With the election looming ever closer America is beginning to truly understand the potential devastation that Trump might bring about to the US. Attention is so rife that even band’s have been getting in on the action. Known for their “Don’t give a fuck” attitude Municipal Waste are easily one of the band’s that come to mind when thinking of rebellion. Shortly before performing their blistering set at Download we were lucky enough to be able to speak to both Dave Witte and Tony Foresta about the band. Revealing at progress has been for their brand new album to be recorded very soon we spoke about the current life of Municipal Waste and it’s logistical gymnastics , Thrash and of course THAT t shirt.

Check the full unedited interview out on our Soundcloud or read the full transcript below!

So I’m here with the dudes from Municipal Waste, how are you?

Tony : Just a couple of dudes!

This is the first show of the tour is that correct?

Tony : Yep! Day one!

Are you excited?

Tony : I am excited yeah! Are you excited Dave?

Dave : I am, it feels good we haven’t been here in four years.

And then you have another little show in The Underworld as well…

Tony : Yeah, yeah!

Dave : We love The Underworld. That’ll be fun we have had so many good memories there. It will be nice to return!

What has been happening in the life of Municipal Waste up until now?

Tony : We wrote an album haha! We have an album written and we have just been at home practicing our ass off. We had a few months where we kind of hit the brakes on all of our side projects and just wrote some music.

Dave : And we added a guitar player!

Tony : And we added a guitar player! A lot of shit! The past few months have been very active for us, we’re kind of trying to get back in gear.

Thats good! Do you find it logistically quite hard being in lots of different bands as Iron Reagan to bring Municipal Waste together?

Tony : Not really, this guy (points to Dave) started the whole thing. Before we started he was in like four hundred bands so we learnt how to figure it all out.

The new album, you’ve literally just written the new album?

Tony : Yeah, pretty much we have demoed, how many songs?

Dave : Eighteen or nineteen?

Tony : A lot of fuckin’ songs so we can go home and start recording. You might be the first person that we have told that to! Nobody knows that!

What was it like writing the new album then?

Dave : It was fun because there was a bunch of different people and went a bunch of different ways. Groups of guys would write songs, a couple of other guys would write songs then we put them all together and I think it hits a good spectrum of what we have done all over the years and it draws from every period and I think its pretty solid.

Tony : Its crazy because we wrote a shit load of songs, how many years ago? About two or three years ago..

Dave : We wrote so much stuff.

Tony : I think we axed half of it and then restarted all over.

Dave : At one point and by my count we had forty eight skeletons worth of stuff. We had so much stuff.

How do you narrow it down?

Tony : Well we just didn’t like it so we pretty much dissolved the whole album and then started over.

Dave : Taking time, having so much time in between writing sessions also helped out. Because when you come back you think well that was cool last time but its not as cool this time. That kind of helped out a lot.

It helps to kind of sit on it.

Tony : Yeah it really did!

Was that kind of because you guys did a couple of tours and just let it lie?

Dave : Well everybody is doing their own thing so people are out and they have other stuff. Come back, hit the bricks again and realise that some stuff is stronger than others. Let it marinate and then restructure, retool a little bit.

Do you think that with all the various different bands that you guys are in has that put a little bit of influence on Municipal Waste?

Tony : I think its learning experience definitely, for me at least. I have learnt a lot more as far song writing goes. Pretty much every aspect, I learned a lot in the past few years branching out and doing different shit. Its made this band a lot more fun too, coming back to it and its always great.

Definitely! Municipal Waste is almost like a party band almost every show is just crazy!

Dave : Its a guaranteed good time. Without breaking my arm I would pat myself on the back

Tony : Hahahaha

Didn’t you guys play the Crobar once?

Tony : We were going to but it was supposed to be a beer bong competition and it ended just being a complete shit show. Us and Toxic Holocaust, a bunch of girls in bikinis, one girl threw up everywhere.

Dave : Those are the Fuel Girls!

Tony : Fuel girls!

Dave : Yeah that was funny!

Tony : It ended up being a complete shit show

Thats the real art of partying! What about lyrics, have you drawn up lyrics for the album? Is there a theme that you are going to go for?

Tony : I think with this album I’ve written all but one song I think. There’s still like three songs I need to write lyrics so for. This is the most I have written as far as lyric wise.

Dave : Everything he has written is cool for lack of a better word. We don’t talk about similar subject but we move onto other stuff, he would be able to explain it better than I would.

Tony : I take a long ass time writing lyrics but this record has taken a long as time haha! We’re back to everything and we thought oh well we’ve got lyrics for all this shit now! Ryan wrote a song and then I’m kind of waiting for when we get home or probably on this tour me and Ryan will sit down and write together. Usually an album I will write the majority of the lyrics and then Brian will write some, I’ll run out of gas and the others dudes will just help me out! For lack of a better word.

Dave : Ryan has always been a good combo with you.

Tony : Thats kind of how in the older days we did it. Phil has actually written some hits! He wrote “Terror Shark” and shit, he will come out of leftfield with hey I wrote this song. Awesome!

Has it always been quite a collaborative effort throughout?

Tony : Oh yeah its gotta be!

So do you guys know where you’re going to record the album?

Tony : Thats..

To be confirmed?

Dave : TBD

Tony : We will definitely track it in Richmond and probably mix it somewhere else! Every plane that goes by I’m looking to see if its Ed Force One, somebody said that they were going to land today!

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

Tony : We’re doing a lot of Waste shit. We’re playing Ozzfest, that should be fun a lot of stuff. Doing the benefit show for a family member basically when we get home thats kind of like the biggest thing on our menu right now. Pretty excited about that getting home and we’re going to do that.

This Donald Trump shirt is the coolest shirt I have ever seen. I’ve actually seen tons of people wearing it here. How did it come up?

Tony : That was Phil! We have a lot of like over the top gore in our artwork. It kind of looks like one of our previous shirts and Phil was like lets just do a shirt with Donald Trump blowin’ his brains out, cool, thats a great idea!

You can kind of answer this collectively or individually but what has been a record that you have been listening to over the last six months to a year?

Tony : I’m really into this band Angel Dust right now. Their album sounds like Dag Nasty and the Foo Fighters with Hardcore breakdowns its fucking crazy! Its like pop music but Hardcore, its really weird.

Hardcore pop music!

Tony : They’re great dudes too, I can’t stop listening to the new record.

Dave : I’ve been into this band called Wand. They’re from L.A. they’re kind of hard to classify. Smashing Pumpkins psychedelic Punk..

Tony : W.A.N.D. Wand?

Dave : They just put a whole bunch of shit in a blender. Its really poppy its really heavy kind Torche moments.

Tony : Cool! Thats my shit. I’m wearing a Floor shirt right now.

Dave : Can’t get enough of that. 

Thank you both very much for speaking to The Metalist!