Whitechapel Members Talk New Album and Touring With Slipknot on Mayhem Festival

Whitechapel guitarists Ben Savage and Alex Wade were the guests on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. Savage and Wade spoke about how being part of this summer’s Mayhem lineup is significant in their music careers, Whitechapel’s new self-titled album and more. If you missed Full Metal Jackie’s show, read her interview with Ben Savage and Alex Wade below:

Obviously you guys are part of Mayhem this summer. What do you think of the lineup and what do you think about being part of this festival?

Ben Savage: I mean it’s what we’ve been waiting for our entire careers.

Alex Wade: Yeah I think that’s pretty much the pinnacle of any metal band is to tour with Slipknot, well hopefully it’s not our pinnacle. I’m saying it’s our biggest achievement thus far so it’s definitely really cool, this is one of the best if not the best lineup for Mayhem so we’re really excited to be part of it.

Whitechapel goes on earlier in the day on Mayhem but I’m guessing that doesn’t mean that you guys are going to be tucked in your bed early and not partying later at night. What’s the trick to hitting it hard at the time of day when you’re normally just waking up?

AW: Well I kind of hit it pretty hard last night, not feelin’ too great today but I guess stuff happens, lots of Pedialite that helps for sure, usually if you throw it up instead of keeping it inside of you that kind of helps as well. I don’t know, coffee that always works well – it’s a good hangover cure. We go on at 2:45 every day so it’s not too too terrible at least it’s not like 12 or something like that.

The Tennessee state flag appears on the cover of Whitechapel’s self-titled record, so tell us in what ways does your Tennessee heritage shine through in your music especially on the new album.

BS: It seems like a more brotherly effort. We all just stuck together and wrote the album as a whole - there’s some sort of southern comradery that comes with it.

AW: Family oriented values.

BS: I think it has a lot of soul in it like a southern vibe I feel – not really like southern rock but just a feel, you can’t really explain it.

What are you looking forward to most about being part of Mayhem this summer?

AW: Obviously watching Slipknot pretty much every day that’s gonna be amazing. They’ve been one o my favorite bands for like 10 years now so it’s definitely going to be really cool being able to tour with them and watch them every night. We got a lot of great friends on this tour, all these summer tours like Mayhem and Warped Tour and all that stuff they’re all basically like summer camp for bands so every year it’s a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see where this year takes us.

This coming weekend, Full Metal Jackie will welcome Killswitch Engage frontman Jesse Leach as well as Five Finger Death Punch drummer Jeremy Spencer on her show in order celebrate the start of the Trespass America Tour. Full Metal Jackie can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com