By Andrew Bansal
Steve Tucker is known to extreme metal fans for his two stints in Morbid Angel, from ’97-2001 and then briefly in 2003-04, but since his departure from that band, he has been largely absent from the world of metal, save for his collaboration as a vocalist and writer in the Nader Sadek project. But now, he has formed a new band called Warfather and is back to being a death metal frontman again, with the Warfather debut album ‘Orchestrating The Apocalypse’ set for release on Tuesday January 21 via Greyhaze Records. The record gives Morbid Angel fans what they’ve known Steve Tucker for, but also infuses additional elements that might take some by surprise. A few days ago, I spoke to Steve to discuss this new band. Read the conversation below.
Steve, it’s good to have you on Metal Assault. We’re mainly going to talk about your new band Warfather. First of all, how did this band come about?
Basically, the band really came about after I did Nader Sadek. Before that I took a few years off and I wasn’t really looking too much on music. I was just kind of taking a break and taking care of some other business. Then I did Nader Sadek and it just felt great to play again. Honestly, it felt great to get in a room and write music with guys that just want to make magic, man. At that point, I met Jimmy, the guy from Greyhaze Records, and we started talking. He was asking if I was interested in doing another project, and I told him I was. About a year later, after all the Nader Sadek things were taken care of, I decided that it’s time to do this and I first started looking for a drummer. I found him after going through quite a few video interviews. Guys would send me videos of them playing and after looking at hundreds of them, I found Deimos sometime in 2011. So it started rolling from there.
You mentioned that you were away from a while from music altogether. What was that like for you? Did you miss doing music at all at that time or were you just busy with other stuff?
Oh I absolutely missed it, but I had to take care of just some business, man. But to be honest with you it was a good break. It gave me time to get everything back in perspective. Being in Morbid Angel, you get treated pretty well. You go around and everything is good, everybody does whatever you say, and things like that. To be honest with you, I needed to get that whole mentality out of my head. I really didn’t want to think along those lines. I just wanted to play music with dudes that were brutal and just do something that I really felt strong about.
In your opinion, how different is this band from the three albums you did with Morbid Angel?
Well, I think it’s a lot different but it’s a death metal album. I did three Morbid Angel albums and my voice started to become the Morbid Angel sound, you know. So anything I do, people are going to say, ‘Oh, it sounds like Morbid Angel.’ But the thing is, I was doing death metal long before I got in Morbid Angel. I pretty much just picked up where I left off. At times I’m sure it does sort of have a Morbid Angel feel, but that band has been influencing me since 1986. So honestly, I can’t help but show that influence, you know.
Right, exactly. So, Morbid Angel fans are definitely going to like Warfather then?
I don’t know that, but if they liked ‘Formulas Fatal To The Flesh’, ‘Gateways To Annihilation’ and ‘Heretic’, I think they’ll like this band. Vocally, it’s sort of a continuation. Musically I’m trying to do some different things.
In terms of the writing process of this album and the band in general, is it a solo thing for you or more of a collaboration with the other members of the band?
It is a band. It’s not a solo situation. I did write it but basically in the end everyone contributed with all the arrangements, opinions and everything that ended up making the songs. It wasn’t just me, me, me the whole time, but I wrote it. I look forward to the next album when the other members are contributing a lot more, to be honest.
At this point, what’s your aim with the band? Is it going to be a full-time thing with touring and the whole deal or are you going to see how it goes?
Yeah I plan on doing some touring. I mean, obviously I’ll see how it goes but I’ve got a lot of places that I haven’t gone to in a long time and would like to go to, for shows. I plan on doing as many shows as I can, doing another album and sort of keeping the ball rolling. But you never know what’s going to happen. We could end up doing a lot more shows than I think, and we could also end up doing less.
Right, so I was listening to the album and I think there’s certainly a little bit more of an atmospheric element as compared to your standard death metal. Would you agree with that?
I would agree with that 100 per cent. I would actually even go as far as saying that I think I brought a different kind of atmosphere in Morbid Angel. I really like the dark atmospheric sort of vibe. The Nader Sadek album I did is a really dark one. One of my favorite albums of all time is The Wall by Pink Floyd. The whole album is sort of a mood. You get into this mood, and next thing you know, the CD is playing again, you know what I mean? (laughs) So yeah, I definitely like atmosphere. That’s what made me first like black metal, the fact that it brought more atmosphere. Vibe is a good thing in my opinion.
Exactly, I agree. But when you were starting this band, was it just second nature for you to make it a death metal thing? Did you have a thought process where you were deciding what kind of music you would do with this band?
No, I really didn’t think about it. The intention was for it to be a band that really represents me, man. I think that naturally makes it death metal. I’m real comfortable playing that style, it’s something I’ve done since I was a young teenager. It was in my early teens when I first heard death metal, it’s always been a part of me and always will be. I mean, I love different kinds of music and I love to experiment in music. I plan to do quite a bit of it, but it will always probably be death metal. To me it might sound pretty, but to other people it’s always going to be dark, and death metal (laughs).
You mentioned Nader Sadek. Is that something you would want to do again, if given a chance?
I’m pretty open to doing different musical things, just because at this point it’s just fun to get with different musicians and write music. Warfather is going to be my band from here on out, but I’d definitely love to play with them again, so you never know. There was a conflict of opinions between myself and Nader, but may be at some other point we can do something else. I’ll tell you, I love the album we did, but it was a project and that’s what it was intended to be as far as I was concerned. I’d be open to doing something with a lot of different people, actually. I’ve got plans to play with a lot of people that I’ve been wanting to play with.
So you’ll be coming up with a lot more new music in the near future.
Oh definitely, man. I’m planning to do the next album with Erik Rutan, going down to Saint Petersburg, Florida and tracking it down with him. It would be cool, and I’d definitely ask Erik to do a few solos on the album, just to get to work with him again. That’s something I can look forward to a year from now. So I plan on playing as much as I possibly can.
That’s awesome, man. Over the years, specially during your time away from the scene, did you keep track of metal at all or were you totally away from it?
No man, I’ve always been a metalhead. I’ve always listened for stuff. When people tell me to check a band out, I always do. It’s just a part of me. I love metal. But yeah, I stayed up with the scene. To be honest with you though, I’m an old-school dude. There’s a lot of bands that are out now that people call death metal, black metal, grind and stuff, but to me they’re not. That’s just my old-school mentality and sometimes I have to realize that I shouldn’t be such a hard-headed old-school dude and need to open up (laughs). I definitely kept up with the scene, but I can’t say I love everything that’s happened.
Visit Warfather on the web:
facebook.com/pages/WarFather/240931366011521