Nearly 40 years later and we’re still snapping our fingers and necks to the music of Prong. At the heart of this genre-defying outfit is Tommy Victor: the band’s primary vocalist, guitarist, lyricist, and visionary from day one. Although Prong’s lineup has changed throughout the years, their goal has remained the same and that’s to push the boundaries of extreme music in their own signature way. On the verge of their 13th studio album, State of Emergency, we sat down with Victor to discuss Prong in the post-pandemic age, CBGB’s, and Canada’s greatest export, Rush.
Greetings Tommy and welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Tommy Victor: I’m fantastic Joe! Thank you for having me.
I thank you for coming on. First off, it was about a week and a half ago that I saw you play one of the best shows I’ve seen all year, Danzig performing the debut in full at the old Aragon Ballroom. How was that tour for you?
TV: It was great! I thought it was a success. As usual, it’s nerve-racking trying to emulate John Christ’s parts and trying to appeal to the Danzig fans as not an original member, but I thought I did OK. It was enjoyable. Glenn was really happy with the tour, so it was good.
Yeah, I loved every minute of it. The setlist was incredible. You and the rest of the band were top notch. Glenn sounded great. There were no complaints coming out of that show!
TV: Good! Considering it was part of the Riot Fest lineup, I thought it was good. There were so many bands for people to see and the attendance was great that day.
We’re a week away from the release of Prong’s new album, State of Emergency. This is the first Prong album in quite some time, since 2017’s Zero Days to be exact. What events led up to the making of this album?
TV: Well we had the pandemic and that allowed me to have a couple years off. My wife gave birth to a boy and we were living in L.A. I was taking care of him and I was enjoying it. I wasn’t really touring, wasn’t doing anything, wasn’t really playing that much. Then we got offered this Black Label Society tour towards the end of the pandemic and my wife said, “You should do it!” We did. It was really successful. Then I got a new record deal and then we moved. That took up some time. We moved back to New York. When I settled in back to New York, I told the label people, “I’ll need to settle in before I work on the new record.”
Everything was done back in New York where we started. I think that affected the whole makeup of the record. The planning was really good too. Steve Evetts moved out at the same time ironically and we recorded at his studio. The planning was spot on. It didn’t take me that long to write the material. I was back home in New York. The logistics of it was tough: waking up, brining my kid to daycare, then setting up my laptop and gear in his bedroom, working 9 to 5, breaking down, picking him up, cooking dinner, putting him to sleep, and then doing it again the next day from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday for a couple of months.
How long had it been since Prong last recorded an album in New York?
TV: It’s been forever. I can’t even recall. I think the last one was Cleansing. This was reminiscent of Cleansing. The ebb and flow of the new record is like Cleansing. The way I wrote some of the songs was like Cleansing. I wrote stuff in the bathroom of our apartment in Brooklyn, so this was under those type of confines. It’s been a while man. That’s a good question. No one’s ever asked that, so I didn’t really think about it. It’s probably since ’94 or ’93.
Considering the world events of the past few years and Prong’s knack for societal observations, did the lyrics for this album practically write themselves?
TV: Yeah, almost. It was easy to come up with ideas based on what’s going on in society and how people are feeling. Going out on that Black Label Society tour was a reemergence for me into society. I was able to look at what people were doing and how they were reacting to post-pandemic life. We’ve all seen the news media change and become more dictatorial and one sided. There’s been a response to that. Mainly, the Orwellian nature of things led to an ease in writing the lyrics to this record.
I’ve added a couple of other things in there, which was the “Back (NYC)” lyric, which was easy to come up with. Back to the weird weather of New York, the changes. There’s a song “Non-Existence” which is a different one. That was about…I was sort of reflective on having kids again where I’m more appreciative of life and prosperity. There’s a lot of feelings involved with that song. It didn’t take too long to write that one either. I did pretty well.
Based on the fact I keep referring to Cleansing, which had “Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck”, probably our most successful song, that lyric took 2 minutes to write. Having that knowledge of, “Hey, I can write a decent lyric and not be repetitive.” was good to know. I was reflecting on that in the past where you don’t wanna get stuck on a lyric too much. Just shoot from the gut. Let it be as it is. Do a little editing on it, but let it be as it is. All of the songs were like that as far as the music too. I wrote 10 songs, that’s it. I didn’t do major demos or pick and choose from the songs. I just stuck to those and let the chips fall as they may.
Prong has always been a musically diverse band. Those early releases exemplify the hardcore/crossover scene. Then the band helped pioneer groove metal in the early ’90s, and subsequently incorporated industrial come the mid ’90s. State of Emergency really blends all of these styles together into one hard hitting album. Do you believe this musical diversity has worked to Prong’s advantage?
TV: No, it hasn’t. I’ve said it before: I think we confuse people. From a marketing standpoint, it’s always difficult to sell a band that has so many different directions. Are they a thrash band? Are they a metal band? Are they industrial? Are they goth? Whatever the hell people wanna think of it as. That’s always been difficult. Now it’s gotten to the point where there is a Prong sound. I’m sort of happy with that where the riffs come into the confines of where Prong is.
We’ve had a couple of reviews saying, “It sounds like they’re copying themselves.” That’s almost good. AC/DC copied themselves. Ramones copied themselves. Scorpions copied themselves. All the famous bands have. I don’t do it purposely. That just means you have an identity and a sound. As far as guitar players go, that’s an important thing. There’s a lot of great guitar players out there, but the ones that have got a niche for what you hear…you hear Steve Vai and you know it’s him. I’ve always tried to reach for that where there’s certain elements to my playing that make it me and nobody else’s. That’s part of the Prong experience too, the riffs and the guitar parts.
I think I’m unique with my influences and I try to be true to those, not divert too much. It’s always funny in This is Spinal Tap when they decide to be jazz musicians and do the jazz odyssey and all that. *laughs* I always look at that with bands who have gone on these tangents. That’s not good for the fans or anything. Now we’re a “legacy band”, so I can reflect on the old stuff, but it’s natural too where what Prong is comes out as me. I try not to copy myself per record. I think all the songs have their individual identities, but again, you’re totally correct. It brings together those years that you mentioned from the early part into the Rude Awakening era.
As a guitarist and writer, how you can you tell when a song calls for fast thrashing riffs or those slow crushing groove riffs?
TV: When writing riffs, I’ll have bits and pieces of other ideas that I’ll throw in there. On this record, there’s not a hell of a lot of extreme thrash on it. The song “The Descent”, it just needed that. How far can you keep going on that speed part? It needed a breakdown, simple as that. Once you feel maybe things are getting, for a lack of a better word, boring, it’s time to make a change. I don’t write mosh parts. I’ll leave that to the modern bands that got those all locked in, but something in that direction where it changes pace a little bit.
I’d argue Prong has some mosh parts unintentionally, just seeing how the crowd reacts to the band live.
TV: Yeah, some of the classic ones, sure. We’re just not a mosh band. There’s certain instances where people go crazy. On the other hand, they like the songs. It’s more like a singalong than anything these days.
State of Emergency closes with a cover of a classic from one of my favorite bands of all time, Rush’s “Working Man”. When did you first discover Rush, how have they impacted you, and why this song to close the album?
TV: I first discovered Rush when they came out. I think it was 1974 with that first Rush record (Rush), which I purchased based on a review in Circus magazine where they were described as, I believe back then, “a cross between Zeppelin and Sabbath”, two of my favorite bands. That was intriguing. There was no other way to listen to stuff back then. You had to buy the record. Some record stores you’d be able to listen to it, but I never did that. I bought it and I loved it.
I got Fly by Night and Caress of Steel and 2112 and the live album (All the World’s a Stage) and A Farewell to Kings. Around Hemispheres, I stopped. I’m not one of these Rush fanatics that came along later. It was the early years for me. The fact that they were a trio was always intriguing to me. I liked power trios, be it Blue Cheer, Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience. That’s the stuff I grew up on. There’s something special about a power trio. That’s why I like to keep that identity for Prong, although it’s challenging to keep that. That’s what I’m intrigued by.
The riff of the song, if you tune it down like I did to Tony Iommi C# tuning, it sounds even more brutal and doomy and intense. I really like that first Rush record. It has this gloss of doom in it and an early ’70s vibe to it. The lyric is fantastic. Whereas some bands were singing about mystical things like Zeppelin with the Celtic and Viking element to a lot of their lyrics, or maybe Satanism and drug abuse with Sabbath, or cars and chicks with Purple, Rush did something different.
“Working Man” is this working class, blue collar anthem. I like that with Prong, based on the lyrics that were coming out of State of Emergency, which is about a breaking point, your average person rejecting what the elite are telling you. “The Descent” is about this guy who’s losing his mind because of social media. He parallels the descent of mankind with his own spiritual and emotional demise. In “Working Man”, this guy is completely lost. I thought that would tie it in with the lyric as well. I think it’s a success. I like ending the record with this colossal epic thing. It worked out well!
I must admit I was a bit skeptical at first, but upon hearing it, I dug it! The song works in the Prong style and the lyric most definitely fits the theme of the album.
TV: Thank you!
You’ve always been the sole constant member of Prong. How does this current lineup of the band compare or contrast to past incarnations?
TV: The current lineups is always changing. I’ve got scheduling conflicts with guys all the time, so it’s hard to say. Jason (Christopher) couldn’t do the last tour, so I got our bass tech to fill in. He was amazing. He was gonna keep doing it, but now he’s gotta go out with Nita Strauss. He plays bass with here, so Jason’s coming back. Griff (McCarthy) who plays drums on the record, he doesn’t wanna leave Long Island. He wants to stay in his cover band, so Tyler the drum tech came in.
He’s been killing it, but he couldn’t get a passport, so I had to get Wade (Murff) from Doyle’s band to play drums on the last tour. It always seems to work out, but it’s a pain in the ass. The record is the record. Prong is the songs. Steve Evetts produces the record. As long as I’ve got competent guys in there, it’s fine. It’s just a matter of who’s available at a certain time and what they’re doing *laughs*. It’s just craziness.
These types of scenarios seem especially prevalent post-pandemic. I’m sure you’ve seen it where, in the past, if a bandmember couldn’t swing the show, that was it. Show’s cancelled. Now we’re seeing guys fill in left and right. This was unthinkable even just a few years ago.
TV: Yeah, I had Jason Bittner, he had to fill in. I forgot to mention him as well. He plays with Overkill and Shadows Fall, so he came in at the last minute. It’s been insanity. That’s the benefit of being the singer and guitar player of the band. Prong can go on as long as I’m around. That’s the benefit of it.
Back in the ’80s, you worked as a soundman at the iconic CBGB’s. How did that experience shape you as a musician and person? What are some of your favorite shows you saw there?
TV: I think that was the central part of my career: getting the job there, being part of the scene, seeing all the bands, being right there on what’s current and where music may go. I wasn’t correct in that because if I really knew what was going on, I would’ve went the Nirvana route which was punk mixed with The Banana Splits *laughs*. I didn’t see that. Some of the greatest shows there…there were so many of them.
I think the best shows were when I wasn’t working there, and that’s when I was a kid. When you’re working there, you’re working there. Eventually, it got to the point where I was working there 6 nights a week. It was a tough job. One of the greatest shows I saw there when I was a kid was Ramones. I also saw The Cramps there. I used to be able to get in there at a really young age. I saw The Damned and Dead Boys. Those old early shows are the ones that made a lot of impact on me.
How many times did Prong play there?
TV: Quite a bit. There is a site somewhere that has a list of all the gigs Prong have done. Some of them, I can’t believe the bands we played with. I think the first show we did was with Crumbsuckers. We were first on a bill of 4 in a hardcore matinee. Then we played some shows with Ludichrist. I think cumulatively, we played there about 10 times. The biggest one was a show during the week, a night show. We were the first of 3 bands. That’s when Epic Records finally decided to sign us. That was with Warzone and White Zombie. It’s crazy when you think of that: White Zombie, Warzone, and Prong. Absolute pandemonium on a Tuesday night at CB’s. It was great!
This year marks the 35th anniversary of Prong’s debut album, Force Fed. What are your memories of recording this album and what are your favorite songs on it?
TV: We did it at a storefront on the Lower East Side. I don’t even remember the name of the studio. It was a makeshift studio. From what I remember, there was only an 8 track recording. Then we bounced around. I think it was done in 3 days, just blasted it out. The songs, we played them live already. I would say “Freezer Burn” is my favorite, which is the opening track on the record. Sometimes we still play that. That’s one of the ones that stood the test of time.
I’m almost positive when I saw you open for Agnostic Front at Reggies roughly 5 years ago now.
TV: Yeah, we probably played it.
Such a killer riff. In closing, what are Prong’s plans going forward into 2024? Is there a lot of touring on the horizon?
TV: I don’t know about a lot of touring. I’m thinking we’ll do one. I’m still trying to work out that. We go over to Europe for the third time this year in November with Life of Agony. It’s a little easier to get tours over in Europe, so we did festivals and a week of shows recently, like a month ago. I finished that up, then I went out with Danzig. Then we go back and I got posed with a really tour option yesterday. Until it’s solidified, I’m not gonna say, but it looks like we’re gonna do something in America in March.
The new Prong album, State of Emergency, comes out Friday, October 6 on Steamhammer. For more information on Prong, visit www.prongmusic.com.