The biggest metal festival of 2015 is the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival and we were lucky enough to grab some time from some of the bands during the tours recent stop in Detroit at the DTE Energy Music Theatre.  Newcomers Feed Her To The Sharks have traveled from the land down under to tour the United States as part of Mayhem and we grabbed a few minutes with Kim Choo (who introduced himself as Chewy) & Marinos Katsanevas (who introduced himself as Maz) during their first ever trip to Detroit to discuss their new disc, video, and so much more...

Toddstar: My name's Todd.

Chewy: Todd, nice to meet you man, I'm Chewy.

Toddstar: Chewy.

Maz: Maz.

Toddstar: Maz. Thank you guys so much for taking time out for us today. We really appreciate it.

Maz: All right.

Toddstar: Mayhem. Couple of guys from Melbourne, Australia who made it all the way to the U.S. to play Mayhem. What's this like, man?

Chewy: Man, we are so stoked to be here, dude. Like it's pretty much a dream come true, playing with fucking Slayer, King Diamond, HELLYEAH, it's awesome.

Maz: When you're young you watch festivals and like even now, I watch videos of people at festivals, Mayhem tour and stuff. To be here now, it's pretty much what you'd expect if you're in a band and want to play festivals it's incredible.

Toddstar: You guys have a new album out, Fortitude. How's that going? How's that coming across to the fans here?

Chewy: Really good, we did Europe just a little while ago, like just before this tour and now we've in the States and that was our first time overseas. This is our first time to America and we've already got people knowing the songs, knowing the material, singing along, so our publicist is obviously doing a good job or something, because people are out there and they know about us, which is fucking awesome.

Maz: Yeah, like Chewy said, it's the first CD release on this label, so a lot more people got to hear it; it got distributed by a distributor over here a lot better than our previous one so yeah. Just the sheer volume of people hearing it and liking us. The response has been good, we're at Mayhem, so.

Toddstar: And now you have a new single and video, "Burn The Traitor." You're now seeing your face on TV. How surreal is it to go from one side of the stage to the other and now you're hitting the big time?

Chewy: Yeah, nothing's really changed to be honest. Even though we're on Mayhem now, some of the shows in Europe were pretty tough as well and we don't have the best time slot here, but we're making it work, you know what I mean? It's a good gauge for us because every show that we play on this festival, we can gauge and see how many people are there to see us and we're just building and building as a band.

Maz: It is really weird watching yourself on TV and how it's perceived and stuff, but we're still just five dudes from Melbourne who have to drive through the night and stuff to get to the next show and that. Yeah, it's awesome seeing the hard work pay off, but there's still a lot of hard work to go.

Toddstar: You mentioned Mayhem, you mentioned King Diamond and Slayer. Where are the guys that you're standing here saying, "Holy shit, I'm on tour with them?" Who were your idols growing up that you now been able to share stages with?

Chewy: We've got Vinny Paul. One of the best drummers of all time. Who else have we got? Tom Araya.

Maz: Yeah, seeing Code Orange play and they got an early time slot and they’re fucking amazing. Watching that band play, I'm so stoked to share the stage with them. Our bros from Thy Art Is Murder, we played with them a few times and even growing up in the Australian metal scene, so stoked to play with those guys. Everyone on the tour, pretty much. Like a band that we listened to it for ages or just really like, so it's excellent.

Toddstar: What was the one thing that once you guys heard you were coming to Mayhem that you thought, I can't leave home without this?

Maz: Ooh.

Maz: Obviously headphones, so you can just block everyone out when you want to. Baby wipes. Don't want to leave home without baby wipes or hand sanitizer because-

Chewy: On tour, you take what you can get. Definitely baby wipes.

Toddstar: The guys in Death Angel once told me something similar.

Chewy: Yeah, absolutely.

Maz: Sanitizer for your hands and the wipe your balls with the wipes and Kleenex, you'll be fine.

Toddstar: If it wasn't for this, standing up in front of a crowd on a stage, what would you be doing today?

Chewy: We'd probably be writing more songs in our basement back at home and just because I'm trying to push and push and push. Like you said before, like Maz said before, it's like the hard works finally starting to pay off, but this is what we want to do. That's why we're here, so that's exactly what we'd be doing I'd say.

Maz: If I wasn’t in a band back home. I'd probably be cooking hot sauce maybe, yeah. I reckon I'd get into that.

Toddstar: Okay, fair enough. As someone who's traveling to Sydney and I've got a car rented. I'm going to Sydney in November.

Chewy: All right, awesome.

Toddstar: What do I need to do?

Maz: All right, first mistake. You got a car.

Chewy: You got a car in Sydney. That is the worst thing. To drive around in Sydney, especially during peak times - I heard its like driving in New York.

Maz: It's pretty bad. You're better off catching public transport, even I if you hate it, man. I'm telling you. It's good in Australia.

Toddstar: We're actually starting in Sydney and we're getting in the car and we're just driving for three days and then we're going to make our way back. Do we go to Melbourne, do we go to Adelaide? What do we do?

Maz: You go to Melbourne for sure.

Chewy: What do you like doing there, man?

Toddstar: We mainly want to see the country, surf, and paddle.

Maz: Okay, that's cool, you're like awesome. Go to Byron Bay or something or other like that.

Chewy: That'll be awesome, but if you like food and coffee and stuff, come down to Melbourne. It's all artsy and stuff. You'll probably love that too.

Toddstar: What is it you do back home when you're not playing or writing?

Chewy: I used to work in a retail store, just a CD store.

Toddstar: How about for fun?

Chewy: For fun? It all depends on what mood I'm in. I live in Melbourne so there's plenty to do around the city. I'll go hang out, grab a coffee with some friends, have a drink. The night life there is pretty good as well, or I'll just be a hermit and play video games at home.

Maz: If I was back home right now I actually work in a guitar shop, which is pretty cool, so I devote a lot of time to learning all about that and fixing guitars and stuff like that, but yeah. For home, fun, hanging out, taking photos, it's really what you do in Australia. Just hang out with friends.

Toddstar: All right, cool. If you could talk to somebody and explain to them why you're doing this, what is the fire inside of you? Forget influences, it’s just what drew you to it?

Maz: I think... Honestly it was maybe the first time I had played live, it was like that 20 minutes feels like a minute but it also feels like a lifetime when you're out there, so I know the first thing I played in front of three people. A shitty little school band I was like this is cool. This is what I want to do. This is fun playing guitar and people listening and appreciating it, so I think yeah, first and foremost especially with playing live and playing in a band, it's the 20 minutes or the 30 minutes or the hour that you get to show all the hard work.

Chewy: Anything for any art, music, that sort of thing, it's like you're creating something and to see bands and people appreciating what you've created, it's just fucking awesome.

Maz: Especially when it's so subjective as well. It's like one person can love something and one person can hate it. Yeah, when you're writing and creating stuff, to see people liking it, I think it's a big thing.

Toddstar: You've got three weeks left. What's next for Feed Her To The Sharks?

Chewy: We've got a couple of Australians tours booked. One with Thy Art Is Murder, who are on Mayhem as well. Then we've got a tour with Unearth, from over here, and Nile as well, so yeah. That's back at home so we're going to do that, get some coverage down under and then hopefully head over to Europe again. Just keep doing the cycle and probably write a new album somewhere along the track as well.

Toddstar: What's been your favorite city on the tour so far?

Maz: Albuquerque was pretty cool.

Chewy: Yeah, the crowd was insane there.

Maz: That was like super-hot day but then it started raining, so it cooled down and the vibe just lifted. Yesterday was cool as well. That was Indianapolis.

Chewy: Seattle was good as well, I must say. That was good.

Maz: It's all new.

Chewy: Yeah, you never know what to expect.

Maz: You're up in a different city and it's similar but they're all similar. Yeah, it's cool. Every show's been good. None of the have been bad.

Toddstar: Now had either of you been to the States before this tour?

Chewy: I haven't.

Maz: I've come over for a bit of a holiday, just 2 weeks, but nothing like this and I stayed on the West Coast, so seeing the rest of it is pretty good.

Toddstar: Cool. I know you guys are busy so I've got one more for you. With everything going on in the music business today, with everything you guys have achieved in your short career so far on an international level, what is the meaning of life to you at this point?

Random Drunk Guy: That's a terrible question. That's a terrible question. I'm sorry for butting in. That is a terrible question. What is the meaning of life?

Maz: He's asking our opinion on the meaning. He's not asking us what is the meaning of life. I'll try to answer it because I think specially, in life, from what I've heard is just do what you want to do and have fun doing it. If you don't do what you want to do... Sorry, what you want to do is obviously something you enjoy and something that you like doing.

Random Drunk Guy: My bad.

Maz: It's all right man.

Chewy: It happens.

Maz: Yeah, no worries. It's Detroit. People like to get rowdy by the looks of it. I'll start again. Yeah, doing what you want to do and having fun doing it because if you're doing what you want to do it means you want to do it and obviously that is good, because you want to do it. I don't think you should really dive into what people say you should do and stuff like that. If you want to do it, just do it. The world is yours.

Toddstar: Chewy?

Chewy: The meaning of life to me, at the moment, is pretty much keeping my guitar in tune. The worst thing is when you get on stage and you're a little bit out. It can ruin your whole life, man.

Toddstar: The best part about this is, is once you guys get another album under your belt, get a little more famous and you're back in the US and you're back in Detroit, I get to come back to you guys with these same questions. We'll see how different your view is. That's the beauty of that question in case that drunk guy wants to read this later.  Thanks for your time guys, good luck on the rest of the tour and enjoy Detroit!

FEED HER TO THE SHARKS LINKS:

FACEBOOK

TWITTER