Interview with Whitechapel drummer Ben “New Guy” Harclerode

Having this job as an interviewer certainly has its perks including free records and free shows, but one of the absolute best parts is meeting the bands and getting to know them on a more personal level. Having said that, this was my second interview of the year with Whitechapel and this time had the chance to sit down with drummer Ben Harclerode. Ben is also known as “New Guy” because well, A. he is the new guy in the band and B. there’s already another Ben in the band. Not only did I get to interview Ben, but also hang out with him and bass player Gabe Crisp for a few hours. While we watched TV, Ben gave a drum lesson to a French guy who gave him a case of 24 Stella tall boys, then we smoked some fine sticky icky after I called my buddy Kron down to hook us up. Here’s how the chat went.

How’s the tour going so far?
Ben: Really good! Everyone has been really great and nice, it’s gone very smooth the whole time and I have really no complaints over this tour.

Any memorable moments come along this tour for you guys?
Ben: There were definitely a couple of amazing shows. I think it was Philly or the show before that but anyways, I didn’t get the head count of the night but to me it looked real packed and our guitar tech took some pics from the stage of the crowd and it was so much more massive then I remember when I played. On this tour we got some boobies flashed to us mid set and that’s always a plus. Nothing too crazy has happened though, just awesome shows with good friends.

So the Recorrupted EP… why did you decide to release an EP?
Ben: Well it’s been about a year and a half since the last full-length was released and to my understanding this was an idea that was thrown to us by Metal Blade but we defiantly had some say in it. [laughs] They just wanted us to stay relevant and release something new for this tour and push it a bit so we can do the full-length next year.

Out of all the Pantera songs, why did you decide on “Strength Beyond Strength”?
Ben: I don’t know man, like there are definitely a number of Pantera songs we could have chosen from. Originally we were talking about doing “Slaughter” but that has been done by a bunch of bands already, well somebody already did “Strength Beyond Strength” as well but whatever. We were just hanging out and thinking about a bunch of different songs to cover, Zach had a Slayer cover ready to go and then we were messing with “Strength Beyond Strength”. I was sitting with Alex at his house listening to the song and we just looked at each other and went, “yaaa this is the song”. It’s just pissed off, it’s fast, it’s heavy as hell. Of course there were small parts to make it more of a Whitechapel song. Other then doing the song in G tuning, I felt we held true to the song and did it tastefully. The last thing we wanted to do was go in there and overdo the song and try to outdo the original.

What other Pantera songs would you want to cover?
Ben: Personally I would like to do “Becoming”, it just has that really cool squeal riff. I think it would be really fun to play and it’s just an awesome song.

Have you guys been working on a full-length?
Ben: We are working on it right now, we are supposed to start recording early next year. Everything is up in the air though, other Ben and I have touched on ideas on it musically being a concept record more or less like This is Exile had a few instrumental parts in it. That record in itself had somewhat of a concept to it, I know other Ben has been saying he would like to go in that direction musically. We have a whole bunch of ideas and riffs and it’s just a matter of time until we sit down and work with them.

Who do you think would win this tag team fight… Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan verses Chuck Norris and that guy from Ong Bak?
Ben: I’ve never seen Ong Bak but I guess I’d have to say him and Chuck Norris. I feel like that’s the American thing to do!

Check out the song: “The Darkest Day Of Man”

I find every time you come to Toronto there is a big crowd response for you guys. It’s pretty much Whitechapel town! What other cities do you find you have the best crowd response?
Ben: Anything close to home is Whitechapel town like around Knoxville, kids just go ape-shit. Any time we play the Masquerade in Atlanta it goes amazing, the last couple of time we played North Carolina has got pretty crazy and really anywhere on the east or west coast you will just see a heavier crowd response. Honestly for some reason or another Canada loves us! It’s really great to see all the kids into us and buying our shit when we come up.

So I had an interview with Alex during the Summer Slaughter tour when you guys played in town and I asked him about where you guys want to play that you haven’t yet. He said that you guys wanted to play South America, Mexico and finish off the States and that you haven’t yet played in Japan. Have any of these goals happened yet and if not, when do you think they will?
Ben: Well we will be hitting South America next year with The Devil Wears Prada on that leg of their “Dead Throne” tour with Architects. I am really stoked on this because I’ve never been there before and I love going to see new places and from what I understand South America is a crazy, crazy time.

If you could choose one place in the entire world to play where would it be? And don’t count out over an active volcano, while riding a roller coaster or skydiving scenarios in that mix.
Ben: I’d imagine something like in Metalocalypse with one of their large stage structures that fall out of the sky and kills a bunch of the fans and having the show be in some desolate waste land looking area. I think that would be pretty cool!

So what do you guys have planned after this tour?
Ben: Well we are going to start getting in writing and recording mode in the early part of the year. We just released some of the dates for our upcoming Headlining tour in March and May; it’s going to be split up because of us going to South America with TDWP in April. For the headliner we have us, Miss May I, After The Burial and The Plot in you for March and in May instead of The Plot in You it will be Within The Ruins.

Check out the song “Possession”