Interviewed: Josh Welshman

A band that hardly needs an introduction is Defeated Sanity. They’ve pushed the boundaries for what is brutal technical death metal over and over again and the expectations for their new album is high. They just finished the upcoming album so now we’re all eagerly waiting for more news but until then I hope this interview with the bands newest member, vocalist Josh Welshman, will make the wait a bit easier.

Defeated Sanity is rather unique as it started as a father and son project. Do you know if Lille Grubers father, Wolfgang Teske, was into the extreme side of metal before you two started the band as well?

-Wolfgang was into Proto Metal like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and also Jazz/Rock like Mahavishnu, Chic Corea or John Abercrombie. Back when he was younger Heavy metal (like the Scorpions etc…) was considered cheesy and not serious in his circles…..his attitude changed when he heard Slayer, Sepultura etc…through me. The rest is history as they say haha.

Being on the forefront of technical brutal death metal, does that come with a lot of pressure? If so does it press you on, pushing yourself to work even harder with each album?

-We’re definitely always pushing the envelope in the technical domain, and this new album will definitely be a testament to that. Pressure isn’t the right word though, mainly the only struggle I would say is the balance between the brutal and technical elements of the music, but for Lille this seems to come naturally.

Having been around for a long time you’ve toured a lot. Do you have any favorite memory from a tour you’d like to share?

-Granted I’ve only been in the band for a fraction of the band’s history, I’ve also been present during the most active years of the band as far as touring goes. There are so many great memories it’s really hard to isolate any in particular. The highlights always tend to be in the people we meet along the way, whether it be fans or the bands that we share the road and stage with. Every tour has its bullshit that happens inherently, but there are great memories from just about all of them for me.

A new album is coming which this time features you as the new vocalist, but you played with Defeated Sanity live back in 2015 too. How did Defeated Sanity find out about you to begin with?

-Lille had found me through a solo project I was doing at the time called “Autonomy”. I also had a vocal cover of Defeated up on YouTube at the time, which also peaked his interest. This was around 2010-2011 I want to say, and we had corresponded a handful of times about potentially collaborating in the future. Fast forward to 2015 and I was filling in on vocals for a US tour after Konni had left the band, which left me with some huge shoes to fill. The rest is history!

How come Defeated Sanity hasn’t had a permanent vocalist? What’s the reason behind wanting to change vocalist with each album?

-It was never intended to be as such, but as the story goes “life happens”. It’s hard to keep up with the touring schedule with families and careers to also balance. All prior vocalists of Defeated are still on good terms with everyone in the band so there were never any major issues that led to any sort of falling out. I’m planning to end this stigma attached to Defeated however!

Speaking of the new album, which you just finished recording, when will we get more info on it?

There will be info coming very soon. The music is ready and we’re moving onto getting artwork and stuff like that done now. We’ll have some news coming really soon, so hang in there!

The album as recorded at The Thousand Caves who also did the famous Psalms Of The Moribund album. Will it have a similar sound?

-This is actually the first record we’ve done with Colin so I’m not sure where you may have heard that (TMG: I read it on Discogs). Psalms was done at the Soundlodge in Germany if I recall correctly. The sound of this record will be different than anything prior though to answer your question.

What can Defeated Sanity fans expect of the new album?

-We’ll put it this way: Men are born with two balls for a reason, one is a backup for when an album like this one drops. We think it will crush, and we’re all extremely happy with the result on all fronts!

Will we get to see a Defeated Sanity tour to promote the new album in 2020?

We have plans to play extensively this year. We just announced a tour in support of Origin and Beneath The Massacre this Spring in the US, and a couple of shows in Iceland and London in May. We have a few other things in the works for this year but nothing that I can offer specific details about at this time.

If you had to choose one song by Defeated Sanity that you would show a friend what the band is all about, which song would that be?

-For me I would say a great well-rounded song for Defeated in terms of style is Consumed By Repugnance. It’s very fast but also has plenty of groove. It also displays some of the jazz influence and more abstract songwriting aspects of the band.

It’s not everyday you get to interview one of your all time favorite bands so I want to give a massive thank you for saying yes to this interview. Any parting words?

-Cheers man! Keep your ears to the ground, we’ll have more news coming soon and the record will be out late spring/early summer. We’re all really excited to present this new material to you guys!