Interview with Ross and Joe from American Rust, by Jen

Give me a little American Rust history. When the band started?
Ross: The band started in 01, Van and Ross began writing material together in 01. Joe came into the fold in 03.
How did you guys get together and decide to start playing music?
Ross: We were co workers, civil servants. Common interest, our musical interests are very similar in some places, in others they are not.
Joe: I had actually quit playing guitar and anything to do with music, aside from casual listening, for about 7 years. Then one day a couple of years ago Ross, knowing I used to play and sing, started in on me telling me I should pick it back up and that he and Van were starting to write some original material together. Ross finally tricked me into his basement rehearsal area one day and handed me a guitar. I haven't put it down since.
How long have you been together?
Ross: Since 01, A.A. replaced our first "picture of an asshole" drummer in early 02. What a welcome change he brought into the spectrum. A.A. is the best technical metal drummer I have ever played with. He has brought us all up a notch in our caliber.
Tell me about your latest release, Dog Hair Sacrament. When was it recorded?
Ross: Spring 2005, mixed late summer 05. We did it ourselves at first, when we met Rod Bell we knew we had to work with him, a Minneapolis legend.
When were the songs wrote?
Ross: I would say they were more or less wrote in the 03 to 04 years. They seem freshman to us now, the new material is heading much more toward a Lamb of God meets Judas Priest thing, in other words, we have evolved so much past these tracks already!
How did you come up with that name for the CD?
Ross: To me, Dog's Hair Sacrament is a representational of American blood, sweat and tears. These last few years really have been amazingly depressive, I think that and two divorces within the band is the sound of this album.
I would like to know the conversation that took place when that came about.
Ross: No one liked my first title! I won't name it either, I believe they were right, it sucked and I came up with this one. The lyricist's are always the strange ones.
To someone who never heard you, how would you describe your music?
Ross: Pantera meets Priest meets Slayer meets Sabbath. Even all the way back to Hendrix, Frank Marino, you can hear a lot of influence in our songs from our strange listening arts.
Joe: I guess I'd 2nd Ross on the description. It's strange to me however, regarding the Pantera thing. For some reason, after we posted our tunes on garageband.com the many folks who reviewed the material referred to Pantera numerous times when telling us who we reminded them of. Pantera is no doubt one of the all time greatest kick ass metal bands to walk the face of the earth but I guess I never thought we would remind anyone of them. Regardless It's a nice compliment.
I know you guys have an 80’s feel to your music. What were some of your favorite metal bands to come out of the 80’s?
Ross: Judas Priest, Venom, Slayer, Metallica, Pantera, someone stop me.
Joe. My 80's favorites? Man'o'man!! George lynch, George Lynch, George Lynch. He's still by far my favorite but there's also Van Halen, Ratt, Malmsteen, Extreme, Frank Marino, John Sykes With Whitesnake and Blue Murder. Ozzy with Randy Rhoads or Jake E. Lee.
Do you still listen to 80’s metal now?
Ross: Here is a sick ass guilty pleasure, I think Def Leppard's High'n'Dry is an amazing album.. Black Sabbath, Mob Rules and Heaven and Hell. Judas Priest Screaming for Vengeance/British Steel. To some we are geezers, I am 37 Joe is 39, A.A. 28, shit we already rolled through this once before. Look at the guys in System of a Down, they are old fuckers like us. Actually are drummer moonlights every weekend in a fricking cover band.
Joe: A lot of folks almost make it sound taboo for someone to admit they love 80's "Hair metal". I'm not ashamed to say it. I still listen to 80's metal all the time. I fucking loved to 80's. Yeah... I was one of those "Dudes" who used a fucking can of Aqua Net on my head everyday. The whole Seattle thing was what eventually caused me to lose interest in music and stop playing guitar. I liked very little of that stuff and the music industry was just cramming that dog shit down everyone's throat.. I'm certainly not saying we should all still be wearing spandex and farming our hair but I just couldn't deal with that grunge shit. I'm glad that's over and that people are once again starting to get interested in being good with their instruments instead of trying to sound stylishly shitty.
What about shows, do you guys have a lot of shows out there? What is the metal scene like?
Ross: We live in a very rural area, we approached the whole thing from the Queensryche perspective, we all have previous live performance but this band has yet to see the stage, there I said it. Our dogs seem to dig it.
What has been just a terrible show you have had, one you are trying to forget, but one I want to know about?
Ross: I played in a band called Soilent Green (Minneapolis) Yeah, we were the first ones with that name, it's true, I have the releases from Channel 83/Big Money from the late eighties/early nineties. We were warming up Sacred Reich in front of 2500 kids, I blew two amps during the course of the set. That really fucking sucked, that will never happen to me again or else I am truly cursed.
Joe: We had a phenomenal guitar player in a cover band I was in during the very early 90's named Dave Cala. However... The problem with Dave was that he was your typical flaming drunk. He'd drink 4 beers and turn into instant asshole and then he wouldn't be able to handle his instrument. By about the 5th song dave was always falling into equipment, forgetting his parts, or telling people in the audience to fuck off, if there was an audience. Or else he'd try to grab some other girl's tit and it would turn into a big fight with his girlfriend who was the bass player. Never failed.
Have you gotten your CD out to many places to be reviewed?
Ross: Yes the mailings are out, if we don't get the right deal we are producing it ourselves on our own label.
What has the reaction been so far?
Ross: We are getting some decent reaction from European record labels, there is a whole different metal scene over there. Some of them do not even fuck with the U.S. because it is so fucked here. Consistent battery of rap, hip hop and bad boy "Nu Metal" bands. Corporations decide who you really are going to listen to. It's communism. Do you remember when MTV was actually good to watch? These European labels have there own scene going on hitting Russia, Japan, South America and of course all of Europe. They have ten times the events going on over there, the fall of the wall opened up all new kinds of doors. There are some great bands on those labels I bet a lot of people in America are unaware of.
You have some power ballads on your CD too, how do you decide you want to write a ballad? Do you just start writing the material and it comes together?
Ross: Yeah that was a one nighter, all of us had hit an all time low with personal shit, I wrote 64th time as more or less during a very reflective period in my life. I ripped off Roger Waters, you name one band that is not ripping off someone. It has all been done, it's what a band does with all of those elements that counts. We are still evolving.
What CD’s are you listening to right now?
Ross: Lamb of God, Ashes of the Wake and As the Palaces Burn. I can't get off em, it's like heroin.
Joe: Lynch/Pilson Wicked Underground. Beatles Anthology
Anything else you would like to plug or say?
Ross: I look forward to moving to the new stuff and may we see the stage soon, actually we are planning some local gigs as cd release parties. We need to buy a van, we are coming.
Joe: I want to thank you Jen for giving us the time of day. It's so great that there people like you willing to help the little bands get some exposure
http://www.americanrust.com/
http://www.myspace.com/americanrust