Thanks to Fabrizio Garau and Michele Giorgi out at the Italian webzine The New Noise (The New Noise) for allowing me to post the English version of their exclusive interviews to three honourable members of mighty EYEHATEGOD: frontman Mike IX Williams, bassist Gary Mader and guitarist Brian Patton. The three interviews were agreed between The New Noise and the musicians with the help of Jennifer Reisberg of label A389 (A389 Records) in the occasion of the release of the new single “New Orleans Is The New Vietnam”. (Bandcamp)
I, Marilena, did the interviews between September 21st and 24th 2012. First I had a long phone chat with Mike IX Williams on Friday evening September 21st. With Gary Mader and Brian Patton I did interviews via chat/e-mail during the night of Friday September 21st and Saturday September 22nd and on Monday evening September 24th respectively. So thanks to everybody for kindness and friendly attitude!This post deals with the first interview, with Mike IX Williams. That was my first ever phone interview in my life, and I couldn’t ask for a more monster “baptism”! Mike IX Williams of Eyehategod … As you may guess, I was completely upset: broken voice out of emotion, total amnesia of the most elementary rules and words for speaking in English … Hahaha, the old witch was scared like a child! Fortunately on the other side there was Mike, nice, friendly and patient. We chatted for almost one hour. Most of what was said is faithfully reported below. I just omitted some parts dealing with everyday life at the Williams’, growing children and similar issues, that made the chat even more homely.
So, folks, here is Mike IX Williams of EHG. The only thing we forgot to speak about was Arson Anthem. Sorry, next time …
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Mari - Hello, am I speaking with Mike Williams?
Mike IX – Yes this is Mike!
Mari– OK this is Mari. Hi Mike Ninth.
Mike IX – Mike Nine, like number nine. I thought, from Nicky Sixx, eh eh …
Mari – Oh, I see eh eh . OK, thanks for accepting the interview …Sorry, I’m not a professional journalist, I have here a list of questions that I was going to ask you but I don’t know if I can stick to it at all. Let’s see how it goes.
Mike IX – OK, and I don’t speak good English. My English is terrible.
Mari – Well, I’m glad that you don’t speak like Lizard Messiah out at Core of Destruction Radio [ by now y’all know it, US-based internet radio where Mike IX Williams started running his own explosive radio show recently, and where I happen to run a radio program as well - [Core of Destruction Radio] because in that case I would not understand anything, hahaha …
Mike IX – Hahaha … Well, you know, I used to talk like that, because I grew up in that area … Lizard is from the Deep South, where I live [ New Orleans ]. But I wasn’t born here, I was born in North Carolina. We have a different accent there, pretty thick southern accent, you know, but … Well, yeah, eh eh, I must admit I don’t understand very strict southern accent sometimes as well …
Mari – Ah, ok, so I’m not the only one, eh eh …
Mike IX – You know, I moved, travelled around, been around quite a lot, I think. In this way it may happen that the slang you’ve born with is somehow left behind.
Mari – I see … So am I going to call you “colleague”? I heard your radio program, Southern Nihilistic Front Radio show, the other night out at Core of Destruction Radio. Well … Great!
Mike IX - Oh, yeah, did you like that?
Mari – Ah yes!
Mike IX – Right, so you like punk rock and all the stuff like that?
Mari – Yes, I like heavy and extreme music in general.
Mike IX – That’s cool!
Mari – I hope you’ll go on with more shows!
Mike IX – Yeah, well, I’m trying to figure out, I’m not quite computer-savvy … Lizard [ Lizard Messiah ] is gonna help me in setting the software in my computer, set the microphone etc, so that I can do it from home.
Mari – Sure!
Mike IX – And I’ll be connected to their server, and I don’t need .. because the other night what I did was that he called me and I had previously sent him the playlist.
Mari – I thought so, as you were speaking as if you were phoning him.
Mike IX – Yes, it was a bit awkward sometimes, with all those delays, etc.
Mari – Eh, yes, but it was ok anyway. I think they have that special program they use for the streaming which is rather easy. I don’t use that program for my shows as I don’t do live show, because it would be too late for me because of the time zones.
Mike IX – What’s the name of your show?
Mari – Mari’s Cauldron.
Mike IX – So yours was the show before mine!
Mari – Yes
Mike IX – Well, such a coincidence … But it’s cool that you do that!
Mari – Well, thanks! Ehm, I’ve never been a DJ before so it is totally new. It’s about one year, no, more than one year. But it’s fun, eh eh …
Mike IX – Yeah, it’s fun. Playing different stuff … That’s why I asked you earlier whether you liked that punk rock stuff. People might think that I’m going to play nothing apart from Saint Vitus-like stuff for so for over two hours. I don’t like close-minded people. That’s why I like to play stuff that “trip them out” a little bit, make them think a little bit, get them into different music.
Mari – Eh, I too like to listen to and like to play different music in my shows.
Mike IX – Yes, if I keep doing the show I’m going to play more stuff like death metal, I’ll play country music, etc. There are so many things I might have played the other night, but with just three hours, you know …
Mari – Eh, sure, you’ll need to do more shows!
OK so, let’s start with the questions, there are so many that one can ask you … Sometimes I wonder how you can sleep in the night by thinking about what your band has become, what you have become for so many people in the world. Have you got a perception of your importance in the underground music or is life-like at the beginning when you started ..?
Mike IX – Well, I mean, I kind of noticed from what people say … My band has a lot of fans around the world, is respected around the world, but I don’t expect that people look at me in a different way … because I am the same person as I was when we first started. I think that what set us apart from a lot of bands is that we don’t have any kind of attitude. I mean, you’ll see us hanging out with fans at the bar, we don’t need to hide. Maybe somebody is not seen, as he is taking a rest, sitting in the van or so … We like to hang out with the fans, we don’t consider ourselves different from the fans. It is really cool that people place us so high in their mind and in their respect. I think this comes across on stage and it comes across as inner view. People respect that. I mean, I am a fan of music. When I grew up, well, when a band was meaning something to me and I approached them … you remember those things, like “hey, that guy couldn’t say hi to me for 2 seconds …!!!”. I was not into any kind of worship, but, you know, you remember those things. You remember if somebody is interested in talking to you, you now … I think I got it natural to hang out with people. I think about it and it’s very cool that probably I can go anywhere in the world and maybe meet someone who knows who I am. It is not a huge thing but in the underground sense it is a cool thing to have.
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Mari – Actually, you are an underground band because big numbers are elsewhere unfortunately. But I think that compared to other big bands you are more important because basically you contributed to invent a musical genre. You are “inventors”. That is top of creativity, I think.
Mike IX – I see what you mean. We even found bands that … Sometimes you don’t even notice it … Like there’s a band that don’t even sound like us, it is called Lickgoldensky, like, you know, “lick golden sky” [ verse in the lyrics of song Sisterfucker in album Take as Needed for Pain ] …. The didn’t sound anything like us but they took their name from my lyrics. … But they sounded nothing like it. And they stole some other parts of that, hahaha ..
I’m just joking about it, eh eh. But it guess it kind of seeps into the established society a little bit, you know. As much as I hate society, what we do artistically has been seeping in it in some way, which is very cool… That’s incredible, actually …
Mari – Yes, definitely. Also, well, your band means something for myself as well as it was through Eyehategod that I started listening to a certain kind of music. Well, obviously in the past, like in the 70s (because I’m not so young …) there were Black Sabbath and so. But as to “sludge” or music like that, well, Eyehategod was “the band”, I mean. And as this has a meaning for me, it also has a meaning for other thousands, no, wait, at least tens of thousands of people …
Mike IX –That’s very cool! I mean, that is one of the main reasons why we are here now. I can sense that in the crowd that come to our shows as there is a mixture of so many kinds of people who like so many different genres and stuff.
We get the punk crusty kids with the mohawk, you know, and then you get the Pantera fans, the southern rock-loving people, and then you get the hardcore kids, you get even those who are into experimental, noise music … I think we’ve got a good cross-section … And people always stop me and say “wow, you people got me to listen to so and so …”, and I say “wow, that’s cool!”, you know …
Mari – Eh, right from the start your style is something very much contaminated by different types of music, so I guess it comes as natural that so many kinds of people approach you and appreciate you. If I think about your songs, well, they have so many different shades and aspects. You’ve got the slow parts, and you’ve got also the fast and furious parts. It’s impressive, it’s like a boiling magma!
Mike IX – Yes, sure, that’s a good way to put it. And it is good that it gets recognized. Back in time we kind of took a little bit off it, was in year 2000 because of label problems, personal problems and so on … It was in those years 1999 and 2000, and while we took a hyatus (it must have been like 8-9 months or so…), that bands started popping up, like Iron Monkey in Great Britain, and several other bands. And we were saying “What’s going on?” We had no idea that there was something underground that was like boiling under. We had no idea!
So it is very cool that now that we are again active in recording, doing as much as we can, touring etc, and that people do recognize that …
Mari – Absolutely!
Mike IX – … and not going like … “Oh, you guys ripped off this or that band”, I mean, they give us our credits. That’s cool.
Mari – So at the end you were luckier than many inventors who didn’t see the recognition or the credits of their inventions while they were alive.
Mike IX – That’s right, that is true, a lot of people don’t get recognized. Dead gone …
Mari – But when you were back in time, what made you think about making this kind of music?
Mike IX – Because it was just the way we were, you know. I come from … Well, I was a punk rock kid, you know, I grew up like skateboard, on the street, running away from home, listening to Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Germs, Dead Boys and stuff like that. That was how I grew up, you know. Before I was a Kiss fan. When I was like 10 years old I was a Kiss fan, you know … And that evolved into Sex Pistols, Clash, and all that. But I always liked metal, I always liked it, because even if I was on punk rock I would talk also about, say, Black Sabbath. My friends would just go like “Black Sabbath, what are you talking about?! They suck!”, “No, they don’t, they are heavy! They are great!”, you know … And people couldn’t understand it. And so me and Jimmy Bower, we … He was in a band called Shellshock back in the 80s, I was in a band called Suffocation by Filth at that time, we used to play shows together, and things like that. So I met Jimmy. And my best friend Hatch was in Shellshock too. So Jimmy started playing drums in Shellshock and I became like the t-shirt guy, like the roadie kind of guy that was on tour with Shellshock. So while we were in tour me and Jimmy got the Melvins’ first record, then Confessor, we listened to Confessor, Carnivore, and bands like that, early Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, … you know, we were trippin’ out over this new stuff. So it wasn’t even a conscious decision. The music … No-one had really done that, except kind of the Melvins stuff back then … You know, most of the doom bands at that time had a singer, a guy who sings, like Wino (who, by the way, is great, is awesome). Well, I brought that punk rock hardcore element in the music, I said “Fuck it, I don’t care”. And the attitude too, that we don’t give a fuck if we piss people off: I gonna scream, we gonna always have feedback … It just happened, it just evolved like that, you know. If you listen to Corrosion of Conformity back then, the original band, it was just like that. And as we grew, we started listening to like Lynyrd Skynyrd, and things like that, and so we added a bit more southern bluesy kind of … But this is all stuff that we like, there was never any kind of construction, we just played what we liked to play. We didn’t care, we took the attitude of the punk rock and hardcore scene and we said we don’t care what people think, we go up there and play whatever we want. And when we started playing, we were opening for some fast, speed or thrash metal bands (which I loved at that time, totally, I still love that stuff). But, eh eh, we pissed off that people a lot back in the days. So it is just strange the way it came around …
Mari - …Well, I believe you, I have a dear friend who was very much into the punk-hardcore scene here in Italy, but who also likes metal, and he too was telling me about sort of conflicts between punk people and metal, even borderline violent reactions. Did you experience something like that?
Mike IX – Well, I’m sure I lived something like that as well, when I was a kid, you know … you grow out of that … I remember being beaten up, I mean, beaten up really really bad by these two guys. They looked like marines, big tough guys. They beat my little skinny ass because I was wearing an Iron Maiden patch on my jacket but I still had shaven head, and I wore combat boots … I was still a punk rocker but I wore an Iron Maiden patch, because I loved Iron Maiden, because I though they were awesome. But you couldn’t do that at that time. So these guys decided they would kick my ass for Iron Maiden, you see.
But a lot of kids back then would not go for stuff like that. I mean, we have been regularly fighting with heavy metal guys when we were really young … before that crossover thing happened, before Slayer and Metallica made it cool, you know, they made “ok, they do” … But it was just because we had to take up for ourselves that these people attacked us, you know, and just because they way we looked. I mean, I loved Ozzy, I loved Iron Maiden … So it depended on who he was: either the punk would beat us up or the metalhead would beat us up, it didn’t matter. I was beaten up for either kind of music I liked, hahaha …
Mari – Ouch! Eh eh … In you career, in the band, you have been playing for more than 20 many years. I think your style is very well recognizable .. But has something changed substantially in your way of playing in all those years or do you still feel very close to your initial idea? Do you feel you evolved deeply?
Mike IX – Oh yeah, for sure! Our first album, “In the Name of Suffering”, sounds so primitive when I listen to it now! I mean, it’s a cool records as it is a piece of time, but …
Mari – That was the album that made me approach you! I was enjoying it a lot …
Mike IX – … but you can tell just from that first album to album “Take as Needed for Pain”, the second album, that there’s a huge evolution just right there. On the second album we kind of started realizing what we were doing. In the first album we were just … look, we could not play that well, we were just sloppy … That surely added some character to it, but … So, of course we evolved, for sure.
Mari – Yes, but sometimes also the primitiveness in recording, mastering procedure makes music sound different …
Mike IX – Yes, yes, that’s also what is so cool of our first record: it is raw, it ‘s primitive, we didn’t do it on purpose, we had no idea of what we were doing. Like those black metal bands, the first wave of black metal: they were just playing with the limited equipment they had and they made that sound … But you can’t recreate later what you got by accident, I don’t think. I think it is crazy what some bands do, they go back and try and copy what was done on total accident. Like I said, take album “In the Name of Suffering”, with us being naive young guys doing what we did, playing what was in our hearts, you know, just because it was a passion that we had, you know … So yes, it is definitely that rawness that makes it unique. But I’ve seen bands going back and re-recording their first records, I think Suicide Tendencies did that … Well, to me that is crazy, I mean, why would you record the entire record? It is what it is, a piece of time.
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Mari – And what about what new is about to come from you? I heard the new track, several times, as it is out since a bit of time, since last year in that festival in Denmark. My impression is that … Well, of course, I didn’t hear the new album as only you know that, obviously. But I have the impression that the new track is a little bit more, let’say, “mellow” … I mean, if the new Eyehategod’s style is like the new track, it seems a little bit more mellow, maybe slightly more melancholic … Or better, it actually gave me the exact impression of that kind of well seasoned whisky that has reached a round taste but it’s still whisky, so it is still burning in your mouth …
Mike IX – Sure! I know exactly what you mean. And yeah, that’s probably true, I think that, overall … I always compare with bands like Ramones, Motörhead, ACDC, … we have our sound, we’ll always stick to that sound, because we are EHG, that's what we do. But things have to change as we grow, we get older every day, and we have different ideas .. We’ve got other songs for the new record that are thoroughly more intense than that song. But it’s all EHG at the end …But I know what you mean. Someone even said that it is almost melodic. That’s crazy! They were saying like “dreamy and intense” … the vocals are intense, the guitar sounds and the drum and everything but it’s got more of … Like you said it, aged-like in a certain way. Hopefully it’s cool that we get a new crowd and new people listening to us than was normally not into us …
Mari – Well, I saw the new song played during the concert here in Milano, and I can say that it is not too “melodic” at all, it was a stream of burning energy … But I just had that impression of the attitude and the pleasure that some aged stuff, like that whisky thing or like blues, can give.
Mike IX – Yes, I agree! Maybe we are a little more wise now. But I don’t think we lost power. Actually people are amazed that us being guys in their forties that can be so energetically on stage and playing for so long as we do. Sometimes we play for over two hours, as we do, it depends on the crowd, you know, if the crowd is into it or not … although sometimes it doesn’t even depend on the crowd as we play for ourselves and feel good … So it all adds up to … it’s the same band, same guys, EHG .. like you said, and also like wine, aged wine … Also about imitation … Imitation is a great form of flattery.There are a lot of bands that sound like us but I don’t think all those bands can get the hold up with what’s all as being in the real thing. You have to have lived as we lived, you know, you can’t pretend … that’s why we call ourselves the “blues band” … if you get blues and rock’nroll you end up to what we have been into for a long time … And we progress as we get older, but we’re still EHG jamming on stage, pretty intense ...
Mari – About what you have been through in the recent past … Has something changed in New Orleans after the disaster, how is life there now, did the government solve problems or is much still like a messy state?
Mike IX – Oh well, the media would try to make you think it’s all over, they made the people think everything was perfect a couple of months after the storm. We are talking about Katrina, obviously. And we just had another hurricane a couple of weeks ago, that flooded a lot of areas and destroyed more of our lands. But we just keep persevering, you know, we stick to it down here. That’s what people of the Derry do, they stick together. We were resilient, we are bound stack. But of course, Katrina in 2005 was … Well, we are not talking about the physical appearance of the city … the physical appearance of the city is somewhat back to normal, but I mean, it depends on the neighbourhoods. Some of them are still abandoned and run down but … you know, they are trying … But as far as everybody who was here, who had family members here, who had anything to do with this city during that storm, it definitely changed all, that will never leave their mind, you know. It was something we thought we would never see, you know … I mean, everybody down here know at least one person that died, or that lost at least one person. Then half of the people here lost everything they had …
Mari – Well, you lost everything as well …
Mike IX – Everything! Look, I had 25 years of records and books, material objects, and so on … It’s just material stuff, you know, it’s life, but well, shit happens. That’s what is all about. All we are is just this body that we are in right now. I mean, it was bad but I’m not defined by how many records I have, although some people think like that, and it is stupid …
Mari – Also, what struck me, and not only me, of that event was not only the natural event of the “super” storm and not even, or not only, the technical mishappenings or misjudgment of the event or so on, but what struck me more was the social aspects, I mean, how people were completely abandoned by the authorities. That was incredible, and terrible …
Mike IX – Yeah! That’s got a lot to do with living in where we live … you know, there’s a lot of poverty down here, and it has always been there. And of course it comes with minorities, and you know, white people can be a minority too, poor white people. There is a lot of poor people down here. But of course the government doesn’t care about us, they don’t care about the blacks. The didn’t care. You know, Bush was in charge at that time, he probably thought in the back of his mind he didn’t care of the problem, he wiped it out. You know, 80% of the poor people down here just happened to be black, Latinos and the poor white people. So yes, that was pretty sad that they didn’t care …
Mari – But in these last years has something changed towards better with the new government or not?
Mike IX – Ah, well, look, we have one of the most corrupt local governments …
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Mari – Ah, really? Very Italian! I thought we were the champions! Eh eh eh, Now I would like you to speak a bit about your other side of creativity that is writing, and also your performances with poetry, your second artistic side …
Mike IX – Well, I think it is one and the same, because that all comes out of … I mean, in my book “Cancer as Social Activity” there are a lot of EHG lyrics, the thoughts that I wrote. I don’t think it is a separate side, I think it is the same. But yeah, I have that book out, “Cancer as Social Activity”. People can get it from my website, which is Mikeix.Com .
But, yeah, I’ve done those “Spoken Words” performances, where I get up and read. I’ve been kind of shy while doing it, maybe not shy but … I know it sounds like crazy that I would be shy … Just being up there with no band behind you it’s a little intimidating, eh eh … I started out doing it with a friend of mine, I would read a couple of poems, and he would come in with like some synthesizers. But I point doing a bit more by myself and giving up with the use of the back noise and trying to focus more on the reading part.
I also do like experimental noise stuff ..
Mari – Ah yes, I heard that other project of yours, The Guilt Øf … That’s really cool! Mixing punk and experimental stuff. I heard tracks on youtube.
Mike IX – Oh, you like it? Good! We have got like 8 recordings out, a Cd and 6 songs, and that Bloodlust record. Label At War With False Noise put out a vinyl version of that. We have a cassette out and we also have another cassette out that is rolled in broken glass. [ It should be the 2001 Mike IX Williams’ – Glass Torn And War Shortage: The Purposeful Poisoning Of A Shardless Society ]. You have to remove the glass from the cassette to play it … I mean, it is a kind of conceptual art of piece or whatever, I don’t know, I just did it because I liked it, you know … We also have a split with an Italian band, Ivs Primae Noctis, have you heard of this band?
Mari – No, my bad, actually I don’t know them …
Mike IX – Well, I’m not sure who of the head members was sort of affiliated with Cripple Bastards [ actually I found out that FOAD Records, run by Cripple Bastards’ frontman Giulio, organized a festival with Ivs Primae Noctis’ first ever live show back in 2011 ].
Mari – Ah, yeah, Cripple Bastards, I know them!
Mike IX – So, yeah, we did a split with them. Then I’m trying to think what else we have … We also have a compilation and a solo Mike IX 7” [ it should be the 2009 That's What The Obituary Said / Ten Suicides” ], and then there’s the stuff in Spoken Words. Most of this stuff, you have to realize, comes out in a very limited editions, they maybe print a few hundred copies at their most, because there’s a limited audience, you know … it is something I have always been into and that I wanted to do. Also beside doing it with Ryan [ Ryan McKern ], who is in The Guilt Øf…, I do something with Joey [ Joe LaCaze ], our drummer in EHG and Bruce [ Bruce Lamont ] from the band Yakuza from Chicago. We did live performances together in the South and South-West, in Texas and so … So, well, yeah, I’m trying to keep busy in doing as much as I can creatively.
Mari – And with the writing, are you going to continue?
Mike IX – Yeah, of course, I couldn’t stop even if I wanted it to, I mean, I can’t help writing. Every day I think about something and scribble it down in my book here. But I’ve got like 20 thousands words, new words, and I’ve been sitting on them for years by now. Finally they are on the computer, and not on a piece of paper.
Mari – Eh, no more paper, it can burn … [ Mike IX’s house got completely burnt out during the Katrina disaster ],
Mike IX – Yes, I’m glad they are all on the computer now, finally. I can put out two more books.
Mari – In the new books are you going to keep the same style as in your first book? I read several poems of yours, and sometimes they remind me of that Japanese poetry Haiku.
Mike IX – Oh yes, some of them are definitely Haiku.
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Mari – Your poems are sometimes quite Haiku, like shots of images, quite pictorial. Japanese poets were often speaking about nature, love, sadness, while you tell about rough life, personal and social tragedies, pessimism, painful Haiku …
Mike IX – Yeah, there’s probably more of this in the books coming next, some Haiku stuff, but definitely there’s some of that also in the first book. But even some of the lyrics in The Guilt Øf… are written in a Haiku fashion. We do our songs pretty gothic, eh eh, total straight gothic, but written in a Haiku style.
Mari – Well, it’s a quite effective style in poetry able to give immediate images and impressions. I also think that English language is cool for this kind of style, quite efficient. You guys are able to say many things in a short space.
Mike IX - You mean as we talk very fast?
Mari – No, I mean that several words in English are made of very short sounds but each of them may mean a lot of things or complex concepts. I compare it with my language, Italian, with which sometimes you need far more words, you need to speak a lot for expressing the same things.
Mike IX – Sure, also think about German. With so long words … I couldn’t imagine writing lyrics in German, it would be hard to rhyme words, hahaha … I love German language, but there are many words that are so long … But I think all this comes from Americans being lazy, maybe, hahaha, probably making our words shorter and trying to get away with it as much as possible …
Mari – Eh eh, that’s an idea … There’s a last question I would like to ask you. I happened to hear you speaking about labels and being very very pessimistic. Is it really so hard for bands to deal with labels? I ask this because people like me having to do with webzines, get often asked by emerging bands about advises, links or info about labels for releasing their stuff, as bands’ folks think that we are maybe seeing different sides of the scene. I mean, a band like yours, I heard, is presently not related to any label …
Mike IX – No, we are not related to any label. We are kind of still on Century Media, but we are not signed with them. They still have our back catalogue. But with “label” do you mean only record labels or also “labels” like naming stuff too, like styles and so?
Mari – No, actually I was meaning “record labels”.
Mike IX – Well, because we are down with both ... I mean, we hate being labelled as “sludge”, we sometimes said that in interviews … As to record labels .. they can’t be trusted at all. The guy that just put out our new 7” one sided record “New Orleans Is the New Vietnam”, the guy out at label A398, well, he is probably the first guy I met in my entire career that I actually trusted. I mean .. well, yeah, also the stuff of The Guilt Øf… came out on some underground label. Those labels can be trusted too. You see, we deal with that with a handshake, ok, you print say 500 copies and you give me 20% or 10%, depending on the deal, and that’s it. With major, or not even major labels, I mean like Relapse, or Roadrunner or anybody like at that level … you can’t trust those people … I mean, there’s nothing personal about the people that work there. It depends on the label… usually the people working there are fans that want to help the bands. But there will be always some guy who sits in a room somewhere with a cigar in his mouth and he is the one taking money from you band! They don’t care, you know … I mean, still Housecore Records [ Phil Anselmo’s label ] is a new label where people can be trusted. They do business face to face and so.
But to me it is all still scary. We have been screwed so much when we were young …
Mari – So what advice would you give to an emerging band that has to face all this?
Mike IX – Do you mean as to the label guys? Eh, I would say it depends on the label they are talking to. You usually need a lawyer, even if you do a handshake type of agreement. Well, actually with that The Guilt Øf… stuff, with those underground, well, super-underground labels, I got a different experience.
But of course you need lawyer, you need stuff like this that will bomb you out ..
Mari – So, you mean that it is better to stick to the DIY phylosophy?
Mike IX – Well, I mean, that’s is a great way to do stuff too. But then you have to worry about distribution or so. It’s just a part of the whole thing that we can’t handle …
Mari – OK, Mike, thanks so much for the long and nice chat and for your time and patience. Hey, I’m looking forwards to more radio shows from you! [ Mike IX actually did a second episode of his Southern Nihilistic Front radio show on Core of Destruction Radio on October 3rd 2012 – the podcasts of this and the previous radio shows can be got hold of from the Facebook page of the radio: HERE And when and if you’ll be back to my town, Milano, on tour, I’ll be pleased to meet you again.
Mike IX – Ah, yes yes, Corrado [ Corrado “Riot” Gioia, of Hard Staff booking agency ] is trying to give us at least 5 or 6 Italian shows. That would be after the new album is out, obviously.
Mari – Sure! I can’t wait! So I’ll see you then.
Mike IX – Definitely! And keep in touch! Ciao!
Interview by Marilena Moroni
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Eyehategod - New Orleans Is the New Vietnam [NEW SONG] (Live at Roskilde Festival, July 1st, 2011)
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I, Marilena, did the interviews between September 21st and 24th 2012. First I had a long phone chat with Mike IX Williams on Friday evening September 21st. With Gary Mader and Brian Patton I did interviews via chat/e-mail during the night of Friday September 21st and Saturday September 22nd and on Monday evening September 24th respectively. So thanks to everybody for kindness and friendly attitude!This post deals with the first interview, with Mike IX Williams. That was my first ever phone interview in my life, and I couldn’t ask for a more monster “baptism”! Mike IX Williams of Eyehategod … As you may guess, I was completely upset: broken voice out of emotion, total amnesia of the most elementary rules and words for speaking in English … Hahaha, the old witch was scared like a child! Fortunately on the other side there was Mike, nice, friendly and patient. We chatted for almost one hour. Most of what was said is faithfully reported below. I just omitted some parts dealing with everyday life at the Williams’, growing children and similar issues, that made the chat even more homely.
So, folks, here is Mike IX Williams of EHG. The only thing we forgot to speak about was Arson Anthem. Sorry, next time …
Mari - Hello, am I speaking with Mike Williams?
Mike IX – Yes this is Mike!
Mari– OK this is Mari. Hi Mike Ninth.
Mike IX – Mike Nine, like number nine. I thought, from Nicky Sixx, eh eh …
Mari – Oh, I see eh eh . OK, thanks for accepting the interview …Sorry, I’m not a professional journalist, I have here a list of questions that I was going to ask you but I don’t know if I can stick to it at all. Let’s see how it goes.
Mike IX – OK, and I don’t speak good English. My English is terrible.
Mari – Well, I’m glad that you don’t speak like Lizard Messiah out at Core of Destruction Radio [ by now y’all know it, US-based internet radio where Mike IX Williams started running his own explosive radio show recently, and where I happen to run a radio program as well - [Core of Destruction Radio] because in that case I would not understand anything, hahaha …
Mike IX – Hahaha … Well, you know, I used to talk like that, because I grew up in that area … Lizard is from the Deep South, where I live [ New Orleans ]. But I wasn’t born here, I was born in North Carolina. We have a different accent there, pretty thick southern accent, you know, but … Well, yeah, eh eh, I must admit I don’t understand very strict southern accent sometimes as well …
Mari – Ah, ok, so I’m not the only one, eh eh …
Mike IX – You know, I moved, travelled around, been around quite a lot, I think. In this way it may happen that the slang you’ve born with is somehow left behind.
Mari – I see … So am I going to call you “colleague”? I heard your radio program, Southern Nihilistic Front Radio show, the other night out at Core of Destruction Radio. Well … Great!
Mike IX - Oh, yeah, did you like that?
Mari – Ah yes!
Mike IX – Right, so you like punk rock and all the stuff like that?
Mari – Yes, I like heavy and extreme music in general.
Mike IX – That’s cool!
Mari – I hope you’ll go on with more shows!
Mike IX – Yeah, well, I’m trying to figure out, I’m not quite computer-savvy … Lizard [ Lizard Messiah ] is gonna help me in setting the software in my computer, set the microphone etc, so that I can do it from home.
Mari – Sure!
Mike IX – And I’ll be connected to their server, and I don’t need .. because the other night what I did was that he called me and I had previously sent him the playlist.
Mari – I thought so, as you were speaking as if you were phoning him.
Mike IX – Yes, it was a bit awkward sometimes, with all those delays, etc.
Mari – Eh, yes, but it was ok anyway. I think they have that special program they use for the streaming which is rather easy. I don’t use that program for my shows as I don’t do live show, because it would be too late for me because of the time zones.
Mike IX – What’s the name of your show?
Mari – Mari’s Cauldron.
Mike IX – So yours was the show before mine!
Mari – Yes
Mike IX – Well, such a coincidence … But it’s cool that you do that!
Mari – Well, thanks! Ehm, I’ve never been a DJ before so it is totally new. It’s about one year, no, more than one year. But it’s fun, eh eh …
Mike IX – Yeah, it’s fun. Playing different stuff … That’s why I asked you earlier whether you liked that punk rock stuff. People might think that I’m going to play nothing apart from Saint Vitus-like stuff for so for over two hours. I don’t like close-minded people. That’s why I like to play stuff that “trip them out” a little bit, make them think a little bit, get them into different music.
Mari – Eh, I too like to listen to and like to play different music in my shows.
Mike IX – Yes, if I keep doing the show I’m going to play more stuff like death metal, I’ll play country music, etc. There are so many things I might have played the other night, but with just three hours, you know …
Mari – Eh, sure, you’ll need to do more shows!
OK so, let’s start with the questions, there are so many that one can ask you … Sometimes I wonder how you can sleep in the night by thinking about what your band has become, what you have become for so many people in the world. Have you got a perception of your importance in the underground music or is life-like at the beginning when you started ..?
Mike IX – Well, I mean, I kind of noticed from what people say … My band has a lot of fans around the world, is respected around the world, but I don’t expect that people look at me in a different way … because I am the same person as I was when we first started. I think that what set us apart from a lot of bands is that we don’t have any kind of attitude. I mean, you’ll see us hanging out with fans at the bar, we don’t need to hide. Maybe somebody is not seen, as he is taking a rest, sitting in the van or so … We like to hang out with the fans, we don’t consider ourselves different from the fans. It is really cool that people place us so high in their mind and in their respect. I think this comes across on stage and it comes across as inner view. People respect that. I mean, I am a fan of music. When I grew up, well, when a band was meaning something to me and I approached them … you remember those things, like “hey, that guy couldn’t say hi to me for 2 seconds …!!!”. I was not into any kind of worship, but, you know, you remember those things. You remember if somebody is interested in talking to you, you now … I think I got it natural to hang out with people. I think about it and it’s very cool that probably I can go anywhere in the world and maybe meet someone who knows who I am. It is not a huge thing but in the underground sense it is a cool thing to have.
Mike IX – I see what you mean. We even found bands that … Sometimes you don’t even notice it … Like there’s a band that don’t even sound like us, it is called Lickgoldensky, like, you know, “lick golden sky” [ verse in the lyrics of song Sisterfucker in album Take as Needed for Pain ] …. The didn’t sound anything like us but they took their name from my lyrics. … But they sounded nothing like it. And they stole some other parts of that, hahaha ..
I’m just joking about it, eh eh. But it guess it kind of seeps into the established society a little bit, you know. As much as I hate society, what we do artistically has been seeping in it in some way, which is very cool… That’s incredible, actually …
Mari – Yes, definitely. Also, well, your band means something for myself as well as it was through Eyehategod that I started listening to a certain kind of music. Well, obviously in the past, like in the 70s (because I’m not so young …) there were Black Sabbath and so. But as to “sludge” or music like that, well, Eyehategod was “the band”, I mean. And as this has a meaning for me, it also has a meaning for other thousands, no, wait, at least tens of thousands of people …
Mike IX –That’s very cool! I mean, that is one of the main reasons why we are here now. I can sense that in the crowd that come to our shows as there is a mixture of so many kinds of people who like so many different genres and stuff.
We get the punk crusty kids with the mohawk, you know, and then you get the Pantera fans, the southern rock-loving people, and then you get the hardcore kids, you get even those who are into experimental, noise music … I think we’ve got a good cross-section … And people always stop me and say “wow, you people got me to listen to so and so …”, and I say “wow, that’s cool!”, you know …
Mari – Eh, right from the start your style is something very much contaminated by different types of music, so I guess it comes as natural that so many kinds of people approach you and appreciate you. If I think about your songs, well, they have so many different shades and aspects. You’ve got the slow parts, and you’ve got also the fast and furious parts. It’s impressive, it’s like a boiling magma!
Mike IX – Yes, sure, that’s a good way to put it. And it is good that it gets recognized. Back in time we kind of took a little bit off it, was in year 2000 because of label problems, personal problems and so on … It was in those years 1999 and 2000, and while we took a hyatus (it must have been like 8-9 months or so…), that bands started popping up, like Iron Monkey in Great Britain, and several other bands. And we were saying “What’s going on?” We had no idea that there was something underground that was like boiling under. We had no idea!
So it is very cool that now that we are again active in recording, doing as much as we can, touring etc, and that people do recognize that …
Mari – Absolutely!
Mike IX – … and not going like … “Oh, you guys ripped off this or that band”, I mean, they give us our credits. That’s cool.
Mari – So at the end you were luckier than many inventors who didn’t see the recognition or the credits of their inventions while they were alive.
Mike IX – That’s right, that is true, a lot of people don’t get recognized. Dead gone …
Mari – But when you were back in time, what made you think about making this kind of music?
Mike IX – Because it was just the way we were, you know. I come from … Well, I was a punk rock kid, you know, I grew up like skateboard, on the street, running away from home, listening to Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Germs, Dead Boys and stuff like that. That was how I grew up, you know. Before I was a Kiss fan. When I was like 10 years old I was a Kiss fan, you know … And that evolved into Sex Pistols, Clash, and all that. But I always liked metal, I always liked it, because even if I was on punk rock I would talk also about, say, Black Sabbath. My friends would just go like “Black Sabbath, what are you talking about?! They suck!”, “No, they don’t, they are heavy! They are great!”, you know … And people couldn’t understand it. And so me and Jimmy Bower, we … He was in a band called Shellshock back in the 80s, I was in a band called Suffocation by Filth at that time, we used to play shows together, and things like that. So I met Jimmy. And my best friend Hatch was in Shellshock too. So Jimmy started playing drums in Shellshock and I became like the t-shirt guy, like the roadie kind of guy that was on tour with Shellshock. So while we were in tour me and Jimmy got the Melvins’ first record, then Confessor, we listened to Confessor, Carnivore, and bands like that, early Celtic Frost, Hellhammer, … you know, we were trippin’ out over this new stuff. So it wasn’t even a conscious decision. The music … No-one had really done that, except kind of the Melvins stuff back then … You know, most of the doom bands at that time had a singer, a guy who sings, like Wino (who, by the way, is great, is awesome). Well, I brought that punk rock hardcore element in the music, I said “Fuck it, I don’t care”. And the attitude too, that we don’t give a fuck if we piss people off: I gonna scream, we gonna always have feedback … It just happened, it just evolved like that, you know. If you listen to Corrosion of Conformity back then, the original band, it was just like that. And as we grew, we started listening to like Lynyrd Skynyrd, and things like that, and so we added a bit more southern bluesy kind of … But this is all stuff that we like, there was never any kind of construction, we just played what we liked to play. We didn’t care, we took the attitude of the punk rock and hardcore scene and we said we don’t care what people think, we go up there and play whatever we want. And when we started playing, we were opening for some fast, speed or thrash metal bands (which I loved at that time, totally, I still love that stuff). But, eh eh, we pissed off that people a lot back in the days. So it is just strange the way it came around …
Mari - …Well, I believe you, I have a dear friend who was very much into the punk-hardcore scene here in Italy, but who also likes metal, and he too was telling me about sort of conflicts between punk people and metal, even borderline violent reactions. Did you experience something like that?
Mike IX – Well, I’m sure I lived something like that as well, when I was a kid, you know … you grow out of that … I remember being beaten up, I mean, beaten up really really bad by these two guys. They looked like marines, big tough guys. They beat my little skinny ass because I was wearing an Iron Maiden patch on my jacket but I still had shaven head, and I wore combat boots … I was still a punk rocker but I wore an Iron Maiden patch, because I loved Iron Maiden, because I though they were awesome. But you couldn’t do that at that time. So these guys decided they would kick my ass for Iron Maiden, you see.
But a lot of kids back then would not go for stuff like that. I mean, we have been regularly fighting with heavy metal guys when we were really young … before that crossover thing happened, before Slayer and Metallica made it cool, you know, they made “ok, they do” … But it was just because we had to take up for ourselves that these people attacked us, you know, and just because they way we looked. I mean, I loved Ozzy, I loved Iron Maiden … So it depended on who he was: either the punk would beat us up or the metalhead would beat us up, it didn’t matter. I was beaten up for either kind of music I liked, hahaha …
Mari – Ouch! Eh eh … In you career, in the band, you have been playing for more than 20 many years. I think your style is very well recognizable .. But has something changed substantially in your way of playing in all those years or do you still feel very close to your initial idea? Do you feel you evolved deeply?
Mike IX – Oh yeah, for sure! Our first album, “In the Name of Suffering”, sounds so primitive when I listen to it now! I mean, it’s a cool records as it is a piece of time, but …
Mari – That was the album that made me approach you! I was enjoying it a lot …
Mike IX – … but you can tell just from that first album to album “Take as Needed for Pain”, the second album, that there’s a huge evolution just right there. On the second album we kind of started realizing what we were doing. In the first album we were just … look, we could not play that well, we were just sloppy … That surely added some character to it, but … So, of course we evolved, for sure.
Mari – Yes, but sometimes also the primitiveness in recording, mastering procedure makes music sound different …
Mike IX – Yes, yes, that’s also what is so cool of our first record: it is raw, it ‘s primitive, we didn’t do it on purpose, we had no idea of what we were doing. Like those black metal bands, the first wave of black metal: they were just playing with the limited equipment they had and they made that sound … But you can’t recreate later what you got by accident, I don’t think. I think it is crazy what some bands do, they go back and try and copy what was done on total accident. Like I said, take album “In the Name of Suffering”, with us being naive young guys doing what we did, playing what was in our hearts, you know, just because it was a passion that we had, you know … So yes, it is definitely that rawness that makes it unique. But I’ve seen bands going back and re-recording their first records, I think Suicide Tendencies did that … Well, to me that is crazy, I mean, why would you record the entire record? It is what it is, a piece of time.
Mike IX – Sure! I know exactly what you mean. And yeah, that’s probably true, I think that, overall … I always compare with bands like Ramones, Motörhead, ACDC, … we have our sound, we’ll always stick to that sound, because we are EHG, that's what we do. But things have to change as we grow, we get older every day, and we have different ideas .. We’ve got other songs for the new record that are thoroughly more intense than that song. But it’s all EHG at the end …But I know what you mean. Someone even said that it is almost melodic. That’s crazy! They were saying like “dreamy and intense” … the vocals are intense, the guitar sounds and the drum and everything but it’s got more of … Like you said it, aged-like in a certain way. Hopefully it’s cool that we get a new crowd and new people listening to us than was normally not into us …
Mari – Well, I saw the new song played during the concert here in Milano, and I can say that it is not too “melodic” at all, it was a stream of burning energy … But I just had that impression of the attitude and the pleasure that some aged stuff, like that whisky thing or like blues, can give.
Mike IX – Yes, I agree! Maybe we are a little more wise now. But I don’t think we lost power. Actually people are amazed that us being guys in their forties that can be so energetically on stage and playing for so long as we do. Sometimes we play for over two hours, as we do, it depends on the crowd, you know, if the crowd is into it or not … although sometimes it doesn’t even depend on the crowd as we play for ourselves and feel good … So it all adds up to … it’s the same band, same guys, EHG .. like you said, and also like wine, aged wine … Also about imitation … Imitation is a great form of flattery.There are a lot of bands that sound like us but I don’t think all those bands can get the hold up with what’s all as being in the real thing. You have to have lived as we lived, you know, you can’t pretend … that’s why we call ourselves the “blues band” … if you get blues and rock’nroll you end up to what we have been into for a long time … And we progress as we get older, but we’re still EHG jamming on stage, pretty intense ...
Mari – About what you have been through in the recent past … Has something changed in New Orleans after the disaster, how is life there now, did the government solve problems or is much still like a messy state?
Mike IX – Oh well, the media would try to make you think it’s all over, they made the people think everything was perfect a couple of months after the storm. We are talking about Katrina, obviously. And we just had another hurricane a couple of weeks ago, that flooded a lot of areas and destroyed more of our lands. But we just keep persevering, you know, we stick to it down here. That’s what people of the Derry do, they stick together. We were resilient, we are bound stack. But of course, Katrina in 2005 was … Well, we are not talking about the physical appearance of the city … the physical appearance of the city is somewhat back to normal, but I mean, it depends on the neighbourhoods. Some of them are still abandoned and run down but … you know, they are trying … But as far as everybody who was here, who had family members here, who had anything to do with this city during that storm, it definitely changed all, that will never leave their mind, you know. It was something we thought we would never see, you know … I mean, everybody down here know at least one person that died, or that lost at least one person. Then half of the people here lost everything they had …
Mari – Well, you lost everything as well …
Mike IX – Everything! Look, I had 25 years of records and books, material objects, and so on … It’s just material stuff, you know, it’s life, but well, shit happens. That’s what is all about. All we are is just this body that we are in right now. I mean, it was bad but I’m not defined by how many records I have, although some people think like that, and it is stupid …
Mari – Also, what struck me, and not only me, of that event was not only the natural event of the “super” storm and not even, or not only, the technical mishappenings or misjudgment of the event or so on, but what struck me more was the social aspects, I mean, how people were completely abandoned by the authorities. That was incredible, and terrible …
Mike IX – Yeah! That’s got a lot to do with living in where we live … you know, there’s a lot of poverty down here, and it has always been there. And of course it comes with minorities, and you know, white people can be a minority too, poor white people. There is a lot of poor people down here. But of course the government doesn’t care about us, they don’t care about the blacks. The didn’t care. You know, Bush was in charge at that time, he probably thought in the back of his mind he didn’t care of the problem, he wiped it out. You know, 80% of the poor people down here just happened to be black, Latinos and the poor white people. So yes, that was pretty sad that they didn’t care …
Mari – But in these last years has something changed towards better with the new government or not?
Mike IX – Ah, well, look, we have one of the most corrupt local governments …
Mari – Ah, really? Very Italian! I thought we were the champions! Eh eh eh, Now I would like you to speak a bit about your other side of creativity that is writing, and also your performances with poetry, your second artistic side …
Mike IX – Well, I think it is one and the same, because that all comes out of … I mean, in my book “Cancer as Social Activity” there are a lot of EHG lyrics, the thoughts that I wrote. I don’t think it is a separate side, I think it is the same. But yeah, I have that book out, “Cancer as Social Activity”. People can get it from my website, which is Mikeix.Com .
But, yeah, I’ve done those “Spoken Words” performances, where I get up and read. I’ve been kind of shy while doing it, maybe not shy but … I know it sounds like crazy that I would be shy … Just being up there with no band behind you it’s a little intimidating, eh eh … I started out doing it with a friend of mine, I would read a couple of poems, and he would come in with like some synthesizers. But I point doing a bit more by myself and giving up with the use of the back noise and trying to focus more on the reading part.
I also do like experimental noise stuff ..
Mari – Ah yes, I heard that other project of yours, The Guilt Øf … That’s really cool! Mixing punk and experimental stuff. I heard tracks on youtube.
Mike IX – Oh, you like it? Good! We have got like 8 recordings out, a Cd and 6 songs, and that Bloodlust record. Label At War With False Noise put out a vinyl version of that. We have a cassette out and we also have another cassette out that is rolled in broken glass. [ It should be the 2001 Mike IX Williams’ – Glass Torn And War Shortage: The Purposeful Poisoning Of A Shardless Society ]. You have to remove the glass from the cassette to play it … I mean, it is a kind of conceptual art of piece or whatever, I don’t know, I just did it because I liked it, you know … We also have a split with an Italian band, Ivs Primae Noctis, have you heard of this band?
Mari – No, my bad, actually I don’t know them …
Mike IX – Well, I’m not sure who of the head members was sort of affiliated with Cripple Bastards [ actually I found out that FOAD Records, run by Cripple Bastards’ frontman Giulio, organized a festival with Ivs Primae Noctis’ first ever live show back in 2011 ].
Mari – Ah, yeah, Cripple Bastards, I know them!
Mike IX – So, yeah, we did a split with them. Then I’m trying to think what else we have … We also have a compilation and a solo Mike IX 7” [ it should be the 2009 That's What The Obituary Said / Ten Suicides” ], and then there’s the stuff in Spoken Words. Most of this stuff, you have to realize, comes out in a very limited editions, they maybe print a few hundred copies at their most, because there’s a limited audience, you know … it is something I have always been into and that I wanted to do. Also beside doing it with Ryan [ Ryan McKern ], who is in The Guilt Øf…, I do something with Joey [ Joe LaCaze ], our drummer in EHG and Bruce [ Bruce Lamont ] from the band Yakuza from Chicago. We did live performances together in the South and South-West, in Texas and so … So, well, yeah, I’m trying to keep busy in doing as much as I can creatively.
Mari – And with the writing, are you going to continue?
Mike IX – Yeah, of course, I couldn’t stop even if I wanted it to, I mean, I can’t help writing. Every day I think about something and scribble it down in my book here. But I’ve got like 20 thousands words, new words, and I’ve been sitting on them for years by now. Finally they are on the computer, and not on a piece of paper.
Mari – Eh, no more paper, it can burn … [ Mike IX’s house got completely burnt out during the Katrina disaster ],
Mike IX – Yes, I’m glad they are all on the computer now, finally. I can put out two more books.
Mari – In the new books are you going to keep the same style as in your first book? I read several poems of yours, and sometimes they remind me of that Japanese poetry Haiku.
Mike IX – Oh yes, some of them are definitely Haiku.
Mike IX – Yeah, there’s probably more of this in the books coming next, some Haiku stuff, but definitely there’s some of that also in the first book. But even some of the lyrics in The Guilt Øf… are written in a Haiku fashion. We do our songs pretty gothic, eh eh, total straight gothic, but written in a Haiku style.
Mari – Well, it’s a quite effective style in poetry able to give immediate images and impressions. I also think that English language is cool for this kind of style, quite efficient. You guys are able to say many things in a short space.
Mike IX - You mean as we talk very fast?
Mari – No, I mean that several words in English are made of very short sounds but each of them may mean a lot of things or complex concepts. I compare it with my language, Italian, with which sometimes you need far more words, you need to speak a lot for expressing the same things.
Mike IX – Sure, also think about German. With so long words … I couldn’t imagine writing lyrics in German, it would be hard to rhyme words, hahaha … I love German language, but there are many words that are so long … But I think all this comes from Americans being lazy, maybe, hahaha, probably making our words shorter and trying to get away with it as much as possible …
Mari – Eh eh, that’s an idea … There’s a last question I would like to ask you. I happened to hear you speaking about labels and being very very pessimistic. Is it really so hard for bands to deal with labels? I ask this because people like me having to do with webzines, get often asked by emerging bands about advises, links or info about labels for releasing their stuff, as bands’ folks think that we are maybe seeing different sides of the scene. I mean, a band like yours, I heard, is presently not related to any label …
Mike IX – No, we are not related to any label. We are kind of still on Century Media, but we are not signed with them. They still have our back catalogue. But with “label” do you mean only record labels or also “labels” like naming stuff too, like styles and so?
Mari – No, actually I was meaning “record labels”.
Mike IX – Well, because we are down with both ... I mean, we hate being labelled as “sludge”, we sometimes said that in interviews … As to record labels .. they can’t be trusted at all. The guy that just put out our new 7” one sided record “New Orleans Is the New Vietnam”, the guy out at label A398, well, he is probably the first guy I met in my entire career that I actually trusted. I mean .. well, yeah, also the stuff of The Guilt Øf… came out on some underground label. Those labels can be trusted too. You see, we deal with that with a handshake, ok, you print say 500 copies and you give me 20% or 10%, depending on the deal, and that’s it. With major, or not even major labels, I mean like Relapse, or Roadrunner or anybody like at that level … you can’t trust those people … I mean, there’s nothing personal about the people that work there. It depends on the label… usually the people working there are fans that want to help the bands. But there will be always some guy who sits in a room somewhere with a cigar in his mouth and he is the one taking money from you band! They don’t care, you know … I mean, still Housecore Records [ Phil Anselmo’s label ] is a new label where people can be trusted. They do business face to face and so.
But to me it is all still scary. We have been screwed so much when we were young …
Mari – So what advice would you give to an emerging band that has to face all this?
Mike IX – Do you mean as to the label guys? Eh, I would say it depends on the label they are talking to. You usually need a lawyer, even if you do a handshake type of agreement. Well, actually with that The Guilt Øf… stuff, with those underground, well, super-underground labels, I got a different experience.
But of course you need lawyer, you need stuff like this that will bomb you out ..
Mari – So, you mean that it is better to stick to the DIY phylosophy?
Mike IX – Well, I mean, that’s is a great way to do stuff too. But then you have to worry about distribution or so. It’s just a part of the whole thing that we can’t handle …
Mari – OK, Mike, thanks so much for the long and nice chat and for your time and patience. Hey, I’m looking forwards to more radio shows from you! [ Mike IX actually did a second episode of his Southern Nihilistic Front radio show on Core of Destruction Radio on October 3rd 2012 – the podcasts of this and the previous radio shows can be got hold of from the Facebook page of the radio: HERE And when and if you’ll be back to my town, Milano, on tour, I’ll be pleased to meet you again.
Mike IX – Ah, yes yes, Corrado [ Corrado “Riot” Gioia, of Hard Staff booking agency ] is trying to give us at least 5 or 6 Italian shows. That would be after the new album is out, obviously.
Mari – Sure! I can’t wait! So I’ll see you then.
Mike IX – Definitely! And keep in touch! Ciao!
Interview by Marilena Moroni
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