It’s not long now until Municipal Waste return to Australian soil for their first visit in seven years. The band recently released their new album ‘The Fatal Feast‘, and this week their drummer Dave Witte tells us a bit about it via our On The Record questions. Expand this post to check out his answers and remind yourself of their tour dates which begin June 15th.
Tell us about the release title. The Fatal Feast. It’s actually an old MW song from the Waste Em All era, only the music and lyrics were different back then. Same concept though, a cannibalistic space voyage.
Tell us about the artwork. Justin Osborne AKA Slasher Design. Gerardo of NB suggested him. We gave him the skinny on ideas and he whipped that up. We’re all really happy with it.
What format/s will it be released on and how will it be packaged? I’m pretty sure, it was CD, Digi, iTunes, and a whole slew of vinyl varieties. Single, gatefold, different color waxes.
Who will it be released through, and when? Nuclear Blast worldwide. It was released April 10th 2012.
Tell us about the studio and why you chose to record there? We tracked drums and mixed the album at Trax East studios in South River NJ with Eric Rachel. Guitars, bass and vocals were done at in Richmond VA at Minimum Wage Studios.
Tell us about the producer / engineer and why you chose to record with them? We produced ourselves and Eric Rachel engineered. To answer the question before and this one at the same time, I’ve always wanted to record drums for a MW album at Trax East, since that’s where I grew up and have recorded so many other records there. It’s the ultimate drum room for me and I knew Eric would get me the sound that I’ve always wanted.
Did you go into the writing process with a clear direction in mind? There’s no set pattern, everyone comes in with ideas and its pretty much a spring board from there. Well work on parts brought in or jam and stumble upon something. We basically write the music first and then work the lyrics in and or change parts to fit the lyrics.
Were you listening to anything in particular during the writing / recording process that influenced the songs at all? I actually listened to a lot of Poison Idea and Rush when I was thinking about drum parts.
Were there any albums you were referencing to aim for a certain type of sound production wise? Not really, we wanted a more focused MW album, without it being too clean and basically told Eric to keep that in mind when he was mixing. It think its a great blend of all our recordings, sound and song wise.
How long did you spend in the studio recording? If I remember correctly, I think drums were 2&1/2 days, bass 1 day and vocals / guitars about a week’s time each. Mix was about a week or so over time.
Tell us a little about the recording process the band used? Like mentioned earlier, we tracked drums up in NJ at Trax East Studios and the rest was done at home in a local studio named Minimum Wage. We did do a lot of pre-production at home though on our own. We demoed each practice to really fine tune the songs to how we wanted them.
Was this any different to previous processes you have used? It was the first time we’ve done drums at a different location.
Any guests involved? if so, who.. and what did they do? Yes! Tim Barry of Avail came in guested on a song, that was awesome. He’s a local hero and all and did a stellar job. Also John Connelly of Nuclear Assault sang on a track as well. He’s another hero of ours growing up, I’m really happy they are on the record and did great jobs!
Any particular equipment outside your usual live gear used in the process? No, we used what we use live, I did change up the tom sizes on the drums though. I started paying bigger sizes tuned down, to get a heavier sound.
Any memorable studio moments? There’s always something funny and spontaneous happening in the studio. I’ll always remember when we were tracking the last album Massive Aggressive and I was tracking the most difficult drum song. I nailed it the first time and Tony jumped up and down in the control room and said to me afterwards “I felt like I was like a sports event and my team just scored a crucial touchdown!” I got the same feeling this time around, sitting in and listening in to him doing his vocals, it’s so exciting when one of the guys lays down a killer part in the first run, you can’t help to cheer them on!
Any additional tracks recorded that didn’t make the cut but may see the light of day sometime? Yeah, we did record some extras and they are all out now. A song named Religious Proof came out on the Decibel Magazine Flexi series, an EP on Scion Records and we also put out a split with Toxic Holocaust on Tank Crimes Records.
What track/s are you most looking forward to playing live? There are so many I enjoy, I hope to play some we normal don’t play, like New Dead Masters, The Barfer and Unholy Abductor. I wanna have a kick ass set list for Aussie and NZ, we haven’t been to Australia in 7 years and never to NZ, so we gotta roll in and light em up so to speak.
How would you compare the final product to previous releases? I think FF is the perfect display and collection of old and new MW song and sound wise, rolled into one.
Anything else you want to say or about the release? I’m really happy that its being so well received, the turn outs for all the tours we’ve done since its release have been nothing but awesome. Nuclear Blast has done a great job with all the support of it as well. Make sure you check these two things out from this album. The “You’re Cut Off” animated video and the Vans Parade that we appeared playing “Monster With 21 Faces” live on a float for Vans Shoes. I’m really proud of both of these moments and they are really funny to watch. Don’t worry, they’re both short and don’t take much time, just how we like it, haha.
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MUNICIPAL WASTE
JUNE
15th – The Hi-Fi, Brisbane [18+]
16th – The Hi-Fi, Sydney [18+]
19th – Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood [18+]
20th – Fowlers Live, Adelaide [Lic/AA]
21st – Rosemount Hotel, Perth [18+]
22nd – Brisbane Hotel, Hobart [18+]
23rd – Corner Hotel, Melbourne [U18 Arvo]
23rd – Corner Hotel, Melbourne [18+ Night]
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