UNEARTH Guitarist: We Wanted To Put Out 'The Most Violent, Aggressive' Album We've Ever Done

Brandon Weiss of The Triangle recently conducted an interview with UNEARTH guitarist Buz McGrath. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

The Triangle: What was it like co-headlining the second stage at Ozzfest?

Buz McGrath: It was cool for a couple of reasons. First, we did it in 2004 and we were one of the rotating bands. So we could play as early as 9:30 in the morning which is a little early for heavy metal sometimes. But God love those kids. They would come out, so you still could play in front of a thousand people at 9:30 which is great. But this year we had a fixed spot. It was anywhere from two to three, depending on if Ozzy was playing the second stage or not. So we got time to wake up, some time to eat, and then go play. It's definitely a profile thing, so kids see that and go, "Wow, I like this band." We could fool people into thinking we're huge.

The Triangle: As a relatively small metal band without much radio airplay, what do you find is the most effective way of expanding your fan base?

Buz McGrath: It's gotta be touring. You gotta get out there. With this type of music, you gotta bring it to the kids, put it in their face and say, "If you want something heavy, man, we got it." So, being on tour is much to your advantage when you're first starting out. You gotta take every tour you can get. It doesn't matter with who, it doesn't matter what pay, you have to get out there and do it.

The Triangle: What was your main inspiration for the new album?

Buz McGrath: We kind of wanted to put out an album that was the most violent, aggressive, brutal thing we've ever done. When we were writing it, it seemed like a lot of bands were trying to mix all the rage of heavy metal with this "pop-core" thing. There seemed like there was so much of that going around. So we were like, let's just take it the other way and try to make it as brutal as possible, and see how big we could get this by staying true to what we want to do musically. Also, a lot of bands we listened to at the time of writing it influenced us. I love CHILDREN OF BODOM, LAMB OF GOD, SLAYER. Stuff like that was in heavy rotation when we were writing this record.

The Triangle: What's your writing process like?

Buz McGrath: Usually we just start with me and Ken coming up with a couple of riffs that maybe link together. Showing up to practice, showing our drummer some riffs for him, come up with a beat, and then going, "No, no, no, not like that, like this: (makes drum noises)." We just get all these ideas together and try to put them together like a puzzle until it looks and sounds like a song. Once it feels good, after we play it, we kind of look around at everybody and acknowledge that we all feel good about it. If we do, then we keep it. There's a lot of fighting and arguing and belly-aching that goes on, but eventually it works. It's kind of like having a baby and hoping that it doesn't come out retarded.

Read the entire interview at www.thetriangle.org.