ANTHRAX Guitarist SCOTT IAN: 'For Us, Writing Songs Is Still Super Exciting'

The Scream Queen's Damnation Vault recently conducted an interview with ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Scream Queen's Damnation Vault: With how inspiring music is, like what you were saying, what have been some moments that helped you spiritually, mentally, physically through music?

Scott: "Music is a huge motivator for me. Just in so many ways. I mean, it's obviously what I do with my life, playing in a band. But, it's just the feeling… The feeling I get from still putting my guitar on and playing with my band; it's never changed, going on 37 years. And even before I was in a band, just that feeling of playing guitar and how happy it makes me, it motivates me to do things in my life. Getting up in the morning and immediately having music on in the house — if I didn't put music on, it would be a different day. Music, in so many ways, shapes and forms, just motivates me and I couldn't imagine my life without music in it. It wouldn't be my life anymore because so much of my life revolves around music and playing guitar."

The Scream Queen's Damnation Vault: What do you think it is that makes ANTHRAX come alive, or how to you go about bringing your music to life?

Scott: "I just think it's our chemistry. Something that somehow… There's really no answer to that question. We have ideas, we all have riffs, and then we get in a room and start arranging it into songs. And somehow it goes from an idea, to… It could literally be, like, Charlie [Benante, drums] has a riff, and we get in a room and a couple of hours later, we emerge with a song that didn't exist before that. It still trips me out. I try not to think about it too deeply, because, really, there is no answer. And if I did find an answer, it would probably be really boring because I do know that A to B, the process of where we start from a riff, we get in a room and I could sit there and write every single step down on the way and how we got from A to B in the song, but it would take the fun and a lot of the magic out of it. 'And then we spent 45 minutes working on this one part… And realized we need to change…' It would be so boring if you really analyzed the process of songwriting, I feel like. You just have to be in the room. And when we're in a room working on it, that's what brings it to life. That's where all of the energy comes from. Because, for us, writing songs is still super exciting. That whole process of doing that is super exciting for us. And I think you can feel that on our records."

The Scream Queen's Damnation Vault: Is there a new album in the works?

Scott: "Not yet."

The Scream Queen's Damnation Vault: Not yet?!

Scott: "No. Very, very, very preliminary stages. There's a couple of really great riffs. Charlie's sent around some really great ideas. But we haven't actually started working on anything. We've just been too busy touring."

Read the entire interview at The Scream Queen's Damnation Vault.