ATL) So how's the new album going for you guys?
WD) Its doing great; in Europe it's doing very, very well. That's probably why we tour Europe a lot. We're trying to get something worked up in the US; we've been submitting a number of tours by our label, so hopefully we'll be able to tour the US really soon.
ATL) The new album, to me, seems to have a big change. Maybe not a change, but an improvement. What kind of ideas and changes did you go into the studio with to make a better album?
WD) Well, our first album really was just demos, and we didn't really expect it to ever be a CD. But when we got signed, our record label said "I don't think you guys really need to re-record these songs, cause they sound good already". So we just went in and had them re-eq'ed so theyd sound a little better. Unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to record there again after that. Our newer recording was recorded in Texas in this 5000 acre pecan farm in the middle of the desert.
ATL) There were rumors that your guitar player has left the band.
WD) Well we kicked out our second guitar player. We have our original guitar player, Jeff, who was in our old band Sanctuary. And he's been with us forever, but we've had trouble getting a second guitar player, just because we've all got pretty weird personalities and we might be kind of hard to deal with. We had to get rid of this one guy because, um, his behavior on tour was what we thought wasn't professional. That's probably why you heard the rumor.
ATL) But he's back in the band right now? Because I just saw you guys
about a month ago and you had two guitar players.
WD) No, we're just a four piece right now. We've hired a second guitar player to go on tour with us.
ATL) So who is this guy?
WD) His name is Carin Murphy. He's from a Tacoma band called Exhale. If things work out with him, you know, after a couple tours we'll decide if he's going to be a permanent member, but right now he's going through his initiation period.
ATL) Do you feel that Nevermore has lived up to your expectations?
WD) Yeah, we're doing better than Sanctuary did. We're selling more records; well at least in Europe, the US sucks anyway.
ATL) Seattle does sucks.
WD) Seattle does suck. I love living here. I don't want to live anywhere else, because I've been all over the world and Seattle is my favorite place to be, but the scene is so fucking stupid. There's really no direction to it. I mean the grunge scene is dead. There's nothing going on here right now; it's bizarre, but that's probably got to do with the fact the labels left town. But it's really weird for people who live in the US, to actually realize what Europe and the rest of the world is like as far as the music scene. The US, Canada to some degree, are the only place where metal still is not as big as it ever was. People in Europe talk about metal being dead, but it's still huge over there.
ATL) Yeah, you still see bands come out from Europe. Now you're suppose to go to Europe this Friday (April 97'). Are you guys headlining or doing festivals?
WD) We're going to do a four band festival tour. And we're the second band on the bill. The bands are Iced Earth, Nevermore, Lionshare, Rumagade. The other three bands you probably never fucking heard of. Iced Earth is a power metal band from Florida.
ATL) You guys have been on tour with them, this is like your third time touring with them.
WD) They're really good friends of ours. Their new album just started to
get really big in Europe. Ours isn't far behind though. So they're our
buddies and it will be good to tour with them.
ATL) So what part of Europe are you guys going to tour?
WD) We start in Italy, then go to Greece, then Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden. It would be really cool because we've never been to Scandinavia and we got two shows in Sweden added to our tour, so that's probably our biggest market in Europe.
ATL) Are you guys still doing Sanctuary songs?
WD) Yes and No. I know enough to know that people would get pissed off if we didn't do a couple. I remember going to see King Diamond, hed play Fate songs. If he didn't play Fate songs people would have probably stormed the stage and killed him. So that says to me, if you have a past you shouldn't try to deny it, because you're never going to escape it and you're a fool if you think your going to. We got two Nevermore CD's and one EP, and after a couple more albums, I'm sure we'll drop those old songs, and actually play an old one. I love those songs and I'm really proud of those songs, so we'll play them as long as we can.
ATL) I talked to you last night about being vegetarian. I'm a vegetarian. Lyrics-wise you don't sing about it at all. It seems to be a big issue for a lot of people. I use to play in the hard-core scene and everybody sings about it. And it seems to build like a unity for people. So my question is, is there a reason why you don't strike like that at all?
WD) You know that's a good question. I haven't really thought about singing about that kind of stuff. I think mainly the reason I'm vegetarian isn't because of moral reasons, it's basically for health. I totally support people that do it for moral reasons, because you have to. But there's something to me that I don't feel comfortable with expressing in lyrics that would be...
ATL) Preachy almost?
WD) Yeah, yeah. I don't want to get preachy. They would interpret that preaching. But yeah, I don't do it for moral reasons merely just for health. My doctor advised me to quit eating meat.
ATL) Do you feel that there might be a scene at all, or just in the US? Maybe the Black Metal scene might hit over in the US, or even death metal?
WD) No. There's a definite Black Metal underground scene. It's pretty strong too. There's a hard core group of people that will buy every Black Metal release there is. But no, I don't really see the black metal scene with the corpse paint getting over here.
ATL) How do you feel about Faustus? I know you guys play with them often.
WD) I wish they would get a record deal, so they could go on tour with us. They're a really good band and they have talent. It just takes perseverance to get somewhere, and if they keep trying they will get a record deal.
ATL) You recently got asked to sing for Chuck Schuldiner's new band, Control Denied. Why did you turn that down?
WD) Well, basically, I think he deserves a singer that can commit fully to the band. And I would never quit Nevermore. Our schedule conflicted and we had too many things going on at the same time, and that caused a problem too, but they have a singer now. If they continue to be a band, they need someone to commit to it 100%. I've heard the new stuff, sounds like Symbolic actually. Some of the stuff is a little more complicated from the stuff on Symbolic. He's got a whole new band, the drums are really good.
ATL) Well, thanks for the interview. Any last words or anything you want to add?
WD) Support metal. Buy every metal release you can find in the store, because that's he only way we can make a stand and make sure fucking corporate morons know it's a reality.
