Motograter – Interview

By Ron Senyo

Empire Extreme got to hang out and talk to a singer James Anthony Legion and drummer Noah “shark” Robertson from Motograter at Fishhead Cantina on May 25^th 2106. Craziness and bad luck was in store for Motograter that day.

Empire: How are you guys doing today? I know you had some doom and gloom recently.

Noah: In a nutshell, what basically happened last night I injured my arm while on stage playing. I think I tore a rotator cuff or something. I went to the emergency room right after we got done playing and got an X-ray. I still don’t know what it is. My arm is still in a lot of pain.

Then on the way here to Baltimore Maryland we had a tire on the trailer blow out. We spent all day running around trying to find a tire for the trailer. We then hauled ass to get here to the Fishhead cantina and we didn’t make it in time, so we didn’t get to play.

E: Aside from the last few days how has the tour going?

James: Good, really good. The turn outs have been pretty good much across the board.Touring with the Head Charge guys have been really fun. Those guys are great. It’s been fun.

E: Any news when the new CD?

N: It’s pretty much done. We just have couple things to wrap up. We are working on samples and mixing. It’s pretty much in the bag and will be done in the next two months. Yyou can expect it 3-4 months after that, so the very end of 2016.

E: Is it going to sound the same as the last album or EP’s

N: It’s a lot different. We definitely made huge strides to make it sound classic Moto, but it’s a modern sound. It’s an evolved sound. Obviously with a new singer, it’s not classic Moto but its Motoesc and it’s bad ass.

E: Since you have a lot of new members in the band, how did the process of forming the band happened?

J: I met Motograter through a mutual guy, Michael “the kidd” Stewart, he just sent them a YouTube video that I had done with another band and the guys like it. “Nuke” called me and said “Hey do you want to join Motograter”? I was like “Yeah of course!” but can we do a trial or a demo? That demo was “Portrait of Decay”, the song we released online. It was kind of my try out song. After that we were good and we starting writing. I flew out to California and we went on tour and that was about it.

N: Ya when “Nuke” hit me up and said I found a singer I was just like, “Whatever dude shut up”. I thought there’s no way he found a singer, because whenever we were looking for one I just thought we never find anyone good enough. “Nuke” sent me the YouTube video he got a hold of. I literally called him up three seconds after I watched it and said “That’s the guy!” A lot of the other members are just random guys we met through the industry, touring. A couple of guys from Iowa, a dude from California, I’m from Texas, James is from NC, were kind of spread out but based out of California.

E: A lot of bands have had people from the crowd come up and play percussion and what not, would you let anyone come on stage and play the Motograter?

J: I’ve seen “skunk” have someone come up and hitting it kind of messing with the Motograter like after were done playing

N: If you count a drunk chick grinding on it, while he’s playing with it sure. We’ve deff ‘ have gotten asked to do something like that. It’s tough to accommodate people and not just make a mockery of your show. If you want to come donate a couple of thousand dollars to our album fund you can play any instrument you want.

E: Have you guys ever considered doing any covers?

J: We did think about that actually. We were really considering doing a cover on the new album, but we kind of ran out of time. Plus we couldn’t settle on anything. As of right now we don’t have any covers but its possibility still.

N: Ya we’ve thrown around doing a cover quite a bit. It just hasn’t seemed to work out, but I think you will see a Motograter cover in the near future.

E: Is there any band you like to hear do a Motograter cover song?

J: No way we will fucking sue you… (laughs) Naw, I’m just kidding.

N: If Trent Reznor wants to bust out a Motograter remix, by all means please do, or if Max from Soulfly wanted to a Motograter cover.

E: Any new bands you have been listening to?

J: I don’t have anything new. I’ve been just listening to Deftones pretty much this whole tour

N: I could go on for like two months on this subject. I listen to quite a lot of new music actually. Some of the bands I’ve been into lately I’ll just throw out some. Gemini Syndrome, Starset, Nothing More, there’s so much good music out its awesome.

E: What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen at a Motograter Show?

N: Honestly, one of the sickest shows we’ve done in the recent pass was South East Idaho’s Rock and Metal Festival. We played with Cage9 and Saving Abel. That was just one the most insane shows. It sounded great, they had super lights, pyrotechnics, fog machines, and the crowd was going nuts.

J: And I couldn’t even speak

N: He had laryngitis or something. He was deathly ill and we still did the show. It was one of the best shows that we’ve done.

E: If you had the opportunity to play any festival which would you want to play?

N: The first thing that comes to mind absolutely is Knotfest/Ozzfest, its gonna be the last time Ozzy performs with Sabbath in the west coast. That would be a monumental show to perform. Carolina Rebellion, James is from there so he really wants to do that one. RockFest the one that’s near KC. We want to do anything and everything. Mayhem, Rock on the Range, Download.

E: So I saw the band years ago play without paint on, would you do something like that again?

N: We have done that. I’ve got to be honest with you, the times we have done that it’s not been “Hey let’s do a show without paint”, it’s more like this show isn’t, you know we’re not really feeling it. The vibe isn’t there.

J: Or we left our paint somewhere.

E: Is there a certain kind of paint that you use?

J: It’s something we get shipped here from Mars.

N: Ya, it’s actually an Alien Symbiote, that we apply to our bodies and it becomes one with us.

E: Kinda like Venom and Carnage?

J: Yes!

E: Who influenced you to be a Musician?

J: Trent Reznor, Maynard, Chino from Deftones, Mike Patton, some newer stuff like Corey Taylor.

N: Definitely Pantera my favorite band. Vinne Paul is my favorite drummer of all time. I use to idolize him. I still do. I’m actually one the biggest Nu-Metal heads on the planet. Motograter, Slipknot, MushroomHead, Korn, Deftones, all that stuff is my jam. I was a huge fan of Motograter before joining the band.

E: Anything you like to say to your fans?

J: One more for the bad guys… ahh no… Were Motograter and don’t you fucking forget it.

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

See author's posts