When I was a kid, growing up in a house with Cat Stevens,
Neil Diamond, and Simon and Garfunkel, the first time I ever heard Kiss's
"Detroit Rock City,"
it was a moment of musical epiphany. It was just so vicious, aggressive and
mean. It changed the way I listened to music. I've had a few minor epiphany's
since then, when you come across a band that just brings something new and
revolutionary to your ears.
What have been your musical epiphany moments?
The first time I heard Purple Haze it completely blew my
mind. I think I was in 4th or 5th grade at the time, and it really set me down
the path I ended up on. I even got a Jimi Hendrix tattoo when I turned 18.
The summer after High School, a friend and I went down to San Diego for the weekend
to hang out with his cousin. He was heavily involved in the music scene down
there at the time, and turned us on to so many bands that I almost couldn’t
keep up. He took us to shows, introduced us to the bands, and even gave us
records to take home. That’s when I heard Drive Like Jehu for the first time,
and they have stayed one of my favorite, and most influential bands to this
day.
The album that made me want to play doom though, was Samothrace’s demo. I was playing in a desert rock band at
the time and the dudes I was playing with were really trying to push the band
in a Queens of the Stone Age direction. It
wasn’t horrible, it just wasn’t what I wanted to do. As soon as I heard that
demo for the first time, I realized what I was meant to play, and quit that
band soon after.
Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What
comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?
It’s always about the riff to me.
Coming up with riffs on my own is one of my favorite things
to do. I’ll usually sit down for a couple hours, write, and then record
everything I come up with. Some stuff sticks, and some stuff doesn’t, but
usually we can find a few gems in there.
From there, either Scott or I will bring some loosely
structured songs to practice, and we start pounding it out from there. Our
drummer Geoff has really been instrumental in adding to our new material as
well, and it’s become a really seamless process for us.
Lyrics/vocals on the other hand come a little harder for us,
but tend to work themselves out organically. It usually starts out with a bunch
of random words as we get the vocal patterns down, and then the lyrical content
comes from there. Most of the time, it’s based on something that has influenced
or affected us at that time.
Who has influenced you the most?
Hands down, John Reis. For those who don’t know, John is/was
in Drive Like Jehu, Rocket From The Crypt, The Sultans, Back Off Cupids, and
bunch of other amazing bands. His catalog is not only lengthy, but prolific,
and he’s never let up. His guitar style, which I found out later in life, was
influenced by Greg Sage of the legendary band Wipers out of Portland. There’s something unique and
different about their guitar playing, and I found that adapting that to fit a
heavier, doomier sound, made for something different on my end. Between his
playing and his work ethic, John continues to influence me to this day.
Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new
motivation?
Anywhere I can get it. I love listening to stuff that has
nothing in common with doom, and then seeing how that can be adapted to fit
what we’re trying to do. We never want to box ourselves in, so we’ll open
ourselves up to anything, and sometime that’s the catalyst for writing a new
song.
We're all a product of our environment. Tell us about the
band's hometown and how that reflects in the music?
All three of us are overtly aware of the inequality both
financially and racially in LA, and the pain and despair you see in that on a
daily basis drives our musical output. It’s hard not to, when you go to a show,
and you have to step over sleeping people on the sidewalk. It’s hard not to
feel anger when your fellow human beings are treated as if they’re garbage, all
while they’re tearing down neighborhoods and rebuilding so that only those with
money can live there. I know it’s happening all over the country right now, but
this is something that we experience on a regular basis.
Where'd the band name come from?
Ancient Altar was born out of the instrumental band Iron Mtn.
We had gotten to a point where we wanted to switch directions, and we felt
starting a new band, instead of carrying on with the old one, was the best
course of action.
We decided that we wanted a name that had something to do
with our old band, so we chose a song title from one of our unreleased songs.
You have one chance, what movie are you going to write the
soundtrack for?
To me, 2001: A Space Odyssey has always been a film in which
the music was just as important as the film itself, and I’d love to be a part
of something like that. To try to pin down one specific movie is close to
impossible for me, but to be able to create something the way like guys like Nick Cave
and Warren Ellis do nowadays, would be a dream come true.
You now write for a music publication (The Ripple
Effect?). You're going to write a 1,000
word essay on one song. Which would it be and why?
Do I get paid for this one? I’d go with Foie Gras. The
content is really thought provoking in that it brings to question what we as a
society create, our responsibility in that, and the consequences when it goes
too far.
Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap,
rock and roll moments?
We’ve never really experienced anything that big, but we’ve
had a few malfunctions that screwed up a song or two. One that does come to
mind though, is last year we were opening for Ufomammut, and my strap lock
popped out of my guitar right at the beginning of the song. I think it was
about 3 minutes in until I was able to fix it. Not a huge deal in retrospect,
but up on that stage, it felt like the end of the world. Haha.
Tell us about playing live and the live experience for you
and for your fans?
I absolutely love playing live. It’s an experience that
really can’t be topped by anything else. When I get up there, I forget about
all this shit I’m dealing with, and focus on the emotion of what we’re playing.
I try to relay those emotions onto those in the crowd so that they too can
experience a little bit of forgetting about life’s bullshit.
What makes a great song?
There is no right answer to this, but I believe it’s
emotion. You could say a good melody, a good verse/chorus combo, or anything
else like that, but I feel that would be wrong. I’ve heard complex pieces that
were absolutely unbelievable, and I’ve heard songs with one riff repeated over
and over for 10 minutes that were amazing. If it hits me in emotional way, it’s
a good song.
Tell us about the first song you ever wrote?
I had a band with a couple friends right out of high school,
and we would to try to write stuff like the punk bands in San Diego were doing at the time. We weren’t
very good at all, but there were a few bits and pieces that were actually
decent. Anyway, the first complete song turned out to be good enough to the
point that I ended up using the intro riff on an Ancient Altar song 20
something years later.
What piece of your music are particularly proud of?
The song I just mentioned. I had that riff in my head all
that time, and was determined to use it one day. We ended up writing a fairly
complex piece based of that riff, and it’s become one that we’re really proud
of. We’ve actually already recorded it, and will be putting it out later this
year.
Who today, writes great songs? Who just kicks your ass? Why?
For my money, it has to be Yob and Bell Witch. Those two
bands are writing music that’s true to who they are, and they’re reaching
people who would never listen to a metal album. Their music is beautiful,
brutal, emotional, and it feels fresh even in this day of over saturation in
the doom scene.
Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?
I personally love digital. Don’t get me wrong, there is
nothing like holding an album cover in your hands while you’re listening to a
record, but I’d never be able to afford to listen to half the bands I do if I
only bought vinyl. Digital doesn’t come close to the sound quality of vinyl, so
I definitely pick up what I can when I can.
Whiskey or beer? And
defend your choice
Beer for sure. None of us are big drinkers, so when we do,
it’s usually beer.
We, at the Ripple Effect, are constantly looking for new
music. What's your home town, and when we get there, what's the best record
store to lose ourselves in?
Scott is actually the metal buyer for Amoeba Records in Hollywood, so if you’re
in town, spin by and have him turn you on to some new music.
What's next for the band?
We’re in the process of working on a split 12” with the band
Cosmic Reef
Temple out of Santa Cruz, CA,
and we’re writing new material for our next full length that we hope will be
out by next summer. We’re also working on some local shows with a possible west
coast tour in the late summer.
Any final comments or thoughts you'd like to share with our
readers, the waveriders?
Thanks for checking out the record. It’s really been a labor
of love for us, from writing, to recording, to the artwork, to the creation of
the final package, and we’re really excited to finally share this with people.
Keep your eyes peeled for more from us in the coming months and years!
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