PRP: While being extremely popular in the
U.K., the band have yet to taste such success in America, how do you feel about this and why do you think the U.K. scene has taken so kindly to you?
Paul: The kids actually read the press and they are fans of music and in the states its totally different, if your on the
radio or on MTV then you're good. If they haven't heard of you then you must suck.
Tumor: I could have predicted from the beginning that was going to happen,
I knew what Amen was doing was completely left field of what America is about.
If they get it fine, if they
don't I wont lose any more sleep over it. It's a little upsetting being that we are from
America and they kind of not see between the lines of what we are all about. It may take time, it may never happen.
Tumor: I
can't put my finger on why we are
successful over here. I just figure that America is so god damn fuckin stuck in this
commercialized rap metal movement right now. It's been done for years now, it needs to stop.
PRP: How about the U.K. press and how they seem to have latched on to you?
Paul: Somehow,
some way they get it.
People are more like individuals here. Slowly but surely people are saying wow this
doesn't sound like Limp Bizkit or Korn. Finally a band that aren't
on the he same bandwagon. When I joined the band in 94, RATM just got super huge and
Kurt Cobain just killed himself. It was a really crazy time and everyone was just
jumping on this thing. We had Korn and Deftones and next we had Limp
Bizkit. Rap rock, rap rock everywhere and when I first heard Casey's demos they were like epic punk rock tunes and ever since the integrity is finally paying off.
PRP: Tumor - what enticed
you to join Amen?
Tumor: Basically it was destiny. Of course
I was with Sonny in the past and I had been in bands with Larkin our drummer
since I was 16 years old and he's the reason I even picked up the bass guitar. It just came full circle that
I ended up in this band and the beliefs and the music that was created in this band was always in the back of my head, even with
Snot.
PRP: How do you go about writing an Amen song?
Paul: Its pretty much
Casey and Larkin. After the Roadrunner fiasco Casey put the guitar on, sits in front of
Larkin and says check this riff out and then he'll make a skeleton for a song.
They did 56 songs that we had to choose for the record.
PRP: There have been many rumors as to why you guys originally parted ways with
Roadrunner Records, what really happened?
Paul: Oh there are no rumors,
it's actual truth. We were confirmed to go on tour with
Machine Head for like 3 months and then 10 days before we were leaving they decide that they are not going to give us tour support to go and we were already get amazing press, 10 out of 10 in
Metal Hammer and 4k's in Kerrang!. We only toured like 6 weeks, 2 of which were after the record was released so for
Roadrunner to pull a move like that was just not in good faith. We had a good lawyer thank god who got us out of that deal as quick as he could.
PRP: You guys recently shot your first ever video for the track
"The Price Of Reality" and it is seemingly filled with potshots on the stereotypical American life. With such vivid imagery do you think many stations will play it?
Paul: Oh
I know they won't. Not in America, they pretty much said you can get rid of everything except for the live band footage. There are reasons why we have
these images. MTV in the
U.K. loved it. The rough draft, they said they would play it just like this.
Tumor: They are too worried by some of the imagery that we have. Of course,
I'm appalled by the imagery MTV has every day with the rap artists because they are very pornographic and materialistic.
It's
just joke.
PRP: How has life been on the road
with bands such as Gwar and Nothingface and in particular what were your thoughts on the
infamously unorganized Tattoo The Earth?
Paul: Gwar
was work, because you have kids coming to see a show to get blood and blue stuff shot all over them.
It's a show. Super cool guys but it seemed like the music is there second part. We would have to get up there and kids would be shouting
GWAR GWAR GWAR and we would have to give it to them full on and like two songs in we would have a pit and people freaking out. That was work but it was killer.
Nothingface was cool too. They pretty much headlined most of them and it was good to get out of there in front of kids at total grass roots level.
Tumor: Every band we have toured with we have become close to.
Now we are out here with Raging Speedhorn and its like the whole thing over again,
telling each other how we enjoy each others company and would like to tour together again.
PRP: How about Tattoo The Earth, a lot
of bands spoke negatively about that?
Paul: It was just totally insane and then it was really hot. It did suck the first couple of weeks but then it tightened up towards the end.
The first day we played, Sepultura or somebody just went on the main
stage as we were playing, so you had two P.A's, one three times the size of the other. It was
hilarious I could hear another drummer as much as my own.
Tumor: It was a cluster fuck, it was a mess.
PRP: Ross Robinson has the reputation of pushing artists to their limits, were you guys more comfortable working with him the second time around?
Paul: Definitely, different studio, most amazing engineer
Mike Frazier. Ross didn't have to worry about being engineer and producer. It was so smooth, we were done in thirty days.
The first album was up at Indigo Ranch, we weren't happy with the guitar tones, it was just chasing our tails. Thank god we were at
Sound City and thank god for
Mike Frazier.
PRP: How does it feel to be the first act from Ross's
I AM stable to be handled by Virgin?
Paul: It feels awesome. We have more creative freedom with
Virgin than with Roadrunner.
PRP: People wouldn't
expect that.
Paul: No, they think, oh you guys are selling out when
actually no, because they are letting us do everything we want to do. I remember one day in the studio at
Indigo and our A&R guy said the vocals are a little harsh, can you tone them down a little bit? and
Ross had this crazy look in his eye like what are you talking about. And they were saying is there anything radio going on here?
With Virgin, our A&R guy asked what our intention was and Casey simply replied
"we want to make the most
violent record on a major label" and hopefully we did that.
PRP: If Santa could give you one thing this year, what would it be?
Paul: Laetitia
Casta, the Victoria secrets model. Thank you Santa.
Tumor: Some time off, some little rest.
PRP: Have you ever ridden on a fire truck?
Paul:
When I was like in kindergarten I was on a field trip and we got to ride one and it was really fun.
PRP: Tumor, you were involved heavily with the
"Strait Up" project, through production and playing, do you feel the album is a fitting tribute to
Lynn and is there anything you wish you could change about it?
Tumor: Some of the ways it was hyped and marketed
kind of upset me.
PRP: There were a few artists who would have liked to have been on the
Strait Up CD, Tarrie B., for one, expressed her unhappiness that she was not included on the disc, if you could, who would you pick to also be included?
Tumor: You know what,
we could have wrote a hundred songs and had a hundred singers but we only had nine songs so we did the best we could to
distribute them around.
PRP: Many fans criticized the choice to have
Slipknot front man Corey Taylor on the disc, claiming that Corey didn't even know
Lynn, what was the motivation behind bringing Corey in and would you like to comment on the matter?
Tumor: Corey was a
Snot fan. He came to see us in when we played in Des Moines, Iowa and I think
it's a great contribution for anyone to be able to pay to someone they were inspired by and looked up to.
That's why he sung on the album.
PRP: It's been said that a
Strait Up show is being planned sometime, is there any truth to this and if so will it happen anytime soon?
Tumor: No, that's wrong. Amen is my priority, I did that for Lynn and
it's in the past now. There's no using to keep cashing in on someone's death.
PRP: Band frontman Casey Chaos is known to cut himself on stage and generally get quite hectic, do you ever fear for his safety or feel sometimes that he has gone too far?
Paul:
Yeah of course. Like in Barcelona I thought he was dead.
PRP: Do the band ever tease
Paul about Fig Newton's?
Tumor: Hahaha. I'm the only one that ever said Fig Newton's
to tell you the truth.
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