BW&BK; has received the followiung update from Dianne Farris at WFMU:

"Metalheads unite! John Ricci, the driving force behind thrash legends EXCITER will be the special guest on the Peer Pressure segment of DKFM on WFMU! Diane will be talking to John about metal, the history of the band, and some more metal. The program starts at noon on September 27th; John will be on at 1:00pm EST, but tune in early to hear some Exciter leading up to John's appearance!"

91.1 FM in NYC, Northern NJ and 90.1 in the Lower Catskills and Western NJ, WFMU is streamed on http://www.wfmu.org and will be available as archived material.

Arto Lehtinen from Metal-Rules.com spoke with Ricci recently about a number of topics including the history of the band and their legendary place in thrash. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Metal-Rules.com: Exciter is considered as a pioneer of the thrash and speed metal genre. It is said Exciter was one of the first speed/thrash metal bands. How do you see this pioneer and legend role in the whole metal scene?

Ricci: "When we were developing this style, we didn’t know what we were doing. We were just trying to write good, fast heavy metal music. I was trying to imitate the bands that influenced me in the ‘70’s, like SAXON and JUDAS PRIEST and BLACK SABBATH. I was just trying to get the same energy that these bands had, you know. I just brought it one step further, a little more extreme than what they did. What I came up with was accidental. The fast, frantic guitar playing, it’s just something like frustration. Because we, in this business, you’re always hoping to do better and be more popular and be more successful. And sometimes you’re not, and that really eats at you inside. Like, why are people not liking our music? It makes you angry. So the whole speed thrash was accidental. It was discovered accidentally. The first riff I came up with, which was the beginning of the Exciter style, was the song 'World War III', which is featured on the US Metal Volume VOLUME II album, back in ’81, ’82. When that song became so popular and so well-reviewed, from that point on I based everything I wrote on that riff."

Metal-Rules.com: At that time bands like OVERKILL, SLAYER etc... came up. Did you follow how the whole speed and thrash metal culture got bigger and bigger?

Ricci: "I don’t know if those other bands were actually developing that music then around the same time and we really didn’t know each other. We’re in Canada and Overkill is in New York and Slayer is in California.

Metal-Rules.com: And the European bands, of course.

Ricci: "And the European metal. I don’t know if it’s just a coincidence and off all the Canadian bands like ANVIL, our friends Anvil. You know, a coincidence of this new music was coming up at the same time. As far as I’m told, our record was out first, and then you started to hear about these other bands. I’m sure they were getting developed at the same time. But maybe to a certain extent ours could have motivated some of these other bands when they heard fuzzy, fuzzy guitar, fast rhythm and screaming vocals. I accept that definition that we were one of the pioneers of speed and thrash. I’ll accept it."

Metal-Rules.com: The Canadian metal is known from the ‘80’s, because of you, Exciter, Voivod, Annihilator and of course, the smaller bands, but is the Canadian metal more stuck in the 80’s stuff - Because everybody remembers the old bands and some newer bands like Gorguts. How do you see the Canadian metal in general ?

Ricci: "How do I see Canadian metal ? I think you’re right. Because VOIVOD and Anvil and all the other Canadian bands, they stuck to their roots. So we all have a very unique style, which is a good thing. Nothing against European bands, but sometimes I can’t tell them apart. A lot of European bands tend to sound like each other. I’m not an expert on European bands, but they sound some alike. Some death bands, they sound alike. I can’t tell them apart. There are certain bands, obviously like IMMORTAL, KREATOR, okay; they have something more unique about them. But some of the younger upcoming bands, they sound a lot alike and I just can’t tell them apart. But the Canadian bands always have this uniqueness about them. I don’t know why that is. Maybe because we’re from Canada, we’re kind of removed."

Read more at Metal-Rules.com.