Late last month, Annihilator frontman Jeff Waters attended the NAMM convention in Anaheim, California. During his visit, Waters was interviewed by former Anthrax vocalist Neil Turbin for The Metal Voice. Their complete chat can be viewed below. An excerpt has been transctibed as follows:
Are you working on new music? Are you putting out an album soon?
"New music, yes, not with Annihilator. I've been doing this Annihilator thing for… Well, it's 35 years now since I put my little first album out called Alice In Hell, and I'm just gonna do a show a festival in Europe this year. But I've been working on what all us guys seem to wanna do when they wanna step away from a band they're in, is a solo project. So I got a solo thing I'm doing. I finished three records in the last three years. And that's coming out."
Tell us about the music on your new solo record. Is it different than Annihilator?
"It's more hard rock stuff. It's everything from disco to The Knack to KISS to, like, early stuff — hard rock, heavy metal, '70s, '80s, a bit of Van Halen, of course. So it's not groundbreaking, amazing new stuff gonna come out for me. It's more like a tribute in a way, in my own way."
Are you singing on the whole album?
"Oh no, I got real singers. Stu Block, who was in Iced Earth and Into Eternity and all that, a fellow Canadian and a great singer, I tapped him. The deal with Stu was, I knew he was an incredible metal singer. And I know Iced Earth tapped him in a few other things, but I could hear in him that he had everything from Michael Jackson, George Michael, into some bluesy stuff. But nobody's ever tapped him on that as a producer or a writer. So I said, 'Would you be interested in trying something different?' He was, like, 'I don't know. What do you mean?' And basically, you won't be able to know it's him. It's fantastic… He did a couple of the albums with me."
When do you think that might be coming our way?
"I think the first one starts coming out, I think, summer. I don't know a lot of information because I decided to do something a little different. I tried to go with the first album to a few record companies, and it was, like, 'Oh, boy, this isn't the old days.' So instead of just trying to just let it go and let it get out there and know that nothing was really gonna happen, I tried a different idea, and I went to video game companies. And thought, 'Hey, what if I did an album, or three, and gave you the album covers, gave you the booklets, gave you the trademark, the name of the band, the logo, and now you can have all three of them. It's gone. I don't get royalties, I don't get anything if it does well, but I want one paycheck.' And the second company I went to — without being a dick, we got more money from the video game company than I did in five or six Annihilator records. So somebody paid me to do a solo album more than my real band. They just paid the bills."
Annihilator will celebrate the 35th anniversary of their classic debut album, Alice In Hell, with a special concert in Slovakia this June. On vocals will be former Iced Earth singer Stu Block, while original drummer Ray Hartmann will be back behind the kit.
Mastermind, Jeff Waters, issued the following update:
"Ok, Metal World! First, Annihilator hope you all have a great holiday season. Be healthy, happy, good and crank good music!
2024 is THE YEAR OF ALICE: ALICE IN HELL.
35 years since its release and we will be celebrating with many of you for the year with merch, signature guitars, shows, events, catalogue reissues, etc… and this will lead us into 2025, which is the anniversary of our biggest record: Never, Neverland. Alice will continue on with us, into 2025.
Drummer Ray Hartmann is back. Yup. Great to have one of the best, back in the saddle again, playing the songs he recorded decades ago!
More? How about the best singer we could possibly have brought into the band: Stu Block.
Randy Rampage, Alice in Hell’s vocalist and awesome frontman, passed away a few years back. To honour Rampage, I had a tough job to find someone to fill his shoes for this anniversary.
Stu may be known as a badass vocalist and frontman BUT he also loves Rampage's attitude and will be the perfect singer to channel this classic record onstage. Long-time, fellow axe-slingers Rich Gray (4 strings!) and Aaron Homma (6 strings!) also continue their journey with Annihilator.
Stage? Oh yeah. Let us just start with this: Annihilator will be co-headlining, along with Scorpions and Five Finger Death Punch, at Topfest, Slovakia on June 29, 2024. We will play the entire “Alice” record, along with some other rockin’ tunes.
This will be an exclusive Europe festival show for 2024, however, we will be announcing lots more, starting January.
We have NOT forgotten anyone. We will do our best in 2024-2025+ to get to where we should have been playing AND to where we already have!
So, thank you all for getting Annihilator to the point of 17 studio records, a zillion tours and STILL rockin' after all these years. We are very aware that we’re still going strong because of our fans; not the industry.
On that note, any festivals and promoters that want this legendary Alice/Neverland set in 2025, talk to our dude Nik at Bottom Row for Europe and our web site contact for everywhere else!
Check the socials for regular updates now, cause we have a lot coming for you!
Love and Metal to all, Annihilator and Jeff Waters."
