Spreading as fast as Ebola world-wide, their drive to the top of the heavy metal platform has them on a fast paced track that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The Butcher Babies are coming to take you away into their world of crazy disarray that will have you willingly coming back for more time and time again. Prior to their pit stop at Louisville’s first ever Louder Than Life Festival, front woman Heidi Shepherd took a few minutes to catch RockRevolt’s Sara Meek up on the ever growing music festival craze, Butcher Babies latest EP and their upcoming headlining tour with Black Label Society.
Check out these AMAZING photos from Louder Than Life, Louisville, KY!
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RockRevolt covered Louder Than Life a few weeks ago in Kentucky so I wanted to catch up with you about that, but for starters, Butcher Babies is just coming off of the Aftershock Festival in Sacramento. Butcher Babies was there last year and I know you guys were a pretty big deal out there on the Ernie Ball stage so how was it this year in comparison to last?
It was actually so much fun. I think going for the second year we knew what to expect and we are really looking forward to it. The usual Aftershock crowd they came prepared and they knew what they were getting themselves into seeing Butcher Babies and they came in and they threw down. Sometimes we will go to these festivals and the crowd won’t really know what Butcher Babies might hold but they definitely knew and they were ready to party! We had so many crowd surfers and we play this little game now called the climb of life and we just got everyone to climb from the back to the front crowd surfing and so the crowd was having so much fun. So we’ll definitely be bringing that to all of the upcoming festivals we’re at.
Do you think the festivals kind of like the Aftershock where in California where your name is probably a bit bigger than across the country have better attendance when you are playing than other festivals across the country?
We have been really lucky to build our name nationwide and even worldwide. We have done different festivals around the world and we are doing more next year. We have been really lucky to have built that kind of fan base where any city we go to we will get a fair response. Different cities are obviously sometimes better but playing in Los Angeles where we are from here, we started here; we’re kind of Sunset Strip babies if you will. The response that we get here isn’t even that great because people saw us all the time and that’s normal here. There are all the bands that come through Los Angeles and you can never tell with the Los Angeles crowd and even the California crowd because they are really spoiled with our music. So sometimes we get an even better response or a better following in different areas.
Leading into the first ever Louder Than Life, still a few weeks out, how are you guys feeling about being on the bill for this one?
We are excited to be a part of the very first one. These festivals seem to be the new thing, the new way to go. Every band buys for these things; Rock On The Range, Welcome To Rockville, Ft. Rock, Aftershock, Louder Than Life now and they keep building these festivals into so much fun and it’s like a class reunion if you will for all the bands involved. You go to these things and you get to see and meet some of your favorite bands and they become your friends and you see them again at another one and it’s really fun. I think it’s a great way for artists to network with each other and kind of build friendships and create better tours. It’s a really great thing happening in music right now and we are really excited to be a part of it.
With Louder Than Life we are really excited though because it’s also going to be a food and whiskey festival!
Whiskey! Who doesn’t like Whiskey?! Are there any particular bands that you are excited about catching up with?
I am excited to see Judas Priest. I haven’t seen them play since Carla and I went to Germany a couple of years ago and I saw them play there and I was actually really blown away. I am like “wow he can really play … he is still rocking and rolling at that age” and so I am excited to see that again. I think Limp Bizkit is playing that weekend too right?
Yeah they are! It’s an amazing lineup all the way around.
Yeah I am really excited for Limp Bizkit too and like I said it’s a reunion, there’s all these bands and you catch them at some festivals and if they aren’t in that one you will catch them in the next one. We make sure we get around and see who we want to; It’s funny because our tour manager gets so mad at us at the festivals because she’s trying to schedule our press and trying to schedule everything we are supposed to be doing throughout the day we are like “well actually I need to be done with that at 6:25 cause I need to watch Limp Bizkit and we can’t do our signing at this time because the Def Tones are playing.” It happens all the time! I threw a mini hissy fit at River City Rockfest because we were supposed to have our signing at a certain time but they had to move it and it was right during the Def Tone set I was so mad! I seriously wore a pouty face all day!
Well you know sometimes you don’t want to work you just want to be a fan, right?
Yeah exactly because first and foremost I am a fan of this music and I have been a huge fan of Def Tones my entire life so seeing them and playing at a festival with them I was just like I have to go watch but I am sure there will be other opportunities. After a few minutes with the fans at the meet and greet I was feeling better about having to miss their set.
The next big thing for Butcher Babies is a big headlining tour, how has that been being able to finally be a headliner? Is that when you know you’ve made it big?
We are really excited!! We’ve been a supporting act for five years now and we are really pumped to go out and play in front of OUR crowd. People that will be there and of course there for Anti Mortem, those are great guys and a really cool band but it will be like our crowd is there listening to our music and they are hanging out with us and there is nothing more exciting as an artist than looking out in the crowd and seeing a huge slew of people singing your song back to you. So, this is going to be a huge ego booster… just kidding!!
Definitely, you are right!
It kind of just shows you that all the work that you have put into the past five years of touring it shows that it has paid off and when you go and you play in these shows you may even just grasp the attention of five different people but those five different people originally were there to see Black Label Society or whatever, now they tell their five friends and their other five friends and it creates word of mouth and it just kind of shows you that all the work you have put into it and all the shows that you have played have meant something and it has been building up to something. So, we have been thrilled to hear that the ticket sales are going really well. We have been putting together a really rad show. This show is going to be so fun, we’ve got an hour and a half set and that’s awesome because as a supporting act we’ve been contracted to a half hour or 45 minute set so with this next one we are putting on an hour and a half of pure Butcher Babies madness! Some of the first songs we have ever released and one song that no one will ever hear until the next album and we are just overall so excited.
I am so happy for you all, congrats on this upcoming headlining tour! You mentioned your next album, it released September 30th titled Uncovered; What can you tell me about it?
Uncovered is actually just an EP. Our next album isn’t until next summer but this EP coming out is just kind of an appetizer for our real true Butcher Babies fans because we want to take our time with our full length album. Uncovered is an EP of songs that influenced us when we were kids and made us into the musicians that we are today. So basically we took songs from other artists, tore them into shreds and put them back together making them Butcher Babies songs. It was actually quite challenging but really fun to do. It was a collaboration of ideas and we kind of had our say in which ones we really wanted to push for. I was really excited about the SOB song and the Osmond song! But it’s limited edition so when it’s gone it’s gone and it’s kind of like our very first EP which is gone and no one can get it anymore. As soon as it sells out it’s sold out and we are done with it so I guess it’s just something for the fans that have stuck by us for years and the fans keep hounding us for new music. We are working on it! We promise we are almost done but here is something in between.
BUTCHER BABIES – They’re Coming To Take Me Away (Album Track)
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That will be definitely something to look forward to as well as your headlining tour. What does 2015 have in store for the Butcher Babies?
We are doing a tour with Black Label Society and Hatebreed in Canada at the beginning of the year which is going to be incredible. Then we head to Australia for the Soundwave festival and then we will be in Europe so we pretty much have most of the year booked out.
That is a lot to be thankful for right there.
Yes I am so thankful for it all and glad that I have something to look forward to.
One last question… your solo project, the custom shoes that you make how did you get into that and where on earth do you find the time to make those bad ass shoes I see you post on Instagram?
Thank you! I have a hard time keeping up with the demand because it’s so time consuming. I love creating and I have always been one to do like my own custom clothes. When we were on tour with Marilyn Manson I made the boy’s outfits, I just love doing all that kind of stuff and I have always done it from me. For a little side hustle I thought “hey, why not create shoes for other people too!” I would go and just get these heels that I think are gorgeous and I trick them out on my own. So it’s a lot of fun, I also do that with clothing too. I have decided to focus on these shoes for now but when I am on the road it’s really fun because I will bring a couple of pairs with me and during some down time I will create the shoes. Lately it has been hard because I have been writing for the upcoming album so I haven’t had a lot of down time to really do any of that. In fact on this next tour I probably won’t even bring any with me because I am going to be doing so much writing. I don’t want to exert myself with fashion!
Not that fashion isn’t fun, but there is music to be made, right?
Exactly!!
Heidi, thank you so much for your time today, we look forward to seeing you and the rest of the crew at Louder Than Life and again congrats on all of the success Butcher Babies is seeing and the incredible upcoming opportunities for the band.
It’s always a pleasure catching up with you, until next time, take care!!
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By: Sara Meek, RockRevolt Magazine Contributor
