Interview with PHIL DEMMEL, guitarist with Bay Area Thrashers VIO-LENCE

admin July 31, 2019 Artist Interviews

Now it’s been close to 9 months since you left Machine Head at the end of November 2018. It looks like you’ve been super busy since then. Can you give us a little bit of a run down on what’s happening in the world of Phil Demmel?

(Laughter ) Yeah, next day I got a call to fill in for Gary in Slayer. I did a bunch of NAMM stuff in January, I played with Metal Allegiance and Dimebag show, Randy Rhoad’s show, Ronnie Montrose show, Ultimate Jam Night Show, going to be doing something super cool with Peavey. Did a Metal Allegiance tour, the Vio-lence thing happened … done four Vio-lence shows.

We spent Sunday out with Mike Portnoy, Bobby Blitz and Mark Menghi recording a record. I’m not going to say what it is yet, but recording a record together. It’s Metal Allegiance dudes but it’s not a Metal Allegiance release. So, that’s happening. I got Clinic’s happening with Jackson coming out. I filled in for Nonpoint for three shows. It’s been exciting man, it’s been really cool.

Well you definately have been crazy busy. Now quitting Machine Head, a band you were a member of for 15 years, would have been such a low point in your life, but then getting a text from Kerry King the next day ‘Oh can you come play with Slayer?’ How did that make you feel? It can’t get much better than getting asked to play for Slayer?

You know realistically, It’s still a dream that it even happened, and that I learned the songs, I got it done, I went and played it, it’s done and it’s been seven months, so all such a blur. It was amazing, getting the call from Gary and from Kerry, and to being the guy that they went to. I think Paul Bostaphs girl let them know that … I think they were mulling over people to get, and then I think she said hey Machine Head just ended last night.

Very honored … it’s still fucking cool that I was the guy that they called. Glad I was able to pay back that organization, and Gary and Jeff, and do them proud.

That’s totally Awesome. Obviously as you mentioned Vio-lence has reunited, you’ve played some shows already. You guys are coming to Australia in February with Sacred Reich, which will be an awesome thrash tour for Australia. Tell us how it all happened… Was the Machine Head breakup, the catalyst to bringing Vio-lence back together?

Well, Sean was. Sean made it happen. I had quit the band and the last I had seen him was after the benefit we did for him, and he wasn’t looking good. You know, and I wasn’t even sure if I would be seeing my friend again. He was close to death.

So to get that call from him I was pretty shocked. Even with Machine Head and all of the restraints that that situation had, I think me leaving that, opened it up to Sean going… apparently Sean was really wanting to get back and do some music.

So he hit me up, and I was pretty shocked, and I just wanted to be sure that first and foremost for his health, and if he knew exactly what he was getting into, he was though. Sean Killian was 100% the catalyst to get this thing going.

Excellent. So tell us about those few shows you played, they were in San Francisco, at the Metro right?

Yeah, they were actually in Oakland.

Oakland, okay.

And we were … we’ve been an East Bay band, we grew up in Dublin and Castro Valley for the most part. So we pride ourselves on being East Bay. There’s been a little bit, a very little bit of San Francisco vs the East Bay, whether it be sports or just socially, or whatever. The East Bay kids, they’re like the dirty kids. The San Francisco kids are more on the snobby side, I think they’ll admit that too.

We wanted to do it at East Bay, and we wanted to undershoot, do something small, we wanted to sell it out, instead of booking a bigger show in a 3000 cap room and having it not be full, we’d rather book a 1000 cap and sell it out, have it be an event.

That’s what we did, we put the tickets on sale and hours later they were gone, and so we contemplated doing another one, and everybody, the dudes were nervous, they were like ‘no, just want to get through this one.’ Im like “Fuck no man! We gotta see some fucking, see some carpe right now you know (laughter )

I volunteered the idea of doing like a matinee because it was on Palm Sunday, so we could call it the ‘Palm Sunday Massacre’. Game of Thrones was that night on that Sunday, so we gotta do it before so people can get home and go to a Vio-lence show, watch their Game of Thrones, have their pizza, you know. It’d be the perfect Sunday, come on!

Tickets went on sale, we gave them notice, tickets went on sale and they sold out in something like 15 minutes or something ridiculous.

Wow man that’s so cool!

We oversold, so there was probably 1300 people there both shows, so remarkable. It was like a 1986 reunion for everybody, coming out and taking part of this. No barricade, no lights, just three par cans, houselights were out, anti production. It was way back in the day again, it was so organic and real.

The people that were there, everybody felt that vibe of just, being back in those rooms, underage drinking at Ruthy’s Inn, and having that vibe of being back, being a kid again and enjoying everybody and enjoying the music.

That is so cool. How does that compare to the vibe of being on stage, playing with Slayer in Europe?

Well, it’s different because… the Slayer thing, especially the first couple of shows, I just wanted to play solid and I was unaware of the shit that was, all the backdrops coming down, all the fire and the lights, and I just wanted to play well. I wanted to play well and be into the music and listening to Paul, just making sure I didn’t fuck up and just do the songs proud.

These Vio-lence tunes are songs that I’ve known my whole life. There’s parts of … we only get a couple of tours. All my Vio-lence memories are just vivid, whereas a lot of the later stuff that’s been happening, I can’t remember you know. I remember stuff from the Vio-lence tour in 1988 better than I remember from the Machine Head tour two years ago, or something.

It’s a long term memory where you remember you know, the demos you had in the van, they were just so select that… where as my Machine Head history has been so vast and so many different times, and so many different things.

Now so you’ve got some more Vio-lence shows coming up. You’re doing an exclusive show in Europe at Alcatraz Hard Rock & Metal Festival in Belgium. However, the big news as we mentioned earlier, is that you guys are coming to Australia for the first time ever, to play some shows!

Can you tell us what we can expect on those shows, especially with regards to, are you going to mix it up with the three different albums and EP’s, or are you going to play one of the albums in full? What are us Aussie Vio-Lence fans in for?

Oh man, you know there’s not a lot of dynamics to what we do. We’re pretty much pummelling you for an hour or so (laughter) It’s going to be probably mostly of the Eternal Nightmare record, because that’s the one people have really clung to and probably nothing off Nothing to gain (laughter), maybe a song? It’ll be mostly Eternal Nightmare and some select off of Oppressing.

You’re going to get wide-eyed 50 year olds being in Australia for the first time, and being on tour for the first time in 31 years… 31 years!!! Its gonna be the first time these guys have done consecutive shows, more than a couple in a row. You’re going to get some pretty excited 50 year olds!

I’m going to have more fun watching my dudes, than anything.

Yeah, that’s so cool. Now I’ve seen your recently, you’ve got your own bar there; Eve’s place, or is it The Backlounge?

Well it was, when we bought it, Marta my wife had been working there for about seven years, so she had been managing the place. We got the opportunity to buy it, Eve’ was the previous owner, so it was Eve’s place, and we kept it that way for a year.

So we’ve been slowly making it our own. I’ve been doing these constant changes to it with some friends of mine who have been helping me out, doing some really cool things with drums, drum pool table lights, drumstick lights, and guitar neck handles. Kind of rocking it out a little bit.

We changed the name just recently to The Backlounge, which has kind of got a music connotation to it, the tour bus thing… The Backlounge, although there’s not a lot of tour buses in Australia because they’re mostly fly dates when people go there (laughter)

So it is a tour bus reference, and having that is something that she runs, I’ll go and fill in, do some stuff that’s mostly like … the handyman, the fix-it guy, you know ‘paint this wall’ or ‘shift this around’

I have done some bartending but it’s not really my thing, it’s her thing. So she’s been running that, and it’s been awesome. Our cover band, The Merkins, played there, a couple of weeks ago, it was awesome.

Yes saw that online, you jammed with Dave, Jared and even Adam Duce. Totally spun out seeing Adam with short hair!

Yeah, pretty crazy right? Yeah it was all my high school buddies, it was all of our friends that got together and just jammed for the sake of jamming. No dramas, no egos, no attitudes, just get up and play, we going to play a Skynyrd song, we’re going to play, what the hell Bon Jovi, or Journey, or Foreigner, Judas Priest or whatever… It’s one of the best things to jam covers in your own bar.

Any chance of anything original coming from any of those collaborations with Dave, Jared or Adam?

I don’t think that Jared and I will be allowed to play together ( laughter )

Me and Dave have chatted and we’re probably going to be doing something, I’m going to be doing some Clinic Jams, he and I are going to get together and write some music for that. We have a song … I’d written a tune, and me and Dave jammed it out a bit ago, and I said we’re going to record that.

As far as Adam’s concerned, it’s possible. We’re keeping it pretty light. It’s been a pretty rocky and a weird road that we have taken to get to where we are now, and I like where we are, so we’re going to keep it on a friendly level and I’m not closed to anything with Adam.

Now one thing I noticed with you compared to a lot of other guitarists is that you’ve stayed with one brand, that being JACKSON like forever, which is really cool. Quite often guitar players jump ship with sponsorship or endorsements, or if they get the shits with their current equipment.

You’ve just brought out a new guitar as well, the ‘Jackson Demmelition Fury’ which is a very different shape from what we’re used to from you. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah, the king V I’ve been playing since my pre-Machine Head band Technocracy. I was playing a Randy Rhoad’s, the ‘Shark Fin’ before. Been playing Jackson since 1985.

Jackson has brought on Scott Ian, Corey Beaulieu, somebody else has a V I think… there’s a lot of V players there now, and they had this X-Stroyer shape coming out and I was looking at that, I had it custom made, and they said ‘well hey if you want to maybe do a custom of this’ and I said ‘yeah, you know it’s time to move on, you have enough V players there, and I have enough V’s at home’. So let’s move on.

The Ibanez Destroyer was one of my first real guitars and so Adrian Smith, you know Killer’s record… Paying homage to him.

Okay last question Phil. Since parting ways with Machine Head, have you spoken with Rob Flynn at all? Are you still on talking/ friendly terms?

I haven’t … Let me see … I haven’t spoke with him since the last show.

Ok, we’ll leave that at that. Thank you so much for chatting with us today Phil, and we’re super excited about Vio-lence and Sacred Reich coming to Australia in February. Anything you would like to say to the fans here?

We are all super excited to come down to Australia and bludgeon you guys for an hour. So we’re excited about you being excited!