Whitechapel’s Phil Bozeman Discusses ‘Our Endless War’ Album, Touring Life + More

Whitechapel's Phil Bozeman was the guest on Full Metal Jackie's radio show this past weekend. The rocker spoke with Jackie about the band's latest album, 'Our Endless War,' opening up about the writing process and the direction of the new disc. He also spoke about the touring life and fan reaction to what he does for a living. Check out Full Metal Jackie's chat with Whitechapel's Phil Bozeman below:

Phil Bozeman from Whitechapel with us on the show. They've got a new album out there called 'Our Endless War.' How are you doing, Phil?

Pretty good. How about you?

Doing good, great to see you. The band has established itself pretty well over the last several years creatively and that puts you in a powerful position, especially when it comes to making new music. In terms of direction, what was the most important thing you had in mind when making this new record?

I'd say just our emotions of what we've been going through for the past eight years now. A lot of the passion and drive just came from going through things we've gone through in our personal lives, touring. The simple fact that we've devoted our lives to do this and it's something we never would have thought we'd make it this far with. We've been doing this for eight years now. I've lost count. It's been a blur. This album really just showcases our raw, pure emotion. We're really known for the more brutal lyrical content, but this one is a little more coming from the heart.

Phil, is writing lyrics a healthy exercise for you? LIke a means of expelling anger and frustration rather than internalizing those feelings that can eat you alive?

Yeah. I think being a vocalist and writing lyrics is an outlet to keep yourself from going crazy. I feel like it's -- I don't know. There's a lot of things I've gone through in my life, if I wouldn't have used this as an outlet, could have led me down the wrong path. Then again, at the same time, I am a very low key, just keep to myself kind of guy. I'm not mean to anyone for no reason, just not that kind of person. I'm really easy going and laid back. There's a lot of things that have happened in my life that I've really been thankful for this band to let me use as an outlet to express my emotions for sure.

Phil, you're back on the road supporting this record. Personally, what has changed for you about life on the road and things you enjoy about being on tour?

The older you get, touring -- not going to say not as exciting, but you do appreciate home a lot more. You appreciate the things you have at home, before you started leaving over and over again. But I think touring now compared to when we first started is a lot different just because, whenever you do something for so long you feel like you're just taking it for granted. Once you sit down and actually think about what you're doing, where you are in your life, it just hits you. It's been eight years and it doesn't even feel like it's been that long. It's made me appreciate home more and appreciate more of what I do and not try to look at the negative as much as I do.

How do you appreciate what you do different now rather than five years ago?

Just the fact that I've got [what I have], it does feel really good to see a bunch of people super excited to know you exist and can see you 10 feet away from them and that they appreciate you that much and they'll draw stuff for you. They'll do anything they can just do shake your hand, you mean that much to someone. Before I was doing this band, you work at a regular job. You're treated like crap for so long until you work your way up in the ranks. With this, it's like it's super cool just to see all these people really care about what you do. There's always going to be people that don't like you, and don't like what you do but all the people that really do appreciate what you do, it's insane to see just how much people actually support you and the things they will do for you. I'm not even necessarily a part of their life on an everyday basis.

The new record 'Our Endless War' is out in stores now. Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Thank you.

Our thanks to Whitechapel's Phil Bozeman for the interview. You can pick up the 'Our Endless War' disc at both iTunes and Amazon. Look for Whitechapel playing dates in the U.S. and Australia this summer. Their shows can be found here. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com.