Never once anything, thankfully. That’s a slippery slope. Once you start sucking a band, scene, or whatever to get something, get ready!
The reason I dig when lulls happen in Heavy Music is because it allows for the genre to evolve and new styles to form. For example, there was a massive lull in metal in the early 90’s. Then Nu Metal came along, and that became the biggest thing in the genre, for better or worse, for several years.
Sure. Well, with my lyrics, I’ve always focused on writing about social interaction more than anything. I rarely get political. It’s more about analyzing social interaction and my personal experiences with such. For example, the song on the record Hippies Became Lawyers, which is about me analyzing all the rich, suburban, drug-taking hippies I met that followed Phish. They eventually grew out of that, and now they’re all lawyers, or some type of successful business person. It’s about safety nets in society. How people with the most money and family support can fuck off for years and years and do whatever they want, because they know they can get their “real life” going at their leisure. I’m not bitter toward these people, but I find it very interesting.
I saw the movie Airheads when I was eight years old, and said I want to do whatever this is, mainly when I saw the White Zombie scene. That same year, I saw Serial Mom, great John Waters film, and that scene with L7 blew my mind! My parents were insanely cool with it, especially when they began to realize music was making me a better person. I was able to express myself better emotionally. Music has made me a more personable and approachable person. Basically, if done properly, music enhances your social interaction skills. If it doesn’t, then you are doing it wrong and purposely remaining introverted for mystic purposes.
I remember having really aggressive wet dreams as a kid. Probably one of those times.
Listen to music! And not just Electric Wizard, or whatever bullshit is the flavor of the week. The more music you listen to, the more you are qualified to talk about it. I’ve had several conversations with music journalists in my life. It pains me when I know more about music than they do. For many of them, that’s how they make a living, and they’re essentially climate controllers for what people think is “cool.” Very dangerous.
- Goal 1: Make music.
- Goal 2: Work day job to support our music habits.
- Goal 3: And that’s it.
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Finally, when you’re not listening to, writing or playing metal, what are some of you favorite albums to listen to currently?
Probably Bruce Springsteen is my favorite non-Metal artist. Probably my favorite artist of all time, actually. People get weirded out when I say this, but I think Bruce Springsteen and his band are probably the heaviest band ever. I’ve always looked at heaviness as a vibe, not a sound. It’s cool (I guess?) when a band like SUNN O))) pulverises you with a wall of Emperor Cabs when you see them live and gives you a “Heavy” show. But isn’t that sort of easy to do, when you think about it? All you need is a bunch of Emperors, right? Listen to Bruce Springsteen “Nebraska.” Creating heaviness like he did on that record is difficult. He recorded that in a house, with a four track and an acoustic guitar, and it’s the heaviest record ever!
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