Madball
with Mitts on Oct 21, 2005
Madball is on tour through Europe to promote there new album “legacy” on Roadrunner Records; time to have a chat with Mitts, guitar player of the band


This is the first day of the tour so do you like it to go on tour?
Yeah we like touring. Hardcore is about live shows, hardcore is one thing to make records and has its best presentation in the live shows.

So you like to play in little venues?
We like to play everywhere, we like the small clubs because it’s good to get into it with the fans but we also love to play big shows too.

Do you play often in big arenas?
Sometimes, we just did a tour back in the states in the summer. It was called “Sounds of the Underground tour” and it was about 20 bands it’s a travelling festival. Pretty much every day, It’s like a very small version of Ozzfest. Not two stages just one big stage every day. It was a great tour in a lot of arenas concert halls and shit.

  Do you enjoy being on tour? What do you like? The travelling, the shows, the people that you meet?
It’s nice to meet new people. It’s always cool to see places we get to travel the world and go to places where we have never bin. We’re sitting now in Holland and I would never coming here if I didn’t have this band or going on tour.


Can you tell me something about the new album “legacy”?
It’s our 5th full length and we’re very proud of it, we think it’s the best record we’ve ever done. We wrote it last March, April and record it in May. It’s produced by the guy Zeuss (hatebreed, shadows Fall, Agnostic Front) It was the first time we ever work with him so we have make a little bit of a change in the production. We’re very happy with the way the record sounds from the production sound of it.

It sounds heavier
That’s we’re we going for. We we’re to make it little heavier, cleaner version of madball.

Did the audience receive the album well?
So far yeah, we’ve got good reviews We judge the audience by people on our shows and we play the new songs on the shows. People always gone like the old stuff maybe a little more but the new songs are great.

  Is “legacy” your favourite album?
I don’t know. We’re very proud of it we think it’s the best the band ever sound it. This is my first Full Length record with the band. But I’ve know the guys for 10 years and I was always a fan of the band, I believe that every Madball record has got progress better and better over the years, every record was a step forward. It was a little better production each time and little bit more sure song writing each time and I think that we reach a higher level on this. This is we want to be. We are very happy with the way he came out. We didn’t rush, we took our time and we wrote it the way we wanted to write it.

  Has Freddy written the lyrics?
Yes, Freddy has written the lyrics and the band wrote all the music. We’re playing a song and Freddy is there and he’s telling us to change that a little because he is hearing that from a vocalist viewpoint. He has the lyrics in his head. It’s definitely a four man operation.

  What are the differents between the old sound and the new sound?
Madball was always a mix between old hardcore sounds and than you got Hoya and Freddy and they have always listen to a lot of hip hop. Madball has a little bit of a mix. And maybe on some of the older records the songs are separate. You had a hardcore song and a song with a mix to it and maybe on this record we started a combination off these too. It’s kind of hard to say but we defiantly found our sound to wear and starting moving forward like that.

  Do you like hip hop?
Freddy and Hoya listen to it. I don’t dislike it but I don’t listen to it very much. It’s something I listen it when the guys are listen it.

  So what do you listen?
I grow up with Hardcore but I don’t listen too much hardcore now anymore on my own. I listen too metal and I like a lot of rock, punk and pop shit. I like a lot of happy sounding stuff. When you play heavy music every day in your life you want a little bit of a break for the change. I talking about the other guys they listen to everything too. We listen too Madonna or we listen too Johnny Cash or we listen to Reggae. If you are a musician and your listen always to one kind of thing that’s you’re being ignored. As a musician you have to listen to every kind of music because you have to open your mind.

  How old were you when you listen hardcore?
I think 14 or 15 years old. I listen too Cro Mags, Agnostic Front and Warzone all these bands.

  And do you have played in other bands?
I have played in Skarhead. Skarhead is there since 1995 and we are broke up a couple of years ago. We didn’t have a problem but it was enough. And I have played in another band 2 years ago, it was a side project called Ragmen.

  What are the differences between the European crowd and the American crowd?
The European Crowd appreciate heavy music more because in America heavy music al the way its bigger now than it ever was but Hardcore is definitely more accepted music in Europe. In the states it’s more about Metal than it is Hardcore. In Holland we always have great shows, Hardcore is always been big here so far as I know. Some places in the states you get smaller crowd and some places you get a bigger crowd. It depends on where you are. Sometimes we played for 100 people and another time we play for 1000 people. When we play in New York we sell out the club but when we play in Kansas sometimes we were lucky to get 100 people audience.

  To which music did you listen as a kid?
Metal and then Hardcore. When I was a little kid I listen too what my parents listen to. They like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and all that classic stuff like that. But on my own I first got into like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath you know Heavy Metal and then I found hardcore like Agnostic Front and the Cro Mags.

  So Agnostic Front is one of your Favourite bands ever?
It’s definitely one of my favourite hardcore bands ever you know they are legends. They are the original New York Hardcore Band. I think everybody in the N.Y.H.C scene listen a lot to Agnostic Front they are the originals of the N.Y.H.C. scene.

  Do you know some hardcore bands from Holland?
Sure, Backfire they are good friends of us and Angel Crew

  Do you like the new Angel Crew album?
I like it a lot.

  It’s has more Metal influence, do you like that?
 I think that people are to worry about it to giving it a name. For me it’s good music I don’t care if it is metal or it is hardcore or it is rock. I hear songs and there is music on it and it’s rock. But it’s a great thing they are singing and the sound is more melodic, but it’s just heavy as it always bin. I don’t label things. I like it or I don’t. I don’t care if I hear my favourite artist come out with a record with country music but I like it, I don’t care if it is Hardcore or Metal if it is good music it is good music.

  When you were not playing in Madball, what would you be doing, what kind of job?
I haven’t a job I have just done music full time since 1999. Before that I have worked as a sound engineer I used to work in the music business and I have also worked in a recording studio. I was working and studying at the same time. I didn’t mixing and making records, I was making coffee but there they teached me the works of a sound boy.

  So you never have to live on the streets?
No I don’t


But the lyrics of Madball telling many times about living on the streets
When you say living on the streets no one is sleeping on the side of it. You know we are sharing apartments with friends and we help each other out. Me personally I never have been in that situation I have binned very lucky with that. I’m not rich but I’m not pore. But yeah that’s what you mean some guys are struggle before but they doing well. Talking about the streets is where we all been grow up. Some of the other guys are more so than me. When I see the streets we’re talking about the neighbourhoods, the scene, just hanging out and being together A lot of good things happen and a lot of bad things happen so that’s where we talking about.

How long do you play guitar?
 I was about 16 but originally I started as a bass player but than I switch over to the guitar.

What kind of numbers did you play?
When I was a kid I was growing op with metal covers like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.

  And you had a teacher?
Pretty much learn on my own but my mother was a music teacher so she helped me a little bit.

  So you come from a musician family?
Yeah, my mother played the violin even as my sister does.

  So they are proud that you playing in a hardcore band?
They love that I’m a musician they don’t listen to hardcore but my family knows about my music.

  What was your first guitar?
My first guitar was an area pro 2 cheesy and the guitar that I have now is a BC Rich.

  That’s more a metal guitar
Those guitars are originally not mend to be metal they were played by hippy’s, you know And than in the 80’s all the metal guys got into them and starts making the crazy shapes. So yeah in the 80’s BC Rich was a metal guitar. The guitar that I hold is my friend and that’s the guitar I grow up with and playing the bands. He brought up new in 1983/1984. That’s the guitar I grow up and playing on the most. I know he is not a very hardcore guitar but I love him.

  What are the plans for the future?
We’re just gone tour this record as much as possible This is the first tour we’ve come to Europe since the record came out. So we gone tour this and support the record and probably we be back again next summer for festivals. And we start working on a DVD, we start making a DVD about the whole history of Madball. It’s just in the planning stage right now.

  Thanks for the interview! Is there anything you want to tell me?
Buy the new album and check out the site “www.madballnyhc.com”

(KenA2 Stagiair)

© Rockezine.com Oct 21, 2005, viewed 1121 times since 666
back