Saviours
Interview Marek Steven
Photography Andreas Kohler
Saviours are a meaty and lauded four-piece metal act from Oakland, CA. Formed in 2004, they have a unique speed-sludge sound that often sees them wrongly labeled stoner rock. Instead, they are arguably a heavy-as-hell heavy metal band in the classic tradition. The band released their first EP, Warship (Level Plane Records, 2005), and their first full-length album, Crucifire (Level Plane Records, 2006) to general acclaim in the metal world and elsewhere.
Like the Bay Area’s most famous sons, Metallica, they draw their influences from the late ’70s and ’80s bands of the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM). Saviours would have been the heaviest band in the world if they had formed in 1983. Indeed, they actually aren’t too far off holding that title in 2009. What separates them from some of their peers is that you can clearly hear the raw energy of metal originators like Motörhead and Venom in their epic and pummeling material. This rough edge gives the tunes longevity and an unmistakable authenticity. With incredible artwork and suitably dark lyrics from singer and guitarist Austin Barber, it’s clear why they are one of the bands leading “true” heavy metal’s return to prominence. An accurate compliment would be to say that Metallica’s late and legendary original bassist Cliff Burton would probably play in Saviours if he were alive today.
In 2007, Saviours moved to the super cool NYC label Kemado Records, where they released their second EP, Cavern of Mind (Kemado, 2007) and their mammoth second LP, Into Abaddon (Kemado, 2008). The band was recently hand picked by Mastodon and The Sword for long tours. This year they are taking a break from preparing new material to attack Europe again on their own headline trek. Unusually, it’s Saviours’ passionate and no-nonsense drummer, Scott Batiste, who writes the songs. We caught up with Scott to talk about heavy metal, winning serious fans and the end of the world.
What was your earliest experience of getting into heavy music? Was there a key moment?
Yeah totally, when I was young. I grew up in Santa Cruz, maybe you’ve heard of the Santa Cruz skateboards? Well, pretty much everybody in fucking Santa Cruz skateboards. It is just part of growing up there. You watch the skate videos and you get into punk and metal from there. And I think the first time I got into it was through the Thrasher magazine skate rock comps. All those old cassettes they did. I got one in sixth grade or thereabouts in elementary school, and it was all downhill from there (laughs). I think someone re-released them. I still have the old tapes somewhere.
I’ve read that Black Sabbath had an impact on you as well.
Yeah, my mom’s second husband had a pretty crazy vinyl collection. I still have his old Sabbath records. They all still have a little sticker with his name on them. But yeah, he had all the Sabbath records and shit. I remember when I put on the first Sabbath record on I was like ‘I’m going to get in trouble for listening to this!’ But I didn’t stop (laughs). So that was like a key moment too.
Black Sabbath’s debut is still an incredible record.
Yeah, it’s still very powerful. I don’t think it’s ever going to lose its powers.
What are you mainly listening to right now?
Lately I’ve been really into a lot of German thrash: Kreator, Exumer, Sodom, Destruction. I don’t know, I’ve been in a weird ’80s time warp lately where nothing new sounds good to me. Or I just don’t think it’s worth a shit. And I’m really excited to be playing Roadburn Festival because Saint Vitus, Neurosis and Angel Witch are going to be there.
Roadburn has a fantastic line-up.
I said, ‘Put us wherever you want on the bill, but I have to see Angel Witch and I have to see Saint Vitus. Don’t make us play while they’re playing.’ Luckily that worked out, but we are playing against Church of Misery, which sucks! But hopefully we’ll be able to catch a little bit of those guys.
And after Roadburn I heard you are popping to All Tomorrow’s Party’s in Minehead just to see Sleep’s reformation gigs.
Basically, the Roadburn people were trying to get us a whole tour. They wanted to fly us out but they couldn’t afford to do it just for the one show. So I talk to all these people, but I don’t know, it’s hard to get people to correspond with me. So I was like, ‘Fuck it. I’m just going to do this myself.’ So I booked the whole tour. And I saw Matt Pike one day at a practice and he was like, ‘Dude, Sleep’s playing!’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I know, it’s all over the Internet. People are talking about it.’ And so I booked the tour so it ends in London the day before. Matt was like, ‘You’ve got be there so we can get blasted and shit.’ So we’re going to go to it and barge that shit, wreak havoc. Sleep seem really cool and excited. I’ve heard some crazy stuff about what goes on at that festival. It sounds like it’s going to be awesome.
But it must be strange coming to the west coast of England to see Sleep? Both yourselves and Sleep are from North California.
Yeah, you know, actually in Oakland there are a lot of people that are pretty pissed about it. Like ‘What the fuck? You guys have to do an Oakland show. This is retarded!’ But it is what it is you know? I’ve talked to a lot of friends that are going to be there so I’m sure we’re going to have a good time.
The story is that Saviours formed during a vision quest. Is there an element of truth to that?
Oh yeah, absolutely. Basically Austin and I were in another band together and that band was really dysfunctional. It was impossible to do anything. So we were like, ‘Fuck this, let’s do a heavier band that’s more in line with what we want to do and what we’re into’. It was like the bands I was in when I was 21. It’s fun then, but fuck it, I’m over it. Austin was in another band as well and they did a tour of Europe. The whole time he was there he was doing tons of weed and mushrooms and shit and writing lyrics and coming up with ideas and stuff. Basically, he put this band together through his friends. We kind of conceptualized the band before we played any music. We were like, ‘This is how it’s going to be,’ and that was the way we did it. As far as the vision quest goes – transcendental and all that shit. I don’t know, but there is some truth to it, definitely.
As a band you seem to exude a certain confidence.
I think that all of us have played music for so long and been in so many weird bands, we’ve done things and just have learned what not to do. We’ve all toured forever so touring is the same thing for us all. We just all get along and still party together and have fun, you know? If the band is not fun anymore I’m not going to fucking do it.
What’s the secret to surviving long tours and not killing each other?
We’ve all just done it for so long we’ve managed to weed out the shitty personalities; people that can’t hang or just take it for granted or whatever. I spent most of my twenties playing shit shows, art galleries, basements of houses and shit. To turn up at a gig now and they have a rider and shit for you, well that’s killer. I still really appreciate it and I don’t take it for granted. You play
with some guys and it’s their first band and they’re like ‘This sucks and the sound guy sucks.’ I don’t know. I definitely still really enjoy it.
And what are you guys working on right now?
We’re recording some new demos for a new album we’re doing in the summer. We’re at our practice space right now and this guy Scott Ecklein that shares the room with us is recording it. He’s in a band called Clipd Beaks.
A new album is almost done then?
We’ve finished writing it. It’s pretty much there. It’s nine songs. We’re doing a couple of covers. Kemado is putting out three 7-inches in June sometime. They are from the demo material and there are a couple of covers.
Cool, I don’t remember you guys doing any covers before. What are they?
Judas Priest “Running Wild” and Saxon “Thunder in the Sky”. It’s pretty cool. We’re really excited about how they’ve come out. We haven’t done any covers before live in the UK I don’t think. But we used to play a Motörhead cover and a Sweet track.
You artwork is always really killer. What’s the plan for the next album cover?
The artwork is actually pretty far along. This guy Tim Lehi, a tattooist from San Francisco, he’s doing an amazing painting for it. It’s fucking crazy. He’s a total badness. He’s been drawing flyers and posters and shit for years. When he was young in the ’80s and ’90s he pretty much did every metal show that came through Kansas.
Saviours have more than once been called inspirational heavy band since you formed. Is it nice to feel like an influence on new bands coming through?
I don’t know, sometimes when I hear shit like that it just really trips me out. I’m still very influenced by the stuff that I’m into. I guess I can see it, but it’s a little weird to think that what I’m doing might influence somebody. But it’s really cool when some dude comes up and has a tattoo of our pyramid pentagram thing. That’s fucking nuts! This one guy tripped me out. I remember when we showed up at the show in Pittsburgh and this kid has this tattoo on his arm of the fucking pentagram. He’s waiting for us to show up. We had this show with Earthless in Chicago the night before and we’re so hungover. And this kid showed up three hours ago to see us. I talked to him and I’m like, ‘What’s up with this thing? I’ve never seen you before.’ And he was like, ‘I saw you in Baltimore with Doomriders and it totally changed the way that I dig music.’ And at that Baltimore show I was drunk! It was nothing special at all. It was like 50 people at a shitty bar. But apparently it affected someone. It definitely trips me out. It is cool.
Those kind of encounters must help make the hard work worthwhile?
Almost all of us are unemployed. We’re down at the rehearsal studio like 20 or 30 hours a week. It’s just about us having a good time and doing stuff we think is rad.
Are you still writing all the songs on a knackered old bass?
Well, we have a new guitar player, this guy Sonny Reinhardt. He’s from this band Watch Them Die and he’s a fucking total shredder. And on the new album he wrote a couple of the songs. But I still wrote most of them. I’ve been playing guitar this time. I got this Flying V from Craigslist. It’s a Gibson copy and I’ve been playing it like crazy. I just started getting into writing on guitar so I think that approach will be more apparent on the new shit. It’s a little more riffy or something. It’s a little faster.
Can you talk about your excellent, dark lyrics?
Austin writes everything. The general thing about the lyrics is that pretty much when Austin writes them he gets into a really fucking bad place for a couple of days afterwards. Like he’s been a pain in the ass lately (laughs). It’s kind of weird to explain but everything is basically ‘The end is coming, the end is here.’ And he just partied really hard and got really depressed about shit. He spat all this shit out. It’s just pages and pages of notes and it’s like ‘Dude, how are you going to get a song out of this?’ Then he’ll refine it. He’ll be in a bad mood forever and then he’ll get over it. The apocalypse, fuck work, fuck the rhythm of life, fuck everybody.
Yeah, I got those bleak ‘end-time’ vibes from your lyrics.
Pretty much it’s all bullshit. It’s all fucking disgusting and fuck you all. That’s where we stand but at the same time we’re all amiable guys to hang with. We’re just shitting it out, you know? Middle America is really fucking depressing. We hang out, watch movies and talk shit. We’re into weird art and being creative. Just doing something. But yeah, the world is pretty terminally fucked.
