Hemoptysis Interview: SXSW 2010

Phoenix Az.'s Hemoptysis is as diverse as they come for an American thrash metal band. Two of its members hail from Japan and despite lead vocalist/guitarist's Masaki Murashita growling singing style, the band's output is more progressively modern than you would hear on a typical death metal record. Instead of pumping out characteristic angular riffs, Hemoptysis (pronounced he-MOP-tiss-is) specialize in melodic chord progression and interlocking guitar solos, mixing classic thrash hooks with contemporary metal bombast. Spinner spoke with Murashita and drummer Travis Thune in advance of the band's performance at SXSW.

Describe your sound in your own words

Travis Thune: We are a unique blend of old-school trash and modern death metal with our own original spice. We like to think of ourselves as a buffet of metal; covering all the different grounds.

What are the band's influences?

TT: Mostly death metal. I started out listening to thrash myself. Our lead guitarist, Ryan Miller, listens to tons of melodic death metal. Sunao Arai, our bassist, listens to everything except for country.
Masaki Murashita: Well, Travis got me into death metal, but I was more into trash (Megadeth and Slayer) when I was a kid.

How did the band get together?

MM: Travis and I met through a mutual friend and started jamming together, but the amplifier I had at the time, a little 50 watt Marshall, could not handle Travis' loud playing. After a few months and dealing with a lot of flaky people, I realized that Travis was serious about forming a band so I went ahead and bought some nice Krank heads and told Travis. "OK, you have no choice now."

How did you come up such an unusual and impossible to pronounce name?

TT: We found out that our original name, Misanthrope, was being used by another band in France, so I asked my wife, who is a pharmacist specializing in infectious diseases, to come up with something really sick. She started coming up with some really disgusting names -- a lot of them involving fecal matter -- until she came up with Hemoptysis. I loved the meaning and the band went with it. And honestly, Masaki's singing kind of sounds like he is coughing up blood, so it's really a perfect fit.

Masaki, how would you describe your guttural vocal styling?

MM: Well, I wasn't initially planning on singing in the band, but when we lost our first singer, I gave it a try and Travis said it was badass. He said I sounded like Jeff Walker from Carcass or Angela from Arch Enemy. We all liked it so we stuck with it. It's a growling sound but I want to make sure every single word is understandable.

There aren't many bands as heavy and loud as you playing SXSW. How do you guys see yourselves fitting in?

TT: I think we will fit in just fine because we really feel that we are a buffet of metal. We pride ourselves on our musicianship, especially our guitarists. Masaki and Ryan are really great musicians. The stuff they come up with, the harmonies and melodies, they're really catchy. I know people that never ever listened to heavy metal but have heard our song 'Shadow of Death' and have loved it.

What's up with this Hemoptychick photo contest?

TT: The idea is to have girls sending us pictures with something that says Hemoptysis in it and every month we select one and post it on our website. We plan on releasing a calendar with all the girls in 2011.

You took the month of February off from performing to finish writing songs for your album. How is that coming along?

TT: We just wanted to take some time and solidify three to four songs that we wanted to put on the CD. We hope to go into the studio sometime in May.

What's the full-length going to sound like?

MM: More progressive and developed; Much more melodic and faster than our EP, 'Who Needs Shepherd.'

With song titles like 'Shadow of Death' and 'End of Sorrow,' do you guys have a pretty bleak outlook?

TT: Very true. We get a lot of ideas while we are at work and very depressed. There are songs about killing people because we are at work wishing we could kill people. Then there are other songs which are pretty personal, which will be on the full length, about issues we had growing up. But there is still a lot of anger through all of it. So, yeah, it's very dark

Any chance of you guys doing a love ballad?

TT: No way in hell

If you were signed to a multimillion-dollar label deal, what would be the first thing you would do?

MM: Keep investing in the future of the band. We are definitely not going to spend the money on personal things.
TT: Yeah, we are not going to go out a buy some ridiculous house. We'd really want to reinvest in the music, get the best damn recording we could and put the rest to towards touring.

Where do you see heavy metal right now in the current musical landscape?

TT: Definitely gaining momentum. It seems like thrash is getting more popular because of the setting right now. It is a lot like it was back in the '80s, with the recession and everything. Because of the hard times, people are getting angrier and ticked off and trash and metal is a really good answer to all that.

Alex Rendon is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.