Q and A: Ryan Waste (Municipal Waste)

By BRIAN GIFFIN

CROSSOVER maniacs Municipal Waste have been on their endless campaign of metallic destruction since 2001. Seven albums, a string of EPs and uncountable beers down, the Richmond wrecking crew are in Australia from tomorrow for a blitzkrieg of shows, with barely even a moment to rehearse before they arrive! That could lead to all kinds of unpredictable chaos, but as guitarist and founding member Ryan Waste explains as he swigs from a beer, this won’t be the first time they’ve gone out without rehearsing first.

Hot Metal: We’re chatting about Municipal Waste today, but you’re also doing BAT at the moment too.
Ryan Waste: “I just got home. I’ve been home maybe two or three days from the BAT tour, so I’m of wall-to-wall over here.”

HM: You’ll be down in Australia this week!
RW: “I get on the plane tomorrow, so – no rest for the wicked.”

HM: You could say that anytime. You’re in one of those bands that’s always putting something out, always out on tour.
RW: “What else is there to do, man?”

HM: And you’re not going to pay the bills any other way, right?
RW: “No. It’s a good job. It just takes a lot of my time.”

HM: How is it as a job? Would you recommend it?
RW: “I don’t think everyone could do it. I think a lot of people think that it’s just fun all the time, but there’s a lot of no sleeping and you’re always on call. We just went to South America, we would play two shows, then get no sleep because you get on a plane to do it again. It’s a lot of travel and a lot of tests of the will. You watch everybody reach their breaking point at some point and you just got to give it your all on stage no matter what. So it’s hard.”

HM: You have a very characteristic style and approach that your fans expect, so do you ever feel any pressure creatively when it comes to Municipal Waste?
RW: “I think it’s good to be angry, really, for this type of music. And in a positive way, too. I’m not saying to let it out by kicking people’s asses. We’ll kick their asses with our music. It’s one way to let out aggression, and it’s the same for the people jumping off the stage and circle-pitting. It’s their way to let out aggression. You can kind of feel that energy happening in the band and in the crowd.”

HM: Is there always something to be angry about?
RW: “It’s not all anger, man (ha). We have fun too. But like I said, it’s the best way to take it all out, instead of kicking somebody’s ass.”

HM: What can we expect from Municipal Waste when you get down here this week?
RW: “We’re gonna play some shit off our first record, Waste em All, because we kind of did that anniversary of that one recently. So we’re dusting off a bunch of the songs. What’s funny is we probably played those songs when we first came over in 2006! Hopefully, we’ll do some new stuff too. We try to play the whole catalogue. One thing I had is you go see a band and they only do the new record. We always try to play something off every album and mix it up. We just practised for the first time today. Everybody’s been on the road with their various projects. We got in the space today and the muscle memory just dropped in. Sometimes we’ll play without even rehearsing. It’s funny how you just remember all these songs, because we’ve toured so much and we play them so much. We got in there and rehearsed today. We wanna give everyone a full set. We love Australia and we wanna to give everyone the full deal.”

HM: You talk about the muscle memory, but how do you find getting into the groove between one band and the next?
RW: “You gotta snap into it. I was just playing bass for the last month straight with BAT. I picked up my guitar and it’s like ‘oh wow! This is easy! It’s smaller and faster’. So it’s cool how that works. Phil and Dave were out with Morbikon doing some black metal stuff, so it’s cool to just get in the room and play these old songs. We get in there and we’re laughing and having a good time. Tony’s down in Florida, rehearsing by himself. He gets around in this room that’s set up like a stage, and he runs around and sings. He’s rehearsing down there, and we’ll meet up with him tomorrow night.”

HM: Do you have any problems putting the setlist together? You’ve got a lot of stuff and there’s always songs you have to play, so when it comes to adding new things, how do you go about doing that?
RW: “We try to just sprinkle them in. We’ve already done two tours this year, so we’re going to stick with the set list we’ve been playing, when we’re headlining we add a few more in. We honestly make it up as we go. We don’t go in with a completely solid set list. We’ll play the first show and be like ‘well, that didn’t work, so we might add more songs on’. We do it organically, get a few shows down and realise what works.”

HM: I guess when you’ve been out there that long, you have a good idea of what will work and what doesn’t.
RW: “It’s funny because we’re doing the biggest shows first, and we’re coming in with no rehearsal. We didn’t plan it like that, but we’ll make it work.”

HM: Are you going to have a chance to get together when you get here? There isn’t much time to have a quick jam.
RW: “No, there’s not. We’ll have a soundcheck. We’re so used to doing this, and that’s how it is. I’m actually staying back and hanging out for a week in Australia, getting tattooed and hang out.”

HM: Do you get much chance to do that on a normal tour? You go through so many places, it must be refreshing to be able to just hang around somewhere for a while.
RW: “Yes it is, and I like to pick and choose where I do that. I really like Melbourne a lot and I have friends there so, minus getting tattooed, I’m just going to hang out down there. I’m hanging out in Perth for a while too. It’s a long flight so I might as well take advantage. It’s not like I’m down the street!”