Shortly after launching my radio show in late '97, I received my very first package in the mail at the station, a package which contained two CDs sent by a generous listener. One of them was Tourniquet's Crawl to China, and I've been a fan of the band's work ever since. When they resurfaced with Antiseptic Bloodbath, their first release since 2003, I figured it was about time to seek out an interview. And so it happened that I found myself having this conversation with Ted Kirkpatrick, drummer and mastermind behind Tourniquet. He's an interesting guy who certainly didn't hold back in sharing his opinions on heavy topics such as animal welfare, and I found that honesty pretty refreshing. If you're interested in the connection between Tourniquet and animal welfare (for example, Ted's recent work to protect a turtle and her eggs), check out The Tourniquet Ark on Facebook. Check out the interview in audio and text below.
This interview is a Metal Meltdown exclusive, and text and audio are not to be used without permission. (Blabbermouth, this means you.)
Contents
0:00 Use of Kickstarter for Antiseptic Bloodbath
2:00 Return of Tourniquet
3:30 Fan reaction to Kickstarter funding
8:00 Instrumental version of Antiseptic
8:30 Neil Kernon's involvement
10:00 86 Bullets and animal welfare
17:00 Future plans for Tourniquet
21:00 Being a Christian metal band
Interview Highlights (full audio above)
On using Kickstarter to fund Antiseptic Bloodbath: Kickstarter for us worked out terrific. I studied it for a few weeks and saw what works and what doesn't work. And you know, there are an awful lot of Kickstarter projects that don't get funded and they kind of get swept under the carpet. You don't hear about them too much, but I think the percentage is quite high of ones that don't get funded, so it hink the important thing is to know what you're doing and offer things that are valuable to the fans…We were very humbled by the support and easily met our goals.
Tourniquet's return: We had never broken up or anything, you know. I've said for 20 years now that Tourniquet is about music. It's not about just being a band and being the flavor of the month band. As you know, I write almost all the music. For me, music is a passion. When people say, 'Well, when are you going to not do Tourniquet?', I say, 'Well, I've got so many more ideas for music, and I love writing, and obviously classical music is a huge inspiration to me.' So yeah, since it's always been about the music, we never really went away. We just took quite a long hiatus from the recording.
Was he nervous about asking fans for money? But yeah, you're right. If you ask for $22,000, and you end up with $2,200, yeah, I would imagine it's kind of walking away with your tail between your legs, like 'Oof, I think kind of overestimated how interested people are in our music.'
Marty Friedman's work on the album: Marty is a friend of mine. He's an incredibly talented guitarist. You could count on, in my opinion, two hands the guitarists out there that can play like three notes, and it's like, 'Oh my gosh, that's Marty Friedman. I know who that is.' There's Robin Trauer - would be another one like that. You hear Eddie Van Halen play a few notes like, 'Ah - I know who that is.' Marty's one of those guys, but he's a very humble, good friend of mine...'
The song '86 Bullets' and Ted's thoughts on animal welfare: Believe it or not, I grew up hunting. My dad hunted, my grandpa, my uncles, my brothers, my friends, my cousins, everyone hunted. When I was old enough to kind of think, 'I'm really not crazy about this, to go out where animals live and try to flush them out of their homes and gun them down', for me, I just wasn't into it, and I learned how to appreciate animals as they are. You know, God created them with a lot of the same desires that we have. They desire to feel comfortable in their own skin, and they of course have a desire for mating and family bonding. And you look at elephants, their desire and their need to - that they're in these very complex social groups - and then you take an elephant at a young age and brutally train it to obey you, and then you throw it in a circus, where it's 20 hours chained up a day, traveling from city to city. It's nothing short of total animal abuse, and in no way can I picture God looking down and saying, 'Ahh, I'm pleased with what you're doing with the largest land animal that walks the planet currently'. And it's just ludicrous to think that God is pleased with that.
That song '86 Bullets' is about a circus animal in Hawaii named Tyke. It was the female elephant - who knows what she was thinking, but finally just had enough and actually killed, I believe, the trainer or the helper, one of the two, and then got out in the street. And the police there took 86 bullets to bring this poor elephant down, so it really was a touching story for me of animal abuse and a ridiculously sad ending to what never should have been in the first place.
Emphasis on animals and humans in their music: There's one other thing I'll say is that when Ark of Suffering came out in 1990, the percentage of people saying, 'Oh my gosh, why are you talking about animals when people are going to hell?' And it's like, 'We've got 30 other songs that are about people', and meanwhile, really, we were the only band in the entire Christian market, even to this day, that deals with God's treatment of animals that I know of... God made animals for us to look after. We basically hold all the cards, you know, on how they're treated.
Future plans: I'm definitely going to do another Tourniquet album for sure, and I don't think people will have to wait 8 years for it like they did for Antiseptic, which was, my apologies, way too long.
Being a Christian metal band: I remember when we played at the Milwaukee Metal Fest and Deicide was on the bill, they said, 'Oh, we're not going to play if Tourniquet's on the bill. They're a Christian band'. I just don't think you hear that stuff so much now. In fact, I'm sure you don't. There's just a lot more people that realize, 'You know, it's just music'. You know, if you want to sing about your relationship with Satan, that's your thing. I can't stop you from doing that. I think people just know now more that bands write about what's important to them and what they're passionate about. And if it's God, fine. If it's something else, fine, you know. I know when we were on Metal Blade, you know, Brian Slagel, the owner of Metal Blade, he's had Slayer on the label and Cannibal Corpse and Gwar, on and on. He just said, 'Hey, I like the music. Whatever the lyrics are about, that's up to you. We like your music'. I think there's way more of that than there was like when Stop the Bleeding came out in 1990.
There was a lot more of that back then in the early 90s…If the music's good, and they like the music, I think they're fine with what the lyrics are.
0:00 Use of Kickstarter for Antiseptic Bloodbath
2:00 Return of Tourniquet
3:30 Fan reaction to Kickstarter funding
8:00 Instrumental version of Antiseptic
8:30 Neil Kernon's involvement
10:00 86 Bullets and animal welfare
17:00 Future plans for Tourniquet
21:00 Being a Christian metal band
Interview Highlights (full audio above)
On using Kickstarter to fund Antiseptic Bloodbath: Kickstarter for us worked out terrific. I studied it for a few weeks and saw what works and what doesn't work. And you know, there are an awful lot of Kickstarter projects that don't get funded and they kind of get swept under the carpet. You don't hear about them too much, but I think the percentage is quite high of ones that don't get funded, so it hink the important thing is to know what you're doing and offer things that are valuable to the fans…We were very humbled by the support and easily met our goals.
Tourniquet's return: We had never broken up or anything, you know. I've said for 20 years now that Tourniquet is about music. It's not about just being a band and being the flavor of the month band. As you know, I write almost all the music. For me, music is a passion. When people say, 'Well, when are you going to not do Tourniquet?', I say, 'Well, I've got so many more ideas for music, and I love writing, and obviously classical music is a huge inspiration to me.' So yeah, since it's always been about the music, we never really went away. We just took quite a long hiatus from the recording.
Was he nervous about asking fans for money? But yeah, you're right. If you ask for $22,000, and you end up with $2,200, yeah, I would imagine it's kind of walking away with your tail between your legs, like 'Oof, I think kind of overestimated how interested people are in our music.'
Marty Friedman's work on the album: Marty is a friend of mine. He's an incredibly talented guitarist. You could count on, in my opinion, two hands the guitarists out there that can play like three notes, and it's like, 'Oh my gosh, that's Marty Friedman. I know who that is.' There's Robin Trauer - would be another one like that. You hear Eddie Van Halen play a few notes like, 'Ah - I know who that is.' Marty's one of those guys, but he's a very humble, good friend of mine...'
The song '86 Bullets' and Ted's thoughts on animal welfare: Believe it or not, I grew up hunting. My dad hunted, my grandpa, my uncles, my brothers, my friends, my cousins, everyone hunted. When I was old enough to kind of think, 'I'm really not crazy about this, to go out where animals live and try to flush them out of their homes and gun them down', for me, I just wasn't into it, and I learned how to appreciate animals as they are. You know, God created them with a lot of the same desires that we have. They desire to feel comfortable in their own skin, and they of course have a desire for mating and family bonding. And you look at elephants, their desire and their need to - that they're in these very complex social groups - and then you take an elephant at a young age and brutally train it to obey you, and then you throw it in a circus, where it's 20 hours chained up a day, traveling from city to city. It's nothing short of total animal abuse, and in no way can I picture God looking down and saying, 'Ahh, I'm pleased with what you're doing with the largest land animal that walks the planet currently'. And it's just ludicrous to think that God is pleased with that.
That song '86 Bullets' is about a circus animal in Hawaii named Tyke. It was the female elephant - who knows what she was thinking, but finally just had enough and actually killed, I believe, the trainer or the helper, one of the two, and then got out in the street. And the police there took 86 bullets to bring this poor elephant down, so it really was a touching story for me of animal abuse and a ridiculously sad ending to what never should have been in the first place.
Emphasis on animals and humans in their music: There's one other thing I'll say is that when Ark of Suffering came out in 1990, the percentage of people saying, 'Oh my gosh, why are you talking about animals when people are going to hell?' And it's like, 'We've got 30 other songs that are about people', and meanwhile, really, we were the only band in the entire Christian market, even to this day, that deals with God's treatment of animals that I know of... God made animals for us to look after. We basically hold all the cards, you know, on how they're treated.
Future plans: I'm definitely going to do another Tourniquet album for sure, and I don't think people will have to wait 8 years for it like they did for Antiseptic, which was, my apologies, way too long.
Being a Christian metal band: I remember when we played at the Milwaukee Metal Fest and Deicide was on the bill, they said, 'Oh, we're not going to play if Tourniquet's on the bill. They're a Christian band'. I just don't think you hear that stuff so much now. In fact, I'm sure you don't. There's just a lot more people that realize, 'You know, it's just music'. You know, if you want to sing about your relationship with Satan, that's your thing. I can't stop you from doing that. I think people just know now more that bands write about what's important to them and what they're passionate about. And if it's God, fine. If it's something else, fine, you know. I know when we were on Metal Blade, you know, Brian Slagel, the owner of Metal Blade, he's had Slayer on the label and Cannibal Corpse and Gwar, on and on. He just said, 'Hey, I like the music. Whatever the lyrics are about, that's up to you. We like your music'. I think there's way more of that than there was like when Stop the Bleeding came out in 1990.
There was a lot more of that back then in the early 90s…If the music's good, and they like the music, I think they're fine with what the lyrics are.
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