I loved singing Baloff's songs live, I really did. I was able to write songs after that, but for some reason I loved playing "Bonded by Blood."
W (Nando Machado): Hi Steve, this is Nando from Wikimetal, how are you?
Steve Souza: Hey, how are you?
W (Daniel Dystyler): Hi Steve, this is Daniel. We're calling from Brazil, how are you?
SS: I'm fine.
W (NM): Steve, every time we interview a legend from the thrash metal era, especially from the Bay Area, we ask the same question: how did you create such a different sound back then, so different from everything else that was happening in terms of hard rock and heavy metal? In your opinion, who were the main people responsible for creating thrash metal in the early 80s?
SS: Without a doubt: Gary Holt, Tom Hunting, Dave Mustaine, Kerry King, any of the early bands… Honestly, I think it was Gary Holt. Exodus didn't necessarily have the success and notoriety they deserved, but I think Metallica learned a lot from what they did by watching Exodus. You know, Kirk joined the band, so honestly, they were a big influence on them, so if I had to say – without being arbitrary, because I was in Exodus, and that was my band, but I would have to say, yes, Exodus started thrash metal. Tom Hunting was the first to create that thrash metal beat, so I would say it was all the early guys, and we came a little later, you know, Legacy, Testament, Vio-Lence, Forbidden, Death Angel… It all played a part in it, it all definitely played a part in that influence.
W (NM): And just out of curiosity, Steve, how did you get the nickname “Zetro”?
SS: Oh, that was just a joke someone played on me in high school because I was laughing at this silly drawing of a whale I'd seen at a party. It was called "Zetro," and I kept saying, "Zetro the whale, Zetro the whale," and then, I don't know, after that everyone started saying, "Hey, Zetro," and it stuck. So it's kind of a silly story I tell.
W (DD): That's a great story, thanks for sharing! You were the former vocalist for Testament when the band was still called Legacy, and in 2001 you sang on two songs on First Strike's album, "Still Deadly." What is your relationship with the current members of Testament like?
SS: My relationship with all the bands is great. I even… I wrote songs for “The Formation of Damnation,” and I wrote four songs for their new album, “The Dark Roots of Earth.” Chuck Billy and I have a side project called “Dublin Death Patrol,” so I’m very close to him, I’m very attached to those guys. Hatriot even played with Testament at a show in the Bay Area on February 19th.
W (NM): Yes, since you mentioned it, I was going to ask about your project with Chuck, DDP. What are the plans for that project? Is it still ongoing at the moment?
SS: I think for established bands, you could go to… Saturday night I went to see Forbidden, and all the people in that genre, everyone goes and supports, so you know if you go to the show, you're going to find your friends, the ones you started all this with, mostly in 1983/84, at the beginning.
W (DD): Steve, back when you were the lead singer of Exodus, how did you feel singing the classic songs from one of the most important albums in thrash metal history, the excellent “Bonded by Blood”?
SS: Good question, good question… Great, amazing, even, if you asked me, from all of Exodus' work, what I'd like to sing live, I loved singing Baloff's songs live, I loved it. I was able to compose songs after that, but for some reason I loved playing "Bonded by Blood," I was always the one saying, "Hey, put on some more songs from 'Bonded by Blood'!" I loved it, I was a huge fan of the album, so if you give me an opportunity to sing those songs, I'll seize that opportunity.
W (NM): Great, that's great to hear, because we're big fans of that album too.
W (DD): We love this album.
SS: This is the best album, I mean, think about it, I was a fan of this album on Legacy, and then I had the opportunity to join this band… And the aggression they have, every song is “Wow, this song is incredible!” It’s simply… It’s the meaning of classic… If you want to summarize thrash metal, and how it started, you could probably eliminate everything else… Maybe “Show No Mercy”… I think “Bonded by Blood” has something in every song that represents what thrash metal is, what it was, and what it will always be.
After that, everyone started saying "Hey, Zetro," and then it caught on, so it's kind of a silly story that I tell."
W (NM): Changing the subject, Zetro, we have a classic question on our show that we ask everyone we interview: imagine you're listening to music on your iPod on shuffle, and suddenly a song comes on that you immediately start headbanging to, wherever you are.
W (DD): You can't stop headbanging, wherever you are.
SS: OK, that's the easiest question in the world, and you should know the answer. It's three words: "South of Heaven." Period.
W (NM): Wow, “South of Heaven” by Slayer on Wikimetal.
SS: I don't care at all, when I hear it, the blood starts rushing through my body, like "Oh my God, here we go!".
W (NM): Incredible!
SS: Every time “South of Heaven” starts playing, I don’t care where I am, I say “Stop! It’s playing ‘South of Heaven’!” I have to headbang, I don’t care if I’m in a K-mart. That’s the great song.
W (DD): Sure. Could you announce this song?
SS: This is Zetro from Hatriot, you're listening to Wikimetal and this is the classic Slayer song, "South of Heaven".
W (DD): Incredible, great.
W (NM): You understood our question, you understood exactly what we needed.
W (DD): Steve, can you share with our listeners your memories of Paul Baloff?
SS: Ah, well… We don’t have two hours… So much. You meet some individuals, and heavy metal is full of personalities. I would say that Paul Baloff was a very, very, very unique personality. But I remember one time, it’s a very old story: we were at a party after an Exodus show, and I was playing in Legacy, I wasn’t even in Exodus yet, and their manager at the time – his name was Adam Segal – he got very drunk, and Baloff put makeup on him to make him look like “Boy George” and took a bunch of pictures of him. And they started calling him “Boy Adam” after that. So that might give you a little taste of what Paul was like – I mean, just a taste. Every time I saw Baloff it was an episode, even the last time I saw Paul, I was at a jam session with a band, just playing, and he was living in the loft upstairs, the same place where he passed away, and I walked in and he had a pellet gun in one hand and a vodka drink in the other, and he was sitting at the top of the stairs, and when I walked in I said, “Hey, Bay?”, and he said, “Hey, Zet? Nothing much.” I don’t know what he was doing, you could see he was a little drunk, but it wasn’t like he was going to shoot someone, it seemed like he was waiting to see if there was anything upstairs, you know, patrolling, I don’t know what he was doing… That was the last time I saw him.
W (NM): Speaking about your time with Exodus, you recorded some really good albums with your former band. Which one is your favorite?
SS: They're all very good, I like them all… I think that by the time we recorded “Fabulous Disaster,” because obviously, “Pleasures of the Flesh” was my first album, and I loved it, by the time I recorded “Fabulous Disaster,” I had already been in the band for a few years, so I had already learned to warm up the engines very well, so I think that album was very good, and honestly, when we came back in 2004 and released “Temple of the Damned,” I think that album is also very strong. I would choose “Fabulous” and “Temple.”
W (DD): Excellent, “Fabulous Disaster” from '88, a great album. And speaking of that, could you choose a special Exodus song that represents the period you spent with the band?
SS: Well, I think everyone would choose "Toxic Waltz," you know. That was a definitive period, I'd say, if you want to get to know Zetro in Exodus, "Toxic Waltz."
W (DD): Let's listen to "Toxic Waltz" right now on Wikimetal.
W (NM): And Tenet, is that band still together?
SS: Actually, it was never a band that played together. What happened was that Chad Silent from Strapping Young Lad had these songs he'd written, and he wanted to form a band. I think the initial idea was to form a real band, but I think everyone in the band had other projects going on, and it's really difficult to get everyone in the same room. So I was… Actually, this was the first album where I didn't write a single word… I just went in and recorded the lyrics he'd written, and we've never, to this day, ever played a show; it was just the album that was released. I love that album; it's incredible. It's simply a completely different side of thrash metal that I've never had the opportunity to do, very heavy, so it was a lot of fun.
W (DD): Speaking of your new band, Hatriot, you released your first EP in 2010, what are your plans for the future with Hatriot?
SS: I'm going to do everything I did with Exodus, this isn't a side project, this isn't, you know, something I'm just doing now, I'm going to take this forward. I'm still negotiating a contract with a record label to make this happen. I want to tour the world, Brazil, Europe, do all that with Hatriot. I think it's the new thrash, but from the old guard, if you listen carefully, I think there are many influences from Legacy, Testament, Exodus, many things. The guys in the band, you know, the bassist is my son, and the guitarist and I, who write everything: they are very knowledgeable about 80s thrash metal, very much so, so they do everything very, very well, all of them. I handpicked each one of them, and it was very difficult to find musicians who fit my style and who could create a band that was new, but still used the influences of the old guard, so it makes a lot of sense.
W (DD): Yes, yes, definitely.
SS: Well, you guys listened to the demo, what do you think? You listened to all four songs, what do you think? What are your opinions?
W (NM): I really like it, it reminds me, as you yourself said, of old thrash metal albums, which I think is very good.
W (DD): And at the same time, it has a new element.
SS: Exactly, you understood, and that's exactly the message we want to convey. In the interviews I do, that's always the feedback I get, which is why I always ask, "What's your opinion?" and everyone says, "It's old-school influences mixed with new ones, it's very new," and that's what we want. I just wrote a new song, and it sounds a lot like "Seasons of the Abyss," it has a very slow beginning, but then it gets very heavy… So it's an old/new thing, which I think is working very well for us right now.
W (NM): Since you mentioned writing lyrics, how do you write your lyrics? Where do you get your inspiration from?
SS: I guess it's about being sick and crazy. So many things intrigue me that I never run out of ideas, never. I'm always thinking about something surreal, from a vampire ripping your head off to something that's kind of real, like a school shooting… Anything that's raw, kind of dark, anything that intrigues me – murders, serial killers, the dark side of government and hypocrisy, that kind of thing. There are many things I could write about.
W (DD): We know you're a fan of Bon Scott from AC/DC. Whatever Bon Scott represents for traditional heavy metal, do you think it's fair to say you represent it for thrash metal?
SS: I hope so, I really hope so, because I think my vocal style is quite unique… Like it or not, it’s very unique, and I come from raw anyway, my vocal tone is very similar… I even have, in the Bay Area where I live, I have my own AC/DC tribute band that I play in clubs, it’s really cool.
W (NM): So is it fair to say that you're the Bom Scott of thrash metal?
SS: Yes, you can quote me on that.
"South of Heaven is playing! I have to headbang, I don't care if I'm in a K-mart. This is the great song."
W (NM): Regarding Hatriot, Zetro, what's it like playing with younger musicians, especially your own son, Cody? Do you feel like you have to be a role model for these younger guys?
SS: Of course, and I don't lie to them, I tell the truth about what the industry is like, I don't omit anything. I tell them what they'll achieve with hard work and diligence, and that nothing is handed to them on a silver platter, so that's how you have to be. Definitely, because I didn't have that, we were just guys playing around, hoping it would work out. And I've been very lucky to be able to last in this industry for almost 30 years now, and to be able to say that, in heavy metal, even more so in thrash metal, I should get a medal for it, we all should, those of us who have been doing this for so long. So, of course, when we're in rehearsals, when we're writing, when we're doing anything… We're about to record a video that we're going to pay for ourselves, to put on the website, go to our website, listen to the music, go see us play, even if it's not going to be on any album or anything, because we haven't signed any contracts yet, but I still think it's good for our fans… The director of the “Machine Heads” video, he's going to film a video for a song called “Blood-Stained Wings” in about two weeks, if you visit our website you'll be able to watch it, you know, so I think these things are always… You need to learn, and if I had known this at the beginning it would have been much easier for us, so definitely, answering your question, yes, I definitely have to be, and I'm very insistent on teaching them too.
W (NM): And do they teach you anything? Do you learn anything from them?
SS: For sure, I have to give them more freedom when they're composing music, so, you know, they're very good at it, but I think I'm very firm about what I want and what I need, you know? And I think they handle that very well, so I do learn some things, some influences maybe, newer things that I don't necessarily know, even though I'm very tuned into metal, I listen to everything, you know, Faceless, Job for a Cowboy, I listen to everything, so I'm very connected. But yes, for sure I learn a lot, of course.
W (NM): Before we finish, Zetro, I'd really like to thank you for your time, and thank you for showing us your new band. We're here to support Hatriot, and we hope Hatriot will come to Brazil. So, to finish, could you leave one last message for all our listeners? We hope to see you in Brazil very soon.
SS: Well, thank you, and thank you to all the Brazilian thrash metal fans, you've always supported me, I know, I read everything on the internet, letters, things like that, I receive a lot of support. Brazil is the land of the Cavalieras, Sepultura, of course, you have a lot of thrash metal, for sure. Thank you all, thank you very much.
W (DD): Thank you very much, Steve, it was an honor and a pleasure to speak with you.
SS: It was a pleasure talking to you, let's talk again soon, when we release a new Hatriot album, how about that?
W (NM): Sure.
W (DD): Great, thank you very much.
W (NM): Count on us!
SS: OK. Great.
W (DD): Bye.
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