Mortal Sin On Tour With Floatsam And Jetsam…

For the first time ever down under, US thrash metal legends Flotsam and Jetsam will join forces with Australian thrash pioneers Mortal Sin for a devastating co-headline tour across Australia starting in Melbourne tonight. Fresh from their long-awaited return to the stage, Mortal Sin continue to cement their place as Australia’s most influential thrash export. Following their comeback tour and exclusive appearances at major European festivals including Keep It True Festival, Alcatraz Metal Festival and Brutal Assault, alongside headline runs across Europe and Australia, the band show no signs of slowing down. This tour sees them bring their iconic catalogue and renewed firepower to Australian stages alongside an international thrash heavyweight, making for a truly special run of shows. Mat Maurer talks to Rob Lyon about the tour including their highly successful tour across Europe.

Sounds like it’s already been a massive year for you guys. How did the tour overseas go?
I’m like, wow. We didn’t really know what to expect, because we hadn’t played over there for so long, but yeah, it was really good, man. Surprising.

Have you been blown away by the interest in the band now?
Yeah, just like I said, the last time we were over there was in 2011, so we’ve obviously got a really good hardcore group of fans. Mate, some of them travelled from all over. Because we didn’t play in England, some guy travelled from England to Berlin. There were other people that travelled from Spain, Venezuela, Peru… it’s like, wow, you guys travelled just to come and see us. Really great.

Is it the sort of thing where you’ll eventually have to spend more time over there and base yourselves for a period?
I don’t think we’d base ourselves over there. It’s too much to ask of five members with jobs. Bit different for Australians, we’ve got to work full‑time. I know a lot of people in other bands do bands full‑time, but they’re in five different bands. We discussed the whole moving‑to‑Europe thing back in 2006, and not everyone was on board, so we just dropped that. We just have to play the hard yards and the long yards like everyone else.

Does that make it easier to keep the wheels turning when everyone can be in other bands or do their day jobs, then come back keen as ever for Mortal Sin?
Yeah, well, cost of living in Australia means you got to keep your day job, doesn’t it? Touring is expensive, so it’s not like you make a lot of money out of it. Coming back to day jobs, everyone having mortgages… yeah, we just have to do it that way. There’s no other option unless someone wins the Powerball or something.

From your own perspective, are you enjoying being in the band more now than ever?
Probably yes! Maybe because we’re a little bit older, so you kind of respect it a little more. Opportunities don’t come along often, so when they do, you grab hold of them with both hands and run with them. It was a lot of fun, a lot of hard work. Being in our sixties now, me and Andy, it was hard. We had to keep track of our health, what we eat, how we do things, not go out and party every night. But it was a good tour. We set out to do something, and I think we did that with flying colours. Quite happy with it.

Were there any particular shows that stood out more than others?
All the festivals were really good. We played Alcatraz Festival, which was quite big, and at the time was probably one of the best shows we’d played. We played Brutal Assault Festival, headlined one of the stages, that was pretty amazing as well. Then we played another one in France called Barbeuk Festival, not huge, but again, one of those gigs where we really played well. I think we surprised a lot of people. Not a lot of people had heard of Mortal Sin, which is kind of weird, but it was a thrash festival and we played with Suicidal Angels and Schizophrenia. I think a lot of people felt, “Wow, this band from Australia is as good as anyone.” That was kind of what we got everywhere we went — “Wow, you guys are amazing.”

Do you notice much difference between fans here compared to fans overseas?
Yeah, I think the fans here… we probably sit a little deeper in their hearts, because we’re Australian. I won’t say we started the scene, but we’re a major part of the scene, so we’ve got a really good place in Australians’ hearts. People in Europe get thousands of bands touring every year, so maybe we’re not so much in a lot of people’s hearts, but like I said earlier, we have a really good hardcore group of fans. It’s a lot harder to convince people in Europe, whereas in Australia you’re playing for your fans. Even though you’re doing that in Europe too, I think you’ve got to play harder. You’ve come a long way, you want to leave an impression, and I think we did that really well.

Are you noticing that generational shift in the supporter base now?
Yeah, it’s a big generational thing here. It’s similar over there as well. Weirdly, we do get young kids coming up and saying, “Oh man, I love you guys, I love you guys.” It’s like, well, how did you hear about Mortal Sin? Especially South American fans, we had quite a few come and watch us, and we’re like, how the hell did you get Face of Despair in Colombia? That kind of stuff just amazes you. Yes, we were on a major label for Face of Despair, okay, but the fact that it reached so far across the world… that blows our mind. It’s like, wow.

Is it streaming, or mail orders, vinyl, CDs?
Vinyl’s from way back, people saying, “Oh man, I was fourteen when I bought your vinyl.” The really younger kids now, the fourteen to eighteen year‑olds, they probably heard us on streaming, but then they go out and hunt down vinyl’s as well. That’s a really good thing for us.

The market for vinyl is even stronger now. That must be good for you guys?
It was good. We took some vinyl’s over there. Obviously, we couldn’t take too many because of luggage restrictions, but we sold out everything we took. A lot of people were saying, “Oh, fifty euros, that’s so… you won’t sell any.” We sold out, mate. If people want it, they’ll buy it. They don’t care how much it costs them.

The upcoming tour with Flotsam and Jetsam almost seems like a dream‑come‑true gig?
Yeah, well, they’ve never been to Australia, so I think it’s going to be a great treat for Australians. Unless you’re going overseas to festivals, you don’t get to see some bands and even then, sometimes you don’t get to see bands, it’s potluck on who’s on the draw.
So having them come to Australia for the first time in forty years… I think it’s great. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised how good they are.

Do you get star struck playing big line-ups with artists like this?
It’s not star struck… it’s something else. It’s like… yeah, it’s important. When we played Alcatraz, we played on the same day as Death Angel, different stages, but you go out there with the intent of, “Man, we’ve got to be as good, or if not better, than Death Angel,” which is near impossible, but you’ve got to try. Wherever you go, you’re a product. You’re out there selling your product, so you’ve got to get out there and do the best you can in whatever situation you’re in. So yeah, it’s not star struck, it’s kind of like competition, maybe.

For the setlist on this tour, have you got a particular focus?
We don’t get as much time as we’ve had overseas, so we have to look at our set and cut a few songs out. But yeah, it’s kind of like a best‑of. We’ve got five or six songs from Mayhemic Destruction, four songs from Face of Despair, and then three or four more songs off the other two albums. So yeah, it’s really a best‑of.

What’s next for the band? New music, or catch your breath for a minute and think about what’s next?
Catch our breath, yeah. It’s been a long year. It was a pretty amazing year. After Flotsam, we’ll sit down and have a debrief, talk about what is next. We’ve kind of discussed the future, but we’ve not really sat down and said, “Alright, what do you want to do?”
So yeah, it’ll be a wait‑and‑see, I guess.

Even personally, do you get to sit back and reflect not only on this year, but forty years years — that’s a significant milestone.
In some ways you don’t really look at the last forty years, you look at what’s on your plate now. The focus was to get overseas, make sure we couldn’t go back out there and be mediocre. We had to be amazing, so we worked really hard on that and like I said, I think we succeeded. All of the reviews were really good and a lot of the comments from fans were exactly that: “Wow, you guys — fucking amazing, sensational, awesome.” Never heard a bad thing. So I think we did really well.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Mortal Sin on tour with Floatsam and Jetsam on the following dates, tickets HERE…