EXODUS – chats with founding member Tom Hunting on drums // calm before the storm, up in the mountains prior to world tour.
Absolute Underground: Is it working?
Tom Hunting: Yes, sir. How are you?
AU: Hey, awesome. Greetings.
Let me… *trying to figure out Zoom controls* It’s been a while since I did one of these. Let me… I think we got it, all systems go. Recording. Hey, good to meet you Tom! My name is Erik. I’m with a magazine called Absolute Underground. We’ve been running about 20 years out of Victoria, Vancouver, and across Canada.
TH: Oh, that’s awesome.
AU: We’re always free, and we try and cover… I don’t know, what we try and cover? We try and cover music, tattoos, skateboards, movies.
TH: What about snowboards and skis?
AU: Yeah, snowboards, we do skis. We do all kinds of stuff.
I just got a new issue here that I haven’t even looked at yet. I got a big stack of them we’re going to send out. Let me show you a cover. To get you some idea of what we’re up to. We’re doing a Valentine’s Day issue. It’s so romantic! *fishing out an issue out of the distribution stack* Here we go!
TH: I’ll be on the road for Valentines. I’ll be up with you guys!
AU: You will be up here. *shows magazine to camera*
TH: Oh, that’s killer, dude. Wow.
AU: We got something like 150 pages in colour and ads.
TH: That’s awesome.
AU: Man, the concept is…
TH: Are we going to bump into each other up there at some point?
AU: I absolutely hope to.
TH: I want one of the mags.
AU: Oh, we’ll get you one for sure. We’re always going to these shows. I got tickets for the show, in general admission, so I’ll be down there getting bopped around. I’ll see you there.
TH: Right on man!
AU: So, that’s just a bit of where we’re coming from. Like I say, free magazine, volunteers, and it’s just about stuff that I think we all kind of get into, and overlap on. So…
TH: That’s cool.
AU: I want to say thanks for taking the time with this.
TH: Oh, my pleasure. We’re stoked to be coming back up there, man!
AU: Oh, it’s super cool. And that’s something I want to kind of touch on in that. So, how I usually like to start these off, because we’re a print magazine, right? So, sometimes it’s challenging for people to know what’s going on. So, we got to kind of play to that sometimes.
Can you set the scene for us? Where are you now? Where are you talking to us from?
TH: Oh, the scene right now. I’m in Northern California, in Lake Almanor, California. It’s way up in the mountains, kind of where the Sierra meets the Cascadia mountain range. In that region near Mount Lassen. We own a house up there. We own a house up here too. I’m in our house right now. And, yeah, and I’ve been traversing the state of California. It’s gigantic, by the way. It’s huge. Like, practising the last couple days, and we’re having fun practising the new stuff.
You know, we’re stoked to be coming back up there. And, yeah, it’s going to be a frigging classic thrash metal beat-down! *laughs*
AU: I mean, I tell you what, that’s great to set the scene. Up in the mountains!
We saw the shows being announced, and the bands, we kind of, we saw hints at it in press, and then all of a sudden… the triple sequence of Megadeth, Anthrax, Exodus! And I think it’s going to be like the Power Rangers. You’re individually awesome, but combined, it’s going to be a superpower!
TH: That’s killer. Thank you for that analogy. That’s awesome.
AU: Yeah, I don’t know, but it might work. You’re starting out the tour in the west coast of Canada. It’s very rare that we see bands of a heavy nature, this stature, come to Victoria in a large venue. Can you tell us a bit about how you decided to start your tour run in Canada or on the west coast?
TH: We just jumped on. Like, Megadeth has been talking about this Canadian run for probably eight or nine months, and, like, we were in the conversation too, and, you know, it was supposed to be slated for, I don’t know, 2027. I’m not sure.
Maybe next year, or later this year. Like, I was thinking, like, this fall or something. But, you know, for some reason it got pushed up in the pack, and they’re like, “you still want to do it?” We’re like, “yeah, we were supposed to be off until March 20th”, the day the new album drops, when we’ll be starting a European tour.
And we’re like, “why not? We’ll go do this one”, you know? It’s a fun run. Like, you know, I’ve never been to Nova Scotia.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Victoria. We’re playing some places we’ve never played before, probably just driven past or not, you know, routed to.
So it’s going to be great. It’s going to be cold as shit, but, you know, we’re ready to rock!
AU: Absolutely.
TH: I live in it. I don’t live in as cold as up there, but I, you know. I got my gear ready.
AU: A saying I’ve heard in my community “is players wear layers”. Right? So, you’ve got to wear layers to stay warm, but also: “players listen to Slayer”.
TH: That’s right!
AU: If you’ve got layers and Slayer, you’re going to be warm.
TH: In Exodus, we have “a player that’s layered, that plays in Slayer!” *laughs*
AU: Mind-blown! You guys are going to be so warm. Warm as this cup of tea I’m having. It’s going to be amazing.
Well, I think something I’ve heard is a continuous theme from bands that decide to get off the beaten track and play small town Canada is they have the most energetic fans because nothing comes through there. So, I’m sure you’re going to get a great crowd response.
TH: Yeah. We’re always stoked to play Vancouver. So, you know, even though the club section of Vancouver is in a very, shall we say, I don’t know, “addicted” part of town?
AU: That’s probably accurate to say.
TH: Yeah. We saw some crazy shit there, dude, in that neighbourhood. I mean, I live in San Francisco too, part of the time. You know, I’m no stranger to street things going on… but that was special, walking those five blocks in Vancouver.
I seen some things and some behaviours of people that kind of blew my mind. I actually wrote some lyrics about it. Yeah.
But, yeah, it was crazy. But the clubs are great, you know, like the clubs themselves are great.
AU: Good rooms.
TH: Seems like some of the staffs of the clubs are like, “oh, shit, another metal show in the middle of this fricking, you know, drug infested neighbourhood, here we go again”.
AU: Yeah. It can be a mixed bag sometimes with the area, but I’m glad you get to see it. And, yeah, it’s an experience. BC’s done legalization for the last few years, and now they’re starting backtracking on it. So we’ll see what happens.
TH: Yeah. I mean, you know, not everything. Come on, man!
AU: Yeah. Exactly. Some stuff BC makes is very popular. So we need to keep tracking with that.
TH: Absolutely! *laughs*
AU: Yeah. I think that’s here to stay.
TH: I’m glad y’all went recreational legal. I like that.
AU: Yeah. That helps everyone overall, I think. So I’m super fascinated in where you guys are at, like, on this particular day, at this moment, in the sense of getting set to go on a tour. And how you prepare, what kind of things you feel like doing, or how you might get in the zone. Is there something that you guys like to do gear-wise or prep-wise to kind of get set?
TH: Well, I practised here in my jam room up here for, I’ve been practising for like a month and a half, trying to dig in, you know, a good hour and a half a day, if I can. And we just got together as a band. Everyone kind of does their homework at home, you know.
And then we assemble as a collective. And like, you know, the last two days have been just dealing with gear…. an explosion! Just wires and drum cables and just shit, all sprawled out in a room. And, we’ve been like experimenting with “in-ears”.
So, we’re going to try a new stage monitor system on this run. And we’re all excited about that. We’ve been ready for that change for a while now.
We’re trying to save, what’s left of the ears, because we’re all older… and it’s fun. It’s been an awesome change! But like I said, there’s cables and wires and like, you know, figuring all this shit out, how to pack it in and set it up.
Now it’s all compartmentalized and put together. And now I’m actually back home for a couple of days.
AU: Awesome. Get to relax a little.
TH: That’s a place down by Sacramento. So we’ve been practising together. And we all got a couple of days off and I’m going to go skiing in Tahoe tomorrow and meet up with the bus on Friday night.
AU: I love it. Hop on and start rolling.
TH: Yeah. Exactly!
AU: I wanted to reflect on a bit on lineup changes. So I believe Rob Dukes has come back to the band. I think one of the first times I saw you was with Rob. This will dovetail into another question. So maybe, I’ll just go on this, but you got Rob back in the band.
You are one of the members who’s been with Exodus the whole time, since the start. And you’ve seen various lineup changes. How do you kind of feel?
TH: Gary’s the one that’s been. Gary’s been a member of the whole time. Like, I’ve taken two breaks, but I am the only original member from the first day of Exodus.
AU: That’s where I’m going with it.
TH: You know, this band, like, this band goes through changes a lot. And I mean, I’ve been part of those changes too: like leaving twice, you know, being dismissed once, and leaving once.
But, you know, it’s all good. It all leads us to where we are right now. And, you know, I don’t hold anything against Zet (Zetro, last singer – editor).
I love the music we made together. And I love the journey we had together.
It didn’t seem like he was too happy. You know, it’s just the truth. He wasn’t very happy.
And, you know, we have limited time left to do this, like the fuse is a lot shorter from where this ends than where it started. So, the rest of us want to maximize – right now. And the time we have left. Record all we can. Play… Basically until we’re fucking physically unable to play, you know? And we’re having fun.
We’re still in the zone, and we like the creative process. And we like that. We love the life.
I mean, it’s. It’s a life on which we feast! *laughs*
AU: Love to hear that. Good.
TH: Rob’s back in the fold. And, you know, he had a lot of great ideas on this record, vocal ideas. And, you know, we recorded a lot of music.
And it was a creative explosion that I did not expect! You know, figured, we go in and we would do our 10, 11 songs, a couple of bonus covers. And the shit never stopped.
Those guys kept spitting out guitar riff. After riff!
AU: Unreal!
TH: Right? Yeah, it was. It was challenging and super inspiring to witness, so I just jumped in and tried to try to match that energy, that they were that they were doing. We rented a house in Concord, California, near where we were tracking.
And, we’re all East Bay guys. We know we all know the East Bay. Most of us.
So we’re just kind of like living at that house communally. That’s how we’ve done a lot of these things, you know, Back to “Bonded”. We were living together in a place, you know.
Fast forward, Many years later, we did “Temple of the Damned”. We were in the same place where “Bonded” got recorded. Like living on site.
One time we rented a place. We did the drum tracks in Oakland. And then we would go off into like Russian River, California, and rent this crazy, house on stilts on the side of a mountain and just do the vocal tracks and the guitar tracks.
And, you know, it’s fun! It’s a fun process. We enjoy it.
AU: Love that energy you have about it. No matter what the career is, anyone I talk to, if they’re stoked on it, and enjoy, the output’s better. You have to go where you’re happy. No matter what.
TH: Absolutely. But we’re excited for the new record. We’re going to do something we haven’t done. We’re going to do three tours back to back. And then, take some time off rather than tour. And then wait a bit, and then go on tour. Basically, on the road for the next three and a half months.
AU: That’s wild. It’ll be a challenge. Well, maybe this leads in something I wanted to bring up. I think one of the first times we saw you was with Rob. And we somehow managed to get media passes to Wacken in 2008, which was crazy for this little tiny free magazine from Canada. And they had us back there, and we got to see you play with Rob.
TH: Oh wow!
AU: It was a most insane show. But what I remember being another insane show… I got the t-shirt from it! I dug it up. I didn’t get yours, but I got… *unfolds the tour shirt* KREATOR… from 2009. It was Kreator, Exodus, Warbringer [plus Belphegor, Epicurean at Sugar Nightclub -editor.] in Victoria.
We wound up seeing you guys. With the same lineup. Couldn’t have been eight or nine months later. Not this giant stage across the world, but this local club of 200. And still the same energy and madness. And what I was curious about is as you get set for this touring, where you might be playing an arena, 5,000, 10,000… How does it feel for you as a drummer, maybe as a band when the audience is bigger, or smaller, and kind of what impressions do you get out of that? How does it change how you’re feeling and playing? Or maybe it doesn’t!
TH: No, that’s a good question. You know, I look at it this way. Like it’s, it’s really fun. And it’s really exciting to play a big festival in front of, you know, shit… Wacken’s like 48,000 people, or some crazy number. And there’s other ones out there too. They’re similar. But that said, you know, there’s an electricity that happens at a small club. You know, like there’s fanatical fans in Leipzig, Germany, deep in the east, and they’re like, “AHHHGHHH”! They come out to a show – rain, snow, heat wave, whatever the hell’s going on. They’re excited to! And, and you know, there’s electricity that comes with those small shows and it’s intimate. And to me, it’s just as fun. Like, you know, we play the Knust sometimes in Hamburg, Germany.
AU: Okay.
TH: And that’s this long skinny punk rock club. And the metal shows, they’re insane, dude! Like people just like just hanging from the ceiling. I like them both. I like them both. Like, festivals can be stressful, and “throw ‘n go’s”… where you ride up and you have to basically assemble on stage, and get on with your show and get in, get it done – and get out. There’s been some of those… and you know, I like club gigs. They’re awesome.
AU: Cool. Well, I’m really excited to see you. Last time was with Black Label Society in Vancouver a couple of years ago. ’23 or 24′? Great show.
TH: That was a fun tour!
AU: And that was with Anthrax too. That was a mighty diverse lineup. That was fun.
TH: Yeah. It was great. We had fun. It was good to get to know the BLS guys and you know, their crew and they’re just super awesome folks. Easy to tour with. Zakk’s a riot, you know!
AU: What a character.
TH: He’s such a good player. Such a amazing musician, on all fronts and just a nice, really good hearted dude.
He likes Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups a lot. So every time we would hit a truck stop, late at night, he would, get a handcart and come out, come out of a truck stop with like Reese’s for everybody, you know. They should endorse him.
But I think, I think as much as he likes, maybe, eating them, he likes giving them away to people.
AU: It’s better to give than to receive.
TH: Right? You just make people happy, man.
AU: That’s a good story. I’ve heard more stories from Zakk probably from the earlier touring days involving heavy duty drinking. So it’s good to hear some refreshing ones from later days.
TH: I think Gary probably has a few stories like that. Cause he hung out with Zakk way back in the day. *laughs*
AU: That’s all good. It’s all part of the journey. Well, would love to hear your thoughts on the new album. I’m just delving into it. I’ve not heard it in fullness yet. Haven’t had access, but we’ve heard a couple of singles. I wanted to start with the cover art.
The title is “Goliath”. It looks like a large character. I will guess that is Goliath? And he’s kind of in a city… and looking kind of neutral, or maybe ominous. Can you tell us a bit about the theme of the record or maybe the art?
TH: Oh man, there’s all kinds of themes going on. All songs about all kinds of stuff. There’s really no concept music involved like with the album “Goliath”. I mean, the song “Goliath” is about, you know, it’s your good old happy story about a giant creature and the living in the ground breaks out kind of like, you know, Godzilla, half human, half – I don’t know. You’ll see!
AU: We’re going to get there. One of the songs that’s broken, and had a video – and I even saw Gary putting out a brief comment that it was “too much for YouTube” kind of thing. So I was, interested to hear a bit about that, but it was the song 3-1-1-1.
TH: 3-1-1-1, which is code for, I think, code for a “cartel murder” or something like that.
AU: Right?
TH: I mean, you know, it’s a super brutal song, super brutal concept, video concept. And I mean, they kind of ban just quick little flashes of things that – I don’t know – you see worse on BBC news or, the internet everywhere. Jesus, just on the internet! It wasn’t even anything crazy taken from the internet… but they banned it. Any press is good press though!
AU: Well, that’s just it. You’re, you’re putting out something that’s too, too heavy, too crazy….
TH: It makes people want to see it more!
AU: Now people want to see it. And I want to see it! So yeah, “he got him, hook him in”.
TH: It got me too! I was like, “this is awesome”. I liked it too.
AU: It’s very timely material to talk about drug cartels and effect of drugs on society. And yeah, lots of thoughts on that. One way or the other. So yeah, I think it’s cool that you as a band are tackling some of these modern themes. Obviously you don’t need my writing direction or thoughts, seems many heavy metal bands can get caught up in demons and mythical things. And it’s hard to relate to everyday society as, you just mentioned, walking through East Van, man, I don’t need to imagine supernatural demons. I can see people having trouble right here, on this mortal plane. I’m good.
TH: We got enough human demons running around. Yeah. Is that a beer stein? *points to large mug*
AU: I wish. It’s a Newfoundland and Labrador tea mug. I’m having some, some tea with honey in it, fighting a bit of a chest cold.
TH: Where’s is Newfoundland? Near Nova Scotia?
AU: Absolutely. Yeah. East coast. It’s a gigantic island kind of east of Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia translating out to “New Scotland” in Latin. So, whoever showed up there thought “yeah, New Scotland”. I find it fascinating in North American history. There’s all these places like “New York”, someone coming from York and going, “let’s make another York. We’ll call it New York” and there you go. We already have a Scotland. We’re all out of creative ideas for names. Let’s just call it New Scotland. We’ll put it in Latin to keep people guessing.
TH: There’s a lot of York’s I think too. York, Pennsylvania, we played a gig there. And you know, yeah, there’s, a few York’s out there.
AU: On perhaps a lighter note, I was watching an interview with you from a podcast. Maybe it’s not a lighter note? Cause this is a heavy musician, but a possible inspiration for your band’s name “Exodus” could have been from the Bob Marley song “Exodus”. So, what I was wondering, is if we would ever possibly see a little snippet of the Bob Marley song “Exodus” in the live set where you could drop a little a “movement of the people” and -boom- hit them with some thrash?
TH: No, I don’t think like that, but I think we have had played the Bob Marley “Exodus” song on the outro sometimes on the “get out” music for the venue. We played that from time to time in the past. It’s been a while since anything like that. We, the band got named with Kirk [Hammett, founding member – editor.], Kirk came up with the name, and like, we kind liked the way it rolled off the tongue, you know, more than anything else. It sounded good, you know, at the time, there was a band at our high school called Paradox.
AU: Right.
TH: And there was, you know, Genesis was out there, and we’re like, we knew about the song “Exodus”, and we didn’t really know it’s about biblical stuff cause we’re not really churchy people. But, we found out later of course, as we were just young stoner kids, like, “Ooh, sounds cool. Name the band that!” So there you have it!
AU: I love it. That’s fine. Reggae is fun too. We have a ska and reggae festival here, so every now and then we get some bands that would never play here ordinarily, somehow coming through, we have seen all kinds of good reggae acts. So sometimes it’s fun to break up the metal with, uh… with some reggae.
TH: I love that kind of music. It’s pretty awesome.
AU: It’s fun. Well, man, that is some of the themes I wanted to get at. The only other thing I wanted to ask, maybe on a bit more personal front and some of the reading we were doing is that you had some health challenges and you fought through them. I wonder if you have any perspective you want to share from that for readers. Or thoughts on health.
TH: Um, sure. I mean, I’m, I’m, I’m okay with talking about that.
I basically had, um, stomach cancer, had a gastric tumor, uh, squamous cell carcinoma in the cardio region, which is kind of like up here on the top of your stomach, you know? And it was esophageal type of cancer.
AU: Right.
TH: And, you know, I kind of knew something was going on. Like I just, yeah, I was losing a lot of weight and just feeling pretty shitty. Even when we were recording “Persona Non Grata”, cause we did it up here during COVID.
AU: Yeah.
TH: And I was feeling it then, but anyway, I got diagnosed in February of 2021. Yeah. And, um, I got, um, I had mesothelioma also to that. That was a bonus later that I found out. And my peritoneal down on my abdomen. But anyway, somehow I wound up in the arms of a UCSF (University Of California San Francisco), in San Francisco, through a friend that Gary knew, um, it was an orthopaedic guy.
His name is Scott. And he basically, um, helped me navigate, you know, the beginnings of going to UCSF and like, he’s, I mean, like I said, I’m not a churchy person… but there’s angels walking around, and we are for them. And, um, you know, we have to activate when, when the time comes, we, you just have to listen and activate. And he was listening.
And, so anyway, next thing I knew, I was in the arms of the UCSF medical system and they attack that shit with a bent, with a vengeance, you know? And, um, they, um, they get a full gastrectomy. Like, I don’t have a stomach now.
And they have their mesothelioma surgeon and it’s a teaching hospital, you know, the UC system. And yeah, I can’t really say, I can’t say enough awesome stuff about the science that they’re doing there, you know, and, um, the application of their science and how they’re helping people, you know? So I’m a big fan!
AU: Man, that’s, that’s super cool. If we have the opportunity to shout out UCSF somehow.
TH: I’m very lucky. Um, you know, I know there’s a lot of element of luck around that too. And I had a lot of good people to talk to, you know, and, um, if I could do anything, I just want to be there to talk to anybody else who needs, you know, that kind of a reinforcement, you know?
AU: Cool. Well, I really appreciate you mentioning that and going over that. And, like I was trying to get at earlier, find sometimes in this music, we run into folks who are talking about, fantastical things when sometimes reality is plenty difficult enough. You’ve navigated that and I think come through the other side and doing rad and made what’s going to be one hell of a record that we’re going to see live in just a couple of days.
TH: I’m pretty stoked, man. I’m pretty stoked. So yeah, I don’t know how we’re going to wait! You’re in Vancouver. When are we there?
AU: We’re in Victoria.
TH: Oh, okay. 15th, Sunday night.
AU: Let’s meet up and get you a copy of this mag. Say hi outside the show.
TH: Yeah, I would like that. I would love to have a copy of your mag to read, on the road.
AU: Yeah, definitely. We got those and I can also send to Natalie our whole catalog is online. We have them as PDFs. So it’s kind of fun, we’ve made it as a bit of a journal. It comes out every two months. Someone can go like “where was the Canadian scene at” in, I don’t know 2009, or something, – 2004 – and you can go back in time and go “what bands were doing what”. You could find some article like “Strapping Young Lad is going on tour” And of course, they hadn’t done something in a while, or also just ads for shows and old lineups.
TH: Is Devin retired?
AU: You know, I’m a big fan of Devin Townsend. I seen him live lot of times, and near I can tell he’s not retired, but the man has such a magnificent mind…
TH: You can never stop that! You can’t stop that human being!
AU: I think a blessing is a curse, a curse is a blessing – where he doesn’t want to play a club show. He wants to get a 100-piece orchestra and do like a one-off crazy, amazing symphony thing. And then it’s a huge logistical challenge, and budgets, and whatever, but that’s his vision, right? So, I think he’s kind of gone “I need to pause one”. I don’t know what he’s gonna get up to next. I kind of see him coming back with some like acoustic guitar singer songwriter stuff and then maybe building up to a band, and maybe he wants to tour that. Who knows.
TH: You know what, that dude can definitely make music in any kind of direction that he wants to. Like, he’s that good, you know? We made a demo years ago with Jason Newsted.
AU: No way!
TH: Yeah! This is like in the 90s. Yeah, we called it “IR8” [irate]. Newsted sang, Devin played guitar, yeah, it’s pretty fun. Just drunken BBQ music.
AU: I would love to hear that.
TH: Ask him about it! I don’t even know where to find it. You could probably find it online. “I R 8” is the spelling.
AU: Well, we always try and end out this way. I don’t want to take too much of your time here. Thank you for your time. Last words the metal heads across Canada:
TH: Oh! We’re stoked to come there, stoked to go some places we’ve never been in Canada, and just hang! We love hanging.
Lee’s got some friends in Moose Jaw that I’m sure we’re gonna go again. Yeah, and it’s like a little Boston Pizza place or some shit, like with a bar attached to it. Yeah, and that’s like that’s like their “Cheers” in Moose Jaw and we seem to find ourselves there every time. So, I’m sure we’re gonna go through there. Maybe I can stop in Revelstoke, and ski for a day off, if we have one. We love going up there, we have a lot of fun. And you know, Lee’s a huge hockey fan – and shit – who knows, maybe we can catch a game? We’re gonna take it all in dude… This is a “hang in Canada journey” *laughs*
AU: I’m so excited for you!
TH: We’re coming! Oh yeah, oh yeah, and play metal too! In between the skiing, the pizza, the watching hockey. Yeah!
AU: Hey, man, that’s so awesome. Well, I’ll link up with Natalie. We’ll try and catch you somehow, In any event, you’ll see me getting thrown around the pit and I look forward to catching you on Sunday, all right?
TH: All right, all right, Erik. I’ll be looking for you. See you later!
-ERIK LINDHOLM
