ANTHRAX Guitarist: 'I Really Don't Give A S**t' About The Music Industry

Brendan Crabb of Australia's Loud magazine recently conducted an interview with ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Loud: On the topic of "Worship Music", the new cover songs are being released soon, but have you started writing for another full-length record yet?

Scott: Not like, not really started writing, but there certainly are ideas. There's stuff that we never finished from "Worship Music" and some new stuff that we've been coming up with. But we haven't actually gotten in the room yet to start arranging stuff. That'll probably really start over the next few months, and then certainly after August, 'cause that's when we finish touring this year. After that we'll be really focused on writing and getting back in the studio.

Loud: How much, if at all, has the writing process changed within the band throughout the past three decades?

Scott: It hasn't changed at all. The writing process hasn't changed since "Among The Living". It's very much the same. I don't know really how it works. [laughs] Somehow magically Charlie [Benante, drums] and I come up with songs. But you know, it's not just Charlie and I, it certainly… It's always been a band. It's not just us, even though maybe sometimes the initial idea or something could be coming from Charlie or myself. But everybody's involved in arranging, coming up with melody ideas. Everybody is involved and everybody has a say. It's a very democratic process; I guess that would be the best way to put it.

Loud: You have Jon Donais [SHADOWS FALL] filling on guitar for that U.S. run and the Soundwave [festival] shows [in Australia] too. Are you still evaluating the situation with regard to a new, permanent player?

Scott: Yeah, we're not really thinking about it at all right now. Jon's filling in for Rob [Caggiano] and that's about as much as we're thinking about. We've known Jon for a long time; we've hung out with him a bunch over the years. I've actually worked with him before so, yeah, it kinda was a pretty easy decision to have him come and play with us.

Loud: Labels seem to be falling by the wayside in the current musical climate. What's your take on the future of the music industry?

Scott: I don't even know — I don't care; I have no idea. [laughs] I really don't give a shit about the industry. If anything, nothing would make me happier than… other than some of the good people who actually have jobs that would be hurting if they lost their gigs. But as far as I'm concerned, I can only hope that the whole industry collapses and has to start over, or figure out something else, because I really have nothing good to say about the record industry. When you think about the billions and billions of dollars that labels ripped off from bands from the 1940s all the way through to the 1990s, and now they complain about nobody buys records anymore. Well, whose fault is that, you know? These companies, corporations and individuals literally stole billions of dollars and you've got artists, bands who no longer exist and are literally like, a step away from being homeless, or living in assisted-living places, whatever it is. But you don't see most musicians retiring and living out the rest of their lives because they got some millions and millions of dollars' cash settlement, just to leave a record label. The whole fucking thing is insanity, the way record labels were run. Especially in the '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s when bands were really getting ripped off.

Read the entire interview from Loud magazine.