Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Malicious Intent With SCHMIER From DESTRUCTION
Transcript
- 0:12Speaker 1: It met Lands of Australia. There's a Shmir from Germany
- 0:15Speaker 1: from the band Destruction, and we're going to talk about
- 0:18Speaker 1: our new album Birth of Malice today here on Heavy Radio.
- 0:22Speaker 1: Right that's the one brother, thanks for join us today, Pleasure, Pleasure.
- 0:28Speaker 2: So we I here to talk about your new album,
- 0:31Speaker 2: Birth of Malice, which is your six stage studio album
- 0:34Speaker 2: coming out on March is seventh. My life. I know,
- 0:37Speaker 2: listen to your first radio you've done the future hours before.
- 0:39Speaker 2: But how are you feeling about this particular album.
- 0:42Speaker 1: You know, every album is like a baby. You know,
- 0:45Speaker 1: you're proud, and you know it's it feels great. It's
- 0:48Speaker 1: when it's released and when the first people can can
- 0:51Speaker 1: hear it or the baby see it, you know, and
- 0:54Speaker 1: you know every baby is the most beautiful baby in
- 0:56Speaker 1: the world.
- 0:57Speaker 2: You know.
- 0:57Speaker 1: So of course you like the new album. But this
- 1:02Speaker 1: time we recorded the album already last year and summer
- 1:05Speaker 1: we were mixing it, so it's already old to us.
- 1:08Speaker 1: So I had time six months now seven months to
- 1:12Speaker 1: kind of recap and look back, and I have to
- 1:14Speaker 1: say I still like it after such a long time.
- 1:17Speaker 1: And that's a good sign normally for a musician because
- 1:20Speaker 1: usually we want to change stuff right after, but we
- 1:23Speaker 1: worked pretty long the whole summer and little breaks on
- 1:27Speaker 1: the album, so everybody's satisfied. So yeah, it feels good.
- 1:31Speaker 1: First response is I think here in Germany we never
- 1:34Speaker 1: had such great reactions on a new album. It's actually surprising.
- 1:39Speaker 1: Like we have some big cover stories and some album
- 1:44Speaker 1: of the month's stuff here in the print magazines which
- 1:48Speaker 1: are still famous here in Germany, and we have some
- 1:50Speaker 1: still some printmacs that are leading the scene still. So yeah,
- 1:54Speaker 1: that's actually great surprise after such a long time, much
- 1:58Speaker 1: a long time.
- 1:59Speaker 2: Yeah, you guys are guys are a thrash meadow band
- 2:02Speaker 2: to the Cobra people know what do we expect from
- 2:05Speaker 2: a distruction album? But with this album musically, like what
- 2:08Speaker 2: were you gone for? Like you do you sort of
- 2:11Speaker 2: set goals or past with each album or did you
- 2:13Speaker 2: just get in the studio to rock the fucking out.
- 2:15Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we've been a three piece for very long.
- 2:18Speaker 1: You know, when you're a three piece, you're writing is
- 2:22Speaker 1: always limited because live you only have one guitar. So
- 2:26Speaker 1: for me writing as a three piece for a big
- 2:29Speaker 1: part of the last you know, twenty years, I think
- 2:33Speaker 1: we've been writing. We started with two guitars again in
- 2:36Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, you know, so since six years I have
- 2:40Speaker 1: all the freedom for riding, and there's more guitars now,
- 2:43Speaker 1: there's more possibilities. I always say the sky is the limit.
- 2:46Speaker 1: I have two great guitar players, so we have progressed
- 2:50Speaker 1: the guitar in all the way. There's more guitars on
- 2:53Speaker 1: the album. There's more twin guitars, lead guitars, solos, so
- 2:57Speaker 1: it's a really guitar driven record. And I think this
- 3:00Speaker 1: is the biggest kind of difference to older Destruction albums
- 3:05Speaker 1: that there's a lot of amazing guitars going on and
- 3:08Speaker 1: also some more unusual stuff, you know, like more melodic
- 3:13Speaker 1: solos and stuff that we weren't doing before so much,
- 3:17Speaker 1: maybe on the first albums, but then we kind of
- 3:19Speaker 1: lost it. Now we're back to that that. You know,
- 3:23Speaker 1: I'm a guitar guy, even as a bass player, but
- 3:25Speaker 1: I love the time. So you have to admit the
- 3:28Speaker 1: guitars have to be loud and everywhere on the album,
- 3:31Speaker 1: and that's what they are. Yeah, said brother.
- 3:34Speaker 2: So you released the singles Ain't Destruction and Ni Kings
- 3:37Speaker 2: Thy Masters, so had a good idea of what you
- 3:40Speaker 2: expect from the whole album, or that just sort of
- 3:42Speaker 2: just a mere sample. Yeah.
- 3:44Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean no, you know, usually we always released
- 3:47Speaker 1: like the heaviest songs first, and this time because the
- 3:50Speaker 1: album has a wide range, there's a lot of fast
- 3:53Speaker 1: stuff but also some diverse and groovy songs on it,
- 3:57Speaker 1: so we said, let's show the people how diverse the
- 4:00Speaker 1: album is. And that was a little surprise. The reactions
- 4:02Speaker 1: on Angst, the second single, which is more like a
- 4:05Speaker 1: very grim groovy song, were completely great, almost all the way.
- 4:11Speaker 1: So I was surprised that the Destruction fans also, you know,
- 4:15Speaker 1: kind of liked the groovy part because I mean, we're
- 4:20Speaker 1: a band that has a lot of fast songs. You know,
- 4:22Speaker 1: we define on speed and and and heaviness, so it's
- 4:26Speaker 1: so much different. But I'm very happy that the reactions
- 4:29Speaker 1: were great on that one too, So yeah, as you said,
- 4:32Speaker 1: it kind of shows a little bit the range the
- 4:34Speaker 1: album has. It's it's very heavy, very fast, but on
- 4:37Speaker 1: on the other hand, has some really groovy elements and
- 4:41Speaker 1: and some more melodic parts and the guitars, harmonies and stuff,
- 4:45Speaker 1: you know, So I think there's some surprises on the album.
- 4:48Speaker 1: Still even if it's the sixteenth album, we still have
- 4:52Speaker 1: new elements here and there. For sure, not too new,
- 4:55Speaker 1: but you know, within the range of a thrash metal man.
- 5:00Speaker 2: The album starts through the title track, Birth of Mallace,
- 5:04Speaker 2: which is a lot of piece that guy is from
- 5:06Speaker 2: minute with it for Menca guitars. It's almost dreamy until
- 5:10Speaker 2: the end when it sort of starts getting a bit
- 5:12Speaker 2: of a devilish whisper and becomes more sinister break Bay
- 5:16Speaker 2: to start the album.
- 5:16Speaker 1: Where where did that come from? Yeah, because we we
- 5:20Speaker 1: thought we never had like a song that is called
- 5:24Speaker 1: like the album. There was the intro, you know, and
- 5:28Speaker 1: when the album was written, the intro was the stuff
- 5:30Speaker 1: we did at the end, and at that time it
- 5:33Speaker 1: still didn't have the title. And when we named it
- 5:36Speaker 1: Birth of Melos, because it's like it starts very like
- 5:39Speaker 1: slow and mellow and evil, we thought it would be
- 5:44Speaker 1: a good title for the album. Also because there was
- 5:46Speaker 1: two ways to call the album, either Destruction like the
- 5:49Speaker 1: first real song on the album, the first heavy song,
- 5:52Speaker 1: the intro song, or call it Birth of Melas, which
- 5:56Speaker 1: reflects a lot of the lyrics of the album, you know,
- 6:00Speaker 1: and the Destruction is a perfect something to go and
- 6:02Speaker 1: do straight after because it just rips your face off.
- 6:05Speaker 1: It's fucking it's full on exactly yead of us the
- 6:09Speaker 1: idea behind it. You know, the Birth of Malice is
- 6:11Speaker 1: the intro. They're also going to be a great intro
- 6:13Speaker 1: for the live shows and then you know, all hell
- 6:17Speaker 1: breaks loose when destruction blasts out of the speakers.
- 6:21Speaker 2: Yeah, well done. Now this is your sixteenth album as
- 6:24Speaker 2: a band, right, So does it become easier or harder
- 6:27Speaker 2: to come up with new material the more you're right,
- 6:29Speaker 2: you think.
- 6:30Speaker 1: I think because you're measured, it's maybe easier because for
- 6:34Speaker 1: for a while in the middle of the career, you
- 6:37Speaker 1: start to question yourself. You start to ask yourself, I'm
- 6:40Speaker 1: on the right track? Do I repeat myself? Why do
- 6:43Speaker 1: I want to go? Do I want to change the band?
- 6:46Speaker 1: And when you're measured and old like me, now, you
- 6:49Speaker 1: know what you can do best. You stick to the guns.
- 6:52Speaker 1: You try new stuff. I have a great team around
- 6:55Speaker 1: me with my boys, and they're very great musicians, so
- 6:59Speaker 1: we can do everything we want basically, but the formula
- 7:03Speaker 1: now is easier than it was in the past because
- 7:07Speaker 1: we just experienced more experience and the music music and
- 7:10Speaker 1: skills are better, of course, you know, as you don't
- 7:13Speaker 1: struggle when you go to the studio. You're excited to
- 7:16Speaker 1: go to the studio. When you're younger, you question yourself
- 7:20Speaker 1: too much and sometimes you do stuff that you might
- 7:23Speaker 1: regret later. And when you're older, I think it's you're
- 7:28Speaker 1: more measured. I mean, I still have I still feel
- 7:30Speaker 1: the drive in my heart. I'm still seventeen, you know,
- 7:33Speaker 1: and it's just the the you know, the experience that
- 7:38Speaker 1: sometimes paces me down. But I think it's a good
- 7:42Speaker 1: mix to keep this, you know, music at hard young,
- 7:46Speaker 1: music keeps you at hard young anyways, you know. So
- 7:49Speaker 1: I think it's a good mix. The way we're right nowadays,
- 7:52Speaker 1: it's easier for me than it was ten years ago. Actually, yeah, yeah.
- 7:57Speaker 2: Cool now you started to be back in ninety ninety
- 8:00Speaker 2: to mate, So was a musical climate.
- 8:02Speaker 1: Like that gave birth to Destruction?
- 8:04Speaker 2: And where did you fit in? Back in those days?
- 8:07Speaker 1: We were actually the outsiders. I think that in the
- 8:09Speaker 1: Destruction song, I think we're the outsiders of society. And
- 8:14Speaker 1: it felt like that because in Germany at that time
- 8:17Speaker 1: there was no scene. The scene was rising and we
- 8:20Speaker 1: were one of the first bands and people were looking
- 8:23Speaker 1: at us with disgust, you know, they were like, oh
- 8:25Speaker 1: my god, what is this? You know, what is this music?
- 8:28Speaker 1: How do you look like? And there was no name
- 8:32Speaker 1: for metal heads back then. That's actually crazy, you know,
- 8:34Speaker 1: because metal started a new way for British Metal came
- 8:38Speaker 1: from England and all of a sudden we had German
- 8:40Speaker 1: metal bands and we just had the Scorpions before, you know,
- 8:43Speaker 1: so it was kind of new. You have like this crazy,
- 8:46Speaker 1: crazy scene and you know, the scene here in my
- 8:49Speaker 1: region was just some friends and the band. So we
- 8:53Speaker 1: were just a handful of guys, was the only metal heads.
- 8:56Speaker 1: There was no shows yet, we had to drive to
- 8:59Speaker 1: Switzerland for us hours, you know, to see a show.
- 9:02Speaker 1: And so the first years were a struggle, a fight,
- 9:06Speaker 1: but also like a little revolution against society. You know.
- 9:09Speaker 1: We were very young and wild and we were trying
- 9:12Speaker 1: to break out this conservative, Catholic German, rusty germanness, you know.
- 9:18Speaker 1: So yeah, I guess I guess it helped us really
- 9:23Speaker 1: to you know, to bring some color into our youth.
- 9:29Speaker 2: So of course now that you recognized as one of
- 9:31Speaker 2: the most influential thresh bands ever, especially to come out
- 9:35Speaker 2: of Germany, so do you remember at what point of
- 9:37Speaker 2: your career you actually sat back yourself and went like, yeah,
- 9:42Speaker 2: we're definitely done already.
- 9:43Speaker 1: As I think it took long. Even in the eighties
- 9:47Speaker 1: we toured with Motorhead and Slayer. We had some amazing tours,
- 9:51Speaker 1: and the eighties were special. It was everything was fresh
- 9:54Speaker 1: and new, you know. But I think I could only
- 9:57Speaker 1: lean back maybe some years ago when I maybe like
- 10:03Speaker 1: the years before COVID, I was like, we're doing well,
- 10:07Speaker 1: and then COVID came, you know, and then we're fucked.
- 10:12Speaker 1: We're done, And and I think too resurrect from the
- 10:17Speaker 1: COVID with the last album and go back on tour
- 10:21Speaker 1: and celebrate forty years. There was was a time when
- 10:24Speaker 1: I realized that we have a lot of fans worldwide
- 10:28Speaker 1: that are very faithful and that supported us really well,
- 10:32Speaker 1: and it's really worth it to stick to the guns
- 10:34Speaker 1: and continue. But yeah, this is music business. You can
- 10:38Speaker 1: never be sure, right na. So I think COVID showed
- 10:42Speaker 1: up pretty well that we all thought it over because
- 10:45Speaker 1: we couldn't play and we couldn't do shit, and so
- 10:49Speaker 1: I mean Australia was even worse. I think. I mean,
- 10:51Speaker 1: Joan had a lot of lockdowns and a lot of
- 10:54Speaker 1: you know, very strict laws. But you know, for instance,
- 10:59Speaker 1: in America, I was much more open. It was easier
- 11:02Speaker 1: for to survive there. But yeah, those more difficult years,
- 11:06Speaker 1: and I think after that you appreciated much more what
- 11:09Speaker 1: you can do and what you have achieved. So I
- 11:12Speaker 1: think now I lean back a little bit more. I
- 11:15Speaker 1: wouldn't lean back totally because I think it's always, you know,
- 11:21Speaker 1: you always need to fight if your musician, you always
- 11:24Speaker 1: find obstacles that trying to stop you. You get ripped off everywhere. No,
- 11:29Speaker 1: so you gotta still you know, work hard for you
- 11:34Speaker 1: for your money, is I think nowadays. But I won't
- 11:37Speaker 1: complain because it's going good and and yeah, the world
- 11:43Speaker 1: is changing also, you know, because of the the spotifying
- 11:47Speaker 1: and and you know, people are buying less and less albums.
- 11:50Speaker 1: I mean, the CD basically will die out in the
- 11:53Speaker 1: next years, you know. I I just saw the pre
- 11:57Speaker 1: sales for the new album and we still sell a
- 11:59Speaker 1: lot of these compared to younger bands, you know, but
- 12:02Speaker 1: I see it's you know, it's going down every year
- 12:05Speaker 1: with the CD sails. Actually what's selling really good now
- 12:08Speaker 1: is vinyls. You know, vis coming back here nyls. They
- 12:11Speaker 1: have the third Spring already. It's kind of amazing, you
- 12:16Speaker 1: know that vinyl collectors. Some years ago, I thought the
- 12:20Speaker 1: cassette would come back, but it didn't happen.
- 12:22Speaker 2: You know when I.
- 12:23Speaker 1: Tried yet, i'd actually tried. We did also a cassette edition.
- 12:28Speaker 1: It didn't sell well. I think we saw like one
- 12:31Speaker 1: thousand copies or something. Yeah, it's just for collectors, just
- 12:35Speaker 1: to for the memory. Nobody's going to listen to that
- 12:37Speaker 1: ship anymore.
- 12:39Speaker 2: Look, I've got a type.
- 12:41Speaker 1: As a dead player and remembers, you know, the when
- 12:45Speaker 1: I used to come on stuck. Yeah.
- 12:50Speaker 2: Yeah, Now, many musical trends have come and gone over
- 12:54Speaker 2: the forty plus es a destruction debait around. But you
- 12:58Speaker 2: guys have always stuck to your own power, which is admirable.
- 13:01Speaker 1: But have you ever been tempted.
- 13:02Speaker 2: To sort of try and write the white times and
- 13:05Speaker 2: cay what everyone else's doing.
- 13:07Speaker 1: I mean, we had our difficulties in the band. We
- 13:10Speaker 1: also split for some years, and we had kind of
- 13:15Speaker 1: musical differences when we were young. And at the year
- 13:19Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, that happened and it showed us a
- 13:23Speaker 1: lot of things about how the music business works and
- 13:26Speaker 1: how we were too young to understand. And with the
- 13:29Speaker 1: years you gain confidence and gain knowledge about everything. So
- 13:34Speaker 1: I'm more like the ac DC kind of guy, you know,
- 13:38Speaker 1: stick to the recipes, stick to the guns, do stuff
- 13:42Speaker 1: within your reach, and do what you can do best.
- 13:45Speaker 1: And I think ACDC had this also. I remember in
- 13:49Speaker 1: the nineties people were laughing about ACDC, like, oh my god,
- 13:53Speaker 1: what are they doing? Is doing the same album again?
- 13:55Speaker 1: And then the success went down. Also, I remember starting
- 13:58Speaker 1: off eighties and nineties, the success went down. They were
- 14:01Speaker 1: just not playing the big stadiums for a while anymore.
- 14:05Speaker 1: And they still they were still sticking to their guns
- 14:08Speaker 1: and they did what they could do best and it
- 14:10Speaker 1: came back stronger than ever. Right, good less thing. This
- 14:15Speaker 1: shows you know that do what you can do best.
- 14:18Speaker 1: You know, don't be the the what do you call
- 14:21Speaker 1: this the flag in the wind? We call it in Germany,
- 14:25Speaker 1: good algy. Don't don't try to be the trendsetter, you know,
- 14:28Speaker 1: be the one that that is confident about what he's doing.
- 14:32Speaker 1: And that's what we what we do since many years,
- 14:35Speaker 1: I think, and I got the same idea. One of
- 14:38Speaker 1: the most humble people I've.
- 14:39Speaker 2: Ever Spiker dudes, it's good to hear. Thank you what
- 14:44Speaker 2: destruction finished might and hopefully it's It's a long way
- 14:47Speaker 2: in the future, but he goes to get to go
- 14:49Speaker 2: down as one of the best and most influential thrash
- 14:51Speaker 2: bands ever. So what do you hope the inscription would
- 14:54Speaker 2: be on the band's musical streamstone.
- 14:57Speaker 1: I hope there's no grimstone. I think the hopefully musical
- 15:01Speaker 1: journey will go on after our death, you know, because
- 15:05Speaker 1: good music should survive, you know. And I'm hopeful that
- 15:09Speaker 1: because we were one of the first waves of thrash
- 15:12Speaker 1: metal worldwide, that the kids will still remember when I'm dead,
- 15:16Speaker 1: that like this guy in Germany back in the day
- 15:19Speaker 1: with his weird name, you know, he started thrash Medal
- 15:22Speaker 1: in Germany. And yeah, I hope music lives on, you know.
- 15:26Speaker 1: That's that's something because I love the stuff from the
- 15:29Speaker 1: seventies and sixties and I appreciate the roots. I hope
- 15:33Speaker 1: the metal fans in the future will also appreciate the
- 15:35Speaker 1: roots of because thrash metal was basically the beginning of
- 15:39Speaker 1: extreme metal, and it's just the root of all evil
- 15:45Speaker 1: and heavy genre, right, So yeah, I mean yeah, so no, no,
- 15:50Speaker 1: gravestone for us. Let's let's let the music do talking,
- 15:53Speaker 1: and hopefully we can play this music as long as
- 15:56Speaker 1: possible because we're going to be the first generation of
- 15:59Speaker 1: thrash bands that will retire.
- 16:02Speaker 2: Maybe you know before we got you just record a
- 16:07Speaker 2: little plunk for the album. I'll let it up together
- 16:09Speaker 2: and I'll send it to Christie's.
- 16:10Speaker 1: It's priory for you.
- 16:11Speaker 2: So just give good fans a bit of ave been
- 16:13Speaker 2: introt of the album and tell them that it's coming
- 16:15Speaker 2: out stuff.
- 16:17Speaker 1: Yeah. I think this is a guitar driven record, so
- 16:20Speaker 1: if you like thrash metal, it will definitely kick your butt.
- 16:24Speaker 1: But also has a lot of traditional heavy metal influences
- 16:27Speaker 1: because that's what I'm coming from, right. I grew up
- 16:30Speaker 1: in the eighties, and the older I get, the more
- 16:33Speaker 1: the heavy influences from the early eighties are important in
- 16:35Speaker 1: the music. Again, so this album has a lot of
- 16:38Speaker 1: reminiscence to the eighty you know metal classics also here
- 16:43Speaker 1: and there, you know the Harmony Resolutions, they have some
- 16:46Speaker 1: Priests and Maiden here and there. That's my favorites. So
- 16:49Speaker 1: I think if you like a metal fan in general,
- 16:52Speaker 1: give you the listen. It has a wide range from
- 16:55Speaker 1: very speedy to very groovy to to like tank metal
- 16:59Speaker 1: songs that just roll over you, you know. And yes,
- 17:02Speaker 1: as I said, a lot of catchy guitars, a lot
- 17:04Speaker 1: of catchy hooks and check it out fantasy brother.
- 17:09Speaker 2: Well, thanks very much for join us all. Be an
- 17:11Speaker 2: absolute pleasure to speak with. Your Birth of mouths is
- 17:13Speaker 2: out March seven and it is a fucking bolts are right,
- 17:16Speaker 2: saf congratulations, I.
- 17:18Speaker 1: Thank you very much man, and yeah, I have a
- 17:21Speaker 1: great night. You already adnied right in.
- 17:24Speaker 2: I had a fucking night brother. I'm gonna have dinner
- 17:25Speaker 2: and hit the fat sack after I speak to you.
- 17:27Speaker 1: Okay, I have my whole day in front of me. No,
- 17:31Speaker 1: it's enjoyed. Brother, will see you when you come out
- 17:33Speaker 1: to Australia. Thank you bye.
- 17:37Speaker 3: Yeah you want trust them down with no my mind,
- 17:58Speaker 3: promise me.
- 18:01Speaker 4: Out of sight a dortry mater.
- 18:04Speaker 3: We have shady deal, fillions of dollars and a fat
- 18:11Speaker 3: spenty little come m don't wait strange your hours. You're
- 18:15Speaker 3: corptor we're not a crowd. Burn it down with a
- 18:21Speaker 3: line your child, little balls.
- 18:24Speaker 4: Waiting on the final vow. Scott black Jeli right now, Wow,
- 18:35Speaker 4: can't get right. Scott Black gelan Ray.
- 18:43Speaker 1: I won't count you.
- 18:44Speaker 3: Just now find't see forever if I feed your was
- 18:48Speaker 3: about two three real hours, I refuse super.
- 18:52Speaker 4: Bad oh shights right in the doctor's night. I rise
- 18:57Speaker 4: up about about back.
- 18:59Speaker 1: You explain a little.
- 19:02Speaker 3: Con yep, don't way straight your hours. You're corrupt well
- 19:08Speaker 3: down a crown burny.
- 19:10Speaker 1: Down, what a life?
- 19:12Speaker 4: Your job les down as waiting under five bulls.
- 19:21Speaker 3: Scott black Chili raise, my walk can't.
- 19:26Speaker 2: Get plays.
- 19:29Speaker 4: Scott black Chili raise. I don't wanna got your dog.
- 20:09Speaker 3: No more shadows of doubts as well.
- 20:13Speaker 4: I am going for you from this throng, the.
- 20:16Speaker 3: Show, the true, the veil, the lies of doubts and
- 20:22Speaker 3: villy and it's.
- 20:24Speaker 1: Just south.
- 21:04Speaker 2: Your RETI words.
- 21:06Speaker 3: Mean not thing to me.
- 21:08Speaker 4: I'm the one I'm always to long way too well.
- 21:14Speaker 4: It's pay for their lives. Scott back Jimmy raise and
- 21:24Speaker 4: walk his brass. Scott back my Ray, I will jun
- 21:33Speaker 4: your jack Scott back gy Ray.
- 21:41Speaker 3: There's John Jepray.
- 21:45Speaker 4: John Bang
- 21:49Speaker 3: Always freight too well