Author: Rok Klemše
Location: Brutal Assault 2010, Josefov (Jaromer), the Czech Republic
Interview date: August 12, 2010
This year’s Brutal Assault also featured the legendary American death metallers Obituary, who are considered one of the pioneers of the genre. After a meet and greet with the fans, which Obituary gave a solid half hour, I got the chance to sit down with rhythm guitarist Trevor Peres, one of the main culprits behind Obituary’s recognizable, trademark sound. On top of that, Trevor is also the maker of excellent barbecue sauces, T Bones Famous. Trevor and I took a stroll down memory lane and talked about Obituary and the Florida death metal scene.
RockLine: Hey Trevor. I hope your trip here was comfortable..
Trevor: It was fine. I was actually in Italy this week, my wife’s family is from Ardenia. I was there for five days, so the trip here wasn’t that long.
RockLine: You’re playing a lot of summer festivals this year. Do you generally like playing festivals, or do you prefer indoor club shows?
Trevor: Festivals are a ton of fun, but it’s a lot easier to do a regular club tour with a tour bus. Club shows are more intimate, and they’re easier to travel for, too. Today, for example, we’re playing here in the Czech Republic, in the morning we have to get up and fly to the Netherlands, then the next day we fly to England, and then we have three days off. All that flying can really get annoying. Unless I had my own plane…
RockLine: Like Iron Maiden, hehe.
Trevor: Yeah, something like that. That would be awesome.
RockLine: You put out a new record last year, Darkest Day. How would you compare it to the rest of Obituary’s output? It still sounds like Obituary, but maybe with a slightly different flavor, a bit more modern, thanks to the production?
Trevor: Yeah, we recorded it ourselves, since we now have our own studio, where we also recorded Xecutioner’s Return. When we made that record we still didn’t really know what we were doing, and Darkest Day came out sounding a lot better. Musically, Darkest Day is still a real Obituary album, though a few bits are fresher, like Blood to Give, which has more “tribal” drums, same as the title track. The record was fun to make, and if you’re an Obituary fan you’ll like it. It’s heavy, it’s got a proper groove, catchy melodies….
RockLine: That’s exactly what I wanted to ask you. You guys really have your own style, one you can’t find in any other death metal band. Your music has a dirty, evil, groovy sound… a real Redneck Stomp…
Trevor: Totally (laughs).
RockLine: Did you arrive at that sound on purpose or by accident?
Trevor: I think it was pretty much on purpose. Allen (West, former guitarist, ed.) and I listened to the same music, he played in Massacre and I played in Xecutioner, and we both listened to Hellhammer, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Possessed and bands like that. When he joined my band we combined all that, and the result was something really heavy. As far as death metal goes, Celtic Frost were without a doubt the biggest influence on me. I think Obituary sound like Celtic Frost, just taken up a few notches. It’s funny… A few years ago we played with Celtic Frost in Sweden, and while they were playing I watched from the side of the stage and noticed that Tom Warrior had the exact same amp and pedals as me. It was damn funny, because I hadn’t known what gear he used before. And there it was, a Marshall JCM 800 and exactly the same rack I use myself. I couldn’t believe it (laughs).
RockLine: Most of the giants of death metal come from Tampa, Florida. You guys, Deicide, Morbid Angel… Why do you think Tampa produced such a huge number of death metal bands?
Trevor: Probably because of people like Allen, me, Chuck Schuldiner. We listened to the same music and kind of accidentally started playing in the same style. We were about the same age and we played what we liked. Then we started gigging together, and I think the result was a kind of competition between the bands. More and more stylistically similar bands kept popping up, because their members lived in that environment and liked what they heard from us. In 1985, 1986 nobody was playing this, and when people heard it they were like “shit, that’s insane!” and all of a sudden there were 1,000 people at a show. We quickly started recording albums and putting them out on different labels. We liked the same music, and totally by accident we ended up creating some new music. Chuck, Allen, me and a few other people… and weed (laughs).
RockLine: (laughs) A good year ago I talked to Kelly Shaefer from Atheist and he also said that weed was a huge part of the Florida sound.
Trevor: Oh yeah, totally. Every time I saw Chuck he had a gigantic joint in his hand. A pure one, just weed, no tobacco, obviously. “American style” (laughs).
RockLine: Was it hard to find a suitable guitar partner after Allen left the band?
Trevor: When Allen left I even thought for a while about carrying on as a four-piece. But with our sound that wasn’t possible. When a solo kicks in you simply need the rhythm guitar too. We’d known Ralph (Santolla, Obituary’s current lead guitarist, ex-Deicide) for a few years already, and when Donald called me to ask if I was cool with him joining us, I honestly didn’t care much either way. He’s an excellent soloist, and I write all the music anyway, so our sound wouldn’t change. And that was the most important thing. When we record, I track most of the music. On the last two records I played the bass too, and on the Left to Die EP I even did all the guitars, including a few solos. When we play live, I try to get Ralph’s guitar sound as close to mine as possible. It’s weird, I love Ralph, but sometimes I wish Allen was still in the band. We started this whole thing together and he’s a really good friend of mine.
RockLine: What’s your take on death metal today, do you listen to any newer bands?
Trevor: I’m pretty clueless about that. I honestly don’t listen to new music at all, mostly I listen to my own records, old rock ‘n’ roll, classic rock. I don’t know new music well, but I know there’s a ton of crap. Everybody’s only aiming for the highest speed possible. When I listen to metal I listen to old Slayer, Celtic Frost, Venom and stuff like that. I’ve got a family, and when I’m not on tour I spend my time with them, so there isn’t enough time left for music at home.
RockLine: What was the real reason you split up the band in 1997? If I’m not mistaken, the official reason was that you were sick of touring.
Trevor: In 1997 I was almost 30, and we’d been traveling the world on tour for almost ten years. It was simply time to calm down a bit. We never knew a normal life, since we went out on our first big tour right after high school. It was time for “normal,” if you know what I mean. Time for a regular job and a family. But after a few years we all realized we didn’t want to be normal, we wanted to be abnormal (laughs).
RockLine: So the real reason for the comeback was abnormality (laughs).
Trevor: Yeah, after a while you start missing making music. In that time I had a band, Catastrophic, and I hope we’ll manage to record a new record next year. After a while Donald called me to ask if I wanted to start again, but the time still wasn’t right. Soon promoters started calling in droves wanting shows, and when the time was right we came back. And here we are, three albums later.
RockLine: I hope there’ll be at least as many more.
Trevor: Definitely! I don’t plan on stopping. I’ll play music till the day I die. Until they tell me fuck off, you suck, quit already (laughs).
RockLine: The fans must be a huge motivation to keep going, and judging by the meet and greet that just wrapped up, you’ve got a ton of them. From what I saw, your relationship with them is good too, after all you were signing for every last fan in front of the tent.
Trevor: Yeah, I enjoy it if they enjoy it. We’re really here because of them, and we have to give at least something back.
RockLine: Who would you count among your bigger influences when it comes to guitar playing?
Trevor: I love Jimi Hendrix, and when it comes to heavy metal, definitely Randy Rhoads. And of course Tom Warrior too, Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman and obviously the three guys from Iron Maiden.
RockLine: There’s been a lot of talk in recent months about the bass position in Obituary. If I’m not mistaken, Frank Watkins is out of Obituary for good?
Trevor: Yeah. Frank left in January, I don’t want to talk about why, just personal shit. Terry Butler joined us in March, and he’s been our friend for 25 years! His sister is married to Greg Gall from Six Feet Under, who lives five minutes away from me, and we’ve been good friends forever. We asked Terry if he’d play with us and he was in right away. For the last few shows Steve DiGiorgio played with us because Terry had commitments with Six Feet Under, and we’ve known him forever too, and he was glad to help us out as well. I hope Terry will join us permanently. He’ll very likely play on the next record, and since Six Feet Under don’t tour that often, I think we can work out a deal with Chris Barnes to lend him to us (laughs).
RockLine: Was anything different when Steve played with you, considering he uses a fretless bass?
Trevor: Nah, he just played the bass lines that were already written. We toured the US with Sadus in 1990, shared a bus, and we’ve been good friends ever since.
RockLine: Are you already working on any new material for the next record?
Trevor: Yeah, we’ve already got a few ideas.
RockLine: Will it be in the style of Darkest Day?
Trevor: Yeah, I think so. It’ll be heavy in that Obituary way. Hold on a sec… (Trevor pulled his phone out of his backpack and played me a demo track with guitar and drums, working title Godzilla. It sounds damn greasy, heavy, groovy and fucking Obituary, interviewer’s note!)
RockLine: So you and Donald write most of the music for Obituary?
Trevor: Yeah, at home I’ll come up with a riff, for example, record it and show it to Donald, and he drums over it. Sometimes we get together, get stoned and jam. When we land on an idea we record it, and John gets the job of writing lyrics for it (laughs).
RockLine: What would be your parting message to your Slovenian fans, since you recently played at Metalcamp in Tolmin?
Trevor: Move Metalcamp closer to the airport (roars with laughter). We drove for ages. Other than that, it’s gorgeous there, the water was freaking cold. When I sat by the river it was cold, but when I stood up it was hot as hell. Insane!
Photos: Nina Grad
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