John: So Seven Hells. Why are there seven?
Ross: There are seven songs. That`s one.
Ed: We had to find some sort of literary, medieval reference to seven hells. I think we found it. What was it?
Ross: There`s a line in �Flesh Feast,� the last song. It`s kind of the last words as the hero, so to speak, of that song, descends to Hell after eating the flesh of his two boat mates.
Ed: I knew I had heard it before, and I thought it was Dante`s Inferno, but it wasn`t.
Ross: It`s actually from this old Jewish kabbalah, and its conception of the underworld. But it`s also, with Will being the big comic book freak...
Will: DC Comics character Hawkman. On his home planet of Thanagar, their belief system has seven hells.
John: I can edit this out.
Ross: Please do (laughs).
John: You`re trying to bring a more Judaism element to the doom world. Do you feel that Jews have a place in doom?
Ross: Well, they have been oppressed over the years.
And he says that to me, the Jew in the band. He knew that. He could sense that.
So since we are one of the most repressed religious groups, I would say that we have quite a bit of doom in our storied history. What`s more doom than the ten plagues?
John: How did you hook up Leafhound Records?
Ross: Actually, he`s been distributing our first album for awhile now. My cousin is/was the guitarist for the Blood Farmers, so Toreno from Leafhound did a reissue of their demo, Permanent Brain Damage. That went really well, so we sent him the CD and wondered if he would be interested in putting it out. We hadn`t heard from him in awhile and we were just about ready to go with another label, a German label, and he e-mailed and said, �I get a lot of CDs and I listen to them once or twice and put them aside but I keep coming back to yours.�
John: Who was the German label?
Ross: Barbarian Wrath.
Will: Which specializes in thrash and black metal. The guy who runs the label is a huge fan of the band and he`s talked us up a lot. It was kind of outside his normal genre, but he was such a fan that he wanted to put it out for us.
Ross: It was tough, because he was an awesome guy. He does these limited presses...
Ed: Six hundred and sixty-six.
Ross: And if that sells out, he`ll do another 1,000. Real underground.
Ed: You can tell he was really into it, and a really cool, intelligent guy from his e-mails and stuff, but... It was going to be on his website only.
Ross: Yeah, he only distributes through his website. And the bands on Leafhound � Blood Farmers, Church of Misery, they`re distributing the Om album in Japan, Acid King, Acrimony. That`s more in line with where we`re coming from.
John: Are you guys gonna do a CD release, or a CD/vinyl release?
Ross: Right now, CD. We`re dying to put something out on vinyl, so I think we`ll see how this goes. I`m a big record collector, so I just want to see our artwork.
John: The huge gatefold...
Ross: With the pop-up figurines like that Colour Haze one. I`ve been obsessing over that since I saw it. We do have something coming out on vinyl.
Will: We`re part of this compilation album called Unleashed in the Northeast. It`s on a label called Swaying Ball Records that`s run by the guy from Upwards of Endtime. We`ve got two tracks on it and we`re pretty happy with it.
Ed: And we wrote a tune for it that`s not on our new album either
John: Now when did the first album come out?
Ross: 2003.
John: And it was so long between Dawn of the Proto-Man and Seven Hells because you`re slow writers?
Ross: Actually, we had a lot of the material written. We did a radio show in Portland almost two years ago when we played the whole new album in order. At the time we didn`t have a label, so we needed to self-finance. We blew a lot of money on the first album, obviously.
Will: This one we had to shop around a little bit.
Ross: This time I said I really want a label to help us out. It`s a natural progression. Too much work, too much money. A lot of people were saying it`s better to do it yourself because you have complete control, but I wanted to move it up a notch.
Will: I just think it gives a little more legitimacy.
Ross: We recorded it and that went down well, but we did a first mix that we weren`t happy with it.
John: Did you record in Portland?
Ross: No, we recorded at Mad Oak.
John: How long have you been together?
Ed: It`ll be seven years this October.
Ross: So more seven.
Ed: Seven years of hell being with these guys.
Ross: Yeah, 1999 we started.
John: You three just from the beginning? Because you (Will) did some time in Ocean.
Ed: We had to let him expand his horizons.
Will: That was kind of a side thing. I had fun. I just wanted to play out more. But I came back.
Ross: You were really doing both.
Will: Yeah, I was doing both.
Ed: He was still playing in Ogre. It was... we all have stuff going on in our lives but we were really busy at that time, so we could only do this much. Will wanted to do more. So he did, and it was cool.
Ross: Reuben`s been a big fan of Ogre since the beginning. Reuben`s (former) band, Swampwitch Revival, and Ogre became really tight quickly. I think when he was sort of conceiving Ocean, he was thinking Will right away.
Ed: It all worked out okay.
John: Seems like the Portland music scene is pretty tight too.
Ed: It`s a good little scene, especially with the amount of people there.
Will: Everyone`s doing their own thing and putting their own stamp on what they`re doing.
John: Yeah, I haven`t seen any Portland bands that are stepping on each other`s toes.
Ross: They`re really different. If you think about us, Conifer, Supersoul Challenger, Eldemur Krimm � we`re coming from the same place, naturally, but we sound very different.
John: How would you classify your sound?
Ross: I like when people call us �proto-doom.� Definitely `70`s rock. Obviously, that`s where we`re coming from. Pretty retro. But it has that bit of Saint Vitus or Pentagram doom piece, but we`re not a doom band.
Ed: Even on this new album, there are touches of `80`s metal, dare I say.
Ross: Let`s clarify what kind of metal.
John: Maybe like weepy �Don`t know what you got till it`s gone� type of metal?
Ed: Like Dio, Heaven and Hell. That kind of `80`s metal. Pre-1984.
Will: Priest and Maiden are a huge influence on me, and I know I push these guys. Like with the dual guitar harmonies.
Ed: Which are really hard to do.
Ross: Yeah, that`s really hard to do.
Will: Well, we`ll do it with overdubs.
John: So you`re saying you guys play to backing tracks?
Ed: Edit!
Ross: There`s a little bit more overdubbing on this one.
Ed: Will gets a backup vocal credit.
Ross: See if you can find it.
Ed: If you come and see us, you get...
Will: A sticker!
Ed: Or a beer. If you can tell where Will`s backup vocal is.
Ross: There`s a challenge to all you StonerRock.com folks out there.
Ed: It`s only two syllables, and it`s not really even a word.
Will: Don`t give them hints.
John: What would you say is the quintessential `70`s rock band?
Ed: Oh man, you don`t wanna go there with us.
John: Well, we got time. Food ain`t here yet.
Ed: We`ve been through this argument many times.
(�Smoke on the Water� kicks in on the jukebox)
Will: Deep Purple comes to mind (laughs).
Ross and I went through a huge phase where we were obsessing over Deep Purple live � y`know, bootlegs.
Ross: Listen to them play the same set list over and over
Will: And trying to pick out the differences in what they were doing. They`re just a monster band. Ian Gillan in his prime was the quintessential rock/metal vocalist. He influenced the Halfords, the Dickinsons, and everybody, and I don`t think he gets enough credit. Because he`s awesome.
Ross: Remember I made the point that �Highway Star� is the predecessor of �Freewheel Burning.�
Will: �Freewheel Burning� is the `80`s version.
Ross: I`m going to obscure music geek out on you. This band Granicus, from Cleveland, Ohio, they put out one album. Their lead singer is Native American, so there are all these songs about �Save the red man,� and all that.
John: No Native American would have a song called �Save the Red Man.� That`s racist.
Ross: And they`ve got these songs about America � it`s trash now, it`s Viet Nam. And the sound, it`s such a snapshot of 1972, 1973.
Ed: Name a band that nobody can argue with.
Ross: Granicus! C`mon!
I would say, well, for the big names � Deep Purple, Sabbath, of course.
John: Yeah, but Sabbath`s a given. If you don`t name-check Sabbath, you might as well say, �I don`t like beer.�
Ross: For Ogre, `70`s lineup Pentagram. Both albums have been dedicated to Bobby Liebling. Not for his personal choices in the latter half of his life, but just for being, I think, the underground metal icon amongst this scene. I think they`re the quintessential for me, even though they never put out an album.
John: You know what I liked about First Daze Here Too was that they were so willing to branch out and try something else. In the notes it says, �We wanted to write a Deep Purple song, and this is what we came up with.� And they did such a good job with it too.
Ross: I like on that CD, the sort of MC5/Stooges sound. People go to Pentagram and say they`re so much like Sabbath and the heavy bands, but they also had that punk thing to them. Especially in the mid-`70`s. That first CD of First Daze Here Too sounds like prime Stooges.
Will: Ed, will you like to take this opportunity to talk about Rush?
Ed: Come out of the closet, so to speak? Okay.
I am a Rush fan, and I am a singing bass player.
The first four albums and up to All the World`s a Stage, their first live album, are just fucking great. A lot of people don`t know how balls to the wall they were.
Ross: We connected over that right away.
Ed: The lyrics... Sci fi concept album thing. Albums after that, to a lesser degree. They were a huge influence on me. Everything I learned about hard rock bass playing I learned from Geddy Lee. I would just practice Rush riffs over and over.
Ross: We did a show once as our alter egos - who may reappear some day - called the Working Men.
Ed: We opened for ourselves.
Ross: You were wearing an Ogre shirt.
Ed: We just saw a tape of it recently.
Ross: Only Rush songs from the first four albums.
John: And that`s actually the loophole for wearing your own band`s shirt. If you`re playing in a cover band, you can wear your other band`s shirt.
Ross: Exactly.
John: Now you (Ed) get compared to Bon Scott a good deal. Are you an AC/DC fan?
Ed: Yeah, I love AC/DC. Of course.
(The food arrives. Ed`s pizza is huge.)
Wow. I thought this was going to be small. Anyone who wants a piece can help themselves.
Ross: We did cover �Live Wire� at one show. Won`t do it again, even though it was awesome.
John: Who does the writing?
Ross: We work on it together. I often come in with a riff of some sort and then we mutate it as a band. It really is a collaborative effort.
Will: Except for the lyrics.
Ross: I make an attempt.
Will: And Ed says, �Nice try, junior.�
Ed: A lot of times, though, he`ll give me assignments. Like Will will tell me, �We need a song about a fucking giant robot.� Oh, okay.
Will: Another one!
Ed: We need another song about a giant robot. And then for the longest time they were like, �You gotta write a song about a chick.� I am not writing any love songs or even sex songs. No fucking way. There`s too much of that.
John: Although you could write an emotionally honest doom-based song about a guy waiting for his wife to be done shopping.
Ross: Because of the despair?
John: Yeah. We`ll call it �Grim Wallet.�
Ed: Okay, take this as you want, but Metallica`s first three albums, they`re a big influence on me. I knew it was completely over when I heard �Nothing Else Matters.�
Ross: So your love song �Skeletonized� is about what? That was the first song about a chick, so to speak. About a girl who goes into the forest and dies and just rots.
Ed: And he pines her.
John: That`s not much of a love song.
Will: That`s a good story.
John: Sounds like some sort of necrophilia song.
Ed: No, he doesn`t fuck her. He just kisses her. Gives her a kiss goodbye. I guess that is a song about a chick. Okay.
John: That`s a tragic, tragic story.
Ed: It is. It was mostly driven by this book I read about what happens to people when they die. How long it takes them to rot.
Ross: Ed reads a lot of books like that.
Ed: Does anybody want any pizza? Help yourselves.
John: You`ve got sing. You can`t fill up, otherwise you`ll puke up a chunk of pizza.
Ed: I don`t care about that. I don`t care about monitors. Monitors are for pussies. I don`t care about sound checks. Sound checks are for pussies. So many people get up there and they tweak and tweak and play with their knobs for hours and hours. Shut the fuck up, get up there, and sing.
Ross: (laughs) Every single interview I`ve done, Ed`s had one rant, and that`s the Ed rant for this interview. They come out of nowhere and take you by surprise but they make good copy.
Ed: What was the last one?
Ross: It was something political I think.
Will: It was that It magazine.
Ross: What was that about?
Will: He was like, �This is it! This is your one chance! You gotta get up there and give your primal scream!�
Ed: Sorry. It`s embarrassing.
John: What`s your favorite track on the new album? Starting with you, William.
Will: I think the one that came out the best, to me, is probably �Soldier of Misfortune.� I like all the overdubs and everything. It`s more produced than what we`ve been doing, but it`s still very raw and still very Ogre. It`s funny, because now that`s kind of a gem on the album, I think, we`ve tried to do it live and it totally falls flat.
Ed: It sucks (laughs).
John: How about you?
Ross: I second �Soldier of Misfortune,� despite the � I forget how you described the machine gun effects at the beginning of it. I think that`s a little bit of everything. It was the doom beginning and then it goes into that Maiden part at the end.
Ed: What doom beginning? That`s Hendrix.
Ross: Well, the main riff is sort of doom.
John: And you?
Ed: I hate to say this, but my favorite tune on the album is �Soldier of Misfortune.�
Ross: You`ve also mentioned �Flesh Feast.�
Ed: �Flesh Feast� is really good, but I like �Soldier� best. To me, it spans from 1968 to 1984, musically. I picture Hendrix at the beginning and Dio by the end. Before Dio went bad.
Ross: I would say live, the song I have the most fun playing is �Dogmen.� It`s become our standard opening song. It`s such a blast to play live. I like the album version too, but, I don`t know, that song I think is translated best live. For the new album stuff.
Will: Surprisingly, �Flesh Feast� has gone over pretty good live. We were thinking that that was going to be the one song we weren`t going to play live. But that big overblown ending with the hits and the stops, we can carry that like 20 minutes and people are into it and going crazy.
John: So when you`re writing a song or recording the album, do you kind of know off hand that this is a song that`s good for the CD but you`ll never play live?
Ross: We`ve tried every song live. There`s no song that we never attempted.
Ed: We used to do �Black Death.�
Will: That was a painful experience, if there ever was one.
Ed: We might as well have put up a neon sign that says, �Get beer now!�
Ross: We usually know after one or two times whether it`s going to stick around.
Ed: But we love that song. That`s a song about a woman too, if you come to think of it.
Ross: She dies and rots too.
Ed: Well, no. She gets the plague. So she rots and then dies. We used to say that �Skeletonized� is a song about a girl who dies and rots and �Black Death� is about a girl who rots and then dies.
John: Between that and giant robots from outer space...
Ross: The emotional range is just overwhelming.
Ed: I`m like a fourteen year old boy.
John: This next song is called �Poking the Dead Animal with a Stick.� I hope you like it!
Ross: Your next assignment!
John: So what are your tour plans?
Will: We tried to get something going, but unfortunately it fell through. The next opportunity we have to do something, we`re definitely gonna capitalize on it.
John: Do a two week tour or something?
Will: As much as we can do, we will do.
Ross: I really want to try to get on one of the festivals, like Emissions. Work something out like a lot of bands do.
Will: Or Roadburn.
Ross: We`d love to play Roadburn.
John: What are some of your favorite places to play?
Will: Well, the original Geno`s in Portland was our home base. It was such a landmark. The new Geno`s is cool, but it definitely has lost some of the original magic. It seems like all the places are closing.
Ed: Alehouse is closing. Next week or something.
Ross: Down here, O`Brien`s is probably our most... it`s gotten better. The first three times...
Will: We were playing with college rock bands on a Tuesday.
Ross: We once played at Jacques (a Boston venue with local bands playing in the basement and a cross dressing, lip syncing show on first floor) ages ago. It was awesome.
Ed: It was interesting.
Ross: It was tough dragging Ed away from the show upstairs.
Will: It was so weird, because we played with this full on, full tilt crazy punk band with some dude in a g-string singing. And they had a tranny on guitar. And we were like, �We`re dead. Everyone`s gonna hate us. We`re gonna get booed off the stage.�
So the first song I had my eyes closed and halfway through I look up and the dude in the g-string is throwing the horns, and I was like, �Holy crap!�
Ed: I used to like The Skinny in Portland. Before it got remodeled, it was a really cool place to play. It was an old theater.
Will: That`s where the new Geno`s is.
Ross: The one thing about playing in Portland is that everyone gets right up front.
Will: We were just talking about that, how they seem less jaded than in a lot of other places. They get right in your face and yell at you. In Portland, we`ve got people grabbing the mic from us and people hitting Ed in the head with items.
Ed: Yeah, that`s great.
John: So how was dinner?
Ross: It was good.
Will: This place has become somewhat of a ritual, every time we play here.
Ed: Look at this pizza. It was $8. I didn`t know I was going to get a whole pizza!
Ross: It`s gonna be a great interview. The pizza`s been mentioned three times already.
