LAMB OF GOD Guitarist: 'We've Never Made Music For Anyone But Ourselves'

Horatio of KickedInTheFace.com recently conducted an interview with LAMB OF GOD guitarist Mark Morton. An excerpt from the chat follows:

KickedIntheFace.com: Has it been a conscious decision on the part of the band to keep the majority of the new material secret?

Mark Morton: "I think so. Part of the reason is that over the course of our career we've never made music for anyone but ourselves. It's hard enough for us to find an album or a song that the five of us agree on so we don't solicit or are interested in any outside opinions, from fans, anybody. It's tricky to say we don't care about our fans but to a certain degree if you love it great, if you don't that's cool too. We're making music for us, that's all we've ever done. To start letting new songs out and getting a lot of feedback is something we don't want. I want it to be new and fresh the day it drops."

KickedIntheFace.com: How important was it for metal to have a band like LAMB OF GOD reach such lofty heights after so many barren years for the genre, especially the mid-'90s when acts like METALLICA abandoned thrash?

Mark Morton: "I don't know. The way it happened was so genuine, so grass roots that it's really hard to soak up. We're the same band that was sleeping on top of our equipment at rest stops. And still doing pretty much the same music. Obviously we've changed stylistically and as musicians but the agenda is still the same. It was as bigger surprise to us as anybody that we are doing as well as we are right now. The metal scene isn't entirely on our shoulders, there was a movement going of bands that were doing this for real and if you'd told me once that I could be playing arenas with tour buses, with all this gear, selling these records playing the kind of music we're playing, I would have told you you're nuts. But it happened. And I don't put any rules on this band, we can do whatever we want. Some of your fans want you to make the same record over and over. But are we going to be a top forty band putting out radio hits like METALLICA did? Hell no. The reason this group started playing together in a basement over a twelve pack of beer is the simple fact you could not go and see live metal. It just wasn't there except for a handful of bands who we considered to be real metal, so we said fuck it we'll just have to do it ourselves. Metal had slipped so far away and that was the catalyst for us, we were starving for it."

KickedIntheFace.com: Have your major label dealings made things easier for the band or more stressful with the growing demand of you?

Mark Morton: "I don't want to give the impression that we're doing it for the money but the fact is when we switched to a major label we were able to do LAMB OF GOD full-time. It only helps the music and allows us to focus and direct our energy on the band and our music. We're by no means wealthy but I have a cool job right now."

Read the entire interview at KickedInTheFace.com.