this veteran Canadian metalbend is
synonymous with the word schizo hi I’m
Rebecca Brayton and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re speaking
with Jeff waters from Annihilator
so we always like to start by getting
the origin stories of the bands that we
interviews to tell us a bit about how
Annihilator first got together
well Annihilator started back in the
nineteen 1984 myself and a friend of
mine that we were all sharing cassette
tapes illegally traded cassette demo
tapes back then of venom Slayer Exodus
anthrax Metallica razor anvil exciter
their first records and Mike Barney
shrapnel records thrash stuff
compilation albums that they had out
when I heard that heavy stuff for my
friend John Bates I totally got into
that and just left everything else all
the van Halen and everything behind so
he and I just started Annihilator kind
of a weird name but it worked I guess
and it’s very hard to say for Europeans
we got like any he that to our any late
or anal eater but we don’t even have to
really do that one
I knee he let or occasionally they get
it right
there have been a lot of comings and
goings with me ban would say a lot of
different members what would you say has
led to that well I think in North
America finally with the internet people
are starting to that want to know about
our ban find out about her ban but over
in Europe and Japan everybody’s known
for about 20 more than 20 years that
it’s essentially been a solo project and
I would hire different musicians I like
to work with different drummers so I you
know I go after Mike Mangini spent on a
record season with extreme Steve I now
he’s with Dream Theater so what I do is
I basically team up find a drummer and
my singers been the same singer for
almost a decade now which it’s
coincidental that we’re selling more and
more records maybe it’s because we have
a stable lineup
my singer guitar player Dave Patten and
I have been just hiring the bass player
in the drummer
every time we go and do a record or do a
tour so it’s like 50% of a real band but
a lot of people didn’t know that over
here because they we’ve never really
played here we haven’t really put out
records for a long time 15 17 years
since we’ve done a real proper release
here so all people know is that oh it’s
some band from Canada that has song
called allicin he’ll decades ago and and
there’s a lot of lineup changes but
Europe would tell you something totally
different date they go I’ll say oh yeah
that was a long time ago and then they
name off all the new stuff
why do you think your popularity hasn’t
kind of stuck around in Canada a couple
reasons we kind of went out with the
where the labels the labels were
cleaning house back in 1992-93 of all
things that had the word metal in their
bio we had to go with the new sounds the
new type of metal that was coming out
like biohazard Pantera you’d have to go
with the newer stuff otherwise they
didn’t want the traditional stuff I
bowed out when we lost our deal the
roadrunner and it was the best thing
that happened to me because well North
America just well the industry pulled
away from supporting these kinds of
bands overseas was different it was like
bigger weed left this Roadrunner and we
got a new deal and it was an even bigger
thing for us
essentially I had a kid and the mother
died of cancer I ended up being a single
father when my kid was a year and a half
so it’s just me my kid and I I had to
make a choice do I want to maybe go
where the money is and where the
popularity is where I’m being supported
if I go to North America I’ll spend all
my year traveling trying to work North
America and I won’t be able to be a
father so I basically a part-time – it
was like father part of the year and
overseas the other we’ve been 22 years
overseas successful so excited I’ll take
it
go to Spain any day
what are you guys working on now
fourteenth studio record is finished and
we’re actually working on the fifteenth
which is weird but I want to do a lot
more touring so figure well let’s try to
see if we can get two records done in
between the two we’ll do a bunch of
festivals and cool shows which is
something I’m lucky I can do I’ve been
booking only fun things like we got the
70,000 tons of metal boat cruise metal
cruise coming up in a couple weeks and
Grand Cayman Islands Miami and we’ve got
the biggest show will ever have
headlines is coming up in summer in
Sofia Bulgaria the airport there’s only
like 40 50 thousand people I get to kind
of pick and choose all these awesome
gigs and then come back work on the
album with my singer for a couple weeks
and then go out and do it again and make
money and have fun
sounds like fun thanks very much
synonymous with the word schizo hi I’m
Rebecca Brayton and welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re speaking
with Jeff waters from Annihilator
so we always like to start by getting
the origin stories of the bands that we
interviews to tell us a bit about how
Annihilator first got together
well Annihilator started back in the
nineteen 1984 myself and a friend of
mine that we were all sharing cassette
tapes illegally traded cassette demo
tapes back then of venom Slayer Exodus
anthrax Metallica razor anvil exciter
their first records and Mike Barney
shrapnel records thrash stuff
compilation albums that they had out
when I heard that heavy stuff for my
friend John Bates I totally got into
that and just left everything else all
the van Halen and everything behind so
he and I just started Annihilator kind
of a weird name but it worked I guess
and it’s very hard to say for Europeans
we got like any he that to our any late
or anal eater but we don’t even have to
really do that one
I knee he let or occasionally they get
it right
there have been a lot of comings and
goings with me ban would say a lot of
different members what would you say has
led to that well I think in North
America finally with the internet people
are starting to that want to know about
our ban find out about her ban but over
in Europe and Japan everybody’s known
for about 20 more than 20 years that
it’s essentially been a solo project and
I would hire different musicians I like
to work with different drummers so I you
know I go after Mike Mangini spent on a
record season with extreme Steve I now
he’s with Dream Theater so what I do is
I basically team up find a drummer and
my singers been the same singer for
almost a decade now which it’s
coincidental that we’re selling more and
more records maybe it’s because we have
a stable lineup
my singer guitar player Dave Patten and
I have been just hiring the bass player
in the drummer
every time we go and do a record or do a
tour so it’s like 50% of a real band but
a lot of people didn’t know that over
here because they we’ve never really
played here we haven’t really put out
records for a long time 15 17 years
since we’ve done a real proper release
here so all people know is that oh it’s
some band from Canada that has song
called allicin he’ll decades ago and and
there’s a lot of lineup changes but
Europe would tell you something totally
different date they go I’ll say oh yeah
that was a long time ago and then they
name off all the new stuff
why do you think your popularity hasn’t
kind of stuck around in Canada a couple
reasons we kind of went out with the
where the labels the labels were
cleaning house back in 1992-93 of all
things that had the word metal in their
bio we had to go with the new sounds the
new type of metal that was coming out
like biohazard Pantera you’d have to go
with the newer stuff otherwise they
didn’t want the traditional stuff I
bowed out when we lost our deal the
roadrunner and it was the best thing
that happened to me because well North
America just well the industry pulled
away from supporting these kinds of
bands overseas was different it was like
bigger weed left this Roadrunner and we
got a new deal and it was an even bigger
thing for us
essentially I had a kid and the mother
died of cancer I ended up being a single
father when my kid was a year and a half
so it’s just me my kid and I I had to
make a choice do I want to maybe go
where the money is and where the
popularity is where I’m being supported
if I go to North America I’ll spend all
my year traveling trying to work North
America and I won’t be able to be a
father so I basically a part-time – it
was like father part of the year and
overseas the other we’ve been 22 years
overseas successful so excited I’ll take
it
go to Spain any day
what are you guys working on now
fourteenth studio record is finished and
we’re actually working on the fifteenth
which is weird but I want to do a lot
more touring so figure well let’s try to
see if we can get two records done in
between the two we’ll do a bunch of
festivals and cool shows which is
something I’m lucky I can do I’ve been
booking only fun things like we got the
70,000 tons of metal boat cruise metal
cruise coming up in a couple weeks and
Grand Cayman Islands Miami and we’ve got
the biggest show will ever have
headlines is coming up in summer in
Sofia Bulgaria the airport there’s only
like 40 50 thousand people I get to kind
of pick and choose all these awesome
gigs and then come back work on the
album with my singer for a couple weeks
and then go out and do it again and make
money and have fun
sounds like fun thanks very much
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