Soundwave 2010 awaits Whitechapel

Whitechapel

WHILE they slog away in the recording studios until the end of January, Australia is getting excited about deathcore outfit Whitechapel's pending aural assault on the Soundwave 2010 stage. Since the 2008 release of their second album This Is Exhile, Whitechapel has been busy putting out their signature metal sound to fans around the world – most notable with American heavy metal band Trivium. On The Barrier caught up with Whitechapel guitarist Alex Wade in the leadup to their studio time to discuss the new album and expectations for Soundwave 2010.

So where are you at the moment?
Right now I’m in Minneapolis.

How is the tour with Trivium going?
It’s been going really good we’re playing to a different kind of crowd every night. Our anticipation of doing the tour was that we would always play to an underground, younger generation of music fans but they have more of an older crowd so it’s been really quite diverse. It’s great to have that before the release of our new CD because we want to just put out our music to as many people as possible and always be playing to new people.

Have you gotten to the point where you’re a bit sick of hearing their music now or will that never happen?
Well I mean its kind of one of those things. No matter what band you tour with you don’t so much get sick of the music you just get numb to it. I don’t hate the music by any stretch, I just don’t watch them at every show.

I suppose being with the band for such an extended amount of time you’d have to have gotten up to some crazy stuff between shows, do you have any funny or weird Trivium moments you want to share with our readers?
On the Mayhem (Festival) over summer there were a lot of parties that Trivium threw and a lot of stuff went down, we definitely had some crazy times. I don’t have any specific stories but yeah we’ve definitely been having good time on this tour.

So it’s been a while since the release of This Is Exhile, what have you guys been up to in the meantime?
We’ve been writing over past year and we’ve got about 10 or 11 new songs. We’re going to go record in January with Jason Suecof. He’s got a couple of pretty big albums under his belt, he’s worked with The Black Dahlia Murder, so we’re pretty excited to be doing that. He definitely has a good ear for a good heavy metal sound.

Have you finished writing your next album?
We still have a bit to go. Everything’s not completely solid yet. We’ve still got a couple of rough ideas for songs. But once we’re off this tour we have two weeks off over Christmas and then we’ll head straight into the studio.

What expectations do you have for it?
High for sure. We’re still coming off the success of This Is Exhile. We never thought it would be as successful as it was so we’ve a lot to live up to. All of our fans are going to love it. We’re sticking to the same Whitechapel sound but we hope to gain some new fans with it as well.

Did you try anything new with the music on it? Or will it be quite similar to the last one?
I mean it’s definitely not going to be This Is Exhile part two, but we really cracked our sound with This Is Exhile so we’re sticking to it. This works for us.

In an ideal world, is there anything you would do with your music that you haven’t already for whatever reason?
Honestly not really, we’re really happy with our music and what we come up with and the sound we portray. I love our music and I love playing it. I don’t listen to our own CDs though.

Are there any songs on there that are particularly meaningful this time?
Uh well we still haven’t really started digging too deep into the lyrics we wrote. As far as what the album is going to mean, well kind of like This Is Exhile it’s going to be a concept to album. We’re definitely excited. How Phil writes lyrics, it’s a lot easier when the song is done. We’ve probably only got like one song that has full lyrics and a handful have some bits and pieces.

Are you able to let me know what the concept is going to be?
You’re gonna have to wait for that one.

How about any penciled in album titles?
We’ve been thinking about some different album titles but we’ve got nothing completely solid. Oh but hey we’ve been thinking about having another instrumental track, just to break up the CD a bit with something dark and eery.

So you’re coming to Soundwave, are there any bands you’re looking forward to playing alongside?
Definitely Meshuggah. They’re one of our big influences and one of all of our favourite bands. We’re excited about getting to watch every one of their shows.

Will you be joining the crowd at all for any gigs on the day, or trying to stay in cognito?
Yeah we can walk around and watch bands and meet people. We’ll be around.

Do you have anything cool planned for the live show?
Same old live show that we’ve always been doing really. We hope to get the chance to play a new song or two though because the new CD will be done and all the songs will be completely written. So yeah we’ll probably play at least one new song. Definitely excited about delivering out the CD when it’s done.

Any other projects coming up in future?
Not really too much, we’ve got a lot planned out for 2010. The album’s coming out in Spring, then we’ve got an Australian tour lined up then from Australia we fly to the UK then after that we’ll come home and do two or three US tours.

Anything to add?
We’re really excited to come back to your country, we love it there, we love the weather and we love the people. We’re excited to come back and deliver a brutal live show.