Is there anything that you hate about NYC?
I mean of course, change like anything else and gentrification, some for the better and some stuff for the worse.
Tell me about the title of the new record, Infiltrate The System. Was there a certain message you are trying to get across with the record?
It was kind of like something we’ve been throwing around lately ’cause I keep bumping into people that are like, somewhere along the way they were Madball fans, or fans of hardcore. So I started saying our people are infiltrating the system. It was kind of like a thing that I started saying to the guys at Ferret, and it seemed appropriate when we started writing the stuff for the record. I don’t want to say this is a concept album, but it’s like half and half. If you break down half of the album, half the songs are about infiltrating the system, but it’s not all about the same thing, everything from political shit to the music industry, to the school system, so half of the record talks about that pretty much and then a good portion of it [is] random subjects, things that we wanted to address.
Your last record, Legacy, was your Ferret debut. Since it was so well received and gave you guys a whole new fan base, was there a certain amount of pressure to follow it up with this release?
Well yeah, there’s definitely pressure [with]every album. With Legacy there was pressure ’cause we hadn’t put out an album in a while and we were getting back in the mix of things, re-establishing ourselves, but I think we held up our end of everything. Every record, we’re trying to top the last one, and that’s our objective as a band, as musicians, and I honestly feel like we accomplished that. I think it’s our heaviest one to date, production wise and music wise, and I think this one is going to make people really turn heads, I hope in a good way. It’s still Madball but it’s on some other shit, and I think that’s what we needed to do. I kind of wanted to shut people up with this one ’cause people heard Legacy and were like, ‘it’s a great record but it’s Madball.’ Well what do you want it to be? Metallica? So I think with this one we kind of pushed ourselves to be a little bit more aggressive.
How was it to work with Zuess again on producing the record. Did anything change in the writing and recording process?
The writing process was the same pretty much. What we did with Legacy went the best for us, which was basically trying [to] formulate these songs and get them as finished as possible before going into the studio. We always used to torture ourselves and waited until last minute to do stuff and did shit on the fly, but with these last few albums we’ve been trying to be a little bit more pro about it, so that when we get in there we just got to bang them out. We started writing for like a month-and-a-half to two months. Hoya had a bunch of riffs and Mitts came with a bunch of riffs and the ideas started flying.
You have been covering so much ground throughout Europe. Are there any countries that you get the best response from?
It’s all good man. The eastern bloc lately, Serbia, all these newer spots that we’ve been hitting, Bulgaria. Those spots go crazy because they have been oppressed for so long. I just can’t even imagine what Russia’s going to be like. Everywhere man, Germany, Belgium, we get a lot of love in the Netherlands. It’s a good place. They really appreciate what bands like us do over there.
Since your album will come out in the US while you’re touring overseas, what’s the plan for Madball when you get back?
Were going to do some select record release shows when we get back in September and then we got some stuff coming up in October and we got a bunch of stuff that’s going to happen, so we’re definitely going to be out and about. We’ll be out there man. Be on the look out!
Madball’s latest release, Infiltrate The System , is available in stores now. For more info and tour dates visit madballnyhc.com
