SOURCE – Every album has that distinctive Cattle Decapitation style, but what’s different about The Anthropocene Extinction?
David McGraw (Drums) – Every Cattle Decapitation album has its own sort of unique ambience and topics in which we focus on lyrically and conceptually.
For our new album which comes out August 7th, we naturally progressed into a darker ambience which we feel happens with every record as a direct result of things really not getting any better in this world. Our singer Travis Ryan is the one who takes command on the conceptual work, the rest of the guys and myself focus on writing the music.
SOURCE – Do you find it more challenging recording singing or screaming vocals?
David McGraw (Drums) – That’s a question Travis can answer better than I can. I know that his technique comes from years of personal experimentation, and from touring for the last 15 years. It’s never easy to track, but having Dave Otero behind the knobs certainly helps with getting the best performance.
SOURCE – Manufactured Extinct. It’s definitely one of the highlights of the album for me. For you personally, is there a certain track that sticks out in your mind as a favorite yet?
David McGraw (Drums) – What’s interesting is that Manufactured Extinct was the last song we wrote and it became the album opener. I have a few favorites, I really love Circus Inhumanitas, It’s got my favorite chorus. However, I’m really into all the songs in this album, which is weird because I am a very self critical person, specially when it comes to my craft, and that can be applied to the whole band as well.
SOURCE – The new album is also being released on cassette. Do you still have your old cassettes from back in the day?
David McGraw (Drums) – I wish I had my old cassette collection, I had some pretty rare stuff from my old bands that we used to record in my bedroom, and just a bunch of local bands as well. I love that we released a cassette version. Once I saw my band on a pro looking cassette I felt really proud, I know its just a collectors item, but I grew up with nothing but cassette tapes, so I think its pretty cool.
SOURCE – Is it difficult for a band to stay active for 20+ years? Were there any hard times in the past where you considered splitting up?
David McGraw (Drums) – Yes it is difficult, just like any relationship or job. The four of us are all very different people, with different visions, outlooks in life, the list goes on. We have a very democratic way of working with each other and also when it comes to making decisions, which can lead into a lot of disagreement and turmoil.
However, within the recent years we’ve hired a management agency to take care of a lot of things that we really should’ve not been handling, less cooks in the kitchen is always better when it comes to business. We stick to our guns though, and even with all the bullshit we’ve had with each other throughout the years, we still pull through, write new music, tour and put out records.
SOURCE – Is there any advice you veterans could give to new metal bands trying to get their names out there today? Do you think it’s easier to be recognized in the metal world today than it was 20 years ago?
David McGraw (Drums) – That’s a bit of a though one, mainly because the resources to get exposure as a new band have never been better, but that also means that everyone and their grandma has a band now which dilutes everything to the point of saturation, theres so many bands out now, and they all tour, I cant say that the metal fan base has grown along side, mainly because so many metal fans are the same people who play in bands. My advice is simple, in order to get noticed you need to tour, and a lot. You have to be willing to live a road lifestyle for a while, you’re going to loose jobs, friendships will fade, people around you will continue to grow in other aspects of life while you seem to be frozen in time, those are all very basic realities that you can expect and will happen.
On the other side of that coin is that you will be very well traveled and cultured because of what you do, and theres a lot of personal growth as well. Getting through the early stages of a hard working band is where the men are separated from the children, and the children go home, touring and being in a band is fucking hard. I also recommend getting your education out of the way before you tour, go to college and get a degree.
SOURCE – Do you prefer the era of modern death metal or the early days back in the 90’s?
David McGraw (Drums) – Two completely different worlds, I love the late 80’s and 90’s metal in general, It’s what influenced me to do what I do now. I love modern death metal as well. The one thing I like better from the original batch of death metal was that it had more groove, it was more “in the pocket” if you’re familiar with that term. It seem that with a lot of modern death metal bands, groove got lost and it was replaced for over-the-top nonsense and obnoxious technical diarrhea, wankery was replaced for song writing, and kids with underdeveloped sense of musical taste find it really amusing.
SOURCE – Are there any newcomer bands today that you admire?
David McGraw (Drums) – Yes indeed, there’s a ton of them, to name a few: Soreption, Disperse, Monuments, Dreamshade, Turnstile etc.
SOURCE – How do you balance the busy schedule of a musician (playing live shows, recording albums) with your personal lives and the time devoted to your families?
David McGraw (Drums) – We’re all, just really at the mercy of our jobs, Travis is self-employed so he has a bit more freedom than the rest of the band. We try to book shows and tours as far in advance as possible, this way we can arrange things in our life accordingly. But even then It’s not a perfect science yet and we sometimes get offered cool shows or tours that we can’t turn down, and that’s when it becomes difficult.
We are pretty lucky to have jobs that will let us tour the way we do, and to also have wifes and girlfriends that put up with our touring lifestyle. We don’t get to spend as much time as we would like with our families, aside from Travis’s family which is based in San Diego, everyone else in the band has family all over North America, and in my case, all over North and South America.
SOURCE – Is there anything else you have going on you would like to mention?
David McGraw (Drums) – Well, our new album The Anthropocene Extinction comes out August 7th, and we are in the works of booking a South American tour! Other than that, I think we covered a lot. Thank you!
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