Triggerfinger are massive in mainland Europe, once replacing Foo Fighters at Pinkpop without a squeak of protest. While their UK footprint doesn’t quite measure up, Ruben Block (vocals/guitar) and Mario Goossens (drums) could yet cross over, with sixth album Tarmac evoking a continental Queens Of The Stone Age.
Some musicians compare releasing an album to giving birth. Is that your experience?
Mario Goossens: Actually, it is, because you live with it for such a long time. We started writing Tarmac in 2023. You become so attached to it. It’s addictive. Then suddenly it’s not yours any more. It’s out there in the world, and everyone has an opinion about it.
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What’s the significance of the title?
Ruben Block: This album is not a one-trick pony. We write about life, the joyous and tragic events. Taking care of your parents and them passing away. Having kids of your own who start finding their way in life. That’s why we thought Tarmac was a good title. It’s both a landing place and a place to depart from.
What’s the number-one rule on the Triggerfinger tour bus?
MG: Don’t have a shit. But that’s the rule on every tour bus.
Ever broken it?
MG: We didn’t, but we had a band member before who probably did.
RB: Breaking rules was his number-one goal when he got up in the morning.
That was your late bassist Paul Van Bruystegem. Can we ask what happened to him?
RB: Paul was someone who lived very intensely. He was a big guy, so he could take more of everything than a regular person. He could take six or seven instead of one. He lived at two hundred miles an hour, and it was pretty exciting to be in his slipstream. But he basically used everything up, starting with his own body.
His death last year must have hit you hard.
MG: Of course. But he chose it. Even when he quit the band – before he got really ill – he told us: “I’m gonna go for it, even if it costs me two years of my life.” So what could we say?
You don’t like to name Triggerfinger’s influences. Why is that?
RB: Because I usually don’t know where it comes from. And I don’t want to know. You listen to music, watch movies, read books or articles, you put all of it in your backpack. It’s also a bit dangerous to start by saying let’s make a song like Bowie, or Howlin’ Wolf. It would demotivate me right away, because that music is so great.
A number of people say your music sounds like sex.
RB: Well there are worse things that music can do to you.
What did you learn from opening for the Rolling Stones?
RB: I was amazed at how light they played. They started the show and Charlie’s playing was so light and bouncy, and Mick’s shoulders are moving… It was amazing to hear how groovy it all is. Even the loudest bands we like, they also have the roll, y’know? Even if you listen to the early Slayer records, it’s frickin’ groovy stuff, man. So that’s what we go for.
Tarmac is released on September 18 via Sony Music/Hufter.