Whitechapel on touring, writing and the 2010 Soundwave Festival

We caught up with Whitechapel's Alex Wade recently, most ostensibly to talk about their forthcoming Soundwave appearances throughout Australia in 2010. Unfortunately, the interview was quite short because the phone connection was absolute shite. Ah well; you win some, you lose some. But suffice it to say, the guys are hell excited about hitting the land down under this coming February.

 

When I spoke with Whitechapel guitarist Alex Wade about their forthcoming appearance at the 2010 Soundwave Festivals, they were in the middle of a tour. They were on the road with Trivium, and other support acts according to the stage of the tour cycle. Because they were travelling and hanging out every day, and having a good time, it was a lot more fun than it was work.

Last time I talked to these guys, it was just prior to a massive headlining run in Australia, which incorporated thirteen dates and stacks of regional shows. It was great to get the opportunity to talk to the guys about how that tour went for them. And it is something that they'd do again.

'We got to play the bigger and smaller cities. We got to play Sydney and stuff, to a pretty big crowd – there was about three hundred and fifty people there – and we played the smaller cities like Wagga Wagga. There wasn't as many people there but the shows were just as fun.'

Despite having been touring really hard, Whitechapel have been writing new material. When I spoke to Alex, the band had already written new tracks, and they are looking forward to hitting the studio to start recording in January 2010.

The forthcoming release promises to be in the same vein as Whitechapel material generally, but very heavy, very brutal, and what you'd expect from the band without it being just a rehash. As it was explained to me, it would be a fairly middle-of-the-road type of release.

Earlier this year, Whitechapel played the SxSW Showcase. For those of you who don't know, SxSW is one of the world's biggest music industry events. I was curious to find out if that sort of show – the Showcase – had a different vibe from others that the band tended to play.

'Not really, it just happens like a regular show,' Wade said. 'There are two shows at SxSW … one's more for management and then in the evening there's the regular SxSW show. There were tons of people there.'

This year, too, Whitechapel launched their official fan club – and it is something that gives the guys are more direct interaction with their fans. Unlike some fan clubs, which have fans directly involved in the running of the sites, the Whitechapel fan club site is run by the band itself.

'With the MySpace and stuff like that it's impossible to get to every comment and every message that is sent to us, but with the fan club there's a message board. People can address specific questions to each individual band member. With that website you know, it's not just some moderator answering the questions for us. Every answer that is made is coming from the band member,' Wade explained. 'So, I think it's a good way for Whitechapel fans to interact with each other as well.'

The 2010 Soundwave Festivals will be Whitechapel's first appearance on that festival tour. Given that this is the case, I had to find out if it would be much of a different experience for them, playing such a huge bill – one that is mostly not metal.

'Ah yeah. We're gonna stick out in the crowd, and … people are definitely going to be there for us, you know what I mean? So, if somebody's coming there to listen to something that's like pop or indie or something bad, then there's gonna be like ten or fifteen other bands that sound like that,' Alex explained. 'So they're not really gonna understand or take the time to listen to us. But if there's only a handful of metal fans, and they're there to listen to something heavy, then they're definitely gonna be there for our stage. So, like Meshuggah will be on it, and they're a really big influence on us, so we're really excited to be playing with them.'

One of the things that Whitechapel are hoping is to pick up some new fans out of doing the Soundwave tour.

'That's ultimately one of the goals of touring, is to get a new fanbase and expose people to your stuff,' Wade said. 'So, um, maybe some of those people who are there to listen to the pop and indie bands will drop by our stage and will hear something that they like and might get interested.'

Because the interview was done so far ahead of the Soundwave Festival tour, Whitechapel hadn't had any ideas for a set-list yet, nor even their running times.

'I don't even know how long we'll be playing, or what our timeslot is or anything,' said Wade. 'But we'll be definitely be playing some songs off the This is Exile album, and maybe we'll throw on some old goodies from the Somatic Defilement album too.'

Before I let the guys go, they wanted me to point out to all the Whitechapel fans out there that they'll probably be playing fairly early in the day, so if you're heading there to see this band in particular, make sure you're on deck early enough to catch them.

The Soundwave Festival tour is happening throughout Australia from 20 Feb to 1 March 2010.