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When veteran guitarist and acclaimed producer Rob Caggiano joined Volbeat last year, the news came as much as a surprise to him as it did to many in the metal community. After all, it was just months earlier that he announced he had left legendary thrash metal band Anthrax, which he had worked with since 2001.
At that time, the native New Yorker had no idea he’d join the rising Danish rock band, who he initially signed on with as producer for their fifth album, Outlaw Gentlemen and Shady Ladies. Now enjoying what he calls “the best of both worlds,” while touring European festivals in support of that album’s international smash success, Caggiano told Recoil more about why he’s fit right in with Volbeat’s famously freewheeling fusion of rockabilly and metal, why his family’s love for music from the ’50s still influences him to this day and why there’s no formula to what he or Volbeat will do next.
Recoil: You’ve toured Europe a number of times before when you were with Anthrax. Have the Volbeat guys exposed you to any different things culturally that you hadn’t encountered before?
Rob Caggiano: Umm, there are definitely more chicks in the crowd, man. [Laughs] As far as the cultural stuff goes, we come from two different worlds, me coming from New York City and these guys coming from Denmark, but the bottom line is we connect on a musical level and that’s why we work so well together, I think. Of course, there’s cultural differences, but it’s been great.
R: When you first joined Volbeat last year, you were just two weeks into recording Outlaw Gentlemen and Shady Ladies as the album’s producer. What was it about those recording sessions that made joining the band seem like such a natural decision?
RC: Well, back in 2010, Volbeat took The Damned Things [Caggiano’s previous super-group side-project with Scott Ian of Anthrax and members of Every Time I Die and Fall Out Boy] on tour, and that’s how I met these guys initially. They were very much into the Anthrax stuff that I had done and of course The Damned Things record as well, [2010’s Ironiclast]. But every night on that tour [Volbeat frontman] Michael [Poulsen] would ask me up onstage to jam on a Misfits song with them, “Angelfuck,” and I’d do that pretty much every night on that tour, and it was such a good time, and such a blast. So I already knew what it felt like playing with these guys. So, when they asked me, I had this memory to look back on and say, ‘Right, I know what this feels like, and this could be killer.’ And like I said, I know these guys and I like them as people, we’re good friends, and I absolutely love the music. I think we’re all coming from the same place musically, so it’s been perfect.
R: When I had a chance to talk to Michael a few years back, we talked about how he grew up in a musical household, where his parents had a big impact on him, exposing him to the music of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash. Do you feel like your parents had a similar influence on you?
RC: My dad is obsessed with music. He’s like a lunatic. That’s all he talks about. He named me after the singer Bobby Darin. So that goes back to that really. My parents have always been really supportive of my music – overly supportive I’d say. They’ve been amazing over the years. I grew up in a very musical house where there was music playing all of the time, whether it was 1950s doo-wop stuff, or Elvis Presley, or Hall & Oates or whatever. I was constantly exposed to all this different stuff and I think that made a huge impact on who I am right now as a musician.
R: Having that shared musical vocabulary and appreciation for rock music’s history, do you feel like that’s made it easy for you as a band to create as freely as you have?
RC: Yeah. I mean, the bottom line with Volbeat is there are no rules. That’s the whole thing. There are all these different influences that are in there, but there are no rules. There’s no formula. There’s nobody saying you can’t do this or you can’t do that, because we don’t give a fuck. And that’s been the motto of this band since before I joined. So yeah, that’s what it’s all about. Who knows what the next Volbeat record is going to be?
R: Coming from a band like Anthrax that has such a long history and such a signature sound, how liberating was it creatively to come into Volbeat and just unleash your ideas?
RC: It was very liberating. It really was. I had a very similar feeling when we did The Damned Things and I had a great time making that record and touring, so it was a similar feeling. But don’t get me wrong, I love Anthrax and I love everything we’ve done together; it just got to a point where I needed to do something else.
R: When you guys return to the U.S. in the fall, Volbeat will be co-headlining with Five Finger Death Punch. What do you think of that double-bill?
RC: We’re all really excited about that tour. I think it’s going to be great. I think it’s a great thing for fans of this kind of music, and it seems like something that the fans have definitely wanted, just from what I’ve seen online and just the general feeling of excitement around this thing. The Five Finger guys are really cool and really awesome, and it’s going to be great to be playing on the same bill with those guys. And, of course, Hellyeah [opening the show]. Vinnie Paul… What can I say, I love the man. [Laughs] — Eric Mitts.
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