Mark: I mean it sounds great and from the live clips we’ve seen he’s fitting in great and we can’t wait to see you down here. You’ve got a fairly extensive US Tour with Lamb of God and Slipknot – a pretty impressive bill for the fans!
Padge: Yeah man, living the dream every day! It’s pretty awesome stuff and fortunately for us to be able to play in front of these massive crowds, every night is awesome.
Mark: Then you’re back to the UK before you come and see us! You’re the first band announced for Soundwave this year. Does it feel back to be coming back?
Padge: Oh absolutely. Unfortunately the World is a pretty big place and it does take a long time to get around it. But we all love Australia it’s pretty much a second home to us and every time we come down we just want to make it as good as we can. It’s always a good time, fun, interesting and the fans are great and although it’s a long way away I always feels like home.
Mark: The new album sounds ‘huge’ and it sounds like you spent a lot of time on it, I know last time when we talked about the last album you weren’t that crazy about the way it was recorded, you said you preferred to go in and get everything right rather than revisit songs. How was the recording process this time?
Padge: Well, we pretty much demoed everything first at my home studio in Wales. We spent about eight months demoing as much material as we could and then picked the best. Then when we’d done al the pre-production we got in touch with Colin and decided to record it in London. So going in and recording was like the smoothest ride ever, because everyone knew what they were doing and everything was I place. It was the smoothest recording we’ve ever done.
Mark: You’ve lived with the album a while now, I’ve just had it a few weeks and I just can’t pick a weak spot in it, and I absolutely love ‘Pariah’ that closes the album. Then there’s the tracks that are already out there like ‘Army of Noise’ and ‘You Want a Battle’, ‘No Way Out’: what are your favourites on there at the moment?
Padge: Um, I think ‘No Way Out’ would have to be a favourite of mine, we released it first and I think it’s got the biggest vibe of the whole album, I love the chorus and it’s got some interesting guitar work in there according to me! Ha-ha!
Mark: It does have that more complex arrangement is that something you wanted to bring to ‘venom’?
Padge: Me personally if its guitar work then yeah! I mean I don’t want it to be Malmsteen or anything ‘out there’ but I do want it to be melodic and then smash people’s faces in at the same time!
Mark: (laughing)
Padge: All the band are on the same page, we wanted to make a heavy hard-hitting record
Mark: You’ve definitely done it with this one; it may well be my personal favourite album of yours I think.
Padge: Oh thank you Sir!
Read our review of "Venom" here
Mark: And long may you continue! Just a couple of questions from the message board now, last time we spoke you mentioned that you were demoing some tracks for a solo album. How is that progressing?
Padge: It is coming along but Bullet of course is my number one baby. But t’s pretty much recorded, just waiting to do the vocals and get it out there you know. I might try to mix it myself, but I’m not sure. Andy the other guitar player he has the artwork at the moment while I’m away on tour and he’s trying to fix it up. But it’s looking good man there’s some great songs on there.
Mark: Cool. I notice that ‘Venom’ also comes in a package where you actually get CD, Vinyl and Cassette! Are cassettes making a comeback?
Padge: (laughing) I think our manager probably asked for it!
Mark: They must be making a comeback I saw another band recently selling them at their shows over in the US.
Padge: I just threw my hi-fi out with the cassette player and now they’re releasing the Bullet album on cassette! I thought for fucks sake! (laughing).
Mark: It’s always great to talk to you Padge, you guys enjoy yourself out here in the States and we really can’t wait to see you back down under here it’s going to be huge.
Padge: We can’t wait mate, see you soon, take care.
SOUNDWAVE FESTIVAL 2016 dates
January 23rd - Brisbane
January 24th - Sydney
January 26th - Melbourne
More info on the festival can be found at Soundwavefestival.com
Padge spoke to Mark Rockpit
|