Fears was granted the opportunity to interview Cannibal Corpse on the last day of the Metal Blade Records’ 25th Anniversary tour, but at the last moment, plans changed and the interview was canceled. Then an e-mail was received stating an interview could be arranged, but it would have to take place the day before the previous scheduled day via the telephone.

Phone tag between bassist Alex Webster and myself took place throughout the evening, but no contact would be made that night. However, after all was said and done; a meeting did take place the next day in Orlando, Florida.

I want to thank Alex greatly for granting Fears some of his time. No interviews were to take place on the last day of the tour, but Alex was gracious enough to make an exception.

Christopher Mygrant and Cannibal Corpse Bassist, Alex Webster Christopher Mygrant and Cannibal Corpse Bassist, Alex Webster

Bassist Alex Webster! Bassist Alex Webster!

Cannibal CorpseCannibal Corpse

Fears: Alex, roughly twenty years ago, you and the other members of Cannibal Corpse stepped into an industry that has been known to devour its prey. Although you can never predict the future, but in hindsight, did you ever think Cannibal Corpse would have achieved so much to date?

Alex Webster: Oh definitely not. Definitely this has exceeded anything we could have ever hoped for. I mean it’s unbelievable. I kind of think most of us were hoping to at least get an album out or something. You know we were like it would be amazing if we could somehow get signed and maybe that could lead to us to doing some shows here and there. We first got to go to Europe in 1991 to do our first real tour cause up until that point, for Eaten Back To Life, we had only done shows here and there. Like just driving around in a van and not actually doing a full tour. For Butchered At Birth we finally got to go to Europe and I was like, ‘This is really happening. I can’t believe that we’re going to Europe and that we actually might come home having made a little bit of money too.’ I couldn’t fathom that was possible and that was just the beginning.

Fears: And that was in the early nineties?

Alex: That was 1991 and our first tour was with Loudblast. So we had no idea we would wind up doing this well and…I don’t know. I don’t know how we got so lucky because the music industry is not easy. So, you know, we just worked but we also had a lot of luck on our side for sure.

Fears: Plus another unique aspect is that the band has been with Metal Blade since Cannibal’s beginning. Rare because nowadays if a band does not produce right off the bat, more-than-likely, another chance doesn’t present itself. Metal Blade kept you all on and nurtured the band. Is this common practice for Metal Blade?

Alex: Metal Blade is pretty good about it. I mean, you know, it seems to me they sign bands that want to work. They’re not signing them to not have them succeed. They’re signing them to try and make them a success. You know they got some of their…like Absence is a band that’s only been on for a couple of albums and they went out on Metal Blade’s 25th Anniversary tour. They have a lot of bands so I suppose they’re gonna get behind some more than they get behind others, but generally they’re a pretty good label for that sort of thing. For us, we didn’t want to take it (that our label was going to get behind us 100%) for granted when we started out. I mean they wound up doing that for sure and doing a great job. But we did an awful lot of the leg work ourselves. We set up a bunch of shows ourselves. Like I said, we couldn’t find a tour so instead we just started setting up our own gigs in New York City, up in Quebec and Toronto. We were doing gigs with other bands in Pittsburg.

Fears: Buffalo area and such?

Alex: Yeah, everything like in the Northeast and Southern Ontario and Quebec. Then also doing shows around New York and Pennsylvania and Conneticutt. We were doing shows up in that area, actually not Connecticut, but we tried doing one in Massachusetts but it got canceled. But anyhow, I’m digressing a little bit here; we did as much as we could. We did all the fanzine stuff where you’d send out tapes to fanzines. We did an awful lot of promotion ourselves that way we’d get a little momentum going even if the label might have been concentrating on other bands. We did so well with Eaten Back to Life with relatively minimal promotion on their end that when Butchered At Birth came out, they really got behind us big time cause we had done a lot on our own. I guess a modern equivalent to that could maybe be a band like Job For A Cowboy. They did so much promotion on their own that, you know, it just made it that much easier for them when Metal Blade picked them up you know. They already were doing well cause they were so good at working the underground. Today the things in the underground are different now. You have like MySpace and that sort of stuff to get the message out. Back when we were starting out, it was mailing tapes to any radio station any college radio station if they had a metal show we try and mail a tape to them. We would find enough names of fanzines from the back of Metal Forces magazine because Metal Forces would have that little list of fanzines in the back and we sent Cannibal Corpse tapes to all those magazines. We would send a little 8x10 picture, black-n-white picture, and a biography and you tried to get the name out that way. Nowadays, it’s quite different.

Fears: Technology has changed the industry so much from those days. A band is only one click away from having hundreds if not thousands of fans and potential fans learning most everything that pertains to every member plus hearing songs instantly.

Alex: Yeah. At the same time, if a band back then was willing to do that kind of work, it would make you stand out a little where now everybody is trying. It’s so easy for everybody. Everybody’s got a page on MySpace or Pure Volume or any of those kind of things. So you still have to figure out a way to standout because now anybody can hear your stuff and they can hear it instantly so I think bands have to find other ways to standout. I mean hopefully it’ll just come down to the best bands with the best songs being the ones that everybody learns about. Ideally, the quality of a band should be why they’re popular.

WATCH Cannibal Corpse-Make Them Suffer

Fears: I agree. Not just because a particular band sells more t-shirts than albums which seems to be the case. The band is known more for their merchandise rather than the songs.

Alex: It can happen. It might have even happened back in the day. Who knows what people’s motives are for buying a shirt or whatever, but I think having it out there is not a bad thing. A lot people kind of lament the changes that happened, but I think you just have to roll with it. I think it’s good. The more information you can get out to people generally it’s good. It’s not always good because misinformation can spread just as quickly as real information and that can be pretty aggravating. But in general, the whole internet thing and stuff actually helps the scene quite a bit.

Fears: Speaking of misinformation, throughout the years Cannibal Corpse has had its fair share of criticism from parents, religious organizations, etc, what has been the most unwarranted and just plain hurtful thing written or said?

Alex: I don’t know. We had to get pretty thick-skinned right away. I mean, I think, just in the beginning some of the really negative response we got to Eaten Back to Life was tough to deal with cause you’re not really ready for that when you’re younger. We were criticized heavily by, you know, metal critics. Some of the really big critics of the day thought we were just a lousy band.

Fears: And the reason why I asked was because I do remember the harsh words directed toward the band. You all really got thrashed at one point.

Alex: Yeah, just like we were no good. That we could barely play or whatever. That we wrote crappy songs. That our image sucked and everything. Like they hated the album covers. They thought the song titles were dumb so right from the get-go, we were not the darlings of the press at all like the way some of the bands were.

Fears: Rough times, but Cannibal is still in existence. Nice way to disprove the naysayers.

Alex: Man, I think it was a good thing. I don’t want any of them to stop saying anything bad about us at all because I really think it makes you work harder because you want to prove them wrong in a way. Bands can be motivated and we certainly are motivated by positive response from our fans, but you can also be motivated by negative criticism cause you want to say, ‘Fuck you’ to those people and you don’t want to say it by using those words, you want to say it by making music that eventually they won’t be able to deny the quality of it. I think we finally got to that point where some of our most vocal critics from the past have just been forced to kind of recognize, even if they still don’t like our music, they have to recognize we’re a band that works hard and has quality music. You know, we work hard to make sure our music is high quality. Whether or not someone likes it, that’s up to them. Yeah, so, people have called us like a low quality band with poor musicianship and that’s something we tried to dispel all the years definitely.

Fears: When the band first signed with Metal Blade, how much control of the end product did you retain and has that all important creative control stayed within the hands of the creators?

Alex: You know, they just let us do whatever we wanted the whole time. We’ve never had anybody tell us to do a song like this do a song like that. I mean once in a while Brian Slagel (CEO and owner of Metal Blade), would come down and say, “Oh that’s a cool song.” or “Wouldn’t it be cool if you guys had a song that sounded more chunkier?” You know, he just maybe gave a couple of suggestions, but he left us alone. They never told us to do anything, they just made a couple of suggestions here and there but we really just followed our own instincts. We’re confident we know how to make music we’re gonna want to listen to. We’re fans of death metal so if we make music that we enjoy, we assume other people who have similar musical taste are gonna enjoy it too. They always left us alone. I mean you definitely don’t get songs like Vomit The Soul, Fucked With A Knife, Entrails Ripped from a Virgin's Cunt…that’s not stuff being pushed on ya by the president of the label. The brass at the label are not going, “Hey man, we need more songs about cunt.” (laughing). So yeah, obviously we were given a ton of freedom by Metal Blade Records right from the beginning.

(Laughter)

Fears: Please clear up something for me. You all from New York correct?

Alex: The original band is from Buffalo like the original five of us.

Fears: But the band is closely associated with Tampa, Florida. When did that connection or how did that connection occur?

Alex: We did not move down until after The Bleeding was out. I can draw the connection, it’s a pretty simple connection actually how we wound up down there and I mean it’s the Morrisound thing really. When we were getting songs ready for Eaten Back To Life, we found out we were signed by Metal Blade and we were like, ‘Lets go to that studio where Death did Leprosy cause that sounds awesome.’ and I think we were also listening to Beneath the Remains (Sepultura) at that time and Morbid Angel’s Altars of Madness and those were both albums that were done at Morrisound Studios as well. Yeah, it was probably those three albums, I think if I’m remembering it right, those would be the ones that really steered us in the direction of going to Morrisound. So that’s in Tampa. So we drove down and did Eaten Back To Life down there then came back and did the next three records there and after doing so many records there and getting to know people down there and the other bands and getting to know the area, we really started to like it and we were like why don’t we just move down.

Fears: Well, I am a Tampa native and whenever the name Cannibal Corpse was mentioned, the City of Tampa wasn’t too far behind.

Alex: Yeah, I saw your (813) area code and I was like this guy is somewhere near by.

Fears: From those days of past, how do you view the death metal scene of Tampa since it was once considered the haven for many bands?

Alex: It’s cooled down, you know, like that was the hot place. I remember when we were recording at Morrissound for either The Bleeding or Vile, I believe it was Vile, by that point Tampa was such a big deal that people really, from all over the country, were coming there to make bands or just to visit. People would come there just to hang out and see what the death metal scene was like. It probably never lived up to their expectations quite honestly because even though there’s a good scene there, it’s not like there is some place where there’s like, you know, like a hundred death metal people hanging out every night just doing their death metal thing. When I moved down there…like before we moved down we knew Morbid Angel was from there, Obituary and Deicide and everybody, you know, and I was like I expected there at least to be some graffiti on a bridge or something of a death metal band. It (the death metal scene) was completely invisible unless you went to a show. I never went to school down there, but to me the death metal scene was basically invisible unless you were at a concert and then you saw everybody. Everybody came out of the wood work from all the various communities around Tampa Bay. So like I said, Tampa was quite legendary, but I think when people came to visit it, it might not have been everything they expected, I think they expected death metal land or something because I remember we met some guy from Japan and he’s like, “Where are the death metal people?” I’m like (awkwardly), ‘Uh, we’re here you know. I don’t know where anybody else is right now, but if a show comes you’ll see them.’ So that’s how it was back then. Then I guess some of the attention kind of moved over to Norway when the black metal stuff got big and everybody started going there. I’ve met a whole bunch of people that moved to Norway just to try and get into a band. Dudes from all over the world have gone there. People go where the scene is.

Fears: You and Paul Mazurkiewicz are the remaining original members, what has kept you two together when others have come and gone?

Alex: It’s just we know how good we got it. Everybody who was in the original band had pretty boring day jobs – not such great stuff. Those guys were hanging drywall; I worked in a ruler factory. I was also going to college and so we had a taste of the real world before the band got to do well and we realized how lucky we are to be able to do this as our job and we’re like, ‘We’re not gonna drop the ball.’ We’ve been given a great opportunity here and we have some of the best fans ever and we’re not gonna let them down or ourselves down by just sluffin’ off or goofin’ off or whatever. Me and Paul both have always worked really hard and the same thing with anybody that’s in the band, they all work hard. We practice together all the time. That’s one thing when I first met Paul, he was in his other band and those guys jammed like five days a week and the band I was in we were jammin’ like maybe three or four days a week too and we practiced at the same practice place. I was in a band called Beyond Death with Jack and then Paul, Bob and Chris were in a band called Tyrant Sin and they practiced pretty close by and we practiced in the same building. So that work ethic never left. Practicing is what you did after work. You’d go do your regular job and then you’d go to band practice and we’d all have a few beers or whatever and also work on the band. It was just part of your daily routine. So for us it’s always been keeping the music part of your daily routine. That’s the one big thing. We still practice four days a week. Yeah, me and Paul both have like a work ethic kind of thing that we have in common. We work hard on the band and are very diligent about it.

Fears: And you all have just continued to churn out project after project since the early days.

Alex: If you look, this band has never taken any time off and we’ll be rehearsing again by early January.

Fears: Before our interview started, you were speaking about a new DVD project that is in the works. Understandably you don’t want to give too much away, so instead I’ll ask what is in store for Cannibal fans?

Alex: Probably after the new year we’ll all get together again and start bangin’ out another. We’ll have about two months away from each other, which that will be about the longest we’ve ever not jammed with each, but during those times we’re always working on stuff for the band anyway. Out of all these nineteen years together, we’ve probably never gone more than two months without jammin’ together and it’s usually a lot less. A lot of times after a tour, we’re just jammin’ together a week later.

Fears: No break it seems.

Alex: Yeah, we’ve never taken breaks. We’ve made ten albums in nineteen years which basically means one year touring, one year to make the album. If you look, for the past whole bunch of years, it’s been odd even odd even. We recorded Bloodthirst in 1999 then we toured all of 2000 and then we recorded Gore Obsessed in 2001 and we toured all of 2002 and we recorded Wretched Spawn in 2003 and toured for all of 2004 for it and we just recorded Kill in 2005 and now we done two years worth for Kill. This is one of the longest tours we’ve ever done for an album.

Fears: One final question for you, when you perform in the Central Florida area, what is it like for you all to have your families and close friends in the audience?

Alex: It’s just a very anxious and exciting time for us actually because you’ve got all your friends and your family around. It’s killer, you know, cause they’re getting to see what we do. It’s one thing to be talking to my wife about how the show was cool or whatever when I’m talking to her on the phone, but it’s another thing for her to actually be there seeing it and to be a part of it with me. It’s fun. I think it’s probably like that for everybody. It’s nice to have all the people we care about get a little piece of what we’re doing. I mean it wouldn’t be logistically possible for all the families to come along all the time. Only the really rich, huge bands can do that. But to have them come out for at least a show like this is fun. It’s really fun.

Fears: I’m sure it is very gratifying.

Alex: Yes it is.

Fears: It has been a pleasure Alex and continued success.

Alex: Thank you for the interview.

Get all your Cannibal Corpse info at: MySpace.com - Cannibal Corpse - Tampa, US - Death Metal - www.myspace.com/cannibalcorpse

or at the Cannibal Corpse website: http://www.cannibalcorpse.net/

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