 Hey, this is Jeff Waters with David Elson's Coffee in my Hand here at NAMM and you're watching The Metal Voice. So we're here, this is Neil Turbin with The Metal Voice. Yeah, it is. And we're here with Jeff Waters, the one and only from Annihilator, man. Goofy Canadian from Annihilator, honored to be this guy for sure. And honored to meet you and it's amazing to find you here all the way from England. You got it. Strange. Canadian in England, but that's the way it worked out, yeah. And now you're here in Anaheim at the NAMM Show 2024. And we're just on the other side of Dave Ellison and Jeff Young. With Dave Ellison's Coffee Company Coffee. Yeah, we're just talking about that. Hitting my system, yeah, yeah. Pretty good. It's good coffee. So tell us about, you know, you're working on new music. Are you putting out an album soon or any time in the near distance? 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 Allison Hell. And we're just going to do a show in a festival in Europe this year. But I've been working on what all us guys seem to want to do when they step away from a band they're in is a solo project. So I got a solo thing I'm doing. Finished three records in the last three years and that's coming out. But right now I'm just cruising around North America on vacation having fun. That's great. That's really great. And what do you think being back here in the States, because I'm sure you've played here many tours? Well, for me, we haven't done a lot of stuff. We did in our earlier days, which was 89 to 93. But essentially I just, most of my band's career has been in Europe and Japan and a bit of South America. And it worked out good because we had a lot of following there. And I full-time worked there, but I miss being in the States. So I vacation here a lot. That's cool. That's a good place to come. Especially now. 50 plus different countries you can cover in one area. So tell us about the music that you're doing on your solo record. Is that a lot different than Annihilator? This pandemic thing or whatever you call, it's even a bad word now, isn't it? You know, I live in England. I've had a studio with my wife there for about six years. And just before that whole thing hit, we brought in an SSL, exchanged consoles and upgraded things and made it into one badass mixing studio. And then the thing hit. So I was kind of stuck with this beautiful studio and instruments and all this fun stuff. And I thought, screw it. Now's the time to just get creative and do something outside of the heavy metal thing. So it's more hard rock stuff. It's everything from disco to the knack to a kiss to like early stuff. Hard rock, heavy metal, 70s, 80s, bit of an halo, of course. So it's not a groundbreaking, amazing new stuff kind of come out for me. It's more like a tribute in a way, in my own way. So are you singing on the whole album or do you have singers on? No, no, I got real singers. Okay, cool. Oh, that's cool that you're singing and you got real singers. Stu Block was in Ister. I know Stu. Internity and all that. Fellow Canadian, great singer. I tapped him, but the deal with Stu was I knew he was like an incredible metal singer. And I know, you know, Ister tapped him in a few other things. I could hear in him that he had everything from Michael Jackson, George Michael into some blues and 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? And he's like, I don't know, what do you mean? And basically you won't be able to know it's him. It's fantastic. That's cool. Congratulations on that. It's amazing. So he's singing on the entire album. Yeah, he did a couple of the albums with me. Great, great, great. Cool, fun. And when do you think that might be coming our way? I think some of that, the first one starts coming out I think summer. Okay, that's great. 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, right? It's a different thing, yeah. So I, instead of just trying to just let it go and let it get out there and know that nothing was really going to happen, I tried a different idea and I went to video game companies. That's cool. So I thought, hey, what if I did an album or three and give you the album covers, give you the book, let's give you the trademark, the name of the band, the logo, and 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 that's 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. Hey, that's a good business deal. That's a good business deal. I don't even need to do a solo album more than my real band. That's a good business, man. They just paid the bills and they helped pay for that console I was telling you about. Yeah, now you don't have to worry about that console sitting there. It's like you get out of a band that's doing something for a while and you try something different, right? And you can also tour their albums and keep them. I'm an old man now. You don't want to go out there? I'm older than you for sure. I don't know about that. I got to recover from my laziness from sitting in a chair in the studio for the last three, four years. Coming to NAMM, for example, and seeing a lot of musicians and seeing some that are older than me, that are in better shape and that are just adrenalineized on talking about what they're doing and what they're going to do in the tours and shows. And that even Dave Elfson, all these projects and all this stuff, it's made me realize you've got to get off your ass and enjoy the privilege, the honor that you still have people that want to hear your music and get in shape and get out there and do it and smile. Yeah, Dave is fast and furious. He's always doing stuff. I see you around all the time too. I'm just trying to, you know, squirrel trying to get a nut. Just trying to climb up the tree, but Dave is all over. He's always killing it. Okay, he beats us both. Well, you're killing it too. You've got albums coming out. Slowly, yeah. That's good. Thanks. Well, it's so great to see you, Jeff, and great to meet you finally. I love your work. Great to meet this guy. Sure. And, you know, just a pleasure to talk with you today. I don't want to keep you for too long. I know Nam is going to close early today. Well, it is. Yeah, close about four o'clock, I think. Oh, yeah. But any other news about, like, any show dates, I know you guys are playing some festivals. Just got a festival in June with, I think, Scorpions Play. This is what I remember from it. Scorpions is a Thursday. Us, the Friday, and Five-Fingered Death Punch of the Saturday. So we're just doing, like, a one-off with Stublock singing for us. Right, that's okay. Stublock singing for us. Brought back to the original drummer that did the Allison Hill record. Beautiful. You're going to do that album. You just have fun and do a one-off. And then the following year, we'll just go out and work real proper. Cool. And what about a Canadian date? Are you guys going to go to play in Montreal or anywhere in Canada? Really? You know what? You guys are from Canada. Mostly in the States, friends, places, vacations. I love Vegas. Just, you know, I've got a lot of friends in the States and I love it. But it's about time I got off my ass and tried to do a show here. Great. I'm always scared to. I'm always scared nobody will want to see it. People will want it. I think so. I don't know. I hope so. There's promoters that will put a nice show together for you, I'm sure. I hope. Maybe we'll do a show together. That would be amazing. But it's such a great honor and pleasure for me.