American Head Charge
Questions Answered By Chad Hanks (Bass / Programming).
Mid '99
Interviewed by Pedro
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Related Links:
Official Website
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PRP: Just wanna start saying that, if sometimes my grammar goes VERY wrong, please forgive me.
Chad: Don't worry. I can only speak one language, so if anything, I'm impressed.
PRP: Hehehe, I know what you mean. Start telling us how was American Head Charge formed.
Chad: AHC started about 4 years ago when i moved here from L.A. I came to Minneapolis to go to a high profile treatment center. I eventually wound up in another treatment program in Plymouth, Minnesota, and that's where I met Martin. In order to graduate the program, my counsellor made me write a song (I hadn't done it sober in years.) and perform it for ebvrybody. I asked Martin if he could sing and he was like: "Sure, i guess...". When we both got out, I met our guitarist Dave in a halfway house, and then met our drummer Pete in another halfway house. Basically, we all met due to the fact that we all at one time were horrible, evil, fucked up drug addicts! We met our keyboard player at a music school Martin was attending called Music Tech (Martin was attending to learn recording/engineering.) He liked industrial music and all sorts of other weird shit (Zappa, Mr. Bungle, Ozric Tentacles, Skinny Puppy, and so on..), so we pulled him on board, and we are, as we speak, working in our new second guitarist, Wayne Kile. He should be ready for the show we're doing on August 22nd.
PRP: I see. Just to clear my mind a little bit: what do you do in the band? play guitar, bass, sings?
Chad: I play bass and do a lot of the sampling / programming. I also produce the band. It's all in the liner notes of the CD, which we sent today.
PRP: Cool. You have any inspirations in bass?
Chad: For sure. Let's see: Les Claypool from Primus, and Trey from Mr. Bungle. Flea is just a monster, but to be honest, most of my influences are guitar players since i've been playing guitar for 20 years. I just started playing bass like 4 years ago.
PRP: 20 years? Holy shit! You must play guitar better than Joe Satriani. Hehehe.
Chad: Satriani? not that good, but i can hold my own. We just recorded a Ministry song, "Filth Pig" for a Ministry tribute album, and since our guitarist was out of town, I got to do all the guitar tracks. I loved it!
PRP: Hahaha. Dude, 20 years' a lot. Im impressed. I mean, I'm 17 years old.
Chad: Yes, I am a very young 27 year old! Don't tell anybody! Everyone seems to think I'm 22 or so.
---- Problems with the phone line ----
PRP: Sorry, man. Problems with my phone line.
Chad: No problem. Let's continue.
PRP: Ok. You were saying you were 27 years old...
Chad: Oh yeah. After that, I said I wanted to do a side project where I can play guitar. Maybe call it "Gestapo Pussy Ranch" or something.
PRP: Gestapo Pussy Ranch? Hahahaha.
Chad: It was actually our first band name that I came up with. We had it for like 6 months, but figured no one would hire us anywhere with a name like that.
PRP: Tell me more about this Ministry Tribute?
Chad: Dwell records in L.A. does these compilation CD's and tribute CD's. The guy had heard about us, checked the site, saw who our influences were, and e-mailed me. We just finished mixing it on Saturday. It should be out in a month or so, but we'll have the song up on our site in MP3 form and Real Audio form. We might, with Dwell's permission, do a limited release vinyl with "Filth Pig" on one side and a new song called "Pourn" on the other. I guess we'll see.
PRP: Hmmm, any meaning behind the name "American Head Charge"?
Chad: The name? I pulled it out of my ass, to be honest.
PRP: Hahaha.
Chad: It just came from nowhere, I guess. I like 3 word names a lot. The ironic thing is that I found out there was a band called "African Headcharge" a few years back. It's so hard to be original sometimes.
PRP: Hmmm, what about the cd's name? "Trepanation"? What the hell does it mean?
Chad: It is the practice of drilling a small hole in the skull for either spiritual enlightenment, or to let out "demons". It's been done for thousands of years. Tribal "doctors" would determine that a person was sick or possessed by evil spirits (they were probably just schizophrenic or had some kind of chemical imbalance.) and drilled a hole to let the demons out. There was actually a resurgent interest in trepanation in England in the 70's. There're videos of it on the net somewhere. Weird shit for sure.
PRP: Damn. Hmmm, what do you think about consensual rape? (I'm checking out the members page. Hahaha.) Is that members page serious? Hehehe.
Chad: You know, I've really considered taking that off of there, just due to the fact that people misconstrue what I mean. Let me say this for the record: Rape is a terrible thing that scars people for life. I couldn't imagine that kind of emotional and physical damage. When I said "consensual", I meant in a relationship between 2 consenting adults. It's all fantasy. I do some really weird shit in my personal life, but I would never, ever, go out and rape someone, or tell people that it's cool. And yes, the members page is 100% serious.
PRP: I never really thought you were capable of doing this, hehehe. That was a stupid question anyway, if you want me to take it off, I will. Let me focus in the band. Would you say AHC has an original sound?
Chad: No, no. Leave it in, please. Original?
PRP: Yeah. Like, do you think AHC kinda created a style?
Chad: I'm not really sure if it's possible to be original anymore. I just like to hear certain sounds together. I like to use the lyrics (as well as i suppose Martin does) to vent some of the things inside me. I mean, I have a definite way I want things to sound, and I draw on a variety of influences to do so. Public Enemy, Oingo Boingo, old Kiss, Ministry, Skinny Puppy, you name it.
PRP: Would you compare AHC to any other band? I mean, sound similarity.
Chad: I can say this much: people have a hard, hard time comparing us to anybody. It's not like "Oh, they sound like Korn". We somehow appeal to the "Ozzfest" mentality without being totally derivative of all those same bands. So in a way I'd say we're unique. I mean, the album has a lot of flavors to it; we're not stuck in one groove.
PRP: Cool. Influences of the band?
Chad: Our influences I guess would be: Ministry, Faith No More, Nine Inch Nails, Slayer, Primus, Frank Zappa, Jesus Lizard, and then we like "newer" bands such as Tool, deftones, System of a Down, Static-X, Nothingface, stuff like that.
PRP: Cool! Dude, check this out: "What up Pedro? We just finished recording TV II, an old Ministry song that we are doing for a Ministry Compilation." Hahaha. Just received this e-mail. That's some weird coincidence. Hahaha. It's from a band called Phobic. You know them?
Chad: Right on. Never heard of them, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were doing it. Tell them I said "hi" and to get ahold of me.
PRP: Sure, I'll tell him. You guys are from Minneapolis, right?
Chad: Kind of. We're all from different parts of the country actually. I'm from Los Angeles, Martin's from San Francisco, Pete's from Wisconsin, Chris is from Indiana, and Dave is the only native Minnesotan.
PRP: Well, I'll stay with Minneapolis cause that's the place your site mentions. How's the metal scene there?
Chad: It's getting better. When we first started, it was REAL hard to get gigs, and this is only 3 or 4 years ago, but lately, and I would like to think we have something to do with it, more attention has been paid to the Minneapolis "hardcore" scene.
PRP: Any band in Minneapolis besides you guys which I should check out?
Chad: For sure. Dodd, Druel, conspiracy theory, Two Ton Crutch, Sublevel, Liquid Pulse, Soma 220, K, Mutate, and many others. There's basically a lot of shit starting up here as of late.
PRP: Websites?
Chad: Off the top of my head I couldn't tell you, but check our links page and go from there.
PRP: Okeydokey. Do you have an all-time favorite band?
Chad: My top 3 would probably be: Public Enemy, Ministry, and Kiss.
PRP: Those band's kinda of sound are influences in your band's sound? And is it explicit? I mean, can we notice it?
Chad: Well, we do have a couple of P.E. samples in our songs, and I'm pretty sure you can hear the Ministry influence. In fact, one reviewer wrote something about "...a fleet of Ministry-style samples". There's no Kiss in our music, but we like to put on a big show for sure. I definitely got that from them.
PRP: Hmmmm, have you ever been approached by any label?
Chad: Yes.
PRP: Well, was it recently?
Chad: Yes, just in the last couple months.
PRP: Amazing. Are you still in contact with the label?
Chad: Yes. Some of them will be at our show on the 22nd of August to see us; some of them for the first time, and some are coming to see us again. I guess just to make sure we're still good!
PRP: Hahaha. Yeah, in the music business, people got to notice every detail. Do you think AHC fall into the "new metal" category?
Chad: I would have to agree with that. I mean, honestly, there's nothing extremely "new" that we're doing, but the way that we put it all together has a different taste to it. You could definetly put us right next to deftones or Korn or Static X, and we would fit right in.
PRP: Which's the best unsigned band out there, in your opinion?
Chad: We are.
PRP: Ok, besides AHC?
Chad: I don't know if I can answer that question. I'd have to pick a favorite, and that would be like having to choose the favorite between two children, or something equally as hard.
PRP: Can't you name at least 3, like you did in the "All-time favorite band" question?"
Chad: Sure. Druel, Dodd, and conspiracy theory. They're 3 bands that know what they're doing, and do it well.
PRP: I see. What do AHC plan to do in the near future?
Chad: We're going to continue to build up our fan base here in Minneapolis. After we played Edgefest here, got a lot of attention on the radio, and did the CD release party, we noticed that our biggest fans are the kids under 21 (for the most part), and that given the chance to come see us on a regular basis, they could help us to achieve what we want to achieve, connection with the masses. I mean, they come out in droves when we do all ages shows. They're amazing kids, and we're very grateful to have fans like that.
PRP: What's in the cd player right now?
Chad: Cake's "Nugget". I listen to alot of other stuff besides heavy music.
PRP: I like Cake. They're really good.
Chad: Cake, Queens of the Stone Age, Fugazi, Oingo Boingo, Clutch, Bjork, Tricky, Aphex Twin, Ice... That's basically what I've been listening to lately.
PRP: Cool. I didn't got that chance to listen to QOTSA yet. Are they good?
Chad: If you haven't heard their latest CD, GET IT NOW!
PRP: Really? Is it THAT good?
Chad: They're playing here on my Birthday (Aug. 31), so that'll be really cool. I think they write wonderful songs, which, in a time of technology taking a major role (sometimes TOO major of a role) in music, they're a breath of fresh air...
PRP: Amazing! I'll definitely check 'em out. Hmmm...just curious: Has AHC ever played with any established band in the heavy metal scene?
Chad: Yes, we have.
PRP: Which ones?
Chad: At Cedarfest, last year, we played with Drain STH, Cold, and Gravity Kills, and at Edgefest a few months ago, we played with Hatebreed and Motorhead, among others. We were supposed to have Simon Says open for us a few weeks ago, but they cancelled. I guess they chickened out.
PRP: Hahaha.
Chad: We opened for Slipknot a couple of months ago too. This past May.
PRP: Wow!
Chad: That was a crazy show....
PRP: What do you think of SlipKnot, by the way? People are kinda worshipping them at the moment, hehehe.
Chad: I like them, and I especially like what they're doing as far as opening the eyes of people who dismiss the midwest as some kind of barren musical wasteland. They've got a whole look/sound/idea thing going, which makes them a very strong presence. They get a thumbs up from me.
PRP: Cool. What would be the tour of your dreams? Your band plus.... ?
Chad: It would be AHC, Ministry, anything with Mike Patton, the Chemical Brothers and Aphex Twin spinning between sets, and Pigface. I guess it would have to be an all day event!
PRP: Dope. Chad, I guess that's it, dude. Any last comments?
Chad: Not really. Thanks for making this interview relatively easy on me.
PRP: Cool. Thanks a lot for your time, man. I really hope this helps your band. As soon as Trepanation arrive here, I'll let you know. Keep in touch.
Chad: Ok Pedro. I'll talk to you again soon, my friend. Take it easy.
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