Interview to Rik Charron of Exciter

Interview by Luis Landeo
Hails Rick is a pleasure to do this interview with you, the last album was realeased in 2010 this production have the name of: "Death Machine", it was a great album but have you in mind work and release a new full lenght?
Thanks Luis for this oportunity to to do this interview. Yes Death Machine was released in 2010 it was well received in the USA and other parts of the world but the sales in Europe weren't as high as we expected...we wanted to make a pure raw in your face Thrash Metal album and we believe we acheived that goal and the result was playing in South America a few times in the past 2 years and Mexico and Japan. All places Exciter always wanted to play. We are currently in the writing stages for the next Exciter Album as of yet untitled. but it could take some time before it is released.

At difference of the other Exciter albums you played, and you know in every album of a band is a complete challenge what was the challenge in this last album? and what could be the new challenge of sound and your challenge like drummer, you think take in this possible new album? 
Well, the main challenge for Death Machine was making sure the songs were all strong Exciter songs. We had a short time period to creat the songs polish them at rehearsals and then head to the studio for recording. we were also under pressure from the Record company to release this album by a certain deadline so I personally found the album's sound production was affected by this short deadline. The next album will be heavy and pure Exciter classics for sure. I want to have more time in the studio to make sure the drums sound powerful as well as all the instruments. there will be alot of my signature double bass drum playing and I way be a little busier with drum fills the make the album the heaviest Exciter album to date. John does have some really powerful riffs created and we are in the process of put the songs together.

Last year you played in the cruise ship "Barge To Hell/7000 tons of metal" how was play in this cruise ship and share stage with: Overkill and Nightwish? what great experiences can you tell of this new way of make "concerts"? 
We played the 70000 tons of Metal cruise in 2011 with bands like Overkill, Nightwish, Vicious Rumours and Venom just to name a few bands. This concert is an amazing experience!! all the bands had a great time. the fans were awesome and we made alot of friends on the cruise. Think of it...5 days at sea with 2000 fans and 42 bands playing almost around the clock. and EVERYBODY has a backstage pass!! this is a cruise that every metalhead should experience at least once in their lifetime!!

Exciter is a band with a lot years playing and not all the fans dont had the chance to see Exciter playing a live in their countries, but have the band in mind record a DVD? 
Yes, there is alot of cyties and countries that Exciter haven't played yet but we would love to play them. As for a DVD, we did have one in the planning stages and some footage was shot in Germany and Holland but for some reason it was never put together or released. the Film company lost interest because of budgetting I think. so no DVD in the near future.

Well this question is not about the band is about a problem nobody want to talk, this is a question about metal legends, and you guys are Metal legends, well when an interviewer try to contact a famous bands it result practicly difficult at difference when bands started are very open to interviews but when they grow up they forget their origins, so why do you think some metal legends have big egos and try to be very inaccessible to zines and fans? 
That is a very good question! I'm not 100% sure why they do that or get the Ego trip. maybe it's because they make so much money and have all the backing in the World that no matter if they put out a weak album it still sells because of their name. Exciter had to fight and work hard to achieve the relitive success it has. the fans are true diehards! the way I see it, The fans are the ones that buy your product, albums and merchandice. they are the ones who buy tickets for the shows. treat them with respect!! give them the interviews, meet the after the shows. take pictures and sign autographs if they ask for one. because without the fans buying your stuff and Albums, you would be here! We in Exciter are open to talking, partying and hanging out with the fans before and after the shows. We don't have the Rockstar egos either. We are very approchable and grateful to our fans/friends.

In this last years Thrash Metal had a good revival, a lot bands back to play Thrash Metal and appeared new bands playing Thrash Metal with the 80s sound, but do you think speed metal will have a new wave? and do you think this revival of Thrash Metal is promoved for the labels than the bands? and why do you think the music bussinness is always changing? because for me like fan this affect a lot the global metal scene. 
Thrash is on the uprising right now and I trully believe that Speed Metal is on the verge of a full comeback. Exciter has stayed true to it's roots as a Speed Metal Band. Record labels do manipulate the music business all the time. basically telling the fans what music is in right now and what they should be listening to. but true metal fans will not be manipulated like this. They will listen to all the metal music that's out there and choose for themselves which bands and styles they like. I personally like almost all Metal styles from Death Metal to old school heavy metal. I don't let the record companies influence what I like to hear and Exciter have always stayed true to the Style They helped created back in the 80's.

Well I hope dont offense nobody, but if we compare USA Metal Scene with Canadian Metal Scene in the 80s and 90s many bands from USA have famous names like: Pantera, Metallica, Megadeth, etc and about canadian metal scene have only a few famous metal names why do you think this happened? and was Canada in the 80s and 90s a good place for Metal? and in this days what difference do you notice in the actual canadian metal scene with comparation with the actual american scene? 
No offence taken Luis it much easier to make big in the USA because they have all the support and backing from the promotors Agents Managers and Record Companies. The USA have way more places to play than Canada does. Their cities are much closer and easier to tour for the bands. Canada doen't have the promotion the USA has. and the scene is not as big and Canada lacks in promoting it's own bands. many Canadian bands that want to make it big move to the USA. Canada is also harder to tour for a band because the cities are farthur apart and not all the cities in Canada is a "Metal" City. we only have a few. like Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver that are major metal scene cities. Ottawa has a somewhat small metal scene with only a handful of clubs to play in. Calgary has the Noctic Festival which we just resently played and that was amazing for us and other bands because we had no idea that Calgary had such a vibrant metal scene. all this to say it is MUCH easier to make it in the USA than Canada. 

You played last year in Mexico and Brasil, but have in mind Exciter come to play to the countries of Southamerica speak spanish? 
Yes we did know that these countries speak Spanish and Portugese. Kenny our singer can speak alittle Spanish and I can Speak French so I can understand some things people are saying to me if the speak slowly enough. Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Mexico are awesome places to play for Exciter, we are very well received and the fans are fucking crazy!! I can't wait to play other South American Countries if we could. it would be an amazing experience for Exciter and the Fans! 

To end this interview do you have a last message to fans and readers? 
To all the Exciter fans out there. we really appreciate all your support over the years...we are humbled by the warm welcomes and cheers of all of you. if you see us in your city or country please dont hesitate to come up to us and ask for pictures and autographs we would more than happy to give you one You all Rule!!!! Cheers and thank you very much.

To Know more about Exciter: 
https://www.facebook.com/EXCITERMETAL