We sat down with James, the bassist from Anterior for a chat before he went on stage at The Limelight during the Metal Blade Assault tour with Malefice and The Rotted.

So you have played 3 dates on this tour so far?
No actually we’ve played one.
You’ve played one?
Yeah, our drummer basically left us in the crap about a week ago. We thought we’d have to pull out of the tour but luckily we got a friend to fill in so that meant we had to practice for the first two dates. We met up with the guys in Liverpool and played our first show last night.
He was only in the band a few months, then he just walked?
Yeah he did the All That Remains tour in January. He just felt it wasn’t for him, left immediately and refused to fill in for the tour. He left us in the shit basically. Last night was our first show and our standin guy is really good.
And what happened with your previous drummer?
Our first guy, Ross, was in the band for like five or six years. He just decided for whatever reason that he didn’t want to do it anymore. He left amicably, we’re still great friends. He fills in when he can. We’ve tried out between ten and fifteen drummers since then. They were all pretty good, one joined now he’s left. We’re not very hopeful at the moment.
Who’s your standin at the minute?
He’s from a mate’s band in Newport. He’s doing a great job. He’s one of the best drummers I’ve played with.
He’s running through the rest of the dates with the band?
Yeah, he’s doing them all.
How long has the band been together?
Ah, probably about six years. We started pretty young. We started doing covers but seriously with this lineup we’ve been going about three years.
At the start with this lineup you played with Dragonforce.
Yeah, that was about three years ago and it was one of our first good support slots.
And where was that?
That was in Cardiff University, that was awesome.
So Metal Blade got you that slot?
No no, we were unsigned. We got it through our friends in The Blackout. They are good mates and hooked us up with the show.
Who are your own personal musical influences?
Personally I’m quite into my glamrock so Kiss and Motley Crue. On the metal side of things with Bass players it is people like Jason Newsted who used to be in Metallica. Who else? Uh . . John Alderete from Racer X.
Tell me about your tour with Children Of Bodem
That was awesome. We did the two warmup dates, we did Dublin which was about 1500 I think. The day after we did Glasgow which I think was 1800.
How did you get on with those guys?
Really well. I mean, it was only two dates. If it was a full tour we would have gotten on great. In the two days we had to get to know each other, the first night we went out for drinks, the second we went to the bar. We got on pretty good, yeah.

How do you relax on tour?
I dunno, I’m pretty relaxed most of the day. Everything’s so hectic at night, you have to do your press, your gig. Through the day it’s usually just sleeping. If I can’t sleep I just stick the ipod in and chill or watch a film with the guys.

What have you guys got planned for after the tour?
After this tour we’re not taking any bookings for a while. We’re putting the finishing touches to writing the new album. We have about four or five songs done and a few well on the way. We’re hoping to record in June so after this it’s just taking some time out and making sure everything is done so we can record in the summer. Then maybe some festivals, some European dates in the winter.
Then back to the UK with a headline tour?
Yeah, back in the UK with a headline tour and supporting the new album.

Great. So what advice would you give to other bands just starting out?
Obviously the usual clichés like practice. Every musician knows you’ve got to put the time in to be good at what you do. At the moment I’d say the internet is a fantastic tool. We got signed on myspace by Metal Blade. They just heard our demo songs, that’s how we got signed. The internet is definitely a good tool. I’d advise bands, if they have something recorded to make sure it’s good quality. Get a myspace, design it and just go for professionalism. If someone wants to see a press kit they can just look at that.

Your vocalist, Luke used to play guitar. What happened?
Luke had carpal tunnel in his wrist. It’s something to do with the tendons or ligaments, I’m not really sure. They seized up and sort of froze his arm and gave him really bad pains. It was later found out that it was carpal tunnel from repetitive strain injury from playing guitar. He had to give it up.
He must have been gutted
Yeah he was. He still loves playing guitar now. His hand’s definitely a lot better now. At the time he had to stop playing he was really devastated. We got a fill in for a while. Steven joined a few weeks later.

What genre/subgenre are Anterior?
It’s metal. We have a lot of fun with it. If you look at our myspace it says something new and wacky all the time. We have a laugh between us because of people calling us different things like metalcore, melodic death metal, fucking thrash metal. The list is endless, we’re just metal.

Thankyou for your time, we’ll end it there but I’ll speak to you again when you come through this way when you tour your new album.
Yeah, thanks very much.

Interview by Craig Young