BraveWords.com's Deb Rao spoke with OVERKILL frontman Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth while on the road supporting their latest album, Ironbound. The chat reads as follows:

BraveWords.com: You are timeless Bobby, music knows no age.

Ellsworth: "The response of the new record is really high. It is high obviously because of the quality of the record. Besides that it seems to have a great push behind it with E1 in North America and a Nuclear Blast on the rest of the world. Both are promotion machines. If you don't know this record is out there you are not paying attention or you live in a cave or you don't have television or any other multi-media device. It charted in North America really high. It charted in The States, and in Canada. This is like new territory for us 25 years later to actually be able to say we are charting and viable again with regard to music in general. Which is great testimony not to us but to the scene that people still support this on such a high level. If it is a good record they want it. Obviously, people want this record."

BraveWords.com: How would you describe the secret formula of song writing on this album? What kind of sound were you looking for when you went into the studio to record Ironbound.

Ellsworth: "Overkill is not a very unique product when it comes to what we are. I think we are what we are. It is pretty obvious. We go up there and we are an explosion that is what we have always done. With regard to live, we always try to mimic that in the studio. It just so happened on this record that it was mimicked. You can't force the road into the studio. On this record the live sound of the road it kind of bleeps through. It sneaks under the doorway and in through the windows. You start getting that live vibe on a recording product. It gives that live vibe a recording prop. If you get that, then you have the magic. That is as simple as it is. I don't think any of the other records are lass than this. Except that this is cohesive to that live feel from start to finish. That is what makes this record special."

BraveWords.com: I can see that on your latest video 'Bring Me The Night'.

Ellsworth: "I love this video because it portrays us. It is not some fantasy kind of thing. This is what we are. We are steak and potatoes."

BraveWords.com: What are Overkill's future touring plans?

Ellsworth: We have festival season locked up after our US tour, which takes us to the summer. Ten or twelve festivals. Big ones like Wacken. Last year the official count was 65,000. We have Sonisphere, we do Hellfest in France, Tuska in Finland. They are some really high profile festivals. Coming to September we do Japan and Australia. Then another US run and then another European run. We are booked all the way to Santa comes out the chimney. (Laughter)"

BraveWords.com: What is your favourite thing about being on the road these days?

Ellsworth: "One of the things that I like when you have been around as long as I have. A guys said to me today, 'I don't want to call you old.' I said, 'listen, I am older than some of the dirt in these clubs.' (Laughter) But I said that is not the problem. Over the course of some 25 years since the beginning of our professional life doing this, you meet a lot of people. So when you get to out on the road 18 months or twice in a course of the year, you see a lot of people that you wouldn't normally see in your day-to-day life. I think that is one of the really cool things. That kind of energizes the stage. I don't think we ever need any motivation. We are energetic on the stage that is just what we are. I think it is kind of cool for us to say, 'wow that is transcendent.' These friendships and travelling this road with so many different people. It is so great to see so many of them still there. I look forward to doing that. I am looking forward to this being a real successful tour."

BraveWords.com: Bobby, anything else you want to say about the new album Ironbound?

Ellsworth: "I like it lots! (Laughter) It is funny about this record because it was so easy to do. People think that creativity sometimes is this painstaking process. When things go right, you get the luxury of timing. The results proved itself on the record by the songs coming together quickly. By the production methods being accepted by the songs quickly. It gave us the luxury to fuck with these songs quickly. Enough to say, hey we can do this slower, we can add more dynamics. I think that was most fun about this record. We had that much time and uses it to our full extent. We could have been done with this record in July of 2009. But we decided to extend it a little after the delivery point. Because it gave us time to keep pushing songs. If we wanted to re-cord we could. It was a really fun record to do."