muen magazine may 2009 part 2

AMERICAN GOTHIC

THE CITY OF BRAN-SON, MO

WILL NEVER BE THESAME;

RIGGSʼ MONSTERTATTOO IS OPEN FORBUSINESSApril 30, 2009 -- Branson,MO is known for their luxu-rious resorts and golfcourses, museums and at-tractions. And now itʼll beknown for…tattoos?Thatʼs right. Americaʼsbloodiest band of heavymetal hellions, SCUM OF

THE EARTH, is bringingthe world of tattoos andpiercing to this seeminglytranquil area of the coun-try.

On April 26, the bandʼssinger/songwriter/guitaristRIGGS opened the doorsto RIGGS' MONSTER TAT-TOO parlor. The new busi-ness venture is sure tooverwhelm local residentsand tourists with a way oflife filled with lust, carnageand debauchery, cranium-cracking music, and infec-tious art brought on bysome of the top tattooartists in the business.RIGGS has assembled an

Contributors: G. Cataline, Shauna OʼDonnell, Jeanne Thomas (JET),Macavity, Slavewriter6, BC Blonde, R.L. Segarra,Karen Fader McBride, Yvonneʼs World, M Lazar, AngelDevil,Tracy L. Forsyth-Lundy, Cerys, Morbid Miller, Diana Price,Jus Forrest, Q5, Metal Mike, Natalie Perez, Tina Rose,Heather Armstrong, Timo Satanis, Nik Vicious, Laya, Venus,Brittany Todd, Warren Meyers, Jori Pierson, Darcee Seegal,Eric Eaton, Latchkey Web, Chris King, Twisted

Spokesmodels: Penny Layne, Saphira Spanks, Hannah Kramer,Toy Kitten (Genocide), FluxXx Mutation, Danielle Fornarelli,Ethel Hallow, Bianca Barnett, M Lazar, Paris Inez, Katja Cintja,Deanmon, Kelly Chaos

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all-star crew of tattooartists to keep the shoprunning at its most feveredpace, including Rev. TimPontillo, Eden Draven andCrazy Joe McVeigh. Someprestigious special guestartists will also stop by thestore throughout the com-ing months.

RIGGSʼ MONSTER TAT-TOO is home to a crazycollection of famous gui-tars, movie monsters,stage props, Gold andPlatinum records, musicand horror movie memora-bilia, and the best tattoo-ing and body piercing insouthern Missouri. “Wetook the time to make ourshop stand out from therest, with prices that canʼtbe beat,” proclaimsRIGGS. “The feel of thestore is a rock ʻn roll mon-ster extravaganza! Theneighbors and tourists areloving it so far.”As artist Rev. Tim Pontillocontinues: “This is notyour average, boring,slapped-together-quick tat-too shop like the othershere in town.”

Hereʼs info about all of thetattoo artists (in their ownwords):

Rev. Tim Pontillo:

I have been tattooing over10 years. I grew up inSturgis, SD and served atwo year apprenticeshipunder Troy Sander inOmaha, NE and Spring-field, MO. I like almost allstyles of tattooing and Iʼvebeen published in Tattoo,Tattoo Revue, Tattoos ForMen, Tabu Tattoo and Skinand Ink. My client list in-cludes, of course Riggsand Brandon of Scum OfThe Earth, members ofDavid Allen Coeʼs bandand Metal Sanaz.

Joseph McVeigh:

I started tattooing in 1992.I wish I had some coolstory to tell about how Igot into tattooing, like myuncle came home from theNavy when I was 3 yearsold, and was sleeved. Orhow I used to draw on allthe neighborhood kidswhen I was 12 years old

LLAACCUUNNAA CCOOIILL PPGG.. 1100LLEEGGIIOONN WWIITTHHIINN PPGG.. 7777LLIITTTTLLEE BBRRAAZZIILL PPGG.. 6644RREEAALL GGHHOOSSTT SSTTOORRIIEESS PPGG.. 5577RRIIGGGG’’SS MMOONNSSTTEERR TTAATTTTOOOO PPGG.. 22SSEETTTTIINNGGSS PPGG.. 6600TTEELLLLIINNGG OONN TTRRIIXXIIEE PPGG.. 2255TTHHRROOTTTTLLEE PPGG.. 5511UULLTTRRAAVVOOXX PPGG.. 4466VVEETTNNAA PPGG.. 6677ZZEELLAAZZOOWWAA PPGG.. 2299

AADDAAMM FFIICCEEKK PPGG.. 3344AADDEELLIITTAASS WWAAYY PPGG.. 4477AAMMEERRIICCAANN GGOOTTHHIICC PPGG.. 77AANNOOMMEE PPGG.. 1177BBEELLLLAADDOONNNNAA PPGG.. 3377BBRREEAATTHHEE CCAARROOLLIINNAA PPGG.. 2200CCDD RREEVVIIEEWWSS PPGG.. 4411CCIITTYY LLIIGGHHTTSS FFAADDEE PPGG.. 2222DDEEAATTHH TTOO JJUULLIIEETT PPGG.. 3311HHUUNNDDRREEDDFFOOLLDD PPGG.. 7700

CONTENT

and I always knew that Iwanted to tattoo. All I cansay is that I was fortunateto be tattooed by some re-ally great artists when Iwas younger, and that byhappenstance I met a tal-ented artist named ClayDecker. He provided mewith the insight, knowl-edge, and the inspiration,to journey down this path,to which I am forevergrateful. I own and operateFine Line Tattoo Missouri,which is part of a family ofshops along with ToddHlavaty, including fiveshops in the Dallas/Ft.Worth metro area, and an-other shop in Japan withGus Higo. I've been pub-lished in Karl Marc's Hand-made series of books. I'man original member of theTattoo Machine BuildersGuild, and an all aroundswell guy.

Eden Draven:

Iʼve been tattooing profes-sionally for over threeyears. Before that, I wastattooing grapefruits andtomatoes for a year as part

of a formal apprenticeshipto get used to working onirregular and somewhattender surfaces. Many atomato was sacrificed inthis effort! Itʼs funny, oncea grapefruit has been tat-tooed; they turn hard as arock. Iʼve had some of my“earlier works” given awayas Christmas ornamentswhen friends found out Iwas just throwing themaway and asked to keepthem because they weretoo pretty to just throw out.(Ask to see my grapefruitSeahorse as an example.)I like tattooing the tradi-tionally more “Girly” tat-toos; butterflies, flowers,leafy stuff. I find that floraltype designs give me a lit-tle more license to fit aspecific area of the body ortie it in to other designsand can be very individual-ized for the person gettingthe tattoo. On the otherside of the spectrum, I alsoenjoy drawing up stippled,worn out teddy bears beingheld by zombie childrensurrounded by stone mark-ers. Or even silly batshanging upside-down leer-ing at the viewer. So really,I just like tattooing some-thing I can get into just alittle bit.

So book your ticket toBranson ASAP, not tocheck out the latest magi-cian, tribute band orBroadway show, but to getinked at RIGGSʼ MONSTERTATTOO!

The shop is located at:

1615 State Hwy. 76, Suite FBranson, MO 65616417 544 0003

www.myspace.com/rig-gsmonstertattoo

www..DarkerImageClothing.comwww.Myspace.com/DarkerImageClothing

HANNAH KRAMER

AMERICAN GOTHIC

By Q5

Hailing from Winston-Salem, North Carolina,these deep down to thebone southern boyʼsplay no frills in your facemetal music. Employinga heavy low end withgrowling vocal lines ontop of cleverly writtenguitar hooks and pierc-ing guitar solo work,American Gothic isquickly making a namefor themselves in themusic world, throughtireless live showʼs andan endless dedication totheir craft.

I had the honor of sittingdown with, the thanthree members of,American Gothic in Jan-uary of 2009. Note:Since, American Gothichas enlisted the talentsof Bob Mansell on bassguitar. Moving JasonMoss from bass to gui-tar, creating a morefilled out sound to peakthe already assaultingguitar playing of PhilVogler) The followinginterview was con-ducted at a special ap-pearance meet andgreet that AmericanGothic had within thefriendly, clean and com-fortable confines ofOuch Ink Tattoos andBody Piercing in Hib-bing, Minnesota.

Having already wit-

nessed the spectacle ofan American Gothicshow on two prior occa-sions, I immediatelycontacted them uponmy hearing of themplaying, in my backyard,so to speak. I asked if Icould conduct a live sitdown (buckle up) inter-view with them forMUEN Magazine. Theyimmediately compliedand the following is that

MUEN: HEY GUYS!HOW ARE THINGS?

Phil: Fuckin' lovely...

MUEN: COULD YOUTELL ME A LITTLEABOUT HOW AMER-ICAN GOTHICFORMED?

Phil: The band formedin NC in 2004 roughly,

Jason and I havebeen together as AGin some way shape orfashion ever since. Iwanted to do some-thing different musi-cally and not beboxed in with my writ-ing.

MUEN: I HAVE TOASK, WHERE DIDTHE NAME AMERI-CAN GOTHIC COMEFROM? IT IS QUITAN EYE-CATCHINGNAME!

Phil: I read a lot ofcomics and differentbooks when I wasgrowing up and wouldright down cool wordsand phrases as I wentalong this just hap-pened to be one ofthem...

MUEN: HOW LONGHAS AMERICANGOTHIC BEEN TO-GETHER?

Jason: As a completeband? Since '05 orso...

MUEN: IS IT COR-RECT THAT AMERI-CAN GOTHICSTARTED OUT OFSALEM, MASSA-CHUSETTS?

American Gothic to-

MUEN Magazine May 2009 Part 2 - PG. 7

gether: (laughing)

Phil & Jason together:No Q, Winston-Salem,NC!

MUEN: WHEREDOES AMERICANGOTHIC CALLTHEIR HOME?

Robert: Pretty much,where ever we're at!

MUEN: I HAVE LIS-TENED TOYOUR E.P.AND I RE-ALLY LIKE IT!DO YOUHAVE ANYPLANS ON AFULL LP RE-LEASE?

Phil: The debutalbum is called''A HODGE-PODGECLUSTER-FUCK OFHIGH-ANXI-ETY CHAOS'' and willbe out this spring.

Robert- we're alreadylining up a tour.

MUEN: DO YOU SEEANY SINGLESBEING RELEASEDIN THE NEAR FU-TURE? WHAT SONGWOULD IT BE ANDHOW DO YOU

CHOOSE THATSONG? ARE YOUGETTING ANYRADIO PLAY, NOW?

Jason: Yeah it'sgonna be ''StaggerWhen I'm Drunk'' asthe lead off single...

Robert: We're gettinga shitload of play fromunderground chan-nels, which is prettymuch who have ac-

cess to the music rightnow.

MUEN: IS AMERI-CAN GOTHICSIGNED TO ANYLABEL OR SPON-SORED, BY ANY-ONE? DO YOUBOOK THROUGHANY ONE EXCLU-SIVE BOOKINGAGENT?

Phil: We have workedwith a small independ-ent in the past andweren't happy withwhat was being doneso they were cutloose, we've workedwith lot's of differentpromoters up anddown the south-eastand mid-westernUnited States. We'restill looking for that''special'' someonethough?

MUEN: ARE YOU IN-TERESTED INBEING SIGNED? ISEE THAT YOUHAVE QUITE A FOL-LOW ALREADYJUST OFF WORD OFMOUTH?

Phil: We're interestedin making a livingplaying music and

bringing real rock nʼroll back to a massaudience...period.

MUEN: HOW DOYOU FEEL ABOUTTHE INTERNET ANDTHE USE OF IT, AS AMARKETING TOOLFOR BANDʼS ANDMUSIC TODAY? ITAPPEARS THAT ITHAS BEEN GOODFOR AMERICANGOTHIC.

Jason: Wethink it's great,the fact thatinformationcan be spreadso quickly isgood and badat times...ithas and con-tinues to helpspread theword about us.

MUEN: DOYOU RUNYOUR OWN

MYSPACE SITE ANDWHAT ABOUT THESTREET TEAMʼSTHAT I SEE UP ONMYSPACE?

Robert: Right now, weare looking after theMySpace, but a com-plete website and on-line store is on itsway. As far as the fansites...that's exactly

PG. 8 - MUEN Magazine May 2009 Part 2

what they are, put upand run by...fans, andwe think it's great.

MUEN: WHATWOULD SOMEONETHAT HAS NEVERSEEN AMERICANGOTHIC PLAY LIVE,LEAVE THE SHOWTHINKING?

American Gothic to-gether: Whole band-FUCK! I NEED ANAP...SHELLSHOCKED...ETC.

MUEN: ARE YOUCURRENTLY TOUR-ING OR PLANNINGA TOUR?

Phil: Yeah a tour ofthe states is being puttogether for '09.

MUEN: WHEREWOULD SOMEONETHAT HAS NEVERHEARD THE MUSICOF AMERICANGOTHIC, GO TO LIS-TEN? HOW COULD IPURCHASE THE E.P.OR ANY UP ANDCOMING L.P.ʼS?

Phil: All that is comingsoon, internet distribu-tion, iTunes, theworks...we have anonline store and full-on website comingthat will take care of

any merch needs ofour peeps.

MUEN: I LIKE TOEND ALL OF MY IN-TERVIEWS WITH AFAMOUS LASTQUOTE. COULD IGET ONE FROMEACH OF YOU,STARTING WITHJASON?

Jason: Get loosebaby! (Big smile)Robert: I'm deli-cious… (Laughing)Phil: Is the ''hokey-pokey'' really, what it'sall about? (Sinistersmile)

MUEN: THANKSFOR YOUR TIMEAND I LOOK FOR-WARD TO HEARING

MORE FROM AMER-ICAN GOTHIC INTHE NEAR FUTURE.YOUR MUSIC HASDEFINITELY MADE AFAN OUT OF ME!American Gothic to-gether: Thanks a lotyou cute and fuzzybunny.


LACUNA COILBy: Shauna OʼDonnell


LACUNACOIL(Century Media)Milan,Italy

Cristina Scabbia(Vocals)

Myspace.com/lacunacoil

MUEN:SO WHEREARE YOU GUYS ATTODAY?

Let me check becauseI just woke up. We arein Bell Vernon, Penn-sylvania.

MUEN: WHATʼS THEWEATHER LIKE? ISIT COLD?

Itʼs kind of cloudy now,it was sunny a half anhour ago. Hopefully, itwill stay sunny becausewe are barbequing. Itwould be nice if itwouldnʼt rain.

MUEN: YOU GUYSJUST RELEASED ANEW ALBUMCALLED SHALLOWLIFE. SO CONGRATU-LATIONS ON THAT.

Thank you very much.

MUEN: WHAT HASBEEN THE RE-SPONSE TO THENEW ALBUM SOFAR?

So far it has beenamazing. We havesome projections ondifferent charts allaround the world. Theresults seem to be re-ally good. The most im-portant thing to us isthe reaction from thecrowd. These days ithas been amazing be-cause we are present-ing two of the newsongs live. Especially ifyou are playing in frontof crowds that are notLacuna Coil fans, theyare a new audience.Itʼs interesting to testthe reaction and itseems like people likethe new songs. Itʼsgreat to know.

MUEN: THATʼSGREAT; IʼM GLAD TOHEAR THAT. HOWWOULD YOU DE-SCRIBE THE NEWALBUM?

Itʼs hard to describe be-cause every song hasa different vibe or feel-ing to it. Some of thesongs are really darkand slower songs.Some are more rhyth-mical with a happyvibe. Itʼs a really dy-namic album. I wouldcall it a good hard rockalbum.

MUEN: DID YOU DOANYTHING DIFFER-ENT ON THIS ALBUMTHAT YOU HADNʼT

DONE ON PREVIOUSONES?

We definitely did some-thing different. We al-ways change withevery album we do. Wenever got stuck with thesame formula over andover.

“We always tryto be creativeand honest - itʼspretty much im-possible if youcanʼt change orevolve. Thereare a lot ofchanges goingon with thisalbum.”First of all, we changedthe place where werecorded it. It is the firstAmerican albumrecorded in Los Angeleswith an American pro-ducer, Don Gilmore. Weactually had a little bitmore time to record sowe took better care of alot of details. Of coursewith three years be-tween ʻKarmacodeʼ andʻShallow Lifeʼ, there is adifference as well be-cause we had differentexperiences and we diddifferent tours then. Itʼsnormal that all of our in-fluences are going intothe new stuff.

MUEN: YOURECORDED WITHPRODUCER DONGILMORE AT NRGSTUDIOS IN LOS AN-GELES RIGHT?

Yes.MUEN: I HAVE BEENTO THAT STUDIO, ITIS AWESOME!

Yeah it is awesome andthe vibe is awesome.The weather in L.A. isamazing, for singers es-pecially, because youdonʼt get sick. That hap-pened pretty often withthe other recordings be-cause we were record-ing in the winter time inplaces like Germany orMilan, Italy. We didnʼtreally have the chanceto have our voices at100% all the time.

MUEN: HOW DID ITCOME ABOUT THATYOU ENDED UP INL.A. TO RECORD?

Basically, it is the studiothat Don was mainlyworking in. We agreedbecause of the energyof the studio. It is wherea lot of big bands haveworked and we heardthe production on thoserecords and the soundwas awesome. It was aknown studio and wewere sure about thegood quality of it.

MUEN: DO YOUWRITE ALL OF THE

LYRICS?

I write them togetherwith Andreas.

MUEN: HOW DOESTHE WRITINGPROCESS WORK FORYOU GUYS? WHATCOMES FIRST THEMUSIC OR THELYRICS?

It depends to be honest,because in the past wewait for the ending ofthe music and then wesqueeze in lyrics. Forthis album we came upwith a lot of ideas. Ei-ther I or Andreas cameup with some melodiesand lines together so ithas been a more com-plicated process thistime.

MUEN: TELL USABOUT YOUR PHO-TOBUCKET CHAL-LENGE.

Everyone who wants toparticipate has to up-load on our photobuckettheir creations. It is re-ally important that theyhave to be their owncreations. It cannot beanything taken from ourpages or anything likethat. It has to be ab-solutely personal andcreative from their side.They can upload anypicture or collage orwhatever it is connectedwith a picture inspiredby Shallow Life. They

can maybe take aphrase from a song thatthey found interesting orthat they like and theycan create an image forit.

MUEN: IT SOUNDSLIKE FUN.

Yeah, it is fun, we al-ready got a lot of goodfeedback, but Iʼm wait-ing for more.

MUEN: THE ALBUMCOVER HAS A GLASSGRENADE ON IT.DOES THAT HAVE ASPECIAL MEANING?

Yes, we wanted analbum cover that wasmeaning something, notonly an artsy cover, butwith a beautiful image.We wanted to send amessage or at least cre-ate a question mark foranybody who was look-ing at it. We think thatthis image was perfectbecause it totally repre-sents the duality, some-thing fragile andsomething more ag-gressive. It kind ofmakes you wonderwhat the hell it is andthat was the point. It istotally representing theShallow Life. It repre-sents something that isreally fragile, itʼs there,but it can explode if youhandle it the wrong way.

MUEN: WHO CAMEUP WITH THE IDEA?

It was a designer fromour label. We picked hisimage from the imageswe got from differentpeople. We thought itwas the best idea.

MUEN: I LOVE IT, ITʼSGREAT. THE WORDSLACUNA COILTRANSLATES TOEMPTY SPIRAL INENGLISH. WHO DE-CIDED ON THIS NAMEFOR THE BAND ANDWHY?

We decided it years andyears ago. Honestly, itcannot really be trans-lated because Lacunais an Italian word whichis also Latin. The trans-lation is not like 100%translation. When wehad to sign the dealwith our label we de-cided on the name.

MUEN: I WANT TOTELL YOU THAT ITHINK YOU HAVE ABEAUTIFUL VOICE.


MUEN: CURRENTLYYOU ARE ON THE“MUSIC AS AWEAPON IV” TOURWITH DISTURBEDAND KILLSWITCH EN-GAGE. HOW IS THETOUR GOING?

Itʼs doing amazing andthe crowd is reactingamazingly. The showsare always prettypacked and we couldnʼt

be happier, honestly.Thatʼs the right environ-ment for an artist.Sometimes itʼs hard tocall it a job because it isso much fun. As I toldyou, today we are bar-bequing together, thenwe are going to have ameeting with some fansand then do a showwhich is always great todo. I canʼt really becomplaining about any-thing.

MUEN: YOU GET TOHANG OUT WITH DIS-TURBED.

Yeah, with all thebands, Disturbed, Kill-switch Engage, Chi-maira and sometimesthe bands on the sec-ond stage. There isalso a second stageoutside.

MUEN: AWESOME,THIS IS YOUR FIRSTTIME TOURINGNORTH AMERICA INTWO YEARS. HOWDOES IT FEEL TO BEBACK?

It feels amazing, I feelat home. Every time Icome to America I feelgreat. The atmosphereis definitely one of myfavorite countries, myfavorite after Italy.

MUEN: ONCE THATTOUR IS OVER YOUWILL BE RETURNINGTO EUROPE FOR

THIS YEARS FESTI-VAL SEASON.WHATʼS IT LIKEBEING THE ONLYGIRL ON THE BUS?

Sometimes itʼs kind ofannoying becausebeing a girl I kind oftend to keep everythingclean and in place. Youknow how it is withguys, itʼs kind of differ-ent. Sometimes theyjust throw their stuff onthe floor and leave itthere. Sometimes itʼsannoying becausewhen you live with a lotof people on the samebus itʼs always a ques-tion of respecting eachother and trying to keepthe balance. You are farfrom home, youʼre farfrom your stuff andeverybody has theirown habits. We try torespect each other anditʼs not a question ofbeing a girl. To be hon-est, Iʼm kind of atomboy so I donʼt havea lot of problems withthat.

MUEN: YOU AREBEAUTIFULTHOUGH.

You should see menow. Obviously, Iʼmpretty different from thepictures you see on themagazines with all themake-up and theclothes. Iʼm not like thatall the time; I want tomake that clear.

MUEN: WELL, YOUARE STILL BEAUTI-FUL EITHER WAY.

Thank you, thank you.

MUEN: DO THEYALLOW YOU A PRI-VATE SECTION ONTHE BUS THAT YOUCAN CALL YOUROWN?

The only private placeis your bunk. That isthe only place you cancall yours and private isthe bunk and some-times hotel rooms.

MUEN: THE SINGLEOFF OF YOUR NEWALBUM IS CALLED“SPELLBOUND.”

Yes.

MUEN: YOU GUYSMADE A VIDEO FOR“SPELLBOUND.”THERE ARE TWOVERSIONS, A PER-FORMANCE VER-SION AND A STORYVERSION. WHY DIDYOU DECIDE TO DOTWO?

Some TVʼs and chan-nels wanted to censorthe story version be-cause we used theimage of a priest and apolitician Itʼs not ourchoice, itʼs a matter ofthe company wantingthe video to be playedas much as possible

and everywhere. So, ofcourse, if they heardthat some channels willnot play the video forsome reason they pro-vide an edited versionthat can be availablefor everybody.

MUEN: WHERE WASIT FILMED?

It was filmed in Milan,where we live, Italy. Itwas filmed in a restau-rant that is owned byfashion designersDolce & Gabbana.They gave us the loca-tion for free and theyprovided the clothes. Ithink it was perfect be-cause its totally feelingthe “Spellbound” song.Everything is reallyshining and over thetop.

MUEN: YOU HAVE NOBARRIERS WHEN ITCOMES TO MUSIC.

No.

MUEN: I AM THESAME WAY, I BE-LIEVE AS LONG ASTHE MUSIC MAKESME FEEL SOME-THING I DONʼT CAREWHAT GENRE IT IS.WOULD YOU AGREEWITH THAT?

Exactly, I agree 120%

MUEN: WHAT AREYOU LISTENING TO

THESE DAYS?

Honestly, Iʼm not listen-ing to anything be-cause we are alwaysbusy with stuff. As soonas we go back to thebus after the show, themeetings and signingswe tend to watchmovies. So I am basi-cally listening to sound-tracks while Iʼmwatching movies.When I go to bed Iʼmnot the type of personwho puts the IPod on tofall asleep. Once I go tobed itʼs because Iʼmcrashing.

MUEN: THERE ARE ALOT OF PEOPLE OUTTHERE WITH LA-CUNA COIL TAT-TOOS.

Yeah, we actually sawa couple yesterday dur-ing a signing.

MUEN: HOW DOES ITMAKE YOU FEELWHEN SOMEONEHAS TATTOOED APORTRAIT OF YOUON THEIR BODY?

Itʼs flattering becauseyou realize that thisperson will have yourface forever on theirskin unless they do acover up. Hopefully,they wonʼt. There is asection on my pagewhere I posted some.You realize that your

music means so muchfor some people andsometimes you donʼteven think about it be-cause you have beenpleasing yourself, writ-ing your stuff. Itʼs notlike you are dealingwith the purpose ofsaving anyoneʼs life oranything like that, youare expressing your-self. To know thatsomeone can share thesame passion in such aprofound way is justamazing.

MUEN: THE ONETHAT STUCK OUTTHE MOST FOR MEWAS THE GUY WHOTATTOOED CRISTINANO DAMN H ON HISBACK. WERE YOUSURPRISED TO SEESOMEONE HADDONE THAT?

(Laughing) Possibly,yeah. There are somewonderful portraits aswell. There is a girl thathas half of her leg tat-tooed with a picture ofme. I absolutely lovewhen I can create aconnection with womenand girls. I can totally

see that scene is justgrowing. There are alot of girls following themusic and Iʼm justhappy. Metal and rockis the genre that is notalways completely fol-lowed by girls. Somegirls may find it tooharsh for their ears.Iʼm so happy thatslowly they are chang-ing their minds.

MUEN: I NOTICED ONYOUR PERSONALMYSPACE PAGETHAT YOU AN-SWERED SOME FRE-QUENTLY ASKEDQUESTIONS. DID ITCUT BACK ONEMAILS OR AREPEOPLE STILLEMAILING YOU ASK-ING THE SAMEQUESTIONS?

Sometimes they do, itdepends on whoʼs ask-ing. Somebody who isnew to our music asksthe basic questions be-cause they donʼt know.

MUEN: I WOULD SAYTHAT YOUR BANDHAS SOME VERYDEDICATED FANS. IF

PEOPLE WANT TOKEEP UPDATED ONTHE BAND AND IN-TERACT WITHOTHER FANS THEYCAN GO TO EMP-TYSPIRAL.NET.

Yeah, they can gothere, or they can go tothe official page whichis www.lacunacoil.it orthe Myspace page.They can go to thebands page or even mypersonal page. Theycan basically be intouch with us person-ally if they want.

MUEN: I KNOW THATYOU PERSONALLYRUN YOUR PAGEBUT WHAT ABOUTTHE BAND PAGE?

We do not run the La-cuna Coil page but allof the members arerunning their ownpages.

MUEN: THATʼS AWE-SOME; I WOULD RE-ALLY LIKE TO THANKYOU FOR THE INTER-VIEW. IT WAS AWE-SOME TALKING WITHYOU.

Youʼre welcome, it wasmy pleasure.

MUEN: BEFORE I LETYOU GO WOULD YOULIKE TO ADD OR SAYANYTHING?

I just hope people likethe album as much aswe do and whoevercan come, I would liketo invite them to ourshows in the states.We will surely comeback so there is alwaystime. The more yougive us a chance, themore we will be thank-ful.

MUEN: GOOD LUCKON THE REST OFTHE TOUR AND BESAFE.

Thank you very much.Hope to see you some-where. Have a goodday.

ANOMEAaron (Formerly ofOTEP)

By G. Cataline

MUEN: SO TELL USABOUT THIS NEWPROJECT... HOWLONG AGO DID YOUSTART THIS?

We started working onAnome in our sparetime off the road abouta year and a half ago. Itstarted, originally asmyself as a solo gui-tar/voice act in LA.Brian and I started withsome of those songsand turned them into amore “band based”sound. Then we startedwriting some tunes to-gether like Destina-tion:Unknown andEscaping the Infinite.Then in January of thisyear we found MikeGussis and started writ-ing with him and areabout to record the

most recent songs.

MUEN: HOW LONGWERE YOU WITHOTEP, AND WHY DIDYOU LEAVE?

I was with Otep forabout two years andBrian for about three.Without getting into toomuch detail, Brian and Ihave been playingmusic together for abouta decade and we wereboth personally, andprofessionally unhappyin our situation and de-cided it would be betterto pursue something onour own. I think I canspeak for both of us thatwe were glad to havebeen a part of Otep forthe time we were, but itwas time to go.

MUEN: TELL US A LIT-TLE ABOUT THEOTHER MEMBERS,MIKE AND BRIAN...

Brian Wolff is a greatfriend of mine, a brother

if you will, as well as agifted musician. He is aproud husband, a mar-tial artist, and really oneof the most creativepeople I have everknown. He is very quietand laid back, but donʼtmistake that for a lackof intensity. Brian does-nʼt do anything half-assed, unless itʼssomething he couldnʼtcare less about. MikeGussis, though I havenʼtknown him as long asBrian has also becomea very close friend ofmine, Brianʼs, and ourfamilies as well. He isalso a proud husbandand an amazing chefand treats us to a greatmeal, whenever we canall get the time. As amusician, he brings avery different element towhat we do, which I re-ally enjoy. I think thatwill shine through on thetunes we are about torecord. Heʼs really doingsome crazy stuff and Ienjoy letting him run

with it.

MUEN: WHAT ISYOUR MAIN FOCUS,AND WHAT ARE YOUHOPING TO ACCOM-PLISH WITH THISPROJECT?

We want to combine theelements of all of themusic we have enjoyedin our days, from heav-ier sounds like Opeth,Pantera, and Mud-vayne, to the more progsounds of PorcupineTree and Dredg, tomore ethereal soundslike Jeff Buckley and El-liot Smith. I think ourgoal is to showcase ourmusical ability andchops, without compro-mising the integrity ofthe songwriting process.We are writing tunesthat arenʼt the run of themill crap, but also arenʼttoo out there that any-one can listen to it andenjoy. The end goal isto be the most success-ful band to ever have


lived. I like to shoothigh. We want ourmusic exposed to themasses and to performit for them, and maybemake a decent living inthe process.

MUEN: YOU RE-CENTLY PLAYED AGIG AT THE TATTOOEVENT, "INKIN" ...HOW WAS THAT EX-PERIENCE?

Yeah, our first showwas the “Inkin Lincoln”tattoo extravaganza inChicago. It was the 15thyear and we wereasked to play. It was astrange show becausepeople were doing tat-toos while we per-formed so all the lightswere up and whatnot. Ihave to say though, abunch of the artistscame up to us after theshow and said that afterworking 50 somethingconventions, we werethe first band to evereven get applause.Everyone really enjoyedit and we enjoyed play-ing it. Suffice it to saywe got some new fansfrom the experience.

MUEN: DO YOU HAVEANY OTHER SHOWSPLANNED FOR THEFUTURE?

I am currently bookingus in Chicago, but weare scheduled to go intothe studio in the nextcouple of weeks and

weʼre waiting for that tofinish before we get toocarried away. This sum-mer we will definitely beplaying in and aroundthe Chicago area. Wehave a biker rally inMichigan that weʼvebeen asked to play aswell. Details of all of thiswill be on our myspacewww.myspace.com/anome23 so you can keeptrack of what weʼredoing there.

MUEN: ARE YOU THEMAIN SONGWRITERFOR THIS PROJECT?HOW DO YOU GUYSGO ABOUT WRITINGTHE SONGS?

In the beginning, I wasthe only songwriter.However, we all writetogether now. Some-times somebody comesin with ideas, but a lot ofwhat weʼve been doinglately has been writtenout of the ether whilewe jam. Thatʼs my fa-vorite kind of writingwhen it just “happens”on the spot.

MUEN: I'M REALLYLIKING "DESTINA-TION UNKNOWN,"AND "KINGDOM OFTHE INNOCENT,"ETC.. TELL US WHATSOME OF THE MES-SAGES ARE THATYOU HOPE TO GETACROSS IN YOURSONGS?

I have always written

sociology term meaningthe absence of nor-malcy and the entropyof order in systemswhen roles are nolonger defined. Ithought it was a prettyaccurate description oflife in general.

MUEN: HOW WOULDYOU CLASSIFY YOURMUSIC... IT'S MUCHDIFFERENT THANWHAT YOU DID WITHOTEP. I HEAR A LIT-TLE 'PORCUPINETREE' AND EVEN'JETHRO TULL' ...WHO ARE SOME OFYOUR BIGGEST IN-FLUENCES?

Yes, a lot of differentmusic plays a part inwhat we do. Opeth, Por-cupine Tree, Tool, Mud-vayne, Dredge, Buckley.I personally am a hugeImogen Heap and Sadefan so vocally I listen tothat kind of stuff as well.Mike is into a lot of Nir-vana, Helmet and somedoom stuff. Weʼre allover the place. Iʼvebeen listening to a lot of10 Years lately as well.We want our focus to bemore on melody as op-posed to screaming, al-though I do screamfrom time to time, I thinkit should be more forgarnish instead of theactual meal. Thereʼsnothing like a goodstrong melody from avoice who can sing it.

MUEN: WHERE ALL ISYOUR MUSIC AVAIL-ABLE?

Well, we are currentlylooking to sign with alabel, but we have han-dled some digital distroourselves and you canfind our tunes onitunes.comrhapsody.com nap-ster.com amazon.comand emusic.com andyou can always check inon the myspace as well.

MUEN: WELL THEMORE I HEAR, THEMORE I LIKE... I HOPEYOU GAIN THE AT-TENTION YOU DE-SERVE FOR THIS. ISTHERE ANYTHINGELSE YOU WANT TOADD?

We want to thank youfor talking to us andhelping us get more at-tention. Everyone atMUEN has always beenvery good to us and weappreciate it. We lovehearing feedback fromfans and such so if youwant to come and dropus a line, please do.www.myspace.com/anome23 and www.reverb-nation.com/anome23Thanks again.

about my personal ex-perience in this lifewhether from my directlife, or me watching oth-ers around me. Life isabout learning andgrowing. Songs like“Destination” are aboutthe fact that you donʼtalways know what thehell is happening orwhat risks you areabout to take. I wrotethat when we were leav-ing Otep. I was a littledisillusioned with thewhole deal and wasafraid, but ultimately, Iknew we had to jump inthe fire and see whathappened. “Kingdom ofthe Innocent” is prettystraight forward. Thelast section starts offwith “Take a moment toappreciate the beauty ofthe atmosphere” Thatʼsabout as blatant as Ican get. Life can be to-tally Fʼd up sometimesbut you have to remem-ber that youʼre still here,and that IS a blessing,whether it feels like it ornot.

MUEN: I HEAR YOUHAVE SOME VIDEO INTHE WORKS..

We will, but one thing ata time. Record first,video later.

MUEN: SO HOWSOON FOR THE UP-COMING ALBUM?

ʻEscaping the Infiniteʼwill be more or less fin-

ished in the next coupleof months. We haveabout five or six moretunes to record andthen we will be in theprocess of getting themusic out there, andthen touring.

MUEN: WHAT EQUIP-MENT DO YOUSWEAR BY TO GETTHE GREAT SOUNDYOU ARE ABLE TOCREATE?

This project has beendominated by Orangeand Green amps forme. I play a customLance Alonzo guitar.Heʼs out of LA and isamazing. Mike is rock-ing some Gallen Krugerand Ampeg stuff andBrian is playing a Tamastar classic kit. Other-wise, all the magickhappens at the RaceRecording Studios inChicago, but thatʼs allour guy Steve Oʼs de-partment. Trade secretsif you will.

MUEN: WHY DID YOUDECIDE TO USEANOME FOR ANAME? IS THISTAKEN FROM THESCIENCE FICTIONNOVEL, "THEANOME" BY JACKVANCE, OR SOME-THING ELSE?

I actually havenʼt readthat book yet, though Iplan on it. The term wasactually taken from a

Rise RecordsDavid Schmitt (Vocals)Denver, Colorado

Breathe Carolinaʼsmusic is brimming withthe excitement of mod-ern youth. Their debutCD Itʼs Classy, NotClassic will make youwant to sing, scream,jump and shout.

MUEN: IN THESPRING OF 2007 YOUSET UP A MYSPACEPAGE. WERE YOUSURPRISED AT HOW

FAST YOUR CAREERTOOK OFF FROMTHAT POINT?

Yeah, it was definitelyan unexpected thing.We were just kind ofputting it up there.

MUEN: YEAH BE-CAUSE I READ THATYOU PUT UP A MY-SPACE PAGE ANDDIDNʼT EXPECTMUCH, BUT ALMOSTIMMEDIATELY A BUZZBEGAN TO BUILDAND YOU WERE

RACKING UP MIL-LIONS OF MYSPACEPLAYS.

Yeah, it was crazy. Itwas definitely cool.

MUEN: ALL OF THISKIND OF HAPPENEDBY CHANCE WHENYOU AND KYLE BE-CAME ROOMMATESRIGHT? TELL US HOWTHINGS GOTROLLING. HOW DIDYOU DISCOVER THATYOU WERE COMPATI-BLE AT WRITING

SONGS?

One day we were inColorado and we hadthis crazy blizzard.There was four feet ofsnow and everythingwas shut down. He washanging out at myhouse and ended upgetting snowed in. Weknew each other fromprevious bands so Iknew he could playmusic and stuff. Wewere trying stuff andmade up this funnyChristmas song that is


actually on his personalMySpace. I moved intohis house a little bit laterand we just tried tomake another song andit just happened I guess.

MUEN: WELL THATʼSCOOL BECAUSELOOK WHERE YOUARE. THINGS HAP-PEN FOR A REASON.

Yeah, totally.

MUEN: YOUR DEBUTFULL LENGTH CD ITʼSCLASSY, NOT CLAS-SIC IS NOW OUT.WHEN WAS IT RE-LEASED?

September 16, 2008

MUEN: HOW WOULDYOU DESCRIBE THEMUSIC STYLE OF THECD?

Itʼs kind of like techno.Itʼs a bunch of thingsmixed together. Thereare a bunch of differentinfluences like hip-hop,there is screaming tomake it edgier and allaround electronic.

MUEN: WAS THIS THEFIRST TIME YOUEVER WENTTHROUGH THERECORDINGPROCESS?

No, I was in a differentband that I actuallyplayed a guitar in. Ididnʼt sing, but werecorded a couple CDʼs.

MUEN: HOW OLD AREYOU GUYS?

Iʼm 20 and Kyle is 23.

MUEN: WOW, YOUGUYS ARE SOYOUNG. I FOUND ITINTERESTING HOWYOU CAME UP WITHTHE NAME OF THEBAND. TELL USABOUT THE DREAMYOU HAD.

I had a dream when Iwas in 9th grade aboutthis woman named Car-olina. I could see howeverything was kind ofhectic and I wanted herto calm down. Iwas kind of like tellingher to calm down and Iwas saying “BreatheCarolina.” It was kind ofrandom.

MUEN: WELL ITʼS AGREAT NAME. HOWDID RISE RECORDSFIND OUT ABOUTYOU?

Our manager shoppedus around a little bit. Wetalked to a bunch of dif-ferent labels at first andended up going withRise.

MUEN: WHAT IS THEEXTENT OF YOURTOURING EXPERI-ENCE SO FAR?

Since January we havebeen touring non-stop.Itʼs been crazy.

MUEN: IT LOOKS TOME LIKE YOU AREGOING TO BE HEAD-ING OUT WITH CUTEIS WHAT WE AIM FORIN THE TAKE ACTIONTOUR AND THENWITH A MONTHBREAK IN BETWEENYOU WILL BE ON THEENTIRE 2009 VANSWARPED TOUR. YOUWILL BE OUT THEREUNTIL AUGUSTALMOST NON- STOP.HOW DO YOU PRE-PARE TO BE AWAYFROM HOME FOR SOLONG?

Everyone that I hangout with back hometours with us. We are allbest friends so itʼs reallynot too weird. I miss myfamily and my girlfriend,but itʼs not too bad. Itʼskind of nice to get awayfor a little bit.

MUEN: WHAT DID ITFEEL LIKE TO BETOLD YOU WEREGOING TO BE ON THEENTIRE VANSWARPED TOUR?

It was definitely crazy.We were told that wehad an offer for half of it.We were alreadypumped and then a cou-ple days later they saidwe had the whole thing.We were like “Wow.”

MUEN: THE BAND ISBASICALLY MADE UPOF YOU AND KYLEBUT WHEN TOURING

YOU HIRE A BAND ISTHAT CORRECT?

Yeah, it is actually ourfriends that we were inbands with before thatplay with us.

MUEN: DID YOUKNOW AT AN EARLYAGE THAT YOUWANTED A CAREERIN MUSIC?

Yeah, I started playingbass in seventh grade. Iplayed guitar after thatand then drums.

MUEN: AND NOWYOUʼRE SINGING.

Yeah.

MUEN: YOU SING INTHIS BAND, BUT DOYOU PLAY ANY IN-STRUMENTS?

I do all the music likethe beats and the key-boards.

MUEN: YOUR MUSICIS REALLY DIVERSE. IREALLY LIKE IT BE-CAUSE IT IS UNIQUE.WHY DO YOU THINKKIDSARE DRAWN TOYOUR MUSIC?

I donʼt know, maybe be-cause itʼs kind of weird.Itʼs a little different andmaybe some peoplearenʼt used to it.

MUEN: DO KIDS GETPUMPED UP AT THE

SHOWS AND GET ALLEXCITED?

Yeah, itʼs cool.

MUEN: I WAS CHECK-ING OUT THE PIC ONYOUR MYSPACEPAGE WHERE ITLOOKS AS THOUGHPAINT HAS BEENPOURED ON YOURHEAD. HOW LONGDID IT TAKE TO GETTHE PAINT OUT OFYOUR HAIR?

It was a while, it waspretty hard. It was prettynasty and a mess.

MUEN: I KNOW YOUUSED TO LISTEN TOHIP-HOP. WHAT AREYOU LISTENING TOTHESE DAYS?

I still listen to a lot ofhip-hop actually. I listento everything. I loveKings of Leon or any-thing that catches myear. Iʼm not judgmentalabout music at all. If itʼsgood, itʼs good. There isno denying a goodsong.

MUEN: IT HAS BEENGREAT TALKING TOYOU. IS THERE ANY-THING YOU WANT TOADD OR SAY?

No, I think we covered alot of shit, itʼs good.Thank you so much.

City LightsFadeSydney, Australia

Interview by: Macavity

More and more bandsare coming to the noticeof people all over theworld through theirmusic, touring and es-pecially sponsorshipsthat give them presswhere they may nothave had that chance.Such is the case of CityLights Fade where no-tice was placed on theirmusic based on a raresponsorship bySchecter Guitars of anunknown and unsignedband out of Sydney. Wecause up with Tobias totalk to him about theband and shed a littlemore light on this band.

MUEN: HI TOBIAS!THANKS FOR SIT-TING DOWN ANDTALKING TO MUENTODAY ABOUT CITYLIGHTS FADE. OKSO A USUAL TYPEOF QUESTION THAT IAM SURE YOU GET ALOT. BUT WHERE DIDTHE NAME COMEFROM AND DOES ITHOLD PARTICULARMEANING FOR ANYOR ALL OF YOU?

CLF: The band namereally has no meaning;it was just 3 words thatsounded really cool to-gether. Itʼs really impor-tant to have a reallygreat sounding bandname and I think wemay have somethingwith this one.

MUEN: YOU FORMED

THE BAND IN 2007AS I UNDERSTAND IT.HOW WAS ITFORMED AND HOWDID YOU CHOOSEEACH MEMBER?

CLF: Aaron and Iformed the band afterplaying in a small coverband with some matesof ours from anotherSydney band Town HallSteps. When they gotbusy with recordingAaron and I thought wemay as well form ourown band as well. Eachmember was chosenout of mate ship not re-ally musical ability. Wewanted members thatwe could get along withand be mates with andif they were a greatmuso that was just abonus. We have hadthree different lineupchanges on guitar allbecause of that reason.

MUEN: YOU HAVE AFULL AND MATURESOUND FOR SUCH ANEWLY FORMEDBAND AND JUST THEFOUR MEMBERS.WHAT DO YOU AT-TRIBUTE YOUR MA-TURITY OF MUSICTO?

CLF: I think that ourfriends have a very biginfluence on us. Wehave friends in prettybig bands here in Syd-ney and I think there

Photo: dprimedp.com

has to be a little friendlycompetition so you def-initely have to live up totheir expectations. Thatand our producer fromanother Sydney bandcalled THE MISSIONIN MOTION, he pushedand pushed us to limitswe never thought wewould get to, taught usa lot about structure,song writing, and avery important saying"Donʼt bore us, get tothe chorus" (laughter).

MUEN: HOW WOULDYOU BEST DE-SCRIBE YOURSOUND TO SOME-ONE THAT HAS NOTHEARD YOU LIVE ORON MYSPACE?

CLF: I think our soundis a blend of heavy gui-tars, clear poppy vocalswith great melodichooks, and electronicsamples

MUEN: DO YOU FEELYOUR MUSIC FALLSNEATLY IN TO ONEGENRE AND IF SOWHICH ONE?

CLF: I think our musicis hard to put into justone genre, we have theheavy sound of guitarsthat can be metal, thenwe have poppy lyricsand hooks, and on theother hand we havethat electronic touchwith our samples and

synth.

MUEN: YOU HAVETOURED QUITE A BITIN AUSTRALIA. HOWHAS THAT EXPERI-ENCE BEEN IN EACHPROVINCE/STATE?PUTTING YOU ONTHE SPOT A BIT BUTDO YOU HAVE A FA-VORITE PLACE TOPLAY LIVE?

CLF: You canʼt get anybetter place to play thanin Sydney! Thereʼssomething about beingin a room full of peopleyou know that makesyou feel at home, but insaying that we just gotback from Adelaide,which was awesome aswell

MUEN: DO YOU HAVEANY PLANS TO TOURIN STATES ANY TIMESOON OR ARE YOUSTILL BUILDINGYOUR FAN BASE INAUSTRALIA?

CLF: Definitely haveplans to play overseasat some point, whetherthat is a year or twoyears from now whoknows. I think itʼs impor-tant to get a great fol-lowing in your countrybefore moving onto an-other.

MUEN: SPEAKING OFTOURING, WHAT HASBEEN THE MOST UN-

USUAL OR MEMO-RABLE THING TOHAPPEN WHEN YOUHAVE GONE OUT ONTOURS?

CLF: The most memo-rable would have to beAdelaide, we did ashow with MourningTide, which is a com-plete 180 from ourmusic style so alreadywe were thinking "wowtheir fans are going tohate us ha-ha" theshows were goodthough! We got a lot ofpositive feedback fromMourning Tide and theirfans except for onesuch gentleman whothought it would be agood idea to flip us offthe entire half hour setand yell profanities tous after every song(laughter). Its peoplelike that that make meplay harder and fasterand makes the show forat least myself more en-joyable.

MUEN: NOTICED YOUJUST HAD AN EPDROP CALLED “THEWORLD IS NOTAGAINST YOU” ONAPRIL 2ND. HOWWAS THAT EXPERI-ENCE TO SEE THERELEASE OF YOURWORK?

CLF: Itʼs been amazing!Since the release wejust signed a deal with

international guitarcompany SCHECTERGUITARS. They lovedwhat we were doingand what our planswere so they took achance and added us totheir already amazinglineup of artists.

MUEN: THE FIVETUNES ON THE EPSEEM TO HAVE A“MESSAGE” IN EACH.IS THERE INTENDEDTO BE ONE AND IFSO WHAT?

CLF: I think every songshould have some kindof message and story. Ifit doesn't then it doesn'tgive the listener muchto connect to. I donʼtwant to give too muchaway on what thesongs mean to us be-cause we like to leave itup to other people to in-terpret the songs howthey see them and howit best connects withthem.

MUEN: HOW IS THEMUSIC WRITTEN FORTHE BAND AND BYWHOM?

CLF: The music for thisEP at least was prettymuch all written at ourproducers home studio.We would take ideas tohim and build off them.Other songs I wouldwrite some ideas down


or one of the other guyswould have an ideathen the band just jamson that idea and iteventually takes shape

MUEN: HAS THEPROCESS OF WRIT-ING CHANGED ASYOU HAVE PLAYEDSOME OF THIS MATE-RIAL LIVE AND ESPE-CIALLY NOW THATYOU HAVE FINISHEDTHIS DEBUT EP?

CLF: Definitely! I thinkfor me writing now Iʼmthinking of how to doour songs live. We playto a click track whichwe run through a moni-tor to our drummerwhich has all our sam-ples going to the PA, sowriting now its not justlike coming up with a riffand playing it there isnow a technical processthat goes into our liveshow that new songshave to go through aswell.

MUEN: DO YOU HAVEA VIDEO PLANNEDFOR THE ONE OFTHE TRACKS FROMTHE EP OR TOSHOWCASE THEBAND ESPECIALLYTHE LIVE PERFORM-ANCES?

We do. We are going tobe filming a video forour single "BREAK THEWALLS" that we are

filming it in Melbourneon April 24th and 25th.

MUEN: YOU HAVEQUITE A RAREHONOR BEING EN-DORSED AS AN UN-SIGNED BAND FROMAUSTRALIA BYSCHECTER AS YOUMENTIONED BE-FORE. HOW EX-ACTLY DID THATCOME ABOUT ANDHOW HAS IT HELPEDYOU?

CLF: It pretty muchcame about by mespending a day send-ing emails to all differ-ent places looking forendorsements. Theywere one of the fewwho actually emailedback and loved thesound we have for anew band. Its helpedus out credibility wise,new unsigned bandsespecially from Sydneyarenʼt really known forgetting such a highlevel endorsement fromsuch a massive com-pany

MUEN: HOW USEFULHAS MYSPACE BEENTO THE PROMOTIONOF THE BAND?

CLF: MySpace hasbeen good for promo-tion, but we don't relyon it, you canʼt substi-tute a great live show.Thatʼs where we get a

lot of people into us.

MUEN: YOU HAVE ASTREET TEAMCALLED YOUR “AS-SAULT TEAM”. HOWHELPFUL HAVE THEYBEEN IN GETTINGYOUR NAME OUTTHERE TO FANS?

CLF: The street teamhas been amazing! Itsrun by a girl called Tamwho really never likedlocal bands before us,she got into us andthen it pretty muchopened her eyes to somany amazing localbands that donʼt get thecredibility they deserve.

MUEN: CHANGING ABIT, YOU HAVE ABASE IN SYDNEY.ARE THERE ANYPLANS TO MOVE ORDO WANT TO STAYBASED THERE?

Most likely stayingbased here. All ourfamilies and friends arehere but who knowswhat the future holds

MUEN: WHATSHOULD WE EXPECTTO SEE FROM CITYLIGHTS FADE FORTHE REST OF 2009?

CLF: A lot of shows anda lot of touring

MUEN: AND, WHAT ISTHE MOST EXCITING

THING PLANNEDFOR THE REST OF2009 OR BEYONDOTHER THAN SELL-ING THE EP AND THEDATES YOU HAVELISTED ALREADY?

CLF: I think the mostexciting thing is seeingthe band evolve from asmall band just startingout to seeing us growas musicians. Otherthan that we have afilm clip shoot comingup and possibly startingwork on another EP. Ittakes us months towrite because every-thing has to be perfect.

MUEN: WHAT DOYOU EACH LIKE TODO WHEN NOTTOURING AND PLAY-ING/WRITING MUSIC?

CLF: I think everyonein the band has theirown way of escapingthe band, itʼs importantto have something out-side the band so youcan always be freshand not burnt out.

Thanks Tobias for tak-ing the time to talk withMUEN today. We lookforward to seeing andhearing a lot more fromyou and the rest of theguys in the future.


TELLINGON TRIXIEDerek Nicoletto (Vocals)New York, NY

By: Shauna OʼDonnell

MUEN: HOW AREYOU?

Iʼm doing just fine. Ouralbum just released soIʼm just kind of waitingto see how itʼs going todo.

MUEN: HOWʼS ITDOING SO FAR? IKNOW ITʼS ONLYBEEN A DAY.

There is a lot of excite-ment, interviews andhoopla. Itʼs fun, werejust riding it out.

MUEN: THE NEWALBUM IS CALLEDUGLY, BROKE &SOBER. THIS IS THEFIRST TIME I HAVEHEARD OF A “FANFUNDED” ALBUM.HOW DID THATCOME ABOUT ORHOW DOES THATWORK?

Some artists do dona-tion styled, fan sourc-ing, I guess that iswhat they call it. Whatwe wanted to do, thatwe had not seen any-one else do, is make itan interactive experi-

ence for our fans. Wehave a very loyal fanbase and they hadquestions for us. Wewanted to use thosequestions and getthem involved. Theyhad questions aboutsong writing or “Whydid you put this on thecover?” Our fans arevery opinionated and Ifelt we needed to usethat. We created thisinteractive modelwhere our fans woulddonate so we couldpay to make this albumbecause we were outof money. We had justpromoted Telling onTrixie, which was ourdebut album for a yearand a half. We had thiswhole body of work,but we didnʼt have anymoney to promote it.We had just done twovideos and we were

touring around whengas prices were ridicu-lous. We needed toraise some money andget them involved. Wecame up with band-withaplan.com. Thefans would help us de-cide by voting in polls.A lot of questions I getare about our songwriting process. Usu-ally, how it works is thatTommy or Brad giveme a musical idea andthen they send it overto me. I write themelody, the lyrics andthen I tell them how Iwant the chorus to go.There is a lot of backand forth. I let them fol-low along with that andI said “Listen, this isthe music.” People pay$25 to be a part of thewebsite and for $50you get a t-shirt thrownin too. The fans got to

experience the songwriting process withme. That is a couple ofexamples on how ourinteractive modelworks for us. Since wegot them involved inthe very beginning, inthe process of how anindie band works, Ithink they wanted tosee it succeed. Whenthe cut off date of Sep-tember 30th camearound, we decided todo what we could withthe money that weraised. We were goingfor $20,000, but we willmake do with what weraised. Two weeks be-fore we had only raised$15 or $16,000 and ithad plateaued for awhile. A lot of thosepeopleupgraded and gavemore money becausethey were personally

Photo by Jeff Fasano


invested in seeingthe project work. Theycontributed to it insome way, it wasnʼt likethey just gave moneyand “Iʼll see you later.”Some people want todo that, I had somepeople tell me “Derek,Iʼm giving you thismoney and I donʼt wantto hear aboutthe album until itcomes out.” (Laughing)People from all overthe world gave mewords to help me write“Crash Me Up.” It alsohelped me to decidewhat kind of t-shirt todesign. I gave them acouple designs andthey gave their opin-ions. The t-shirts cameand they were totallyugly so I sent themback. When the t-shirtscome and they are uglyI cannot say “Well, Iʻlljust give them to peo-ple anyway,” becausenow I have people in-volved who invested inthis. It has to be right,so when the manufac-turer doesnʼt make itthe way we designed it,it is more than me andthe guys in the bandwho are at stake here.Itʼs the ninety peoplewho gave money infive continents acrossthe globe. Thatʼs how itwas with the album; wehad to get it right. InOctober and NovemberI found that the song

writing and recordingprocess was muchmore stressful, be-cause I really wantedto do a goodjob. I had so manypeople give me moneythat they probablycouldnʼt afford. On“Ugly, Broke &The re-lease said I could dowhatever I wantedSober” I think Irecorded those vocalsthree times and I hadnever done that before.That song is so per-sonal, I kind of gotemotional, but by thethird time I was prettyhappy with it. Whenyou involve all thesepeople it had affects onme that I didnʼt neces-sarily expect. I didnʼtthink we would reachour goal, first of all, andwe did. There were nothrow away songs onthe album, we had sev-enteen songs and wechose ten. They werecarefully chosen andsome were hotly de-bated. One of the deci-sions the bandmembers put on mewas, will there be acover song on thealbum? Two of myguys were rolling theireyes, but those twosame guys said “Fine,but this is what we aregoing to do.” We cameup with a crazy versionof “Mad about You” byBelinda Carlisle. We

were like “If we aregoing to do this, then itis going to be a popsong.” On our firstalbum people said wesounded like Matchbox20, I donʼt think wesound like them now.We got that compari-son a lot. We didnʼtwant to cover someonewho was like us; to doBelinda Carlisle is abeautiful irony. At firstwhen I did it, I sang itlike a response to her.Did you notice I givethe worldʼs longest an-swers?

MUEN: (LAUGHING) IKNOW I WAS THINK-ING WE ARE STILLON THE FIRST QUES-TION, BUT YOU AREDOINGGREAT.

What happens with meis, youʼll ask one ques-tion and I will cover allten.

MUEN: ITʼS TRUE.YOUʼRE GOINGRIGHT DOWN THELINE.

I donʼt know why thatis, Iʼm just excitedabout it.

MUEN: WERE THEPEOPLE WHO DO-NATED MENTIONEDIN THE THANK YOUSECTION ON YOURALBUM SLEEVE?

It has everybodyʼsname that contributedon it. That was part ofthe process; I had out-lined all of the perksthat they were going toget. I need constantstimulation or Iʼm boredout of my gourd. I waslike“Surprise, everybody isgoing to be in the latternotes.” That kind of likeregenerated it, every-body is going to benamed and you will beimmortalized forever.Everyone thought itwas awesome. Wereached our goal twohours before the cut-off. At 10:38 we got a$250 donation thatsent us $50 over. Wehad strangers give$500, we had periph-eral friends give $1000.There was a girl fromGermany who gave$500, I met her onceafter one of my shows.Some of my friendsdidnʼt give any moneyat all. They said theywould buy the albumwhen it comes out. Ihave this actor friend,who I have seen somany of his plays, Icould cry. He said hewould buy the albumwhen it came out. Younever know, I was sur-prised at so many as-pects of this and how itturned out.

MUEN: ITʼS GREAT

THAT THESE PEO-PLE DONATED THATKIND OF MONEY TOHELP YOU MAKEMUSIC.

Yeah, I canʼt believethat we pulled it off,with everything that isgoing on right now.This one girl, she isvery loyal to our band, Iknow for a fact she losther job and then gaveus a hundred dollars.There was another girlwho said if we let herbe the first to hear“Mad about You” after itwas mixed she wouldupgrade from $250 to$500. I was like fine! Icouldnʼt send it to herthough, I told her shecould come to the stu-dio, but she said itwas too far. I didnʼtwant it to be passedaround, so I told hershe could come to thestudio and we wouldgive her a private ses-sion. She and her hus-band camedown and listened to iton my producersamazing speakers. Herhusband also gave$100.

MUEN: THE PERSONYOU HAVE ON THECOVER IS ZONDRAFOXX. FOR THOSEWHO DO NOT KNOWHER SHE IS ANINFAMOUS DRAGQUEEN FROM THE

80ʼS. WHY DID YOUCHOOSE TO HAVEHER PICTURE ONTHE COVER?

My friend Mike tookthat picture in CherryGrove. Every 4th ofJuly these drag queensget on a ferry boat, Idonʼt know why, and itis hilarious. People getcrazy and it is a bitmuch. When I saw thepicture I was like “Thatis my album cover.” Wedid not know what thealbum name was goingto be and we did notname it because of thepicture. I think it is afantastic photograph. Ifyou look at the imageonline, it is such a pris-tine photo. Mike said,“That is Zondra Foxx,Iʼm scared to call her.” Isaid, “Listen, you havegot to call her and begher to do a model re-lease. I donʼt have anymoney to pay her, sosee if she will do it forfree.” Weeks went byand I didnʼt know whatto do. One day I getthis phone call. “Hello,is this Telling on Trixie?This is Zondra Foxxand I understand youwould like to use aphoto of me. Is thereany money in this?There is never anymoney in these things.”I said, “Mike is a pro-fessional photographer,he is willing to let me

use the photographand I would be eter-nally grateful if youwould do the samething.” She was like“Okay fine, I will sendthe release.” I havebeen super scared be-cause “Ugly, Broke &Sober “was written andthe fans knew it was atrack on the album andthey had heard it. Theysaid it was the perfectname for the album be-cause we were sobroke and we had todo this plan. So, I waslike “Well, that meansthat I have to name thisalbum Ugly, Broke &Sober and I have tohave this vicious dragqueen on the front of it.Iʼm going to get stalkedand killed.”

MUEN: DID YOUTELL HER THAT WASGOING TO BE THENAME OF THEALBUM?

I never spoke to heragain. I read that re-lease a billiontimes after I got it in themail. It said I could dowhatever I wanted to itand alter the photo anyway I wanted. I gave itto our lawyer. He saidnot to worry, that thealbum was going to beall over the world andshe will have herface plastered all overthe place. I basically

want her to understandthat I do not think sheis ugly. It is an amazingand hilarious photo. Iʼmwaiting for that call“Hello, is this Telling onTrixie?” I was talking toa friend of mine whoruns in the same circleas her. I asked him toask her to attend theCD release party. Wethrow this huge extrav-aganza. I knew shewould feel wonderfuland stylish if she cameto it. She didnʼt come.

MUEN: SHE WILLPROBABLY CALLYOU ONE DAY ANDASK FOR A COPY OFTHE CD JUST BE-CAUSE SHE ISCURIOUS.

I would love to give hera copy of the CD. Youknow what I can. I cansend her a copy. Ithought if I sent her theCD it would break theice. That would bewhen she finds out.

MUEN: SEND IT TOHER AND INCLUDE ANOTE THAT EX-PLAINS WHY YOUNAMED IT THAT. SHEMAY FIND IT TO BEHILARIOUS.

She is an art collectorby trade. She dressesin drag all day long,which I guess, is nottypical for drag queens.

MUEN: I FIND THECOVER TO BE HI-LARIOUS.

Whatʼs hilarious iswhen people ask if it isme on the cover. I say,“Letʼs just start with thefact that there is aforty-five year age dif-ference.” I dressed indrag once for Hal-loween and I lookedlike Gilda Radner. I willnot do it again.

MUEN: I NEVERTHOUGHT IT WASYOU, NOT EVENONCE.

It was funny. I like yourmagazine by the way. Ilike how it is interviewheavy and how you getto read a lot of whatthe artist has to say.

MUEN: YEAH, I TYPEMY INTERVIEWSWORD FOR WORD,BECAUSE I FEELTHAT EVERYTHINGTHE ARTIST HAS TOSAYIS IMPORTANT. I RE-ALLY TRY TO PRO-MOTE THE BAND

THE BEST WAY ICAN.

We are an indie outfitin the true sense of theword. Every successwe have is our own.We have Reybee andhe is great. Every timewe getnew coverage it is a lit-tle victory for us. A lotof bands have con-tacted me regarding ABand with a Plan. Theywant to know how wedid it. I tell them togo to the website andrip everything off. Makeit your own. I will givethem the password sothey can see how itworks. A couple ofbands are doing it now.I thought it was so coolto be doing this inter-view because there isso much online stuffnowadays that it is re-ally cool to be put inprint. Itʼs a little bit ofan exclusive thing.

MUEN: I LOVE THEVIDEO ON HOW TOTEACH A BASSPLAYER TO SING ONYOUR PAGE. IT WAS

VERY FUNNY. I LOVEA GUY WITH ASENSE OF HUMOR.

Did you watch Allen-town: Land of copiesand roses?

MUEN: NO, I DIDNʼTWATCH THAT ONE.

Tommy and I wentdown to Allentown todo an acoustic showand we acted like itwas a Blair Witch Proj-ect. Gary was like “Icanʼt believe you wentinto that 7 Eleven. Myfriend is a cop and hejust arrested a fugitivefor murder in there.”We decided we weregoing to leave thevenue to get somethingto eat and get someearplugs. We hit everybad neighborhood.

MUEN: THE OTHERTHING THAT ITHOUGHT WASFUNNY WAS THATYOU ARE LISTED ASPLAYING KEY-BOARD, KNUCKLESON YOUR HEAD,AND CARROT.

Thatʼs the truth, if youlisten to the song“A.N.F.O” at thebeginning, that soundis me knocking on myskull. In “Eden” I bitinto a carrot, the onlything is, you canʼt hearit as well. People neverknew what I was doing,until now; we juststarted shows for thisalbum. That is my spe-cial instrument. I wouldget jealous, because apercussionist can pickup any instrument andplay it. The most I canmuster up on stage isknocking on my skullwith my knuckles.

MUEN: IT WAS AWE-SOME TALKING WITHYOU. I APPRECIATETHE INTERVIEW.

By G. Cataline

MUEN: WOW YOUHAVE ACCOM-PLISHED ALOT AL-READY... CHARTINGON THE BILLBOARDTOP 200 WITH THE2006 RELEASE"POLYMORPH"... THISALBUM WAS PRO-DUCED BY GRAMMYWINNER, JOHN SEY-MOUR.. HOW WOULDYOU SAY YOUR LAT-EST ALBUM, "ELE-PHANTS ON AMOUSEHUNT" COM-PARES TO "POLY-MORPH"... WHAT ARETHE DIFFERENCES,ETC..?

Well first off, the pro-duction level for the

new album is leaguesabove Polymorph. Werecorded with a goodfriend of ours, PatrickHimes, in his Nashvillehome studio, so we hadthe good fortune ofbeing able to really takeour time with therecording process. Thisenabled us to makeeach song its own sep-arate entity on thealbum. In addition tothat, the studio was awonderland of vintagegear, which we utilizedto the fullest. The com-bination of all these fac-tors along with bettersong writing and fantas-tic engineering (record-ing and mixing) helpedus to put out what in ouropinion is the best ZE-

LAZOWA release todate. Oh and werecorded to tape!

MUEN: SO HOW ARETHINGS IN PHILADEL-PHIA? ARE YOU ALLORIGINALLY FROMTHERE? WHAT ISTHE MUSIC ENVIRON-MENT LIKE RE-CENTLY?

Things in Philadelphiaare great for us rightnow. We draw reallywell when we play lo-cally and over theyears, we have beenable to develop somegreat relationships withthe industry profession-als here. We all grewup in the Philadelphiasuburbs and we see

great support fromfriends, family, and fanswhenever we are per-forming within drivingdistance. There are alot of great bandsaround here right now,so be prepared to hearbig things from this areasoon.

MUEN: YOU HAVE ANUPCOMING TOUR.WHERE WILL IT TAKEYOU, AND HOW DIDYOU DECIDE ON THEPLACES YOU WILLPLAY?

After doing years offield research (touringour asses off), we havefound the markets inwhich we see success.Our aim then is to hitthese markets when-ever we get the chance.Currently, we arechanging our touringapproach to be moretargeted towards theNortheast, but we hopon any opportunity thatcomes our way, so thatcould certainly changein the near future.

MUEN: I'VE READ BE-FORE THAT YOU ALLSTARTED VERYYOUNG. ARE YOUSTILL ALL THE ORIGI-NAL MEMBERS, ANDHOW DID YOU FIRSTMEET?

As far as meeting goes,Bryan and I are broth-ers and Terry and Ian

ZELAZOWA

Photo by: David Urbanic - ShipKingMedia

are cousins., so every-thing just kind of cametogether when Bryanand Terry met in gymclass in 7th grade.Needless to say, wehave known each otherfor a very long time.Originally, the band hada different name and adifferent guy playinglead guitar, but thingsdid not work out withhim. I joined the band in2000 and we have hadthe same line up eversince.

MUEN: HOW DID YOUCHOOSE THE NAMEOF THE BAND? WHATIS ZELAZOWA SUP-POSED TO MEAN?

Bryan came across thename in his collegiatestudies as the birth-place for FredrickChopin in Poland andwe all thought itsounded cool, so wewent with it. Later, wefound out that it roughlytranslated to “iron will”and coincidentallyenough described ourwork ethic perfectly. Iguess it was meant tobe.

MUEN: WHO DOESTHE ARTWORK?

My mother actually didthe artwork on both“Elephants” and “RestEasy” and Bryan tookcare of the artwork on“Polymorph”. We alsohave a graphic designer

who assists in a lot ofour logos, banners,posters, web design,you name it…David Ur-banic of Man Is 5 (for-merly Ship King Media).

MUEN: TELL US,HOW ARE YOU GET-TING RADIO PLAY ON93.3 AND 104.5? ARETHESE TWO RADIOSTATIONS PRETTYSUPPORTIVE OF UN-SIGNED AND LOCALBANDS?

In all honesty, we wereable to get play onthose stations by be-coming friendly with theDJʼs, but both stationsare very supportive ofthe Philly music scene.They both host weeklyTuesday night originalmusic events and havelocal music program-ming.

MUEN: WHAT DO YOUFEEL INSPIRES YOUTHE MOST, IN THEWRITING PROCESS?AND WHO ARE SOMEOF THE CURRENTBANDS TODAY THATYOU RESPECT,WHETHER THEY BEWORLD KNOWN OR"NOT SO KNOWN?"

As far as inspirationgoes, it comes fromeverywhere and any-where, a random en-counter to aninspirational news story.So in general, life expe-riences probably inspire

us the most. As you canprobably tell, we areheavily influenced byboth the grunge move-ment and classic rock,The Beatles toSoundgarden, but thereare some great bandsout today: Shrug, Cap-tain of Industry, and Ra-diohead (of course),just to name a few.

MUEN: YOU HAVE AVERY DISTINCTIVEVOCAL SOUND...HAVE YOU EVERTAKEN LESSONS, ORARE YOU SELF-TAUGHT?

Bryan took singingcourses in college, butis self-taught for themost part.

MUEN: TELL US A LIT-TLE ABOUT YOURVERY OWN "WWW.IN-DIEONTHEMOVE.COM"... WE KNOW YOUSTARTED THIS DATASITE LAST YEAR.THAT MUST BE AGREAT RESOURCEFOR BANDS. HOWARE THINGS GOINGWITH THAT?

Things are comingalong great. We alreadyhave almost 3,000 ac-count holders in justunder 6 months, butmany more people uti-lize the site daily sinceeverything is opensource. We receive onlypraise and thanks fromthe siteʼs many visitors.

We are constantly mak-ing updates, so evenbetter things are tocome.

MUEN: WHERE DOYOU SEE THE MUSICMUEN: INDUSTRYHEADED? DOES ITLOOK MORE ANDMORE LIKE "EVERYBAND FOR THEM-SELVES" OR DO YOUSEE ANY GROUPSOR SYSTEMS ACTU-ALLY BENEFITINGTHE BANDS ORARTISTS TODAY?

The industry is mostcertainly in the digitalage and only see it con-tinuing in that direction.I would not say that it isevery band for them-selves, but I would saythat bands really needto establish themselvesbefore they will be no-ticed or “discovered”.The days of sittingaround and waiting arelong over. Bands needto figure out what theywant to do and work to-wards doing it. As far assystems go, bandsshould look towardspublishing and Internetpromotion to reallymake a splash intodayʼs market.

DEATH TOJULIET

By G. Cataline

LOOKS LIKE YOU'VEJUST RECORDEDALOT OF NEWSONGS... WHERE AREYOU RECORDING AT,AND IS THIS FOR ANUPCOMING ALBUM?

Yeah we just recorded aE.P last summer called"Depends how you lookat it" We recorded atDouble Time Studios inSan Diego with Jeff For-rest, They have a greatvibe, and it was totallynext door to Sombreros.SUPER TASTY

SOUNDS PRETTYTIGHT, HOW LONGHAVE YOU BEEN TO-GETHER, AND WHATWOULD YOU SAYHAVE BEEN SOME OFYOUR BEST SHOWSSO FAR?

We've been D2j since2006, but me (PrestonTaylor-Bass Player) andMaverick Boudreuax(Vocal/Guitar) havebeen playing music inthe same bands sincewe were about 13, sowe've always beenaround music in someform. Our best show yetwould have to beWarped Tour, we playedin 07' on the Hot Topicstage, it's great. and you

got to some how sneakbehind the gates andget you guys some grubone year, its some fuck-ing killer food!

WHAT ARE YOUR UP-COMING SHOWS? ISTHERE GOING TO BEANOTHER TOUR?

At the moment we havea few shows near ourhome town and we havea show with the bandFraming Hanley, sowere pretty excitedabout that. The NextTour will be this Novem-ber, Were going to tourall the way to New Yorkand Back Down, soabout a month tour.

HAVE YOU EVER HADA CHANGE OF MEM-BERS WITHIN THEBAND?

Well We've neverchanged members, butwe've added one, Inearly 08' We added alead guitar player, (BenVedros) At shows we al-ways felt as thoughsomething was missing,so when our drummer(Brad Herbert) broughtthis guy over, we werelike dude this guys kicksass, Lets Keep himaround.

I'D CLASSIFY YOU ASALTERNATIVE ANDPOP PUNK, AS ITSAYS AT YOUR MY-SPACE, BUT YOUHAVE A LOT MORE OFA RAW, SPONTA-NEOUS SOUND THANALOT OF OTHER POPPUNK OUT THERE...WHAT TYPE OFBANDS HAVE INFLU-ENCED YOU THEMOST, DO YOU

THINK?

Well we all have influ-ences that are very dif-ferent, I grew uplistening to Led Zeppe-lin, and I'm a big Co-heed fan these days, soyou get alot of thatwhen you would hearmy bass lines, Ourdrummer has influencesfrom Seven dust toBlink, We all enjoymusic and enjoy playingmusic, but we don'twanna play other peo-ples music, get what i'msaying?

HAVE YOU HAD MUCHLUCK WITH RADIO?IT SEEMS LIKE MOSTOF YOUR SONGS AREDEFINITELY RADIOFRIENDLY...

We've had successmore with this new E.P

Photo by Myong Hong


due to it having lesscursing, We're getplayed time to time onour local radio stations,One time my friendheard us on satelliteradio in Texas, and wewere like dude that'sawesome, We still don'tknow who's playing ourmusic, but as long as itsplaying we're cool withthat.

HOW IS THE WARPEDTOUR VOTINGGOING?

Its going great, we weresurprised at how manyvotes we got so far, andits because the fansman, there the best.

WHAT DO YOU DIS-LIKE ABOUT THEMUSIC INDUSTRYRIGHT NOW... ANDWHAT DO YOU THINKIS GOOD?

Right now we don't likehow most labels aregoing with a trend, youknow? Like if they signa band with a girl andsucceed i guess everyother label must sign aband with a girl singer, itseems money talks themost for them. But wedo like how kids are get-ting more into onlinemagazines and conteststo support there bandsand are checking outmore independent orunderground bandsthese days.


An Interviewwith AdamFicekRosesKingsCastles

Baby Shambles

By RL Segarra

Forced to take a leavefrom his band The Lib-ertines in 2003 to gethelp for his substanceabuse Pete Doherty in-stead formed anotherband. After vari-ous changes inthe line up“Babyshambles”as the band wascalled explodedon the musicscene. Draggedthrough amedia frenzythat wouldhave over-shadowed anddestroyed alesser bandthe talentedPete Doherty,Adam Ficek,Drew Mc-Connell andMik Whit-nall put out somemajor criticallylauded cds. The music,the writing, the play-ing were solid andsure.

When that much tal-ent comes together itis a natural step forband members to takeon side projects. PeteDoherty’s solo cd hasjust come out withpraiseworthy reviewsalong with drummer

AdamFicekwhohassteppedoutsidethe box

grabbeda gui-tarwrotesome in-crediblesongsand to

his surprise and ourdelight has his owncritical raves on hissolo project “RosesKings Castles”. The tal-ented drummer notonly plays the drumsfor Babyshambles, singshis beautiful songs forRoses Kings Castles buthas a strong follow-ing as DJ Adam Ficek.

This writer caught upwith the very busy

Adam Ficek as he wastouring with RosesKings Castles and wasdelighted when heagreed to do this in-terview.

MUEN: SO..I WASTRYING TO FIGUREOUT WHERE IWANTED TO STARTSO HOW ABOUTTHE BEGINNING,WHAT CAME FIRSTTHE DRUMMING,THE TEACHING,THE DJ'ING OR THEBANDS?

AF:The drummingand playing pianowhen I was ateenager, followed bythe djing when I waslate teens, running

club nights in andaround London thenfinally the teaching (asa safety net really) I'mnot that rock n roll.

MUEN: I WASLAUGHING ATYOUR "I'M NOTROCK N ROLL" SOIRONIC COMINGFROM A DRUMMERIN HOT ROCKBAND, IT'S INTER-ESTING THE ROADSLIFE TAKES USDOWN, DID YOUEVER IMAGINE THEFAME AND SUC-CESS NO MATTERHOW GOOD ORBAD THAT CAMEFROM BABYSHAM-BLES?

AF: Not really, it'sbeen a bit of a sur-prise but life's like thatisn't it? you neverquite know what'saround the corner!!

MUEN: YOU HAVEQUITE A FOLLOW-ING AS A DJ, IT HASBEEN A CONSTANTIN YOUR LIFE FOR AWHILE, WHAT IS ITABOUT THE DJINGTHAT KEEPS YOUDOING IT?

AF:I really love somany different stylesof music, the djing el-ement provides mewith the opportunity toentertain and playloads of great tunes.

MUEN: BABYSHAM-BLES IS STILLGOING STRONG,YOU AND PETEBOTH HAVE SOLOPROJECTS, DO YOUFEEL THAT BEINGABLE TO STRETCHCREATIVELY IN DIF-FERENT DIREC-TIONS BRINGS ABETTER STRONGERFRESHER PER-SPECTIVE TO THEBAND?

AF:Yes I think it's a re-ally good thing forbands to have thefreedom to be able to

step out and expressthemselves in a vari-ety of ways. It doesbring a real refreshedvigor to the bandwhen we get back to-gether.

MUEN:YOU'VECOME OUT AS AWONDERFULSINGER /SONG-WRITER, WHATMADE YOU WANTTO STEP COM-PLETELY IN THOSESHOES WITHROSES KINGS CAS-TLE?

AF:Thanks, I have al-ways written songsand never had theconfidence to go outand play so I thoughtit was about time Itried some live gigs,and to my surprise itdidn't fall flat on it'sface.

MUEN:DO YOUWANT TO DO MOREWRITING FORBABYSHAMBLES?

AF:Yes, I write con-stantly, I'm hopingsome of it gets usedon the next shamblesrecord.

MUEN: YOU HAVEYOUR OWN LABEL.WHAT DO YOU

THINK WILL HAP-PEN TO THE MUSICINDUSTRY DOWNTHE ROAD?

AF:It's so tough outthere at the minute,it's like the wild west,record labels justdon't know what to doto earn money.I think the future isabout building a com-munity with your fanbase, it's going to behard to exist as a sep-arate entity form yourfans in the future.

MUEN:FIRST SONG IHEARD FROM RKCWAS ENTROU-BLED..THE LYRICSAND THE MUSIC, ITIS STILL MY FA-VORITE. YOU HAVEPOINTED OUT THATROSES KINGS CAS-TLE IS NOT AN-OTHER BAND YOURIN, IT IS JUST YOU.FOR THOSE WHOARE NOT YET FA-MILIAR WITH RKCCAN YOU DE-SCRIBE THE MUSICYOU PLAY?

AF:Yes it's quixoticpop, it has a strongmelodic sense with alittle rugged limp.

MUEN: I HAVEGONE TO STADIUM

CONCERTS THENONE NIGHT ALONGTIME AGO SOME-ONE BROUGHT METO THIS CLUBWHERE YOUCOULD STANDRIGHT IN FRONT OFTHE STAGE ANDBREATH ON THEBAND...I'VE BEENADDICTED EVERSINCE TO SMALLINTIMATE VENUESNO MATTERWHAT'S PLAY-ING..PUNK METALROCK ETC..PLAY-ING IN BS AND RKCAS A PERFORMERWHAT IS YOURPREFERENCE?

I like to perform insmaller places asRKC as I can connectto my audience better,I like to get up closeand play as if it's myown living room.

MUEN: BUT...I LOVETHE COACHELLAMUSIC FESTI-VAL...ITS A VASTSPECTRUM OFBANDS AND DJ'SAND MUSICSTYLES...IF I HADTHE MONEY IWOULD GO TOEVERY MUSIC FES-TIVAL THEY HAVEIN THISWORLD....AGAIN AS


Baby Shambles

A PERFORMERYOUR OPINION ONPLAYING MUSICFESTIVALS?

AF: I love some festi-vals, especially theones in Europe theytreat you so muchbetter. It's great toplay to larger crowdsvia the shambles tip.

MUEN: IF YOU HADTO CHOOSE ONLYONE, THE BAND,RKC OR THE DJINGWHAT WOULD YOUBE MOST CONTENTWITH AND WHY?

AF:I couldn't choose

such a thing, I like all3.

MUEN: IN THE U.S.WILL WE BE SEE-ING ROSES KINGSCASTLES ORBABYSHAMBLESTOURING ANY TIMESOON? HOWABOUT DJ ADAMFICEK?

Shambles won't getin, I would love tocome back but I can'tafford it at the mo-ment. If anyonewants to book methen lets do it..

Note:

(And if someonewould explain to thiswriter why we canʼt lettalented musicians into play and tour andNO donʼt use the drugexcuse….just patthem down when theycome in and beforethey leave and justtake the shit fromthem k)

Adam Ficek is stilltouring through Eu-rope doing bothRoses Kings Castlesand his Djing.Babyshambles hasalso put out somedates they will beplaying also. You can

check out all Adamsmusic and talents andtour dates by check-ing out the linksbelow.

www.myspace.com/roseskingscastles

www.myspace.com/babyshamblesofficial

www.myspace.com/djadamficek

BELLADONNA(Italy)

Myspace.com/wwwbelladonnatv

By G. Cataline

Belladonna have longsince been one of themost recognized "un-signed" rock groups outof Italy. Whether it bethe heavy traffic on theirblogs, which garneredthem top chartings atmyspace or even morerecently the fact that Vir-gin Radio Italy featured

them alongside majornational acts (www.vir-ginradioitaly.it/top/maga-zine.html), Belladonnaseem to constantly beresurfacing. Just thispast month they made atrip from Italy to Los An-geles to play the KeyClub, and not long be-fore that, finished uprecording their secondalbum (The Noir Album)with acclaimed producerSylvia Massy in Califor-nia. We interviewed Bel-ladonna once already acouple years ago, but

wanted to catch up onthe latest as they con-tinue to grow and keeptheir presence in theever changing musicenvironment.

MUEN: EXPLAINABOUT YOUR SELFPROCLAIMED MUSICGENRE CALLED"ROCK NOIR"...WHAT SEPARATESTHIS GENRE FROMTHE REST?

Rock Noir is mystery,sensuality, the super-

natural, erotism, eso-terism all mixed in a hi-energy rockʼnʼrollcocktail that has a verydefinite identity andsound. We were thrilledto discover onWikipedia that evenmany new bands in theUSA have decided toplay and take on thisgenre that weʼve cre-ated, itʼs truly flattering!

MUEN: TELL USABOUT THE NEW RE-LEASE TITLED "THENOIR ALBUM" ...

BELLADONNAMUEN Magazine May 2009 Part 2 - PG. 37

HOW MANY SONGSON THE ALBUM, ANDWHAT CAN YOURFANS EXPECT FROMTHE ALBUM?

Thereʼs eleven RockNoir songs on it, andwe reckon that who-ever liked our debut CD“Metaphysical Attrac-tion” will totally LOVEthis new one as well!The CD's official web-site is www.thenoiral-bum.com and the CDcan be found on it-Tunes atwww.itunes.com/bel-ladonna/thenoiralbum

MUEN: THE FAMOUSSYLVIA MASSY(TOOL, SYSTEM OF ADOWN, and plentymore) PRODUCEDTHIS LATEST ALBUM"THE NOIR ALBUM".HOW DID YOU GETHER TO WORK WITHYOU?

We recorded the albumin her fantastic studioand she was (and stillis!) our musical andproduction guru inmany ways. It was hersuggestion that we pro-duce the album our-selves, keen as wewere to follow our mu-sical instincts and innerfire during the ses-sions. Our Dani endedup producing it, withSylviaʼs seal of ap-proval!

MUEN: THIS WASALL DONE ANA-LOGUE RIGHT?Half analogue, half digi-tal, but even on digitalthe approach was a to-tally analogue one: nosoftware tricks, no au-totune, no clicktracks… the sessionswent on as if we werestill in 1975, whenrecords were made inthe studio by musiciansplaying their hearts outtogether, capturing themagic of Music.

MUEN: HOW LONGDID IT TAKE TORECORD?

Around 3 weeks. Beingbasically a collection oflive performances ittook very little time.Luana sang the wholealbum in only one day!It was totally herchoice, so she couldretain that certain pecu-liar vibe and mood shewas in on that daythroughout the wholerecord.

MUEN: WHAT SONGSOFF THE ALBUM AREYOU MOST EXCITEDABOUT? AND WHATWERE SOME OF THEINSPIRATIONS FORTHE ALBUM?

We love them all somuch, for us it wouldbe impossible to singleout any of them. As

usual the inspirationcame from within our-selves: we do not listento other music for inspi-ration, weʼve neverdone that. Having saidthis, Edgar Allan Poeʼswork was once againan important referencepoint.

MUEN: WITH YOURVISIT TO CALIFOR-NIA AND WHILERECORDING THEALBUM, WHAT WERESOME OF THE HIGH-LIGHTS AND WHATEXPERIENCES DIDYOU VALUE THEMOST?

Well, Sylviaʼs studio, ina Northern Californiatown so small that ithas no traffic lights wasamazing! Sylvia, herhusband Greg, RichVeltrop the chief engi-neer and everyone inthe studio were amaz-ing to work and livewith, and weʼll neverforget our days there!

MUEN: BELLADONNAHAS HAD ALOT OFRECOGNITION ONTHE WEB AND ONMYSPACE. SOME OFTHIS IS DUE TO THEBELLADONNA BLOG,WHICH HAS EVENBEEN LISTED IN MY-SPACES "MOSTVIEWED" IN THE RE-CENT PAST. DO YOUFEEL THAT MOST OF

YOUR RECOGNITIONCOMES FROM THEINTERNET?

We feel it has comefrom the people, fromthe underground,thanks to their word ofmouth on our music.People nowadays com-municate through theinternet, but thatʼs onlya medium as any other.Weʼve always felt andstill feel that we oweeverything to ourfriends and fans allover the world.

MUEN: HOW IS THEATMOSPHERE TO-WARDS YOUR MUSICIN YOUR HOMELANDOF ITALY?

Very good indeed, es-pecially since weʼve en-tered the "GrammyAwards ballot 2008"with 2 of our songs.This event made it pos-sible for many peoplein Italy (that hadnʼt yetheard of us) to discoverBelladonna. Many wereabsolutely shocked thata self-produced italianband could get that farby its own strengths.

MUEN: SO YOUWOULD SAY THATYOU ARE NOT INFLU-ENCED FROM OTHERARTISTS OF THEPAST?.

We really feel that we


have no actual musicalinfluences. We justwrite the music thatcomes to us and we tryto play it the way welike to hear it. EdgarAllan Poe, WilliamBlake, Alfred Hitchcockare all very importantsources of inspirationthough. And of coursewe all love The Beat-les, especially theirdarker side.

MUEN: WHILEYOU'VE PERFORMEDWITH SUCH ACTS AS'SIOUXSIE AND THEBANSHEES' AND'SCARS ON BROAD-WAY,' YOU ALSO GOTA GIG AT THE 'DUBAIINTERNATIONALFILM FESTIVAL...HOW DID YOU GETTHAT GIG?

The word was out thatwe had written our ownsoundtrack to the clas-sic German horrormovie “Nosferatu” sothe Dubai InternationalFilm Festival invited usto perform it live at theirfestival. For these“Nosferatu” perform-ances we collaboratedwith our long timefriend and awesomemusician, MassimilianoAnnibaldi on Viola DaGamba and Theremin.

MUEN: HOW DO YOUGO ABOUT THESONGWRITING

PROCESS? ANDDOES LUANAMOSTLY WRITE THELYRICS?

Itʼs a process prettymuch akin to automaticwriting. The songsseem to be floating outthere somewhere andwe feel like we are sim-ply the receivers ofthese sounds that al-ready exist in someouter space. Yes, weknow this sounds likesome hippie clichè, butitʼs what truly happensto us, and all the peo-ple that know us per-sonally know this reallywell.

MUEN: WHAT TYPEOF MUSIC EQUIP-MENT DO YOU USE,AND DO YOU HAVEANY ENDORSE-MENTS?

Itʼs always vintagegear: we are into clas-sic sounds and we findthat modern technologymakes everythingsound great with no ef-fort,

...but it can also makeeverything sound veryshallow, lifeless andempty. We want oursounds to resonatewith depth and charac-ter...

The only way to do it isto work very hard on

getting “your” soundusing classic gear.Thatʼs what all thebands from the Seven-ties had to do at thetime, and we think itʼsone of the reasons whytheir records nowsound so much richerthan current ones. Youcould hear the musi-ciansʼ fingers, sweatand soul. Thatʼs whatwe are going for withBelladonna.

MUEN: WILL THISSHOW AT THE KEYCLUB IN L.A. BEYOUR FIRST LIVE AP-PEARANCE IN THEU.S.? AND WHATOTHER SHOWS DOYOU HAVE WHILEYOU ARE HERE INTHE U.S.?

Yes, itʼll be our livedebut! And 2 days laterweʼll play at SXSW inAustin, TX, and that willbe a real thrill too!!

MUEN: HOW DID YOUPRODUCE YOURVIDEOS, AND WHICHONE ARE YOU MOSTPROUD OF, ANDWHY?

With the exception of“Mystical Elysian Love”,which was directed andedited by a young andtalented Italian directornamed Serena Cor-vaglia, weʼve always di-rected and edited

everything ourselves topreserve our vision.Proud might not be themost appropriate word,but yes, we are veryvery happy with all ofthem! The most recentone, “Till Death Do UsPart” – the first singleoff “The Noir Album” -is already on YouTube,check it out: here.

MUEN: WHAT AREYOUR MAIN GOALSFOR THE REST OFTHE YEAR?

Do as many live showsas possible!!

MUEN: WHAT IN-SPIRES YOU MOSTTO KEEP GOING,AND PLAYINGMUSIC?

Being a musician is ourcalling. We never feltwe had any choice butto do what we do. Itʼsour life.

MUEN: WELLTHANKS SO MUCHFOR THE UPDATE!

Thanks SO MUCH toyou!!…


THEENGAGEMENT"Now And Forever"

Through their music TheEngagement, find them-selves in the middle of apop culture that is em-bracing the lore and ro-manticism of a love notmeant to be. On theirsophomore release, theEngagement left methirsting for more withsoulful vampire under-currents to their sound.With an over, all feelingof depression shiningwith up beat changesthat reflect a hope deepdown inside, “Now AndForever” is definitely anemotionally charged LPworthy of repeat listens.“Now And Forever”grows on one in muchthe same sense thatlove, finds, and growson the unsuspectingcold-hearted cynic.

I found it difficult to ig-nore the resentmentand betrayal felt throughmulti-instrumentalist/writer and producer,Matt Andersonsʼ voice.

From the opening song,“Two Pieces” to the finalsong, “Waste” I found“Now And Forever” fullof strong guitar hooksorchestrated with emo-tion musical interludesthat draw in the listening

ear. Punctuating drumsby Joe Ingle, on songssuch as, “Who Cares”and “I Canʼt Feel You”transmit stronglythroughout this LP witha backdrop that ele-vates and drops in nearperfect timing; compas-sionately carrying onethrough a forest of emo-tions.

A band on the rise fastin todayʼs transitionalscene coated in Twi-light, and a must seelive performance for thisreviewer. The Engage-ment definitely is on therise with the popular sci-enceʼs evolved in musictoday. Check out my fa-vorite song, the LP titled“Now And Forever”, ananthem song suitablefor airplay on any radiostation, and more onThe Engagement at thebandʼs MySpace:www.myspace.com/theengagement or take alisten at the bandʼsquirky and interestingweb site: theengage-ment.org .

The Engagement mademe a fan and I look for-ward to hearing more inthe future, from thisfeverish and contagiousalternative rock bandfrom Minneapolis, MN.

~Q5

LACUNA COIL“Shallow Life”

From the first ʻleakedʼrelease emitting fromthe folds of LacunaCoilʼs new cd ʻShallowLifeʼ, I was worried!Spellbound was great,but I wanted to head-bang. I mean really, re-ally headbang. Sure, Ican make an effort on it,but I wanted somethingthat had me bending atthe waist almost instinc-tively, and without effort.Thanks to the very firsttrack on their newalbum, my fears werealleviated with the open-ing throngs of doublebass from Criz in ʻSur-viveʼ!! Thank you La-cuna Coil. Now on wego with the rest of thisdigital array of art.

The first thing I noticedwas how excellent thevocals are on this re-lease. Cristina and Andihave truly taken theirtalents to a new level,both together and indi-vidually. Their harmonyhas never been betterand both players in thisLC saga have improvednot only the quality oftheir voices, but alsotheir enunciation of theEnglish language, tak-ing it to the point wherepersonally I donʼt haveto look up the lyrics in

CD REVIEWSthe insert, which I findabsolutely wonderful!!The guitar solos, thoughperhaps a bit short attimes, are done to per-fection and being ratherrare in their catalog,were nice to hear for achange. Maus andPizza are a true talent tobe reckoned with, espe-cially with their work onthis album.

Other tunes that hadme in motion were'Spellbound', 'Underdog'and 'I Wonʼt Tell You', inwhich Cristina exudessome Italian ʻsassʼ withlyrics such as “Iʼve beenburned so bad, but I stillplay with fire”! WideAwake is one ofCristinaʼs finest songsand this is one that I feelhas the potential to dovery well in North Amer-ica with a single releaseof it. The song ʻNotEnoughʼ is a perfect ex-ample of the improve-ment in Andiʼs vocalsand, with the addition ofhis Italian accent, addsflavor to the tune alongwith another great solofrom Cristina in thebridge of the song. Ilove ʻUnchainedʼ for itsMotown style melody inthe chorus by Cristinawith a bitch guitar soloadded to boot! Marcoʼsbass lines shine in ʻTheMazeʼ and itʼs one tune Ihope to see them per-


form live just to watchhis fingers move on theneck of his guitar. Ihummed and hawed abit on ʻThe Painʼ. Itstarts out nice! Atmos-pheric and airy, then hitsa beat that just doesnʼtdo it for me. Itʼs the onlyone I pass on the diskhowever.

There are songs wherethe vocals are techni-cally enhanced, but Ifeel theyʼre not overlydone, allowing formoody intros andchanges of pace suchas in ʻShallow Lifeʼ,which, at this point intime, is my favorite.Slow, melodic and oh sodeep in nature. Iʼm suresomething like thiswould have beenslipped to the ʻBʼ side ofa single release duringthe Karmacode era.Now, itʼs the title song.Wonderful!

Unfortunately, there aremany die-hard, oldschool LC fans thathave yelled ʻselloutʼsince the Karmacodeera, and that is fine!Nothing will change withthis release. After all,everyone is entitled tohis or her opinion. In myopinion, itʼs not sellingout when a band at-tempts to reach out witheight hands and two

voices to all of their di-verse fans, and at thesame time grasp newfans in the process.That is true talent! Thatis Shallow Life!

However, for those whomay finally decide toabandon this band dueto the expectations youinsist on holding uponthem, pull out your In AReverie and UnleashedMemories CDs, dustthem off, enjoy and Ar-rivederci!

~Eric Eaton.www.femmetal.net

THIS A.M. STATIC“Touch Nʼ Go”

Stop the presses! ThisA.M. Static has a musi-cal brightness that youwill want to keep youreyes on and ears to-ward in the near future. Ifeel This A.M. Static isready for the next stepon the ladder of musicaladvancement. Thisquintet from Rochester,New York, impressedme so much with thefirst track, “Void” off theirE.P. entitled “Touch NʼGoʼ that I feel they areworthy of whatever bigbreak may come theirway.

CD REVIEWS“Void” is so commer-cially appealing with itsbitter sweetness inmelody and catchy,pleading lyrics; it couldplay in heavy rotation onradio stations across thecountry.

As lead singer/se-quencer and keyboardplayer Jordan Borkpleas, “Will you give thischance to us? It mightas well be now?” On“Void“, in the context ofa love gone vacant. Icould not agree with himmore, in termʼs of listen-ing to what this inde-pendent pop rock bandhas to present. Master-ful mixing and masteringby Matt Klock through-out blends the whirlwindpop rock guitars ofAdam Brooks andJames Moore, whomalso plays the Glocken-spiel, with a steadily ad-dictive back beat by JonWaxmonsky on drums(sampler) and the jazzyfused bass guitar ofDave Smith.

If This A.M. Staticsounds familiar, it morethan likely is not be-cause you have heardof them before butrather because they notonly intermingle as agroup magically but alsointegrate their madarray of influences

tastefully into This A.M.Staticʼs welcomingsound. These influencesas named on the bandʼsMySpace page at:www.myspace.com/thisamstatic , include sucha diverse range as Ra-diohead, Fall Out Boy,Shiny Toy Guns, Keane,Mindless Self Indul-gence, Death Cab ForCutie, Mr. Bungle,Hawthorne Heights, life,lack of sleep and ofcourse; people.

I can hardly wait to hearwhat This A.M. Statichas to offer their listen-ing audience with a fullL.P. of gripping sound.This band on the rise re-flects a promising futuresound with this threesong E.P.; entitled“Touch Nʼ Go” (also in-cluding “Toyboat” and“Selfish Gift”) beyondwhat many larger corpo-rate budget backedbands in todayʼs markethave to offer in terms ofcommercial appeal andmusical grandeur. Thiscolorful and attentiondeserving band createsmusic that sounds as ifit has written itself.

Sinfully, Q5


ANTHIMOS MANTI“Alligator Lick”

Alligator Lick is one ofthose rare CDʼs that is amust listen to for anytrue music enthusiastthat particularly likesmind-blowing guitarcomposition and per-formance. It containsfourteen instrumentaltracks that prove thatmusic needs to not in-clude vocals to be trulyremarkable and enjoy-able to listen to. The tal-ent shown by Manti isevident throughout theCD with shredding thatwould make even someof his influences envi-ous of this offering.“Eight Roses” show-cases his versatile tal-ent to make a Fenderelectric sound as if itwere a delicate acousticwith an amazing fingertechnique. Other high-lights of the CD are thetitle track “Alligator Lick”and “Tostados” which allinclude a wide range ofawesome shreddingand a complete use ofthe range of sounds andeffects afforded by hischoice of guitars. In“Go Get the Cash”,“Telegun Burger” and“Happy Milk”, which isperhaps the best trackof the CD, a listenergets the full effect of hisability to wickedly ma-

nipulate the neck andstrings of his Telecasterfor a sound uniquely hisown. Recorded in hisstudio made this all themore intriguing as hehas craftily used effectsand pedals to bring outthe best in his perform-ance without any artifi-cial effects to mask histalents by having com-plete control over therecording process. Hismusic leaves you want-ing to hear yet more andplaying the CD manytimes over. It is a musthave for anyone that ap-preciates intricate, artic-ulate and complicatedguitar performances andcompositions. Mantimay have many influ-ences but the sound isdistinctively his own andone that must be heardfrom start to finish onthis CD to appreciatecompletely.

~Macavity

CD REVIEWSINSTINCT OF AGGRESSION

Watch out Lamb of Godhere comes the PAIN!!Instinct of Aggression istaking the heavy metalmusic scene by storm.They recently got offtour with DevilDriver,Snot, and Straight LineStitch making the bestout of an opportunitythat an unsigned bandcould only dream of.They destroyed thestage every night along-side the headliningheavy hitters Dev-ilDriver. Making Los An-geles their stompinggrounds early in 2006this band has come along way since theirearly days in New York.Instinct of Aggressionhas one of the most in-tense live shows that Ihave ever seen andthatʼs coming from aconcert junkie thatwould sell his soul tocatch a good metalshow. Comparable toSlayer, Lamb of God,and drawing inspirationfrom legendarymetal/Thrash legendsMegadeth; Instinct ofAggression is ready totake the next step intheir musical careersand infect the world withtheir rare form of ag-gression. When I firstheard these guys I was

impressed with the pas-sion that they bring forthin their music throughtheir live show, that assoon as I got to mycomputer I kicked aband off the MorbidMiller Top Unsigned Listand replaced them withInstinct of Aggression.Having fun is somethingthat most bands forgetabout when starting aband and thatʼs the be-ginning of the end whenthat starts to happen.This is not the case withthese guys and its selfevident when one seeʼsthese guys do theirthing on stage. I re-cently was contacted bytheir manager MikeyDoling (Snot/Soulfly/In-vitro) and was asked toreview some of theirnew material and I wastaken away with the in-tensity and the passionthat is poured out on thethree song sampler thatI received for review.Track one “Watchingyour World Fall Down”Starts out epic with a at-mospheric guitar riff be-fore ripping into aDevilDriver styleraunchy riff and bloodcur-tiling chorus “Watch-ing you DIE!!” hold ontoyour asses as a backbreaking breakdownjerks your fucking headto the floor at 2:15 in thesong followed by a fin-


ger shredding solo. Nextup is the song “InfectHumanity” which can beheard on the bands My-Space profile page(www.myspace.com/in-stinctofaggression).Starting out this songreminds me of earlySlipknot with hard-hit-ting kick drums that cre-ates a bomb leading toa full metal thrash riffthat will get any fan ofmetal to bang their headagainst the wall beforebursting into somebadass groove thatslows you down beforetaking you back into theeye of the storm, withhints of Death Metal inthis song proving theirvariety of skills in allareas of the metal forte.Strong points in thissong are the rapacioushard hitting snare drumthat keeps the tempo ofthe song sick to thecore. I really liked howthey showed their skillsas musicians in thissong. Whatʼs next? Ohyea, “Kill Your Dreams”will make any and everyPantera fan happy withthe similar vocal shred-ding of Phil Anselmo.“Kill Your Dreams” is myfavorite song out ofthree due to the intensesense of brutality kick-ing your ass from begin-ning to end. The buildup to the break down is

so fucking sick that afterhearing it I caught someteddy bears on fire thenthe breakdown at 3:05just sealed the deal forme making Instinct ofAggressionʼs new albumone of the most antici-pated album to comeform an independentartist in a long fuckingtime. This is the bestE.P. that I have heardsince the infamous Burnthe Priest demo. Hornsin the air Instinct of Ag-gression is hear tosquash those weak assparty line lip flapping,pussy, bullshit bands!!

www.myspace.com/in-stinctofaggression

~ Morbid Miller

CD REVIEWSSIRENS LAMENT

Moments in Solitude

Never has a band namebeen so completely de-scriptive of the musicproduced and put forthfor listeners. The haunt-ingly mesmerizingmusic and vocals ofSirens Lamentʼs EP willcaptivate like you noother siren song youhave heard before. Wellstructured, written andperformed songs arefound on this amazingcollection put forth asthe debut offering of thisone woman band thatdefies any attempt tocategorize to a specificgenre. Unique uses ofcello, bass, keyboardsand most importantlythe intricate uses of hervoice are but all smallparts that make up thetotal delights of thisaural intoxication.

Ten tracks are found on“Moments of Solitude”and leave you alluredenough to wantingmuch more than just theten. The artistʼs classicaltraining and ability toplay several instrumentsis evident in all hersongs but most notablyin “Sirens Chamber”with the remix of thisshowcasing her use ofsynths and keys even

more. Although sheplays many instrumentsand uses electronic ele-ments beautifully it isher ethereal and haunt-ingly gothic voice thatwill keep you under theinfluence of this EPʼssounds. Her voice bril-liantly compliments thecompositions and isreminiscent of Collide,Zeromancer and NicoleBlackman in her varietyof sultry, electronica andindustrial feelings withinher songs. The deepsultry dark side is mostnotably found in “EternalHunger” and “Hatred.”Once you are enticedinitially to thinking thiswill be a seductive am-bient tone you arepulled to the full force ofher harder edge of theintensely dark gothic in-dustrial sound of “DyingPlanet.” With tworemixes to show furtherversatility to completethe EP, you are left won-dering what will be nextfrom this very talentedartist.

~Macavity


BULLETSIZE Self-Titled

Bulletsize self titled CDoffers the best of thrashand dark metal in thisdebut offering from thisSwedish band. While itwould be easy to saythey are just anothermetal band upon listen-ing to the CD you canno longer make thatbroad statement. Theydo include amazing ma-chine gun drummingand great shredding gui-tars with a heavy bassline. What sets this CDapart is the expressiveand well thought outlyrics and mix of vocalsto communicate theselyrics in a unique ap-proach. The productionand song structure of allthe songs also highlightthis uniqueness. “FeedMy Hate” stands out asone of the tracks thattruly exhibits the versa-tility of this band andwhat each band mem-ber brings to the amaz-ing metal sounds.“Among the Living” and“Annihilation” are othertracks that highlight thefull on scream andanger of the dark metalwith great thrash whilestill retaining a melodicquality within. Thesesongs and the othersfound on the CD are afurther tribute to the ver-

satility and creativenessof Bulletsize.

All ten tracks take youthrough the darkestanger of metal withawesome musicalityand lyrics and even in-clude a ballad to endthe experience of listen-ing to them. The musicleaves you wanting tosee them live to experi-ence the head bangingthat would inevitablycome with the amazingguitars and drums dis-played throughout theCD after listening to itmany times over. Bullet-size has given us a CDthat you will want to lis-ten to often for a uniqueand fresh fix of full onmetal.

~Macavity

CD REVIEWSJOHN JEFF TOUCH“First Touch”

An aptly named CD byamazing vocalist JohnJeff Touch is a treat forthe ears, the mind andthe soul. At “First Touch”and listen of this CD youthink you are to hear apop version of rock with-out much innovation. Itis exactly the oppositewith amazing use ofmany instruments in in-novative ways to grabyou to listen and takeyou on a melodic tourwithin his world. It is aworld of silky clear vo-cals and a variety ofstyles all wrapped neatlyin a cohesive CD thathas amazing lyrical writ-ing to match the sounds.However, once you thinkyou are to just be takenon a ballad or soft rocksound tour you find youhave been takenthrough a harder rockthat uses innovativepiano samples andcatchy guitar riffs mixedwith other variety ofkeys and even acousticguitars and violins.“Sometimes” is a brillianthighlight of all those ele-ments encompassedwithin one tune with awide vocal range andvariety of styles used toenhance the musicalcomposition.

“Canʼt Live Without You”and “We Feel” are otherexamples of the amaz-ing vocal and musicaldelight of this CD.Eleven tracks are in-cluded and there is notone that could not be asingle with great appealas they all have either alyrical, vocal or melodic“hook” that entices youto listen to yet more.

All the songs are written,arranged and producedby Touch and are a tes-tament to his brilliantmusical talent not only invocal abilities but alsohis ability to offer to theworld a CD to delight inlistening to from start tofinish. This is our “FirstTouch” of John JeffTouch but certainly willbe far from our last.Look for this CD to bejust the beginning of along and alluring tour ofbeautiful articulate andintricate music.

~Macavity


ULTRAVOXSymphony Hall, Birmingham, UKApril 17, 2009

By Jus ForrestPhoto by Brian Devine

A big hit in the earlyeighties whilst ridingthe crest of the NewRomantic wave, you'dbe forgiven for assum-ing Ultravox had fadedto an almost invisibleshade of grey sincethey last performed to-gether circa 23yrs ago.

Tonight, following aswell of dry ice, foursharp suited figures onstage blend nicely withthe space age styledbackdrop, and the firsttender notes flow freelyto form the opening in-strumental 'Astradyne'.It's a close encounterthat six months agowould have been amere visionin blue.

'Astradyne' and 'Mr X'are welcome surprises,both of which demon-strate an excellence insoundtrack styled com-position. It's a bravemove, proving tonight'snot just about 'thegreatest hits'.

Electro greets rock dur-ing 'We Stand Alone',enhanced by those

everprominent signaturesynth sounds so faith-fully recreated. The'Thin Wall' showcaseshugely effective guitarwork, already givingthe track it's edge, butthe addition of theviola, and resulting in-teractionbetween both instru-ments is simply su-perb. Sadly however,the backing vocals arealmost inaudible.

Combining dramaticcrescendos with themost delicate oftouches, Vienna' is Ul-travox's most classicexample - the audiencecheering in apprecia-tion during Billy Cur-rie's magnificent solospot - his work on both

the piano and violaproves so magically in-tense - a perfect climaxto the haunting ambi-ence previously setwith 'Rage in Eden'and those chillingpiano sounds of 'YourName'.

It's all passing soquickly, the strangers,the sleepwalking, thegreat melody of 'I Re-member' and so forth,with 'The Voice' bring-ing it all to a close.Slightly more bass wel-come here, but not toworry, there's a greatshowcase of percus-sion overload from theboys concludingtonight'sperformance.

I'm pleased to report

that all expectationsare met - Ultravoxmanage to recaptureeverything - classicalmusicianship at itsbest, deepmeaningful composi-tions, accompanied byrock guitar masteryand some strong vo-cals. One hell of amelting pot, yesmaybe, but these elec-tro pop / rock synth pi-oneers have got it allnicely under control. Asfor me - 'I came todance', but tonightmany will go away withan insight into the artfulconstruction of musicaldrama. Whatever, it's avision and experiencewell worth holdingonto.

LIVE REVIEWPG. 46 - MUEN Magazine May 2009 Part 2

ADELITAS WAYVirgin/Capitol RecordsRick DeJesus (Vocals)Las Vegas, Nevada


MUEN: HI RICK! HOWARE THINGS GOING?

We have been goingcrazy with the recordright now, trying to getit done on time. Thelabel wants it to comeout as soon as possi-ble. Itʼs tough becausewe are doing fifteensongs in two months.Itʼs a lot of work.

MUEN: WHY DONʼTYOU START BY GIV-ING ME A LITTLE HIS-

TORY ON YOU GUYS.HOW DID YOU COMETOGETHER AS ABAND?

We started in Vegasand it was kind of a sit-uation where I wasdoing a lot of acousticshows, it was just meand one of my friends.

It kind of started out notthat serious. I wantedto just write songs, playmusic and see if peopleget it. I never knew thatI could really sing. I al-ways thought that I wasone of those AmericanIdol people who thinkthey can sing. I wasnʼtsure and I didnʼt want

people to make fun ofme. One night I did anacoustic set at this barcalled Money Plays. Isnuck into the bar be-cause I was not 21 yet.I had written a songcalled “Crush” and I gointo the bar, play it andI get a standing ova-tion. I was like “Oh myGod!” That was the firstthing I had done musi-cally and I got a goodresponse. People saidit was amazing and Ishould record it so Iended up moving andselling everything that Ihad. I drove acrosscountry, lived in my carand tried to work myway up from the bot-tom. I was trying to get

ADELITAS WAYBy Shauna O’Donnell


shows booked, I got ajob in Vegas, got myfirst apartment and soldmy truck that I lived into do our first demo. Noone would book us withthat demo. No onewould let us play any-where. I handed demosout to every person thatwalked the face of theEarth. I probablyhanded out six orseven thousand demosin Vegas. Finally, webegged this place toplay us. The RainbowBar was like “Look, wewill let you open up forthe opener. Your set is20 minutes.” Webrought 950 kids to thefirst show we everplayed. When we gotoff stage the whole barcleared out and fromthat day on everyvenue in Vegas wantedto book us because wewere the biggest draw-ing band in Vegas.Robert Reynolds whomanages The Killerscame out to the firstshow we ever playedlive. He came up to meafter the show and said“Dude, you guys havesomething.” Over theyears he and I gameplanned and he guidedmy career. We got amanager, LarryRudolph, who alsomanages BritneySpears. Larry was afriend of mine who didnot end up being a long

term manager. Heguided me as well so Iwould make the rightmoves. Eventually, itgot us to where wewere selling out every-where we played. Wewereselling out the ViperRoom in L.A, bars noone had ever heard ofand The Clubhouse inArizona. It got to apoint where peoplestarted showing inter-est and the band got ina bidding war. Wesigned with In De GootEntertainment who hasShinedown, Theory ofa Deadman and Chev-elle. When everyonestarted coming labelwise, we heard everyexcuse in the book. Fi-nally, one day, VirginRecords came in andsaid they didnʼt carewhat everyone elsewas saying. They knewthat our band was a hitand they wanted tosign us. The minutethey put the offer in, wehad every single labelin the industry send adeal to our lawyer.

MUEN: DID YOU SIGNWITH VIRGIN BE-CAUSE THEY WERETHE FIRST TO COMEAND OFFER A DEAL?

Not only were they thefirst to come, but I re-ally liked what theywere doing with the

company. They broughtthe whole new team in.Rob Stephenson (Pres-ident of Virgin) hassuch a great trackrecord. They believedin our band right out ofthe gate. We felt like itwas the right team. Wecould have made an ir-rational move, but wedid not take the money.We took who wethought would give usthe biggest chance toget the music out to thefans. That is what itʼsabout. You can take aquick dollar and not be-lieve in yourself. Wedidnʼt think like that.We donʼt care abouthow big the bonus is.We want to get themusic out to the fanswho have never heardus before. We are aband thatʼs all aboutfans and people likingthe music. Have younoticed that bands areputting out records withnine or ten songs on it?Itʼs because the recordcompany only pays forten songs. We donʼtbelieve in that. I didnʼtget into this industry forthe record companies.

MUEN: TELL ME ALITTLE ABOUT THEALBUM. ARE THESONGS THAT WEREON YOUR DEMO ONIT?

Two songs that were

on the demo will be onthe album. One iscalled “Brother” and theother is “All FallsDown.”

MUEN: WHAT IS THETITLE OF THEALBUM?

I think it is going to beself titled. We donʼtwant to come out tryingto make any fancynames for our record.No one knows who weare right now. We arejust coming out tryingto make a statement inthe rock industry. Wewant to make a recordwith twelve amazingsongs on it. We are notwriting songs just towrite them we are try-ing to make a greatrecord.

MUEN: WHEN WILL ITCOME OUT?

We were going to put itout in March, but theywant us to tour. I thinkwe are going out with10 Years in February.Then they are bringingout names like Shine-down and Theory of aDeadman for us to tourwith in March and April.We believe it will comeout the first week ofMay. They want to giveit a good solid pushwith the radio and theywant us to be on theroad when it comes


out.

MUEN: HOW EXCIT-ING. IS THIS YOURFIRST TOUR?

This is our first majortour. We have touredthe west coast, but thisis our first time downsouth. We are lookingforward to meeting allthe amazing peopledown there. Itʼs our firsttime being jammed in avan for seventy hours.Iʼm excited about itthough. I think that wesigned up for it and itʼswhat we all weredreaming of.

MUEN: DO YOU DOALL OF THE LYRICWRITING?

I write all of the lyricsand melodies for thesongs. I also writesome of the music. Iʼmnot saying I have towrite all of the lyrics,but I write about thingsthat Iʼm going throughand things that peoplecan relate to. Some ofthe rock that is outnowadays, they aresinging about thingsthat donʼt really matter.Thatʼs not really mystyle of writing. I wantsomeone to sit downand say “Man, I lis-tened to that song andthatʼs what Iʼm goingthrough. Thatʼs how Ifeel.”

MUEN: THAT IS HOWI FEEL ABOUT “LASTSTAND.”

Itʼs a true story. I hadsomeone who was mybest friend for years.Itʼs a girl and I was al-ways afraid of commit-ment. We always knewwe liked each otherand we would do any-thing for each other. Itwas one of those situa-tions where I was toostubborn to admit it andstop being a guy for aminute and admit how Ifelt. I let it go on for ayear and a half. I al-most lost her as afriend and everything. Igot a second chance toexplain that I was beinga jerk and that I caredabout her more thananything. That song isa pretty touching songbecause it is about aguy who is trying toplay it too cool. Itʼsabout telling someonehow much they are re-ally worth.

MUEN: ITʼS A BEAU-TIFUL SONG. IT RE-ALLY SURPRISES METHAT YOU DIDNʼTKNOW THAT YOUARE A REALLYGOOD SINGER. YOUARE REALLY TAL-ENTED.

I appreciate that. Ididnʼt want to be likeone of those people

who goes on showsand thinks they aregreat. I never thoughtabout it. Maybe I was alittle stage shy or I wasa little embarrassed inthe beginning.

MUEN: YOURECORDED ATGROOVEMASTERSTUDIOS INCHICAGO. YOUGUYS ARE FROMLAS VEGAS. WHATMADE YOU CHOOSETHAT STUDIO?

We wanted to go withJohnny K. He makesreal rock records. A lotof these guys nowa-days are all getting thesame sound. It seemslike HowardBenson is makingevery single rockrecord on Earth rightnow. Johnny K didDisturbed and 3 DoorsDown. We wanted tonot sound too much

like Hinder. We want tostick in that realm be-cause we want to writesongs that are radiofriendly that have a littleedge to them. Dis-turbed sounds amazingand thatʼs one of my fa-vorite bands. Iʼm from adifferent era withSoundgarden, StoneTemple Pilots and Dis-turbed. Iʼm not trying tore create another Nick-elback record here. Ilike Nickelback, Iʼmfriends with Chad, butthat records already outright now. We want tobe like Disturbed. Wewant three number onealbums in arow. I think we madethe right move with theproducer that wepicked.

MUEN: WELL I WISHYOU THE BEST OFLUCK WITH THAT.YOU HAVE A GREATVOICE, YOU ARE


PG. 50 - MUEN Magazine May 2009 Part 2TALENTED AND ILOVEYOUR SONGS.

I really appreciate that.Thatʼs why we do it.Itʼs not for anything butthat. Just hearing yousay that makes meknow Iʼm doing my job.

MUEN: I KNOW THATALTERNATIVE AD-DICTION NOTICED ITTOO.

I like those guys. Theyhave been nothing butsupportive to the band.Those guys have beengreat to us. I feel veryfortunate to have peo-ple who get what weare trying to do.

MUEN: I THINK WECOVERED EVERY-THING. IS THEREANYTHING YOUʼDLIKE TO ADD ORSAY?

I would like to thankthe fans and VirginRecords. Itʼs going tobe a good year for us.Iʼd like to thank you aswell for taking the timeto interview me.

MUEN Magazine May 2009 Part 2 - PG. 51THROTTLEWhittier, CA

Gil Oyola: Guitar & VocalsDave Macias: Guitar"Rude" Rudy Robles: Bass Gui-tar & VocalsPaul Ramirez: Drums & Intensity

Myspace.com/throttleusa

By: Shauna ODonnell

MUEN: HOW DIDTHROTTLE COME TOBE AND WHEN?

Gil: Around Decemberof 2003, we started writ-ing songs. Rudy calledme out of the blue andcame down. At the timewe had a drum ma-chine, it took us abouteight months before wefound a drummer. Ulti-mately, this cat righthere, JC (Javier Ce-deno), came down anddid our initial run ofgigs. Paul ended up inthe band two years agoand it has beenTHROTTLE since.

MUEN: WHY THENAME THROTTLE?

Gil: We were originallycalled ʻChangesʼ and itwas a bit ambiguous.People didnʼt know if wewere Disco-dj or a 70swedding band. We hada drummer at the timenamed Mike Barnettaka Doctor Metal, whois a very educated, in-telligent man and a seri-ous drummer. Hechallenged us with how

attached we were to thename? I said that I waspermanently attached, Ihave “Changes” tat-tooed across my armbecause at the time wewere writing songs, itwas so difficult to find adrummer that as a per-sonal challenge to pressforward, I tattooed thename to my arm… I re-member the day that wewere considering thename change, we wererehearsing and we got aphone call from a catwho is the friend of aproducer doing somemade in Mexico ex-treme sports DVD ask-ing permission to useour stuff. It all just tied inand we becameTHROTTLE, it actuallymakes sense becausewe rip your face off.

MUEN: WERE YOU INBANDS PRIOR TOTHROTTLE?

Paul: I was in threebands prior to this one,Dead Volt, Mentalityand Heaven and Earth.I finally found my nichewith THROTTLE. I haveloved music ever since Iwas a little kid and Iwatched him play ingarage bands back inthe day. I always knewone day I would beplaying with them. I hadto work my chops outand that day has cometo pass. I am happy tobe where Iʼm at.

Rudy: Iʼve been in abunch of bands nobod-ies probably even heardof. I have made a pas-time of sitting in for a lot

of bass players in a lotof bands. Mike Guerreroof Death Riders wouldalways call me and tellme Hey bro, our bassplayer canʼt make it. Ialso played with a guynamed Steve Medranofor three years. He pastaway and he was amajor part of my pro-gression in music. I hadto step up my game inorder to keep up withhim. In that three years Ibecame the bass playerthat I am today.THROTTLE is definitelythe band you want toknow about.

Gil: The most seriousband I was ever in was-nʼt even a metal band, itwas a blues band. Wewere called The LizardSkin Blues Band. We

were about 80% origi-nals and 20% covers. Itwas a lot of fun.

TELL ME ABOUT THETHROTTLE CD YOUHAVE COMING OUT.

Gil: We think we have atitle, but we have to dis-cuss it as a band, so Iʼmnot going to let that catout of the bag. We haveeleven songs, eight ofwhich, are relativelynew. They had neverbeen recorded until lastOctober when we wentto Dungeon Studios inL.A.

Its powerful, itʼs threat-ening, soothing and ballbusting, face rippingmusic. We are in themixing process rightnow; we are editing andre-recording things thatwe cannot live with tenyears from now. Thegoal is summer 2009that we have it ready forrelease.

MUEN: ARE YOUPRODUCING ANDMIXING IT YOUR-SELVES?

Gil: Yes, we are co-pro-ducing. Adrian Vil-lanueva of DungeonStudios is engineeringthe process.

MUEN: ARE YOUSHOPPING LABELSRIGHT NOW?

Gil: No. we are not be-

OF 2007 YOU WERECHOSEN TO APPEARON FOX SPORTS NET-WORKS SPORTS SCI-ENCE. WHAT DIDTHAT DO FOR YOURCAREER?

Gil: It landed us our firstendorsement deal withLarry Hartke. He is verygenerous and graciousto us. Rudy initiated thecontact with the guy.Rudy plays exclusivelyHartke bass amps. Doyou want to touch onthat?

Rudy: Yeah, we loveyou Larry. He wound upgetting it together wherewe could borrow somecabinets and have thekiller look going on forour show. It was awe-some to make that con-tact and have him in ourcorner. People that Ididnʼt even tell aboutthe show were tellingme Hey! I saw thatThrottle thing on sportsScience and it waspretty cool. It was thefirst step in the progressthat we have come tosee with Throttle.

Gil: Dave and I utilizeZoom products andthen there is Samsontechnologies, we aretrying to get their stuffon stage with us. It ex-posed the band totwenty-two differentcountries every day ofthe week. That is a lotof exposure. We were

cause there is a promopack of four songsbeing mixed as wespeak. That is probablyfour months away.

MUEN: WHEN YOUDO DECIDE TO SHOPA LABEL, ARE YOUGOING FOR MAJOROR INDIE?

Gil: The goal without adoubt is a major label.The reason we are sit-ting here, the reason Iharass you through textmessage, email andphone calls is becausethe goal is major label. Ipull no punches, I wantthat signing check. Ihave a specific numberin mind that Iʼve seenfor the past five years ofwhat my check is goingto look like and the tailend of that will be along term recordingcontract. Thatʼs not todis the small guys, helleven if we have to put itout ourselves and sell itout of our trunks, we willdo it all day long.

MUEN: SOME BANDSSTART WITH AN INDIELABEL AND THEN GOWITH A MAJORLABEL LATER.

Gil: Yeah, absolutely,we will sit down and lis-ten to anyone because Imay learn something asa result of the conversa-tion.

MUEN: IN DECEMBER

getting emails from allover the world so it hasopened doors.Paul: For me, it put meon the map with my kidsso that was awesome.

MUEN: DO YOUTHINK MYSPACE HASBEEN A BIG CON-TRIBUTOR TO GET-TING YOUR NAMEOUT THERE?

Gil: MySpace put ourasses on stage withUFO, Carrie Istad fromthe Key Club foundTHROTTLE because ofMyspace. You and I metthrough MySpace, yeah525!

MUEN: YOU HAVE AL-READY TOUCHED ONSOME OF THE WELLKNOWN ARTISTSYOU'VE PLAYEDWITH, WHO ARESOME OF THE OTH-ERS?

Gil: We ran direct sup-port for Glen Hughesand Chad Smith afterthey collaborated on aGlen Hughes CD, weʼveopened for Flotsam andJetsam and Laaz Rockitto name a few… Thingsthat were presentedwere the MichaelSchenker Group andPaul Di Anno, however,they fell through be-cause the stars werenʼtlined up.

MUEN: WHAT IS THEEXTENT OF YOUR

TOURING EXPERI-ENCE?

Gil: I played in Tijuanaonce. Does that count?No, we are So Cal, weare chartering into anarea of our musical ca-reers that we havenever embarked on be-fore. Thatʼs the possibil-ity of going somewhere.This band has nottoured, we have talkedabout it and plan onmaking it happensoon…

MUEN: DO YOU FEELTHAT PEOPLE DONOT GET THE FULLTHROTTLE EXPERI-ENCE UNTIL THEYHAVE SEEN YOUPLAY LIVE?

Gil: What do you think?

MUEN: I THINK SO.

Gil: Yeah, I think theCD will capture the spiritof the band because itis a pretty hot perform-ance in the studio. Thelive show is like the dif-ference between seeinga Victoriaʼs Secretmodel and being able toembrace her.

MUEN: WHAT DO YOUTHINK OF THE MUSICSCENE IN LOS ANGE-LES?

Rudy: Itʼs cut throat inthe sense that there areso many bands that aretrying to break through.

on the road. Texas andNevada are where Iwant to take the band inthe immediate future.Success to me is like agiant fucking rhino, theonly way Iʼm going tochow that meal down, isone bite at a time. Weline up the ducks andmake a decision as aband.

MUEN: WHAT DO YOUFIND TO BE THEHARDEST PART OFBEING A BAND TRY-ING TO MAKE IT IN AFLOODED INDUS-TRY?

Gil: In business, youhave to make yourselfstand out from the com-petition. I carry that overto my perspective of theband. One of our roadcrew (Chris Brown)made the commenttoday when he came tobreak down, he said“the thing about youguys is people walk inand they see thestacks”! Itʼs a visualthing, when peoplewent to see Pantera;Dime had eight cabi-nets, Rex had six ampsand the double bass forVinnie. We are not agarage band by anystretch of the imagina-tion. We practice in aconverted garage, butwe see ourselves onstage with Slayer,Godsmack and Dis-turbed. This is what webelieve, and the more

You have to approachwhat you are going tobring with a differenttaste or a different fla-vor. With this CD whatwe are trying to get peo-ple to do is bang theirheads, tap their foot,shake their butt and dowhatever they want todo. As long as they walkaway with a smile ontheir face, that is whatwe are trying toachieve. They may notsay they like all of thesongs, but they may sayI like that one! Our goalis of course for them tolike all of them. Itʼstough out there with theshort set times and allof the bands you haveto play against with thepotential of gettingblown off the stage. Wefeel really confident ofwhat we bring to thetable, but there are a lotof bands out there. Itʼs atough challenge in theL.A. music scene.

Gil: This is why we area little reluctant to geton the road immedi-ately. Bands from theeast coast want to cometo L.A. This is the hotbed of metal and music.No disrespect to anyother music market, buteveryone is gunning to-wards L.A. At the righttime and place some-one may see us in an-other state. L.A. is theplace to be, but we arein touch with reality andyou do have to get out

you talk to us and get toknow us you will seethat. Now, having saidthat, we are not disillu-sioned, we know wehave a lot of work to do,but we also know whatour capabilities are.

MUEN: DID I SEETHAT YOU GUYS AREDOING A BENEFITSHOW?

Gil: Yeah, Rob Sherriffof Hollywood SherriffProductions over thereis our booking agentand he is putting on aSave a Life animal ben-efit for a shelter inSouthern California.Rob has bands likeDC4, THROTTLE andMandy Lion playing thebenefit on July 3rd.Youʼll be there.

MUEN: YES, I WILL BETHERE. WHAT ISYOUR MAIN GOALFOR THE BAND?

Gil: Success… Person-ally, I have alwayswanted to be in the po-sition where I couldmake a difference inother peopleʼs lives in apositive manner. I thinkbeing a wealthy, suc-cessful musician willallow me to do that.

Rudy: Of course, itswealth and prosperity,everybody wants that intheir lives. For me, itʼsbeing able to reach outand touch people with

our music. I want toreach their heart andsoul. Whether it is liveor with the CD, that iswhen I feel like Iʼvedone my job.Paul: Itʼs to get moreprogressive in the bandand to get the touringgoing. I want to getTHROTTLE out to theworld with these coremembers right here.

Dave: Itʼs definitelyrecognition because Iʼveknown most of theseguys for thirty years andI know we have paid ourdues. We have donethis for over twenty-fiveyears and I think wehave put our time in.

MUEN: WAS THEREANYTHING YOUWOULD LIKE TO ADDOR SAY?

Gil: I would just like tosay thank you, youʼrecool and I consider youa friend. The faith thatyou have demonstratedin the band is some-thing I canʼt thank youenough for. Thanks forthe love.


cLub hAlo andLiquid City

present: Feral City @The Bordello 901 E 1st Street

Los Angeles 9001221+

doors open @ 6:30pm$5 before 7pm$10 after 7pm

8 bands2 Dj's

live music and dancepodcasted by Rant Radio

CD release for headliner act: DISMANTLED

Bands:

12:00 - 2:00 Dismantled11:15 - 11:45 Malkfactor

10:30 - 11:00 No Last Resort9:45 - 10:15 Reloader9:00 - 9:30 Mortal Clay8:15 - 8:45 BiStandard

7:30 - 8:00 Kill Two Birds6:45 - 7:15 Guild

Myspace.com/clubhalohollywood

WWeeddnneessddaayyMMAAYY 2277

Real GhostStories..ByMichelle M. Short

“Ghost from our past”,“Family skeletons inthe closet”. Iʼm sureyou all nodded yourheads in recognition ofthese phrases, it con-gers images of some-one elseʼs familysecrets or ghost, ofmansions hidden inmist, the shadowy fig-ure lurking just aroundthe corner, alwayssomeplace far re-moved but never inyour own reality…usu-ally. Those words havea whole new meaningfor me now, as Iwatched a real lifemystery, and ghoststory unfold before myvery eyes over thecourse of my life.

The trouble beganearly in my life. I firststarted to notice theodd things happeningat my Aunts countryhome when I wasabout 7 years old. Shelived on a largeranch/farm in thecountry, it was the onlyplace I could find anyreal peace in my life,away from my thetremendous pressuresmy mother put on me,the need for constant

perfection at all times.It was the one place Icould truly be myself. Ispent much of mysummers there, walk-ing in the woods,watching the wildlife, itwas my favorite place,until darkness fell andthen I had no choicebut to retreat indoorsand into the hands ofthe ghost upstairs thatwaited there for me.

At first it started out asa sense that someonewas watching me atnight, I would some-times wake up tosomeone pulling onmy sheets, see a faintmist creeping alongthe floor, or hear foot-steps on the creakingstairs. The longer Istayed there, witheach passing year themore intense the at-tacks became. Theoverwhelming senseof doom became un-bearable at times. If Ididnʼt know better Iwould say the placelearned what scaredme over the years as Igrew.

I was not the only onethe ghost had a prob-lem with, it also de-lighted in teasing allmy cousins as well, ormore precisely anyoneunder 18 or 19 . But itseemed to single me

out more than the oth-ers, maybe it was be-cause I could senseitʼs presence beforeanyone else. I remem-ber walking in on aconversation mycousins were havingabout the things thathad happened tothem, so we spenthours comparing sto-ries, and after that wealways kept tack ofeach experience. Weall came to the sameconclusion, that therewas something orsomeone there thatdid not want us kids in-vading itʼs space.

And my mother wouldget so upset with mefor being scared, shebelieved I was seeingthings and maybe Ishould be taken to adoctor. Luckily for me,my father understood,he also felt uncomfort-able upstairs as well,although he never sawanything, or so he saidalthough I never didcompletely believehim, because hewould sometimesreact to the samenoises I heard. Healso believed that chil-dren could sensethings that adultscanʼt, what they denyor just donʼt believeanymore. My fatherwas a very scientific

minded man, so Ilearned early not totake everything at facevalue. You have tostudy a situation inmany different ways tofind the true cause ofany given mystery. Sothatʼs what I set out todo. Although back thenscience did not thrillme, but I saw the rea-son behind my fathersthinking. Thatʼs when itdawned on me that Icould accomplish thesame thing by pre-tending be part of theScooby Doo gang, sillyas it sounds, but it wasmy favorite show thenand now. Then mycousin followed suitevery quickly too, be-cause she was a bigNancy Drew reader, sowe set out together tofind the truth behind allthe whispers weheard.

It didnʼt take us long todiscover the mysteryof the creaking stairs.Although this still doesnot explain why theywould creak on theirown like it did. First wediscovered that onlycertain steps wouldcreak, and it took theweight of an adult tomake the noise. Weknew this because theother thing we lovedmore that searchingfor ghostly answers

was scaring the hellout of each other asoften as possible, so itdidnʼt take us long tofigure out how to climbthe stairs quietly. Soevery time I knew Iwas alone in thehouse, and I wouldhear those stairscreaking it would makemy heart race, some-times it was a longdrawn out slow creep-ing sound of someonetrying to be very quietother times it soundedlike someone was run-ning or falling downthe stairs. I have hadsome ghost expertstell me that what Icould be hearing is aresidual haunting, orlike a recording of pastevent replaying them-selves over and overagain. And maybe thatwas true at first, but asI grew older and myunderstanding ofthings began tochange so did my ex-periences with this en-tity.

What at first hadstarted out as simplewhite lights movingacross the room orwhite mist floatingclose to the groundbecame full bodied ap-paritions of a womanreaching out to me atthe foot of my bed,many times I would

wake up in the morn-ing with mysteriousbruises or handprintsaround my wrist. Othertimes I would be out-side walking with myAunt and Uncle in thefield and look at thehouse, I would see awoman standing in the2nd story windowholding open the cur-tains.

And I hope I can ex-plain this correctly, butthe way the upstairswas built, the ceilingwas very slanted atthe two ends, and thebeds where push rightup next to that wall, soyou had to be carefulgetting in and out ofbed or else you wouldhit your head. It gaveyou a very closed infeeling, and on manynights I would hearquiet whispers echoingin the room in the quietof night, sometimessaying “no“, some-times “go“. One nightwhen I was 12 I waslaying there in bed un-able to sleep and Iwas curled up close tothe wall where theslanted ceiling meets,and right above myhead a misty whiteface appeared in theceiling not 3 feet awayfrom my face, at firstshe was gasping forbreath like she was

choking, it was like lis-tening to someoneʼslife slipping helplesslyaway, then it turnedangry and told me Ishould leave, this washer house, it scaredme so much I hyperventilated and passedout.

Shortly after that iswhen things reallybegan to change forme, this thing in thehouse began to followme downstairs, some-thing it had never donebefore and only withme. That is when theshadow people beganappearing.

The staircase to the2nd floor was in thedinning room and wasenclosed and had adoor, and on the wallof the stairs was avery large, very heavy3 ft mirror, and some-times I would be sittingat the table alone eat-ing lunch while myAunt and Uncle werestill in the fields work-ing so I knew I was theonly one home, and Iwould hear someonefalling down the stairsor sometimes some-one pounding on thestair walls hardenough to shake thatmirror pretty hard, andIʼd hear the doorsslamming shut , one

after the otherthroughout the house.And if any of you haveever spent the sum-mers in SW Missourior NW Arkansas thenyou know how still,how humid, and howhot the month of Au-gust is, those miser-able days when itʼs sohot and muggy, the airitself feels like it clingsto you. And if you havealso spent any timeswimming in lakes orthe ocean, and youfeel an ice cold under-current flow acrossyour ankles and creepup your legs then youknow what it felt likewhen the doors wouldslam shut so violently,it was like a cold,clammy current radia-tion from the upstairsdoor throughout thehouse.

Shortly before my fa-ther became to ill totravel anymore be-cause of his cancer,we had all went the myAunts house, mymother and Aunt hadgone to visit somefamily in a neighboringtown, and my Fatherand Uncle had walkedfar into the field wherea good fishing pondcould be found, and Iwas left in the houseby myself. I rememberthe day so vividly, be-

cause I was so thrilledto be watching myAuntʼs tv, she was oneof the very first peopleto get a satellite dishback then. I was sittingin the living room floorscanning thru thechannels when in thenext room, we called itthe sun room, or ob-servation room be-cause 3 walls of theroom were wall to wallwindows, which over-looked there land, andthere were two swivel,rocker recliners in thatroom too, and as thesun was setting, Iheard the chairsqueaking, then mo-ments later it beganrocking. At first I triedmy very best to ex-plain it away as theevening wind blowingthru the windows. Butwhen it began rockinga second time I stoodup and leaned into theroom alittle thatʼswhen the chair did ahalf a turn and therewas a solid black formslumped over in thechair, then it lifted itʼshead and turned tolook at me thatʼs whenit dawned on me thatthis thing sitting beforeme had only half ahead, and the sun wassetting right where itʼsright eye should havebeen.

I was terrified beyondwords, I couldnʼtscream, I couldnʼt talk,I couldnʼt so much asmove, I thought if Imoved it might seeme, but it was alreadytoo late for that, be-cause it was starting tostand up and come to-wards me. Then like ashock to the systemsomething in my brainclicked and my flight orfight instinct kicked inand ran faster thatnight than I had evendone at any race I hadat school. I ran the en-tire length to the pond,and by the time I foundmy dad, I was toowinded to tell him whathad happened, but heknew right away byhow terrified I was thatsomething had Reallytruly scared me nearlyto death. And he neverdid question what Itold him later, and afterthat night I never hadto stay there if I didnʼtwant to again. But I didoccasionally because Idid love most of mytime there, and alsopartly to see what elsethis thing would do,what else I couldlearn.

And what made me somad was that my fam-ily had a tendency toignore children be-cause they all thought

we were to stupid tounderstand what theywere talking about,and I was an only childso I got bored easy sowhen I didnʼt have mycousins around Iʼdsneak around thehouse listening in onthe adults talking. Andthey all agreed behindclosed doors that wewere right all along,that they to felt some-thing upstairs.

It didnʼt take me longto discover that theghost upstairs wasmuch more activewhen a certain relativewould visit. I never re-ally understood whothe guy was, mymother would only saya distant relative, notto worry about it andthen sheʼd whisper,heʼs the “Prison” rela-tive. Which never toldme much.

It wasnʼt until I wasabout 32 I guess Iwas, long after I hadput my family, my pastand that house behindme, did I find out thetruth. When my Unclefinally pasted away,and after the funeral,my family all gatheredtogether and thatʼswhen I found out thatmy Uncle had beenmarried previous to myAunt. And that they

had a son together.That was who was vis-iting occasionally. Andthat this son, that I hadbeen sharing personalspace with, eating din-ner with, had stabbedhis mother severaltimes and shot herwith a rifle severaltimes as well…up-stairs. Then it all madesense. The noises, thescreams of pain, theshadows of peoplewith only half a head, itwas her, my unclesfirst wife, and we reallywere intruders in herhousehold.

But I sometimes sitback and wonder ifthere were not reallytwo things in thathouse. The ghost ofmy uncles murderedwife, and somethingevil, something dark,something that causedthe violence in thehome to begin with.Maybe she was tryingto warn me, I donʼtknow, I will never knowbecause I donʼt think Icould ever face goingback into that houseagain.

SETTINGSChris Flury (Guitars)Buffalo, New York

Myspace.com/settings-band


MUEN: YOU HAVEHAD QUITE A YEAR.THERE IS SO MUCHGOING ON WITH YOUGUYS ITʼS HARD TOKNOW WHERE TOSTART. SO FIRST OFALL IʼD LIKE TO SAYCONGRATULATIONSON ALL THAT YOUHAVE ACCOM-PLISHED.


MUEN: YOU HAVETWO DIGITAL EPʼSAVAILABLE. THEYARE ONLY AVAILABLEON ITUNES RIGHT?

Yes, thatʼs right.

MUEN: I SAW THATYOU ARE RELEASINGAN EP THIS SUMMERSO THAT WILL BEYOUR THIRD RIGHT?

Yeah, thatʼs going to bethe third official release.Itʼs definitely a step in adifferent direction for theband. It will be cool tosee what people think.

MUEN: WHAT KIND OFA DIFFERENT DIREC-TION DID IT TAKE?

More people can relateto these songs. Weposted a bunch ofdemo stuff in betweennow and the second EPwe put on ITunes. It kindof went more into a

darker direction. Now itis still heavy and darker,but itʼs more accessibleto more people. Itʼs verycool and something wehave never done before.

MUEN: HOW MANYSONGS DID YOU PUTON THE EP?

There are five songs.

MUEN: ARE YOU

Photo Credit: Ana & Steve @ TYKAEditing: Kyle Adams


WORKING ON A FULLLENGTH ALBUM?

Hopefully, there are noplans at this time. If allgoes according to plansthen that would be inthe cards for us. Wewould be really excitedto do that.

MUEN: YOU GUYSWRITE, PRODUCEAND ENGINEER ALLOF YOUR OWNMUSIC.

Yeah, up until now wehave done everythingourselves.

MUEN: WITH THISNEW EP, ARE YOUACTUALLY GOING TOUSE A PRODUCER?

Yeah, we went andworked with this guynamed Jay Gordon. Hewas the lead singer ofthe band Orgy. He is areally cool guy and itwentreally well. We were outthere for a month withhim writing and record-ing. Weare really happy withhow it turned out.

MUEN: BEFORE YOUUSED HIM THOUGH,YOU WERE DOING ITON YOUR OWN.WHERE DID YOULEARN TO PRO-DUCE?

I kind of just taught my-self. When you are

doing the electronicthing you have to learnthe basics. The bandand I just write, wecome up with an ideaand then I get on mycomputer and track itout. Itʼs cool to do it our-selves because there isno time limit. We are stillgoing to continue to dothat stuff, especially ifwe got into a full lengthsituation. We would getprepared by ourselvesfirst.

MUEN: WHAT IS THEWRITING PROCESSLIKE FOR YOU?

Typically, before wewent out and workedwith Jay, we werewriting a lot of the musicfirst. Alex and I do all ofthe sequencing andwhatnot. It would basi-cally come down to uswriting somethingwhether it is abeat or a riff and thenwe would give it toDonny our singer. Hewould then tryto write some lyrics andmelodies to it. We wouldgo back to the musicand tryto accommodate to thevocals. Now, what weare doing, is really tryingto focuson vocals. We are doingminimal with what we domusically and then oncethevocal is there, we writearound the vocal. We tryand make it more of a

song.

MUEN: DO YOU EVERGET INTO CREATIVEBATTLES?

Oh yeah, we definitelyhave that. In Los Ange-les, we had that happenon a coupleof occasions. Wewanted to take a stepback from ourselveswith that. It was alot easier for some thanothers. It was definitelya positive experience.Thereis that typical band tiffthing that always hap-pens.

MUEN: DO YOU GUYSHAVE YOUR OWNSTUDIO?

Itʼs not really a studio;itʼs more like my bed-room. The wayrecording is today, youcan do a lot more with alot less. I donʼt have acrazyamount of outboardgear or anything likethat. I wish I did, but Idonʼt havethe finances to do sucha thing. We haveenough to get by andget the pointacross. We donʼt wantto self engineer every-thing forever.

MUEN: YOU ALSOFUND EVERYTHINGYOURSELF, WHICHMEANS ALL OF YOUHAVE JOBS. DO YOU

FIND IT DIFFICULTTO WORK AND STILLGIVE YOUR BANDTHE ATTENTION ITNEEDS?

Yeah, thatʼs always aconcern. Four of us livein an apartment to-gether. It comes to apoint where you have todo what you have to do.If you donʼt have themoney to pay your rentthen you are going tolive on the street. Thenthe band canʼt happeneither way. (Laughing)Yeah, itʼs hard. Every-body is trying to do theirown thing to get money.

MUEN: NOW YOUWILL BE GOING ONTOUR. DOES WORKALLOW YOU TO TAKEOFF THE TIMENEEDED TO TOUR?

Alex, Donny and I werefortunate for the pastyear becausewe worked at a machinefactory where theymake these insert tipsfor cuttingmetal. They let us comeand we got to make ourown schedule. If wecouldnʼt be there, theydidnʼt care. We wouldcome back threemonths later and theywould be like “Yeah,come back on this day.”That ended up fallingthrough, it only happensfor so long.

MUEN: YOU WON THE


2008 ERNIE BALLBATTLE OF THEBANDS. ERNIE BALL,KEVIN LYMAN ANDJOHN REESE DO SOMUCH FOR THEMUSIC COMMUNITY.WHAT WAS IT LIKEBEING PART OF THEBATTLE?

It was really cool. It wasan awesome experi-ence. We werealmost overwhelmedwith how generous thepeople at Ernie Ballwere. They flewus all out there andevery guitar player got afree guitar. It was fun,thevenue was awesome. Itwas one of the nicestvenues weʼve played. Itwas ourfirst time in L.A. and itwas a cool experience. Iwill never forget it.

MUEN: WASNʼT IT ATTHE KEY CLUB?

Yeah. I have never beento any other venue outthere, but if they areanything like that itʼs ob-viously good.

MUEN: WHO MAKESTHE DECISION AS TOWHO WINS?

It was a bunch of peoplewho worked at ErnieBall and KevinLyman. There were nineor ten of them and theyall just kind of voted atthe

end. After the last bandplayed they went onstage and announcedthat we hadwon. It was cool.

MUEN: WERE YOUSURPRISED?

Yeah, it was one ofthose things where youget into a contest thatyou think you will neverwin. None of us arelucky people or anythinglike that. This time wewon and we were like“Holy crap, this is awe-some.” (Laughing)

MUEN: BY THE WAYKEVIN AT ERNIE BALLSAYS HELLO!

Tell him I said Hello, heis a great guy.

MUEN: YEAH, HE IS.HOW DID IT FEEL TOWIN THE SPOT ONTHE VANS WARPEDTOUR? YOU WONOVER 15,000UNSIGNED BANDS.THAT MUST HAVEBEEN A GREAT FEEL-ING.

Yeah, it was cool. Again,that was one of thosethings whereyou donʼt really realize ituntil it happens. Thenwe were like “We reallydidthat?” I didnʼt even knowthat many bands enterthat. I didnʼt even knowthecontest existed to be

honest. We had nevereven come close todoing somethinglike that before. Wewere like “Thatʼs sick.”

MUEN: WELL, IʼM SOHAPPY FOR YOUGUYS. YOU WILL BEON THE TOUR AGAINTHIS YEAR. TELL MEABOUT YOURLIVE SHOW. I READTHAT YOU HAVEQUITE AN EXTENSIVELIGHT AND LASERSHOW THAT GOESON DURING YOURPERFORMANCE.

Yeah, we had a personon our last tour that hadepilepsy andcouldnʼt watch. I felt ter-rible. We were like“Aww, thatʼs not cool.”Otherwiseit works out and itʼs a lotof fun. Itʼs different andnot a lot of people seestuff like that everyday.We are trying to bringsomething unique to thetypical band in a club at-mosphere.

MUEN: WELL, BE-CAUSE YOU INCOR-PORATE A LOT OFELECTRONICA INYOUR MUSIC DO YOUFEEL THAT IS AN IM-PORTANT PART OFTHE SHOW?

Yes, definitely, we didnʼtstart doing this untilmaybe sixmonths ago. When westarted doing it, it all

came together. We arealready apretty energetic bandlive, but nothing that wehave done up until thatpointreally tied the knot withthe music. The lights re-ally did it. We run thelights ourselves. Thelights that we have now,a lot of them are soundactivated. We triggerthem to parts of thedrum set and the rest ofthe lightsare foot controlled bythe band. We want toget somebody that wecan teach thesongs to so that everytime it goes off exactlythe same way that wewould wantit. Itʼs tough to findsomebody who wants togo on tour for a monthand runlights for an unsignedband. It doesnʼt seemlike a cool thing to do forsomebody on the out-side.

MUEN: WHO ARESOME OF THE BANDSTHAT INSPIRE YOU?

Thatʼs a long list. It de-pends on who in theband you ask. Acouple of guys in theband think Blink 182 isthe reason why theywanted toplay in a band. Stylisti-cally, for our band, weare big Linkin Park fansand we listen to a lot oftrance music.


MUEN: TELL MEABOUT SETTINGS TV.YOU HAVE TWELVEVIDEOS ON YOURPAGE. WHAT MADEYOU DECIDE TODOCUMENT WHATYOU GUYS DO?

We always did thewhole video updateonce a week. We de-cidedthat we could make it alittle more legit. Wethought it looked unpro-fessionalto have it look so unor-ganized. We decided todo it every week. Some-times wemiss a week, but itʼs notbecause we are lazy, itʼsjust because we are notthat interesting. Whenwe were in L.A. therewere long updates.They were interesting towatch, at least I thinkso. Some are betterthan others, but the fanswatch it and thatʼs allthat matters I guess.

MUEN: I SAW THEVIDEO FOR “CREA-TURE.” ITʼS AWE-SOME. TELL MEABOUT THE MAKINGOF THE VIDEO.

Thank you. The videowas definitely a long ex-perience. Weshot for two days andthey were thirteen hourdays. It was in this oldwherehouse. It was rundownand looked like some-

thing out of the movie“Saw.” I had aterrible stomach coughthing going on, like achest cold, for a solidmonth. Wewent on Warped Tourafter that and I was sickthe entire time. I think Ibreathed in too much ofsomething in that build-ing. We didnʼt think itwasgoing to be that physi-cally tiring to do, but itwas. We really like theway itcame out and peopleseem to be into it.

MUEN: IS IT THEONLY VIDEO YOUHAVE MADE TODATE?

Yes, that is the onlyvideo we have done todate. We had aguy who knew what hewas doing, do that. Wedonʼt ever want to do avideo that looks unpro-fessional. Honestly, weprobably wonʼt be doinganother video again forquite some time.

MUEN: WHAT WAS ITLIKE BEING AN UN-SIGNED BAND PLAY-ING LIVE ON MTVʼSTRL?

That was very nerve-wracking. It literallycame out of nowhere.They were doing thatsegment and we werethe first band to actuallydo it. We were the first

one they did for the “Onthe Radar” segment.When we were calledabout it, we were justlike “Really?” I watchedN Sync on that when Iwas really little. Whenwe got there it was cool,but it was weird how itwas taped. It was coolto see how they roll, be-cause I had no idea.Hopefully, we can geton something like thatagain.

MUEN: WHAT WOULDYOU SAY IS THETOUGHEST THINGABOUT BEING IN ABAND TODAY?

There are a lot of gripesI have with it. I guess itwouldbe, being patient andnot jumping the gun onthings. The realizationthat thereare people out therethat have been doing itway longer and they areon a waybigger scale than you.So kind of just try andtake everything in andlearnfrom people.

MUEN: IF YOU COULDTOUR WITH ANYBAND WHO WOULD ITBE?

Iʼm going to have to sayLinkin Park. Opening upfor a band like thatwould be unreal. Itwould be great shows,obviously, because they

are a really successfulband. They would besomebody that we lookup to and I would lovewatching that everynight. Even if I nevereven met them, they areawesome.

MUEN: SO IF THINGSKEEP GOING THEWAY THEY ARE ANDYOUR BAND BE-COMES HUGE. AREYOU READY FOR THEFAME?

I think so; we are thetype of people that takeeverythingwith a grain of salt. If wewere really successful, Ithink we are reallyhumble people, so wewouldnʼt get caught upin stupid stuff or over-whelmed. Who knows,maybe other peoplewho have went downthat path have said thesame thing. I think wewould enjoy it becausewe work really hard. Ifwe could see someturnaround on it, wewould be stoked.

MUEN: I WISH YOUGUYS THE BEST OFLUCK. I THINK YOUGUYS ARE REALLYTALENTED. THANKYOU SO MUCH FORTHE INTERVIEW.

Thank you. I will talk toyou soon.


LITTLEBRAZIL(AnodyneRecords/Mt.FujiRecords)

Greg EddsDanny MaxwellOliver MorganLandon HedgesOmaha, Nebraska

Myspace.com/littlebrazil


MUEN: I HAD THEOPPORTUNITY TO IN-TERVIEW THE BANDLITTLE BRAZIL INPERSON AT “THEWIRE” IN UPLAND,CA. HI GUYS ANDTHANKS FOR TALK-ING WITH ME.

Yeah, you bet.

MUEN: IN 2004 YOURBAND WAS FORMEDBY LANDONHEDGES. HE WASFORMERLY WITHTHE BANDS THEGOOD LIFE AND DE-SAPARECIDOS. HOWDID IT COME TO BETHAT YOU JOINEDTHE BAND?

Landon: Dan and Igrew up together, Iʼveknown him since I wassix years old, and heʼslike my big brother. We

know Oliver from hang-ing out in the sameneighborhood that weall kind of grew up in. Iwent to high schoolwith Greg and it all kindof just fell together.

MUEN: AND THENYOU DANNY JOINEDTHE BAND A LITTLELATER?

Yeah, there were someother members in theband and I was kind offilling in. After a whilewe got Oliver andGreg. When the firstrecord came out wewere a solidified unit.

MUEN: ON MARCH24TH YOU WILL BERELEASING YOURALBUM SONTHROUGH ANODYNERECORDS. THIS ISYOUR THIRD ALBUM

BUT THE FIRST RE-LEASE THROUGHANODYNE RIGHT?HOW DO YOU PLANON CELEBRATINGITS RELEASE?

Thatʼs correct; we aregoing to throw a bigparty when we comehome. Itʼs our CD re-lease show. We aredoing one in ..KansasCity, because that iswhere our label is outof and then the nextday we do our home-coming show inOmaha.Itʼs going to be goodtimes.

MUEN: THE SONGSCOVER TOPICSSUCH AS DIVORCE,ADULTERY, CUS-TODY BATTLES,ABANDONMENT ANDSUICIDE

THROUGH A CHILDʼSPERSPECTIVE. LAN-DON HAD SAID IT ISLIKE A STORY BOOK.TELL ME WHAT THESTORY IS ABOUT.

Itʼs from all perspec-tives, a womanʼs, amanʼs and a childʼs.The first song is howthe couple met and fellin love, the love song ifyou will. Thatʼs why itʼsfirst, then it goesthrough and eventuallyshe commits suicidethe second to lastsong. The last song,the father is talking toher ghost if you will.There is positive stuff,but there is negativestuff also. Itʼs about thehighs and lows of afamily. We donʼt want itto come off like we allhave bad families, be-cause it is not neces-

Photo by Jessica Ewald - www.sour-sparkles.com

sarily true. Have youmet people that say“Thereʼs no such thingas a non dysfunctionalfamily?” Thatʼs kind ofhow it flows with therecord.MUEN: I USED TO SITIN FRONT OF THE TVWHEN I WAS YOUNGAND WATCH THEBRADY BUNCH ANDTHINK “WHYISNʼT MY FAMILYLIKE THAT?” IT WASSO UNREALISTIC.

Yeah, exactly.

MUEN: I WAS CURI-OUS AS TO WHY YOUWROTE AN ALBUMLIKE THAT. WERETHESE SOME OF THETHINGS YOU WENTTHROUGH PERSON-ALLY?

A couple of the songs Iwas already writingwere about a closefamily member of minethat was going throughcancer. The rest of theguys called me out andsaid I was on to some-thing and thought weshould try to make thewhole record aboutthis. It was the mostambitious for me lyri-cally. I had never donea concept album at all,even vocal/melodywise it was the mostchallenging. I workedfor hours pulling mybrain apart thinking ofdifferent scenarios and

how I would feel to bein that certain personʼsperspective, how theother person would feeland then try to wrap itall up into onestory.While on tour wewould have late nightdiscussions about howall of us grew up. Mid-way through writing thisalbum we discussedhow all of us grew upwith different circum-stances, but we hadsimilar upbringings thatmade us all into thesensitive people thatwe are today. All of ushad troublesin childhood.

MUEN: DID ALL OFYOU GROW UPAROUND MUSIC?

Landon: My dad andmy two older sisterswere singers

Oliver: I grew up on theBeatles, Simon andGarfunkel and earlyMTV. I took piano les-sons and once I hitgrade school I found in-terest inviolin and trumpet. Iwanted to play thedrums ever since I sawthe video for “Panama”,“Jump” and “Hot forTeacher.” I started play-ing drums at age four-teen.

MUEN: WHAT IS THEMUSIC SCENE LIKEIN OMAHA?

Every couple of monthsthere is a new bandwith totally newstyles. I personally lovethe music scene andcare about it as awhole, notjust one particulargroup. There was atime when our scenewas a little clicky,but that has changedover the last five or soyears. It is now as farfromclicky as the scene canbe. Bands are con-stantly inspiring eachother to createnew bands and createnew material. As a mat-ter of fact, every timewe go ontour and come back weare reminded of howlucky we are to be apart of it.Thereʼs not much to dothere except drink,bowl and play music.

MUEN: DO YOU RE-MEMBER WHAT THEFIRST CONCERTWAS THAT YOUWENT TO?

Oliver: My first concertwas the Black Crowesand Jellyfish in 1991.

MUEN: HOW WOULDYOU DESCRIBEYOUR BAND TOSOMEONE WHO HASNOT YET HEARDYOU?

Pop Rock, itʼs the

safest way to go as faras genre. We usuallyrefer back to late 90ʼsguitar, pop rock.

MUEN: YOU AREHERE TONIGHT WITHLADYFINGER. HOWIS THE TOUR GOINGSO FAR?

Itʼs going good. Every-day is getting better,performance wise.

MUEN: I HAVE NOTYET SEEN YOU PLAY.DO YOU PUT ON AHIGH ENERGYSHOW?

Yeah, even though weare getting older now.When I go see a band,I want to seethem get into it.When Isee a lot of energy anda lot of movement, itgets meinto it. When I see themhaving fun, I want tohave fun.

MUEN: HOW DO YOUPREPARE TO PUT ONA SHOW LIKE THATNIGHT AFTERNIGHT?

Pilates and lots ofstretching. We hurt sobadly when we get upin the morning. Youʼllsee Landon doingsome weird move-ments. We try to eatwell too, but it can betough. As we all ap-proach our 30ʼs, certain

things takemore of a toll on ourbodies, like jumping offdrum sets.

MUEN: WILL YOU IN-CLUDE SONGSFROM PREVIOUS AL-BUMS DURING THESET?

Normally we would, butwere not doing that thistime. We will just bepushing the new mate-rial. This set is cateredto our new album. It re-ally depends on wherewe are at.

MUEN: WHAT ISYOUR FAVORITEPART OF BEING ONTHE ROAD?

The weather is awe-some. I have been en-joying that the most, its5 degrees in Omaharight now. The travelingtoo, there are beautifuldrives along bothcoasts. We are totallyland locked in the mid-dle of the country, soitʼs nice for us to beable to see what else isout there.

MUEN: WOULD YOUSAY YOUR LEASTFAVORITE PART ISBEING STUCK IN AVAN?

Yeah, itʼs kind of fuckedup, but you get used toit. After doing some-thing seven or so times

it becomes habit form-ing.

MUEN: WHICHSONGS WILL BE THESINGLES?

Right now, the song“Son.” We reallyhavenʼt decided on thesecond one.

MUEN: HOW DO YOUDECIDE WHICHONES WILL BE SIN-GLES?

On the first record wegot a lot of collegeradio play off songs wewerenʼt really pushing.They were some of thelouder and faster typesof songs, we neverwould have guessed.We started playingthose songs on tour.The way the music in-dustry is working now,to have a single is re-ally uncalledfor. You can take aband like Nickelbackand you can push asingle, but theyhave an audience andhuge popularity. Withus, we are trying tobuild our fanbase so we want themto hear all of our songs.We will notice over thenextthree weeks on theroad which ones peo-ple will remember.

MUEN: HAVE YOUMADE ANY VIDEOS

FOR THE SINGLESYET?

Not yet, we are workingon one for April. We areworking on the conceptright now and hopefullyhave it done by May.

MUEN: A LOT OFBANDS ARE JUSTMAKING THE LIVEVIDEOS NOW IN-STEAD OF THE EX-PENSIVE ONES.

I was going to mentionthat it is kind of obso-lete for a band on ourlevel. Itʼs all about stay-ing on top of whateveris current for a band inour situation. We arealways thinking of whatwe can do today to sellanother album. Thefirst video we will shootfor this record will notbe a live video and will

be expensive. Most im-portantly, we want tosee an artistic visioncome to life, in relationto the song. Itʼs goingto be Gregʼs baby andhopefully it will impresspeople.

MUEN: ARE THEYGETTING RADIOPLAY YET?

We have heard that thealbum opener “BrightonBeach” is getting themost radio play and at-tention. It is chartingwell on various charts.

VETNABy G. Cataline

MUEN: TELL USABOUT SELF TITLEDDEBUT ALBUM. HOWMANY SONGS, ANDWHICH SONGS DOYOU FEEL ARE YOURSTRONGEST?

We started work on thealbum about a year anda half ago when wesigned up with 3 Mon-keys Music. We've got13 tracks which we'reextremely proud of, inparticular 'Magic' and'This Feeling' which arereally energetic funtracks, especially aspart of the live set.There are also sometracks that are a bitmore out there, kind oflike a psychedelic rocktrip with tinges of theWild West, some ofthese tracks includeBandito and The Mon-key Song.

MUEN: HOW HASTHE RESPONSEBEEN SO FAR?

Really good. We'vebeen heaps surprisedand pleased with thereaction to our newtracks. Our myspace(ww.myspace.com/vetna) page has been goingoff since we relaunchedit with the new look andthe new sounds. Weare playing a lot more

live gigs now than wehad previously done(as we were cooped upin the studio for quitesome time making therecord) and the re-sponse from the audi-ence has beenamazing. We are con-tinually building our set,adding in different ele-ments, for example,Tom, our lead guitaristnow plays keys onstage, which adds an-other dimension to oursound as a lot of oursongs are pretty lay-ered and sometimes itis difficult to pull off thewhole gamut of a songwith only four people,and we refuse to playwith backing tracks.

MUEN: HAVE YOUEVER HAD ANYRADIO PLAY THEREIN YOUR LOCALAREA OR ONLINE?

We've had a fair bit ofair time with a local sta-tion, Coast FM andwere a part of Triple JUnearthed which is anational competitionheld by our countriesbiggest governmentbroadcaster. Other thanthat we are at gettingour songs on radiomore, but as we aredoing this whole thingourselves, the processhas been a little slow.As a result of doingthings completely byourselves, we are really

focusing on the inter-net, it really is the wayof the future so we arealways working onways to improve ouron-line profile.

MUEN: HOW WOULDYOU DESCRIBE THECURRENT MUSIC AT-MOSPHERE IN AUS-TRALIA. DOESTHERE SEEM TO BEA LARGE MARKETFOR THE TYPE OFMUSIC YOU DO?

Locally the Pop musicscene has been huge,and we've incorporateda lot of Pop elementsinto our music. Thealbum contains some-thing for everyone, wethink its pretty accessi-ble rock music. Theindie companies here inAustralia have reallydominated over thepast few years, itseems that people want

something real, notmanufactured bands,and I think that issomething that we haveto offer, we are fouryoung guys who like torock out. There is nogloss added, so whatyou see is what youget.

MUEN: YOU FIRSTFORMED AS A 3PIECE IN 2005, WHILEYOU WERE STILL INSCHOOL. AND NOWYOU ARE A FOURPIECE.. AND I HEARDYOU JUST GOT ACOUPLE NEW MEM-BERS. WHO IS IN THEBAND NOW, WHAT ISTHE AGE RANGE,AND HOW ARETHINGS GOING THUSFAR?

Julius and Andrew havebeen the driving forceof the band since thevery beginning,

whereas Andy and Tomhave been introducedonly recently. We are allnineteen and get alongreally well, meaningmaking music is a reallysmooth process for us.Tom has known Juliusand Andrew for a longtime now, and theyeven have a side proj-ect called 'The Satur-day Mornings' just forkicks. In that bandJulius sings and playsdrums while Tom doesall the guitar work, butnow that the VETNAalbum is done, it is fullsteam ahead withVETNA, although youmay hear an old Satur-day Morning song atone of our gigs (de-pending on how drunkJulius gets and if he iskeen to hit the skins).

MUEN: WHO IS 3MONKEYS MUSICAND DO YOU MAN-

AGE ALL YOUROTHER AFFAIRSYOURSELVES?

3 Monkeys Music is asmall business setup byour producer BraddonWilliams. He has set upthe business so that wecan operate as a bandunder a more officialbanner. Besides us, 3Monkeys mainly worksas a production com-pany, making recordsthroughout Australia.Braddon manages usas well as operating thebusiness, so it is essen-tially the five of usworking under thename of VETNA. Welike it this way becausewe keep complete con-trol over everything, weown our record, get tochoose the artwork,clips, gigs etc. Sure wedon't have a massivebudget, but with the in-dustry these days, wedon't feel the need,there are plenty of waysto get our ugly mug outthere.

MUEN: DO YOUTHINK YOU'LL DOANY SHOWS OUT-SIDE OF AUSTRALIA,OR HAVE YOU AL-READY?

We are very excited todo shows internation-ally, to gauge reactionsof people who have acompletely differentstyle of living to our

own. For the time beingthough, we are reallyfocusing on the scenein Australia, and in par-ticular, theSydney/NSW Coast. Itis more accessible (es-pecially in a country asbig as ours) and meanswe can really focus ourefforts.

MUEN: I WAS INTER-ESTED IN YOU BE-CAUSE OF YOURORIGINALITY ANDSONGWRITINGSKILL. BUT FROMYOUR PERSPECTIVE,WHAT DO YOU THINKSETS YOU APARTFROM OTHER BANDSIN YOUR GENRE?

We have tried to createvery accessible, funmusic and in doing sohave incorporatedmany ideas from othergenres, trying to makea very unique but flexi-ble sound, allowing usto do what we want mu-sically and have fun. Atthe end of the day thatis what we want, wewant to have fun, andwe want you to havefun when you listen toour record. There areno deep messages inour songs, but there isenough depth, both lyri-cally and musically thewe feel the listener canput our record on, havefun for forty minutes,and then want to do itall again.

MUEN: WHAT ISYOUR LEAST LIKEDTYPE OF MUSIC..AND WHAT GENRESDO YOU LIKE THATARE OUTSIDE OFYOUR OWN?

All music can be appre-ciated on one level oranother, and betweenus we can't think of agenre we don't reallylike. We love anythingfrom dancy stuff like thePresets or the TingTings, to flat out rocklike the Foo Fighters.The Foo Fighters are

probably the singlebiggest influence on ourwriting. Tom is totallyaddicted to Muse, and Iswear he tries to con-jure up the spirit of MattBellamy before eachgig. As for music out-side our own, we likestuff that pushes rockmusic into more elec-tronic territory, stuff likeBloc Party, Does It Of-fend You Yeah!, NineInch Nails. In the end,good music is goodmusic, which hopefullyyou will think ours is.

HUNDREDFOLDPG. 70 - MUEN Magazine May 2009 Part 2

HUNDREDFOLDWinnipeg, ManitobaCanada

Interview by: Macavity

Hundredfold is aband that has al-ready made a namein Canada andtoured extensivelyboth there and inthe U.S. They arefinishing up theirCD in the studioand getting set totake Canada, theU.S. and possiblythe world by storm.We sat down to talkwith the guys aboutwhat is going onand what comesnext.

MUEN: HAVE TOSTART BY ASKINGHOW YOU CAME UPWITH THE UNUSUALNAME AND WHAT ORIS THERE A MEANINGBEHIND IT FOR YOU?

Well, to be quite honest,I wish there was a greatstory behind the namebut really it just came tomy head a bunch ofyears back and Ithought it sounded cool.I really didnʼt want aname that sounded typi-cal of a lot of bandsplaying the style ofmusic we play and soHundredfold seemed tobe a good choice. Aswell, I really wasnʼt wor-ried about it, ʻcause I

have always feltstrongly about the senti-ment that the band andthe music are whatmakes the name, notthe other way around.

MUEN: I UNDER-STAND THAT REJEANAND ALEX ARE THEORIGINAL MEMBERSAND JON WASADDED IN JULY OFLAST YEAR. HOW DIDYOU GUYS FORM THEBAND AND WHATWAS THE MOTIVA-TION TO HAVE YOUEACH DO WHAT YOUDO IN THE BAND?

We formed for many ofthe obvious reasons; weall canʼt think of any-thing we would ratherdo then play write andplay. And yes it is truethat JP is the newestmember on the teamand Alex and I havebeen around since thebeginning but we are alljust one piece of thepuzzle. The way I lookat a band and its mem-bers is that each onehad to bring somethingto the plate that be-comes an integral partof the team. If not, thechances of you makingit in this band at least,are pretty slim. Thereare things that JP doesthat I just cannot imag-ine doing. My feelingsare the same for Alex,and I am positive theywould say the same

about me.

MUEN: BEFORE ALEXCHANGED TO PLAY-ING LEAD GUITAR,WHO WAS PLAYINGLEAD AND WAS ALEXON BASS ORRHYTHM GUITAR?

Ha ha, thatʼs a really in-teresting question be-cause Alex was neitherthe bass player or therhythm guitar player, hewas our drummer! Ourformer guitar player wastired of touring and liv-ing in a van and notholding the conventionsthat musicians are notgenerally privileged to.So when it came timethat he was done, therereally was no debate inmy mind who shouldtake his place. Alex is agreat guitar player, hecan play anything well,and I felt way betterabout him being mywriting partner then any-one else because heknows where we areand where we aregoing.

MUEN: SPEAKING OFBASS, I NOTICEDTHAT YOU HAVE NOBASS PLAYER WHICHSO MANY BANDSHAVE STARTEDDOING. HOW DO YOUACHIEVE THE GREATBASS LINES IN YOURTUNES?

Yeah its strange but it

works! Actually we justhavenʼt found the guythat we think should bea part of the team. Ifand when we do, thenthere will be a fourthmember. Until then,both Alex and I write allthe bass parts and justtake a guy out on tourwith us. There is a greatplayer named Terencethat will be out with uson our next North Amer-ican tour starting inMay.

MUEN: HOW WOULDYOU BEST DESCRIBEYOUR SOUND TOSOMEONE THAT HASNOT HEARD YOULIVE OR ON MY-SPACE?

I suppose we in theband would all tell youthat we play pop. It is sodifficult to describe yourown music to someone,but I realize that itʼs anatural question. Iwould say that we havea wide range of musicthat influences oursound and what willcome out is stuff any-where from the hardrock, to punk and hard-core, to pop punk andpop. I know, so ambigu-ous! Sorry ʻbout that.

MUEN: YOU HAVETOURED FAIRLY EX-TENSIVELY FOR ANUNSIGNED BAND.HOW WAS THAT EX-PERIENCE ESPE-


CIALLY IN NEW-FOUNDLAND ANDNOVA SCOTIA?

Well we have alwayshad the mentality thatwe were not going towait around hoping forsomething to happen.We wanted to start tour-ing, so we did. The firstmany tours were incred-ibly sketchy and attimes downright awfulbut those paved theway to bigger and betterstuff. Touring out to theEast Coast of Canada isamazing. We havemade such good friendsout there that we miss itall the time. Not enoughbands from where weare make it out therebut now that we havestarting going that way,the response has beenexcellent.

MUEN: YOU HAVEALL MENTIONEDTHAT PLAYING INCALIFORNIA WAS ADREAM AND FA-VORITE EXPERIENCEFOR YOU. ANYPLANS TO RETURNSOON AND WHATVENUE WAS YOURFAVORITE AND WHY?

Oh yeah we all defi-nitely love California somuch. To a bunch ofdudes from WinnipegCanada, SoCal seemsto be a magical place.So many of our favoritebands cut their teeth on

the circuit down therethat itʼs just cool to playthose same venues.Yeah, we are definitelygoing to tour Californiain support of this nextrecord. And I wouldhave to say my favoriteplace to play downthere is Chain Reactionin Anaheim. It is like theCBGB of the WestCoast. So thatʼs fullyrad.

MUEN: SPEAKING OFTOURING, OTHERTHAN THE MINORTOUR BUS FIRE,WHAT HAS BEEN THEMOST UNUSUAL ORMEMORABLE THINGTO HAPPEN ONTOUR?

Well naturally tour isfilled with ridiculous sto-ries but I would defi-nitely say that the timethat I left Alex on theside of the road some-where betweenSpokane and Seattlewas one messed upnight. We stopped toswitch drivers and hehad unknowingly to meslipped out the back ofthe van to take a piss.Almost 2 hours later Igot a call from him say-ing that he was at a gasstation about 15 min-utes in the opposite di-rection of where we lefthim. He did his best notto completely lose hismind on us when we fi-nally got back there. He

was standing there inhis socks.

MUEN: YOU HAVE AVIDEO DIARY THATYOU HAVE STARTEDWITH SOME CLIPS OFYOUR RECORDINGPROCESS. HAVE YOUFINISHED THE CDAND WHEN WILL ITBE AVAILABLE ANDWHERE?

Well not quite done, butever so close. We arejust finishing up the vo-cals as well as someproduction details.Some of it will be avail-able by mid May.

MUEN: IS IT AN EP ORA FULL CD?

It is a full length but weplan on having a pre-re-lease for about 5 songsonline only. We wantpeople to have accessto the songs before weget to their town on tour,so this seemed to be alogical way to do things.We will most likely re-lease the whole thingwhen we get back fromtour. Then head backout on the road.

MUEN: HOW WAS ITRECORDING AT (RE-JEAN OR ALEXʼS)HOME AND DID YOUFIND THE BATHROOMTO HAVE THE BESTACOUSTICS FOR GUI-TAR RECORDINGS?

Ha-ha yeah we did endup using the bathroomto record any acousticwe used on the record,as well, JP did all hishand percussion stuffthere. It sounded great,and if you have the rightgear it works perfectly. MUEN: I UNDER-STAND THAT YOUHAD JUNO AWARD-WINNING ANDGRAMMY NOMI-NATED PRODUCERBRANDON FRIESENDO PRODUCTION OFYOUR CD. DID HEBRING OUT SOMENEW THINGS FROMYOU THAT YOU DIDNOT THINK OF TORECORD?

Well actually Brandondid our last record. Itwas great and a lot ofthe stuff he did was re-ally good. We grew fromthat experience as faras understanding theengineering processand also the productionthat we knew that wecould do the next oneon our own which iswhat we are doing now.Written, engineered,produced by Hundred-fold. We shall seewhere our confidencetakes us!

MUEN: WHO WRITESTHE SONGS ANDHOW ARE THEYWRITTEN?

The songs are all a joint


effort. We all have ourhand in them. Typicallya song will come to-gether by one of us,presenting an idea/feelor riff and we'll kind ofjust jam it out and seewhere it takes us. Oftenwe'll put 3 or 4 differentdrum grooves on top ofthat idea to get the feel-ing expressed in differ-ent ways. Create newemotions from the oneriff. Then when there isa chorus and bridgepresented for it, we do itall over again andeverything changes ha-ha... We are continu-ously changing thesongs. Then we'llrecord the songs so wecan hear it back from alisteners point of viewand then we'll pick outthings that need chang-ing or could be ex-pressed better. Wereally put them underthe microscope. In factwe re-wrote almostevery tune again whilewe were in the studiolaying them down forthe new record. And werecorded more thanenough songs tochoose from for thealbum. So many ofthose songs won't evenend up on the album.We might come acrossthem a few years laterand try to do somethingwith them again orthey'll just never beheard again. Ha-ha.

MUEN: HAS THEPROCESS OF WRIT-ING CHANGED ASYOU HAVE PLAYEDSOME OF THIS MATE-RIAL LIVE?

Yeah that happens forsure. You are contentwith a song the way it isuntil you bring it out live.Then you sometimes re-work it based on a newperspective. I guess youcan view it as a roughcopy that goes into asecond or third draft.

MUEN: I SAW THATYOU HAD A VIDEO ONYOU TUBE THATGIVES US A TASTEOF YOUR LIVE PER-FORMANCES. ISTHERE ANY NEWVIDEO PLANNED TOSHOWCASE ANYPARTICULAR SONGOFF THE NEW CD?

Well actually we areshooting a video thisweekend for one of thesongs that will be in thepre-release. Look forthat to be up by the endof April. We are so ex-cited for people to get achance to see that sideof what we do.

MUEN: YOUR MY-SPACE BLOGS CON-TAIN MANY VARIEDTOPICS. DO EACH OFYOU BLOG TO EX-PRESS SOMETHOUGHTS TO YOURFANS IN YOUR SPARE

TIME?

Oh absolutely, we alllove to have the abilityto connect with ourfans. We pride our-selves on being a bandthat does that betterthan anyone out there.

MUEN: HOW USEFULHAS MYSPACE BEENTO THE PROMOTIONOF THE BAND?

MySpace has honestlybeen integral part ofwhere this band is. It re-ally keeps you con-nected to ways that arejust too cool. Itʼs some-thing you take forgranted until you thinkabout how hard it wouldbe to network withoutsuch a fantastic tool.

MUEN: HOW DID YOUDEAL WITH THEHACKER THATDELETED YOURPAGE IN 2006 ANDHAS THAT HURT YOUIN ANY WAY?

Man, looking back atthat I just kind of laughʻcause it seems like asmall issue to me now,but thatʼs definitely nothow I felt at the time. Inthe big picture I sup-pose we lost a few con-nections because ofthat, but I would like tobelieve that all thosepeople will find us ifthey truly love what wedo.

MUEN: NOTICEDTHAT YOU HAVE “EN-TERTHEFOLD” ASPART OF YOUR WEB-SITE. IS THAT A REF-ERENCE TO YOURSTREET TEAM ORANOTHER NAME FORTHE BAND OR AN IN-VITATION TO BE AFAN OF HUNDRED-FOLD?

Itʼs kind of a referenceto a street team or moreso, just an invitation tobecome a part of ourlives and a part of whatwe do. Enterthefold.comwas our website namebefore and I donʼt eventhink we looked for Hun-dredfold when weopened a MySpace ac-count. We just wentstraight to Enterthefold.

MUEN: CHANGING ABIT, YOU HAVE ABASE IN WINNIPEG.ARE THERE ANYPLANS TO MOVE ORDO WANT TO STAYBASED THERE?

Well being in Winnipeghas its advantages anddisadvantages but rightnow with the way thingsare, it just makes sensefor us to be here. Ourfamilies are here and inall honesty, itʼs such acheap place to live! If itmakes sense to moveat any point at all, I amsure all of us will do it atthe drop of a hat. JP isactually originally from


Bolivia and then spentmost of his childhood inMexico, so our wintersdestroy him!

MUEN: WHATSHOULD WE EXPECTTO SEE FROM HUN-DREDFOLD FOR THEREST OF 2009?TOURS AND WHEREAND WHEN? ORMORE LOCAL LIVEDATES?

Yeah we will play localdates but we prettymuch view Winnipeg asjust another city to tourthrough. We just hap-pen to live here. Yeah ifI could spend all mytime on tour, I wouldprobably be the happi-est guy ever, so yeahthatʼs what the plan isfor 2009…tour.

MUEN: AND, WHAT ISTHE MOST EXCITINGTHING PLANNED FORTHE REST OF 2009OR BEYOND OTHERTHAN THE CD?

That we simply meetnew people that lovewhat we do.

MUEN: WHAT DO YOUEACH LIKE TO DOWHEN NOT TOURINGAND PLAYING/WRIT-ING MUSIC?

Rejean: I honestlywould like to provide ananswer to make mesound like a normal per-

son but I donʼt knowhow to do anything any-more except for band. Iguess I enjoy real-es-tate, Alex is into nerdingout on his computer.Jon really loves snow-boarding and skate-boarding. He likes to tryand snowboard asmuch as he can throughthe winter. Other thanthat, he just likes hang-ing out with friends.

MUEN: I UNDER-STAND THAT JONOWNS A COFFEEBUSINESS. CAN YOUTELL US A LITTLE

ABOUT THAT?

(Jon) Ha-ha yeah, itʼspretty random! Coffee islike my second passion.I love it! Iʼm really get-ting into teas right nowto. Itʼs called Jonny'sJava and I own it with agreat friend of mineAndy Wiebe. He prettymuch runs the shownow because Iʼm usu-ally pretty busy withmusic related things.He's really great andworks very hard, itwouldn't be anythingwith out him. Iʼm enjoy-ing a press of

Guatemala Antigua aswe speak! ...delicious!

MUEN: IS THERE ANY-THING I HAVE NOTASKED THAT YOUTHINK OUR READERSWOULD LIKE TOKNOW ABOUT HUN-DREDFOLD?

We are in love withYOU!


“Hollywood Rock Band Of The Year”

www.themaension.com

Upcoming Full Length:“AEVOLUTION”

Alexis BrownStraight line stitchBy Shannon Lindsey


By G. Cataline

MUEN: SINCE THERELEASE OF 'THEEMPTY MEN' , YOUHAVE GOTTEN ALOTOF GREAT REVIEWS.HOW SUCCESSFULWOULD YOU SAYTHIS ALBUM HASBEEN FOR YOU?

“The Empty Men” hasbeen a great criticalsuccess for us and hasdefinitely served to getus on the radar interna-tionally. We have result-ingly done numerousmagazine and radio in-terviews, been able tobask in the glory of ac-colades and enjoyedthe respect of ourpeers. As of yet how-ever, we haven't beenable to quit the dayjobs. Such is life inthese days of the digitaldownload I suppose.Over all though we arequite pleased with theway it has been re-ceived.

MUEN: TELL US, HOWWAS IT WORKINGWITH THE KMFDMMEMBERS AND PRO-DUCTION TEAM ONTHAT ALBUM ANDALSO THIS LATESTRELEASE TITLED'MOUTH OF MAD-NESS''... HOW DIDYOU FIRST GET AC-QUAINTED WITHTHEM IN THE FIRSTPLACE?

I met Sascha years agoin Seattle when I soughthim out to do a remixfor Legion Within. Wehit it off and ended upsocializing regularly.When time finally cameto record “The EmptyMen”, we spoke and hehooked me up with a MrJules Hodgson whoended up producing thealbum for us. Jules han-dles most of the live in-strument tracking andmixing for KMFDM, sohis credentials seemedup to par for the job.

Working with the

KMFDM persons hasbeen a treat. You don'treally know what youare fully capable of as aband until you haveworked with a talentedproducer. When theperson working on therecord with you actuallycares about making thebest possible finishedproduct it takes thewhole project to an en-tirely different level.That was very much ev-ident on “The EmptyMen”, but even more soon “Mouth of Madness”– our most recent en-deavor.

I think it is the best workwe have done to date.We spent over a year inthe studio with Julesfine-tuning the materialuntil we had it just right.When I played the titletrack for Sascha heloved it and launchedinto doing a hard edgedark electro remix,which came out awe-some.

MUEN: 'MOUTH OFMADNESS' IS SCHED-ULED TO BE OUTVERY SOON, RIGHT?

That is correct. "Mouth


of Madness" comes outJune 16th on KMFDMRecords. For the firstmonth or two it will beavailable exclusively forpurchase through theKMFDMSTORE.COM.After that it will be avail-able elsewhere also.We are all very excitedabout the new material,it has raised the bar forwhat I think we are ca-pable of as a band.

MUEN:ARETHEREANY DI-REC-TIONALOR

TECH-NICALTHINGSYOU DIDDIFFER-ENT ONTHISALBUM,COM-PARED TOTHE LAST?

I tried to analyze the el-ements I liked most andthought worked well on“The Empty Men”, thenrefine and developthem more for “Mouth ofMadness”. Also we triedsome new formulas forwriting songs and ex-perimentation. For oneof my favorite tracks offthe new album, the

band composed an en-tire song around one ofJasyn's (Synths) arpeg-giated synth lines. Thetitle track, Mouth ofMadness, was originallya synth driven song thatwe couldn't ever getsounding quite rightuntil Shannon (Gui-tarist) reworked thesynth line into an infec-tious guitar riff, then allthe pieces

fell into place.On another spookieracoustic track, I broughtin my 74 year old operasinging mother and myfriend's 11 year olddaughter to do backingvocals. We assembledan Angry Mob for arousing angst ladenchorus on the track"The Empire is Burn-ing". And on yet anothertrack we took a verytongue-in-check Brian

Setzer swing approachwith full on hornarrangements. So inshort, yes.

MUEN: WILL THEREBE A TOUR IN SUP-PORT OF THISALBUM, AND IF SO,WHERE ARE YOU EX-PECTING TO PLAY?

I am in the process ofbooking it right

now.We will be playing a

few shows in your town(LA) to support therecord in June. FridayJune 26th we will beplaying the monthlyparty "Release theBats" @ The Que Serain Long Beach and thenext night SaturdayJune 27th we will be atBar Sinister (aka Board-ner's) in Hollywood.Come on down if youcan.

In October we will behopping on KMFDM'sUS tour for a few datesas well. I am workingout the details on thatwith Sascha right now.You can check out ourMyspace.com/legion-within and www.legion-within.com for details asthey arise.

MUEN: TELL USABOUT THE

ACTUALWRITING

PROCESSWITHINTHEBAND ...IS THE

PROCESSDIFFERENT NOW,THAN IT WAS WHENYOU FIRST FORMED,AND ARE THERE ANYNEW MEMBERS INTHE BAND, OR MEM-BERS WHO HAVELEFT?

When we started out Iassembled the band asa means to an end toplay songs I had al-ready written. Now, themusicians I am workingwith are so incredibly


gifted it would be foolishnot to tap into thewealth of talent at mydisposal. Now insteadof being a singer song-writer, I am more of themusical director/editorof Legion Within. Shan-non Cole (Guitars),Erica "Raven" Branch-Butler (Bass) and I havehad the great fortune tobe working with formany years now. Themost recent additionsare Jasyn Byrum(Synths) and Aaron Nic-holes (Drums). Theyare all exceptional tal-ents in their own right.

MUEN: WHEN EX-ACTLY WERE YOUSIGNED TO KMFDMRECORDS... THISHAPPENED AFTERTHE RELEASE OF'THE EMPTY MEN'RIGHT?

We "signed" withKMFDM Records justrecently. When Brent,who runs KMFDMRecords for Sascha,heard the material hegot excited about it andasked if we would be in-terested in releasing itthrough them. I immedi-ately said yes, as theprospect of shopping itaround to a dyingrecord industry seemedan option I would ratherpass on.

It is a pretty friendlyarrangement based

upon mutual benefit.They believe in us andwe believe in them. Thestalwart indie labels byare the future of the in-dustry in my opinion.

MUEN: FROM THETIME THAT YOUFIRST FORMED IN2000, WHAT HASBEEN SOME OF THEMOST MEMORABLEEVENTS (OUTSIDE OFWORKING WITHKMFDM) THAT HASHAPPENED WITHYOUR MUSIC?

Well, we have had anumber of great showswith a variety of greatbands. For me person-ally, the most memo-rable and lasting thingsto come out of LegionWithin is how the musichas served as a catalystto connect with some ofthe most important peo-ple in my life. Fromother artists,DJ's, fans,and other assorted per-sons from the industry.Many have becomedear friends. In fact, Iwould never have metmy wife Jessica, had itnot been for the music.There is somethingabout throwing yourselfinto pursuing your artthat tends to attract theright people to you.

MUEN: BEING THEBAND IS REGARDEDAS A MORE "POLITI-CALLY AWARE" TYPE

BAND... WHAT AREYOUR THOUGHTS ONSOME OF THE POLITI-CAL ISSUES OFTODAY.. WHAT ARESOME OF THEEVENTS THAT MOSTCONCERN YOU ANDWHAT ARE YOURVIEWS ON THEM?

Well needless to say Iam glad the SwineHearts (no offense topigs) are finally out ofoffice in the USA. But Ifear it may be more aresult of lazy mindedpeople being forced totake action due to an 8year long shit stormraining down upon theirheads. I think the mostimportant issue today, isfor the American peopleto wake up and take re-sponsibility for the soci-ety in which they (we)live. It is not enough toput a politician withseemingly left leaningtendencies into officeand then hope for thebest. That is not howthings work. Unless theAmerica People seizeupon the moment to re-build the country's infra-structure, create anactual social safety netfor it's citizens (HealthCare reform, SeniorCare, Education, etc),and get some real legis-lation on the books toreign in and control thekind of financialprospecting and as-sorted brands of corpo-

rate mayhem that gotus to where we aretoday... Then we, as asociety, are doomed toa life of servitude andmanipulation by ourCorporate Masters.

Constant vigilance anda willingness to take ac-tion when necessary isthe ONLY real path for-ward if we want anykind of a future worthliving.

Also I think it is vital thatwe bring to justice ALLthe parties involved inthe practice of torture.Not doing so sets a verydangerous precedentfor future administra-tions.

MUEN: WHAT OTHERCURRENT (WETHERTHEY BE WELLKNOWN OR LESSERKNOWN) GOTHAND/OR INDUSTRIALBANDS OF TODAY DOYOU HAVE THE MOSTADMIRATION FORAND WHY?

There are a couple inthe Pacific North Westthat I quite like. On theindustrial front, ourdrummer Aaron Nic-holes has a a project"Death Bed Repen-tance" he fronts whenhe is not playing with usthat is top notch on allfronts. Very good songwriting, hard and ag-gressive stuff. He is one


of the most hard work-ing musicians I know.On the weird end of thespectrum, there is anexperimental bandcalled "EmergencyHand Puppet" which isperhaps on of the moredisturbing musical ven-ture I have come acrossto date. It is pure andunadulterated art forart's sake. The man be-hind the scenes musthave some deep is-sues. As far as Gothgoes I have to say mynew faves are a duofrom Portland called"Mortal Clay". Greatclassic darkwavestylings fronted by anenigmatic operaticbeauty. They are defi-nitely worth checkingout.

MUEN: IS THEREANYTHING ELSEYOU'D LIKE TO ADD?

I think that about wrapsit up. But I would like toinclude a link to theKMFDMTORE.COM fora free download of ournew single for yourreaders.


‘SEE IT THROUGH’OUT

JUNE 9, 2009Myspace.com/thesammustheory

May 20 - Hollywood Music TV - Live inter-view/VideoJun 12 - CD RELEASE SHOW @ The Sets,Tempe, ArizonaJun 17 - Cantina Live, Reno, NevadaJun 19 - In-Studio interview on Power 95 Sidney, MontanaJun 20 - CD RELEASE SHOW at RichlandCounty Fairgrounds w/ Vayden, Sidney,MontanaJun 23 - KAZY Radio Interview - In Studio, Cheyenne, Wyoming

Jun 23 - In Store Signing - Ernie NovemberMusic, Cheyenne, WyomingJun 24 - Mingles, Cheyenne, WyomingJun 25 - Club Vegas, Salt Lake City, UtahJun 26 - Kbear Interview, Idaho Jun 26 - In-Store CD Signing - CD WORLD- 3-4pm Idaho Falls, IdahoJun 26 - CD RELEASE SHOW at The Trop-ics w/ Vayden and more... (ALL AGES),Idaho Falls, IdahoJun 27 - 1st Nash, Pocatello, Idaho

Jun 30 - Bourbon w/ Southern DeathThreat, Vancouver, British ColumbiaJul 1 - 99.3 The Fox Radio In Studio Inter-view, Vancouver, British ColumbiaJul 1 - Pub Tree 40 w/ Southern DeathThreat, Vancouver, British ColumbiaJul 2 - KUBQ Radio Interview, Spokane,WashingtonJul 2 - The Boulevard, Spokane, Washing-tonJul 3 - Amberjacks, Vancouver, British Co-lumbiaJul 4 - The Mirkwood, Arlington, Washington

muen magazine may 2009 part 2

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