Cannibal Corpse’s music is brutal and violent and has caused a lot of controversy over the years, but offstage the members of the band are just regular guys. I really enjoyed interviewing Alex Webster. His answers were thoughtful and detailed, and we covered a myriad of topics including his musical beginning and inspirations, the most underrated Cannibal Corpse album, the biggest changes he’s seen in the music industry and much more.
Chad Bowar: You've always been with Metal Blade, who have been around for 25 years. What makes them such a good label?
Alex Webster: Metal Blade is a label that’s dedicated to metal. We have a close personal relationship with the people we work with. You can get on the phone with the very top people if you need to. We have a good relationship with the staff there from top to bottom. They're all dedicated to metal. Brian Slagel, the boss there, makes sure to hire metalheads. It's a metal label, and we really like being on a label that's dedicated to metal.
Is there any place you haven't toured?
There are places we haven't been that nobody goes to. We want to go pretty much anywhere. We've never played in the Ukraine and that's a place we would like to play eventually. Because of visa problems at the time, we weren't able to play there. We tried to go there a couple years ago, but it didn't work out. We'll play just about anywhere if it's safe to go there and if we can actually make it happen. We want to play South Africa because we've never been there. The reason we can't get down there is not due to any legal stuff, it's because the price of the plane tickets is so much. There's no way that the promoter can afford to get us down there.
When you tour in Europe, do you ship your gear over there or do you rent gear once you arrive?
The tour company will have rental gear for us because it's just too much money to ship it. We might look into shipping some of it. We always bring our own guitars and things that are lighter that we can bring without too much expense. You've got to have your own guitars. That's something you are in actual physical contact with and it's important for the physical performance of the song. But amplifiers and stuff like that are no problem. Renting the drum kit for Paul can be a problem sometimes. Drummers need everything just perfect.
When you're doing a tour like this one, when you haven't just released an album, is your set list different?
Normally we play for an hour and 15 minutes or so. We try to make sure every album is represented by at least one song. It's becoming more and more difficult, because we have 10 studio albums filled with original songs. We have over 100 songs to choose from and it's not easy. None of them are written to be filler, so there are going to be fans of the various songs because they are all songs that we put equal effort into. People want to hear them. So we pick the ones that we think come across best live and that people request.
You've played a lot of European festivals. Is there any one in particular that you really like to play?
The Wacken Festival is always a big highlight because it's such a big festival. But any of those festivals are really fun. They are all cool because it's outdoors. We've done a bunch of festivals, and they are usually a good time. We are generally not one of the biggest bands there. We love to play, but we also love to watch other bands play. We are fans of metal and if we play at three or four in the afternoon and there is still eight hours of music left, that's beautiful. We love that. We can have a beer or two and watch the bands. We don't like playing last all the time. We relish the opportunity to watch other bands when we are done.
Do you play European festivals for financial reasons, or is it more about the exposure?
It's mostly for exposure, but we've been getting big enough and paid well enough to make a minor profit. It's not like we are going over there for the money though. It's for the exposure. Most of the money we get paid ends up going to the cost of plane tickets. We have to make sure that when we get paid, it's enough to cover our expenses. If we don't make anything beyond that, it's no big deal because the exposure is so good.
