Interview with Thrawn Thelemnar of Secrets of the Moon!!

OFFICIAL BAND MYSPACE:
www.myspace.com/secretsofthemoon

This interview was conducted via email in early December, 2009. In hindsight my questions weren't very well written, but since I had spoken to the band for quite a long time in person after they had recently played a show at the Riot Room in Kansas City, I for some reason thought they would know what I was talking about with my questions. I feel like this interview could have been much better, so I see it as a good experience and a lesson in how to not write interview questions (especially for a band that's not from the U.S. or probably read much in the way of American metal media).

WULF: Clearly, "Privilegivm" thematically deals with topics such as the occult, anti-Christianity, Satanic philosophies, etc. I read in your recent interview in Terrorizer magazine that "every member in the band has his/her own life's philosophy, mostly with a strong Satanic background". What does the term "Satanic" mean to you? Would you describe your music as "Satanic", or your Secrets of the Moon as a "Satanic" band?

THRAWN: Secrets of the Moon is a dark and occult band, acting with a free will and totally independent. What we are, what we think and we do is private. I know you understand and respect that.

WULF: To me, "Privilegivm" sounds quite experimental and adventurous, and is very original for a band many consider to be "black metal". If this is the case, it's like no black metal that I've heard before! Do you feel that Secrets of the Moon is a black metal band?

THRAWN: Yes, totally. And I´m not just feeling it, I know it for 100%. We live, we breath and play Black Metal. And our, as you call it, "experiment" on this record was the freedom, the "adventure" to use our prilevege to do what we want, what we felt and feel.

WULF: I would never have guessed that you all were from Germany. I unfortunately have not heard any other Secrets of the Moon material, but I would imagine that with the addition of LSK on bass for "Privilegivm", her background in the French metal scene had some influence on the writing process for this album. Is this true? How did you get in touch with her?

THRAWN: sG and me are the main songwriters. With LSK we shared our ideas but 90% of the material was written by us, so I don´t think that there was an intense influence. She pushed us a lot in studio, had great ideas and visions. But what does your question mean? That we have some french sounding BM parts in there? And that the music doesn´t sound german? Black Metal has no boundaries, we play what we feel and what we want, without sounding german, norwegian, brazilian or like a band from Afghanistan. It´s Secrets of the Moon.

WULF: Like I said before, unfortunately I have not yet heard anything by Secrets of the Moon other than "Privilegivm" (although I will definitely be checking it out very soon!). How does "Privilegivm" compare with older Secrets of the Moon releases? Are there any specific bands or literature that you would like to mention as being the most influential for this new album?

THRAWN: Not a directly or specific influence can be mentioned here, but of course there's a lot of dark literature that guides us. But we don´t copy anything, as we are, as said before, independent. There´s one track on the album, called "I Maldoror". This track is strongly and directly influenced by a novel of the french poet Lautréamont, but that´s it. We had this idea already back in 2002, cause "Les Chants de Maldoror" reflects all the evil in man. "Privilegivm" is another step for us, but on a new path, hopefully with less stones.

WULF: The atmosphere on "Privilegivm" is quite dark, and while most of the album is heavy and aggressive, there are also moments that are less brutal, but no less bleak. One of the best examples of this is the closing track, "Shepherd", which is easily one of my favorite songs on the album. I feel that this is an excellent ending to the album, but was wondering why did you decide to close out the album with this particular song? Based on the lyrics, I get the feeling that "Privilegivm" is somewhat of a concept album. Is this true?

THRAWN: No, wrong. There is no concept on this album. But if you find one, it's ok. On this album there are so many things to find, so why not a concept? For us "Shepherd" is also a perfect ending for this trip, it´s like a free fall, it´s salvation, darkness or daylight. Whatever you see, whatever you feel while listening to it. "Shepherd" could also stand in the beginning, but as the last track the are so many open questions... What´s next? That's it? Why? And so on..... Of course there also less aggressive parts, you need some time to relax on this dark journey, some light in the dark, before it´s getting deeper and you drown again.

WULF: I understand that there were some rough spots for the band while touring the US due to illness (Kansas City being one of these places). How did the rest of the US tour go? What would you say was your best show in the US? Any plans for returning in the future?

THRAWN: It was ok and a good experience for us. We learned a lot and will be prepared for the next US tour. A lot of things are different in your country and that's not only ment to be positive. As europeans we are used to some things you don´t even think about. All in all this tour was a success for us, cause we played always good shows (even with being sick), had a good time with Divine Heresy and Moonspell, with whom we shared the nightliner. The busdriver Ringo was awesome, as you would say. Also our tourmanager Cartel and Phil, the backliner. Nice people we never met before, good guys to travel with. My favourite shows were in Vancouver, Los Angeles and Fort Worth, but maybe I´m wrong as I don´t even remember that we played Kansas City.

WULF: According to your page on metal-archives.com, you all have been in a number of different bands over the years. Are all of you now exclusively in Secrets of the Moon only, or are different members currently involved in other bands/projects as well?

THRAWN: LSK is also involved in Hell Militia and Vorkreist, our guitarist Ar has his own band Odem Arcarum and I also play in some other bands.

WULF: Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to all of your fans in the US and elsewhere?

THRAWN: Thanx for your support at the venues, during our shows, for the nice comments and talks. It was a pleasure to meet you all.

WULF: Well, those are my questions. Thank you so much for doing this interview,
and hopefully we will being see you again here in the US in the near future! Cheers, and congratulations on releasing such an awesome album! I wish you all the best!

THRAWN: Thank you very much, you are a good guy. All the best to you!

Interview with Sami Hinkka of Ensiferum!!

http://www.myspace.com/ensiferum


This phone interview was conducted on Thursday, August 13th, 2009 by WULF and MARK OF THE BEAST at MARK OF THE BEAST'S dank dungeon lair.


WULF: OK, so I might pronounce some names wrong as we go because Finnish is a really interesting language with some unique names, but I don't know how to pronounce those names.

SAMI: Well my English is gonna suck anyway, so we're even.
(laughs)

WULF: Alright, well you're doing alright so far! So I'm assuming you're in Helsinki right now, correct?

SAMI: Yeah, I'm at the Spinefarm Office, actually.

WULF: What time is it there?

SAMI: It's seven o'clock. Seven PM.

WULF: Yeah, it's 11 here so-

SAMI: Yeah, I know. It's morning!
(laughs)

WULF: Is it nice to not be on tour for the time being or do you really miss the road?

SAMI: Well it's nice to do something else for a change, like interviews and stuff like that, but yeah...I really miss touring already. But on the other hand, we really have to rehearse our tour set and it's going to be the biggest production we ever had on tour. We have a lot of rehearsing to do. But I'm really looking forward to that also. We get started like next week or something like that.

WULF: Yeah, I saw on your Myspace that you're about to play a bunch of dates in Europe. Is there any place in particular you really love playing or that you get an especially good crowd response?

SAMI: Well so far (all of) North America has been very good for us.

WULF: Really? That's awesome! That's always good to hear.

(Sami starts talking about the 2008 Paganfest and unfortunately I miss the name of the city he's talking about, but apparently it was in the South and there were only about 50 people there but it was one of the best gigs he ever played. He continues on...)

SAMI: And of course, the metal capital, Montreal. Have you ever been there?

WULF: No...the metal capital? Montreal? Really?!

SAMI: Well somebody said that to me.

WULF: Well I don't know...I've actually never been to Canada. I know a lot of metal bands come from there.

SAMI: Oh, well I was just quoting (someone).

(I can't understand what he's saying at this part, but he ends with saying that as a whole the Paganfest 2008 tour in North America was a success.)

WULF: Who would you say has the craziest fans?

SAMI: The craziest fans?

WULF: Yeah, can you think of anybody?

SAMI: I would say North America or Russia.

WULF: Russia?

SAMI: Yeah, they're really crazy also. We're very lucky. Last December we were in India and-

WULF: You were in India?!

SAMI: Last December. And we were playing (at a) university and there was a huge moshpit going on and they were insane! It's like wherever we go we have all kinds of (crazy fans).

WULF: That's 'cuz you guys fucking rule!
(laughs)
Well, let's go on to your keyboard player (Emmi Silvennoinen), I read on your Myspace that you guys decided to make her an official band member. Why did you decide to do this, and not just keep her as a session live member?

SAMI: Well, Emmi has been around for over 200 gigs and she was there for the whole process when we were arranging new songs and she's just one of the guys so it was pretty natural to make her (an official member).

WULF: I got ya...I was just curious. Well, onto the new album, "From Afar", I'm really excited to hear it. I've heard a little bit from samples on your website, and they sound awesome.

SAMI: Thank you. There are actually more if you go to Youtube. Some of our fans (have) put together samples (that were collected from our record labels and our website).

WULF: OK, awesome! I'll have to check that out. Obviously it's musically really similar to "Victory Songs" but I know that behind the scenes you guys probably did a variety of things differently. What would you say are some of the biggest differences between this album and the last album?

SAMI: Well I think the sound is much bigger and the arrangements are more ambitious. I think the writing process was pretty much the same but there were some differences because when we were writing "Victory Songs" most of us were still working day jobs but this time we decided "OK, nobody goes to work and let's eat some noodles and (inaudible) and write new material every day for like 10 hours at Markus' (Toivonen, guitar) home and our rehearsal room and (I think you can really hear this on the album).

WULF: So this is you full time now? Ensiferum huh?

SAMI: Yes. And we are very privileged to (do this).

WULF: Yeah I'd say! Dream come true! That's awesome. So I know that on "Victory Songs" you guys worked with Janne Joutsenniemi (I have trouble pronouncing the name, he corrects me and we have a laugh)...he is or was in the band Stone? What would you say were the biggest differences between working with both him and Tero Kinnunen for the new album? How were they different as producers?

SAMI: Actually, everything went very smoothly. Everything went even smoother than the "Victory Songs" session, because Janne is like the master of (getting down) our sound and our tuning and he's incredible...(the rest of this sentence is inaudible)...Tero was recording drums, bass, some vocals, and keyboards. Downstairs they were recording some guitar riffs, and upstairs Tero is recording keyboards. It was very smooth. It was even smoother than "Victory Songs". I don't see any problems (with how that worked), actually it would be a very good idea to work like that also in the future. That way, nobody has to work 24/7.

WULF: Right, and everybody's all stressed out.

SAMI: Yeah, that's pretty hard work, especially for the producer/recorder. They have to be there all day. The players have to concentrate on playing but (can then say) "OK, I'm tired for today. (You all can) continue from here." The producer/recorder has to be there to press the REC button and be very sharp all the time. This way (for the new album) these guys could have a couple days off and then come back to the studio so that was one reason why everybody was in (such a) good mood all the time.

WULF: Yeah, more relaxed. Well as for the new (album) samples that I've heard, I'd have to say my favorite song right now is probably "The Longest Journey". What's your favorite track, and why?

SAMI: I'd have to say "Heathen Throne." I really think the sample doesn't do justice to the song...well, obviously (the song) is 11 minutes long and (the sample only contains) the first verse only. I really like the drama that goes along in the song with the story. It gets more passionate all the time. Well, you'll hear it in a couple weeks.
(laughs)
That's my favorite song at the moment.

WULF: Yeah, I'm really excited to hear it myself. What would you say was the most difficult track for you to play, or was there one?

SAMI: To play? Well I play bass, and there isn't any difficult bass lines in Ensiferum so...
(laughs)

WULF: I play bass too, I kind of know what you mean.

SAMI: Yeah, I really like to play funk and various other things but Ensiferum is more about keeping it simple and heavy all the time and leaving room for melodies and I think that's more my goal as bass player of Ensiferum.

WULF: Just holding it down.

SAMI: Yeah, exactly. Just holding it all together.

WULF: What about for the band as a whole? Was there a difficult track you guys had trouble on?

SAMI: In the studio there wasn't any problem but (during) the writing process I think Markus almost lost his mental health writing "Smoking Ruins". We were at rehearsal for 8 hours a day, and after that he went home and continued polishing these melodies...all the notes he was thinking about, (like) "OK maybe I'll switch this one" and (considering) all the options, and he was doing that until like 4 AM and came into rehearsal the next morning and I was kind of afraid.
(laughs)

WULF: I read also that you guys are shooting, or you've already shot, a music video?

SAMI: Yeah, actually I saw the preview of it last night when I came home.

WULF: What can we expect to see (in this) new video? What do you guys have in store for us, or is that a surprise?

SAMI: Well it's kind of a surprise, but this time you can see the band in the video. As Finns, nature is very important (to) us and we wanted to include that. The director had some crazy ideas about the storyline and we were like "OK, let's do it!" It also kind of fit the moral of the song and the whole album.

WULF: Awesome. I can't wait.

SAMI: I think it's coming out in a few weeks, or something like that. Maybe earlier, I have no idea.

WULF: We've been fans of Ensiferum for years so it's awesome to see that the band is doing really well, and that now you guys can do all this stuff full time as opposed to do having to do this and having a day job, (making it difficult to tour).

SAMI: Now everybody is committed to do this.

WULF: Yeah, and I saw that Petri's (Lindroos, guitar and lead vocals) not in Norther anymore, correct?

SAMI: Yeah, he was kicked out of Norther.

WULF: Oh I didn't know that, I thought he just quit or something.
(laughs)

SAMI: No, no, he was kicked out.

WULF: Oh, because I was going to say maybe that was a good thing, at least from the Ensiferum perspective, that he's doing this full time now.

SAMI: Yeah, well, it's Norther's loss.
(laughs)

WULF: Anyway, that's all the questions I have. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us here in Kansas.

SAMI: No problem at all. "We're not in Kansas anymore!"
(laughs)

WULF: Hold on one second.

SAMI: Yeah.

(MARK OF THE BEAST gets on the phone with SAMI)

MARK OF THE BEAST: This is (Mark of the Beast), I do the radio show with (Wulf) that's been talking to you and I really love you guys. I saw you guys in Chicago.

SAMI: Which one?

MARK OF THE BEAST: Chicago, it was the Pearl Room.

SAMI: Oh yeah, yeah.

MARK OF THE BEAST: Yeah, that was a great show. I was actually surprised that you guys got a headlining (spot) for your first US tour so it was really cool to see you guys as the last act because of all the great bands that were there, you guys really lived up to the headlining act.

SAMI: Thank you.

MARK OF THE BEAST: It was really awesome. You guys had such great...I don't know, mystique about you...I don't know how to really explain it but it was just a really great show. That was actually I think probably the best show I've ever been to. I'm serious.

SAMI: Whoa, well, thank you!
(laughs)

MARK OF THE BEAST: I love folk metal and viking metal, and Ensiferum is the first band that I ever heard that got me into that stuff so it was great to see you guys and I hope you come back soon.

SAMI: Yes, we will in November.

MARK OF THE BEAST: And come to Kansas too, don't forget us.

SAMI: Well, it's not up to us but I can try to talk to (the tour manager).

MARK OF THE BEAST: Last time I had to fly on a plane from Kansas to Chicago to see you, but if you do that again I'll fly back over there because I really want to see you guys again.

SAMI: Yeah, well hopefully we can have a show also in Kansas.

MARK OF THE BEAST: Yeah, tell that to your manager or whoever that Kansas is the metal capital, not Montreal.

WULF: Yeah right!

SAMI: OK, OK, I'll tell him that!
(laughs)

WULF: Alright, well thank you again!

SAMI: Thank you guys!

Lazarus A.D. Interview

LAZARUS A.D. MYSPACE:
http://www.myspace.com/lazarus1


Taken on June 6, 2009 at the Beaumont Club, Kansas City, Missouri.
I should note that this was a pretty difficult interview to transcribe because everyone was talking all at once and at times it was often really hard to figure out who was saying what...so, it should be noted that whenever anyone from the band is talking, I just generalized whoever was saying it by writing "LAZARUS A.D." Enjoy!!


WULF: The new album rules, the songs are definitely really exciting, really catchy, and the production is really fucking good. The vocals especially stand out to me. (Jeff,) How do you keep your vocals in good condition...or do you?

LAZARUS A.D.: He sucks a lot of balls!!
(laughs all around)

WULF: Well because you know, some people say "oh, I eat a lot of chocolate before I (sing)" or "I smoke a lot of cigarettes."

LAZARUS A.D.: There's a right way and a wrong way to sing, you know what I mean? And I guess I do it the right way. That's all there is to it, and as far as warming up goes, (I do) half hour sets (and) I don't really need to warm up any longer than that. Same techniques as if you were singing opera. It's the same exact shit. You sing from the diaphragm.

GRYM KYM: Don't drink milk.

LAZARUS A.D.: As far as drinking things before you go on stage, some people drink tea or coffee, you know, it's all bullshit. Room temperature water is the only thing that's good for you.

WULF: I read a lot of metal magazines, and one thing I read was about the guy from Rhapsody and he was like, "It's all bullshit, I smoke cigarettes, I drink beer, it doesn't matter." You'd think he'd be all like "before I go on stage, I do yoga for 48 hours" or (something).

LAZARUS A.D.: He's probably swallowing somebody's nut or something!
(everyone laughs)
Seriously, singers who are conditioned as shit have swallowed a shitload of that. Freddy Mercury and Rob Halford, you never hear of those motherfuckers having anything wrong with their voice!

WULF: That's true man! Alright, question number two, fellas.

LAZARUS A.D.: For sheezy.

WULF: This might be a dumb question, but...what's the scene like as far as metal goes in Kenosha, Wisconsin? I read on metal-archives.com that that's where you guys are officially from.

LAZARUS A.D.: Weren't there a bunch of older bands, from the 80's and shit?

WULF: I looked up info on the city on Wikipedia, and it said that the punk scene there was pretty strong.

LAZARUS A.D.: It's very big.

WULF: It said something about "kenocore"?

LAZARUS A.D.: Kenocore. That's it, yeah we know about that.

WULF: What about the metal scene?

LAZARUS A.D.: It was pretty big for a long time but the thing was they destroyed themselves, they were so fucking stupid. They shut down all the venues out there, they ruined all the venues so no one could play anywhere. And then what happened was that you could only play one place, and we just started playing metal, and we were just better than all the other bands we were playing with. So when you're playing one place, and we're the only band who can draw, we ended up creating a scene of our own because that's the big thing. If we chose you to play with us, you'd have a good show, if we didn't play with you, you were fucked because there's only one place to play, and we're playing anyway.

WULF: How did the punks ruin themselves...were they too rowdy or...?

LAZARUS A.D.: They would trash venues! They would break shit, they'd get drunk and they'd fuck shit up, underage drinking too...that's all it was, just a bunch of 14 year-old kids getting drunk and thrashing shit up...and places said "no, you ain't playing here no more". But some people are still die hard. I think it has a lot to do with the parents who grew up playing punk never grew up at all, and had kids, and that made them who THEY were. 'Cuz we know that a lot of the original kenocore stuff, a lot of our good friends are like their kids. We know people who do the "khcp" or whatever it is, "kenosha hardcore punk", it's this little emblem...we know so many people with kenocore and that emblem tattooed on them.

WULF: I figured if (I'd seen it on) Wikipedia, it must be something.

LAZARUS A.D.: It's definitely real. I didn't know it was that popular.

WULF: Honestly, the only reason I know about Kenosha was because...y'know, Weezer, the "Buddy Holly" (music video), they're probably not from there...

LAZARUS A.D.: Apparently one of the actors went to (some school there). Well, Al (the fat guy from Happy Days) went to (school in Kenosha). Happy Days was actually filmed out there in Milwaukee. Weezer's video was done in like the Happy Days thing, or whatever. Al's in the video- and they say, "hey, we're Weezer from" or, I don't remember what it is-

WULF: Kenosha, Wisconsin's own, Weezer...something like that.

LAZARUS A.D.: I don't remember hearing that! They've actually been out there (in Kenosha) a lot.

WULF: When it comes to Chicago, does Kenosha count as (being in the Greater Metropolitan Area of Chicago)?

LAZARUS A.D.: No.

WULF: I'm a history nerd, so I'm all about geography and shit but one of the things I read was like Kenosha is what...like, an hour (outside of Chicago)?

LAZARUS A.D.: It's like, 60-70 miles. We're directly between Milwaukee and Chicago.

WULF: Yeah, I didn't know if like Kenosha was its own thing or if it was part of the Chicago scene.

LAZARUS A.D.: All the people who work in Milwaukee and Chicago, live in Kenosha. Honestly, most of the bands who are even from Kenosha don't make it was far as Chicago or Milwaukee. I'm surprised you know as much about it.

WULF: Well I was really geekin' out, y'know...metal-archives.com is essentially my wife. Anyway, going a little off-topic, what is the craziest band that you've toured with so far and-

LAZARUS A.D.: What do you mean by crazy?

WULF: Well, the follow-up (question) was "any good stories off the top of your head?" Any weird black metal bands? Swedish bands?

LAZARUS A.D.: Within Chaos. We have to mention that.

(The band starts talking all at once, someone mentions Amon Amarth)

GRYM KYM: Why was Amon Amarth crazy?

WULF and LAZARUS A.D.: 'Cuz they're from Sweden!

LAZARUS A.D.: They're vikings!

GRYM KYM: I mean, I love those guys, but-

LAZARUS A.D.: They were cool dudes, they were awesome. They're different, let's just put it that way. They drink...they don't drink a lot of beers...like they'll sip on beers just to chill, like a soda, but then they'll drink like (does an impersonation of a badass viking taking a bunch of shots) and just fucking pour you up like "you want a shot? You want a shot?" And pour you a half a glass of whiskey. "Do you have anything to chase it with?" "No, drink it." Every beer that we had that we tried to offer them, (they would be like) "Piss. Piss." "You want a Heineken?" "Fuck that American Budweiser."
(laughing)

WULF: Did they make fun of you guys for being from (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)?

LAZARUS A.D.: Yeah, 'cuz those are all of our beers and they're like "piss."

WULF: Well that's what I like, I like lighter beer.

LAZARUS A.D.: I like Coors Light a lot.

WULF: My Dad makes fun of me, he's like "goddamn it!"

LAZARUS A.D.: And Unearth, they're insane.

WULF: They're pretty crazy when it comes to partying?

LAZARUS A.D.: Everyone's great. Every band has their own little personality, but I'd have to say Within Chaos, they're this band from Texas, they're pretty badass.

WULF: Within Chaos?

LAZARUS A.D.: Yeah.

WULF: I've never heard of those guys.

LAZARUS A.D.: We were just staying at their house last night!

WULF: Really?

LAZARUS A.D.: Yeah! They're from Ft. Worth. Was it two nights ago? Yeah, that's right. Ft. Worth.

WULF: So those guys are just nuts?

LAZARUS A.D.: Crazy drunks.

WULF: Any good stories?

LAZARUS A.D.: Way too many stories. Any story we would bring up wouldn't even be something worth saying because there's something that's even crazier that would happen the next night.
(laughing)
You just have to hang out with us. That's all I would say. We get asked that question a lot. You get on our level and it's retarded or it's not retarded. Either we're going to bed early or something retarded is going to happen. That's what it is, there's never (anything) in between, it's either we're going to bed early, or we're chilling, or..."what the fuck just happened?"
(laughing)

LAZARUS A.D.: OK OK I got one!! So we're in New Orleans, and we're all gettin' so shitfaced and we're all at the bar, and Eric Peterson, the guitar player for Testament, is so gone, he doesn't know what's going on, and he doesn't know where his bus is, and I don't know where his bus is...we had been smashing absinthe all night talking about guitar amps and all sorts of shit-

(laughing)

LAZARUS A.D.: Crazy shit, crazy shit, right? It was a rough night. So here I am, trying to find (Peterson's bus), and he's an older dude, he's probably as old as my dad...I'm a young dude...and I'm trying to get this man back to his bus, and I'm calling the tour manager trying to figure out where he's parked, (Peterson) is calling the tour manager screaming "where the fuck am I?! Where the fuck are you?!" Yada yada yada, and it's just great, we grab a cab, which I paid for, get him to the bus finally, and then, because I was so wasted I was trying to get this guy who, I mean, this is one of my idols that I'm dealing with, I'm trying to get him back, I'm still so shitfaced and I'm running out of energy, it's like 5 in the morning, sun's coming up...I end up spending the night on the corner of a hotel in the nice streets of New Orleans, Louisiana. Ghetto as shit. This black security guard comes up and pokes me and is like "bro, you can't sleep here man, you gotta get up." I have no idea where I am, it's like 6 in the morning all of a sudden I somehow find our merch guy who's in the casino still. He's the only one who knows where the bus is, or where the hotel is. He brings us back to the bus, gets the rest of the band and gets to the hotel, everything's cool. I talk to Eric Peterson in the next couple of days (and he said) "I owe you big time dude. I don't remember anything that happened." Which is crazy dude, it's nuts, you get so drunk and you don't know what's going on. This was 4 or 5 days ago.

WULF: Oh really?!

LAZARUS A.D.: It's a good time though!

WULF: Wow, I was thinking like...

LAZARUS A.D.: Yeah, like this week. Like I said, that's literally off the top of my head. If it's a really great story, none of us can probably remember it. I think if we think hard enough we could come up with something but there's SO MANY. And they're so long. There's so much that happens. If there's four people that don't remember then there's one person that's real bitter.
(laughing)

LAZARUS A.D.: Our roadie who looks Mexican got too drunk and passed out and we actually got stopped by border patrol a few weeks ago, and he wouldn't wake up he was so trashed.

WULF: Oh no! (laughing) Yeah, I read a lot of magazines, (and) I read one thing about how a lot bands complain about the Canadian border control.

LAZARUS A.D.: We haven't had any real problems. They bring the bus in and they put us in a room where we couldn't see and they searched our bus, but that was it.

WULF: Yeah, I guess bands have problems when roadies have sketchy pasts, or something.

LAZARUS A.D.: Well now you have to have a passport. It was June 1st when they announced that you have to have a passport or you can't get out.

WULF: Weird. Well question number 5, obviously thrash is a huge influence, but what is your opinion on the new wave of thrash that's sweeping the underground? I'm sure you guys get this all the time. Do you consider yourselves a part of this scene?

LAZARUS A.D.: No.

WULF: I would say you guys are a lot different because it's not just like, 80's retro, there's modern influences.

LAZARUS A.D.: That's true. To me, I would say that I don't think that we're necessarily part of it, but all the people who are part of it kind of take a peace of us and take a slight part of the music we play part of that fucking wave, and I just think that we're lucky enough to kind of catch those guys 'cuz we're catching everybody else. That's just a small section of our music I think. A lot of those bands sound so fucking like just 80's rip-offs. Like from the Bay Area, like at that time. It sounds like dude, your guitar tone sounds like it was recorded on vinyl by (inaudible) or whatever the fuck his name is. We're thrash obviously, but we kind of put our own influences in, and it is what it is. You want to group us in? Cool. I think we're going to persevere over that once it's all said and done, 'cuz I think we sound different than any of the other bands. Yeah, a lot of people have told us that. (There's) all these bands that are coming back, thrash is back, but you guys stand alone. It's cool.

WULF: I agree with that.

LAZARUS A.D.: That's what we want to hear. We're trying to sound a little different. We're not trying to come out with an album that could have came out in 1984. We (want to put out) an album with influences from 1984 that could have come out in 2010. You know?

WULF: What do you guys do during your down time on the road?

LAZARUS A.D.: You're lookin' at it.

WULF: Movies, books, hangin' out, partying?

LAZARUS A.D.: I saw some movies.

WULF: Videogames?

LAZARUS A.D.: Not too many videogames. Not too many books are read.

WULF: Role-playing games?

LAZARUS A.D.: No.

WULF: No role-playing games?!

LAZARUS A.D.: First-person shooters man.

GRYM KYM: Halo!?

LAZARUS A.D.: Call of Duty! We used to be big into Halo, now I can't do it anymore. Now it's Call of Duty, forever.

WULF: (Grym Kym's) pretty good at Halo, I kind of suck.

GRYM KYM: I'll kick your ass.

LAZARUS A.D.: Our production assistant wants to challenge me in Halo, I'll smoke her though.

GRYM KYM: No, I'll challenge you. The name's Lady Blood.

LAZARUS A.D.: I gotta touch up some skills before I do that, I don't want to embarrass myself.

WULF: A lot of video games then?

LAZARUS A.D.: Not really, like movies, video games, just bullshit, sleeping. To be honest, there's a lot of pot-smoking going on.
(laughing)

WULF: Well that's what I was going to say, I mean sometimes it's kind of sketchy, like "you guys want to smoke some pot?" And then they're like "no" and then you're like "oh..."

LAZARUS A.D.: "Me neither!!"
(laughing)

GRYM KYM: "I was just kidding!!"
(laughing)

WULF: OK, cool.

GRYM KYM: I think (the rest of the interview questions) kind of suck.

WULF: Well, she asked-

GRYM KYM: No!!

WULF: If somebody offered you 500 dollars to cut your hair off would you do it?

LAZARUS A.D.: Hell no!

GRYM KYM: Good, I wouldn't either.

LAZARUS A.D.: I couldn't do it! Are you kidding me?

GRYM KYM: Sorry it was a bad question!

LAZARUS A.D.: 500,000 dollars, we could go into the studio for a couple months! Yeah, 500 grand, that's a different story.
(laughing)

GRYM KYM: 500 dollars is a lot to me, though.

(Joe from Live Evil Productions walks up)

LAZARUS A.D.: Hey this is my buddy Joe from Live Evil. Baddest promoter in town, man! He does the Riot Room shows over there.

WULF: The Riot Room is my favorite place to go for metal.

LAZARUS A.D.: This is THE MAN to hook it up in Kansas City if you're going to play a metal show.

WULF: OK, gettin' down here to the end, but what about...family? Is your family supportive? Do they enjoy metal? Are they like, "Oh! Satan music!" What's your family like?

LAZARUS A.D.: Oh, hell no! They love it! They love the shit!

WULF: They like it?

LAZARUS A.D.: Dan's Dad is the number one Lazarus fan of all time! Hands down! Hands down! Everyone likes to see their child succeed. He's crazy. He's intense.

WULF: Is he a hardcore metal fan? Like from back in the day?

LAZARUS A.D.: Not really, he likes like Metallica and shit like that...he's into classic rock and shit.

WULF: I know about how (your album) was remastered by James Murphy and all that stuff, but among you guys what would you say was the most difficult track to record on "The Onslaught"?

LAZARUS A.D.: "Forged in Blood." Definitely.

(the band starts to debate, Jeff says "Lust"

WULF: Why?

LAZARUS A.D.: Because there were so many vocals. Your breathing patterns have to be spot on. You can't miss a beat.

WULF: I see.

LAZARUS A.D.: "Forged in Blood" for me, just 'cuz the rhythms were so hard, and there's this solo part I do at the end that's absolutely retarded-
(a joint is passed around)

LAZARUS A.D.: Anyone want to smoke? Anyone? Anyone?
(passes me a joint)

WULF: I quit, but I mean-

LAZARUS A.D.: I quit too!
(laughing)

GRYM KYM: You guys inspired me to smoke more weed 'cuz of earlier!

(lots of coughing and laughing)

WULF: Well, that's all the questions I've got, that's it!

(we hang out for awhile, we decide to continue the interview a bit longer)

WULF: Alright, (Grym Kym) asked (while we weren't recording) if Jeff was angry when he sang...

GRYM KYM: I didn't ask that!!
(laughing)

LAZARUS A.D.: Yeah, you take everything you have in your life, and you're pissed off, you're from Wisconsin, it's cold nine months out of the year, you're shoveling snow, ain't no jobs, ain't nothing going on, and we drink a lot of beer, smoke a lot of weed, sit there and write some angry music, and it's fun to play live. And when we come to the shows, the kids have the same aggression inside them, so we when they come to the show, we let out our aggression, they let out their aggression, it just bounces back and forth and the more they get into it, the more we get into it, and that's how it rolls.

WULF: Where would you say is your favorite place to play?

LAZARUS A.D.: Milwaukee. Definitely. A lot of bands will tell you that that is one of the best places to play. It's the best place for us because it's like our home town.