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Waking Up The Dead With STEVE FRANCIS From BULLETBELT · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, hey, it's Steve here from Bulet Belt. We're from Wellington,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: New Zealand. We're super excited to be coming over to
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Australia in two weeks to play Dead to Winterfest. And
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  Speaker 1: we've also got a show happening in Melbourne and the
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: show happening in Adelaide, so awesome three three in a row,
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  Speaker 1: little mini Australian tour for us, So yeah, it's gonna
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  Speaker 1: be cool.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Hey, it made nice smashing smashing grant mission.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and really cool places like obviously Melbourne is an
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  Speaker 1: amazing place. It's like coming from Wellington, Melbourne's like a
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  Speaker 1: much bigger version of Wellington. It's like good food, heaps
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  Speaker 1: to do, good venues and stuff. And it's actually our
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: third time going to Adelaide and we seem to be
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  Speaker 1: getting a little bit of a following there and it's
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  Speaker 1: a really cool little town.
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  Speaker 3: And Chris from Head and and Tent has helped us
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  Speaker 3: out big time on that show.
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  Speaker 1: And then obviously really excited to come and play this
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  Speaker 1: awesome festival.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: Man just brother will start with Deata Window first because
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: that's the big the big news in Australia, the fact
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  Speaker 4: that it's returned after a few years on hiatus. So
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  Speaker 4: how right from your point of view, mate, how important
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  Speaker 4: are homegrown festivals like this to keep going on the
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: local circuit.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: They're huge, They're huge, and I mean, look at Australia.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Look at how many amazing heavy bands there are that
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: are at the moment and a little bit parallel to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: back here in Wellington. I think the local scene at
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  Speaker 1: the moment here in Wellington and the bigger New Zealand's
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  Speaker 1: probably better than that's ever been. So many bands that
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: are getting overseas and getting signed to international labels and
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: coming over to play Brisbane with such a really cool
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  Speaker 1: diverse lineup as well. We came two years ago and
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: played the Necrosonic Festival and that was catered a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more to the kind of heavier, heavier side of
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  Speaker 1: the of the rock genre.
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  Speaker 3: But this one is really exciting because.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to be we're going to be presenting ourselves
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  Speaker 1: in front of a bunch of people who just in
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the heavy music, they're into all sorts of kind of
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  Speaker 1: rock orientated music.
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  Speaker 3: So yeah, really excited.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then the line up for Dead of When
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  Speaker 2: it is phenomenal made.
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  Speaker 4: You've got bands like there's toe to Toe, DZ Death
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  Speaker 4: Rays like Reino Jay Lindsay.
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  Speaker 2: From Friends of Rong, Like who are you most looking
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: forward to playing with on the day or catching up.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: With the band Nicholas Cage Fighter, I think playing Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's the band Friends of Bomb. That's the dude from
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  Speaker 1: those dudes from there, right, because I saw those guys
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  Speaker 1: way back in the day multiple times. There's a fellow
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  Speaker 1: Wellington bank called Darts who are coming over and they're
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: a little more kind of pup rock, kind of like
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: your your band the Chats, Okay, it's kind of our version.
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  Speaker 1: They have like songs about you know, good time, songs
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  Speaker 1: about drinking and stuff and yeah, always good time Astro Death.
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  Speaker 3: I saw them at Necrosonic and they were.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Sick and as usual I always when we play festivals,
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  Speaker 1: I always get out and explore and try to try
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: to find new bands.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, super excited to check out some new bands.
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  Speaker 4: Hell yeah, Rother Now as you say, mate, the last
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: time you were here was at the same venue in
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  Speaker 4: twenty twenty four Ford next for Asonic.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: So what's changed with Bullet Belt since last time we
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: saw you?
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: A lot?
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  Speaker 1: To be honest, So I think just after those shows
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: we tour Japan, which was really awesome tour. Then we
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: came back and then we had our fifteenth anniversary show
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: here in Warrington and that was November twenty twenty four,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: and then we haven't played since. So that's been going
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: for seventeen years now, and this was.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: The longest break we've ever had.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: We've always been very active and toured a lot and
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: played a lot, but we've kind of sat back and
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: we've been working pretty much two years on our new album.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: We've really gone all on on it.
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  Speaker 1: We decided that we needed to kind of step back
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: from playing live, so we've been recording. This album has
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: completely done. It's sitting there waiting to be released hopefully
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: in opt with film videos for it, and we've kind
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: of taken a much more what's the word, We've incorporated rated,
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: incorporated a lot more malady into what we do. So
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  Speaker 1: we've still got the classic bullet belt sound, but having
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: our new singer Diego who first sang on Burn It Up,
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  Speaker 1: it's just given us so much, so much more scope
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  Speaker 1: to wide and what we do.
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  Speaker 3: So we recorded the album practice here.
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  Speaker 1: We've had a producer in the States called Dave Damien
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  Speaker 1: Reynard and he's produced Dragon Force and Baby Metal and
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of Fair Factory and a whole bunch
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  Speaker 1: of other bands. So we've kind of gone for a
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: real top tier international sound.
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  Speaker 2: Say someone's not familiar with Bullet Belt and they're coming
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  Speaker 2: to see you play what three songs here or should
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  Speaker 2: they listen to in order to get to know the
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: band better.
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  Speaker 3: They should listen to Burn It Up. They should listen
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  Speaker 3: to Arminius, and they should listen to Deathasm and they're
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  Speaker 3: all they're all complete rages.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: So when you come and see Bullet Belt Platus Festival,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: we're a party band, all right.
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  Speaker 3: So we aim to grab the crowd in our hands.
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  Speaker 1: And get them to be with us and be part
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  Speaker 1: of our set. And our goal is to move move people,
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  Speaker 1: and move bodies and and get people clapping and banging
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: first and hopefully a little bit of pet action.
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  Speaker 3: Let's see how it goes.
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  Speaker 4: Just got announced today, true bro, you guys are going
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  Speaker 4: to be opening for Vindicta.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah there as well, May Congratulations.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah that should be fun.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I think it's the band that was kind of previously
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: known as Dogma, So okay, I think they had a
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: little bit of I don't know what happened, but anyway,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: so yeah, so yeah, we're really excited and Max Watts
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: like super cool venues, so to come over to my
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  Speaker 1: favorite one of my favorite cities in Australia, Max Watts
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  Speaker 1: is all good time.
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  Speaker 2: Hell yeah, Eric, And.
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  Speaker 4: Tell peoplere about the Adelaide show too, bro, because Uderlade
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: is a long way from Brisbane, so people are going.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: To get to see you.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, third time late. We actually first time was twenty fifteen.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: We toured Australia with a thrash band from US called
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Toxic Holocaust and we got to Adelaide.
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  Speaker 3: That was sick.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: And then we came over two years ago when we
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: came over for the necro Sonic and we're coming back
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: third time. We're playing with and Malice's Wake, who have
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: just released one of the thrash albums of the year,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Oath of Damnation, a band that Bullet Belt's got some
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: great history over the years playing shows with, and a
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: brand new band called Impetus. So yeah, really sick, really
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: sick lineup, and big thanks to Chris from Churches of
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Steel Hidden Intent for stepping up and putting a show
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  Speaker 1: on for us.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, good on you.
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  Speaker 4: Guys were coming across the water and still at a
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: support slot from Istralian bands.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Hey, hey, look man, you guys have been claiming crowded house.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: I think you even fucking think far laps from fucking Australia.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: So you know we're allowed to come and take a
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: little bit back occasionally, right.
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  Speaker 2: Are our brother anyway? What do you do you want
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: to do?
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  Speaker 3: Exactly exactly?
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  Speaker 4: So you mentioned a bit about the new albumy for Right,
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  Speaker 4: So tell us a bit more about that, like is
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  Speaker 4: it what people would expect from about.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Or is it uh not really, it's it's a it's
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  Speaker 1: a very new sound. It's we've taken a lot of
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  Speaker 1: influence from a lot of.
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  Speaker 3: Bands that we've played with, Like being a.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Band that's done a lot of international support slots, we're
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: always looking what are these big bands do, how do
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: they behave? How you know, what's their characteristics when they
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: tore and trying to learn off them and we're kind
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of kind of wanted to kind of take our sound
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: upper level a little bit influenced by our buddies Dragon Force.
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  Speaker 1: On this album that the tempos are up up up,
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  Speaker 1: there's some two hundred bpm songs, a real power metal
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  Speaker 1: element and huge soaring choruses.
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  Speaker 3: So we've For me, I always go to Judas Priests
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: pain Killer.
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  Speaker 1: If you want an album that is all color, no filla,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: you've got to look at that album. And that's how
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: we tried to make this album all color, no feller.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Every song you put on could get the party started.
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  Speaker 1: That was kind of the goal of this album.
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  Speaker 4: You mentioned before, but you actually stepped away from schuring
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: and played live and took time off to write this album.
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  Speaker 4: So did that have a noticeable effect on how the
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: creative process By the fact you weren't out there and
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: you weren't in.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: The music world, you sort of taking a step back.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. It just gave us pure focus.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's taken a little long. Then we kind
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: of bargained on to get back playing again. So a
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: little bit of how long it's taken has been related
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: to Death Gasm too, which is a movie coming out.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: So ten years ago we did the theme to Death Gasm,
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  Speaker 1: which became a little bit of a cult underground classic,
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  Speaker 1: and Death Gasm two has been filmed and we wrote
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the theme song for that. So a little bit of
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: our album release is waiting for the general release of
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: that movie, because we've done the theme song and we've
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: done the V you so, because there's been so many
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: fucking delays on that movie, we've had we've had the
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: set and kind of buy our time a little bit.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: So we're really itching to get playing live again. And
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: that's the The Melbourne show is going to be our
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: first show in almost two years, so we are we
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: are peaking nice.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: Are we going to hear any new songs for you?
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've got two. We're going to play two new ones.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: A lot some of the guys in the band wanted
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: to crank out a whole bunch of more, but I
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: have the kind of kind of put my foot down
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: a bit and say, look, the album's not even out yet,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: so we're gonna play. Yeah, we're going to play two
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: new ones off the album, and yeah, we're super excited
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: to play those.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Fantasy. Thanks very much for your time. It's been a
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: pleasure speaking with you.
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: Bullet Belt will be here at the end of this
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: month to do Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, so get on
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: down and have a beer and I'll see him.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: BRITTI.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Thanks Chris, appreciate the support man and looking forward to
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: meeting everyone in Australia and having a great time.
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: Fantastic brother, right Will, I'll send this through tomorrow published
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: and I've lived on send a ship by email and
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: you'll have it all the good fingertips.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah man, And we're gonna catch you at the fifth
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: H