kick in a little bit so we had a few difficult days recording the new
Bullet record but that’s all done and dusted now as well so it’s worth those
few days of sitting there banging your head against a wall because something
does eventually come from that.
When you had your tonsils removed did it
change the way you thought about your voice or how you used it?
It changed
everything really. It was equivalent of a pro footballer breaking his leg or
something. I mean I was out, totally out the game. It took a long time for me
to get the actually physical ability to sing back and the confidence to do it,
which was a huge battle. The mental side of signing a lot of people won’t ever
understand, being a singer is a huge mental battle as well as a physical,
technical thing. My confidence was just rock bottom as well as not actually
being able to talk a lot of the time because it was that bad. It was just a
nightmare so it kind of made me appreciate what I had even at that early stage
of my career. I took vocal coaching with various people and I take it very
seriously at every show I do now. When we do tours a couple of weeks before I
will start to warm up and doing what I need to do to get through those shows.
Especially when you hit 30 you’ve got to work for it, it’s not a natural thing
anymore. It’s like any other muscle you have to warm it up, warm it down.
What’s the future for AxeWound?
Our debut record
comes out the 1st October in the UK, then we are just going to do a
couple of tours, UK tours and America for two weeks, then unfortunately we are
just going to have to take it from there as it depends on everyone else’s
schedule.
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