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by: Paul Hanson
It's Tuesday, July 17, 2001, and I call into the MushroomHead camp.
The band is at their studio this night and Skinny, the drummer/driving
force for the Cleveland band is obviously in a good mood. We spend
the first 5 minutes talking freely about PCs and the differences between
Macs and PCs, kids and raising them. Getting down to business, I ask
a selfish question first, "When are you coming to Iowa?" Skinny gives
me an answer but I cannot publish it here because the deal is not
finalized. By the time you read this, though, the band's tour plans
will probably be public knowledge. http://www.mushroomhead.com
will have all the details. I mention that I had read about how the
band originally came together as a bunch of members of other bands
hanging out late at night and then how the side project became a focus.
Talk about
how MushroomHead became the focus.
"The singer and I were in a band Hatrix that
had a record out on Massacre Records in Germany and we had this idea
for these other songs. So we just started tracking them. And then
we thought we need to do this stuff live and put a band together.
There's been some members come and go over the years, but essentially
it's the same group. The song "43" was the first song we wrote as
MushroomHead."
What about
playing at the Cleveland World Series of Metal, how has that been
playing in front of the hometown fans?
"That's been really great. We have a core of fans that are really
into the sound and follow us. We played a couple of shows in Illinois
this last weekend and had people come out to see us."
And what about
having major label acts open for you?
"That's really something messed up. I mean,
bands like Slipknot went from opening for people to having Slayer
open for them. I don't know about that, I'd be like, 'are you sure
you don't want us to play first?' but really, we go out on stage and
just play our show. Our discussion turns to my favorite track on "Never
Let it Go."
How did
that song come together?
"That song was a vibe song. No one ever said,
"okay you start here, you stop there" or any kind of planning for
that. We just had a good vibe on it." I mention I like the song because
it starts in a ? time feel, gets a mosh pit groove and then collapses
into the ? time feel again. "Yeah, that's a great vibe when we play
that."
So, I say, when you make it out to Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, you'll play it for me?
"Definitely!" Skinny laughs. "We do everything
from XX and a couple of other songs as well."
Next is some
shoptalk. What kind of drums and cymbals are you using?
"I'm an old-school Zildjian man. I don't like
the old China Boys and use those. For drums, I use Yamaha Rockstars.
They're big-sized drums with a couple of 18x24 bass drums."
Next, I ask about
something I've always wondered about bands like Slipknot, GWAR and
KISS, that no one ever talks about that with visual bands.
"Well, I think if you took away the costumes
and we recorded, the record would sound pretty close the same, except
maybe a bit faster."
I joke and ask
if they're going to do an "Unmasked" CD where they take off their
costumes.
"Not that I can see. We're not about hiding
who we really are. I mean, you can find pictures of us and we all
do side projects where we don't have the costumes. So it's just something
we do for this band."
Where do you
see metal going next? These bands like Godsmack, Disturbed, Linkin
Park, Staind all are doing well commercially.
"Yes, they're what I call 'safe metal' meaning
labels can put money into them and they'll probably make some money
from them. I don't call ourselves a metal band; I call ourselves a
heavy band. We have some metal in our sound, but there's more to us
than that."
And what about
the future, besides the secret plans that can't be revealed in this
interview? When are you planning to record the follow-up to XX? Have
there been songs written for it?
"We're actually working on it now. There's some
song ideas, but some aren't done. We've written a lot of stuff and
we're working on it."
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