TRAVELLER OF METAL MUSIC

THE LORD WEIRD SLOUGH FEG

ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING U.S. UNDERGROUND EPIC METAL BANDS HAVE RECENTLY RELEASED AN ALBUM. THE UNIQUE AND STRANGE SOUND OF THIS BAND ALWAYS WAS THE VEHICLE TO TRAVEL YOU IN BATTLEFIELDS AND TELL YOU STORIES OF BARBARIANS. NOW IN THEIR NEW ALBUM SLOUGH FEG CHOOSE TO TRAVEL US IN THE FUTURE AND TELL US A SCIENCE FICTION STORY. SO GRAB A SNACK AND LET THE STORY BEGINS...

1. ALTHOUGH I'VE LISTENED TO AND REALLY ENJOYED YOUR PREVIOUS ALBUMS, I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE BAND. HOW LONG DO YOU EXIST, HOW MANY ALBUMS HAVE YOU RELEASED, IN WHICH PART OF THE U.S. DO YOU LIVE AND WHICH IS THE CURRENT LINE UP? COUL D YOU POINT OUT THE MOST IMPORTANT MOMENTS OF YOUR CAREER?

Traveller is our fourth album, we started out 12 years ago. I live in San francisco, California. Our current lineup is the same as it is on the album and the same as it was on the last album, except Adrian in playing bass instead of John Torres. I can't explain the whole history of the band here though it would take to long. Most important moments were the first two years in 90-91 writting lots of songs in a dungeon in SF, making our frist and second records on our own, getting signed to audioglobe and touring Europe with Solstice

2. YOU HAVE A NEW ALBUM OUT UNDER THE TITLE "TRAVELER" AND IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN IS A CONCEPT. HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO PREPARE AND FINISH THE ALBUM? CAN YOU BRIEFLY TELL US ITS CONCEPT?

it took us only a year to come up with the concept. that year was 2001 (good sci-fi year!) the album is a concept album about space and genetic engineering-----there's a mad scientist and a sspace pirate and lots of aliens----read the lyrics-----

3. YOUR LYRICS DEAL WITH IMAGINATIVE SITUATIONS AND STORIES. DO THEY HAVE A DEEPER MEANING OR DO YOU JUST WANT THE FANS TO READ THEM AND HAVE A NICE TIME LIKE WHEN WATCHING A MOVIE?

Yeah, that's it, like watching a movie, I want them to enter the world of their imaginations, and get takken away from their boring everyday lives. That's what music used to be about until commercialism make everything into Pepsi adds. Even in Epic metal alot of the imagination has gone away----there's alot of concept albums about nothing. Mine has a very specific plot.

4. YOUR 2 PREVIOUS ALBUMS HAD MANY DIFFERENCES. IN "TWILIGHT OF THE IDOLS" YOU HAD A VARIETY AND YOU SEEMED TO ME LIKE YOU WERE SEARCHING FOR YOUR DIRECTION AND IN "DOWN AMONG THE DEADMEN" THE SONGS ARE MORE HOMOGENOUS AND ACCORDING TO ME YOU SEE MED TO HAVE FOUND YOUR PATH. DO YOU AGREE? WHAT CAN WE EXPECT MUSICALLY FROM YOUR NEW ALBUM?

I agree very much----in "twilight" we wanted to kind of make it like a Beatles album---you know, with all the differenht characters and stories, each song was different from the one before it and after it. On "Traveller" it's all one big story so we want to make it more similar from start to finish, alot of the themes repeat themselves and reference things that happened in the earlier songs. It's different, we've never done anything like it before.

5. YOUR NEW ALBUM "TRAVELER" IS BASED ON A FAMOUS RPG GAME. IN THE PAST YOUR LYRICS WERE ABOUT THE CELTIC MYTHOLOGY. WHY HAVE YOU DECIDED TO MAKE THIS CHANGE AND WHY DID YOU SELECT THIS GAME IN SPECIFIC AND NOT A SCIENCE FICTION OR FANTASY BOOK W RITTEN BY AN AUTHOR?

Well, it's not just about the game. The traveller universe is where the action takes place because that's my favorite science fiction universe to tell stories in----I'm familiar with it. but alot of the characters are based on "THE STARS MY DESTINA TION" by ALFRED BESTER---a book everyone should read, it goes right out of the science fiction world into phuilosophy and science and action and everything else----the best sf book ever. it was written in the early fifties, like alot of good sci fi. also the thems from Star Wars and Star trrek played a big part----I always loved those soundtracks. also, the album sounds alot like thin Lizzy, just cause I though that somehow fit with the story as well, like a western or a 70's cop story takeing place in a science fiction universe.

6. WHICH SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY AND HORROR DO YOU LIKE? HOW HAVE THOSE PEOPLE INFLUENCED YOU AS A PERSON AND AS A MUSICIAN? IS IT POSSIBLE IN THE FUTURE TO WRITE A FANTASY STORY? HAVE YOU READ LATELY ANY GOOD BOOKS YOU REALLY LIKED?

I don't really like Fantasy books that much----they're kinda hokey. I've always been into Robert E. Howard, but I don't like gnomes and fairies and dragons and all; that much as Celtic Barabarians and Norsemen----I guess I like Mythology and history better when it comes to swords and sorcerey-----I just read the Iliad and the Odissey for a class I took----now there would be a great thing to do a concept album on!!I'm writting a song for the next albunm called EUMAUS THE SWINEHERD!

7. I THINK THAT YOU HAVEN'T MADE MANY LIVE APPEARANCES, ESPECIALLY OUTSIDE THE U.S. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? DON'T YOU WANT LIKE OTHER BANDS TO TOUR AND MEET YOUR FANS? YOU HAVE MANY FANS HERE IN GREECE. DID YOU HAVE ANY PROPOSAL TO COME AND PLAY H ERE?

You're wrong, we've toured in Germany and England three times. We went last sumer and played Headbanger's Open Air and a string of other club shows. we did the same in 2000 and 1999. We'd like to come to Greece but you have to understand it is very hard for underground bands to do this. I have never been offered any tours in Greece----Our record company doesn't give us money for place tickets or set up shows for us, we have to do most of that ourselves-----that's the truth with alot of American bands, so it's not easy, sure we want too meet all our fans, but it costs alot of money for us, and I don't know how we'd even get shows in Greece or Italy. any ideas?

8. MANY ARE THOSE WHO CLAIM THAT CLASSIC HEAVY METAL HA NOTHING NEW TO GIVE ANYMORE AND THAT IT'S DOOMED TO REPEAT ITSELF WITH CLICHES. YOU ON THE OTHER HAND ARE A LIVING PROOF THAT CLASSIC HEAVY MIGHT STILL SOUND FRESH AND INNOVATIVE. WHICH IS T HIS ELEMENT ACCORDING TO YOU THAT MAKES YOU SOUND SO DIFFERENT FROM THE REST OF THE BANDS?

I don't know. I think there is plent of new stuff to do. The reason people think there isn't is because very few bands are doing their own thing!!!! It sucks!! There's a million different ideas for concept albums and weird songs i can think of that no one wants to do-----it's depressing!! a million bands a year put out albums that all sound the same!!! I don't know why they don't try anything new, because there's plenty new to do. Maybe it's because they won't get signed to Metal Blade or Century Media if they sound original!!

9. RECENTLY YOU'VE RELEASED THROUGH MISCATONIC FOUNDATION YOUR FIRST CD. HOW DID YOU COME TO THIS DECISION? WILL THIS RE-RELEASE ALSO CONTAIN SOME BONUS MATERIAL? WHY HAVE YOU DECIDED TO RELEASE IT THROUGH MISCATONIC AND NOT THROUGH DRAGO NHEART?

Miscatonic offered to release it and Dragonheart didn't, that's why. Rich is a good friend of mine. I was happy to have it on an underground label. so anyway, I'm happy with it, and it has many old bonus demo tracks on it. and they don't sound l ike shit like most old demo re-releases!

10. I THINK THAT A BIG INFLUENCE TO YOUR SOUND ARE BANDS LIKE THIN LIZZY, JETHRO TULL AND BROCAS HELM. DO YOU AGREE? WHICH OTHER BANDS AND MUSICIANS CAN BE FOUND AMONG YOUR INFLUENCES?

Thnk Lizzy yes, jethro tull no, Brocas Helm, Yes , after we finally heard them in '97. Obviously Maiden and Priest and Sabbath are three big ones for us. Also Queen, St. Vitus, the Beatles, jimi hendrix, Yes, Black Flag, Coroner, all kinds of stuff, metal and non-metal.

11. ARE YOU SATISFIED BY THE FEEDBACK YOU GOT THIS FAR? WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO A FAN TO CONVINCE HIM BUY YOUR RELEASE INSTEAD OF SOMETHING ELSE? WHICH IS YOUR STRONGEST AND WHICH YOUR WEAKEST POINT AS A BAND?

Our weakest point as a band is that we don't have the money to tour alot, which pisses me off, people should buy our new album because its good and you can listen to it over and over and it gets better every time. i hope its not boring, there's so much boring music out there these days. If you buy our album and don't like it , send it to me directly and I'll send you your money back, because I don't even have any copies of it right now!!

12. IF YOUR MUSIC WERE AN EMOTION, WHAT WOULD IT BE? IF IT WERE A PAINTING, WHAT WOULD IT SHOW?

ANGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

13. WHICH IS THE WORST NIGHTMARE AND THE BEST DREAM YOU'VE EVER SEEN?

Once I had a dream that I was walking up the hill in the woods and I reached a clearing, a big huge clearing in a medow with a giant stump in the middle of it----the stump was about 50 yeards thick and five stories tall, huge, and somehow there was a huge eyeball at the other end of the clearing, and I had to jump on this pulley that hung from a rope and swing down through the middle of the giant eyeballl and land on top of the stump. It was very beautiful, and I went throug the eyeball and landed on the stump, and it was somehow magical and weird----once I stood on the stump, there was a garden up there , and looking down on the clearing was super-real, the greatest experience of my life. Then I woke up; Many times in dreams I have found myself i n those woods again looking for the clearing with the giant stump, but I can never fidn it. I really had this dream.

14. IF YOU HAD THE CHANCE TO MEET THE CREATURE THAT CREATED THE UNIVERSE, WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK HIM?

I wouldn't ask him anything. I think if I met the creature who created the universe, i'd probably know the answer to any question i would ask.

15. YOU ARE GRANTED ONE WISH. WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH IT?

I would wish that I could lick my own balls.

16. WHICH ARE THE BEST AND WHICH THE SILLIEST LYRICS YOU'VE EVER HEARD (DOESN'T HAVE NECESSARILY TO BE FROM METAL)?

On the day when my work is through, and the Cosmos becomes a zoo................

17. IF YOU COULD MEET A HISTORICAL FIGURE OR AN IMPORTANT PERSON, WHO WOULD YOU LIKE HIM TO BE AND IS THERE ANYTHING YOU'D LIKE TO ASK HIM?

Friedrich Willhelm Nietzche. I ask him is he ever really had sex. Or maybe Plato----and ask him if I have to work in a warehouse for the rest of my life according to his Republic?

18. IF YOU HAD TO GIVE A TITLE TO YOUR MUSIC AND TO YOUR MUSIC CAREER IN GENERAL, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Wretched. A long bloody road...............>

19. THANK YOU! HAVE I FORGOTTEN TO ASK YOU ANYTHING AND YOU'D LIKE TO MENTION?

I want to come to Greece, believe me. We've been to Europe for three of the last four summers. Let me know what we can do to get some shows there next sumer and we'll come. Really! we ''ve been thinking about it for years, but we've always gone to Germany to festivals and stuff. Next year we should do the Mediteranian!!!Italy and Greece! We want to kick ass in the cradle of civilization, even if we have to loose six men in our boat to Scylla, and face the Cyclopse!!!!!

NIKOS "William_Kidd" PARASTATIDIS

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