Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. Today we are speaking with Gary Holt of the band Exodus. How are you doing today, Gary?
Gary Holt: I’m doing fine. How are you?
Rock My Monkey: I’m doing pretty good. One thing that I noticed on this cd right off the bat was your vocalist is actually trying different things vocally. He’s actually mixing it up a little bit more this time. Was that an idea of his, or was that an idea of yours?
Gary Holt: That was an idea of his, as far as like the clean vocals on “Children Of A Worthless God”. It was an element that he had been working on privately. I hadn’t really thought about using it, because I didn’t know it existed. As far as other elements, it has more to do with just experience now, because on the last album he had only been singing in his life for like four months. He was absolutely a newbie to it. He just, so much raw ability, but now he’s got a couple of years and over a couple of hundred shows experience under his belt, so he’s just grown that much more.
Rock My Monkey: I also noticed, I mean, yeah, there’s the clean vocals that you mentioned, but I also noticed that like on certain parts of “As It Was, As It Soon Shall Be”, he actually had kind of more of, can I say, old school Exodus style to it.
Gary Holt: Yeah, possibly. I think he’s always had a lot of that, especially on the Baloff influence end of things. We actually, when we’re looking for a certain thing out of him in the studio, sometimes we tell him to give us a little more Baloff. He does a great Paul Baloff, but with timing, impersonation. (chuckles) But yeah, he’s able to capture the old new and everything in between, I think.
Rock My Monkey: What song on this cd do you think has the chance of being this album’s “Toxic Waltz”, the song that fans demand for decades to come, and know every word of?
Gary Holt: You know, that’s so hard to pick, because even a song like “Toxic Waltz”, it wasn’t like going into that album we knew that was going to be like some thrash anthem for the next twenty years. But I could tell you my favorite song. But they change all the time, but right now it’s “Children Of A Worthless God”. “Funeral Hymn” is proving to be, in the few shows we’ve done since the album’s come out, to be a total crowd favorite, as is “Bedlam 1-2-3”.
Rock My Monkey: Exodus has been around for quite a long time. Right now there’s kind of a new wave of thrash, which to me doesn’t sound anything like the old school thrash. What do you think makes Exodus unique in the thrash scene today, and what do you offer fans that no other thrash band does?
Gary Holt: What makes us unique is just the simple fact that we’ve never gave a shit about what anyone thinks we’re supposed to do. I mean, you actually have some so-called old school purists who are typically fifteen year old kids who were not alive when the old school was supposedly happening. They’ll say Exodus isn’t even a thrash band. We’ve sold out, we’ve gone modern. No, we’ve just musically have tried to push the limits of what we do. Why would I want to make an album that sounds like 1985? Because I did that in 1985. Why go backwards? And what do we have to offer? I think we’re absolutely the most aggressive, in your face, thrash band in the world right now. I think we’re leading the pack as far as taking thrash metal into a new generation.
Rock My Monkey: What do you think is the most annoying cliché in thrash metal today?
Gary Holt: The most annoying cliché?
Rock My Monkey: In thrash today.
Gary Holt: In thrash? I don’t know. Because everybody talks about this thrash Renaissance. There’s a lot of generally old school sounding like young kid bands coming out and stuff. I tend to try to avoid the clichés. Most of those were done in the 80’s. I think the biggest cliché was just, if you look at some of all of us old thrash guys, look at our old band photos. (chuckles) We look pretty funny. I don’t know. You tell me. What do you think is the biggest cliché?
Rock My Monkey: Honestly I think it’s vocalists that try so hard for brutality that they end up with a flat, monotone vocal.
Gary Holt: Yeah, I’d agree. I think a lot of people, yeah, they don’t really-there’s no peaks and valleys. There’s no dynamics to the vocals. But I think the good bands with the good singers know that you can’t hit one plateau and stay there.
Rock My Monkey: What do you think Andy Sneap brought to the cd that would not have been there otherwise?
Gary Holt: Well, aside from his technical expertise, which he’s the best in the business, what he brings to Exodus very well could be a lot different than what he brings to other bands. With us, he’s one of my best friends. It goes beyond just a business relationship. We generally have a really great time working together. We’re constantly busting each other’s balls and pulling practical jokes. It doesn’t feel like work. Because of the good environment that it creates, we just really get really creative. He understands the band. He understands the music. He comes from the same era. It’s a perfect relationship.
Rock My Monkey: The first video for this cd is going to be for the song “Riot Act”, and it’s going to be directed by Jon Schnepp of Metalocalypse on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. First off, how did you two hook up?
Gary Holt: Well, you know it started with-actually first we met Brendan Small at a show in Hollywood last year, on the Hatebreed tour. He came out and we just hit it right off the bat. He’s a big Exodus fan. I think he was shocked to find out just how big of fans of Metalocalypse we were, because we knew every line, every bit of every episode. And he asked us to come do one. So just this summer we had a show in Hollywood, and the whole band did it, and it was super fun, and we met Jon. They all came to the show that same night. Over a few beers we just started talking, and I was talking about how much I’d love to do an animated video-which this one isn’t, by the way-but that’s where it started was like ‘I hate making videos. God, I’d love to do a cartoon so I don’t even have to show up.’ And then it went from there to just like talking about getting someone to do the video, and Brendan said ‘You need to get Jon to do it,’ and Jon was like ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ And so it just kind of went from there. It came out so amazing. It’s visually different than anything anybody is doing. And I know without Jon help as a director, and also without his connections, so to speak, we could have never done this video on our piece of shit budget.
Rock My Monkey: I’m shocked to hear that it won’t be animated. What can fans expect?
Gary Holt: The whole video is virtually done green screen, so there’s a lot of computer generated graphics and stuff like that. But it’s not a cartoon, and we’re not animated. But it’s-I don’t even want to spoil it. It’s visually just amazing, and it’s all Jon’s brainchild. All we did was stand in front of a giant green screen and bang our heads and play. And he did all the wizardry behind the scenes. And it’s just, it’s so awesome looking. It’s the best thing we’ve ever done.
Rock My Monkey: So it there going to be a concept and a storyline along with it?
Gary Holt: Yeah, there’s a storyline. You know, typical Exodus fashion. It centers around world destruction and domination. You just have to see it. It’s hard to describe.
Rock My Monkey: You recently said that organized religion in all forms is just a poison. So I was wondering if you have ever heard of The Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster?
Gary Holt: No, but it sounds like the one I’d like to join!
Rock My Monkey: I have even better news for you. In The Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster, our heaven is beer volcanoes and stripper factories.
Gary Holt: I love it. Love it already. Do you still get in if you’re a suicide? Because it sounds like a place I wouldn’t want to wait to get to?
Rock My Monkey: (laughs) I don’t know about that, but if you put into Google, put Flying Spaghetti Monster into Google and look it up, I think that you’re going to be a new convert. And somebody might even need to buy you The Gospel Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster for Christmas. It’s only ten dollars on Amazon.
Gary Holt: I got to remember this. Flying Spaghetti Monster? Google that, and then I get the church?
Rock My Monkey: Yeah, yeah. The Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster, yes.
Gary Holt: Okay. I’m definitely going to do that.
Rock My Monkey: Now, the clean vocals on the song Children Of A Worthless God came out amazing. Is this something that you’re going to do more in the future?
Gary Holt: You know, we’ll use it where needed, but it’s never going to be something we will overdo. A lot of people are blown away, and the response has been great. No one seems to think in any way it’s a softening of the band’s sound or anything. But people tend to feel that we’ve done this all the way back to our second album, like “Chemi-Kill”, “Seeds Of Hate”, “'Til Death Do Us Part”, all had clean vocals. It’s just something that we’d gotten away from, and here lately in the midst of all the brutality, it’s just something we hadn’t really thought about, because I didn’t really know Rob had that other voice. But it’s something he had been working on, and he got really good at it.
Rock My Monkey: You mention that the vocals didn’t come off as a softening, and that’s actually what I like about them so much, because you were able to do it-and I don’t want to mention any band names, but certain bands are doing the clean/gruff vocal thing. They basically have a really pussified vocal, and then they’ll have a really metal core vocal, and Rob was able to find a way to do it and have the clean parts not sound wussified, I guess you could say.
Gary Holt: Yeah, certainly. A lot of the bands now, a lot of the metal core bands, I don’t have a problem with the clean. I don’t have a problem with the gruff stuff they do. But the order they do it is always the same. The verse is really heavy, and then here comes the chorus, and then it’s ‘la, la, la’ time. And you know, you could listen to a twelve song album and all twelve songs are exactly the same. You know what’s coming. It would be a big surprise, a pleasant one at that, if they just reversed it for once maybe. Sing the verse and scream the chorus. Confuse me.
Rock My Monkey: There is a lot of songs on here about religion, and you’ve actually approached the subject of religion quite often in the past. Do you ever fear repercussions for bringing up such controversial subjects?
Gary Holt: No. I mean, what’s anybody going to do but disagree with me? Let me put it like this. Most of the people in my life are Christians, and they’re not that offended by it. If you have faith in something, it shouldn’t be shaken by a metal song, you know? Your faith should be a little stronger than that. (chuckles) Being in a band it gives me my own pulpit, my own soapbox to preach off of. I think that’s why people started blogs and things, so they could have one without having to write songs, you know?
Rock My Monkey: Just don’t name a teddy bear Mohammad, though.
Gary Holt: Right, right. I told people lately in response to that, the next rabbit I feed to my snake is getting named Mohammad before it goes in the cage. (chuckles)
Rock My Monkey: (laughs) Now, would you ever take the bold step of having a picture of Mohammad on an album cover?
Gary Holt: I would do it. No label in the world would touch it. I would do it. It’s like, shit, it would get me on fucking Bill O’Reilly and Wolf Blitzer and I might sell some records, you know? (laughs) I’m not going to allow some religion to frighten me off. Their faith, they’re easily shaken. The funny thing is Mohammad is like, if not the, it’s one of the most popular men’s names in Islam, but if you name a teddy bear that, it’s a fucking crime.
Rock My Monkey: Do you feel that the lineup rotation issues are over with? Do you think that Exodus has a solid, stable lineup now?
Gary Holt: It’d better be, or I’m going to be seeing those volcanoes full of beer sooner than you’d think. (both laugh) Because I can’t take the shit any more. It’s fucking-I soldier on through it. I’ve dedicated everything to this band’s continued existence. It’s not fun. The stripper factories are just right around the corner if it happens again. But to answer the question, yeah, I think everything’s great and everybody’s having a great time. It’s awesome having Tom back, and Lee and Rob have been here two years, and no one’s going anywhere.
Rock My Monkey: How do you feel the band has progressed since “Shovel Headed Kill Machine”, and what do you think “The Atrocity Exhibition” offers fans that “Shovel Headed Kill Machine” did not?
Gary Holt: As far as the progression, it’s hard to put a finger on it because we never think anything through. We just write songs. This one here, I thoroughly wanted to push the boundaries musically. “Shovel Head” was just like a Gatling gun just gunning at you, and I didn’t want to just try and repeat that. I wanted to create a darker mood, a little creepier vibe, more atmosphere while being at times even heavier. And I think that’s what it has to offer that the other one doesn’t is general darkness and feeling of foreboding.
Rock My Monkey: I’m looking at a rather dark and foreboding album cover here. Who actually did the cover art on this?
Gary Holt: A guy named Seth Siri Anton, the guy in Greece. I was like, someone pointed me in the direction of his stuff, and I really loved his work because it’s really dark, really creepy, but at the same time it was really artistic. Just started with conversations, emails back and forth, and then he sent over a rough and then we suggested different things to do to it. He did the entire layout as well as the cover, like all the artwork on the booklet down to the disc itself. We couldn’t be happier. He did a great job.
Rock My Monkey: Is there anyplace anybody can go to look at some of his other artwork maybe?
Gary Holt: I know he has a website, a new one that was under construction. But I think if you did a search for his stuff, you’d find like his photo page and stuff like that.
Rock My Monkey: What’s the story on Double Live Dynamo, and when can fans expect that in stores?
Gary Holt: It’s available now through our website. We did it on our own, so we just about secured our distribution to get it into stores. What it is, it’s two unreleased shows, actually live shows. One from 1985, one from ’97. They’re the first, second, and only shows we ever did in Eindhoven Holland with Paul Baloff. If anybody knows anything about the band’s history, they know that Eindhoven Holland is like a total Exodus country, and the ’85 show is this legendary little club gig which spawned quite a collector’s item of a live bootleg LP called And Then There Were 300. It’s a little tiny club. Just the fact that we got our hands on this video and it’s never been released. The ’85 show is like one camera, bootleg cut quality, but it’s like my favorite. We’re so tight and the show is so killer. We look like we’re thirteen year old devils up there playing metal. The ’97 one is pro shop, multi camera, multi track recording, and that was at the Dynamo Festival in front of 88,000.
Rock My Monkey: Being the seasoned veteran that you are, is there any lesson that you’ve learned that you could share with other bands that are maybe spinning their wheels trying to make it?
Gary Holt: The first suggestion I always offer young bands is like learn a trade. Because I guess maybe on one hand it’s a good thing that I’ve never really learned a true job skill outside of this, otherwise I might have a well paying job, which makes it much more difficult to go out on tour with few promises of financial reward. So yeah, learn a backup plan. But other than that, you know, just practice, practice, practice. Try to develop your own sound. Just stick with it and keep working. When you get to that point to where you sign and stuff, get a good lawyer.
Rock My Monkey: What do you think the chances of the band doing a full coast to coast tour in the U.S. in 2008?
Gary Holt: It’s already booked. We start January 20th in Bakersfield, California.
Rock My Monkey: And this will be full scale, coast to coast tour?
Gary Holt: Yeah. I think it ends February 23rd in San Francisco. I think we come down back to San Francisco down through Washington and Portland. The dates are up on our website. I just don’t know them right off hand.
Rock My Monkey: When you hit Washington, all I got to say is I highly recommend a club called Studio 7.
Gary Holt: That’s where we’re playing.
Rock My Monkey: Oh, good. Because the other club in Seattle really sucks.
Gary Holt: Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’re playing Studio 7. Because that rings a bell when you said it.
Rock My Monkey: How much of the lyrics on this album, how much of them came from you, and how much of the lyrics came from Rob?
Gary Holt: Rob wrote “Children Of A Worthless God”, and I wrote the rest.
Rock My Monkey: This is the time in the interview I like to call the Lightening Round. I’m going to name something in popular news or popular culture, and you sum up your thoughts in one short sentence. You ready?
Gary Holt: Okay. Sure.
Rock My Monkey: Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul.
Gary Holt: I don’t know shit about him. (both laugh) I know the name. I read Newsweek. I subscribe. But he’s not a top tier candidate, you know? It’s more about Romney and Giuliani and McCain, you know?
Rock My Monkey: The NBC show Heroes.
Gary Holt: Never watched it. I heard it’s okay. I don’t watch much network television.
Rock My Monkey: The Apple iPhone.
Gary Holt: I want one. When I don’t have to switch to AT & T to get it.
Rock My Monkey: President Bush.
Gary Holt: Idiot.
Rock My Monkey: Fox News.
Gary Holt: Fox News. That’s a hard one because at times part of me says ‘idiot’ and part of me says ‘yeah, I agree with it’ half the time. Half the time.
Rock My Monkey: The Recording Industry Association Of America.
Gary Holt: (laughs) Dumb asses.
Rock My Monkey: (laughs) Being on a label that is not a member of that organization. Now, I do have one final question. Every year we do choose final question that we ask every single band from classic rock legends to the most extreme death metal bands at the end of every interview, partially to stump people but also to see who wimps out and won’t answer. This year I’m asking people to look into their crystal ball and predict what political figure, world leader, musician, celebrity, anybody world wide famous, who do you think might die before the end of the year?
Gary Holt: God, Britney Spears!
Rock My Monkey: Britney Spears. Alright.
Gary Holt: Britney Spears. Her death is just a car crash away.
Rock My Monkey: Cool. I thank you very much for doing the interview. Anybody that’s listening to the audio version can go to RockMyMonkey.com for the full featured version with clickable links, readable text, and many more wonderful features. I’m asking people to click on the album cover above and below this interview to purchase The Atrocity Exhibition by Exodus. I do hope to see you guys up on tour in the Northwest sometime soon. Thank you very much for your time, Gary.
