"When we’re up there we are y’know, you can’t fake that. We’re up there doing what we love, I wouldn’t trade that in for anything."
Municipal Waste are a thrash band hailing from Richmond, Virginia. They make the type of old school thrash that was prominent in the 80’s and early 90’s before Metallica took the formula and turned it on its head for mass consumption. Municipal Waste consists of members Tony Foresta (Vocals), Ryan Waste (Guitar), Dave Witte (Drums) and Land Phil (Bass) and the band has released 4 albums: "Waste 'em all", "Hazardous Mutation", "The Art of Partying" and more recently "Massive Aggressive".
Municipal Waste have toured with everyone from Lamb of God to Gwar, and was one of the support acts on At The Gates final tour in 2008, as well as playing at Download and Reading & Leeds Festival. Municipal Waste have quietly been blazing a trail for the last 4 years in both the US and UK.
I was fortunate enough to sit down and have a chat with guitarist Ryan Waste on the band's brief UK tour.
Altsounds: It’s the last night of your UK tour. How have the shows been up to this point?
Ryan: It's been amazing. We actually had a day off yesterday and got to see St Vitus last night. That was exciting just to go and enjoy a show instead of having to play, you know, the UK never lets us down, it was wild in Birmingham and I’m sure it’ll be wild tonight.
Altsounds: It’s always the way. There are different places that give you different reactions, do you have a favourite place to play?
Ryan: I really like Scandinavia. I just like going there, just really efficient people out there. The UK is our second home you know, we have tons of friends over here, and our guestlist tonight is over 100 people from London. We’ve been here over 10 times now, you just get used to it and people over here get our jokes so it works out.
Altsounds: You played Download Festival in 2008. Having known the history of Donington, was that daunting for you?
Ryan: Oh yeah. That was big for me, I have a picture of me just looking out from behind playing and it’s just endless people, you can’t see where they stop. For me that was one of the greatest moments in my musical life I think, to just play to that many people in such a classic place like Donington was huge for me. I’m a big heavy metal fan as well, so for me I definitely had to check that one off.
Altsounds: I actually watched you guys from the side of the stage for that particular show and it looked like you were having the time of your lives.
Ryan: Oh cool. When we’re up there we are y’know, you can’t fake that. We’re up there doing what we love, I wouldn’t trade that in for anything.
Altsounds: You’ve toured with a lot of different bands. Most notably Lamb of God and At the Gates, bands that are a lot different to you musically...
Ryan: We do it on purpose (Laughs)
Altsounds: Do you ever encounter a lot of hostility form those crowds when you takes these tours?
Ryan: Yes and no. But we like to turn the crowd on to other stuff that’s not just thrash y’know, because we all enjoy other kinds of music. Like I said I’m a big heavy metal fan, we like punk rock and stuff too. Once you give a crowd some diversity you might turn them on to something as well. It’s whatever we wanna do when we’re up there, so the crowd can wait (Laughs)
Altsounds: What do you do when you encounter crowd hostility?
Ryan: We thrive off it, I really welcome it because I’m quick, ill take you down and make you look like a fool. On the Lamb of God tour we actually encountered some crowds that just did not get what we were doing. They didn’t understand that metal’s fast; they’re just looking for breakdown parts all the time. We can’t make a fan out of everyone but we’re genuine and doing what we love so we’re not gonna change for anybody.
Altsounds: The latest album "Massive Aggressive" is a bit more streamlined and a lot heavier than your previous work. What was the thinking behind that?
Ryan: You’ve gotta mix it up, throw some dynamics in the music. You can’t just play one tempo all the time, you’ve gotta experiment a little bit, not changing the formula too much but kinda progressing with each album. I think "The Art of Partying" and "Hazardous Mutation" are kinda similar, so we wanted to take a step towards something different and keep It fresh, and I think we did it with this album.
Altsounds: When you first emerged on the scene you were seen as a novelty band. Do you take that kind of criticism to heart?
Ryan: No, I don’t take any of it to heart, but I think a lot of that was what spawned this new record. We don’t wanna be one of those bands where people just assume that we’re gonna be bringing boogie boards and bongs and shit on stage all the time, we’re a real band. We like to be known as a tight musical act not just like ‘Hey come party with us’, I mean, we still have that element to us, but we don’t wanna be known just for that.
Altsounds: Does being perceived as a joke make it easier for you to write records because there are no expectations, or does it make it harder because you want to prove a point?
Ryan: Writing records is the best part of being in a band and it’s always come easy to us. I think the creative side is the most exciting side, just creating music its not hard at all. I think that you can get angry about people thinking that way, but it just drives us to play harder and faster.
Altsounds: You have a Thrash/Punk crossover sound. What bands inspired you to start a band?
Ryan: I grew up on metal. I got into punk a little later on, I wanted to shoot straight down the middle on that one. There’s a lot of crossover bands that don’t get a lot of credit, like this band Excel that is from California, we used to cover one of their songs, early Accused as well, stuff like that. Cromags on the hardcore side as well, I like Judas Priest, stuff like that, and we just simplified some Priest riffs and made them punky, even old Slayer stuff as well.
(Ian from Victims walks into the room)
Ryan: This is Ian from Victims. He’s gonna answer the next question. Whatever it is.
Altsounds: Do you think the recent resurgence in thrash music is partly responsible for your success?
Ian: Yes. (Ian and Ryan both laugh)
Ryan: Well, we were doing it before it was popular, which I want people to know. It doesn’t hurt, but I don’t want it to become one of those things where it becomes warn out and it’s treated like a trend. Thrash is not a trend in my mind, it never went away, so we just hope we’ll still be here when other bands aren’t and nobody thinks it’s cool. We’ll still be here.
Altsounds: That’s the thing with music. It comes and goes in trends. Nu metal came in, then Emo took over and now Thrash is coming back. I don’t think it ever went away but a lot of the bands that pioneered it strayed away from the sound.
Ryan: I’m excited to see all the early bands get back together, that’s kinda cool. If we had any part in that, then that’s the biggest honour right there that I can think of. I mean, you can't make money just off record sales anymore, you’ve gotta get back out on the road, it’s the only way to make a living, selling t shirts and shit.
Altsounds: You're quite a prolific band, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of time in between albums. How do you balance between being in the spotlight enough that you stay relevant, but not so much that it becomes overkill?
Ryan: We don’t really think about it, it turns out that we write an album about every 2 years. It just kinda happens like that. I mean, writing music like I said before is the funniest part; we’re on the road constantly, so when we’re home we’re writing and it comes naturally.
Altsounds: That leads nicely into my next question: which do you prefer, being on the road or being in the studio?
Ryan: It's not the studio, we don’t write in the studio. We write in our practice space or at my house. I enjoy that aspect of it, just writing the songs. It would be cool to just sit at home and write music all day, that’s the dream right there. We tour so much that can get a little old sometimes as well, having to catch planes and stuff day in day out.
Altsounds: Is there a point where you ever think that being in a band wouldn’t be fun anymore, and if so would you ever consider quitting?
Ryan: I don’t think that would ever happen, as far as this not being fun anymore. It’s the best thing in the world.
Altsounds: Being a band in the internet era, especially with file sharing and social networking taking over, do you find it more harmful or useful to you as a band?
Ryan: Useful all the way. People are so lucky to have the internet. There are bands you’ve never heard of that are getting signed because they had a MySpace with X amount of friends on it or whatever. We’re lucky that we got to see both sides of it, we were there kind of on the cusp of the internet taking over. In 2000 we were still making phone calls to book shows, writing directions to shows on bits of paper. We worked hard from the ground up, I think people need to appreciate that we did it before the internet took off, it definitely helps. It’s amazing how much it helps.
Altsounds: There’s also the flip side to it with illegal downloading and people being negative in fan forums as well.
Ryan: I never read what people say. It's usually pretty good, but a bad comment will piss you off so I don’t bother. I don’t mind people downloading music, I download music. I’m not like Lars (Ulrich), I think he’s fucking stupid to care about that, he’s so rich anyway. I think spreading your music even If it’s free is totally fine.
Altsounds: You have a really dedicated fanbase. Do you have a good relationship with your fans?
Ryan: Yeah, I try to meet people, take photos, that sort of thing. If I’m in a bad mood, then I’m not gonna go out there because I don’t wanna ruin some kids night. If you see me out there then that means I’m in a good mood.
Altsounds: Do you ever have bad experiences with fans over stepping the mark?
Ryan: All the time (Laughs). People get up onstage so much that you have to play defence while you're onstage; you’ll be playing guitar and there’s people jumping around or stuff that can be overload sometimes, but that’s what our shows are about. Sometimes you have to share the stage with the fans.
Altsounds: At this stage in your career after 4 albums and amassing a big following, what’s important to you as a band?
Ryan: I think staying relevant, writing exactly what we want and not compromising for anybody. Keeping this band true to its roots and just being ourselves.
Altsounds: How long do you envision Municipal Waste carrying on as a band?
Ryan: I have no idea man. It’s the drinking that’s going to slow me down. (Laughs) I gotta tone that down a little bit to make my own longevity last (Laughs). That could be the downfall if we keep partying. I don’t know, it’s hard to say. I don’t wanna put a timeline on it.
Altsounds: What are five things about you as band that would surprise people?
Ryan: That’s a tough one man, because we’re always so open with our fans. Can I do five things about our drummer Dave Witte?
Altsounds: Yeah man, Go ahead.
Ryan: Dave loves cats, he loves chocolate, he likes taking pictures of his food before he eats it, he likes progressive rock and he loves fancy beer. Dave’s the easiest one to do. (Laughs)
Altounds: Finish the sentence. In 2010 Municipal Waste will……
Ryan: FUCK YOU UP! (Laughs)
Altsounds: I knew that was going to be the answer to that question (Laughs)
Ryan: It was too easy man" (Laughs)
Altsounds: Thank you so much for your time Ryan.
Ryan: No problem man.
Municipal Waste have toured with everyone from Lamb of God to Gwar, and was one of the support acts on At The Gates final tour in 2008, as well as playing at Download and Reading & Leeds Festival. Municipal Waste have quietly been blazing a trail for the last 4 years in both the US and UK.
I was fortunate enough to sit down and have a chat with guitarist Ryan Waste on the band's brief UK tour.
Altsounds: It’s the last night of your UK tour. How have the shows been up to this point?
Ryan: It's been amazing. We actually had a day off yesterday and got to see St Vitus last night. That was exciting just to go and enjoy a show instead of having to play, you know, the UK never lets us down, it was wild in Birmingham and I’m sure it’ll be wild tonight.
Altsounds: It’s always the way. There are different places that give you different reactions, do you have a favourite place to play?
Ryan: I really like Scandinavia. I just like going there, just really efficient people out there. The UK is our second home you know, we have tons of friends over here, and our guestlist tonight is over 100 people from London. We’ve been here over 10 times now, you just get used to it and people over here get our jokes so it works out.
Altsounds: You played Download Festival in 2008. Having known the history of Donington, was that daunting for you?
Ryan: Oh yeah. That was big for me, I have a picture of me just looking out from behind playing and it’s just endless people, you can’t see where they stop. For me that was one of the greatest moments in my musical life I think, to just play to that many people in such a classic place like Donington was huge for me. I’m a big heavy metal fan as well, so for me I definitely had to check that one off.
Altsounds: I actually watched you guys from the side of the stage for that particular show and it looked like you were having the time of your lives.
Ryan: Oh cool. When we’re up there we are y’know, you can’t fake that. We’re up there doing what we love, I wouldn’t trade that in for anything.
Altsounds: You’ve toured with a lot of different bands. Most notably Lamb of God and At the Gates, bands that are a lot different to you musically...
Ryan: We do it on purpose (Laughs)
Altsounds: Do you ever encounter a lot of hostility form those crowds when you takes these tours?
Ryan: Yes and no. But we like to turn the crowd on to other stuff that’s not just thrash y’know, because we all enjoy other kinds of music. Like I said I’m a big heavy metal fan, we like punk rock and stuff too. Once you give a crowd some diversity you might turn them on to something as well. It’s whatever we wanna do when we’re up there, so the crowd can wait (Laughs)
Altsounds: What do you do when you encounter crowd hostility?
Ryan: We thrive off it, I really welcome it because I’m quick, ill take you down and make you look like a fool. On the Lamb of God tour we actually encountered some crowds that just did not get what we were doing. They didn’t understand that metal’s fast; they’re just looking for breakdown parts all the time. We can’t make a fan out of everyone but we’re genuine and doing what we love so we’re not gonna change for anybody.
Altsounds: The latest album "Massive Aggressive" is a bit more streamlined and a lot heavier than your previous work. What was the thinking behind that?
Ryan: You’ve gotta mix it up, throw some dynamics in the music. You can’t just play one tempo all the time, you’ve gotta experiment a little bit, not changing the formula too much but kinda progressing with each album. I think "The Art of Partying" and "Hazardous Mutation" are kinda similar, so we wanted to take a step towards something different and keep It fresh, and I think we did it with this album.
Altsounds: When you first emerged on the scene you were seen as a novelty band. Do you take that kind of criticism to heart?
Ryan: No, I don’t take any of it to heart, but I think a lot of that was what spawned this new record. We don’t wanna be one of those bands where people just assume that we’re gonna be bringing boogie boards and bongs and shit on stage all the time, we’re a real band. We like to be known as a tight musical act not just like ‘Hey come party with us’, I mean, we still have that element to us, but we don’t wanna be known just for that.
Altsounds: Does being perceived as a joke make it easier for you to write records because there are no expectations, or does it make it harder because you want to prove a point?
Ryan: Writing records is the best part of being in a band and it’s always come easy to us. I think the creative side is the most exciting side, just creating music its not hard at all. I think that you can get angry about people thinking that way, but it just drives us to play harder and faster.
Altsounds: You have a Thrash/Punk crossover sound. What bands inspired you to start a band?
Ryan: I grew up on metal. I got into punk a little later on, I wanted to shoot straight down the middle on that one. There’s a lot of crossover bands that don’t get a lot of credit, like this band Excel that is from California, we used to cover one of their songs, early Accused as well, stuff like that. Cromags on the hardcore side as well, I like Judas Priest, stuff like that, and we just simplified some Priest riffs and made them punky, even old Slayer stuff as well.
(Ian from Victims walks into the room)
Ryan: This is Ian from Victims. He’s gonna answer the next question. Whatever it is.
Altsounds: Do you think the recent resurgence in thrash music is partly responsible for your success?
Ian: Yes. (Ian and Ryan both laugh)
Ryan: Well, we were doing it before it was popular, which I want people to know. It doesn’t hurt, but I don’t want it to become one of those things where it becomes warn out and it’s treated like a trend. Thrash is not a trend in my mind, it never went away, so we just hope we’ll still be here when other bands aren’t and nobody thinks it’s cool. We’ll still be here.
Altsounds: That’s the thing with music. It comes and goes in trends. Nu metal came in, then Emo took over and now Thrash is coming back. I don’t think it ever went away but a lot of the bands that pioneered it strayed away from the sound.
Ryan: I’m excited to see all the early bands get back together, that’s kinda cool. If we had any part in that, then that’s the biggest honour right there that I can think of. I mean, you can't make money just off record sales anymore, you’ve gotta get back out on the road, it’s the only way to make a living, selling t shirts and shit.
Altsounds: You're quite a prolific band, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of time in between albums. How do you balance between being in the spotlight enough that you stay relevant, but not so much that it becomes overkill?
Ryan: We don’t really think about it, it turns out that we write an album about every 2 years. It just kinda happens like that. I mean, writing music like I said before is the funniest part; we’re on the road constantly, so when we’re home we’re writing and it comes naturally.
Altsounds: That leads nicely into my next question: which do you prefer, being on the road or being in the studio?
Ryan: It's not the studio, we don’t write in the studio. We write in our practice space or at my house. I enjoy that aspect of it, just writing the songs. It would be cool to just sit at home and write music all day, that’s the dream right there. We tour so much that can get a little old sometimes as well, having to catch planes and stuff day in day out.
Altsounds: Is there a point where you ever think that being in a band wouldn’t be fun anymore, and if so would you ever consider quitting?
Ryan: I don’t think that would ever happen, as far as this not being fun anymore. It’s the best thing in the world.
Altsounds: Being a band in the internet era, especially with file sharing and social networking taking over, do you find it more harmful or useful to you as a band?
Ryan: Useful all the way. People are so lucky to have the internet. There are bands you’ve never heard of that are getting signed because they had a MySpace with X amount of friends on it or whatever. We’re lucky that we got to see both sides of it, we were there kind of on the cusp of the internet taking over. In 2000 we were still making phone calls to book shows, writing directions to shows on bits of paper. We worked hard from the ground up, I think people need to appreciate that we did it before the internet took off, it definitely helps. It’s amazing how much it helps.
Altsounds: There’s also the flip side to it with illegal downloading and people being negative in fan forums as well.
Ryan: I never read what people say. It's usually pretty good, but a bad comment will piss you off so I don’t bother. I don’t mind people downloading music, I download music. I’m not like Lars (Ulrich), I think he’s fucking stupid to care about that, he’s so rich anyway. I think spreading your music even If it’s free is totally fine.
Altsounds: You have a really dedicated fanbase. Do you have a good relationship with your fans?
Ryan: Yeah, I try to meet people, take photos, that sort of thing. If I’m in a bad mood, then I’m not gonna go out there because I don’t wanna ruin some kids night. If you see me out there then that means I’m in a good mood.
Altsounds: Do you ever have bad experiences with fans over stepping the mark?
Ryan: All the time (Laughs). People get up onstage so much that you have to play defence while you're onstage; you’ll be playing guitar and there’s people jumping around or stuff that can be overload sometimes, but that’s what our shows are about. Sometimes you have to share the stage with the fans.
Altsounds: At this stage in your career after 4 albums and amassing a big following, what’s important to you as a band?
Ryan: I think staying relevant, writing exactly what we want and not compromising for anybody. Keeping this band true to its roots and just being ourselves.
Altsounds: How long do you envision Municipal Waste carrying on as a band?
Ryan: I have no idea man. It’s the drinking that’s going to slow me down. (Laughs) I gotta tone that down a little bit to make my own longevity last (Laughs). That could be the downfall if we keep partying. I don’t know, it’s hard to say. I don’t wanna put a timeline on it.
Altsounds: What are five things about you as band that would surprise people?
Ryan: That’s a tough one man, because we’re always so open with our fans. Can I do five things about our drummer Dave Witte?
Altsounds: Yeah man, Go ahead.
Ryan: Dave loves cats, he loves chocolate, he likes taking pictures of his food before he eats it, he likes progressive rock and he loves fancy beer. Dave’s the easiest one to do. (Laughs)
Altounds: Finish the sentence. In 2010 Municipal Waste will……
Ryan: FUCK YOU UP! (Laughs)
Altsounds: I knew that was going to be the answer to that question (Laughs)
Ryan: It was too easy man" (Laughs)
Altsounds: Thank you so much for your time Ryan.
Ryan: No problem man.
