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Currently touring Europe in support
to Lamb of God, I had a chance to sit down for a chat with Job for a
Cowboy bassist Brent Riggs.
MM:
So, how’s the tour going so far?
BR: So far it’s been pretty bad ass yeah. Between the Buried and
me is one of my favourite bands and it’s our first time touring with
them. We’ve just spent three or four weeks in the States with Lamb of
God when they played a bunch of off-show dates while they were touring
with Metallica so we met all those dudes and they were great to us. The
August Burns Red dudes are alright too but BTBAM and Lamb of God are rad.
MM:
BTBAM only have like a half-hour set, isn’t that about two songs for
them?
BR: To be honest I think it’s a twenty-minute set and I think
they’re only playing 1 song!
MM:
How do you find the UK as a place to come and tour now you’ve been
over a few times?
BR: I think I’m the only guy in the band who actually likes it
here, ha-ha! I love just walking around, checking out the culture and
eating awesome food. Everybody else just bitches about food or not being
able to talk to their girlfriends or whatever but I like being somewhere
new.
MM:
What have you guys got planned for when the European tour’s finished?
BR: We’ve got 2 or 3 weeks in Japan, Australia and New Zealand
in April and we’re planning a headlining tour for May but that’s not
all sorted out yet.
MM:
How’s the response been to 'Ruination'
since it was released?
BR: It’s gotten some good reviews, I’m not sure if we’ve lost
fans because of it...it’s doing alright though.
MM:
How do you feel it differs from 'Genesis'?
BR: I think it’s a lot more mature. We recorded our first album
when we’re like, 16 years old and now we’re all in our twenties so I
think you can tell that we’ve all grown a bit on this record.
MM:
Did it hit hard the fact that you only had a short time to get the
second album out compared to the large amount of time every band has to
write and record their first album?
BR: The crunch time comes down to about a couple of months. For
us, writing a bunch of metal riffs isn’t that hard to be honest and if
you drink a lot of red bull and smoke a lot of weed, it just kind of
comes right out.
MM:
After playing so many festivals in the last couple of years, what’s
been your favourite?
BR: Wacken, by far. I watched Iron Maiden from the sound board and
it was the most epic thing I’ve ever seen, I was so drunk it was
awesome! That was one of the biggest crowds we’ve ever played in front
of and there were the biggest circle pits I’ve ever seen in my life.
MM:
You guys have embraced the internet a lot in your career.
How do you see the internet
playing a role in the music industry going forward?
BR: It’s definitely going to keep growing. There’s going to be
more and more sites where you can network with people and upload videos
and stuff like that. And the whole illegal downloading thing’s just
going to get bigger too.
MM:
How do you weigh up the positives and the negatives of the internet’s
impact on a band?
BR: Downloading’s just going to happen anyway. It’s the nature
of the way society is. I mean, if you’re able to download something
for free, then you’re going to do it, let’s be honest.
MM:
Do you think that’s reflective of society and that we’re just people
who will happily just get as much shit for free as we can without
thinking anything else of it?
BR: Well there’s the recession – you’ve got to take that
into account. People aren’t trying to spend all their money on CD’s.
Even when we’re off tour, I have to order off the $1 menu and I’m
trying to save cash so I’m trying to learn how to tattoo at the
moment.
MM:
How’s that going?
BR: I just started my apprenticeship about 5 months ago on a
part-time basis. But hopefully in a few years from now I can start doing
some serious artwork while we’re on the road.
MM:
Does it sometimes frustrate you when some people don’t give newer
death metal bands a chance because they don’t sound exactly
like the older bands? There seems to be a lot of that in death metal
particularly...
BR: Nah, I don’t get bothered by stupid stuff like that. The
internet is there for many things and that’s just one of them I guess.
As far as some people not giving new bands a chance, to be honest, I’m
one of them. Sometimes I’ll lump bands into this new internet-created
genre of bands that probably don’t sound good so I won’t give them a
chance just because they have some stupid name that isn’t as good as
the last name that sounded like it, or whatever.
MM:
As a request, my last question is what would be a good Job for a Cowboy
if he was to stop being a cowboy?
BR: (Long pause) Probably the guy who
has to clean up all the jizz in the jack-shacks! We were sat round in
the tattoo shop the other day talking about this and we reckon
jizz-mopper would be the worst job in the world but I think a cowboy
could handle that ‘cause they seem pretty tough.
MM:
Cool, have an awesome
show and thanks for talking to us, today.
BR:
No problem, dude. Thanks a lot.
Interview by: Adam G
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