Erik Rutan with our journalist Damjan
HATE ETERNAL interview by Damjan
Erik Rutan had some dark
times heading his way in this past few years. Everybody quit Hate Eternal, while
his best friend Jared, who was to return to the band as a bass player, passed
away. So, Rutan remained alone with a Metal Blade contract in his hands, but no
line-up, and a heavy personal loss to deal with. Now, someone might just curl up
and dive deep into depression, but not Erik. With a new line-up, he recorded
“Fury & Flames”, a powerful requiem for Jared, and now he’s hitting the road
with renewed Hate Eternal. In this interview Erik holds no brakes when talking
about loss and how to deal with it, so light yourself a cigarette and step into
the private chambers of Mr. Rutan…
How much would you say all the recent problems around the band affected your
writing for “Fury & Flames” – I mean, the line-up changes, and obviously, Jared
Anderson having passed away just when you were talking about getting him back in
the band… How much did it condition this album?
Yeah, I’d say that this record is the most passionate album we ever did for
reasons that you mentioned, primarily because Jared was one of my best friends
and we also talked about him coming back to the band as well, so when he passed
away it definitely affected me in every way you can imagine. Writing this record
was like the way of dealing with it, I guess. Then the line-up changes,
obviously… It all happened for a reason. Me, Shaune and Jade we get along great,
and having Alex (Webster, n. a.) play on the record, of course, was almost like
a rejuvenation for me in the sense of being surrounded by these guys who really
appreciate what we’re doing here. With Jared having passed away, this record is
definitely dedicated to him and I put a lot of my heart into it. I believe it
shows on the album, it’s the heaviest CD we’ve ever done and it’s like all over
the place, and that’s kinda what was going on inside of me when I was writing
it. For me music has always been a way of expressing myself. I think with most
music, it comes from the deepest parts of musician’s soul. This record comes
from very deep and dark places, hence the album is very intense.
Did you feel it easier to deal with Jared’s death by expressing your emotions
through an album dedicated to him? And on the other hand, was it hard for you to
talk openly about this loss and the whole situation around it? I guess even with
interviews, everybody’s asking you about Jared and stuff…
Hmmm… I don’t know, I don’t know. It was more… It was hard because I knew that,
when it came down to the interviews, I’ll have to talk about it all the time…
But, it wasn’t about “hard” or “easy”, it was more like a necessity of doing it.
For a long time I wasn’t sure what should I do, it was just me… I mean, Hate
Eternal was me and a Metal Blade contract, no line-up. So for the most of the
time I didn’t know what am I gonna do. His family was very supportive, they told
me that the last thing Jared would want was me quitting the whole thing. So it
was more than just writing a record, it was like a need… almost like a requiem
for Jared, that’s how I felt while I was writing it. I kinda felt better in some
way… Every night I played “Tombeau”, a song I wrote just around when he passed
away, so I kept playing it every night and thinking about him, you know… It did
help me in a way because when he passed away I was producing Six Feet Under,
Vital Remains and a lot of records, so I had to deal with it when I had almost
no time of my own… It was only a few weeks later that I had the time to face it
on a personal level in different ways. Anyway, I believe it was more a necessity
than anything else, to do this record.
Yes, I guess that’s the best part of the record – it doesn’t sound planned, just
flows spontaneously…
Yeah, that’s right, there was nothing planned, you know, the record,
songwriting, I just decided I’m gonna let it go and whatever happens is what it
is and whatever shape the record takes, whatever capacity it contains, I just
let it be what it is.
As you said yourself, lots of people are asking you about Jared in the
interviews, and I suppose it’s not so easy for a person like you to talk so
openly all the time about this kind of things. I mean, it would be difficult for
anyone… So do you ever think like, “God, stop asking me about Jared!” or stuff?
No, I guess maybe deep inside sometimes… sometimes I get a bit troubled by it
because… because it’s hard, he was like my brother, but at the same time by
talking about him it keeps the spirit alive so I believe that’s why I put the
dedication on the album and I wrote a song for him, because… you know… people
forget so quickly about those who passed away, so this is the way of keeping the
memory alive and it’s important to me because he was important to me.
Can you tell us something about the new line up?
Sure.
Their backgrounds, where did they came from…
Well, there is Shaune, a guitar player, we grew up together and we are friends
since like teenagers, we played in a band called Ripping Corpse many, many years
ago. He’s the guy I always wanted in the band, I always thought “If I get
another guitar player, he’s gonna be the guy”. It just happened that now is the
time that he decided to join, so… On the other hand, Jade, he contacted me
online when Derek quit, he contacted me like many other drummers, but he has
great technical skill and great personality, we just kinda clicked right on. We
work well together, we worked hard on this record… I worked really hard, as did
everyone else around myself… It came natural, we had lots of fun, we enjoyed
what we were doing… I mean, if you’re not enjoying your music then something’s
really wrong because music is all about the passion and enjoying it. If you
don’t appreciate it, it’s not worth doing it.
The strange thing to me… Uhm, it should be normal, but sadly it ends up being
something strange… Is that you actually encourage the other band members to
write, to participate as much as possible in doing records. I mean, because
normally lots of bands are centered around one strong persona who likes to
control it all, to organize and lead the whole thing…
Well I’m trying to. I mean, with the new record I wrote all the lyrics and most
of the music too, but I always encourage people to write. Obviously, I know the
direction of this band, I founded it, but I always encourage, yes, because I
think other people’s contributions can make it become better, like when I was in
Morbid Angel, you know, I wrote with Trey and I complemented him, and he
complemented me, so… it’s like that with many bands… Maybe there is one main guy
like me, but other guys can add something that you really wanted even with small
contributions. I’m a pretty humble person, lots of guys think I’m arrogant or
cocky, and I don’t know why do they think that, but I’m not like that at all.
The more I do, the more I accomplish, the more I’m humble as a person. You know,
a lot of guys that are very arrogant they need to feed their ego but I’m doing
everything I wanna do, so I don’t feel like I need someone tapping my back, I’m
pleased with what I do. It makes a better environment in the band if everyone
contributes rather than me being a dictator. It just happens I write more but I
still leave that option to everybody. However, it still has to fit in the mould
of what the band should be in a wide spectrum.
How did it work with “Fury & Flames”? I mean, it is a very personal album for
you, dealing with your private life. So was it hard for the others to fit in and
contribute?
Yeah… That’s why… I mean, Shaune wrote only like five riffs, while everything
else was written by me. But that’s just because it was so personal. Also, when
Shaune joined, I already had like seven songs written, so he had to catch up and
learn all the stuff that was already prepared. We wrote two songs together.
I admit I didn’t even know that you toured again with Morbid Angel recently, so…
How was it to be a part of Morbid Angel again, even just for one tour?
Yeah, it was great, I had lots of fun.
Would you ever consider rejoining Morbid Angel?
In these last two years I produced really a lot of records and there is Hate
Eternal too with a Metal Blade contract, so my time is very… busy. At that time,
Morbid Angel was replacing a guitar player and they had just two weeks before
these shows, so as I know all the Morbid Angel catalogue up to 1997. they asked
me if I could help them out and I said sure, of course, you know, these guys are
like family to me and I was glad to help them. The same goes for recording or
producing an album for them in the future, but if you ask me would I ever rejoin
Morbid Angel, I don’t know… I didn’t ever think I’d be back on stage with them
before, so… And that’s not because of some bad reasons or something, it’s just
because I’m very busy. I do like playing with them, I always did and I think I
always will, I like feeling like a part of the band. But my producing and my
studio are very important for me and so is Hate Eternal… There is only as much
things one person can do and I think I’m already pushing the limits, so…
Yes, actually, when I see your name on so many records, I keep asking myself –
how the hell does he do all this stuff???
Ha, ha, yes… I know… Sometimes I don’t understand it myself, ha ha. When people
bring me all the CD’s for autograph signings and stuff I ask myself how the hell
did I do all the stuff, how did I wrote all those songs… But I’m sure about the
things I do and it makes them easy to do… But, as far as Morbid Angel, who
knows… You never know, you never close the door on something like that. I love
Morbid Angel.
So, if you had the time, you’d do it with no hesitations?
If I had the time? Sure.
Talking about all the stuff you did in the meantime, do you feel that you
slightly lost the momentum by letting so much time pass between “I, Monarch” and
“Fury & Flames”? I mean, “I, Monarch” had great response, but then it was years
and years before the new album…
Well, “Fury & Flames” already sold like a half of what “I, Monarch” sold in four
years, so I guess that would pretty much say “no”, but… To me it’s pretty
important to make sure every record is right, you know… An album’s forever. I
always looked at it in this way. Ever since Hate Eternal, Morbid Angel or any
other project I did, or my studio work, it’s always been like two, two and a
half years between albums. That’s also because I’ve been doing other things, but
to me every record is important and I rather take my time to be sure that
everything is right. Anyway, I don’t think we’ve lost anything, its prime time
for us right now. Being on Metal Blade really helps us too. They’re great,
amazing label, I have a great line up and everybody is… it’s just good times for
us right now.
As a producer, could you point out some of the bands that really impressed you
for their work ethics, dedication or anything else that you find admirable in
the studio?
Cannibal Corpse is a band that… you know, their work ethics is as close to
perfection as you can get. They practice four days a week, every week, all the
time, they do the preproduction, they come into the studio really prepared… Work
ethics comes with every tune, the more you’ve experienced, the older you are,
more prepared you get. I’ve been fortunate to work with some amazing bands, but
Cannibal are so on top of their shit all the time. Their new album is coming out
in September and their work ethic is just incredible. I love all these bands,
they’re like a family to me, but Cannibal are my favorite.
Given that you do a lot of producing for new, young bands, you surely often see
someone repeating the same mistake over and over again, something that you could
do right in two minutes… Does it become hard, don’t you feel like stepping in
and doing it as it should be done?
Sure, sometimes I do. But producing made me a lot more patient person because…
by nature I’m very impatient person, but by producing I become really a lot more
patient, understanding and compassionate kind of guy because, you know, we’ve
all been there at one point. When I was starting playing or recording I didn’t
know shit so for me, producing… I take it a lot like helping those younger guys
to learn how to improve, how to become more prepared for the studio, so…
producing is very similar to playing in the sense that you’re watching the birth
of something. And, you know, Cannibal Corpse, Six Feet Under or Goatwhore… to
think that my name will be associated to them forever, and if you say “the
records that got Erik Rutan involved”, it’s already like 40+ records, it feels
really good. Plus, a lot of these bands, I get really close to them and to go
through so many records, it’s hard, it’s like a connection that happens in the
studio. Records are hard to produce, it’s really hard, but I’ve always done my
best work when faced with adversities and hard stuff. I’m a kind of a
troubleshooter, my whole life has been about adversities. I’m a kind of a guy
who, when the things are though, rises to the top. It’s kinda weird but that’s
just the way it is. When there is pressure, deadlines or bad things happening, I
work well. After all, there has been so much bad things happening around this
band specifically from a long time ago so I could’ve just called it a day and
play safe long time ago. But I believe in myself, in the band, and I keep going,
I’m still here. It’s just… I have a lot of will power, I’m a strong person. That
comes with life experiences – I am a strong person because I’ve experienced in
my life a lot of bad and a lot of good… that made me a better person. I could’ve
just let go the band and stick with producing or try to rejoin Morbid Angel, but
I… I just can’t do it, you know. I wasn’t meant to be that way, it wasn’t meant
to go out that way. I figure Hate Eternal will be done when I feel it’s the time
to go out, and now it wasn’t the time to let go. It was so hard to get here and
to forge what we have, so I can’t just let go. We’re still here.