Steve Tucker (Morbid Angel, Warfather) Interview

Yesterday I managed to grab legendary Morbid Angel and Warfather frontman Steve Tucker for a quick phone call! Have a read of our chat below!

All About The Rock: Hey Steve! Thanks for taking the time to chat to me today, I really appreciate it! How are you doing today?  
 
Steve Tucker: Hey man, not a problem! I’m doing pretty good thanks! 
 
AATR: The release of The Grey Eminence, Warfather’s second album, is swiftly approaching, we’re only a couple of months away now. Are you excited to get that released?  
 
ST: Oh absolutely man! I can’t wait – we actually recorded it last summer, so I’ve been waiting all this time to get it out… I absolutely cannot wait! 
 
AATR: How do you feel you’ve progressed in your songwriting from Orchestrating the Apocalypse, your debut with Warfather, to The Grey Eminence?  
 
ST: Man, I don’t actually think there was a progression – I think it was a regression. With Orchestrating the Apocalypse I over thought absolutely every second of the album, with The Grey Eminence I just wrote songs, man. So I just did what came naturally this time around, and I feel it came out as a much, much better album.  
 
AATR: I have to agree with you Steve! As much as I enjoyed Orchestrating the Apocalypse, this new record is just fucking awesome! 
 
ST: You know, it took a few years to really get the real focus of what I wanted to do. And as well, since Orchestrating the Apocalypse there’s two new members: we’ve got a new guitarist [Jake Kock] and a new drummer [Bryan Bever], and that really made the world of difference. I had some issues with the old drummer [Eric de Windt, Supreme Pain] as far as grooving… He didn’t really groove the way I like things to, and that caused a lot of issues which is why he left. I’m really pleased with the people I have now man, this line-up really just fits like a glove!  
 
AATR: Can you walk us through some of the lyrical influences for the album? 
 
ST: The entire album is actually based on one idea, the idea of a grey eminence. A grey eminence is a hidden controlling factor, possibly in government or something like that – just a behind the scenes, controlling factor. Pretty much the entire album revolves around that idea. It touches on the fact that history is only written by the victors, so everything we know is based on a kind of jaded history. The grey eminence does that – it hides the truth, and warps it to become what they want. That’s pretty much what the album is about!  
 
AATR: Wow, that’s an awesome concept! Is that an idea you want to expand on, or would you consider doing another concept album? Or is that just not something you’ve been thinking about at the moment? 
 
ST: It seems that with Warfather, our music seems to evolve into concept albums. Obviously in the United States the general atmosphere has been very negative and very political, for the last year at least, and it’s just getting worse and worse, and that’s what really sparked off the ideas for The Grey Eminence. When someone is caught red-handed, blatantly doing something wrong and just gets off with it, because of the grey eminence, the powers that be. And no one really knows who they are! They seem to just let certain people get away with murder, while other people can’t even get away with jaywalking. I don’t know if jaywalking is a thing in Scotland, but in the United States it’s crossing the street illegally.  
 
AATR: Nah, in Scotland you can cross the street wherever you wonna cross the fucking street! 
 
ST: [Laughs] The way it should be! I live in the land of the free, but you can’t do shit without paying a fee! [Laughs]  
 
AATR: [Laughs] Okay, so there was about a ten-year gap between you leaving Morbid Angel and then starting Warfather. What did you do in that time?  
 
ST: It was actually only about eight years. I did the Nader Sadek project a couple of years before I did the first Warfather album. In the years previous to that I was actually living in Ireland, just living life. I had a few tragedies happen in my life, so I was just working through that and getting myself back together. Once I got my head in the right place again, I returned to making music.  
 
AATR: Ah I’m sorry to hear that, but I’m glad you’re back on your feet! So speaking of Morbid Angel, what happened with the line-up last year? It seemed like a total mess from the outside – you were back and David [Vincent] was out, then David refused to leave, then you were back in again… What happened?  
 
ST: Honestly I don’t know anything about that. I think what happened was Morbid Angel made a statement a few months after Trey [Azagthoth] and I had been talking, and I assume there was not clarity on David’s end as he made a statement… then a couple of days later he made another statement! [Laughs] It is what it was, I wasn’t communicating with David myself, it wasn’t my job to deal with that.  
 
AATR: And how are things going with Morbid Angel just now? Are there any details you can announce or is it all still in the works and under wraps?  
 
ST: Things are still being organized. With Morbid Angel we’re going to wait until things are pretty much solid and written in tablets of stone before we say anything… in regards to the previous question, that’s the reason we’re keeping quiet at the moment! [Laughs] 
 
AATR: [Laughs] Yeah that makes sense! Off the top of your head, can you give me your top five death metal albums of all time?  
 
ST: Oh man! Right, okay, I’m going to completely avoid anything that I’ve been involved with. So there are albums that should be on the list, like Covenant – that’s just such an incredible Morbid Angel album. But I’m not going to include that, cause, y’know… I’m in Morbid Angel now! I would say my number one would probably be De Profundis by Vader. That’s probably my all time favourite album. Malevolent Creation’s Retribution… I know I’m staying in the old-school, but these are the albums that made death metal what it is. The first three Immolation albums man, that shit scared me – it was like a horror flick, I loved it! [Laughs] Deicide’s self titled is just absolutely mind-blowing, and everything Cannibal Corpse has ever done… shit, there’s like twenty albums for you, right there [laughs] 
 
AATR: Have you heard anything from the new Vader album? Are you looking forward to it?  
 
ST: Oh yeah, absolutely I’m excited for it! I haven’t heard anything yet, right now I’m dealing with a whole bunch of Morbid Angel and Warfather stuff, so I haven’t heard much of anything in the past month or so. But yeah I’m excited for it! Vader are good friends of mine, I’m touring with them this fall. Yeah man I look forward to anything to do with Vader, I love those guys.  
 
AATR: They’re just so good!  
 
ST: The first tour I did with Morbid Angel was with Vader, in ’97 I think. Vader, at that point, were just starting to hit their stride and once they hit it… Man, you know exactly what you’re gonna get with Vader. You can count on getting a bad ass album anytime they release anything.  
 
AATR: Absolutely, they are so consistent. So what’s your plan for Warfather in the next year or so?  
 
ST: I’m planning on doing some touring. I want to get out and play all these new tracks live. That schedule has to coexist with the Morbid Angel schedule, so I’ll do what I can as far as getting to do Warfather shows. It just so happens Morbid Angel is starting to fire up again just now. So my plan is really to do as many Warfather shows as I possibly can before firing into this Morbid Angel stuff, which I really can’t wait for. I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised.  
 
AATR: Any chance of Warfather coming to the UK anytime soon?  
 
ST: I certainly hope so! The UK is probably my favourite place in the world, man, so I really hope so!  
 
AATR: Nice one! Well when you make it up to Scotland I’ll buy you a beer!  
 
ST: Sounds good man! I’ve got many friends up there, we’ll have a party!  
 
AATR: [Laughs] Looking forward to it! How do you feel the death metal scene has progressed since it’s origin in the late ’80s? 
 
ST: It’s gone through different periods of growing extremely technical and then simplifying… then getting super technical again! At one point there weren’t many solos in death metal, now that’s totally back. What’s really the biggest progression in death metal, in my opinion, is the level of musicianship. The level of musicianship in 1993 there were maybe a few bands who were incredible musicians. Now it seems that every musician who grows and evolves in death metal is a total shredder whose capable of playing whatever music they want to play.  
 
AATR: Totally agree with you there man! So what’s your opinion on the current death metal scene just now? 
 
ST: To be honest with you man, I’m just glad death metal is still alive. Here we are now, this has been going on since the late ’80s/ There was a lot of people who thought death metal was a flash in the pan.. I remember hearing in ’95 that death metal was dead! I remember hearing again in the year 2000 that death metal is dead. People are always claiming that things come and go, but really what comes and goes is the “trendies.” They get onto something for a little while and it’s cool, and the Pokemon Go! comes out and they’re interested in that. It is what it is. People’s attention spans are fairly short. I think with some people, when they are younger the aggression of death metal really draws them in and as they get older they don’t quite comprehend it the same way. I don’t know why that is. I’m 45 years old and I can’t imagine life without extreme metal.  
 
AATR: Absolutely man! I started to get into extreme metal when I was about 13 years old, and I’ve never looked back – I can’t see it ever not being a part of my life. I don’t understand people who say they “grew out of heavy metal,” this shit is for life!  
 
ST: Anytime anyone tells me they grew out of heavy metal, or anything for that matter, it just tell me that you were following a trend for a little while, it was never truly a part of you. I’m sure that’s not always true, that’s not always the case, but about 90% of the time it is.  
 
AATR: Totally man! So you’ve toured the world, you’ve been here, there and everywhere with Morbid Angel, with Warfather, and I believe you toured with Nile for a while as well? But from everywhere you’ve been, where is your favourite place to tour? Both in terms of crowd response and the country/culture itself?  
 
ST: I never actually toured with Nile – it’s something I’ve been asked about multiple times, but I never did! The only time I toured with Nile was when Nile was touring with Morbid Angel, I never played as part of Nile’s lineup. But honestly man, I can’t say I have a single favourite place to play. When the lights go down, and the stage lights come on, it’s all the same thing – it’s like you’re at dinner with your family again. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Japan or the Czech Republic, once the intro starts rolling it’s all about the fans that are there. Every single night I walk off stage saying “Man, this is my favourite place to play!” Anywhere that has a great excited crowd, that’s my favourite. But times have changed now, you go and play a show for 600 people and 400 are holding up their cell-phones, it makes for a different atmosphere than it did back in the day. But at the same time, those people are there because they want to see Morbid Angel or Warfather play and I really appreciate that. So many people will sit at home and make shitty comments on social media without actually going to the shows. They won’t participate, yet they have an opinion.  
 
AATR: I’ve never understood that myself, how someone can be into heavy metal without actually experiencing a live show. 
 
ST: Especially nowadays where so many albums are so digitally done, there’s ten million punch ins for one riff. It’s hard to really feel a song if the album is recorded that way. That’s why on The Grey Eminence it’s still raw, we didn’t try to make every second 100% perfect cause man, this is death metal. Yes, death metal should be technical, it should be extremely tight, but at the same time it should be right on the edge of pure chaos. And with a live show, that’s where you get the chaos, it’s where you hear and feel the chaos. I agree with you 100%, if you’re not seeing it live you’ve probably not quite feeling it, y’know? 
 
AATR: In the death metal underground, either in your local scene or worldwide, are there any bands you are really enjoying at the moment?  
 
ST: For the past three or four years I’ve been really into a band called Soreption. They’re pretty badass, I really like them a lot. I think their vocalist [Fredrik Söderberg] is amazing. Archspire, those guys are absolutely technically amazing! Man, there’s a lot of good bands out these days, bands like Immolation are still putting out great records. There’s more good death metal available now than ever. I’ve just heard the new Revenant album and that stuff is pretty over the top. It’s not music I would necessarily want to play, but to listen to? Man, it’s fucking over the top!  
 
AATR: Nice one, I’ll need to check them out! Worldwide, any subgenre of death metal, any era – what are your top five death metal bands of all time?  
 
ST: Man it has to be all the early guys! Unleashed, of course Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse, Malevolent Creation. I have to go into some of the thrash bands as well, they all influenced me the same – I was influenced by Destruction as much as I was Slayer, by Malevolent Creation as much as The Cure. There is a lot of great death metal out there. All the subgenre stuff does become a bit annoying though. I’ll be honest with you, I don’t know what slamcore is, I don’t know what pornocore is, I don’t know what any of this shit is! But it’s all cool to me. As far as the bands that influenced me the most, it was most definitely thrash and the very early death metal. The first time I heard Unleashed I just wanted to get on horse, grab a sword and shield and pillage some fucking villages man! [Laughs] To this day, I’ll put on something from ’91, and it still makes me feel the same way as it did in ’91 and to me, that’s the sign of special music.  
 
AATR: Absolutely agree with you again on that one dude. We spoke a bit earlier about Warfather plans for the future, and working it around Morbid Angel. Have you got anything actually booked at the moment?  
 
ST: We actually took on management for that very reason! Right now, we are talking to a lot of people about playing in a lot of different places and it’s just a case of working out the logistics. If we can get all the logistics worked out, you’re definitely gonna see me soon.  
 
AATR: Sweet! Before I let you get on with your day have you got any parting messages for our readers?  
 
ST: I’ll be seeing you all very soon!  
 
AATR: Thanks for your time Steve! Take care!  

ST: Cheers brother! Speak to you soon!