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Testament Interview with Eric Peterson in Support of the Spitfire Collection and their 2007 World Tour

Testament Interview with Eric Peterson in Support of the Spitfire Collection and their 2007 World Tour

By Dixon Christie

PunkTV.ca: It’s been 20 years and it’s basically been you and Chuck from the very beginning. Tell us about a lifetime of making music with your best friend.

It’s been great. It’s been a long marriage, that’s what I call it. We’ve been together so long as business friends through good times and bad, it’s all good. Now its coming full circle, we got the original guys back with us and we got our new drummer Nick Barker who’s going out with us and doing the new record with us. It’s a lot of fun.

PunkTV.ca: You guys have probably been through some downs in the last little while, Chuck just made it through his bout with throat cancer.

Ya he beat that, it’s been a couple years now and it seems good and everything seems to be good. It’s all good.

PunkTV.ca: And the record is coming along well, you guys are halfway done this record?

Well there’s a lot of material but what we’re doing right now is tracking the ideas right now and see what we like and what sticks and adding new songs along the way.

PunkTV.ca: You’re currently on tour supporting the Spitfire collection which features the classics like Practice What You Preach. How is he audience?

Well we’re not really just going on the road to support that. That is another corporate move from the record company. That’s something we would not have done but since they have the license to our material they can let it out any way they want.

PunkTV.ca: How does it make you feel when they do another greatest hits?

When they emailed it to me I told them they’re crazy and that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. We’ve already put out a best of and the label that we’re on now they took all the best songs from the Gathering and Demonic and the whole and they licensed it to some company, some smaller company licensed it out to then and then we didn’t even know what was in store.

PunkTV.ca: You sound frustrated.

I don’t really like that label.

PunkTV.ca: And there’s not really much you can do about that but obviously from a writer’s perspective you guys are kind enough to do some press in order to talk about the upcoming album.

Ya that’s what I’m talking about. We don’t tour that much anymore so when we do get a chance to go out. We’re going to Australia so it’s going to be a lot of fun. The festivals are coming up in Europe and we always have a great time with that. But this time around we’re working on new material so that’s a plus for us and our fans that we’re actually going to be putting something new out soon.

PunkTV.ca: You guys are going to Hungary, Poland, Serbia, Germany and Australia. A world tour practically eh?

Ya but it’s kind of spread out though over the 4 months so that’s pretty cool.

PunkTV.ca: Is it nice after all this while to be able to go out and play all these festivals as opposed to playing the smaller rooms?

I like both. Both are great. Festivals of course you reach a lot more people but there’s nothing like a good sold out, packed club show. We just did that last week and we played our hometown San Francisco. We had a great show, it was our first show with Nick and it was great.

PunkTV.ca: You guys grew up with Suicidal eh?

They’re from LA, we’re from San Francisco so they’re from the South and we’re from the North. We’ve done a lot of shows with them in the past when we were first starting out. We did the Clash of the Titans but we haven’t really been in contact since then.

PunkTV.ca: That’s what I was going to ask you is what happened to Mike Muir and the boys?

I don’t even know. I know back in the day those guys were crazy. We had some good times but they had a pretty crazy vibe going on.

PunkTV.ca: Well the bravest tiger dies first or the brightest flame burns the fastest.

Whatever it was they lived by their code and they weren’t fake. The Suicidal Tendencies were as real as you can get as far as being tough guys. They didn’t take any shit from anybody.

PunkTV.ca: It’s nice to sell records but when you’re talking about re-releasing old, old stuff and the deals that you have with the label are probably in favor of the label so you guys are probably making the lion’s share of the money on the merch and that’s a big part of what affords you to go on the road these days eh?

It’s not the lion’s share but it definitely helps out. It’s one of the things that keeps the machine rolling like oil in your car. It’s part of the process of making things happen.

PunkTV.ca: Speaking of oil in your car (cheesy segue here…) you guys are no stranger to the Middle East. I know recently you played in the Dubai Desert Rock.

Ya that was in Dubai which is the immigrants down there by close to Iraq or no closer to Saudi Arabia and Iran. A lot of the kids that came there were totally cool metal heads, long hair, Slayer shirts, they were cool. I hung out with a bunch out there and it gave me a totally different perspective on Middle Easterners. I think the way we portray them over here is pretty stereotyped. I went out in the city and they’re great people, a lot of style, great ethnics, great food, good hard working people. They got a bad rap and I know it’s crazy over there but good people.

PunkTV.ca: I was going to ask you about the USA badge that American bands wear when they travel and I’ve asked this question to other bands like Napalm Death and other politically aware bands. Tell us about when you travel, especially to a place like the Middle East and how you feel about this administration’s so called war against terror.

Well first of all, we’re a rock band and I don’t think they look at us as a political movement. They probably think of us more as the rebels against the norm of the Americans. We’re not a political band, we play rock and roll and rock and roll is more universal. But we do have that USA badge and I’ve never really encountered anything bad from it so far. It does cross our minds when we travel. We’ve been offered to play Israel a couple of times but we’ve turned it down because of the horror stories. But we had a great time. Chuck and I look American Indian, he more a little but than me but people usually trip on that more. Especially Chuck because he’s a front guy and looks like a big Indian, they’re just kind of like cool.

PunkTV.ca: Do you guys feel like Native Americans are getting a fare shake with losing lands and being ostracized of communities.

Now that it’s all said and done maybe but it’s one of those things where it’s kind of too late. There’s too much damage done.

PunkTV.ca: Well a lot of people complain about giving special concessions to indigenous people and their rights to land and their oil rights.

Our forefathers lived things a lot differently than we do and we’re trying to cover up the messes I think. I think everybody is a bit more level headed these days and politically have their heads on straight. It’s just the same all this shit that went down but I guess we’re doing the right thing by doing things like that.

PunkTV.ca: So being an innovator of 80’s guitar orientated thrash metal tell us about how you feel about all the great guitar based metal bands coming up these days and the new movement that’s coming out and all of the bands are playing together - everybody seems to be getting along real well.

There’s a lot of great metal bands out there now. Quality has gotten a lot better, technology has gotten a lot better to make it sound better. So I mean it’s a great time for metal actually.

PunkTV.ca: What else can you tell us about these shows, do you have any planned for the United States or Canada over the next 6 months?

Ya we’re talking about doing Toronto and Montreal and Ottawa maybe and Quebec City. We’re looking into doing all that stuff like an East Coast thing in like July.  That should be pretty cool.

PunkTV.ca: Ok so we’ve got 2 more questions that we ask everybody. The first one is which of the following experiences have you had: have you seen the face of God, have you had an alien encounter or have you seen a ghost?

Well I have never seen anything like that but probably felt the presence of ghosts by asking for it and it’s pretty powerful stuff. It makes you wonder and it’s definitely something bigger than us.

PunkTV.ca: Well there has to be. What is the testament in Testament? Sometimes when Testament is written that AMEN is capitalized. Is there any type of acknowledgement of a greater power within that band? Are we created, do we come from aliens?

Ya I think that’s what it’s all about. The great revenge is upon us and we will be delivered soon.

PunkTV.ca: What would surprise kids most to learn about the might Testament?