In the recording and writing world, Testament have continiously evolved since the 80s.
Testament have built a huge legacy in metal no matter which way you look at it, having released their first album, aptly named The Legacy in 1983. Touching down this month in support of Titans of Creation, their 13th album, guitarist Eric Peterson knows a thing or two about making records and performing them.
Chatting to us from his home in Northern California, Eric talks us through his live experience, having gigged since the 80s.
“Having a handle on what guitar works for what you do,” he begins. “In the beginning I had some good guitars, but not for what we do. I remember our first record I had a BC Rich Mockingbird with a Kahler on it. “
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“It was a great guitar but it didn’t work very well in the studio, so y’know I had to use someone else’s guitar which was really weird.”
Eric continues, getting a bit more high level with his answers, discussing that confidence in what you do influences your sound and style more than anything else. Learning songs, learning what works live vs. what doesn’t, Testament now having a huge catalogue of songs to choose from, even when touring in support of a specific album.
“We can now pick and mould how we want to express ourselves,” he says, referring to the choice of songs in a setlist. “‘Cause you feed off the audience and you see what they like. There’s definitely times where we really though ‘Oh, this is going to be great!’ and the crowd’s just like—” he smiles, imitating a motionless audience member with their arms crossed.
“But then [the crowd] would go off on another song, and it’s like ‘Okay, they like that kinda stuff.’”
Eric expands further, saying that after playing as many shows as they have, picking a setlist that a crowd will enjoy is easy, though the difficult part is ensuring they try to play something off as many albums as they can.
“But this evening in the States, we made a lot of people happy because it was just us, it was our show. We played, we told stories, we took our time.” he explains. “We got acoustic guitars and played all our ballads, we played some deep cuts. It was really cool.”
In the recording and writing world, Testament have also evolved since the 80s.
“Back then, things were different, technology was different. A lot of the times when we jammed as a band we had a cassette player with a shirt over it to muffle it, you could take that cassette to your car and listen to your practice.” Eric explains, and I chime in that we still do the same thing today, albeit with an iPhone muffled by a shirt to prevent clipping and distortion.
“You had to imagine what it would sound like better, in the studio, but you wouldn’t want to play that for anybody.” he laughs.
Eric continues, explaining that the internet has been a revelation for the band. It allows him to jam ideas and email them off to band members who can record themselves over his ideas, all the while with a catalogue of saved files and versions.
The advantages of digital are endless, though it can be easy to fall into the trap of adding layers, harmonies and textures that are difficult, or impossible, to pull off live.
“We’ve learned our lesson.” he says. “It sounds amazing but like ‘How are we gonna do that live?’”
“Even now, we get carried away, Chuck [Billy, vocals]’s like ‘Let’s put this here and then—’ and I’m like ‘Who’s gonna do that?! I’m not doing that, I can’t sing like that.’” he chuckles. “We’re a little bit more conscientious and we stick to what we know we can do.”
“There is stuff that if it really calls for it, you’ll do it, and maybe that’ll be an ‘album song’.”
Speaking of album songs, Eric moves to discussing Testament having been involved in recording themselves since late 80s, initially using ADAT, as well as further production with bigger name producers like Michael Wagner and Andy Sneap.
“So now, I just record at home with Logic, I DI all my stuff and it’s mixed elsewhere.” he laughs, before speaking about the workflow of an album that’s currently in the works. “I’ve been mixing at night with Jens Bogren in Sweden.”
“We’re doing this [Audiomovers] thing where I get to hear in real-time what he’s doing, rather than waiting until the morning to go ‘turn this up, not that’, then having to wait another day. You can hear it right there and then.”
Testament touch down this month for five blistering shows in Australia. For ticketing and more, visit The Phoenix.
