Thrash stalwarts Flotsam and Jetsam, now well into their second decade of existence have continued to plough a lone furrow of a genre reemerging and reinventing itself. MetalChaos spoke with skin beater Craig Nielsen ahead of the bands spring jaunt to Europe to find out what is new in the Flot's camp.

Things couldn't be better actually. Everyone finally has day jobs that are worthwhile. Everyone is living pretty well, compared to at any other time in our lives.

I see from you MySpace page that a new album is under way. What can you tell us about the record? The title, or song titles at least? Do you have a release date in mind?

I wish I could say we have talked about titles, but we really have not yet. We are about 8 songs into it, musically. The titles will take shape as A.K. finishes vocal writing, which tends to develop as the music is finalized. I can tell you I am blown away by the music so far. Mark is writing some very inspired things and I think it's going to be a very good record. We should beging recording this summer, which I guess puts it at a late 2008 release.

How did you approach the writing for the record? Who brings what to the party; I mean is it a collective or individual process?

Mark Simpson has the bulk of the ideas. Jason, Ed and A.K. are great arrangers, Ed brings a lot of special guitar melodies and counter parts to go with what Mark originally creates. A.K. writes all of the lyrics lately, which is great. I of course look to overplay and steal attention everywhere I can with the drums. Just kidding.

This line up has been stable for over a decade now. What do you think this stability has brought to the band that maybe wasn’t there previously?

We definitely are very close personally and that allows a great vibe to always be there where we perform live. We are extremely comfortable with the music and that makes it easier to bring the most out of the songs live. We don't take ourselves too seriously and we believe the crowd will forgive the occasional mistake, in the effort to be the most genuine on stage.

Various members of the band have various projects outside Flotsam & Jetsam. Do you feel this detracts or enhances the band when you are all together?

It can only enhance when everyone refines their technique through other projects. Makes us all better musicians, and we don't burn out on any one style.

While we may not have had a new record in 2006, you guys did release the live DVD Live In Japan. How did this concept come about? Where you pleased with the end result?

The very killer and professional people in Japan just filmed the 3 shows we did and before  we even left the country they had already edited the camera angles and handed

us a finished product to out stunned amazement. They are extremely good at all things technical. We were very happy with it, given the fact we never set out to make a DVD there. I definitely think the band had a great performance on the recording. A.K. was on fire, and we were all very excited to be there for the first time.

The three-disc 20th anniversary edition of Doomsday for the Deceiver also saw the light of day in 06. What has been the feedback to you guys re-issuing such a genre classic?

That record was of course such a fan favorite it was a logical thing to have re-issued. Of course as it goes in the music business, we did not have much say in the matter, Metal Blade just decided to do it on their own. Which worked out fine.

I TOTALLY agree with the the no U.K show disappointment, as does the rest of the band. Can't really give you a smart answer why, its just the agent doing his best to get the best offers he can to make it worth 5 of us leaving our jobs for 2 weeks, and I guess it didn't make a lot of financial sense and as you know, touring is extremely expensive and we don't get any tour support these days, we have to make it happen ourselves so we have to be very careful about the offers and routing. Right now it is Holland, Germany, Spain, Austria, Poland, Hungary, and Switzerland.

We love the road but everyone has so much to lose at home now if we fuck with our jobs. We all have good day gigs now and we cant just put them on the line for tours and shows that don't make very good sense. If we could make a great living on the road consistently, I'm sure we would do nothing else. We would like to be invited on more European festivals so we could reach a lot of people at one time. We are hoping to be invited to many more of them this coming year and next year.

Thrash as a genre is making waves once again in a big way. There are masses of bands from back in the day returning to the scene along with a crop of new talent. Why do you think the genre is on the rise once more? What are your thoughts on the mass of reformations going on at the moment?