Front man for the now disbanded legends, Pantera, Phil has always been a many of many projects. Down,Superjoint Ritual, Viking Crown,Necrophagia and most recently his solo project Phil and the Illegals. The Illegals have just released there second album, Choosing Mental Illness as a virtue to great acclaim. I recently was able to speak with guitarist Mike DeLeon about this album.
Writing process on new album
it was awesome. I came into the band, I had no idea we would be writing so tightly. The process was really organic and we all bounced off each other. I wasn’t there for the first one but Phil said he wrote the whole thing. This time it was definitely a group effort. We all added our flavor. Phil was pulling out unused riffs from like 97. I would then turn those riffs and made a song out of them. There are 30 guitar parts going on and we all at least play some of them. It’s a madness but the process was great. It came out awesome man.
What made you guys choose Season of Mist for this record?
I’m actually not too sure on that. That was new to me. I knew Housecore was putting it out locally but I guess mist is doing it worldwide which is great. They are a great label with so many awesome bands.
Are we getting a tour to promote this?
Yes sure man. No dates yet but we plan on hitting all of America and Europe over the Summer.
Thoughts on the state of metal today.
So many great bands putting out albums. Portal put out their new album around the same time as this awesome band. I wish there was still a big tour like Ozzfest still going around so smaller bands can get exposure from playing with legends but other than that I will say it’s all good.
