ABORT Magazine™

Transcribed by Jonathan Parsons

CHECK BACK FOR MORE AFROPUNK Interviews featuring AfroPunk Founder and documentary filmmaker James Spooner and we speak with Brooklyn’s newest hardcore act Game Rebellion. All of this and more, as we lead up to this year’s Afropunk Festival feat. Bad Brians and more!

Copyright © 2004-2010 ABORT Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication, in whole or in part, in any form or medium without express written permission from Abort Media Publishing Corporation (AMP Corp.) is prohibited. All use is subject to our Terms of Use.

MADE IN CANADA: CANCER BATS – The ABORT Interview (Issue 16 Preview)

March 10th, 2010 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive!, Made In Canada by admin

(Click to enlarge | Photo – Sarah Hamilton)

Toronto-based hardcore outfit Cancer Bats are back this month with their new album Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones, new video, new tours and continue to break down the genre barriers that separate heavy music as a whole. Hardcore, punk and metal are all combined to give this band a nasty yet uplifting and vibrant take on a scene that has been dominated by radio-friendly, label-crafted fluff acts who look better than they sound. Not these guys, ugly as fuck and an even meaner stage presence, these gents possess the chops and songwriting skills to make Canada proud to be diagnosed with this terminal Rock & Roll disease.

ABORT Magazine’s Karla “Khaos” McLeod went one on one with vocalist Liam Cormier in a needle-littered alley on Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside, for a quick update on the band’s current tour, their new album and why they chose to cover a classic Beastie Boys track.

Karla “Khaos” McLeod: You just finished playing on a US tour with Anti-Flag and Aiden. Now you are beginning your tour across Canada with Billy Talent, Alexisonfire and Against Me and after that you begin a tour in the UK. Do you find that the UK audience is more receptive compared to a more laid back Canadian audience?

Liam Cormier: Uh…I find I would actually say that the UK and Canada are very similar in terms of a gnarly, crazy crowd. Um, if anything, the United States is a little bit more subdued, in some areas because they see so many shows.

ABORT: Exactly.

Liam: You know, when you go to a small town like in Canada, it’s like, kids are going off, but we don’t have too many of those cities like Toronto, Montreal, maybe Vancouver, where they get a lot of shows and they get off you know. They almost get too many shows that they’re not excited anymore. Where as the US still has that to, you go to Montana and the kids are stoked, you know? you go to small town Ohio and kids are stoked, but so I guess that’s universal.

ABORT: You recorded the album Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones at Vespa Studios and worked alongside producers Eric Ratz and Kenny Luong (Billy Talent). How much of a role did you and the band play in the production of this album considering Billy Talent’s sound is little more pop-radio friendly?

Liam: Well I mean that’s the thing. It all depends on what band it is that they’re working on, like they’ve done you know, Three Days Grace and stuff like that. They’re all over the place, but I think they’re all old school metal fans. They come from listening to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath and stuff like that, so for them, they’re just as stoked to be working on something heavy like us. But, I think it’s cool to have tons of different vibes like that in the mix, they appreciate what makes – you know, like a rad record, like you know Billy Talent and what tricks they use on that and that kind of production and it’s not just making a straight-forward hardcore record or a metal record or you know what I mean? So it’s not like, I find a lot times you just want to make something that’s close to your peers where we these two guys that aren’t even involved in hardcore or aren’t even involved in any of that stuff where they’re thinking completely outside of the box.

ABORT: They’re just trying to make a good album.

Liam: Yeah, exactly. They just wanna make it sound amazing. That’s all they care about, so, it’s definitely awesome working with those dudes.

ABORT: I really enjoy the production quality of the album. The album comes off sounding not too overproduced and raw. Overall it has a very live feeling to it. Can you tell me a bit about the recording process you went through and was it a “less is more” attitude?

Liam: Um, yeah, I mean definitely the live aspect was what we wanted to go for with this album for sure.

ABORT: You got it!

Liam: Yeah, thank you. Uh, it took a lot of work. It was basically like our reaction to you know, a lot of over produced things or realizing how like, easy it is to make up for mistakes in the studio, but for us we pride ourselves on being a live band and how much we tour. We want this record to represent exactly what people are going to come see, so for us when we’re writing the songs we were just rehearsing and practicing and jamming and you know what I mean?, just playing it over and over and over and over again, so we could do these full passes and we could play you know, essentially like a live band. With a recording, it doesn’t work exactly like that. You still need to have almost like; cleaner channels for guitar so you can get that crunch, but it’s like while Mike was playing drums, we were all playing along with him. I was doing vocal takes while Mike was like doing his drum tracks, so he had the live feeling while he’s doing his drums to keep that energy there.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 16 OF ABORT MAGAZINE – SPRING, 2010

Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

For tour dates and more visit:

myspace.com/cancerbats

cancerbats.com

By Karla “Khaos” McLeod

EXCLUSIVE: BEHIND THE BOARDS – Mike Fraser (Issue 15 Preview)

February 21st, 2010 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive!, Made In Canada by admin

(Photo – Scott Alexander)

Mixmaster Mike. No, not the Beastie Boys DJ, but another type of audio technician, the kind that helps turn songs into hits. Known for his extensive work with rock icons AC/DC, Aerosmith, Metallica and a slew of others, Mixer, Producer and Engineer Mike Fraser has set the standard for making the “Classic Rock & Roll Album”. We sat down with Mike at the one and only Warehouse Studios in Downtown Vancouver to discuss his latest work, including the Iron Man 2 Soundtrack, his thoughts on the future of Aerosmith and some of AC/DC’s studio habits. Below is an excerpt from the upcoming feature.

ABORT: E.S. Day here for ABORT Magazine, it’s another episode of Behind The Boards, this time we are here with legendary producer, engineer, mixer, and jack of all studio trades, Mr. Mike Fraser. How are you today?

MIKE FRASER: I am doing great, thank you for asking.

ABORT: Perfect. We are going to get right into it, your current projects, and what’s your involvement with the upcoming ‘Iron Man 2’ soundtrack what is on tap for Mike Fraser in 2010?

MF: We will be doing some new AC/DC stuff. They recently did a big show down in South America, Buenos Aires to a giant crowd and it was amazing.

ABORT: South America loves AC/DC, major crowds every time!

MF: The amazing thing, and what was really cool, is that they are so into the music, that they actually sing along to the guitar chords! (Both laugh) Not just the chorus like we do up here in North America. It is just an amazing experience, 80,000+ people shouting out their lyrics. So there will be a live DVD coming up at some point.

ABORT: Awesome. Will you be producing or mixing that one?

MF: I recorded and mixed it.

ABORT: What was your involvement with the upcoming ‘Iron Man 2’ soundtrack, which has yet to be released.

MF: Iron Man 2 is almost like an AC/DC greatest hits package, which they never do. So it kind of cool, something new for them, bunch of the old, spanning right back from 1974, the beginning, all the way up to 1999 or something.

ABORT: Is there going to be any unreleased tracks, some new, or some bonus material? Or maybe some Mike Fraser remixes of a classic track?

MF: I remixed some of it, sure, since we had to separate some vocals off the original mixes so they can weave it in and out of the movie. I haven’t seen what they did with it yet, but its all just old material, there’s no bonus.

ABORT: The initial thing I saw, was “Shoot To Thrill”, has that song been changed around sound wise?

MF: No, that’s the original. I did mix one of the songs, “Highway to Hell” I believe, off the Buenos Aires show, so a live mix for the promo stuff at least, I’m not sure if its actually in the movie or not.

ABORT: We’re going to move from the big-boys to the little ones for a moment. A two part question. Any current up-and-coming unsigned acts you are working on/with? And, can indie bands, hire the illustrious Mike Fraser, or is this a closed door industry still, where, you know, its only the big guns that get taken on?

MF: It’s not closed door, I’ve got my website going, mikefrasermix.com, and its an open door. Anyone who can reach me, and contact me, I am open to all, and everything.

ABORT: Are you looking at bands that might have a smaller budget? Band members living with Mom, or working at Burger King, a few guys who have honed their craft, can they approach you with a small budget?

MF: For sure, I try to make it work. One of the stumbling blocks is I do a lot of work here at the Warehouse, and I don’t get deals, so there is that hard cost, but my personal rate goes up and down, you know, for these small and upcoming bands, I’ll work on a good rate for them without killing them, but I pepper them in between the bigger gigs, I have to make a living to, so when it quiets down, I can fit some of these smaller projects in. It all comes down to how busy I have been, but for sure I get them in there.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW WITH MIKE FRASER IN ISSUE 15

MikeFraserMix.com

warehousestudio.com

Special Thanks to Scott Alexander

EXCLUSIVE: 21 & Under With…Angela Marie MacDougall of BWSS

February 14th, 2010 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive!, Made In Canada, Tales From The Eastside™ by admin

(Photo - Scott Alexander | ObsidianFoxPhotography.com)

The annual Downtown Eastside Memorial Women’s March commemorates the many women lost to the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. In a neighborhood marred by rampant drug use and dangerous sex trade, but also held together by a strong sense of community and identity, the March has allowed the families and friends of the lost to grieve, mourn, and get the message out to the larger masses that all is not well here in “the best place on earth”, and that these women are neither faceless nor forgotten. ABORT Magazine’s Dave”Corvid”McCallum sat with planning committee member Angela Marie MacDougall to speak on the march, the conditions, and the solutions to the problems of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

David McCallum: I’m here with Angela MacDougall of Battered Women Support Services talking about the Women’s Memorial March. Can you introduce yourself and talk about your role in BWSS?

Angela: My name is Angela Marie MacDougall and I’m in the role of Executive Director at Battered Women Support Services and sit on the planning committee for the 19th Annual Feb.14th Memorial March. The memorial march planning committee consists of women from the Downtown Eastside as well as women from other community organizations and individuals and we don’t represent any particular organization on that planning committee. Rather, we do the work of organizing the march for the community.

D: Can you talk about the march itself and how long it’s been around and what it represents etc.?

A: This is the 19th year. In 1991 a woman was found murdered and dismembered in the Downtown Eastside and her family at that time conducted a ceremony at each location where her body parts were found. And the ceremony- I wasn’t at the ceremony- but it was to honor and memorialize and it was to grieve her loss. At the request of the family we no longer say her name but the Women’s Memorial March started on that day. And what I understand is that Feb.14th was chosen as the day because as Valentine’s Day, it was a day of love, and it’s a day of particular significance for women in that it’s a way to show love to women primarily. So that’s my understanding. So for the last 19 years the march has been held and I have been on the planning committee since 1995. Each year we come together between 10 and 30 women to plan the march.

D: In the 19 years since the march started, a lot has gone on in the Downtown Eastside and this issue isn’t something- it’s really difficult to talk about honestly- but this issue hasn’t gone away. The Pickton trial, that’s wrapped up now but that’s just last year. Since the march has began, how has it grown to deal with this issue as an ongoing problem in the community where women are disappearing all the time in the Downtown Eastside? It seems the majority of missing women are of First Nations. So can you talk about what is going on and how it affects the march, the Pickton trial etc.?

A: Good question. The march after the original ceremony continued as a way to honor and to memorialize women. There was critical component early on and that was that part of the march- the procession- takes us to the Police Station at 222 Main Street. And at that time in early 90’s the police were not investigating disappearances and murders at all. So each year we would go to 222 Main Street and people would speak there and would essentially ask the police to do their job and to recognize that women were being murdered and were going missing.

Now fast-forward, what we have now is a situation where in general, some missing women are being investigated, in general there have been some investigations of murders. And we’ve had as you noted, a very high-profile arrest and conviction. And that arrest and conviction was important. We’ve had other issues as well, but they were important because they were acknowledged and it was some measure of justice for the murders and disappearances. In lots of ways it took away attention and resources and it continues to take away resources. It took away attention from women who had been found murdered prior and now post.

So why we see that women go missing, why are women getting murdered, why is there a disproportionate number of indigenous women represented among the missing and murdered? I think we can look very much at the making of this Nation for us to understand that violence against indigenous women was at the heart of the making of this Nation. And the dismantling of indigenous cultures and the dismantling of indigenous ways through that process was also a relegation of indigenous women from leadership and from where indigenous women had public roles and were a central part of the communities. Prior to colonization the very process and ideology and practice of colonization dismantled that and relegated indigenous women to the very bottom of our social structure where the process of colonization relegated women less than men in general.

So that affects everything. The police were established in a lot of ways to move indigenous peoples off their land, so the lack of investigations that we saw of indigenous women being murdered and disappearing very much goes back to the making of the nation and with law enforcement here in Canada. The factors of urbanization of people and subsequent poverty and residential schools and the effects of residential schools – all that speaks to why we see indigenous women represented. Violence against women is one of most pressing issues of our time. Right now the statistics that we see through our work at BWSS that we’ve assessed, and this is confirmed by the Provincial Government, that 1 in 3 women experiences abuse as affected by violence. And women represent 52 percent of our population and so a third of us are dealing with violence. And that grinds down in a big way and becomes very… concentrated when we’re talking about women in the Downtown Eastside where women are incredibly vulnerable to violence and that violence is rampant. And murders and disappearances are then the consequences.

D: So it takes place Feb.14 and the Olympics start on Feb.12. Concurrent with the Olympics people have organized and postered for a large anti-Olympic convergence which has gone beyond that to an anti-Colonial anti-Capitalist convergence with the focus on indigenous sovereignty with the slogan ‘No Olympics on stolen Native land.’ With 95 percent of BC being ceded land being on sovereign Native territory, do you feel like with the march taking place at the beginning of the Olympics this year and concurrent with this anti-Colonialist rally, does this give you a chance to express this sentiment to a larger audience that is coming here unaware that this is going on? The memorial normally draws so many people usually and yet you have the chance to make your statement to the larger population.

A: You know, this is very difficult and complex because V.A.N.O.C. started very early on and spoke with the elected leaders of the Four Host Nations- Squamish, Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Mount Currie, and from V.A.N.O.C.’s perspective it was the very first time that they had ever involved indigenous populations in organizing, agreeing or operating the Olympics on indigenous territory. So that has been controversial because the elected officials and to some extent the hereditary chiefs and officials within the four host nations are in support of the Olympics, and who am I as the descendant of settlers to disagree with them when you know, I’m here- quite frankly- as a visitor, and the Indian Act has given them authority and the Indian Act is the Law of the day. And the Indian Act- you know, I didn’t create it and neither did they and we’re dealing with the legacy of it. So that’s one layer is that I can’t disagree with them and their decision to do that. And the second part is that there are a number of urban- and there’s a lot of dissent within those four host nations of the indigenous populations who don’t agree and are very concerned about the legacy. They don’t agree with their leadership and there’s a large concern about what the legacy of that decision is going to be over the long haul and where those resources are going to and how it will shake down, not only to the people of those Four Nations but also to all the urban indigenous people that are in Vancouver that are without representation, without obvious representation.

So the anti-Olympic organizing, the anti-Colonial organizing – yes, it is going to happen and for me- and I recognize clearly and speak all the time about the fact that you can’t talk about violence against women in this nation now known as Canada without talking about Colonialism.

We’ve been very much focused on the committee in supporting all the sides of this and wanting to support obviously anybody that is against the Olympics. But we’ve been focused very much on the march being about mobilizing women and a place for women to honor women’s lives and grieve for missing and murdered women.

We’ve spoken with the anti-Olympic organizers, and certainly asked them to join us and to respect the intention of the march and we’ve received assurances from them that they would do that.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 15 OF ABORT MAGAZINE- COMING SOON

Educate yourself at BWSS.org

Rock & Roll Refraction: A Conversation with NEIL ZLOZOWER (ISSUE 15 Preview)

February 7th, 2010 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

(Photo – Neil Zlozower)

Rock & Roll’s most famous photographer Neil Zlozower celebrates the release of his fourth book “Six String Heroes” and once again captures the true essence of Rock & Roll from behind the lens. He took the time to speak with ABORT Magazine’s Photo Editor Scott Alexander to discuss his latest book, how it came together, working with digital vs. film and the possibility of a book dedicated to drummers only. Sweet!

Scott Alexander: We’re with the one and only, legendary rock photographer, Neil Zlozower, fresh off the release of his fourth book, ‘Six String Heroes”. How are you Neil?

Neil Zlozower: Good you’re going to have to talk a little louder, I’m a little deaf! I am the loudest voice in Rock and Roll, you wont have a problem hearing me, I guarantee it. (laughs)

ABORT: (Laughs) Perfect, then we will get right into it, after your first three books, what made you decide to dedicate the pages of your fourth to the guitar? Was there a moment you were looking through your archives of negatives, and just knew ‘Six String heroes’ was next?

NZ: I was sitting here one day with my buddy Steve Vai, and I was showing him of my photos for the “Fuck You” book, and he looked at me, and asks, “why don’t you do a guitar book?” At first I was against it, I don’t want to do you know: Here is Pete Townsend, Steve Vai, here is Zakk Wylde…” Steve goes, Neil, why don’t you pick out 10 or so guitarists that you worked closely with over the years, Eddie Van Halen, me, Satriani and you could focus the book on those guys, and still have a lot of stuff. I liked that idea; I told Steve I would do the book under one condition. I would do the book if he wrote the forward, and he agreed.

We ran the idea past my publisher, Chronicle Books, and they liked the idea. Then, it sort of changed to what I didn’t want in the beginning, to what I didn’t want. We didn’t go into the ten guitarists; it went into a bit of everything. If you like Bonnie Raitt, and you don’t like Slash or Zakk Wylde, you’re not going to buy the book. We tried to put a little of everybody, from Johnny Watson, to B.B. King, and people like that. There are a few people that aren’t in the book that I would have loved to have in there, but didn’t have room for. There are a ton of great players out there, and I have photos of a lot, but there are only so many pages to the book. There were certain people I wanted in the book that got vetoed out by the two other people who had a say in who went in there. There are a few people I personally don’t want in the book, but with a three-person decision, you have to give and take a little.

(I want to know who the “few people” are – Ed)

ABORT: With all these other people you wanted in there, but weren’t able to, it almost leaves you open for a second volume of Six String Heroes?

NZ: I don’t know how I am going to top this one. (laughs) I just had my friend Erik Turner from Warrant call and thank me for putting him in the book. He had been a fan of my photos from back in the Creem and Circus, seeing my name under the photos of his heroes.

ABORT: Are we going to see any new books focusing on other parts of ‘The Band’ Singers, Bassists, Drummers?

NZ: You know, I was thinking about a drummer book, but I don’t know. Thank god, I don’t know how many drummers can actually read, I think they are capable of looking at pictures, but drummers are my favorite people in the world to pick on, but I have another book in progress now, It wont be out for another year or so, and I’m not going to spoil the cake and tell you what it is right now, but I like doing these books. I have been shooting for 41 years, a lot of the work is already done, now its just a matter of me and my art director putting together this new book featuring one guitarist who basically set the standards for all the guitarists this day and age, but he is going to be on board with us to. I’m sure you can guess who it is.

ABORT: I can think of a few people who it might be. Do you view rock photography as an ‘old boys club’ or do you welcome the new generations of photographers who find themselves in front of their favorite bands in “The pit”?

NZ: There are people like me, dinosaurs like me, they’re a thing of the past. Most of the people now, its’ all digital, I know people these days who don’t even know how to use a light meter! I’m not necessarily talking about live photography, but they will go into the studio, take a shot at 1/125 at F11, and they will take a shot, they’ll go wow, this is way too bright and step it down to F16 or F22. They don’t even know how to use a meter to get it right the first time. I grew up in the day, when it’s all film, manual focus, manual everything, and you had to think to get a great photo. Back then when you made a great photo, you SHOT a great photo. Now, there are no more shooting great photos, what you do now is “create an image”, its amazing how many photos where they take heads from different frames, go in and remove bags, and whatever they got to do. I mean, I’m not a fix it in the mix type of guy. I always try and start out with the very best possible photo that I can, and take it from there. Whereas, people these days, people just fix shiny faces, triple chins, and stuff like that in Photoshop. That isn’t the way I like to work when I get hired for jobs, you know?

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 15 OF ABORT – OUT SOON!

Zloz.com

chroniclebooks.com

By Scott Alexander

MADE IN CANADA: MODULOK – The ABORT Interview (ISSUE 15 Preview)

January 18th, 2010 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive!, Made In Canada by admin

Like the great Russian realists that he studies, Modulok’s lyrics portray a bleak world caught in the middle of a desperate transition of which it is barely aware. At times it may seem like the kind of dystopian future hell rendered by Philip K. Dick, yet on close inspection it is merely the reflection of a cracked, grease-stained mirror held up first to the relentless grind of the T-Dot, then cast forth upon the Old Country cities of Eastern Europe and the density of Babylon’s coal stained heart in the one and only London, UK. In classic style he has cast himself in the role of the angst ridden everyman, eager for drink, women, and combat in a world of warriors, idiots and beautifully dangerous females.

As one third legendary underground apocalypse rap unit Red Ants, Modulok’s morbid flows compliment producer Vincent Price’s cinema noir compositions like Goya paintings, in a husky baritone evoking grim cityscapes and epic wars of conquest within the human soul. Though MC Predaking has been AWOL for years due to incarceration, his presence exists in the unremitting paranoia emanating from their debut “Phobos Deimos” originally written with Preddy in the mix. Further complications have arisen due to the ongoing conflict of personality between Modulok and Price, and the future of the group is uncertain. Whatever may come, their existing catalog merits repeated spins by any Hip Hop head weaned on the Wu and hungry for the lyrics of a tormented genius.

On a crisp November evening in the T-Dot, big Mo laid out the true time-line of the Red Ants over a half dozen pints of Guinness (with a shot of whiskey in ‘em…) at the Regal Beagle to ABORT Magazine’s Dave”Corvid”McCallum. While his on-wax persona seems somber and thuggishly pensive, in person he is calm, clearheaded, soft-spoken and articulate – more literary bookworm than drunken brawler.

Modulok: Red Ants came about basically…I first started rapping in High School in this group called Symbiots, which was me, Predaking and Astral Black. That fell apart, and I went through a few years where I started to kinda question whether I really wanted to be an MC or what it really takes to be an MC, and I was more into graffiti, and I was always a bit introverted and had a hard time with performance. So I was bouncing around a lot, I was kind of a hobo. Then, totally randomly I got an offer to do a bunch of shows in the Czech Republic, so I did it, even though I didn’t know how these cats had heard of me! I had an awesome time, did a massive show in Prague at a squatted abandoned warehouse with three floors…I came back from Europe totally inspired, like I wanted to get serious about music. Predaking was in prison this whole period in Sudbury Penitentiary. The idea for Red Ants came to me in a train station in the Netherlands, in a diner, and the name just came to me while I was writing. I always wrote Predaking in prison, and I told him that when he got out, we should get an apartment together in Toronto and just work on the project. We’d say like “I wanna start a crew that’s like Heltah Skeltah meets Aceyalone meets…or like Non-Phixion but not when they’re cheesy!”, like we’d have these hilarious conversations about how we’d want it to sound. So, I met him the day he got out of prison, I was there waiting for him just like the movies. You know, he’d been there fifteen months and then one day they open the door and he just fucking walks out, with nothing but a bus ticket! It was pouring rain…I said hey man, you wanna get some food, but he was fucked up, he couldn’t even sit in a restaurant. So, we just got on the bus and I told him the project is called Red Ants.

It was freaky how it all worked out, we got the apartment…and we thought we weren’t just gonna have one producer, we thought we’d ger beats from different people we knew. We know Vincent Price through Noah 23 in Guelph, Plague Language kids, and when we started hitting him up for beats, he said “yo, I don’t wanto to just be a part of Red Ants, I want to be your producer and you only rap on my beats”, and we were like “cool”. So that’s how Red Ants was born, me Predaking and Vincent Price.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 15 OF ABORT (Ready when it’s ready)

myspace.com/modulokrap

redantsmusic.com

By Dave “Corvid” McCallum

EXCLUSIVE: SUICIDAL TENDENCIES – The ABORT Interview (Issue 15 Preview)

January 16th, 2010 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

ABOVE: Suicidal Tendencies in 2010

Suffering from member and label changes, physical damage and constant touring, the current line-up of Venice, California’s legendary Skate/Thrash/Hardcore Kings Suicidal Tendencies are back and heavier than ever. With 2 new albums on the horizon and a slew of tour dates, vocalist Mike Muir spoke with ABORT Magazine’s E.S. Day to give him the lowdown on their new Live DVD and all things Suicidal (and Infectious Grooves) for 2010.

E.S. Day: We are here with legendary vocalist, and singer-songwriter Mike Muir, how are you sir?

MIKE MUIR: Doing really good. Long story short, I’m just sitting at home in Venice, California

ABORT: The first ever DVD “Live at The Olympic Auditorium” is in stores January 26th on Suicidal Records I had a peek at it this morning…fucking brilliant!, truly captures the essence of Suicidal in their purest form, not grainy, choppy, great camera work and well worth the wait. So my first question Mike, what the fuck took so long?

MM: Well, as I said everything is a little bit of a long story, but basically, the Olympic Auditorium, going back in history, was originally built for the Olympics and was the biggest venue in LA at the time, then over the years it has gone into disrepair, to the point that in the early 1980’s, they actually let bands do big punk rock shows, which wasn’t very common. It was a great big building, basically a fortress that could put up with anything. They did a lot of boxing, roller derby, that sort of stuff. Then we got a call, saying ‘They’re selling the Olympic Auditorium, there hasn’t been any shows there for a while, we want you do headline one last show’ which is all good and would have been a no-brainer, but I just had back surgery…

ABORT: Oh fuck!

MM: … We got another call about headlining a festival in Columbia, so we did the festival, headlined to 95,000 people, the week after that, the Olympic show. Two days before, I wake up, and I cant walk. Because of all the stuff going on, we decided to go ahead and do the show, and afterward, I had to have another back surgery.

ABORT: Well you could have fooled me! After watching a raucous version of “Institutionalized”, you’re jumping around like a motherfucker! That must have hurt, because you were going hard!

MM: We had decided to film it, because I noticed that there was a lot of people doing documentaries, writing books, and since I had people asking me about certain things, I would ask them “Where the fuck did you hear that? That is not true” Turns out they read it in some book. It goes back to what I learned a long time ago. Just because something is in a book, doesn’t mean its true. I went through that with the Dog Town, my brother was one of the original Z-Boys, and that whole thing (Lords of Dogtown) caused a lot of controversy because it was one person’s version of what was happening.

(cont.) That’s part of the reason we wanted to film it. Not to go back to 1984, but to basically show a little bit about where suicidal came from, to capture it, and show why we’re still a band

ABORT: You guys are as fresh, and as vibrant as you were back then, and it’s fucking wicked.

MM: Funny story, we were in France, and they had me go to this doctor, who was the national rugby physician, and I walked in, and the guy is not the typical person you would think who knows Suicidal Tendencies, but he looks at me and says, You’re Mike from Suicidal Tendencies! You may not know it from looking at me, but I am a Suicidal fan.

ABORT: No fucking way!

MM: He looked at me right away, and knew I needed surgery, but I had another week of shows. As a doctor, he told me I should jump on a plane, and just head home

ABORT: Drummer Eric Moore is absent from the drum throne, what happened there?

MM: The footage was actually from 2005, so pre-Eric. Back when Suicidal was touring in California, Eric came to the show, he was friends with Steve, asked me what we were doing with Infectious, and if we ever did anything, he wanted to try out. We gave him the call, got him in the band. It was one of those things that was just too obvious. When we went to Europe, I had people coming up to me saying ‘You’re bringing Eric to Suicidal, aren’t you?’ We just did a show at Long Beach arena, we had the drummers from the other bands filming him, going ‘Dude, that guy is insane!’ and I think that is what Suicidal should be.

ABORT: New Suicidal album when and who’s producing?

MM: We haven’t done a record in 10 years, but we have done a lot in that time. We have people coming up to us saying ‘You know, you guys are doing shows, why don’t you put a record out and tour off that?’ That’s not what Suicidal is about. Its not doing it just because you don’t think you will get another chance, I want to get out there and prove we are better than we ever were. So going out there the last two years, we have kind of re-baptized the converted, reminding people why they love Suicidal, get them on the phone after the show calling up their friends. If you don’t have that excitement, there is something wrong. We’re getting that excitement out there, where people are really excited about a new record. We’re kind of putting out the old stuff, clearing the deck, like with the DVD, we’ve got a live CD straight from the board from 1995 when Infectious grew, Robert Trujillo on bass and stuff, something straight off the board that you can say, wow, that was 15 years ago.

With Suicidal, we have two CDs coming out, the one, I call it the Mike Clark record, and I call it that because we got Mike (ST rhythm guitarist) into Suicidal after working with him and the band No Mercy he came in on “How Will I Laugh Tomorrow” after 1987’s “Join the Army”. Half of ‘How will I laugh’ was actually songs for No Mercy. That was another no brainer, like with Eric, why weren’t we using this for Suicidal?

We re-recorded some of the No Mercy and Join the Army songs with Mike Clark, who isn’t on the originally recordings. With him, we take it to a further level, that’s why I call it the Mike Clark record.

And of course, there is the new Suicidal Record coming out at the end of the year, which everyone is always asking, does it sound old, does it sound new, and for me, I think the whole thing with doing a record, is ultimately having people know it’s Suicidal. Suicidal in a sense that its different than what other people are doing. Some people wont like it because of that, but ultimately, I think 15 years from now people will still be listening to it, and saying wow, that was a really fucking crazy record.

“Live At The Olympic Auditorium ” is in stores January 26th, 2010

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 15 OF ABORT – OUT WHEN IT’S READY

myspace.com/infectiousgroovesofficial

Transcript – Scott Alexander

suicidaltendencies.com

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myspace.com/soulsofmischief

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EXCLUSIVE: 21 & Under With…SOULS OF MISCHIEF

January 12th, 2010 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

(Photo – Chris Webber)

ABORT Magazine’s Dave “Corvid” McCallum recently spoke with Opio, one quarter of the legendary Souls of Mischief, about their new album “Montezuma’s Revenge”, working with Prince Paul and living in sunny Oakland California. A road tested veteran of countless tours, Opio opened up about inspiration, life on the road, and that sweet Cali herb. Well into a two decade career in Hip Hop, Opio’s “Vulture’s Wisdom” is just one of the weapons in the Souls’ arsenal, so check it, ’cause like Opio himself says – “for anyone who loves that real Hip Hop, this is the uncut raw!”. True indeed.

ABORT: So, to begin with, where exactly did the title “Montezuma’s Revenge” originate?

Opio: Well, we actually all got together and rented this house for the project about an hour from Oakland, and it was on Montezuma Street. We all lived in it together for the duration of the project, and “Montezuma” first became the name of the house, and then of the whole album. I guess it kind of became a metaphor for how, you know, Hieroglyphics take many forms, not just Egyptian, and it’s like a metaphor in a way for how we are connected with people all over the world!

ABORT: Cool, cool. So the greater part of the production on the album was done by the legendary Prince Paul, how was it working with him?

Opio: Of course it was amazing! Yeah, Paul produced the lion’s share of the album and hand selected the rest of the beats, some of which were produced by Domino as well. I mean, we are all producers in our own right too, so there was lots of creative input, you know what I mean? But it was really like a once in a lifetime opportunity, creating a vibe as a group and working with a living legend. As far as the actual process, all four of us are people who have so much going on in life all the time that we didn’t want any distractions while making the album. Also, we had never really worked with an outside producer before, and we’re always trying to push the envelope, so working with Prince Paul at the wheel was a real treat.

ABORT: As far as the lyrical content of the album, several tracks deal with the realities of life on tour and the effect that this lifestyle has on your personal relationships. Do you feel like you’ve matured as artists?

Opio: You know man, since “’93 ’till” to 2010, we’ve spent more time on the road than not, I mean, I started touring when I was seventeen! But you know, we’ve spent so much time on the road that it’s not like we live some crazy Rockstar lifestyle, we know how to keep a balance! (lol) The main reason we’ve been around for so long, I think, is that when people see us live, we transfer that vibe of our lifestyle to the audience. So, yeah, we’ve grown up as people, but the main thing is just to keep that vibe going and always give it back to the people. You know, a lot of people are complaining that the groups these days aren’t as good as groups back in the day, like a lot of groups try to bring that energy, but we are that energy in the flesh!

ABORT: You’re from Oakland, a city known to have spawned several major social/cultural movements, from the Black Panther Party in the sixties, to the Funk of the Seventies, to the growth of Medical Cannabis Clubs; what is it about your hometown that makes for such a creative, revolutionary environment?

Opio: Well, it’s just a lot of movements have started here, from the Black Panthers and the Hippies on, there’s a lot of diversity of thought. For some reason, there’s just a lot of forward thinking people here, and it sort of calls people to have to be confronted with different ideologies. Maybe it’s the sunshine or the herb, but there’s just a lot of intelligent people out here!

soulsofmischief.com

EXCLUSIVE: The Company Band’s Neil “Clutch” Fallon (Issue 14 Preview)

December 7th, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

(Photo by Jamie Sands)

Dave Bone’s Recipe for an Anti-Supergroup

I Cup, finely chopped Clutch
1 Clove, minced Fu Manchu
1 Thinly sliced Fireball Ministry
1 Pound of raw CKY

Mix in blender until thick and heavy, pour into bowl

Submerge face into bowl, drown and enjoy!

Serves 6 Billion

E.S. Day: we are on the phone with Neil Fallon from The Company band also from the band Clutch but today we are focusing on The Company Band. Which I guess Neil we could say is a rock supergroup, or are you already fed up with that tag?

Neil Fallon: Well we are no Chickenfoot.

ABORT: Holy fuck, now you just fucking ruined my first bit, I had a whole thing on Chickenfoot, so thanks Neil (laughs). So rock supergroup. Let’s just say this; to me I am in my forties, growing up – a rock supergroup to me would be like you just mentioned, Chickenfoot, where you bring in all these guys but The Company Band seems to be more of a conglomerate of good buddies from some, really well followed and respected bands who got together to jam and then made an album out of it. Is that more or less what it is? You’re not marketing this as a supergroup?

Neil: No, supergroup is just such a terrible moniker. I wouldn’t want to be in a super group to be quite honest. this started I think Jesse [Margera, drummer CKY] wanted me to sing on some and then we kind of, everybody just hit it off so we said lets make more music simply because it’s fun.

ABORT: Now for our readers who don’t know, lets run down the rest of the band members and respectably the bands there in. Jesse you just mentioned is from CKY.

Neil: Correct and we have Jim Rona from Fireball Ministry and we have Brad Davis from Fu Manchu.

ABORT: Fu Manchu, we just gave their new album a great review as well. Now by the way we are missing Dave Bone, my bad.

Neil: Dave Bone, in all fairness, he is kind of the man behind the curtain for this band. He writes a lions share of the music and spear heads everything for us and i think sometimes he doesn’t get the credits he deserves because simply he doesn’t have another band to kind of put him in that positions but he is the man behind the wheel a lot of ways

ABORT: that just fucked up my next question is Dave the odd man out. cuz when you say Dave Bone a question mark comes to mind i mean for most people who aren’t in the now?

Neil: He is sort of like the Karl Rove of the band. He has the power he’s just not in the limelight.

ABORT: Fair enough. So Dave Bone is the backbone (no pun) behind The Company Band. Is he the one who got the band started so to speak, or initiated the idea of putting together an album and doing some touring?

Neil: Well if I remember correctly and I probably don’t, Jesse contacted Jim and then Jim had known Dave and I hadn’t known Dave and once he stepped into the picture things just kind of fell into the scenario and there was no blueprint to begin with, it just ended up that way.

ABORT: Restricted Release, what label is that? and who’s doing distribution?

Neil: Candlelight is putting it out and we put venture capital on the back sort of as a goof. Venture capital is not really a record label.

ABORT: So that’s it, so we are looking at worldwide release or North American with a different distributor from Europe.

Neil: You know I don’t have the answer for that.

ABORT: No problem and we don’t need one I just thought I would ask. Is it safe to say that band each member has been listening to each members music previous to this?

Neil: Sure

ABORT: Yeah for sure, you guys are all fans or each other, true, and of course I cannot get off the phone without asking a Clutch question. What’s next for Clutch? and what are the plans for recording, touring, etc.. if you can drop a quick dime?

Neil: Sure, the band takes off for Europe for four weeks, come back then do a US tour quick week long, around new years, then uh Australia in February then we are looking to start writing the new record

ABORT: Tentative title?

Neil: oh we have to write some songs first.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 14 OF ABORT

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EXCLUSIVE: 21 & Under With…The Pixies (Issue 14 Preview)

December 2nd, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

Legendary Pixies frontman Frank Black shares a few choice words with ABORT Magazine’s Grimm Culhane during a recent visit to Vancouver. Topics range from the early days of The Pixies to the present state of the music business to how weed can enhance your skills at parallel parking. Who says rock stars don’t have something valuable to contribute to society… besides the music of course.

Grimm Culhane: Hi this is Grimm Culhane for ABORT Magazine, we’re here with… Frank Black… also known as…

Frank Black: Black Francis.

ABORT: Yep.

Frank: Also known as… that’s it.

ABORT: That’s you.

Frank: The government knows me as something else, but we don’t need to talk about that.

ABORT: Me as well, so yeah, fair enough. Let’s get right down to it. We spoke briefly about this before we started, but where are you in your career right now? What stage as a musician are you in?

Frank: Probably, like a lot of people, approaching a sort of rocky area really in terms of the business, in terms of the finance because people aren’t buying CDs. The record companies are all up in arms, everyone and their mother is out on the road so of course trying to book a tour is difficult because either the clubs are all full, you can’t get in on the night you want to get in for or the patrons have been to six shows that month and if you’re not hot you’re only going to get the real faithful. If you’ve got a little bit of hotness going on of course everyone’s at your show. I just turned down a little tour because there just wasn’t enough money. It was like; I can’t go on tour with 7 or 8 guys, a band, a crew and a bus and everything and make any money, so I said no. Having said that, you’ve been around for a long time if you have some credibility, if you have some “street cred” and suddenly Mexico’s calling, or suddenly Australia’s calling, or suddenly hey there’s some festival in Iowa that wants to pay you a boatload of money to go there and do your thing. So you have this credibility factor, some sort of name recognition so you’re allowed in various doors. That’s a kind of stability I suppose that I’ve always had as a result of The Pixies or as a result of remaining, if not hot, at least busy. I haven’t been sitting around with people wondering “where the hell’s he been for ten years?” I probably, if anything, have too many records coming out. “How ‘bout this? How ‘bout that?” You know? I’m always trying something new.

ABORT: With record sales plummeting and tours harder to book, what remains vital to you as an artist?

Frank: As long as I stay in print, that’s all I care about. That’s the only thing I’m really striving for. Stay in print, just like Lou Reed, just like Iggy Pop. Keep ‘em in print and you never know. You might make a record that’s a real classic record that may not even be applauded when it comes out, but if it’s a good record eventually people will figure it out and go, “oh yeah, that Lust for Life record, that’s a good record,” you know what I mean? Now it’s a classic record. I’m sure in 1978 people weren’t going “touché Iggy,” they were going “what the fuck old dude? Have you heard of the Ramones or the Sex Pistols?” or whoever he was competing with at the time. You got this guy David Bowie producing and look at all the guitar solos on this thing. He was playing at a club like this (The Media Club) I’m sure. I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but I’ve seen some footage from back in the day of Iggy in 1978 on his tour and he wasn’t playing stadiums or anything. He’s on a little night club tour. I didn’t hear that record until 5 or 6 years after it came out. There I was in college an I found this used copy of Lust For Life and The Idiot and that’s when I became a convert. And now, of course, you turn on the TV and “bomp bomp bomp, bomp bomp ba dada bomp” there it is. Everyone in the world has heard that song.

ABORT: So what’s more important, the cult status or the monetary gain?

Frank: I want to remain chief of my own operations. I don’t want to work for “The Man.” I don’t want to work for someone else. I don’t want to have to compromise my art. I don’t want to have to do some super favour record deal kind of thing where give up my artistic freedom. Do I really want to have some sort of lowest common denominator hit? Do I really want some sort of mozzarella sticks song? Do I really want to have the sort of…

ABORT: Flash in the pan kind of thing?

Frank: Yeah. Do I really want to do that or do I want to have some sort of integrity and stick around for a long time and have a career and make some interesting records and be true to myself and cultivate that? That’s my path. That’s the way I started out. I mean I love The Beatles and I love The Who and Led Zeppelin and everything, but when I was a kid I didn’t view it in those terms. I viewed it in pure terms about music. I love music. I love this record. I love that record and it wasn’t about how famous you’re going to be or what party you going to get invited to? It was pure. I was a young kid listening to music so when I got into it seriously when I was about 19 or 20 and I tried to start a band called The Pixies it was still pure and it was involved in what was called “alternative rock” or what was at the time called “college rock” or “indie rock.” It was not about trying to be like whatever the mediocre, top 50 that was going on. It was anti-that. It was about doing something against it all. So that’s where I come from.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 14 OF ABORT – DEC. ’09

myspace.com/pixies

By Grimm Culhane

EXCLUSIVE: SKINNY PUPPY – The ABORT Interview (ISSUE 14 Preview)

November 30th, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

(Photo- Scott Alexander)

ABORT Magazine’s Grimm Culhane and Skinny Puppy’s lead singer Ogre share a beer and reminisce about the band’s 26 years of electro-industrial existence. Discussing everything from early shows to their latest marketing strategies, from Syd Barrett to the SPV Records insolvency, the boys even find time to share a laugh amidst the ongoing struggle of the Vancouver Downtown Eastside.

Grimm Culhane: Alright, this is Grimm Culhane for ABORT Magazine. We’re here once again with Ogre…

Nivek Ogre: Yep

ABORT: Of Skinny Puppy…

Ogre: Yes.

ABORT: Good seeing you again.

Ogre: You too.

ABORT: Its been a while since we last talked.

Ogre: A year. Almost a year to the day.

ABORT: That long ago? Wow. How have you been? You look great.

Ogre: I’m doing very good, yeah.

ABORT: Busy?

Ogre: Yeah, busy. I did another film in the last year since I talked to you. I did a movie called 2001 Maniacs – Field of Screams. Its the sequel to the remake of the Herschell B Gordon Lewis movie Two Thousand Maniacs!

ABORT: And who’s directing that?

Ogre: Tim Sullivan, who did the remake with Eli Roth, did the original with Robert Englund. In the sequel Robert doesn’t return, but Bill Moseley plays Mayor Buckman.

ABORT: You work a lot with Bill Moseley seems to me, besides your work with ohGr and the film work.

Ogre: Well, we became friends. We go hiking together.

ABORT: He seems like a really nice guy, well rounded, educated and smart.

Ogre: Really well educated person, extremely intelligent and also very down to earth and a pleasure to be around. He gave me so many amazing tips and support and within the 2001 Maniacs – Field of Screams there’s a real kind of camaraderie there that shows in a lot of ways. It was my first role where I was actually doing dialogue and so he was very helpful just from a comfort level. So yeah, we see each other about once a month.

ABORT: Now we’ve got to talk about Skinny Puppy. You’re on tour right now, In Solvent See. Does that have anything to do with the record label?

Ogre: (chuckles) Yeah it does actually. I mean its intertwined and we’re trying to make the best of it, but SPV went into insolvency right towards the end of our recording cycle with them and so we were left in a place of turning in a record to what should have been a reunited and stronger label by August. What happened instead is they went into insolvency. The insolvency court took over and they’re trying to basically sell the label to Sony and in the mean time it left us between a rock and a hard place. Basically all bills before the insolvency are not being paid and everything after the insolvency is business as usual and business as usual means it was supposed to be resolved August 2nd and its gone on till now and there’s no resolve. We were left in a place where we either turn in the album we were working on, deliver it to the void, or try something else.

We tried a number of different things to accommodate the whole situation. One was we were going to turn in a pseudo Metal Machine record and we actually finished that, but there was some disagreement between all of us as to even turning that in as a Skinny Puppy product, so it’s become an ohGr album only because we had started moving in this direction of working on a noise record and we had 4 days of very creative, incredible time in the studio with Mark (Walk), my co-writer. We ended up with a record that just didn’t work out with the scope of the band, so we took it as an ohGr record.

At that point we recognized that the whole insolvency issue was going to take a long time and so we decided that instead of focusing on a new album release we’d work on a single and do a tour that was more… not necessarily retrospective, because its actually turned out to be a very intense, odd sort of combination of all of our music along with some very strange theatrics. In a sense we’re embracing the while idea of the antiquated music system, the antiquated ideals in America and our own decrepitude in the sense that we’ve been around for 26 years. We’re approaching it that way and we’re going to release a single based on the idea of insolvency. We’re going to put up stock certificates which range from 20 dollars to $2.4 million (laughs). The idea being that you choose whatever you want, what you want to buy in at, and the idea of our company, Insolvency Inc., is that you will invest in us, we will take your money and spend it and you’ll never lose less than zero.

Both: (Laugh)

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 14 OF ABORT Dec. 09

skinnypuppy.com

By Grimm Culhane

EXCLUSIVE: 21 & Under With…FRANK KOZIK (Issue 14 Preview)

November 25th, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With... by admin

Rogue illustrator-turned toy designer, Frank Kozik has been an iconoclastic figure in the world of Rock & Roll poster art, known for his exceptional work with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and more.

ABORT Magazine E.S. Day took the time to piss off Frank by NOT discussing his current toy line and tries to bring him out of rock poster retirement for a quick 21 & Under With….and we dig deep to find out about his latest drag car designs, Texas B-B-Q and his love of Doom & Drone bands.

F to the K motherfuckers!

E.S. Day: E.S Day here for ABORT Magazine, and we speaking with artist, illustrator, and vinyl toy designer Frank Kozik, how are you sir?

Frank Kozik: Pretty good

ABORT: Good, we’re going to get right into this. Even though you’ve retired from the poster scene, for quite some time, from the outside looking in, how has the poster-art scene changed in your eyes? You’ve pointed a few things out in the current film ‘American Architect’ how has this changed for you, and are you getting a laugh out of the new generation of “Photoshop phonies”, so to speak.

FK: Actually, there is an amazing spread of talent. There is of course, a million people doing ‘crap-work’… I mean, there was back then, but it was crappy Xeroxes instead of crappy computer files. I think there is an enormous amount of activity and a lot of really good artists. Limitless actually. Too much to really keep track of. The differences are now, what I’m seeing now, what people don’t get nowadays when I was doing my posters, I wasn’t trying to be an artist or a designer, or propel some personal agenda, I was part of a music scene and business, and everything I did were really posters for shows that were used on the street, and in stores, and as tour promotion. It wasn’t like “I’m a designer I want to work in posters because the music scene is cool and so I’ll do rock posters.” It was the other way around. It was like commercial art.

I was doing it in the beginning because I was part of a really vibrant local music scene. All my friends were in bands, I cant play worth a shit, but I could make posters. People started paying me money to do it, and that was fucking awesome. The big difference now, is that 99% of what I see is people that are working in the gig poster scene as part of an agenda. They all want to be designers, make money, and a lot of them go to school for it. I’m not saying that’s bad, it’s just different.

Now there is a few cats that are really obsessed with certain kinds of bands and they do work for those bands, and that’s more pure, but I think the main thing I see is there is a much larger volume of work being done. And the majority of it, I’m not going to say its false, but I don’t see that big of a personal connection. They’re not going out to the clubs and seeing those bands on their first tour through and hooking up [with the band] You know what I’m saying?

ABORT: Yeah, definitely.

FK: (cont) The Internet makes it a lot easier, you know, digital file. Back then, it would take a fucking week lay out a poster and you would have to alter it by hand. This process now, you sit down, bing bang boom two hours you make a beautiful poster, email it somewhere, and you’ve made a poster.

ABORT: It’s a shame. I was going to say, its safe to say, that photoshop and the internet, as a whole, seem to have ruined the vibrant allure that seem to have enticed people to own and value these prints from back in the day, as you said its just not the same now.

FK: The other thing that’s different, my stuff, is all kind of into the nineties, working with some of these bands that got big. Ninety percent of what I did, I actually went to the show. I think that’s really changed a lot too. Its different, but I’ve seen a lot of good work. It’s a mixed bag, overall thought; I think anything creative that helps another creative scene is good. I’m into it.

I get offers, for music work weekly, and some of it is for big pay cheques, and I always say no. I’m always really straight with them, I don’t know your band, I’ve never heard your band, I don’t give a shit about your band, you should find someone who is stoked to do it, because I’d would only be doing it for the money. And that’s not right.

ABORT: Speaking of the new school, the new breed of artists, who is your current favorite artist, your recommendation that we should be looking at for an up-and-comer that has maybe caught your eye?

FK: Some of the people I think are doing some really cool stuff that are doing music posters, I really like this crew called Print Mafia. Their shit is nice and raw, they have great sensibilities, the stuff they do suits the band that they do it for. They do silk-screening, and they really take advantage of it to make their work look better. I have to say, I really dig their shit, and usually its pretty funny too. I’m into the raw edge of the new hard bands. Not so much into the overly baroque; ‘oh look, it’s like a butterfly’ that’s just really pretty, but for me, its not a music poster.

ABORT: Speaking of American Architect I’m going to go backwards for a minute, have you seen the film now that it’s finished?

FK: Yeah, I saw the film, I thought it was entertaining, it was pretty good, The Director, [Merle Becker] did a good job on it. I think it makes the material accessible for someone who isn’t totally obsessed with the stuff, unlike other documentaries that I have been involved with, that just speak to people in the know. I think this film is decently enough put together, and entertaining enough to reach outside of the core nerd poster audience.

ABORT: What’s on the ‘FrankPod’ these days, what do you listen to?

FK: I still sort of listen to doom metal, let me open up the fucking player, and tell you what’s on the mix right now. We’re talking; Electric Wizard, Sleep, Holy Mountain.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW INCLUDING EVERYTHING WE LIED ABOUT THE INTRO, IN ISSUE 14 OF ABORT – DEC. ’09

KidRobot.com

Fkozik.com

Frankkozik.net

Fkozik

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EXCLUSIVE: RAMMSTEIN – The ABORT Interview (Issue 14 Preview)

November 16th, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

Never a band to conform to the norm, the name Rammstein instills fear in the hearts of men and has others running for the door when witnessing this 6-man wrecking crew performing live. With the original line-up still intact, the band has dropped their 6th album Lieve Ist Für Alle Da which hit stores on October 16th and has already been banned in Germany for its (apparent) graphic depictions of sadism. With CD sales reaching over 10 million + worldwide, a huge crossover fan base, and a new tour on the horizon, this will not stop the industrial metal kings in 2010. ABORT Magazine’s E.S. Day got a chance to speak with guitarist Paul H. Landers about the new album, the songwriting process and of course their controversial video for the lead single “Pussy”. Don’t forget to buy their “Just in time for Christmas” 6-dildo and handcuff box set.

E.S. Day: We are speaking with Paul H. Landers from Rammstein. How are you?

Paul Landers: Sehr gut, danke schoen!

ABORT Magazine: We’ll get right into it. First off, the current album that’s in stores now is your sixth album and it exploded on the Billboard charts. I need to know how to pronounce it!

PL: (speaking in Deutsch). Lieve Ist Für Alle Da.

ABORT Magazine: Oh fuck, forget it, I won’t even try that (laughs). And what does that mean?

PL: Love is for Everyone.

ABORT Magazine: Oh, fair enough.

PL: There’s an acronym. If you take the first letters, you get LIFAD, which means “supply” or “deliver”.

ABORT Magazine: And what is it that you are delivering? What message?

PL: (laughs) When we were thinking about the title for this album, that one came up, we went with it as a funny title, because it almost sounded like something from a regular pop artist. There’s a music style called “slager”, which is kind of folky, pop kind of music. It can also be like a name of a TV show on a sort of trashy station, like RTL.

ABORT Magazine: So, is it safe to say the band is almost making fun of themselves or are they taking a stab at the pop culture?

PL: It’s always difficult to come up with an album title, it’s a torturous process and that was the only one that came up, that we could agree upon. We do have a preference for titles like “Flash” or “Mother/Father”, but it just wasn’t the right choice this time.

ABORT Magazine: Ok. Now, this being the sixth album over a fifteen year period, I’m just going to guess that the songwriting process is a well thought one, the songs are well written and crafted. But specifically, did the band just go into the jam space and started banging out riffs or was it a shift to having a blueprint for the album? Were you really meticulous in writing it or was it just a natural occurrence?

PL: Oh, you’re actually really close with your assessment. It’s both. We got together, jammed, collected riff ideas and then took those, put them into the computer, trying to figure out which ones are worthy enough to make it into songs and then brought them back to the band space and played those to see which ones sound the best. It sounds easy as I’m saying this in the interview, but the process was way way more difficult, with the exception of the jam sessions, which were a lot of fun. It was a really tiresome, meticulous process putting the songs together.

ABORT Magazine: All right, fair enough. Now of course I have no choice but to touch upon the current video for “Pussy”, obviously, because you got fourteen-year-old boys across the world that clogged the web-site when we posted it (laughs). The question being, the making of the video, “Pussy”, had to be an experience. Were you uncomfortable being on the set with that? And were those body doubles or was the band having fellatio performed on them, which I have to say is a hell of a days work! (laughs)

PL: (Laughs) In the video it was all us but in the terms of close-ups of specific body parts – there were some body doubles.

ABORT Magazine: Oh, wow, because I’m pretty sure quite a few people think it must be nice to be in Rammstein right now (laughs). You know, go into work and fuck all day.

PL: (Laughs) It was really fun. Our drummer’s girlfriend initially came to the set and he ended up sending her home.

ABORT Magazine: How come?

PL: For the reasons named above.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 14 OF ABORT – Dec. ’09

Rammstein.de

Special Thanks to Arceon

1 Comment

EXCLUSIVE: DIR EN GREY – The ABORT Interview

November 10th, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

Dir en Grey are nothing less than a Japanese marvel, who have been revolutionizing the perception of “J-Rock” in their homeland and beyond, for more than a decade. Speaking of genre, they are the most difficult band to define and while they are ready to embark on a new North American tour, guitarist Kaoru ( 薫 ) was kind enough to chat with ABORT’s Arceon, to discuss the band’s style, past, present and future endeavours and of course, their brand new DVD “Average Blasphemy”.

Arceon: It’s widely known that as a band Dir en Grey exploded in virtually no time and over the course of years changed the style a number of times, retaining the fan base. How do you manage to do that? How do you pick the direction?

Kaoru: I think it’s just all by playing a lot of concerts, you know, touring a lot. We take in everything that we feel from the atmosphere of the shows, the response we get, digesting everything that gets thrown our way. We have never deliberately tried to change our style. For example when we make albums, we never have a predetermined style in mind. We choose to go with the flow and see what comes out of the process. It is usually when we are in the middle of doing something that we realize what we want to do.

ABORT: You have conquered North America before without singing in English at all, why make English versions of “Glass Skin” and “Dozing Green” on Uroboros? Or have they been originally written in English?

Kaoru: Both songs were originally written in Japanese, and we simply thought it might be interesting if we try a new take with English lyrics.

ABORT: Speaking of “Glass Skin”, your attire, behavior and music videos in general had a totally different face 5 years ago. What happened? Has the perception of you in Japan changed?

Kaoru: There will always be people who prefer the “us” from before and those who like us as we are now. I think that will not change. With “Glass Skin” we implemented a lot of our older styles so many people would relate to it as they did with our older songs. But I think that if people try to really listen to it, they will realize that not much has changed about us.

ABORT: Will you ever return to visual kei?

Kaoru: No, but to tell you the truth we have never thought that we were a visual-kei band. I mean, back then you wouldn’t say “Yes, let’s start a visual-kei” band. There was no such branding. But at the same time, we never know what we might want to embark upon in the future, so who knows.

ABORT: How did you get an idea of making a DVD and why at this particular time? What will we see on Average Blasphemy?

Kaoru: There are a selection of music videos from songs that were in “Marrow Of A Bone” and “Uroboros.” We also have a new full length version of “VINUSHKA,” a new take of “RED SOIL.” We also included a digest of some live clips that were originally only available in Japan for our Fanclub members.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 14 OF ABORT – Dec. ’09

direngrey.co.jp

By Arceon

EXCLUSIVE: BEHIND THE BOARDS – Devin Townsend (Issue 14 Preview)

November 7th, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With... by admin

(Photo -Scott Alexander)

Following a 3-year hiatus from touring which saw Devin rack up some serious production credits, quit smoking and drinking and do a fairly serious overhaul on his musical direction, he’s back and wasting no time. Straight out the gate with the new Devin Townsend Project, he’s on the musical warpath again this time with a four-part series. ABORT Magazine’s Alxs Ness sat down with Devin to discuss his upcoming release ‘Addicted’, his experience behind the boards and his views on the music industry.

Alxs Ness: This is Alxs Ness for ABORT Magazine, we’re here speaking with Vancouver’s own Devin Townsend. How are you doing today?

Devin Townsend: I’m good. I am excellent.

ABORT: Good to hear. So you’re currently working on completing the last half of your four part series for the Devin Townsend Project. Can you tell us where you’re at in that right now?

DT: Well, like I say about 2 years ago I wrote a series of records that kind of documented this period of personal change, you know, a lot of things happened at one time – I quit the band, had a baby, quit smoking pot and drinking booze and everything- and so it’s been 3 years of just basically cleaning my head out. During that time, the process, the way I write music tends to be pretty cathartic so whatever’s currently the state of my life always ends up translating some way or another into the music and so that personal period of time ended up being 60-some-odd songs, 40 of which were worth listening to and 4 very distinct styles. So the chronology of the records end up illustrating that period and the second one’s just finished and working on the third one.

ABORT: You’re in the recording process right now for Deconstruction?

DT: Yeah. I mean my process is a little convoluted because I’ve got a home studio; I start with a demo and that usually ends up being the final session. So from moment one it’s kind of in the process and I’ve got so many songs that I’ve been working on that this whole thing seems to be just the ongoing thing. I’ve got so many records that I’ve done that here’s the next one right? (laughs)

ABORT: I know you’ve been saying for each album you have a distinct band- a different group of musicians for each one- I was wondering, how does that work? Are they bringing something to the table as well or do you have it mapped out beforehand, how it’s going to go?

DT: There’s wiggle room but there’s certain elements of it that have no wiggle room because they ultimately affect the albums later on. For example there’s certain parts [where] it’s not going to bother the structure if the drummer has his way with the fills or the bass player plays it up an octave or whatever. For the most part I’ve got really solid vision of what I want and without trying to be a total Nazi about it I tend to, you know…. If I find that my personal relationships suffer because an album needs to be a really specific way I tend to just do it all myself.

ABORT: I gotcha. And I guess the players are aware of that before they sign on anyhow right?

DT: To a certain extent but in all honesty the personal relationships are more important than any record really so sometimes it may start and we may find that our relationship’s suffering because I am so specific about it and then we just leave it and I end up playing the parts myself or something. More then anything else the reason why I do involve so many different people is that it allows me to engage in a social life that I might otherwise not have because all I do is work. Having a ton of musicians in my world is really cool.

HevyDevy.com

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 14 of ABORT – December ’09

Thanks to Long & McQuade

By Alxs Ness

EXCLUSIVE: 21 & Under With…Motörhead (Issue 14 Preview)

November 1st, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

(Click To Enlarge | Photos – Scott Alexander)

Lemmy Drops a Dime in The Devil's Jukebox [0:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Beyond legendary and louder than everything else, the UK “Knights of The Loud Table” Motörhead; have driven a stake into the heart of modern rock and sucked its blood dry. What else can be said about its charismatic frontman and bass player Lemmy Kilmister, who shits Rock & Roll and refuses to wipe.

Heralded by many – imitated by none, this one of a kind Heavy Metal mercenary with the world’s most famous mutton chops, took the time to chat with ABORT Magazine’s E.S. Day over a buffet of Jack Daniels and Marlboro reds. Just what the doctor ordered.

E.S Day: E.S. Day here for ABORT Magazine we are sitting here with the one and only, Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead how are you sir?

Lemmy Kilmister: Hello boys and girls!

ABORT: The boys are currently on tour, well…still supporting Motorizer, your 24th fucking album! Jesus Christ – no rest for the wicked!.

Lemmy: Well the wicked never rest for anything.

ABORT: First off, new album: when are we looking at [a new one] and how far off?

Lemmy: We are going in the studio in February to rehearse, write and record.

ABORT: On SPV (Motorhead’s current label) again?

Lemmy: Uh, well they just went bankrupt.

ABORT: Oh! That why we’re not getting a call back for interview requests – I see… we we’re speaking with a girl named (name withheld) before, to handle our requests.

Lemmy: Yeah I think she’s still there, but they’re winding down now.

ABORT: Well then where is Motorhead going to be laying down now?

Lemmy: Well there’s a company who will be taking over the whole stable soon, but I can’t tell you right now.

ABORT: Of course…fucking jesus! Alright then I understand. (laughs)

Lemmy: Yes, the secrets.

ABORT: Oh yeah, gotta have the secrets.

Lemmy: Industrial espionage you know

ABORT: Yeah. Mikkey Dee is back in the drum throne, he finally got booted off that show “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me the Fuck Out of Here” or whatever it’s called, in Malaysia – in the meantime, you had (Velvet Revolver/Ex-Guns n’ Roses drummer) Matt Sorum filling for about 11 dates, how did that work out? Did he get the set down ok?

Lemmy: Yeah he was good.

ABORT: Well I’m sure, as he grew up listening to Motorhead, but it’s nice to have Mikkey back?

Lemmy: Yeah, he knows all the stuff

ABORT: (Laughs) I guess he does. More importantly, I have been dying to ask – Lemmy: The Movie. New film/documentary, I saw the trailer, I’ am fucking excited, now do you endorse this? Do you get final say on this?

Lemmy: Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.

ABORT: Is this going to get a theatrical release?

Lemmy: Yeah, well they are going to premiere it in Austin, Texas

ABORT: Oh, at the South By Southwest Conference.

Lemmy: Yeah.

ABORT: That reminds me of another band like you or Motorhead that was long overdue in getting a film made about them and that’s Anvil.

Lemmy: Yeah they’re great.

ABORT: I mean there is 2 bands who really deserve to have the camera pointed at them for a documentary, I mean besides fucking journalists and that bullshit…

Lemmy: (Turns to ABORT photographer Scott Alexander) He just said you were bullshit (laughs)

Scott Alexander: (laughs)Don’t worry I get that all the time.

More on the Lemmy documentary, remembering Girlschool’s Kelly Johnson and more in Issue 14 of ABORT – Dec. ’09

CATCH MOTORHEAD ON TOUR NOW, THROUGH DECEMBER 2009, CHECK DATES AT:

imotorhead.com

lemmymovie.com

myspace.com/redharvestplanet

3 Comments

EXCLUSIVE: 21 & Under With…RED HARVEST

October 4th, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

Norway + music = Norwegian Black Metal. At least that’s the equation most musical extremists may write on the subject. But, while (back in the day) the majority of the country’s metal warriors were corpsepainted spike-wearers, some bands adopted a different approach to their output. One such band is Red Harvest. Having started out in 1989 as a thrash outfit, the band have since developed to become one of the world’s most respected industrial crews. Guitarist Ketil Eggum (aka TurboNatas) takes time out of rehearsals – for this month’s 20th Anniversary gig in Oslo – to talk to ABORT Magazine’s UK man on the scene, John Norby.

John Norby: Did you ever think when you started the band that Red Harvest would

still be going 20 years later?

Ketil Eggum: I joined in 1994, and I wasn’t even sure if I would be alive in 2009. And, like back then, I am still not able to plan 15 years ahead in time. So I guess the answer to that is no.

ABORT: How have you noticed the scene in Norway change over those 20 years?

KE: Norwegian bands have developed a lot. Confidence and success goes hand in hand. When some bands got recognized and started touring abroad, it opened up for other bands and, of course, the way black metal became famous it eventually opened doors to other kinds of genres in the Norwegian metal scene.

ABORT: Red Harvest has changed a lot since Nomindsland in ‘92. Indeed, there’s been a progression with every album you have released. Has this always been a conscious decision or do you see it more as a natural development over the years?

KE: I hope it is a natural thing to develop in a twenty year period. You know, some bands get away with sounding the same, like AC/DC (Laughs). Seriously, I believe that we get so many influences and new ideas in between albums that it would feel strange to look backwards. We have only followed our hearts and tried to find all the guys in the band enough space to suggest and arrange. In this way we are kind of unpredictable.

ABORT: Has your songwriting or recording techniques changed much over the years because of this?

KE: I tend to write more at home before presenting stuff to the rest of the band. So I am a computer kind of guy. Jimmi likes to present stuff at our rehearsal place and involve all the guys on an earlier stage. I guess I do those things my way, because I forget things fast if I don’t record them asap. But we still like to rehearse stuff until we get the right mood in things. Red Harvest has a very organic side and a very machine-like side. Obviously, they both need to be worked on.

ABORT: What was the first song you ever wrote and played in Red Harvest?

KE: I think the first Red Harvest song I ever played was ‘Resist’ from There’s Beauty In The Purity Of Sadness. And the first riff and song idea I had that ended up on an album was ‘Fix, Hammer, Fix’ from Cold Dark Matter. I am kind of slow, (Laughs).

ABORT: Is there a particular Harvest song or album that you’re most proud of?

KE: Personally I must say ‘Cold Dark Matter’. The band was struggling, we felt fucked by our label, we lost a good drummer to fishing (later to Enslaved), black metal was the only thing that mattered at that time. Then Samoth and Nocturnal Art picked us up and we managed to rise above all the shit and deliver one of the most brutal industrial albums ever around that time.

ABORT: Over the past 20 years, what has been the most standout moment for you in Red Harvest?

KE: When it comes to playing gigs, I guess Brutal Assault Festival in 2007 and Inferno Festival in 2003 are highlights. As I said, I think all we have achieved after Cold Dark Matter when it comes to albums is worth being proud of. Every time it is a fight, I often have to look into my darkest thoughts and feelings – in other words I fuck up many things when I am in writing mood. And when it is time to make and write something new, it starts all over again. That’s why it is good to be five guys that can contribute.

ABORT: Given that you are all older now, do you find it more difficult to devote time to the band than you did back in the early days?

KE: Yes, I am afraid so. And you know, sometimes you feel so eager and inspired yourself, but then again, we are five persons in Red Harvest, and we are not very well in sync, (Laughs). So it has become a lot more give and take. But as long as we are aware of this it’s not a big problem. At least not for me.

ABORT: How have the inspirations for Red Harvest’s music changed over the years?

KE: I am trying to imagine that I make music to a soundtrack. Earlier I was more interested in seeing how fast and ugly I could make things. I like to play around with mathematic patter that’s combined with some bombastic stuff. When it comes to lyrics I also try to be more less specific and more vague. Funnier for those that bother to read and listen I hope.

ABORT: Have you come across many bands that you feel have been influenced by

Red Harvest in any way?

KE: The only band I can think of right away is a band called V28. And I have heard Satyricon using very Red Harvestish ‘subdrones’ live.

ABORT: You’re a band that has had a genre of its own when it comes to Norway. Would you agree?

KE: Yup, guess you have a point, ‘cause bands like DHG and Thorns are less organic than us. Or more industrial, depending on how you see things of course

ABORT: The anniversary gig. How are plans going for that?

KE: Picking up old songs has been great learning and a lot of fun so far. I hope and believe it will be a night to remember. We will play old and new songs from all albums and also bring some guests on stage to do a song or two. Also, the venue itself is worth a visit. The sculptures and art in theSpacebunker is outstanding.

ABORT: Was it difficult to select songs for the set?

KE: Yes, because in many ways you want to play more or less everything, and if we only play old stuff it’s boring to those who like our new stuff and the other way around. So we have tried to pick the songs with care and brains.

ABORT: How is work coming on the next album?

KE: Okay, but we haven’t proceeded in quite some time now, because we have been busy with rehearsing for the 20 years anniversary gig and on other projects.

ABORT: What do you see in the future for Red Harvest?

KE: I hope we are able to make another album and continue to work on the multimedia shows we have tried to establish the last years. In other words, less shows live, but better and more innovative productions if you understand.

By John Norby

EXCLUSIVE: GALLOWS w/ “GGGarth” Richardson (Issue 13 Preview)

October 3rd, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

(Photo- Daniel Bacharach)

The UK’s favourite snotty little brats Gallows – are back and more brazen than ever with their new album ‘Grey Britain’ produced by Vancouver’s own “GGGarth” Richardson, who sits in on this round-table discussion conducted by Joel Parent of Canada’s newest Lords of Loud: Ninjaspy, with guitarist Steph to discuss the album’s production, his hatred for the Warped tour, and shitty bands (like Millionaires!) – An ABORT exclusive!

Ninjoelspy: Hi Steph, how’s it going?

Steph: A bit tired, but I’m good actually. I’m glad to be out of the States and in Canada!

ABORT: Nice! So, you are currently touring on your new album on Reprise, “Grey Britain”, could you explain to us a bit about the title and the meaning behind the album?

Steph: Yes, you can take it a few ways, like we’re from London, and the weather at home is always grey and cloudy and overcast. So you could say that “Grey Britain” is about the weathercast. You could take it like, our country used to be a really proud place you know, and people used to work really hard for a living and strive to be the best at their job. Nowadays it’s like everyone’s lost their passion and their energy for our country. It’s just kind of lost it’s way a bit, like Britain’s not a proud place anymore you know. More people are taught to just go on the dole and claim money off the government rather than go out and work for a living.

ABORT: Would you say that this sort of loss of patriotism might be sort of crossing borders and happening in North America as well?

Steph: I think it’s happening all over the world. I mean, sure there are places where it’s not affecting people as heavily, but the current economic climate has hit the entire world. For example, in Europe, Germany has the highest unemployment rate in the world at the moment because of their automotive industry. When a recession hits, the first thing people are going to let go of is a luxury, and to ninety nine percent of the people a car’s a luxury. But over here in North America, in Canada, it’s definitely hitting as well. I mean, we’ve seen a change since the last time we were over, so, the whole world’s suffering at the moment. I think everyone seems to be losing their way and losing their faith in the powers that be, I guess.

ABORT: And is that affecting the way you’re able to share your music with people? Like, is it making it harder businesswise?

Steph: Yeah, it is. It’s making it a lot more difficult for us from a touring point of view. When we released the album, because of the economic climate, people were either buying the record or coming to the show, whereas when we released the last album, people were buying the record and coming to the show. People can’t afford to do both anymore, so it’s definitely hit the music industry hard. There’s more illegal downloading going on, which I’m not that fussed about in a way for the simple reason that it means more people potentially can hear your music. But at the same time, you’re never gonna make any money from it. That’s why we’re taking everything we can from the record label! (laughs).

ABORT: Speaking of the record, you brought Vancouver’s Garth Richardson on board, how did you come to choose him?

Steph: We done our tour in January of last year, and we had a few meeting with different people to produce this. We spoke to Butch Vig, we spoke to Alex Newport, we spoke to quite a few people. And Garth was the only person we spoke to that when he came to see us, had done his background work on the band, and knew more about than anyone else and he was actually interested in working with us. Like, this for him wasn’t another record to put on the wall, this for him was something that was going to drive him just as passionately as it was us to make the record. So, aside from that, (to Garth) you were an engineer for a long time, and we knew that if we worked with you that we would be able to get the exact sounds that we were after for the record. ‘Cause for “Grey Britain” it was more about the actual tone of the record, rather than just making another record with sampled drums and triggered this triggered that. We wanted to make something that would stand the test of time audibly, so yeah, you were just the right choice to make!

GGGarth: I think for the bass sound, the image was “like bones crushed by gravel in a coffin” or “like bones breaking” and I was like “sure, I could do that!” (laughs).

Steph: Yeah, we got in there and he was trying to be all coy, like “I’ll catch him out in this one” so he was like “I want my bass to sound like someone’s dragging broken bones out of a coffin while it’s being smashed on granite!” and you’re just like “yeah, we’ll do this, we’ll do this…” and then he’d done it, and we just went “oh, cool”. Yeah, we got in there and he was trying to be all coy, like “I’ll catch him out in this one” so he was like “I want my bass to sound like someone’s dragging broken bones out of a coffin while it’s being smashed on granite!” and you’re just like “yeah, we’ll do this, we’ll do this…” and then he’d done it, and we just went “oh, cool”.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW WITH STEPH AND GGGARTH IN ISSUE 13 OF ABORT MAGAZINE

Grey Britain is in stores now

Catch GALLOWS on tour!

Gallows.co.uk

By ninjoelspy

EXCLUSIVE: ARCH ENEMY – The ABORT Interview (Issue 13 Preview)

September 15th, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

(Photo – Jordana Meilleur)

Currently preparing to unleash an assault on the world with their latest album The Root of All Evil and a new tour, Sweden’s Queen of Death Metal – Angela Gossow from Arch Enemy speaks with Canada’s Queen of Death Metal – Without Mercy vocalist Alxs Ness about their upcoming tour, female drummers in metal and…posing for Playboy?.

Alxs Ness: What else do you have coming up tour wise? You’re going to Asia first then Australia?

Angela Gossow: We’re doing a whole bunch of dates in Asia, then Australia and a bunch in New Zealand then we go back to Europe, we do 4 or 5 weeks in Europe into Christmas then we take 2 weeks break and then we’re going to go to the NAMM Convention in L.A. and then we’re going to tour the U.S. and Canada. We’re having a really hard time getting a venue in Vancouver because you guys are having the Winter Olympics in February. It sucks, it’s so difficult.

ABORT: It’s going to be insane. They’re shutting down transit; they’re shutting down a certain part of downtown as well.

AG: And they’re reserving all the venues on hold so we’re just having a real hard time to get a spot there to play. We can’t miss out on Vancouver. We’ve played there every time and it’s just a great show for us, we love the people. It’s a bit of a headache at the moment. Cancel the entire Winter Olympics because nobody cares anyway.

ABORT: You have a couple collaborations or guest appearances on some albums that were released this year: Never’s Back to the Front and Amaseffer’s Slaves for Life. Can you just tell us briefly a little about these bands and how you came to be involved with them?

AG: Well you know, they just [contacted] my MySpace and I actually read my MySpace messages; which is crazy because I don’t really have the time but I still do. But yeah, I just check out their music and if I like it I’ll do it. I get a lot of requests; from all kinds of gothic bands to power metal bands. Usually it’s not really my cup of tea and then I’ll say no but when I like the idea it’s easy because I have a home studio. They can just send me over the MP3 and I record the vocals and I email them back. That’s the beauty of 2009 and the modern life. You don’t have to meet up anymore in the studio. It’s cool when other bands obviously use that to get some promotion; if they get some recognition for it that’s cool. It’s just a guest appearance and the rest of the music the band needs to deliver.

ABORT: I guess it works both ways, for you as well because you’re helping out a more underground type band.

AG: That’s what I’ve also done, guest work for a band called Astarte. In Greece, they’re an all-female black metal band. There’s lots of underground stuff. It’s so exciting for these bands. I understand. It would have been very exciting for me if somebody would have guested on my previous bands’ release. It’s still one scene. I’m still connected to these bands, you know, I haven’t lost touch at all. I’m always up for it as long as I find the time. If I’m on tour then I don’t have anywhere to settle down and actually record something.

ABORT: Where can people find Arch Enemy on the internet?

AG: They can find us on archenemy.net which is our main website and myspace.com/archenemy. There you can find all the other MySpace pages. I’ve got a page called angelagossow.com where I present stuff like this, what we just talked about, when I do guest vocals in another band and I do some vocal workshops so that goes there. It’s not directly about Arch Enemy. It’s actually a big Arch Enemy fan running the website for me. I’m not self-absorbed enough to do that myself. (Laughs). Here name’s Nina. She had a fan page up and one day, cause she contacted me for something, I said, you know what if you want any input we can just make it the official AngelaGossow.com website and I’ll feed you the news directly. You don’t have to pick them up somewhere else on the internet. It’s nice. I do some stuff on the side so it’s nice to communicate it there. I’m obviously not having my own solo career in that sense but some stuff is just kind of a bit out of the line: all my nude appearances in Playboy for example.

ABORT: (Laughs) I see. That’s for all the fans out there in case you’re wondering. Do you want to give them the direct link?

AG: Everybody’s visiting the website now I’ll have to shut it down. No, no nude pics up there, sorry.

ABORT: Your hits will multiply by a million by tomorrow I guarantee it.

AG: We’re going to get a huge invoice because I’ll have exceeded the bandwidth!.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 13 OF ABORT MAGAZINE – October ’09

By Alxs Ness

karenblackactress.blogspot.com

EXCLUSIVE: KAREN BLACK – The ABORT Interview (Issue 13 Preview)

September 12th, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin

Golden Globe Award Winning, Oscar Nominated actress Karen Black is simply an iconic figure in American Cinema, from her famous roles in Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby and Airport ’75, to her sultry role in In Praise of Older Women, Karen also worked with Alfred Hitchcock on his last feature film ever to be made.

Couple this with a bevy of cult roles such as the motherly seductress in Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses, she has recently ventured into an upcoming HBO show ‘Magic Balloon’ produced by Will Ferrell , and ‘Repo Chick‘ the David Lynch produced sequel to Repo Man. July 2009 saw Karen performing a one woman show in Toronto as well as writing and starring in her play “Missouri Waltz”. She took the time to speak with ABORT Magazine’s E.S. Day, which caused him to touch himself over the phone in a completely inappropriate manner for the second time in his life. That’s Entertainment.

E.S. Day: E.S. Day here for ABORT Magazine and we are on the phone with legendary actress Ms. Karen Black. How are you?

KB: I’m doing very well and your voice sounds great.

ABORT: Oh? well thank you very much, I appreciate it. Should I be saying Miss or Mrs.?

KB: You’re very alive.

ABORT: I am quite alive actually; I’ve had a lot of coffee.

KB: You sing ? or do you ever?

ABORT: No I don’t sing. I can’t sing. I smoke 3 packs a day so there goes my singing career.

KB: Yes, but it does wonders for your voice.

ABORT: Actually you know what, it does. I know a lot of good singers that chain smoke.

KB: To answer your question earlier I like Miss Black because if I were Mrs. I’d have a different last name.

ABORT: And Ms., you don’t use Ms.?

KB: 26 years of marriage, I love to say this. 26 years of marriage.

ABORT: 26?

KB: “Oh people in Hollywood don’t stay married.” they say. Well we’ve been together 26 years.

ABORT: Right, ok.

KB: I can see that’s your favorite subject.

ABORT: You know what, it is. And we’ll get into that right now. You being married to film, a labor of love and we’ll go right into that.

KB: Ok.

ABORT: You’ve had quite a career. Good lord, how many films are we looking at right now? Just under.

KB: I keep thinking I’m going to look in my IMDB account. I should go do that. It’s 170 something.

ABORT: Ok, fair enough. And of course, I personally remember you from, I mean I saw Easy Rider back then but the first thing I ever saw was In Praise of Older Women and may I be so bold as to say, that’s probably the first film I ever “pleasured myself” to. Please don’t hang up on me.

KB: I’m so glad you told me this… because nobody else has ever told me this before, but it doesn’t mean it has never been done before.

ABORT: Hey you know what?; this is before I ever heard of the O’Farrell Theatre in San Frasico or even Seka movies. You know, it was a good flick. Who was in that? Tom Berenger right?

KB: Yes.

ABORT: Ok. Do you still stay in touch with people that you’ve worked with in the past?

KB: Yes and no. I really don’t talk to Dennis [Hopper] much but I talk to Peter [Fonda]. Sometimes Jack Nicholson will call me in the middle of the night.

ABORT: Oh that’s nice. The middle of the night call.

READ THE ENTIRE (Hilarious) INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 13 OF ABORT MAGAZINE – October ’09

myspace.com/therealkarenblack

Special thanks to David Daniloff