Interview with Suicide Silence vocalist Mitch Lucker

Suicide Silence has perfected the art form of extreme metal. Releasing their fourth album entitled, The Black Crown, on July 12th, 2011 via Century Media Records, the band is a permutation of death metal, metalcore, and just about everything else that is angry and dysfunctional in this world. Suicide Silence just returned from a South American tour with Cannibal Corpse and is set to return to South America again with metal heavyweights Machine Head starting in January of 2012. Recently I had an opportunity to chat with frontman Mitch Lucker to see what is up!

What’s new for the band currently?
Mitch: We just got home from touring all of South America for the 2nd time with Legends and Cannibal Corpse! Now, we’re all just enjoying our little break and time off for the holidays.

Tell me about the writing/recording process for the new album, The Black Crown?
Mitch: Well, the writing this time was done differently. Instead of being in the same studio where we had written before, we wanted a change of scenery. So we moved our selves into a log cabin in Big Bear, California during the months of January through the end of February. It was an amazing time. Our days consisted of shoveling snow to reach the chopping block, chopping wood to heat the cabin, lots of boozin’ and a fuck load of just jamming! It was a great time. We also relaxed each night in the hot tub that was on the balcony of the cabin. It was a great time and I hope we do it again!

What is the message of this album and why?
Mitch: All of my songs have deep meaning to them. It’s pretty out in the open about what I’m talking about.

Tell me about your new single and video, “You Only Live Once”.
Mitch: The song had a strong and simple meaning and was a good song to pick for the video because of its repetition and the line, “You only live once / So go fucking nuts!” I knew our fans would love to sing along to and the video couldn’t have turned our better! Going off the line “You only get one shot / So shoot,” hint the firing rang idea! Just depicting that life’s short and you never know when your time is up! So do everything you can and want, so when your times up, you can die happy.

Check out the song “Fuck Everything”

What is your favorite song off of this album and why?
Mitch: I actually have a few. I love the record as a whole but, the ones that stuck out to me are “Witness The Addiction,” because we were blessed to have Jonathan Davis sing on the song, and the song has very deep meaning to me. My other favorite is “Slaves To Substance,” which we just finished filming a music video for. It will be out very soon!

What are your plans for supporting this album?
Mitch: We already did the Mayhem Festival this last summer, followed by headlining all of Australia and South East Asia, which was then followed by a full UK, and European tour. Then we set off to South America and now we start the Machine Head tour on the 15th of January. This summer we head back to Europe for all the euro festivals again! Busy busy busy, and in-between all that we have been filming music videos and doing fun charity events.

What are some crazy rock star road stories?
Mitch: There are so many to name, but I’ll bring up a personal one… My last birthday, October 20th, we were headlining the Never Say Die! Tour all over Europe, so as a gift my tour manager bought me 2 bottles of Absinthe. One of which had a seven inch big bug of some sort, and well, once both bottles were empty, we proceeded to remove the massive beetle from the bottle. Once we succeeded, we thought to our drunkin’ selves that it would be a great idea to eat the bug. So we cut the bug into five equal pieces and well… Crunch, squish and swallow it went! I had pieces of its pokie legs stuck on my teeth the next morning. Best thing is that it’s all on video and will be on the DVD.

What is your most memorable moment and why?
Mitch: I love everything about what we do, and our life style. It’s an insane way to live when you spend most of your time inside a plane, tour bus, or in a back stage. All over this massive place we call earth.

What is the craziest/stupidest/most memorable question/interview you have ever done?
Mitch: I get asked about tour stories all the time when most of the time of I told you what really happened some people might end up in jail, ha ha. We see some crazy shit go down. On the other hand, I could just say we sit around like nerds all day and play video games.

What advice do you have for independent/unsigned musicians?
Mitch: Jam hard as fuck! And always flyer and promote the shit out of whatever show you may be playing because national bands we see you open for them and if they see you brought a lot of people to see you then you are remembered and respected. Many one of those bands will take you out on a tour with them, that’s what we always did when we were trying to break through.

How do you feel about the current state of the music industry?
Mitch: Internet has fucked hard working musicians so now to be successful as a band you better believe your touring close to nine months a year. We still work just as hard as we have in the past, maybe even harder.

What do you think the future will be for the music industry?
Mitch: Who knows… I just know this is my passion and I will always love creating music. Weather you like it or not. We do what we enjoy.

What do you hate about being a musician?
Mitch: The industry beef, back stabbing done not by the bands but all the other people behind the scenes and all the lame politics that they bring with their bullshit.

What do you love about being a musician?
Mitch: Everything! The fans are the best I’d say. We have amazing fans who we connect with really well. They play a huge roll in every tour.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Mitch: Probably in a wheel chair because I head bang way too hard.

What do you want to be remembered for most of all?
Mitch: As a great frontman.

If you were not in Suicide Silence, what would you be doing?
Mitch: I’d just be in another heavy metal band jamming hard as fuck! I love metal.

Any other final comments?
Mitch: Machine Head tour starts soon! Come out and rage hard as fuck with us!

Check out the song “You Only Live Once”