Keith: H`lo?
John: H`lo. So, er, interview.
Keith: Jeez, no foreplay first?
John: Ok, what are you listening to?
Keith: Dark Tranquillity
John: I`ve got the Brought Low demos. And I`m drinking bourbon.
Keith: You sure love you some Brought Low.
John: They pay me to listen to them.
Keith: I`m drinking coffee - went to a girl`s house after the show last night and drank "hairy buffalo" (a concoction involving fruit and grain alcohol in a garbage can) for the first time since college days then I came home and slept till 4.
John: Christ almighty - hairy buffalo? I haven`t thought about that since I left U Dayton. Tell me you didn`t eat the citrus fruit that was marinating at the bottom of the trash can.
Keith: No, but I did almost choke on a floating apple piece.
John: Ok, interview stuff.
Keith: �k (sunglasses on).
John: Why should people care about the PB Army (what are you all about)?
Keith: They shouldn`t, and the fact that a few of them do is a happy flaw in the human psyche that I`m glad to exploit. Basically, we`re three sexy fellas from Ohio who like too much music and wanna write good songs that you can sing along to. We try to mix the pop with the metal and the rock, and we have a singing drummer, which counts for a few novelty points (and makes it easy to use worn-out Don Henley and Phil Collins jokes on us). I mentioned that we`re sexy, right?
John: As sexy as a heart attack. Speaking of which, how`s the ticker? And for those who don`t subscribe to Sexy Singing Drummer Quarterly, what exactly happened to you last year?
Keith: I had an aortic dissection on January 30, 2004. I was bopping along and started to feel not so good, so I went to lay down, and things got seriously loopy. A bubble formed in my aortic wall, blocking blood flow to my brain, which made me kinda wacky. Got to the ER, spent 48 hours under suspicion of being a) on drugs or b) crazy, and then they finally figured out what was wrong and all hell broke loose.
I had open heart surgery on Feb 2, spent two weeks in the hospital, then a few months recovering. When I left the hospital, I could walk about 100 feet before needing a nap.
It`s a clich� thing to say, but shit like that really does make you appreciate the little things - being able to play a show and carry your gear around, or drive to a gig, or just hang out at a show with people. There was a brief period of time where I thought my playing days were done, and it was a pretty horrible thought. Now, though, I`m good - exercising, taking somewhat better care of myself, and according to the team of professionals I owe the rest of my life`s earnings to, I should live to a rank old age.
John: So how long did it take you to get well enough to play drums again? And did you really think the PB Army was over, or is that just a cheap ploy to get people to buy your new album (Spine for the Snapback, Sin Klub/Cargo Music, release date March 8, 2005, available at All That�s Heavy, etc)?
Keith: Putting a pair of pants on was too strenuous for me when I first got out of the hospital. (As opposed to now, when it`s just too darn inconvenient.) We did our first show back in mid-June, so it`d been a little over three months after the surgery. I may have pushed a little too hard - we only did 35 - 40 minutes, and I nearly passed out during the last song - but it was important to me to make sure I could still do it. And for the next year or so, everything I do is a cheap ploy to get people to buy the critically-acclaimed, life-changing, more-fashionable-than-a-diamond-studded-cel-phone Spine For the Snapback CD.
John: Having me review the disc does not make it critically acclaimed. Although "Hole in the New Leaf" is a hell of a song. Not to harp on the bum heart, but I did notice the lyrics seemed self-reflective. Or were you being clever with metaphors?
Keith: Actually, several of the songs that mention hearts (literally or metaphorically) were written before the surgery, and seem a little creepily foreboding now to me. I`ve talked to a few people who think our bodies have a sort of consciousness of their own, and "know" something is wrong (the weakness in my aorta wall was most likely a birth defect that coulda blown out at any time). At the time, the whole "I do not recognize this heart" thing was about my life, which wasn`t going quite the way I wanted it to, and how I wasn`t putting myself fully into living, doing the things I wanted to do, and being a good friend to those around me. Almost croaking tends to put those things in a more urgent light, and I think I`m making a lot of progress now. I know I`m enjoying the hell out of my life, a lot more than I used to. The only song that`s directly about the surgery is "A Temporary Absence" - most of the rest of the record was written before all that happened.
John: That`s a li`l creepy - the bit about the heart references, not about you enjoying life now. You guys have definitely been more active since the operation. Is this a "gonna make this work hell or high water" period or just a renewed sense of energy/appreciation of life?
Keith: I think it`s both. After a couple years of kinda running in place, it seems like the band has gotten some traction under its feet. People are coming out to see us, the first record has almost sold out of its pressing, and I know our live show is better than it ever has been. Most importantly, we`re having a blast right now doing this. I`m a pretty unashamedly ambitious person, especially when it involves something I`m proud of, like the band, and I`m gonna take it as far as it`ll go, and enjoy every step of the trip. If we can get on a larger label, do bigger tours, etc., that`ll be fun, just as what we`re doing now is fun. I want to have adventures and write music I`m proud of, and we`re doing that now. Whatever else we can make happen will only lead to more and better adventures, so why not go for it?
John: Because if you fail, you`ll bring shame on yourself and your entire family?
Keith: Well, my family, maybe. I`m pretty much shameless.
John: Fair enough. Now who does the writing for PB Army? You alone, in your sterile, all-white apartment with the expensive air filtration system, or you with the other two? Or the other two without you?
Keith: Micah will write a couple riffs that fit together, and bring them to me. He and I will hammer out an arrangement while I`m mumbling incoherently over it, trying to find a vocal hook. Then Mahlon shows up (late) and changes the entire song around with his bass lines, which are always awesome, but never what we originally expect. Usually we write pretty quickly, but not often - we just debuted two new songs in February, but that was the first new stuff we`d written in months.
John: While on the subject of writing, you do a shit ton of it. You`ve got Infernal Combustion, The Week in Metal, your high profile, uber glamorous gig at SR.com, and now reviews for Blabbermouth.net. Wouldn`t it be easier to just write a novel?
Keith: Well, there`s a couple of those rotting on my hard drive right now as well. Writing is one of the few things I`m good at, and it makes me happy to do it, so I do a lot of it. I tried doing standup comedy a couple years ago, and I found that I really liked the writing of it a lot more than the gigging (which, if you can believe it, is a shittier deal than playing clubs in a rock band). Writing is the one thing I can do better than other people that doesn`t seem like work to me. I always sorta feel like I`m putting one over on someone when I get paid to do it. So until I get a network of rich, lonely old ladies together and start my gigolo service, I`m gonna keep being a word pimp.
John: So what came first - the attempt at stand up or Infernal Combustion?
Keith: Infernal Combustion was started in 1999, if I remember correctly. It was online for a few years as a really awful-looking homemade website before Roadrunner came in and made a sellout whore of me by hosting it. I think my first standup experience was at an open-mic in Houston over Christmas of 2001.
John: Anyway, which one`s tougher - stand up or creating Onion-style articles on a weekly basis.
Keith: Well, I haven`t done a weekly update in eons, but it`s definitely harder. With standup, you write a bunch of shit, hone it down to a short set, and then keep doing the same set, with minor adjustments. I ran into a lot of comics who were still getting mileage out of their Monica Lewinsky jokes (and wondering why people think standup sucks these days). Thankfully, metal celebrities and fans keep shooting themselves in the foot, so the source material is always there, but the time isn`t.
John: How about the Week in Metal?
Keith: Yikes.
John: Going that well, eh?
Keith: Same deal - all my sites have been suffering a bit, time-wise, because the band has been busy. Also, this being the real world where I gotta live and eat and stuff, the things I do that make money (selling CDs through my distro, writing for Metal Maniacs) have to take precedence. I`m trying to get a routine going where I can update everything more often.
John: For Metal Maniacs, how long have you been with them, and what do you do for them?
Keith: I`ve been on board there for about two years, although I`ve only really stepped up to a good level of work in the last six to eight months. I do a lot of interviews and some reviews. For a glossy-cover mag you can buy at the grocery store, it`s pretty damn underground, although of course with the broad spectrum it covers, everyone feels like their stripe of metal is being ignored, and thus, we are poseurs of the most craven order.
John: Death to false metal writing! So since you`ve been knee deep in the leather jacket and denim vest hoopla for a good number of years, what`s the best trend or emergence you`ve seen in the world of the heavy?
Keith: When I ever make another batch of Infernal Combustion t-shirts, I`m going to use a quote some dude wrote in a comment bitching about us... "METAL JOURNALISM IS DEAD IN AMERICA TODAY!"
John: Dude, metal journalism killed Dimebag. Don`t joke about that. The next PB Army show could be your last.
Keith: I think the healthiest thing to happen to metal is simply its evolution. Bands like Opeth have moved into the "mainstream" of metal, whereas a decade ago they`d have been on some tiny French label, selling 400 CDs to dudes in frilly white shirts writing bad poems on Geocities web sites. Seeing a label like Relapse take on bands like ATP and High on Fire, who aren`t strictly metal or rock or anything but their own kick ass selves, and take them to a wider audience, makes me really happy, and optimistic about the future of this music.
John: And the worst?
Keith: Actually, I think there`s just too damn much right now - too many bands, too many labels. There`s a total glut, and a lot of really good shit gets buried. At least, that`s the excuse I`ll use when I`m a bitter, lonely old failure.
John: In the meantime, what are y`all in PB Army doing to rise above the sea of too many bands?
Keith: I think the biggest thing right now, at least from what the reaction of others tells me, is that we actually try to put on a good show. We have a lot of fun on stage and we try to be energetic - so many bands play and don`t even seem happy to be there, much less enthusiastic. As our live show has improved, we`ve gotten more people out to see us, and that`s gotten the ball rolling a bit. Other than that, we`re kinda stuck doing the same thing any other band with no money and no backing does - send out promo copies (aka journalists` beer money from the used CD store), do interviews, promote ourselves of the internerd, and play anywhere that`ll have us. Knowing firsthand the mind-numbing amount of shit that comes out every year helps us keep a realistic view of things - I`m actually surprised we`ve gotten as much attention as we have already.
John: Ha. Based on the set you guys did at the Kennefit, I`d say it was well deserved. And of the other bands adrift in that Sea of Too Many, who else would you want to take with you?
Keith: A complete list would make this already-bloated interview into a novel. Your hometown boys in We`re All Gonna Die are one of my current favorites - the idea of doing a national tour with a band like that, and getting to see them play every night and gain new fans, would make me happy as hell. I mean, it depends on your perspective, too - I`d love to see The Hidden Hand get bigger, but from where we`re standing, they`re already "big" - it`s all in what rung of the ladder you`re on, I guess. If I was ever, say, QOTSA or Dave Grohl-big, I`d hope I would do things like the Probot record, or taking The Hidden Hand out on tour, to promote bands that I love and hopefully turn like-minded people on to them.
John: What do you think would take for a respected-in-our-circle band like the Hidden Hand to have some sort of recognition in the mainstream`s consciousness?
Keith: Man, I wish I knew. I think there has to be a willingness to play the game, and a decent amount of money spent on promotion. Using Queens of the Stone Age again as an example, "No One Knows" didn`t just show up on the radio. The game is pretty ridiculously fixed right now. My biggest hope is that a band like them (or, shit, maybe us) could hit the level of someone like Fugazi, where they sell a good amount of records, do shit their own way, and tell the established system to fuck off. The internet was SUPPOSED to facilitate things like that, I thought, but apparently it`s too busy providing us all with sweet, sweet pornography.
John: So has the internet had a significant impact on the PB Army? I`m going to guess "yes," seeing how I live in Massachusetts and know about your band. But has awareness translated into financial solvency? Or at least rent money?
Keith: Absolutely - booking a tour is never gonna be easy, but being able to do it by email, send bookers your music online, map shit out via Mapquest, and look up stores to consign your music in - it`s a tool, and I try to use it to its fullest potential. Most of the bands who cry and whine about not getting anywhere also do nothing to make anything happen. Their websites are six months out of date, they never actively look for more clubs to break into, and they don`t check out other bands to swap info and shows with. Right now the band absolutely hemorrhages money, but we`re thinking we may break even, or at least come close, on this upcoming tour.
John: How much of a say do you have in picking acts to play with? Or is it a matter of "We`re in town on X day - who`s available?"
Keith: it`s mostly up to the clubs - there were a couple times in booking this past tour where I tried to set up "dream bills" with two to three bands from that area that I really wanted to jam with, and the whole thing ended up a confused mess. Once in a while, a band (like Leadfoot, or Place of Skulls) will put the word in for you at the local club, and take most of the work out of securing the date. We try to do this ourselves at home, swapping shows out with like-minded hessians like Devil To Pay and Eldemur Krimm, both of whom we`re hosting in March. Every date is a different story and its own unique challenge when booking a tour, and it`s a shocking amount of busy work getting it put together.
John: Now do you do the booking yourself, or are you going through an outfit like Tonedeaf Touring and the like?
Keith: It`s all me - I`m a control freak, and besides, there`s no percentage in booking us at this point. Who wants to wrangle a commission on the $24 we`ll make in Nashville? I may even start booking a few other local bands once we get home - since we can`t tour constantly, I don`t want my contacts getting stale, and there are some good rock bands around here (Highbinder, The Highgears, Evolotto) who should be out working the circuit and turning people on to their music.
John: I get it - you don`t sleep.
Keith: Pretty much.
John: So gimmie the best and worst gigs you`ve played, and why.
Keith: Best gigs - opening for Clutch, because it was over 400 people and they were really into it. Our first hometown show after my surgery, because it really felt like a celebration and the emotions were running pretty high. The Kennefit in New York was a highlight because it was cool to see so many anonymous internet names become flesh and blood people, all out to help a brother out, and because it felt good to have our hick antics go over in the Big City (if I can make it there, I can make it anywhere, etc).
Worst shows, aside from a few unattended ones and two to three where I got too drunk, were the times we had bands we respected come to Toledo and no one came out. We booked Spirit Caravan and Place of Skulls here and got maybe 30 people. ATP and Sixty Watt Shaman got booked on a Tuesday night and we didn`t even hear about it until the week before - we got on the bill, tried to promote it, and got 12 people out. Hopefully that sort of thing is in the past for us - even our "bad" gigs now are miles above our best work a few years ago.
John: Man, it kills me when nobody shows up to a gig with great bands. I remember the last time the Brought Low played in Boston, and the audience was basically me, my wife, and the other bands on the bill.
Anywho, what PB Army songs are you most proud of?
Keith: "A Hole In the New Leaf" is one of our best songs, I think, if not thee best to date. I really appreciate some of our earlier stuff, like "Circle the Wagons" and "Diablo Centavo," a lot more now, after sorta getting sick of playing it for a while. "Ashtabula" is really growing on me a lot. A few that have kinda fallen by the wayside, like "Life on the 30th Floor," still make me proud. There`s a new one we just debuted - it doesn`t even have a title yet, but once it fell together I fell in love with it. It`s making me really excited to write more and get a third record out within a year.
John: And on the flipside, which ones came out less than spectacular?
Keith: I don`t hate any of the songs that made it to a record, but there are a few I wish we could have recorded a little later in their evolution. "Costa Mesa" kinda bores me on CD, but it`s a lot more interesting live now. Even on the new record, a song like "The Five Nines" has gelled a little more since we recorded it. But you can`t wait around forever for songs to get perfect, or you`ll drive yourself insane and never put anything out.
John: How varied is your live set?
Keith: It depends on the show - a lot of times, we`re opening for someone and have 25 - 40 minutes, so the faster, more "hit single" songs get a lot of play. When we have an hour to headline, we`ll bust out some more of the older tracks, or a couple of the slower ones we rarely play live ("Life on the 30th Floor" or "Martyr Bound").
John: Ok, let`s start wrapping this up - the one song you wish you wrote and why.
Keith: "Happy Birthday," because that fucker still generates millions of dollars in royalties. Failing that, just about anything from Thought Industry, Arcwelder, Jawbox, or pre-1983 Scorpions.
John: "Happy Birthday?" Don`t be smarmy. This ain`t Hit Parader.
Keith: It`s not? Now I`m REALLY gonna have to talk to my agent. Don`t give me lip, son, I`ve been featured in Metal Edge!
John: Listen, as the Ricki Rachtman of the dweeberweb, you better give me respect, lest I say bad things about you and your band. I can guarantee that four people will read it, and 10% of them will remember what they read.
Keith: You`re so cute when you`re mad with power
John: More like drunk with power.
Minus the "with power" bit.
Ok, you got anything you want to plug?
Keith: I want everyone to come out to our shows on this tour and buy me drinks, then let us sleep on their furniture and get it all farty. Besides that, I think we`ve covered everything.
John: Well, we never went over your influences, so why don`t you name them.
Keith: Aside from the big and obvious ones like Black Sabbath, I like to pull influences from a lot of less-likely sources. For example, Devo is one of my favorite bands, and I love the way Mark Mothersbaugh sings - sometimes my phrasing will mimic him a little bit. We all listen to so much different stuff (you should see the ridiculous box of tapes in the van), I think we pick up odd influences from just about any rock genre you could think of. Lately we`ve all been getting into a bit of a �70`s rock kick, which I think may seep into the third album a bit - the new songs are getting a little bit of that swing to them.
John: How`s that jibe with your bass player? From what I`ve heard, he`s a walking encyclopedia of death metal.
Keith: He is, but he`s also way into Captain Beefheart, loves jazz, and hits blues open-mic nights around town when he`s not working or out with us. He`s the only one of us who can sit down with you and talk about John Coltrane - Micah and I are just heavy metal knuckleheads.
John: Not true - ain`t you playing some country bluegrass blues fest this summer?
Keith: Actually, yeah - I`m doing what I can to expand my horizons a little. It`s called the Freedom Creek Festival, and it`s out on the farmland owned by Willie King, an old Alabama bluesman. They built a stage out by the aforementioned creek, and every year a bunch of people drive out to this place in the middle of nowhere (right on the Alabama/Mississippi border) and spend the day rocking out, cooking barbecue on grills made out of 55 gallon oil drums, drinking cheap beer out of coolers and enjoying the summer. All these grizzled old blues cats show up with their beat-up old amps, and whoever can play bass or drums just kinda gets up with them and does it.
I went in 2002 and felt a little intimidated, but we ended up having a great time, and I got to sit in with Willie and about 11 other dudes for a couple songs at the end of the night, which was quite a trip. This time I`m camping overnight and bringing more beer and mosquito repellent.
John: So it`s just Micah that`s the metal knucklehead?
Keith: Well, he likes hip-hop, too, so he`s a knucklehead twice removed.
John: And that`s the perfect end to the interview.
Keith: Thank fuck - I haven`t had to pay this much attention to something since I dunno when. |
