I know how it feels to be you.
What do you for the band?
I take the noises that Kenji makes and I capitalize on them. Sometimes it involves adding words, sometimes it's just running out to procure prescriptions. Who knows? I do the sweating. Best way to put it, I am the sweat factor.
This is nowhere close to your first musical project. What led you here?
Not too many people know this, but I started out in Chicago singing in little basement projects. The largest of which involved my friends, Mobe and Frank Cavanaugh, of Filter. That all ended badly, I was fired for not having a good voice. I finally decided to move to Ireland where I met Dan Breen his crew (currently playing under the name Hope is Noise). We formed The New Messiahs. We actually got a lot of critical acclaim with that band. Hot Press magazine quite liked us. After a few years, a lot of drama and exhaustion and a learned appreciation for the Drink, I quit the band, moved to Seattle, and began work to make an American version of what had such success overseas. After a few failed incarnations and a slew of people to professionally manicure us along the way, we did a lot of shows but could never get it together in the studio… that became a big problem. I lost interest fast.
How did you and Kenji meet?
While in Ireland I learned a good bit about the Drink. I moved back to the US and stayed with my brother and his wife. Those were good times. One of their favorite bars was a U district haunt called Kai's. Kenji was the bartender there. He breathed fire while standing on the bar, he could go shot by shot with all the customers, it was pretty intense. Kenji and I had a lot of mutual friends, so we were always around each other.
How did you two end up conceiving this record?
One night, after a good few shots, I began to draft on a bar napkin what I wanted to create as a record. Kenji took over the drafting when I became too consumed with the drink. At the end of that evening, we had the bones of The Safe Passage Clause created. It was later that night that Kenji introduced me to a purely evil shot, an equal mix of green chartreuse and Bacardi 151, the GREEN DRAGON. If you have never done one, don't. If you have, you already know. I swore to myself I would get revenge on him. I still am.
That seems like a long time from conception to release, what took so long?
Kenji and Jeremy Bill are best friends and share a house, in which they had, at the time, a small studio to record in. Kenji would draft his demos and Bill would prepare drum parts for his classes at the U of Washington. Kenji and I spent two months diddling around with the recording devices and writing little pieces of art school psychedelic ramblings. Finally one day, I opened one of Jeremy's drum files and heard this amazing Hi hat work. I added one of the only guitar riffs I knew as an intro, which Kenji played much better, and then he took over and made greatness. It was flawless, every note written as if by the invisible hands of angels. We pilfered all of Bill's recordings and kept making magic. We later had Bill sit down and rerecord all his parts. We fleshed them into full songs, made massive guitar solos, etc. A month later we took a break so that I could go to Vegas and Kenji to Paris. When we returned the hard drive was fried. No one knows why, but everything was lost. Best record in history, back to the Ether, without a backup.
How did you get Jules of KMFDM to produce?
Kenji's close friend is Nils from the rockabilly unit, Dragstrip Riot. Nils's housemates were Steve and Andy of KMFDM. We would party with the guys, do really bad things, laugh, and have more cocktails. They are great lads. We finally mentioned about our failure of a record and Steve mentioned his other band mate Jules had his own studio and was trying to make it profitable. After a few weeks I got the number and called. We gelled with Jules very quickly, personally I think he was happy NOT to be doing industrial music, and we were glad to have his British care of process. For months he would record and record, and edit and adjust. When he finally mentioned that he was classically trained in school for composition, we were not surprised. He is one of the few producers I have worked with that I felt totally safe. He can really contrast madness and creativity. He also makes a stunning cup of tea.
It has been said that this record was filtered my many chemicals, care to expound?
At one point we were told we conduct ourselves with the finesse of such Greats as Primal Scream. There are full guitar parts that Kenji doesn't remember recording, parts that I don't remember singing. Jules kept us in line… other then Gin Day. Or Bad Red Wine Day… or the Painkiller Days. You get the idea. Although the painkillers were for actual injuries, Kenji was in pain but I was high with sympathy.
Pigeon hole your sound.
Kenji is much better at this part then I am. I will say that I spent ten years paying dues to get the one we have, but I will let Kenji elaborate from there.
If you could drink anything right now, what would it be?
Irish car Bomb.
The Safe Passage Clause's New record, Titans, put down your swords, is now available online at fuzz.com and other fine online retailers.
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