Asphyx's Martin Van Drunen: Forever Pounding the Deathhammer

After spending nearly an hour talking to Martin Van Drunen about NASCAR, pole dancing, Southern hospitality, and the trouble with understanding German accents, we finally were directed to what was likely the quietest place for an interview behind the enormous white tent at the end of merch row at this year's Maryland Deathfest. It was one of those "I suppose we probably need to eventually talk about the band" moments, despite the fact that the conversation up to that point had lent itself to understanding a new perspective on one of death and doom metal's overlords—a title that Van Drunen is reluctant to acknowledge simply because it's never been about the status or the accolades. It has been and always will be about the riff.

Screaming our introductions over the music and breaking the ice quickly became (still screaming) shared stories about growing up in the Netherlands and Alabama, respectively, and about the misconceptions that exist for both our cultures with me assuring him that I've never dated a relative, and him assuring me that he doesn't own a pair of wooden shoes. In between our shooting the shit, fans of the man who helped start Pestilence, played in Bolt Thrower, and now fronts the mighty Asphyx, eagerly stepped forward to get their picture taken or have something signed, to which Van Drunen just as excitedly obliged never hinting at the exhaustion that so many were already feeling on Day Three.

After the fifth or sixth fan had their picture taken or battle vest signed, I finally worked up the courage to ask for one myself with him and was glad to forego the "too good for that shit" persona for just long enough to grab some stranger to take the picture. Later that night, Asphyx played and Van Drunen displayed as much if not more of the same raw, almost baffling amount of swagger and energy that put those of us lame enough to be tired at 1 AM to shame. The only solace that came was realizing that not everyone can be Martin Van Drunen, which is precisely why I didn't feel as bad rubbing my eyes and yawning just before Asphyx took the stage to wake everyone the hell up. It was a sight to see, and knowing what put Van Drunen on that and so many other stages night for years now was genuinely moving and offered up yet another piece of evidence for why there's heavy metal and then everything else.

Noisey: Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, man. My first question just concerns where you were when music first found you. What band or song or singer was it that initially worked as kind of inspiration for you to want to create?
Martin Van Drunen: Not consciously, but I think what struck me most as a kid, because I had older sisters, so they were playing radio at home, and I think I was four years old or maybe three years old, and I heard that riff from "Satisfaction" by the Stones. You know, the "Da-daaaa-da-da-daaaa-da-da". It's like a metal hot rod riff, and it's so electrifying, and it stuck in my mind, and I think that's the whole trigger that started it all. So later on, when I was a bit older, then I saw KISS on TV when I was seven or eight, and I saw their show, and I was like "Wow! What the hell is this?!" And yes, in fact, then I became a KISS fan, and I started miming Ace. I even made a wooden guitar and doing like this [mimes Ace Frehley damn near perfectly] and banging my head and just miming the show and stuff. But I think that's where initially I was like "OK, I wanna be maybe like that, too."

From that point, Martin, to where you are now, what's that story been like for you as a musician? What's been the biggest lesson or moment for you so far from a personal and a musical standpoint?
Well, I mean the biggest lessons is that uh… [laughs] enjoy it. It's the only thing you can do. I mean, right now, after all these years I make a small living out of it. I'm not rich. I just can keep my head above the water, but I'm free, and that's something that lots of fellow musicians can't say, or they just have their jobs next to it, and I just do whatever I want. But it was really a tough road. Now I'm here, but I had lots of jobs, and you don't wanna know what it all was, but I know what hard labor is. [Laughs] Yeah, it is. I mean, I did shit like assembly lines, loading and unloading trucks, everything basically. So now I'm here, and that's why I say "Enjoy it." I mean, I can do this 'til I die, and it's because of the enjoyment and the enthusiasm that I have. That's the thing that keeps me going and, of course, I have really nice bandmates, and we have a lot of fun. We laugh a lot. They're not dickheads or big heads or whatever. It was a long struggle, but I'll never regret doing that.

Obviously the first big moment for you was Pestilence. What was the inception of that like for you at that point in your life? Do you see yourself as being a different person now than you were then?
No, not really. I'm still the same kind of metalhead as I was in the days. I mean, I'm still going crazy on stage. You feel it, getting older, I mean, and you can't get as crazy as you did back in those days, you know. Your neck starts to hurt and bones getting older, but I don't think I've changed much. I still drink a lot of beer, and I still have a lot of fun. [Laughs] But yeah, Pestilence in the beginning, actually what happened was I knew Patrick from some school cover band, and he was playing riffs from Slayer and Metallica, and bands that I loved back then. So I met him in the square in our hometown, Enschede, and I said "How're you doing?" And he said: "Oh, I'm alright. I'm in a band, and I'm looking for a singer," and I'd never tried anything like it, but when he said "How're you doing," I said "Oh, well, I'm a singer looking for a band," and I didn't even know what I'd started. [Laughs] So that's how I joined them. What did I ever do? I just rolled in. [Laughs] Then we had our demo, recorded two records, and death metal kind of exploded, and so all of a sudden you find yourself in the middle of a boom, you know? Things happen. Shit is happening. What's going on? Playing for big crowds and all of that.

Well, in thinking about that, Martin, and about how influential you and your bands have been, specifically with the death metal explosion then, I'm curious what your thoughts are on death metal now and the growth it's experiencing and even the rise in popularity for the genre. How much of a contribution do you see coming from the stage you set for so many bands coming up now?
It's hard to tell. There's many people coming up to me saying, "Oh man, you're a big influence," but I'm a modest guy. I don't say " Oh yeah I am. Great." I mean, of course it's nice. It's nice that people listen to you and appreciate what you've done all these years. Fifteen minutes ago, there was a guy who came up to me and really gave me a beautiful way of thanking me for me being an influence on his life and giving him wonderful moments, and I said to him after he said that: "I probably would've said the same thing to Lemmy for being an influence to me like that." If I have a positive attitude or influence on people with what I do, that's good. I don't think it's a bad kind of influence. And the evolving popularity? It's only a good thing. I mean, you see it moving, and there's all sorts of bands taking different directions, but it's just the evolution of metal in general. If it doesn't evolve, then it stands still and nothing will happen, and it'll fade out like a candle. So I think it's only a good thing, even if I don't like everything that comes out. Like, I'm not really into this technical kind of stuff, but OK, if other people do, then fine.

What was and is it about heavy music that's made and continues to make it that perfect conduit for you creatively, Martin?
Because heavy metal gives you the opportunity to let all your frustration out in a very positive way. You don't need violence in your life, or to beat up people or shoot people or to go crazy or something. Just put a heavy metal record on and go freaking out of your mind, or go to a concert, and you get rid of everything that you have. You just go out of there, and you're tired, you're dead. You go to bed, and you're like "Wow, I got it all outta me." I do that onstage every time I play. I don't have much frustrations left, and that's sometimes a problem with writing lyrics, because I am a happy guy in life. But when I was a child, I just remember, especially when you grow up as a boy or even girls, too, you've got all these hormones boiling up in your body, and you don't know what the fuck is going on, and heavy metal is a very healthy way, I think, to let it all out—that extra energy that you have. That's what heavy metal is for me, and it always will be. It's nothing else to me than a very logical way of the evolution of rock 'n' roll, really. I still like a lot of old rock 'n' roll. Old blues, even. Which is kind of the same thing. I mean, Elvis was a rebel as well.

When you talk about the evolution of rock and metal, and you've watched that happen in a form of music that you helped pioneer in many ways, and you've obviously seen that level of extreme or what's considered extreme continually raise the bar, so to speak, throughout the years, what's next? Is there a plateau for extreme music at some point?
Well, you always have retro stuff still. After all these decades passing by, and even with pop music, you've got all these retro things. People just always go back to the past and they go, "Hey, wow! That was great stuff that they played back then!" There'll always be influences, and there's probably some band somewhere right now playing that they've combined old school death metal with Led Zeppelin, and I'm sure there'll be a band like that or something. But I don't really see a ceiling for it. Maybe in another century or something, but hey, I won't be there then. [Laughs] For right now, though, I don't see. I still see a lot of bands where I go "Wow, they really have their own particular kind of style," and it's because they pick up on all these old things from the past. Even these young guys.

Are there any specific bands now who you feel are kind of carrying that torch and keeping death metal interesting and offering something new?
Well, there's a lot, yeah. There's one playing right now. I mean, Entrails, I really like them. You can hear they have these influences, it sounds very Swedish, but it's still very young and fresh. It's not very original, but it's fresh. They put on a good show. In Germany you've got Revel in Flesh. I like Coffins from Japan really a lot. Nice guys too, by the way.

Originality would kind of be a moot point at this point in music's history, I think. I think it's "interesting" that seems to evade a lot of bands.
Oh absolutely. I mean, for me, it's really important for me when I see a band, I wanna watch them enjoy themselves on stage. If they just stand there like a bunch of statues with an attitude of "Well, OK, I'm just gonna fill my buckets, and then I can go home," then fuck off. You've got nothing to look for here. If I feel the enthusiasm sort of sparking over into the audience, then you're doing a good job as a band. That's always the way I've done things at least.

When you're in that creative mode, and you're writing a lyric or a riff or whatever it may be, what's the most valuable part of that for you?
The arrangement of the total song. The riffs are vital, yes, but the other vitality in songwriting is that, in the end, it has to be a song. Not where you go "OK, this is a nice riff. We'll put that one behind the other one," so you have a follow up of riffs, but it's not a song. It goes right in and right out. That's what I don't like. With Asphyx it's very vital that it feels like a total song. We sit around in the rehearsal room, we jam a bit, and then I go, "Hey Paul, can you just play that riff, you know, two more times, because I think there's a really good vocal line." And I can sing six times or four times—I always do things in even numbers—never odd, because it's a kind of thing where you have to think while you're doing it, and I don't want to do that on stage. But that's the vitality with Asphyx, and I think that's what makes the band different from others. I mean, "Deathhammer," when I came up with the fucking title I was thinking it was going to be a slow, heavy doom song. That's what I thought with the title. So we were jamming the damn thing, and I just said, "We're gonna leave it the way it is. I'm gonna scream here, chorus. Scream there, chorus. Scream here, chorus. Finish. Boom." It's a fucking rock 'n' roll song, so just let it be like that. I wrote the lyrics I think in like five minutes, and I was just like "OK, leave it." It's just spontaneity.

What's on the horizon for you guys in 2014?
Well, what we do now is focus a bit on places we've never been. We go to Romania, Slovania, very much into Eastern Europe, and hopefully a show in Moscow, which we haven't hit. So that's gonna be special, especially that one with the situation. [Laughs] It's gonna be nice. We talked to one of the Coffins guys this morning, and they asked, "Do you wanna play Japan," and of course I'm like "Fuck yeah!" Everybody plays Japan except for me, and I really wanna go there! We'll play as much as we can in unexplored territories, and we're working on a new album. But that will be hard because Bob left as everybody knows, so that's one of the most difficult tasks. But we'll definitely keep on going because we love too much what we do.

Jonathan Dick is on Twitter - @steelforbrains