ANNIHILATOR Mainman: 'The Labels And The Internet Have Killed Metal Music'

Greece's Rockpages.gr recently conducted an interview with ANNIHILATOR mainman Jeff Waters. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow.

Rockpages.gr: What are the main differences of a tour nowadays in comparison with the 80s?

Jeff Waters: For the promotion of "Metal", we've done about 100 shows. There are differences for sure In our case, we toured with bands like TRIVIUM that have a different crowd and we introduced ourselves to different fans and markets. We noticed that we sold more records to younger fans that haven't heard of ANNIHILATOR before. That was good for us. It's pretty cool to have an 18-year old metalhead buy a c.d. from a band that has been around for 20 years now! The differences are there In 1993 everybody noticed that the metal scene collapsed in North America and it's been a long and hard fight to bring it back to where it should be. Now in the U.S. charts, in the Billboard there are bands like LAMB OF GOD or KILLSWITCH ENGAGE great groups that produce some really heavy music and still they have to tour with three or four other bands in order to draw 2,000-3,000 fans! In the '80s, one huge band would be sufficient enough to gather at least 10-15,000 people. Economically, it's really tough for most of the metal bands. There are many reasons for that situation For example, when I was a teenager, I was listening to all those huge metal bands and I started learning guitar in order to play like themall my friends wanted to be the next Randy Rhoads or the next Eddie Van Halen. In the '90s, the majority of the bands had abandoned all the guitar solos even METALLICA! A whole generation of metalheads in high school grew up without wanting to be the next guitar hero, the next Eddie Van Halen. There wasn't any need of a six-hour practice per dayor at least that's what they thoughtKids just learned five or six simple guitar chords and jumped like Flea from the CHILI PEPPERSby the way, I love the PEPPERS, but you know what I mean! That was the attitude of the '90s. The labels didn't invest on the bands and they didn't help the groups to develop. Every big band from the '70s or the '80s needed a couple of records to enrich and establish their sound. It's only natural for a band to find its way. But, the labels now want only one or two good songs in order to have a product for the download and the rest of the album could be crap! That kills good music! If the video of that song didn't bring the money that the label hoped for, then they would kick the band out! That's not a way to build a career.

Rockpages.gr: Do you think that the whole download thing has forced the bands to pursuit more tours and less studio work in order to make a living?

Jeff Waters: Yeah, I guess so. There was a lot of money invested on the metal bands of the '80s from the labels. When the trend was something else, there was zero money! The past few years heavy metal has returned, but the labels don't give you let's say 50,000 dollars so as to produce a decent record. They give you a total of 7-8,000 bucks and they tell you to bring them a great album! That's not possibleAlso, they won't give you any money for touring and they want from the album sales to have the lion's share plus all the rights for the songwriting and the publishing. That's a rip-off! From my perspective, the labels and the Internet have killed metal music They affected the album sales and now we see five huge bands to play in North America in front of 800 fans. The labels are not putting any money in the promotion of the records. As for the Internet, it has opened some horizons as far as communication goes. With the aid of the internet a fan from Greece can get in contact with me through my site or MySpace. That wasn't possible in the past and that is something I really appreciate about the Internet. On the other had, I can listen to a new band from Greece whereas that wasn't possible in the past. It's a good self-promotion tool.

Rockpages.gr: Is there any album from the band's catalogue that you are not so proud of?

Jeff Waters: Album, no! Songs, yes! All of my favorite bands, like PRIEST, AC/DC, SLAYERI own all of their albums, but when I put them in my CD player I don't want necessarily to listen to all of the tunes. You know, what I mean? It's the same thing with ANNIHILATOR. Some people like the thrashier period or some others the more melodic period of ANNIHILATOR. We have many different groups of fansI think I have written some great songs but I also know that I have written some not so good ones.

Rockpages.gr: When should we expect the new ANNIHILATOR album?

Jeff Waters: I think it would be safe to say by October.

Read the entire interview at Rockpages.gr.

Elena Mihailidou and Vasilis Mazaris of Metalzone.gr conducted an interview with ANNIHILATOR mainman Jeff Waters in March 2008 on the eve of the band's participation in the MMD festival in Greece. Jeff talks about the group's latest CD, "Metal", lineup changes, not following musical trends, the music business, the current styles of metal and his hopes for the upcoming METALLICA record, among other topics. Watch the interview in two parts below.

Part 1:

Part 2: