SLAYER Guitarist On Songwriting: 'If You Sit Down And Over-Think It, It's Usually Sh*t'

Luxi Lahtinen of Metal-Rules.com recently conducted an interview with SLAYER guitarist Jeff Hanneman. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Metal-Rules.com: As you have probably heard from almost every possible direction many have said that the aggression and brutality of your old days have returned. So, what actually happened in the SLAYER camp when you started writing new songs for your latest album?

Jeff: I think a lot of it has to do with having Dave [Lombardo] back in the band. We just felt this new old chemistry with Dave again. When we were writing stuff it had a lot to do with Dave and his speed. We don't sit down and think about what we're going to do before we do it, it just comes out that way. I think that is the better formula for writing songs, because if you sit down and over-think it, it's usually shit. You try to do too much and you're not playing from the heart, you're playing from the mind and try to think it through. So with Dave back in the band, we just let it happen. And it turned out great.

Metal-Rules.com: There's also more of this hardcore vibe in these new songs on "Christ Illusion". Obviously it has something to do with your musical backgrounds as punk/hardcore bands have always been close to your hearts. You even did this album ("Undistiputed Attitude") full of some of your favorite hardcore/punk songs.

Jeff: Yeah, once again it has a lot to do with Dave. I was into punk and Dave and Kerry got into it much later. So I kinda influenced Kerry who influenced Dave which comes out now, because he wrote a lot of the songs for this album. It's kinda funny that it sounds more like punk with Dave back. It's a weird thing, but it works out.

Metal-Rules.com: What inspired you to come up with such melodic leads for this album?

Jeff: Once again, we don't over-think things. Ten percent of my leads are done in the studio and the rest I've done in my hotel room, working on it, working on it, working on it. Then I show up in the studio shouting, "Quick, record it, I think I've got it!" It's just spontaneous, a lot of it.

Metal-Rules.com: "Christ Illusion" was banned in India due to the album cover, a Mumbai-based Catholic secular forum being behind this. The reason was "Christ with a missing eye and amputated arms…," kind of.

Jeff: I take it as a good thing. I actually do. When I heard about it, I just thought "I'm the winner!" I like them. Bad publicity is always good publicity. Even though it wasn't fully intentional we knew somebody would get mad about this, so I'm glad somebody did.

Metal-Rules.com: Also they complained about this one song on "Christ Illusion", "Skeleton Christ", saying that the lyrics in it are an insult to Christianity. That song off your new album also made them pissed off somehow.

Jeff: (laughs) Good!

Metal-Rules.com: Do you overall think it's always a good publicity for SLAYER to get banned in countries?

Jeff: I like it! Two reasons: it's good publicity and it's what we're about. We're the bad guys anyway. We always write about the bad things so it's only fitting that we get banned in some place.

Metal-Rules.com: I guess you have pretty much used to this type of "banning" over the years, am I right?

Jeff: Oh yeah, been going on for years. When "Reign in Blood" came out we got kicked out by our American label. (laughs) It's been happening for years. I guess that's nothing really new to us, ha-ha!

Metal-Rules.com: Have you received any "ultimatums" from some other religious groups because of this song called "Jihad" on "Christ Illusion"?

Jeff: Actually, no. I think Tom was really worried when he read the lyrics after I finished it. He was like, "We're gonna get some shit about this in the States." But nothing has surfaced. In the States, we've been getting in trouble for so long that all the people who monitor music and try to tell you what to think just looked at it and thought, "That's just SLAYER being SLAYER." So they ignored it.

Metal-Rules.com: The "Eyes of the Insane" video is pretty damn cool in my opinion as there's this eye in the main role that reflects what can be seen in a warzone, seen from a soldier's point of view. Where did the idea for that video come from?

Jeff: Actually, it wasn't our idea. When we initially came to the conclusion that we should do a video we were so busy touring that we couldn't be in the video. So we contacted these people to do a video without us. This guy came up with the idea with the eye because of "Eyes of the Insane" and we loved it. When I first saw it, I thought it was pretty amazing.

Read the entire interview at Metal-Rules.com.