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Interviews : Iron Reagan – “I live for playing music.” (An interview with Tony Foresta)

By on April 10, 2015

Iron Reagan – Tony Foresta

In 2014, we thought we’d be seeing American speed metal punks Iron Reagan touring Australia and New Zealand for the first time with Toxic Holocaust. But due to poor promoting, the tour was cancelled after it had already been postponed with a different support band. Now, Iron Reagan, a hardcore band featuring members of Municipal Waste, Darkest Hour and Cannabis Corpse, have finally hit our shores for a tour. The tour has already been through Canberra, Wollongong, Brisbane and Newcastle, with shows in Sydney and Melbourne coming up.

Before the band left for tour, Metal Obsession got to chat with with lead vocalist Tony Foresta, while they were packing their van.

Tony says, “We’re actually packing up for tour right now. We’re on the middle of the street with our van, getting together all of our stuff to bring to Australia. We’re leaving tomorrow, right now it’s 7:00 at night. We’re gonna leave at noon tomorrow.”

Tony has enjoyed his past two times in Australia with Municipal Waste, and is very keen to visit again with his new band. Although they hoped they’d be able to book the tour with Toxic Holocaust, unfortunately it wasn’t possible.

“This is our first trip here. We’ve been talking about it for months and we’re super excited. We really wanted to do these dates with Toxic Holocaust, who we were meant to tour with the first time, but it wasn’t affordable to do at this time. So we just did this one on our own to make up for missing out last time.”

Tony doesn’t go into too much detail, but mentions the fallout of the Toxic Holocaust / Iron Reagan tour that was meant to take place in November last year.

“Just shitty promoting. People know the guy, half of his tours work, and the other half don’t, and he has a million excuses. I don’t like badmouthing anybody though, this is the most negative thing I’ve ever said about the dude. He did a great job for Municipal Waste in 2013, but he just couldn’t get his act together for the Toxic Holocaust & Iron Reagan tour.”

We spoke more about the Municipal Waste tour in 2013 and his favourite memories from that tour. He’s a big fan of Melbourne, and is looking for something to do while hanging out there.

“The Melbourne shows on that tour were fuckin’ nuts. We did two, one in a smaller venue and one in a bigger venue. I love it there. We’re actually staying there for an extra day to hang out, and we’re doing an in-store meet and greet at Eureka Rebellion. So we’re just gonna hang out in Melbourne for three or four days. So if people know anything cool for us to do while we’re there, let us know! We wanna see the town!”

Recently, I interviewed Jaundice Cop from Melbourne’s own Wet Pensioner on a radio show that I do. Wet Pensioner are opening for Iron Reagan at The Tote on May 11, and in the interview he challenged Tony to a pizza eating competition. Tony sort-of accepts…

“Maybe after we play. I’m not gonna try and eat six pounds of pizza before I play a gig, I’ll just barf it all over the stage. Tell him he can go first. I’ll watch him! He can take a bite of pizza and I’ll tell him he won. Tell him congratulations, he won! Also, as long as he’s paying for the pizza, I’ll do it!”

Iron Reagan already has a large back catalog of music. With two full-length albums released over the past two years and numerous EP’s, including a brand new split release with a band called Toxic Shock, Reagan has been a priority for the two Municipal Waste members in the band. Will we see a follow up to Municipal Waste’s 2012 effort ‘The Fatal Feast’ in the near-future though?

“We’ve been working on a new album for a while now. We’ve got about eight songs in the bag, and ten more in the works. It’s coming along slowly. Everybody has got their own thing going on, and Iron Reagan is so busy right now. We probably won’t get to recording until the end of this summer, if we get it done by then.”

In other words, Iron Reagan is more than just a “side-project” of Municipal Waste and the multiple other bands the members are a part of, as it’s been called.

“We’ve been on tour for the past year and a half, non-stop! If it was a side-project, do you think I would tour that much? It’s not really putting other things aside when this is what I’m doing the majority of the time. I just play music, and that’s all I really do. So if I’m not doing this band, I’m doing my other band. I live for playing music.”

Catch Iron Reagan on the remainder of their Australian tour dates.
April 10 – Bald Faced Stag, Sydney
April 11 – The Tote, Collingwood
April 12 – The Bendigo Hotel, Collingwood

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Patrick has been a dedicated contributor to Metal Obsession since 2011. He believes that you can put Lars Ulrich's face on just about anything. Add Patrick on Facebook.