By David Lee Wilson Knowing that kids naturally gravitate toward whatever forbidden fruit is laid within arms reach the record industry, though begrudgingly at first, accepted the recommendation of Tipper Gore's PMRC to begin placing "Parental Warning" stickers on recordings deemed to be of "questionable content." Fifteen years later nearly every record on Billboards Top 50 © has a "warning sticker" integrated into its packaging mixing what some might consider truly dangerous or objectionable material with the most inane puff-pop imaginable. Here is where the growing numbers of AMEN followers become legion to Tipper, the PMRC and the entire entertainment industry. In hindsight, maybe the stickers were a good idea. AMEN is the single most dangerous musical entity on the planet at least in relation to any attempt to maintain the status quo though you may have missed their ignition a few years ago, after all, everyone gets the same sticker. It is not as likely that you will miss their latest Punk-Metal cocktail of a CD, "WE HAVE COME FOR YOUR PARENTS." "WE HAVE COME FOR YOUR PARENTS" is the equivalent of sonic napalm and AMEN isn't very particular about who they toss a measure of the flaming goo at. Organized religion and politicians are easy targets for most hard-rockers but AMEN goes far beyond the expected and assaults fashion, technology and the recording industry itself. Nothing is safe, nothing is sacred and nothing is sanitized when bathed in the light of what AMEN recognizes as truth. Fourteen tracks, fourteen blows against the empire and fourteen victories for unrepressed free expression is how it is best described and yes, it does rock. Having quite literally put their blood on the tracks of this new album AMEN have turned to touring the earth to incite a little bit of independent thinking provoking riots and stirring general discontent in the bargain. To see lead vocalist Casey Chaos stand on stage, chest heaving, eyes bloodshot with rage and body scarred by battles with demons both real and imagined, is a sight that doesn't wash away easily if ever. The live AMEN experience has inspired enough musical and philosophical epiphany to rival any political movement and has supplied AMEN with ample encouragement to keep the battle raging on without letting on that they have a particular outcome in mind. Finding himself with a rare day off to do phone interviews Casey Chaos spoke with Ballbuster's David Lee about AMEN's Rock and Roll revolution. CASEY CHAOS: Hey David, how are you. DAVID LEE: Great, great but a tad troubled. CASEY CHAOS: Why is that? DAVID LEE: Well, I am sitting here listening to the album and reading the press release and thumbing through the clippings and wondering, kinda scared really, that this record that I am really loving at the moment is just another music-biz hype job but I haven't seen the cracks yet. CASEY CHAOS: (Laughing) Thank you! DAVID LEE: I really hate to accuse you of having substance if you don't!(laughs) How long did it take for you to bleed this out of yourself? CASEY CHAOS: Recording or writing? DAVID LEE: Writing. CASEY CHAOS: I wrote fifty-six songs from December to February and then we went in the studio in May and we recorded twenty songs in thirty days. It was pretty quick really but the hardest part about it was figuring out what songs we were going to use for the record. I wrote all of the stuff in my garage with Larkin and demoed it and gave two CDs to the band and to Ross (Robinson) and then they whittled it down. DAVID LEE: Was that hard to do, to give over your music to Ross Robinson and whatever other powers that there were to pick what was going to be represented as Amen's second album? CASEY CHAOS: Not really because it was pretty apparent that there were certain songs that had a little bit more commercial appeal or "zazz" to them and anything that had that Ross would go, "Out!"(laughs) It was pretty easy and the band all agreed so. . . The band had the same thirty songs listed and then when it got to the last ten to narrow down that was a little harder. DAVID LEE: Well, if you are looking for a producer to be allied with you could have done worse. Was Ross kind of filling that often talked about "Unseen Member of the band" position? CASEY CHAOS: People always say that about him, he is the silent member of whatever band and he is in a sense because he is one of my closest friends. I have seen him work on practically every record he has done and I have seen him work different bands different ways. Bands like GLASSJAW or even KORN for that matter where he really, really does a lot but with AMEN he just makes sure that the members are really on point. With most bands he has to pull shit out of them like with Rob of MACHINE HEAD but with this, he knows me so well that he knows when to stop me before it all goes too far. . . DAVID LEE: Wait, wait, he didn't know when to stop you when you cut your wrists and broke your ribs recording an album!(laughs) CASEY CHAOS: Laughing Yeah, I know but that was because the vocal booth was too far away from him so this time we made sure that we were in the proper studio and close enough for his hands! I think that he is the most important producer in the world today because he is interested in breaking new shit and he is not interested in doing the same old Adidas rock. He did AT THE DRIVE IN and GLASSJAW so he is trying to tread some new ground. DAVID LEE: I certainly like the fact that despite his having created that whole "Adidas-thing" he has kind of turned his back on it and moved on to other things, like you for instance. CASEY CHAOS: Yeah and you know it is totally natural because the bottom line is, who wants to listen to a thousand KORN's or a thousand LIMP BIZKIT's or whatever it may be? He is "Fuck the dinosaurs, lets get to the new shit!" I think that is invaluable and for a producer to do that, I mean, I see the deals that people throw at him and he has people that want to pay him a million dollars just to produce their record and he doesn't do it because he doesn't believe in it and I respect that. DAVID LEE: Again with the integrity in the music business, how hard is that?(laughs) CASEY CHAOS: (Laughing) I am here to say that it definitely is hard! DAVID LEE: So we will never have to worry about you pimping Adidas then? CASEY CHAOS: No, I don't think that they will give me the opportunity to. I think that if I ever walked around with some Puma or Adidas gear on I would get shot anyway!(laughs) DAVID LEE: Had some of the social commentary that showed up on this album been festering in the Casey Chaos attic for some time or was this all a product of the moment? CASEY CHAOS: Everything, pretty much everything, I wrote in that period between December and February and that was it. There are hundreds of songs that we did that we recorded in my garage and a lot of the band wanted to use some of that old stuff but I am always about creating new, I don't want to go backwards. It was just a lot of stuff that came up when we were leaving Roadrunner and I had a lot of anger and discomfort, so to speak, so, it is like, if I wake up in the morning and I can't breath I write about it. Just seeing the hypocrisy in the lifestyles in Los Angeles and the general American façade kind of inspire me, I guess. I just take all that and try to spill it out over some musical masquerade. DAVID LEE: I have asked this of both Roadrunner and Virgin and neither went beyond the politic to answer me but what did happen with Roadrunner? I thought you guys were their golden children for a while? CASEY CHAOS: It is very simple. Roadrunner pulled our tour support ten days before a European tour that was confirmed by them, they said that we would have the money. Our manager and everybody had to get the plane tickets in advance so we had to pay for all that and then they (Roadrunner) pulled our tour support ten days before the tour and we lost ten thousand dollars of our own money that breached our contract and we left. DAVID LEE: Still, I am thinking that it has turned out to be a well spent ten grand given your present situation? CASEY CHAOS: It was the biggest dream come true of our lives without a doubt. Rob Flynn's tears can testify to that. I mean when he heard that we were off of RoadRunner he was just so bummed. You can ask anybody on Roadrunner and they will tell you the same story. It is unfortunate but it is the typical story, Case Weisel, Derrick Schulman and Doug Keogh are all Nazi's and they have this dictatorship over the company. Case Weisel owns Blue Grape merchandising and that is why every band on Roadrunner has a Blue Grape deal so Case Weisel has his cut of the merch and he also owns All Blacks Publishing which every band on Roadrunner has to give him money for publishing. Unfortunately the bands signed those contracts but when you are young and you are not thinking about it or maybe you have a bad lawyer or whatever the case may be but they are all paying for it now. None of them are seeming to be too happy. DAVID LEE: What of the record you did with Roadrunner, is that something that you think will just be lost now? CASEY CHAOS: Well you know what they are doing and in typical Roadrunner fashion, they are re-issuing it just to cash in and they are adding the extra bonus tracks that we did as "b-sides" but that is out of our control. I was so pissed off because it was such an obvious ploy to make more money for them and we will never see a penny of it, ever. Roadrunner just doesn't give royalty checks to bands so it is just never going to happen and it is shit. It will be cool for people who don't have it and want the other songs but it is not our choice. To get out of our deal with Roadrunner as quick as we did we had to write off that album which is what I did. I just wanted to cut my losses and move on. DAVID LEE: When you play live gigs is that record still represented or do you stay away form it in favor of the new stuff? CASEY CHAOS: It is past me but there are a lot of kids who want to hear that shit and never had a chance to see us so we still throw a couple of songs in there but he majority is new stuff. We change the set every night, we never play the same set. DAVID LEE: Very "Dead-esque" of you.(laughs) CASEY CHAOS: Yeah, we were doing the "Tattoo the Earth" tour and every other band, well not every other band but most of them, you could predict what was next where with us we would open with a different song or we would play a song that we were working on at the time just to play it. It is definitely not like a regular job. DAVID LEE: We are not much into the New Year yet so I have to believe that you are going to continue touring? CASEY CHAOS: Yeah. We are going to do this NME tour in Europe and we come back in about a month or five weeks and then we are going out in Canada. There is talk about Japan and talk about America but it really is hard for us to get on a decent package in America because every big band that is out there wants to bring out a young band that is selling millions of records to open for them. If we don't do that we will just do our own thing probably. DAVID LEE: That almost seems like it would be the wiser thing to do because you have a pretty good scene starting up around you anyway. CASEY CHAOS: Yeah, yeah. It is the wiser thing but I would like to get out there. There are a lot of people who know about us but there are a lot of other people who do not know about us who I would like to have exposed to us, just to put it in front of people to see what it is all about. DAVID LEE: I particularly enjoy the religious commentary on this album, or the commentary on religion I guess. Is there a nutshell version of your feelings on the subject? CASEY CHAOS: Um, god is a good drug, use it as you will.(laughs) I think that everyone has their own interpretation of God or whatever their deity is or religion. Some peoples religion is a bottle of booze or a girls pussy or some guy with a beard but for me, I try not to buy into anything. My mother used to go to all these churches when I was young and with every change I would have a new group of friends and though every church would have the same Bible they had such a different belief structure so that jaded me to the whole thing. Organized anything for me is bad, I don't like anything organized. I like a little more disorder. I like the mistakes and little imperfections over the organization and perfect group thought. DAVID LEE: The human part of relating to things around us? CASEY CHAOS: Yeah, a lot more human and way more individual. Everyone has to get together, "We have to bond together to make it strong" and it is just like, fuck off! DAVID LEE: With all of the shit that came down on Marylyn Manson after Columbine the album title and artwork must have made some people a bit edgy at the label? CASEY CHAOS: Well, first of all, I wanted to call it, "KILL YOUR PARENTS" but I didn't think that Virgin would be too happy with that!(laughs) I could see all these executives sitting around the table going, "So, what do you think of 'KILL YOUR PARENTS?'" And then I was listening to this record by the DEAD BOYS called "WE HAVE COME FOR YOUR CHILDREN" so I, in typical punk rock fashion, take a piss-take on that. It was just a play on words and "KILL YOUR PARENTS" wouldn't have been number one most added!(laughs) DAVID LEE: Now see, you are missing out on all of that free publicity like when a local news cast does a piece on some Juvenile Delinquent issue they would hold up your record and say, "This is what is making them do it!"(laughs) CASEY CHAOS: Yeah, and all they would have to do is point the finger at AMEN and say that we told them to kill their parents. DAVID LEE: Yeah but you know, after years of people whining about Satanism and holding up an Ozzy or a SABBATH album to be dramatic I never thought that it would ever have an effect but sadly enough Marylyn Manson got hurt bad by the Columbine thing. CASEY CHAOS: I am surprised too because it has sort of seemed like he has disappeared. If that is the kind of American belief structure that we are setting up, one where music is the fault we might as well ban pets because the Son of Sam had his neighbors dog telling him what to do. Let's ban all the dogs and then we definitely have to ban all the pornography because Ted Bundy said that it was porno at an early age that made him kill. It is just an excuse and music is an easy target for people. That has a lot to do with the title of this record as well because if you haven't got some kind of good parental structure then you kind of grow up a little lost. DAVID LEE: Where are your thoughts on the new political situation in Washington? CASEY CHAOS: I don't care if they are Democrat, Republican or fucking alien it is all shit to me. I don't like any of them and the President to me is just like what Mickey Mouse was to Walt Disney. I just think that it is another cartoon up there and nothing ever changes. It is the same shit, nothing ever changes and it is the typical diversion plan. We were the laughing stock of the world when I was in Europe. When I was in Europe at least ten people a day would come up top me and go, "So, have you guys got a President yet?" They were constantly jabbing at me but I was always like, "Yeah, I am laughing right there with ya!" I am not anti-American, I am American and I love America and I love what it stands for but I hate what it has become. Everything is about materialism and money and greed and bigger is better. The blockbuster mentality wears thin on me because it is empty. DAVID LEE: I hear ya. I just saw a movie the other night that simply has to be one of the best movies I have ever seen and it was playing this little theater and then that was only half full, "QUILLS." It had some big names and everything but it was still banished to this little theater where only a few people will see it instead of getting a bigger theater push. CASEY CHAOS: And why would it? Why would a good movie be in a big theater?(laughs) "It would make too much sense, we better not do that. Let's put out another Swartzenegger movie or one with Jennifer Lopez's big ass." Oh, god it is disgusting. My friend, he works at Fox, and he invites me to all of these screenings and premiers and I go, "How does this shit get made?" How do you have something made that is so bad? How do you have a group of a couple of hundred people involved in a movie and not one person goes, "This is shit?" Everyone sits there to the end of the movie and always claps and I am just like, "You have got to be kidding me!" DAVID LEE: It is strange to have the most talented people in the world all congregated together and still they make shit. CASEY CHAOS: Yeah, it is completely beyond me. DAVID LEE: Is there a five-year plan with AMEN? CASEY CHAOS: Oh, fuck no, maybe a five day plan!(laughs) Maybe not even that maybe a five hour plan. I just play it as it happens but maybe I should because I have noticed that there are so many people in this business that are business people and they look down the road to see where they are going to be at and I just don't. I wish that I could because I would probably have some money! I would probably be successful in America if I marketed myself properly and made a nice hooky tune with some Adidas rock. You know, I am just here for the moment and just doing what I can right now to be honest and that, that is my only plan. www.amen-us.com Copyright 2001, BallBuster, The Official Int'l Underground Hard Music Report