Interviews: Prey For Nothing

This is a new interview with the Death Metal band Prey For Nothing from Israel. Check out the entire interview and give them a follow on their FACEBOOK PAGE. 

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, you plan it or came out just like that?

It came up during a discussion with some friends who used to play with us. We thought of the name 'Pray For Nothing', the more simplistic version of our name, but then a good friend of ours, Yuval Kramer (guitar player of Amaseffer, who played with us in our early stages) asked us 'Why won't we change to PREY with an E, as a play of words. We liked it and it sticks with us to this day. As an Israeli band, we deal not only with religious environs but also with the question of war and peace, and thus the thought of predators and prey came into the equation. 

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

We didn't stick to one specific genre at first. Before Prey For Nothing most of the band members played in a Progressive-Power Metal band called Damnnation and several themes carried on into our music. We tried to create a blend between Melodic Death Metal like old In Flames or Arch Enemy with the complexity we found with Death, Cynic, and later on Obscura and Revocation. Add in some Thrash Metal clear influences and you got yourself something that can be described as Melodic Death Metal but only barely. We sit right on the verge of where this genre turns to so many different things so it's not that playing this specific metal genre was intended – just came out as it is.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

The original line-up? Yeah, besides me they all played together and even though I was younger than them we used to hang out in the same venues and decided we should do something together. But when most of the line-up changed after 2016, we learn to know several awesome guys like Dima, Michiel, and more recently Tolik, and welcomed them into our family. Can't say I knew them before we started working together but I can't see Prey For Nothing without them now.

4. Each band member's favorite band?

Heh, I asked my band members this question and they started joking around about Sabaton and Powerwolf and what's not. I know Tolik's favorite band is Lamb Of God and Michiel's all-time-favorite, if I had to guess, I would go with Iron Maiden. Dima and I are more into early Metallica, Pantera and the go-to essential metal bands, I tend more towards the thrash metal side of things, and Dima is more open-minded than me. But for the hack of it – let's say that Iftah, our drummer, favorite band is Sabaton. He cannot stop talking about them, hehe.

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

I think that in the mere beginning our main influence was the work of the late Chuck Schuldiner and Death. Especially around Symbolic but everything after Human was a thing we took to heart. In our debut album we tried to, let's say, carry on the torch and continue his legacy, in our own way. But now – 15 years in – I think we tend to take musical influences in a less literate fashion. We still dig lots of old-school metal bands and listen to a lot of new stuff as well, but we try to pave our own way musically. Lyrically I think that entire human history birthed so many great philosophers and writers that to me just beg to take their work and make them into metal songs. We try to pick the ones who are more aligned with our musical approach – those who were revolutionary and ground-breaking, and whose work has been kinda taken for granted in the past centuries. Also, it is easily shown that we take to heart what's happening in the world as an inspiration, especially in our own little hellhole of a country. 

6. Where was your last gig?

That was in June I think? We played at a local venue with 2 local bands, and less than a month from now we'll take the stage again in an Israeli festival called Psycho Ward Fest. And hopefully, by the time this interview will be posted, we'll have several other shows in the barrel. Hopefully, we'll manage to book a European tour in the summer of 2023, finally, after 2 and half years of the pandemic.

7. Where would you like to act?

What's our dream place to perform you mean? I guess the big league festivals. Wacken Open Air, Hellfest, Graspop, Bloodstock, you name it. We are more live-oriented than studio oriented anyway so that's something we need to bring to the stage. If you meant country-wise? I think until we did several more gigs in UK, Germany and the Netherlands, we can't really speak of anything else. But honestly? I just realized there's a huge metal scene in the Philipines and I REALLY like to go there and perform. That sounds awesome!

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

I take it as who would we like to tour with? Well, if we think big, Metallica and Maiden are like dreams come true. But if we need to be more modest, touring with At The Gates, Mercyful Fate, In Flames, Soilwork, and Dark Tranquility we'll be more fitting. I really dig the music of bands like Gojira, Obscura, Persefone, Beyond Creation, and Revocation – so any gig with them also we'll be great. And there's a dream also revolving around touring with the bands we grew on, Testament, Kreator, Exodus – those bands. I can only wish though, those spots are really hard to get.

9. Who not?

In-band terms? Ah, well, probably not Burzum causes we're Jews from Israel and he wouldn't like that very much, hehe. I don't really know man – I think that as long as a band loves playing with other bands on tour and doesn't consider their music a day- job – and doesn't treat everyone around them as dirtbags, they are okay by my book. I do know of several bands whose singers can't stand talking to other people or even hanging out after or before the show. Like their entire day is 60-90 minutes show and the rest is squat! Nothing! You can't talk to them, can't approach them, and your mere presence is annoying to them. So none of those please, yep.

10. Have any of you ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?

Stage fright? Eh, not that I can remember. Our debut show was supporting a now defunct big grindcore band here in Israel in front of 600 people or so – and we nailed it. Maybe because we were already experienced players by the time we formed Prey For Nothing, you see. As I said before, this is not our first band. For me, my first live experience was back in 99' or something, playing in front of 2,000 people in my hometown event when I was 16 or something, and I am a Theater major, so whatever stage fright I might have is long gone and forgotten. Tips for beginners? Well, in this case, practice makes perfect, I think. You need to go on stage and perform as much as you can to really smooth that sweet stage performance of yours. Besides being the vocalist of Prey For Nothing I am also the Israeli Metal Battle promoter of Wacken Metal Battle so I come across MANY young bands who need just that little notch of experience to really deliver. The entire world is filled to the brim with amazing metal bands just waiting to get discovered by the crowd, in order to stand out you need to grind those stages till you get used to them, that's the best advice I can give to any young band.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

Death, that's obvious, but in recent years we would like to think we left that obvious path behind us. We take something from almost any genre now. From Opeth to Testament to Carcass and Entombed, from Cannibal Corpse to Judas Priest, Pantera and some Lamb Of God and Killswitch Engage are mixed in there. Maybe even other things that we remind people of, can't really tell anymore – it is just us playing what we like by now.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

Nothing comes to mind, actually. We had fans throwing their bras at us on stage, and people undressing in front of us, but that's more of an inside joke than truly something weird. I can tell that once we toured Europe and one show in the Czech Republic we met a guy that wanted us to sign on a Metal Magazine copy where we did a full interview. The thing is that none of us remembered doing that interview at all! It was in Czech so we didn't understand squat, but that guy translated it to us and it wasn't even close to something any one of us said. Nothing vile, just weird. Why would any magazine fake an interview with us? We happily answer every question. We still haven't figured it out to this day.

13. What do you think of your fans?

I don't really believe the term 'fans' anymore. I believe in 'listeners'. Maybe we are not as big as other bands, and probably we'll never be as big as to see people doing tattoos of our own logo and what's not. Better this way. Fandom is fine but we're all about the music – and I would love to talk to people about any kind of metal music as a metalhead than have people just trying to ask me a one-way discussion about myself. That's weird. I think the world is over that by now. Or it should be anyway.

14. What do you think of our site?

Actually, that's the first time I heard of this website, and I came to check it and was not disappointed. I also picked the fact that you did an interview with the band Jumpscare which I really dig and you seem to be focused on the underground which is great – this is the REAL metal that is actually happening. It's great to hear another word from bands who already made it, but I believe, probably as you do, that the real metal scene is in the undercurrent of the music industry, and you shed light on it, which is freaking great!

15. Something to add?

Nothing truly unique. We do work on our next release and hopefully, by the time this interview will be promoted and you'll tag us on Facebook we'll have another video or another song ready for you guys. And I hope that by next year we'll have a new release on hand. Keep up the good work and never forget where we all came from!