In Conversation With Venomous Maximus Frontman Gregg Higgins

By Andrew Bansal

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Based out of Houston, Texas, heavy metal quartet Venomous Maximus began in 2010, released two EPs and a full-length album by 2012, but three years later, have hit creative gold with their sophomore LP ‘Firewalker’, put out by Shadow Kingdom Records last May. The record witnesses the band tastefully progress towards a more accessible yet old-school heavy sound. Currently, Venomous Maximus are out on a three-week North American run with High On Fire, Pallbearer and Lucifer, and played their first show of the tour at the Echoplex in Los Angeles last Friday July 31 2015. After their set, I caught up with vocalist/guitarist Gregg Higgins for a detailed, candid chat on all things Venomous. Enjoy the conversation below along with a taste of the new music, and catch Venomous Maximus on tour this month.

Gregg, it’s good to finally have you on Metal Assault. How are you feeling tonight? You just started a three-week tour and played the first show here.

I feel happy to be in LA, man. Being from Texas, it seems like it’s another world out here, and it’s a pretty long drive. It’s the first night of a pretty good tour, I heard it was sold out, and the lights were pretty bright on stage, and I couldn’t see the crowd at all. But it was a great show. It was the first show of the tour, so it was about knocking the dust off.

I did think the lights were a little too bright for your kind of music. Were you blinded up there? What was going on?

Yeah, for one, I don’t play with my glasses on, so I can’t see anybody, so it’s easier for me to just kind of let loose and not give a shit. I don’t even see what’s going on, but man, those lights were extremely bright. But oh well, I don’t sweat the small stuff. I just pet the sweaty stuff.

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Exactly, man. But I think somebody from your band was telling me earlier that this is the longest tour you’ve done, at least in a long time?

Yeah, we’re not a band that’s just constantly out on the road. We have jobs we love, women that we love. We like our lives. We haven’t dropped everything to play music. Nowadays we’re trying to save it for the whole enchilada, and this is a really fucking good tour. If I wasn’t playing this, I would be here. The best shows are the ones you want to go to, and you get to play.

Right before the tour, you did a show with Danzig in your hometown. How was that?

Well, I’m being recorded and I’ve learnt my lesson to not talk shit. But I guess me saying that I’m not going to talk shit, is kind of like me talking shit, and let’s leave it at that.

That’s a good answer.

(Laughs) Let me tell you, I’m a smartass motherfucker, man. It’s Texas. That’s what it is.

Absolutely is. So, talking of the new album, there’s a lot of things you did differently as compared to the first one. The new one has a faster, dancier vibe, and some classic Mercyful Fate/Iron Maiden style melodies as well. How did that happen?

Dancier! I like that! Well, we’re never going to be the kind of band that writes the same record. I love bands that do that, and I don’t mean it in a bad way, but that’s not really us. We write the kind of music we’re listening to at that time, and while writing ‘Firewalker’ we were listening to a lot of dark wave music and a lot of really bluesy classic rock. On the first record, it was about learning to create this monster. On this one, we were like, let’s manipulate it and see what we can come up with. We had this idea of a record where each song should pay tribute to either a different band or a period of music. We all wanted to write one song of our favorite, fucked-off, not cool style of music and make it cool. All musicians do this, they just don’t admit it or talk about it.

And as you said on stage, the song ‘Angel Heart’ is a tribute to the 80s, right?

Well, there’s always these songs about guys looking out in the crowd and seeing chicks during the shows. I wanted to write a song that was about the girl in the crowd looking up at the guys. So it’s a song for the girls. I’m a 90s child, but the 90s were all about listening to the 80s music, same as it is now! There you go. That’s the whole idea. Let’s write an 80s rock song but switch it to being in the crowd instead of on stage.

Even live, the album has definitely made the show more dynamic because of the variation between the old and the new when you go from one to the other.

Oh man, this thing is all about the execution live. I don’t want to try to sound like Watain or anything like that, but it’s all about releasing the spirit, or exorcising demons. I think in rock ‘n roll, the whole appeal has always been watching someone freak the fuck out about their life, and there’s a good sound to it. But any good band, or a blues guy or a country guy, the dude is either pouring his heart out, screaming his fucking lungs out, or just fucking acting like a maniac. That’s what we pay to watch, because we fucking love people who have the guts to do that shit. I’ll tell you right now dude, it takes a lot out of me. It really does. Musicians try to act like it’s this thing they do and it’s nothing, but fuck no, it’s not nothing. I lose sleep over a fucking show, you know.

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So, I don’t know if you want me to mention this on record or not, but I’ve kind of seen you experience exactly that. I was on tour and at your record release show in Houston earlier this year, and you had trouble making it to the show because you got pulled over. When that kind of thing happens, does it actually make the show better when you get up on stage?

OK, first of all, fuck that. I’m going to totally talk about this shit, because that’s the thing, nobody wants to talk about when their fucking girlfriend dumps them the day of the show. Or, you happen to get arrested for a fucking gram of weed before the day of your hometown record release show, and you’re sitting in jail, hoping to get out and then when you do, you’re changing your clothes in the car on the way to the club to make the show. Now that’s fucking rock ‘n roll, man! If I’m falling apart because I haven’t been in bed in three days since I was sitting in a fucking holding cell, that’s what you’re getting, man. You’re getting somebody on the fringe, not pampered rockstars with handlers and people. No, dude. It’s real people going through life and just saying, fuck it, I’m getting up there, even if shit falls apart. Watch this shit. Watch me fall apart. That’s what it is, and I like that. I don’t want to babble on and on about what rock ‘n roll is, but it’s literally rock and roll, like go with the fucking punches and keep on going. You can look at any rockstar now because you have YouTube, and it’s funny because you can find any guy falling over drunk and forgetting words on stage. Before there was YouTube, you could never look at that stuff. But it’s part of the whole thing, and that’s what I love to watch. I’m obsessed with Elvis, and not how everybody else is obsessed with Elvis. I really love the older Elvis, the pilled-out Elvis. Dude, the fucking Las Vegas show where he’s sweating, and he goes, “Oh, I forgot the words, I fly like a bird!” He just says the craziest shit, you know. But he laughs it off and has a good fucking time with it. That’s why Elvis is the fucking king. That’s it on that one. I like to talk, you know.

I know you do! So, at that show when you got up on stage, it was like a release for you in every way. You made it and then you could just let yourself go during the set.

Yeah, for all of us in the band, anybody who knows us personally can tell you that if we haven’t been playing shows, we’re snappy, we’re irritable, we’re not relaxed, we’re not happy people. Playing is, I know it may sound cliché, but that’s how these kinds of people don’t kill other people. Life is stressful, you argue with your girlfriend, you don’t get along with your co-workers and you want to beat people up, smash your car and you get fucking pissed off. That’s why most of these kinds of people drink and drug, because they don’t get to go up on stage. It’s a fucking voodoo dance, man. It’s baptist, it’s dancing with snakes, it’s all that shit.

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Very well said. I think I read a quote from somebody in the band in one of your press releases that your music comes from taking risks and without that it wouldn’t be the same. Do you agree with that?

Yeah, there are some guys that when they get in a band, then they decide to become a musician and they act like a musician. But then there are some people, that’s just how they already are. You just wreck things, break things, and any time you got anything good going, you always fuck it up. We somehow just end up in bands. It’s a little destructiveness in us, but all artists have this. All artists know that when you destroy something, you’re creating something new. And all artists love making something happen, provking a reaction and all that kinds of shit. So yeah, you’ve got to take risks. Otherwise it’s not fun, it loses its mojo, and why the fuck are you doing anything if you’re not taking risks. Because that’s the fun of it, that it may fail. But if you win, that’s glory. It’s victory.

Exactly. So, after this tour, what do you guys have in the works?

We’re pretty booked up for about the next five years, but not with this band. We’re full time trying to do all kinds of shit. Right when we get back, me and the guitar player Christian are going to focus on a tattoo shop that we’ve opened up and I’m going to drop a little thing right here. We’re working on a fucking old-school country that we’re going to do, because the strenuous lifestyle that rock ‘n roll puts on you, the touring, the amps are big, the fans are loud, and all that shit. We’re from Texas, man. We want to play country. We’re getting older. But, we want to play country the Venomous Maximus way. So keep your eyes out for Amarillo Red.

Oh shit, that’s an exclusive! Cool, on that note, I’ll end this interview. It was fucking amazing talking to you. This is the best interview I’ve done all year.

Oh yeah, man. You just have to not be afraid. Just let it fly, dude. Who gives a fuck. God, it’s so hard to give a fuck. But yeah, thank you. Thank you very, very much. This has actually almost become the second part of the show, of the release, of the relaxation, of the getting it out, because you don’t want to say all this shit on stage. You don’t want to preach too much. Just get the fucking tunes out. But, I basically just jumped off stage, took a shot and told you some shit. I feel good. Let’s go get another drink. Yeehaw, motherfucker!

Related: Review: High On Fire, Pallbearer, Luifer & Venomous Maximus Play Sold-Out Show At Echoplex

Venomous Maximus links: facebook | twitter | instagram | bandcamp

Remaining Tour Dates:
8/04 — Vancouver BC @ Rickshaw
8/05 — Seattle WA @ Neumos
8/07 — Salt Lake City UT @ The Complex
8/08 — Denver CO @ Gothic
8/10 — Minneapolis MN @ Mill City Nights
8/11 — Chicago IL @ Thalia Hall
8/12 — Ferndale MI @ Loving Touch
8/13 — Toronto ON @ Opera House
8/14 — Syracuse NY @ Lost Horizon
8/15 — New York NY @ Irving Plaza
8/17 — Boston MA @ Royale
8/18 — Brooklyn NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
8/19 — Philadelphia PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
8/20 — Baltimore MD @ Sound Stage
8/21 — Winston-Salem NC @ Ziggy’s
8/22 — Atlanta GA @ Masquerade
8/23 — New Orleans LA @ One Eyed Jack’s

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