muen magazine april 2009

PG. 2 - MUEN Magazine April 2009

THEFADEDBy G. Cataline

MUEN: HOW LONG HAVE YOUBEEN A BAND, HOW DID YOUMEET, AND ARE YOU ALL ORIGI-NALLY FROM CALIFORNIA?

The Faded started in 2004, after Imoved to Los Angeles. Our lineuphas changed around a bit over thelast couple years, but the band hassimply evolved with our new mem-bers.

None of us are originally from Cali-fornia. Freddy is from Brazil, Isaoand Shatoshi are Japanese. I amoriginally from North Carolina.Freddy auditioned for the group

from a post we had looking for adrummer. I had heard Isao's per-formances on various music sites,and when our old guitarist movedback to the midwest, I dropped Isaoa note asking if he would be inter-ested in playing with us. Isao knewShatoshi and invited him to auditionwith us.

MUEN: WHERE DID YOURECORD YOUR LATEST ALBUM"SCREAM?"

We recorded most of it at Rain-walker Studio - my personal studio.Drums were done at Private IslandTrax - they have a killer drum roomthere. The album was mastered byEvren Goknar, who has worked withsome great artists and bands likeIggy Pop, The Red Hot Chili Pep-pers, Pat Benatar, and Poison, overat Capitol Records.MUEN: HOW WOULD YOU SAY ITDIFFERS FROM THE PAST TWO

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www.myspace.com/jetxxwww.myspace.com/barberella2006

Contributors: G. Cataline, Shauna OʼDonnell, Jeanne Thomas (JET), Macavity,Slavewriter6, BC Blonde, R.L. Segarra, Karen Fader McBride, Yvonneʼs World,M Lazar, Tracy L. Forsyth-Lundy, Cerys, Venus, AngelDevil, Diana Price, Jus Forrest,Q5, Metal Mike, Tina Rose, Heather Armstrong, Boozehound, Elroy, Timo Satanis,Laya, Brittany Todd, Warren Meyers, Jori Pierson, Darcee Seegal, Latchkey Web,Chris King, Twisted

Spokesmodels: Penny Layne, Saphira Spanks, Hannah Kramer, Toy Kitten (Genocide),FluxXx Mutation, Danielle Fornarelli, Ethel Hallow, M Lazar, Paris Inez, Katja Cintja,Deanmon, Kelly Chaos

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Pictured: FluxXx Mutation

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MUEN Magazine April 2009 - PG. 3

ALBUMS, "BREAKING FREE,"AND "THREE LOST DAYS?"

Three Lost Days was somewhat ofa "demo" - we were trying a lot ofdifferent approaches to help us findour sound. Scream was much moreplanned out allowing us to createmore diverse and rich recording.

MUEN: I SEE YOU HAVE SOMESHOWS ACROSS COUNTRY INMARCH AND APRIL... DOES THEBAND USUALLY DO ALOT OFTOURING?

Although we've played in otherareas of the country, we have gen-erally remained in the Southern Cal-ifornia area. This will be our firstgroup tour. We hope this short tourin March and April will help buildsupport so that we can head backout on the road for the summermusic festivals in July and August.

THROTTLE Feb. 28, 2009By Shauna O'Donnell

Recently I had the opportunity to catchone of Throttleʼs live shows. This onewas at the Key Club in Hollywood, CA,and the place was packed! The largeamount of people there seemed to be inanticipation of them taking the stage,and once they did, I could see why.Throttle delivered a high energy, hardhitting performance with blistering guitarriffs, powerful percussion and bold vo-cals, capturing and keeping the focus ofall, throughout the evening. If you areever in the mood for a solid rock bandwho can easily deliver, I would recom-mend catching a show by Throttle!

The Faded - Pg. 2Endrone - Pg. 3Throttle - Pg. 3The Birthday Massacre - Pg. 4Bullets In Overdrive - Pg. 8Julien-K - Pg. 10Back From Ashes - Pg. 14Dissipate - Pg. 16Black Tide - Pg. 1812 Stones - Pg. 22The Spin Agents - Pg. 23The Grumpy - Pg. 25Lazarus A. D. - Pg. 29

Cradle Of Filth - Pg. 31Etched In Red - Pg. 36Richard Christ - Pg. 41Snake - Pg. 47The Stone Foxes - Pg. 50LʼAnguisette - Pg. 54Expect Anything - Pg. 56The Sammus Theory - Pg. 58Bone Yard - Pg. 63The Acacia Strain - Pg. 65Razor Of Occam - Pg. 69Psyopus - Pg. 71Rubella - Pg. 76Black Label Society - Pg. 78

MUEN: WHAT DO YOU EXPECTTO ACCOMPLISH THIS YEAR?WHAT ARE YOUR IMMEDIATEGOALS?

While getting signed might be nice,our goals are continuous improve-ment - better shows, better record-ings, more fans and opportunities.We're hoping to just keep evolvingand getting better at being a band.

Myspace.com/TheFaded

ADVERTISING IS EASYAND CHEAP!!!!!!!!!

Opt. 1. Pick up the phoneOpt. 2. email

MUEN [email protected]

CONTENT

LIVE REVIEW

MEMBERS OFENDRONE INHORROR MOVIE

Myspace.com/Endrone

Just a quick note to letyou know that EndroneʼsJesse, Dave, and Stevenwill appear in the newzombie flick "Silent NightZombie Night". The movieis directed by Sean Cainwith Velvet Hammer Pic-tures. Music fromEndrone is also featuredin the movie! Jesse andDave are featured in mul-tiple scenes as the Un-dead and the living! Youcan find info on the movieat imdb.com under "SilentNight Zombie Night". Youcan also find Jesse,Dave, and Johnny in theupcoming Australian hor-ror movie "Deader Coun-try" where Jesse andDave play the undeadand Johnny is... welldead. Info on this moviecan be found onimdb.com as well. And ifthat were not enough,Dave and Jesse appearin the short movie "Attackof the Staph Spider" my-space.com/attack-ofthestaphspider. Wellwhat better band for hor-ror movies than Endrone.Look for their upcomingrelease titled, ʻForever IsA Lieʼ.

NEWS

Look out for MIDDLE FINGER MOB in the upcom-ing May Issue of MUEN Magazine.

SAGE4 is performing livewith Dragonforce on

April 25th at theRave/Eagles Club in

Milwaukee, WI!

THE BIRTHDAY MASSACRECirca, TorontoOctober 26 2008

Review and Photosby Karen Fader McBride

www.myspace.com/thebirthdaymassacrewww.myspace.com/thekindredspirit

My first time attending a show at Circa,Torontoʼs hippest and most colorful of clubswas an event not to be missed. The fact thatthe doors were to open at 7pm, but didnʼt until8, could not dampen the spirits of the many inline since hours earlier that day. Torontoʼs own,The Birthday Massacre had many fans in atten-dance this night, including a young woman Ispoke to that flew all the way from England tosee her favorite band in action. This eveningwas the grand opening of Circaʼs Rock & Roll Church, a soon to be regular Sunday night event forthose wishing to worship a higher purpose; the religion of music.

Two other bands graced the stage during the festivities, Jackalope and Johnny Hollow. Both were verywell received by the crowd, which was at full capacity, upstairs as well as on the main floor. I scannedthe crowd to see just how colorful a scene it was. Most shows I attend have a standard look per fan toband relation. Metal shows = black t-shirts and leather jackets…Ska-Punk = colorful hair and lots ofmoshing/crowd surfing. This gig had a great mix; it seems TBM have a very versatile following which isgreat to see.

As the band took the stage cameras flashed and the crowd cheered. Lead vocalist, Chibi was dressedin a black and white knee length dress, adorned with ruffles and bows. As they tore into the first song ofthe night, Rainbow on guitar began to pounce and leap around the stage. He is extremely entertainingas a performer and quite the scene stealer. Rhim was superb on drums as were Michael on guitar andOE on bass. Chibiʼs vocals were spot on and the sound quality was extremely good at this venue; withhigh ceilings the audio carried well even into the upper balconies. The band delivered favorites likeVideo Kid, Loverʼs End and Looking Glass to the delight of the crowd. Chibi paused to explain theywere about to play a song they had never before played live, then performed their cover of Tiffanyʼs "Ithink Weʼre Alone Now," from their most recent album, Looking Glass. I took a moment to grab a drinkfrom the bar during this track, only to find the attendants there too busy to notice me as they dancedaway to this retro number.

Usually a band winds down somewhat nearing the end of their set, but The Birthday Massacre seemedto only get more geared up as the show was tampered off. O-en actually scaled his keyboards, kneel-ing atop them as he played the final chords in the last track, a blue spotlight casting down on him. Thecrowd was very appreciative if their performance, cheering long after the band had left the stage. I ab-solutely loved this show, I would go out of my way to see The Birthday Massacre any chance I get justfor the shot of adrenaline they release during their gigs… you leave feeling alive.

LIVE REVIEWS

TBM Photo by Karen Fader McBride


If you are punk especially, or justa unique hard rock band lookingfor a great interviewer, look upBC Blonde @Myspace.com/BC_blonde2002The experience will be well be-yond your greatest expectations!Thatʼs right, BC Blonde, frombeautiful Vancouver, Canada,and pretend that you are aCanucks fan even if youʼre not...

Shauna OʼDonnell rakes in alot of interviews thesedays and is also one of the empresses of MUENMagazine altogether, so yeah... just smile for thecamera and do as youʼre told and everything willwork out just fine. If you are a modern rock or metalband that has somehow managed to break thecookie-cutter mold even while signed to a major labelthen please, Shauna is the one to contact @Myspace.com/shaunasbandpage.

Q5 Does work forMUEN and others,mainly in the form of CDReviews. If you are in-terested in having yourCD reviewed by one ofthe finest, and cancatch him inbetweenprank phone calling,contact Q5 @Myspace.com/artist5formelyknownasq

Hannah Kramer (Above)does not need MUEN cre-dentials to get backstagewith major stars, and I thinkwe can figure out why. Sherapidly worked her way upto number 3 Spokesmodelat MUEN by her own meritsof vibrant looks, personalityand charm. Hannah is afree spirited, lift you up typeof gal, and also does muchmodeling outside of MUEN,so there is a good chanceyou will come across heragain and again, whether itbe in print or online.

JET is at her best on the weekends andalways eager to promote or interview anup and coming heavy metal band. Espe-cially if itʼs death, dark, or just plainevil.... Some punk as well. If you feel youmay fit this category, then you need tocontact her at Myspace.com/Jetxx - Ifyou are emo or anything close to sap,best thing is just to contact the mainMUEN office instead.

Hannah Kramer (MUENSpokesmodel), Andy LaPlague(Combichrist), and Christinabackstage at House Of Blues inChicago, Feb. 2009

BC Blonde (MUEN Magazine)

JET (Jeanne Thomas - MUEN)

Karen Fader McBride provides great pho-tography for MUEN and for others. She istruly one of the best and most reliable pho-tographers weʼve ever encountered. She isfrom Canada and also does more travelingoverseas and across the globe than anyband we know! If you are looking for superbphoto work, contact her @Myspace.com/TheKindredSpirit

Shauna (MUEN Magazine)w/ Rob Caggiano of Anthrax

Q5 (MUEN Magazine)


WWW.MYSPACE.COM/CARLOSZEMA


BULLETS INOVERDRIVE(Brandon)Vancouver, CanadaMyspace.com/bulletsinoverdrive

By: BC Blonde

MUEN: HELLO TOYOU, NICE TOMAKE YOUR AC-QUAINTANCE. IT'SSO NICE TO INTER-VIEW HOMEGROWN TALENTHERE IN LOVELYVANCOUVER. ISEVERYONE FROMBC?

Yes we're all from BC,me and my brotherJordan (singer) metKelsey (bassist) whenwe became neighborsin North Delta, a sub-urb of Vancouver. Wemet Mel on Myspaceand she has been onlead guitar for almosta year now!

MUEN: IS IT TRUETHAT YOU BEGANPLAYING BETWEEN8 - 11 YEARS OLD INTHIS BAND. A BANDSHAPED BY 8 YEAROLDS! HOW WON-DERFULLY CRAZY!HOW DID YOU ALLREALIZE THAT YOUWERE CAPABLE OFSUCH?

Yeah, Jordan was 8

and me and Kelseywere 9 when weplayed our first showat Stardust RollerRink, Battle Of TheBands! We never didwin but we went on toplay ten more Battlesthere! That's wherewe fell in love withperforming! Therewere big crowds thatuse to come out to theshows and they madeus feel like rock stars!We've been chasingthe dream ever sincelol!

MUEN: HOW OLD ISEVERYBODY TODATE?

Jordan 16, Kelsey 17,me (Brandon) 17 andMel 24.

MUEN: YOU HAVEPLAYED WITHSOME BIG NAMESAS WELL! HEDLEY,STATE OF SHOCKAND ART OF DYINGARE A COUPLE OFGOOD ONES, DIDYOU ENJOY THATEXPERIENCE?

Its been a great expe-rience and we loveplaying live shows!We have learned a lotwatching the biggerbands and their tricksof the trade! Playing inthe Night Clubs is fun

when your under ageif the club has a goodback stage for us tohang lol. We loveplaying the Roxy inVancouver.

MUEN: YOUR MUSICIS MUCH MORE"ADULT" THAN YOUACTUALLY ARE.YOU WRITE AT ALEVEL THAT PEO-PLE IN THEIR 20'SAND 30'S AREDANCING TO IN THECLUBS! HOW DOYOU DO IT?

Someone in the bandusually comes up withan idea. Usually itsJordan and then weall build on it. But it'smainly been theknowledge we gainedsince we started work-ing with our producerDan Swiminer. Wedidn't know muchabout song structurebefore, but recordingand working with aproducer really helpedmature our sound. Weactually purposely tryto broaden the mean-ing of our songs to in-


clude all ages, maleand female!

MUEN: ARE YOUENJOYING YOURSUCCESS? ISTHERE ANYTHINGTHAT YOU MAY NOTPARTICULARLYLIKE?

Gaining fans is thebest feeling ever be-cause you knowsomeone is listeningto what you wrotefrom your heart, andthere is nothing like it.We haven't gainedenough popularity yetto see or feel the neg-ative sides of suc-cess.

MUEN: BRANDONAND JORDAN, I UN-DERSTAND THATYOUR DAD PLAYS ALARGE ROLE INYOUR MANAGE-MENT. WHAT'STHAT LIKE FORYOU?

Usually things are alittle hectic around thehouse with our dadbooking our showsand finding ways forus to get our musicheard! It has beenawesome to havesomeone helping usthat we totally trustthough! It takes thewhole band to keep

the machine goingthough, and there's noday's off! Its actually ahard job to be in aband. We put morehours into it than a joband the pay at thispoint sucks, lol! Wedo it for the love ofplaying music and forthe dream of havingmusic as our career!Our dadʼs dream is tobe in the front row atGM Place rocking outto us one day.

MUEN: I FIRSTHEARD YOU GUYSAS KJB AGENTS...WHEN AND WHYDID YOU CHANGEYOUR NAME TOBIO?

We never found thename KJB very attrac-tive and when Meljoined the band it did-n't make sense any-more since it was the3 of our initials. Melcame up with the newname and we loved itso we switched to Bul-lets In Overdrive.

MUEN: HOW IS THERECORDING EXPE-RIENCE FOR YOU?ANY PROBLEMSENCOUNTERED? IASK BECAUSE TIMEIS MONEY ANDMONEY IS TIME,AND WELL, SOME-

TIMES PRESSURECOMES ABOUTWHEN YOU HAVEONLY SO MUCHMONEY AND SOMUCH STUDIOTIME. ARE YOU AL-MOST DONE WITHEVERYTHING?

Recording, for me isalways a blast eventhough I'm blowing upmy back pocket as Idrum my ass off.Generally we do goodin the studio. We dotons of prep before wego into the studio sothat we know ourparts inside and out.We can cut down onthe re-takes and edit-ing because time ismoney and we don'thave much money lol.Practicing is free sothat's where we spendmost of our time!

MUEN: WHERE AREYOU GUYS GOINGFROM HERE? WHATARE YOUR FUTUREGOALS FOR THEBAND?

We want to take thisas far as we can gowith it. We want tomake this our careerand tour the world.

MUEN: WHAT ISYOUR SCHEDULELIKE THESE DAYS?

ARE YOU PLAYINGLOCALLY RIGHTNOW? IS THERE ATOUR COMING UP?

We just got back froma short Island tour andwe're planning ontouring out as far asEdmonton and Cal-gary for spring break!We have a bunch oflocal shows comingup as well! We havebeen super busy withrecording, playingshows, going toschool and also work-ing at the same time!

MUEN: IS THEREANYTHING ELSETHAT WE SHOULDKNOW ABOUTYOU? IS THEREANYTHING YOUWOULD LIKE TOSHARE ON YOUROWN TERMS WITHUS TODAY?

We are just finishingup our debut inde-pendent 8 song EP,so keep your eyesand ears open for it!You can find ourmusic right now oniTunes! If you like torock out at big rockshows then come andcheck us out ʻcausewe don't disappoint!


Julien-K is a band that isknown by many, and youmay not be totally awarewhy you know the name orwhere youʼve heard thembefore. Their track“Technical Diffi-culties” was astandout on TheTransformersSoundtrack. But,they have alsoplayed live be-fore largecrowds withProjekt Revo-lution andthen a tourwithEvanes-cence. Theirlong awaitedCD “Death toAnalog” wasreleasedMarch 10,2009 so wetook thechance tospeak withRyan and Amir to find outmore about what to expect.

Long Beach, California

MUEN: SINCE JULIEN-K WAS THE LEADCHARACTER IN THEFILM “AMERICAN GIG-OLO” I NEED TO ASKHOW YOU CHOSETHAT NAME FORTHE BAND AND

DOES IT MATCHTHE MEMBERS

OF THE BANDOR THE MUSIC?

Ryan: (Laugh-ter) I think it

was a lit-

tle bit more, but you arethe first person to actuallyknow where the namecame from. You did someresearch. I think the origi-nal idea was to have an

alter ego sort oflike his DJ as

he was aDJ as welland the

ideahe


(the character in themovie) had was to alsohave an alter ego. Aswe started becoming aband we also thought itwas a really fucking coolname. So it is not reallylike American Gigolo - itis more that it soundedlike an android with a fu-turistic feel to it likesome sort of synthetichuman.

MUEN: I HAVE SEENOR HEARD YOURPERFORMANCES INROUGH CUTT (AMIR)AND SEX ART (RYAN)AND WONDEREDHOW YOU STARTEDWITH SUCH A ROCKSOUND AND HOWTHE EVOLUTION TOTHE TECHNO/ELEC-TRONICA/INDUSTRIALSOUNDS OF JULIEN-KCAME TO BE?

Amir: Honestly before Iever played guitar Iwanted to play synthe-sizers as it was a timewhen they were startingto be known and I wasfascinated with thesounds and the musicthat people were usingwith Moogʼs and Arpʼsand stuff. Unfortunately,or fortunately, I couldnʼtafford one. My cousinactually beat me to buy-ing a synthesizer. Hebought it and I wouldplay around with it whenhe wasnʼt at home, butthen I thought alright Iʼlljust play guitar. Foryears I wanted to do

more electronic stuff.But in the beginning youcouldnʼt really do thatsynthesizer sound. I didstart using synthesizerson the second RoughCutt record although theband didnʼt want me tomention anything aboutit since they didnʼt thinkit was cool. Judas Priestwas the first to do thatand they ended up get-ting various slack for therecord “Turbo Lover”which I loved, but it wasbashed. I rememberhanging out with RobHalford and talking tohim about that andtelling him that you guysspawned me out of allthat. Now I have comefull circle as Orgy wasthe first opportunity.When it was forming Iwasnʼt going to be apart of it. I was acting asmore of a producer/en-gineer and said to Jayas a singer and Ryanthat I am not going toplay unless I can playguitar/synth and justwanted to do somethingdifferent. So that wasmy first chance to startgetting into the elec-tronic.. it was with Orgy.I pushed really hard forOrgy to be really elec-tronic. Ryan and I werereally in to more elec-tronic music and wantedto do even more so thatis sort of how Julien-Kcame about. It was notour intention to becomea band, but one thinglead to another and we

had all these ideas inour head and it justcame out that way.

Ryan: Similar for me inthat I grew up in a smalltown in California and Ihad no frame of refer-ence, but I liked electromusic and liked De-peche Mode and thekeys in The Cure. Theonly instrument that Iunderstood and couldeven acquire was a gui-tar at the time. It wasnʼtuntil I started playingguitar in bands and see-ing others with keys thatI started thinking it waspretty cool, but nobands really wanted todo that. It wasnʼt untilthese guys, Amir andJay really, that it startedcoming together. Amirthought of a really ge-nius way to bring thekeys into Orgy and Isaid fuck thatʼs cool. Sothat was just that andalso the evolution of thesoftware etcetera beingavailable to start doingmore. The revolution ofdigital recording madethis really easy to get into that kind of stuff. Forme as a singer, I tend towrite over electronicbeats and synth stuff.

Amir: I think the firstsong that comes tomind was Donna Sum-merʼs “I Feel Love.” Ithad that unique soundand was such an influ-ence. It was GiorgioMoroder that really in-

fluenced me and did theelectronic soundtrackfor American Gigolo andactually producedDonna Summerʼs “I FeelLove” that made me re-alize a lot later, andeven realized more justa few years ago, whythat is really the kind ofstuff I like and under-stand and why we cov-ered “Blue Monday” inOrgy. I liked thestraightforward beatsand the driving basslines and finally got to aplace where I could dothat. I think me gettinginto that sort of trans-formed the music I amplaying now as well. Ilearned a lot along theway and have no re-grets about any of that.

MUEN: SPEAKING OFSEX ART, MANY RE-ALLY AMAZINGARTISTS SUCH ASJONATHAN DAVIS OFKORN AND DAVEDEROO OF EDEMACAME FROM SUCH ASHORT-LIVED BAND.HAVE YOU KEPT UPWITH THEM AND THEOTHERS RYAN?

Ryan: Yeah I keep upwith all of them. Ab-solutely. John was in-strumental in thatrelationship of formingOrgy and then Kornstarted playing somemusic I wrote and it waslike the first light bulbthat went off in my headthat wow we can make


a lot of fucking moneydoing this. Shortly afterOrgy was signed andthe record was out andwe were getting big, Irealized all my oldfriends from Sex Art hadformed Adema and Iwas like fuck, that musthave been a talentedgroup of people. Thatmust have been some-thing special. I amfriends with all of themand love them to deathand am great friendswith Dave. I donʼt seeJohn as much since hedoesnʼt live anywhereclose to me. He lives onthe other side of the hillshere.

MUEN: SO YOU HAVERESTAURANTSCLOSE BY TO WHEREYOU LIVE THAT YOUOWN?

Ryan: We have three.The one that we arepartners in is called LolaGaspar that is a darkedgy cantina kind ofvibe that is a place thatwe created where wecan take friends or havebands or meetings at.We now have to have aplace where we can dobusiness that is awe-some as we are alsoentrepreneurs. The en-vironment is awesome.The other two are thesame restaurant, but attwo locations and amore daytime andhealthier vibe. We de-signed the night place

so we can just plug inand do our DJ sets im-promptu. It fills up atlike10 oʼclock and wecan have dinner at onein the morning sincethey serve till two. Itʼsour type of shit. Thatʼswhat we were lookingfor in great wine, greatfood, black chandelierswith a gothic meetspunk feel for our kind ofplace.

MUEN: JULIEN-KTOURED WITH PRO-JEKT REV IN 2007WITH LINKIN PARKETC. AND THENEVANESCENCE ANDSICK PUPPIES LATERIN THE YEAR. HOWWERE THOSE EXPE-RIENCES?

Ryan: They were greattours and it was justgreat to see that Julien-K worked live, espe-cially with these rockbands. Weʼre an electroband and the fans ofthese heavy rock bandstotally loved us too.There was not a badnight where they did notlike us. Even with Orgyin the beginning peopledidnʼt always get it untilthey heard our hit onthe radio. With Julien-Kwe wanted to do it back-ward and prove that weare not just living off ofOrgy or just spinningshit on the radio. Wewanted to go out thereand prove that we couldrock with Linkin Park

and Placebo, Takingback Sunday andEvanescence and MSIand hold our own withthem and complimentthem. Bringing a newsound into that kind ofrock was somethingvery, very important tous.

Amir: One thing thatwas cool was that thetours were very differentin that one was duringthe day and one was in-doors at night and gaveus the chance to createtwo different environ-ments for the perform-ances. We learned a lotfrom each. Obviouslywe preferred the indoorsand dark... and the light-ing. It was a chance toplay before people whohave no idea who youare and you have to winover new fans everynight. People are not re-ally nice and will let youknow if they donʼt likeyou. But we never hadthat and thought fuck,we must be actually bekind of good. It proveditself without having arecord or anything.

MUEN: YOU ALSOWENT DOWN WITHEVANESCENCE TOMEXICO, WHICH ISEMERGING AS AVERY VIABLE MUSICMARKET. HOW WASTHAT?

Ryan: It was amazingand really cool. We had

a great time! We playedto sold out shows to tenthousand or more anight and they just ateus alive which wasgreat. We still get mes-sages in Spanish on ourmessage boards sayinghey whatʼs up. Love todo more there. We hada blast!

MUEN: SO... ABOUTTHE BAND MEMBERSAND THAT DYNAMIC.SINCE STEVIE(RYANʼS CAT) IS “THECHIEF MILITARY AD-VISOR,” THEN WHOIS INDEED THESUPREME COM-MANDER? RYAN ORAMIR? OR BOTH?

Ryan: I am probably thesupreme commanderand Amir is the darkprince.

MUEN: YOUR CD,WHICH ACCORDINGTO YOUR MANY FANSWAS MUCH AWAITEDAND SOUGHTAFTER... WHY THREEDIFFERENT VER-SIONS WITH THE LIM-ITED EDITION ANDTHE VINYL?

Ryan: Because we arecapitalist pigs!

Amir: We had such aplethora of stuff compil-ing remixes of stuff overthe past few years thatwe always planned ondoing some sort of acompanion record or


separate thing ofremixes. What weended up doing is put-ting them all out as abonus disc that is a lim-ited run. The vinyl is theultimate contradiction tothe title “Death to Ana-log.” I am so excitedthat we have a recordfirst off and then to haveall the artwork and all itsglory that goes with it isgreat. Vinyl is fun andhas come back. So,cool and why not? Itʼs adouble record and allthe pictures inside anda couple of the remixesare exclusive to make

that one special.

MUEN: HOW DID YOUCHOOSE WHAT WASTO BE ON THIS CDAND THE OTHER EDI-TIONS, ESPECIALLYTHE REMIX CHOICESAS WE JUST DID ANINTERVIEW WITHCOMBICHRIST ANDTHERE IS ONE OFTHEIR REMIXES ONTHE LIMITED EDI-TION?

Amir: As far as thesongs, these are justbasically the ones thathave stood the test of

time playing live. Wedonʼt finish off stuff if wedonʼt feel it is good,which is something wekind of always did inOrgy too. It is quitecomplex to record theway that we do. It is notlike some guy comes inwith a bass drum orsomething and we blowout ten songs in onenight. Everything is cre-ated from the groundup. All the sounds andprogramming gothrough many, manychanges over time.Some come together re-ally quick and others

take some time. As faras the remixing stuff,that started as a bit ofan experiment for meand I now have beenable to work with someof the best remixers andsuch, and have had thechance to work withsome of the greatestartists like Combichrist.They made the songeven darker and scarier.

myspace.com/julienk

Julien-K Photo by Marc Goldstein


BACKFROMASHESJason (Vocals)Lane (Bass)Phoenix, AZ

By: Shauna O'Donnell

MUEN: HI GUYS ANDTHANKS SO MUCH FORTALKING WITH ME……

Jason: How's it going?Lane: Hey! How are youdoing?

MUEN: JASON, YOU ANDMIKEY ARE THE ONES WHOFOUNDED THE BAND. ISTHAT CORRECT?

Jason: Yeah... back in 2005.

MUEN: WERE YOU GUYS INBANDS PRIOR TO THAT?

Jason: Yeah, not together, butwe all had been in other bandsthroughout our lives.

MUEN: WHEN YOU WEREPUTTING THE BAND TO-GETHER, DID YOU FIND ITHARD TO FIND PEOPLEJUST AS DEDICATED ASYOU?

Jason: Oh God yes! That is al-ways the hardest. Not neces-sarily even the dedicationfactor, but just trying to findpeople that have the sameviews and vision as us. Wewent through quite a few mem-bers before we found this cur-rent lineup. Thank God we did,because I couldn't be happiernow.

MUEN: FOR THOSE WHOHAVE NEVER HEARD YOURMUSIC, DESCRIBE IT TOTHEM IN YOUR OWNWORDS.

Jason: It's kind of a mix andLane can tell you this. We basi-cally all come from very di-verse backgrounds. I come

from more of a blues/rock typebackground. My father is a mu-sician and I grew up sur-rounded by that type of music.When I was younger, I foundmyself starting to listen more toTestament and stuff like that. Ireally dug it, but it was some-thing I wasn't exposed to until Iwas 12 or so. So, my back-ground comes from that, whereLane has more of a progres-sive background. For us, it ishard to kind of describe whatwe are, because we pride our-selves on being as original aswe possibly can. So, with allthe backgrounds that we allhave what Back From Ashes isnow. If we had to categorize it,I would say we are a cross be-tween all those things.

Lane: I come from more of adeath metal/dragon metal kindof a thing. Progressive metallike Symphony X and then thedeath metal side like CannibalCorpse, Deicide and somemore modern things. A lot of usare big fans of Killswitch En-gage and bands like that. It'sreally diverse, I mean, Mattlikes Tool. Mikey is more of aneighties guy. Steve is like aRage Against the Machine guy.Everyone comes together tomake one just really diverseproject.

MUEN: WOULD YOU PRE-

FER SOMEONE WHO HASNEVER HEARD YOU BE-FORE TO LISTEN TO YOURCD FIRST OR EXPERIENCEA LIVE SHOW FIRST?

Jason: Honestly, I would say alive show. We work really hard,not to say that other bandsdon't, but we rehearse fournights a week on top of every-thing else that we are doing.We put a lot of work into ourlive performances and it is al-ways a blast. We turn it into abig party and put on a reallygood show for everybody. Ithink hearing our CD first ver-sus seeing a live performanceare two completely different an-imals. Our music comes acrossfine on CD of course, but a liveshow is a live show. I'd rathersee a band live first before Iheard their CD personally. Weare big on really talking to ourfans. We always hang out afterour shows. We do signings,giveaways and we will actuallyhave drinks with our fans, be-cause we are no different thanthey are. I know for us as musi-cians, it is important to us tohumanize what we do. I thinksome musicians can get a badwrap and they can come offkind of cocky. When you get toknow the musician behind themusic, I think it can help thatperson or group of people re-late to what you are doing.

Lane: I agree with Jason. Thevibe of the music, the vibe ofthe environment and all of ourfans are just one big family. It'sa very good, friendly and com-forting vibe. When you see it,you get a feeling of what themusic is about and what itbrings.

MUEN: JASON, DO YOUWRITE THE LYRICS?

Jason: Yeah, the thing is, I'dsay I write about 95% of thelyrics, but with our band, whatit boils down to is... it is con-glomerate. We all work to-gether. I'll ask the guys in theband, "Hey, this is what I feelwhen I hear this music. Whatdo you guys feel?" We will dis-cuss it and a lot of my ideascome from the guys in theband surrounding me. They willsay, "When I wrote this particu-lar piece of music, I was think-ing this." And I will say, "I likethat. I can go with that." We tryand work together as a wholeunit. We don't like to say oneperson does this or one persondoes that because really every-one does it.

MUEN: YOU GUYS WRITETHE MUSIC FIRST THEN?

Jason: Yeah.

MUEN: WHAT ARE MOST OFYOUR LYRICS BASED ON?WHAT DO YOU SINGABOUT?

Jason: Well, you know it iskind of all over the place. I liketo write about things that hap-pen in everyday life, all the tri-als and tributes that people gothrough, the human emotion ifyou will. I like to write open be-cause I want people to inter-pret it the way that they feelthat it can relate to them.Sometimes when you get toospecific in any type of lyric, youkind of lose some people be-cause they feel like they can-not relate at all. For us, we justreally try to keep our ideas, notgeneric or too big, but to apoint where they can listen to itand say, "They wrote thatabout my life." I know that for


us, that is what appeals to usas musicians, too. When I heara song and think they know ex-actly what I was thinking. Itcould be something completelydifferent that they wrote about,but all that matters to me isthat I can relate to it. So, we tryand take that same approach.Some of the things we writeabout are personal, but wedon't try to get too political andwe are not real big on throwingF-bombs all over the place justto try and make an impact. Wereally try to write from the heartand about things that peoplecan relate to.

MUEN: WHICH SONG THATYOU HAVE WRITTENMEANS THE MOST TO YOU,BECAUSE IT WAS EITHERWRITTEN ABOUT A REALLYPERSONAL EVENT ORSOMETHING THAT REALLYINSPIRED YOU.

Lane: Mine was "The SufferingWithin," because that was thefirst song we wrote when Ijoined the band. I had justgone through a rough time inmy life. When Jason said 95%probably like 2% of that, Iwrote one part of that songwhich is the part that I singlive. It really relates to me a lotand I had gone through a re-ally bad portion with a girl andthat whole big story. For me,since the lyrics are so ambigu-ous, I was able to relate that tome. What I really like is wegive Jason input and he takesit. Most of the things I can re-late to and then Mikey relatesto it on a different note. Thatone is mine. I don't know aboutthe rest of the guys.

MUEN: I LOVE THAT SONG.IT'S AMAZING.

Jason: Awesome, yeah, thatis a good song for all of us Ithink. I relate to it as well, butfor different reasons than Lanedoes. I'd say that lyrically oneof my favorites would be onethat is on our upcoming re-lease and it is called "Misery."That song for me, when I wrotethat, was more gearing towardtrying to become something in

this industry. The music indus-try is so difficult and hard. I'mnot here to whine or cry aboutit, but we have worked reallyhard. I have worked really hardall my life; music has been apart of me since I was a littleguy. This song really is aboutwanting to break out and shareit with the world and gettingfrustrated that you are not get-ting that world recognition thatyou want. For me, that song isthe one that hits it for me, andwhen they listen to the lyrics,all of the lyrics will be includedon the CD, I think people willunderstand where I'm comingfrom.

MUEN: I CAN'T WAIT TOHEAR IT. HOW MANYSONGS ARE YOU RECORD-ING FOR THE EP?

Jason: We have recorded sixsongs for the EP. We weresupposed to do seven, but wewent a little over budget on therecording, so we had to stopshort.

MUEN: ARE YOU WORKINGON A FULL LENGTHALBUM?

Jason: Oh yeah, absolutely.Right now, we have a fulllength freshman album calledBroken. We decided to moveon from that album and take adifferent approach, and wewent with a producer on thisroute. What a difference... whatan experience. We worked withRyan Greene of Crush Record-ing, and I'm not sure if you arefamiliar with his work, but hewas like chief engineer forBMI/Sony for eight years. Heworked with artist upon artist -everybody from DesmondChild, Megadeth, to No FX,Patti LaBelle and GladysKnight. So, he has a really di-verse background, but he wasreally well known for his workwith the punk scene. We de-cided that we wanted to dosomething a little bit differenton this album and we lookedaround and found Ryan. He lis-tened to our music and said,"You have something here."We really liked his attitude and

the fact that he actually be-lieved in us. So we went withthat and he has turned outsome stuff that we didn't knowwe had in us. So in answer toyour original question, yes, weare working on a full lengthalbum and we will be goingback to him to finish that up.

MUEN: NOW, RECENTLYYOU TOOK ON A FIFTHMEMBER, A GUITARPLAYER. HOW IS THATWORKING OUT AND HAS ITMADE A DIFFERENCE FORYOU?

Lane: Awesome and yes, es-pecially from the instrumentside. I know it has also made adifference on Jason vocally be-cause I'm sure he has plenty ofideas. From working with thisguy and being a string instru-ment player myself, it has ex-panded our writing horizons somuch, because there is only somuch that one guitar playercan do, even though Mikey isthe machine of a musician thathe is. Matt is just one of themost amazing musicians Ihave ever worked with. Havinganother musician there tothrow in his own ideas and beable to add that much more ofa diverse approach to what weare doing. To be able to havesomething behind somethingand on top of something and tohave two guitar parts, hasmade a huge difference on thewriting part of it. It's just amaz-ing, it's one of the best thingswe have ever done I think.

Jason: Yeah, I would agreewith that. When we werethrowing around the idea, atfirst, we were a little gun shyabout having another member,because it has just been thefour of us. You get really com-fortable. It's your family andnow you are adopting some-body. You are like, "Am I goingto get the red-headed stepchildfrom Hell?" It's tough becauseyou have to garner that rela-tionship with them, get to knowthem and hope to God it worksout and you don't have to firethem in a month. We got reallylucky with Matt. Not only is he

talented, but he is a great guy.We all see the same vision andwe are all on the same page.It's been a mass improvementand we always told ourselvesthe only way we would add an-other member, whether it wassomeone hitting a cowbell orwhatever, if that person hadsomething to add. We thoughtwe were doing just fine as afour piece, but we are alwayslooking to improve. He broughtthat to us. You will hear a lot ofhis work on this upcomingalbum that is quite a bit differ-ent from our last one. We arecrossing our fingers.

MUEN: HAVE YOU HAD ANYINTEREST FROM LABELS?

Jason: We do have some in-terest from some labels, but Inever believe anything until Isee that paper. We have donesome shows out in L.A. andhad some people come look atus. There are some talks goingon, but it doesn't mean any-thing until (I don't want to say"fat lady" because that is notpolitically correct) until thatlarger person sings. We aredefinitely shopping and areopen to anybody coming to usfor sure.

MUEN: HAVE YOU GUYSDONE ANY TOURING?

Jason: We travel around quitea bit mainly on the West Coast.We haven't done anything onthe East Coast yet. We areself-funded so it is always diffi-cult to come up with the moneyto get that stuff done. We dowhat we can; we hit L.A., SanDiego, all of Arizona andplaces like that. So far, sogood. We keep getting askedback, but they need to pay us alittle more. I'm tired of eatingRamen.

Myspace.com/backfromashesmusic


By G. Cataline

ARE YOU ALL ORIGI-NALLY FROM CALIFOR-NIA?

Yes. we all grew up in differ-ent parts of the east bay.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THEHIGHLIGHTS IN THEBAND'S HISTORY SINCEYOU FORMED IN 2005?

There are sooooo many. Idon't have time to explaineverything. But I will say thatthis new line up of membersand new music is getting agreat response from the fansout there and for me that isone of my top highlights forthis band. For example ourvocalist went to a party andwalked in on a conversation

only to find out that the peo-ple were talking about Dissi-pate and how much theyliked the new music... That'sawesome... And the showshave been great, the peopleare great, everything is look-ing good for us.

HOW DID THE BANDFIRST COME TOGETHER?

Friends that had an idea anda love for music. So we de-cided to make it happen andwe continue to progress.

BEING YOUR MUSIC ISUNLIKE A LOT OF THEMETAL OUT THERE, WHOARE YOUR BIGGEST IN-FLUENCES, AND WHATMOTIVATES YOU TO EX-PLORE OTHER AVENUESOF METAL?

The reason our music is dif-ferent is because we all lis-ten to different styles ofmusic, not everything isbased around metal. We allagree on metal and we alllove metal, but we also likemusic in general, thereforewe listen to all sorts of it,which is why we are differentthan most metal bands. A lotof bands only listen to eithertheir favorite bands or theyonly listen to metal bands,and we listen to anything andeverything. I can't speak foreveryone in the band as faras direct influences becausethere are so many I would behere for day's.

DO YOU HAVE A FULL-LENGTH AVAILABLE? ORIF NOT, WHEN DO YOU EX-PECT TO HAVE ONE?

We have two e.p.'s and a fulllength that should be out bythe end of April.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TOCALL YOURSELVES DISSI-PATE?

Dissipate means to releaseenergy and that's what weare all about. We spent a lotof time trying to find a namethat fits and that was oneword. We didn't want a namethat was an entire sentenceand we wanted somethingthat represented the band.

WHAT ARE THE MAINMESSAGES IN YOURMUSIC AND LYRICS, ANDWHO DOES MOST OF THELYRIC WRITING?

We have a lot of differentmessages in our lyrics,mostly good - we are not ahate filled band or anythinglike that really. Matt our vo-calist does all the writing.

BRIEFLY EXPLAIN HOWYOU GO ABOUT SONG-WRITING? DOES THEMUSIC FORM BEFORETHE LYRICS, OR DO YOUHAVE FULL LYRICS BE-FORE THE MUSIC ISFORMED.

We come up with an idea forthe song as a whole andthen start writing the musicto see where that takes us.As we are writing music Mattis there listening and taking itall in as he adds his lyrics tothe song.

WHAT ARE YOUR MAINGOALS FOR THE REST OFTHE YEAR?

We are just going to focus ongetting the name out thereand playing as many showsas possible and fuckinʼ shitup.

Myspace.com/dissipateband


Dissipate


BLACK TIDEPG. 18 - MUEN Magazine April 2009

ZAKK SANDLERMiami, Florida

Myspace.com/blacktide

By: Shauna OʼDonnell

MUEN: YOU GUYS ARE INARIZONA TODAY. WHATʼSTHE WEATHER LIKE?

Hot, not a cloud in the skyand kind of breezy. Thismorning after waking up wegot to meet the local law en-forcement. Apparently it is il-legal to use firecrackers here.

MUEN: REALLY?

Yeah, because they are dry,they are afraid it will start abrush fire. So we did it rightoutside of the police station,like we knew. They were like“Hey come on guys.” Afterthey talked to us for two min-utes being angry we werelike” We are from Miami, we

donʼt know,” We assumedthat it was legal everywherebut Florida. They were like“Oh, really man, what areyou guys doing out here?”We told them we were play-ing and they were like “Doyou guys have any tics?” Wewere like “Ok” and all of asudden they are our fans.

MUEN: THAT IS PART OFTHE PERKS OF BEING IN ABAND.

What? Trouble with the law?

MUEN: NO, GETTING OUTOF BEING IN TROUBLEWITH THE LAW. (LAUGH-ING)

Oooohhhh! No we gotstopped at the border checkin Albuquerque and Arizonato make sure we were notsmuggling. Of course, theywere like “What are you guysdoing here?” and we said

“We are a band on tour.”They were like “Can you allplease step out of the car?We need to search your vehi-cle.” We were like “Fuck!” Ofcourse, they assume we haddrugs, but Oh! No we didnʼt.The dog hated the smell ofthe van.

MUEN: YOU AND GABRIELFIRST FORMED BLACKTIDE BACK IN 2003.

Technically, he and hisbrother started the band andI joined months after. I re-member we started the groupwhen he was ten years oldand I was fourteen. Itʼs kindof weird because Iʼm 20 andhe is 16 now.

MUEN: IN 2006 YOU WERESIGNED TO INTERSCOPERECORDS, AND WENT ONTO TOUR WITH ARTISTSSUCH AS OZZY OS-BOURNE, LAMB OF GOD,STATIC X, AVENGED SEV-ENFOLD, BULLET FOR MYVALENTINE, SLIPKNOT,DISTURBED, ETC. LOOK-ING BACK ON ALL THIS,WHAT DO YOU FEEL WASTHE MAIN REASON FORYOUR EARLY SUCCESS?

We have been a band forsome time not seeing suc-cess, but we hadnʼt reallytoured or anything like that. Iguess when we started tour-ing; I think that people couldjust really relate to us. Wehad never had this view ofourselves as being morethan we are. When I wouldgo to shows I always wantedto meet the bands, but Inever could because theydidnʼt want to meet me. Wealways just go hang out atthe merch booth and talk tokids. Who gives a shit? Weare still the same dudes thatlive in Miami and nothing isever really going to change. Icanʼt tell you how many timesI have seen some of my fa-vorite bands and I have been

that dude that stands outsidethe gate for three fuckinghours just to get a glimpse. IfI can just say “Dude, greatshow tonight. Thanks forcoming.” That is all I everwant to do and it sucks be-cause I donʼt ever get thatchance. I remember standingoutside waiting to meet thedudes in Velvet Revolver andI never got to meet any ofthem. Now, I have met a lotof them, but I had to be inthis to do that.

MUEN: WHO WAS THEARTIST YOU WERE MOSTEXCITED TO MEET?

Duff McKagan, he is mybiggest idol when it comes tobass playing and being a mu-sician. I remember we weredoing a festival in Japan andhe was sitting ten feet awayfrom me while I was doing aninterview. They asked mewho my idol was and I waslike “Oh Shit! I never thoughtIʼd face this guy.” I quietlywhispered Duff McKagan.The whole day I kept seeinghim walk by me and I waslike “Oh My God!! Thatʼs him,thatʼs him.” I was like a littlekid all over again. I could notbelieve that he was standingthere. My tour manager waslike “Fuck, youʼre not going togo over and say Hi to him areyou?” I was like “Iʼm scared!”He went and he grabbed himand introduced us. We talkedfor a little bit and it was coolas hell. It was kind of awk-ward because I have a VelvetRevolver tattoo on my fore-arm. I was standing therecrossing my arms, not show-ing it. That was probably mymost favorite person to meetso far. We havenʼt met Ozzyyet even though we havebeen on tour with the guy.

MUEN: TELL US ABOUTTHE ALBUM "LIGHT FROMABOVE," RELEASED IN2008, WHERE "ROLLINGSTONE" NAMED YOU


"BEST ROOKIES OF2008"... WHO PRODUCEDTHAT ALBUM?

It was produced by Johnny Kat Groovemaster Studios inChicago. We spent sixmonths working on it every-day in the freezing cold ofChicago in the winter. Wewoke up every morning andworked our asses off. We areabout to mark our year an-niversary of its release. Itʼscool because I didnʼt think wewould ever have an albumreleased.

MUEN: YOUʼVE WORKEDHARD SO YOU DESERVEYOUR SUCCESS.

Weʼve kind of worked hard. Iwouldnʼt say weʼve workedhard compared to a construc-tion worker or a mother withtwo children working at a su-permarket.

MUEN: YOU WORKEDHARD TOWARDS YOURGOAL.

We have worked towards ourultimate goal.

MUEN: YOU PLAYED OZ-ZFEST. WAS THAT YOURFIRST FESTIVAL SHOW?

That was the first tour that wewere ever on.

MUEN: HOW OLD WEREYOU?

I was 18 and Gabriel was 14.We were young and we arestill young. We learned a loton that tour. We learned howto not waste time. They say“You have 20 minutes forsound check so donʼt fuck itup!”

MUEN: ANYTHING SIGNIFI-CANT HAPPEN ON THATTOUR?

Itʼs almost like the Cinderellastory. We got booked for the

side stage and then we gotkicked off. We were fuckingdevastated. It was the daybefore we were leaving. Wegot a call saying that wecouldnʼt play on the Jager-meister stage. They wouldnʼtallow us because we wereunderage. We had no plansof even touring until that No-vember when we did theAvenged Sevenfold tour.When it came along were like“Cool, we are finally going todo it,” It was so crushing forthem to say we werenʼt goingto do it because it felt like wewere never going to go any-where. Sharon Osbournestuck up for us and said “Wealready said they were goingto be on the festival so theyare going to be on the festi-val.” They ended up puttingus on the main stage. Wethought about saying no tothat because we didnʼt wantto be the dudes that all of asudden show up and are onthe main stage at Ozzfest.We didnʼt want anyone think-ing we were more than whatwe were because of it. Wewere like “Fuck it! Letʼs justdo it.” In reality we soldmaybe ten t-shirts on the en-tire tour. We did so many in-terviews on that tour that Ican count them on one hand.We were nobodyʼs on thetour, no one knew who wewere.

MUEN: THATʼS A GREATSTORY. YOU WENT ON TODO THE MAYHEM TOURAFTER THAT.

That turned out to be amaz-ing. That was a year after Oz-zfest and I think it reallyshowed where we camefrom. I think it made us feelbetter about the Ozzfest ex-perience because this timewe are supposed to be here.We are a bigger and betterband then we were then.Everything felt right about it.

MUEN: BUT SERIOUSLY,

HERE YOU ARE AT OZ-ZFEST ON THE MAINSTAGE WITH SOME OFTHE BIGGEST BANDS INROCK. WHAT DID IT FEELLIKE TO WALK OUT INFRONT OF THAT MANYPEOPLE BEING AS YOUNGAS YOU WERE AND FORTHE FIRST TIME?

We had never toured, we did-nʼt know how to talk to audi-ences the right way. We hadtalked to audiences playinghometown shows, but halfthe crowd was our friends sowe could say stupid jokesand they would laugh. At Oz-zfest we had to be pros at itand it was a little nerve-wracking. We were like“What the fuck do you say toan audience here?” What dowe say that they havenʼt al-ready heard from 50,000other bands? It still turnedout great and I am gratefulfor the experience. By theway, the best part of the tourwas when we were watchingLamb of God who at the timewe were really big fans of.We talked with them a littlebit and they were really coolwith us. Three days into thetour Randy Blythe screamedout “Black Tideʼs in thehouse!” and he got the crowdto cheer. It was so cool be-cause 30,000 people justcheered because he saidBlack Tide. It was a very nicefeeling.

MUEN: HOW DO YOU FEELANY NEW RECORDINGSYOU DO WILL DIFFERFROM THE ONES YOUHAVE ALREADY DONE?

We are already discussingthe next record. Lyrically weare going in a more maturepath. We have had life expe-rience now. We have beenthrough things, weʼve seenthings, weʼve traveled theworld, and we have some-thing to say so the lyrics willbe a little more serious. They

will have meaning. Somesongs now have meaning,but how much does shock-wave really transcend intopeoples minds? Musically, Ithink it will stay mostly thesame. It might become moremelodic. We are learning somuch touring and being outwith some of these biggerbands. We are gaining all thisnew influence from life.

MUEN: I NOTICED THATYOU SING TOO. DO YOUPARTICIPATE IN THELYRIC WRITING?

I have never participated inlyric writing for this band justbecause itʼs not my style.Musically I can contribute,but lyrically I couldnʼt. Iʼm akid from Alabama; I grew upon Allman brothers.

MUEN: WHAT SORT OFMUSICAL TRAINING HAVEYOU HAD?

I took guitar lessons when Iwas ten. I started playing gui-tar when I was eight andswitched to bass when I wasfourteen. Vocally, my brotherhas always been a singer soI was like “Hey, how do Iwarm up?” He was like “Youcan sing?” and I said “I donʼtknow, but I have to now.”

MUEN: WHAT SORT OFCHANGES DO YOU SEEFOR THE BAND, AS THEWHOLE MUSIC INDUSTRYIS CHANGING?

Everyone is saying how themusic industry has gone toshit. In one aspect it has, butI think in the next couple ofyears it is going to bestronger than ever. The in-dustry has just learned howto embrace the internet in-stead of be afraid of it. Youjust have to know how tomarket it. A lot of people areusing it for downloads whereyou have your CD if you paythis monthly fee. You will get


all these cool updates that no one else willget. They are finding ways around the sys-tem and itʼs awesome. I think it will affect usin a very positive way. I think it will make us alittle closer to our fans. They will have allthese things that will bring them closer towho we are. Bands donʼt have websites any-more, they have MySpaceʼs. I hate to say,MySpace is the future of the music industry.People keep saying how independent labelswill prevail and how there is going to be nouse for a major label. Well, thatʼs not true.They are major the second they can afford topay you.

MUEN: BESIDES MUSIC, WHAT ARE THEBAND MEMBERS OTHER INTERESTS?

Everything, I love writing, it is one of my pas-sions in life.

MUEN: I KNOW YOU HAVE TO GET ONSTAGE, BUT BEFORE I LET YOU GO ISTHERE ANYTHING YOUʼD LIKE TO ADDOR SAY?

Down with Starbucks!


12 StonesPaul McCoy (Vocals)

By Shauna OʼDonnell

It has been a little while since I lastspoke to Paul McCoy of 12 Stonesso I decided to sit down, give him acall and see what has been happen-ing with the band recently. Currentlythey are working on their fourth CD.They are still in the beginningstages, but they are writing songsand developing the new direction ofthe band. “We have a long roadahead of us, but itʼs going to be agood one.” says Paul. On thisalbum, all four members will partici-pate in the writing of the album.They are in Memphis, Tennessee ina jam room where everything ismiked up so as soon as they comeup with an idea they can record itstraight away. “It has been reallyproductive having all the guysʼhere.” he continues. When askedwhat direction they will be taking thisalbum, he replies “We have alwaysbeen happy with our growth andbeing able to change it up. I thinkwith this record we are going to goback to a little bit of the roots. Hope-

fully, in my opinion, Iʼm looking for-ward to having some heavy guitarsand some really good melodies. Welove playing live; we love the highenergy and jumping around trying toget the crowd into it.” They are stillnot certain where they are going torecord or with whom. They have alot of really good ideas that are com-ing together really quickly. Theywant to keep new records comingout and keep the fans excited aboutthe band. With a brand new teambehind them and new managementthey are going to do just that. Hope-fully before 2009 is up we will seethe new product of this amazingband.

This past fall the band did a tourwith Nonpoint. “Iʼm a huge Nonpointfan. I have been for a long time. Ilove their energy, they write greatmusic, and they have a great liveshow. That used to be one of thebands that I would listen to before ashow to get pumped up. We foundout we were going to go do a co-

headlining tour with them. To me itwas awesome; I became really goodfriends with the guys. I think theyare phenomenal. Itʼs always nicewhen you look up to a band or agroup of guys, you meet them andthey are cool.” the singer confirms.

With the help of management theband primarily takes the time to re-spond and post blogs on their My-Space page. The band is currentlylooking for people to run streetteams so be sure to register andsee if they have someone runningthe area you live in. “For us, streetteams are sort of a lost art form for alot of bands, they donʼt think itʼs im-portant to have them. There is noth-ing better than people who love yourband enough to go out, hand outfliers and come to the shows. It re-ally makes a big difference whenyou can connect with the fans andthey feel like they are having an im-pact on your career and helping youget noticed in their city. It definitely isa noticeable difference when you

have people that will do that. Thereare still a lot of people who believein music and seeing bands live.

The lost art form of the CD insteadof the single hopefully turns backaround here soon. I hope a lot morepeople get more interested in thealbum, the idea of buying an albumand what it means to a band to sellrecords. We need people to see thatagain. Iʼm totally not against ITunesor any place you can buy music. Ibuy records from there all the time. Ithink a lot of peopleʼs misconcep-tions are that everybody who is in aband has an episode on cribs andthey have fifteen cars. Iʼm marriedand I have a daughter and my lightsstill

get turned off. Iʼve done this foreight years and itʼs a struggle. Thereare so many bands that are so tal-ented that do not get to do thethings they want because they donʼthave the

support system. Thatʼs why I think itis so important to have street teamsand the proper people in place tohelp and believe in the band asmuch as the artist does.” he verifies.You can sign up for their street teamor you can just stop by their My-Space page and leave a commentor a message atMyspace.com/12stones.


We are THE SPINAGENTS. DJ Slyce, DJHans, and DJ Ji. Weformed the grouproughly a year ago(June 2008) and 3months later we playedfor our first event onSeptember 12, 2008 inSan Marcos, Texas at aclub called Lucy's. Weformed the group due toour mutual love oftrance, dance, electron-ica, house, and every-thing else in between,noticing the lack ofthese styles of music inour area of Texas. Withfurther inspection wenoticed that not onlywas it a lack in our area,but in the majority of theUSA. So we formed thisgroup to go out and pro-mote what we love andexpose people to gen-res never before heard.

We played several moreevents in the CentralTexas area, most re-cently at a bar calledBar 141 on March 13,2009 for a great crowd -and was met with greatreviews.

We got the idea to mixup a podcast from ourown creations (thatbegan March 1, 2009)to even further our audi-ence to a global status.The podcast so far hasbeen a great success,with listeners from everycorner of the globe. Indoing so we have mademany connections withproducers and artistsalike, with collabora-tions in the works fromboth sides.

We are currently work-ing on a tour of all the

major cities in Texaswith venues who areopen to our style ofmusic. Most notablySan Antonio, Houston,Austin, Corpus Christi,El Paso, Dallas, and Ft.Worth. Hopefully fromthere we can expand tonational gigs and thenultimately international.

All 3 dj's contribute tothe podcast(http://spinagents.podbean.com) and all par-ticipate when it comesto performing shows. Ithas been confirmed ac-tually as of today thatthe Spin Agents willhave their own mix spoton an HD radio stationout of Austin, Texas.More information will beprovided as to whenand on what station.

Biographies*****************DJ Slyce started dj'ingat age 13, and sincethen has played formany events and clubsmost notably in San An-tonio and Austin, Texas.He has worked promo-tions for a handful ofradio stations in Austin,all the while retaininghis mobile dj business(Sound ExperienceMobile DJ Service)aside from the SpinAgents. From 1998 to2000 he held a radiospot on a local radiostation. He has a bach-elors degree in masscommunication elec-tronic media. He is theguy who actuallythought of forming thegroup and even createdthe name. He is defi-nitely the back bone ofthe group and is veryskilled in musical knowl-edge and is an out-standing mixologist.

***************DJ Hans started dj'ingat age 13 also. He orig-inally is from Madagas-car where dance,trance, etc. is the domi-nant styles of music. Hehas held residency at aclub in Seguin, Texasand has played for nu-merous clubs in SanAntonio and Austin,Texas as well. Hisbiggest event was when

Pictured: DJ SLYCE & DJ JI


IN THEIROWNWORDS

Electronic / House / Trance

TTHHEE SSPPIINN AAGGEENNTTSShttp://spinagents.podbean.com

he opened for Genuinein Louisiana represent-ing the radio station98.3 The Bomb. Hehas also had mix setson live radio for 98.3The Bomb. In his nativeland of Madagascar hehas played for top clubsas well as radio sta-tions. He was picked tojudge an internationalcompetition in Mada-gascar called Big CityNight where dj's fromaround the globe com-peted for the top spot.He has a bachelors inpolitical science andspanish and is workingon a masters in interna-tional studies. He alsomaintains a mobile djservice (DJ Hans mo-bile dj service).

**************DJ Ji was actually ex-posed to the dj world atage 15. His mentor was

DJ Slyce. Experiencewise he is the youngestof the group. Shippedoff to the military in2003, he travelled theworld thus expandinghis musical knowledge.He is a mixologist that isvery particular aboutmixes. Perfection is al-ways sought when cre-ating a new mix. He isthe creator of the pod-cast (The Spin AgentsMix Sessions) whichhe has monitored andpromoted to the status itis now. He has held res-idency at a club inHuntsville, Texas andhas played forbars/clubs in San Mar-cos, Texas/Norfolk, Vir-gina,/Virginia Beach,Virginia. He also cur-rently operates a mobiledj service (digital dj's)aside from the SpinAgents.

Dj SlycePG. 24 - MUEN Magazine April 2009

Cameron West (Vocals/Guitar)

By Q5

TheGrumpy are notyour everyday modernrock band. With a soundcomparable to few inmusic today, theGrumpyhave captured both criti-cal acclaim and a strongfan base by playingmusic without bound-aries. The Sacramentopower trio has quicklybeen on the rise with anall out commercial andmedia blitz, hard to ig-nore when one listenʼs

to the talented songwriting or catches oneof their passionate liveperformances.

I recently had the op-portunity to talk withmulti-instrumentalistCameron West andcatch up on what ishappening with The-Grumpy. Cameron is notonly a talented musicianwith a unique voice thatcannot be ignored, butalso a genuine gentle-man with a driven per-sona that pushes hiscreativity to boundariesbeyond his own imagi-nation.

MUEN: COULD YOUTELL ME A LITTLE BITABOUT THE-GRUMPY? WHOʼS INTHE BAND? HOW DIDYOU GUYS GET TO-GETHER?

Well, there's three of us.I sing, do guitar andkeys, as well as beingthe songwriter. J.W. isthe drummer. He and Ihave known eachothersince grade school, sohe's kind of a natural fit.Justin is our newestmember on bass. Ithink you'll be pleasedwhen you hear whathe's coming up with.

MUEN: I REALLYENJOY YOUR EP“THROES OF CON-TEMPLATION”! ARETHERE ANY PLANSFOR THEGRUMPY TORELEASE A FULLLENGTH CD? WHEN?WHERE CAN I PUR-CHASE “THROES OFCONTEMPLATION”?OR ANY FUTURE RE-LEASES?

Right now, we're writingthe next album. It's def-initely going to show alot more versatility andflexibility from us. Thesongs are coming to-gether quite a bit more


quickly these days, sowe're aiming to haveour next full length fin-ished by next spring.As it stands, the bestplace to get a CD is toattend a show, or visitone of our sponsors ElDorado Hills Music.You can downloadrecordings off our My-Space or our officialwebsite. (www.the-grumpy.com) We're inthe process of gettingcaught up on the inter-net shopping market, asfar as iTunes and Rhap-sody, etc.

MUEN: COULD YOUTELL ME WHAT THE“SOUTH BAY MUSICAWARDS” IS? HOWʼDTHEGRUMPY GETNOMINATED? ANDFOR WHATAWARD(S)? HASTHIS AWARD BEENGIVEN YET? WHENDO YOU PLAN ONHEARING THE RE-SULTS?

“South Bay MusicAwards” is based in LosAngeles, and is thelargest independentmusic awards show-case in the world, fromwhat I understand. Wewere fortunate enoughto have them in the au-dience at a couple L.A.gigs and they droppedus a card. When we re-leased Throes, they lis-tened to the CD, cameout to see another liveperformance at the

Viper Room and offeredus nominations for"Rock Band of the Year"and "Best IndependentCD." We were prettyhappy to hear that pieceof news. The awardsshow will be held April27th at The Improv inIrvine, California. We'regoing to be performingat the show, but I'm a lit-tle fuzzy on the details.

MUEN: WHATʼS ITLIKE PLAYING ASHOW AT THE VIPERROOM? WHATʼSBEEN YOUR CROWN-ING ACHIEVEMENTAS FAR AS PLAYINGLIVE, UP TO THISPOINT IN YOUR CA-REER?

The Viper Room was areal cool spot. I likedthe color and lighting.The staff was on it, too.It came and went soquickly, I wasn't reallyable to put muchthought into the nostal-gia of the whole thing.As far as a crowningachievement playinglive, I suppose I'd sayit's going to have to beperforming at theSBMAs, but I'd like tocontinue re-crowningmy achievements as Igo.

MUEN: WHATʼS THEMUSIC SCENE LIKEWHERE YOU COMEFROM (SACRA-MENTO)? WHERE DOYOU FIT INTO THE

LOCAL SCENE?

The scene is split upinto a few groups.Somehow, we reallydon't quite fit into anyone of them in particu-lar. There's a mix ofacoustic/folk type acts,screamo, punk, rock,lots of metal (Rawr) andthe occasional reallyunique act. We are

constantly playingshows with bands fromall those ranges of style.We always think it won'twork, but it always fits.

MUEN: COULD YOUTELL ME A LITTLE BITABOUT YOURACOUSTIC PERFORM-ANCES?

I started doing acoustic


performances with Out-law Josie Wales when Iwas playing bass for hisband. We did a lot ofgigs with the two of usplaying acoustic guitarand singing a mix of ouroriginal songs. Heplayed the harmonicaand really had a greatvoice. Later on I keptperforming acousticallywhile I was trying to puttogether a band. J.W.and I would do what wecalled the "3 hour tour."We'd play this restau-rant for 3 hours as theyclosed the food andopened the bar side.It's really hard to enter-tain a family of 6 thatjust wants to finish theirribs and get home byaiming the P.A. right attheir head, since they'reseated at the table rightup against the stage.The room would alwayswarm up after a little bit,but when you interruptsomeone's dinner with,"TESTING. TESTING.CHECK ONE, TWO,"people get irritated, un-derstandably. Once the

crowd that came for themusic showed up,things always got better.

MUEN: HOW DOESTHE SONGWRITINGPROCESS WORK FORTHEGRUMPY? I RE-ALLY LIKE THELYRICS IN YOURMUSIC. WHO WRITESTHE LYRICS IN YOURMUSIC AND WHEREDOES THE INSPIRA-TION COME FROM?

The songwritingprocess happens a tonof different ways.Sometimes, I hear thesong in my head and Ijust write it down. Othertimes, I'll have to actu-ally try to put things to-gether. It just dependson how the song hitsme. Some songs cometo me as just words orpictures; just kind ofscattered around in myhead and I do my bestto try and put what I seeon paper. I write all thelyrics and the inspirationfor them varies incredi-bly. I always try to in-

clude something new ineach song that I haven'tdone before. This helpsprevent me from writingtoo much of the samesounds. I get into peo-ple's stories and willoften write my commen-tary as an observer ofthe story being told, orsometimes from what Iwould assume is theirpoint of view. Therehave been a couplelyrics that were writtenafter interviews withpeople and their stories.The good news is, it'susually "I" in the lyrics,so I get to stay a littleanonymous, since youdon't know if I'm tellingmy story or someoneelse's.

MUEN: HOW DO YOUFEEL ABOUT THE IN-TERNET AND THEUSE OF IT AS A PLAT-FORM FOR MUSICALARTIST IN TODAYʼSDAY AND AGE??

It's a mixed bag of feel-ings there. I like thefreedom for artists to

reach fans without theneed for major industrybacking. That part isreal cool. On the otherhand...

“...there's somuch garbage

to sift through, itcan be hard forquality artists to

get somescreen time...”

It's easily up loadable,and there are all kindsof ways to self-promote.I like those things. Thefile sharing aspect reallydealt a blow to the en-gine of the industry, andit's so commonplacethat people will con-stantly ask me wherethey can steal somesongs. They'll ask if I'mavailable on certainsharing sites and I don'tknow, but it sure wouldbe nice if someone thatliked it then decided tocontribute to the artist.Artists have to eat, too.


MUEN: DOES THE-GRUMPY HAVE ANYWEB SITES BESIDESTHEIR MYSPACE?

We've got our officialsite(www.thegrumpy.com)we've also got aYouTube channel(www.youtube.com/grumpycameron) andthen we are scatteredaround here and there.

MUEN: WHAT ARETHE SUMMER PLANSFOR THEGRUMPY?ANY BIG SHOWʼSCOMING UP?

Right now, we're reallyconcentrating on gettingthe new bassist up tospeed while writing thenext album. We're get-ting close to wrappingup the writing process,so we're all pretty ex-cited. We'll just have todo some play testingnow, try to find somemore bugs to work out.

MUEN: I VERY MUCHLOOK FORWARD TOSEEING THEGRUMPYLIVE SOMEDAYSOON! COULD YOUTELL ME WHAT TOEXPECT AT A THE-GRUMPY LIVESHOW?

We're real straight for-ward. We come to playyou some music.That's what you'regoing to get. Whenwe're playing L.A., the

sets tend to be a littleshorter and we don'twaste much time chat-ting it up. On the longernights, we get a littleloose and joke around abit. It's always a goodtime either way. Onething about our liveshow is that we have apretty extensive songcatalog, so live is theonly way to actuallyhear some of the music.

MUEN: I LIKE TO ENDALL OF MY INTER-VIEWS WITH THE NO-TORIOUS “FAMOUSLAST QUOTE?”COULD I GET ONEFROM YOUCAMERON?

"The difference be-tween a guitar and shot-gun is a shotgun canchange a man's life withone hit. A guitar canchange thousands ormillions of lives with justone hit."

MUEN: THANKS FORYOUR TIME AND ILOOK FORWARD TOHEARING MOREFROM THEGRUMPY!PLEASE KEEP USALL HERE AT, MUENUPDATED!


www.Manglaze.com



Exclusive Interview withDANI FILTH of

CRADLE OF FILTHBY SHAUNA O’DONNELL

CRADLE OF FILTHDani FilthUnited Kingdom

By: Shauna O'Donnell

MUEN: HOW AREYOU DOING?

I'm good. I'm cold; we'rein Massachusetts and itfreezing.

MUEN: YOU HAVE ASHOW TONIGHTRIGHT?

That's right, yeah, at thePalladium.

MUEN: OH COOL!YOU GUYS ARE ONTHE ROAD RIGHTNOW IN SUPPORT OFYOUR LATESTALBUM ʻGODSPEEDON THE DEVIL'STHUNDER.ʼ

Yeah, that's right.

MUEN: THIS ALBUMIS ACTUALLY A CON-CEPT ALBUM ABOUTA LEGENDARY 15THCENTURY MUR-DERER. TELL US ALITTLE ABOUT THISFRENCH NOBELMANNAMED GILLES DERAIS WHO FOUGHTALONGSIDE JOAN OFARC.

Yeah, he was believedto be the most powerfulman in Western Europeand possibly the richest.After he fought along-

side Joan of Arc as aprotector, and after hersubsequent killing bythe English by beingburnt alive as a martyr,his life veered from thePast. He involved him-self in diabolism andalchemy mainly to re-plenish his fortune. Hewas a bit of a spendthrift. He murdered a lotof children and youngpeople in pursuit of hisquest to turn metal intogold. He was a bit of asexual deviant as well.We were interested inthe whole story from thecatalyst of Joan's deathand not just concentrat-ing on the brutality of it.He actually became anarchetype in the basisof Bluebeard which wasa fairy tale. He is like anarchetype for a Disneyvillain almost.

MUEN: WHY DID YOUCHOOSE TO WRITEAN ALBUM ABOUTHIM?

We did an album in1998 called ʻCrueltyand the Beastʼ whichwas about Hungarian"Blood Countess" Eliza-beth Bathory. Whilst wewere working on thisalbum, some of thefeelings, maybe it wasthe time of the year orwhatever, suggestedthe similar theme orstory. I dragged outsome of my old lyricbooks and came across

his name. I did somemore research on himand I thought it was agreat topic that encap-sulated everything. As aband we are very muchinto the whole dark fairytale imagery. It justsuited it perfect.

MUEN: WELL, IT'S AREALLY INTEREST-ING STORY. WOULDYOU SAY THAT THEMUSIC STYLE OFTHIS ALBUM IS MORELIKE THE OLDERCRADLE OF FILTHALBUMS?

Some people have saidthat. I would say it haselements of that, but ithas a lot of new ele-ments as well. It's avery powerful, brutalalbum, but at the sametime it is mixed with alot of melody. It is defi-nitely veering towards alot of symphonic mate-rial on it as well, which Iguess is reminiscent ofour early work.

MUEN: DO YOU CON-SIDER YOURSELF TOBE A MAINSTREAMBAND?

Well, that's not really upto us. That's whetherwe have sold enoughrecords to be a main-stream band. In thatcase, I suppose, we arein a way. I think an ex-treme, mainstreamband, in that case.

MUEN: WHEN YOUSTARTED OUT, WASTHAT THE DIRECTIONYOU WERE SHOOT-ING FOR?

No, not at all. We werejust writing music forourselves and kind ofmerged genres I guess.We were bringing inmelody to what was es-sentially a death metalbasis. Moving on, we in-corporated keyboardsand symphony orches-tration. Basically, blow-ing the edges off whatwe considered to be tra-ditional genres.

MUEN: THIS TOURYOU ARE CUR-RENTLY ON IS WITHSATYRICON ANDSEPTIC FLESHRIGHT?

Yes, that is correct.

MUEN: I ENCOURAGEEVERYONE TO TRYAND CATCH ONE OFTHE SHOWS. YOUARE AMAZING LIVE. ICAUGHT ONE OFYOUR SHOWS WHENYOU WERE OUT WITHGWAR.

Oh really?

MUEN: YEAH, YOUGUYS ARE AWE-SOME. I LOVE YOURSHOWS. WHAT ISYOUR FAVORITESONG TO PERFORMOFF THE NEW


ALBUM?

My favorite song to per-form off the new albumwould be "The Death ofLove." We haven't actu-ally performed it yet, butwe are intending to do itin the next couple ofdays. We are still decid-ing what songs to playduring our live perform-ance. We tried out a fewsongs. We just cameback from Mexico actu-ally. We are a little bittired with jet lag andeverything. I've hadabout eight hours sleepin three days. We aregetting back into theswing of things and weare still experimentingwith what songs to play.So yeah, rehearsal wise"The Death of Love" sofar, because it just hasthat kind of groove to it.

MUEN: THE VIDEOFOR "HONEY ANDSULPHUR" LOOKSSO COOL! YOUFILMED IT IN CAVESRIGHT?

Yes, at the ChislehurstCaverns. They are 22miles worth of man-made caverns. Appar-ently during the SecondWorld War, when Ger-many was bombingLondon, 15,000 peoplelived down there. It waspretty mad, while wewere down there film-ing, we were told not towander off because you

could get lost. It wasgood fun.

MUEN: VIDEOSHOOTS MAKE FORLONG DAYS DON'TTHEY?

Yeah, don't they.

MUEN: HOW COLDWERE THE CAVESYOU FILMED IN? IKNOW THAT YOUHAD SAID THEYWERE COLD.

They were cold, but asyou can see in thevideo we had a lot oflighting and 5,000roman candles going. Itwarmed things up, butyeah, I wouldn't want tospend the night downthere without some kindof heating.

MUEN: I WAS READ-ING SOME OF YOURHOBBIES THAT IN-CLUDE COLLECTINGVARIOUS THINGS.

ONE OF THE THINGSYOU SAID YOU COL-LECT IS UNUSUALOBJECTS. WHAT ISTHE MOST UNUSUALOBJECT IN YOURCOLLECTION?

I have two Egyptiansarcophagi, replicas ob-viously, they are not theoriginals. I do havesome original Egyptianartifacts. I have lots ofmasks from India andtribal stuff as well. I'm abit of an antiquarian. Ihave a John WayneGacy painting that isquite rare. I don't knowif anyone has seen Dr.Who, it's a British sci-fiTV Show, but the Dalekis the most evil race.They are like John Pep-per Pops with like bumson them. I've got a lifesize one of those fromthe BBC that talks.

MUEN: HOW COOL!THE SPORTS THATYOU ENJOY INCLUDE

BOWLING, SHOOT-ING, SNOWBOARD-ING AND SKYDIVING.HOW MANY TIMESHAVE YOU JUMPEDOUT OF A PLANE?

About three, it's hardlya hobby when you saythree. (laughing)

MUEN: WOW! YOU'VEGOT TO HAVE SOMEGUTS TO JUMP OUTOF A PLANE HUH?

Not really, I wasstrapped to someone.When you're up there,it's like; it's a bit latenow.

MUEN: THAT'S TRUE.I DON'T KNOW IF ICOULD EVER DOTHAT HONESTLY.

That's the thing; it wasjust one of those things,probably a mid-life cri-sis.

MUEN: BUT YOU'RE


SO YOUNG.

Yeah, aren't I?

MUEN: YOU ARE SOBUSY ALL THE TIME.HOW OFTEN DOESTHE OPPORTUNITYARISE THAT YOUARE ABLE TO DO

THESE THINGS?

Not often, but I try andmake the most of it. I'ma family man with awife, a daughter and abeautiful house. I try toreally appreciate when Ihave the time to getback and be at one with

the family. I try andmake the most of thetime. When we are onthe road, for examplewe are crossing theCanadian border tonight(that is if they let usacross); when we havea day off we will get

some snow boarding inthere.

MUEN: YOU KIND OFLIKE THE EXTREMESPORTS.

Well kind of, yeah, I justwant to be James BondI think. (Laughing)


MUEN: WELL, YEAH,YOU SEE THAT'S AGOOD GOAL TOHAVE. WELL, IT'SBEEN AWESOMETALKING WITH YOU.BEFORE I LET YOUGO IS THERE ANY-THING YOU'D LIKETO ADD OR SAY?

We have a book com-ing out called ʻTheGospel of Filth.ʼ It hasbeen three and a halfyears in writing. It hasbeen co-written with anoccult historian namedGavin Baddeley. It useseach of the Cradle al-bums as a basis to ex-plore the dark side,such as horror films,The Femme Fatales,Christianity, Satanismand the dark arts. It au-thenticates what's beentalked about by contrib-utors like Tim Burton,Marilyn Manson,Charles Manson,Richard Ramirez andpeople like that. Itshould be in bookstores around Easter.It's called ʻThe Gospelof Filthʼ if anyone wantsto go to the website tocheck it out.

Quebec City 2007


Dani Filth

Jason Kirk (Guitar)George Makris(Drums)San Diego, CA


MUEN: LETʼS STARTWITH A LITTLE HIS-TORY ON THE BANDFOR THOSE WHOARE HEARING YOURNAME FOR THEFIRST TIME. HOWDID THE BAND COMETOGETHER?

Jason: The bandformed in 2002. The

singer of our band Sethand I had been jam-ming together for awhile. He had just left aband. He and I havebeen friends since thethird grade and weshare the same taste inmusic. We just happento put an ad in thepaper, believe it or not,and George answeredthe ad. He and theother guitarist in theband, Nick, had beenfriends since highschool. They had beenkind of doing the samething, jamming together,

because they had simi-lar musical interests.That was the only adwe ever put out and webecame a band. Itʼspretty simple actually.

MUEN: THE LINE-UPTHAT YOU HAVE NOWIS THE ORIGINALLINE-UP THEN.

Jason: Itʼs basically theoriginal line-up, sincethen we have acquireda new bass player. Hehas been with us for ayear, but other than thatitʼs the original singer,

drummer and guitarplayers.MUEN: THATʼS AWE-SOME THAT YOUHAVE STAYED TO-GETHER.

Jason: It seems like ithas been a harder thingto do these days, espe-cially as the years goby. Itʼs been about sixyears now and itʼs hard.When you find peopleas talented as Iʼvefound in this band, youwould be a fool not totake it seriously or nottry and work with it.


MUEN: WHAT DO YOUFIND TO BE HARDABOUT IT?

George: What isnʼt hardabout being in a band?Itʼs a lot of hard work,dedication and not a lotof payoff. The payoff isin the music, but a bandin our situation still hasto have day jobs to payrent. Itʼs a very difficultthing to start fromscratch.

MUEN: WHO CAMEUP WITH THE NAMEETCHED IN RED?

Jason: That would beour singer, Seth.

MUEN: WHY DID HECHOOSE THATNAME?

Jason: Well, Etched inRed is an analogy forhow we view the worldand our music. Every-one listens to musicand everyone lovesmusic. The people thatdonʼt scare me a littlebit. We kind of seemusic as the lines thatdraw our lives together,sort of like the veins ina body. When you loveand give yourself tomusic as much as wedo, we try and let themusic dictate what weare going to do. We feellike our listeners feelthe same way that wedo. We all feel like weare kind of bonded to-

gether by almost like alife-force.

MUEN: ITʼS FUNNYTHAT YOU MEN-TIONED THAT, BE-CAUSE I WASLOOKING AT YOURPROFILE PIC. ITʼS AFETUS WITH WHATLOOKS LIKE VEINSCOMING FROMUNDER IT. WAS THATTHE SIGNIFICANCEOF THE PIC?

Jason: Damn! She hitthe nail right there onthe head didnʼt sheGeorge?

George: In a sense weare all etched in redand that is what ourmusic conveys. Themusic goes through alot of different cycles,much like the differentemotional cycles you gothrough in life. Thereʼstimes when you gothrough a lot of painand grief and there aretimes when you gothrough a lot of joy andhappiness. Itʼs a reflec-tion on where we are ina period in our life.

MUEN: YOU GUYSARE FROM SANDIEGO, I KNOWSOME BANDS DOWNTHERE, AIZEN ANDUNSET. DO YOUKNOW THOSE GUYS?

Jason: We do, they puton a hell of a live show.

MUEN: YOUʼRE FIRSTFULL LENGTHALBUM DYLATE WASRELEASED IN 2007.DID YOU RELEASEANYTHING PRIOR TOTHAT LIKE AN EP?

Jason: (Laughing) Wedonʼt talk about that.

George: The first yearwe were around we putout a five song demothat I donʼt think anyoneelse will ever hear. It isvery, very rough, but acouple years later weput out a three songdemo that had “Intra-section”, “SiftingThrough” and “LED”.Those three tracksmade it to Dylate.

MUEN: TELL US A LIT-TLE ABOUT THE CD.HOW MANY SONGSARE ON IT?

George: There are ninefull length songs andtwo in between tracks.

MUEN: HOW LONGDID IT TAKE TOWRITE AND FINISHTHE CD?

George: Way, way, waytoo long. Thatʼs just be-cause everything has tobe right so we take ourtime with it to makesure it comes out right.

MUEN: WELL THATʼSGOOD THOUGH. YOUGUYS ARE PERFEC-

TIONISTS WHEN ITCOMES TO YOURMUSIC.

Jason: To a fault, yes.

MUEN: HOW WOULDYOU DESCRIBE THEALBUM TO ME?

Jason: Thatʼs tricky, youknow, Iʼm very proud ofour album and all thehard work we have putinto it. The album to memay sound a little progrocky; I promise you itʼsnot. It never comes offas progressive, butthere is an inherent pro-gressiveness in thealbum whereas everysong has its own iden-tity, its own feel and itsown place in the album.I know bands makingalbums is going out ofstyle these days, butnot to us. We still like towrite songs that are rel-evant to each other. Itʼskind of like a musicaljourney I guess, onlynot as corny.

MUEN: THE TWOTRENDS THAT I HAVENOTICED LATELYARE CONCEPT AL-BUMS AND VINYL.WHAT DO YOU THINKABOUT PUTTINGTHINGS BACK OUTON VINYL AGAIN?

Jason: We havenʼt re-ally talked about it awhole lot. Were the typeof band who is not nec-


essarily looking forwhat everyone else isdoing or what the main-stream is doing. If youlisten to our music, itʼsnot necessarily whatʼsin vogue in mainstreammusic right now. I thinkvinyl is really cool; ithas a clarity that coulddefinitely help out thedigital age. Iʼm sure wewould definitely be intoit, if given the opportu-nity.

MUEN: WHAT DOYOU THINK MAKESYOUR MUSIC STANDOUT FROM THEOTHER BANDS INYOUR GENRE?

Jason: I would like tosay, probably a mixtureof our diverse influ-ences, all of the bandmembers backgroundsand lack of formal musi-cal training. All of thatlends itself to makingthings sound compli-cated that really arenot. Well, Georgeʼsdrums are pretty com-plicated. We donʼt try tofollow a formula, whichis why our music takesso long to create. Thisis our secret as to whysome people reallyenjoy our music. Everytime we walk into thestudio its square one,blank page and what doyou want to do?

George: Itʼs not like wewalk into a particular

song that we are work-ing on and say “Ok weare going to put a versehere and a chorusthere.” A lot of times ourverses end up becom-ing choruses by default.You are going to behearing a lot of that onthe newer songs. Youʼllhear a lot of the sameriffs at its core, but thenext time you hear itthere will be a twist to it.You will hear the riffagain, but you will behearing it a differentway. In the song, every-thing has gone throughits evolution. Repetitive-ness gets stale.

MUEN: YOUʼRERIGHT IT DOES.WHICH OF THESONGS IS YOUR FA-VORITE TO PER-FORM?

Jason: I donʼt know.George, which is yourfavorite to perform?

George: Good question,there are a lot of funones. “LED” is prettyfun to perform, becausewe have been playingthat song for years.Thereʼs a lot of room tothrow in different fillshere and there depend-ing on what we are feel-ing that night. “Paradox”is fun too; the crowdseems to really respondwell to it. When you getthat energy from the au-dience, you tend to feed

off it. A lot of times, theparticular song that theaudience is feeding offthat night is what weare feeding off of.

Jason: “Paradox” pissesme off to play. Itʼs notthe easiest one. Funwise, I would definitelysay “Intrasection.” Itʼsone of the songs thatfor some reason is acrowd favorite. Weʼvebeen playing it for a lit-tle while and we canpull it off really tight.

MUEN: I LOVE THESONG PARADOX.JASON TELL USABOUT THE SONG.WHAT IS THE MEAN-ING BEHIND IT?

Jason: Itʼs about thingsin life that are a para-dox. It sounds simplis-tic, but if you really thinkabout the paradoxes inlife, the pluses, the mi-nuses and the thingsthat we look at in every-day life, itʼs ironic. Thesituations and instancesyou find yourself in thatare very paradoxical towhat another personwould do. If anyonecares to read the lyrics,most of our music iswritten about life andhow everyone dealswith it. This particulartrack points out thingsin life that are quiteironic and paradoxical.

George: The lyrics

themselves are a para-dox.

MUEN: LETʼS TALK ALITTLE ABOUT WHATHAS BEEN HAPPEN-ING SINCE THE RE-LEASE OF DYLATE.ARE YOU CUR-RENTLY WRITINGNEW MUSIC FOR AN-OTHER ALBUM TO BERELEASED SOON?

George: Right now weare in the middle oftracking for a new demowe will be putting outsoon. After that it ismore writing for therecord. Our main con-cern was that it hasbeen a little while sinceDylate came out so wewanted to put some-thing out for the audi-ence to give themsomething to hold themover until the recordcomes out. We are verymeticulous when werecord and it can take awhile.

MUEN: DO YOU HAVEAN ESTIMATE WHENIT MIGHT COME OUT?

George: We are hopingto have it out in the nextcouple of months.

MUEN: OK COOL, BYSUMMER THEN.

George: Yeah, and thebest place to look for itwould be on ITunes.


MUEN: YOU AREGOING ON THEFREEDOM TO ROCKTOUR 2009. THISTOUR IS A FREEBENEFIT SHOW FORTHE MILITARYRIGHT? TELL ME ALITTLE MORE ABOUTTHIS TOUR.

George: Absolutely, thistour was started byLoretta from “LorettaRepresents.” She hasbeen doing a lot ofshows for the militaryover at Camp Pendle-ton in San Diego. Wehave had some greatexperiences. We wentup to Point Wynonie inVentura County andperformed for a festivalup there. She hasmade some really goodcontacts at all these dif-ferent bases throughoutthe country. They arereally excited abouthaving a metal rockshow; because most ofthe acts that comethrough the militarybases are geared a lit-tle bit more towardscountry music. Thatʼscool and all, but there isa large audience in themilitary that wants tohear metal and rock.Thatʼs what we want tobring to them.

MUEN: WHO ELSE ISON THE TOUR WITHYOU OR DOES ITCHANGE WITH LOCA-TION?

George: There are sixsupporting bands thatare going to be on thetour. We are still work-ing out some of the de-tails. Depending on howlong of a period wehave to perform for theday, if we have someextra time we will beputting out some ads atthe radio stations in thecities we are playing tobring in some localbands to fill in someslots.

MUEN: THATʼS AWE-SOME, NOW YOUSAID YOU STILLHAVE THE DAY JOBS.DO THEY ALLOWYOU TO BE GONETHAT LONG?

George: They are goingto have to. When this isyour dream, you haveto do it. If we end upgetting fired for it, thatʼsjust whatʼs going tohappen.

MUEN: WHO ARESOME OF THE NO-TABLE BANDS YOUHAVE PLAYED WITH?

Jason: We have playedwith a few. We did atour up in Northern Cali-fornia around summertime last year. I thinkour livers are still tryingto recover from that.

George: We haveplayed with As I LayDying, Drowning Pool,Alien Ant Farm and


Powerman 5000.

Jason: They are somereally cool bands and itwas an honor to playwith them.

MUEN: AT WHATPOINT IN YOUR LIFEDID YOU KNOW THATMUSIC WAS WHATYOU WANTED TODO?

Jason: For me, person-ally, I really didnʼt thinkthat this is what Iwanted to do with mylife until a year into theband. Iʼve been playingguitar for almost four-teen years. Donʼt laughat me, but this is myfirst band. I was playingin my bedroom before Imet these guys. Playingwith other people is re-ally inspiring and it willdrag the best music outof you.

George: For three of us,it is our first band. Nickand I have been jam-ming together sincehigh school and we hadtried forming bands nu-merous times and noth-ing ever solidified. Weresponded to the adand the two halvescame together.

MUEN: DO YOU HAVESUPPORT FROMFAMILY ANDFRIENDS?

George: Yeah, thatʼs a

big thing. We are allvery fortunate, our fami-lies are very supportive.

Jason: We donʼt haveany friends.

MUEN: WHAT ISYOUR WEBSITE?

George: Our officialwebsite is www.etched-inred.com and our My-space page isMyspace.com/etched-inred.

MUEN: IS MYSPACETHE BEST WAY FORFANS TO GET INTOUCH WITH THEBAND AND STAY UP-DATED?

George: Yeah, we haveemail set up through ourEtched In Red site, butwe are quicker about re-sponding on Myspace.

MUEN: YOU RUNYOUR OWN PAGETHEN?

George: Yeah.

MUEN: YOU HAVE APHOTO ALBUM TI-TLED DOOR WARSON YOUR PAGE WITHFOUR PICS. CAN YOUTELL ME WHATTHOSE PICS AREABOUT?

George: That door thatwe pulled a little prankon was a band calledMedius, they are actu-ally going to be on thetour. We have a longhistory with those guysand we just wanted tohave some fun andmess around with them.We had to edit some ofit for Myspace.

MUEN: I BET, BEFOREI LET YOU GO ISTHERE ANYTHINGYOUʼD LIKE TO ADDOR SAY?

Jason: We should prob-ably give a list of thebands that will be onthe tour with us, be-cause we have somereal talent playing withus. They are all greatbands and greatfriends. We havenʼt met

the guys from Stemmyet. They are from NewYork. Their music is radso hopefully they arerad. We have six weeksto live with them. Anyand all support is wel-come. Independentmusic is where itʼs at.Support all these bandsthat we have men-tioned. The militaryneeds our support andthat is why we are con-tributing to what is goingon.

George: We haveStemm, A Race CalledMan, Testing Tomorrowand Medius.

MUEN: I THINK WHATYOU ARE DOING ISAWESOME. IT HASBEEN GREAT TALK-ING TO YOU AND IʼDLIKE TO THANK YOUFOR YOUR TIME.

Thank you for havingus.


RichardChrist France 3 / 19 / 2009

By G. Cataline

CAN YOU GIVE US ABRIEF HISTORY OFHOW THE BANDFIRST CAME TO-GETHER, AND HOWLONG HAVE YOUBEEN TOGETHER? IKNOW THAT YOUWERE ONCE IN AMARILYN MANSONTRIBUTE BAND...

"Richard Christ" is mylife, my artwork and mymask; the alienation ofthe reason that I haveto believe in myself andthink about living in thislife and to survive. Acharacter inspired bythe Christ of the Bible,but with different ca-pacities and with a vi-sion of things far awayfrom any kind of opiumof religion, specificallyin Italy... in Maceratawhere RICHARD,EGON and MARK aremy friends. Not onlyare we musicians livingthis life together, but weare making it better inthis shitty place andmost sad city on theplanet where.... youwant to take the nameof a great idol and also

create your historywhere you will be killedsooner or later. In 3years of concerts andevents under the nameMANSON, we have de-veloped an experienceof performance and en-tertainment in manystages (America, East

Europe, Belgium, Italy),but also know peoplewho really loves you...people like slimy weed.

TELL US ABOUTKILLER POOLRECORDS, WHENAND HOW DID YOUFIRST GET SIGNED?

The songs off thealbum were writtenfrom 2004 onwards.And we have 2 self pro-duced demos “enterthe SUBSOUNDʼsFamily (2007)... Victorof Dope Stars Inc... in2 months we have im-mortalized our ideas in


the disc debut. Oursound is hard elec-tronic rock, where de-pression isaccompanied by violentmelody.

HMM.. WHAT MADEYOU DECIDE TOCOVER "CALL ME"?

The first time I heard"Call Me" I fall in lovewith it. Then one dayin the car I thought ofdoing a cover, and aswith "Magic" in radioand in that momentwas sent on air "CallMe"... the day after Iwas in the studio to dis-assemble and recom-pose it with anotherstyle. This destiny hashelped me...

WHO WRITES MOSTOF THE SONGS, ANDWHAT TYPES OFTHINGS INSPIRE YOUTO WRITE?

The death of my friend"Sade" has given me areason more to live andgive people a smile, ashiver, and more. During the night wecreate the most beauti-ful songs around 3 AM.This is when we findthe melodies from gui-tars and sinth trulyunique and we haddrink of 6 liters of beerand doing other things.When you enter thesubconscious at a cer-tain hour of the night

and break down a wallthat separates you fromall the other people,things get done. Wehave a wall when con-ducting a life given byGod TIME andMONEY... and like arobots throw away ourlives.

WHAT DOES THISMEAN? "I'll SMASHYOUR CHURCH withmy ARIES Reinvent-ing a Golden Ritual "... A LYRIC IN ONE OFYOUR SONGS.

Sincerely? It is aphrase that I devoted toa person I love, sheknows... you can imag-ine ;-)

TELL US MOREABOUT THE PHILOS-OPHY OF YOURBAND...

The content of thesesongs lead you on astreet where there is vi-olence, drugs, grief,melancholy, and maga-lomania. It is not onlynegative, but is what ishappening in the worldtoday. It is what I am,and always forced toavoid or do ... And is aconcept that began inthis disc... then evolvedinto the next, for a totalof 3 discs. It is imagi-nation. I can only antici-pate that as the covershows a rise of a face-less stranger be crash-

ing into the earth tochange the world dev-astated by the newworld order and boughtthe love and emotionsof people throughmusic and philosophy.To invade the orderbuilt on a new mental-ity, where religion, sexand money does notmean anything.

WELL MANSON IS ANOBVIOUS INFLU-ENCE... WHATOTHER ARTISTS DOYOU LIKE, ANDWHY?

David Bowie, glam and70s music from theearly 80's, what I feltwhen I was in the bellyof my mother :-)

HOW CAN WE GETYOUR LATESTALBUM?

You can simply buy iton iTunes or in severalmailorder places ... butI advise everyone tobuy it directly from usby contacting us on our"myspace" Myspace.com/richard999christ

MUEN: DESCRIBETHE LATESTALBUM...

Through music I cancapture an emotion ineach piece, and when Irealized that musicchose me to give emo-

tions, it became a ne-cessity, a ritual magic.The disc seems like acompilation composedof various artists, be-cause every song,completely different, isRock and our look is atotal prostitution of it.

WHAT ARE YOURFANS LIKE, ANDWHAT PART OF THEWORLD DO YOUTHINK YOU HAVETHE MOST FANS?

We certainly are appre-ciated more outside ofItaly. I see London andthe east of Europe withvery good positivegrowth. Our Fans Loveevery song we made...

WHAT ARE THELONG-TERM GOALSOF THE BAND?WHAT DO YOU HOPETO ACCOMPLISH BE-FORE THE YEAR ISOVER?

Make reality the con-cept of the 3 albums.

WHAT OTHER INTER-ESTS DO YOU HAVE,OTHER THANMUSIC? DOES ANY-THING ELSE CON-SUME YOUR TIME?

All my time is not freebecause in life we mustnot waste time. Turnaround to my music,my look, know andlearn every day.


SULEBy: Shauna OʼDonnell

MUEN: YOURFOURTH FULLLENGTH ALBUM“THE FALL” WAS RE-LEASED IN 2007.TELL US A LITTLEABOUT THE CON-

CEPT OF THEALBUM.

SULE: “The Fall” wasput together during andjust after a very tumul-tuous time in my life. Ihad been in a very toxicrelationship that in-volved drugs, violenceand some rather seri-

ous control issues. Imade drastic changesand faced difficult chal-lenges to turn it allaround. On “The Fall”each song representsthese challenges andwhat I did to meet eachone. Even the albumtitle reflects the story.

MUEN: WHAT HASBEEN THE RE-SPONSE FROM FANSTO IT?

SULE: Response fromfans has been great. Itried in my writing to beas honest as I could,thinking there arethemes in my life manypeople can relate to. Itseems I was right in mythinking. I got so muchfeedback from fanstelling me how theyʼvederived strength frommy music during toughtimes. And thatʼs morethen Iʼd hoped for.

MUEN: THE MUSICALSTYLE OF THISALBUM IS QUITE DI-VERSE. HOW WOULDYOU DESCRIBE IT?

SULE: The Album ismainly Rock. A kind ofmodern version of that70s Rock sound that Ilike so much. I spentyears studying andplaying Jazz, Soul andR&B, but I was reallyinto Rock when I wascoming up so this proj-ect has been a lot likecoming home for me.Still, you can hear ahealthy dose of all thestyles of music Iʼvebeen playing over theyears mixed in for goodmeasure.

MUEN: YOU HAVEBEEN PLAYINGMUSIC SINCE YOU


WERE FIVE YEARSOLD AND YOU HAVEMASTERED SEVERALINSTRUMENTS.WHAT ARE THEY?

SULE: Well letʼs see….I always sang, so Iguess that came first.Next came the piano,then the guitar, whichbecame my main in-strument. I picked upthe bass in high school,fooled around on thedrums and percussiona bit and learned toplay the harmonica. Incollege I picked up theviolin, which I droppedas soon as I broke mybow trying to emulateJimmy Page. And lastbut not least the vibra-phone. Thatʼs a crazyinstrument given to meby a dear friend, and Istill play it to this day.

MUEN: WERE YOURPARENTS MUSICIANSAS WELL? WHATKIND OF MUSIC DIDYOU LISTEN TO AS ACHILD AND GROW-ING UP?

SULE: My mother wasmusical. She playedthe piano and sang andwas always very in-volved in choral groups.In my formative yearsthis must have had anenormous influence,but it was my dadʼswide-ranging collectionof vinyl that reallyhelped shape me musi-

cally. He had so muchcool stuff. Billie Holiday,John Lee Hooker, BBKing, Curtis Mayfield,Early Santana…. It ledme to discover my owntastes.

MUEN: WHAT KINDOF CLASSICALTRAINING HAVE YOUHAD? DID YOU TAKEVOICE LESSONS ORDID YOU WANT TOPURSUE YOUR OWNVOCAL STYLE?

SULE: I was trained inclassical guitar. It wasone of those familiarstories where some kiddreams of being thenext guitar hero. With ahealthy diet of every-thing from the Beatlesto Kiss, what else couldI dream of. Well, afterclearly articulating whatI wanted to do, my par-ents bought me a clas-sical guitar and signedme up for lessons. Thesurprise came when Iactually began to like it.To this day I prefer toplay classical style with-out a pic.As far as vocal lessonsgo, I took about ten les-sons at some point;mostly I just sang inchoirs and built upsinging skill.

MUEN: WAS IT ATOUGH TRANSITIONFROM SIDEMAN TOSOLO ARTIST?

SULE: Not really. I thinkthe biggest challengewas to get others to seeme differently. Itʼs asthough if youʼre a side-man, you get compart-mentalized in peopleʼsminds as such, andpeople resist change.So I found new people.As the number of peo-ple who know me as asolo artist grows, theimpression of me as asideman has beensteadily shrinking. Eventhose whoʼve regardedme as sideman for along time have beenchanging their minds.

MUEN: WHAT WAS ITLIKE OPENING UPFOR CELINE DION?

SULE: That was truly atrip. Firstly, although Ihave a lot of respect forher talent and workethic, Iʼve never been abig fan of her music. Sogetting an opportunitylike that was a bitstrange at first. I was asoloist and the guitaristfor this 40-piece gospelchoir. At anytime, get-ting up in front, playingand singing with 40backup singers wasawesome. That time itwas in front of a packedarena for four nights ina row. The thing thatsticks with me was howI could see all these re-flections from peopleʼsglasses as far as theeye could see. Itʼs

breathtaking.

MUEN: YOU HAVEPLAYED IN FRONTOF CROWDS ALLOVER THE WORLD.WHERE WOULD YOUSAY YOU RECEIVEDTHE BEST RE-SPONSE FROMFANS?

SULE: New York Cityhas been a longtime fa-vorite of mine. It struckme while I was taking acab that just being a cit-izen of New Yorkmakes you more cul-tured than most places.The city is stock full ofmuseums, shows of allkinds, film, TV….not tomention the fact that asa New Yorker, youʼreneighbors with some ofthe biggest names inshowbiz. So you havethis large group of na-tive New Yorkers whoare very culturally so-phisticated, yet theyʼrenot snooty about it. Itʼsa great city to play anda great audience toplay for.

MUEN: ARE YOUOFTEN COMPAREDTO LENNY KRAVITZ?

SULE: YES, and it canbe a bit exasperating. Iguess itʼs normalthough, we have a simi-lar style and look so itʼsa natural comparison.


“...I had to con-sider the fact thatevery new artistgets comparedwith some estab-lished artist intheir genre...”

and heʼs good…. Imean I could do a lotworse than Lennyright? But ultimately,you hope people real-ize that any similaritiesare purely superficial,and they appreciateyou for what you do.

MUEN: TELL MEABOUT BABYGROOVE PRODUC-TIONS.

SULE: Well,… Itstarted back when Iwas recording on an 8track, reel to reel, ana-logue machine. I wasbuilding song ideas onan old Mac using MIDI,then bouncing thatdown to two of theeight tracks and usingthe remaining six torecord live instruments.The file that held allthese early song ideaswas called BabyGrooves. As my studiogrew and technologiesgot replaced the file gotbigger until it hit me,….why not start a produc-tion company and usethat as the moniker forall my work.

MUEN: ARE YOU

CURRENTLY WORK-ING ON NEW SONGSFOR A NEW ALBUMTO RELEASE ANY-TIME SOON?

SULE: The songs aredone. Iʼm right now get-ting the artwork and du-plication done on mynew album. Itʼs called“Alive”, and itʼll be avail-able online at iTunes,Amazon, Rhapsody andNapster. Iʼm pretty ex-cited about this record.

Iʼm curious to seewhere it goes.

MUEN: ANYTHINGYOUʼD LIKE TO ADDOR SAY?

SULE: Iʼd just like to ex-press my gratitude toeveryone who supportsindie music. It takes acertain kind of courageto stop off the beatenpath and recognize thatthereʼs more out therethan whatʼs spoon-fed

“Hollywood Rock Band Of The Year”

www.TheMaension.comMyspace.com/TheMaension

PG. 46 - MUEN Magazine April 2009to us. And without thatsupport, artists like mewould have no reasonto do what we do. Sothanks, and thanks toyou guys at MUEN fordoing what you do.

Myspace.com/suleheitner

SNAKEwww.myspace.com/snakerocks

Interview with Larry Attard of Snake

By Metal MikeMyspace.com/fullmetalreview

Ringing true to thesound of what real rockn roll is all about, Theband Snake is poisedto make a big "Strike".This band lets themusic do the talking,and after you givethem a listen I am sureyou will agree. It wasthis past Dec on the8th while attending anAC/DC show in L.A.that I first heard thename Snake. The peo-ple next to me , whowere fellow country-men of the band, hadnothing but goodthings to say of them.They also insisted thatI look them up, and forthat I owe them a bigdebt of gratitude.

MUEN: WHAT IS THEBANDʼS MUSICALBACKGROUND? AREYOU GUYS SELFTAUGHT OR HASTHEIR BEEN SOMEFORMAL TRAININGFOR ANY OF YOU?

Mostly self taught how-ever DJ (our drummer)is still going to lessons

after 10 years, someguys are slow learnershe he, we are all fromdifferent states of Aus-tralia, however weended up here in Bris-bane,

MUEN: TELL USHOW YOU DECIDEDTO BECOME A VO-CALIST LARRY, ANDHOW YOU WENTABOUT MAKINGTHIS A REALITY.

It was a case of havingto really just play bass,but no one else couldsing, so here I amsinging.

MUEN: ARE THEREANY PLANS FOR AVIDEO YET? AND IFSO, TELL US WHATSONGS YOU HAVEBEEN CONSIDERINGFOR THIS .. "LETTHE MUSIC BEGIN"WOULD BE MYCHOICE..

A video has been dis-cussed, not sure whatsong, but we will begoing back and doinganother album for 09“Let The Music Begin”Is a contender

MUEN: HOW IS ASONG FORMED IN

YOUR BAND. WHO ISINVOLVED WITH THECOMPOSITION ANDLYRICS AND THESUCH?

Funny enough a lot ofthese tracks were writ-ten in the early 80's bymyself. I grew up inthe low to middle classsuburbs of Sydney, weall played and wrotehard edge gutter levelrock, so I suppose thisstyle just evolved, inthe late 70's to early80's there were a lot ofbands with that rawedge hard rockinsound AC/DC being


one of them howeverthey were better thanmost. I wouldn't like tothink I emulate Bon atleast in Snake "That'sme" That's the way Isound however it had amajor impact in the de-cision to form a AC/DCshow to pay the bills.'SNAKE is the majorband here ACCADACCA is the plat-form" With the othermaterial, the guyscome in with the ideasand Iʼm left to form thevocal lyrics and basslines. Works a treat. Apoint to mention is weshare credit for every-thing we do, no pre-madonnas here.

MUEN: WE WERELOOKING TO PUR-CHASE THIS CD"STRIKE" BUT HADTROUBLE FINDING AWAY TO DO THIS.MAYBE YOU COULDHELP US AND OURREADERS THATMIGHT WANT TOPURCHASE THIS CDAS WELL BYTELLING US WHEREIT IS AVAILABLE ANDTHE LINKS OR THESTORES TO GET IT.

Nightmare Records inthe U.S still distributefor us www.nightmare-records.com or youcan log onto www.ac-cadac-carocks.com.au and

go to SHOP alsoRadar music in Eu-rope.

MUEN: ANY PLANSOF A U.S. TOUR?

Yes please!! Not realsure how to go aboutthis.. trouble is youneed the right Agentthat really wants this,either with the AC/DCshow or without, cou-ple of good supportswould be great!!Things like this inter-view and the enthusi-asm that's beencreated from one my-space site definitelyhelps. I am gonna giveit a shot this yearthough, so if anyonehas any ideas it wouldbe great to hear fromyou.

MUEN: WE AREAWARE THAT ACCADACCA PLAYSSHOWS WITHSNAKE OR VICEVERSA . IS THISYOUR GOAL TOKEEP BOTH OFTHESE REALLYCOOL GROUPSGOING BY PLAYINGBOTH AT YOURSHOWS?

In a perfect world no,however ACCADACCA serves a pur-pose, it keeps 5muso's and 3 soundcrew permanently em-

ployed. Snake sup-ports all over Australiaand New Zealand inbig venues to crowdsof 500 to 18,000 withHuge production and alight show. Snakemoves heaps of cd's @these gigs and we findmore and more peopleare coming to see bothbands. When Snake isbig enough to stand onour own two feet ACCADACCA will go into re-tirement, no doubt.

MUEN: WE ALSO NO-TICED THAT THISBAND ACCA DACCAPLAYS FOR A 2:00HR PLUS TIMEFRAME ECHOINGTHE SOUNDS ANDLOVE OF AC/DC ANDTHAT SNAKE PLAYSFOR A 45 MIN SET.TELL US HOWTOUGH IT IS PLAY-ING 3 HOURS OF EN-ERGETIC NON STOPACTION FILLEDMUSIC, AND HOWYOU KEEP FITENOUGH IN TO DOSO.

Cant talk for the rest ofthe boys however I'vegone hard and workedhard all my life. I thinkthe energy of the musicwe play has somethingto do with it. None ofus are into that chemi-cal shit, just drink hardplay hard and havefun. I think the guys

think if that old prick atthe front can do it socan we!!

MUEN: SNAKE WASAROUND IN THEEARLY 80'S. FIRST IWOULD LIKE TOKNOW WHY THEBAND QUIT FORAWHILE? SECONDTHING I WOULD LIKETO KNOW IS HOWYOU GUYSREACHED A DECI-SION TO RE FORMSNAKE AND WHENTHAT THOUGHTPROCESS BEGAN?AND FINALLY IWOULD LIKE TOKNOW IF THERE ARESOME OTHERSNAKE ALBUMSFLOATING AROUNDOUT THERE FROMWHEN YOU WEREORIGINALLY TO-GETHER?

Iʼm the only memberfrom that line up,Snake in the 80,s hada good shot at it,pulling big crowds allover Australia, but theglam days just startedalso electronic bullshitand we werenʼt aboutto trade our denhemjeans for tights,makeup and nail pol-ish... or play with adrum machine. Guesswe were outdated orjust disalussioned.. Idonʼt know, but we splitafter 6 years. 1 VINYL


album and a film clip. Iwanted to reformSnake as soon as Icould get with thesame calibre of theoriginal Snake. Themusic we wrote thenand now has alwaysbeen first and foremostin my mind. It had tobe played right. Thevinyl album is stillaround.. One was onebay for around $300..I almost bought it my-self, I donʼt have one.The video still gets aplay on a show herecalled RAGE occasion-ally.

MUEN: TELL USABOUT BEING CON-SIDERED FOR THEJOB OF REPLACINGBON SCOTT AFTERHIS TRAGEDY. DIDYOU GET AN AUDI-TION?

I still canʼt say that thiswas the case for sure,however it certainlyseemed that way. It allstarted with a demo wesent into Albert Pro-ductions of a songcalled Sweet Revenge.We got a call fromGeorge Young "Angusand Malcolmʼs bigbrother" He said hewanted to see thesinger and the man-ager of Snake in his of-fice. The whole bandturned up. George di-rected his questions di-

rectly at me. “How doyou feel bout big audi-ences? Touring theworld, doing 3 to 4nights in a row?” ect... Iwas pretty young at thetime so my responseprobably wasn't whatthey needed to hear orwere just plain dumbanswers. Donʼt know,but I knew I blewsomething. The nextweek there was Mal-colm and Angus in thecrowd watching theband, and we did playlike shit that night asthe band just formedand hadnʼt reached theproper lineup. Afterthat no contact. Wasn'treally disappointedʻcause I didnʼt haveany idea what I missedout on. The idea ofwhat really might havebeen happening theredidnʼt dawn on me tillyears later. Told ya Iwas a little slow!!

MUEN: AFTER THEDISAPPOINTMENTOF NOT GETTINGTHIS GIG, WE WEREWONDERING IF YOUCOULD WALK USTHOUGH THE BEGIN-NING OF HOW ACCADCCA CAME TO BE.

Being constantly told Isound like Bon, and al-ways loving AC/DC..also the disappoint-ment of the Snakebreak up is what moti-

vated me to form anAC/DC show that wasgood. Originally ACCADACCA "Which is anaffectionate Australianslang for AC/DC" wasonly to do Bon Scott,however due to pun-ters constantly askingfor Brian we decided todo him as well. It tooka lot of practice, buteventually I got close.Then I decided to re-serect Snake. 8 yearslater going hard, therest is history.

MUEN: WELLTHANKS A TON FORYOUR TIMEBROTHER, AND ASWE DIG BOTH YOURBANDS WE ARE RE-ALLY HOPING YOUWILL COME TO THESTATES AND GIVEUS A CHANCE TOSEE YOU PLAY. WHY

DON'T YOU WRAPTHIS THING UP BYTOUCHING ONSOMETHING I MAYHAVE OVERLOOKEDOR BY ADDINGWHATEVER THEHELL YOU WOULDLIKE TO SAY.

It's me who should bethanking you Mike, it'speople like yourselvesthat this industry needmore of, as a matter offact you've restartedmy interest in touringthe U.S and will nowgo at it, so hopefullyyou guys will be shar-ing a beer with ussoon. Keep up thegreat work mate, all thebest!


Aaron MortSan Francisco, CA


MUEN: HI AARONAND THANKS FORTALKING WITH METODAY.

Yeah, no problem.

MUEN: HOW ARE YOUDOING?

Iʼm doing good, runningaround with deadlinesand stuff. Iʼm sure youknow how that is. Howare you doing?

MUEN: IʼM DOINGGREAT. YOUR MAN-AGER ROB IS AGREAT GUY!

Yeah, heʼs a cool guy.

MUEN: YOUR SELF TI-TLED LP IS WONDER-FUL. WHY DID YOUCHOOSE THE NAMETHE STONE FOXES?

We had heard the ex-pression “Youʼre a stonefox,” it was an old pickup line kind of deal. Wethought it kind of had abit of a retro vibe to itand it kind of went withrock and roll. The factthat we are four guysthat do not considerourselves to be incredi-bly attractive, I donʼtknow, itʼs kind of a fun,goofy take on a retroband name.

MUEN: ITʼS A COOLNAME, I LIKE IT. THEEDITOR OF OURMAGAZINE WASCOMMENTING THATTHERE IS A BANDCALLED THE STONEROSES. HAVE YOUHEARD OF THEM?Yeah, Iʼve heard of TheStone Roses.

MUEN: THE FLYERSFOR YOUR SHOWSARE GROOVY. WHODESIGNS THEM?

Spence the lead gui-tarist of the band and I

do. We do all of the de-sign work for the bandand the posters.

MUEN: I NOTICEDTHAT YOU GUYS AREPRETTY HANDS ONWITH EVERYTHINGTHAT HAS TO DOWITH THE BAND.

Yeah, we pretty muchare. We recorded thealbum ourselves in ourgarage. We did all thesound proofing withmattresses and whatnot. We do all of ourown graphics and web

stuff. Itʼs a whole littlecommunity we havegoing. We all live to-gether as well so itʼsdefinitely hands on.

MUEN: I ENJOYEDYOUR “SWEEP THEWEST” TOURVIDEOS. IT LOOKSLIKE YOU GUYS HAVEA LOT OF FUN TO-GETHER. HAVE YOUKNOWN EACH OTHERA LONG TIME?

Well, Spence and Shan-non are brothers sothey have known each

THE STONE FOXESPG. 50 - MUEN Magazine April 2009

other a good long while.I met Spence in collegeso I have known him forabout five years. Wehave been playingmusic together forabout three and a halfto four years out of thefive. Avi was a friend ofa friend and we foundout he played music re-ally well so we kind ofrecruited him. We hadhim move in with usand we forced him to bein the band about threeyears ago.

MUEN: HOW DO YOULIKE LIVING IN SANFRANCISCO?

We love it, Avi is fromL.A., but I think we areall Northern Californiapeople. San Franciscois cool because it has agreat music scene andjust the vibe of the peo-ple makes it all a cool,special experience tolive here.

MUEN: IʼVE BEENTHERE AND IT WASCOOL. THE ONLYTHING I DIDNʼT LIKEWAS THAT IT WASREALLY COLD.

Yeah, it does get coldand foggy.

MUEN: YOUR MUSICIS HEAVILY INFLU-ENCED BY THEGREAT ROCK ANDROLL ARTISTS OFTHE 60ʼS AND 70ʼS. ISTHAT WHAT YOU

GREW UP LISTENINGTO?

Yeah, for the most part,I think we all did. I knowthat Spence would tellstories of finding oldrecord collections, likeold Led Zeppelin. Forme, it was kind of thesame thing. I grew upmore on the old 70ʼsfolk that my parentswere into. I discoveredthe oldies station intown and went crazy on50ʼs rock and roll. Elvisand Buddy Holly, thingslike that, so I think weare all into the older in-fluences.

MUEN: DID YOU EVERGET INTO THE MUSICOF THE 80ʼS AND90ʼS?

I really donʼt like 80ʼsmusic; however, I likeMark Knopfler a lot fromDire Straight. For themost part I never gotinto the 80ʼs musicmostly because I didnʼtcare for a lot of the pro-duction that went on inthe 80ʼs as far as the al-bums and stuff. As faras the 90ʼs go, I got re-ally into Nirvana andWeezer. I remembergetting Weezerʼs TheBlue Album and thenPinkerton as well.Throughout high schoolme and my friends wentcrazy on Weezer.

MUEN: THEY JUST

CAME OUT WITH ANEW ALBUM DIDNʼTTHEY?

Yeah, The Red Album, Ihavenʼt kept up onWeezer in a while.

MUEN: WHO WAS ORIS YOUR FAVORITEBAND?

As far as my favoritemusic, itʼs hard to beatwhat Bob Dylan wasdoing with The Band inthe mid 60ʼs. When itcomes down to it, thatʼsprobably my favorite,just because the musicthey were creating wasso original, raw andspontaneous. Itsounded like it just hap-pened and they werehaving fun with it. Itʼsgood music and thenThe Band in generaljust as a band influ-enced a lot of what wedo as a band. I thinkcollectively thatʼs wherewe all stand for themost part.

MUEN: DO YOUMOSTLY PLAY ATBLUES CLUBS?

I donʼt think we haveever played at a strictlyblues club before. Oddlyenough, we started offin cafés. In San Fran-cisco itʼs kind of toughto get someone to takea chance on you. Youkind of start off gettinggigs wherever you can,

like local coffee shops.We started playing theclub circuit in town atsome smaller venuesand it sort of grows. Wehave a fan base hereand we are starting toplay bigger venues andwe are getting invited todo some cooler thingsin town. Itʼs pretty eclec-tic though, we play onbills with hip-hop guys.

MUEN: WOULD YOUPREFER YOUR FANSTO SEE A LIVE PER-FORMANCE FIRST ORLISTEN TO YOUR CDFIRST?

See us play live.

MUEN: DO YOU FEELPEOPLE GET MOREOUT OF YOUR LIVESHOW?

I think so; the albumcame from the liveshow. All of the songson the album reallygrew and developedfrom playing them live. Ithink thatʼs where mostof the fun is, seeing uslive. Not that the albumisnʼt good but the live bitis better because thesongs have evenevolved much morethan what they were onthe album.

MUEN: YOU PLAY THEHARP.

Yeah, I do play the harp.


MUEN: THAT IS SOCOOL.

Well, thank you. Ihavenʼt played it live ina while though. Shan-non, our drummer, isthe one you hear moston the album playingharp. At the same timehe is playing drums soitʼs kind of crazy. He ismore of a blues harpplayer and Iʼm more theblow into the harmonicaand see what comesout kind of harmonicaplayer.

MUEN: HOW MANYINSTRUMENTS CANYOU PLAY?

I can play guitar, bassand harmonica. I canmake noise with a lot ofdifferent instruments,but I wouldnʼt say I playtoo many. I just got anorgan, but I wouldnʼtsay Iʼm an organ playerquite yet. I can play thedrums too.

MUEN: YOU GUYSARE KIND OF KNOWNFOR SWITCHING OFFINSTRUMENTS DUR-ING A LIVE SHOW.Yeah, we do a lot ofthat.MUEN: IS IT DURINGEVERY SINGLESONG?

No, Avi and I do a lot ofswitching between play-ing guitar and bass. Ithink a lot of where theswitching comes is in

the vocals. We try andallow everyone achance to take the leadon vocals. Thatʼs kind ofone of the big changesthat happens a lot too. Itmakes it fun for us aswell and allows us a lit-tle more flexibility.

MUEN: IS IT SPONTA-NEOUS OR IS ITPLANNED OUT BE-FORE YOU TAKE THESTAGE?

We definitely plan outour set before the show.It makes it easier to fig-ure out when thechange is going tocome so the show goesa little smoother. Wedefinitely keep a fewslots on the set list openso we can changesomething sponta-neously. For the mostpart we try and makesure we know where weare going to go.

MUEN: EXPLAIN TOME WHAT THE WRIT-ING PROCESS IS LIKEFOR YOU GUYS.

Itʼs as much of ademocracy as we canmake it for ourselves.Spence is the guy whoreally writes a lot of theriffs, but that doesnʼtmean he comes to uswith a riff and then webuild it off of that. Weʼllbe jamming from noth-ing and then somebodywill play something andwe will go off of it. Soon

enough you start build-ing a kind of a structure.Everyone starts singingand we figure out whosounds better on what.Itʼs an interestingprocess, because wedonʼt really bring any-thing to the table, in-stead we kind of letthings work themselvesout. Thatʼs not to saythere has never beenan idea put out therethat was preconceived,but a lot of stuff is spon-taneous.

MUEN: THATʼS GOOD,EVERYONE HASTHEIR OWN WAY OFDOING IT. ITʼS WHAT-EVER WORKS FORTHEM.

It makes it easier I thinkto not bring an entiresong to the table andhave an idea of exactlyhow it should go, be-cause none of us arefront men. It doesnʼt re-ally allow us to put ourpersonal styles into theband, which is kind ofnice, because it doesnʼtallow us to get caught inany one direction. Thereare no egos.

MUEN: YOU GUYSARE IN THEPROCESS OF SHOOT-ING SOME MUSICVIDEOS. WHATʼSHAPPENING WITHTHAT?

We are going to be re-leasing the videos soon

enough. We went toSan Francisco Stateand there was a class-room doing an exercisewhere they were doinglive shooting. If youwere to watch an oldPBS Live show in thestudio where it is all yel-lowed out and you havea funny prop behind youthat looks ancient, thatʼshow it turned out. Wewent to an old studioand played four songsover and over. Multipledirectors shot us andhopefully it has that oldkind of feel to it. Theyare not quite musicvideos, but we endedup with a bunch of liverecordings and videos.

MUEN: THATʼS COOLTHAT YOU HAD FILMSTUDENTS SHOOTTHE VIDEOS.

T.V., radio and broad-casting students. It wasreally great and we defi-nitely benefit, becausewe get videos and goodlive recordings out of itand we are able to helpout the students too.

MUEN: YOU AREBEING PLAYED ONQUITE A FEW RADIOSTATIONS NOW. CON-GRATULATIONS ONTHAT.

Yeah, thanks. Itʼs beensurprising to us that wehave received such agood response fromradio people and audi-


ences.

MUEN: YOU GUYS HAVE DEVEL-OPED QUITE A NAME FOR YOUR-SELVES IN THE BAY AREA. AREYOU READY TO GO OUT ANDTAKE ON THE WORLD WITH YOURMUSIC?

If someone allows us to do that wewill definitely be out there. As long aswe can pay our bills back home. Wewill take on the world if we get the op-portunity.

MUEN: I LOOK FORWARD TO THENEXT TIME YOU COME HERE. IHOPE I GET TO CATCH A SHOW.

We are working on some dates in theL.A. area. We will get back there inthe next few months.


L'ANGUISETTEBy G. Cataline

WHY DID YOUCHOOSE L'ANGUISETTE FOR ANAME?

It took us a long time todecide on a name thatwould fit our sound. Wewere formerly calledEnola, but our soundoutgrew it and it took afew years to think of anew name. JoeWiniarski, the guitaristand other co-founder, isvery picky about namesand presentation, as amI. The actual inspirationcame from JacquelineCarey's historical fan-tasy "Kushiel" series,about a dark god-cho-sen woman who be-comes simultaneously acourtesan without equaland a spy for the crown.The name in that worldfor a woman who de-rives pleasure from painis "anguissette."

We felt it was evocative,rolls off the tongue, andmost importantly hintsat the complexity of bit-ter and sweet emotionsin our sound.

SO YOU AND JOEARE THE CO-FOUNDERS OF THEBAND AND DIDACOUSTIC SHOWSTOGETHER. ASIDEFROM THE TWO OFYOU PERFORMINGDUOS IN THE PAST, IS

THE BAND L'AN-GUISETTE PLAYINGLIVE SHOWS AT ALL?

At the moment, we arepreparing to record ourdebut album, "Dammingthe Euphrates," and arenot playing out at thistime. When we were stillunder the name Enola,however, we played outquite often. Now we'refocussing our energy onthe new album and pro-moting the band. I willbe collaborating on theartwork over the sum-mer with a fellow gradu-ate of Moore College ofArt & Design, the coun-try's only women's artsand design college. Hername is Jen Lightfoot(www.jenlightfootart.com), and she'll be doingthe illustrations while I'llbe doing the letteringand my lyrics in my own

calligraphy.

WHEN IS THE ALBUMOUT, AND HOW DIDYOU GO ABOUT GET-TING IT RECORDED?

We will start recordingin a week or two, in April2009. Joe went to Tem-ple University and gothis degree in Music Pro-duction, and has beenrecording for quite a fewyears now. We will berecording in in his stu-dio, Absynth Studios.We hope to have all thetracks laid down in lessthan a month, then takea month or two for themixing and masteringas well as getting theartwork and official web-site done. We're plan-ning on a late 2009release.

WHAT IS THE LOCAL

MUSIC ENVIRON-MENT LIKE? ARE YOUHAPPY WITH IT.

In Philadelphia it seemsthe big bands are eithercover bands or popularradio-friendly rock.About 7 or 8 years ago Iused to be a lot more in-volved in the scene butnow there isn't reallythat much that hascaught my interest.Most of the bands I'mreally into are from Eu-rope, like Opeth, Delain,The Gathering, AllEnds, Draconian, WithinTemptation. I was bornin Sweden, so I thinkmy Viking roots are call-ing to me from acrossthe ocean and the vastmajority of what's goingon here just doesn'tspeak to me. While theywere active in thescene, though, I was

L'ANGUISETTEPG. 54 - MUEN Magazine April 2009

Tapping the Vein'sbiggest fan! ;)

HOW MANY INSTRU-MENTS DO YOUPLAY, BIANCA? ANDDID YOU HAVEVOCAL TRAINING?

My main instrument isvoice. I've been singingalmost my whole life,since about secondgrade. I've always sungtop soprano whenever Ising in choir, and I thinkthat developed a natu-ral feel for musical the-ory and progression. Ibelieve that music andlanguage are closely re-lated in the brain andthe earlier a child is ex-posed, the more natu-rally it comes to themfor the rest of their life.I've never had formaltheory training but Ihave a good intuition forharmonies and musicalmovement within apiece. Currently I singin a secular choir whichsings folk and classicalpieces in Swedish,

which was my first lan-guage, and I have a lotof fun in that group. Ihave a 3 1/2 octaverange which I've devel-oped though trainingwith voice teachers,most recently and mostnotably John NicholasPeters, and by singingrock and metal. Mystyle is a unique blendof rock and classical;my lower range is muchmore rock, and myhigher range is quiteclassical but not oper-atic. I definitely have anunusual take on vocalexpression in the rockgenre, and I haven'theard another singerwho has quite the samesound as me.

I am self-taught onpiano, which I use towrite music on. Wehave four full demosongs up available tosample on our My-Space page,http://www.myspace.com/languisettemusic; ofthose, I wrote the

music, vocals and lyricsfor "Matchgirl Winter,"and the music and vo-cals for "Broken." "TheLooming of Dust..." is acover of a song by aCanadian black metalband called Woods ofYpres, and we took avery different electronicapproach to what wasoriginally a very doomysong. And "The Whore"was written by Joe'ssinger who played withhim before we met.

I've messed around onguitar, and I'd love tolearn drums. I have apassion for learning andself-improvement so Idon't doubt I'll pick themup at some point.

WHAT ARE THEGOALS FOR THEREST OF THE YEAR?

In addition to releasingL'anguisette's debutalbum, "Damming theEuphrates," I am alsoan avant-garde fashiondesigner. I specialize incorsetry and costumery,and I have a passion forhandknits. I'm inspiredby such various things

as metal music, Roman-tic paintings, Art Nou-veau, carrion flowers,weaponry and armor,and nightmarish surreal-ity. I'm working on cus-tom corsets forindividual clients,stage/video/photo cos-tumery for women inheavy bands, and work-ing on designing mynext collection which Ihope to premiere in late'09/early '10. Your read-ers can check out mydesigns here:http://www.myspace.com/biancalindblad. In thevery near future, I willalso be selling worksuch as accessories,hand knits, corsets, andother creations on mynew Etsy site:http://DramatiqueCou-ture.etsy.com. I defi-nitely have half of myheart in the art worldand the other half in themusic world, and I thinkthat such a Renais-sance woman is ratherrare these days. I hope Ican perhaps encourageothers, even just a little,to follow all of theirdreams.

213-924-4901MUEN Magazine April 2009 - PG. 55

Expect AnythingFrance

Interview by: Macavity

Expect Anything is aband that has made amark on the people ofFrance as well asneighboring countriesfor their unique talentand music. We wantedto catch up with themand find out moreabout them and giveour readers a chance to

find out about whatthe new French Revo-lution is to the U.S. MUEN: HOW DID YOUCOME UP WITH BANDNAME AND DOES ITHAVE A PARTICULARMEANING BEHIND IT?

EA: We created theband aimlessly andwithout setting any lim-its. That's why we arecalled Expect Anything.

Our name has the samemeaning for us and forour fans. We take thingsas they come withoutmissing any opportuni-

ties. You can feel it inour music. We are notfrozen.

MUEN: AFTER FIRSTFORMING THE BANDIN LATE 2007 WITHALEX AND NICO.HOW DID THE RESTOF THE BAND COMETOGETHER?

EA: We are all long timefriends and we are 5best friends. After thefirst split of the bandAlex and Nico were theonly way to continuethis adventure. Whenthe others arrived iswhen we really startedto find our sound.

MUEN: WERE ANY OFYOU IN OTHERBANDS BEFORE THISONE?

EA: We all started play-ing music with EA andthe fact of playing to-gether gave us the bestway to compose ourmusic. We also spendour free time togetherand that's why we areso close and motivatedto create and compose.

MUEN: FOR SOME-ONE THAT HAS NOTHEARD YOUR MUSIC,CAN YOU EXPLAINYOUR SOUND?


EA: It's hard to explainour music. It's compli-cated. We try to com-pose with manysonorities, with our influ-ence from Our LastNight, Oceana and Val-lon. We try to spread amusical feeling and helppeople to have a trip in-side our music.

MUEN: SINCE YOUARE SUCH CLOSEFRIENDS AND BANDMATES, DO YOU ALLLIVE IN NANCY ANDPLAN TO STAYTHERE?

EA: We are all fromNancy. But weʼveplayed in many placesof France (Paris, Lyonand Strasbourg.) Wedon't care about theplaces we play as weare open to all thepropositions. We onlywant to be together andplay together! We're notgay just want to playmusic and be with bestfriends while doing it.

MUEN: YOU HAVE ANEW EP OUT CALLED“BEHIND THE SKY”.DOES THIS EP CON-TAIN SOME OF YOURSONGS THAT YOUHAVE PLAYED LIVEOR IS IT ALL SESSIONWORK?

EA: All the songs wewrite are created LIVEwith only 2 sweat songsthat were created duringthe recording session.

When we are playinglive we are more posthardcore as are ournew songs that you willhear soon.

MUEN: WHO WRITESTHE SONGS ANDHOW ARE THEYWRITTEN?

EA: We write the songstogether with JackDaniels!

Sometimes we fight to-gether but weʼre stillunited.

You can hear the resulton Behind the Sky andeven more in our com-ing songs.

MUEN: I NOTICEDYOU WERE VOTEDTO PLAY AT AN IM-PORTANT FESTIVALIN NANCY IN MAY.CAN YOU EXPLAINABOUT THAT SHOW?

EA: We were chosenfrom among more than100 French bands toplay at one of thebiggest outdoor festivalsin the east of France infront of about 5000 peo-ple. It's our second par-ticipation in thisamazing show.

MUEN: HOW DID YOUGET THE CHANCE TOPLAY AT THIS FESTI-VAL IN FRONT OF SOMANY?

EA: We played a show

case in front of a jurycomposed of six profes-sionals. We think wewere selected becauseof our implication andmotivation. We alsohave to thank ours fansfor being there for us atthis crucial moment.

MUEN: HAVE YOUPLANS TO DO MORESHOWS OUTSIDE OFFRANCE AND IF SOWHEN?

EA: We have alreadyhad some projects out-side of France (for ex-ample in Germany andBelgium).We just needa label and a bookingagency to find us somemore shows. We hopeto find some support...

And why not in the USAas well?

MUEN: WITH ALL THEEMPHASIS ONVIDEOS, DO YOUHAVE PLANS TOMAKE A VIDEO FORONE OF YOURSONGS AND WHICHONES?

EA: We're working onour first video for a newsong that will be re-leased in April. At thistime we are recordingthese new songs atFucking Hostile Studio.Everything (video, song,merchandising, andnew MySpace look) willbe online on May 7th.Check the countdown

on our MySpace page.

MUEN: WHAT IS THEONE WISH YOU HAVEFOR 2009?

EA: Our Biggest wishfor 2009 is to have funwith our music and givesome emotion to ourfans.

But as a wish master,we have 3 wishes. Sofor the second one isthat we really get theopportunity to play inCalifornia with MUENTeam present.

And last, but not least,having an autographedposter of Oceana.

MUEN: THANKSGUYS. WE WOULDLOVE TO SEE YOULIVE AND IN CALI-FORNIA TOO. SOWHAT DO EACH OFYOU DO WHEN YOUARE NOT PLAYINGMUSIC?

EA: Sammy (singer):Facebook addict, mak-ing some tattooʼs withOceana lyrics and anundergraduate School-boy.

Nico (drummer): Goingto church every Sundayand trying to succeed inhis engineer's studieswith Jack Daniels.


March 26, 2009Sam Hughes(Vocals)Phoenix, Arizona


MUEN: IS SAMMUSYOUR REAL NAME?

No, basically The Sam-mus Theory is kind oflike the idea of an alterego that music bringsout in everybody. For ex-ample, a lawyer goes towork all suited up andeverything, but he will goto a Marilyn Mansonconcert and be one of

the craziest peoplethere. Sammus was kindof like my alter ego in thestart and then it kind ofrevolved into the wholealter ego idea. So, thatʼswhat the name means.

MUEN: LETʼS TALK ALITTLE ABOUT YOURALBUM SEE ITTHROUGH ITS SET TORELEASE THIS YEAR.THIS IS A CONCEPTALBUM RIGHT?

Yeah, in a way. Itʼs kindof about seeing anythingthrough, like any prob-lems people get. Itʼsabout being able to push

through and come out ontop no matter what. Allthe songs kind of tie intogether, like individualthings that tie togetherinto a whole theme.

MUEN: WAS IT BE-CAUSE OF A CERTAINEPISODE THAT YOUHAD?

Yeah, I got in a near fatalcar accident in 2005. Iwas very lucky, but I stillhad to do therapy andstuff because of posttraumatic stress. Theytold me that my backwas going to be messedup for the rest of my life

and my performancewas going to be not asgood as it should havebeen before I had thathappen. A lot of the writ-ing for that album wasfrustrations that camefrom that, but also takingthat and using it to comeout on top in the end.

MUEN: SO ITʼS BASI-CALLY ABOUT THERECOVERY PROCESS.

Yeah, exactly.

MUEN: WHEN IS ITGOING TO BE RE-LEASED?

The Sammus TheoryPG. 58 - MUEN Magazine April 2009

Right now we are look-ing at a spring releasedate, April or May…ish.There is no set datequite yet.

MUEN: YOU ACTU-ALLY PRODUCED THEALBUM YOURSELF.

Yes.

MUEN: WAS THISYOUR FIRST ATTEMPTAT PRODUCING?

I have been in the studioenvironment a lot. Iʼvehad the chance to watchhow people do things. Itwas fun, because I got toexperiment and I actuallygo to learn a lot moredoing it myself. It wasmy first attempt at it andI learned a lot so I thinkwhatever comes outfrom here on out will beeven better.

MUEN: DID YOU DOTHE MAJORITY OFTHE WRITING ASWELL?

Yeah, what we do as aband is, I will write kindof the core pieces andthen I will bring it to thetable. When everyonecomes in to play it theywill add their own style toit a little bit. They willbring up something thatcould be better or help itout to make the flow bet-ter. By the end of it, itʼsnot really what I had writ-ten. You can tell itʼs beenworked on, itʼs beefedup.

MUEN: SO EVERY-BODY GETS A SAY INIT.

Yeah, we all work it tomake it the best it canbe.

MUEN: YOU WRITEALL OF THE LYRICSTHOUGH. BACK BE-FORE YOU HAD THEBAND YOU HAD WRIT-TEN SONGS.

I did, yeah. Coming fromIdaho Falls, Idaho it wasdue to a lot of boredom.You either do drugs oryou write music.

MUEN: AND THECOVER. WHO CAMEUP WITH THE DESIGNAND WHAT DOES ITSIGNIFY?

My brother does all ofour artwork. The face be-hind the person is almostlike the nagging fears orwhatever it is that willbring someone down.

MUEN: LIKE A CON-SCIENCE?

Itʼs more of like, for ex-ample, my accident withpost traumatic stress andmy back problems. Itʼsanything that has the po-tential to bring you down.Itʼs like whispering insomeoneʼs ear negativethings constantly. Thatʼswhat the face in the backrepresents.

MUEN: WHAT IS “MANWITHOUT EYES?”

That was pre- full band.Thatʼs what I did when Iwas doing it myself. Thatis old news, old schoolstuff.

MUEN: NOW I READ INYOUR BIO THAT MOSTACTS ARE LACKINGALL OF THE PIECESOF THE PUZZLE RE-QUIRED TO FORMU-LATE THE MODERNDAY SUCCESSFULROCK BAND. WHATDO YOU THINK ISLACKING IN THEBANDS TODAY?

When a band gets as-signed a producer, whenthe label puts them withsomebody to write a cer-tain style. The radiobands that are comingout are so close to-gether, so similar thatthere is no creativity any-more. Itʼs kind of like,letʼs take what this banddid and put a little twiston it and put it out so itsounds exactly thesame. I think a lot of cre-ativity is missing. A lot ofbands do a quick, com-mercial song to get onthe radio when they donʼtreally realize that doingyour own thing and mak-ing it strong and uniquewill set you into themusic business a lotmore solid.

MUEN: YOU NEEDSOMETHING THAT ISORIGINAL, SOME-THING THAT MAKESYOU STAND OUTFROM THE CROWD. ITHINK YOU GUYS

HAVE THAT.

Thank you.

MUEN: I ABSOLUTELYLOVE THE VIDEO FOR“PURE.” YOU CANTELL FROM THEVIDEO THAT YOU PUTON AN AMAZING LIVESHOW. NOW, YOU SAYTHAT YOU HAVE ARESIDUAL BACK IN-JURY, BUT YOU JUSTROCK!

Thank you; itʼs a lot ofadrenaline.

MUEN: WHAT DO YOUDO TO PREPARE FORA SHOW?

I do track stretches. Ihave to hide, because Idonʼt want anyone to seeme doing it. I look like adork. Iʼll make weirdnoises for vocal warm-ups and we will have agroup huddle. Itʼs like apep talk to go out and doour best and then we goon to do what we do.

MUEN: WHERE WAS ITFILMED?

It was filmed in Down-town San Diego in aweird, abandoned lotthat was surrounded byapartment buildings andhouses. It was reallyweird.

MUEN: IT WAS A COOLPLACE TO DO A VIDEOTHOUGH. I LIKED THEWAY THE DRUMSETWAS UP IN A BOX.


Thatʼs why that placewas so neat. The part Iwas standing on was likea big ship. It was weird;it was a bunch of rustypieces floating around.

MUEN: DID ANYTHINGINTERESTING HAP-PEN DURING THEFILMING?

Not really, I guess therewere a lot of noise com-plaints on us. The copskept showing up nearthe end. We would belike “Weʼre done, weʼredone” and then wewould hurry and do an-other shot.

MUEN: VIDEOSHOOTS ARE NOTDONE IN AN HOUR. ITTAKES A LONG TIME.

Exactly.

MUEN: I HAVE TO SAY,YOUR DRUMMER ISBAD ASS. I LOVE THEWAY HE TWIRLS HISSTICKS WHILE HEPLAYS. HAS HE BEENPLAYING LONG?

Yeah, I think fifteenyears, heʼs twenty-threeso since he was eight.He did drum line in highschool. You can defi-nitely tell in his playingstyle, he does a lot ofsnare stuff. The sticktwirling comes fromwatching drummers inthe 80ʼs. Thatʼs cool be-cause they knew how toshow off.

MUEN: YOU STARTEDREALLY YOUNG. YOUWERE LEARNINGPIANO AT AGE SEVEN.

Yes, it was one of those

things where my momwas like “Alright, itʼs timefor you to learn an instru-ment and get you out ofmy hair for a while.” Un-fortunately, I didnʼt prac-tice as much as I shouldhave. I think every kidwill say that. It did teachme how to pick up theguitar and the bass andkind of figure things out.

MUEN: BY HIGHSCHOOL YOU HADADDED GUITAR ANDBASS TO YOUR MUSI-CAL TALENTS. YOUARE SELF TAUGHTRIGHT?

Yeah.

MUEN: DO YOU PLAYANY OF THOSE IN-STRUMENTS ON THEALBUM?

I do. On See It Throughwhen we were tracking,Kyle had left to go hometo Montana and he hadonly had time to trackthree of the songs. I didall of the lead parts. So, Idid the lead guitars, thebass and a lot of therhythm stuff. It was justbecause of people beingbusy and not being ableto.

MUEN: LETʼS TALKTOURING NOW. I WASWATCHING YOURVIDEO TOUR BLOGS.SHINEDOWN HAP-PENS TO BE ONE OFMY FAVORITE BANDS.WHAT WAS IT LIKESHARING THE STAGEWITH THEM?

It was a lot of fun and acool experience. Youhear horror stories aboutrock stars being rude orhaving egos. We metZach, Brent and Barryand they were some ofthe nicest dudes we evermet. It was fun to seehow they went in andcarried themselves.There was another bandthat we learned a lotfrom called Jet BlackStare. They were theopener on the bill, butthey were the most pro-fessional band we haveever seen and we took alot away from that.Watching a professionalband do business, sellmerchandise and howthey carry themselveswas an overall greatlearning experience forus.


MUEN: JET BLACKSTARE ARE THENICEST GUYS. I LOVETHE WAY THEYSPEND TIME WITHTHEIR FANS AT THEMERCH TABLES.

Yeah, exactly.

MUEN: YOU WEREONLY ABLE TO DOFOUR DATES WITHPALE AND EARSHOT.WHY WERE YOU NOTABLE TO CONTINUE?

In all honesty, it was agood bill for the tour, butthere were so manythings that happenedlast minute. We hadnʼtreceived the dates andwe were calling the ven-ues trying to get ondates that we weregoing to be playing on. Itwas really nobodyʼsfault; it was just lack ofcommunication. It wasreally just not in thecards for us this time. Itwas potential to go outand lose a lot of moneyand hurt ourselves.

MUEN: I LOVEEARSHOT TOO. IKNOW WIL; HE IS AVERY COOL GUY.

Oh yeah, absolutely,those guys are WOW!That was one thing thatwas really cool, how wel-coming they were. It wasour first national tourwith a national band.They made everythingso comfortable.

MUEN: I THINK ITʼS

COOL THAT YOU AREHAVING SUCH AGREAT EXPERIENCEWITH ALL OF THISTOO. IT SOUNDS LIKEYOU ARE HAVING AGREAT TIME.

Yeah, definitely.

MUEN: PEOPLE WEREDONATING TOWARDSYOUR TOUR. HOW DIDTHAT GO?

I will have to say, ourfans are pretty crazywhen it comes to that. Iput that up to just seewhat happens. Some-body donated $200, an-other one was $150.They were big chunks; Ithink the smallestamount that someonedonated was $5. It wascrazy, people were like“Go on tour!” and throw-ing money. We were like“Were going to pay youguys back.”

MUEN: I NOTICED ALOT OF PEOPLE DO-NATED ACCORDINGTO THE LIST ON YOURBLOG. THERE WERELIKE 50 PEOPLE ONTHE LIST.

We were trying to gowith the fiftieth persongets an autographedprize pack, but it endedup not quite getting tofifty. What we will proba-bly end up doing is arandom pick and send-ing someone a set list orsomething. We want tostay to our word.

MUEN: I DIDNʼT SEEANY TOUR DATES ONYOUR PAGE. ARE YOUGUYS PLANNING ONGOING OUT?

Right now we are work-ing on getting a lot ofMidwest and east coastdates for April and May.Then we will do North-west dates includingWashington, Montana,Idaho and Oregon whichwe do better in the sum-mertime.

MUEN: WELL, WHENYOU GO ON THETOURS, YOU CAN AU-TOGRAPH A CD FORTHOSE PEOPLE.

There you go, thatʼs per-fect, and itʼs a good idea.

MUEN: NO CALIFOR-NIA DATES AT THISTIME?

Not right now, but theredefinitely will be.

MUEN: I LOVED YOURQ&A BLOGS TOO. IFELT LIKE MY JOBWAS ALREADY DONE.I WAS WATCHINGTHEM GOING O.K. ICANʼT ASK THAT ONENOW. (LAUGHING)

Nice.

MUEN: I HAVE TOTELL YOU THAT IHATE SNOW TOO. IHATE THE COLD BASI-CALLY.

Itʼs awful. I grew up insnow. You get six feet in

one day and it sucks. Itʼscold and miserable.Thatʼs why I moved toPhoenix, so I wouldnever see snow again.Then the winter toursstart and Iʼm living insnow again. In Phoenixitʼs like 120 degrees so Iget both extremes, thecoldest winter and thehottest summer.

MUEN: I LOVE THESAMMUS THEORYSHIRTS. PEOPLENEED TO PICK THOSEUP. THEY ARE GREAT!

I agree, but thank you.

MUEN: YOU ARE IN-SPIRED BY MARIYLNMANSON I HEAR.

I am quite a bit actually.One of the very firstthings I saw was the firsttour on VHS that theband had put out. I re-member I was just likeWow! at how dirty every-thing looked on stageand crazy looking. It wasjust one of those thingswhere you say “Thatʼswhat I want to do.”

MUEN: THEY ARE ONEOF THE HEADLINERSON MAYHEM THISYEAR. ARE YOUGOING TO THESHOW?

Yes. I finally saw themlive in 2007. That wasfun, because now I cansay I actually saw Mari-lyn Manson live onstage. Iʼm definitelygoing to go see them.


MUEN: IT WAS AWE-SOME TALKING WITHYOU TODAY. I HAD AGREAT TIME. BEFOREWE HANG UP ISTHERE ANYTHINGYOUʼD LIKE TO ADDOR SAY?

Go to our MySpace pageat Myspace.com/the-sammustheory. Add usand leave us comments,because we love them.

MUEN: IʼD LIKE TOTHANK YOU VERYMUCH FOR THE IN-TERVIEW. I WISH YOUTHE VERY BEST OFLUCK IN YOUR CA-REER.

Thank you so much andI look forward to meetingyou at some point.

MUEN: AND I LOOKFORWARD TO MEET-ING YOU AS WELL.

www.Myspace.com/MLazar


Bone Yard JJ Lang (Vocals)

By Metal Mike

A band we becamefamiliar with recentlyis a band calledBone Yard, and noIʼm not talking aboutsirus xm radio. Thisis a cool hard rock-ing, kick ass sound-ing band fromFairport , New York.Fronted by JJ Lang.The band also con-sist of Brian Donnelyon drums and KevinRothbeind on bass.Stop over towww.myspace.com/boneyardtheband

MUEN: WHO ARETHE FOUNDINGMEMBERS OFBONE YARD ANDHOW DID THEBAND COME TOBE.

All 3 of us are found-ing fathers to BoneYard actually.

MUEN: WHENCHOOSING ANAME FOR THEBAND , HOW DIDYOU REACH THEDECISION TO USE

THE NAME BONEYARD?

Bone Yard was our1st choice. I thoughtof the name afterRachels DEADpassed away. Iwanted a name thatwould make youthink of Desert,Harleys, Whiskeyand life out in theVoodoo Highway.Dirty, Gritty Hard AssRock n' Roll.

MUEN: WHEN ASONG IS FORMEDOR COMPOSED INYOUR BAND, WHOCONTRIBUTES TOWHAT?

A good portion of thesongs are oldersongs that I wrotealong the way. Butthe newer stuff is thedirection we're

headed. I usuallyhave a riff I've beenplaying for quiteawhile. We start a"Jam" to that riff andif we all end up "Stiff"during the jam, weknow we got the nextBone Yard song.From there, we addparts, try to arrangeand I take the fin-ished product andwrite lyrics.

MUEN: WHAT HASTHE MUSIC SCENE(VENUE WISE)BEEN LIKE FORYOUR BAND AS OFLATE? AND ALSOTELL US ABOUTTHE PLACES YOUHAVE HAD THE OP-PORTUNITY TOPLAY.

It has been kindachallenging. Being anall original band, the

pay if any, is not thatof a cover band. Ipersonally, am moreconcerned with play-ing in front a bigcrowd and not somuch the money.Thatʼs what drivesme. A big crowd to-tally digging us. We'lltry different venuesuntil we find a nicehome stage I guess.

MUEN: WHEN YOUFORMED THEBAND WAS THEREA FOCUS AS TOWHERE YOUWANTED THEMUSIC TO GO DI-RECTIONALLY?

Yes, we want tomake people rock.Just straight up, badass hard rock.

MUEN: WHAT ARETHE MUSIC PRO-


GRAMS LIKE INTHE SCHOOLS INYOUR AREA? ANDHAVE YOU EVERCONSIDERED GIV-ING SOME TIME INTHIS AREA TOPROMOTE MUSICAND COMPOSI-TION TO THEKIDS?

I am co-owner ofMusic Lovers inRochester and Ihave mainly schoolkids coming into theshop for sheet musicand band instru-ments. I try to stressto kids and parentsthe importance ofmusic.

MUEN: WHEN YOUSTARTED TO GETINTO MUSIC INI-TIALLY, LIKE WHENYOU FIRSTSTARTED READ-ING MUSIC, TOWHOM DOES THECREDIT GO FORTHIS?

I don't read music. Icredit Joey Mondo,2nd grade, St.Charles ElementarySchool. He broughtin a KISS Magazine.It was all over then!

MUEN: WHAT ARETHE BANDʼS OB-

JECTIVES ANDGOALS BOTH CUR-RENTLY AND LONGTERM?

We are all older, mar-ried, home/businessowners, etc. Being arock star probablyain't in our cards.But, I wanna makegreat music, sellmerch and have asmuch fun as a rockstar.

MUEN: YOUR 4SONG EP WASRECORDED INʻSTRANGELANDSTUDIOSʼ INPHOENIX, N.Y.I WAS WONDERINGIF YOU COULDTELL US A LITTLEABOUT WHEN YOUPUT THIS EP OUTAND WHAT IT WASLIKE WORKINGWITH THIS STUDIO,AND WHEREMIGHT WE FINDTHIS EP FORSALE?

The studio was fun.We went in with alimited budget andtime. Scott atStrangeland knowsthis and knows whatwe want our finishedproduct to sound like.Raw, Big and Ballsy!You don't need

$1000's of dollarsand weeks to to that.We were in thereabout 4-5 hours.Quick, in & out. We'regoing back in a about2 months to recordthe rest of the songs.When those aredone, then we'll puttogether a full blownCD Package to sell.Until then, we aregiving the CD's andStickers away at ourshows.

MUEN: TELL US ALITTLE ABOUT THEBANDS SCHEDULEON AVERAGE..HOW LONG DOYOU GUYS PRAC-TICE, HOW MANYSHOWS DO YOUPLAY, AND HOWOFTEN DOES THEBAND GET TOHANG OUT ANDDISCUSS MUSIC?

We rehearse once aweek for now. About2 hours of practiceand about 30 min of

band "Chill" and dis-cussion. About all weneed for now. Mepersonally, Iʼm inBone Yard mode24/7 lately. We dolots of emails / phonecalls during the weekto put ideas together.

MUEN: We wouldlike to thank you fortaking time out forus, and we wouldlike to end this in-terview by lettingyou add anythingyou might want tosay..

We thank you! I hopethat people take toour music and ourlive shows. overall,we just wanna putout killer songs andhave a great time.Less politics & BSand more ROCK ʻNʼROLL!!!!

Avenged SevenfoldUpcoming Issue ofMUEN Magazine


THE ACACIA STRAIN


February 25, 2009

THE ACACIA STRAIN

Jack Strong (Bass)Brutal, Massachusetts


MUEN: HI JACK ANDTHANKS FOR TALK-ING WITH METODAY….

MUEN: HOW AREYOU TODAY?

Iʼm doing very well, weare in Atlanta right nowand itʼs pretty warm. Itʼsmore warm than it hasbeen in a while so Iʼmin high spirits.

MUEN: I HEARD THATVINCENT IS SICK. ISHE O.K.?

Yeah, he had laryngitisfor five or six days. Hecouldnʼt speak for acouple days. He startedtaking time off and notdoing shows with us.We had Brook from Im-pending Doom filling in.That was kind of inter-esting. Last night wasthe first day he cameback and was singingwith us. It was great tohave him back onstage, because it justwasnʼt the same. Hav-ing him up there makesa world of difference.We werenʼt sure whatwe were going to do at

first, but it turned out al-right. He would just sitback by our trailer in alittle camping chair withhis dry erase board. Hewasnʼt speaking so hewould have to write allhis answers down.

MUEN: YOUR LATESTRELEASE CONTI-NENT CAME OUTLAST AUGUST. HOWIS IT DOING?

From what I know itʼsdoing well. The re-sponses at all theshows have been great.Kids are still jumpingaround, stage diving,singing along andpunching each other.Album sales are stilldoing pretty well. Sofar, so good.

MUEN: IT IS ALSOAVAILABLE IN VINYLWITH TWO EXTRATRACKS ON IT THATYOU CANNOT GETANYWHERE ELSE.WHY DID YOU DE-CIDE TO DO VINYL?

We ended up writing acouple of extra songsand the label wanted usto cut it down to elevenon the record. The Eu-ropean release had oneextra song on it and theJapanese release hadtwo extra songs on it.Itʼs not easily accessi-ble to buy a record overthere so we ended updoing the vinyl with the

two extra songs. It wasfun and kids seem tolike collecting them. It isbecoming more popularnow, more as a collec-tors item, rather thanlistening to it exclu-sively on vinyl.

MUEN: TELL MEWHAT THE CONCEPTOF THE ALBUM IS.

Itʼs basically about ha-tred, disgust and itʼsabout one person end-ing the entire world.That person is leftalone on an entire con-tinent by himself.

MUEN: DOES VIN-CENT WRITE ALL OFTHE LYRICS?

Yes, Vincent writes allof the lyrics.

MUEN: WHAT WASTHE BIGGEST CHAL-LENGE WHEN WRIT-ING THIS RECORD?

It was actually off to arocky start in the sensethat at first we wererushed. We were ontour when we found outthat we had to have therecord done soonerthan we thought. Wewere scrambling to finda producer and engi-neer for it. We hadgone through a coupleof guys. Normally, werecord with Adam D,but he was busy withKillswitch Engage and

recording the Under-oath record. Finally, welooked at our other op-tions and ended upgoing with Zeus, whichwas great. He was ex-actly what this recordneeded as far as Iʼmconcerned. He helpedbring the entire thing to-gether and it turned outgreat.

MUEN: IʼM A FIRM BE-LIEVER THAT THINGSHAPPEN FOR A REA-SON.

Yeah.

MUEN: I WATCHEDTHE FIVE MINIVIDEOS LEADING UPTO THE RELEASE.THEY WERE PRETTYHILARIOUS.

Oh! Thank you.

MUEN: I PERSON-ALLY HAVEN'T SEENTHIS DONE BEFORE.DID YOU GET AGOOD RESPONSEFROM IT?

Yeah, we as a bandwerenʼt sure how theywere going to turn out.It was our managersaying “Hey! Letʼsmake a fucking video.”We were like “What thehell are you talkingabout? “ They put acamera in our face andtold us to do a bunch ofcheesy stuff. I wasnʼtsure how it would come


out because whatʼsfunny to some peopleis not funny to otherpeople. To me, it justlooks like us acting likea bunch of idiots. I was-nʼt sure if people wouldfind that funny or not.Apparently, some did.

MUEN: IT HAD AHAPPY ENDING.

We also like to havefun too. We like to donew and interestingthings that we havenʼtseen done before. Interms of stupid videos,it captures peopleʼs at-tention in some ways. Itobviously shows ourlighter side. We are notan entirely seriousband by any means.

MUEN: LIKE IN THEVIDEOS, DID ANY OFYOU FOLLOWAROUND YOUR FA-VORITE BAND?

It was actually basedon a couple of differentexperiences that eachof us have had. Wewould sort of obsessover our favorite artistand follow themaround. A couple of usgot a restraining orderand whatnot. We de-cided to make a videoto make fun of the situ-ation. Itʼs funny now tolook back and laugh atit.

MUEN: ACTUALLY, IT

APPEARS THAT VIN-CENT IS PRETTYFOND OF BEING INFRONT OF THE CAM-ERA JUDGING BYALL THE VIDEOS INYOUR BLOG. HAS HEEVER THOUGHTABOUT AN ACTINGCAREER?

The only acting that Ican imagine him doingis when our managerthrew a camera in frontof his face.

MUEN: THE KIDSLOVE WATCHINGTHE FUNNY VIDEOS.THEY ARE ALWAYSON YOUTUBE LOOK-ING THOSE THINGSUP.

Exactly.

MUEN: YOU ARE ONTOUR RIGHT NOWUNTIL THE END OFMARCH. WHO AREYOU OUT WITH?

We are currently ontour with ImpendingDoom, As Blood RunsBlack and BleedingThrough. Itʼs going wellso far. We are only tenor twelve days into thetour. We left on Febru-ary 10th and had todrive out to the westcoast. It starts and endsin California which isawesome. It alsomakes the whole fuck-ing trip longer. It endsat the end of March and

then we have a week ofshows that brings us tothe 6th of April. Thatʼswhen we will be gettingback, so two months.

MUEN: NOW, YOUGUYS ARE A FOURPIECE. HAVE YOUEVER THOUGHTABOUT ADDING AFIFTH MEMBER, LIKEAN EXTRA GUITARPLAYER?

No

MUEN: SO YOUʼREPRETTY HAPPY THEWAY YOU ARE.

We sure are.

MUEN: IS VINCENTSTILL IN THE BANDCOCK PUNCH?

Yeah, he is still in theband and they did a fullU.S. tour a while ago.Itʼs more for fun and nota serious act that he isgoing to pursue asmuch as The AcaciaStrain. I canʼt speak forhim, but as far as Iknow itʼs a fun band togoof off and have ablast.

MUEN: BEFORE I LETYOU GO IS THEREANYTHING YOUʼDLIKE TO ADD ORSAY?

Thanks to everybodythat comes out, be-cause you do make it

worth it. It would beawkward playing to anempty room everynight. Kids, come out,hang out and come talkto us. You know, highfives ,punch someonein the face, whatever.

MUEN: DO YOUHANG OUT AT THEMERCH BOOTHS?

Yeah, we are hangingout everywhere. Itʼs notlike were anybody dif-ferent than anybodyelse. Weʼre not specialjust because we play ina band. We will hangout and talk to kids.MUEN: DO YOU RUNYOUR MYSPACEPAGE?

No we donʼt, thatʼs ourmanger. We donʼt havethe patience for that.

MUEN: IʼM SURE YOUGO AND READ THECOMMENTS ONCE INA WHILE THOUGH.

Oh Yeah, but thatʼs asfar as I will look into it. Isigned in once, be-cause I had to mes-sage someone back.

MUEN: ALRIGHT,HAVE FUN ON TOURAND STAY SAFE.

Great, thank you somuch. Take care.


RazorOfOccamAnswers by Alex / Bass

Interview by JeanneThomas (Jet)

MUEN; YOU HAVEBEEN LABELED AS ABLACK METAL /THRASH BAND. HOWDO YOU DESCRIBEYOUR STYLE OFMUSIC?

Black thrash is as gooda description as any.

MUEN; YOUR NAME"RAZOR OF OCCAM"IS PRETTY DAMN SCI-ENTIFIC. EXPLAINWHAT IT MEANS ANDHOW IT PERTAINS TO

YOUR BAND.

The razor of occam de-mands that we rejectany hypotheses that arenot backed by evidence.As such, it is the perfectlogical weapon for dis-pensing with the godsand other religious be-liefs. The irony is thisweapon was developedby church theologiansduring the middle agesin the course of their de-bates over the interpre-tation of scripture. Thismakes it an ideal repre-sentation of the con-frontation betweenscience and religionsymbolizing not only theconflict between them,but also recognizing thedebt owed the latter. Ina sense it also reflectsour approach to song-writing: economical andconcise.

MUEN: MATT & IAN

ARE BOTH FORMERMEMBERS OF DE-STROYER 666. WHATMAKES THE STYLEOF RAZOR OFOCCAM DIFFERENTTHAN DESTROYER666?

The main difference isthat Destroyer incorpo-rates a lot of dynamicsinto the song structureswhereas Razor rarelytakes the foot off thepedal.

MUEN: WHAT HAP-PENED WITH DE-STROYER 666ANYWAYS?

The new album isrecorded and will be re-leased soon. Expectsomething solid andunique!

MUEN: DO YOU FOL-LOW SOME OF THESTEREOTYPICAL

CHARACTERISTICSOF BLACK METAL BE-HAVIOR? DO YOUBURN DOWNCHURCHES AND DES-ECRATE GRAVESWHEN YOU AREN'TSTUDYING THEORIESWITH YOUR NOSEBURIED IN SCIENCEBOOKS?

No. Such behavior issurely counterproduc-tive, only liable toarouse sympathy for thechurch. It is far better tomaintain an articulateattack based on rea-soned argument. In anycase, the Christianchurches, here at least,are attended by only ahandful of old ladies; itwould be harder to finda softer target. Weʼresomeone to burn downa mosque, on the otherhand, they would berisking more than theirfreedom.

MUEN: WHAT DO YOUTHINK IS THEBIGGEST MISCON-CEPTION PEOPLEHAVE OF YOU AS ABAND?

A lot of people assumewe must be a new band,but in fact we wereformed 10 years ago.

MUEN: DO YOU THINKIT'S HARD FOR PEO-PLE TO THINK OFMETAL ARTISTS ASSMART?


I reckon most hide theirintelligence well, so it islargely a misconception.

MUEN: DO YOU BE-LIEVE IN GOD?

None of us were sub-jected to childhood in-doctrination, sonaturally we are all un-corrupted by the irra-tional beliefs of thereligious.

MUEN: YOU HAVE ANEW CD "HOMAGETO MARTYRS" WHATIS THE THEME TOTHIS CD ABOUT?

The lyrics examine theconflict between reasonand superstition; a bat-tle that saw many intel-lectuals face death atthe hands of the inquisi-tion during the timewhen natural philosophywas a fledgling disci-pline. Science withstoodthe initial onslaughtachieving many greattriumphs and is ar-guably now at theheight of its powers. Re-ligion on the other handhas been responsiblefor innumerable atroci-ties and immeasurablesuffering, yet has some-how managed to sur-vive and, possibly, mayeven be thriving.

MUEN: WHERE DIDTHE FASCINATIONFOR SCIENTIFIC THE-ORIES AND RELIGIONCOME FROM?

The interest in scienceis born from a naturalcuriosity about the work-ings of nature. The ob-session with religionarises from astonish-ment, and concern, thatBronze Age mythologiespersist into the modernera.

MUEN: DO YOU BE-LIEVE THAT OLDSCHOOL BLACKMETAL HAS BECOMEA DYING ART?

No, but it must continueto evolve. There is nopoint in just rehashingthe past. To stagnate isto die.

MUEN: WHAT DO YOUTHINK OF THE MOREMILD MANNEREDMELODIC BLACKMETAL AND THE NEWBLACK METAL HY-BRIDS OUT THERE?

Not a fan.

MUEN: GETTINGBACK TO THE NEWCD. WHAT WAS THEPROCESS LIKE FORYOU MAKING THISONE? HOW LONGDID IT TAKE?

Once we prepare agood selection of riffswe lay down the drumsand try and piece themtogether into songs.Then leads are addedand vocal patterns for-mulated. Next we writethe bass lines and fi-

nally the lyrics. A lot ofeffort went into this oneso it took a few years.We worked on a lot ofmaterial that was ulti-mately rejected

MUEN: WHO PRO-DUCED IT?

Recorded and producedby Tore Stjerna inNecromorbus StudioSweden.

MUEN: ARE YOUPLANNING A KICKOFF TOUR WITHVIDEOS, DANCINGGIRLS AND PARTYGOODS??

No.

MUEN: WHAT'S THEBEST PART OF PLAY-ING A SHOW FORYOU?

All those fists and hornsraised in the air is aspectacle no othermusic can offer! MUEN: WHAT MADEYOU DECIDE TOMOVE TO THE UKFROM AUSTRALIA

AND ARE YOU HAPPYNOW?

The metal scene ismore solid in Europethan what it is in Aus-tralia. We all come fromdifferent countries andstayed in London for along time so yes we aresatisfied!

MUEN: WHAT'S THEEXPERIENCE OFWORKING FORMETAL BLADE BEENLIKE FOR YOU?

Very professional and agreat bunch of guys thatgenuinely like the bandsthey sign.

MUEN: WHAT GOALSARE YOU STRIVINGFOR WITH THEBAND? WHAT'S YOURBIGGEST DREAM?

There have never beenany grand designs andin fact it all started as abit of fun. We just wantto keep making musicwe can be proud of.


Chris ArpBy: JET (Jeanne Thomas)

MUEN: YOUR NEW CD,"ODD SENSES," DROPPEDFEB 17TH. HOW DID YOUGO ABOUT PUTTING IT TO-GETHER?

First of all, there are all differ-ent members of the band, andwe all live in different placesacross the US. So, me beingthe primary writer, I send themusic to all the other guyssaying what I would like andthey work with that and laydown their parts. This type ofmusic requires a lot ofthought. The consensual ideasare somewhat abstractly dif-ferent. This time around thesongs are more dramatic.

MUEN: HOW WOULD YOUDESCRIBE THE GENRE OFYOUR MUSIC? YOU SEEMLIKE YOU'RE IN A CLASSALL YOUR OWN. IT'S FASTAND DIFFERENT.

Well Alternative Press classi-fied us as avant garde mathgrindcore. Avant grind is goodin the way that we are notafraid to be noisy and we'refast. We are doing our ownthing so that would representthe avant part of it. Math coreis because we over manipu-late the number of variables inthe music. That all seems tomake sense to me.

MUEN: DO YOU ALL HAVESIMILAR MUSICAL BACK-GROUNDS?

Well the bass player and thedrummer both went to presti-gious music colleges. We arepretty much all on the samepage or we would not be ableto create this type of intricatemusic. I mean for me, whenthe whole grunge thing hit,that's when I went off into myown metal world. I am olderthan a lot of the guys in theband, so my backgroundgrowing up with music is dif-ferent, but we continue to al-

ways experiment and I thinkthat's a key part to all of this.

MUEN: YOU JUST GOT OFFTOUR WITH CATTLE DE-CAPITATION LAST NIGHT.HOW DID THAT GO?

Awesome! The tour was great!Super cool dudes all around!We had fun; the crowd was re-ally into it! I definitely feel likewe gained some new fans onthis tour. There were no down-falls...well, until we got towedthis morning. The drummerwent out and came in and waslike, "The van is gone!"

MUEN: WAIT! YOU MEANYOU DON'T HAVE SOMEBIG FANCY TOUR BUS?

No. No, we're a grind band.

MUEN: ARE YOU STILLCOLLECTING DONATIONSTHROUGH PAYPAL?

Hehe. Actually we do still havethat up on our site. Kids havebeen mailing us money to goto Australia. I mean, bands willplay shows and collect moneyin Australia to send it to us.

We have never played there,but we are trying to get there.We are grind and the under-ground supports us. It is whatit is. I mean comparing us toFallout Boy would be like ap-ples to rocks. We just don't getthe same financial support. Sothose lucky bastards get abus, and by the time we areable to, we will be too old totour anymore.

MUEN: YOU CAN BE ONTHE SENIOR CITIZENS BUS.

Hehe. Yeah, you got it. You'vegot all the answers.

MUEN: WHAT DO YOUTHINK MAKES YOU STANDOUT FROM OTHER BANDSTHAT PLAY SIMILAR MUSICTO YOURS? WELL, ACTU-ALLY, ARE THERE EVENANY THAT DO?

I think that's it. I think we standout for the most part becausethere really aren't any otherbands around that sound likeus. I really do think we haveour own thing going. It has al-ways been my most profoundwork ethic from the get go

when I first started playing gui-tar. I mean I might not play thecatchiest of melodies orfastest music or whatever su-perficial ideals people have onmusic. But I do know I can al-ways be the most creativeunique and original. I have ageneral disgust for most metalmusic these days. I havefallen into the pile of elitist un-derground bands that, really,there aren't so many of usthese days but damn I havemy membership card and it'spaid in full.

MUEN: WOWEE!

It just seems most of thebands out there now are justdoing different versions ofeach other. I mean, some aregreat, don't get me wrong, butI am just saying as a whole.We are just not associatedwith the herd. We are the pur-ple sheep in the big flock.

MUEN: SO YOU WRITEMOST OF THE LYRICS FORTHE BAND?

Yeah. On the first album thelyrics are kind of split between


Greg, Adam, and myself. Andthen I wrote all the lyrics onthe last one and all the lyricson this one. Because it's al-ways been my conceptionabout what's going on and itjust worked out that way.

MUEN: WHO WROTE THELYRICS FOR YOUR SONG"PLAY SOME SKYNYRD?"

I did. Well you know, it goesback to, like, when you go ontour and all these local bandsopen for you and they allsound the fucking same. Thissong came about becauseSkynyrd Blows people awayand it's like saying if you wantto be unoriginal just be a goodcover band covering a goodband like Skynyrd. So thatwas just my rebellious punkattitude against those bandsthat repulse me.

MUEN: ARE YOU STILLDREAMING OF PLAYINGOZZFEST?

Hell yeah. I mean, of course Iheard there was going to beno Ozzfest this year but, whatthe hell, I threw our interestout there anyway. Who knowswho's looking at the votes; itgives the band recognition.And it gives the fans a chanceto support us by voting for usin those things.

MUEN: MAYBE YOUSHOULD SEND SHARON AFRUIT BASKET.

Yeah well, seriously, I don'tknow how we would ever bein it, so I think I'll save mymoney and eat the fruit my-self. But it would be cool toplay; it is Ozzfest, it's no jok-ing: to have that as part ofyour experience would becool. Or it WAS Ozzfest.

MUEN: SO IS IT SAFE TOSAY THAT YOU REALLYDON'T HAVE A FAVORITENEW METAL BAND OUTTHERE?

That I'm super stoked about?

MUEN: YEAH, THERE'SGOTTA BE SOMEONE.

I think Obscure. They justseem to stand out a little morewhere everyone else allsounds the same. I mean,they didn't change my life, butI like them. They have tons oflittle intricacies that really helptheir music here and there.And they have some very cooland profound changes in themovement of their music. If Ido see their disc, I will pick itup.

MUEN: WHO WERE YOURINFLUENCES GROWINGUP?

The first band that really gotme going was Megadeth. Itwas like the first metal metalalbum I ever owned. I thinkMegadeth really did somethingwith thrash music that no bandever did, I mean up until theirRust in Peace. Dave Mustainewas very analytical in the wayhe wrote the songs. And MartyFreeman as a soloist. Be-cause of all his exotic ways ofhow to play notes and way ofexpression. And Dimebag. Youknow, we got to see Dime-bag's grave and that reallymeant a lot to me. It was very

emotional, I guess. And then Igot caught up in the Mike Pat-ton world with Faith No Moreand stuff. Which was pushingme to be a little weirder andthen Korn came out with theirhigh energy and doing weirdthings with the guitar. Therewere 2 local bands that actu-ally influenced Psyopus. Theymade me wanna do what I'mdoing.

MUEN: WHO WOULD YOUSAY WAS YOUR FAVORITEGUITAR PLAYER IN THEWHOLE WORLD?

Keith Richards on heroin! Idunno, that's really weird. Iguess I would say Freedmanor Dimebag.

MUEN: SO HOW DID YOUCOME UP WITH YOURNAME?

Well, it's pretty simple. Psy isthe prefix for physiological andpsychotic, and opus meaningmusical composition. So Psyo-pus meaning psychologicalmusic composition.

MUEN: OR PSYCHOTICMUSIC.

Oh yeah, we definitely have

said that many times before.

MUEN: WHAT'S THE WORSTEXPERIENCE YOU HAVEHAD; I MEAN BESIDES YOUGETTING TOWED TODAY.

I got in a fist fight with our firstvocalist. It was a bad day allaround. The transmission hadgone, we were in the middle ofnowhere it was raining. Wehad to figure out how to solvethe problem. And prior to thisthere was already a strain onour relationship and it just allkind of came to a head on thisday. I have been in recoveryfor over seven years and ourwork ethics were different. Hewas more about partying andletting me do all the work. AndI was a jerk sometimes be-cause I had to always tell himwhat to do but it all came to anend that day. It truly was ablessing in disguise.

MUEN: CHRIS, IT SOUNDSLIKE A MOVIE. COLD NIGHT,VAN BREAKS DOWN, IT'SRAINING, TEMPERS AREFLARING. FISTS ARE FLY-ING IN THE POURING RAIN.

Well, actually, I want to makea movie about all the stupidstuff that bands at our level


deal with on the road. Like aSpinal Tap thing. Stuff thatother bands can relate to, aswell as some of the fans.

MUEN: MAKE SURE YOUPUT THAT SCENE INTHERE.

Oh, for sure, it will definitely bepart of it.

MUEN: ARE YOUR FAMI-LIES REALLY SUPPORTIVEOF EVERYBODY?

For the most part, yeah. It tookmy dad a while to really real-ize this is what I wanted to do.My mom is super supportive.And now my dad gets excitedwhen he finds me in a maga-zine. He calls me up and tellsme.

MUEN: OKAY, COOL. WHENI GET A COPY OF THIS ONEI'LL CALL YOU AND YOUCAN SEND IT TO HIM.

Oh yeah, that will get him re-ally pumped. Look Dad, that'sme!!!

MUEN: AT LEAST YOUAREN'T IN JAIL OR SHOOT-ING UP IN THE CORNERSOMEWHERE.

Yeah, like Keith Richards. I'mgoing to do a rock operabased on him, I think.

MUEN: YOU HAVE A LOT OFPROJECTS GOING BE-TWEEN THE BAND, THEMOVIE, AND THE OPERA.

Yeah, I'll get none of thosedone.

MUEN: WHAT WOULD YOUSAY TO THE YOUNG PEO-PLE NOW WHO ARE TRY-ING TO GET INTO THEBUSINESS?

Just do it. I went to school fora year when I was going togive up on the band thing -and that was when Psyopusstarted, actually. Professorswere like, "What do you want

to do?" So I told them andthey would say just go and doit. And I was Honor Societyand everything, unlike in highschool. I had a psychologyprofessor once, and I was onacid in his class and he cameup to me and said, "Why don'tyou just drop this class." Butthey were all supportive. Theywere like, "Do what you gottado, man." So I did. So I saythat to the new generation ofmusicians: just go out and doit. And try to do your own thinginstead of trying to fit themold. Just don't try to soundlike everyone else.

MUEN: WELL, I CAN HON-ESTLY SAY YOU DON'T.

Well thank you, that's verycool.

MUEN: AS A GUITARPLAYER, WHAT IS YOURMUSICAL STYLING?

My style is when I am in agood mood, I apply it to mymusic; same as a bad mood.Also I tend to over think,maybe a little analytical?

MUEN: WOULD YOU SAYYOU'RE PRETTY TECHNI-CAL? OR DOES IT JUSTHAPPEN?

It just happens. Thank you,this is probably the first timeanyone has ever said it right inan interview. Saying things aretechnical seems a superficialideal of music and when Ithink it out it just happens tocome out this way.

MUEN: SO WHAT'S THISCONTROVERSY ABOUTYOU GETTING ENDORSE-MENTS I'VE BEEN HEARINGABOUT? I WANT TO GETTHE SCOOP FROM THEHORSES MOUTH.

Oh I had to send a video toMesa Boogie for an endorse-ment to prove that I can reallyplay as fast as they heard be-cause they did not believe

what they heard. So I wentahead and made the video toshow the guy. In the endnothing came out of it. I didnot really pursue it either. Iwant an endorsement throughPeavey really because I lovetheir products so much. I amworking on that with MetalBlade now.

MUEN: WHAT ARE PEO-PLE'S REACTIONS WHENTHEY SEE YOU PLAYING?

Well, funny thing is the fans al-ways want to know how wepull it off live. Once they seeus live they are really im-pressed with it.

MUEN: SO WHAT AREYOUR FANS LIKE?

Well we have a lot of under 30young fans that are musiciansas well as older musicians.Then we have a bunch ofdrugged out hippie fans aswell who think our music is re-ally trippy. The only fans thatwe do not have per se are thereally meat head hardcorekids who want to break stuff.We just don't offer anythingthat would appeal to them andthat's fine by us. Because theydon't appeal to us. They can

go stink kick some other fuck-ing kids.

MUEN: SO DO YOU THINKTHAT WITH SATELLITERADIO NOW AND INTERNETRADIO IT REALLY HELPSYOU ALONG THE WAY?

Yeah, sure. The over satura-tion of bands on MySpace andon radio now kind of takesaway some of the magic andexcitement there used to bewhen hearing a band. But ifyou are different enough, Ithink you are rewarded morethan the big label bands whodo what they're told and all.

MUEN: SO HOW DO YOUPREPARE FOR A TOUR?

Well we all practice in our vari-ous parts of the country andthen we have like two prac-tices together before we go ontour.

MUEN: SO YOU HAVE REG-ULAR JOBS TOO?

Well, one of us does. I haven'tworked like that in years. Inbetween gigs I play for HankWilliams the 3rd; that keepsthe money coming in whenthere's nothing going on.

Summer 2009


InterviewwithRubellafrom BurningAngel.com

By Timo Satanis

MUEN: Hi Rubella,thanks for sittingdown with us today.We really appreci-ate the interview.

Rubella: Thanks!Glad to be here.

MUEN: So, to startoff, I'll ask a fairlycliché question...What made you de-cide to get into thealternative porn in-dustry in the firstplace?

Rubella: Hmm ... it'ssort of funny I guessbecause before I hadto start trying to looknice for photos, anypictures of me cameout really horriblelooking and unflatter-ing. One of myfriends was into pho-tography and shewanted me to modelfor her, and I thoughtit was fun stuff so Ikept going with it. I

guess I've alwaysbeen pretty securewith how I looknaked so taking myclothes off wasn't abig hurdle or any-thing.

MUEN: How manysites have you pho-tographed with sofar?

Rubella: Oh lord, Idon't know. It's al-

most like collectingtrading cards orsomething; there areso many goddamned alt pornsites. I'd say ... 8 thatI can think of now.


That's all pay sitesthough, I haveworked with a lot ofindependent photog-raphers as well asthose, and my im-ages are on their re-spective websitesand portfolios. Iguess there aresome clothing com-panies too, I don'tknow, too many tolist!

MUEN: And rightnow you predomi-nantly work withBurningAngel.com,correct? What's itlike working withthem?

Rubella: Yeah, that'sright. I like them alot, everyone is reallyfun and nice andBrenda just came outwith a book of pho-tography that I'm toldI'm in (though Ihaven't seen it). Mattis always fun toshoot with, going tothe parties and meet-ing the other girls isa lot of fun. Since thenew websitelaunched, the mes-sage boards are infull force and it's likeone big happy nakedfamily.

MUEN: Ah, so Burn-ing Angel openedup a forum now?What's it like get-ting to interact withyour fans online?

Rubella: Well therewas a forum beforebut nobody reallywent on it and it was-n't as cool as thenew one. I don't evenknow if most peopleknew it was there,but the new one isreally active. Thenew site lets you addfriends and your fa-voritegirls/photos/videosand have a little pro-file, so all the mem-bers have a photoand whatnot. It's funto talk to the mem-bers, see who's actu-ally into looking at usnaked, and what elsethey're into. A lot ofthem are really tal-ented actually, oneguy is an amazingpainter, lots of themare in bands, etc. It'seasy to talk to a lot ofthe other girls whomight live far awaytoo, everyone getsalong well and it'sjust a lot of fun forwhen I need to killsome time.

MUEN: So wouldyou say that yourfans couldn't reallybe placed into onecategory?

Rubella: Hahaha no,not at all. There arepeople from everyaspect of the rainbow... girls, guys, the old,the young, the "alt",etc. All they have incommon is that theylike naked girls

MUEN: Are yourfans pretty respect-ful most of thetime?

Rubella: For themost part, yes. Youdo get random postsor instant messagesfrom people sayingdisrespectful or justdownright creepy

stuff, but you have toremember that it'sthe Internet and it'sporn. When thosetwo forces are com-bined, you're boundto get some generalweirdness.

MUEN: Indeed. It'sjust one of the as-pects of the indus-try I suppose.Anyhow, it was apleasure being ableto sit down and talkwith you today. Wereally appreciate it.Any last words?

Rubella: I don't know,get naked!?


By Tracy L. Forsyth-Lundy

Zakk Wylde is nodoubt known best forhis unique style ofhammering out mindblowing solos & riffsover the years withMetal legend Ozzy Os-bourne; however thereis much more to this“beer drinking, guitarplayinʼ madman” thenhis work with Ozzy.Black Label Societyhas been poundingout album after albumsince its conception in1998 & is now headingout on a North Ameri-can Tour this springfollowed with touringin Europe this sum-mer.

Black Label Society is

packed with talent,drive and absolutepassion for the musicthey have created.Band members ZakkWylde (guitars/vo-cals), Nick Catanese(rhythm guitar), John“JD” Deservio (bass)and Craig Nunen-macher (drums) havecreated some of thebest rock/metal songsthis music lover hasheard in a long time.Songs such as ʻSui-cide Messiahʼ – whichwill make you bangyour head from themoment it starts, ʻStill-bornʼ – containingCLASSIC Zakk riffs,ʻFire It Upʼ – giving arock/soul groove atthe start and meltinginto a metal stylewhile consistently

maintaining the soulfeel throughout thesong are just a few ex-amples of what thistalented group of mu-sicians bring to thetable each night theyrock their fanʼs world.

ʻShot To Hellʼ is thetitle of their most re-cent album and it trulyis a must hear for ANYRock & Roll fan whocannot get enough ofZakkʼs impeccablestyle of playing hisaxe. If you are miss-ing any of Black labelSocietyʼs albums inyour music collection,then Iʼm afraid I haveto inform you thatyour collection isquite incomplete.

Zakk Wylde took thetime to talk with meabout the upcomingtour, the songs andwhat his fans can ex-pect from them in2009.

MUEN: Thank you &hail to you for startingBlack Label Society.

Thanks Doll!

MUEN: You have thissong ʻIn This Riverʼwhich is what mostZakk Wylde fanswould not expect ifthey were to sit downand hear it. You hearZakk Wylde and thinkOK plays with Ozzy &

on stage is a crazyguy. You hear thepiano and actuallyhave the opportunityto listen to how beau-tiful the song really is– were your fans takenaback by you showingthat side of yourself?

Ah… well look, withOzzy Iʼm at home witheverything and I lovethe mellow stuff. I lovelistening to Elton Johnas much as I love listen-ing to Sabbath orSoundgarden. So Imean the whole thing isI love mellow stuff – TheEagles, all classic rockstuff you know I listen toSarah Maclachlan sheʼsawesome. I love themellow stuff as much asanything I mean goodmusic is good musicknow what Iʼm saying?

MUEN: Exactly, it willspeak for itself if it is agood song it doesnʼthave to be classifiedinto a genre it will justgrab a music fan.

Yeah – just because Ilove heavy stuff youknow – there has al-ways been mellow stuffflying around.

MUEN: ʻShot to Hellʼhas been out forawhile now & itʼs thealbum you are outpromoting yah?

ʻShot to Hellʼ was the

BBllaacckk LLaabbeellSSoocciieettyy’’ssZZaakkkk WWyyllddee


last one so weʼre gettingready to do some datesright now, weʼll head outand do a Black Labelbatch. Weʼre going togo out and have a blastdoing that, starts March6th until about the mid-dle of May. Then wewill either go back intothe studio then eitherfinish Ozzyʼs record wealready have like 14-15songs & then after that Ithink we are going to dosome dates over in Eu-rope for like all the festi-vals. Iʼve beenspending most of thesummers over heredoing the Ozzfest andeverything like that. Ithink Ozzy is taking abreak this year. Peoplealways as me ʻwhen areyou coming over here(Europe)?ʼ and Iʼm likewell Iʼm on tour dateswith Ozzy yada-yada-yada so in between thatI gotta fit in Black Label.

MUEN: When did youhave your Holy Shitmoment in your careerwhere you sat backand went holy f**k IʼmOzzyʼs guitarist, I havemy own instrumentline – when did it hityou and go ʻhey Imade it!ʼ?

Well I donʼt think itʼseven that. The funnything is when we aredoing these in stores orwhat ever…I mean Ilove working anyways

so itʼs like my wife willjust go youʼre out onstage and this and that.First off when I gohome, all I want to do isjust be in the house Imean that IS my vaca-tion. Iʼm never sleepingin my own bed any-ways, Iʼm either sleep-ing on the floor, Iʼmsleeping on a bus or Iʼmin a hotel – most of thebeds are not mine.When I have a monthoff from the road itʼs noteven a month off, Iʼmgetting ready to go intothe studio or weʼre stillworking coming out withmerch stuff but at thesame time if we do goon a vacation…myniece got married out inTurks Cacaos downthere in the BermudaTriangle somewhere Imean the whole thing isjust like – I brought myguitar, Iʼm getting readyfor the tour and Iʼm call-ing JD up weʼre talkingabout the set list orsome shit. Iʼm NOT abeach guy first off &second off I donʼt gosurfing so I mean itʼsjust like I donʼt like lay-ing out in the sand Idonʼt get tanned I getburnt like a f***ing lob-ster. Iʼm this pastyDutch/Irish so you knowI donʼt want to be hang-ing out there you know.Iʼd rather be working soI mean if Iʼm just sittingaround I feel like a f**k,if Iʼm watching TV I put

a guitar in my handsand just go over scalesand shit like that. Iʼdrather be f***ing workingotherwise I feel like Iʼmnot getting anythingdone. After the gigs ob-viously I like going tothe pub and chilling withpeople and solving theproblems of the worldand just getting the f**kaway from music for like2 minutes, but to methatʼs just relaxing &f***ing chilling and hav-ing nothing to do withmusic. After sitting outon a damn beach for af***ing week just f***ingblows and I want to getback to work.

MUEN: With Blacklabel Society you basi-cally released yourfirst album in 1998 &youʼve done an albumor something consec-utively every year isthat something that isdifficult for you or doyou just have so muchflowing through yourmind that it justcomes naturally?

I do all of my writing assoon as I get into thestudio, I donʼt like writeat the house and dof***ing demos – there isno such thing as f***ingdemos. You go in, youwrite and get inspired,you get it on the boardand itʼs the end of thef***ing song. We maygo letʼs make this part

shorter or what ever butthe songs write them-selves. As soon as weget into the studio itswrite the f***ing song! Idonʼt know how bandstake a year to make af***ing album, itʼs likeare you for f***ing realweʼre talking about 10songs here man, 10-12songs and youʼrerecording for a f***ingyear? Cʼmon!

A straight shooter forcertain, Zakk Wyldewill always give youhis open and honestopinion regardless ofthe question. Hissense of humor hadme in tears at certainpoints during our con-versation, with manysimilar experienceswith parenting & themusic they listen to aswell as how fast theychange their minds onwho is the next hotband.

Watch for tour datesin your area & donʼteven think about skip-ping his show – BlackLabel Society is 100%pure Rock & Roll!Thanks Zakk & seeyou on the 17th ofMarch!

myspace.com/blackla-belsociety


muen magazine april 2009

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