Metal Wani’s William Richards recently conducted an interview with former MEGADETH and current ACT OF DEFIANCE drummer Shawn Drover. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).
On his recent statement that he would rather create “Killing Is My Business Part 2” than MEGADETH’s last record, 2013’s “Super Collider”:
“Again, as usual, things get twisted in the press. Of the thirty minutes that I did that interview, of course, the question comes up: ‘What do you think about [‘Super Collider’]?’ I like that record; I have no problem with that record. Having said that, what I said was I would rather make something heavy like ‘Killing Is My Business’. In other words, I like writing heavy. I like writing the heavier music. Case in point: my new record. I mean, you listen to the ACT OF DEFIANCE record, it’s complete uncompromising heavy metal. That was my point. It [wasn’t meant as a slag] whatsoever to the ‘Super Collider’ record. I like a lot of that stuff on the record. The question was: was that the heaviest record the band ever made? Of course it wasn’t. But that band has always done different things in its career — really heavy stuff, more commercial stuff, more stuff that was kind of a little bit left field. And certainly that record is a little… it was not the heaviest record. And that, of course, was my point that gets twisted in the press, as usual. It had nothing to do with I would rather make a record that sounds identical… having that band record another record that’s identical to ‘Killing Is My Business’. It had no reference to that at all. What I meant was I like playing very heavy music. That was the point of that… [But] certain web sites like to twist it and try to find a negative headline, which… I don’t pay attention to that horseshit anyway.”
On whether he thinks “Super Collider” would have been received better had it been released a couple of decades earlier:
“I think the album sales would be more because, at the time, records were selling ten times what they’re selling now, so I think the answer to that would be yes — absolutely, it would have sold more records then. Because people were buying records then. That’s not a subjective conversation; that’s fact. The bottom line is everybody… Back in the day, there was no Internet, so you couldn’t steal music. If you liked music, you bought the record. And the numbers reflect that. Go pull up the sales for 1985, 1986 for heavy metal bands. I guarantee you it’s ten times what it is now. That doesn’t mean there’s ten times less fans — in fact, I think there’s more heavy metal fans now than possibly there ever was. But the bottom line is the numbers show that metal bands are not selling what they did back in the day, and that’s because of Internet piracy. I don’t wanna get on that subject, because it always turns into a depressing, negative subject, but it is a fact. So the answer to the question, ‘Would that record sell more in 1985?’ I would say the answer would be yes.”
On whether he thinks there will ever be a solution to the illegal music downloading issue that will help bring back the music industry to where it once was:
“Unless a solution is provided, it’ll stay the way it is; in fact, it will probably get even worse. But the problem is, no one’s come up with a solution. Now you can come up with a completely new format that you can put out music… Say the record industry said, ‘Okay, from now on, we’re not putting downloads on the Internet where you can get ‘em on iTunes. You have to buy this physical product. You’ve gotta some kind of…’ Like when CDs came out in the early ’80s, if you remember. We had cassettes and records and 8-tracks at that point, and CD became the new way to listen to music, to where everybody had to buy CD players. And I remember people bitching, ‘I’m not gonna buy a CD player. That’s bullshit. Blah blah blah.’ And, of course, over time, everybody bought a CD player. But at some point, someone figured out, ‘Shit, I can put this CD into my computer, and I can put music on my computer and share it with my friends.’ Thus the pitfall and the downfall of the music industry, because sales have declined rapidly. Now, if somebody comes up with a new format, a new product where you physically have to buy it again and you have to buy a machine to play it on, to where you cannot put it in your computer, that will combat the problem. But who’s going to do that? Is anybody gonna actually do that? That’s the question.”
On how illegal music downloading has affected new heavy metal artists:
“Ultimately, that’s what metal bands need — is support. In order to survive and to thrive to where it was, where everybody was supporting the scene… Look, it dominated MTV for several years. That was a beautiful thing. Anybody can say whatever they… If they wanna say something negative about that, they’re idiots, because it was an amazing thing. Dude, they were playing metal all the time on MTV, and it was being exposed to millions of people. That’s an amazing thing. I was there; I know. So it would be great if we could get back to that to where it was… It would rival the country music artists. Those guys are the rock stars of today, in terms of real musicians. They are the ones… They are the rock stars. Just like the metal guys were in the ’80s, country music has dominated that now for many years now. They have their own… Look, they have their own country music… They have CMT, a country music station. We don’t have a heavy metal station that plays metal 24 hours a day. It’s a drag, man. It’s a shame that we all don’t get together and fight for what we believe in, and that’s supporting this scene like we used to. But it is what it is.
“Internet piracy has affected every genre, but it really has affected ours.”
ACT OF DEFIANCE, which also includes former MEGADETH guitarist Chris Broderick, ex-SCAR THE MARTYR singer Henry Derek Bonner and SHADOWS FALL’s Matt Bachand (bass), released its debut album, “Birth And The Burial”, on August 21 via Metal Blade Records.
Source: Blabbermouth
