Rob Cavestany: Honestly, all of them were killer for us. All of the different stages of the game and all the stepping stones along the way, they were always fun. The Ultra Violence tour in Europe and the United States, being so young and our first time, that was unforgettable beyond belief. The Act III tour was great in that we were on a killer tour bus and were at a higher level and our shows were sold out everywhere. We were playing great venues and had all this sound and stage production. It was awesome. We thought we were Kiss when we were doing that, not to mention that I had just turned 21 at that point and was having a blast drinking legally for the first time. The reunion tour was outrageous because we didn’t expect that kind of reaction and we didn’t even expect to be reunited again. Having that reaction after 12 years of non-existence was mind blowing. I’m sure this tour is going to be great because we’re on another playing field now. We feel like we did during Act III. We’ve been back together for a while now, we put out another album, and we have a different focus for this album.
Was Death Angel your first band?
That was it. There couldn’t have been a band before that. Andy (Galeon, drums) was like 9 years old when we were doing our first club shows. Death Angel was first called Dark Fury.
Being such a young band, how did the other groups in the Bay Area scene treat you back then?
They actually treated us killer. I like to think it was because we seriously rocked. And you can’t help to throw in the novelty factor. We were embryonic. We were little pipsqueaks playing this music as hard as we could for all we were worth. Then throw in the fact that we were all cousins, and looked like 5 Asian girls at that time. Seeing skinny little runts go off like that must have been a trip for everybody to look at. But we would be pissed if anybody brought up that we were a novelty, because we wanted to be recognized for our music. Then eventually we were.
Did you ever run into any racial issues or problems?
Of course. That’s always the case, but we tried to not focus on it as much as possible. It got less and less as time went by, but certainly there were pockets of time and place where we had to deal with some of that.
Do you feel an affinity with all those Bay Area thrash groups you came up with in the ‘80s?
Yeah, we all go down to the Bay Area Thrash legends club night and have our prunes. (laughs) These days we’re all in our own worlds. We don’t hang out like we used to. Back in the day it was all about hanging out at shows and parties. Everyone was everywhere and it was great. But as time goes on people get more involved in their bands as a career and job, and you’re working all the time. Nowadays we run into each other at various shows or on the road. So we still have some nights out with the boys on the road.
There has been a resurgence of the classic thrash bands in the past few years and a whole generation of new thrash bands. Did you envision that when you got together that night in 2001 for what was supposed to be one show?
No, I wasn’t even thinking about it. We were sucked out of a hole. At the time I was on tour with Swarm, which was a band that me, Mark and Andy had with a different bass player. We were playing heavy rock and weren’t thinking about Death Angel. It was broken up and done in our book. When it came to doing that show, I could barely open up to reuniting for that show. But the cause was so strong that I focused on the cause and said we’d open up Pandora’s box for one night only. That’s all I allowed myself to think about. I wasn’t thinking about the scene or what would happen after that. It was going to be one crazy night and we’d be back on the road with Swarm. What happened next was one thing unfolding into the next. It was insane. I’m glad, I just didn’t expect that it was going to happen.
Last year you released a solo album Lines On The Road. What type of music was it?
It’s like Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde compared to Death Angel. It’s a total departure from the heavy sound of Death Angel. But if you are Death Angel fan you get a hint of it on different albums. There’s a lot of acoustic stuff and mellower sections. But that album is 100 percent chill. I love playing that kind of music. I finally got to release that album. I’ve been doing that kind of music all along, but never released it.
You worked with former Death Angel guitarist Gus Pepa on your solo album. How was that?
It rules working with Gus. I’m so glad I got to do music with Gus. He and I love to sit there and jam the night away on acoustics. Andy played drums on it too. It’s a different side of the whole thing.
You’ve been on independent and major labels over the years. How have the record labels changed in your years in the music industry?
They’ve gone through such different stages. To me it’s almost back to where it was back then. For our genre of music some of these indie labels are the ones who know how to market metal. I’ve noticed a trend lately where the major labels are picking metal bands. Some know what to do with them and some don’t. I know Lamb Of God, Mastodon and Shadows Fall have recently made the jump to majors. What is a successful number of sales on an indie is not a successful number on a major label. There are different parameters, and that was happening back then. All of a sudden the majors started signing metal bands. We signed to Geffen, Testament got signed, Exodus was on Capitol. It was like all the majors had to try metal bands, but they weren’t sure what to do. Geffen didn’t know what to do with us. They were getting mixed up trying to market us. Where we’re at today with Nuclear Blast is great. They are one of the best metal labels and we are stoked. We are a priority for them and get a lot of respect from them. They know how to market their metal. We couldn’t be happier.
