Destruction

Thrash anthems over America

Interview with guitarist Mike of Destruction by Vera on the 15th of March 2007

The guys from thrash metal band Destruction were available again to talk about their collection of re-recorded songs ‘Thrash Anthems’ and their US tour. My latest interview with Destruction was done in Autumn 2005 at the time of the release of ‘Inventors Of Evil’, so wasn’t it time to have an update? A few hours before Finnish humppa specialists Finntroll should call me, I had this debonair conversation with guitarist Mike, next to Schmier one of the main members/composers of the German thrash legends.

Life of a rock star can be exhausted, we all know that. Mike is not too well, stayed in bed to recover because he has a flue, but he hopes he does not cough too much. I start to tell him I met him at Summer Breeze 2005 when Destruction did not perform but did an autograph session. I still have this signed postcard in my collection. But okay, it is no time to act like a fan, let’s focus on some questions for you readers…

We have got two topics to focus today and we started with the US tour. Mike tells:

“America is really special. Kind of top or flop (laughs). We started at the Westcoast in California which was successful, the audience was great. There are many Mexican people and it seems like you are in South America. All the black haired guys, going totally wild. Really hot-blooded people. But if you go inward, there are a few places in the States, I would say, not really civilized. A little bit dirty and a little bit weak in our audience-wise. Like the Bible belt area, you know what I am talking about? The Midwest South. The audience was alright all over, but if you come to South Carolina and shit, there are not so many metal heads anymore. There still come people to the show but not that many, but I don’t really take care about that, if they have fun and if they like it. But what I don’t really like are the circumstances if you come to a club and there’s not even toilet paper and toilets without doors.”

I would have expected it in South America…

No, in South America they treat bands with more respect. Most of the time it is okay in America, but there a few places… well extraordinary strange… a few strange areas.

How many concerts did you do in America?

Around twenty five, maybe a little bit more.

And great distances also probably…

Oh yeah, it is pretty rough in one month. We just had like two or three off days. We drove like thousand miles a day those off days. That’s how it is. You cannot afford too many off days there because you have to pay the bus and you have to pay a hotel and then you cannot make any money anymore.

What about the organisation of the tour?

You mean the booking agency in the States, yes, you have to trust these sometimes motherfuckers. This time we had a few problems with the booking agency. Imagine you play a show and don’t get the money afterwards. That sucks, you know, and it happens. It happened two times. So we decided to get the money before the show. But… still problems. The local promoters told us: “I don’t have any money. I paid it already to the booking agency.” In the end, you can trust nobody. It is a jungle and it is a sign of disrespect. I am glad to play a good show and I don’t want to talk about the money and the catering and the beer, but if I get Budweiser light that’s kind of disrespect. I am from Germany and I deserve fucking good beer. Not the cheapest fucking bullshit. We had to cancel one show in Charlotte, North Carolina. We cannot play if we don’t have enough energy. The electricity was not strong enough to set the PA. We have a name and we don’t want to lose it. So we cancelled that show and afterwards the people of that club called us fucking rock stars. Prong was playing there and so on. Maybe they played there one time and never came back.

So it wasn’t a great experience… the States?

Oh there were good sides too. Like I told you San Francisco was great, Los Angeles is always great. Chicago, Canada, always great! Sometimes it is a little bit sad, because this agency this time booked some shows outside of the city. We played New York and it was announced for Median Factory, a kind of well-known place there, and then they moved the show to Brooklyn somewhere else, in a strange corner of Brooklyn, people won’t come to venues they don’t know and they don’t have a clue about what they are. The same in Denver. There is a good venue in the centre of the city, but they booked us outside. Everybody was complaining: “Why do you play that venue?” Next time we have to watch and find a better agency. Indeed, America was special.

We talked a bit about European gigs and the one in Czech Republic, the flue and viruses, then we focused on the re-recordings on ‘Thrash Anthems’.

How did you get the idea of re-recording all the old songs and how did it come alive?

We always wanted to do something or re-mix some of the old recordings, especially with the first three records, they sound not that great. We didn’t have time in the studio and we didn’t have experience. We always wanted to remix or at least re-master them, but we had no access to the tapes because we don’t owe them. SPV/Steamhammer owes them, they have it in their fucking basement and we can’t touch them. We heard some rumours that SPV might re-master all that shit, but you know, it’s always better if the band takes care of the music and not the record company. So we thought, okay, the only way to take care of our old music is to re-record it. That was the only chance to do it, cause we did not want it to be done by strangers. We recorded the drums in Stuttgart in a big studio because we did not want to trigger everything and we needed place for the microphones and ambiance. But big studios are expensive, so we recorded the vocals, the guitars and the bass in Switzerland in a small studio. We sent everything to Denmark. We didn’t even go there. We sent it over internet and Tommy Hansen did the mix. It worked out fine. I think we will go to Denmark to record the next album.

There are two new tracks in between the re-makes on ‘Thrash Anthems’. One is called ‘Profanity’ and the other ‘Depostition (Your Heads Will Roll)’. Can you tell a bit more about these ones?

I don’t care too much about the name. Is it thrash or not? I don’t mind. Schmier told me: “Let’s try to do more commercial songs. Not really commercial, but easy listening.” I tried to behave and tried to write not too complicated riffs for those two songs and keep the technique a little bit down. And that’s how they came out.

But these were only a taster of the coming album, now you have more time to write new songs. So that is the plan for the next months, I guess?

That’s right. I should be writing right now (laughs). I need a little pressure. We try to go to the studio around the end of the year. So there is still a little bit of time left. I know we can do everything in three months. I need a little bit pressure and then I can go for it and work on it eight hours a day to get the shit done or even more. And so Schmier does. You need a little bit time in between to play different stuff. I like to play acoustic and classical guitar a lot. I like to check out old notations from musicians in the 1700’s and before. Or someone like Django Reinhardt. I like that stuff too and I like to pick it up. And then, when I have reached the state of mind, I will write Destruction songs again.

The Iberian tour was a big success, I read…

Oh yeah, the circumstances were a little bit like back to the roots. We had a really tiny van. But I like Spain a lot. It is one of my favourite countries. The people are nice, the food is nice… It was cool. It isn’t so easy to play in Spain. They don’t pay enough. Mostly the promoters are not metalheads and they only do it for the money. The same in France. This time we tried to cover the costs by selling T shirts and shit like that. What we are going to try to do in the next two months is five shows in France, because it is on the way to Spain and then Spain again. Because Spain is such a big country and we just played three shows there. That’s not enough. But in France the venues are very expensive.

And what about Germany? I think the circumstances to play there are better…

Germany is pretty cool to play, but we played so many shows there and I think people get tired of us. I think it is better to wait. Always slow. It is better to do not too many shows and we have so many shows abroad. Last year we did not even play one show in Germany. That was the plan and so it goes. And we are not – how do you say that in English – a prophet in our own country. Not the people, but the press sometimes.

What do you like to listen to yourself?

I am pretty much into the music of the seventies and the sixties. I missed a lot of things and there is so much to recover again. I really missed classical bands and did not get it because it was not big in Germany, for example Mountain. I love it now. For example Grand Funk Railroad. That’s great stuff! Nobody knows that shit in Europe, that’s a pity. Or Skid Row with Gary Moore. It is a mixture between blues rock and jazz. That time he was far out.

You made a videoclip for ‘Total Desaster’…

It was cool. It was the second videoclip we made. Schmier went to a graveyard and all that shit. The live shots are from a show we played in Switzerland. Schmier’s brother fixed it together. He is a computer professor.

Do you have contact with Sodom and Kreator?

Oh yeah, Schmier sometimes talks to Mille, cause they are both on line and have that Skype thing. Once in a while we meet and have fun. We are the old family. They are from the Rurh Gebiet and we are from the South, so we don’t meet that often, but if we meet, it is fun. We try to fix a new tour together, everybody in the States is asking for it; all over the place they want a package again, so we should go together.

To occlude Mike tells me that their bus broke down in Death Valley last time. The bus driver almost passed away, but he made it and had to drive for two hours before leaving Death Valley. Mike concludes: “Being on tour is sometimes like going to war”.

Go and see Destruction live:
Wacken Open Air – 04/08/2007
Meetjesland festival – 07/09/2007


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