Well, who the fuck is Rusted Dawn? That’s a great question. I wasn’t sure myself. All I knew about them was they were a bunch of dudes from Sussex NB who played thrash metal.

So I asked them. Well, actually I asked Jeremy, guitarist and vocalist for the group.

TSB: Tell me this, Jeremy. Why the fuck should we care about Rusted Dawn? What is Rusted Dawn? What makes Rusted Dawn what it is?

JRD: What is Rusted Dawn? Rusted Dawn is a bunch of dudes who simply want to play the music that we want to hear. What makes us what we are is just the joining of the four of us, four guys who’ve observed music for a very, very long time, and want to leave our footprint in a music scene that gets less and less honest by the day. And why should people care about Rusted Dawn? Because in this current old-school metal revival, we are one of the few bands electing to not solely focus our songwriting around partying and following in the veins of other current thrash/speed metal bands and doing something we feel is pretty genuine. Thrash is a kind of music that can easily become generic and we strive to be anything but, and not limit ourselves as far as including all the music that has influenced us and made us who we are, regardless of genres.

My knowledge of metal is fairly limited. One thing I have noticed is some metal heads only like metal. I wanted to test Jeremy and see where he stands;

TSB: It sounds like you guys take metal pretty seriously, which leads me to my next question. For the most part, my friends who like metal also listen to other styles of music, but I’ve run into a lot of metal heads over the years who take the whole “it’s metal or nothing” approach to music. All that being said, what are you top 5 non-metal albums?

JRD: Personally, I think my top 5 non-metal albums would go accordingly: (keep in mind – this answer would differ from band-mate to band-mate, and some of these records would be pretty aggressive, although not metal)

1. Disfear – Live the Storm

2. The Hellacopters – Grande Rock

3. Wu-Tang Clan – 36 Chambers

4. Feist – The Reminder

5. Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros – Streetcore

Rusted Dawn is currently having their next album mixed and mastered, and they’re touring like mad across the country. Jeremy let me know the sweet and lowdown;

TSB: Now, you guys have been out on tour before, right? How did that go? Was it as extensive as this tour? How many shows last time, and how many this time? How were the turnouts?

JRD: This tour we’re currently on will be our 4th tour of Eastern Canada (Quebec/Ontario). Our previous tours have all been done during the summer months, and were a bit more extensive than this one. During may of ’08 we toured Quebec, Ontario, came back to NB then went to Nova Scotia for a few dates as well. We played 20 shows over the course of that tour. On this tour we are embarking on, we are playing 10 shows over 10 days, which to be honest is pretty ideal for Quebec and Ontario. Turnouts definitely varied, we went from playing shows that were filled to capacity to playing in front of 5 people (or less!)

Now, I’ve been in bands, but never one serious enough to hit the road any further than a couple of hours away. How the fuck do you get a turn out?

TSB: Are you touring with anybody, or is it a different band in every city? Local openers to draw a crowd?

JRD: We are doing the majority of our tour dates with a band called Aggressor from Ottawa, who we’ve played with on several tours before on various occasions so we decided to book all our Ontario dates together. And, of course, there will certainly be local openers in order to get some people in who may have never heard of us before.

Now, like I admitted earlier, my knowledge of thrash metal is limited to old Metallica and Megadeth records.

TSB: As far as you’re concerned, who is the epitome of the thrash metal band?

JRD: As far as I am concerned, overall Nuclear Assault are the greatest thrash band ever, hands down. They are basically everything great about the genre. Riffs, drumming, and socially aware lyrical content that aren’t preachy or up it’s own ass.

Well, looks like I’ll have to check out some Nuclear Assault. Now, you know I can’t go through a full interview without asking some ridiculous questions, so let’s get to the bullshit I threw at Jeremy during this interview. He handled it well. Friedman’s hand really fucks my shit up.

TSB: Is Marty Friedman the best Megadeth guitarist? And what the fuck was up with his upside down picking hand?

JRD: Marty Friedman is indeed the best Megadeth guitarist, hands down (if not one of the best players ever, period.) The picking hand? Can’t say I have any idea why or how he pulls that off!

Friedman’s hand really fucks my shit up.

TSB: What is your number one obsession right now?

JRD: My number one obsession right now is the movie Caddyshack. I simply can’t stop watching it. I think the next time I go to a party I am going to bring a CD with nothing but “I’m Alright” By Kenny Loggins and “Anyway You Want It” by Journey, and commandeer the sound system and play these songs on repeat. Maybe put on “Louie Louie” for good measure.

Sounds like Jeremy has something in common with Jedi Eric of Knife Party!

TSB: Give me your craziest tour story.

JRD: Craziest tour story? That would have to be when a wheel flew off our van on the 401. We were on our first tour of Quebec/Ontario in 2007, and outside of Kingston, ON a wheel came loose and flew off our van. Justin (guitarist) was driving and was able to keep it together and get the thing on the shoulder, but traffic was pretty heavy, we easily coulda turned over the van or something and probably all ended up dead. While everyone was hollering and freaking out in the van as it happened, all I could think of was “Fuck, this is going to cost me.”

So, there you have it. Rusted Dawn is on tour, will be going on tour again, and will be putting out a new record some time this year. You can check out the guys and their tunes on their Myspace page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=66721529