STEVE 'ZETRO' SOUZA On HATRIOT: Fans Will Get A New Record Every Year

M. Drew of Bloody Good Horror recently conducted an interview with former EXODUS and current HATRIOT frontman Steve "Zetro" Souza. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

Bloody Good Horror: You told me originally that we would see three HATRIOT records in two calendar years. Is that still the plan?

Souza: I'll tell you this: [the second HATRIOT album] "Dawn Of The New Centurion" isn't even released yet, and I already have two new songs for the next record.

Bloody Good Horror: That's unbelievable, you know that, right?

Souza: Well, see, I've got kids and they don't know any better. Rather than teach them how to be lazy rock stars like we all were back in the day, four years for an EXODUS album, six years for a SLIPKNOT record, I mean, come on. What does it take to write ten fucking songs? We work. We work every week and there's practice. I have different practices set up, like last night was "learn Zetro's days covers," so when we're playing out, we can play "Toxic Waltz", we can play "Faster Than You'll Ever Live To Be", we can play and it'll be tight. We have writing practices. I'll talk to Kosta [Varvatakis, guitar], say, "Put a song together," we'll go hammer it out and next day show everybody how to do it. The third practice of the week we'll do all the songs. There's different practices, so we can keep pumping them out, and pumping good ones out. That's the way we do it. We'll be in the studio again probably January of 2015.

Bloody Good Horror: Do you remember ever having the energy that your kids have for just writing all the time?

Souza: Yes, because when I was in LEGACY, that's how I did it. It was the same way, same thing, same regimen. No stopping practice in between songs, because that's the live set, too. When you see us live, there's no fucking, "Hey, glad to be here, nice to see you, I'm gonna drink a beer, and we're HATRIOT and this one's called…." None of that fucking crap. Song to song to song to song. That's what we're there for, to play music. Don't sit there for a fucking dog and pony show. We get up there, make sure everyone's in tune, because we're going to blister fourteen fucking songs in a row. That's how I want it.

Bloody Good Horror: I know what I think about "Dawn of the New Centurion", but I want to know what you think about it. Did it come out like you expected?

Souza: Yes, definitely. Definitely came out like I expected. I'm very proud of it. I like where it went, both vocally and as a writer. I know people are partial to the EXODUS stuff, but this, to me, is way more comfortable for me. I just fit right into it. I don't worry about what to write. It just comes, like it's no work. I write the lyrics, and the lyrics are so fucking brutal that I can write no problem, easily. That's what it used to be when I was in LEGACY and even when I was in EXODUS. In DUBLIN DEATH PATROL, the relationship was not what I was used to. The vocals had to stand out and that was hard. It was more work than any of this stuff, was the DDP stuff. The music wasn't overly dynamic, so the vocals, Chuck [Billy] and I had to work together to make it sound cool. Lyrics and what we're writing about and that whole thing. With this, I hear the song, and go, "Tthis will be called that, and that's what it'll be about." Stuff just fits like a glove.

Bloody Good Horror: It sounded to me like yes, it's thrash, but also like it was a more modern spin. Was that a conscious effort?

Souza: I think maturation is a conscious effort. On "Heroes of Origin", it was a very fast, very brutal record, like a fist right up next to your face. That's the way I took "Heroes". When I wrote "The Fear Within", it was the first song I ever wrote with these guys, on the demo, years ago. But I didn't put it on that first record, and people gave me shit for that, too. It doesn't fit "Heroes". "Dawn" is a more stealth killer. Everything fits in this band. Nick [Nicholas Souza, drums] and Kosta will put a new song together, and the next night everyone will come in and learn it. Then I take it and write the lyrics to it. There's a process to it. We keep writing constantly. You will get a record every year, pretty much. And you should. How hard is it to write forty-five minutes worth of music? Shut the fuck up and put a goddamn album out for your fans.

Read the entire interview at Bloody Good Horror.