Toxic Pub: 'The songwriting process is a collective experience.'

The Toxic Pub open up to us! The Hound sat down with the heavy metal band from Athens and brings you their ideas and their plans.

How would you describe your sound, and how did the combination of thrash, death and groove elements in your music come about?

'All three of us share a common musical core. The blend of these genres wasn't the result of any plan, it came out of the very first song we started working on together for To Not Die Blind.

That direction has evolved into a defining part of our identity, and it's something we want to explore even further on the new record we're preparing.'

How does the band's dynamic as a trio work when it comes to writing and performing your songs? How do you fold your favourite influences (we picked up on Megadeth, Pantera, Death, Sepultura) into your playing?

'For us the songwriting process is a collective experience. When we write music, we operate as a unit. Everyone brings ideas to the table and we work them hard — sometimes for days, sometimes for weeks or even months, until they take on real substance and character.

As a trio, our dynamic rests on total interdependence: every instrument has room to breathe, but also the responsibility to hold up the whole.

The influences from Megadeth, Pantera, Death and Sepultura are baked into our subconscious by now — those bands mean a lot to us, and they played a key role in our musical development.'

The production and mixing of the album were done entirely by yourselves. What led you to such an ambitious project, and what challenges did you face?

'Once the opportunity came up we didn't think twice about it. We were very lucky to work with the gear we were given and we did everything we could to make the most of it. There's also an engineering background there, since ⅔ of the band studied the field.

The vision was clear to all of us, but obviously, to get a good result you often need to take 2 steps back so that the 1 step forward can head in the right direction. There was a lot of troubleshooting and backtracking purely to nail the aesthetic we were after.'

What was the most important part of the process, the one that ate up most of the album's 12-month production window?

'Definitely the mixes of the record — and we say "mixes" plural because we had to reset a finished mix 3 times before the feel satisfied us. That's a hard pill to swallow for any musician who's been listening to the tracks mixed for months, but it was a decision that was 100% worth making.'

How did you settle on the name Toxic Pub, and what does it represent in relation to your music and your image?

'We wanted the band name to express something we could "build" on — something like a community. There were other ideas on the table, but Toxic Pub describes the character of the band perfectly.'

During live shows, how do you carry the album's sound onto the stage, and what are the biggest challenges when you play local festivals or venues?

'Since To Not Die Blind is a record with a "live" feel, moving it into a concert setting is relatively easy. Through the gear choices we've made, we've managed to consistently deliver the aggression and the energy of the record at every show. Venues differ enormously from one another, and often a total rearrangement is needed for us to get the result we want, no matter how prepared we've turned up.'

Tell us about the Panic Attack music video. What led you to that choice, and how do you read its visual message?

'It was always a given for us that the record would be accompanied by a video clip. Choosing the track was easy, since Panic Attack has the savagery, the speed and the filth — the main traits of our style.'

How do you keep the balance between speed, power and groove in your compositions?

'It's not so much a conscious effort. Our influences well up naturally within the songs and we don't let labels box us in. Also, we don't like repeating ourselves, so drawing inspiration from every extreme of what we listen to gives our own work variety and depth.'

What does this first record mean to you, and what are the band's next goals after To Not Die Blind?

'This record means an awful lot to us, because we gave it so much time, energy and attention. For us it's a representation of that period of time and a part of ourselves. At the same time, though, it's also a beginning. Before we'd even finished the recordings we were already discussing ideas for the second record and what we wanted to do this time around. By now the second record is almost written and we intend to get back into the studio soon.'

How do you rate your relationship with the audience in Greece, and how do you see yourselves broadening your audience abroad?

'The Greek metal scene has been through a rebirth in recent years, with more and more young people getting into the genre. Even more so after the pandemic in 2020, we feel like new bands are forming all the time and the level of the scene is rising. As for abroad, social media and streaming platforms have opened the way for our music to reach listeners in every corner of the world. We've already started to see a response from certain countries and we're actively working on setting up shows outside Greece.'

If you could change something about the process of making the album, what would it be and why?

'Looking back, there are things we might do differently today, but we're completely happy with the result and we wouldn't change a thing. It's a snapshot of who we were at that time, the overall outcome of a specific set of circumstances that we couldn't reproduce even if we tried.'

What are your immediate next steps? Thanks for the interview!

'Since our first record came out, we've been working on new material. Right now, the second full-length album is essentially finished at the writing stage and we intend to get into the studio soon. Obviously there are also plenty of shows on the horizon within Greece, and we're working daily with our partners to get out abroad for the first time!

Thank you very much for the great chat!'