Former MEGADETH and current ACT OF DEFIANCE drummer Shawn Drover was interviewed for the latest installment of “The Metal Sucks Podcast”. You can now listen to the chat using the audio player below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).
On MEGADETH’s last album, 2013’s “Super Collider”:
“I like all kinds of music. I don’t just like metal. I mean, I like… Obviously, heavy metal’s my favorite genre of music to listen to, but I’m also a big fan of jazz fusion. I like… I like all kinds of different music. I love classical stuff. You know what I mean? There’s a lot of stuff that I really enjoy. To me, it’s not a big deal to listen to SUPERTRAMP ‘Crime Of The Century’ and then turning right around and listening to a KREATOR record, or a MESHUGGAH record.
“That record [‘Super Collider’], was that the heaviest record [MEGADETH] ever did? No. But that’s okay. Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH mainman] has a lot of different musical avenues he likes to explore from time to time, and I respect that. But I would rather create ‘Killing Is My Business Part 2’ than that last record. With that said, I put everything I could into that record, as I did all of them. I tried to make it as cool as possible. But the results, they are what they are, and it wasn’t very well received. So, what can you do?
“Like I said, with ACT OF DEFIANCE, I wanna write all heavy music. This is gonna be all complete metal. There’s not gonna be any experimentation in terms of, you know, ‘Now we’re a jazz fusion band’ — none of that stuff. There’ll be [other] influences on the record, but, in the end, every song will be complete heavy metal; that will not change.
“Certain bands never change. That’s one thing I really like about somebody like MESHUGGAH — they’re so freakin’ heavy and just bizarre and original… I really love that kind of stuff. That’s really inspiring to me to completely not have any regard as to what’s selling or what’s popular. They are on their own trip, and that’s something that I really wanted to get back to doing, and I ultimately did with this band [ACT OF DEFIANCE]. We wrote music not caring or thinking about what others may perceive it as or what they think of it. You know what I mean? You hope that people like it, but if somebody doesn’t, that doesn’t bug me one bit. I cater to the ones who will like it and become fans, that’s awesome. But if you don’t like it, whatever… That doesn’t mean anything to me. I hate asparagus, but I don’t talk about it on the Asparagus.com message board.”
On the decision to quit MEGADETH after being in the band for ten years:
“It was certainly something that I didn’t decide overnight. Especially with the state of the industry, the state of heavy metal as… The fans are probably there more than ever, but the record sales have greatly diminished, which affects every facet of the industry. You don’t get as good of a record budget. You get, basically, no tour support until you go out there and prove yourself. You know what I mean? Everything is diminished. You don’t have a good tour production, because there’s no money in it. There’s all these factors you have to… You have to ultimately go out there and prove yourself and basically start… not start from scratch, but certainly start on a lower level to get that respect and earn the record company’s trust by selling… ultimately selling music and building that fan base to where they actually buy your product — those [people] that buy it. This isn’t the ’80s, man. Back in the day, when MTV was really pushing metal, all those bands were selling millions of records, which was great for the scene, because it generates income to have better stage productions and more faith from the record company, because you’re making them money. All that stuff matters.
“It’s funny to me that, when you read the stuff on the Internet about guys saying, ‘The industry’s in a bad state,’ you get these people that come back — these same twenty or thirty idiots come back — and say, ‘Oh, they’re just being rock stars,’ and whatever. ‘Blah blah blah…’ But that’s bullshit, because everything is generated by money, right? Any business cannot succeed if it’s not generating money to survive, and that includes heavy metal music. So, do I wish it was 1986 again from a financial standpoint? Absolutely.
“A lot of bands now are having to… I mean, I see JUDAS PRIEST with a PledgeMusic page. QUEENSRŸCHE have a PledgeMusic page. A lot of different bands are trying to find different ways to both reach out to fans who like that kind of stuff, but also generate income for tour support, or production costs, or having a better stage… whatever the case may be. It’s interesting. It’s a new way of thinking, and I’m trying as quickly as I can to adapt, because I’m more old school to where it’s very ‘black and white’: to support the bands that you love, you should buy their music.”
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.
“The Metal Sucks Podcast” (audio):
Source: Blabbermouth
