Interview: Ryan VanderWolk of DEATH RATTLE

I caught up with DEATH RATTLE right as they were heading out for tour and so I had RYAN VANDERWOLK who plays guitar for the band fill out the infamous “Tour Email Interactive Interview” whilst they motored down the highway!

Their record VOLITION dropped on October 20, 2017 and Lovelies, it’s kill-a!! Check them out on Facebook or when the roll through a town near you!

ANTIHERO: Who is participating in this interview:

Ryan: Ryan VanderWolk – lead guitar

ANTIHERO: Take a selfie and attach to this doc.

ANTIHERO: Best thing that happened at your last show:

Ryan: Watching hundreds of people rush to the stage as we started our set as they opened the doors. Also, the general reaction we received was very affirming and appreciated.

ANTIHERO: Thing you would change about yourself right this minute:

Ryan: I need a shower and a shave. We’ve driven over 2,000 miles in the last couple of days to get across the country from New Hampshire to Placerville, CA to start the tour in support of our new album.

ANTIHERO: What is your superpower on tour?

Ryan: I guess managing the tour on little sleep, haha.

ANTIHERO: You see a person walking down the highway, they are not hitchhiking, just walking with their head down. They don’t have any bags and look reasonably clean, and pretty normal. You think you remember a car with its hazards on a few miles back, but you’re not sure. It’s only 6 miles to the 1st gas station in over 100 miles. What do you do?

Ryan: I would offer to help, and find out what they need. Pay it forward. I would hope someone would do the same for us.

ANTIHERO: Out of all of your songs – which do you think I would like the best and why? (I’ll give you a hint, I already have a favorite and it starts with – oh wait, nevermind… that would give it away!!)

Ryan: I would go with “Adrenalize”. I feel that song captures a lot of energy and groove.

ANTIHERO: Wow…that’s actually correct! No one has answered that correctly – weird!

ANTIHERO: What’s on the books for the next 2 weeks?

Ryan: We have 13 tour dates over the next 2 weeks, and we are really looking forward to it! We get to play some markets we’ve never played before.

ANTIHERO: What can you tell us about making this record that you would definitely do the same on the next record? What wouldn’t you do over again?

Ryan: We definitely plan to spend a lot of time on pre-production which was new to us on this album and helped a lot. One thing we will never do again is record the album over an extended period of time like we did for “VOLITION”.

ANTIHERO: Title a song about the hitchhiking scenario above:

Ryan: “Endangered by an Estranged Stranger”!

ANTIHERO: YES!! I love it!

ANTIHERO: To guitar solo or not to solo? What is your preference?

Ryan: I LOVE guitar solos. I’m the lead guitar player so maybe I’m a little biased. My idol is Dimebag Darrell, so lead guitar is something I really appreciate. But to solo or not to solo is a good question. I take the approach of, ‘does it do anything for the song?’ For instance, on “VOLITION” there are only four guitar solos. I don’t think they should be forced on every song.

ANTIHERO: Take a pic of what’s behind you and attach.

Ryan: Tour van!