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Can you start out with a bit of the history of the band?
Back in Octoboer of 1992 was when we all got together, we did a musicians wanted ad really, that our drummer Jeff had placed, and we answered that and just came together one evening and started writing. And we've been writing and playing ever since. All in phoenix Arizona.
Do you guys have the same musical backgrounds?
Similar, but I remember we came together, I really liked White Zombie, the guitar player was really in Prong and Pantera and Suicidal Tendencies, and our drummer was really into Jane's Addiction, Alice In Chains, and stuff like that. Always with my writing, I was always influence by different things, say Cocteau Twins, or Dead Can Dance, and I always had those different kind of melodies going around that I wanted to try to incorporate into heavy music, and that is what we started to do progressively more.
I can't really hear any of those influences in the music.
Yeah, right, I don't know if we got away from that or just as we've grown as a band we've come into more of our own style. And if you could hear some of the new songs now you'd say "it's even less like those now."
I noticed in your review, that some of the parts were lacking intensity, and I agree with you, there are some things with the record that never came through from a live perspective. A lot people say, if they've only heard our disc and come see us live, "oh, that song had a little more impact". The same song has more impact live than it did on the record. I don't know why, but they just can't seem to capture some bands.
Do you get good turnouts at your live shows?
We always seem to get a really good reaction when we play, it's a lot of fun.
What did you release before this album?
There was the 4-song little EP thing that we did on our own, back in about '93 and that kind of got our foot in the door with some places. But it really wasn't until we recorded a five song demo, with Richard Corsello who is the current producer [...], that is what we shopped to the labels when 911 picked us up in '96.
How exactly did you come to meet 911?
A friend of our producer in California had heard about this new label starting up in the bay area, and said [Richard] should send a tape of over of [Crushed]. The label liked it, so the next six months we kept sending them new stuff. [...] After about size months of that they came out to see us play live, "we just wanted to see that you could play live everything you do on the tape. So why don't you come out and record the record." So we did.
Are you happy with their involvement?
Oh yeah.
Was it a one time deal, or are you lined up to do another three or four?
It's like a six album deal, but you know with writers contracts they just kind of put the first one out there and see what happens. Hopefully we get to record a second one, even though it says six albums you never know.
When can we expect to see the second one start?
I don't know because we still haven't officially toured off this first one, which was released September 9th [of 1997]. We would like to get something going there, but it is very difficult to hop on to a tour right now, and we're still in the process of finding a booking agent. We'd like to go ahead and pursure this album a little bit more even though we have about 12 or 13 new songs since the release of that one, that are ready to go for a second album. So we're ready whenever they want to do it.
So if we saw you on tour you'd be playing a lot of new material?
Yes, the other night when we played with Pissed On, out of a ten song set, only four of them were from the current record. And I know that would have to change if we went on a more national scale where people had never seen us and only heard our record, we'd have to play more from that, but we just can't stop writing, we always write and we always want to play the new song.
[...]
How is the sale of the album doing so far?
It seems to be doing pretty good for us not touring behind. We've been lucky to have some pretty good articles written in Hit Parader and some of the larger mags like that, which has really helped us sell. So far pretty good.
Is generally your audience so far North American? Have you made any inroads into Europe at all?
I know they've been talking about international distribution and I haven't that heard that anything has come about, we were set to go to Canada next month [January] but then I just found out the label lost its distribution in Canada, it was set to be released there, because they had been playing one our videos on their Much Music, which is the Canadian MTV. So they say its going to be pushed to February.
Where do see the market is the best for the music?
Its really tought to say because it just seems because the market is wide open whever you go. We have fans writing to us from New Hampshire to Kansas to Hawaii, once in a while we'll get a letter from Germany that somehow checked us out, France, Greece, so I don't know, wherever they want us to play we'll go.
Are you still able to respond to the fan mail?
Oh yeah, a lot of it is luckily through the computer, that has really opened up a lot of doors with the internet.
So you're finding good response on the net, good exposure there?
Yes, definitely.
Are you getting decent radio play?
Seems like every place except our home state, they seem to have a policy, "don't play a local band because you know, it anybody's requesting it, it must just be their mothers or something." I don't know what the deal is, but we've had a great response from radio, especially back east, in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio.
Where have you been touring so far?
WE've done all the east coast, down south, a little bit mid-west, and a little bit on the west coast, Colorado and California. That's about it.
What are some of the bands you've been touring with?
We've gone with Celophane, I don't know if you've heard of them, from California, Outhouse, they were out with KISS for a while, we did a show in LA with Anthrax, we played with GWAR. A little bit of everybody really.
What would be your favorite band to play with right now?
I would say getting out wiht some of the newer heavier bands, like Pissed On we just played with, and Coal Chamber, that would be cool, Seven Dust, that would cool again, kind of a package thing like that, the new heavy rock, that would be fun.
Have you been slated to play at any of the festivals at all?
No we haven't, we had almost got on a tour last summer, but we didn't quite do it, one of those warped type things.
Question about the CD itself, the last track ends with this phone call about somebody going to Moncton. What is that all about?
That was a friend of mine Mary, she left that message about seven years ago on my answering machine, for some reason I just kept it, I copied it off onto another tape, it was sitting around for years, until I thought, why don't we put it on this record somewhere. We tagged it at the very end. I just liked how she was laughing, she was living here, but had gone home to visit her parents in Boston.
Just sort of a random inclusion?
That was just an inclusion, but are you looking at doing more interludes or storylines in the future?
I would like to, we run more samples [live] than we do on the record, we didn't want to overdo it our first time out. We didn't want to get lumped in as say White Zombie or somebody that likes to sample a lot. [...] Live we put them in more. I always thought about doing a theme, like Roger Waters radio chaos type thing some day. Might be cool.
What kind of music do you listen to yourself?
All kinds of stuff, I like heavy, and I like... I really don't know what alternative is anymore so... it is hard to say.
You like some of it sometimes?
Yeah, I don't know what all that is. Lately, I just got the Crystal Method, might be a little different, I told you Coal Chamber, I still listen to Cocteau Twins. Garbage a little bit, Power Man 5000 I like, Prodigy not too bad, a little annoying now, but when they first came on I liked it a little more. Yeah, all kinds of crap.
Where do you see the metal scene generally heading?
I don't know, I thought that, a year or two ago it really seemed to be jumping up, but mostly it was just like the guys from the 80's coming back, you know, and the newer metal or hard rock bands were just trying to get on as support. Now those tours seem to be fading by, and I don't know what Motley Crue just did here, they were just in Phoenix here, caused a horrible ruckus and two of them went to jail for the night; assaulted a security guard. Everybody is saying "this is rock-n-roll man", I don't know, that doesn't seem too cool. [...] There are a lot of great heavy bands I still think, like Tool, and Jane's Addiction. I don't know, do you think the metal scene is healthy now, what do you think?
I'm not really sure, it's not really that healthy, particularily in North America, the importance is placed on the wrong bands, as you said the 80's bands. And to my horror I found out somebody is trying to get bands like Cinderalla and Poison signed to Sony again.
No way! Well, what can you do... There seems to be such an audience for this music, if they just go to see it, we played with Pissed On the other night, we've been around here for five years, a major kind of headlining band in Phoenix, so you at least think people would have heard of the name. So we go to the show, everybody loved it, after the show we had so many people coming up saying "we've never heard of you before, are you from here". We're selling T-Shirts, CDs, you know, where are these people, and they seem like normal people that like heavy music.
What do you think can be done to get more people involved in the scene?
Hmm, I don't know, we do every kind of advertising you can think of. [...] I don't think these people are like whatever you would envision as your typical heavy metal fan that stills go to OzFest and all that, these people are whatever Pete and Joe walking down the street, and here they are just loving this music. So I don't know how to reach these people, or more of them.
[...]
Is the scene around there for local bands fairly good?
Yes, it's had it's days when it hasn't been so good. But like any major city it just depends on how many clubs can stay open. There has never been a ton of clubs here for heavy bands to play, there has always been this nucleus of about 3 or 4. I know that doesn't sound too good, but it you rotate them in the right way... it works out.
But there are clubs there that cater to the heavy music?
Oh sure.
I just say that because I'm in Calgary, a city of 800,000 and there isn't a single club here that caters to that?
It is really scary...
Wow, that is bad. [You'd] better open one up then.
[...]
Anything else you want to say?
What we try to do in our music is keep an open mind, as we found as we go deeper and deeper into the 90's, metal or heavy music lovers, people that play them, are almost uncool. If you have long hair still, all of us do except our drummer, he used to have the longest hair in the band, he just cut it recently, man, if you got long hair you're really uncool. But as soon as they see us, and they see what it's about, it's not about the style of metal riffing or the posing they THINK metal is / was, as soon as they see us they go "it's not that bad". You know somethign like that. It is all about keeping an open mind, close mindedness with music never leads you anywhere. I try to tell people, that if it is a good song, no matter what style, you shouldn't be afraid to like it, and that is what we've done with our own writing, its just if it sounds good we're going to try and put it in our song. We just don't want to limit ourselves.
Copyright ©1998 Borcek