this veteran heavy meddler is offering
his expertise to up-and-coming bands hi
I’m Rebecca Braden and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re speaking
with Jeff waters of Annihilator about
the direction of the metal industry I
kind of want to get your opinion on the
general direction of metal today it kind
of started sucking in the 90s obviously
but the same time there was bands that
kept a go on Pantera of course came and
combined that Sabbath and Metallica
thing you know metal started taking
different forms it always seems to come
back and then later finally young guitar
players started playing guitar solos
again which had stopped and guys like
Alexi Laiho from Children of Bodom
and even more recently Trivium guys matt
and corey if they’re like super awesome
you know eight hours a day practicing
type of guitar players that disappeared
later in the 90’s and now that it’s come
back and the Internet’s helped a lot of
younger kids that we’re into some 41 and
blink-182 and all this stuff
those punk pop punk bands started
wearing a Motorhead and British steel
and Iron Maiden shirts and then you know
some 41 started doing if Iron Maiden
kind of harmony solo things and these
young little kids they were watching MTV
we’re like who’s Motorhead who’s Slayer
who’s Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and
that I could see it happening it just
spread out to the medium sized bands the
ax Testament Exodus overkill Annihilator
those those kind of bands and now we’re
reaping the benefits of that you know at
least in North America
ouch
now you’re here to judge a competition
for up-and-coming bands now what would
be your biggest piece of advice to them
well as far as judging I’m just gonna
see who’s like into it and having fun
and who practices and who wants to sound
good and just you know my own opinion
right just I just want to see people
that have fun and give a damn about what
they’re doing
some of the advice for other bands is a
little bit different than it would have
been years ago because times have
changed so different then what I was
starting again
it’s kind of easy for me in a lot of
ways now because I don’t I already know
in Europe if I’m out of a record deal my
deal is over I’m going to have 10 rep
companies lining up to sign me only
because they know I’ll sell based on
previous sales whereas new bands
starting out have a real hurdle now
because the labels now want to sign and
own everything and it just sucks it’s
really crappy right now so as it comes
back and as it makes these people more
money then the contracts will get better
and the deals get better for the bands
and they’ll have more power to you know
have someone fighting for them to get
them a better deal where right now it’s
like the worst time to sign
I’m kind of like the dude that’s still
sticking around for a few reasons and
one of the main reasons is to fight all
these son of a bitches in their record
companies and then you know
merchandisers publishers record label to
rage with all these people that kind of
criminally prey on bands and
intentionally feed musicians with booze
and drugs to keep them all screwed up so
they don’t realize that they’re being
ripped off I kind of do a lot of work
for other bands that are that have names
that are kind of stuck in these
management and label deals and even
endorse or guitar company endorsement
deals and a lot of them are coming to me
to say hey listen we we know you don’t
drink you don’t smoke you don’t do drugs
you’re kind of honest apparently and
we’d like you to try to help us get out
of these shitty deals and so that’s kind
of a side job I do now I’m gonna be an
industry musician advocate soon I think
thank you very much thank you
his expertise to up-and-coming bands hi
I’m Rebecca Braden and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re speaking
with Jeff waters of Annihilator about
the direction of the metal industry I
kind of want to get your opinion on the
general direction of metal today it kind
of started sucking in the 90s obviously
but the same time there was bands that
kept a go on Pantera of course came and
combined that Sabbath and Metallica
thing you know metal started taking
different forms it always seems to come
back and then later finally young guitar
players started playing guitar solos
again which had stopped and guys like
Alexi Laiho from Children of Bodom
and even more recently Trivium guys matt
and corey if they’re like super awesome
you know eight hours a day practicing
type of guitar players that disappeared
later in the 90’s and now that it’s come
back and the Internet’s helped a lot of
younger kids that we’re into some 41 and
blink-182 and all this stuff
those punk pop punk bands started
wearing a Motorhead and British steel
and Iron Maiden shirts and then you know
some 41 started doing if Iron Maiden
kind of harmony solo things and these
young little kids they were watching MTV
we’re like who’s Motorhead who’s Slayer
who’s Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and
that I could see it happening it just
spread out to the medium sized bands the
ax Testament Exodus overkill Annihilator
those those kind of bands and now we’re
reaping the benefits of that you know at
least in North America
ouch
now you’re here to judge a competition
for up-and-coming bands now what would
be your biggest piece of advice to them
well as far as judging I’m just gonna
see who’s like into it and having fun
and who practices and who wants to sound
good and just you know my own opinion
right just I just want to see people
that have fun and give a damn about what
they’re doing
some of the advice for other bands is a
little bit different than it would have
been years ago because times have
changed so different then what I was
starting again
it’s kind of easy for me in a lot of
ways now because I don’t I already know
in Europe if I’m out of a record deal my
deal is over I’m going to have 10 rep
companies lining up to sign me only
because they know I’ll sell based on
previous sales whereas new bands
starting out have a real hurdle now
because the labels now want to sign and
own everything and it just sucks it’s
really crappy right now so as it comes
back and as it makes these people more
money then the contracts will get better
and the deals get better for the bands
and they’ll have more power to you know
have someone fighting for them to get
them a better deal where right now it’s
like the worst time to sign
I’m kind of like the dude that’s still
sticking around for a few reasons and
one of the main reasons is to fight all
these son of a bitches in their record
companies and then you know
merchandisers publishers record label to
rage with all these people that kind of
criminally prey on bands and
intentionally feed musicians with booze
and drugs to keep them all screwed up so
they don’t realize that they’re being
ripped off I kind of do a lot of work
for other bands that are that have names
that are kind of stuck in these
management and label deals and even
endorse or guitar company endorsement
deals and a lot of them are coming to me
to say hey listen we we know you don’t
drink you don’t smoke you don’t do drugs
you’re kind of honest apparently and
we’d like you to try to help us get out
of these shitty deals and so that’s kind
of a side job I do now I’m gonna be an
industry musician advocate soon I think
thank you very much thank you
Please follow and like us: