Apocalyptica at Welcome to Rockville 2026 - PipemanRadio Interview

0:04 Hi, you love one to the censure. Wow for you young. This is pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm here with a from a nice I was just on the way to Welcome to Rockville today where you're playing with my son, and I said, you need the ghosts check out their set, meaning yours. Thank you, because I'm a long term Metallica fan. I was at their first show ever. But you guys put on such a badash show. We're so lucky to have you at Welcome to Rockville.

1:04 Oh, thank you. Pleasure is ours? What do you think of Have you been to this festival yet? I think I'm. Not guy sure because I think we played Rockball, but I don't know. Has it always been here in Dayton, No. It's in Jacksonville, So playing up at Jacksonville? Yeah? What do you think of playing at the Daytona International Speedway. It's awesome, It's so cool. I was just watching the f One movie on the plane day before yesterday on my way here, which starts the movie starts here in Dayton. Yes, so it's great. So I'm going to show you something too that will probably blow your mind. In a second. Here and we need to update it, maybe with your band on it.

1:47 Take a look at that. That's my original battle vest from the eighties. Oh my god, this is this is got something. So when I was interviewing and from Parkway Drive, he was like, oh my god, when did Metallica have like devil stuff? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's very early right and all the all the cool stuff. Yeah, I drew all those bands on there. Oh yeah, you could. Tell I was in the pit. So cool. So which yeah, eighty three eighty two. I got this in like eighty one eighty two and started it. Then I even have there's blood on here somewhere from right over there where I climbed up on Marshall Stack and did a stage dive and when I was mid air at the crowd booth.

2:41 Wow, this is awesome. So if you were to look on here at bands on here, who would you most want to tour with? Will take Metallica out of picture because that's an obvious answer. Yeah, yeah, we played in Mega Death, We played with dark Age Show. This would be cool. But maybe of this Slayer. Yeah, I think I think I got a pic SLA. I think Slayers should take us on their new tours, whatever is coming up?

3:22 Yeah, now here's something wild. Okay, Slayer didn't even have a back patch yet, So I did it myself and I lived in LA and people thought I was a gang banger and that was my gang name. Can I take a picture of this? That to my fiance who is kind of patching up her first metal west. There you go here, let's turn over. You can take the other side too. I really really like this. That's so cool. There's bands on there and that don't even exist anymore. Yeah, it's so funny, right. Yeah, so you're from a Bay area. No, the La Metallica started in LA. Yeah, yeah, and then they went. To the Bay Area.

4:02 So Slayers started in LA. So I used to I went to their first show, Slayers metallicas and then they ditched us for all the hair metal bands. So near my bro we used to hitchhike up to the Bay Area from LA to go to the real metal show. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. That's a funny story. I don't know if you know this, but when Slayer first went up to the Bay Area, Exus looked at him because they used to have like the dark eyeliner back in the eighties. To look evil and they're like that shit, don't cut it up here. I don't care if it's supposed to be evil. That's for la Oh. Yeah yeah yeah yeah, clear distiction distinction, Yeah exactly.

4:44 Yeah. So is there any band that besides Slayer that you've really wanted to play with and you just haven't yet? Tool? Tool, Tool comes to my mind, that's been always on the list, So I'm I'm going to bring it up with out them. We're gonna meet him in seventeenth we play Sonic Temple. I just saw two days ago. We played same day, So I think that would be great for Apocalyptica, you know, to to play with Tool, because I think the Tool audience would be would be exactly. You know, we could make a different kind of said list for them. You know, it's more progressive stuff, you know, more kind of like exciting ship. It does sound like a good match now because Tool, even though they're the genre they are, they're kind of I think they mix in with how you do music too.

5:31 It's kind of like takes you on a journey, yeah, you know. Yeah, but we haven't done so many opening tours that we've done Rumstein, you know, in Europe. Yeah, in ninety five weeks opening for Ramstein, which is awesome. Yeah, every time we've been like, it doesn't matter, actually what is the main band. We we know our way, you know, to how to engage people, Like like this autumn we were going out with Hailstorm and is Stirling nice and and those two bands brought totally different kind of audience than metal audience in that sense, you know, but still we know how to you know, get them on board. It was awesome tour. It was really awesome to her even it was really unexpected lineup, and.

6:15 I think Lindsay Sterling thing no matches a little bit because she's so bad ass, but like you playing not the normal metal instrument. Yeah, but you know, if we play, but we started out said with battery, you know, and extreme head banging, and still her music is very poppy. She's great, you know, she's awesome, but like kind of the talking about genre is very very different. But it was really awesome. So but yeah, Tool, I think Tool would be exciting. And of course one band I haven't never seen in life yet one of my favorite systems down. Really i've never seen in live. I've always been in the wrong continent, you know, I know they don't come often to Europe and uh and yeah, I always been elsewhere.

6:56 Yeah, they're one of my favorite bands. Awesome, your favorite Metallica song the play? Hm hmm, it's like the most fun to here. I think most fun. Battery is a lot of fun, but maybe blackened at the moment, at the moment black and. Probably it's Yeah, it's so, it's so cool. I think our version of it also makes it even more fun, you know for us, Yeah, I would say that's my favorite. But sometimes it's called cotullo. But we don't play cortulo on this kind of setting because that requires attention and focus and we can't expect people standing in the heat in the sunshine to have eight minutes of such a focus.

7:40 So, but you know, if we have the whole thing, you know, we have on our. Show, we have on screen, we have a silhouette picture of Cliff because he's playing bass on our version. You know, we got the original, Yeah, we got metally get to give us the original bass track of by Cliff's Yeah. We build our words in around his performance, so it's very it's an emotionally, very very important song for us to play. That means Metallica must really take it too, huh, because yeah, they wouldn't just give their music to anybody. That's what Rob told me. When Rob was in the studio in Pasadena when we were making this album, he came to play out for Horsemen, and Rob was on some point. I was like, man, I really must love you, man, because that's unheard right exactly, but it's yeah, it's really awesome and I'm very you know, it was I when we started to work on this Place Metal Cabotum two album, we were working in the music, it was like all kind of cool ideas started to pop up, and for example, one was that I was I just figured out pretty recently before that that all these cool songs that I always loved right learning probably be my favorite album of Metallica, because it, yeah, right lightning.

8:55 The tone of the album somehow hit me when I was in a certain age and and I very lately figure out that all these cool sounds they are actually Cliff his base. And then I was like, oh, how awesome would be to get that? And then then I just said to Lars, I was like, laras I have this, I don't know, you know, I just want to tell you these things that comes up from here, and what do you think? I was like, that is that is? I don't know it's going to happen because it's so complicated. But he loved the idea. But he said it's so much legal whatever. You know, he doesn't even know who all we have to ask for permission, you know, family or regular label everything, but the metal. They just let's just figure out the legal stuff. And I happened to meet accidentally. I went to You Have to Work to see Metallica, and I was invited to some small after dinner and and Rob put me to see with the lady who turned out to be a stepsister of cliff Wow, and I didn't know. We were talking all kinds of stuff, and then after one hour we figured out who she is and I was like, all right, I have to tell you about this thought that I had, And she was all Clifford would have loved this.

10:06 And and I don't think everything just happened like this. I'm like, you know, without expectations sometimes that good things happen when you don't expect them to happen. It's just like you know, you you love the idea, you share it and it's like, I love, I think this is awesome idea. What do you think? And a lot of thought it's an awesome idea of change thought. Everybody thought it's an awesome idea. That's so funny what you said, because I was just talking to somebody this morning about that. Like that's why I am when I travel. It's like I don't have any expectations because then I'm never let down, you know, it's just go with the flow and whatever happens happens. Like I went to Bali for two months a couple of years ago, and I changed my whole itinerary the day I got there, you know, and most people can't do that, but I'm just like, you know, you see things from Afar and then you actually get there and you're like, yeah, that's not what it looks like. Let me do this, and you talk to the locals, Like I'm always about talking to the locals instead, I don't do the touristy crap, talk to the locals and find out And it's the same thing. You know, you don't get let down because you don't have any expectations. You're just going with the flow of the universe.

11:20 Exactly. Yeah, that's I think that's the biggest challenge for us. That it's in life in general that we try to control our surroundings, which we can't. And and as you say, you can't get disappointed if you don't have expectations. Its only way to get disappointed is that you have expectation. Yeah, you know, And and I think you know, we we suck up things because we start to think outcome. That's also one enemy top of enemy on doing anything, even making album or anything like like Rick Rubin, you know, always says that that audience comes lost, yes, which is very rude to say, but you know that it's like if you start to think about audience and the response for the music what you're trying to create, you know your focus is in the wrong place because you should focus on doing the best you ever can because it's still anyway you can't control what people think about it, and.

12:13 You're going to attract your people if you're just being yourself and people can tell if you're going through the motions or what have you. I even find in business, like in my radio station, same thing. It's like I'm not gonna program it for the listener, I'm gonna program it and then the right listeners will come. Yes, that's the difference. Yeah, that's the difference because you can't please. Everybody because when you start changing things for people, then these people stop complaining and those people start complaining. You know, So you just do you and you'll do great because then you're going to be happy too, because you're not happy if you're a musician, you're not doing what you want to do.

12:54 You know. The key is to do things in the way that you are happy, whether they sucks it or not. Yeah, because you are happy because of the process you made while doing the things. Totally, you know that that should be the kind of it's the ultimate goal of creating something, I think, or doing anything in life. It's like, you know, whatever is the outcome, you are fine because you did something that was worthwhile. You know, there it is. But if you think about outcomings, it dependent on outcome. You always depending on the things that are totally out of your control. So here's a funny question for you, and I'll answer it first. So even Metallica, I heard James saying it on Serious XM the other day, and you know they always joke about the sane anger album because everybody has given them so much hate about it, and they handle it really well. I actually liked the album. Like I'm a longtime Metallica fan, but I just like the being different.

13:49 I think Frantics a great song and Vogeable Kids a great song. So what do you think of Saane Anger. I think it's a great album. It's it's a really great album. My touch to the album was I got to know the songs before I heard the album, because when the album was coming out, we did some stuff with Metallica, like they came to Europe first time with Rob and and we were scheduled and download to play on the tent. There was Apocalyptica slot, but the secret plan was that it's actually Metallica who we play there, but we would start and then they take over. And the original plan was that we started with like Flight for a Fire, We play the intro and the metal Russian stage. We played together and then you know, we fuck off and they continue.

14:34 But then we. Rehearsed with the guys there. We didn't end up doing it because over night they were thinking managements. Think last thing we were in Europe was the symphony thing. It's a first show with Rob. You know, it's like we have to come. It's too close to the strings, you know, connected to the symphony thing. We have to come like strong as band and four and everything. But anyway, that time I heard Frantic and sund Anger live many time times and and I was like, these are awesome songs. And then of course the album was difficult to approach. But now, for example, like two years three years ago, and when we were working on the album, I really listened because I knew that there is something I just that I won't there's something on the on the sant Anger album that we should record. And I really listened to a lot, and once I got used to the sound, I was like, fuck, this is awesome stuff. It's so angry, it's so passionate. It's so I actually.

15:31 Lars did with the drums. I think the drums would match you guys so perfectly, because it it almost seems like the way it tuned down the drums that it went with an orchestra instead of like an electric Yeah. Yeah, and it's I think you know what I'm saying to the audience when we played sound Anger, because we made a version of that and which is actually I think the version is really cool, and it's doing really just in on how good song it is, and that's it that you know today. I always recommend people to give it a new spin now after the time, because in the sound where we live at the moment, everything is over polished and hygienically nice. Si Anger actually products sounds fucking refreshing. So whoever is listening to this, take st Anger and listen to it. It's it's wonderful album.

16:22 I think this very review might go viral just because we're saying this, because that's what happens, Like you say controversial stuff like this and then people blow up with it, you know, like yeah, funny. My most viral interview was with carmina Piece and he said, I don't think Black Sabbath really started metal. I think Metallica did. Oh my god, the internet had a heart attack. But it's like, but I understand that people have this had difficulties. It's not Anger because the sound was not approachable, right, you know, it was meant to be. It's not black metal. It's not meant to sound nice, right, you know, original Norwegian black metal. It's all about how shitty you can record things to make them honest, raw and brutal.

17:12 You know. I love it that that's the way how. Black metal is done originally, you know. And and that's what sound Anger has. It's like honest fucking take of anger. That's what it's about. And people were expecting to something nice and smooth and funck that Metallica is a metal band. Yeah, it's not supposed to be nice and smooth. Yeah, you know, it's supposed to be raw. That's like, that's why I like kill them all because it's like the raw garage days, the real garage days. But when at the same time, I have to say, I I like some songs on Load or Reload, so I don't know, they are great songs, you know, it's a different qualities. I like that that all the albums are kind of different because if you have to put out the same album all the time, then why do you need.

17:56 All the album That's what I always appreciated and Metallica so so my that the guys have been always honest to themselves. Yes, you know, they've changed the style, the direction because they felt that they have to. For they they with the risk, you know, taking the risk that people will not follow. Them They made a great risk because I was one of those first twenty five people that used to go see them at like the Troubadaur and stuff that when they made the Black album were like, fuck them, the fucking posers sellout. But listen, Yeah, they gained the whole world and we came back to him as twenty five came back to him. But if it weren't for doing stuff like that, would we have one hundred thousand attendance at a metal festival in twenty twenty six? I don't know.

18:44 I don't think so. Yeah. And if you think about you know how many bands of that stage still plays, they would not need to you know, they don't need the money. They don't need to do it for other reason than they fucking love to do it. And only way to keep that passion alive for or forty decades is that you have to follow your heart. You have to go where you have to go. You know, you understand what I mean. It's like if you just start to repeat it with Apocalyptica, we have to change all the time with every album. We have to find an angle to challenge ourselves to go somewhere where we don't know for sure, how we're going to make it, because that's the beauty of being creative.

19:26 You figure out, you try to figure out something that you don't know. I think that's that's the core function of creativity. All is like you, you try to materialize something that doesn't exist. And if you just become a factory like you know, you just do it as you used to do it, it becomes point think I'd rather do something else than make music, because if I don't see any point on that, you know, where it's where's the excitement? You know exactly? Part of being a musician is experimenting and see what you could do with those instruments. Take a risk when you go. But when we start to play safe, when we just stay in our comfort zone, we all know that it's every area on life. If we just become comfortable, how much joy do we experience?

20:10 Yeah? For real, you know exactly, we feel boredom that we need to know with the addiction of some kind you know. So true storyspeity. I would rather be addicted to metal, yeah exactly. There you go and addicted to Apocalyptica and all my listeners should be too. Yes, it was so badass, you guys here welcome to Rockville, and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Yeah, and I want to advert is that today we started two or five weeks we are going on the road around us with The Who, the Mongolian guys and other Finnish band erasmus. So if somebody is hearing this around somewhere, check out the dates and come to have fun with us.

20:51 That's such a cool lind up. You and the Who, I mean, yeah, and that's that's badass. That's gonna be blood. I love it. Well, thanks for being here, Thank you so. Much for having me. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin on w for CUI Radio.