When DOWN performed at this years High Voltage Festival a couple of weeks ago, we sat down with guitarist Kirk Windstein for a quick catch up about their forthcoming DVD release. During our chat, we touched upon the topic of new Down material and it would seem the band have indeed started to work on some new tracks…

“[We’ve written] two songs and we’re really happy with them; kinda’ getting in that groove now you know? Usually when we finally get round to doin’ it ya’ know it’s difficult. We’re at different points in our lives because of our age…ya’ know we’re all in our forty’s. I have a daughter…and a girl at home…Jimmy’s got the same thing, Phil’s got the same thing, Rex is married and has twins- a boy and a girl, Pepper just had his first child…We’re all at different parts in our life and it gets where…like Phil was just saying, we basically recorded and toured for 2 and a half years and that’s a long time! I think now we’re up to 36 countries we played, including twice in Australia, Japan, we did Metallica summer tour, we hit over in Europe, we did Metallica first leg of Death Magnetic US Tour, we did a bunch of Sonisphere stuff last year with Metallica, we played with Slipknot, Anthrax, Saxon- you name it, so it was like when we got home, we needed a break.”

“We’ll email, but nobody will call anybody. Basically when we get off the plane from the last show on the last tour, we’ll get off the plane and its like (laughs) “I hate all you mother fuckers, fuck you! Do not call me, Goodbye!” but its all in fun. When your stuck up each others ass 24/7 for 2 and a half years, it’s pretty difficult, you need a break, and now everyone feels rejuvenated, fresh, its now’s the time. We know when the time is right- everyone’s got that spark now. But we didn’t want to force ourselves to do it if we didn’t feel it. I mean music is emotion. It’s got to be real; its got to be from the heart. We didn’t want to force ourselves to do it if we didn’t feel the time was right, and now, we’ve had 2 great jams, 3 great jams, wrote two songs, and at the end of the third night it was like “Dude! I had fuckin’ fun today, it was great!” The sparks back, the desires back, and its time to be Down.”

Watch this space for more information on the forthcoming Down DVD release, including that video interview with Kirk about it’s content.

Current album DOWN III- Over The Under is in stores now. Pick it up online HERE.