FALLUJAH
The Californians team up with Obscura for a tech-death feast
what’s your favourite memory of touring so far, Scott? Scott Carstairs (guitar): “Playing hellfest in 2016. it was the first year we did festival runs, and we went from not doing shows to suddenly landing in France for hellfest. the stage we played pulled almost 10,000 people, which was by far the biggest crowd we had ever played. that day, i went through the kitchen area and popped out inside the special VIP area and nobody said a thing – even the artists couldn’t go in there, it was just for the headliners and Vips. the area had this super-high terrace where you could look out, so i watched Black sabbath from above playing to a sea of 50,000 people.”
who have been your best tour buddies over the last nine years on the road?
“we’ve been lucky not to clash with other bands but at the same time, i like the people i clash with the most because they’re fun when they yell back at you. the first big tour we did was with goatwhore and they were great – they’re funny but they’ll give you a hard time. [goatwhore guitarist] sammy duet’s bunk was right above mine so i’d yell at him like, ‘sammy, get your shit out of the way!’ or ‘stop making so much damn noise in your bunk, i can’t sleep!’”
Album four is on its way. what can you tell us about it? “the new album is completely finished and ready to go really soon. we’ve taken so long because we wanted to find an amazing singer to take it to the next level, someone that would fit in with us but also get rid of any weak points we have. we can’t say much but he kills it – his performance on the album blew our minds… even the producer recording it said he gave him shivers. this time, we’re doing everything from within the band and it came out pretty cool – it feels more like a coherent piece of music. i think it’s better than all our other albums because it sounds so raw and natural but it still has all the crazy, ethereal stuff.”
How’s your 2019 looking so far?
“we’ve got some unannounced tours lined up – we’re getting ready to hit it pretty hard in 2019. we took the time off to make the music last year; now we’re ready to put it out there and tour as much as possible!”