How do you stay at the top of the metal game as one of the biggest bands on the planet? Slayer’s Tom Araya gives us his learned wisdom…
Don’t pressure yourself
The pressure in any band is the pressure you put upon yourself. As a band, the only pressure we’ve ever experienced is on this record as we needed some more material for this album. That’s the first time in our careers where we’ve thought, “Fuck! We’d better come up with some more ideas, because we’re in the studio and we’re recording here.’ You should never be pressured by anybody. You should take your time and there should be no rush. If you find yourself rushing, then you’ve set yourself the wrong dates. You should have deadlines, but don’t set them in stone. Life goes on. When it’s done, it’s done.
Get away from it all
You know how I deal with all the fame we have in Slayer? I sit on the bus, I sit in the dressing room, and I sit in my hotel room and I look out of the window. That’s how I deal with it. I look out of the window and I think, ‘God, I don’t wanna go out there.’ We all have choices – you can either deal with it or not. I’m not much of a narcissist, so any light that I can turn off and focus in another direction, I will. I live out in the country so I get away from everything there. I like my privacy – if I’m in a hotel room, or a dressing room or on a bus. To get away from all that my choice would be to be at home. Then I’m away from everything and then nothing around me gives a hint as to what I do for a living.
Stick to what you do best
There’s a variety in how we record and write songs, but it’s still metal. We stick to what we do best. That’s the best advice you could offer anybody. Do what you do best, and do what comes naturally. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. Songs shouldn’t be forced; it’s like trying to take a dump you know? You’ve gotta really work at it you know? And then you get your reward.
Don’t be controversial to get attention
We don’t go out to say something controversial on purpose. Everything we do, we do because we like it. It just seems that what we do for some reason causes some controversy. I guess you can set out to purposefully cause controversy, but as a band we just go out and do what we think is cool, if later we find out that what we did was controversial then I’m sorry, but we really don’t care. Everything we do is because we like it and we think it’s great, it’s never because we think it’s gonna piss people off. You can do that I guess to make yourself famous and to be all, ‘Look at me!’ But we’ve spent most of our careers going, ‘Don’t look at us!’
“Songs shouldn’t be forced; it’s like trying to take a dump, you’ve gotta really work at it.”
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Homesick
You do get homesick when you’re out on the road. You miss it like anybody else. But by missing it when you’re away, it’s a much better place when you’re there. When you go out on the road for the first week it’s great and exciting, the second week you’re like, ‘Fuck!’ Then by the third week you want to know how much longer it is to go. That’s not a slight on the fans, it’s just you do find yourself going away for a long time. People always say, ‘You’re so lucky, you’re getting to see the world.’ And we’re a bit like, ‘Yeah, we’ve seen the fucking world for the last twenty-five years.’ I know where I’m at now when I walk into a city. Everywhere you go is like a second home. It can be a little overwhelming sometimes. It can be really taxing.
You will get told what to do. It’s your choice how to deal with it
It has always been one, but I don’t like to think of being in Slayer as a job. But in reality we have people telling us what we should be doing and where we’re going and where we should be. Then you realise people start dictating, but that’s part of the gig. When you start out, you’re not prepared for that. That’s what makes or breaks you I guess, when people start telling you what to do. You have to put the brakes on and decide to call the shots and say how things are going to be done. It gets to a point when people are going to tell you what to do because they’ve got money invested in you.
Enjoy your time on stage
The hour and a half on stage is the pay-off for everything else. Everything’s great on that stage. Before you get on and when you get off, it sucks. That will always be the pay-off, no matter how fucked up the day went, how many planes and trains you missed. When you get on the stage, all that melts away. You’re mad and you’re angry and you’re full of hate, and then when you get off you realise that you really needed that. You do some of your best gigs when you’re angry and frustrated with the way the day went. It’s a bit like therapy.
Words by Josh Jones
Slayer release their new album, ‘World Painted Blood’, on American Recordings/Sony Music on 2nd November.
