FLOTSAM AND JETSAM Singer Talks Next Studio Album, Surviving The Music Business For 30 Years (Video)

From Hero To Zero recently conducted an interview with vocalist Eric "A.K." Knutson of Arizona metallers FLOTSAM AND JETSAM. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On how the music business has changed since the 1980s when FLOTSAM AND JETSAM released its debut album:

"Not only is the business itself different than it was back then, but my view on the business is completely different. Back then, I was worried about where is the next drink coming from? Where is the next drug coming from? When is the next woman coming from? That was my main concern back then, you know. Now, I actually switched to the business end of things — my direction was towards the business end of things — and now it's switched again. My main concern is songwriting and pouring my heart into the music we're making."

On what has kept him going with FLOTSAM AND JETSAM for more than thirty years:

"The weird thing about FLOTSAM, for me, is that without my voice, there is no FLOTSAM. They [the other guys in the band] tried to bring somebody else in for a while, and that didn't work out; it just wasn't FLOTSAM anymore. So, for me, no matter what the rest of the band lineup is, no matter who's writing songs or who's recording 'em, regardless of what's going, I'm always FLOTSAM and FLOTSAM is me, and that has kept me going the whole time. The thought that there is no FLOTSAM if I stop doing this, that keeps me going year after year."

On FLOTSAM AND JETSAM's forthcoming follow-up to 2012's "Ugly Noise":

"We're working on a new record now, and most of it's been done… actually, some at Mike's [Gilbert, guitar] house, some at Steve's [Conley, guitar] house, some at my house… So it's actually coming along very nicely… We go home [to Arizona] in a couple of weeks, and I finish the vocals for the new record, which we don't have a title for yet. The new record has songs that sound like they came from the '80s, some songs that sound like they came from the middle of our career, and some songs that sound like they're brand new, and they're all on one record together. So it's kind of difficult to come up with a concept or a name for it. So we're not quite sure what we're gonna do there yet. But the music is basically done; I just need to go home [and] finish vocals, and then we come back to Europe for another four or five weeks, and hopefully have the album out before the end of the year."

On whether FLOTSAM AND JETSAM will use PledgeMusic to help fund the making of the band's new album:

"Not yet. We might go through Pledge just to do the marketing and the actual disc itself. Recording-wise, we used a lot of the Pledge money from before to buy equipment so we could do the next record the way we're doing it now."

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM last year parted ways with guitarist Edward Carlson and bassist Jason Ward and replaced them with Steve Conley and Michael Spencer, respectively. The band also recruited SHADOWS FALL drummer Jason Bittner after Kelly Smith left the group in November 2014 to focus on caring for his family.

Spencer stated about the new FLOTSAM AND JETSAM material: "There's a great, old-school thrash vibe going on with the direction of the songs and what originally influenced the band, mixed with a little of what we like about today's sound, in metal."