JOEY BELLADONNA On Being Frontman Of Anthrax “. I’m not overjoyed or anything like that. ‘Cause it doesn’t really present a lot of that with this band for me.”
ANTHRAX singer Joey Belladonna was interviewed on the latest installment of “The Metal Podcast”. You can now listen to the chat below. A few excerpts follow.
Regarding his unique vocal style in the heavy metal genre:
Joey: “I have my own style. I always wondered what I would sound like, and if I could be different than everyone else. And that, to me, is more satisfying… I love that, and that makes me happy, and that keeps me going alone, because nobody can do the same thing I do, the way I do it. And that’s the coolest thing, overall, more than just the music. So whatever I do, I know I can deliver something that’s a little different and unique.”
Regarding his initial reluctance to join ANTHRAX in early 1985:
Joey: “When I walked in [to audition for] ANTHRAX, I hadn’t done a whole lot of originals. I just began doing more [original songs with my previous band], ’cause we were just doing covers after covers. And then, just walking out of there after finishing that record [‘Spreading The Disease’], I was, like, This is it? This is interesting,’ not knowing that it was even a band that I even wanted to join. ‘Cause I wasn’t quite sure. I didn’t even know them. As a musician, I wasn’t sure that that was the band I wanted to join. They seemed to have their stuff together and it was really cool. I have to say it was decent. But I wasn’t too sure, you know.”
Regarding his dismissal from ANTHRAX in 1992:
Joey: “Whether I was right for them or not… obviously, they started chasing something else. It’s a drag to even see that that even happened. I wish we could have done something along the way to continue. It’s behind us, but I still can never figure it out. But it doesn’t bother me to a point where I wasn’t feeling good enough. I think I was just fine. We had a cool thing, which we still do, as you can see. It’s pretty easy to do what we do, ’cause we do it naturally; there’s nothing forced… I just do what I do, that I feel capable of doing. I think they eventually tried to see if they would mold me into something that maybe they were looking for. It’s hard when you’re in a band and you want something different than that person’s doing. That kind of sucks, and there was probably a little bit of that, which, to me, I couldn’t help that. Because I do what I do, and I do it well, but if you’re looking for something else, like in the ’90s when they wanted some growly, shouty, whatever the hell you wanna call it [type of singer], if I don’t do that, then what can I do for you? I don’t know. From the beginning, it was just something natural, and I wanted it to be as natural as possible.”
On having limited input when it comes to the songwriting in ANTHRAX:
Joey: “I just have a lot more freedom now. That’s why it’s even better, because I can do thirty more things in each song that I never would even get a chance to, because maybe they [the other members of ANTHRAX would be] there policing the whole thing, and before you know it, I didn’t get shit from it. I got what I got, and not to say it wasn’t good, but there was so much more I could offer. And I had plenty of ideas. That’s the easiest part for me — coming up with singing parts.”
Regarding how happy he currently is in ANTHRAX:
Joey: “I’m pretty content. I’m not overjoyed or anything like that. ‘Cause it doesn’t really present a lot of that with this band for me. Everybody’s individual and they all do their own thing. I mean, we do have a good time — there’s no doubt. We probably have as good a time as you possibly can without everybody calling home and being on the compute and their own phones and reading their own texts and their FaceTime and whatever the fuck they do.”
ANTHRAX and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE kicked off “The Killthrax Tour” on March 29 at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, New Jersey.
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