I kind of look at death metal like movies. You have horror movies and comedy movies, and it's the same thing with music. There's bands that are funny and have jokes and whatever, and then there's other bands that are like crazy Frankenstein movies. That's something that I've been into since I was a kid. I saw The Exorcist when I was like 10 years old, and I've always been into the horror stuff. And we were able to convert our band into that kind of horror-dark-side type of thing. |
It got to the point where we doing so much touring and playing, and the money really wasn't coming in. All of a sudden, I'm 30 years old, and I was like holy shit, I've got a wife now, and I've got a kid coming. When we started this band, we weren't even thinking about money, and now all of a sudden everything was money, money, money. I'd hate to have to go into the studio to write a record just so I can feed my family. That would be the biggest sellout. |
So what am I supposed to do when my 110-pound waitress tells a 450-pound Paul Bunyan not to light up and he does it anyway? Am I supposed to arrest the guy? |
There was definitely something that was missing in our lives that we needed to fulfill. Actually, I think we sound heavier today than we ever have, because we're more focused people, as far as our lives being on track. |
Years ago, John's dad was yelling and screaming at us; he was like, 'Goddamit, I can't understand a fuckin' word you're saying,' ... And John was like, 'You know what? That's how I should sing. I should just take it to the next level and make it so freakin' brutal that you can't even understand it.' And when he did that, it just jelled with the music that we were playing. The more we tried to make it heavier, the better the songs came out. |