INTERVIEW: John Bush, Anthrax
- Sean Eric McGill
I must be honest. I've not a fan of the interview process, the idea of just letting someone answer a question without any interjections from myself.
But, I still do interviews from time to time, and I enjoy doing them with people who I really like as musicians, which is why I jumped at the chance to interview Anthrax's John Bush. The band, who have just released their latest album, Volume 8 The Threat Is Real (Ignition), have always been pioneers in the hard rock field, and John and I sat on the other side of a phone line recently and spoke about the new album, touring, and a few other subjects.
Consumable Online: It's been three years since Stomp 424 was released...
John Bush: Well, not exactly three (laughs) more like two and a half.
CO: Well, what has gone on between then and now?
JB: Well, even though it's been a couple of years, it's not like we were sitting around picking our ass. We were writing and touring - obviously you got out tour for about a good year or a little longer after you release an album. And then the process of writing began, and for us it takes a little longer, especially on this record because we really wanted to concentrate on taking it to another level. So we really, really scrutinized on everything and worked super-hard on it and that process took about eight months.
We started recording it, and then we took a break for a couple of months where we went on tour with Pantera, as well. It may seem like it was a long period of time when there was not much going on with Anthrax, but we were very busy.
CO: And this album certainly does have a different sound on it; it's easy to see where all three of the albums that have come out since '93 have had a very different sound on them.
JB: I totally agree with that. As a matter of fact, I'm real proud of the fact that I think every record I've done with the band is very different from one another.
CO: When you came into the band, there was this fairly standard Anthrax sound that we had heard since Spreading the Disease . Did you bring something into the band, or did they get you and say "OK, now we can do all this other stuff we want to do"?
JB: Well, you know, my ego wants to tell me that maybe that I opened the band up to other styles of writing that they felt they were unable to achieve with Joey Belladonna. I mean, I don't think that necessarily he was the reason, I'm sure everything he did with Anthrax was really positive. Just maybe the band was ready to take a step and to do something different just because. It might not have changed without a personnel change or maybe I was the catalyst to it, but in any case, I do think that the band was ready to say was just ready to say "OK, we got to grow a little more here, and this is the way we're gonna do it"
But you know, we're still a crushing rock band, and feel like we can do all kinds of stuff as witness to our record. It was important for us to take a step up in songwriting, I think that's the area we really grew in. We just became better writers, and we just seem to make the most out of whatever the length of a song is - four-and-a-half or five minute song or whatever, we feel like we get the most out of every second of that song.
CO: You've been with the band for six years now, and the band itself has been around fifteen years. Why has Anthrax made it fifteen years, when most can't seem to make it the six you've been with them?
JB: I know, it's amazing. Well, you know that's a good question, and without sounding arrogant, I just think we must be really good. That's got to be one reason. Obviously, there's a demand for hearing Anthrax music. I think it's a band that's always been creative and done different things and willing to stick their neck out and say "We're going to try this and it might actually turn people off but it'll probably turn as many people on" and I think that's a great thing to do. And I think that on this record, I think it's exaggerated.
Everyone's telling me that, and I know I feel that way, but people are telling us "Wow, this is really a diverse record". And I think this is kinda like the exclamation point on the band's career - I mean, I don't want it to be the end, but I just think that Anthrax has always been a band willing to take those kind of chances, and I think that's what keeps it fresh, and I think that's why it's an interesting group.
There's a loyalty, even though sometimes we fight like cats and dogs, but deep down there's a loyalty and belief that we're really a great band.
CO: Well, you talk about a band that's never been afraid to take a risk, I remember when Vibe magazine named "Bring the Noise" the best rap track of the year when that came out.
JB: Well, yeah, there you go. "Bring the Noise" is one of the most increbible live songs ever. Sometimes I sit back and just freak on how crazy the crowd goes on that song. When we were touring with Pantera, it was like the highlight of the whole fuckin' show for any band, so that is an amazing song. And again, it goes shows that Anthrax is willing to do that. And it's probably one of the main reasons the band has had so much longevity and hopefully will have more. I mean, five more years, and that's a twenty-year career and that's a lot to be said.
CO: And then you'll have done and been a part of something very few have.
JB: Exactly, especially these days. You can sell five million albums on one album and then be history on the next one, and that's too bad. People are very, very narrow minded these days, and not only that, but their attention spans are minute.
CO: And it's always easier to come out and do really well on your first album and then have people go, "OK, so now what have you got?" And if it's not what they were expecting, then they'll go find something else more often than not.
JB: Yeah, because people spend so much time writing material before they get signed, that's why they have all these great songs. Then all of the sudden they have to make a second record, and it is difficult. But then again, remember that the public is so fickle these days, and with the evil that is MTV, and I say that with a bit of a tongue-in-cheek attitude, it creates this "Ah, that's great!" and then next week "That's great! Fuck last week!" and all that does if hurt the bands, because they're like "Well now what do we do?"
CO: We are kinda stuck with MTV; there's really not much we can do about it at this point, although I do think it helps a bit that they're not playing as many videos as they used to.
JB: I love that - I wish there weren't any videos. I wish it was "The Real World" and "Singled Out" all day long.
CO: I thought it is. I flipped through there four times last week and every time it was "Road Rules".
JB: I know, it's like "What the fuck is this?"
CO: Are there any bands that you're particularly into right now?
JB: I'm totally into the Foo Fighters newest album, I can't stop listening to it. I loved the last Faith No More record a lot, I thought it was brilliant and am very disappointed that they've called it quits. There's this band we just discovered out of England because we were there doing publicity called the Radiators that are fucking great. I'm looking forward to hearing the new Fear Factory album because I think they're a good, solid band. There's some great new music out there, and I try to stay away from anything too trendy, I like people who try to create their own identity, and that's not that easy to do.
CO: The band is down to a four-piece in the studio, occasionally having guest musicians. On tour, do you bring someone with you?
JB: Yeah, Paul Crook, who actually engineered our record and plays guitar on it is on the tour with us and he was on the previous tour, as well. He's like the fifth guy, even though he's not technically it, but he's almost more valuable than that because he engineered our record, and he plays lead - he just has all kinds of talent spewing from his pores.
CO: How did you end up wanting to do music as a living?
JB: I was exposed to music when I was about five years old by my older brother playing Beatles records, so I was lucking to have someone older than me turn me on to stuff, and I think it always was a part of me. Nobody really was musically inclined in my family, but I think that by the time I got into junior high I was just so into music, and it seemed like me and a circle of my friends were just kinda adventurous when it came to listening to different kinds of music and finding new bands, and we would be the ones finding someone and turning everyone on to it. We were in to that, and there's always a group that's like that, and then there is the mainstream.
And then someone turned me on to singing - it was basically because I had this persona of a rock singer because I was kinda popular and a little bit of a big mouth and I fit that stupid stereotype. Which is funny because in a weird way I'm nothing like that, and people actually comment on that, that I'm the kinda anti-lead singer. It was just something that I really got into, and as I matured and got older I realized that I was really into it and started paying attention to how music is made and all that, and now I take it extremely serious.
CO: How did you end up with Anthrax?
JB: Well, I was in a band previous called Armored Saint, and we released five records and were around for about nine years. We never really achieved the success that Anthrax did, but we still had a world-renowned name, and they were aware of me based on that, and I guess they figured that when they parted ways with Joey Belladonna that my singing style would compliment their music. So we got in contact and eventually jammed and there was that chemistry and the rest is history.
CO: In the live sets now, since you have three albums worth of material that you recorded with the band, is that pretty much what you concentrate on?
JB: I think we're gonna play everything across the board, but we will exaggerate this record which is what you usually do when you have a new album. But we'll play stuff all the way through, and my goal is to play a couple of different songs from the old stuff. I don't want to play the obvious songs of older Anthrax, I want to do something different because I think people are just sick of that. I just want to experiment a little bit.
