TESTAMENT's CHUCK BILLY Warms Up His Voice For 90 Minutes Before Every Performance

In a recent interview with Jai That Aussie Metal Guy, TESTAMENT frontman Chuck Billy was asked how he has managed to keep his voice in "top shape" after touring extensively for nearly 40 years. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Routine. I'd say it's routine. When I took my vocal training and coaching before I got into the band, I still use that same warmup tape that I received 40 years ago. And it's a mental thing for me now. I warm up with this tape for 90 minutes. Every time before any performance, I've gotta [warm up]. And if I don't do that, my head would say, 'You're not ready to sing. You're not ready. You didn't warm up.' So it's mental.

"I choose to do things different on tour," he explained. "I don't drink and get drunk every night. I get my rest. I chose in the last — I don't know — maybe four years, five years, I quit smoking weed before I go on tour and on tour, which has really helped increase the stamina. So I'm always trying to stay away from people who are getting sick. So I'm always just constantly, when I'm on tour, trying to be a hundred percent and watching what I do. And, really, before tour a lot of practicing or I ride a Peloton bike or I just do things like that, try to build up my lungs so I'm fit mentally and try to get physically focused on being a hundred percent. And it's been paying off. It's like anything you do — if you go to the gym for 30 years, you're probably gonna be a pretty strong guy, going through muscle memory and everything. It's kind of the same thing vocally. Over the years I've known my limits, stretched my limits, and now I try to use all my limits. And that's kind of where I'm at."

TESTAMENT is putting the finishing touches on the follow-up to 2020's "Titans Of Creation" album for a tentative mid-2025 release.

Last month, Billy told Australia's The Rockpit, about TESTAMENT's upcoming LP: "Well, this [album is] gonna be very special. I think I'm more excited about this one, just because of the fact — the timing of everything. I'm a big person believer in things happen for reasons. And [new TESTAMENT drummer] Chris Dovas jamming with us and having a lot of time to come up and spend with Eric [Peterson, TESTAMENT guitarist] at Eric's place, just jamming, coming up a lot of music and working on it hard and tracking it at home and doing demos. And I could tell, when I first started getting the songs and the riffs sent, that it was something different. It's still Eric and I recognize it, but he was being pushed and inspired 'cause Chris is a very fast, aggressive drummer, and I can tell that it just inspired Eric just to be Eric and play guitar instead of trying to think about building a song or making a song — 'Let's just jam.' And that's the kind of way they approached it. And next thing you know, they had 10, 11, 12 jams that were sounding pretty strong, but individually identified just different vibes. And I was, like, 'Okay, this is what it is.' And then, as it just built vocally and everything, that's when we were kind of, 'Wow. It just feels fresh and new and challenging again. Vocally, for me, I've got a wide range of tones on this one — I'm screaming again, which I haven't done that a lot on a lot of records in the past, but a lot on this one. And we are still writing for ourselves, but we're still excited that when we write a song, how it hits live, and that's always been the payoff, is do these songs we write in the studio hit live like we want 'em to? And that's the fun part."

In June, Chuck told Nikki Blakk of the San Francisco, California radio station 107.7 The Bone about the lyrical themes covered in the new TESTAMENT songs: "[It's] not as focused [on], like, the aliens, creating mankind and that kind of stuff, but there is some of that. There's a lot. Each song definitely has its own identity lyrically. And again, we're writing stuff that is real, that happens with the environment; we're singing about that again. A.I., we're singing stuff about that. That's a big thing. So, there's always an inspiration for songs. I think it's a little easier. There's so much going on in our world to write about now. It's a crazy world today, so there's a lot of stuff to talk about. And I like singing about what's real and what's going on instead of some fantasy lyrics, because, for me, I think when I sing 'em, I have more conviction, I believe in 'em a little more. And maybe it's easier for me to remember the lyrics live. [Laughs]"

Naming specific tracks, Chuck said: "There's a song, 'Havana Syndrome', which is about the Havana Syndrome. People, look that up. There's 'Infanticide A.I.', which is another song going A.I. direction. And there's actually a slower song. We haven't done a slower song. I'm not gonna say 'ballad', but I'm gonna say a slower song that has a lot of groove and soul, called 'Meant To Be'. And it's like a classic TESTAMENT-type ballad, I guess, if you wanna use that word. But we've got a little bit of everything, but, again, I think it's really sticking to TESTAMENT, having to have some melodic stuff, even though there's some really brutal lyrics and real brutal, more of a death voice. I still put the hook in with more of a melodic hook or something. It's still classic TESTAMENT. If you listen to it, you'll go, 'That's TESTAMENT, but a little more octane to it.'"