Buz McGrath Interview

by Brian D. Holland.

Buz McGrath, guitarist for Unearth, is currently touring North America, delivering to fans what he calls their brand of "heavy metal mosh mayhem". They've also recently completed a successful tour of Japan and Australia. Hailing from Massachusetts, an area often labeled the virtual metal and hardcore capital of North America, their musical approach is an exhilarating blend of heavy metal and hardcore, and is expressed with genuine enthusiasm and sonic muscle.

Both Buz and guitarist Ken Susi enforce a barrage of dual guitar thrash and harmonized riffs, networked alongside aggressive lyricism and frenzied breakdown passages. It's all executed in a refreshingly original manner.

Extreme metal musicians are more than aware of the importance of touring, primarily because of insignificant radio airplay for anything other than pop and mainstream music, and that includes metal. Whether it be headlining, supporting, or jumping from festival to festival, extensive touring has been the key to the band’s success. Their name is often mentioned in the same breath these days as Ozzfest, the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival (NEMHF), and South by Southwest (SXSW).

Metal [wasn’t as] widely accepted as it is today. There are a lot of bands who’ve been around a while who have been slugging it out and giving 100% of themselves. It’s now coming around and people are getting just dessert for all of their hard work. —Buz McGrath on today’s hardcore metal.

The year 2006 was a good one for Unearth. Their latest album, III: In The Eyes of Fire, positioned well in the Billboard Top 200, an unusual occurrence for hardcore metal. This development has subsequently forced the industry to stand up and take notice of today’s metal scene.

I spoke with Buz McGrath on January 30, 2007, while Unearth was preparing for a show in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Interview

Hey, Buz. How are you?

Buz McGrath: Hey, Bri. I’m cool, man. Right now we’re in Salt Lake City, Utah, getting ready to play a show.

Surprisingly enough, there appears to be a few thriving metal bands out of Massachusetts these days. Sources say you guys are from Winthrop.

BM: We used to practice there, but we’re from all around the North Shore area. I live in Lynn.

How difficult was it for a Massachusetts metal band to attain success in the music business?

BM: Not really. Once we started the band and started playing what we wanted to play and what we wanted to hear, and then once we started getting the music to the kids, playing as many shows as we could, and taking whatever tours came our way, we knew that that was the method for this type of music. You’ve got to get it to the kids, and once they see you live they get the visual as well. The whole package comes together and people start vibing with it.

It’s tough getting radio play these days for anything outside the mainstream mode, in the New England area anyway.

BM: Well, WAAF has a specialty metal show every night at like eleven. That’s pretty much all you’re going to get for extreme music. Maybe a couple of college radio shows, but they don’t seem to have enough significant wattage to broadcast to large numbers of people.

Describe the club circuit for extreme metal in Boston. Is there one?

BM: We just booked shows at VFW halls or anyplace that would allow us to have a show there. The kids would come out, and they were feeling it. At that time, around ’98 and ’99, bands were putting metal and hardcore together, blatantly, and people were feeling it. It was good timing because that type of scene was unfolding just as we were getting into it. It kind of worked out well to get the ball rolling for us.

You’re back on tour now. How’s that going?

BM: Good. We’re on the road with Slayer. They wrote the book on heavy metal as far as I’m concerned.

They were certainly one of them.

BM: That’s for sure. We’re on tour with them and this is about our fifth or sixth show. Things are going awesome. Slayer fans are notoriously dedicated to Slayer, and only to Slayer. But it’s good to get out there, and to get in their faces and see them. You can physically see them turning around, you know, people who may not have been into it at first but are into it by the end of the set. So, we’re definitely picking up some more fans, which is always great.

You’re a huge Slayer fan anyway, right?

BM: Yes. So it’s definitely one of those things where we can cross another milestone off the list. We never thought we could be here, so.

Do you feel as though you should pinch yourself sometimes?

BM: Yeah. [Laughing] It’s weird, man. You just look around, and say, how did I get here, you know. When we started we just wanted to play a show for like a hundred kids and just have a good time. Coming from there to end up here is pretty cool.

Does a lot go into the process of preparing for a tour?

BM: Basically, we have a good crew that takes care of a lot of the gear and stuff like that, and we have people who work for us who take care of the details, like hotels and the extra things that go into making it all happen. So, the band just worries about packing up some clothes and showing up on time. We focus on rocking out first and foremost. We’ve been lucky enough to have a few extra bucks to pay people to handle the gear and all that stuff, which is really a blessing.

Is it a reflection on just how successful the metal music industry is these days?

BM: Yeah. Metal was a little bit sleepy eight or nine years ago. Well, I shouldn’t say sleepy, but not as widely accepted as it is today. There are a lot of bands who’ve been around a while who have been shrugging it out and giving 100% of themselves. It’s now coming around and people are getting just desert for all of their hard work.

Describe the music of Unearth for those unaware.

BM: It’s heavy metal mosh mayhem. [Both laughing]

What’s the weirdest happening you’ve ever seen in a moshpit?

BM: Let’s see. There are a lot of weirdoes out there. [Laughing] There’s this kid in New Jersey who always comes to the show and moshes in a Winnie the Pooh outfit. That’s pretty strange. People make us laugh by doing some real weird dances and stuff. But that’s what we’re there for. We make music that’s conducive to losing control, so that’s what we wanna see.

Would you consider your brand of metal to be between heavy and hardcore, or more one than the other?

BM: I think that when we started the band we were experimenting with stuff, and I think we drew the line between heavy metal and hardcore. But as we grew as a band, I think the sound started to lean more toward the metal side. Our new record is much more on the metal side. But there’s still some of that hardcore influence in it, and it can be heard. It’s more about the way we live our lives, just being cool and having fun with people, yet the hardcore ethic still remains.

What led to making your debut release, 2002’s ‘The Stings Of Conscience’, a reality? Was there any luck involved?

BM: Yes, I think so. It was our first record so it’s pretty raw, you know. It’s kind of more on the experimental side because we really didn’t have a plan. We just knew what we wanted to hear and we just let it out of us. We were still trying to find our sound at that time, though. But, yeah, there was a bit of luck there with some of those songs and the vibe we got from them. It was definitely a metalcore record in every sense of the word. People hearing it and taking notice was what got the ball rolling.

Was 2006 a good year for Unearth?

BM: For sure. We put out our most recent record, ‘III: In The Eyes Of Fire’, and we did Ozzfest 2006.

A lot of great timing involved as well.

BM: Yeah. We’ve got good people setting it all up for us. It worked out. And we did some great tours. We did a headlining tour and we went to Japan and Australia. It was a great time and a great year.

III: In The Eyes Of Fire climbed a healthy height in the Billboard Top 200. It has been recognized as helping to force record companies and media outlets to stand up and take notice of modern metalcore and today’s metal scene. Has that accomplishment been realized by the members of Unearth?

BM: Yeah. Growing up we sometimes looked at the charts. It’s something you don’t think you’ll ever come close to. It reached 30 I think, which means it’s like the thirtieth best selling record in the country for that week, which is pretty cool. Yeah, we thought it was a great accomplishment.

Terry Date was the CD’s producer and engineer. Were there obvious advantages in having such a metal music professional involved in the making of the record?

BM: He has years of experience. He did Pantera and Deftones, to name just a couple. His experience was pivotal for the sound of this record. Though we did a lot of the arranging of the songs ourselves, he was there to insure the quality of the performances and to make sure we got a good vibe from it. He twiddled the knobs and made it sound awesome.

Was there a big difference in having Terry, as opposed to Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage, whom you were involved with previously?

BM: Well, they’re two different styles of producers. Adam was very meticulous, and everything had to have a plan and a place. Terry’s more of a vibe guy, you know, what he feels sounds right. Terry isn’t a musician. He just knows what sounds good. Adam went to the Berklee School of Music. So, he’s kind of a genius in that respect, where he knows what has to happen musically. Terry’s more of a vibe guy and he lets things happen naturally.

What motivates [Trevor] Phipps lyrically? Are there moral messages in the song themes?

BM: Yeah. The personal issues that he deals with, some political stuff, events that are going on in the world, or anything he feels he just wants to get off his chest. I believe he gets into all that.

How was the Ozzfest experience for Unearth? Did a divider exist between the first and second stage acts?

BM: No. The second stage is definitely party time. Everyone on the second stage is friends, so we all party over there. We knew a few of the people on the main stage as well, so they’d come over to our camp and party or we’d go over to theirs. The vibe is really cool and you get done so early. You’re there all day and night, so afterward you’ve got nothing to do but party. If someone was a douche bag or something it would definitely be hard to have a good time because everyone there is so cool.

I spoke with John Connelly of Sevendust last year. He told me it was like a summer camp for metal rockers.

BM: It definitely is. That’s a perfect way to describe it.

You played some of the new album at Ozzfest even though it hadn’t been released yet. How was the reaction to the new material?

BM: It was only about two songs. We had 35 minutes to play, so we threw only about two new ones in there. The reaction was great, man. We took the two bangers off of the record and people were definitely catching on and feeling it. It’s always good to see a fresh reaction to something people haven’t heard yet. People definitely felt it from where we were standing.

How was performing at the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival (NEMHF)? Is it comparable to Ozzfest?

BM: It was great. It’s a three day metal fest. They do it at the Worcester Palladium (Worcester, MA). The place only holds like 2,500 people, but it always sells out. The promoter, Scott Lee, is a good friend of ours. There are great bands there every year. I think it’s one of the better metal fests in the country.

Does being married make touring difficult for you?

BM: Yes, it does. It can get pretty hairy sometimes. But she comes out and visits every once in a while, which helps out greatly.

How do you and Ken Susi go about sharing the guitar playing duties? Is there a definitive roll each has?

BM: Not really. We each come up with ideas at home when playing on our own time. We come to practice and sit down with Mike, Slo, and Trevor. We throw these ideas out there and basically put them together like a puzzle. He’ll have a bunch of riffs and I’ll have a bunch of riffs. We’ll interlock them and see what goes with what. There’s a lot of lead stuff getting played, but we don’t have a ‘lead guitarist’, per se. There’s a lot of crazy stuff happening on both sides of the stage.

Is the ‘breakdown’ an integral part of the composition for you?

BM: Yeah. We write songs, and think, okay, we’ll probably put the breakdown here. We kind of feel it out and try to place them accordingly to better fit the song. That’s a big part of our sound, that style of riff or whatever you want to call it. We try to come up with creative ways to put them in songs, more creative breakdowns, because it’s very easy to get redundant with that, you know, a rudimentary and chugging style riff. We’re constantly trying to make them more interesting and different.

Talk about the 7-string guitar as a tool. What makes them so essential to your music?

BM: I don’t know about essential to it. I kind of liked the idea when I first saw one. It has the low B, and you can get lower tones out of it. It has a slightly different sound to it. We started off playing those and just kept with it. If you converted a 6-string to a B tuning, we’d have to remove the high E, slide the strings down and then throw another string on top. Then we’d have the low B. But we like to have all of those options available to us, so we stick with it. We play in standard tuning: B E A D G B E.

Talk some more about the gear used.

BM: Well, both Ken and I run VHT Pittbulls through VHT cabs. That’s pretty much it. As far as effects go, we usually just put an overdrive pedal, a Maxon OD-808, in front of the amp, and a noise compressor. We try to keep it as simple as possible.

The Ibanez 7-string I play is a custom that they made specifically for me, but it’s not a signature model available to the public. (Custom S7620) I use Dean Markley Blue Steel strings.

Before we end, would you like to say anything to the fans?

BM: Thank you for your support and I hope you keep coming out.

UNEARTH Is
Trevor Phipps: vocals
Buz McGrath: guitar
Ken Susi: guitar
John ‘Slo’ Maggard: bass
Mike Justian: drums

III: In The Eyes Of Fire Track Listing
1. This Glorious Nightmare
2. Giles
3. March Of The Mutes
4. Sanctity Of Brothers
5. The Devil Has Risen
6. This Time Was Mine
7. Unstoppable
8. So It Goes
9. Impostors Kingdom
10. Bled Dry
11. Big Bear And The Hour Of Chaos

Released August 8, 2006
Metal Blade Records

Related Links
Unearth
III: In The Eyes Of Fire on Amazon.com

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