Black Tusk are a busy band. Between relentless touring, a new split 7’’ with Dead Yet? and an upcoming EP on Relapse, down time is hard to come by. Black Tusk guitarist/co-vocalist Andrew Fidler managed to squeeze in a call from Ghost Cult’s Matt Hinch to discuss just sich things and more.
First of all I wanted to talk about the split with Dead Yet? that came out back in January did it not?
It actually came out when we were on that Red Fang tour back in November. But I had some problems with the pressing plant. I actually put that record out. I’m a part owner in Hyperrealist Records that put it out. We had a ton of problems with the record plant. We finally got the vinyls in the middle of the tour. And it was just me putting them together so I finally got it all together and got the mail order out and it’s going now. So it really came out last week I guess.
So how did the split come together?
Well, the Dead Yet? dudes are good buddies of ours and they wanted to put out something on vinyl and I have a record label so it was like, “7”s are cool. We’ve done a bunch of 7” splits before so let’s do another one with you guys. So you guys can get out there and people will know who you are.” They can’t tour because they have families and real jobs and stuff so we wanted to help them get their name out. We’re out touring all the time and selling records all over the world. So this way people can find out who Dead Yet? are. And we’d written some new music since Set The Dial and we wanted to put something out and have something to tour with. And I wanted to have my label put another record out so it all made sense. So we knocked it out.
I wasn’t aware you were part owner of Hyperrealist. There’s a lot of quality Georgia bands that got started there. I assume you would consider yourself a good eye for talent.
Well, it’s Pat (Mathis). He’s the main dude. I just came in about a year or so ago. He’s always a good ear and he supports the local scene. And we always put out records from bands that tour. You gotta be touring, you gotta be serious and dedicated because making records isn’t cheap. You gotta help us so we can continue to help you. It’s been cool. A lot of the bands like Baroness and Black Tusk, had our first records on Hyperrealist and other labels watch to see what Pat’s putting out from this region and then they jump on it. It’s pretty cool.
For the split, there’s an original from each band and then you covered one of each other’s songs. How did you decide with Dead Yet? song to cover?
Well, Dead Yet? is more of a punky hardcore kind of band and Black Tusk’s earlier stuff kind of sounded like that and we wanted one that was a pretty straightforward punk song. So we picked ‘Fearing Your Mind’. It’s a really cool song. I like the chord progression and I like how the song went. We played around with the vocals on it. Because on their version there’s just the one singer the whole time. We played with it and had some fun with it. Also it’s one of their earlier songs and they ended up picking one of our earlier songs so it was kind of cool that that worked out.
You’ve done quite a few splits. Do you like doing the splits to keep yourselves fresh or to keep the fans interested?
It’s cool for both. Keeping fresh writing new music and keeping the fans interested. Having new songs out there in different formats. It’s also cool to get to work with other awesome bands.
Many of the tours you’ve been on lately have been with fairly high profile bands. Have you noticed an upswing in your own profile as a result of that?
I’d like to think so in terms of more and more people are coming out to our headlining shows. We can comfortably tour across the US headlining and I feel like being on these big tours with bands like Red Fang and stuff has been super helpful. It gets new fans, gets our music out there to a new crowd. It’s especially cool touring with diverse bands. We went on tour with Down and then with Red Fang and they’re two completely different bands. And we got warm reception from both different fan bases. It’s cool getting out there and be touring with different bands and making new fans.
I see you have a big one coming up with Today is the Day, KEN Mode and Fight Amp.
We’re actually going to be coming to Canada with that tour in the Spring. Black Tusk have historically had problems crossing the Canadian border. They don’t like the things we did when we were teenagers. So hopefully they’ll let us in this time. The last time we tried to get through we were with Weedeater. And those dudes went right on through and we came up and we got a different agent. And that agent decided they wanted to give us the hardest time in the world and made us pay a bunch of money. And Weedeater got right through so I guess it really just depends on which agent you get. It’s funny, we go to Europe all the time, cross tons of borders, and never, never have we once had a problem. Whenever we try to go to Canada it’s a nightmare.
Now you said you were writing new material, does that mean there is a new release imminent?
Yes there is. We’re going to record in a couple weeks. We’re going to the Jam Room in South Carolina again. We’ve written about six songs. We’re going to put it on an EP on Relapse. So hopefully that’ll be out this summer. We’ll be doing more tours this summer so hopefully we’ll have that with us. Good be to be getting some new music out there because it’s been a while since Set the Dial came out. We’re all pretty excited about it. We like the direction it’s going a lot. Phillip Cope is actually going to produce the EP. He produced a lot of our earlier stuff. So we’re going to work with him again on the EP.
Is it coming from the same place it always has or is there something different that’s driving you now?
Pretty much the same. It’s taking where Set the Dial left off stylistically and building from Set the Dial to how we’re doing now. All the songs on the EP are kind of all along the same groove so it feels like we wrote one continuous song. So it’s not just “Here’s a song. Here’s a song. Let’s just sew this all together.” You can listen to the EP from start to finish and go on kind of a rock n roll journey. The way the band writes, it’s not just one person who writes all the songs and brings them to practice. Someone comes in with a riff, and then we take that riff, and then we’ll write the song around that riff. So it’s all three of us having input on every single part. That helps all the songs flow together like an album from start to finish.
Definitely a collective effort then. Even with the vocals, all 3 of you are participants there right? Do you come up with your vocal parts separately?
No. For the most part when lyrics get written, we write them together. Sometimes, here and there someone will come in and have a whole song written, but usually judging on the part of the song, it’s who’s voice will sound better for this part of the song, or who’s is better for that part. So it’s not necessarily we each have to have vocal time in each song. It goes for the part. Who’s voice goes best. It’s like our voices are like the 4th instrument in the band because all three of us sing so differently that it’s cool that who’s voice is going to accent which part of the song.
I was thinking about the number of quality bands out of Savannah and Georgia in general, such as Sons of Tonatiuh. A newer band getting attention…
The dude from that band, Dan (Caycedo), the guitar player, he used to be in that band Leechmilk, which I was a huge fan of when I was younger. It’s cool, we’ve actually been able to play a couple shows with them. We’ve seen those dudes, they’re from Atlanta, and so whenever we go there, those dudes come out. They’ve got some fuckin killer riffs man. There’s this other band you should check out, Death of Kings, they’re from Atlanta too. Kind of like thrashy type stuff. They just played Savannah last weekend with the band Razormaze from Boston. And it was fucking killer.
I was looking through my old blog posts to see what I’d written about you before and I came across a post where I mentioned you in the same breath as Withered…
Dude those guys are fucking sick. There’s a good friend of ours, Jason Statts, a fellow musician. He was shot and paralyzed a few years ago. And we just did this huge fundraiser. We called it the Statts Block Party. We had a bunch of bands come down to several different bars in the downtown area and we had a metal show at The Jinx, our main metal bar, to help raise money for his ongoing medical costs. Which are fucking staggering! I had Withered and Floor come and headline the show. It was pretty fuckin rad. And US Christmas came down from Carolina. It was a fuckin awesome show. We didn’t get to see it; we were actually on tour in Europe. So I missed it but I heard Floor crushed it.
In the post I had actually related the “Savannah sound” to the Seattle scene back in the early 90s.
I can see that. Like 3 or 4 years ago there was that “Savannah sound” thing going around. Every one was talking about it. Talking about us and Baroness and Kylesa, referring to it as the “Savannah sound”. That’s the comparison we were getting. It was always the “Savannah sound” vs. the Seattle scene back in the 90s. It’s funny because everybody was like “Man, that “Savannah sound”” and really there’s only like one bar that plays shows. And people would think, with us, Baroness, Kylesa, (when they were still living here) you could come to Savannah and see any of us play. But we play here maybe once, twice a year. It just never happens. We used to when we were first starting out. Like 2-3 times a month. But now, I think we played one show here last year. Oops! But it’s fun. It’s what we like to do. I get to do the papers and it’s a super low cover so everyone comes out, because you have to remember Savannah’s where we got our start. Keep it cheap and have everybody come out and have good time.
Some of your fellow bands from that area have changed their sound over their career and enjoyed a bigger profile as a result. You don’t feel any pressure to follow suit do you?
Ah no, we write what we feel ya know. We’re not going to write the aggressive punk stuff we wrote 8 years ago but we’re progressive as we go. Maybe not as extreme as Baroness and Mastodon from their earlier records to what they sound like now. It won’t be that big of a right turn but it’s definitely changing. It’s getting more rock and roll, more groove oriented, but still heavy at the same time. Embracing that stoner sludge tag line we’ve been getting lately.
I’ve heard that you’ve referred to yourselves as swamp metal. Was that a natural thing or did you consciously try and bring that environment into your sound?
I think it was more like everybody saying like “What do you sound like? What do you sound like?” So it’s like “Ugh. Swamp metal. How about that?” But yeah, it’s also a little bit of our environment here. It’s fuckin really hot. It’s really fuckin heavy. As in the air. Kind of like our music. It’s heavy. We’re not like technical or death metal or stuff like that. Not even like stoner metal. I think we play too fast for that but you know, Swamp Metal. Fuck it. Sounds good.
Thanks a lot for taking the time out of your day to talk with us!
Hell ya man.
Matt Hinch