CJ: I found personally that it was kind of even across the board. There’s great support from Europe but it’s hard to get us over there. There is great support in the States but there is also great support in Japan! I mean, we have been there twice. We’ve had Mikitoshi Matsuo who owns Rock Stakk records in Osaka organizing a festival called True Thrash Fest.

We played there in 2015 and then again in 2018 for it’s 10th anniversary. He brought back most of the bands which the fans liked the most. He’s been one of our biggest champions! I’ve got a box right here going to his store which is full of vinyl, CDs and cassettes. I don’t think that there’ s one specific region that is better over the other. It’s great when we go out of the New York area and play because there are pockets like Washington DC and every time we do play there it is madness!

We played Baltimore earlier this year at a festival and it as one of the best Thrash gigs we did in a long time. The festival was held in a reasonably small venue and people just loved the music; we played with Massacre – they were headlining and we did the support…you know, it’s just a matter of trying to get everything to line up.

We’ve always been a small band. We did our release album show with our good guys in Attacker and we love those guys. Mike Sabatini, their drummer, owns a studio like I do. He helped us with our record, I helped him with their record so we are great friends with all those guys. We had a wonderful album release show but we still felt like it could have been better, you know, but at the end of the day it’s just Jersey bands playing in Jersey.

If we had done the same thing in, say, Cleveland maybe we would have had more madness – I mean, both bands play great! So it really comes down to…we take what we get – we don’t have any representation. Essentially, I manage the band. I produce the records, I engineer the records, I mix the records, I do most of the show booking, I am packing the merch (laughs). A lot of it comes down to me and I am happy to do it because it is something I used to do in the Insaniac days as well.

I did all the mail and so I still have correspondence with people all around the world. Someday I got to think what I am going to do with those. So, when the offers come, we do our best to accept them.

We are going to go to Montreal Canada for the first time in September and we have an offer to play the Piranha Pit Festival which is a two night thing at the Piranha bar. The night we play Rob Dukes is headlining doing his Shovel Headed Kill Machine, doing his Exodus era stuff. I have known the drummer for thirty years now; I have known him ever since he was eighteen years old, so I want to play that show with them! Just to see them and hang out to Montreal with my buddies from New Jersey.

Neil Turbin (note: the first Anthrax singer) is doing his own Metal as well, so it’s going to be a heavy night of Thrash, you know? Still, there are plenty of places that we need to go. We will be visiting the Czech Republic in October, which will be a first…there’s so much going on in Europe these days!

There’s so much in the US that we are asked to do as well. Now that we will play in Canada maybe the show we do there will open the door for us to play in Vancouver or Toronto. I have approached organizers in the Toronto area; so far so good but you will never know. We want to go everywhere that we are wanted, of course but, except from me, everybody’s got their job and responsibilities, kids…well, Dave and Adam have kids, so…we can’t go somewhere at the drop of a hat but we still want to do as much as we can and we want to get on the next record right away which is something that we are doing.

The future looks really good the way we look at it and we currently take what’s in front of us. We are not going to be playing at Download Festival; Bloodstock Festival of Wacken would be wonderful – it would be wonderful to go back and do each of them again, or other festivals in Europe. I mean, why not Hellfest? They’ve had any other band on the planet so why not us?

I can see you playing a festival like Hellfest, easily!

CJ: What is that festival in Greece…

Are you referring to the Up The Hammers festival perhaps? This normally consists of old-school Metal bands regardless of genre.

CJ: We would very much like to play there one day. At the moment we are going to the Czech Republic to play and we will see how that goes. We will play together with Exciter at that festival with whom we went to Japan the first time. They had the original three guys. Now John (note: Ricci/guitars) is not there bit it’s going to be nice to run into Allan (note: Johnson/bass) and Dan(note: Beehler/vocals and drums) again cause they are both wonderful people.

There are so many wonderful people out to see; the guys from Sacrifice, Katon W. De Pena from Hirax and this is just the tip of the iceberg. We have made some wonderful friends and I just want to see us keep going for as long as we can, you know?

This have changed dramatically in relation to how the music industry works over the last few years, to the point that it has become unrecognizable. Do you believe that the new way that music is presented to people mainly via the social media works more to the benefit of bands such as yours? Initially there was a massive uproar about music being stolen and illegally downloaded which I personally agree with as I feel that music ought to be purchased as was the case in the old days. So, is the new way of doing things beneficial or harmful to Blood Feast?

CJ:  I think that we are kind of caught up somewhere in the middle. Thankfully Heavy Metal still shift some units, you know, proper physical stuff.

The vinyl resurgence has been helpful but we are still too small that the promotional aspect…we are with Hells Headbangers and they do a great job for us but I do think that we need to take the bull by the horns as well in order to try and get further along. It is difficult. We talked about all the options we have but, of course, they all cost money which we don’t have.

So we are in that ‘grey zone’ but, as long as we can go to shows sell t-shirts and have people get their hands on our new album and have them walk away with a couple of bruises from being in the pit or sport a bloody nose which they can proudly state of having obtained at a Blood Feast show… ‘man, I spilled blood at Blood Feast – I didn’t drink the blood of every corpse, but I drew blood’ (laughs). As long as it’s fun for everybody, you know, it’s fun for us as well. Like you said, trying to make it now is kind of out of the question, so you make things with what you have.

We are running with this as best as we can. We are happy with Hells Headbangers and we just got to figure out a way to get more shows to places that we have never been so far. We went to California a couple of times back in 2018-2019 but we have never been to the Pacific North West, places like Seattle and Portland.

We’ve never been to places like Denver or Texas – Texas, you know?  I would love to get us into Nashville, West Virginia…we’ve never been to Pittsburg since I’ve been in the band…Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee – all these places! Like I said, this is just the US! There are a lot of places for us to visit still but so far the fans are having fun, the promoters are happy and so we are happy as well. You cannot really ask for much else at this point.

What would you say was the biggest challenge you had to face while creating “Infinite Evolution”?

CJ: You mean the recording of it? I think that this one was more like pulling teeth. We had enough songs; we actually pulled two songs from the record. We started recording the album in August 2019, almost five years ago now, and about one year into it, during COVID-19, I said…cause we started rehearsing like six weeks after the COVID lockdown ‘let’s wear a mask and get together – we have to get out of the house’.

So, Adam Kieffer, our drummer, we were still playing the songs from the album and he was still adding more parts. He was adding more of his personality into them, so I kind of put my foot down as a producer and said ‘let’s start from scratch’ as I thought that Adam was coming up with better stuff now.

That was a great decision to make. So we started working at the guitars and stuff and we had at that point something like twelve songs. We brough forth the song “The Preacher” which ended up on the new album. That wasn’t in the first version – that wasn’t even on the table! So, we recorded all these songs and decided early on to record what we record but then we had the vocals change.

Then the decision was made for Mike LePond from Symphony X to play the bass. He played bass on the whole record and that was a huge step up in the bass playing – in both the element of the bottom end. That was pure creativity in action! He got the album done before he moved to Florida and then time went by and at that point I was working, the guys were working…it just took forever.

Then we got to the point when we finally made the bass player change and Mike was already done with the bass tracks, so we were not going to take Mike LePond off the record – that’s not going to happen. So Dave starts learning everything, starts learning Mike’s parts, we are starting doing shows but the album is still not done, finally we make the last bunch of lyrics done and then we are racing to get the vocals done and Adam’s killing it – most things were first or second take!

There were just so many circumstances and I don’t want to simply blame COVID cause, like I said, we ended up re-recording the whole album. I guess that the time wasn’t right then – time is right now! And I think that because of how it went with the last record, it is now pushing us to move forward quicker – the next record cannot come out in seven years.

We most definitely hope so.

CJ: We have close to seven songs, all at different stages. We have the two songs that were left off which are really good songs. We have another song that we are going to probably play live in a  couple of weeks and that songs is not even out yet! We have another songs written for which we do not have any lyrics yet, we got one finishing up, we got one that Adam is working on and another one which is almost complete.

We are zoning in and what we will do this time is that, rather than doing it all in one weekend, we are going to record the drums elsewhere this time. We have Mike Sabatini’s studio, the Band Mother Recording Studio, which we will utilize as you can get an amazing drum sound there. What do you do in order to get better every time? Better sonics! So, we are going to do our drums with Mike and what we are going to do is that, as we do two or three songs at the time, we are going to go there and record those drums. So, we will keep a clean slate and then continue working on new songs.

Those songs that are getting recorded we will leave for when the vocals are ready. We need to have complete songs before Adam (note: Tranquilli) starts recording his vocals. We are in pretty good shape so far; we need a couple more songs but that’s OK. We are feeling quite creative over here and we have places to go, so…some of the stuff that we’ve already come up with it’s going to be a little bit different like the song “Evilution” which has this psychedelic part in it, you know the odd times and stuff?

There will be a few more progressive stuff here and there on the next record, you know, but you will also have songs like one we did which is done in three and a half minute and is a total burner. This is still classic Blood Feast but you have to expand it a little bit and Adam has too many different influences that he is willing to throw in there and the same goes with me.

Now that we have Dave Kramer adding his twists as he did in the last record? Maybe he can come up with some really impressive parts for Adam’s riffs, you know? Right now we are in a really good place for that an I am hoping that we will start the first round of tracking by the end of the year.

We also discussed a couple of re-recordings as well, things that we are going to use as bonus tracks that will be good quality bonus tracks. There’s stuff from the “Kill For Pleasure” album that we have been playing so well; it’s crazy good stuff! I just gave a hint away but that’s alright (laughs). I just gave you guys something to think of. So, the future is bright.

You do come across as having a pretty solid plan there!

CJ: Yes, we do. I’m kind of driving the bus a little bit which feels weird but, at the same time, it is something that I have always done at bands. I have always been a kind of leader and Adam…if I do something he does not agree with he will tell me in a second but, as long as it’s right for the band then it’s good. We have to do what’s right for us as a band and that is great.

In the 80s it was not easy for bands of a specific music genre to operate outside certain parameters. Nowadays, you are pretty much expected to indulge into different things musically. This must be quite liberating indeed.

CJ: I’ve come to love “Angel Rat”, you know? I don’t like it when it first came out – I am one of those people!

I felt that the production left much to be desired. I mean, I absolutely adore Rush do the idea of having Terry Brown producing a Voivod album was great on paper but as for the end result? So many years later I revisit the album and think to myself “well, that wasn’t too bad now, was it” ?

CJ: There isn’t an album that I don’t like! I bought the “Morgoth Tales”, I bought “Synchro Anarchy”, I bought “The Wake”. I am not a big fan of “War And Pain”; it was a little too Venom for me but “Rrroooaaarrr”  was definitely a step in the right direction.

So when I saw them live before it was when they were promoting the “Rrroooaaarrr”  record. “Target Earth” is a really weird record for me. I don’t like that Snake (vocals) is bathed in reverb through most of the record.

The songs from that album sound so much better when they are performed live. I remember them being on tour with Napalm Death; I am sitting in the dinning room and I have Shane (note: Embury – Napalm Death’s bassist) to my right and I have Snake (note: Voivod’s singer) to my left.

They had a day off from tour and they came here, we invited them over and Daniel (note: Chewy – Voivod’s guitarist) and Rocky (note: Voivod’s vocalist), who had just joined the band. He had an idea for a song that ended up in “Post Society” and which was not recorded yet…he did a demo for the song “Fall” I believe in my mom’s sowing room. We have maintained a friendship with those guys and they are so wonderful! Daniel is such an amazing guitar player an Rocky is such a perfect fit for them. I am a lifelong fan of Voivod…I mean, I love “Negatron”, I love “Phobos”…they can do no wrong for me.

Same here; I also worship at the altar of Voivod!

CJ: Right, so what’s your favorite Voivod record then?

That would be “Nothingface”. It is hands-down their best album for me. It is almost sacrilegious for me to make such a statement as I also feel quite strongly for the “Dimension Hatross”  record. I was sixteen years old when I first listened to Voivod and they were one of those bands who made me realize how much I love progressive elements in music, years before I was finally able to understand what progressive music really is all about. 

I remember thinking to myself that the structure of the music I was being exposed to was out of the ordinary, to put it gently. I would often say to myself “why do I find these constant rhythmical changes and crazily tuned melodies in their songs so bloody amazing” ?

That’s when I realized that it is Metallica’s “…And Justice For All”  which stands out for me and not their earliest material – why is that? Because it is the most technically-demanding of all their albums! Why do I like Psychotic Waltz so much? Well, for the very same reason! Voivod were really the first band which showed me how many different possibilities there are when it comes to creating music and I will be forever grateful to them for that!

CJ: I mean, the production quantum leaps from “Dimension Hatross” to “Nothingface” were nothing short of amazing! The production was very sterile at that moment but that was part of the charm and, obviously, they dragged in a lot of people with the cover of “Astronomy Domine”.

I was already a huge Pink Floyd fan so I didn’t need the cover, however, Voivod did make that song their own! I learned so much seeing Piggy (note: Denis D’ Amour, Voivod’s founding member & guitarist) play, you know? I play nothing like him, of course, but there are lessons to be learned there – all the different possibilities, that sort of thing! I am a gigantic Voivod fan as well! You know, between Voivod and Blue Oyster Cult…

I love Blue Oyster Cult!

CJ: I am working for The Dictators now and who is their drummer? Albert Bouchard (note: BOC’s original drummer)! What a wonderful man! He’s amazing. You know, I really believe that I have been blessed as I am enjoying a wonderful musical life and I just want to continue doing it; going on the road and having fun! I want to do it as a band member or as a tour manager, but preferably I want to be able to play.

Based on what you created in “Infinite Evolution”, I both predict and hope that you will continue doing exactly that. I was itching to see you guys play live before, I am now dying to do exactly that!

CJ: It’s a unique experience now, because Blood Feast is a tighter band and very personal as well. It’s ugly music anyway (laughs). We can make people happy, right? As long as we can get out and do what we do and make people feel happy that is good! Make people happy with our ugly, nasty music!

It’s not ugly, it’s not nasty, it is good music! CJ, thank you very much for your time! Good luck with the promotion for “Infinite Evolution”.

CJ: Thank you very much and anything else you are doing in the future just let us know!

Interview by Ioannis (John) Stefanis