Transcript of an interview I recorded with Jeff Becerra from POSSESSED - 15/05/19. Full article here. MAL-
Right on the line talking to Jeff Becerra from POSSESSED. Jeff, thanks for taking my call. JEFF- Hey, how's it going? You know it's good to be here, man, thank you. MAL- I remember way back in the 80s when POSSESSED burst onto the scene and collectively we went, 'What the _____?' What do you remember about those days? JEFF- Not much No I'm just kidding. Those were wild days, man. And you know, you know death metal was new brand new, you know, POSSESSED started that and a lot of people just didn't know how to take us to be quite frank. A lot of people turned their back, laughed at us, were embarrassed by what we are doing just thought we were silly and embarrassing, and just didn't really get what we were putting out there, you know. It was you know, I know a lot of people like to call POSSESSED thrash, but that's not what we do. If you expect to hear a thrash band, it's going to be too heavy for you. If you go in with that thrash logic, you got to relate this to other thrash bands and it's you're not going to be pleased. So just please think of POSSESSED as a foundational death metal band. MAL- 'Seven Churches' came out in 85. But a pretty quick follow up with the 'Beyond The Gates' in '86. Now was 'Seven Churches' recorded for quite a while before it came out? What was the reason for the very quick follow up there? Was it something else? JEFF- Well, a lot of people don't realize this, but we wrote some churches in 82 before we ever even knew who Slayer was, you know, didn't see Slayer til like '83 I think. But yeah, so we had that material, you know, we wrote that very quickly. From the time I started POSSESSED with the Mikes, they came to my school and asked me if I was interested in jamming with them. And, you know, I don't want to go into the whole story unless you want me to but within nine months we had our demo, which is an 83 demo often it's mislabeled. 84/85 or even '86 because of the politics of death metal and we got signed on Metal Massacre 6 with 'Swing of the Axe', which was our second re-recording of that by the time we got there. So by 83/84 we'd done that demo at least two times. And then we also got the Combat contract and I use that as a kind of a golden ticket to go back in, get Larry Lalonde back and Debbie Abono, which were previously my Blizzard manager. So, you know, POSSESSED in many important respects is a continuation of BLIZZARD my first man made up, you know, over 50% you know, with me doing double duty on bass and vocals and Larry Lalonde playing all the rhythm tracks and his solos and writing more and more so. So, you know, I've been with Larry since '79. He's my brother. I love the guy and, of course, I love all the old guys, but yeah, we, we wrote that very, very effectively, very fast and recorded it and, and then, you know, when we got that contract with Combat the deal was that we've made three albums and you had to do what two albums and one EP. So that was every year so we had to do, within a year we had to write an album. MAL- Yeah okay how busy was the band on the live scene? How much were you getting the opportunity to play? JEFF- The old POSSESSED? We were all over the place man. From '83 on you know we were we're fucking touring everywhere like in the states we did SLAYER's first United States tours were with POSSESSED. We kicked off VENOM, SLAYER and POSSESSED at this SF Kabuki theatre and that was wild man, hanging out with Cliff Burton and smoking a joint in the nose-bleeds watching VENOM play. It was great you know and then we did you know the 'Show No Mercy / Seven Churches' US tour then we did the 'Haunting The Chapel / Beyond The Gates' tour. And so you know, back then we were like kind of neck and neck with Slayer and, their album beat 'Seven Churches' to the punch that came out on the shelves before 'Seven Churches' so you know i think that even they thought we were copying them and I don't even know if they understood the difference between what death and thrash metal are but, Slayer is also one of those really kind of confusing and controversial bands where you can't really call them thrash because to me they don't sound like thrash they don't have that happy skippy fucking you know backbeat, they have that heavy driving beat and while it sounds fast, you know, POSSESSED is also one of those bands that's often misinterpreted, but you know also very foundational and pivotal in the scene. So I thought it was perfect matchup and you know, it's an honour and privilege to tour with them. So that was our first kind of tours that we made several forays out with MEGADETH, SUICIDAL TENDANCIES AND CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, DRI, and oh my god, I mean so many bands from DISCHARGE to you know, there's a lot of bands, DARK ANGEL, DEATH ANGEL. We went on tour with DEATH ANGEL and, well you know they were the younger kids and they were fucking amazing and our friends and you know just basically touring a lot we toured a great deal, hundreds of gigs. MAL- Okay now you left in about the eighty sort of seven, in about the '87 era. What was the deal there? JEFF- Yeah in '89 I was coming home from work it was kind of a transition period you know kind of revamping and was doing concrete construction. Like every good Mexican, I do concrete. I've been able to finish since I was eight and I had my own, I was a partner in a construction business, concrete construction, I'd worked 13 hours that day, and stopped to get a pack of Camel cigarettes on the way home and got robbed. Got shot in the chest with a nine millimeter and defensive wound They were shooting up at my forehead I put my right hand up and it shot my right ring finger off backwards. So that was that. I was paralyzed. I still have the bullet stuck in my spine. MAL- How are, you going now? JEFF- Doing great, man. I mean, I've been in a chair longer than I was walking, so I'm not sensitive about it I, when people like they focus too intently on my chair, I kind of think like, I have to put it in perspective. Like it's just normal. Like I'm not insulted by it or I don't mind talking about it just your normal I just sit down while other people stand up, I'm still the same man. Of course, I'm not the same man. I've had worked through a lot of it. I've hopefully I've grown as an individual, but I think we all do that. We all go through our ups and downs, and struggles and dark periods. You know, it's just the lot that man has to play in life. MAL- Tell us Wacken in 2007. What was the deal there? JEFF- Oh, that was great. That was my first foray into the European festivals. You know, like I did, I had no idea that shit existed. So, you know, POSSESSED was very much a club underground band. I think our largest show was, you know, a few thousand people up to that point. And that was in Europe too you know, back in '86 or '87. The first time we went over there, actually the only time we went over there, oh wait, don't quote me on that but, it was the '80s. So whenever I went out there like 50,000 fucking people, all chanting my name, grown men crying up front and wow you know, like, it was really really emotional like it was just like crazy cool, you know, even though we were playing a dropbeat, I didn't have the final POSSESSED line up. You know, I had a good band but we weren't playing the songs exactly right. But my voice wasn't really up to par yet. You know, and I'm not really happy with the performance overall but the show made up for that because you know, the outpouring of love and acceptance that I just knew that I was back and I had to get my shit together really quick and get my band together at that point. MAL- Was that put together as a sort of 'test the waters' type of show? JEFF- What happened was that, you know, whenever I saw that I was like, wow, people really are serious. They're just not just like, kick you out there. It's not some token like thing. They want to see POSSESSED again. There's a market for that. And so you know, like as an entertainer, I'll be up there as long as people want to hear me. MAL- Let's talk about the new album. After all these years, we've got a new album coming out, and it's 'Revelations Of Oblivion'. Tell us about this. JEFF- Yeah, I mean, it's been 33 years. I mean, Jesus was 33 when he was crucified, so I had to wait 33 years. No, I'm Just kidding. That's the true reason see? That's a first, exposed. I'm just kidding. It's, you know, it's kind of a conglomeration of our past and present and hopefully bringing POSSESSED into a band of the future and not just, you know, a band of the past. And, you know, it's a really challenging experience, you know, and, of course, you know, I sing a lot about the Book of Revelations. It's kind of a common thread between all my albums. I try to make it like the next feasible chapter in the book dialogue of what is POSSESSED and the next step on our journey, and it's been something that I've been really dying to put out there through that long 33 years of wintering. I've always been pining away to to get some new material out there and really show off my band and what I think is the best mashup, what POSSESSED has grown into. This is not a tribute to POSSESSED. This is what we have taken every time and effort and patiently crafted together in order to make the best offering possible and not to sound big headed, but I think this is your best work to date. MAL- Coming out on Nuclear Blast, so I'm sure that will help you being on such a label. JEFF- Yeah, we had several offers of course the obvious pick was Nuclear blast, I mean, they are the apex predator. If you're in a band like POSSESSED, and you can pick any label in the world. And this is what we did, when we had our dream talks, like if we could get on any band, or any label in a world who would it be? Everybody said Nuclear Blast, you know like it so yeah, it's kind of a dream come true. It really is, it's fucking exciting to us. MAL- What happens for the band now? Are you touring? Where? How long? Where are you going? JEFF- Yeah, in fact, today is my last day of interviews because I'm like behind the eight ball, I got to practice and train. I'm leaving May 31 to fly to LA for three days of practice, then on to Europe for the entire month of June. So, I want to go to Australia 2020. I want to go to South America. I want to go back to Asia. Yeah, I just really want to tour and tour tour. I want to make up for a lot of last time. MAL- All right, Jeff Becerra from POSSESSED absolutely great talking to you today. Good luck with the new album out on Nuclear Blast. Really the best of luck with that and good luck on tour. And thanks again for talking to me. JEFF- Thank you Mal, it's an honour and a privilege. Thank you for your interest, man, it's good to be on Proud To Be Loud, and, you know, looking forward to coming out there and, you know, don't tell anybody but I should be out there. 2020. MAL- Right. It'll be our little secret. JEFF- Yeah, it'll be our secret and whoever's listening to this worldwide internet broadcast. MAL- Hey, Jeff good to have you guys back. JEFF- Yeah, thank you. I think it's thanks again, man. It like, you know, like I say, man, I hope that everybody will come out, listen to the 'Revelations Of Oblivion'. It's our first you know, my first thing is 33 years. I'm very proud of it. You know, people, I hope you enjoy it. I mean, that's the ultimate goal. I look forward to the next, the second album, the third one coming up. So. MAL- All right, good on you, man. Hey, thanks a lot. You have a great night and great talking to you. JEFF- All right, Mal. Take care, man. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |