When you guys tour are you all about business or is there a practical joker amongst the group?

It's a bit of a mix, they take care of business, sometimes joke around, you got to have a balance, can't have too much of one thing, it's never going to be perfect, you must compromise a bit. 

Do you guys still get any nervous jitters before you walk on stage to play a gig or before a tour, if so how do you handle this as a band or is it something each member handle's it in their own way?
I can't answer for any one else in the band, because I don't really know, but for me, not really man. I feel like if its a show and its really packed and there's expectations, I might feel a little excitement and everything but, I think like its always five minutes before I fall into this like pocket. and everything from that point is just,... that's what that is at that point.

 

So your in a zone basically? Yes. I don't really prep, but I do have certain pre-show rituals, I drink a little whiskey, I drink, I eat, I chew big red gum, before I play, and I listen to some things, and then, its like its weird, everything just falls into a zone, in that point, and when I get up there, it's that zone and it goes. And yeah, actually like when everything like ends and everything starts and the place clears out, its like I'm out of that of that zone again,  its almost like a transformation in a sense. I become the personification I need to become, before going on in a live setting. To me the stage and what we do in a live setting is a personal experience,  like as a whole personal to me, personal to the fans and things like that, I don't act like that, you know 24/7, I'm usually a chill kinda dude, I just know that, that is a moment, ugh to, kinda quote un quote.."Unleash hell". You know?  It's just that moment you know? Everybody is, myself and the people coming to see us, and the people involved, are ready for that moment,  that's where it happens, I don't need to present that moment 24/7... I need to present that moment when its needed. Yeah, so its like, that's what it is for that, and outside of that, I'm just kinda chill and I hang out, and I do things, I have a few drinks here, I listen to stuff, chat with people you know?  
 

What's your favorite beer? 
It depends, You know what I'm not really a big beer person, I used to be kinda like into beer, you know what's funny is, For like 20 years or so maybe longer than that, I didn't drink anything,I just didn't.  I felt like I needed to keep focus a lot  with things, I wasn't straight edge, I wasn't part of the straight edge movement or anything like that. It was just this idea, that I wanted to focus more, and now that I got a little older, and I've kinda adapted into whiskey a little bit more. So the whiskey, I stepped into the realm of whiskey, but I'm a little older now, so I feel like, I can control it now. Like when your younger you drink and you know you go into those black outs and you do all that crazy shit?  I know the buzz,  I know what happens, I know what point I can go to, and what point I can not cross. It's almost like a transformation to it, its a transcendence, it gets me in this weird zone sometimes,  and I know that limit in that zone, so its kinda unique in that too. 

Of every single band that you've ever played a show with either big or small act, which group would you say stood out to you the most, impressed you, or that you maybe look up to the most?
Wow man that's kinda hard to say, there's so many of them, and there's so many of them that I enjoyed you know? So many of them made different impressions in so many different ways, you know? From touring with, I guess what I could say is, I could go through and see you know, basically explain a couple of different ones,  its not all of them, but I could explain a few of them and like how they maybe look at things a little different, for one we got to tour with Celtic Frost, and that band has been basically the foundation of us, you know the conception of Goatwhore. You know? But touring with them solidified my interest in them even more, just because the way the members are, and seeing the diversity within the band and stuff like that, and seeing how Tom Warrior works and what he does and his ideas through all these years. So, that's intriguing when you can have a band are influenced by that's actually still existed, or actually got back together, and kinda still existed, because usually you have a band that influence you like that, and your like, they'll never get back together, and you'll never be able to  see the angle that they were coming from, so that was unique,  for that, and then you know touring with a band, like back when the Black Dahlia Murder started touring, and we had been a band for a while, so they were a newer younger band out there, but seeing them as a band and how they worked eternally, and evolve as a band, all the way to the point of now,  is really unique, and how they forged, and pushed forward through everything, and what they did as a band. I think those things like, I am older than some of these people, but then at the same time, the younger force of what's going on in the scene, kinda influences you because, you look back, and you see that hunger you kinda used to have, you know? I kinda respected that idea that they were younger and they were looking to forge the idea of extreme metal you know? Because, as as being a little older too, you know a one point, things aren't gonna, your not gonna be doing this anymore, and you wanna kinda have that, know that there's younger bands out there, or bands that are a little young than you that have evolved, and they keep the idea going. We did a tour with Watain, and it was really unique how those dudes operated and their belief structure and everything revolving around them as a band you know? As a person outside that goes to listen to Watain or see Watain, they see them as this thing, and as this kind of force, and they don't really get to see them, you know on an every day basis, where we were on tour, and we got to see how they were as individuals, and how everything was with the band, and that's really unique as well, its pretty much kinda influential as well, to see how they embrace, what they're doing as a band. Watain's been around for quite some time, they don't even have  to be a younger band, they can be an older band, or a band that's the same age as us, but they just have a different kind of way they do things, and how things run internally in their band. And how they perceive things, and then you know, you have this performance level, you know in a live setting, and it influences you in a different way. So, every time I tour with bands, even say like this tour, all three bands, their fucking really awesome, Theories, Black Breath, Ringworm, its, all of them, the efficiency of them as a band, and how they work together, and how things go, and then the intensity they put into their live performance. Were playing last so we definitely have to step up our game, because all these bands before us were fucking playing quite intense and they have immense sets, so you have to be on your game and notice that kind of stuff, you just can't take things for granted in this business. Because there's a lot of bands out there working hard and their all doing unique things, When you look at bands that have longevity like Judas Priest Slayer, its different now they don't have bands like with longevity no more. Anbody fucking come  in and steal your thunder you know? You might think your the shit, but then Bam! here comes some band out of nowhere whether their younger or not but their fresh and they just got that hunger, and  they could just totally fucking snap out and pull the interest away from you. 

 

I tend to think the same thing about sports teams. 

Well  yeah its like the same idea I guess too but you know  its all those things, and you know I think when I tour and I see that,  that kinda drives me to see that, its  like I'm glad to see that there's these people, because. You see there's this whole structure it is a tough structure and there's not a lot of money to be made in extreme metal and everything like that, but a lot of people are willing to work hard and do fucking things  that'll go over the top in a live setting.

For new listeners of Goatwhore, what album would you suggest to listen to first? Your first album? Or would you recommend any in a particular order to get a feel for an thorough enjoy Goatwhore from start to end?
Well if your going from start to end, just definitely start from the first record and go from there. But I noticed some people before, I mean some people stumbled upon us because they bought the new record, but they never heard any other record,  so they got that and its just like, just go in reverse, maybe start at the beginning, or start with the record right before it and just go backwards the whole time you know? I don't know do like a star wars thing? Do three and go back to the first three you know lol, there's so many, everybodies got their own way that they kinda perceive things, but if you've never heard it I just say start at the beginning and go from there. Because its cool to see the evolution you know, and everything the band has built, music wise, from day one til now.To me its up to the listener, and but not only that the way the internet is, there's so many means of listening to things now you know? Just go online and fucking find it and listen to it don't let somebody try to label it and put it into a category and then you'll  be like, oh well not really into that kinda style, but you didn't even listen to it to seeWe all put things into categories but it doesn't necessarily mean it is in that category. 

So this is your second time in Nashville tn in just over a year, this is becoming a habit, what keeps brining you guys back here?
Oh we've always played in Nashville, a bunch through the past I mean, do you remember a venue called The Muse? 
Yes I do And now its a domino's pizza,  we drove past it today we could see it from the interstate but, man we used to play there like, I'd say three times a years you know? We used to come around a lot, we played there,  we played across the street at The Exit In a bunch of times,  were playing at The End now, but- its, you know, we used to come to Nashville a lot not only that because in the early days when weren't on full fledge tours, and we were just doing weekend things, Nashville's only an eight hour drive for us. So wee would book a show in like maybe  Birmingham and then Nashville for, the Friday and Saturday, and then head back home, and then next weekend play like Mobile Al, and Pensacola, Fl ya know? We would work things out for weekend shows. We would trade shows with other local bands and stuff like that, so Nashville was part of that radius of weekend adventures in the early stages of the band, before we were actually doing like full fledged tours. So, its only proper for us to, you know  come back, I mean yeah its been a long time now since we first started doing it, and I'm sure there's a lot of people that used to listen to us then, are like now maybe adults and have families and don't really go out to shows but, I mean you have a whole new generation, that's why you have to keep cycling through because every so many years you have a new generation that's in there getting into things.  

How different is the metal/ music scene in general from that of

New Orleans in your  opinion compared to that of Nashville Tn.?

What New Orleans to Nashville?  Yeah the music scene?
Uh, I don't know, I mean New Orleans is its own little different entity in general you know? With all the bands and everything from there, I'm not sure what the full Nashville extreme metal scene is like, we've played there  numerous times in different places, and I've heard of other shows in other places where bands that are like more evil couldn't play like, I think there's some place called Rocketown or some shit like that?  I'm sure the scene fluctuates, throughout out the years depending on, what's trending, what isn't trending, you know? Its different, and also, being that were all pretty much like southern states based cities  Money's a big issue because the south does not have any money, laughing.  So our shows are kinda like,  hit or miss, in the south, you know, you do a tour of the us, but you always know when your in the south, its just that element, but I can't really comment on the scene here compared to the New Orleans scene. I just know that in the New Orleans scene there's just a lot of bands, but then there's a lot people from a lot of bands that are in all the other bands,  You know? Like Jimmy Bower for instance, he plays in Down, he plays in Eyehategod, he played in Clearlight, he played in Crowbar at one time, and then there's  Kirk who also used to play in Down, he played in Crowbar, you know its a lot of mixture going on there so, but then there's not a lot of people, because of a lot of those people are in all those bands so the scenes pretty tight knit you know? 

And of course I've seen it kind of fluctuate as far as attendance goes. When I was growing up, we didn't get a lot of shows that came through on tours, I would drive to Houston to go see shows, because a lot of tours would miss New Orleans, New Orleans isn't a major market, so  a lot of tours will skip New Orleans, like they'll play Houston,Tx  And then all of a sudden jump from Houston,Tx  to like Atlanta, Ga, Or like Houston, Tx to Tampa, Fl, you know?  So when I was growing up,  me and friends would get together and we would drive together to go see shows, because that's where the bands were playing that we wanted to see, and they weren't playing in New Orleans.That sucks, Not really, its unique. New Orleans is a beautiful place  It is, but you know what? Its not, I wonder if Nashville, Tn.  is a bigger city than New Orleans, you know what I'm sayn? Like, a lot of people population wise... I don't know about that New Orleans isn't really that huge of a city,  You know? Its not. 

I've noticed a consistent theme in the album titles as well as song names, do you guys ever plan on writing a book with any sort of similar themes?
I don't know if I'd be down on like writing a full book or anything, I like to just write, just read about things and get ideas, and just kinda blend them in and work on stuff, you know?  Maybe when I'm a little older, when I need to sit around more and the idea of this has kinda slithered away slowly, because of age, but uh, Yeah, so its like...  Maybe and then I will need an outlet for writing and stuff like that, but overall not really, all the lyrics are just a basis of things that I'm into, that I'm influenced by, interested in, do research on, so, all of iit kind of falls into that category. 

So you guys decided to use 2 inch tape for the new album, is this a thing we can expect from gw in the future?  Or is it just a one time deal, also do you prefer gw to have more of a straight up raw sound or more organic, or a mix? Please explain in a bit of detail why?
We'd like to do it in the future, it just all depends, its becoming more and more extinct, so it's harder and harder to be and to do it, like even production of tape is getting to be like null and void, and even if there is a company that's making the tape, they don't have the formula of the tape  down fully. So when we did that record we found old reels, and reused them, and I mean your risking it on that as well because you never know, what might have happened to the reels, so  we'll just kind of see and, you know wish for the best, and we'll see how it turns out, but in a way we really don't have a control over it, and we can say we really want to do this, but if we don't get the tape to do it, we can't do it, you know? 

Do you prefer Goatwhore to have a straight up raw sound or more organic, or a mix?
Organically raw. We definitely like that raw, I like when the guitars are raw and they remind me of like a chainsaw, or something, I like them being able to attack when their cutting through,  nd drums, I like naturally sounding drums, and things like that, we don't want it fully polished or anything like that. We have our own ideas, and so you can't really do that, Sammy has certain guitar sound, its distinct and you have to let it cut like that you know?  The bass has that, and Zack the way he plays the drums, so its like you want it, you want that element in there, so and that's what were trying to do, that's why with the tape, cuz we wanted to sound more organic and full, because,  digital media, everybody's doing it or whatever, but I feel like it's lost something, or it's just the means to do something faster because no one has the money to do anything. 

That's why you should have a part time job or something to pay for studio time or something?
I uh, yeah know, everything's different, some people want to be Rockstars, some people want to fucking dish it out, you know? Like we were saying earlier when we were talking about playing in a band and being with different people, everybody's got their own ideas. You just hope for the best, and you just hope that everybody kinda stays somewhat on the same page.

Of all the albums this band has put out what would you say was the hardest to make physically or emotionally? What album would you say that is your favorite amongst everything you've recorded together as Goatwhore?
Ah, that ones hard. Second ones hard. Because, for one the studios definitely not like being on the stage and doing it, that's for sure, its like, your in this little box, and there's a mic setup and your dishing it out to the mic, but I definitely have this zone that I like to get to when I'm in the studio, and uh, its still, even though I get into that zone, Its still just like you in a room and your doing your trick. Its not anything fancy to it, you just go in and you just try to do what you wanna do and you have these ideas and everything and you kinda focus in on that, I always try to, I don't know its hard to explain, because you gotta kinda prep yourself for it in a way and be prepared, and each person is doing something different, so they do it differently, Sammy's playing guitar, he rehearses a lot in the studio before we do things, but you don't want to rehearse too much, because you don't want to tighten up your hand and things. And then Zack depending on when he's ready and stuff like that, so its not like we just sit around, and just wait, I mean we know its gotta be done. But at the same time I think everybody's got their own personal thing on how they confront it, and how they go into it and make it happen. I can see how everything,  unfolds, some of its unpredictable, you just let it kind of roll.