Interview с Type O Negative : DARKSIDE.ru

Your first live DVD “Symphony For The Devil” is coming out next month, and its main feature is the concert at the Bizarre Festival in Germany. However, this performance was filmed as far back as 1999. What made you choose this particular recording for the release?

It’s a 12-camera shoot, three cranes, very professional, and it just looks really good. We thought that if we took that and combined it with a lot of stuff from the past three or four years - the festival stuff, interviews, home footage, stuff filmed on the tour bus, a really inside look at the band and how really stupid we are, it would make sense.

But why didn’t you publish this recording earlier?

We really didn’t think about doing anything like that - we were on the road, we were doing “Life Is Killing Me”. One day I just went on the E-bay and I saw like a hundred bootlegs of ours. I thought, “That’s ridiculous! Why don’t we just issue a real thing that’s live?”

You once said that Type O Negative is not a live band, that you sound better in the studio…

Just today I have said that three times to other people. But we played pretty well that night, it could have been a lot worse, and we didn’t go back and re-recorded it, like so many bands do. So the entire live thing that you hear is actually live, there’s nothing added or fixed. That’s actually how we are. I agree, we still are a studio band, but when I saw this show for the first time, I said, “Man, this looks pretty good!”

Many bands say that making a DVD requires at least as much work as a regular studio CD. Was that the case with “Symphony For The Devil” as well?

I did this for myself, and I can say that this is very hard. It took probably well over two years, because it’s 2 hours and 15 minutes, so you have to go through a lot of tapes and a lot of editing. It’s a big job, and I did about 90 percent of the work myself.

And what is the most difficult part of the process?

It’s convincing band members to let themselves look really stupid on camera. But this band has always been known for having a sense of humor, and I think it really comes out on the DVD – the fact that we’re not these serious guys in big black robes that people think we are. So I think it’s a very good representation of the band.

How often do you personally watch DVDs by other artists? Do you have any favorite music DVDs?

I never watch DVDs. Pantera was probably the best one I have ever seen, because they’re crazy fuckers. They’re funny, too, they also have a sense of humor, so that’s what I liked about Pantera’s videos.

The DVD package contains a bonus CD with the Santana medley. When was it recorded? And what made you go for Santana songs?

You know, Type O Negative has been doing cover songs for qu

ite a while, and they never sound anything like the originals. We really did it for something completely different, and we were very happy with the way it came out, so we decided it was too good to use it for what we originally wanted. It was done some time last year, and we just kind of saved it, and now we decided that it should be included in the DVD package, so that people would have something new to listen to as well.

What emotions do you have when you hear somebody else covering Type O Negative?

It depends on how bad they are! (everybody laughs)

OK, you were at the Roadrunner All-Stars concert in December, and Ville Valo of HIM was performing your song “Black No. 1”. How did you like it?

It scared me a bit, but that’s OK. It was weird, I didn’t see it, but I heard the recording of it. But we’re a hard band to cover, so I wish all the best to people who are trying to cover us.

In general, what do you think about this recent wave of Finnish bands such as HIM or The 69 Eyes that borrow a lot of ideas from Type O Negative?

Well, I don’t care if people have a foreign influence. I think that’s a compliment, imitation is the biggest form of flattery, right? We’re influenced by other bands, too, we’ll tell you flat out that we love Black Sabbath, and we’re completely influenced by bands like them. I’m not comparing us to Black Sabbath, but I guess somebody has to influence people, so I don’t care.

Now comes a very stupid question: in Europe you play a lot at gothic festivals, such as the Bizarre Festival where you recorded the DVD. Do you feel that Type O Negative is a part of gothic culture?

I don’t even think we’re part of any culture. I think we’re in so many different places – metal, goth, everything, and we’re so diverse and eclectic that there really is no place where we belong. A small part of us is goth, but we have a lot of different parts – hardcore, punk, metal, even psychodelic, there are all kinds of stuff. I don’t really think we belong anywhere.

But where are you more comfortable – at a metal event like Dynamo or at a gothic event?

Oh, I’m never comfortable, so it doesn’t matter. But as long as there’s alcohol, it’s OK.

If I’m not mistaken, in your bands prior to Type O Negative you were playing something close to hardcore punk…

Are you talking about my bands or Peter’s bands?

About yours, bands like Fallout and Original Sin.

Fallout was me and Peter as well, it was very similar to Type O, actually, it was a big mix of stuff. When I hear it now, and I rarely do, I really do hear the roots of Type O. Original Sin was probably more towards the metal end. This was back in the 1980s.

Did you record anything with those bands?

Are there any albums or seven-inch singles out?

There was a Fallout single, it was just an independent single that the band put out, no record company, just out. It’s out there somewhere, I see it on E-bay once in a while for a lot of money, which is really stupid. I wouldn’t pay five bucks for it, you can download it like everybody else.

In your opinion, why did Fallout and Original Sin never make it big, and Type O Negative did?

I don’t know. Fallout had a lot of offers, but maybe the time wasn’t right. It’s hard to say why things are successful, I don’t think people really plan success, especially in the music business. You just keep trying and trying, and maybe one day you’ll be successful, but I think most success is accidental. If I were to tell you why, I’d probably have to make up a reason.

I have noticed that back in the 1980s a musician had to play for five or maybe 10 years before getting a record deal. Nowadays a band usually gets together, records a couple of demos, and already gets offered a deal…

But just as fast it’s over. It’s a different industry now – in the 1970s if you had a gold record you could play arenas, but now you can have a gold record, and you still can’t sell out a little club. Things change, I’m not saying one is better or one is worse, but I prefer the 1970s.

Speaking about the record industry, you are one of the very few bands who have managed to complete their contract with Roadrunner Records without breaking up or going to court. Do you regret getting signed to this label, or do you think it was a worthwhile experience in the end?

I regret not going to court! Oh, I’m kidding! (laughs) I think no matter what label you are on, you’re going to complain about it. Musicians and business are very hard things to combine. I think no matter what, musicians are always gonna complain about their labels, and labels are always gonna do really stupid shit. It’s gonna be the devil you know or a new devil, and it doesn’t really matter, that’s the bottom line. It could have been better somewhere else, it also could have been worse. Do I regret it? No, I don’t waste time regretting what I already did, because it’s too late. I’m not gonna spend my time being sorry for something we did. I think there were good points about being on Roadrunner, and there were bad points about being on Roadrunner, it’s just like there would be anywhere. If we had been on a major label, maybe we would have got dropped after the first record “Slow Deep And Hard” (1991), and “Bloody Kisses” (1993) would have never happened. Why knows? You can’t really say what could be better.

And do you already have anything to complain about your new label SPV?

I’m sure we have tons of complains. Everybody has tons of complains about their record company, there’s no musician that cannot complain about their recor

d company, except maybe Jimi Hendrix now.

Despite all your problems with Roadrunner, nearly everybody in Type O Negative took part in the recording of the “Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions” album. What made you do it? And how did you enjoy this experience?

I didn’t see it as a big Roadrunner thing, I saw it as just a chance to do something different with different people. I love making music, I love producing music, I like being in the studio, so to me it was just another opportunity to go in and create something. With the track I wrote (“Roads”), I was very lucky to get Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth to do the singing, I think he did a great job. Peter and I also produced the track that Joey Jordison from Slipknot wrote (“Enemy Of The State”). You know, it was just something fun to do while Type O Negative was getting ready to rehearse for the next record. I wasn’t doing it for Roadrunner, I was doing it, because I’m a selfish musician, and I enjoy making music.

You said you were lucky to get Mikael Akerfeldt for your track. But who made the decisions which musicians were going to work together?

Sometimes it was the suggestions of the people involved. Whoever wrote the song picked whoever they wanted. Somebody suggested to me that I used Mikael, and I was familiar with him, we toured with him for a while, and I know that he has an incredible voice. It just seemed to be a natural fit. Mikael is a nice guy, he’s very easy to talk to, and again, I was very happy to have done that with him.

And how much was working with Mikael different from working with Peter?

We didn’t actually sit in the same room. I sent him the track with the vocal melody, and he wrote lyrics and did the singing in a different studio. So we never really even sat together, we only spoke on the phone a couple of times, and that was it. As to Peter, he is always an interesting person to work with, because it’s always crazy and bizarre experience. But I’ve been working with Peter since Fallout, which means 30 years, and I’m pretty used to it. (laughs)

With Type O Negative – do you always get together in the same room to write songs, or do you come up with ideas separately and then put them together?

Both. Sometimes the band will just be playing, and a part will develop, and it will become a song. Sometimes Peter can bring down a part, and if it works out, sometimes it turns into something. Or I’ll be sitting there and thinking of a little melody that might go over a part. Anything goes in Type O, there is no set way of doing things. It changes right up until the last day, it’s always changing and it’s always different.

And the lyrics – are they solely Peter’s responsibility, or do you also have a hand in writing them?

No, Peter is definitely the lyricist.

More a

bout side projects – I heard that you used to have a side project where you played punked out versions of traditional Russian songs from the 13th century. Can you tell me more about that?

It’s probably a joke. Somebody probably made a joke on me. (laughs)

Well, I read it on your website and I though, “Wow, what kind of Russian connections does Josh have?”

Well, I actually am Russian. Three quarters Russian and a quarter Polish. I’m a Jewish guy from the Eastern block whose family moved to Brooklyn 100 years ago.

Last year Type O Negative shocked a lot of fans, when your official site published a photo of Peter Steele’s gravestone with the inscription “Peter Steel. Free At Last”…

Thank you! Did you like it?

(laughs) Well, I kind of got scared.

It was me who did that, it was fun. I called up Peter one day and said, “Hey Peter, do you wanna be dead?” He said, “Sure!” (everybody laughs) So I photoshopped him a gravestone. We like fucking with people, it’s part of what we do, it’s fun to keep people guessing and wondering. Some people say, “Oh, it’s tasteless and horrible and cruel.” Well, if you think that, then you probably don’t understand the band. We thought it was hilarious. That’s what rock is – it’s fun, it’s shocking, it may be serious, or it may be not serious, it’s stupid, it’s all the things.

Peter has recently said that he cannot imagine being a dad and still being a musician at the same time. But everybody else in the band does have families and children. How do you manage to combine the life of a rock musician with raising your kids?

It’s not easy. Sometimes our schedules with the band get really heavy, and I spend a lot of time with my daughter and wife. It’s very hard to go away for long periods of time, but that’s what you have to do. Look, some people go to war, right? And that’s much worse than going on tour, although sometimes you might think they’re about the same. It’s just simply something that your family has to understand. It’s gotta work, you have to make it work. Musicians have kids, too. On the one hand, you’re very lucky because you get to spend a lot of time with your family and not go to work from 9 to 5 every day. But on the other hand, sometimes it’s hard to leave for five or six weeks at a time and not see your child. And they are completely different when you come back and very fucking angry with you.

The DVD is coming out in March. And when can we expect a new studio album from Type O Negative?

I’d imagine around September. We’re starting the recording very soon, and it’s gonna come out sometime in the fall.

And what direction will you go this time?

It’s always gonna be Type O, it’s always gonna be slow and melodic and screaming. This album, I think, has a little punkier edge, maybe a little more punk feeling to it overall. We’re getting old, so we can’t play slow anymore, because the songs turn out too long. We will have to play fast, so we can remember it. But things are gonna change, even though we’re starting the recording in about a month, I know that things always change.

Special thanks to Maxim Bylkin (Soyuz Music) for arranging this interview

Roman “Maniac” Patrashov
February 17, 2006
3 апр 2006 the End


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