Interview With Iron Reagan Frontman Tony Foresta

By Andrew Bansal

Iron Reagan is a new band featuring Municipal Waste members Tony Foresta and Landphil Hall on vocals and guitar respectively, along with ex-Darkest Hour drummer Ryan Parrish. The Richmond VA-based outfit started out in 2012, initially intended to be a mere side-project, but following the release of their debut full-length album ‘Worse Than Dead’ via A389 Recordings earlier this year, the band has spiraled into becoming a highly active entity, completing successful North American tours with the likes of GWAR, and most recently, they finished up a split 12-inch album with Northern California goregrind masters Exhumed, slated for a vinyl-only release on January 7th via Tankcrimes Records. To celebrate this album, Iron Reagan just concluded a run of dates with Exhumed. On December 15th, I spoke to Tony Foresta to discuss all things Iron Reagan. Enjoy the conversation below.

Tony, it’s good to have you on Metal Assault. You ended a tour with Exhumed just yesterday. How was that?

Yeah, we ended it last night. It was a good time. We had fun! Rob dressed up as Santa during Exhumed’s set and I sang a Negative Approach cover with them. The tour was awesome, they’re great guys to tour with, super down-to-earth, and fun guys to be around. They like to hang out. It was pretty great (laughs).

I can imagine, man. And I believe you’re continuing your touring run with some other bands from today onwards, right?

Yeah, last night we did the Denver Black Sky festival. Power Trip, Mammoth Grinder and Exhumed were all on that show, and then we basically said goodbye to Exhumed and then started our tour with Power Trip and Mammoth Grinder today. So it just went from one tour to another tour!

I was at the Chain Reaction show in Anaheim a few days ago, and you filmed a music video there for the song ‘Debt Collector’. How did that idea come about and why did you particularly film it there?

Oh, these guys have been wanting to film us for a while and wanted to work with us to do a video, so we just told them to go ahead and do it. It was just something we put together at the last minute, so I don’t really know what they’re doing but the guy has directed a bunch of videos so may be he’s got an idea or a concept which he’s going to present to us. Right now it’s in the early stages and they’ve just filmed the live part. Hopefully it comes out because that show was a lot of fun.

That’s a perfect venue for bands like Iron Reagan and Exhumed. It’s tiny and it got nearly packed. 

Yeah, somebody told me that a lot of bands film music videos there. Is that true?

Yeah, specially for the live part, because shows just get insane over there. They don’t have any restrictions against stage-diving or moshing or anything, and there’s literally no security staff.

Awesome, I love that!

So, on this Exhumed tour you were promoting the release of the split album that you’ve done with them. How did that come about?

Well, Matt Harvey has been into the band for while, pretty much since when we first started. He actually heard Worse Than Dead in its really early stages. I think he heard the first mix of the album because he was with us on a Municipal Waste tour. He kept asking about the band and what we’re up to, so I always kept him in the loop and he’s always been a supporter of us. Right when we became a touring band, he was the first guy to call us. So yeah, we were really into the idea of doing a split record with them and it just kind of evolved from there. It was going to be a 7-inch at first, but then we realized that we had a lot more songs that just makes for a better-sounding record to do a split LP. It looks cool too, the art is really rad. I like having the big art on a 12-inch.

So, for the time being is it just going to be an LP release?

I think it’s just going to be an LP. May be we’ll put it out on other formats someday. I think a digital download comes with the purchase of the LP, so that you can have it on vinyl and on your computer as well.

This year, Iron Reagan has done a couple of tours and you’ve been pretty active. Right now what’s your aim with the band? Obviously you have other commitments with Municipal Waste, but do you think Iron Reagan is becoming more than you thought it would?

Oh, definitely. I think it has turned into its own monster. We’re just kind of riding it out and we’ll see where it takes us. I didn’t think there would be this much interest in the band. So it’s cool that people are interested in it and we’re just going with it. Right now, Municipal Waste is kind of chilling out and writing another record, laying low for like a year or so. We had a two-year touring cycle and we worked our asses off, so right now for Municipal Waste we’re just going to write some music and may be play some one-off shows here and there. I like staying creative and busy, so we’re just going to do that with Iron Reagan now. That’s what people want us to do.

A lot of people are familiar with the band and they have their opinions on how Iron Reagan compares to Municipal Waste in terms of the music alone. In your own opinion, how similar or different are the two bands?

Iron Reagan is more aggressive-sounding, more pissed-off, with more thoughtful lyrics, I guess. It definitely sounds different, and has more of a hardcore edge to it. Specially with the lineup that we’ve had for about six months now, with us writing music in the future I think it’s definitely going to evolve into something that separates the two bands much further.

Lyrically, what topics have you explored in Iron Reagan that you were not able to in Municipal Waste?

Just more serious topics. I would say Waste is more light-hearted. Iron Reagan has a sense of humor too and we definitely have a good time when we play live, but I think the lyrical content is a little bit more serious and more political, I guess.

You played a Cannibal Corpse cover at that Anaheim show and on your previous visit to Orange County with GWAR you played a Slayer cover. That’s a fun addition to the set. How do you pick those covers?

Oh yeah, we love that. We’ve kind of wanted to do that all the time, just play covers of bands we like. We did a Cro-Mags cover too the other night. Whatever we think is fun to do, we’ll do it, if it’s a band that has influenced us. I think it’s fun to mix it up, specially when you’re a new band and nobody really knows what you’re doing and what your songs are. We only have one record out, and I think it’s cool to mix it up and play cover songs so that the crowd can get something they can sing along with and enjoy themselves, even if they don’t know who we are (laughs).

The other noticeable thing about the music is the short duration of the songs. Is that a conscious thing where you actually cut songs down to that length, or is that just how you write?

I think it’s how we write, kind of like just ‘get in, get out’. If it’s too repetitive, it just gets annoying after a while. When you’re playing riffs as fast as this, the songs are naturally going to be shorter.

Right, exactly. So, after this run with Power Trip what plans do you have for the coming year?

Believe it or not, I think we’re about half way done writing a new album (laughs). We’ve gone fast with this band so far. Hopefully we’ll go home and finish writing an album, record it and we’re going to take it easy after that and then probably go out again in April. We’ve got a couple of things we have planned, but I’d say we’re just going to go out and write. This last year Iron Reagan has been going really hard, so I think we’ll just take it easy and start writing some more songs with this new lineup because people need to hear what we have going on here. It’s something really good.

Related – Gig Review: Exhumed & Iron Reagan Slay Anaheim

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