Category Archives: Interviews

Eddie Trunk celebrates 12th season, 100th episode of “That Metal Show”

Halfway through its 12th season and having just celebrated its 100th episode, That Metal Show has proven that people like talking (and hearing) about head banging and heavy metal. And nobody loves talking about metal music more than Eddie Trunk, who has been preaching the hard rock gospel since the ’80s via writings, radio shows and as host of VH1 Classic‘s That Metal Show. Having interviewed almost everyone there is to interview from hard rock and heavy metal’s past, Trunk (and co-hosts Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine) features heavy hitters from metal’s past such as Def Leppard‘s Rick Allen, Cinderella‘s Tom Kiefer and Megadeth‘s Dave Mustaine this season, as well as somewhat more contemporary musicians like Rob Zombie, John 5 and Clutch‘s Neil Fallon. But before you tune in for the latest episode this Saturday at 11 p.m. EST, read Wrestling with Pop Culture‘s interview with this heavy metal historian.

Eddie Trunk (center) hosts the 12th season of "That Metal Show". Photo courtesy Paul Freundlich Associates.

Now that That Metal Show has made it to its 12th season and 100th episode, what have been some of the more memorable moments or guests for you?

Since the show started in 2008, we’ve had a lot of great guests. For me, it’s always really special when you get some of those iconic guys from the ’70s that played such a huge role in the history and evolution of this music. Tony Iommi, who I think is basically the founding father of metal, comes to mind. Having him on was amazing. Brian Johnson from AC/DC is just one of the best guests you can have. Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony are always a blast to have on – great people. Same with Rob Halford, we’ve had him on a couple of times. That’s certainly not to diminish any of the ’80s guys or more recent guys, but my mind always goes back to the people I grew up with in this genre of music. And to have them sitting next to me swapping stories and stuff on the show is really, really special. As far as performances, bands can’t play songs on the show because we can’t afford the publishing. So they’re just playing riffs and shredding a little bit. But we’ve had tremendous players up there doing that, and also some great drummers including in this season we have Carmine Appice and Vinny Appice doing their thing. And we have Jake E. Lee, who I tracked down out of obscurity, not only as a guest but also playing in two shows. And we have guitarist Richie Kotzen, who is one of my favorite musicians on the planet, playing a couple of shows. In the past we’ve had amazing guys. Everybody knows I’m a big UFO fan, so we have Michael Schenker play in a couple of shows and that was really special. But just about everybody we’ve had has really brought it when they’ve been part of the show.

You mentioned having the older guys on the show, and it seems like the focus of the show is on the guys who helped pave the way for the future of metal. This season, however, I noticed you have some more contemporary guests on the show. Do you intentionally focus on the musicians from the ’70s and ’80s or are they just more readily available?

It’s very intentional because the channel we’re on is VH1 Classic, so the entire channel is rooted in classic music. That’s always going to be the focus of what we do given that we’re on that sort of network, but we are all fans of new bands and new music. We feature it whenever we can, however we can. Yes, going forward we’re trying to mix in a little more of that when we can. The network has ultimate say as to who does and doesn’t come on the show, but we certainly are doing some things differently this new season, which is really a whole new coat of paint on the show. To that end, we’re doing a bit at the top of some of the shows where we’re introducing an artist via Skype on a screen that’s dropping. We call it the Metal Modem. We have Ben [Weinman] from Dillinger Escape Plan, we have Johan from Amon Amarth, bands a little outside of what we do, and obviously newer. It’s just a good opportunity to work some of that in around all the classic stuff. We all love certain new music and I’ve always supported new music on my radio shows, I’m a big believer in that. But we’re also doing a TV show that airs on a classic network with a ton of bands that also have no outlet, when it comes to the ’70s and ’80s guys. So it’s important to acknowledge them and they will always be the core of what we do. But we’re certainly going to mix it up as best we can.

There are obviously still plenty of metal bands and metal fans. But I hear a lot of bands complain that the overall musical climate these days is no longer very supportive of rock and metal music. Why do you think that is, and where does That Metal Show and the other things that you do fit into that?

"That Metal Show" host Eddie Trunk. Photo courtesy Paul Freundlich Associates.

Outside of the mid-to-late ’80s when MTV ruled, this genre of music has always been under the radar in a lot of ways. I don’t know what the music industry is supporting anymore because the industry is so fragmented. The industry has changed so dramatically in the last ten years alone – from the demise of most record labels to the way artists do things – that I don’t know how much is left of the industry as far as signing and the traditional record company structure of working bands. I do think that the fan base for hard rock and metal is pretty strong right now. You see that from the live stages. That’s where you’re really going to see it because, unfortunately, record sales just aren’t going to come back to anywhere near the level that they once were. I just hosted a festival for three days in Oklahoma that had the most people it had ever had and was headlined by Guns N’ Roses, Alice in Chains and Korn. There was a festival a couple of weeks earlier in Columbus, Ohio called Rock on the Range that had record crowds, so people are definitely coming to see this music live, and that’s what’s really important because that’s where it’s always lived is on the live stage. I’m 30 years into this business, my radio show is 30 years old, and I still enjoy doing it and feel it’s important to do. I just try to do my part wherever I can. What drove me to start doing any of this 30 years ago was to support and spread the word about the bands and music I loved, but wasn’t seeing and hearing. Most importantly, I wanted to treat it respectfully and not fall into all the stereotypes that come with it. So that’s what I’ve always strived to do and at the end of the day I’m just a fan who’s worked hard enough and been lucky enough to have a few pretty good platforms to spread the word.

You talked earlier about some of the people you’ve had the honor of having on the show. Who are some of the people that have not been on the show that you’d like to talk to?

The guys we probably get asked the most about would be David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen, Nikki Sixx, James Hetfield, Ozzy Osbourne, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. We ask them every single season and whether they are on or not is completely up to them. For some of them it’s just scheduling, some of them have issues, some of them don’t want to do the show or whatever the case may be. Those are probably the top five people I’m asked about all the time, and they’re all welcome to come on. It’s just a question of if they want to do it and if we’re working when they decide they want to. So hopefully one of these days we’ll get them.

In addition to being the host of the show, you also have a segment called Stump the Trunk. What are some the hardest or most memorable questions you’ve been asked?

Oh, there are absurd questions. There have been tons of ridiculous questions that have been asked that nobody in their right mind could ever get right. That’s done because they want to see me go crazy, which I often deliver for them. What people have to understand with Stump the Trunk is it’s a fun thing, people really love it and it’s a part of the show that will never go away, it seems. But it’s a bit. We have fun with it and I certainly don’t think for a minute that I know it all. I probably know a little bit more than the average person just because I’ve lived this music my whole life. But they’re always coming at me with crazy, over-the-top stuff, then they’ll often tell me that I’m wrong when I’m right just to try to get me really agitated. And it works about 90 percent of the time. At this point I’m prepared for anything that comes out of anybody’s mouth during that thing.

As we mentioned earlier, this season features the 100th episode. Did you even realize when you were recording this season that you were up to your 100th episode?

We didn’t even realize it was the 100th episode until we started doing publicity for the show. We didn’t do anything special in that episode, so it wasn’t all that different from any of the other shows this season. We’re honored, of course, to have made it that far, but I didn’t get a gold watch or anything yet. There are no balloons dropping from the ceiling or anything like that, but it is certainly a milestone. That being said, Rex Brown and Sebastian Bach were both great guests and it was a fun show.

How long do you foresee That Metal Show continuing? Do you think we might see it last another 100 episodes?

I can only hope. If it was up to me, I’d be doing it every day. My dream is live five nights a week, but I have no say over that at all. That is up to the network – they own the show and they determine how often we do it and how long it stays on the air. So we’ll find out as we go and I’ll know when the fans know. People who follow me on Twitter or look at my website (www.eddietrunk.com) or what have you, they’ll know when we’re about to start filming, how to get tickets, when we’ve filmed new shows and when you can see them. I try to keep everyone informed, but I honestly have no clue. If the show ends it will have nothing to do with me because I’m happy to do it for as long as the network wants to keep doing it. The cool thing is these new shows have a lot of new features and we have a brand new set. With this kind of revamp, maybe this set’s got another 100 shows in it like the last set did.

Next season will be number 13, which is a very metal number. So you probably have at least another season.

Right. Megadeth, Sabbath… Of course, yeah. It feels great because the excitement and passion for the show being back, from fans and from us, is as strong as it’s every been. Now it’s just coming down to what VH1 wants to do going forward. But we’ll cross those bridges when we come to them.

www.thatmetalshow.vh1.com

Richard Patrick is un-Filter-ed about new album, tour and band members

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Despite the aggressive nature of most of Filter‘s music, there has always been an underlying sense of sarcasm to albums such as Short Bus and Title of Record. (Now that I think about, those album titles alone are somewhat subversively funny.) But following the hit ballad “Take a Picture” and the politically-charged tribute to the troops that was Anthems for the Damned, the common perception has been that Filter is a rather serious band. And who could argue, considering the band’s first big hit “Hey Man Nice Shot” was an abrasively catchy song about a politician who shot himself during a televised press conference. So when I sat down to interview Filter front man Richard Patrick before a recent Summerland Tour stop, I didn’t expect him to begin the conversation by making poop jokes and jovially berating a member of his crew over walkie talkie.

“That’s the way I talk to my motherfuckin’ crew. I treat ’em like shit,” says Patrick, before grinning a little to let on that he’s joking. “I have a whole thing of comedy I believe in. I believe everybody should just not take anything fucking seriously. I just want to enjoy things.”

On the band’s latest album The Sun Comes Out Tonight, it definitely sounds like Patrick is enjoying playing electronically-tinged metal anthems like “We Hate It When You Get What You Wanted,” “Self Inflicted” and “What Do You Say,” as well as more melodic offerings such as “Surprise,” “First You Break It” and “It’s Just You”. To say The Sun Comes Out Tonight is a return to form would be a clichéd misnomer, yet there’s no mistaking these songs (be they heavy rockers or piano ballads) as being Filter. That being said, here’s the part where Wrestling with Pop Culture talks to Patrick about his latest Filter collaborator Jonathan Radtke, the Summerland Tour and his other musical endeavors.

This new album of yours, it sounds very Filter-esque.

That’s good because we are Filter.

Well, I figured that was the sound you were going for. Having been a Filter fan since the first album, it’s been interesting to hear the way things have progressed from album to album. What are your thoughts on the new album?

Richard Patrick (left) and Jonathan Radtke (right) are the new core of Filter. Photo courtesy Wind-up Records.

The new one is the shit. We did it in three or four months starting in September of last year. We had a few songs we had written, but we went in and got a lion’s share of the work done before Christmas, then worked for a month after that. It wrote itself. Jonny Radtke is an amazing guitar player and musical mind. He grew up listening to all the bands I was in – Nine Inch Nails, Filter – then ended up doing a band called Kill Hannah. Then he was in a band with Billy Howerdel [Ashes Divide], so when he had the opportunity he went on tour with us and it was really just amazing to see him understand where we were coming from. So he came in and contributed to this record and I think it shows a whole new era of Filter. There are three hits off of this record that are heavy, then there are a couple of hits off of this record that are like “Take a Picture”. Then there’s this whole world in between and everything is really top notch. I think it’s the best Filter record we’ve ever done, and I mean that. I literally think it’s better than anything we’ve done. I’m really happy. We’re signed to Wind-up [Records] and that was a big change because we did the independent thing with Anthems. Unfortunately you need the infrastructure of a big label. Actually, that is fortunate. On the independent route it was kind of a bummer learning it the hard way. But I like what Wind-up has to say. They set up these records really great, so it’s been very exciting. We’ve got a video that’s just a short film to the song – it’s daring and says a lot about our culture. It feels like it’s going to be a great year. This tour is awesome, we’re playing in front of a ton of people that want to see us.

The Summerland Tour is a somewhat odd mix of bands that were all popular at the same time, but don’t have much else in common.

Yeah. Well, the funny thing is we toured with Everclear back in ’95 when Short Bus came out. It’s kind of cool to be on a tour with all the friends you’ve known for a long time. It reminds me of Lollapalooza. When I was on the Lollapalooza tour it was extremely diverse. It was the alternative tour, so you had every band from different formats. Art [Alexakis] told us to play the hits, but it’s funny because we’re playing a song that’s currently charting. It feels good to be of the two decades.

You mentioned your new guitar player a moment ago. How did he get involved and what role did he play in the recording of the new album?

Photo courtesy Wind-up Records.

We had a guitar player named Rob Patterson who, let’s just say he needed to take a break. Then Jonny came over and auditioned and was like, “Which song do you want me to do? I know them all.” It was just instantly amazing and the next thing I know we were on tour and I was like, “Let’s write something.” We started writing something and I was like, “He’s got a lot of talent.” I’ve always wanted to have a partner. I was kind of close with Geno [Lenardo]. The first album was me: I was the guitar player and Brian [Liesegang] was the programmer. I wrote all the parts and he helped me lay sound design overdubs and stuff. And on Title of Record I was kind of working with Geno. Anthems was a variety of people: I worked with John 5, Wes Borland and others. But this was a scenario of let’s literally sit together being fans of Pantera, Ministry and Skinny Puppy and write something together. And it blended perfectly. Plus, his favorite song on the record is “Surprise,” which is like “Take a Picture” part two.

You’ve mentioned that the new album features a few “Take a Picture”-like songs. When that song became such a hit, did you feel an obligation to have an acoustic song on each album or anything like that?

No. Now I do. I was really in a “Fuck it. I’m doing whatever I want. Try and keep up with me.” phase. Because I broke the doors down on both levels – I had a huge hit with “Hey Man” that’s really heavy and dark and inspired by R. Budd Dwyer shooting himself, then there’s this whole thing with “Take a Picture” where people didn’t even realize it was the same band. Seeing as I kind of established us as being somewhat bipolar, I just have stuck within those two worlds because you can’t get any further outside of the lines than that. So by not just cashing in and going, “OK, everybody grow your hair long and let’s be heavy metal” and conforming to that kind of identity, I was from the alternative movement and I really wanted to press the boundaries. And I really wanted to do something that was truly beautiful to listen to. Now I feel like I have to live up to the standards of Short Bus and Title of Record and a little bit of The Amalgamut, except I didn’t want it to be so drunk. Amalgamut was a very drunk record, Anthems should have just been called The Tribute Record for the Soldiers, then The Trouble with Angels is kind of getting back into the sound of Short Bus and Title. This record is just completely going back to the original sound and enjoying it. Not finishing what we started, but adding to it.

Outside of Filter, you’ve been involved with a few other musical projects in recent years. The most notable of those was Army of Anyone with Dean and Robert DeLeo from Stone Temple Pilots. What did you think when you heard the recent announcement that Chester Bennington would be STP’s new front man?

It seems like Chester Bennington’s always a couple of years behind me.

I’ve never thought about that, but it sounds pretty accurate. When you worked with the DeLeo brothers, it wasn’t billed as Stone Temple Pilots with Richard Patrick from Filter.

Photo courtesy Wind-up Records.

Yeah. I didn’t want to try and sound like Scott [Weiland]. To me, Chester kind of sounds a little bit like Scott, but then he’s got the big Army of Anyone long scream notes that I was doing with “Goodbye” or “Generation”. So it seems like he’s kind of copping a little bit of Army of Anyone/STP, but still kind of being himself. But I’m happy for them. I think it’s a great idea. Bless their hearts trying to constantly depend on this guy to just show up and sing a fucking concert! It really defies logic at this point how there’s this whole amazing bunch of music and songs and entertainment that could be provided worldwide by Stone Temple Pilots and they can’t get [Scott Weiland] to show up to a gig. It’s sad. I’m a recovering drug addict, so I know what’s up. So for them to get Chester involved and have someone just get in there and get the job done and tour with them is a great thing for all of them. It’s like Chester’s side project, and they have a chance to really just live their lives as a touring band that really just wants to go play concerts. Robert and Dean are amazing professionals and I feel sad for them. We played a show with them in New Jersey and Scott was an hour and a half late. The whole crowd was sitting there, everybody was waiting and Robert and Dean are just like, “These are our fans and we’re waiting for our lead singer to wake up from his afternoon party.” It sucks having to watch them deal with this stuff. More power to them. Good luck with Chester. I think it’s great. Have fun in Japan and Australia and see the world why you can.

Speaking of tours, what does Filter have lined up after the Summerland Tour ends?

We’re going to Europe to play some festivals in later summer. We’re starting to go through offers right now to figure out what we’re doing in the fall.

Your former guitarist Geno recently contributed to David Draiman’s new industrial project Device. Any chance you might tour with them?

Yeah. I think it’s a great album. That might be cool, yeah. Geno’s actually not in the band. He co-wrote and produced the record, but he doesn’t tour with them.

www.officialfilter.com

It’s always “Balls Out” with Steel Panther’s hair metal hilarity

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Sexy Michael Starr is the front man for Steel Panther. I was lucky to talk to him. Photo by F. Scott Schafer.

Considering how well the band blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, comedic parody and legitimate talent, it makes perfect sense that I was first introduced to Steel Panther by a few professional wrestler friends whose gimmicks also mimic heavy metal theatrics. But for the uninitiated (as I was when I first put my copy of 2011’s Balls Out in the CD player), it might take a song or two to get the joke given the musical chops of drummer Stix Zadinia, bassist Lexxi Foxx, guitarist Satchel and front man Michael Starr (not to mention the extent to which they live their hair metal homages). From overindulgent sing-alongs like “17 Girls in a Row,” “Tomorrow Night” and “That’s What Girls Are For” to sincerely sarcastic power ballads such as “If You Really, Really Love Me” and “Why Can’t You Trust Me,” Balls Out would have you believe that Steel Panther once toured alongside ’80s hair metal giants like Van Halen, Mötley Crüe and Cinderella. As the band prepares for the final dates of its North American tour, concluding with a main stage performance at Rocklahoma this Sunday, Wrestling with Pop Culture talks to Starr about performing with some of his idols, his mom’s morning beers and other excessive behavior.

I’m talking to the one and only Michael Starr. How are you today?

It’s going pretty good, man. I just woke up and I’m not that hung over, so it’s a good day.

When I asked to interview Steel Panther, I thought I might get the drummer or bass player. But I actually get to talk to the singer!

Yeah, dude. I mean, a lot of people want to talk to the singer. They should because I’m, like, the lead guy in the band, you know what I mean?

I guess I should consider myself lucky.

I feel lucky to be myself. So, yeah. You should.

You guys are about to finish a tour that has taken you across the country and around the world…

Actually, we’re right at the end of it. We had a two day break and I came back to my mom’s house. Then we went to Japan for the very first Ozzfest in Tokyo. Now we’re back for another couple weeks to finish the second leg of our North American tour, which included some Canada dates, as well.

How has Canada treated you previously?

Canadians love Steel Panther. And they should because we drink a lot.

I’ve heard they have plenty of beer up there.

Yeah. And we give out free cigarettes because they’re so expensive up there. People love that.

You guys are friends with Chris Jericho, who is Candian.

Oh, yeah. Good friends.

His band Fozzy started out in much the same way Steel Panther did, playing ’80s hair metal covers. Given the similarities between the two bands, do you think Steel Panther and Fozzy might ever collaborate or tour together?

Photo by F. Scott Schafer.

We did an interview together on Sirius, which was our first collaboration. Then we really got to know him at the Download Festival in Europe. So we started our relationship there. But that’s such a great idea, I’d never even thought of it. Right now, opening up for us on tour is a band called Hillbilly Herald and they’re really great. That’s been a great tour package for us.

How do you go about choosing your opening bands when you go on tour?

Usually we try to find a band that we like as people. Secondly, they’ve got to rock. But we don’t want someone who’s going to come try and do what we’re doing; we need somebody that has their own thing going on and can handle our crowd. Opening for us can be hard because our fans can get impatient if you’re not good enough. So far, every band that we’ve had open up for us has been great. So it’s really important for our opening bands to have their own thing going on and also be cool to hang out with because the hang factor is one of the most important things.

I would imagine it would help if they have attractive girlfriends, too.

Yeah, totally. But they didn’t bring any of their girlfriends on tour with them. They’re smart. That’s another thing: you have to find a smart band that’s fun to hang out with and has their own thing going on. Those are usually the bands that excel in this business because if you try to be like everybody else, you end up just not doing anything.

When you’re not on the road, you have residencies in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. How does touring compare to your residency shows?

The residency shows are really killer. They’re great to have, but we got hired as a cover band to do those residencies years ago. So it’s still engrained in the promoter’s mind that we don’t play just all our stuff; we still play Crüe and Def Leppard. So when we go on the road, we’re just supporting our two records Feel the Steel and Balls Out. Touring and doing our own stuff is really, like, the pinnacle of what we’ve always wanted to do. Then to come back and do the residencies and play the cover stuff, it’s almost like the music industry gods are keeping us in check and saying, “Hey, you haven’t made it yet. You still need to go back and hone your craft.”

Do you play any of your original songs at the residency shows?

Yeah. We’ve slowly morphed into about 80 percent originals and 20 percent covers.

Speaking of Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe, you’ve had the opportunity to play with some of your idols in recent years. What has it been like to play with these bands that so heavily inspired Steel Panther?

Photo by F. Scott Schafer.

My first experience with Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe was pretty surreal because in our song “Death to All But Metal” that we wrote years ago, I say “Where’s Def Leppard? Where’s Mötley Crüe?” And to be on a double bill tour with them, opening up the whole arena tour in Europe was just so surreal. We got to hang out with all the bands and I got to use Joe Elliott‘s hair dryer. That’s like a heavy metal dream come true. I ended up befriending Joe and he invited me into his dressing room and said, “Whatever you want here, help yourself.” I got to use his blow dryer and eye liner and stuff. It was great. It was a dream come true. It really was, because this is the music I grew up with, so I was like, “I can’t believe I’m using his blow dryer!”

It sounds like that might have been more exciting than actually getting to share the stage with them.

It was pretty equal to it. And we also had sex with some of their girlfriends, which was cool because they were, like, totally down with it. It wasn’t like weird or uncomfortable. It was just like, “Dude, we love what you’re doing. Help yourself to whatever we have.” And we did.

Well, they seem like very nice guys.

Yeah. They’re extremely open. Vince [Neil] always comes in the dressing room with, like, two chicks on his arms. I don’t know if he hires them for the night or what, but either way he was willing to share and it’s just nice. It’s just nice to be in that type of community where you’re not fighting an uphill battle, the guys have your back, they dig what you’re doing and they want you to succeed. That just felt great.

Where it’s all “Community Property”?

Yeah. Well, it is. I mean, they know better. They know eventually we’d fuck all their girlfriends anyways. So they might as well let us do it.

You’ve also collaborated with a lot of people in the studio. Who have been some of your favorite people to work with in that setting?

I’m trying to write a power ballad, but I can’t. So who else would you go to other than the guy who did “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”? So I called Bret Michaels and said, “Let’s do something together” and he was like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” So that was fun collaborating with him. We collaborated a little bit with Nikki [Sixx] when we were on the road and that was cool. But I would say the most exciting one was writing with Vivian Campbell from Def Leppard. He was really fun and we ended up having him guest on our new record, which was cool.

Speaking of your new record, when can we expect to hear that?

We don’t have a hard release date yet, but we’re shooting for the fall. It’s also contingent on the record label liking all the songs on the record. They still, unfortunately, control our destiny, so we have to really fight tooth and nail with what goes on there. They’ll try to sway us in a different direction because they really want us to be on the radio. But we don’t care about radio like they do. We want to put out our art and what we believe in. I think that’s what’s gotten us where we are today, so we’re going to stick to our guns. But with that in mind, we still want the record to come out in the fall. So we’re shooting for a fall release.

What can you say about the new album and how it compares to the previous two releases?

Photo by F. Scott Schafer.

Well, that is very subjective. Comparing our last two records to the new one is really up to you guys. I think it’s great and it stands up right next to those albums and also propels Steel Panther to our destiny, which is silly sounding, but it’s really true. We’ve been touring and we’ve seen the world and I think our new record reflects what we’ve seen and how we’re changing.

Are you consciously trying to take this next album in a different direction or is that just happening as the album continues to develop?

Well, what we do as a band is when Satchel write’s a song – he’ll write an idea or a full song – the direction usually is reflected from our past experience. We don’t sit down and go, “Hey, let’s write a rock song because we’re a rock band.” It just happens that way. Like, if George Michael sat down to write a song, he’d write a gay song. There’s nothing he can do about it, you know what I mean? What we write is who we are and there’s nothing we can do about it.

Speaking of Satchel, can you verify how he came to be known by that moniker?

Yeah. He carries his weed and cocaine in a small satchel. We always thought that would be a really cool name.

You mentioned that you spent some time at your mother’s house before Ozzfest. Were you able to spend Mothers Day with your mom?

I was on the road, thankfully. So I didn’t have to get her a gift. But you know what I did? I left a six-pack of beer in the fridge for her. She likes that. I really wanted to drink it, but I know she loves to drink in the morning so I left her a fresh six-pack of Löwenbräu.

Is that the beer of choice in your household?

Well, here it is because mom always drank that.

www.steelpantherrocks.com

ANTiSEEN celebrates 30 years of wrestling-inspired raucous punk rock

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Given the self-destructive stage antics and confrontational messages of underground punk band ANTiSEEN, the band’s longevity is as impressive as a championship title reign. But these self-proclaimed Badwill Ambassadors have been piledriving eardrums and abusing themselves for audiences all over the world for 30 years now. And with numerous shows already logged this year, as well as an ever-growing catalog of new releases including the recent New Blood and Falls Count Anywhere albums, ANTiSEEN shows no signs of letting up on its destructive path of punk rock mayhem. As the band embarks on its Dixie Dynamite Tour with Hellstomper, front man Jeff Clayton talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about wrestling, rock and blood.

ANTiSEEN has done enough songs about wrestling over the years to fill an entire CD. How far back do the songs on this album date?

Our earliest wrestling song was “Cactus Jack” and that appeared on Eat More Possum, which came out in ’93. But the version that’s on Falls Count Anywhere is the single version that came out a few years later. But that’s still the earliest thing on that record.

You’re clearly a fan of hardcore wrestlers like Cactus Jack, Abdullah the Butcher and Terry Funk. You portray a similar sense of violence during your performances. What attracts you to such extreme behavior and how does it relate to the music you create?

I’ve always liked wrestling and growing up in the South I loved seeing Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen. Later, when cable came along, we actually got to see the Freebirds and stuff like that. But I always liked the guys that were monsters and freaks. I loved it when Gary Hart brought in Kabuki. I remember being able to barely get a station on our television – we still had one of those rotary-dial antennas – and me and my brother would look for wrestling wherever we could find it. We found something that I think came from Texas and we saw Eric the Red. We thought that was cool, but the one thing that really left an impression on me and is why I still do what I do was when they brought in Abdullah the Butcher to take on Wahoo McDaniel. They had never shown nothing quite that brutal on the television show before, at least not since we had been watching it. They showed some pretty brutal stuff like the Andersons hitting people with the cast they had on for six months. But seeing Abduallah, the commentators made it seem mike it was the most terrible thing in the world. The audience was going crazy, there was blood everywhere and it went off the air while it was still going on. It was like, “Wow!” Then we found the show on another station and watched the replay, even though it looked like it was in a snowstorm, just to get to see it again. Then there were cage matches and barbed wire, which back then guaranteed one thing: there was going to be blood. A cage match was a brutal thing and we used to get wrestling magazines and see pictures of the Billy Graham/Dusty Rhodes bullrope match, barbed wire and all that stuff, wrestling just had a lasting impression. And I have an appreciation for all of it; I like luchadores, I like the mat technician guys like Guerrero, Malenko and all them people. But the monsters and maniacs were always my favorite, and still are to this day.

Wrestling has changed quite a bit since then. Do you still watch much of today’s wrestling?

I don’t watch it much because I don’t have cable. It was a big waste of money for a vast wasteland of nothing. I talk to people who do follow it, though. If something goes down that I think I really need to see, I’ll look it up the next day on YouTube.

What did you think of Mick Foley being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year?

It’s about time. He deserves it, man. He and just a handful of others were the ones who breathed life into that company. I know it was the efforts of a lot of people, but when you think about the Attitude Era you think of Foley going off the top of the cage, the Undertaker/Shawn Michaels Hell in a Cell, Stone Cold and all that stuff. And that whole attitude the WWF adopted at that time came from ECW. Foley came from there, even Stone Cold came from ECW to WWE. And they all brought some of that with them. It was a really exciting time for wrestling and one of them times you’ll never forget. It’s hard to picture that as being classic now, but it is.

Another CD came out around the same time as Falls Count Anywhere…

New Blood is a compilation of singles that were done over a three year period. We stopped being concerned with making albums, but we’ve put out a ton of singles in different countries all over the world. They’d be really small runs, so we sold out of all those within days. So we just compiled all those singles to make that album, which is why some of the tracks repeat on Falls Count Anywhere. But we just compiled all the wrestling songs in one place so people could just buy them in one place. I guess that’s not a very good business move since they’d have to buy ten CDs otherwise. Saying that aloud, now I think that was a really dumb move. Now we’re doing a truckload of singles again, so maybe in another year or two we’ll compile another album. We’re doing a split with a death metal group from Cleveland called NunSlaughter that will have two brand new songs on it. We’re also doing a split with Poison Idea that’s going to have a brand new original track and a cover of the Sex Pistols‘ “Belsen Was a Gas”. We’ve got a bunch of other projects lined up that we haven’t actually done yet. Those are the two that are done, sent off and going to be out soon.

You’ve still been performing quite a bit and are now on tour again.

Yeah. We went on a three-month break because our bass player’s wife had a child. But we play at least one weekend a month when we’re not touring. But now we’re touring with Hellstomper and we also have a bunch of offers for one-offs overseas. So this year has been pretty busy.

What do you guys do when you’re not on tour?

Our bass player is going to school on his G.I. Bill. The drummer is about to finish college. Joe [Young] runs a record store and I work in a heating and air conditioner warehouse. ANTiSEEN keeps us busy, but it don’t keep us rich.

You guys are based in the Carolinas, an area with a storied wrestling past. Do you keep up with the local wrestling scene at all?

There’s a town here called Chester where Action Packed Wrestling runs every Friday night. They’ve had people like Ricky Morton and maybe some of the younger guys that are popular. It’s a fun thing. I only live about 20 minutes away from Charlotte and there’s a bunch of federations running out of Charlotte. There’s a real good one that runs out of Tremont Music Hall, where we play, called Xtreme World Wrestling and they’re really good.

Has ANTiSEEN ever performed at a wrestling event?

Yeah. But you know what? Only twice. We played at one in Philadelphia called Rule Breakers Rule back in ’96. That was the first time we had played one and that was complete and total chaos. Cops shut the thing down as we were playing during a barbed wire match. Last summer we hosted a show in Charlotte called Rock N’ Rassle Apocalypse headlined by “The Beastmaster” Rick Link and the Necro Butcher, so there was blood all over the place.

www.antiseen.com

Whether in a TNA ring or the country music world, Mickie James says “Somebody’s Gonna Pay”

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As the only person to ever hold the WWE Women’s Championship, WWE Divas Championship and Total Nonstop Action Knockouts Championship, Mickie James is one of the most talented women to ever step into a wrestling ring. Though she’s been out of the title picture for quite a while, and came up short against current Knockouts Champion Velvet Sky on Impact Wrestling last Thursday, James still has reason to celebrate. On this Thursday’s Impact she teams up with Taryn Terrell to take on longtime rivals Gail Kim and Tara. And next Tuesday sees the release of James‘ second album Somebody’s Gonna Pay, a rocking collection that includes her TNA entrance song “Hardcore Country”. Wrestling with Pop Culture talks to James about the upcoming TNA Slammiversary pay-per-view, her new album and her recent reunion with Trish Stratus.

You came up a little short in your Knockouts title match last Thursday, but that crowd sure was into your match against Velvet Sky.

It was insane. I could have sworn someone was starting the wave or there was a person running around going, “Hey, everybody yell” or a fight had broken out. All of a sudden it just started to rumble. It’s very rare that you get a feeling like that. I’ve had that feeling in England a few times and, obviously, at WrestleMania, but to have that crowd come alive like that is incredible. I don’t know if it was the match or if there was somebody streaking, but they were loud the whole time and it was awesome. They were really into it and it was almost a shock to both of us because we were like, “Whoa, wait. Is that for us? What’s happening?” They had been pretty hot all night, but it was a slow build and they really came alive for that match. It was awesome. As soon as the bell rang they just started to rumble.

It was clearly a great match, but it seemed like even you were a little surprised by the way it ended. Were you possibly in the ropes a little bit when Velvet rolled you up for the pin?

I think I was a bit tangled up in the ropes, but I’m blaming my loss on the fact that earlier that day I was at the airport and my flight was delayed. I was a little bit upset and in search of a plug because my cell phone was dying and I walked into my own bag and knocked my pinkie toenail completely off. I know Velvet has a knee injury, but oh, my God, it hurt so bad. So I think that threw my balance off. But I’m not really blaming it on that. I don’t know. It felt like I was a little tangled in the ropes, but ODB counted 1, 2, 3, so what can you do?

It had been a little while since you had been in the title picture. With Slammiversary coming up in about a month, do you know where last Thursday’s loss leaves you heading into that pay-per-view?

I don’t know where it leaves me. It obviously leaves me hungry and wanting more and I still want the championship. I feel like I pretty much dominated that whole match and she got lucky. I love Velvet to death and she’s my friend, but at the same time I know that I’m Mickie James, a kick-ass wrestler. I’m the champion of champions, for goodness’ sake. I can’t believe I lost! I don’t want to be a sore loser, but at the same time I do want that championship. If there’s a chance for me to get it or to go for it again, I certainly will take it. I don’t know where Slammiversary is headed, but I’m hopeful.

It was interesting to see three women in the ring (you, Velvet and ODB as referee) who all came up through the independent scene together and are now in one of the most competitive women’s divisions in wrestling. How does it feel for all of you to be at this level now?

It’s a good feeling. It’s good to see people who actually set out to make in this business, who have a true passion for this business, to all stand in the same ring with a crowd like that roaring underneath you and have that kind of emotion in the palm of your hands. It’s humbling to know how hard each of us has worked to get there. That’s the most rewarding thing is to know that your sacrifices have paid off. The indie wrestling scene, much like the indie rock scene or any type of indie scene, as you’re trying to come in and break through it’s never easy. You work for peanuts and hope for the best and hopefully catch a big break. We’ve all been fortunate enough to do so.

Speaking of indie rock, you have a new album out next week. I guess it’s more indie country, but it definitely has some rock flavor to it.

Yeah. I signed to eOne Music Nashville in September. It’s not traditional country. It’s more where Southern rock meets country. It’s got that kind of Randy Houser/Jason Aldean sound accept with a female feel to it.

Was music something you’ve always wanted to do or was that something you turned your attention to after you had success with wrestling?

Music has always been a massive part of my life. I grew up on a horse farm and trained with horses all my young life. But I also played the violin for five years and I used to record myself walking around my bedroom singing my heart out. It’s always been a passion of mine and I started writing when I was on the road. Instead of writing short stories or poetry, I would write lyrics to songs. It wasn’t to any melody or anything because I didn’t know anything about how to do that. After shows, we often have to drive 250 miles to the next town. That’s a lot of time in the car by yourself, so I started coming up with my own lyrics to songs that were playing on the radio. I took chorus in school a little bit, but I was always a little shy about being out there in front of a crowd by myself with a microphone. But being an entertainer and a performer – I took modeling and acting classes – is something I always wanted to do, but was always so fearful of. Finally after I wrote about five or six songs, I was like, “I’m just going to go to Nashville and lay down these songs just so I can say that I did it. If this demo that I make only sits on my mom’s coffee table that’s fine with me.” So I went to Nashville and played my songs for about 20 different producers – anyone and everyone who would actually take a meeting with me and listen and consider it. I met with Kent Wells, who produced Dolly Parton‘s last album, and he was like, “I totally get it. This is awesome. I think we can take two or three of these songs that you wrote, vamp them up with some killer music and make an album. You’re a great singer, you have a unique story and you’re something country music’s never had. It needs something different.”

I’m not Carrie Underwood, where I can sing these massive beautiful ballads all day long. But I do have that rock edge to me where it is a little bit rough around the edges, because I’m a little bit rough around the edges. So I released the first album on my own and learned a lot. Then I went back into the studio to do a second album. At the time is was going to be a self-released EP, so I went in the studio with Jamie Lee Thurston, who is a killer guitarist, and wrote some songs with him and Porter Howell, who used to play with Little Texas. While we were recording, my management started talking to different labels and that’s where eOne came in. They took five of the songs Jamie did and sent me back in the studio with R.S. Field, who doesn’t do a lot of country but had just done that Uncle Lucius album. So I listened to it, met with R.S. and got a feel for how he wanted to round out the album. We added one more song that I wrote and put my entrance music on there as a bonus track. We got some more killer songs from some other killer songwriters like Bridgette Tatum, who wrote “She’s Country” for Jason Aldean. She wrote “A Good Time,” which is a good party song on my album. It’s ironic because “Somebody’s Gonna Pay,” the title track and lead single, is one of those songs that R.S. kicked out and I loved it. I loved the lyrics, I loved the song, but I didn’t know if I could sing it because it was very old, traditional country. I just didn’t know if I was capable of twanging it up that much and he was like, “No, we’re going to throw seven guitars on it and it’s going to be Southern rock and soul kind of stuff.” I just trusted him with everything. That song selection process is the hardest out of everything because you want to find not just the songs that you can sing and that are right for you, but also the ones you think your fans are going to connect to and that’re going to tell a story within the album. I probably listened to 1,000 or 2,000 songs just trying to pick these ten. And the fact that two of the songs I co-wrote made it onto the album alongside songs written by people who do nothing but write songs all day was awesome.

You also recently released a video “Somebody’s Gonna Pay” that kind of takes you back to where you got your first big break in wrestling with Trish Stratus. How did that come about?

I actually called her and was like, “Trish, would you consider being in my video?” They were looking for a tie-in to wrestling without being too hokey and cheesy about it. So it was a big favor I called in and she was like, “Oh, my God. Of course! I’d be honored to come down and do that.” So she came down from Canada and Nick Aldis (Magnus from TNA) came down, and we filled up the bar with all my friends from Nashville, my managers, fellow songwriters and singers. And obviously we hired some cute little models, who were precious. That was directed by Blake Judd, who just did a full-length about Shooter Jennings that won some awards. I met him when I did a cameo in Bucky Covington and Shooter’s “Drinking Side of Country” video, so it just worked out really well. Blake is a wrestling fan, so he’d talk to me about the old-school wrestling he watched growing up.

Given the obsession you had with Trish when you made your WWE debut, how did it feel to see your idol inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year?

It was really incredible. I couldn’t be happier for her. I think she completely deserved it and I was just disappointed that I couldn’t be there in person. Not only is she a genuine friend, but I really admire her for her strength and her ability to break outside of the mold of coming in as a fitness competitor and really growing within the business. Lita‘s incredible and I know that one day she’s going to be in there as well. She came up the same way I did, working her way up through the indie scene to become the star that she is. But Trish came in as a fitness model that a lot of people didn’t give a lot of credibility to. But she took the time and effort to not just learn, but to become one of the best. I was really fortunate to work with her when I first came in because there was a lot of stuff that I learned from her and a lot of stuff she learned from me. I didn’t know anything about which cameras to look at, but there were little intricacies about wrestling that she didn’t know. And to see a friend get such an accolade, and to know that she was going to announce the baby at the ceremony was such an honor.

WWE recently added a Mickie James page to the alumni section of its website. Do you know why you weren’t on there already or why you were recently added?

I didn’t even realize I was missing. But it’s cool of them to still recognize the people that were there and had a bit of history there. There were certainly some moments when I was there that I think people will remember forever, at least the fans of that era. So it’s cool to be recognized and remembered for that.

The end of your stint with WWE wasn’t the most flattering part of your career. Do you think you’ll ever return to WWE if for no other reason than to redeem yourself a little?

No, it was not the most flattering part of my career. You never know, do you? That is not the way that I wanted to go. It was heartbreaking for that to be my exit because I thought something different was going to come out of that. But things happen and I’ve grown a lot since then. I’m approaching life with a whole different attitude, so it’s just one of those things. I do feel that there were some awesome lessons learned from all of that. Bullying was such a major issue then, and still is now, so I felt like Michelle McCool, Layla and myself made that into something special. I just made the most of it and tried to make it amazing and make great television. You have to take whatever you’re given, own it and make it the best you can, and I think I did that. But it was an uncomfortable awesomeness.

You often perform concerts at nearby venues after TNA house shows. Now that Impact is on the road, do you still perform after the wrestling shows?

I’ve done a few afterparties. We may do a couple more. I just have to find the right deal and the right balance of what’s going to work the best. We did a handful of afterparties as a test run to see which cities were drawing, what the best format was and how we were going to do. It seemed to work pretty well, but people are so exhausted by the time the wrestling shows are over it’s almost working uphill to try to get them to come out to another place after they’ve already spent a lot of energy at the show itself. But, yes, we do plan on doing that again sometime soon. We’re looking at trying to line up some tour dates and shows around the release of this album.

You’ve shared the stage with some heavy hitters in the country music world. Were those festival performances or have you actually toured with some of these acts?

I’ve gotten to open for Gretchen Wilson, Montgomery Gentry, Randy Houser. I feel like my music is kind of similar to Randy Houser’s, so it was really cool to watch him perform and see how he works the crowd. They were all awesome shows and it’s cool to be part of things like that and just sit back and learn how they make their sets flow and all those little things that I’m still learning. I did a big country festival in Richmond with Gretchen and Montgomery Gentry as headliners. That was with my first album, so the local country radio stations knew who I was. I had been in there several times to do interviews for WWE, so they called me about that. The Randy Houser deal was in Richmond as well, so those people had seen me perform at that country festival. I was also supposed to open for Darius Rucker from Hootie & the Blowfish, but it didn’t stop thunderstorming until 7 o’clock and the whole thing got scrapped. I really wanted to meet him and watch his show, so that bummed me out a little bit. Hopefully with this second album I’ll get more opportunities like that.

You’ve also appeared at the Days of the Dead and Chiller Theatre. Do you have any such appearances coming up?

I’m not huge into horror films, so I was freaked out for at least a third of the time at Days of the Dead. When the It clown came by, I was hiding behind my chair. No, I actually took my picture with him and did the whole fangirl pics with people, walked around, met a few people and really marked out for Danny Trejo. Those things kind of come up if it works with my schedule, so I don’t know when I’ll be doing another convention like that.

www.mickiejames.com

Maylene and the Sons of Disaster’s Dallas Taylor talks to “The Human Hand Grenade” dany only

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The parallels between Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and professional wrestling are plentiful. The original concept of this Southern metal band was that of a traveling gang of criminals led by their mother Maylene. Much like a gimmick taken on by a wrestler, MATSOD’s concept played out over its first three albums. But with its most recent album, 2011’s IV, the band branched out conceptually and musically, dabbling in more experimental, but no less intense, sounds. Though it’s been a while since we’ve heard from MATSOD, the band embarks on a brief Southeastern tour April 25-30. In my first interview for Wrestling with Pop Culture, I get to talk to front man Dallas Taylor about his music, the band’s work with WWE and The Iron Sheik‘s crazy tweets, among other disastrous topics.

When did you know you wanted to do something in the music business?

Photo by Amina Munster

I was probably 15, 14 maybe, when my brother got me into playing bass, and just got me into music when I was even younger than that. When I started playing around, I think “Hey Joe” was the first song I learned to play, and I kind of just went from there. I knew I loved it from then. I started out playing bass in bands, then I used to write lyrics for another band I was doing, a really bad band. Our vocalist quit, so I kind of got thrown into it. I never wanted to be a vocalist. I played piano when I was younger, but my dad was a trumpet player and I was a trumpet player, so I have always kind of been into music. But I never really thought I would do anything until I like got into heavy music and was like, “This is awesome!”

You were born in Ocala, Fla. What was your life like growing up? Were you popular, an outcast, a reject, a jock?

I lived 20 miles from town on a dirt road. They put gravel on it when I was about 12 or 13, so I didn’t really hang out. I mean there were no kids to hang out with, besides the kids I went to school with. But I didn’t really hang out a lot. I had a few cousins that lived down the road, but mainly it was horses and farm country.

So a whole lot of playing in the woods, right?

Yeah, lots. I had a dirt bike and stuff like that when I was like 15 or 16, but it was mainly building forts in the woods. I built a tree house trying to keep myself entertained. One of my good friends lived on a horse farm right down the road. We would actually build booby traps… setting up the vines so when you stepped on them they would come up and slap you. We had some awesome stuff. We were thinking that someone would actually walk through them.

But no one ever found it?

We thought someone would come through, but…

In another interview you mentioned that there was a complete change in who you were from middle school to high school.

Yeah. Around the time I was in elementary school and middle school, I guess I was kind of a popular kid. I don’t know how, I guess it was just who I hung out with. They called us The Three Stooges, I guess because I had curly hair or something. And I guess I had, well not even a girlfriend – I don’t think I ever even kissed her. But [she was] one of the popular girls and was my really good friend’s sister. She was a seventh grader or something like that, and I was a fifth grader. But from eighth grade to ninth grade, I got into hardcore music and punk rock and whatever. There was nothing like that where I grew up. I mean nothing. It was country music and rap. And I knew about metal and stuff like that just from my brother, and a lot of other jam bands and stuff like that. But yeah, got into that and came back to school and I was a completely different person. I was quiet and I stood up for the kids that were getting picked on. From then on throughout high school no one really messed with me. But I didn’t really hang out, I was more by myself. Maybe I should have cherished it more, but I hated high school once I got into music. I was the only kid that skateboarded. I built ramps and I got really into that. Then I started realizing how people just lived in that town and thought that was it. The biggest thing to do was to go to the University of Florida 30 minutes away in Gainesville, and that was making it. I was just like “I want to do something else,” so I kind of just felt detached from school. Then I started being in a band when I was in tenth and eleventh grade. I think when I was 16 I tried out for a band and I got in playing bass. So my buddies would come pick me up from school and they’re, like, 22-23 years old. I remember the night of prom, I was driving this old beat up truck to band practice and the limo passed with all the kids and they were honking at me because they knew me. I was going to band practice because I didn’t care about prom. I never went to prom or anything. I never did any of that. I was just more focused on my music, I guess.

Who were you listening to when you were a teenager?

I remember the State Theatre in Saint Petersburg. I skipped school one time and went and saw Hatebreed when I was, like, 17. An older friend took me. I was big into stuff like that, that hardcore stuff, a band called All Out War. But then I got into other stuff. I was big into a band called Neurosis, Cannibal Corpse, I just listened to stuff like that. I liked Sepultura – big Sepultura fan – because no one else was doing that. And I got into punk rock and stuff like that.

Any guilty pleasures (musically) from the past?

I love ’80s pop, like Tiffany…

You know what? I had a Tiffany poster hanging up in my room!

Man I would blare it as loud as I could. I love Celine Dion… a lot. Yeah, so stuff like that is pretty hilarious.

How much of the music that you came up on influenced you in Underoath and Maylene?

Photo by Ryan Russell

With Underoath I just wanted to be in the heaviest band that I could. When we first started out we just wanted to be like a death metal band, and it kind of transformed into more of a poppy thing. When Underoath first started, I started doing vocals and then I started playing keyboards, and we would wear all black and stuff like that. I was big into metal for a while, black metal and death metal, and a lot of the people I hung out with were into that. I was into hardcore, too. But then, after Underoath, I was just taking a break from it and realized I had been running from who I really was. You know, it’s funny. When I started Maylene, everyone, even the guys in Underoath, were like, “Man, this is what you should have been doing all along. This is who you are.” People used to always make fun of me in Underoath because of my accent and how I acted, because I grew up a country kid. You know the difference between St. Pete and Ocala is a big difference, and it’s where I grew up. So Maylene is what I was, what I always wanted. I mean, I loved doing Underoath, but I think I was trying to be something I wasn’t. I was trying to be more of a city kind of guy. I tried to lose my accent, as with Maylene I just embraced it, like the country music I came up with. I saw so many country artists when I was younger, just because of my parents, that I embraced it and I embraced that whole style of what I guess I was trying to run away from.

Well you kind of touched on it so I am just going to skip the question of why you left Underoath. But I understand you are still good friends with them, and I even heard you were on a tour with them and did a couple songs with them or something like that?

Nah, we never did anything like that. I don’t even know if I remember how to do those songs. But we’re all real good friends. I mean, we’ve toured together but we never played songs together. They are all good friends of mine, yeah. Good dudes.

MATSOD was formed in Birmingham, Ala. Do you now or did you live there?

I live in Huntsville/Birmingham. I have a weird situation. I pay rent in Huntsville during the week I’m in Birmingham to see my son. I work, do gutters, when I’m at home, so I pay rent for a place I’m at, like, six days a month.

Well just from me to you man, I got a kid that lives with his mom, and the fact that you make sacrifices to be close to him, that’s really admirable.

Yeah. But I’m from Florida and a lot of the old guys, they’re still good friends but they didn’t want to tour as much. They wanted to settle down, so we got some other guys from Florida. So pretty much we are based out of Florida now. I still live in Alabama, but Florida is my home. I’m a seventh generation Floridian. I mean, I go way back. My mom and dad live here, my aunts and uncles live there, my grandma lives here, my cousin lives right down the street…

What do you think of the general public’s opinion of Alabama being a bunch of backwoods hicks? I live in Georgia, so I kind of see it, too.

Georgia gets it the same, yeah. I kind of like it. I embrace it. I love it to death. Just hearing people’s accents and the way they talk, I’m like, “Yes!” I just love it. That simple way, happy, down-to-earth people, man. It doesn’t get any better. Even where I grew up in Florida, Florida’s real twangy. Where my mom and dad grew up, they had thick accents. I love it. But, yeah. A lot of people think we are just ignorant idiots. It’s funny though because whenever we are on tour and we get pulled over or if I am talking to people, I put it on so hard. This one time we got pulled over by cops for a busted tail light and I was like, “Man, I dunno how to fix ’em. You got a screwdriver? Maybe we can fix ‘er up!” The cop was like, “That’s it, I’m leavin’!” It’s like they are not even going to try, especially in Canada. “Hell, I didn’t know the tail light was out. How you thank we can fix ‘at?” They are like, “Just please get out of here. You are idiots. Please leave.”

II is the album that got me into you guys and it’s my favorite of them all. How do you feel about this release in comparison to your others?

I love playing a lot of songs off II. It’s one of the funnest albums to play live and yeah it’s one of my favorite albums. The newest one, though, is also one of my favorites just for what I was going through. I needed to make that record. We all did, we were all going through hard times and it was just a hard record to make. But, yeah. II is one of my favorites and is just a fun record.

To me II & III seem heavier and more guitar driven, while IV seems to be more vocal and sounds more melodic.

With IV we knew we wanted to make more straightforward songs and songs that actually get a point across. We wanted it to actually tell a story.

Instead of just rocking out?

Yeah. Maybe we’ll go back to that, we’ll probably go back to that, but this record, I think it needed to happen and have a certain feeling to it.

Your music and theme seems to be influenced not necessarily by religion, but by the concepts that most religion is based on – pretty much to be good, and if you’re not this is what you have to deal with.

Definitely. I have my beliefs. I believe in Jesus and in just loving people and caring for them and connecting people. We try to make it where anybody can get anything out of our music. Even someone that believes something completely different can be like, “Oh, I understood it.” We have never been one of those bands that was like, “This is what we believe, and this and that.” We just want people to know that they are not alone in whatever they go through.

Is there a storied concept on your albums with each one being a chapter in a longer presentation, or are they all individual efforts?

Individual. But the first three were kind of telling a story of the consequences with Mother Maylene and her sons and all that stuff. The fourth record is more personal, but it can still relate to that.

I’m an indie wrestler and the whole gang of outlaws concept of MATSOD reminds me of a stable in wrestling.

That’s awesome.

It’s funny because I make this comparison all the time and some people get it and some don’t. The comparison between wrestling and music is very similar. I’m trying to get my name out there, I am trying to get “The Human Hand Grenade” dany only out there, so I’ll drive 400 miles to do a show in front of 50 people. Music, to me, is the same way.

Yeah, absolutely.

You might drive ridiculous hours, sell CDs out of the back of your car and whatnot, and it builds up like fire.

You a fan of the Necro Butcher at all?

He is crazy as shit! But you know what is crazy? The guy is super intelligent.

Really?

I have several friends who have sat down and talked with him and said he is amazingly intelligent. He just knew that he had this niche, you know, killing himself and doing this crazy shit, and that pays the bills. You did some work with WWE, doing Chris Jericho and Big Show’s theme and also the Bragging Rights 2009 pay-per-view theme. How did that come to pass?

I think they contacted us, somehow we just met up and we meshed together. It was really cool and it was a lot of fun working with those guys

So you had a good relationship with them?

Yeah, definitely. They are awesome. Everyone at WWE we dealt with was just awesome.

Were you a wrestling fan growing up?

Photo by Amina Munster

I wasn’t the most diehard fan, but I liked “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan and stuff like that, the [Ultimate] Warrior. Yeah, I grew up watching it. I mean, I loved wrestling, but I wasn’t like this superfan. I guess because out in the country, I don’t even know if we got to watch it at all.

Yeah, but you had Championship Wrestling from Florida, you had “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes, Eddie Graham…

Yeah, we did. And a lot of wrestlers live in Florida now. Like Macho Man did, I think the Undertaker does.

Have you seen wrestling in the past few years?

The last time was with Rey Mysterio, which is cool because we played with P.O.D. and he came out with them in San Diego and introduced them. I watched the Hardy Boyz. Yeah, that’s the last time I really watched it. You know what’s funny is our guys have been following The Iron Sheik. His Twitter is hilarious.

Yeah, that dude is out of control. Did you see the war between him and Michael Ian Black?

No, but we were just reading his shit and it is hilarious.

They went back and forth for, like, two days. I think that even John Stamos got brought into it. Sheik said something about “Michael Ian Black is faggot like John Stamos’ moustache,” and Stamos was like, “Uh, how the fuck did I get brought in this?” It was quite funny.

Yeah, man. At first I was like, “This has got to be a joke.” And they were like, “No, that is really him.”

Who, if anyone, would you like to work with or collaborate with in the future?

Ah, man. I don’t know. Let me think. I listen to a lot of weird different stuff, so I don’t know. Let me think. There is this band from the UK called the White Lies that I’m big into. Man, I listen to so much stupid stuff. Slipknot is awesome. I guess Tori Amos would be someone, if I could just hang with her and do some stuff that would be really cool.

Is there anything you would like to say to people that might stumble upon this interview?

Just keep your head up. We all face hard times, and we are all going to face hard times. Just hang in there.

Rock takes a slight backburner to dubstep with Blackburner

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Dubstep has clearly become the electronic music genre of choice for those who prefer something a little more aggressive to their grooves. Given its glitchy angst, it comes as no surprise that metalheads (especially those of the industrial and horror varieties) are particularly drawn to dubstep when venturing into new sonic realms. And with bands like Korn and Rob Zombie incorporating elements of dubstep into their recent output, this fusion is coming more and more commonplace. Having performed with former Zombie guitarist Riggs in Scum of the Earth, as well as his own bands Killingbird and ModelSaint, guitarist Skyla Talon founded dubstep project Blackburner in 2011. Since then, Blackburner has become one of the most prolific new additions to the dubstep scene, putting out two albums (as well as numerous EPs, remixes and singles) in 2012. With the addition of fellow rocker-turned-DJ Spled about a year ago, the band’s performances have become just as involved as its music, with elaborate light shows, live instrumentation and masks that look like a futuristic cross between Deadmu5‘s mouse heads and Donnie Darko‘s demented rabbit. With its latest album Drop Bass Not Bombs due out in a few weeks, Blackburner talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the new album, upcoming performances and last year’s tour with Ministry.

Skyla, your music background is pretty well documented. But, Spled, what is your history and how did you get involved with Blackburner?

Spled: I’m a singer and songwriter. I’ve been doing metal and hardcore, then started producing dubstep just for fun. Then it just became a career.

Talon: I had been hanging out with Sonny Moore (aka Skrillex) and he was the one who opened my eyes to dubstep. Then I brought Spled on board to make it more of a party and we’ve been having a lot of fun.

Dubstep, much like drum-and-bass before it, is the more aggressive version of electronic music. So I’m guessing the transition from playing metal to doing dubstep wasn’t all that difficult.

Spled: It’s actually the same structure; dubstep breakdowns are a lot like hardcore breakdowns.

Talon: That aggression is what really got our attention. We’ve always done electronic music, as well as rock ‘n’ roll. Now’s a good time to bring it live and put the rock ‘n’ roll on the backburner for a change instead of the electronic stuff. That’s what we’ve done with Blackburner.

Speaking of bringing it live, the pictures I’ve seen look like an interesting show. How would you describe a live Blackburner experience for the uninitiated?

Talon: We have a really good time. We have cryo guns so we can shoot fog into the crowd. If we’re doing a full-on live show, we’ll bring out our guitars and actually play on a couple of songs. We actually sing on a couple of tracks, we have a crazy light show and it gets pretty nuts. Sometimes we drink too much.

Spled: There’s definitely a lot of drinking.

But that only happens after the show, right?

Talon: A lot of times we’ll start during the show. We just get straws so we can drink through the masks. That way, by the end of the set we’re feeling pretty good.

Speaking of the masks, what’s the story there? They’re very reminiscent of the Donnie Darko mask, which I can’t complain about.

Talon: A friend of ours drew the logo and the logo turned out as this evil rabbit. That’s kind of where it started, even before we were wearing masks.

Spled: And when we started wearing masks we were actually trying to be angry robots.

Talon: Yeah! So that triggered the idea and we initially started out with just gas masks and bunny ears. Then we started working with this movie guy and it grew from that and we came up with this other idea. It does get a lot of comparisons to Donnie Darko, which is fine with us. We didn’t actually think of that at first, but it’s a great movie. And the masks are creepy as hell, so it works perfectly.

Drop Bass Not Bombs is your latest effort, but you guys were pretty busy with a few releases last year.

Talon: Yeah. We put out two records last year, Feel the Burn and Planet Earth Attack. We started to put out Drop Bass Not Bombs, but we actually pulled it and we’re reworking it a little bit and adding some more tracks. So that will come out physically and digitally February 26.

You’re performing tonight in Atlanta, then in Colorado in March and Philadelphia in April. Do you plan on doing more consistent touring or will you continue to do one-off shows for now?

Talon: We’re trying to get it rolling right now. We want to be on the road every day. We’re currently trying to fill more dates, but we will play anywhere anytime.

Do either of you still perform in rock bands at all?

Talon: We still do rock stuff every now and then, but right now we’re just concentrating on this. This keeps us pretty busy, we’re putting out music nonstop and it’s pretty much consumed our lives.

Spled: That’s not to say we won’t go back and do some more rock and metal someday.

At the rate that you’re putting out new music, it definitely seems like you’re focused on Blackburner.

Spled: Yeah, we don’t sleep much. At least with this we can write complete songs on the road or on a plane. That’s one thing we love about electronic music.

You toured last year with Ministry. Between playing for those audiences and your background with Scum of the Earth and other metal bands, how much of a crossover have you seen between fans of your rock stuff and these dubstep shows?

Talon: We didn’t know what the Ministry crowd would be like. It was a lot of old-school Ministry fans, so there were 40 and 50-year-old guys with beards. But by the end of our sets we had them dancing. We played a lot of our guitar tracks for that tour, so it was the heavier side of Blackburner. It was a lot of fun. But we see a lot of people not really caring anymore whether it’s metal or whatever. It’s just music and a lot of people don’t give a shit and just want to have a good time.

www.blackburner.org