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This summer Drew Ailes spent some quality phone time with Soilent Green vocalist Ben Falgoust. Props to Ben for being so informative, and to Drew for transcribing this beast. |
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What have you been up to?
I got up at about 6:30 this morning, I've just been getting things sorted out for the tour. We leave next Tuesday and head up to Atlanta to shoot a video for "Leaves of Three," from the new album. So we head up to there, and then on the 14th we drive from there to Baltimore to start the tour. So I've just been busy with my day job, plus getting things together, organized, everything like that. Working the merch out that we're gonna have, um...
What is your day job?
I work at a frame shop. It's not just like, people bringing in some fancy little prints and putting them together, we do a lot of commercial jobs. Three weeks ago, we just completed a hotel with 331 rooms, and we had 2500 pieces. We had three mirrors per room, and four pieces of art per room.
How many people do you have working on that?
Me and two other people. I pretty much maintain the saw, cutting the wood and everything like that, and then me and the two other girls, they usually take care of the small things that come in. The more delicate stuff, per se. But they help put together the stuff after I cut it and assemble it and everything. So that's what I do during the day, and today it's kind of like, we've finished the hotel stuff but we're doing another big job of like, 300 pictures, so I was there cutting stuff today. And then I'm going to meet my mom at 1, for her birthday, and have lunch with her. After that, come home, work on some more Soilent Green t-shirt designs, and then go to practice tonight.
So you're actually working on the designs yourself?
Yeah, me and Brian usually get together. Brian's pretty much, as far as the art layouts for the CDs, he's pretty much the conceptualization person. And then after all that, me and him kind of get together and throw ideas together for t-shirts. But I pretty much take care of assembling all the t-shirt designs.
He comes up with the general ideas for the artwork?
Yeah, he starts off with a basis and then people give them their input, and then it kind of grows from there. When other people start saying things, it adds more ideas to what he wants, and then he starts adding more things in. So he's pretty much, overall, through the years, through every album, he's been the major conceptualization person for every single CD.
What's the story with the artwork on Confrontation? It's a samurai, isn't it?
It's actually based on feudal Japanese art. With Soilent Green, the style of music we do, we kind of blend so many extreme styles, we've always had this attitude of...we were into certain things in art as well. So why not make the covers, like, a blended style of different things? In a way, it's kind of even, and it represents each other, but in a sense, the art doesn't even represent the music at all. I mean, if you look at the CD you'd be kinda like, "oh, well, I don't know about this band." In the past, with Sewn Mouth Secrets and stuff like that, with the more art-nouveaux kind of look stuff. It was kind of deceiving in a sense. But it's all part of the program, too, you know. Looks can be deceiving, the whole generalization...
Yeah, I always thought it was cool. That was something that first attracted me to the band a while ago, seeing those covers and wondering what the hell the music sounded like.
So yeah, it's a different approach. So there's not only a lot of thought put into the music, but there's a lot of thought put into the art. And sometimes when we do t-shirt designs, Brian won't even be involved at all, he'll just let me kind of go off and take a bunch of images and start putting stuff together. But he likes to be the main person as far as the whole CD layout. When we get into it about doing the next album, I make sure he gets in touch with the graphics team at Relapse to start getting everything and laying everything out and getting ideas. Because, just like any kind of artist, you go through and then half-way through you want to change a few things because more ideas spawn from it or whatever.
Yeah, the more input you get, obviously that's going to happen.
Through the time and the cycle of it, everything kind of shifts. But the whole focus was that, for the new one, was kind of to be a little bit cut away from more elegant stuff and have a little bit more in-your-face, brutal in a sense, because the way the album's coming across and the title of the album, it seems like it needs to be more upfront about things. Plus, we were big fans of feudal Japanese art and just the Japanese culture, so we decided to incorporate that with Renaissance-type borders and things like that like we've done in the past with everything else.
So obviously it's not a concept album, but is it sort of with the title being Confrontation?
We didn't plan it to be that, but it kinda fell into that. We were sitting around, and we had the whole album done and everything, and we were trying to come up for a title for it. And I mean, of course, in the past with Sewn Mouth Secrets and Symphony For The Beaten Down, we were like, "why don't we do something one-word, simple, and straight to the point?" And I came across and was like, "well how about 'Confrontation'?" Because everything we've been through, we've confronted so many extremes from what we had to deal with personally, what we had to deal with physically, and everything as a band, through the last four years, between accidents and the death of a close friend that used to play with us and everything. So it was like, one big confrontation. And they were like, "yeah, that's great, that's great. Let's go with it, that's perfect." After that, everything just kind of fell into place and molded itself into a conceptual thing. It wasn't really something that was long thought of over the four years, it was something that all kind of fell into place. It was like, all the puzzle pieces finally, you're sitting there trying to sort out, and then suddenly everything just falls in.
Is that reflected in the music? Is the music more confrontational now, or is it more as it was in the prior releases?
I mean, it's got elements of past releases. Soilent Green will always have formulated Soilent Green going on, but I think there's a lot more parts that are, I guess, for other people, easier to get into. Maybe you can say simplier, but not necessarily simplier. I guess some more hooks to it.
Was that a change that was just prompted by aging as a band, or...
I think it had to do with growth and evolution as a band, as well as we have two new members in the band. And they've kind of spawned some things. Brian and Tommy are very critical people when they write, especially after doing this so long and everything. Tommy will nag Brian, like, if Brian comes in with a part, he's like, "you know what, that part sounds so much like a part off of Sewn Mouth Secrets," and they'll kind of argue a little bit. But then Brian will go home and go, "it really does sound like that, maybe I have to kind of, restructure it." So there's a lot of breaking down internally of stuff we've done in the past where they kind of come back and go, "no, no, that sounds exactly like that shit. You've gotta do something different about it." And even down to a drum-beat, the part might sound similiar because he's doing the same beat as he did in the past, it'll make the whole thing sound exactly the same. So if he changes the drum beat, or the way he plays on that certain part, it totally shifts it. So there's a lot of thought into it, in pushing it, to each level, but there's a lot of element of past Soilent Green was well as new blood entering the band and kind of a new fire. The two new guys never wrote a ton of stuff, but just because they were new and they were fueled, because they've never got to do anything like this, it added to the flame of coming up with newer stuff, going into newer progressions and everything. There's a lot more, like, punk-oriented stuff on this album than before in the past. It's all roots, though, everybody in the band grew up on a plethora of things. Different metal, different hardcore, different punk. Brian and Tommy are around 35 years old, I'm 32, I know we're kind of showing our age and everything, but that goes back a ways, to early days of early D.R.I., early C.O.C., early Venom, Celtic Frost, you know. So all of those things are great building blocks to everything structured internally. Besides everything else that's mixed in, like the bluesy end, the jazzy end, and things like that.
What made you guys decide to go to Erik Rutan for production?
He nagged the shit out of us. [laughing] No, I mean, Eric's a great guy, and I know he's got this big stereotype over his head because he was the guitarist in Morbid Angel, and he's the guitarist of Hate Eternal, and they're both prominent bands in the U.S. death metal scene. But we went and visited, we were on tour doing our own run after we kind of got things back in order again. We did the New England Hardcore/Metal Fest, we ran down the east coast, and we happened to play Tampa. He said, "come into the studio, check it out, and just have a talk with me." He was eager. He did calls and say, "hey, you know, I'd really like to do this album. I want to prove to people I'm not just death metal."
I remember when he first started talking about recording with you guys, he was just saying how excited he was.
Yeah, I mean, dude, he really kind of nagged us. He called me like, either every day or every other day. "Did you all go check out any other studios? What are you thinking about? I really want to do this. I really want to prove to y'all I can do this. Just because I'm involved with these death metal things, I want to prove I can do other extreme styles." Which he has. He's done the Soilent Green album, he's done the Into The Moat album, and he's progressing to show that in his engineering skills, he can touch on all kinds of extreme levels, and not just death metal. Even though his every day routine as far as playing is involved with death metal, his engineering skills go further than that. So he basically got in touch with us a lot and he showed a lot of interest. And the guys were like, "whoa man, he's really into it, and the albums he's done haven't been that bad...I mean, we can't really see what we sound like because he had done were death metal albums," except for...I think the first album he kind of did that was spurred away was the Premonitions of War. We kinda listened to that and were like, we kinda like the gritty style. Because we still want to come across ruthless with our style and kind of have that live presence to it, so that was kind of like a building block as well, because we took the Premontions of War album into perspective.
And saw what he could do for you.
Yeah. And then we decided on it, set it in, and he was a great person in the studio. I mean, he's a bit high-strung, but that's really good because he's on top of things.
Yeah, he's a producer, you sort of want that.
Some guys you go into the studio and they're like, "okay, what do y'all want to do next? You want to do some guitars?" He's like, "lets do this, lets do this. Lets try this out with the guitars, if it doesn't work, we'll stick to this. Lets try this with the drums, if it doesnt work, we'll move to this." He was always up for something new every day. And he'd be like, "I had some ideas last night, lets try these things. If they don't work out, we won't keep them, you like them, we'll keep them." So he was really into the whole thing. He's a really great person, he really is. Everyone just thinks of Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal, big death metal, but you know, he's a great individual in the studio. A great engineer as well.
Is there any sort of different approach lyrically or is it still that really dismal and gritty style that you have on the prior albums?
It's pretty much the same. When I write everything and when I'm in the studio doing it, I tend to go, "man, I don't know about this album, kinda questionable about what I'm doing," because I always feel like I'm running out of ideas, or everything's getting to be dried out. But then as soon as I start getting back into it again and cycling through all the lyrics and everything, I start going, "well that ain't bad, man. That ain't bad." You know what? I judge myself over other people's lyrics too much. I'm very critical. There's a lot of bands that I respect their lyrics.
Like who?
Like Deadguy, for instance. Deadguy - "Fixation on a Co-worker, " I don't know if you've ever sat down and read those lyrics, but he's got so many killer catch phrases that hit hard, and I like stuff like that. I like stuff that comes across just straight-up. Even bands like Coalesce and bands like that, they have these lyrics that are just kind of thought provoking. If they're not thought provoking, they're really cut and dry, but to the point, and it's really vicious the way it comes across. And that's what I'm always trying to do within my style. I have these impressions of other people's lyrics. Even before I was into other people's styles, I was going off and doing my own thing, but after sitting down and reading other people's stuff, I'm like, "wow, this style's really cool, I like how this guy came across and worded things." And so it kind of brought out new ideas within my own self.
Yeah, the more you write, the more you're interested in what other people are writing. And then you go back and examine your own stuff.
Yeah. From the beginning of the whole lyric writing, it's just one big fuckin' mess. What I do is like, every day...there'll be a day I don't write anything, or there'll be a day I write one line. Or there'll be a day where I write thirty lines. And I used to just put it in a notebook until I stepped into the new age and I just kind of type it into the computer.
So with a lot of the songs you're just kind of cut and pasting a lot of the lyrics around?
Yeah, I'm basically plagiarizing myself. You know what I'm saying? I have these long, long, lists of lyrics, and then I go through and I take similar ideas and then I kind of re-write them or re-structure them and put them together, and boom, you have the Soilent Green lyrics. And it's got a flow to it. But sometimes it can be brain-racking, because you're trying to keep a same overall idea within the song, and you don't want to go too off the tangent and lose people, so you have to go through all these lyrics and kind of pick out elements that kind of represent each other, and then basically lay them out. And then within that laying out, you've got this flow going, and then you kind of pop up new ones right there, spur of the moment, within things. Some of it's pre-written stuff way back, and some of it's stuff that came up right there when you were putting it all together.
Kind of back to what you were talking about with the idea behind the album, as far as all the hardship you guys have had to endure, were there any times where you guys contemplated breaking up or just not going on and felt like you were cursed?
Actually, you know....it really never did come to that, surprisingly. When our friend, Scott, who was killed, left the band, he left the band because he was kinda...you know, we had the accident, and then he wasn't around for the second one because he was still at home and everything. But that happened and he was like, "you know what, man, I really can't. I can't deal with that." It's kind of an awkward thing, two accidents within a four month period of time, but you know, we all accepted it. It was like, Me, Brian, and Tommy left. So we were just like, "we're still gonna do this." Brian and Tommy would come over to my parent's house where I was staying at the time because I was in a wheelchair and everything and I couldn't get around, and I didn't have no space in the apartment I was in. And they would come by and they're like, "how do you feel? You're not thinkin' about..." and I didn't even have the idea of like, "man, this sucks, I don't want to do it anymore." At that point, I was really focused on myself and getting my physical state back in order. I didn't know if I was ever going to walk again. I didn't know too much in the early stages.
Would you say you're fully recovered now?
Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I get arthritis in my right ankle, and, you know...
But that's amazing for what you went through to just have arthritis...
Yeah, I mean, I did a lot of work. As much as I possibly could.
Yeah, I read that you pretty much just, when you went back to the hospital, they just sort of said you did it for yourself.
The thing was, the hospital I was going to here, I had two different doctors because I had an orthopedic doctor for my legs and everything, and then I had another doctor for the surgery for my heel. And they couldn't get together and give a set date to work out a physical therapy thing, so I just went ahead and went to this fitness center by me, and I told people my situation and they cut me a deal. Because what it was was I met this guy who used to play football, and he told me about this pool-therapy that they do for football players when they hurt their legs. You just get into a pool and you walk back and forth in it, because it's no impact and it builds muscle. So it's really good. So I would go do that like, thirty minutes to an hour every morning, and then after I did the pool thing, I'd go and ride the bike. Or vice-versa, I'd switch it up. I'd go upstairs to the little stable bike and ride the bike like, ten miles or whatever, something like that. So I'd do that four or five times a week. I'd have somebody drop me off there, I'd go in there, and then I'd give someone a call to come and get me when I was done. So I tried to stay on things as much as I possibly could.
Are you still having to pay for that, having bills hanging over your head?
Oh yeah, I got tons of bills hanging over my head. It's ridiculous. Dude, I mean, medical shit is so high it's not even funny. My medical bills are probably high enough to where I could buy a house. I mean, down here, more, I mean. Because you can get a house for a fairly decent price. But they're just...
Still, a house is a house. They're expensive.
A house is a house, and I got bills that high that I can't have a house. I can just have some rods and screws in my legs. It was tough, you know, like I said, there was moments where I just didn't want to talk to nobody because I didn't want people to deal with my situation. I was dealing with my situation. I didn't want people coming over with the sympathy plea and all that stuff with, "ohhhh, it shouldn't have happened to you, can I do anything for you." My mom and dad even know, I didn't even ask for help from them. My mom would be like, "do you need me to do anything," and I said, "go do whatever you gotta do today, I can take care of myself. I can get myself in and out of the wheelchair, into the bathroom to use it, and back into the bed." And I never did ask for much, and I didn't want people coming over sympathizing. If they were going to come over, they were going to come over and hang out and be goofy.
Not come over and bring you cards and flowers.
Yeah, yeah, no silly stuff. Just come over and play like, "okay, I'm in a wheelchair, no big deal. I'm still Ben, I'm still the same dude that you knew before I was in the accident."
Yeah, that sort of happened to a friend of mine. He fell off a deck and shattered both his heels and was in a wheelchair in his parent's basement. But I went over there and he's watching Yo! MTV Raps from 1993, having the time of his life in his wheelchair saying, "sit down! watch some TV!"
Yeah, I mean, I got a lot of opportunities for the wheelchair. There's two movie theatres that actually give you two free tickets if you're in a wheelchair. So I would call up friends and be like, "hey man, lets go see this movie," and they'd be like, "I don't want to see that," "but it's free! I get two free tickets!" I went and saw everything stupid I could. I went and saw good stuff, but then if they had stupid stuff, I'd go see it. I once saw "Eight Legged Freaks" when it came out. I was like, "this movie's gonna be stupid as hell, but the tickets are free, who cares?"
I heard when you got into the accident, one of the last things you remember was "Freddie Got Fingered", right?
Yeah!
Do you like that movie or do you think it's the dumbest thing in the world?
It's dumb but it's so dumb it's fuckin' hilarious.
Yeah, I know. There's almost two types of people in the world: those who can appreciate the movie, and those who just think you're a moron for liking it.
The thing was, when we travel we have this TV/DVD thing set up in between the front two seats, and I was driving, but we run it through the stereo. So It's like, I can be driving and hear it going on, you know. And I can hear the parts, so I remember the parts. So I remember that being on before the accident, I remember them watching it and the silly shit going on in it. The craziest thing, too, is....I had Hatebreed's "Perseverence" in the CD deck, and I remember, because when I got home, I was looking for the CD. But when the van got smashed, I guess it got locked in the deck, and nobody ever got it out. And when I got home I was like, "where the hell is that CD?" It was right before it came out. Somebody gave me an advance of it, and I thought the guitars were like, fuckin' devastating. I was like, "jesus christ, the guitars are so fuckin' heavy on this album." I remember that being in the deck, too, and then I got home and was like, "where's that goddamn Hatebreed CD?" And I was in the fuckin' wheelchair and I was like, "where is the fuckin' thing," and I remembered it was in the deck and probably got trapped in there.
You didn't try to call the salvage yard or anything?
Oh man, it was already too late. They already trashed that thing.
Having been in the metal scene for as long as you have, how do you feel about the newfound popularity that heavier music has taken? You talk to all these people that feel like these kids don't have the prerequisite to appreciate the music the way it is. I was wondering if you had any sort of take on that.
I think it's great, man. I think it's great. I mean, people complain about this metalcore stuff, but it's just an expansion of extreme music.
Yeah, and people get into other types of metal through it. Even if the first band they heard is Atreyu, eventually they get into something crazier.
They always spur off. I mean, you can't just constantly listen to one band. You get dull on it, you need different outlets. Within extreme music, there's so many different extreme outlets, it's not even funny. And people have a lot to say, "I don't like these bands, this doesn't represent metal," but it's growth, man. It's evolution of metal. If anything, metalcore is kind of like what C.O.C. and D.R.I. did with the crossover thing.
Yeah, as I'm sure people hated them for bastardizing the name of hardcore/punk or whatever.
Yeah, with the whole thrash/metal/punk/hardcore scene. And they were doing that. It's the same thing, they're crossing over metal and hardcore. They're taking an At The Gates element and putting hardcore vocals over it, or they're stemming it even further than that. It's complete growth, it's gotta be there. The evolution has to expand, that's what the underground does. It constantly moves forwards and sets new barriers and sets new regiments for everything. Everybody always says at points, "ah well, metal is dead," but metal's coming back. Metal never died. Metal just goes back to the underground and restructures itself, and sets a new standard and pushes forward, and then it rises up again. Just look at from the point where Metallica was huge. Then when Pantera was huge. Then now with Slipknot being the top band. Look at the progression of the extremity as it went along. If Slipknot was around back when Metallica was big, they'd never be at that level, because the extremity was too high of a measure.
Yeah, no matter what people cry about as far as Slipknot, nu-metal, all that shit - if you sit down and listen, they're actually pretty fucking heavy. Especially for something that's selling out arenas.
Iowa is a heavy fuckin' album. I think they went more extreme on that album than the first one.
Yeah, they definitely did. Even from the first track, you can tell that's what they wanted it to be.
No, dude, I like that album a lot. I thought it was great. I mean, despite all the little clown outfits, all that shit, who cares. Dude, Kiss did it back then. The thing is, the problem with people when they get older, they do age mentally. They don't stop and have this introspection where they go, "hey, I was young once." Now you've got this whole generation of young kids. Do you expect these young kids that are 14, 15, just getting into this, to know who the fuck Celtic Frost and Venom is right off the bat? Fuck no, man. That's not presented to them in their face constantly. If you go to Hot Topic and all these other places that are pushing to these young kids, it's not like they got Celtic Frost shit in front of the fuckin' kid's face. It's like, let the kid grow from here. Once he goes into this and he sees, he'll go back to the older stuff and find it out. It's just like when you were growing up, listening to Metallica and everything, and you didn't really have too much knowledge of Led Zeppelin and things. You went back to Sabbath and Zeppelin and all those things if you didn't have knowledge of it, you know? It's age! What do you expect, the kid to pop out to be a fuckin' genius metal fuckin' dude and know every Celtic Frost album at the age of twelve? Hey, you know, they need time, you took time, you weren't the brightest fuckin' one when you first got into metal either. You were probably what they would say, "a poser," because you didn't know enough about what was going on. After all the criticism and people capping on you, you investigated and you searched into the whole thing, and you found other fuckin' areas of different music that were followed back to the newer stuff.
On another note, how have you stayed with Relapse so long? Is it contractual or is it that you really feel it's right for the band?
Actually, it's been contractual. We had a three album deal with them. Confrontation is the last album out of the deal. So now we're pretty much a free band, you know, unless Relapse approaches us about doing further albums, or another label steps in.
Are you thinking about moving Soilent Green to your own label, Incision Records?
Incision's kind of in limbo right now just because of my financial position and I can't really do what I'd like to do for it. It was something thought about in the past before the accidents and things like that, but it's something I just can't do financially. Unless for some reason I just go buy a lotto ticket and everything falls into place tonight. Then everything will change. But until then, it's kind of like, every day's almost like, step by step. Just because of the overbearing financial thing. Just focus on the bands, do that, work, and just keep everything at a level place.
Can you tell me a little bit more on the video you're doing?
I'm not sure the director's name, but he's the guy who did pretty much most of the Mastodon videos. I think he's doing the new Nile video as well. So he's going to be doing it. The idea is...Brian's actually been in touch with the video guy, so I'm not too sure what's going to go on fully with it. We're thinking about doing some, not necessarily live footage, but I guess, footage of maybe an industrial area or something like that, and some close-ups, real jittery type stuff. When we're going through the blast parts, we're talking about maybe doing some real close-ups of like, hand parts on guitars and bass, and close-ups on vocals that are rapidly moving, really fast. Kind of like a strobe light effect, to represent the fast parts. There's still ideas being played into effect, so I'm still not fully sure. Everything will come down to terms when we get to Atlanta on Wednesday, and we'll actually know what's going down. But Brian and the video guy have just been kind of chatting back and forth. And you know, the video people usually like to come in and kind of throw up all the ideas that they have, or things that they've been pondering, so it's all kind of a last minute thing. There is some conceptualization in it, but once you get there, there's always things that just open up and they expand on it, and you just shoot like, the whole day. Play the same song over, and over, and over again. And they shoot just all day.
That sounds too tedious for me.
Yeah, it's pretty tedious, but if I eat enough fuckin' candy I'll be wound up and I can deal with it.
[laughing] What kind of candy will you eat?
Probably Sprees. I'll probably drink Mountain Dew and eat Spree, and I'll just be wound up the whole day.
You ever have those Shock Tarts things?
Oh, those are great, too.
Yeah, those are good. I was hooked on those.
That's cool. I don't like Chewy Spree, I just like the original ones, but the Shock Tarts are cool. I like that. And the Fun-Dip, too.
Fun-Dip? You still eat Fun-Dip?
Oh hell yeah, the white stick is the best.
Do you ever get those wax bottles that have the little liquid in them?
Yeah, yeah, those are fuckin' awesome.
Man, I used to eat those all day. I wouldn't even pop open the bottle cap and drink it, I'd just put the whole thing in my mouth and chew it up.
[laughing] Exactly, I did the same thing. Dude, I'm such a candy fiend, they make fun of me all the time for it. We'll stop on tour at some gas station, and I'll leave with five dollars of candy.
Do you just like the really sour stuff, or is it anything?
I like...I like...I'm open. I'm always open for new stuff. But I do like the sour stuff, and I do like the high, exorbitant, sugar fuckin' related shit.
Have you had the Sour Skittles?
Oh yeah, yeah. I had those. You know what has some absolutely high-ass fuckin' sugar is the Nerds stick. It's like, a gooey stick with Nerds on it. It's powered with sugar...[laughing]
Yeah, that's delicious. Who came up with that idea? How did they get that idea?
You know how I think they came up with that? I think the dude that was working at the Nerds factory was eating a Twizzler, and he had it in his mouth, and it fell in the thing. He pulled it out, and it was stuck all over the fuckin' lava-ridden Twizzler, and then he was like, "this is a great idea! Let's do a fuckin' like, a Twizzler type thing covered with Nerds!"
I feel like those things aren't going to be around for much longer. I should go stock up or something.
Yeah, yeah. Well that's the good thing about candy, you can stock up and it usually lasts for like, twenty years.
Unless you keep it in the same drawer or whatever. Then it all blends together and you've got like, peanut-butter flavored Skittles and shit like that...
Yeah, stuff starts leaking or something.
Yeah, yeah. My sister had this little time capsule of candy, and when I was little I'd dig under her bed and take some. But after a few years of doing that, by the time I was 12, I didn't even want to eat the shit anymore because it had such an odd flavor. I couldnt figure out what was what.
I think it's just because, maybe, temperature changes in the house and it causes the syrup to get goopy...and then...it runs out the package into the other one, and it fucks it all up. That's why you should always separate your candy.
So anyway, how do you feel about the upcoming tour you're doing? It's kind of a mixed tour with a lot of bands who are pretty far away from Soilent Green's sound.
Well, I mean. I guess all bands are pretty much far displaced from Soilent Green's sound.
That's true, but there's some that would complement you guys a little better.
I mean, dude, it'd be great if we did a tour with Dillinger Escape Plan or something, it would be something more in that kind of element. But no, we wanted a very different kind of tour, a different approach. Bring in some different crowds, let people that are in the certain styles experience other styles. You have a lot of different stuff going there, from Watch Them Die, to Into The Moat, to A Perfect Murder, you know? Why not do that and mix up a crowd? Do the whole C.O.C./D.R.I. thing, the cross-over tour, and fuckin', have a bunch of people pissed off, show up at a place together. And try to get them to merge and understand, "you know, it's all the same thing. It's not just a big social event."
Yeah, I never understood the apparent battle between hardcore kids and metal.
You want to know what the battle is? I'll tell you what the battle is. It's called style. Because the metal kid just is wearing whatever, his jeans, sneakers, and some fuckin' In Flames shirt, and there's kids that have their cool girl pants, with their little Hot Topic belt on, and two sizes too small shirt...
And then you've got the guy in the jersey with the cabbie hat, with all the Irish tattoos...
Or they got the little train hat or something. It's like, dude, it's not about style. What is this, has it turned into metal GQ? Come on, just be yourself. If you like to dress like that, that's cool. If you like extreme music, that's cool. Lets go to the show, enjoy fuckin' shit, and that's it. Why make it a social event, fuckin' cap on the kid who's wearing the jeans and the fuckin' shirt because he's not dressing like you. Everybody's sharing the equality, it's not like you gotta hang out with the other dude every day anyway. You're going to show to enjoy music that bands struggled to bring to you. It's like, these bands, they live in vans and everything on the road. They barely make money on the road and pretty much work a day job at home so they can fund the situation to go on the road. Show a little respect, and respect the bands that are fuckin' working and trying to bring you something, trying to offer some kind of thing. You've got your people that are always gonna be...because, you know, in a sense, metal is sort of trendy right now. Whenever something gets to a peak, it gets "trendy". I know people probably hate me saying that, but it's true. Anything that does get to a peak becomes a trend. And you will have the kids who are in it because they will always be like the sheep. They will always jump from whatever's big, just on a social level, so they don't feel like a fuckin' outcast. And then you have the kids who will always be into it and true to it through all the fuckin' years. So you know, you have the ones that go to the shows, and they're just the passer-bys. They're just the ones that come there, they cap on all the fuckin' people, but in five years when rap's huge again, they'll be on that mother-fucking thing wearing big, baggy pants, talking like they want to be black or some shit like that, changing their whole thing just because they want to fit into a social caliber. Metal will still be there. It's good that it peaks at trends, because it keeps it alive. Even though it does go back underground and a lot of people seem to forget about it, it still restructures itself and it still moves forward.
Yeah, and it's always a reminder to older people who were already exposed to it, all of a sudden they're hit with it again and reminded that this is still around. There's still Satanic bands and shit like that that they need to be worried about, apparently.
Satanic bands, man. What's with all these Christian metal bands? I don't understand people, why all these years of seeing how much damage religion has done, that they keep putting down the Satanic bands. Dude, just look at all the wars ever in the world that were started over religion. I mean, look at the thing in fuckin' Iraq. That's because those people are so goddamn into their fuckin' beliefs, they'll kill themselves to get rid of us. It's like, yeah, there are other things on the line, political things, but overall, it's a religious thing.
But what people believe is it's not religion that started it, it's being of the wrong religion that started it.
It's religion-based, it's like football team shit. Our religion's better than your fuckin' religion and da-da-da-da-da. And it's a shame, because, it's just like the whole thing I was saying about the music. Just respect each other, because you're all in there for the same thing. Who cares what religion you believe in, you're all pretty much there for the same thing. You all want to go somewhere when you die to make yourself happy while you're here, so why don't you just expect other people's beliefs? You're just as wrong for shootin' down someone elses shit, than someone else talking shit about your shit.
You have a split scheduled with Sulaco (ex-Lethargy), right? How's that coming along, and when can we expect a release?
I'm not too sure fully when the release date is. It should be within the next two to three months. I'm not too sure. The guy at the label that's putting it out is taking care of all that. I mean, he has the song. It's a song that's not on the new album, but it's a brand new song. It's actually a bonus track on the Japanese release. If you really want your hands on it, you either need to buy a 7 inch and get a record player, or go to Japan and get the CD.
On to Goatwhore, what made you guys move to Metal Blade specifically, and did you have a lot of labels that were pitching offers to you?
Um, we had the interest of some labels here and there, but we just felt that Metal Blade was the right move for us. I mean, I don't want to be the one that talks bad like every other band with labels, but Goatwhore needs a step up from Rotten. Rotten could only do so much as the size they are, and Goatwhore just needs to move. And it needs a label that can help it move. It seemed like we were kind of locked into a position with Rotten. So we only had a two album deal, so we do the two albums and then from there, branch off and get a new label. Metal Blade's doing so well right now, it seemed like a good advance for us to move on with them to help things expand more.
How far along are you guys on the album? Is it already recorded or are you still writing it?
Yeah, we're still writing it.
Do you have any sort of idea as to what direction it's going in?
It's definitely going to have...Sammy's really into like, getting a lot more faster stuff in it than on Funeral Dirge, but he still wants to keep that like, rock, slow, doomed-out edge of Funeral Dirge. So he basically wants to blend the first and the second albums together and then add some new kind of ideas to it as well. It's gonna be very...Metal Blade's kind of pushing us to get it done, but we're kind of telling them, "look, we really want to work on this album and make sure it comes out really good, because this is gonna be an album that y'all are gonna put out and push really well, and we don't want to just hand you over any kind of bullshit." So we've been like, the wall of like, the label that usually comes at you. We've been blocking them and been like, "check it out, just chill out. It'll be fine. We want to make our Reign In Blood." [laughing] That's the best thing to tell Metal Blade too, anyways, since they basically spawned Slayer. So we say, "this is what we want our album to be, the next Reign In Blood. So give us time, let us put this bitch out right." So it's in structure, it's working. While I'm out with Soilent Green for the next two months, they're going to be working real hard on a lot of the new stuff, so when I get back, I'll have to play a lot of catch-up.
Have you tossed around any names as far as who's going to be recording you, yet?
Actually, we've kind of talked about Rutan doing it, to tell you the truth. It's still up in the air, though. So we thought, "maybe we'll go to Rutan for that, as well."
He already knows your habits and everything.
Yeah. Well, Sammy likes the fact that, with him being a guitar player, he always gets really good guitar tones out of his album. So since Sammy plays guitar, he's like, "man, I like how the dude brings the guitar across, and I really want that, I want it to be an attack," so that's a big presence on the whole situation as well.
What's the primary difference between the whole songwriting between the two bands?
Between Soilent Green and Goatwhore?
Yeah.
Soilent Green maintains...a...high level of marijuana when they're writing. And Goatwhore doesn't. Soilent Green is like, functional on marijuana. Not myself, I don't really do anything. But the other guys, big time. It's almost like when you see "Rainman" and the dude was like, really smart, but he couldn't understand some elements, you know? It's kind of like, when they're not stoned, they can't focus in properly. When they're all stoned, it's like they could run fuckin' Trump Plaza or something. It's crazy, it's true, you know? The dudes are on top of their game when they're stoned. Like tonight when we go to practice, they'll spend thirty minutes toting out and getting into that zone, and people think, "that's fuckin' crazy, cuz look at the shit y'all play," but that's what sinks them into that zone. And they're all buzzed out and they got them little Chinese-eyes kickin, and they're like, "man, let's rock it," and then you blow into the set. I'm standing there going, "damn, dude, if I looked like that I wouldn't be able to remember one fuckin' thing in this shit." But they've got it into a grain.
So how did you even end up in Goatwhore?
That was a situation. Sammy actually was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana one night, just out, and there was a fight that broke out and he got his jaw broken. He had his mouth wired shut, and they had some shows set up. I was into some of the things they were doing, I was like, "wow, that's some cool shit," so I called him and I said, "hey man, I know you got these shows, I'm offering to come sing with y'all for some shows, just until your jaw gets back if you want me to." So I went out there and started jamming with them. Basically it was a mutual thing, and then boom, I was in Goatwhore. I offered my assistance and it grew from there. So we can kind of thank the guy that broke his jaw, in a sense. Even though he had to go through that shit, because that looks miserable.
Who was the guy?
He doesn't even remember because it was just a big fight that broke out. He got shoved or something to the ground, and I think some dude kicked him in his jaw. So it was really fucked up, it was really fucked up. I mean, dude, it sucked, because he pretty much had to eat through a straw. Your whole jaw's wired shut, together, so it can heal.
I wanted to talk to you about the haunted house you recorded in a little.
You mean what Goatwhore did, when we recorded?
Yeah.
That wasn't really a haunted house, but...in more ways than one, it's a haunted house. We never knew they had any "activity" or whatever.
Sammy was saying all this crazy shit was happening.
Yeah, we had some fucked up things happen. Like there was one night I remember, I mean, there was a couple nights when he was just there with the engineer and he said some shit happened, but there was a night where it was just me, him, and the engineer there. And we were sitting in the room and it was like, two levels. The whole bottom level of the house was a studio, and the whole top was a living quarters. So if you wanted to rent the whole thing out there and stay there for a month, you could. But there'd be some nights where we'd be there late and he'd just be like, "go ahead and stay upstairs, it's okay, and we'll start up again tomorrow." But there was one night we were in there, and dude, there was like, footsteps running everywhere upstairs, and there was nobody up there. There's nobody else in this place, there's no other way to get into this house. It was just everywhere, and we kind of went up the little staircase and went up there and looked around, but there was nothing, Supposedly in certain rooms, if you go to sleep, you can feel stuff on the bed, I guess walking on the bed or pulling the sheets or something like that. There was different little things. But the only thing I really experienced was the night we were there and we heard footsteps everywhere.
Did you have any beliefs in that sort of thing before that?
I didn't not believe in fuckin' ghosts, and I didn't...believe. I was kind of just in limbo. I was like, "it's possible, but, it's not possible, who knows, I'm not going to sit here and ponder it." It'd be cool if I came across it. I mean, I'd go experiment with some shit. We got something out here that's like, forty-five minutes east of New Orleans, it's called The Haunted Well. Supposedly, back in the Civil War days, these confederate soldiers raped this girl and threw her down this well to die. Well if you go out there late at night, you see her ghost come out the woods. We'd take people out there to check it out. I'm enthralled by it, if I could see something I'd be stoked as hell. I'd like to be on one of these shows like the ghost-hunter shows, where you actually go look for stuff and they video tape shit, and shit goes down. I'd love to do that, that'd be great. I like the supernatural or the unknown, you know.
Is that from being surrounded...I mean, I know New Orleans is considered kind of a place for that with all the Haitians down there.
Yeah, there was a lot of the voodoo stuff. Not only that, but even through time with the slaves and things like that. They had a lot of things. There's this one house in the French Quarter too where there was this man and a woman, I can't remember the story in full, but I think the guy was a doctor, or maybe both. Him and his wife were doctors. And they did these experiments on these slaves, like, science experiments and shit. Like if they didn't live, they buried them all under the floor-boards. Well one night, the whole house caught on fire and everybody burned up, and they had like, a room where they had them all locked up and everything and they burned up. It's like, sometimes you can go and be outside the house and you can hear peopel screaming or whatever in the house. So, it's all stories. There's some things I've never experienced, and there's some things I've read, but this city has a lot of history. Even throughout the state. There's certain areas that have history as far as being haunted and stuff, down in the plantations along the river and things like that. The ghost-hunter people were just out here. They were down here for like, three or four weeks. And they went out to the haunted well, too, because I had some friends one night call me. They went there to go check it out, and the ghost people were there, and they said they had shit on video that they had caught. And I was kind of mad because I was like, "that's bullshit, y'all go out there after I show you where it is, and then y'all go out there one night and the fuckin' ghost-hunter people are out there." [laughing] There's a lot of different elements like that, but like I said, I never really experienced it. When I was younger, I was in this death metal band here, when I was like 17, 18, it was called Paralysis. It was like, cookie-monster death metal, Cannibal Corpse, stuff like that. Our drummer lived in this big house, and supposedly it was haunted. What was funny was the guitar player who was in that band with me, Tony White, plays in Soilent Green now. So we stem back from a ways back. Tony would tell me about sleeping over at Alex's house, that was the drummer, and things happened. He'd be in his room and there'd be like, a light, behind a TV, that was just like a lamp light. Like a tall, skinny, lamp light. And it would actually fall and move around the TV, just to hit him.
What the hell?
Yeah, he goes, "this place is haunted, it's not like the thing just fell, because if it fell, the TV blocked it from hitting me. It would like, fall and then slide to the side. Just to make sure it hit me, I'd have to avoid it or something."
I've never had anything like that happen.
I've never had anything either, like I said. The only thing I had was that time when I was in the studio for Goatwhore and the footsteps upstairs. It sounded like, twenty kids, running around. That's what it sounded like. The guy's name was Dave, the engineer, and we were like, "Dave, who's upstairs," and he's like, "dude, nobody's in this house. We're the only three people in this whole fuckin' place. Nobody can even get in upstairs except from in here." There was a little spiral staircase that went up in the kitchen, back by the studio. So we went up it and went looking around and were like, "that's fucking weird." I had hella goosebumps.
I never had anything close to that happen. The only thing I've had close to happen was I was sitting in my basement, and I saw this white haze, streak thing, just float by me. I did a double take and I saw it the second time, that's the only reason I'm convinced I saw anything. Because you know, you'll see shit out of the corner of your eye, but then you'll look and nothing's there.
My mom actually told me a story when she was younger, when her and my dad first got married, that she saw something in the doorway in the house they were living in. They used to live in New Orleans, in this little house. She said she was on the bed and she noticed this misty film around the door, and then there started to be a figure appear out of the misty stuff, and then she rubbed her eyes and it started to fade off. She said not too long after that they had to move out because she was creeped out by the situation.
I read on the website that there were all these rumors circulating over the last eight months about Goatwhore, what were you referring to there?
We were on the Cannibal Corpse tour and we had a little situation internally in the band where some things broke out or whatever, and there were some fights and shit. We had to drop from the tour. So a lot of people thought we broke up and things, so there were a lot of rumors flying. We had to restructure some things, internally. It's still me and Sammy, and it's still Zack Simmons, the new drummer guy we got, but we have a new bass player, a guy named Nathan Bergeron. Pat, that was playing bass with us, has been playing bass for Crowbar, and he was just...I think there was just a mutual element that he really didn't want to be a part of Goatwhore anymore. So we just kind of separated ways with that. We didn't want to make a big deal of it because Goatwhore's still functioning and still moving forward, and Nathan's just kind of stepped into place for Pat. It's more or less, that's why we didn't...because there was rumors, people saying that Goatwhore broke up and Goatwhore isn't doing anything anymore. We just had to restructure some things and I guess talk some things out and situate stuff, and get things back on track again.
What do you think you'd be doing right now if you weren't involved with bands?
I'd be doin' porn, man! Yeah, I'd love to do that, that'd be great. I don't know, I guess just doing the job or doing some other kind of thing. Me and a friend of mine around here are really into movie stuff lately, we got this movie software and stuff, and we've been videotaping stuff and dropping it in and working with it. We're like, "man, maybe we oughta do some sort of short movie or something," like, we'll videotape bands and drop stuff in and kind of edit it and paste it all together. So I've always got this stem to venture off into other little things, so I guess if I wasn't doing a band, I'd venture off into other little things like that. I have little hobbies, because at points with the bands, you get to a point where some of the guys are tired, they don't want to tour no more, they want a little break for a while. Well, I'm kind of like, "I don't really want a break," so that's why I have Goatwhore and Soilent Green, but even at points where both of them actually want to do anything, I'm like, I need a little hobby or something. So I'll go find new things to do, different things, whatever. Or just kind of enjoy the off-time, go ride my bike every day, just go do something. Create some kind of hobby, or start something fresh or new. So it's not like, "oh, it'd be the end of my life if I didn't have the bands." The bands are a plus. If they ever dissolve, they dissolve, but I had fun doing them. And hopefully they kind of set a standard in the industry that kind of pushed things forward. If anything, we're pioneers in a sense, hopefully. But as far as that, I'd be doing something. There'd be something there. Whatever, three jobs, six hobbies, who knows? But I'd keep busy because I keep busy. I don't like to just sit around and do nothing.
Does your family think you're insane that you're still doing this, even after everything?
My mom freaks out. My mom freaks out every time I leave to go on the road. She kinda gets in those mode. I say, "mom, it's going to be alright. It was two accidents. It's an accident, you can't do anything about it. They happen." But she's cool about it, she goes, "nah, I know you gotta do what you're gonna do." See, the thing was, when I got crushed in the front, they got a call at like, four in the morning, so she's just like, "I just don't want no more calls at four in the morning. You don't even know, even if the phone rings at four in the morning, it freaks me out," because of that situation when it happened. Because they got the call and they were like, "your son's been in an accident and he's in surgery right now. We can't really tell you what his condition is." When you get a call like that, you're like, "what the fuck, is he about to die? What's going on?" So it tripped her out pretty bad. She's kind of weird about it, but see, they understand that I'm going to do this. It's like, the drummer was talking to my mom one time, I wasn't around, and he came and visited her. He said, "Ms. Falgoust, you know when your son's better, he's gonna do this again, you know he's just got that drive," and she goes, "I know he is, I know. I know. I'm prepared," it's just a really drastic thing that happened. But they're pretty supportive. My parent's are pretty cool. My dad's pretty cool. He has his moments just like any other dad, but overall he's actually pretty cool. A lot of my friends like him, we have a lot of comedy shit about him.
Same here, my friends love the guy.
Yeah, yeah. We'll spur up comedy about the guy and someone will be like, "dude, y'all haven't met Ben's dad? Ben's dad is fuckin' hilarious!" Then they'll start telling all these fuckin' crazy stories and shit. They kinda think, "aw, you don't make no fuckin' money from that, it's nothing," you get your usual that shit, but overall they're pretty supportive, in general.
Any bands you'd like to be going on tour with but haven't already mentioned?
Dude, I'd love to get Soilent Green in front of as many...because I mean, Soilent Green really isn't huge, up to the par of something like Lamb of God. So I'd love to get it out with situations like that to expand the audiences more, because Soilent Green can only headline it's own tour so much before it's just got the same people constantly coming out. We want to kind of expand and branch out the audience. So dude, if we could go out with Hatebreed, with Killswitch Engage, with Shadow's Fall, with In Flames....with Slipknot, with any of those. It would be great. Just to kind of go out and expand the crowd and open up for a different thing, and open up for a bigger audience. Even Mastodon. Even Dillinger Escape Plan. It's a total different audience that hasn't seen us that we could actually get some fans out of. So I mean, we're up for anything like that. In the past, we went out with Morbid Angel and Deicide. We went out with GWAR. Even though the tours ended a little short because of set accidents, but you know, we were into going out with anything that would help expand things.
Any bands you've played with or opened for you that really left a lasting impression on you, musically or not?
Hmmm. Interesting. I'm not too sure, man. All the bands I play with, they end up...I mean, it's funny because you hear a CD and hear a band and you're like, "they're pretty cool," but when you go out on the road and you meet them as individuals and you watch them play, maybe like, the live presence and everything, it kind of alters your look at the whole situation. So I mean, every band I've ever toured with has totally amazed me. As individuals. I've also had bands that have disgusted me after I've gone on tour with them, just because of how they were as individuals. But I guess that comes with the territory, right? Even stuff like Black Dahlia Murder to Watch Them Die, to Cattle Decapitation, you get out on the road with them and you're like, man. Someone who's sharing the same element as you but still doing something slightly different, in an extreme sense. And they all amaze me. They all amaze me. And it amazes me too that there's so many more bands now and the people are younger in it, whereas before, you didn't see bands out. The dudes were between 23 and 28 years old out there doing that. Then you got bands like The Black Dahlia Murder and Into The Moat, and they're still in their teen years, some of them.
Are they?
And they're playing fuckin' awesome. Well, Black Dahlia Murder were younger when they first came around, they've aged a little, but they were still young. And Into The Moat's real young, I think a couple of those dudes are like, 18, 19 years old. And they're incredible fuckin' players. The thing that's crazy too is like, I remember when I was younger and bands like Entombed and all that were big, and those bands were all younger. It was always weird, because the European bands were fuckin' young, and they were awesome.
Yeah, and even now, bands like Decapitation.
Yeah, yeah, them too. The European market has always spawned young bands that were great. It was always an odd thing in the states. It's awesome to see that there are more young bands that are really good now in the states.
Did you ever hear of a band called The Deathkids? I think it was like...
Yeah, yeah! With the dudes' dad playing bass!
Yeah! I don't know if they were any good. I just remember seeing them at like, a Milwaukee Metalfest years ago.
They used to always play the Milwaukee Metalfest. Yeah, I remember them. But I think it's good that they have a lot of younger bands now, these younger kids into it and everything. It shows that...they're stepping up to the plate at a younger age and bringing more crazier shit to the table. I mean, compared to us, a lot of the bands are young as hell. We're like, old men in a sense, I guess.
Last few questions: what have you been listening to?
What have I been listening to....? I love this question...
Yeah, me too. It's the typical interview question, but whenever I read interviews, it's one of the first things I want to see.
Okay, so I'm like, a new age kid. I've got an Ipod, okay? Which I think is great, because now I can drop everything into it and I can just hit shuffle and I listen to a different song every time. Because I got to this point where I can't really listen to a whole album anymore of somebody's. So it's cool that I have that, because all of a sudden I have a Queen song, and then I have a Botch song, and then I have an AC/DC song, and then I have like, a Billie Holiday song, and then I have a Living Sacrifice song. So it's a different mixture of everything I like to listen to. But basically a lot of the main things I've been into lately, as far as full albums, are like...I love the new Judas Priest. It's fuckin' phenomenal. There's just something about it. AC/DC - "Highway To Hell". Burnt By The Sun - "The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good" is fuckin'...an amazing album. It's sad they broke up, but it's awesome they broke up on that. Deadguy - "Fixation on a Coworker". So many people don't realize how much of an impact that band made, just on that whole Northeastern scene. If you listen to it, you can hear a lot of elements that Dillinger was influenced from. Lets see...Machinehead - "Through the Ashes of the Empire". I think the production's on it is amazing.
You should read the interview we have up on our site with Rob Flynn, it's funny as hell. You'll get a kick out of it.
Yeah, I'll check that out. Lets see...Demonhunter - "Summer of Darkness".
Isn't that a Solid-State band?
Yeah. I actually like a lot of the Solid-State bands, like it or not. A lot of people think it's weird, they're like, "You're in Goatwhore, and they're all like, Christian bands." I don't give a fuck, the shit's still heavy. It sounds good, they write good lyrics. Demonhunter has great lyrics. The way they write is awesome. The dude's vocals are amazing. I think the singing vocals are phenomenal. I know a lot of people are gonna throw sticks at me for this, but I think Demonhunter kills any band on that level that's doing something like that, like Killswitch Engage and all those bands that have like, singing with the hard vocals. I think Demonhunter is way above all them, and they totally get looked over, constantly. I mean, I like Killswitch as well. I like "Alive or Just Breathing", it's fucking awesome.
Was that with Howard Jones?
No, Howard Jones was on uh...
It was still with that Jesse guy?
Yeah, it was still with that Jesse guy. He was a great vocalist, he did awesome vocals. Howard does a phenomenal job too, I just wasn't into "The End of Heartache". For me, it sounded like it was too formulated, so I wasn't really that much into it. But I still think Demonhunter rises above all those other bands on that level. Um...Cave-In - "Until Your Heart Stops," I still gotta go back to the old shit like shit like that. Botch - "We Are The Romans," Living Sacrifice - "Conceived In Fire," that's another Solid-State one. It's an awesome album. Corrosion of Conformity - "Technocracy". People gotta understand this, any time I mention that band, I'm talkin' about like....old. Before Pepper Keenan was in the band.
You don't like their newer stuff?
I'm not too fond of it. I think "Deliverence" is a really good album, but I was never really into that. To me, C.O.C. was "Animosity", "Technocracy", "An Eye For An Eye". But yeah, I've been listening to Technocracy a lot lately. Lemme see, Agnostic Front - "Liberty And Justice For All". I mean, I like "Cause For Alarm" too, but there's something that's about that album that's awesome. I mean, their older shit's nothing like any of their newer shit.
They've changed line-ups a lot.
They've always changed line-ups a lot. Even back then they changed line-ups a lot. Now they're more like, pop-punky type stuff. Before it was just more ruthless, like straight-up traditional hardcore. I like some stuff without vocals, that's kind of like background, flowing music. I'm really into stuff like that, too.
Just like soundtracks?
Soundtracks or like, whatever like, jazz stuff, where it's just no vocals and whatever. Progressive jazz just going off in the background. So I listen to a lot of different things. Queen, I'm really into Queen a lot, like early Queen. It's a mixture and I change a lot from what I really really like, and what I really don't like.
Is anything you care to add that we haven't already gone over?
Um...dude, I think we went over a lot. The only thing you need to know now is what color underwear I wear and everything, and we'd be on a date.
Yeah, I already know what kind of candy to buy.