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Into The Pit With ERIC PETERSON From TESTAMENT · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up. This is Eric from Testament. Good to see
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: you all. It's been twelve plus years since we've been there,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and we're excited, you know. And all the shows there,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: some of them are sold out and they're they're gonna
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: it looks like the whole thing might just be sold out.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: So we're excited.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Ad damn Stride. The people over here definitely excited as well.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: The why they're snapping off tickets Mite, So we'll be
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: good to have you come back awesome.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're gonna be there. Uh, like two weeks we'll
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: be there.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I actually hit Astraya Brisbane on June ninety eighth, and
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: then you get Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide before finishing in
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Perth on the twenty fourth of June. So that is
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: what two weeks. So I brother, you packed it ready
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: to go?
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Uh? I'm not packed yet, but I'm I'm yeah, we're
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: we are finishing mixing our new record and we're turning
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: it in like a day before we leave. I will
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: probably pack next week. So yeah, I'm excited traveling a
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: light bill. I'll bring my tennis shoes and my stretch
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: jeans and then I'll bring my shorts and my flip flops.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: That's about it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: If you flipflops are every might not have to bring
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: you you just pick one up from the Koda.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And I'll I'll just do I'll leave those here and
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: get some there.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Might supposed sense now as you sidewry, this is going
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: to be your first headline tour of austrayas he's twenty ten.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: So I guess the big question is why have you
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: neglected us for so long?
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Oy? I wouldn't say neglected, it's just you know, uh,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: there's so much Testaments has been so busy and a
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: lot a lot going on, different members coming in doing records.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: I think we have tempted to try to come there
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: in sixteen or seventeen, but then we got offered other
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: tours in Europe. We did try to make it over
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: there in twenty twenty, but then you know the sound
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: wave thing, but then that we all know what happened
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: with that, with the pandemic, and then you know everything's
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: getting started again and now we're at full swing and
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: we're on our way two.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Weeks very no, I said, so what's changed with the bands?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Who's last over here? Are you?
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Like? Three records? Are out, and we've got a fourth
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: one that's coming out in the fall. And so yeah,
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Steve to Georgio I believe was with us, or maybe
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Steve or Greg was there in twenty ten, and then
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Steve came back with us for sound Wave in twenty thirteen.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Maybe Now we got a new drummer. It's a kid,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: he's twenty six year old, Yam Christovis. But he's a beast,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: really really good drummer. And yeah, we're kind of on
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: fire again. I mean, we're playing a lot of stuff
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: that we haven't played in a long time. So that's
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: kind of what we're doing. We're kind of revisiting a
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: lot of stuff that we kind of just didn't do,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: but now we're doing it. And it was stuff that
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: people wanted us to do, like you know, speaking more
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: like of deep cuts and you know, some of the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: slower stuff that we got, slower stuff. No, no, don't
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: don't get me wrong. We're gonna push comes to sub
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: We're you know, we're gonna we're gonna light it on fire.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: But there's gonna be some moments where we haven't had.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: You know, we we never played Return to Serenity live,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and people want to hear it, and we always thought
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: people to want to hear it, but when we played
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: it on these last couple of tours and this, you know,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: we've seen people crying in the audience, is like Jesus.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: But don't get me wrong, right after that in the pit,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: you know, we're gonna put you right back in the pit.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: So nice. It's sort of was gonna lay me my
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: next question because you've got like thirteen studio albums, you
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: got live albums, complace albums, so how do you how
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: do you make a set list to keep everyone happy?
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: It'd be not easier just to throw dots at a
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: board and come up with it that way. It would not.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: You know, Yeah, it's a funny many metaphor, but you
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: know we have such a Yeah, we got thirteen records,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and we always seem to go, okay, we have we
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: got a good set, but then we're like, well what
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: about this song? It's hard, it's hard to pick them.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: So what we try to do now is we've been
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: doing these or we're starting to do these like evenings
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: with Testament to where we play by ourselves and we
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: do a longer set MH. And we just did that
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: like this last month and that turned out really well.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean, you know, we Testaments always on tour,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: and we're always touring and we have you know, we
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: can pick and choose the kind of sets we want
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: to do to not repeat what we just did. You know, so,
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: and that was funny what you said when I said slow,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: you're all slow songs. No, there's you're gonna You're gonna
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: You're gonna like the slow one because you know you're
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: gonna be worn out after all the fast of.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: That's what I like it. Yeah, So since it's been
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: so long since you've be anybody, like everyone knows your Testament. Ah,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: but the benefit of those who might not have had
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: the pleasure I have seen you live before. Run it
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: through a typical Testament live show.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: A lot of energy, a lot of smiling faces, great sound,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: great songs. I think you know, we've been doing this
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: for a while, so we're kind of mastered, not mastered,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: but you know, we're good at what We're good at
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: what we do playing our songs now some stuff in
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: the past, you know, play we kind of out dinner
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: starvesselves on the record and then trying to play them live.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: What was kind of challenging, but we've kind of gotten
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: over that fear of you know, playing some of those songs,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: and now when we play them, I feel like we
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: own them. So that's a good feeling when you when
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: you go up there and you got something powerful and
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: you know it's going to hit and you make it
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: hit right to where people feel, you know, getting it
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: right on the record, and then getting it right as
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: a task for sure.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it would be would be. You know, you've mentioned
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: a new album a couple of times, Brian, so what
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: can you tell us about that?
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: And that one's going to be on fire? So cool.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's so many different elements of the new
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: one from all the best stuff that we've done, like
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: you know, just the earlier style stuff that we've done,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: like you know, from the legacy to the more of
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the brutal kind of stuff, from the gathering, some of
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the stuff from my other band, like dragon Lord. Black
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: metal influences are shining through a little bit, but not
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: to where you know, you think, like, oh, they're trying
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: to sound like black metal. It isn't. I don't even
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: that's the wrong way to put it. But it's just
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: there's all these elements, you know, and I mean there's
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: some even some new wave of British heavy metal kind
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: of stuff going on. I know you don't like the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: word slow song, but but we have a really good
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: ballave that we wrote and we got a string section
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: on there as well, and it's just overall it's a
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: really good record. It's a journey. When you put it on,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: you're just like, whoa. It's not just brutal all the
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: way through, which also works, but this one is like,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: from beginning to end, it just takes you on this journey.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: And it's like it's going to be hard to pick
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: what songs we're going to play live because they're all
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: so different and good. You know, it's gonna it isn't like,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: oh they're all fast, let's just play that one. That
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: one kind of represents everything.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: It's like, no, wow, that's pretty cool.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, very cool.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: I want to go back to the beginning, mate, Like
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: you started a testament in the San Francisco Bay area
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: back in nineteen eighty three, So what was the musical
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: climate like that life back then that gave birth to
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: testament and where did you fit in initially?
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: So yeah, eight so eighty three is probably when I
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: was still jumping around in front of the mirror. I
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: think probably eighty four is when the band really started
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: rehearsing and writing songs, you know, stuff like Cursally of Death.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: We have a song called the Legacy which ended up
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: on Souls of Black, Like you know, years later ran
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: a Terror, bless and Contempt, which ended up being on Practice,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: which you preached like five years later. So I mean
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: there's even some rifts. There's even some rifts from back
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: then that are on this new record. Wow, you know,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: it's so weird. I got, you know, rifts that I've
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: never used, and you just like when you're jamming with someone,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: You're like, oh my god, that riff is going to
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: actually fit somewhere.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Now I's wicked.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Nice.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: So back when you started Bright, when you're with the
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: innocence of youth about you back then, Like what did
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: fresh metal actually mean to you?
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Back then? You know, it was so new and fresh
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I think, and uh, just the reaction of you know,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: going I think going to concerts. A lot of shows
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: that I went to before I was in a band,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: A lot of bands were had that kind of iron
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Maiden vibe or judas Priest and that was like everybody.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: And then I remember, you know, going to some punk
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: shows and just being like this is crazy. You know,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: they're just stage diving and you know it's going to
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: see GBH and exploited, and then seeing Metallica for the
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: first time, you know, with no record out they only
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: had a demo. To me, that was kind of like,
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: that's what kind of woke me up. And I don't
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: know what happened. I think all the Iron Maiden riffs
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: that I had written kind of got re composed into
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: you know, like Wow, So I really like GBH, but
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: I really like Judas pre and just kind of incorporating
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: it all together. You know, I think the genre is
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: kind of compounded from all that. And does that make sense?
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Dave, my friend, that's amount of being rod Fleet Cold
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: one of the maisteine flunch bands of thrash metal in history.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: But do you personally made like inside the band? What
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: do you see as your contribution to metal?
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Wow? Probably just all you know, the consistency of uh,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: keeping the bar up on on good songs, I think,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: and then just having a formula that works and being
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: you know, being consistent with it. You know, just like
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: bands like, uh, you know, we have a certain sound
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: and trying to replicate that every single time is very challenging.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: But you know, sometimes you just have to wait, you know, wait,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: wait around for the right riff, and they take longer
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: to come to us. Now the metal gods are hold on.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: There's other bands now, okay, okay, here throwing us the bone.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: But no, it's uh, I think just being you know,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: staying true to it and being into it. And Testament
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: has always been big enough to be big, but not
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: big enough to get spoiled in and not you know, Oh,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: we don't need to write anything, you know. I think
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: we've it's kept us on our toes to where we
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: keep getting a taste to wanting to try to be
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: you know, heavy all the time.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, something like that one day, and I hope it
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: is a long way down the track, right, But one
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: day when you decide to pull stumps on Testament, what
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: do you hope the inscription would be on the band's
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: musical team stone?
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Ah wow, I don't. I don't know, so on Testaments
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: epitaph or something like that. Yeah, I don't know. Here,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: you know, last Will and Testament, I don't know.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: It is a bit of a hard one to spring
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: on you. Sorry mate, I don't know.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: So yeah, so that that maybe the epitaph could say
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: something like get ready to go over the wall, Disciples
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: of the Watch and return to serenity.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Oh that's all right, I like that.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: It's been an absolute pleasure speaking with the Erica Testament
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: in Australia from June eighteenth. Not many tickets left, so
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: head to the Phoenix dot com dot au if you
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: want to grab one, and I'll see you in Brisbane.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I love your light show, brother, look at that.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: We'll see We'll see you all into the pit in
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: two weeks.