Metalzone Interview with Malevolent Creation

Malevolent Creation (Brett Hoffmann & Dave Culross)

While Malevolent Creation were waiting for their appearance on stage due to some technical problems with the power, Metalzone had a half-an-hour chance to talk with Brett and Dave from the band. Check it out!

Interview in Greek soon…

Metalzone: Hello this is Metalzone, we’d like to welcome Brett and Dave from Malevolent Creation, hello.

Brett: Hello

Dave: Hello

Metalzone: This is your second visit in Thessaloniki, so I’d like to ask you how does it feel to visit us again. Did you have good memories from your last show here?

Dave: Absolutely! Greece is always a great country to come to, the fans are so die hard, it seems that when a metal show comes over here, it doesn’t matter if it’s malevolent creation, napalm death or cannibal corpse, the die hard fans are always there.

Metalzone: You just finished some recordings for your 10 th album “Doomsday X”. Tell us a few words about that.

Brett: It was recorded very quickly, it came out very good, everyone came across very well on this recording, everyone had their stuff together and it will be a really good album for people to hear.

Dave: Some people take a lot of time when they record. We went in there we did it fast and we got a good vibe from doing it fast cause it has real on-the-spot type of feel, it’s not over-rehearsed.

Brett: That feels like it’s old, you play it so much and then you lose the fire.

Dave: It’s really fresh, so it’s good for us.

Metalzone: You are definitely one of the biggest bands in the Death Metal history, a big influence for most. I’d like to hear your opinion about all these new bands that are now popular, for example from the known as “New Wave of American Death Metal”.

Brett laughs.

Dave: It’s good to be an influence. I am proud being an influence to the people, it’s a rewarding thing when you hear other bands come up to you and say you are the reason that they play. That’s about the best pat on the back you can get.

Brett: Including Slipknot.

Dave: Did you hear about all that? In blabbermouth?

Metalzone: No, what happened?

Dave: Mick the guitar player from Slipknot, he asked us if he could put a solo on the new record and so of course we let him do a solo, he is a big fan of death metal and a fan of malevolent creation for years and all the sudden people are making comments on blabbermouth about malevolent creation being a sell-out, because having Mick Thompson playing a solo an our album.

Metalzone: Oh no! So we have to consider Malevolent Creation as a nu-metal band now! Both laugh and agree.

Dave: You can’t even be friends with a bigger band and do anything musically with them without people thinking you’re sell-out. He asked us, we didn’t ask him because of the boost of our sales.

Metalzone: It’s like maybe with Napalm Death and Anneke from The Gathering, people told a lot of things about her participation in their last album.

Brett: Yeah it’s the same thing. People have too much time in their hands, they like to freaking bitching. They don’t have a band so they try to make fun of other people. Maybe they’re making up for their lost freaking band or something.

Metalzone: The last two albums, were released on Nuclear Blast and you are about to release another one too on this company. It seems that things went pretty good with this part, is that true?

Dave: The first record was only at Nuclear Blast Germany and then the second one, because the first record went so well, became Nuclear Blast Worldwide and now this third one in Nuclear Blast Worldwide as well. They have been happy with us since they signed us, and we’re happy with them.

Brett: And they’ll be happy after listening to the new album.

Metalzone: I think we will be happy too.

Dave: I hope so!

Brett: I hope so too!

Metalzone: Through the years, you had a lot of changes with the line-up, but the strange thing is that the members are not new ones, we’ve already heard each of you to a lot of albums. Is there any explanation to that? Does it mean maybe that you are good friends or it’s only the music that keeps you together?

Brett: We were all good friends. Me and Phil we’ve grown up since we were 8 years old.

Dave: It’s like a big family. When you see your family too often it’s normal to have some disagreements.

Metalzone: So Brett when you were not in the band your relationships were still good?

Brett: Yeah sure!

Dave: Everybody is really good friends, there is no arguments between us or anything like that, it’s just a matter of time until everybody had either settled their differences or for example got a new point, myself and my life got a point where I could do this again. I never had any problems with Malevolent but I had a kid and I wanted to stay at home and be a good father. Now he’s old enough to go to school so that didn’t freeze me up to play music again.

Brett: Yeah it’s like a family with the arguments and stuff, you get mad at each other and you let it go away for a while and then you come back.

Metalzone: I’ve heard that you had some problems with some guys at Pavement Records. They owe you money or something.

Dave: Oh! He still hasn’t paid us yet.

Metalzone: And you don’t have the rights of the albums?

Dave: He hasn’t given us the rights either. So he has the rights, and he is still printing it, still selling it and not paying us.

Metalzone: And he still does a lot of different versions of the albums.

Dave: Yes he does.

Brett: I’ll give you an example. We played a show in Arizona, I think it was ’99, we played where he lives. We were living in his little van and he pulls up to the show with a brand-new corvet and says: Hey guys, do you like my new corvet? And we say: The one that we bought for you? You’ve got the balls to show up with this thing that we bought for you? I wanted to punch him in his eyeball!

Dave: We’ve actually got a lawyer working on getting the rights to the album. Hopefully we get some money from relatives cause he owes us a lot of money.

Metalzone: Have you ever thought, even for one single moment to change this brutal style of Malevolent Creation and try something more catchy just to sell more cd’s and earn more money?

Brett: Fuck no! Look at me!

Metalzone: I think I already knew the answer. Maybe now with Slipknot that you became nu-metal! (laughs)

Brett: Yeah now with Slipknot we probably gonna headline or co-headline at the next Ozzfest.

Dave: Yeah and have Ozzy open up for us!

Brett: He’s gonna do a cash spot with Anastasia so to come and sing a song with me!

Metalzone: In 2004 you released a double dvd named “Created Live”. Are there any plans to make a new one like this?

Dave: Yes, we’re gonna do another dvd either this year or probably next year. There’s a lot and lot of footage right now.

Metalzone: Will it be a live dvd?

Brett: Yeah, we actually have a guy with a set-up in his house and he has every video from back in the late 80’s that we’ve done. When we first sorted out we didn’t even have heard that. He has all these things, putting it together.

Dave: We’re all going to go through and pick everything and do another dvd with a new live footage and with the new line-up again.

Brett: It will be very entertaining.

Metalzone: It would be great for us if you include a part of the today’s show in the dvd but we do not even know if there will be any show today.

Dave: Oh yeah, that’s another question.

Brett: Maybe tomorrow we put it though.

Metalzone: Tomorrow? You’re going to play tomorrow?

Brett: Yes.

Metalzone: That’s great! I thought you had a plain to catch.

Brett: No our band is off for 2 days, we’re not leaving. Our tour starts in Berlin on Wednesday. So if we can play tomorrow night, we will play tomorrow night. People came for the show, I wanna play for them! We all want to play for them!

Metalzone: You are about to go on a tour with some excellent bands such as Rotting Christ, Incantation, Rotten Sound and others. Are you happy that you’re gonna play with those bands?

Dave: It should be a good tour. Actually we already know a lot of these guys. We toured with Rotten Sound already before, twice. It’s gonna be a good tour. Rotting Christ is probably the only band none of us met yet.

Metalzone: But you have listened to them.

Dave: Sure!

Metalzone: Do you like them?

Dave: Yes!

Metalzone: That’s nice for us Greeks. What do you listen at your free time? Is your play list at home only with death metal sounds?

Brett: In my hometown I listen to the latest Bolt Thrower album that came out the last year, it’s very good. And I listen to Slayer Hell Awaits it’s one of my favorite albums.

Dave: Honestly I’ve been listening to a lot of radio music cause I’ve been getting so lazy with the cd’s. I just turn the radio on and listen to everything.

Metalzone: Actually I had a question for you Brett. I saw at your myspace profile that you had some pictures with CKY.

Brett: Oh yeah with my other band Down The Drain we did some shows with them.

Dave: We’re friends with those guys too.

Metalzone: I am friend with those guys too! (The t-shirt I wore was from CKY)

Brett: Look at that I have a hat from the tour! See? With Deron and Jess we drunk a lot of whiskey and brandy and we had some good shows with the guys.

Metalzone: Do they remind you the jackass times?

Brett: They’re a little weird. But they are good guys. We had fun playing with them, we were drunk and breaking hotel rooms.

Dave: Deron has a new band with Tim Young, have you heard this?

Metalzone: Yeah?

Dave: Yes, it’s called Blood of the Earth or something like that.

Metalzone: Do you know what the play?

Dave: Death Metal.

Metalzone: Death Metal? Really?

Dave: Yeah, it’s pretty technical too. Deron likes Death Metal as well, so he’s trying to put a Death Metal band together. And he did, they have something recorded already.

Brett: Deron tries to sing like me. Glad to hear that! He’s a very good guy!

Metalzone: How’s life in the States?

Dave: Life in the States? I think that would be better if George Bush wasn’t there. It’s kind of fucked up after what happened at 9/11, I live right outside New York City and you don’t live as easily anymore, you start to worry more about your life and George Bush is part of the reason that happened. So it will be good to have someone else in there.

Brett: Obama! I like Obama! He’s got good policies. My dead grandfather would be a better person than Bush. He’s horrible.

Dave: Otherwise life in the States is good.

Metalzone: Do the people there face you as a band or as ordinary persons?

Dave: Oh yes sure as a band. More often that not, when you go to a metal concert you get recognized. Walking around the street not so much but when you are around other metal heads you get recognized all the time.

Brett: My friends are freaking retards. They just watch hockey games and drink beer and don’t give a shit about who are you. I like that though.

Metalzone: What about the lyrics? Are they written from someone specific or you all love this war theme the same way?

Brett: I write some songs about the political system, cultural doubt, self-explanatory, and then I have some songs about the record industry. Most of our lyrics, before you read them you know what they’re all about. They’re not about cannibal heroes or zombies. It’s not gore lyrics or anything like that.

Metalzone: Is there any proposition for the new death metal bands? Do you believe that someone still can be as well-known as you?

Brett: Why not?
Dave: Sure, absolutely!
Brett: If they got the balls and know what to do.
Dave: What happened with Malevolent is that we came into the scene the right time.

Metalzone: I don’t think that this is the right time, that’s why I’m asking.

Dave: Well if you’re good enough band and you create enough attention then you could. Slipknot still have it even if they’re considered as nu-metal, they still have heavy riffs and blast-beats and everything. They sell eleven million copies. So there’s definitely a sign that heavy metal and metal bands can be exposed in a huge level.

Brett: I think that Slipknot, when Iowa came out, they opened the doors for a lot of bands.

Dave: Pantera as well. They have a fucking giant stadium with fifty thousand people that sounds like there’s definitely room for other metal bands.

Brett: There are people out there that want to hear some metal obviously. Some of the fans are really young right now and are not exposed right now to the heavier of the death metal sounds let’s say that all the younger kids starting to like Slipknot because they don’t know about the heavier bands but now maybe with Mick Thompson’s solo in our album will make some of these kids to say oh there’s this band that Mick is playing with them and they wanna know about this heavier shit.

Dave: People will get to ask someone like Mick because he is such a big person: Who do you like? So they can kind of see it and find about Malevolent Creation or Cannibal Corpse’s records or Immolation’s and that makes them fan of it.

Brett: There are a lot of kids that are just not exposed to the heavier sounds and then they hear something and say: Holy shit…

Dave: And like what happens with Slipknot they became later big Death Metal fans, so we hope something like that could happen.

Metalzone: As musicians, you learned to play by yourself or you used to study music?

Dave: I started playing drums in school by myself with the school band and then I started jamming in bands since I was 13 and I joined Malevolent Creation when I was 18. And I’ve been doing national touring since I was 18.

Brett: I started playing bass and none sings they’re all pussies and I sucked on bass, so I started singing but I sucked in doing that too so I started a practice for a couple of years singing like old Judas Priest or Iron Maiden for 2 years straight or Queensryche and then I just started singing. I don’t really do any work but I just love doing the music so fuck it!

Metalzone: You started the band at a young age with no problems. After so many years, are there any more problems that you have to deal with, so to have a healthy personal life and a band too?

Brett: I think you always have problems whatever they may be all the way through,there have always been problems that you have to deal with…

Dave: Like tonight.

Metalzone: No I mean with your personal life, are there any sacrifices that you have to make?

Dave: You have to make some sacrifices for example with my son. I talk everyday with my son and I hear: I miss you, why don’t you come home? And that’s tough but he’s old enough now to understand that this is daddy’s job. You try to keep them closest as much as you can but there are sacrifices to make when you are in a band.

Brett: There are some good parts and problems too but if you love doing this shit…

Dave: It’s a glorious thing to be on stage but there’s a lot of work behind the scenes that people don’t know about it.

Metalzone: Before we close, any promise to the malevolent fans for your next show here? Although we still expect the one for today.

Dave: Well I hope there are no power problems again and certainly if they were more people that would be great.

Brett: I think the last show were our first show so the next one will be tomorrow! Sure we will do a show after that sometime, hopefully with the new album and kick a lot of people’s asses and maybe more people will come out.

Metalzone: Thanks a lot, I hope you have a good luck with the new cd and I also hope there will be a performance today…or tomorrow.

Dave: The press in being somewhere, four thousand miles away from home and you can’t do your job sucks! It’s very disappointing. All of us we really want to play.

Brett: We were on stage only for two minutes and then…puff! Everything has died! Your adrenaline is starting to be fucked up as a puff! What? What the fuck do you want? Hopefully we’re gonna do that tomorrow and it will be a very good show.

Metalzone: Thank you guys!

Dave: Thank you!

Brett: Thank you!