In anticipation of Warped Tour on Wednesday, July 19th at Riverbend, we sat down with Municipal Waste!
Andrew Risch: You guys just recently played the first annual Decibel Beer Fest. How did that show go for you?
Tony Foresta: It was awesome. I really hope they keep doing it. It was a really cool idea, a really cool venue and the vibe was great. It was cool to see a lot of those bands. There were a lot of bands I really wanted to see, “Agoraphobic Nosebleed”, I had never seen “Sleep” before that was neat.
AR: You debuted your beer at that show as well, “Divine Blasphemer.” Tell me about that beer.
TF: It’s a smoked porter. We’ve been talking to Cigar City (the brewer) for a few years about doing a beer and it’s finally come to fruition. We got a guy to do the artwork, he’s done a few Municipal Waste T-Shirt designs, he’s a great tattoo artist. It’s a giant upside down cross on the bigger bottle.
AR: That’s awesome. So, you are bottling it?
TF: Yeah it wild, it’s actually the best distributed beer we’ve done so far. It’s gonna be in a lotta stores in the south east. That was really cool for us because we usually have short runs and this is a bigger run we are able to get it out to places we wouldn't normally be able to get it out to.
AR: You’re also getting ready to release “Slime and Punishment,” your newest release in some time. What can fans hope to expect?
TF: The people that I know that have heard it and said it is really good and said its better than the last few records we have done. It sounds like a more mature Municipal Waste. When I say “mature,” I mean it’s a little heavier sounding. We have an extra guitar player now. They are Municipal Waste songs. We didn't really change up our format or anything. It’s kinda how we always been. The response has been incredible. I haven’t read a bad review yet. Seems like people are real excited about it.
AR: It’s gotta be tough for you guys to get together to record. Everyone in the band seems to have several side projects they are part of.
TF: Yeah. We try spread it out. Make sure we have time for our other projects. This is the primary focus for the next couple of years. It took a lot of time to get everything together but once we really buckled down, it was easy. WE got back in the grove of it. We are stepped away from it for a little while to step back in the grove of it was a lot of fun.
AR: I’m pretty excited that this album is being released on cassette as well. That means I can rock it in my ’97 Lumina.
TR: Yeah I gotta Aeo minivan with a tape deck. I can listen to it there too. (laughs)
AR: There is something about cassettes. It so old school and with your band’s sound with the old-school thrash vibe, it’s the perfect way to listen to it.
TR: I’m surprised not more of the bigger metal bands do cassettes. It’s a fun thing and the people who own cassette players are like, “Fuck yeah!” They buy ‘em. They usually sell out pretty fast. So why not do cassettes? We’ve done a few cassettes and I’ve done it with a few of my other bands
AR: So do you think Kathy Griffin is gonna pick up a copy?
TR: Sure! I doubt it. Didn’t sound like she knew much about metal. I hope she checks it out. She’s a member of the “bad boys club” now so….
AR: So about The Warped Tour. Municipal Waste is one of the reasons I’m going this year. It will probably be the first time I have gone in 15 years. How did you guys become a part of The Warped Tour?
TR: They approached us about it. I wasn’t very interested. Like you said, the last 10-15 years there wasn’t a lot of bands that I would be interested in seeing or touring with. When they initially asked, us we were like, no thanks, That’s not our cup of tea. Then they explained to us what they were doing, bringing back the old aesthetic of it and asked for a lot of the older bands and the up and coming punk bands. It looked really cool. They told us bands they were asking and who they had in mind, they asked a couple of my friends like, “Sick of it All.” It seemed like a positive thing. I’ve never done it before, so it’s also kinda off my checklist of doing an outdoor festival tour, I’ve never really done anything like that. It should be pretty cool.
AR: I was pretty excited about this year’s line up as well. I could recognize most of the bands this year and the ones I could recognize, I really wanted to see.
TR: There is actually bands on it that I hang out with that are friends of mine that I am excited to spend the summer with. It’s cool. It’s a tour where I’m going to know a lot of people. It’s like summer camp or something. (Laughs)
AR: So you guys are traveling a lot. What kind of stops to you like to make while you are on the road?
TR: Most of us will go to a record store. Dave (Witte) of course will try to find the local brewery. Me and Dave brought bicycles along on this tour. So, while we are at Warped Tour after we play are set we can just get on our bikes and ride around the city and check out where all the fun stuff is. I love exploring stuff. If I have friends in a certain town we are playing, I’ll ask them what we should do, what we should see. I’d like to learn a little bit more of the historical side of things of cities we go to but I haven’t really had a chance to do that yet.
I love weird road side America kind of shit. Like you can see a giant stuffed ape two stories tall and I’m like yeah! I wanna see that! If I see, like, a bunch of gigantic dinosaurs on the side of the road, I wanna pull in there and get a picture.
AR: Just 2 more questions and I’ll let you go. The first is, if you were stranded on a deserted island and could only drink one beer for the rest of your life, what would it be?
TR: I don’t know. It would have to be something light. I don't wanna drink any thick as IPAs in a hot ass desert. I would probably drink Tecate. I love drinking Tecate hot or some shitty beer every once in a while.
AR: Who do you think would win in a steel cage match, Kathy Griffin or Marilyn Manson?
TR: Is this Marilyn Manson with the stilts in that spooky outfit?
AR: He can totally wear the spooky outfit.
TR: I don’t know enough about Kathy Griffin to really judge her on her fighting prowess. Marilyn Manson will probably bite her or something. It’s all too kinky for me man. I can’t really answer that question.
AR: Tony thanks for your time today and I really look forward to seeing you when you make your stop in Cincinnati on July 19th.
TR: Thanks! I love Cincinnati
