Evile Interview

How has touring been going so far?

Matt: Surprisingly good so far, people are still showing up so that’s good.

Ol: There’ve been more people than we would have expected so can’t complain there.

Matt: In Belfast people were saying ‘aw Belfast not the best for gigs and there aren’t many people coming out’, but there were loads.

The last time you guys were here was with Machine Head in Belffast and Dublin, what was it like playing with those guys?

All: AWESOME!!

Ol: One it’s great to play with Machine Head and it’s great to play to a lot of people, they’re really nice guys and they were just great gigs. And there were a lot of people who came out to see us.

You’ve had a really busy summer, can you tell us a bit more about that?

Ben: Bloodstock was probably the highlight.

Ol: We’ve played a lot of smaller European festival in the middle of  nowhere, stuck in the middle of a forest somewhere, with really underground metal bands too.

Ol, what was it like to meet Kerry King?

Ol: It was amazing, there are no words, and it was just awesome. He was really nice. At first because he seemed huge and he was wearing shades so I couldn’t see where he was looking then I thought ‘Oh God, he doesn’t like me’ but he was really nice and really, really cool.

You guys have been credited with fronting the revival of the thrash genre, how do you feel about a lot of these bands that are around now that are essentially the polar opposite of what thrash stands for? Do you think metal has become more about the aesthetic?

Matt: There are so many different kinds of metal nowadays I don’t think you can make a generalised statement about it. So many people like so many different things and we just do what we do and we stick to that. You’ve got the hair bands and all that but there are people who like that.

Ben: I think we’d like to stay constant while all the other bands come and go, there seems to be a lot of bands now who are kind of repeating what was happening in the mid eighties, you know get the hair as big as you can and the guys are looking just like girls with all the make-up. We’re not gonna change and follow trends we never have done that, we’re just going to do what we do. I think the scene that we’re part of has always been there bubbling under while other trends have been and gone.

Ol: By the way we’re wearing make-up on the next album.

Ben: Shit

Matt: I didn’t get that memo.

What was it like being a part of the black album covers? Was there any pressure covering Metallica?

Matt: It was a good laugh.

Ol: we’ve played metallica songs since forever, matt stuck in a few Hetfield growls.

Matt: I tried to keep the Hetfield to a minimum but they came out every now and then.

Ben: it was nice to play something and play a tribute to one of the bands I tried to get every hit right of every fill. I didn’t want to do it wrong because Lars, for me, was one of the reasons I started drumming and in that album the fills are really iconic so if it’s wrong, people are gonna tell you it’s shit.

Is there anything you really want to accomplish in your career?

Ol: Getting out of Europe. We want to get to Australia, Japan, we want to get everywhere.

Ben: Out of everything, however long we keep going as Evile I’d like to be remembered as not being shit. And if people are talking about us in, context, there’s a lot of thrash bands who’ve not had as many albums out. If you’re talking about us in that sense I’d like to be remembered in a favourable way.

Matt: Let’s just not be shit.

Ol: I think seriously, to get to a level where you can make the band sustainable and not have to have jobs and make that all our jobs do it professionally.

Matt: We’d like to get to a level where it sustainable but it’s hard at the moment juggling working then touring and not working and needing money.

Ol: There only so many fans I suppose

Matt: And they’ve only got so much money, it’s a hard thing to do.

What are you plans for future recording?

Ol: February we’re in the studio with Russ Russell again

Ben: We have some tracks written. We’re pulling ourselves of the road so we can concentrate on writing and getting the album sorted.

Matt: Gonna make it not shit.