Eric "A.K." Knutson, vocalist of veteran Arizona thrashers FLOTSAM AND JETSAM, has explained why the band so rarely tours its home country. Speaking to Dimitris Kontogeorgakos of Metal Kaoz, Knutson was asked about the prospect of a U.S. run behind "Rats In The Temple", the band's new album, due August 28 via Napalm Records.
"U.S. is so hard to tour in," he said. "I mean, if you're not with a good package deal, it's just not worth it money-wise. But we're talking to some people, and we'll get something going eventually.
"We just don't get out in the U.S. very often. We do so much better in Europe that it makes more financial sense to play Europe, if we have the chance, rather than the States. I hate to do that to our U.S. fans, but bottom lines are bottom lines, and we get twice as many fans at the shows, and we make twice as much money over in Europe. So it's just a hard thing to do."
Knutson then broke down the arithmetic in blunt terms. "When we go on a U.S. tour, I drive because we can't afford a driver. We can't afford a bus. We can't afford crew except for maybe a sound guy. Once we start taking all that stuff out of the budget, we go home, and we've got $5 in our pocket. We're, like, 'Well, I should have stayed home and just went to work.' So it's really hard to balance what you can take out, what you can't take out. We're not quite a band like TESTAMENT who can have huge guarantees and pay for everything and still make money at it. Our merch does pretty good, so that helps a lot. But the U.S. is just really tough, and it's not fair to our American fans."
FLOTSAM AND JETSAM's current lineup is arguably its strongest: alongside Knutson stand co-founder Michael Gilbert and Steve Conley on guitars, drummer Ken Mary (ALICE COOPER, ACCEPT) and bassist Bill Bodily.
"Rats In The Temple" arrives 40 years after the band's groundbreaking debut, "Doomsday For The Deceiver" — one of the very few albums ever to receive a 6K rating from Kerrang! magazine. Bassist Jason Newsted left immediately afterwards to join METALLICA, but the band pressed on with 1988's "No Place For Disgrace" and have kept evolving since, with the self-titled 2016 album, "The End Of Chaos", "Blood In The Water" and "I Am The Weapon" ranking among their strongest work.
Source: blabbermouth.net