Throwdown

Having started life as an OC hardcore band, Throwdown have evolved into an entirely different beast.

Between lifting weights and listening to Pantera, bass player and all round nice guy Matt Mentley was able to have a chat with us.

Interview w/ Matt (bass) of Throwdown

Thanks for your time today

Matt. 

No problem man 

Where are you holed up at the

moment? 

We are driving and making our

way to San Diego.  

I know you guys are nearing

the end of the Warped Tour, how was it for you guys this year? 

Really cool man. We’ve um, been

really surprised with the… 

*** Thanks to the fine folk

out at this point *** 

Sorry about that mate, you

were saying? 

I was just saying we’ve been

so surprised with the turn outs every day. There were a lot of people

showing up to our stage to check us out so it was really cool.  

Over the last couple of years,

better reaction these days – Warped Tour kids or the metal fans? 

Um, I dunno. It’s different

between the two but Warped was something that we really wanted to do

because it’s a great opportunity to play to different kinds of kids

and hopefully make ourselves some new fans.

In less than a fortnight, you

– what are you most looking forward to from that tour? 

I think it’s going to be really

cool man. We’ve toured with Arch Enemy in the UK before so we already

know those guys. We’ve all been Machine Head fans for a long time

as well so it’s going to be a good tour for us and just a great tour

in general! 

“Venom And Tears” has only

you’ve played your new tracks live? 

It’s been really good man, we’ve

had a great reaction overall. We weren’t too sure what was going to

happen because it’s definitely a new direction for us but it’s been

really good so far. Really positive! 

Can you tell us a bit about

the writing and recording process for the new record? 

It was just really collective

man. We all brought in a lot of ideas and we went over absolutely everything.

We had about 6 months to write and work on a lot of stuff. 

We gave ourselves plenty of time

and tried not to throw anything out… we really wanted to give everything

a chance. We really let all our influences into the time and gave ourselves

a chance to work everything out. 

Why did you guys decide to

work with “Mudrock” as opposed to a more traditional metal producer? 

Well, we were looking for a different

dude and he was the most interested in what we were doing out of all

the people we talked to. I think we wanted to step up the overall production

a little bit and we felt he was going to be able to give it a different

feel from a metal producer. 

It’s obviously still a metal

record. It’s still really heavy but Mudrock was able to give it the

feel that he’s able to give rock bands, and that’s something we

probably wouldn’t have been able to get from someone else.  

Plus, he’s based in LA which

was cool because we didn’t have to leave home to record. We were able

to go home every night which was great. 

The Pantera comparison is something

evolve given the amount of line-up changes Throwdown have been through? 

It was honestly a really natural

thing. We’re not living up to anyone’s expectations… we weren’t

concerned about sounding like the Throwdown of the past. We just wanted

to let things happen in the writing process and didn’t want to worry

about sounding like anything else that’s out there. We just wanted

to sound like us and that was it.  

Who or what were your biggest

from a writing AND production point of view. 

Personally, I don’t like to

listen to heavy stuff when we’re writing. I tend to listen to a lot

of mellow music. You probably won’t hear any of that in our record

but we’re influenced by a lot of different stuff. 

I try not to listen to any heavy

bands when we write so we don’t rip anyone off, ha ha. We just go

with whatever comes out. 

Turning the clock back a couple

now? 

Yeah definitely man! I think especially

with this record… we’ve had people who were saying they weren’t

too sure about us but that the new record changed their opinion of us.  

We feel more embraced by that

world now more than ever! 

What’s been the most memorable

Throwdown so far? 

For me, it was definitely when

we did Ozzfest. It was the first big tour we’d done at that point

and it was just such a cool experience. It was so different from what

we were used to at the time. 

These days we do a lot of festivals

but at the time that one was so pivotal for us. 

Any

stories from Warped Tour this year that you’d like to share? 

Nah dude, we just hang out, ha

ha. One of us is married and Dave is engaged. The other 2 guys have

girlfriends as well so we keep it pretty mellow. 

What’s in the works once

the Machine Head tour is all wrapped up? 

Well, Dave is getting married

so we’re probably going to have a small amount of time off before

we hit the road again. 

We’re looking at doing some

overseas stuff as well but we’re not too sure yet, so we’re just

talking about it at the moment. 

Who are some bands you think

kids should be checking out if they aren’t already? 

There’s this band on the Warped

Tour called Evaline, they’ve done the Taste Of Chaos tour as well.

They’re just a really cool bad that I’ve been really stoked on.  

When can we expect a return

visit to Australia? 

I dunno man… hopefully really

soon! We’d definitely love to come back. We always have a good time

when we’re there! 

That’s about it Matt, anything

else you’d like to add? 

Nah, I think that’s it man. 

Thanks mate. 

For more information on Throwdown

head to 

http://www.myspace.com/throwdown