We managed to catch up with Throwdown frontman Dave Peters whilst on his UK tou. Name: Dave Peters Age: 25 Instrument: Vocals How did the band start? The band actually started off in 1997 as a total joke just so the members at the time could play some shows/rival their friends’ bands. Considering that the only thing we’ve kept since then is the name and basic values it was founded on, the band was kind of reborn in the beginning of 2004 when we took on new faces and set out to be a full-time touring machine. What’s your favourite song to perform live and why? Hmm, I think for me it’s Discipline. I think Mark and Matt like playing that one a lot too. The main riff and the bridge riff are a lotta fun and it’s got a good energy to it. It also helps that it’s relatively new to our set and we aren’t burnt out on it like some of the songs off the last record we’ve played well over 500 times. Was it a tough decision to move to being a full-time band as opposed to a “project” and what difficulties did that present? I think it was a pretty ballsy move for us cus we left a lot behind to dive head first into travelling full time. That’s not easy when you don’t really ease into it gradually. That part was a little difficult and it wasn’t easy having to change the lineup so drastically in order to make it happen, but it worked out for the best I think. That’s life I guess. You make sacrifices and just try things or you sit around and just wonder what you could be doing. How was the tour with Arch Enemy? It was real cool man. We didn’t know what to expect goin into it. We just thought it was cool cus all the bands were real different from each other and we liked the idea of playing out to new audiences. It turned out great and the majority of those fans are just as open-minded as they are loyal. I was telling someone the other day how weird it was to have people in Testament and At The Gates shirts singing our praises. Not something you really expect being a band that prides itself on being raw and minimalists. haha. What’s the best and worst thing about touring? The best thing is getting paid to go all over the world doing what you love. I feel guilty telling people what I do for a living because it’s almost certain that in one or more aspects it’s more rewarding than their job. On the other hand, I leave the people I love at home for months on end. That’s the worst part. Those people in my life are very tolerant and supportive to say the very least. What’s the funniest thing that has happened to you on tour? Hmm, I dunno. It’s kind of a non-stop circus so you sort of go numb to what’s truly entertaining at times. I sang an acapella version of Skid Row’s “Monkey Business” from start to finish in a parking lot with an intoxicated Sebastian Bach once. That was right after Matt Byrne brought him on our bus without warning and prompted him to scream “Youth Gone Wild”. In retrospect that was more amazing than funny. How do UK audiences compare to others around the world? I gotta say, there’s a lot of respect from UK fans. That goes a long way for a band on a support bill, yknow? The people are real sincere and respectful but at the same time, like I said, very loyal. They do their best to walk that line of showing their greatest respects to the headlining band but still recognizing the bands before em and keeping and open mind to them. There’s also a lot less chatting between songs than in the US. It’s cool, cus they’re actually curious to hear what you have to say. They did pay their hard earned money to hear it afterall, so it makes sense I guess! They’re not as quiet as the crowds in Japan after a song, though. THat’s just straight up intimidating. They’re hanging on every word which is awesome, but then you really gotta watch what you say. UK fans are a lot like Australians now that I think about it. They both have funny accents too. We like that. How was it working with a producer as great as Zeuss, and would you consider working with him again? It was awesome man. Especially as it was our first experience with a legitimate producer. He’s a real good guy and knows his shit very well. You feel like you’re in good hands when you’re in the studio with him. Like there’s no way in hell he’s gonna let something slip by sounding like shit. We’d love to work with him again. We talked about it as soon as we finished Vendetta together and we were all stoked. I guess it’s just a matter of timing and scheduling now. Hopefully it could work out. Does working in the studio come easily, or is it more of a battle? I don’t think much in our genre comes easily, but it’s definitely not a battle. We love what we’re doing, so it’s hard to look at it that way, even during the most tedious of times in the recording. Like any project there’s obstacles to get through in order to make everyone involved happy, but if you’re gonna come as far as recording an album with a real budget and real producer then you’ve hopefully come together with people that are all on the same page. We are. So maybe we use our studio time a little wiser than band members and their producers that are not? I don’t know. How was it having Howard Jones and Sean Martin in to guest on Vendetta? Is there anyone you would like to work with in the future? Those guys are both amazing. We wanted them in there even if they just tormented Zeuss and refused to go anywhere near a mic or a guitar pick. We had a good time just eating pizza with them, let alone writing lyrics down on a paper plate afterwards for them to read from. We told Howard he could belt out some proper singing parts if he wanted but he said our record was too hard for that. haha. Would have been interesting to see how it would’ve gone over though! We’ve always got friends of ours to do guest parts so i’m sure that we’ll get another to jump on the next album, but there’s definitely a ton of people we don’t even know but love their music. It would be cool to get the singer of Meshuggah on our record! He’s probably never heard of us, but we’ve got a mutual friend that can maybe work some magic. We’d love to get Max Cavalera on a track one day as well. I did a couple of old Sepultura songs with Soulfly on our tour together and it was just awesome. What are your opinions on how the heavy music scene seems to be divided into its various sections, and do you think it’s healthy? Well, when I first got into hardcore years ago being a fan of metal, you never saw the paths cross really. It’s cool to see tours like the one with us and Arch Enemy or with Lamb of God or even the As I Lay Dying tour in the states right now that has Madball, Norma Jean and A Life Once Lost on it. Obviously people are going to cut up music into fine slivers they like to call genres, but at the end of the day if the bands making the music are still coming together then it doesn’t matter. I think there’s a lot of camaraderie between bands inside and out of heavy music and yes I think it’s a good thing. What do you think is the greatest album of 2005? There’s this real catchy rock band from Seattle called Acceptance. Their record “Phantoms” is just awesome from start to finish. I think that’s what makes an album good is being a sweet ride from the first to the last song, not just a collection of three awesome songs with a bunch of random filler. They put out an awesome record. haha I’m sure Roadrunner fans are reading this going “catchy rock?! What the shit is he talking about?” We like a lot of different kinds of music. The very close runner up is the Demon Hunter record, “The Triptych.” That band slays. Of your peers in the scene, who do you rate as one of the next big things? A Life Once Lost is a killer band. I think them and The Agony Scene are going to do some big things. What do you hope to achieve with the band in the coming years? We’d like to do Ozzfest again if given the opportunity. I dunno really. We just sort of go with the flow and do our thing and we’re stoked whenever something new comes our way. Ultimately, we just hope that metal and hardcore has a huge future and we’d like to be a huge part of it.