Interview with Erick Shute of PYREXIA, "…we have been dicked around so many times, we honestly don't know why or how we continue to do this."

I recently conducted an interview with Erick Shute, vocalist of New York death metal masters PYREXIA. You'll learn many things, such as how to use the word fuck no less than 5 times in a sentence. You'll also read about the bitter reality of what its like to be in a small band that does not have a commercially accessible sound. You'll learn I need to do more research. Check it out…

deadspout: Evening Eric, thanks for taking the time out to do this interview. Also thank you for being so patient with my busy life.

Erick: Been waiting a long time. About a year to be semi exact.

deadspout: Today [January 23, 2007] is the day your brand new album, "Age of The Wicked" was released through Unique Leader Records. How does that feel after such a long hiatus and so many changes since "System of the Animal"?

Erick: Well, I would like to say exciting, but really, its just a weight off the shoulders. It took a while to find a label that had half a fucking brain to realize, "oh, lets put out a band with some fucking talent for once". I fucking hate labels.
deadspout: In the time period between the last two albums, Pyrexia changed their name to Catastrophic. Were you in the band at that point?

Erick: (laughs) I would have been like like 16 or 17 at that point. I joined, I think, 4 years ago or so, when [CHRIS BASILE] left to put together Pyrexia.

deadspout: Who did you work with as far as Recording and Engineering? Did you record in New York?

Erick: Sabella Studios. Eric at Unique Leader helped out with getting it mastered. They did a phenomenal job. BUY IT!

deadspout: New York Death Metal has a HUGE history. Obviously when someone says NYDM the first band that sticks out in a fans mind is Suffocation, many other bands have had a hard time keeping it together. What drives Pyrexia to keep it rolling?

Erick: Well, we actually have a goal, dreams, work ethic, and a desire to succeed. Unlike alot of other bands I know, who get lucky and get signed and don't do a single fucking thing and don't fucking promote their own fucking band and sound like a bunch of fucking morons whens you put em in front of a fucking microphone and try to have a interesting conver-fucking-sation (Editors Note: Fuck, that's a lot of fucks!). The only thing that keeps Pyrexia going is… Pyrexia. We don't give a fuck about other bands anymore. We tried. The whole brotherly thing was more like a figment of the imagination, and then one day, we woke up and realized: Fuck these other assholes, fuck the labels, fuck the world. Not a single mother fucker will ever reach down to help you out and put you on a good tour, or anything. So many fucking assholes wanna rip you off, take your money, or just not pay you. It's a head ache, a fucking migraine. I constantly wanna go out and murder somebody when your offered something and then some other mother fucker takes it from you or says "oh we made a mistake". We have been dicked around so many times, we honestly don't know why or how we continue to do this. We haven't made a fucking cent. It's not even about the money. It's not even about the fans. The fans are a major bonus. It's about proving a fucking point. Whether its today, tomorrow, or next year. This band will become a headliner. I personally think Pyrexia is the most under-rated metal band in the world and I recognize the song writing is the best I've ever heard in so many spectrums, that's one thing that helps keep me going. Besides that, I wanna kill people 99.99% of the time. Especially when I go to a bigger concert where I wanna see the headliner, and I gotta sit through two sessions of fucking straight up garbage and know in my mind, if Pyrexia was playing, there would be people being taken out in stretchers because of the lethal slams that comes with the Pyrexia style.

deadspout: You are third vocalist of Pyrexia, do you feel a little bit of pressure in keeping to the roots?

Erick: No, the roots aren't even a thought. I could actually care less what anyone thinks. If you notice, people were confused when hatred, anger, and disgust came out and then they really criticized when "System of The Animal Came Out". And then a guy from a much larger label laughed and said "What the fuck is this rap shit?" When we were gonna put one really fucking awesome hardcore track on this cd and that prevented us from getting signed to a much bigger label. We even had a few really big named people calling him to encourage him to sign us regardless of the hardcore track. It seems like no matter what Pyrexia puts out, these fucking people will criticize and constantly pick out things they try to find wrong. So, no, I really don't give a fuck about roots, or what any of these people think. We are gonna write what we like to write, put out what we wanna put out, and if you don't like it, fuck it. We are as real as it fucking gets.

deadspout: I couldn't find any information about your previous vocal duties so could you elaborate a little about your roots and influences?

Erick: I used to argue a lot with my grandmother when she lived with me up till i was about 15. Constantly screaming at her, and her back at me. If she wasn't so old, I'd probably hire her on as a 2nd vocalist.

deadspout: Drummer, Justin Dipinto has played in a few pretty damn respectable bands such as Malevolent Creation, Mortal Decay, and Divine Rapture; do those influences play into the new album?

Erick: FUCK NO.. "Sermon of Mockery" influences Mortal Decay and probably 90% of the brutal death metal today. Do your history man.

deadspout: On "Age of The Wicked" which track stands out the most for you and why?

Erick: All of it. I don't have a favorite. BUY IT!!

deadspout: The only track I have heard is "The Wicked Rise". It's pretty impressive, how has the feedback been?

Erick: Amazing.. We sold out of pre-orders. BUY IT!

deadspout: How has Unique Leader Records been treating you all? I actually remember when the announcement was made. How did that come about?

Erick: I called Eric up and said, "Dude, you wanna release the "Sermon of Mockery" CD?" And he said yes, then i said "Well, let's make a deal.. Release the new one and you can release "Sermon" and then he said yes, and thats pretty much the convo.

deadspout: Are you set up on any big tours and if you could pick a tour for this coming spring/summer who would you want to tour with?

Erick: OZZFEST! or SLIPKNOT! Realistically speaking… we don't have any tours set up, because of a budget which we don't have and booking agents wanna charge you an arm and a leg to do a tour. People ask why Pyrexia hasn't done any tours.. I'll answer this question right now. Unless you are practically fucking butt buddies with a bigger band, or you're on your knees sucking a booking agents cock, your forking out at LEAST $5000 to get on a half decent tour. We have jobs, bills to pay, things like normal people. Unfortunately we don't come from rich families where mommies and daddies will help their spoiled rotten fucking kids achieve their dreams of doing such things. Not saying we are never going to tour, but, it's not possible unless we get a helping hand. Sucks to fucking say, but, thats fucking reality. We got offered to tour with Malevolent [Creation], which we would have done, but, the booking agent said we needed $5000 to fork up to do it. Which is funny because, Dave Culross is my guitarist [Chris] Basiles' best friend, neighbor, drummer in their own side project STORM. I'll just say, we got fucking heated when we were told we had to fork up money to tour with our own friends. And the labels don't wanna fork out money to put you on tour, so everything comes out of your own pocket. It's bullshit.

deadspout: Awesome, thanks for taking the time to do this as well as having the patience with me. If you wanna plug anything here have at it!

BUY "AGE OF THE WICKED" and tell all your friends to do the same. Join our friends list www.myspace.com/pyrexia and www.pyrexia.us.