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November 19th 2009, Key Club, West Hollywood CA
Andrew: You're headlining here in the US after a long time. How do you feel about that and how is it going so far?
Ryan: I feel its about time because we've been doing a lot of support gigs and its about we came back and played these smaller clubs for our own fans. So we are excited. Its been going very well so far. The crowd reactions are as good as always, plus a lot of stage diving and slamming out there.
Andrew: It must be great to have your own fans for a change.
Ryan: Of course its always more fun doing your own headling gig because its on your own terms and everything.
Andrew: Your shows are so crazy with people stage diving all the time. Did you ever get hit really badly?
Ryan: Yeah I had my teeth tripped out when the microphone hit my teeth and because I sing and play guitar, I can't really use my hands to stop it. So kids would run into the mic stand and push it right into my mouth. I get bloody lips and teeth but its all part of playing in a heavy band.
Andrew: I heard a funny story recently. Your show in Houston got flooded but you guys kept playing. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Ryan: Yeah actually it got flooded before we played and then they were going to cancel the show. All the kids were hanging around and we were like. 'What are we gonna do?' Everyone just stayed there and kept supporting us so we said lets go move into another room and we just played a different room in another club. They just let kids in for free, those who weren't even at the show before, and it actually turned out to be a bigger show than originally scheduled. So it was definitely one for the record books. The place was flooded and someone was hanging off a pipe so yeah it got pretty crazy. SO yeah the show turned out even better for us. So may be more people should do that! (laughs)
Andrew: The new album Massive Aggressive came out three months back. How is it going in terms of the sales and general response?
Ryan: I haven't checked on the sales lately, but I know its been going just as strong as ever. I mean, we are all proud of the record so I think the kids are catching on, we are playing some new ones live and everyone has responded really well to them. So I think it's a success for sure.
Andrew: Touring-wise how would you sum up this year of 2009 and what can you look forward to in the coming months?
Ryan: We've been going all year, like we always do. We've been in Europe four times this year already. So we are trying to focus on the States right now and to give back to them all over here and in Canada. But in the near future, next year we are going down to South America and playing Brazil, Peru and Mexico and stuff. So we are going to do that in the spring and in May we are going to Japan for the first time. The European tour is before all of that in January. The European tour is kinda part of this Waste The World tour, so we are headlining on Massive Aggressive in Europe in January as well. So we'll be busy!
Andrew: You've been in the band since the start. So how did the name Municipal Waste come up?
Ryan: I was actually driving down the street and a trash truck was pulling up nex to me. I was going to a show in my car and I looked over, it was a trash truck. It looked so nasty and it just hit my brain that it's a great band name. I was just starting this new project and just kinda ran it by the drummer and he was like yeah its perfect. That's the waste man, people call it 'the waste' so it caught on really quick.
Andrew: What did you think about the show with Lamb Of God at the Palladium this year, their music and their fans being so different from yours?
Ryan: It was a tough sell to be playing this fast in front of crowds that aren't used to that kind of speed, specially in bigger rooms like that. But we overcame that and I think we turned some people on to us who had probably never heard of us. So we toughed it out and now we are here doing our own thing. So it worked out!
Andrew: You've had this band going for almost nine years. What do you think of some of the newer thrash bands?
Ryan: I'm a little out of the loop on that. I definitely always give props to Toxic Holocaust and there's a couple of bands overseas who I think are pretty solid but I'm still stuck with some old heavy metal records and that's what is influencing me these days.
Andrew: Wherever you guys play, the venue gets torn up. So is it hard to book shows for you sometimes and have you been banned from any venue?
Ryan: We've been banned from a few places. We can't play in Gilman street in the bay area, which is fine. We've been there, done that. But yeah I think the clubs do realize that its not the band but the fans who are doing it so it doesn't really come back down on us so much. Some places actually like the rowdiness and there are definitely some cool clubs. We'll see how it goes tonight and how they are going to react to people jumping and everything.
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