Matt Maurer – Mortal Sin

Metal Obsession’s Dil Fredrick had the chance to catch up with Mortal Sin’s Mat Maurer after the release of their new album, ‘Psychology of Death’ and ahead of their upcoming tour with Destruction in November.

A veteran of the Aussie Metal scene, Mat Maurer offers his thoughts on the new album, a very long time in the making, and even some advice to fledgling Australian metal bands. Stormy weather withstanding:

 

Metal Obsession: So you’ve released your album ‘Psychology of Death’ on the 23^rd, last Friday. Have you received any feedback from fans yet?

Matt Maurer: Yeah we have, everything’s been really positive. Nearly everyone’s saying exactly the same thing, “Wow this is the best thing you’ve ever done!” and, “It’s the album of your career, it’s so awesome!” It’s sort of um…it’s been really good for us, ya know. It’s sort of reinforcing what we felt when we were recording it. It’s good to see that everyone’s really digging it like we have.

MO: How has this album producing experience compare to other albums? Like what kind of mind-set did you go into the studio with?

MM: Ummm…we did things a little bit differently this time. I don’t know whether that’s the reason why we got a good album out of it or what. But we hadn’t quite completed writing the album before we went in and started recording. [Luke] had put the drums down before I had finished half of the lyrics. So you know, it was a case of we didn’t have a lot of money, we didn’t have a huge budget, we didn’t have a record company at the time; we were just going in when we had the money and laid down whatever we could.

It was a long process…I mean Luke recorded his drums about a year before I finished my vocals [laughs]. So it was one of those things that just took forever. It was a little bit frustrating, but it was cool in the end; we ended up with a really good result.

MO: I was listening to it today. With songs like ‘Psychology of Death’ and ‘Blood of my Enemies’, I hear elements of Slayer so of course that’s gonna hook me, but the songs are a wholly different sound, incorporating influences from other bands that you like, all put together to make a Mortal Sin album. Personally I don’t buy into the whole, ‘That band’s the next Metallica’, mantra…unless of course they mean that the band’s going to be as monetarily successful as Metallica…so what did you think about that when they were saying stuff like that about Mortal Sin?

MM: In the early days you know you sort of take whatever you could get. If someone compares you to someone, I guess you’ve got to take it as a compliment…they’re not trying to saying that you’re trying to copy them or anything. When you’re trying to explain what someone sounds like the first thing you do is you say, ‘It’s kind of like that,’ or, ‘It’s kind of like Slayer. It’s kind of like Metallica.’ You know what I mean? It’s just a comparison thing, I don’t think it’s meant to be derogatory or anything like that. I think it’s a good thing, and because if someone likes Slayer or someone likes Metallica or if they’re in that kind of vein, well then they’ll want to go and have a listen to it. So in a way I think it’s a good thing, I don’t take it as a bad thing.

MO: All the better for it!

MM: Yeah.

MO: This album has definitely perked my attention. Especially after listening to a few songs off your older albums. Your sound has gone through a few changes, and, dare I say, matured over the years? So ‘Psychology of Death’ is sort of like your honed talent and a realisation of producing a sound that’s unique to Mortal Sin?

MM: Yeah, well, every time you do an album you learn something and every time you listen to an album you learn something, whether it’s somebody else’s album or your own albums. You’re always trying to better yourself; you’re always trying to do something the best that you can do. With this album, we wanted to slap a few people in the face.

We knew that if we wanted to get out there and become the band we wanna become, we knew we had to write an album that would do exactly that, make people sit up and take notice. As you said before, some of the feedback has been, ‘oh we have learnt from what we’ve done; we have gained some maturity; we are gaining from our experience’. It’s taken us 25 years, but for us that’s what it is, maybe we are just starting to figure it all out. I think this album will stand the test of time and a lot of people will hopefully, when they listen to it, will get that slap in the face and go, “Ahh!” Well, that’s what we’re hoping for anyway. Only time will tell.

MO: Well if it’s any consolation it definitely did that to me having listened to it today.

MM: Hope it didn’t hurt! [laughs]

MO: No, not too much…in a good way! So are you excited to be showcasing this album to fans, old and new, on your upcoming tour with Destruction?

MM: Absolutely. We’ve done a few shows over the last month or two and every time we play a new song, everyone just goes crazy for ‘em; it’s been really good. Obviously playing with Destruction, there will be a nice big crowd and full of thrash heads, so, it’s gonna be great. We’re gonna have a good time. And also we’ll be touring Europe as well. We get to play in front of thousands and thousands of people in Europe as well and do the same thing. So yeah, we’re looking forward to it.

MO: So you’ve toured with Destruction before, any stories you have to share about your past touring experiences?

MM: We’ve only done the one show with Destruction, we played with them in Norway at Inferno Fest. We’ve done a fair bit of touring with Overkill, which was good. That was in 2008. We did something like 15 shows with them, some festivals. We played a couple of big festivals over there in Czechoslovakia with some bands and Overkill. Oh just hundreds and hundreds of bands; touring a festival is really good because you get to see so many bands that you don’t normally see here in Australia. It’s always good touring, we always have a good time.

We love playing! To play shows, that’s what we do it for, you know. We love being on stage; we love performing; we love showing ourselves to people and we really dig feedback when people come up to us after a show. It’s a really good feeling when someone says, “Man, that was friggin awesome!” you know.

MO: Yeah, I mean the festival experience over there would be an…experience.

I really couldn’t think of another word to describe this…experience? But Mat did a pretty good job of describing the possible feeling, nay, ecstasy, most metal heads would have at a European festival.

MM: Yeah, absolutely. We played Wacken Festival in 2006 and 2008.And, you know, you’re playing in front of 80,000 people…it’s amazing! That’s just something you don’t get everyday, so you’ve really gotta soak that up. It’s not only playing, just being at the festival. The atmosphere; all the people are there for the same reason, just to party. Some amazing things happened at that festival. You camp over there for 3 or 4 days, it’s just amazing. Anyone [who is] really into metal, they’ve got to go to Wacken Festival one year, it’s like paradise over there for metalheads.

MO: Yeah, it’s definitely a goal.

I said while secretly feeling insanely jealous of Mat’s “amazing” Wacken experiences. But…

MO: Having said that, you have toured quite extensively, I mean you’ve been around for 25 years like you’ve said. And you’ve played alongside some top name bands like Anthrax, Metallica…I feel like I’m just reeling off countless achievements here. But anyway, how have these experiences added to your life as a musician and how have they maybe moulded you as an individual?

MM: I guess you can tick the boxes; yes we’ve played with Metallica, yes we’ve played with Slayer….and they are achievements. A lot of bands would love to [say] they’ve played with Metallica or [they’ve] played with Slayer. It’s a goal of every band to play with an international act. We’ve been really fortunate, we’ve been really lucky to have played with most of the big ones, you know, and it does help you.

Every time you go out on the road with an international band, you get to see what the standard is. You can gage yourself, like where do we stand against these guys? I mean most times, they blow you off the stage! But at least it gives you some kind of inspiration to be able to go, “Man, we want to be as good as them one day!” That’s what I look at. It’s just so good to play with them; they’re really good guys, we got on with them…no complaints…and we’re looking forward to going out on the road again with some more [international bands].

I guess it moulds you as an individual as well. For me, on ‘Psychology of Death’…one of my big inspirations was Chuck Billy from Testament. Whenever I needed to pull something out of the bag, I’d just sit there and think, ‘What would Chuck Billy do? What would Chuck Billy do?’ They do inspire you. I mean, I’m not even half as good as Chuck Billy! If someone said you’re half as good as Chuck Billy, I’d go, “Thanks man, that’s great!” [laughs].

MO: Having experienced all of this, what advice would you give Aussie metal bands. I mean, I’ve read an interview where you mentioned Bobby from Overkill gave you some good advice. So since you’ve been around the metal scene for this long, what advice would you give to others?

MM: Probably the biggest advice would be don’t sit around and wait for things to happen. You’ve got to make it happen. You’ve really got to work hard not only at your music, not only at your playing, but you’ve got to work hard at the business as well. And that’s exactly what Bobby told us.

You know, you can be the greatest band in the world, but if you don’t have the business sense to be able to push your product or get yourself out there in the market, then you’re just going to fall by the wayside. So I think my biggest advice would be: get everything right, you know, get your album right, get your playing right… the business side of it, your marketing, your merchandise, everything. And then get off overseas! We’re so unlucky here in Australia that we’re so far away from the rest of the world. Even for Mortal Sin it’s so hard to try make it in Australia because the country is so big.

If any band just sort of got up and went to Europe and just tried to play some shows, got on some festivals or whatever. I think that’s the best advice. You cut corners when you do that. Because then you can call yourself an International band, you’ve played overseas, you’ve done this and you’ve done that. So my advice is get all of that right and then get off overseas. Get some shows overseas and play with some big names, that’s what’s going to make you a bigger band.

Mortal Sin will be kicking off their tour with Destruction and 4ARM in November:

04.11.2011 Prince of Wales Melbourne

05.11.2011 The Gaelic Club Sydney

06.11.2011 The Hi-Fi Brisbane

For more info on Mortal Sin and their killer new release, head on over to: www.mortalsin.com.au