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In early-August, at an Ozzfest show in North Carolina, Lambgoat's Drew Ailes caught up with A Life Once Lost members Nick Frasca (bass), Douglas "Snake" Sabolick (guitar), and Justin Graves (drums) for a little chat. |
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The first question was for Mr. Bob Meadows. I was going to ask him a little bit about himself as other interviews don't really say anything personal about the guy. It's just, "Bob. I sing. That's it." What do you guys actually do outside of this band and why does Bob have the name of a porn star?
Nick: He has the name of a porn star?
Well, c'mon, Bob Meadows?
Nick: That's more of a porn director.
What about Robert Meadows?
Nick: Robert Meadows...Rod Meadows would be...
[laughing]
Nick: I have no idea.
Snake: Rod Measures.
Nick: Rod Measures.
Well, now that we've come up with a new nickname for Bob, go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourselves.
Nick: About us?
Yeah. Or tell me about each other.
Nick: Doug...
Snake: What?
Nick: Doug...no, no, Doug's our old guitar player. Our new guitar player, Snake, when he's not on the road he stands in a room filled with amps and slide guitars and shreds riffs. Gnarly riffs. And uh...that's all he does that I know of.
Snake: Nick, our bass player, he uh...sits in a room, he plays video games, watches porn, drinks whiskey, and chills.
Nick: I get paid to chill.
How did you guys end up on Ozzfest this year and how was the decision made?
Snake: Our bro, John Fenton, he books the second stage on Ozzfest. He's a brutal motherfucker. He came out and saw us in L.A. and we fucking rocked the hut. He was into it so he asked us to play. So we were like, we'll come rage this, you know?
Nick: Basically we got asked to play and why not? It's huge. Why would we not want to do it?
Snake: We've been playing for the same fucking people for five years so we were like, "you know what, let's play to some old motherfuckers who like Black Label Society and shit."
[laughing]
People who would be drunk enough to get your music.
Snake: Yeah.
So have you found that you've introduced a lot of new people to your band and possibly even gained a few new bands?
Nick: Absolutely, yeah. Every day. We have to go do signings after we play every day, so normally there's a lot of people coming up to us saying that it's the first time they saw us and they're holding the CD and totally blown away. It's a pretty great feeling to be working with a clean slate. So yeah, It's working, I guess.
Snake: Yeah, it's everyone from old motherfuckers with confederate flag tattoos to mom and children rocking. You can't deny the Ozzfest, it definitely opens doors for a new audience.
How does it feel to be part of a festival that once hosted such integral acts as Cellophane, Drain STH, Ultraspank, and Puya?
[laughing]
Snake: There was one other band that you left out.
Coal Chamber?
Snake: No. They were on...the one dude from the fucking Battle for Ozzfest show.
Oh, um...the band that got so popular that we don't know their name?
Snake: Well, he was in a band on Ozzfest before. A Dozen Furies.
Oh, okay. I always misread it as A Dozen Furries.
Snake: No, I remember when I was younger, Drain STH. They were three or four bitches from Norway or some shit?
Yeah, yeah, that's them.
Snake: I gotta say that we feel honored to play on the same stages as bands like Cellophane who have done it in years past. Hopefully we can follow in their footsteps and sink off into oblivion.
Nick: Into obscurity.
Snake: ...and maybe in five years I'll be working at Goodyear.
Is that were you predict the members of Cellophane are right now?
Nick: I've never even heard of Cellophane.
Snake: I had the Ozzfest 98 sampler.
Yeah! Me too, man. That's where I heard of them.
Snake: Ride Thy Neighbor. It's a good song.
[Drew and Snake sing Cellophane's "Ride Thy Neighbor"]
Yeah, yeah, we're the only people to ever sing this song in the entire world, aside from the band.
Snake: I kinda like that song. I never heard the rest of them.
Nobody heard the rest of them.
Nick: What happened to Magnified? That's what I want to know. 2004 Ozzfest.
Magnified? I've never heard of them. I didn't catch that one. Last Ozzfest I was at was that Ozzfest 97 or something, primarily to see Machine Head and Type O Negative. And Pantera. Needless to say, Ozzfest has changed since then. You guys almost already fielded this one, but do you guys ever worry that you might put out a hit and end up like one of those bands like SOiL or Saliva?
Snake: I don't think we'll ever end up like that because we're not a bunch of pussies and faggots.
Nick: Uh...what he said. It was well put.
[Snake sings SOiL]
Is that Magnified?
Nick: No, that was SOiL.
Did you know that those guys used to be in extremely good death metal bands? They were in Broken Hope and they were in a band called Oppressor.
Nick: I've heard people talk about Oppressor.
Snake: Death metal don't pay the bills.
No. I don't know if SOiL pays the bills at this point, either. But something's gotta. Goodyear. What do you guys say to all the people who criticize the band and accuse you guys of wearing your Meshuggah influences on your sleeves?
Snake: I gotta say that I listen to the CD and I don't think it sounds that much like it. I feel like we got our influence from there, but there's 30,000 bands that rip-off fuckin' At The Gates, and if it's just only one band that sounds kinda like the other band, you're gonna get that. But if there's 2,000 bands that sound like At The Gates, all of a sudden that's a genre. You know what I'm saying? Basically all of those bands are just ripping them off. Whereas if there's only a few bands trying to do what we're doing...
Nick: They're all rip-offs. You're just a rip-off band.
You know how if you go out to a big show or a festival where there's a lot of bands, not unlike this one, I know when I leave shit like that I don't want to listen to metal for the next day or something like that. How do you guys deal with that being that it's your job to face the elements of metal day after day? Does that ever wear on you?
Nick: It definitely makes me want to listen to heavy music a lot less. I don't even have any music with me. My Ipod broke so I don't listen to anything. Just check out my friend's bands here and there.
Snake: We're all fucking metalheads at heart, you know, and obviously there's only so much metal you can take. If you're a fan of music you're going to spread yourself throughout different genres, so it's like you get your metal fix when you're on stage. That doesn't necessarily mean that I won't listen to any metal at night, you know, sometimes I will. If I'm out raging drunk and I want to put on some High On Fire, then that's cool. Just because you listen to metal it doesn't mean that's all you listen to. There's plenty of other music out there to chill to.
Such as?
Snake: Uh, Cannibal Corpse, fuckin...Behemoth.
Nick: Somebody said they got the new Slayer yesterday. They said it was ridiculous.
Justin: The new Strapping Young Lad is amazing. The New Black.
A lot of people have been complaining on the board that you guys haven't been playing a lot of your old material.
Snake: On Ozzfest, we don't even play any songs from our last album. Everything's from Hunter, but that's just because we only get twenty minutes up there and A Great Artist isn't even in print right now.
Aren't there plans to reissue that?
Snake: Ferret's going to reissue it, and after they reissue it, we're definitely going to pull some old tracks out. We're trying to showcase what people can buy, you know what I'm saying?
Yeah, it'd be pointless to go, "here's a bunch of songs you can't fucking find."
Snake: The old shit, it's like, me and meadows were the only ones in the band at that point and I was like, 16 or 17. The fucking music sucks.
Nick: It's a completely different band.
Snake: That was more like a learning curve. We didn't know what we were doing, we were just doing it.
Having said that, are you kind of anxious about the old material being reissued?
Snake: No, see, A Great Artist is cool.
Nick: We'll play that when we have more than a half an hour to play. We'll play two or three songs of our older stuff like that. But even stuff that's older than that, it's a completely different band. Not people wise, but it's a totally different style.
When can people actually expect a new record out from you guys?
Snake: Hunter came out last summer, so it's been out for a while. We're planning to write after Ozzfest and hopefully have it out next summer.
Have you guys already written anything or have anything you've tossed back and forth?
Snake: Yeah, we got a few brutal fucking riffs strung together and uh...we're just going to bring the pain on it.
[laughing]
Guy (The Red Chord): [sarcastically] I heard some shit in the parking lot! It's fucking sick!
Is A Life Once Lost getting the recognition necessary to allow you guys to go home and relax, or is it the kind of thing where you immediately have to go seek out odd-jobs and bullshit like that until you get on the next tour?
Snake: We're the kind of guys who don't like to work.
Is that why you're in a band?
Snake: Yeah, yeah. No, we're in a band to rock. But we're not in life to work.
You're in life to rock.
Snake: Right. So when we get home, although we should get jobs, we're not going to. We'll probably just sell drugs and rob a fucking convenience store.
And this is how you'll pay your bills?
Nick: Amateur porn pays well.
Justin: We got a sweet squatter house.
Snake: Yeah, yeah, we all live at this shitty squat house that we don't pay rent at and we steal electric from the fucking assholes next door. We steal everything from them so we don't have any bills.
There was someone on the board that when I said I was trying to interview you this guy said, "fuck that band, last time Lambgoat tried to do an interview with them they made us send them the interview and then all their answers were edited," or something like that.
Snake: Who was this?
Someone on the messageboard.
Snake: I think uh...yeah, that's someone...and then someone said to me, "fuck you, you fucking scumbag, fuck off." I don't know who that was but someone said that about it.
It was a name of a poster that I don't remember seeing often. Apparently it was someone that used to write for us.
Snake: Well, I mean, you're interviewing us, right?
Yeah, you guys don't seem very uptight with your answers. Now for the typical "about the scene" question. Do you guys ever worry about heavy music becoming overly commercialized and completely saturated to where it might make it difficult to make your fanbase actually grow?
Snake: I think at this point, the bigger that these shitty bands get, the better it is for us. Not necessarily shitty, just different than what we're doing.
Nick: Stuff that we don't agree with.
Snake: Like, any aggressive band that gets bigger, it's better for us because it just brings aggressive music to the forefront. If there's bands like Avenged Sevenfold on the radio and shit, it's not necessarily my thing, but at least there's some fuckin' squeels going on over there, you know what I'm saying? And some fuckin' guitar solos.
What was the last band that broke up that you actually found yourself upset about?
Snake: Well, the Pantera demise. I wouldn't call that a break-up necessarily, but whatever that was, I mean, that was shitty. There's only so many metal bands that I like to go see and when a band like that breaks up it just cuts down the numbers. Great shows.
How about a band that isn't Pantera?
Snake: ....a band that isn't Pantera?
Guy: I hear System of a Down is breaking up after this tour.
Snake: System of a Down is on a hiatus. So I'd be bummed if they broke up. I'd have to say Hassan I Sabbah. When they broke up it bummed me out. And Neil Perry, too. When they broke up I was bummed.
Guy: Drummer of Unearth, man, Hassan I Sabbah.
Snake: Yeah, he's from Hassan I Sabbah.
You guys are educating me and that makes me feel uncomfortable.
Snake: Smoke weed.
Of all the bands you've been out on the road with, who's been your favorite to tour with?
Snake: I can tell you our least favorite to tour with, The fuckin' Red Chord. We played probably about 180 shows together and we've been sharing the bus now for about two months, so it's kind of like we're all in the same band. But we all love those guys except for like, the walking dead-man, Brad, the drummer.
Nick: Frost.
Snake: Also known as Frost from Satyricon.
Isn't that the guy who went to jail for rape?
Snake: No, no. Brad's just a black metal motherfucker, dude. That's all you can say about him.
Who?
Snake: Brad.
Nick: Frost.
Snake: Frost.
Justin: Frost.
Nick: Brad.
Snake: Frost.
I don't even know what band I'm interviewing anymore. I was going to ask Bob, because I guess he used to interview bands...did anyone know that?
Nick: Interview?
Snake: He never really interview bands.
Nick: Bob used to book a lot of shows. He used to be a promoter.
Snake: He never interviewed people.
Well fuck that question.
Justin: Where's Lambgoat getting their info?
I don't know. Basically any interviews I do, the information is compiled from every shit website that has any interview posted with you guys. So, like I said, it's the kids who have a notepad and a pen that are just writing down, "Red Chord loves....astrodick."
Justin: How about I interview you with just one question?
Go for it.
Justin: Who's Lambgoat's biggest rival? I want to hear some shit-talk.
The PRP, probably.
Guy: What about Blabbermouth?
Well, Blabbermouth...
Snake: They're blowing you guys out of the water.
I wouldn't say blowing us out of the water. I mean, it's apples and oranges, boys. Apples and oranges.
Snake: There's stuff on Lambgoat that won't be on Blabbermouth.
No shit, nobody cares about fucking...
Snake: Yeah, I mean, I don't give a shit about the new Edguy CD.
Exactly, that's what I mean.
Snake: But I also do care what DLR is doing next month, so...fuckin' Lambgoat don't tell me what DLR is doing.
Who's DLR?
[collective heckling throughout the bus]
Snake: Get off the bus.
C'mon, tell me, I'll pick it up.
Snake: David Lee Roth
[heckling continues]
One thing I will say is that David Lee Roth became a paramedic and never came out with his own tequila. Not saying I'm a Hagar fan but, you know, once you have your own line of tequila...you know. So judging by the smell on the bus, I'm guessing you guys like to smoke a lot of pot.
Nick: That's actually The Red Chord who brings all the weed on the bus.
That's not you guys?
Nick: No, no.
Snake: So what's the question?
Well, the question was...my friend caught his little brother smoking a joint the other day. When he asked him, he said, "hey, where the fuck did you pick this up," and he said, "A Life Once Lost. I was watching a video they were in and they were smoking weed the entire time. They're super fucking millionaires, so why can't I?"
Snake: That's bullshit.
Keep in mind, this kid is eleven years old.
Guy: And he caught him smoking a joint?
Yeah, my friend caught him, and he cited A Life Once Lost as the band that taught him to smoke weed.
[laughing]
Keeping that in mind, where do you feel you should draw the line between band and drug addicted rock hero?
Snake: I got you on this. I don't feel it's right for an eleven year old to be smoking weed, although it's brutal, you know what I'm saying?
[laughing]
Snake: You know, I don't necessarily agree with that. But, what we wanted to do is basically, there's too many fuckin' homos with hair over one of their eyes that don't know how to get high, you know what I'm saying? So basically, we're trying to show these dudes that they need to get high and rock out at a metal show, you know what I'm saying? Don't be a fucking queer with your white belt and listen to some fuckin, some fuckin...
Justin: Panic At The Disco.
Snake: ...Panic At The Disco bullshit.
Man, you fucked up my other question which was Panic At The Disco VS. Fall Out Boy.
Nick: Well, Fall Out Boy would win because Pete was in Racetraitor and they were a super-heavy band.
And their drummer was in that Killtheslavemaster band.
Nick: Oh yeah, that's right.
Justin: Racetraitor and Killtheslavemaster. Is Fall Out Boy a white power band or what?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, point blank, yeah. I interviewed them.
Snake: Oh yeah?
Yeah. They were white power. Swaztikas up everywhere. That's where my friends little brother picked up Nazism.
Snake: So is that song, "got the gun to the black man's head, got the gun and pull it," is that what was going on?
Uh...wait.
Snake: You ain't got that?
No.
Snake: I can't repeat it.
Okay, well, I understand that pot smoking is used to eliminate...white...belt...faggots.
Snake: No, you know what, we don't give a shit what our fans do. Although, I understand that rockers shouldn't be your fuckin' role model. Just like my boy Eminem said. He's not here to be a role model.
Are you boys with Eminem because you guys are from Detroit?
Snake: Yeah.
[someone in the background] White power!
You guys are just fucking with me, now.
Justin: Yo, I thought you were fucking with us.
We're Lambgoat, we don't fuck around.
Justin: No, we kick it, we kick it with him.
Snake: No, when we go through we met D-12 back in the day when we were on tour and shit. We were playing some thrasher metal club around the corner and they were playing some club. We were just chilling out with Bizarre.
Who's Bizarre?
Nick: Big dude.
Guy: Fuck Ja-Rule!
Nick: Celebrity fit-club.
Guy: I got Eminem's back. He's a bitch-ass nigga! There ain't nothin' worse than a bitch-ass nigga! You know, the Onyx song? Anyway, I met one of the Wu-Tang guys the other day.
Snake: I knew there was some rapper over there.
Guy: So check it out, I guess the System of a Down bass player was sitting down with these security guards and a random black guy, because there's no black guys on Ozzfest. So I'm sitting down eating dinner next to a terrible drunk Mike Justain, ex-Red Chord, current Unearth drummer. I guess that he had been drinking moonshine, so he has this piece of bread and he's been chewing on this piece of bread, but the thing must've been a foot and a half long. He starts beating it on the table and there was an empty water bottle, and he beans it and the bottle shoots over and beans the System of a Down guy in the head. So I mean, the system guys have been pretty cool. They've been smoking weed with these guys and they've been coming to check out the bands as well as the D-Turbed guys, they're all watching bands and stuff now. So I walked over and just said something like, "yo, thanks for checking the set out," and the security guy goes, "you just hit him with a bottle," because he thought I threw the bottle at him. So I look at the security guy and I was like, "yeah, go fuck yourself," and then I just continued to talk to him. Next thing I know the guy is shaking my hand and going, "yo, this is my buddy U-God," and I'm not thinking, "whatever," because I got the fucking thirty-six chambers and shit. "Yo, this is U-God from Wu-Tang," and I'm like, "what!" Kind of a little star-struck because whatever, I don't really care too much about meeting System Of A down, I mean, I like them and all, but Wu-Tang means something to me. Next thing I know, Wu-Tang guy's all shaking my head and going, "yo, nothin' but love and heavy metal," and all this shit and he was just talking to me. So I met Wu-Tang, told some security guy to go fuck himself, and got to see the System Of A Down guy get hit in the head with a water bottle that had been batted across the room by a piece of bread.
By a drunk Mike Justain. So basically it was what we'd call a best day ever?
Guy: Best day ever.
Nick: That was the same day I met Jim Brewer.
Oh god, was he super fucking annoying? Because his stand-up sucks.
Nick: He wasn't like, hanging out. He was just there looking really baked.
Guy: Who's the other guy who played Rocketman and shit? The guy that was in the weed movie with Brewer.
Are you talking about Harland Williams?
Guy: Yeah, his stand-up is phenomenal.
He's great. I saw him on Conan one time and he'd ask him a question and he'd answer questions saying shit like, "wow, cucumber-salad sea anemone," like that was his fucking answer.
Guy: He does lots of drugs and hangs out with A Life Once Lost.
Does he?
Snake: Yes.
Nick: While eating cucumber salad sandwiches.
If you could pit A Life Once Lost against any other band, who would it be?
Nick: Be careful with this one, Doug.
Snake: Well, I'd like to pick a band that we could kick their ass. We're not the biggest dudes, so, Fear Before the March of Flames.
Hands down?
Nick: ...I could take their bass player. Actually, I could probably take two of them at once.
Snake: We don't pick fights with bigger groups, you know?
Do you guys pick on the little guys? Do you beat up the 16 year old openers at your shows?
Nick: Yeah.
Snake: You little fucks!
Justin: We smoked the fuck out of...uh...
Nick: Crowbar?
Justin: No.
That's a weighty endeavor.
Justin: We smoked the fuck out of Bleeding Through.
You outsmoked Bleeding Through? I hear that's a tough one.
Justin: They're slipping.
Guy: I didn't see Brandan doing his fuckin' work out today.
Are you guys helping them slip?
Nick: No comment.
Snake: Sometimes when they're working out in the next bus over, we'll blow hits of weed down there and shit.
If you were to throw eggs at one iconic figure, who would it be?
Guy: Dude, avenge Iron Maiden and go for fucking Ozzy!
Snake: You know, I wouldn't throw eggs because I'm not down with people fucking throwing shit at musicians while they're performing.
Justin: Guy, from The Red Chord.
Snake: No, he said iconic.
Recently someone on the Blabbermouth board stated the following: Lamb of God is a fucking homo, A Life Once Lost is a fucking homo rip-off of gayness, if you like these bands then all your CDs are gay." Do you have any rebuttal for these harsh words from the internet?
[laughing]
Justin: Show your balls, faggot.
There we go, spoken by a true leader. Say your name so I don't lose it on the tape.
Justin: Ice Grillz says show your fuckin' dick, queer.
Snake: I gotta say, what's the dude, a homophobe?
He's on Blabbermouth.
Snake: I mean, is he a homophobe? Fuck, I'll suck a dick or two.
This question was actually the crowning achievement of this interview and it was directed towards Bob. There was an interview where the conversation went like, "if you could be any kind of muffin, what kind of muffin would you be," and he probably stated he would probably be something gross like a garlic and onion muffin, but I was going to ask him to talk a little bit more about that. So it can't be asked.
Justin: I'm surprised he didn't say a weed muffin. That would describe Bob the best, a weed muffin. With hairs all over it.
Is there anything you guys care to bring up before we go our separate ways?
Snake: Well, this will go below the interview. It'll say, "comments," and then under that I'll go, "fuck A Life Once Lost, these guys talk fuckin' mad shit and they suck. Their best album was Open Your Mouth For The Speechless."
Guy: "They're posers."
Snake: "They're posers."
Nick: "They're a homo rip-off gay, they're a rip-off of a homogay."
Snake: "Lamb of Meshuggah, fuck these dudes." Um, is there any other comments do you think that Lambgoaters would have to add? I just want to take care of it before they can.
"I saw these guys and they were fucking fags?"
Snake: "A Life Once Lost? More like, a laugh out loud."
[groaning]
Snake: I'm good there. Fuckin' PRP rules!
Nick: Eat me.
Justin: Balls deep.
Guy: Yoooooooo!
[Moments later, a kid with a buzzcut from some military publication came on the bus to do an interview and was given some of the most ridiculous and absurd answers ever given as interview responses.]
