Andrew Haug, the former host of Triple J Australia’s “The Racket” radio show (originally “Full Metal Racket”; 2001-2011), conducted an interview with former THE HAUNTED and current AT THE GATES guitarist Anders Björler for Australia’s soon-to-be-officially-launched first-ever dedicated 24/7 rock and metal online radio station via AndrewHaug.com.
On whether the AT THE GATES reunion will be like the KISS approach — where they say “goodbye” and then still carry on:
Anders: “I think we learned from that mistake. We won’t say goodbye again — ever. The main goal here is playing in territories we haven’t played; it’s that simple. We did South America in the summer and [now we’re doing] Australia. Yeah, we’ll do some exceptions, like the Barge To Hell boat. That’s just vacation, basically — playing on a boat. Otherwise, we’ll do, maybe, a couple of festivals each summer. Maybe three.”
On whether it has been tempting not to try and record a new AT THE GATES studio album considering how positive the response has been to the band’s reunion:
Anders: “For me, personally, no. I’ve never had those plans. I guess some of the other guys [in the band] want to, but certainly not me. Because I think too much time has passed. It was, maybe, 16 years ago, or 17, since we released ‘Slaughter Of The Soul’, and too much time has passed. I’m not at the place that I was back then, and it’s not gonna sound like a continuation of ‘Slaughter Of The Soul’, and that’s basically what I don’t wanna do.”
Haug‘s radio background goes back to 1993, when he started out with a local demo segment on Melbourne’s “3RRRFM” metal show.
In 2001 he was offered the national spot to host Triple J‘s weekly metal program. Over his decade-long run he conducted a staggering 612 interviews with the likes of James Hetfield (METALLICA), Ozzy Osbourne, Maynard James Keenan (TOOL), Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford (JUDAS PRIEST), and even interviewed Steve Harris of IRON MAIDEN onboard the band’s very own plane Ed Force One.
In 2011 Haug had the daring task of announcing to a rowdy crowd ofSLAYER fans at the Soundwave Festival in Sydney that the band would not be playing — minutes before they were due onstage! And then there’s his daring and hilarious face-to-face impersonation of METALLICA‘s Lars Ulrich.
For more information, visit AndrewHaug.com.
Source: www.blabbermouth.net