Exclusive Interview with Glen Benton from Deicide in 2024 transcript

[Music] H sat in metal heads greetings and welcome to the Friday 13 YouTube channel today I've just got an interview with Glenn Benton from Dad now dard have just released their new album called banish by sin on RPM records it's a fantastic album taking you back to the classic D side albums of early years so I'd like to thank Glenn for doing this interview I'd also like to thank the record label so check it out metal EDS please share it is an audio interview unfortunately but it's still a great interview so check it out much respect stay metal metal heads thanks for watching how are you brother I'm good yeah me too thanks for doing this interview Glenn it's been a long time since we've done an interview it was back for the legion album that's a long time ago a very very long time ago we actually met at darn festival and I think it was 97 998 oh that was a long time ago yeah it was and you guys didn't play for some bizarre reason I don't know what happened was that was when we were we were we uh uh because of the uh we had a delay I think a weather delay or something at the airport so we had to get we got out a later flight and or we had to change directions or something but by the time we got there we were like we only had like 20 minutes to get on stage and they told us we didn't have enough time so we just sat out in the back in the bus and party yeah I remember cuz you you and I got a photo taken backstage yeah I was yeah that was a weird that was a weird one man I'll tell you what that was absolutely was but I don't know if you if you remember me at all Friday 13th's been around now since 1988 I I can't tell you what I were yesterday yeah I've been I've been around I've been around since the late 80s as a fan Z then it started out was a a website now it's a YouTube channel right and I also drum tech for Anvil oh cool so if you guys ever need a drum Tech CU I know you play in Europe soon just H hook me up man be interested in doing the T I'm actually looking for somebody right now to help Steve and help with backline on this upcoming Festival run he man get in touch with me brother I'm available till till September well get yeah I mean uh we need somebody in like I say for we have a festival run coming up in August so um we were we were all talking about bringing another person with us so um you got my email address and just hit me up on Instagram and that and then um yeah man F definitely cheers really could use hand man you know oh that's great man I say I am available I'm going to be on tour with anvil in September for two months so yeah I'm available tell them brother sweet okay then so Glenn I'd like to thank you for doing this interview for Friday 13th it's been like I say it's been a long long time since they the legion album so I'm going to ask you some warm-up questions first as a bass player what age would did you learn to play the bass and was it your first instrument or was it guitar first or some other instrument um no I started playing guitar first and um um I was really young man I 11 12 whatever it was uh my mother had bought me my first guitar some SG copy and um and then what what it came down to the whole reason why I stepped over to playing Bas it wasn't because anything about being easier or anything like that it was just that there was nobody back then wanted to play Basse you know you either wanted to be a singer or the guitar player it's like you had you know 60 guitar players and 80 singers but maybe two bass players in the whole entire you know area you know so that many people played bass I guess I don't know I guess back then people thought I mean it was before the whole singing bass player thing and that I mean I was in the fin Lizzy andet and all that kind of stuff and Motorhead and all that back then so for me it made all the sense in the world you know so so who are your influences as a bass player then obviously Phil and ly who else inspired you God man um well I had the first birth I had the same birthday as Paul McCartney June 18th and uh I to I I I can tell you man like Getty Lee from rash uh Chris guire from yes I mean all the greats man I mean I follow all all the greats growing up watching people playing at John of the who obviously I mean I play with my fingers and with a pck so I can bounce back and forth if I have to so what do you find the easiest to play base where your fingers are plum because I know with the Bas when you play with your fingers you get that clicky sound more um that was the whole thing while I jumped from playing the first couple albums I play with my fingers and it just really you just I mean unless you want to have a really high trebly plank plank sound where it like and have your presence turned up all the way on your amp um it's really it's like just to get a nice low Groove grinding Bas sound it's almost impossible with your fingers so that's why I moved over to playing with a pick U because it gives the Bas more definition and your lows are low and you know I mean your Highs are high you know I mean it's it's you don't have to really over you know um overdrive overdrive your sound you know what I mean to get that you know grinding sound I like more of a natural sound I'm not really much into um uh overdrives and Distortion and stuff like that so you mentioned all these people as your influences would you say would you like to do covers of yes and rush in the deside form would do you think how do you think that would work I mean I I'm not one for I mean it took like an incredible amount of pressure on me to even do that deep purple cover back in the day really which one did you do um Black Knight it's a bonus track on stench I believe oh wow this must been the Japanese ver well you can look it up on YouTube it's out there I'm definitely going to check that that's going to be interesting to listen to so what bass guitars do you play and now watch you make what do you what you endorse with um well I'm playing fenders right now and um I bought a bunch of fenders my first guitar my first base was a fender back in the day I a 74 teley Peak base and um I just like the way they they comfortable to play they're light and um they just got an incredible amount of uh sustain and uh I I was in Guitar Center I believe in Columbus Ohio years ago we were playing Al rosilla and um I picked up a Dusty Dusty Hill um signature Tel P base with the roasted wood and it was just you hit an F on that thing and you could feel it three times over you know and I just like that to be able to have that low end so I've got a couple 51s I one of them I had customade and the guy that makes DAV Gilmore's guitars a fender built it for me and then I have another one my Pitchfork um that uh the head of uh almost everything at Fender uh put together for me and uh say man the pickups the guitars the woods all that stuff come to play man when it comes to that and I have an incredible Bas on on this album with the Meesa boogies and and uh it's real simple man I somebody had been telling me a friend of mine has been you know telling me forever man to to switch to 12 you know speakers and uh for bass it's the perfect speaker you know playing out of a 12 you know anything tens to me don't have any it's all mid and high and no low end and and when you play like bigger like 15s it's too wolfy you know you don't get that really hard low end where like you feel it in your chest the tw's give you that you know right so how many Basse guitars do you actually own now then Glenn do have you actually sold any have you kept every single one every time I it's a curse I uh we joke about it here at the house that uh every time I sell one or you know give one away three more walk in the door it's like giving giving it to a good home basically I have no room like I have a room that's uh like my little office room here slbe bedroom and there's guitars piled on top of guitars in that room under the bed against the wall in the closet outside of the closet so yeah I have a I have a pretty good pile I um you know back in the day my BC riches all took a pound and Destroy I destroyed most of them with the wearing the armor and all that stuff and um so a lot of those guitars I rolled the P Channel support back in the day so um you know what I mean uh but all my other stuff I haven't really sold too much um I have my uh custom ESP ex and I have my custom destroyers izes and I keep a hold of that stuff man I got a lot of V I got an 80 an 85 Les Paul with uh Shaw pickups in it I have uh I have two Gibson custom Gibsons I have a pile of Gibson bases I have a pile of fenders I have I can say man I I just like to have a very you know say if I want to have something you know sounds like a museum sounds like a museum in your house we took we took it every time we do a record it's like I have to bring up pick up trucks full of guitars with me because they want to dig through all I have a less Paul based that I i' say we we did a a practice run a couple records ago and it sounded so much like Jean Simmons's kiss face sound from back in the 70s we were like we cannot use that and then I had um the one of these oversized ex guitars that uh ESP gave me um it sounded so much like Mega Death B sound that we're like we can't use that either so every time we've ever done you know it always you know what Fender invented the base guitar you know and I you know you could put it up against any of the big three and they just have a sound man you know what I mean and and it's a it's a unmistakable sound and this time around man I think you can really hear it on the album man you know really stands out I remember back in the day when you played in Bradford you got a Basse guitar stolen did you ever get that back that's scone man some some junkie stole it who knows what they did with it man I mean yeah that would be I heard that Paul McCartney got one of his guitars back recently and I was like wow man wouldn't that be you know nostalgic to get that guitar back but I'm sure that thing has been burned in somebody's fireplace or you know they probably I mean being so I mean even if you stripped it down you know I mean how many stealth bases were out there floating around so I think you know if they say man [ __ ] always floats to the top you know so yeah maybe someday it'll show up but I I'm not sitting around you know there's two things that I'm not doing I'm not sitting around hoping that that guitar is going to miraculously show up or you know getting back with any Ex-Wives or any [ __ ] like that so I don't I don't look backwards man you know yeah I get that so moving on then Glenn and when you look back at all the old dad albums we all know Dad Dad is the cult classic album what's your favorite albums that you've done in the past I don't know man I don't you know I have you know I have favorite songs you know I mean I have songs that stand out that I'm proud of that I wrote that had character and which ones are those Define you know the band I mean well I mean all the you know I mean once upon the cross and Hest from Satan and you know dead by Dawn you know sacrificial I mean those songs I mean I have a lot of songs there that um you know lunatic I mean there's a lot of things that I can put my you know my fingerprints all over yeah so I don't know about favorite albums I mean I I mean you know I mean I don't want to be uh you know be that guy to say oh it's like my newest record's always my greatest record it's not like that for me and I I mean this record if I had to put my finger out you know I mean I look at it differently as far as like production and sound and who was a pain in the ass during the process I mean I look at it like in in different ways and a fan would look at it you know what I mean for me it's you know and records and you know making sure it is what I you know it should be and or at least be somewhere where in the direction it should be you know so I um I've said this before it's like I just feel sometimes like I'm um the coach you know that has to you know point the team in the right direction and pick the right players and pick the right songs and pick the right parts and pick this and that and um you know I take I take artistic criticism just as well as the next guy you know I mean and give it you know so does criticism help you build a stronger album in the future I think it does you know what it's like this album you know not to name names or pick songs and that but the person that I'm talking about he'll know what I'm saying but there was like a part in one of his songs and I felt that it wasn't a deide part you know and I you said hey man if you could just go home and see if you can come up with something else and actually what he came up with was incredible and that that sense you know we're in the room together us guys you know I mean we're friends you know I mean that sense of accomplishment I could see it on his face you know what I mean because he knew that he had outdone himself you know what I mean so you know I'm the same way it's like if if if there's something that I can make better tell me you know what I mean give me you know your input you know what I mean I I I'm I have no problem with going and reworking parts and trying to make things better that's what it's all about it's just you know trying to make it you know I mean it's a it's it's not like one person trying to outshine the next guy it's like we work as a team man you know make it you know that's how this record came about you know we all work together right okay I mean do you ever see anything of Jack oen because I've known Jack for years but I've never spoke to him for a long time do you ever see him um no but we were all on dinner Friday night we all we all went out to a Japanese Steakhouse and uh to celebrate the record release and that and had some laps and um Jack I believe texted Kevin and congratulated us on the record and that I mean we're all cool I mean Jack didn't burn we didn't burn no Bridges or anything like that I mean everything's cool with Jacko it's just that things weren't working out at that particular moment and you know like I say once again it's like it's up I mean we need a sweet guitar player you know I mean that's just that's what needs to be in this band and Kevin is an inredible rhythm guitar player not that jack isn't or anything like that it's just that I want this to go where it is today and what you know my you know not all my you know it sucks being me man you know I mean I'm the hatchet guy and I'm you know I have to be that guy you know I mean who's a dick sometimes when he doesn't want to be and and I hate it man you know I mean I hate that part of the business I really do you know I mean you must you must you must Miss Ralph salani I mean he's a fantastic guitarist I mean Ralph I met him a few times such a nice guy yeah Ralph was a sweetheart man you know but Ralph was a very complex individual too you know what I mean and I just I've always wanted just the right people to fit it that fit this thing you know what I mean and and uh we have a great team now man nobody's got any kind of Hang-Ups in any way and everybody is respectful of each other and consider it and and I got you know we got four great songwriters in the band now you know that are everybody's pulling their you know pulling their share and uh it's it's great man like this is I can honestly say And I Know It's upsetting to some former members or whoever and I really don't give the F but this this is the best that this band has ever been right okay for me for me personally on a business level and sound and and just the professionalism now we have a great team of people man that's great so the album banish by sin who came up with the title and what were the titles did you have for this album um well like always I write all the lyrics and do the titling and everything um banished by sin I kind of just it's kind of like how it's like how I live my life how I feel about things who you know what I mean the way I look at it all and you know I'm bad you know it's like because of all the [ __ ] that I've done and all the you know it's like yeah all the sins have banished me from you know a lot of things in this world and I don't know I just you know a lot of these things titles and stuff like that come to me out of [ __ ] nowhere and uh but like always you know I I just troll the internet to make sure I'm not copying anybody so there's a lot that goes into it just you know I mean I might have a thought but until I've you know I get a lot of thoughts and a lot of those thoughts have already be have already been thought you know what I mean so I try to do my homework man you know so I don't copy other people or step on other people's toes when it comes to writing lyrics and and creating titles okay then so Kevin and Tyler where did you find those guys because Tyler replaced Mark so where did you find these musicians before do you well Taylor well Kevin was roing for us when Ralph was in the band and filling it for me back down that and then uh Taylor um actually is good friends you know with everybody here in the scene and uh Jeremy cling our Sal and Jeremy and me ride bikes and road bike and mountain bike and that and uh it's really after Chris you know Chris we you know Chris left the band and um Mark you Mark was you know I had to let go Mark Mark because there was just technical difficulties there with him and uh Chris was just overwhelmed with his work and family and everything so we needed somebody that really could fit the you know fit the position that didn't have any kind of you know ties to anything and could just do his job and you know what I mean and and play guitar from his soul and that's what I like about Taylor is he plays from his soul man he don't play from a book or an instructional video or trying to copy other people um they're playing and that he just plays what comes natural and and that's what this band's always needed man somebody that could bring that naturalness to the the whole lead section here and that he does an amazing job man you know he's a very he's a multifaceted talented individual and an engineer himself you know so he's I I say he really you know compliments the the three of us okay then so it was produced by yourselves who done a fantastic job by the way it was also mixed and Mastered by Josh Wilbur I mean it went with Josh before no no that was the record company they we we were doing test mixes with people um because I really just felt like that the record should have been run flat I didn't want to do you know because uh we took you know we we recorded it using a lot of Newman microphones I'm not sure if you're familiar with Newman microphones but they're not the best microphones in the business and that I did vocals on a u87 um so uh I bought a bunch of microphones to do the record and uh we wanted to capture that live sound you know and and not use plugins and not use you know we wanted to use real amplifiers real cabinets real you know everything real you know and not the depends solely on Protools and its plugins to create a record so we did a lot of it with the old school demo kind of sense of you know mind on the whole thing and then getting Josh you know to do you know we had some text mixes done you know I mean they kind of sounded not it was immediately overcompressed for me and I you know like I told Josh and when he got his hands on it said if you can't make it any better than what it is right now just leave it alone you know and because I don't want the record overcompressed yeah okay because it took and what Jos was able to do was to keep that what we created you know that that rawness that we created he was able to keep that and capture that without losing any of its you know you know because it's very powerful man I mean it's got a lot of uh Fury to it and I didn't want to lose any of that you know there's a lot of rawness to it there that yeah you lose a lot of that in you know when you go to mix and mastering they tend to just and that's the problem with all my previous recordings is that um I didn't stress the whole compression thing and now I got smart to it you know so um I think it was you know once I got my own little Studio going and that I'm like wow you know what I think the problem here lies with overc compressing everything right so how how long did it take to record this album record's been done since last year we've been sitting on our hand waiting for this thing to come out um but how long did it take two three months I think maybe and I took every day I did a different day for vocal tracks what I would take I would do one song a day over the course of I believe a couple weeks so I could go in there and have that same D the same power every day you know without straining or stressing my voice okay so what songs stand out for you on this new album I've seen the I've seen the video I've seen the video with the with the nuns and all that [ __ ] it's quite brutal is it um I I like like I said man I have a i for me it's like I've heard the record a couple thousand times now so um um yeah I can say man to me they're all they're like my children you know so they're all my favorites this time around and it's funny man it's like everybody gravitates to you know a different song you know from what I've been hearing from the fans and that it's like everybody has their own favorite I guess it strikes I guess some of them stri songs and I have a buddy in mine the man that makes all of our jewelry who's famous for the artwork on the album he's listened to it like five times and every time he he texts me he's like he's got a new favorite so it's one of those records that the more you listen to it the more it all starts to cling to you I mean this is the first time he used Graphics graphics for an artwork album cover how do you feel about doing that away from the pensions that you this is my this is actually my third record I've used the computer design yeah okay I like to do everything you know people don't understand man it's you know it's like it's art man no matter how you box it package it or put it on canvas or put it on a computer it was created by an artist who's an actual artist from the same Village as HR guer so I think he knows a little bit more about artwork than the average Joe um so we do what we feel is it's you know it's what we feel you know what I mean and it's like to take that away from it you know to take the feeling out of it it's not art anymore you know what you're trying to please other people and I just don't I don't care about pleasing people you know what I mean I care about pleasing me and we were asked by the record label to create a new medallion for the new for the next chapter of the band and that's what he that's what he did it has nothing people think it's about money or any of this [ __ ] no man we all love the artwork it looks incredible I don't if you can see the artw behind me can you see thew we have the um like I said we got the the backdrops all made and they were they used AI at the factory to to make the backdrops so it just makes doing business easier people just don't understand they all think I'm out there to Rob them of their livelihoods the comments are pretty hysterical man so I call it the Teletubby generation so the record label RPM how did you hook up with those guys because last time you was W Central media um well our deal fell out we were done with our deal with Cent media Sony bought them in the United States and they were just like I say man absolutely worthless as far as promoting a record or doing anything like that so we just we did not we weren't interested in renegotiating with them and and we wanted to get the record done and Rec you know record the record and that so we had a product to shop to people and uh it worked out for everybody's you know favor you know okay then so you guys are doing a festival run like you said you got any a full tour in the works as well was it just festivals this year I just yeah I just dropped a s We Tour on everybody coming up for 2025 a year we're going to be over there for like 46 or 50 shows or something so we're going to do a big one in uh I believe April of 20125 uh we're coming over for August um for the festival run we're going to do us and Canada in September here in the states uh going down to Chile and playing a big festivals down there in November yeah we got a full boat so where's the biggest market for you guys when you play festivals oh gigs where's the biggest country where you get the biggest crowd I don't know about that but uh I can tell you the biggest show I ever played was uh a few years ago down in Columbia Rock Le park it was over 100,000 people wow that's awesome well Glenn I'd like to thank you for doing this interview do you have anything to say to the people listening to this on YouTube um stay heavy sweet awesome all right brother will you take care have a nice day thank you Glenn see you brother [Music]