Interview with:
Kyle “Gumby” Gunther of Battlecross
August 30, 2015
The Granada Lawrence Kansas
By Ace Sims, RockRevolt Contributer
We are here with Kyle Gunter of Battlecross. How you doing bud?
Kyle: Living the dream, looking out for the nightmare.
You guys are a few shows in on the 30 Years of Domination Tour with GWAR. How’s that going?
Kyle: It’s good, we had our record release right before we came out here. We are on week two now.
August has been pretty good for you guys, you released “Rise to Power” August 21st. You just started the tour with GWAR and Butcher Babies. Lots of exciting things happening.
Kyle: It was 77 shows with GWAR till December.
Wow going till December, so you’re on the whole bill?
Kyle: Yeah we get two weeks off at the end of September and then it is back out.
What are you going to do with those two weeks?
Kyle: Go home and do things I am not going to be able to get done. Dude I got honey do’s and catch up’s, my kid is going to be starting school. So it’s just like, oh man. What’s going to be weird man is he is going to be at school now, I won’t know what to do with myself. He is going to be five. I am going to get called by the school and their going to be like he said fuck head today and he is calling everyone an asshole.
Where did he get that from?
Kyle: He got asshole from his mom, that’s for sure.
So fuck head from you?
Kyle: Yup
Battlecross “Absence” from the “Rise to Power” album
So let’s talk about this tour, you guys are a few dates in, I actually know a few people in Des Moines. They said you tore it up there, had a good response from them
Kyle: Yeah man Des Moines was fun.
You said you guys are doing 77 dates on this tour, so besides those two weeks, you have no down time?
Kyle: We never do, when we did Crowbar that was five weeks that was all of June. We did, I want to say 18-20 in a row, like solid, no fucks given.
So what’s that do to you, your style of singing. Do you do a lot of vocal work or are you like fuck it, this is what I do, I am used to it.
Kyle: I mean you got to stretch and you have to do everything like that. I am hoarse right now because we did not have time to practice, we had our headlining shows where we were doing an hour and fifteen. We just went out and I have not had time to recuperate. I suck at talking but I am pretty good at screaming.
Yeah man you guys were out touring quite a bit before this one as well. You guys seem to always be on tour.
Kyle: Were road dogs man. Man I don’t give a fuck, I am doing what I love.
So what’s it like doing this tour without Tony?
Kyle: Actually it’s not bad at all. We got our merch guy that’s also, he is our merch/tech guy. We had him out on Mayhem, he is a luthier so he knew what he was doing.
Now Tony, did he just have a kid?
Kyle: Any day now.
This is going to be his first one, so he has to be home for that one right?
Kyle: Yeah I was even like, you’re not coming right? Good. I kind of wanted to be like you could just fly home when you get the call, but no man he needs to be there.
So you guys are doing this 77 show gig, you just had the album release, are you going out on a headlining gig after this.
Kyle: NO!
So you’re putting the brakes on.
Kyle: I am putting the fucking breaks on, I’ll be like you all can fuck off.
Let’s talk about “Rise to Power,” you guys just released the album August, 21st. It was recorded at Audio Hammer Studio. How was the recording process?
Kyle: It was awesome, we went back to Audio Hammer. We knew that Mark had the sound we wanted to get. Fortunately enough we got to work with Jason Suecof. I did most all my work with Jason, I really enjoyed it. He knew what he wanted to do and he knew what he wanted me to do. And he knew what the fuck he was doing, I was like you got this.
I had read some other interviews with Hiran and he was like I would play my guitar parts and Jason would pick up a guitar and just make me look like shit. So Hiran was like we trusted in Jason he knew what was going on. I also read where you guys had time to put this album out there was no rush.
Kyle: No, we were pushed like a mother fucker.
Really I read where Hiran said it was one of the easiest going albums you have done.
Kyle: Na man that’s a fucking lie.
I see, the truth comes out.
Kyle: We were trying to get on Mayhem so we figured if we just booked the fucking recording and got everything going we would get on Mayhem, but we didn’t get on Mayhem. Then we had a tour cancelation that fucked everything again because like as soon as we got that tour we set our schedule and everything went up in shit. So we had to tour in the middle of trying to write an album, so that kind of took a month away from us. In all actuality we wrote and recorded this album in not more than five months.
“Not your Slave” has been pretty highly received out there. I read a review from “New Noise Magazine” they said it could be the best thrash song of the decade. They also called you guys Megadeth on steroids, which is how they listed you guys in their magazine. I have listened to the album and it is really good. You have that dual vocal styling where you can get that higher ranged growl type scream then you can drop it back low.
Kyle: I call that spittin fire. It takes a lot of cock sucking.
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You guys did the video for “Absence,” the crowd shots out on tour, how was that was it a good time?
Kyle: We did it a couple times, we did it at Saint Vitus in Brooklyn. It was pretty cool.
Now when you recorded that was that you just guys playing?
Kyle: Well we did like one fake take, and the rest was all fucking crowd shit. We were there three different days and they just had different camera guys out it was really cool, I really enjoyed it. I think it will be our last live video though.
So compared to your other albums “War of Will” and “Pursuit of Honor” where do you put it?
Kyle: It smokes it.
One more thing I saw you guys are giving away a guitar with the “Rise to Power” cover art on it, which is phenomenal.
Kyle: It’s really cool, I was even like, can I get that.
So how can people get that?
Kyle: Yeah go to the Facebook page and read the instructions, I think maybe ESP also. I think it was an ESP or an LTD, I don’t know man I am not a guitar player.
http://www.espguitars.com/articles/1997454-battlecross-rise-to-power-ex-giveaway
Also the album is available everywhere, Amazon, iTunes, and Best Buy.
Kyle: Yeah man and FYE, the Butcher Babies were at FYE and were like we saw your album.
Right on man, anything you want to tell the fans?
Kyle: If you live in America and you have not seen Battlecross, get with it because we’re going to be around till December.
Kyle man we really appreciate your time, get in there and get ready for the show.
Kyle: Later!
