Too Many Doses And I'm Starting To Get An Attraction

PunkTV.ca: Alright, we’re here at the Avenged Sevenfold show, backstage with Johnny Christ, how are you doing?
Good man! How are you?

PunkTV.ca: Very good. Last time we spoke was about 6 months ago, you were talking about getting fucked up on the road
(Johnny laughs and grins)

PunkTV.ca: … non stop partying, non stop touring. Can you tell us how the tour has been going and about life on the road?
Ya. The tour has been going great for the last, like 2 years, and we kinda slowed down on the partying a bit… We definitely had our fair share of fun on the road but (pause) a lot of the press has been fabricated on a lot of what we do. We’re not a Motley Crue by any means… We’re just out there… We are just 5 great friends that get along together and like to have a few drinks. But you know, touring has been great, we have had a lot of fun and we are all getting excited to get home and get started in writing our next album.

PunkTV.ca: (Dramatically) I talked to the Rev, and he told me first hand that it’s hard core partying on the road for you guys.
(laughs, busted)

PunkTV.ca: So maybe you are fabricating this right now. (joking)
The Rev! (laughing) Well, The Rev, well, he’s the wild one. That’s the truth.

PunkTV.ca: So now we know the truth. Can you tell the kids coming up in bands how important whoring the band is? How important touring and non stop promotions is for a band? (I was referring to MySpace whoring, like the previous comment, may have come off a bit more serious that I intended, oh well, Johnny was a great guy, and tried to roll with it.)
Non Stop promotions is definitely good, but it has to be the right promotions but I wouldn’t necessarily say that whoring yourself out is good at all but you do want to get yoru name out there by consecutive touring like you say. You want to get out there and gave your name be heard by, and have it actually affiliated with the band, you want to have your image affiliated with it, and to take as many tours as you can to get your name out there.

PunkTV.ca: Can you tell us a little bit about your MySpace? You guys are up to 7 million profile views. At some point, it must get weird, and surreal.
You know what? It’s really cool actually. It is a little bit surreal to see that there are 7 million people that are fans on My Space and for records and we have only sold, like a million worldwide, so, (both laugh) it’s definitely a little weird to see that… But it’s definitely cool.

PunkTV.ca: (Speaking of which) Do you think that at some point, there’s a ratio of kids that way more kids are listening to the music than are actually going out and buying it, so does it become a downside? Ya, you have all these promotions and You Tube plays your video a million times but if it only translates to 10 million listens and 1 million purchases…
Ya, that’s kind of the bum out of the internet situation as a whole. That’s kind of a bum out but, I think that we think of these potential listens as potential fans so…

PunkTV.ca: Speaking of fans. How important is it for you to stay on top of your fans? You must get like 10 thousand emails every day, how do you get back tot hem all?
Actually, for a while we were getting back to like every single one. It did, as it turns out, become very overwhelming, so we kinda have them screened through by our management team, and we some people that oversee the emails, and we try to get back to as many as we can, but it can be very overwhelming.

PunkTV.ca: so your current video on MTV and Much and your Myspace is “Seize the Day”. Can you tell us about how important that philosophy is for the band, and living every moment to it’s fullest, and really seizing the day?
Ya, if we didn’t do that as a band, you know, it’d be very different with the guys, you know, living together with 5 dudes in such close quarters. Doing your best every day, we have been doing this for 8 years now, and it just wouldn’t be the same…

PunkTV.ca: Would get boring very fast?
Ya, live life to the fullest and just don’t take any of it for granted.

PunkTV.ca: Can you talk about your Canadian fans. We have a lot of readers that are from Canada, what has Canada meant to you guys?
Canada has been great. We come out the first couple times on Warped Tour, and that was really great for us. And we still to this day get lots of people that come up to us and say, “Ya, the first time that I saw you was on Warped Tour on such and such year, and you guys won me over in like 30 seconds”… So it’s really awesome that a lot of the Canadian fans here saw us on tour rather than just on the radio,,,

PunkTV.ca: Well, I saw you the first time on Warped Tour and actually, that blew me right away.
Thank you very much.

PunkTV.ca: You are welcome. I was there to see punk rock bands and these guys kick fucking ass live. So I just want to talk about the spiritual iconography of the band, and that message… with the designs, graphics, book of revelations, can you tell us about the spiritual message for the band?
There’s not really so much of a spiritual message from the band. We area band that grew up with many of the heavy metal bands like the Metallica’s, Iron Maidens and everything that did use that imagery for their stories. There are a lot of great stories in the bible and a lot of it can be taken into context today. Like in Beast and the Harlot, City of Evil, that’s Babylon falling, you have a lot of cities today that are filled with that kind of decadence.

PunkTV.ca: . Modern day Sodom and Gomorrah?
Ya.

PunkTV.ca: Like Los Angeles?
Ya, but more like Vegas. (both laugh!)

PunkTV.ca: But you LOVE Vegas!
Ya, we love Vegas! That’s not to say that it is a bad message about it, we love it all!

PunkTV.ca: Just being… Recognizing it. Kind of a social commentary…
Pretty much, we just use it as for story telling.

PunkTV.ca: Good. So you have been touring the album for 2 years. Obviously you are planning to get back into the studio soon to work on a new album? (Avenged actually cut their tour short a week after this interview to get into the studio and start working on their new album) Do you have a tentative title, do you have a concept in mind? Are you going to write in the studio, what have you got planned for that?
We are going to write when we get home to our houses, we are going to do what we usually do; just get into someone’s garage and start the writing process there. Ummm, we usually try and write in the moment, so I cant say anything about it right now. All we have is ideas shooting back and forth, like, “what are we going to do?” It’s always scary…

PunkTV.ca: Pressure.
Ya. It’s pressure to write the record that we want to write. Not so much pressure from anything, like for successful reasons. We just want to be able to get all of our ideas out on the table and put together the best record that we possibly can. And that’s where the pressure comes in, just outdoing ourselves every time.

PunkTV.ca: Ya.
It’s a little scary trying to do that every time.

PunkTV.ca: Well now that you have sold over a million records, the pressure is considerably bigger.
(looks astonished) Ya…

PunkTV.ca: But no pressure, dude!
(both laugh).

PunkTV.ca: Alright, we got 2 more questions. First of all, Which of the following experiences have you had and cal you tell us about it. A brush with God? An alien experience? Or a supernatural Ghost experience?
I don’t think that I have had any of those… Actually, a brush with God. I have probably need drunk a few times and was cursing at God, that’s probably the closest that I have gotten.

PunkTV.ca: But you have never met Him.
No, no, can’t say I have.

PunkTV.ca: Alright, the final question is, tell us what would surprise kids most to learn about Avenged Sevenfold or about Johnny Christ?
Probably that we are not as drunk as we were pretending to be.

PunkTV.ca: Any final words for the kids?
(giggles) Ya. Thank you guys very much, we love you all.

No band has emerged from the hardcore metal scene and into the mainstream spotlight with as much power as Orange County’s Avenged Sevenfold. Their latest album City Of Evil has propelled them into international rock stars and landed them the radio/MTV breakthrough song ‘Bat Country’. With unconventional song structures, ripping guitar solos and lengthy songs, Avenged Sevenfold have trashed the corporate version of success and made the mainstream pay attention.

Blistering.com managed to catch up with Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows to talk about the breakthrough success of City of Evil, the band’s growth as songwriters and why he could care less about what people might think about him or his band.

Blistering.com: You’re originally from Orange County; can you give us an idea of what it was like growing up in OC?
Shadows: It was pretty normal. I consider it a lot better than most places. Orange County’s got cool beaches and it’s kind of a party town. The music scene is pretty big and when you grow up there’s a huge pub scene. There’s a big scene for everything. There’s great weather and great scenery; it’s pretty cool.

Blistering.com: At what point did you first get into music?
Shadows: I don’t know what age exactly, but the week that Appetite For Destruction came out my Dad bought me that tape. I listened to Nirvana and stuff like that, but then I started getting into older punk like Black Flag and our drummer started getting me into Pantera, Metallica and those types of metal bands.

Blistering.com: What was it about Appetite For Destruction that was so significant for you?
Shadows: I don’t know, I just love everything about it. It’s just catchy and I can really get into it; the guitar solos are amazing. Everything about it is just amazing to me. It’s the first thing that I got into so it’ll always be special. It’s just the perfect album.

Blistering.com: What were the initial reactions when Avenged Sevenfold started performing in Orange County?
Shadows: I think we considered ourselves a punk and hardcore hybrid band at first. We had some hardcore metal with a lot of punk rock influence and I think the hardcore scene embraced us at first, but we weren’t really looking to be embraced by that scene. It was kind of a weird thing, we did well in Orange County but we did well in other places too.

Blistering.com: What was your reaction when people started labeling you as a metalcore band and a leader of that movement?
Shadows: At first we were just laughing at it and then it went a little overboard and got drawn and then other bands started coming out as metalcore and they sounded so horrible that we didn’t want to have anything to do with it. It was one of those things where we don’t listen to metalcore, we don’t own any metalcore CDs and we don’t necessarily like those bands.

Blistering.com: This record is quite a change musically from your last record. It seems like the band has grown as songwriters with this record.
Shadows: I think there was a vast progression, but it was one of those things where we wanted to expand everywhere because we weren’t happy. We wanted to make it gritty and little dirtier, more attitude based. We’d sit there and try to get different textures out of my voice and I went to vocal training with Ron Anderson, a vocal coach who has worked with a lot of my favorite singers. I went to him and he really opened my mind to how the vocals were recorded on a lot of my favorite records. I think it’s going to be weird for a lot of our fans, but it’s definitely what we were going for.

Blistering.com: Ron Anderson has worked with guys like Axl Rose and Chris Cornell, but what was it that he brought to the table?
Shadows: It’s funny, you hear anybody who’s on the radio and they all have the same characteristics. You hear Scott Weiland, Axl Rose or Chris Cornell and they all have that high distorted, gritty, whiny low range. Ron taught me how to have that grit to my voice while still having the tone. He brought all of that to the table and he brought that technique to my voice. I’ve worked with him for about a year and a half now, but I worked with him for nine months before the record. I told him that I want my voice to sound different from everybody else, but I wanted those characteristics in my voice. We also had him in the studio and he produced the vocals on the whole record. It was one of those things that we just wanted to go all the way with it.

Blistering.com: Are you worried that older fans will perceive the new vocal style as you “selling out”?
Shadows: That’s something that bands worry about when they’re younger. At this point, I could really care less, because we’re just going to do what we want to do and what feels right. We’re not the type of band that’s going to worry about what everyone is going to think about us. If we did that, we’d end up writing a metalcore record.

Blistering.com: Do you think the growth in your sound was a necessary evolution for Avenged Sevenfold?
Shadows: It definitely was; if we did another record like Waking The Fallen and sold a million records, none of us would be happy. We just wanted to release a record that we felt comfortable with. We wanted to write something that we could call a creative metal record. We took a lot of different things musically and combined them into one record and that’s all we wanted to do. We’re all best friends and we want to be happy, not worry about everyone else.

Blistering.com: Where did the title City Of Evil come from and what does it mean to you?
Shadows: Originally, we wrote ‘Beast And The Harlot’, the first track on the album, and lyrically it was about the fall of Babylon and it being called a city of evil. At the same time, Zacky was working on the artwork, which was a city with our bat character riding out of the city, so we decided to call it that because the album artwork looked like the city of evil burning. We had the song about Babylon as the first track, so we just called it City Of Evil.

Blistering.com: There are some really diverse things musically on this record, like the boys choir on ‘Wicked End’.
Shadows: That originally started out with us wanting to do a thrash song and just go somewhere with it that we’ve never gone before. We’re all huge Danny Elfman fans, he did the Edward Scissorhands soundtrack, and whenever we do the introduction to our live show, we always have Edward Scissorhands playing. We wanted to do one of our own, so we wrote the score first, and then based the rest of the song around it. When you listen to Danny Elfman, he always has a boys’ choir, so we went to the label and asked if we could hire a boys choir and they said we could, so we just went with it. It was one of those things where we tried to branch out and do whatever we wanted.

 Blistering.com: The track ‘Betrayed’ is a tribute to Dimebag Darryl. What was it about his death that inspired you to write a song?
Shadows: Dimebag died in the middle of us writing the record and Pantera had always been one of our all-time favorite bands. We really wanted to write a song about it and get out some different feelings about it. Dimebag was just a guitar God to us, so when I got the call that he had died, I couldn’t believe it; my heart totally stopped. I’d never met the guy, but I’d been listening to him my whole life and I knew every note on every song on every record. I just couldn’t believe it; we had always hoped for a reunion tour to happen.

Blistering.com: I’ve never met Dimebag either, but just from listening to his music and watching his videos, you feel like you know him.
Shadows: Totally. Everything you read and heard about, you just know he’s one of the nicest guys. He’s always laughing, always good hearted, always having a good time drinking it up. You can tell he’s a great guy. That’s why he’s touched so many people.

Blistering.com: Your vocal work on ‘Betrayed’ kind of makes you sound like a cross between Mike Patton and Phil Anselmo.
Shadows: We were really trying to stretch out everything and not put boundaries on anything. Mike Patton was a huge influence for a lot of that. I love all the great singers and all the great attributes that they bring to the table. I just wanted to use them all in the record making process.

Blistering.com: The song ‘Strength Of The World’ has these killer hardcore sing along vocals that add a new dimension.
Shadows: We weren’t trying for a hardcore song, but it just came to me that maybe we could have a group thing in there. Just to throw a group vocal in the mix. We thought that it was a weird song to do it in, but we just decided to do it. It’s one of those things that had a real whiny vocal after it, so we wanted to have a real tough vocal before it, just to have the contrast. We weren’t trying to throw back the old school, we were just going crazy.

Blistering.com: Avenged Sevenfold has a reputation for backstage antics, much like Pantera did?
Shadows: These guys are the craziest people I know. If we’re backstage or whatever, yeah, it does get a bit crazy, but I think it’s not as bad as everyone thinks it is. Sometimes its crazy, and sometimes everyone’s just chilling out. It goes both ways.

Blistering.com: Do you think the press sensationalizes your backstage antics just as much as they do your music?
Shadows: Yeah, I think they do. I think it’s funny because I’ll do an interview with somebody and we’ll be total assholes to them because all they can do is talk to us about that. Then they get but for us it’s like, “That’s what you wanted. You wanted a bunch of dickheads, backstage fucking with people, but when we fuck with you and it’s not funny anymore.” It’s kinda weird, especially with the English press; they blow things way out of proportion, to the point where it’s not even funny. We do bring it on ourselves though, we’ll think that it’ll be funny to fuck with them, but it’s serious. They do blow it out of proportion though.

Blistering.com: Do your parents ever read your press clippings?
Shadows: They read it all, but they know us all and they know that everyone’s crazy. We’ve been best friends for so long and we’d practice at everyone’s house. They knew they couldn’t really do anything about it, so they accepted it and said, “Okay, that’s fine. They’re in a band together, so it’ll keep them out of trouble”.

Blistering.com: The band signed to a major label for the release of City Of Evil. What is the major difference between being signed to a major label, versus an independent?
Shadows: At first there were a lot of perks because there was more money. You can write the album and record it the way we wanted because we had 100% creative control and they would pay for everything. They also have lots of people working your record and they have a lot of old ways they like to break bands, but we’re not a band that’s going to break by the typical ways. We don’t want to break by Pure Volume or by the Internet and we definitely don’t want to break by throwing ourselves on the radio. We don’t consider ourselves one of those bands. We consider ourselves a band where the kids are going to get it, or they’re not. Pantera wasn’t on the radio and they grew from underground and had a great career. When you’re working with a major label, all they want to do is get you on the radio and we have to keep reminding them that we’re not the next My Chemical Romance, we’re a completely different band. We have to remind Warner Bros. that we’re not a radio band.

Blistering.com: But isn’t it a label’s job to try and get the band onto radio and into video rotation?
Shadows: Totally and I’m sure if Hopeless had the same amount of money, they’d be doing the same things. There were a million battles we had with them, they just didn’t put up as much of a fight because we were the biggest selling band on their label. We’re not even close to the biggest selling band on Warner Bros., so it’s a different situation.

Blistering.com: At the same time a song like ‘Seize The Day’ is easily one of the most accessible songs you’ve written to date and could probably make it’s way onto radio.
Shadows: Yeah, but it takes really precise planning and it takes the right timing to do that sort of thing. We don’t want to go to a major label and then have a song on the radio right away, because that would completely kill your hardcore fanbase. They would be like, “What the fuck’s going on?” We don’t worry about that kind of thing though. We just go out and try and put on a great show for our fans every night.

Blistering.com: Do you have a message that you want listeners to take away this record?
Shadows: I think if people can get past the fact that I’m not screaming anymore then they’ll see that this is an ambitious record. I know it’s a hard record to get into with its long songs, but the people who have gotten into have given us some really positive feedback. Then there are people that just say, “Oh, he’s not screaming anymore,” but those aren’t the kind of fans we’re looking for anyways. We wanted to make a record that people will listen to for a while. There are so many records out there with nothing to bite into; no substance. This record just has so much to it. The first half is meant to bang you over the head, then after ‘Seize The Day’, it gets into all this progressive rock stuff. In today’s music scene I think there are a lot of people that try and write hit songs, but not albums. This record is definitely not for people like that. This is a record that you definitely have to get into. We don’t want to be one of those bands that people listen to for a couple weeks and then move onto the next metalcore CD. When that whole scene sinks into the gutter, we won’t be a part of it. That was something that we were really thinking about when we were writing this record. We wanted to write a record that was timeless.

Q: What are your thoughts on headling on this years Vans Warped Tour?

Zacky: Were going to try to take over warped this year so were very excited.

Q: How did the band get invited to play on the Warped Tour?

Zacky:  I think the invitation was something to the effect of "We have alot of beer and we need your help drinking it".  Naturally we said yes.

Q: A stranger comes up to you and asks you to describe Avenged Sevenfold's music. What would you tell them?

Zacky:  I dont talk to strangers.

Q: Your latest album is "Waking the Fallen" what are your thoughts on this album?

Zacky:  I like it. we put alot of hard work into it and are very proud.

Q: Who designed the really cool looking logo on the album?

Zacky:  The death bat was drawn by a small norwegian man.

Q: How long did it take to produce the video for Unholy Confessions?

Zacky:  It's all taped from one show...We just left it up to the kids to make it shine and they came through.

Q: Can fans still request it on Fuse? If so how?

Zacky: Ya swing on over to Fuse.tv and email them or something.

Q: Avenged Sevenfold has developed a reputation for putting on an incredible live show. Does the band have any plans to release a Live CD
or Live DVD?

Zacky:  Probably sometime in the future.  Check out the vans 2003 warped tour dvd.  You can catch us rocking on that.

Q: Does the band have any Idea when your next album will be out?

Zacky:  Sometime around spring of next year is my guess.

Q: Speaking of concerts. Does the band have any pre-show rituals to get amped up for their shows?

Zacky:  We work out haha then we might have a small jam sesh and drink a few beers.

Q: What's the best and the worst thing about touring?

Zacky: The best thing is the fans and the stories we bring home.  The worst thing is the weather outside southern California usually sucks.

Q: How often does the band read their message board and respond to them?

Zacky: I check it any chance I get.  I rarely respond though.

Q: How can a fan join the Avenged Sevenfold Street team? 

Zacky:  Head on over to our website www.avengedsevenfold.com.

Q: Record Labels have been very vocal about their dislike of online downloading of music. As musicians, I'd like to get your opinion on this subject?

Zacky:  Im not worried about it.  Our fans are fucking dedicated to the core. If I was in some other bands I would be concerned. When kids are getting your logo tattooed on them they will probably go buy the cd.

Q: How helpful do you feel online sites like Florida Entertainment Scene are in promoting bands like Avenged Sevenfold? 

Zacky: Anyone willing to help spread the word is amazing to me and extremely helpful. Whether its a website or a kid showing there friends.

Q: What do you think the future holds in store for Avenged Sevenfold?

Zacky:  Us and our fans taking over. 

Q: Do you have anything you would like to say to the fans of Avenged Sevenfold?

Zacky:  Best motherfucking fans in the world.  Like I said before together we're taking over.

What did you do over the holidays?
 We all just took some time off and hung out with our family and friends. I started building a chopper from scratch.

With the success you had in 2005, how was it adjusting to the added media scrutiny and demands for your time?
Sometimes we tell everyone to fuck off and sometimes we are cool with it. I guess we handle it the way that any normal person would. Somedays we are all for it and some days you want to kill everyone!

How does it feel to be praised by metal legends like Metallica and Pantera?
Better then anything in the world. When we met Metallica we all agreed it was the highlight of our career. Selling tons of records and playing huge shows will never compare to meeting your idols. It was great just to know both bands had even heard of us.

Do you consider yourselves trailblazers for a crop of young up and coming metal bands?
We never set out to do that. We originally just wanted to be a band that played the music we wanted and sound different than anyone else. That's happened, but along with that people are saying that we have been leading the comeback of metal. I don't know if that's good or bad. If other kids want to start metal or rock bands because of us then that's great, but we will just continue to do our thing and let the press blow it out of proportion.

When you recorded the album, could you have imagined being at the top of MTV's TRL countdown?
Yes and no. We never thought that this record would do that for us, but we are very ambitious and always have confidence that if you play the music you wanna play, then good things will happen.

With success of course comes criticism. How do you respond to the fans and critics that accuse the band of "selling out" or "not being metal enough?"
We've been criticized since day one. We love it. The more people talk, the more people get interested in the band. Selling out is a term kids use in high school. Anyone that calls us a sell out has never heard the record or they are basing it off of the fact that we dont scream anymore. A major label debut with every song over 6 minutes doesnt sound like a sellout record to me. And we play music for the sake of music, not so that we can be labeled a metal band. That's like telling us we aren't punk enough. Who cares?

What have been the pros and cons of being on a major label?
The pros are that we get more money for the recordings. We got to hire real strings and a boy's choir for the record. They also work hard at getting your record out to as many kids as possible. The cons are that it's a huge corporation. You have to deal with more politics, but we have had a great experience so far on Warner.

Do you have a timetable for the next album yet?
Sometime in 2007 possibly.

 You're headed to Europe later this spring. Do you notice much of a difference in fans from continent to continent or country to country?
 Yeah, there is a huge difference. Some countries are still trying to figure out what A7X is all about. But the best fans in the world go to the English, Canadians and the Americans. We have had some amazing shows in those 3 countries.

Where haven't you played live yet that you would like to go?
I would love to go to Australia and Japan. We will be there soon though.

Do you think you'll play Warped again?
I don't wanna say never, but not for a while, for sure.

What have been the smallest and largest crowds you've played for?
The smallest was for about 5 kids on our first tour with From Autumn To Ashes out in Texas. The biggest while headlining would have to be around 6,000.

How did you get started in music?
I got Appetite for Destruction from my dad when I was younger and after that it was all history. I fell in love with rock music and started taking piano and teaching myself guitar.

Did you play in any bands before Avenged Sevenfold?
I played in a few punk bands. The only band that could actually draw a couple kids was called Successful Failure.

Who were your musical inspirations growing up?
Guns 'n Roses, Pantera, Megadeth, Metallica. These were gods among men to me.

What was the first concert you went to as a fan?
I went to all the local shows growing up. The first real show I went to was Rancid when Let's Go came out.

Do you think you guys will ever go back to using your real names like Mudvayne, The Donnas and others have done?
Hell no! M.Shadows is my real name now.

Anything else you'd like to mention?
We love our fans more than anything, and thanks for their support.

PunkTV.ca: Tell us about the Avenged ladies and the partying?
Umm, well you know, any time you put on the video at the playboy mansion, it s not like that. It’s pretty cut and dry, there’s a few of us in the band that are alcoholic, a few not, a couple like threesomes, and some don’t, some love crack, some don’t. You happen to be talking to the guy who is the most indulgent. I am just a piece of dirt but I grow nice pretty flowers.

PunkTV.ca: How do you work out who goes out on tour with you?
Ya, we tour with bands that are like us. That’s why we are headlining right now. We take out bands that are like us. And if we are opening for a bigger act, it’s just respect for us, and so we don’t get kicked out, so we behave more. We like to get down with the bands that we tour with; we would not take out a band that obviously would not kick down with us.

PunkTV.ca: You released two albums with a small label and then recently moved to Warner Brothers… What do you like best about the move and how has it been working for you all?
Fuck ya we did! One of the best things is that first off, we get full creative control, and they gave us a nice budget and just let us make the album that we can make, and then take as much time as we want… and they have the power to get it out to as many people as possible, and we like that. It means that more people get a chance to listen to us. So that is what I dig most about it. Because when I hear a band, when I was younger, I didn’t give a fuck what label they were on. So when I heard it, and I liked it, I liked it. So that’s the advantage, getting it out to more people, more availability, helps, you know. Helps us hire the video directors where we can make a video that is a spin off of our favorite movie, and all that shit.

PunkTV.ca: Tell us about the new City of Evil album, and the recording process?
We wrote that in our fucking garage for 9 months, and practiced fucking every day, and fucking went into the studio for a couple of months and pretty much got to produce the album ourselves. It was a fucking fun time, and it’s always really exciting making a new record. What we are always going for is a different album, and something that is different that everything else out there. So we go to mix it in New York for a couple weeks and everybody that we worked with was great, especially ourselves, we were the best ever! (both laugh)

PunkTV.ca: without any label, do you think that it would be much different?
We didn’t have any creative help at all, they trust us. So we made exactly the record that we wanted to. They got us into the studio that we wanted, and it made the record sound as good as possible, so it really couldn’t be better.

PunkTV.ca: You brought in a boys choir, and a string section...
Fuck ya! We wrote all of those parts and then had the producers arrange it instrument wise, and they just wrote out the music. We recorded it on a little Casio keyboard, and then we had the strings play it.

PunkTV.ca: You named Bat Country after writer Hunter S Thomson, what other great writers are you into?
(puts me on hold… people in the bus are sick, says that he has to sanitize the phone… people are talking about how drunk they are in the background, it’s a party) Most of the novel reading is done by me… and I like Chuck Palahniuk books, he wrote fight club. I also really like China Mieville who wrote The Scar.

PunkTV.ca: I saw your video for Bat Country and it reminded me a lot of him.
Ya, that is what we were going for. We love Hunter. We wrote it right before he died, and then his people gave us the okay to do the song, and use his quotes and stuff, and we based that video on our own experiences in Vegas, and the fucking movies, so it’s a spin off, and our own thing at the same time!

PunkTV.ca: So where are you guys right now?
We are on the way to Seattle, we are almost there. We are playing tomorrow in Seattle at The Box.

PunkTV.ca: First of all, why do they call you the Reverend?
Because I call myself that, mainly (laughs). (so it’s nothing to do with anything religious, no praying for people or laying hands on the sick?) No laying hands on people or raising the dead yet but I lay hands on lots of people. (the rev is requesting music for on the bus, yells out, PUNK ROCK!!!)

PunkTV.ca: Feeding the soul with some punk rock, that’s good… what are you into?
My favorites are Rancid, Tranpants, that’s what I am into…

PunkTV.ca: Rancid is just about the best fucking punk band ever.
Ya, good friends. Ya we did warped tour a few times with them, and Tim Armstrong is a fucking madman.

PunkTV.ca: What's it like playing drums for the wildest band in rock and roll? What’s an average day on the road with the band like these days?
It depends on which day it is. If it 2 or 3 nights ago, I am drunk and on way too many pills, 8 strippers on the bus trying to suck my dick, and I won’t let them but sometimes I do. And some days, like this one, we are driving a lot, and have bad gas… So it stinks today, but playing drums is a fucking fiasco, try playing double kicks for an hour and a half!

PunkTV.ca: and you play a very physical style, using your upper body more than usual…
When did you see us? (warped and on the web) Ya, it’s even more physical right now, and the kids want to se a fucking show, so we want to put on as much as we can for our shows. And they don’t teach you that shit in drum school, they don’t teach you fucking double bass ‘cause those teachers don’t know how to play it.

PunkTV.ca: Are you sponsored for your drums?
Ya, DW, Evans, Promark and Sabian.

PunkTV.ca: How does that work for you?
Better quality drums. DW just gave me a free 8 piece kit, with all the hardware, that was wicked. I would never play with less than 2 kik drums.

PunkTV.ca: So you don’t play with 2 pedals and one kick…
Real men play with 2 kicks, fucking metal motherfucker! Some beat off, some people beat the shit out of double kicks. I beat off too you know, we got the fucking luxurious library of DVD porn in the back. That’s what we use to trick our girlfriends into thinking that we don’t fuck random sluts all the time.

PunkTV.ca: Speaking of which, I never understood how some guys watch pornm with their friends, like at bachelor parties and sausage events...
Me neither, only with the girls. You don’t want to start jerking off in front of your boys, but if you are with women, hey, that’s okay.

PunkTV.ca: What bands taught you to play drums?
I pretty much learned how to play drums with Pantera and Slayer. On the warped tour, we also always had an album that we would play before we went on stage. With that tour, it was Motorhead… (which album?) Overkill, our favorite song is Ace of Spades.

PunkTV.ca: As a drummer, who would you say are your influences?
My biggest influences were Vinny Paul (Pantera), Dave Lombardo (Slayer), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) and Paul Bostaph (Slayer).

PunkTV.ca: So what was your process?
I listened to all of their records, learned how to play everything, and then steal all of their tricks. I want to say, for the record, that I have 6 different cars baby! One for every day of the week, baby. Actually dude, I used to live in my car! And at another time I lived in a Laundromat. I worked there during the day and slept in it at night.