Category Archives: Interviews

Eye Empire strikes back with an “Impact”

Although today’s release of it’s debut album Impact might indicate that Eye Empire is a new band, the heavy metal heritage of its members says otherwise. Anchored by former Dark New Day bandmates Corey Lowery (also of Stuck Mojo and Stereomud) and B.C. Kochmit, the band also features former Submersed singer Donald Carpenter and former Texas Hippie Coalition drummer Ryan Bennett. Together, these four musicians (and occasionally some of their friends) now proudly wave the Eye Empire flag as they continue the next chapter of their collective hard rock journey. As the band continues its tour, leading into summer support dates with Nonpoint and Seether, Carpenter takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the empowering imagery and themes on the two-disc Impact release, the band’s formation and more.

Front man Donald Carpenter (second from left) makes an "Impact" with Eye Empire (photo by Angela Villand)

Eye Empire’s debut album Impact is out today. How does this release compare to the independently released Moment of Impact?

There are some tracks that have been released on a limited basis on some collector’s issues that we’ve put out independently so far. Some of those songs did make the final version of the album. The first 1,000 we printed were hand signed and hand numbered. We did that so each CD would be unique and once those sold out after the first month and a half, we decided to do a second run of 1,001-2,000 where we changed the artw0rk and actually included some photos of anybody who bought the first album in the artwork. We changed out three songs on each of those collector’s issues, so the track listing varied a little bit and there were some new songs on the second thousand. It’s been a way for us to promote our band and give our fans from the beginning something to give them patience as we build this behind the scenes. In the end, it makes it kind of unique with the collector’s discs because there’s only a few of them out there.

The completed album is a two-disc album. What all is included on that?

The cool thing about it is it’s kind of the culmination of everybody’s faith, love, respect and support from these first three years. Each little CD and each little word-of-mouth thing that’s come along has helped build to this disc, and that’s turned into 19 studio tracks, three acoustic versions and two live recordings. So five of the new tracks are actually like bonus material.

The CD cover and other imagery are interesting, with this very unifying flag and whatnot. What was the inspiration behind Impact‘s aesthetic?

The concept is that we want our fanbase to have an identity. We realize what our place is in this, and I think that’s kind of understood from the beginning with everybody involved. I don’t think music’s about inflating the ego of the band, I think it’s about bringing the fans up to our level. We wanted our fanbase to have an identity and we found that identity within the Empire itself. We wanted to keep it simple and clean and put out the colors. Those are our colors, that’s our flag, that’s what represents our fanbase and represents us as a band.

The title Impact is about what we want our music to be about, and that’s about making an impact. It’s about writing music we can relate to and find refuge in, but it’s also about empowerment and giving the fans an identity.

Eye Empire features former members of Stuck Mojo, Dark New Day, Submersed and other bands, and you’ve worked with some of the guys from Sevendust. How did you all come together to create this band?

All of that helped us have some familiarity with each other. We were always about one degree of separation apart and we went through our little experiences and all of those led to Empire. For whatever reason, Dark New Day came to an end around the time that Submersed came to an end for me and Switched came to an end for Brad [Kochmit]. It took them a few years to find me, but those guys worked together for three or four years and put together some music and were searching for the voice. So three years ago on Halloween I came in and got involved. We feel like all of that was for this and it was all the experience and growth we needed to get to this point.

Lajon Witherspoon and Morgan Rose from Sevendust also contributed to this album. How did they get involved?

Well, Corey’s brother is Clint, who is the founding guitarist for Sevendust. Corey grew up very close to all of those guys. Morgan and Lajon live in Atlanta, which is where Corey’s studio is based. When Corey and Brad got together and started jamming on some of their early music, they needed someone to fill in on the drum set. Morgan happened to be off the road at that time and he enjoys playing music, so he sat in and jammed a little bit. When we started to record the first part of the record, it only felt natural for him to come in and complete the process on some of those early song. LJ was one of those situations where the brotherhood was growing and he’s been somebody I’ve respected for a long time coming up as a vocalist. We were in the studio working together on some other things and the opportunity came up, so we had fun with it. It’s kind of a cool way to show how carefree the process is. We’re really just a lot of people who have a lot of respect for each other and we have a lot of friends that we respect a lot who have high abilities and we thought it would be fun to make a record we could all enjoy.

You guys have done a lot of touring recently and will be on the road a lot this summer. What do you have planned for the shows you have coming up?

Yeah, we’ve been touring for about ten months playing some headlining dates. We went out with Mushroomhead, Wayne Static and Sevendust last year. We’ve played some shows with Volbeat and Five Finger Death Punch over the last few months. On July 28 we’re playing Band Camp in Madison, Wisconsin, then we hit the road with Nonpoint and Call Me No One for about six weeks before we head out with Seether, Sick Puppies and Kyng, which we’re all friends with so we’re excited about that.

I don’t think I’ve had a chance to see Eye Empire live yet, so…

I can promise you one thing; if you did you would know. It’s all about energy. Like I said, it’s about bringing the fans up to our plane. Sometimes we feel a little insignificant out there and it’s about inflating the ego of the rock star. But for us it couldn’t be any more opposite. It’s about us coming out there and celebrating the fans being present, bringing their energy and being such an integral part of keeping music alive. That’s what it is; it’s a celebration of the fans and our love for music.

For more information, go to www.eyeempire.com.

Volbeat answers “A Warrior’s Call” on summer tour

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It’s been more than a year since Danish band Volbeat released its fourth album Beyond Hell/Above Heaven. And since then the single “A Warrior’s Call” has become an anthem for fighters and wrestlers, as well as rock fans looking for something to pump their fists to. Written specifically for Danish boxer Mikkel Kessler, “A Warrior’s Call” is just one of several songs that blend the punk rock stylings of the Misfits and the rockabilly swagger of Johnny Cash and Social Distortion with thrash metal riffs and hardcore sing-alongs. After touring with Metallica, then opening for Megadeth, Motörhead and Lacuna Coil on the Gigantour earlier this year, the band set out on a United States festival tour for most of last month. As Volbeat prepares for a summer headlining tour of North America with support from Hellyeah and Iced Earth beginning June 18, drummer Jon Larsen takes a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about “A Warrior’s Call,” album themes and the band’s creative process.

This album has been your most successful one yet, at least here in North America. That’s largely because of the first single “A Warrior’s Call,” which is about a boxer. Did you know a lot of independent wrestlers also use that as their entrance music?

We are quite familiar with those stories, actually. We also know there is a hockey team, maybe, that is using it. It seems like a lot of people in the world of sports have really picked up on that song and use it as an intro song or whatever, which is kind of amusing and fun for us. The song was written specifically for a Danish boxer and that’s basically what it was. He had been using one of our older songs from the Guitar Gangsters album for his intro when he walked into the ring. We got to know him and kind of just said, “Why don’t you have some decent music when you enter the arena?” And he said, “Well, why don’t you write a song for me?” So that’s what Michael [Poulsen, singer/guitarist] did. He said, “Sure. That’s a challenge. I’ll do that.” So it was written specifically for him, but it’s interesting that a lot of independent wrestlers, hockey teams, soccer teams or whatever started to use that song. But, hey, it’s all good. We aren’t complaining.

Beyond Heaven/Above Heaven picks up thematically where Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood left off. For those who are just discovering Volbeat through the newer album, what is the connection between these two albums?

Some of the songs on the Guitar Gangsters album were combined into a story. I’m not really that familiar with the story either. I know that Michael got the idea after watching an old gangster movie on TCM and didn’t finish the movie because he was doing something else. So he started wondering what actually happened during that movie, what happened to that guy. So that’s where he picked up the story and made it into his own story. There were seven songs on the Guitar Gangsters album that were combined into this story and on the new album there are three or four songs that continue the story.

He obviously writes the lyrics and comes up with the overall concepts, but how much input do you have as the drummer when it comes to writing songs and albums?

It varies from time to time. Sometimes Michael will have a full song ready when we meet up in the rehearsal room and he will say, “Try to play like this” or “Try to do something like this.” Sometimes he doesn’t really have anything and we just start fooling around with a riff and all of a sudden it’s like, “Whoops! We’ve got something there.” Then he goes home and continues working on that. Of course, we all throw in any ideas we have and if he can use them, he will. But if it’s too stupid, he won’t use it. Most of the time, he and I will meet up at the rehearsal room before the other guys show up and start just pounding out ideas and riffs and beats and whatever and see what we can come up with.

You recently finished a string of festival shows and now you’re heading out on your own headlining tour. How will the shows on this tour compare to the festival shows you’ve been playing?

We just did 15 festivals and seven headlining shows. A festival is what a festival is and headlining shows are actually sometimes more fun because we’re in better control of everything. On this run we’ll be hitting some shows on the West Coast, which we did not on the last run. We’re going back to Canada, doing some shows on the West Coast and some East Coast shows, so we’re going to be all over America on this run. We don’t really change anything production-wise. It’s not about a stage show for us; we are what we are and it’s just basically amps, drums and guitars.

Volbeat drummer Jon Larsen (right) prepares for North American summer tour (photo by Erik Weiss)

You are what you are, but your sound is an amalgamation of everything from metal to punk to rockabilly. Do those influences creep in from individual band members or do you all share similar interests in many rock genres?

We’re four different people with four different musical tastes, so we just throw in everything we’ve got. Like you said, there’s some metal in there, some punk in there, some rockabilly, some three-chord bar rock, there’s everything. We just play the kind of music we like to play. We don’t really think too much about what it is, it’s just how we started. We didn’t really think too much about if it’s supposed to be this or that, we just said, “OK. We’re going to do this. Does it work? Yeah, it works. Does this thing work? Yeah, it works.” That’s what we did in the beginning and that’s what we’re still doing, basically.

Given the appeal that “A Warrior’s Call” has had with wrestlers, sports teams and the like, do you think Volbeat might continue writing music for specific wrestlers or other athletic entities in the future?

Right now, no. But never say, “Never.” Who knows? If something interesting pops up, why not?

For more information, go to www.volbeat.dk.

Cata9tales whips up rock-infused hip-hop with glam aesthetics

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Kenny "Kreator" Perkins and Berkley Priest are Cata9tales

After meeting a little more than a year ago, self-proclaimed music nerds Berkley Priest and Kenny “Kreator” Perkins quickly realized the power of their combined talents. Adopting the Cata9tales name, the Virginia-based duo released its first album, Kick the Bad Love less than three months later. And after having a few of its tracks featured in the Platinum Championship Wrestling documentary The Booker, which premiered in March at the Atlanta Film Festival, the band recently released an EP called A Chameleon’s Dream. Known for live shows that combine over-the-top rock ‘n’ roll theatrics with hip-hop rhymes and electronica beats, the band has been hitting the road for regional performances in recent weeks with plans to do more extensive touring later this year (including the Rise of the Clarksvillans show with New Born Redemption and The Dynamo Humm this Saturday in Clarksville, Va. Before Cata9tales whips up a frenzy on stage, Priest and Kreator talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about their burgeoning career.

I was introduced to your music when I saw the PCW documentary The Booker at the Atlanta Film Festival. How did you get involved with that film?

Kreator: That’s a film made by my cousin, Mike Perkins. He contacted me about doing a little bit of music for it, so I sent him a few of the tracks we were working on at the time and it made it in there. I’ve done music for some of his other documentaries. One was about a motocross team and I did some instrumental tunes. In The Booker he uses a snippet of “Give em the Boot” and some other small things that aren’t actual Cata9tales tracks. And he used part of “The People vs Jesus of Nazareth”.

Priest: Some of them are Cata9tales tracks that he took the vocals off of so he could use the beat and background music. But “Give em the Boot” was featured in there since it uses a lot of boxing analogies in the lyrics. That was probably the biggest song off our first record and people still kind of gravitate towards that one.

Your music could be classified as hip-hop, but unlike most white rappers today your sound is more of a throwback to the sounds of the ’80s and ’90s. How did you guys come up with this unique Cata9tales sound?

Kreator: We grew up in the South and the music we listened to as teenagers influences us a great deal, especially the early ’90s when they were starting to meld styles like hip-hop and rock together. We both played instruments and come from rock bands, so that type of arrangement and song structure is common to us. We tend to lean more towards that, but we use the technology of hip-hop, which is sequencers and beat machines and that sort of stuff.

Priest: I don’t consider myself a rapper. I consider myself a poet, if anything. But I’m really a rock ‘n’ roll-style front man who just happens to be able to rhyme and not really sing so much. So it’s kind of a weird thing. But Kenny are massive music fans and music nerds. We’re well studied in it, so what you get is essentially a lifetime of each of us studying all these different kinds of music and playing a lot of different instruments in a lot of different bands. And it’s suddenly coming together in this last year or so in creating this weird hybrid hip-hop music. It’s not a conscious thing where we’re going to sit down and make this kind of music, it’s just what comes out.

It looks like you guys are starting to branch out from your Virginia base. What do you have planned for this summer?

Priest: Yeah, we’re starting to break and play more. We’re going to play Richmond, Philly, D.C. and New York. We’re sending out press kits and doing everything we can to get the band out there and push it. It’s kind of a now-or-never thing because we’ve gotten to the point where we can go out and really put on good shows, and I’m proud of the last record we did. We’re still in the baby stages, but we’re at that stage where it’s time to break out and really push it.

It’s mostly weekend shows with some mid-week shows here and there. It’s not jump on the road and stay on the road yet, but I want it to be that way by the fall. Because of where we’re located, we’re kind of in the middle of nowhere, but we’re lose to a lot of different cities within a two-hour radius. So we’re trying to nail all those cities and we’re talking about relocating at the end of summer to somewhere that has a little better musical climate than where we are right now. I lived in New York and Los Angeles for a long time, so I have a lot of connections out there. So we’re very fortunate that we already have some inroads in some of these places.

Do you have a backing band that joins you on stage or is it always just the two of you?

Priest: We have other musicians. Kenny and I write everything and we’re the core of the band, but when it comes to the live show we go the Alice Cooper route with a big production and a lot of energy with me hanging from the ceiling and throwing stuff and light shows. We usually have a guitar player, bass player and a hype man on stage. Sometimes we work out other routines, but generally speaking we’ll do some small shows where it’s just me and Kenny, but if we’re doing a big headlining show we do the full band thing.

The new EP just came out in April. Are you working on any new material or are you focused more on getting this music out to people?

Kreator: We’re always working on something new. Right now we’re focusing on playing live, but we’ve always got stuff cooking on the back burner.

Priest: Yeah. Last time we sat down to have a rehearsal, we ended up cutting samples most of the night. So we’re always working on stuff and there is new stuff coming out. But through the summer, and probably through the fall as well, we want to promote what we’ve got now that we have a decent amount of material to stand on. We’ve released these two records and given them away; the next release we won’t. We’d rather give stuff away and build a fan base. It’s a cliche to say this, but it’s really not about money for us. It’s about the art and really just loving what we do, and it really had nothing to do with trying to be rich or anything. Though money would be nice.

You mentioned that you’re planning on doing a more extensive tour in the fall. Do you have an specific cities or dates booked yet?

Priest: We don’t have anything locked in yet, but we’ll hopefully be able to put some dates out by the end of next month.

For more information, go to www.cata9tales.com.

Rob Hammersmith keeps Skid Row’s pulse pounding

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Joining skid row is not something most people aspire to do. But in the case of rock drummer Rob Hammersmith, it has been one of the best career moves he’s ever made. Formerly of Wednesday 13’s glam punk band Gunfire 76 and one-time Atlanta act Rockets to Ruin, Hammersmith joined ’80s/’90s metal band Skid Row two years ago following the departure of Dave Gara. Having previously opened for the band with Rockets to Ruin (whose 2006 Love Drugs Rebellion EP was produced by Skid Row’s Rachel Bolan), Hammersmith likely never expected to eventually join one of the bands he grew up listening to. Since then, Hammersmith has been pounding away on “Youth Gone Wild,” “Monkey Business” and other songs that influenced him as a musician, while sharing the stage with some of his other favorite acts (Skid Row was even part of last year’s KISS Kruise). With a new album in the works and a summer tour that starts this Friday, Hammersmith talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about the new music, tour and the surreality of being a member of Skid Row.

You were in a few other bands previously, but how did you end up in Skid Row?

You know, I’ve kind of lost track. I played in several Atlanta bands. I played in a band called Union Drag for a while, I played with Eliott James and the Snakes for a long time, then I played with Wednesday 13 for a little while in a project called Gunfire 76. That was between Rockets to Ruin and Skid Row, so I went out and did some touring with him over the course of about a year. At that time, Wednesday was in the process of going back and doing another Murderdolls record, so I came home from the Gunfire 76 tour and didn’t have a gig and didn’t really know what I was going to do at the time. Having known Rachel and the guys in Skid Row for a while – Skid Row actually took Rockets to Ruin out on a handful of dates when they put out Revolutions Per Minute in 2006 – it just kind of worked out. I came home, didn’t have a gig, they needed a drummer and I got a phone call. So it worked out well for me.

I understand Skid Row is working on a new album, which will be the first one since you joined the band a couple of years ago. What can you tell me about the new music and your involvement in the creative process?

We do have some new songs. We’ve done some recording, although we haven’t done anything past the demo phase. But we are working on new music and we’re taking our time with it. We’re making an effort to do it in a way that we feel comfortable with, so we’re not rushing to do it, we’re not up against any deadlines, and it’s a good place to be. We can take our time and we’ve got a really busy summer with shows, so that’s going to be our focus over the summer. When we have days off here and there we’ll continue to work on the songs, but as far as having a release date or target date, we don’t at this point.

I noticed you have a lot of tour dates scheduled over the next few months. Will you playing any of the new stuff on this tour?

It looks like we might try to do a couple of the new songs as early as the Wild Bill’s show, which is the second date of the tour. Wild Bill’s is a great gig for us. We’re typically not bound by time constraints or anything like that. A lot of the shows that we do, the time slot might not be quite as flexible as it is in other situations. So that’s a good opportunity for us to go out and play maybe one or two of the songs we’d really like to get out there in front of people. I think there’s a real good chance that people will be hearing some new songs this summer.

Who else will be playing with Skid Row this summer?

Bigfoot has been around for a few years now and Rachel worked with them in the studio a couple of years ago. They’re great friends of ours, a great band and we always like playing shows with those guys. The other band on that bill is The Dreaded Marco and those guys have been around for about two years now. A lot of people know Mike Froedge from Open Sky Studio and his several other bands. But they’ve been doing really well over the last year or so, so we’re excited to be playing with those guys. But those bands are only playing with us at the Wild Bill show.

We’re doing a handful of shows with the guys in Warrant, which is a band we play with quite a bit. We did a handful of shows with those guys last summer and the bill works really well because the crowd seems to really respond to both bands. So we’ll do a handful of shows with those guys and L.A. Guns (Phil Lewis and Steve Riley’s version) is another band we’ll be doing shows with this summer and, again, that’s a bill that seems to work really well. But in between that we just do what makes sense for us. We’ll do a lot of shows with local openers, depending on what region we’re in. The summer’s good for us, though. We’ve got shows with Shinedown, a show with Kid Rock, a show with Papa Roach, so it’s going to be a good summer. Each weekend or each run of shows we do is going to be slightly different from the last, which will be fun.

For someone who grew up listening to Skid Row and all the other bands you just mentioned, what is it like to go from being a fan of those bands to playing in one of them and sharing the stage with the other ones?

It’s definitely a surreal feeling and I still have those moments where I just sit back and take it all in. It’s usually right at the beginning of “Youth Gone Wild” in the set when I get a chance to take a deep breath, look around and take it all in. It’s a really cool feeling and I’m just really grateful for the opportunities I’ve had that have led me here. Words kind of fail me when I get to this point in the interview. It’s just a really cool feeling, the guys have been great to me and, as you said, I’ve always been a fan of the music. With as much history as this band has, there’s a lot of guys they could have called. And when they call your number, that’s not something to take lightly. I have a good time with it and, as you said, I get to go out and play with these other bands I grew up listening to, so that’s always a lot of fun for me.

For more information, go to www.skidrow.com.

Wrestling with Pop Culture has free tickets to see Skid Row, Bigfoot and The Dreaded Marco at Wild Bill’s on June 9. Comment below with your favorite Skid Row song for a chance to win a pair of tickets to the show. Winners will be chosen at noon on June 8.

Straight Line Stitch fights for its life on spring/summer tour

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Having woven itself tightly into the national metal scene with an an intensely aggressive sound complemented by the alternating roars and purrs of front woman Alexis Brown, Tennessee’s Straight Line Stitch continues to lacerate listeners with a rigorous tour schedule in support of last year’s The Fight of our Lives. And with a steady stream of dates through July followed by another round of dates in late August, SLS doesn’t plan on letting up anytime soon. Having already begun writing for the next album, Brown takes a moment amidst her hectic schedule to chat briefly with Wrestling with Pop Culture about what the band has planned for the rest of the year.

It looks like you’ll be touring all summer, with a short break in July before hitting the road again in August. Are you touring with other bands or just doing your own thing?

We’ve been on the road since April 24 and we’re touring through July 9. We pick up with a band called Blameshift June 5. But we’ve been out by ourselves and we pick up with a band and do some shows, then we just continue out by ourselves.

You’re being joined on this tour by former Darkest Hour guitarist Kris Norris, who also played with Straight Line Stitch briefly a couple of years ago. Is he officially in the band or just filling in for this tour?

Yes, Kris has been out with us and has been helping out with the tour. Then we have Andrew Mikhail, who used to be in a band called Oceano, picking up the rest of the dates with us starting June 5.

Photo courtesy Adrenaline PR and Straight Line Stitch

You’re still touring behind 2011’s The Fight of Our Lives, which has been the band’s most successful album in many ways. When can we expect a new album from Straight Line Stitch?

Right now we’re writing on the road like we always do, and just recording ideas. When we get off the road, we’ll probably take three weeks off before we start working on songs and stuff. We hope to be in the studio by the end of the year.

What can you tell me about the new songs thus far? How do they compare to The Fight of our Lives?

I feel like we’ve definitely matured in our writing. With this album and our previous album, I think it was more hands on. The band did most of the pre-production stuff and it was more so our album. We had more of a say in what was going on and what we wanted to do, whereas when we did our first album it was like people were holding our hands and telling us what to do and how we should do it. I just felt like The Fight of Our Lives was more us taking a stand as a band.

How has that experience carried over to the stuff you’re working on now?

With the new stuff we’re going to experiment, which I’m excited about. We’re just going to let it develop itself and see where it takes us. Now we have new members in the mix, so that’s definitely going to change our sound a little bit. But we’re pretty much just going to see what happens with the new members, as far as changes to our writing process.

You’re known for your intensity, both on the albums and at live shows. How have these shows been going and how would you say they compare to what you’ve done on previous tours?

It’s always a priority to have energy and make sure the fans get what they pay for. The goal is still the same and we’re just trying to keep busier than before. And the tour’s been going really well.

It seems as if female-fronted metal bands and bands with female members are becoming more and more common. You’ve been doing it for a few years, but why do you think there’s been a bit of an emergence of more female metal singers and bands?

I think it’s just been really popular, especially with people making such a big deal about it. People are actually starting to pay attention. With us, we just want to make music. It’s not about being a female fronting a band. We just want to make this music and tour. It doesn’t matter what gender you are, we just want to go out and make the music.

One-Eyed Doll takes its kooky costumed punk on tour with Peelander-Z

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With a demented Gothic Lolita look and a spastic goth punk sound, Austin’s One-Eyed Doll is just as much a performance art act as a punk rock band. Fronted by the adorably disturbed Kimberly Freeman, who performs in babydoll dresses and smudged eye makeup (and often pulls a “special boy” on stage to momentarily be part of the act), and anchored by Jason Sewell (better known simply as Junior), this Texas duo has caught the eyes and ears of anime conventioneers, heavy metal headbangers and punk rockers across the country. After opening for Otep last year and having recently concluded its tour with a revamped Orgy, One-Eyed Doll is now on the road with theatrical Japanese punk band Peelander-Z, which seems like a perfect match considering both bands’ love of costumes and rock ‘n’ roll. Having just started this tour last week, Freeman and Junior take a moment to talk to Wrestling with Pop Culture about their upcoming album Dirty, the differences between playing anime conventions and dive bars, and recording with former WWE Women’s Champion Lita.

I first saw you three years ago at Dragon*Con and have since seen you headline smaller club shows and open for bigger metal acts. Each time I’ve seen you, your show and presentation have been a little bit different. How do you decide what you’re going to do for each show and tour?

Photo by Sydney Frames

Freeman: It just sort of happens when it happens. We don’t really plan for any particular kind of show. It’s just different because of whatever my mood is, usually. This crowd tends to like the silly stuff and the sing-alongs and things like that, so I think we’re probably going to be able to pull out a lot more of the slapstick on this tour, which is awesome. Of course the Peelander-Z crowd is into clowning around and stuff, so that’s cool. We’ve definitely, this past year, played to some more serious audiences. But probably the most lighthearted audience was the Orgy tour and this one. That’s always fun for me to just kind of let go and not worry about it too much.

Before the Orgy tour you toured with Otep and other heavier bands. I can see how that might work, but how would you say these drastically different audiences have reacted?

Freeman: We cross over into different genres, so we can kind of tour with whoever and usually do pretty well. We can always win a crowd over, but the real serious metal crowds make you prove it before they’ll let you into their comfort zone. We usually only have 30 minutes, 20 on some tours, so it’s a real challenge to figure out the balance of what an audience is going to react to. We usually just feel it out on the spot, but the past couple of tours have been getting a lot easier. It could be just us getting used to being this opening band on these bigger tours. The more aggressive the entire show is, the more resistant people are in general to everyone. And the more rock ‘n’ roll or punk [the show is], the more open they’ve been.

I know back in the day Orgy was a lot more techno industrial rock. But they’re doing their comeback, which I’m real excited for, and they’re a lot more straight-up rock now. It’s really cool. They’re all actually playing their instruments, they’re not doing backing tracks, Jay [Gordon]’s actually singing his songs. There’s a keyboard on stage, but that’s the only hint of ’90s industrial techno. It’s really rocking, guitar driven, heavy drums and cool stuff. That crowd had a lot more girls in it, too, because they’re kind of a hearth throb-y sort of band.

Is that why those audiences were fun?

Freeman: I think that was part of it. I love playing to a lot of girls. I love having a lot of girls in the audience. They were just so chill. I think there were just no expectations because nobody knew what to expect from Orgy, so they had an open mind. That was just a really great tour for us. I really enjoyed it. This one has been really fun so far. It’s hard to tell the first couple of days what it’s going to be like, but I think it’s going to be so fun. The Peelander-Z crew is just a blast and they’re silly and they costume and do skits and the crowd loves to sing along and get into it. Their crowd already knows what they’re going to do. They’re totally stoked about it. It’s really exciting for them. I love seeing people turn into children. And it’s real punk, you know. It’s a punk, pirate-y, easy going crowd.

Like One-Eyed Doll, Peelander-Z is known for playing Dragon*Con and anime conventions. How do those shows compare to playing rock clubs?

Photo by Chad Elder

Freeman: Oh man, it’s such a different world. I’m sure those guys would tell you the same thing. The conventions are their own little mini-universes. Everybody’s in costumes and they’re not exactly a rocker crowd that would go to the dive bar. They’d probably never set foot into a scary punk bar. It’s a really all-ages-friendly, innocent, fun place and it’s a real safe environment. We usually have a stage crew and pretty nice stage and lights and they take care of us and put us into a hotel room. But this kind of tour is a lot more Road Warrior-style. It’s a lot of small bars and intimate settings where you can fit maybe 50 people into the room and the stage is a planks of wood in the corner. They’re willing to pay you in beer, so it’s a totally different world. You’ve got the safe convention world where you have a built in audience of up to several thousand, then you have these dive bars that are dirty, smelly, dark and fun.

And they both fit with the One-Eyed Doll aesthetic in very different ways.

Freeman: Yeah, I think so. I think Peelander-Z thrives in both environments, too. It’s funny because we just got off these more high profile tours onto this short little dive bar tour and it’s kind of refreshing. There’s usually no backstage, there’s certainly nowhere to hide, so you’re right there with everybody. That can be kind of fun. That’s kind of how we used to tour all the time. It’s been a little bit of a refreshing thing and it’s a real no-pressure kind of environment. We’re just playing shows on our way back to Texas. no big deal.

A few years ago you played with a band called the Luchagors, fronted by Amy Dumas, better know to wrestling fans as former WWE Women’s Champion Lita. As a result, she has become an outspoken supporter of One-Eyed Doll.

Freeman: Oh, yeah. Amy is a dear friend ever since we played together in Austin a few years ago. I’m as much of a fan of hers as she is of me. I think she’s great. When I saw her on stage for the first time with the Luchagors, I just totally fell in love. I was like, “I don’t know who this girl is, but we’re going to be best friends because she is awesome!” So we always hit each other up when we’re coming through town. She’s always on the road and we’re always on the road, so sometimes we cross paths. We’d love to do some more collaborating. She sang on one of my songs called “Insecure” for the Into Outer Space album. It’s my electropop dance album that’s just under the Kimberly Freeman name, even though Jason did all the instrumentation and arrangement. We still call it a solo album. I think she has a beautiful voice and she’s such a great performer. She’s been very supportive and we really plug each other whenever we can. I just love having my girl rocker friend. We recorded her parts in less than an hour and she did great.

You also have a new album coming out called Dirty. When will that be out and what else can you tell me about it?

Freeman: We’re pressing a new vinyl record. It’s being manufactured right now and as soon as we get back from this tour we’re going to have the first proof to check out. So it’s coming out really, really soon. We’re going to release it vinyl only, at least at first.

Junior: We recorded it at Sylvia Massy‘s studio in northern California called RadioStar. It’s this old art deco theater that’s filled with all this classic gear from the ’60s and ’70s that we’ve always wanted to work on. It was just the kind of environment that inspired a more classic sounding album. At the time, we had planned to record a real shiny, super-produced, radio-ready rock album, which we did. But at the same time we both were like, “Man, we want to use all this cool gear to record something more like Black Sabbath or Pink Floyd. Sylvia was so cool that she basically let us stay there and do whatever we wanted. After the first couple of weeks of recording, she realized I was also a producer and knew what I was doing with all of her gear. So she just let me do whatever I wanted after that and we were like, “Yes! We’re going to record another album.” We wanted to approach Dirty kind of the way they recorded back in the day, so we recorded most of the guitar and drums live together.

These days almost every song you hear is recorded to a metronome, so there’s a click track keeping the tempo and everybody plays to that so it’s the same tempo throughout the song. A lot of our songs, the way Kimberly writes them, the tempos gradually speed up and slow down and are really alive. We just wanted to capture that live feeling and not do it to a metronome. We played the songs together live, so they have that feel of how we do it at a show. Then, of course, we were like, “Well, crap. We’re going to have to release that on vinyl if we really want to do it right.” So we pretty much just stayed in the analog domain, but we’ll eventually put it out as a download and CD. In that sense, I think it’s a lot different from our other releases. But I think it’s also just a darker, moodier type of album. We usually have lots of ups and downs, but this one’s pretty much all downs.

You often tour with a third member known as Mister Swimmy Socks the Goldfish. Has he been involved in the recording of this new album?

Junior: He usually just tours, although he is on the Dirty album on a song called “Weed” that’s named after the town we recorded in. But he didn’t play bass, he played banjo on that song. He’s actually a really awesome banjo player.

Are you playing anything from Dirty on this tour?

Photo by Denise Borders

Junior: We’re playing a few songs, yeah. Actually, there are a couple of songs from the Monster album that we re-recorded for this album. They just have a different feel when we play them live now, so we wanted to capture the new feel of those songs. So a couple of the songs on the new album are classics that we play live all the time anyway.

Freeman:You want to be our guest [at a show]?

Absolutely. Do I have to earn that by performing in some way?

Freeman: Well if you would like to, I would consider you for a special boy. But that’s up to you. It’s volunteer only.

I guess we can talk about that at the show.

Freeman: Awesome! Make sure to grab us before the show.

For more information, go to www.oneeyeddoll.com.

The Melvins take on Unsane in a “Cage Match”? Well, sort of

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Since the early ’80s, the Melvins have been sludging through the metal underworld with monstrous riffs almost as big as front man Buzz Osborne’s signature afro. Though the band had some major label success in the ’90s (thanks mostly to its association with Nirvana), these guys

Photo by Mackie Osborne

have never been known for taking a traditional approach to music. Released for free through Scion A/V, the recent EP The Bulls & the Bees shows the band being just as heavy and weird as always, even while being distributed by the corporate arm of a major car company. As the Melvins hit the road with Unsane tonight for a week-and-a-half United States tour, Osborne talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about things that may or may not happen on this tour.

The Melvins recently released The Bulls & the Bees EP for free through Scion A/V. Did working with a car company as opposed to a record label affect the creative process at all?

The main difference is they’re not selling it. So it doesn’t go to stores or anything. It’s just free. Generally speaking, you don’t put out records unless you’re planning on selling them, and no one’s going to underwrite what you’re doing unless they’re going to get their money back. Usually record labels are a gamble, so this was certainly different than that. There’s no profit motivation on their end other than raising awareness of their car company. Whether that translates into auto sales remains to be seen.

For the band it could possibly expose you to people who may not have previously listened to you.

Heavy on the expose. We love to expose ourselves. How could you not? All we do is expose ourselves … constantly.

I’ve been listening to you guys since the mid ’90s, so I’ve been exposed to you guys a few times in concert.

Oh, you mean musically.

Yeah. I haven’t seen anything else. Have you been in Playgirl or anything?

Not me. No one needs to see that. Are you kidding? Surely you jest. We’ll just leave it at that. The unknown’s a lot of times better than the known.

You also have another album coming out in June called Freak Puke with a slightly scaled-down version of the Melvins called Melvins Lite. What can you say about that record so far? Will you be playing some of the new stuff on this tour?

Photo by Mackie Osborne

Melvins Lite is essentially us playing with Trevor Dunn, who plays a standup bass. Until people hear the stuff, they’re having a little bit of trouble getting their head around that. I don’t know why. They should, at this point, certainly expect us to do something a little weird. We always have. It sounds different sonically, but you can still tell it’s us. I got this idea last year. We did five shows with Trevor playing regular Melvins songs. But with all of our records and all of our songs, or any song in general – there’s really not a song in the world we couldn’t do a cover of, but that doesn’t mean we’d play it exactly the same – we’ve always moved forward with how it has to work in order for us to make it work. So I was never too worried about any of that kind of thing. It’s different, but it’s kind of an extension of what we’re doing already. We’re certainly not going to stop playing with the Big Business guys by no means. I think we’re going to play one song off this record [on this tour]. With us and the Big Business guys, we could play everything off this record. It might be a little different than it sounds with standup bass, but with a standup bass you could play every Melvins song. No problem. Essentially it’s still a bass. The same notes are on it, I guess. “I guess” is always a good answer for everything, don’t you think?

I guess.

Seems reasonable.

This tour kicks off tonight and you’re touring with another great underground band, Unsane. What a great pairing. Are there any plans for the two bands to collaborate or do anything odd on this tour?

We put out a 7-inch on Amphetamine Reptile with us covering an Unsane song and them covering one of our songs. That’s just out and we’re actually selling those on the tour. Cage Match, we called it.

Oh, so you’ll be in a cage. Will you be wearing luchador masks and things like that?

Yeah, totally. We’re going to kick their asses. It will be a severe beating. A series of beatings followed by a series of beatings. How about that?

I look forward to that. Do you need a referee or anything?

God, no. Are you kidding? For what?

Is it an unsanctioned free-for-all?

Well, if it’s a free-for-all it should be unsanctioned. Don’t you think? Unbridled mayhem is what we’re looking for.

Is that the name of the tour?

Why not? That sounds like a good tour. The Unbridled Mayhem tour.

So rather than having one band open for the other band, will you all be out there in cage at the same time?

Oh, yeah. Totally. We’re bringing a bunch of things like that and people pay extra at the door if they actually want us to cut each other up and see blood. If you want blood, you’ve got to pay more.

Are fans encouraged to bring weapons?

Absolutely not. It’s the same as a wrestling match. You’re not encouraged to bring weapons there. They want to see us inflict violence on each other. Let us do the talking. I am not encouraging people to bring weapons of any kind. I’m discouraging it.

Where does the music fit into all this?

Music? That’s the one thing we forgot about. I don’t know what we’re going to do. What is it the Meat Puppets say? “Who needs action when you’ve got words?”

I’m looking forward to the DVD release from this tour.

Oh, we should do that. That would be great. That’s a good idea. Don’t patent that before we get a chance to.

Oh, no. I’m expecting you guys to do it.

You’re a gracious man.

Photo by Jessi Rose

The Melvins and Unsane have influenced a number of bands over the years, ranging from Nirvana to Mastodon. You’ve also toured with some of those bands. What is like to see a band like Mastodon, who are still growing in the metal world, acknowledging the Melvins as an influence?

It doesn’t hurt. We’re always very gracious receivers of any kind of admiration. As well we should be. That’s all we do is sit back and let people admire us. It’s great. I’m glad bands are influenced by our band. It’s nice. Let’s just hope Mastodon doesn’t end up the way Nirvana ended up. That was a worst case scenario.

I think they’ve probably gotten past anything like that in their career.

I’ll take your word for it.

Oddly enough, Gabe Sapolsky from Dragon Gate USA was a guest on the March 28 edition of Ringside Rap and he used the comparison between the Melvins and Justin Bieber as an analogy between his wrestling promotion and more mainstream wrestling shows.

Wow. The difference between us and Bieber is we’ve written thousands of songs and play to three people and he hasn’t even written three songs and plays to thousands of people.

I’d say that’s a pretty accurate comparison.

Honestly, I’ve never heard a moment of his music. I have no idea what it sounds like. I can probably guess, but I honestly have no clue. He seems like a Logan’s Run-style performer, which means they die when they hit 30.

He still has a few years before he hits 30, I think.

As long as you believe what they tell you. Hopefully he’ll have it all worked out by then and won’t do anything stupid with his money. He should call me. I can tell him what to do. I’d be more than happy to tell him what to do.