REVOCATION
Featuring bassist Brett Bamberger
Interviewed by Brett Tully
American technical death metal group, Revocation, was founded at the turn of the century by guitarist/vocalist David Davidson and drummer Phil Dubois-Coyne. In 2010 they added guitarist Dan Gargiub and 2012 saw the addition of bassist Brett Bamberger. Prior to the release of their 5th album, Deathless, I spoke with Brett about his history with the band, the new record and their recent signing with the legendary Metal Blade Records. Deathless is set be released on October 14th in the U.S. followed by an extensive worldwide tour.
RockRevolt: Tell us a little bit about your history with the band, you are the newest member, correct?
Brett Bamberger: Yeah, I joined a little over two years ago.
How did that come about?
I’ll make a long story short. I was filling in for this band The Binary Code in 2010. We did a tour with Revocation and HYPNO5E, it was a really shot tour attendance wise but we all had the best time hanging out, had fun and just killed it. I always kept in touch with the boys. When Anthony left they called me up and were like hey man you want to come do a couple tours with us and I was like yeah absolutely. About three quarters through the first tour we were doing with Fetus, they were like you should join the band and I was into it.
Do you recall your first live show with Revocation?
Yeah, it was actually a fly in show, it was Scion Festival down in Tampa. So my first gig with the band was a pretty high profile gig. Just partying real hard, big Scion Fest. Everybody was having a good time and it was a huge show, just awesome.
Your fifth album is being released on Oct. 14th, Deathless, can you tell us a little bit about it?
We recorded the record with Zeus. We’re super pumped on it. Since I joined the band we’ve just been grinding so hard. Touring non-stop, writing and demoing shit on the road and recording. Then going back into the studio on our down time and making cuts. The record is pretty rad. This one is themed more particular about Dave’s ideas of just us being on the road and our lifestyle and things like that. We got Tom Strom to do the artwork, Dave’s got a really big connection with that artist. Tom actually does all Dave’s tattoo work. It’s a pretty important release to us, a real heartfelt release because we’ve just been grinding so hard up to this moment.
Could you give us a little more detail on the writing process?
Dave’s the main songwriter and Dan will usually contribute about two songs per record. Those guys put dinner on the table and me and Phil add the salt n pepper on certain parts where they would suggest we could go off here, what do you think about that, then we’ll collaborate a little in the room. But for the most part those guys will send out demoed skeletons of songs and then I’ll bring them into Pro Tools and listen to them that way and play along with them, work out parts. It’s pretty thick, it’s fun, and it’s fast. Dave and Dan definitely do not have any shortages of riffs.
Getting back to your producer Zeus, he has an impressive resume including Shadows Fall, Hatebreed, and Suicide Silence, what was the experience like working with him.
Zeus is the man. I love that dude on many levels. A professional, easy to work with, great producer, gets great tones, he’s funny. I can’t ask for anything more than that, we had a blast doing it. Relaxed but at the same time our work pace was solid but we weren’t stressing. This was the first time I got to do a recording with the band where I had actual time to get ready and think about stuff. When I did the Scion EP, also with Zeus, I think I had a couple weeks to get those songs done. Originally Dave was going to record the bass then they were like no man you should do it. I was like o.k., I had to jump right into it. This one I was ready to go for it. It was cool.
You recently signed on with the legendary Metal Blade Records, how did that come about and how’s it going?
That was probably the most exciting point in my life to be honest with you. Where you get a great opportunity to work with a pretty large label and they gave us a really great deal and they’ve been a fucking joy to work with. I think I speak for everybody on this on just how really grateful to have this opportunity.
Quite a list of legendary bands to be a part of.
Yeah, but you know not for nothing we had a blast working with Relapse too. We’re just fortunate dudes. We’ve always had a great team behind us.
So no bad blood with Relapse, Metal Blade just came along with a better deal?
Yeah, pretty much. Actually my other band is signed to Relapse so I still hang out with those dudes.
Really, tell us about your other band.
I’m playing in two other bands. This one is called Publicist UK, it’s a Goth, Indy, punk, post-punk thing. It’s got Dave Witte from Municipal Waste playing drums, David Obuchowski from Goes Cube doing guitars and Zach Lipez from Freshkills singing. Then I’m doing another project in addition to that with Dave on drums and John Adobato from Burnt by the Sun on guitar and Harrison Christy from Psyopus doing vocals. We’ve got exciting news on that one coming up soon.
Sounds like you’re keeping busy.
Yes, you get one chance so just go for it. There’s so many sacrifices that you need to make in order to tour and to try to just do this with your life if you’re not going full throttle with it you’re just going to end up sitting around.
Is there one or two favorite moments with Revocation you could share with us?
To be honest we have so much fun together that every moment with us is my favorite moment. We wake up we start laughing right away. We love doing business together, we love playing together. Like every moment we spend together is the best.
That’s great to hear. Usually if you’re around the same people all the time it tends to get a little dicey at times.
We’re the type of band we could spend six months together and we always leave it like closer than the last time. You go home and you’re like I miss these dudes, I’m hanging with these guys and playing with these guys.
What inspired you to become a musician, what is your musical background?
Oh man, maybe my sister was probably my biggest influence in my life really. She liked to skateboard, she always hung with kind of hippie dudes doing their own thing. They pretty much showed me how to play. Then I did some other lessons. I was really into Nirvana as a kid. Just digging and digging doing more stuff. I was big into skateboard culture, I actually got real big into hip hop for a while, heavy metal, I was always into that. I just been playing in bands forever. I use to play in a band called The Postman Syndrome, so we did a pretty sick deal in 2001 with Now or Never and just did a couple other bands. I don’t know I guess I didn’t realize that I made the choice to do it until recently when I’m like oh shit this is my life. Whereas I probably made a lot of choices to be where I’m at every step along the way you make a decision about where you want to be and here I am.
You’re currently on tour with Crowbar, how’s that going?
It’s awesome man. We’re having a really good time, our buddies in Fit for an Autopsy, our buddies in Havoc, we know Jeff the new bass player from Crowbar. So everybody is really well acquainted, the only guys we didn’t know right off the bat were Arm for Apocalypse and they ended up being one of the sickest bands and the sickest dudes ever.
Then you head off to Europe with Cannibal Corpse. Is there a country, besides the U.S., that stands out, one that you really love playing?
I always love going to Copenhagen because I’m really into beer, craft beer and one of my favorite brewers, McKellar, he’s got two bars in Copenhagen that we like to go and hang out at. Fantastic beer selection and he’s a cool gypsy brewer. He just rolls and actually what’s really fucking rad, John, who’s filling in right now on drums, he and I went to Torst in Brooklyn which is Evil Twins bar and while we were hanging out there that dude McKellar came and sat right next to us. We were like what are you doing here? We don’t know him, in the beer world it would be like the equivalent of Lars Ulrich coming in and sitting next to you. Just like a really, really famous dude, you’re like what the fuck. That being said, Copenhagen I look most forward to going to and actually Mexico is awesome.
Describe to us your live performance. What can people expect when they come to see Revocation?
We’re going to be in your face, partying, just playing fast, playing hard. We’re really expressive, when you put your instrument on and your about to administer a live performance you automatically get in a different mindset. You’ll probably catch us pretty serious and pretty pissed off but also we’ll be having a good time while we’re doing it.
Is there a past performance that stands out?
My favorite shows are generally small clubs that don’t have barriers and usually when it’s like a 120 degrees that’s when I’m having the best time. Sweating hard, being able to have a certain level of intimacy with the fans. Those are the things that I like. In Chicago, on this tour, was a good example of that. I remember Summer Slaughter we played in Knoxville and that was refreshing because it wasn’t like a big production it was a smaller venue. I remember I was particularly hung-over that day, had to sweat it all out, it was pretty rad.
Do you recall your largest audience?
Oh man Mexico City was pretty jamming there was a lot of people there, a couple thousand maybe. That was probably the most rockstar-type show I’ve ever played where people were bootlegging and shirts with your face on it, we were like what the hell is going on here? It’s like bro I wash dishes at home you can take off that shirt (laughs).
That has to be a fulfilling moment?
Well yeah, you never look for that when you’re doing this thing but when it does happen it’s kind of like whoa what the hell. It’s like come on dude I’m nothing special I’m just one of you. I’ve become disconnected. I remember being star struck with my favorite bands and I remember if I had an email correspondence with one of the dudes in Converge way back in the day it’s like wow this guy talked to me. Now it’s like all your buddies are playing, it took the magic out of it but I still understand it.
You ever run into anyone you were star struck by?
Only beer guys and when we were talking to E1 when we were up for contract we were sitting down having dinner with those guys and Steve who works for that company and he starts talking and he’s like yeah you know I make these hot sauces, High River Hot Sauce and I just geeked out, I got real star struck because I love his hot sauce so much and I’m like oh my god you’re that guy. Totally blown away. He came out to the NY show and dropped us a couple bottles.
Top five records everyone should own?
Oh man I’m going to piss people off. Let’s see, Decapitated – Winds of Creation; Isis – Oceanic; Converge – Jane Doe; Ghost Face Killah – Iron Man; and Genius – Jizzer record.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring musicians or for your fans in general?
Work hard at everything you do and this will sound shitty but put yourself first above everybody else. Treat people nicely, be relentless and good things will come to you.
Check out the Album Review for Deathless – Revocation
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Photos by Thomas Woroniak
