Ladies and gentlemen, this round of questions goes out to Warrior Pope bassist Oliver.
What is your full name?
Oliver Foxen
Do you have any aliases?
I’m fairly known as Ampstack, the name of my business. Lots of social media posting/conversation resulted in people from all over the world calling me by that name as Temples Festival, RIP.
The dude who gave me my first bass to play in his grot grunge band pushed for the stage name “Mr. Foxen” as I was a law student and significantly better presented than the rest at the time. I think I have used that on some credits.
What bands are you actively involved with?
Permit Me These Small Miseries (improv noise, focus on live performance)
Herbicidal (supposedly parodying stoner stereotypes, but actually embracing them by not really doing anything.)
Grief Riffs Drones (improv noise in the get together in a space and record it style)
What was the first instrument that you played?
Think the found snare drum and charity shop special spanish nylon strung guitar, very typical stuff. For a period I was fairly diligent at learning scales on a nylon string, but I think it was a following actually playable one. My parents had a piano in the house, but it was unplayably out of tune. They took this as a sign of me being unmusical, rather than musical enough to know it was unplayably out of tune. It was closer at the bass end, subject to some dissonance, which probably reflects in my later approach to music.
Tell me about one of your first musical memories?
Trying to sing Blue Velvet, think it was on a bogroll commercial. Now I look it up Bobby Vinton will give you the right song, no idea if it was his version.
What was the name of the first band you were in?
First one worthy of having a name was Caricatures. Kinda of a South West UK Supergroup, except for me.
Tell me about the genesis of Warrior Pope.
Caricatures ended, and I had a bunch of ideas and riffs I was too shy to contribute, so figured do something with them. I was jamming with as many people as I could, regardless of genre in an attempt to become a better musician. Eventually I reached a point where I needed to attach a name to it.
What inspired the name Warrior Pope?
I stole it from the handle of a guy on the old GWAR fan forum, which had been defunct a while, a good unused band name. Made some attempts to find the guy through forum members I kept in touch with but no success. Having no links to your persona on an edgy early 2000s internet forum is pretty much a win for the guy now.
How long did it take you to write and record A Morbid Parody of Justice?
If you could insert yourself into any one band what band would it be and why?
Kinda stuck between GWAR, being a fat and bearded bassist, and Acid Bath. GWAR for fun, and I like to embrace weirdness, Acid Bath because I want to be part of something that means that much to a certain sort of people, which applies to GWAR too I guess.
Have you ever heard a song and immediately wished you had written it? If so… What was the song and artist?
Kinda no. I’ve written a ton of songs at this point and about a dozen people have listened to any of them. That would be a tragic fate for an actually good song that I like.
Do you have any non-metal musical inspirations?
Slight majority are probably non-metal. Quite a lot of my inspirations are non-music. I don’t really try and write or play metal, but my inherent metalness generally comes through. I guess kinda like it is probably easy to tell I’m a metaller by looking at me, but how I look is mostly a result of lazy scruffiness and poor grooming.
What’s a non-metal song that you'd like to do a cover of?
I don’t like doing covers at all. It’s like a bunch of the effort of figuring out a song, and I don’t end up with a new song once it’s done. Got half a plan to cover a song as a tribute to a friend who is no longer with us, but that one probably counts as metal.
What band have you played with that has really impressed you with their live show?
Sonance achieved some intensity live that is odd to experience as someone who has drunk a large amount of beer with those guys, and girl.
We played with a ska band, Fidget and the Twitchers, and being able to get that many people to show up to rehearsals and the gig, and play competently is pretty baffling to me being from the metal scene. Their drummer had their own sticks and hi hat clutch and everything.
Do you have a favorite venue to play at?
I guess Moor Beer by way of number of times we have played there this album cycle, they embrace, or at least are OK, with the silly ideas I have to change up the show each time, filling the place with fog, incense and fake snow etc.
Do you have a pre-show ritual?
I make an effort to be up front for the opening bands, as the opening band has been us a lot. I generally have to sort out a bunch of the technical stuff before we play, cameras and foggers and whatever theatrical messing about. Ideally, I like to get away and have a quiet moment and warm up my fingers some playing scales. This has resulted in me being shut in a cupboard doing that at small punk venues.
What’s the weirdest experience you’ve had on the road?
Hard to claim we’ve been ‘on the road’, only done a few gigs outside the South West. Early day’s drummer was a pretty weird character, a low wobble bass dissonance bit made him pass out and fall off his stool at one point. He seemed pretty annoyed about it considering how much he liked doing things that make him pass out generally. Getting a bit annoyed thinking about him, so next question.
The year is 1995. Where are you at and what are you listening to?
Around then was probably the early days of assembling my vast collection of worn prog vinyl at car boot sales and listening on a terrible record player that was probably wrecking them even more. Graduation from badly copied bootleg Queen’s Greatest Hits tapes from the market. I had moved from London to the countryside a few years before, and going from being among everything to in the sticks with nothing going on was quite a change for a kid.
What advice would you give young musicians that are just starting out in the music business?
Being a musician and business are way separate things. The business part of music isn’t to do with playing it. You can do both, but that won’t make them into one thing. My job is fixing and selling valve amplifiers. Having loads of valve amplifiers around is really handy to me as a musician, but my business would probably benefit from me not taking them out and putting wear on them. The sort of music that makes enough money to be called business is not the sort of music I could take any satisfaction in playing, guess see covers earlier. If you are determined to try and make a business of it, start doing your tax return on it early, you don’t want to wait until you are making money, the bit where you are losing vast amounts of money is the most important part to do a tax return on.
What is an absolute band killer?
There are plenty of people wanting to play music that are also determined to fuck up. I read an interview with Lemmy where he said something along these lines about an early days Motorhead member, but I didn’t really understand until later. Anything good coming their way they will find a way to make into a problem instead, give them a free amp and they will drop it on their foot. Problem is, they only really show it up when some good opportunity come up. Lot of wasted opportunities from that happening. Got to get rid of those people and hang on tight to anyone who isn’t.
Have you ever recorded a song that you really didn’t like, but somebody else in the band really did?
When it comes to recording, I’m generally so stressed I have no idea what I like any more. But I wouldn’t have booked recording if I wasn’t basically happy with the material. I pretty much make the calls in this band. There are always things that could be better, but maybe some things benefitted from not being fucked about with any more.
If you were to start your own music festival what would be the name of that festival and who would be the three headlining bands?
I’ve done a small amount of small scale gig promoting and I strongly dislike it. Definitely not where I make my contribution to the music scene. A festival would be way worse. GWAR headlining the last day, give people some stains to remember the festival by. Pig Destroyer, and Acid Bath are back, so they get the other two slots. Not doom. But I play doom, so I defer to John Entwistle’s quote about heavy metal."I'm only interested in heavy metal when it's me playing it. I suppose it's a bit like smelling your own farts.".
Call it Ampstack Festival, passable name and a business endorsement.
What’s the longest time you’ve gone without bathing?
I spent a short while homeless, felt long at the time, so probably a good few weeks.
What’s one thing that most people don’t know about you?
Feel like I’m a pretty open book, so it’s mostly no-one cares to know about me. Prob the being homeless just mentioned.
Is the Fistful of DOOM show in the top 10 of your favorite music podcasts?
Music being my work, and main hobby, listening to podcasts is pretty much for being a break from listening to music or thinking about music, so music podcasts don’t really figure. Listening to the music is generally best thing to do about it. I am aware of the irony, as I am being interviewed regarding music right now, but a link to listen to the music is probably nearby. I could do you one of those soundbytes shouting out your podcast, but I sound sarcastic by default all of the time, so prob not the guy for it.
Do unicorns sleep standing up?
I’m fairly sure unicorns are badly described rhinos, I think there has been half a dozen rhino extinctions in my lifetime, so probably don’t need to extrapolate crazy far back to get to skinny ones. Apparently rhinos will nap standing, but lay down for a proper sleep. I am much the same.
Give me three albums that I should listen to immediately, if not sooner.
Well, the fourth Warrior Pope album is the one due out soon, which neatly leaves three previous. But Grails: The Burden of Hope. Khanate self titled. Either of the first two Acid Bath albums, the third one is too sad to listen to. GWAR not on the list because go see them live.
You’re driving cross-country and you can only listen to one album the whole time. What album will it be?
Pig Destroyer’s Prowler in the Yard. Will get there faster. Or wreck I guess. This country is only a few hours across.
You are writing a book about your life thus far. What is the title of that book?
“All the effort will pay off any time now.”
What is your favorite song by Taylor Swift?
My time working jobs where I had to listen to pop radio predate Taylor Swift, so I have no idea what songs are hers. When I was working such jobs, I mostly recall Outkast’s Hey Ya playing a lot, although it was not especially new.
High On Fire or SLEEP (if you had to choose)?
Sleep.
Doobies or Boobies (if you had to pick one)?
Boobies. I only pretend to smoke weed on the internet.
Waffles or Pancakes (if you had to pick one)?
Pancakes.
Star Wars or Star Trek (if you had to choose)?
Star Wars, I played the card game of that, and have not engaged with either much.
Favorite band t-shirt you own?
I got too fat for all the classic ones, so they are all a bit depressing. Brutal Truth’s Sounds of the Animal Kingdom one is due being rebought in a size larger.
Favorite meal?
Spring is just kicking in so I’m mostly thinking about grilling by default now. Quantity and variety of meat is where it is at for me currently.
Favorite book?
Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Big Trouble in Little China.
Favorite album?
Bolt Thrower: IVth Crusade
Favorite video game?
Dungeon Keeper
Favorite Professional Wrestler?
Pro Wrestling wasn’t really a thing for me. The Undertaker is basically the one I am aware of not through MMA.
Massive thank you to Oliver for taking the time to answer my questions. I appreciate you doing so. As for the rest of you, please click on the link so generously provided below and enjoy Warrior Pope’s live album titled Papal Bull-Shit: Live at the Louisiana. And keep those eyes peeled for the new album A Morbid Parody of Justice which will be released at the end of May via Bandcamp. It is an excellent listen and totally worth your time and money.
~El Pedo Caliente (aka Uncle Jameson from the Fistful of DOOM show)
https://warriorpope.bandcamp.com/album/papal-bull-shit-live-at-the-louisiana
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