music when Testament, Violence, and Death Angel got their record deal. I followed them through their albums and I followed them when they broke up. But when this benefit for Chuck Billy came around "Clash Of The Titans", I remember seeing the ad. I heard all this stuff about Chuck Billy being diagnosed with cancer and his friend Walter Morgan says "I want to put on a benefit for you." So I was seeing who was showing up for this benefit and then I saw Death Angel and I was like oh, my god. I knew the band and I would always ask "Are you guys getting back together" and they would always say no. They would say "We stopped on a high note, and we are done with it, we are just doing our various projects, we are happy with what we did, lets leave it. So, seeing Death Angel on the bill for me was the selling point. Rob called me, I was in a band at the time, and Rob, Mark and Andy had a band called "Swarm", and our bands used to play together. So Rob goes, "Dude, did you hear about the Chuck Billy benefit?" I said "Dude, I am so excited you guys are getting back together and I cant wait to see you guys play!" Then Rob says " Well Gus can't do it, do you want to do it, do you want to jam with us?" I was like "You, got it!" I hung up the phone and that day I went over to the rehearsal spot for "Swarm" and I was like "Dude, let's run through the songs, what do you have in mind?" When Rob was running through the songs, Rob forgot certain riffs and I go "Dude, I think that riff goes here!" and he goes "Yeah, you are right!" So it was August 11th 2001, we were playing that day, so I was jamming that day and Rob showed me some stuff, then I jammed with Andy at a separate time because Rob , Mark and Andy had to tour with "Swarm". I did my homework at home. Man I listened to the songs every day, played them everyday, dude it was like overload. Two days before the actual show, we rehearsed twice. They told me we only get two rehearsals and I was like can't we get a little more? It was nerve racking, It's "Death Angel" I don't want to be up there fucking up. So we did the show and it was supposed to be a one time thing because I remember Death Angel kept declining. Everyone one was like Dude, Chuck's doing this thing do you want to do it. And they were like "No, we are done, we're done, we're done!" Chuck Billy called Rob personally and goes "Hey man, I really want you guys to do this. At least for a chance to perform and jam." What do you say to a guy with Cancer! Later, we did an interview with him because we were releasing a Thrashumentory and Chuck goes "I had to get Cancer to get you guys back together!" He was joking, and we were laughing and he goes "See how much I love you guys!" So we did the show and after that it just snowballed. Word got around that we did the show, then Europe called and said why don't you come out and do some runs. So we said alright. After we did that, Nuclear Blast started coming out and all these labels, and here we are today!
Mike: Where did the name Death Angel come from?
Ted: From a book! A couple guys were walking in the mall and they saw a book called Death Angel and said that's a cool name! And there it is!
Mike: Man, back in the day when you didn't have to check google for a band name!
Ted; (Lauhgs) Yep, and back in the day when all the good names where not taken! Me and my drummer were talking about that last night. I was like "Dude, there are some killer band names but nowadays all of them are fucking taken. Now people are trying to throw so many words into the name.
Mike: Sometimes a whole sentence!
Ted; Yeah! I am not going to mention any bands right now , but you get the gist of it.
Mike: Do you still see yourselves evolving as a band as well as a musician?
Ted: I think everyday you evolve. From one album to the next you evolve, if you are not evolving you are actually not growing up. Between our last two albums, there was a lot of evolution and people asked "Where did that come from?" Well one, you can't recreate that moment in time. Two, having to tour the world for three years and experiencing different cultures, different people and having to tour with different bands, you get to pick at the things you want, and you get to grow up as a person. You grow up as a band, you get to know each other, your dislikes and likes and discovering new shit. Good or bad. There are some bad times out on the road, were you go "I am out here too long, I need to get home" and you keep running and all that channels into the music. But that is evolving! You have to think about evolving! For example, I dont know if its a good analogy, you grow up and see your friend from years ago, and they are still the same way!