well sir... abdullah has been around, for better or worse, since late 1998 with various line ups, stylistic changes and agendas. the band was started as an unabashed outlet of sheer self-expression. we never intended to pander to a certain audience or movement. call it selfish... call it stupid.. it's just how we wanted to do things. in the beginning we worshipped at the alter of ambient sludge... coming off as a cross between eyehategod and einsterzende neubauten. from there we headed into doom country, being heavily influenced by black sabbath and later-era paradise lost. this was the time period in which we wrote and recorded our first two releases: snake lore, a self-recorded, self-produced demo... a somewhat varied stoner/doom endeavor, and the self-titled album which was a strictly doom metal affair. in retrospect, it may have been a bit too singular in its attack, and with our next release, graveyard poetry, we mixed things up with some of our 80s metal influences like maiden, diamond head and motorhead. of course, this disturbed quite a few listeners as 80s metal has now been vilified as unhip or uncool. so what? they'll be saying the same things about stoner rock in a few years. ya see... the thing is is to stay true to yourself as an artist. we don't try to hide our influences or be something we're not. things move in certain directions for a reason. if we want to put out a punk album we'll do that too. hey... that gives me an idea.
2. Since our world fictional war against terrorism, any trouble with the name? (if you have some interesting stories to share with our readers, please)
the only problems with the name have been strictly on the part of hardcore adherents to the muslim religion. i get emails all the time from muslim fanatics telling me how blasphemous it is to name a simple rock band after a word that roughly translates to "servant of allah" in arabic. eh... quit being so literal. i heard that abdullah also means the equivalent of hillbilly or hick in the turkish language. so if it makes any of you muslim extremists reading this feel any better, *that's* where the name came from, okay? are we all friends now? but seriously, the only problem with the name we've had here in america is people constantly spelling it wrong. there's nothing worse than showing up to a gig and seeing ABDULA in big letters on the marquee.
3. Compare ABDULLAH heavy doom power as a mental state...
okay... here goes... lock all of the doors in your house. turn of all the lights. unplug all phones and fax machines. trip out on your favorite drug even if you're straight-edge. close your eyes. conjure up all of the negative energy you can. dig back deep. find all of the fears, anxieties, depression, rage and hopelessness that have accumulated over the years. roll all of this negative energy into a visible sphere of fluorescent green light. now swirl it around in your head until it changes shape into something beautiful, melancholy and familiar. embrace it. wallow in it. it's all you have to remind you that you are alive.
4. Are you worried that doom rock will become a mainstream limpbizkt over heated shit? (explain)
fuck no. the only people that listen to that are 40 year old male potheads. unless 40 year old male potheads become the demographic that all of the major record labels and media giants like mtv are trying to target, you will continue to see ex-jocks in embarrassing leather pants crying about how no one loves 'em. however, we are not doom rock. we are high energy death rock and high energy death rock will become the next big thing. mark my words. i know we'll be huge someday because everyone in the underground hates us so much.
5. Could you share a naughty little secret with MOTEL magazine?
i am composing this surrounded by corpses.
6. When listening to ABDULLAH, theirs a spiritual dirty heavy religious experience after taste in each song hard to describe. Is ABDULLAH a spiritual ride? (explain)
i sometimes try to espouse some personal philosophy in our songs, but not in a direct, preachy kind of sense. i hate religion. i like people to interpret the lyrics how they want to. we lay nothing out in black or white... everything is multi-colored and adaptable. with that being said, i think the first album definitely is more spiritual and existential. i guess i was doing alot of soul searching when it was being written, but i've given up on all of that and now stare firmly into the black hole.
7. When should we expect a ABDULLAH new attack? (new album and projects)
we are currently writing new stuff. we have 5 songs already recorded with our good friend pat lewis who runs sound for mushroomhead. the new stuff will shock and surprise you. it's different yet still the same. but different. you'll see.