Apr. 15, 2009 - Issue #704: Mutek
Exodus
Exodus's Gary Holt talks paranoia, the Internet and tape trading
Holt knows a little something about thriving during bad times, too. The guitarist is one of Exodus's founders—along with on-and-off-and-on-again drummer Tom Hunting and guitarist Kirk Hammett, who split Exodus for another little thrash band called Metallica a few decades ago—and the only member who has remained with the band throughout the ups and downs.
But while there have been plenty of those ups and downs over the band's nearly 30-year existence—everything from record label difficulties to your standard run-of-the-mill member changes to the death of original front man Paul Baloff in 2002—there's been a sense of calm that has descended on the Exodus camp in the last few years. Since the band hooked up with Nuclear Blast Records for 2004's Tempo of the Damned, and the lineup stabilized a couple years after that with Hunting returning to the drum stool after some time off and vocalist Rob Dukes and guitarist Lee Altus joining Holt and longtime bassist Jack Gibson, things haven't looked so bad. And that's just what has Holt feeling a little worried.
"Everybody's completely committed and focused and we've just worked our asses off for these last few years to get to where we want to be, and we're still working," he explains. "We're at the point now where we're really paranoid about letting our foot off the gas. That's why we just keep pumping out releases and keep ourselves busy, because we don't want to stagnate.
"Within this band there's a solid level of paranoia that keeps us driven like it's us against the world, whether it's true or not," he adds. "If we keep that perceived chip on our shoulder we're that much more dangerous."
While the members of Exodus certainly do cut an imposing figure, Holt's not really suggesting that the band needs to be so full of rage that it terrifies its fans. There is a healthy side to discontentment, though, and that's what Holt is tapping into. After years of struggling to keep the band upright, it would be easy for the guitarist to relax now and stop pushing so hard, but he's quick to acknowledge that the music industry is a changing place and the ground that Exodus is standing on these days is shaky, with the Internet's facilitation of illegal downloading sapping the album's potential for moneymaking. And while Metallica takes much of the heat for its past anti-pirating actions, Holt says that downloading doesn't just hurt the big guys.
"It hurts everybody," he states. "Our bass player Jack has an analogy that I think hits it up perfect. If two or three out of every 10 cars built in Detroit were stolen there would be immediate action. But musicians, we're looked at as not needy, as pampered, spoiled brats, and so they allow it to happen. It's killing the industry. We depend entirely on merchandise and tour revenues. It's just changing the game and pretty soon there will be no record industry.
"And a lot of people think I just sound like another whiny band, but it's like, dude, I'm far from rich," he adds with a laugh. "Anybody who thinks I'm complaining about needing a tune-up for my Ferrari is entirely wrong. My van with 205 000 miles on it died right before this tour, so I don't even have a car."
But while there's a downside to the Internet, Holt also appreciates it for what it offers to the band's hardcore fans. When Exodus first started out, the band recorded a three song-demo tape back in 1982 when Hammett was still with the band. While physical copies of that cassette have faded from sight, a little digging on the Internet still turns up download links to the songs, offering up an archive of the band's past. Holt's very much in favour of that aspect of today's technology.
"Stuff like that, that's cool," he admits. "It's something we've never released; we have no intention of it. That's a whole different circumstance than people downloading your actual record. It's an old demo—it was always for free in the first place. We never sold it and if someone wants to listen to some ancient Exodus, knock yourselves out.
"When it comes to live bootlegs or rarities and stuff like that I'm all for people going and doing all the trading that they want," he continues. "People ask me how I compare tape trading to downloading—some people have actually said, 'Oh, it's kind of the same thing, isn't it?' And I said, 'No, it's not.' A tape trader loved the band. He had to physically copy that tape. He had to go down to the post office, address it, send it to his pen-pal friend across the world at his own expense and time, so he put love and effort into that. Now you just click a mouse and, 'Ah, I don't like this album, I'll delete it.' Those guys were helping the band by spreading the word. Downloaders, they're just taking it." V
Wed, Apr 22 (8 pm)
Exodus
With Kreator, Belphagor, Warbringer
Starlite Room, $28.50
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