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Capricorn‚.
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Ecco l'intervista che Jinxx (assieme a Jake, la sua la trovate nella sua sezione u_u) ha rilasciato a GM, in cui parla dell'album, della vita in tour e del suo rapporto con Jake.
Leggetela QUI.
Hi Jinxx, how are you today?
Hi Leslie, I’m a little under the weather today but it’s a day off so plenty of time to recharge. It’s a weird little stomach virus that we’ve all been kind of passing around on the bus. I actually had it yesterday and Jake had it the day before. Today it’s my turn. Woo hoo (laughs)
The guys in Slash’s band call the bus the incubator when they are all sick.
The incubator, oh man, yes. That’s pretty much what it is, a cesspool.
What were your thoughts when you found out Andy wanted to make a concept-type album?
I was real excited when the idea first came to play. When we started this band, you know, our grand big plan was to take it as far as we could go and I always liked the idea of a concept album. Ever since I was a little kid the albums I listened to growing up, I was a big Metallica fan – Ride The Lightning, Master Of Puppets, And Justice For All – all were kind of like concept records to me; not to the sense of like, say, The Wall or Tommy that The Who did and they made a movie to go along with it and the whole album tells a story. So when it was first presented to me that that was what we were doing, that was real exciting to me.
Wasn’t this originally supposed to be just another regular album?
Originally, yes, we’d started demoing some songs with another producer and it kind of felt like we were doing the same exact thing that we had done in the previous two records and I know Andy at first was just not interested in that at all. We wanted to do something completely different this time and not just put out the same record. A lot of bands just put out the same record every time and they’re consistent but we like to change it up and explore other avenues.
What was one of the songs that you had the biggest input in creating?
I would say “Shadows Die” is kind of like a masterpiece for me.
Why do you say that?
Well, I always had the idea of doing something really orchestrated or orchestral with an almost cinematic quality to it and that song showcases all of what I was trying to do. I don’t know if you paid much attention to the orchestral sections of the record but I did all of that myself. I am a classically trained violinist as well and one of my other hobbies or interests is getting into film scoring and I compose as well. So this record was a huge step in that direction for me to be able to create and basically score a film, which is what it felt like we were doing. So it was cool that we made it into a movie. So yeah, my input was largely that: all the orchestral sections, the overture, that was all me. I recorded all the violins, the cellos, all that in my home studio.
Do you think you will do something like what Steve Vai has done, composing symphonies?
You know, that has always kind of interested me too. Maybe somewhere down the line it would be really cool to do something like that definitely.
You mentioned playing the violin. How did you get into that? Was that something your parents had you do?
Well, no, actually my grandfather played and his father played. My parents were rockers and thought it strange that I was into classical music and wanted to play in the orchestra. I already played guitar since I was about four years old and then I was about seven when I asked my mom for a violin. I guess it was just my kind of rebellion, you could say, against my parents (laughs). As a teenager I wasn’t really into the music scene at the time and nothing I heard on the radio really interested me. I think music just kind of got boring or stale, to me anyway. I started listening to like Bach and Beethoven and was getting more into that. Then I realized there was this whole world of music out there and when I would write music on the guitar or for my band or whatever, I would try to apply what I learned from Bach on the guitar. Just kind of made a unique sound for myself, I guess.
How do you and Jake create music together without stepping on each other’s toes, so to speak?
That’s a great question and it’s changed over the course of this project. When we first started on the first record, the process was Jake and I would write the music first and then Andy would come in and write a vocal melody over the music. When we started working together we knew right away, it’s almost uncanny, even though we come from kind of different influences – I’m more classical and he’s more metal influenced – we just gelled right away and it’s just weird, almost like we share a brain and finish each other’s sentences. I write a riff and he would write a riff to a verse or a chorus and he would write the next section or vice versa or write a bridge and he’d write the verse and the chorus. We just kind of put together a song like that. One would have an idea for part of it and then right away the other one would come up with the next part. It just seemed to work out so well writing that way. We did that with Set The World On Fire, the second record. With this record we decided to do things completely backwards and start with like a vocal melody first and write a structure around that. So that was kind of a challenge where we took ourselves out of our comfort zone but what we came up with was this record.
Are you amazed that Andy keeps coming up with these amazing lyrics?
Andy is a freak (laughs) He is uncanny. It’s weird to me how cause it’s all the time I’ve known him. We used to joke around all the time that he would visit an alien, an alien would come down and visit him. He would always go outside and smoke to write his lyrics. He would go out there with his pad and paper and his pack of cigarettes and then fifteen minutes later he comes back in and it’s “Alright, I got it” and they’re the most brilliant, beautiful lyrics. It’s just uncanny. He’s twenty-two years old and like super-intelligent. It’s crazy working with him.
Where did you grow up?
Des Moines, Iowa. We were in the city but I did spend a lot of time out in the country. My mom always had horses and I would spend a lot of time out by myself with my thoughts and I had to be really creative as a kid. We really didn’t have a lot growing up and nothing really to do in that part of the world, you know. I just had to be really creative. I wrote a lot of poetry and that kind of fell to the wayside as music was always number one. I read a lot.
What did you like to read?
History. I was really fascinated with the American Civil War. I had some relatives who fought on both sides and that always seemed to interest me a lot.
When did you finally get into rock & roll?
Like I said, Metallica was a huge influence on me growing up. My brother, who is six years older than me, he would bring home records and I think the first record I ever got was a double vinyl of And Justice For All by Metallica. I listened to that front to back and just sat there and learned every riff, every solo on that record, on my guitar. I think it was actually through rock music that led me to classical because I heard so many harmonies and cool little things in there that I realized was derived from classical music, even if it was indirectly. Actually Metallica in sort of a way turned me on to Bach.
What fascinates you about Bach?
It’s genius (laughs) Trying to write music like that is like doing a musical crossword puzzle. It gets my brain going. It’s conversation between voices that’s just on a level that is so much higher than our current understanding of music and putting together notes. It’s just not a way of thinking that is really around anymore. So that interests me when I hear a piece of music like that that was real thought out and well-written. It just really gets my brain going and challenges me.
Who was the first real rock star that you ever met?
Wow, that is a good question. When I think of real rock stars I think of guys who were on posters on my wall as a kid. I’ve never met the guys from Metallica and it’s one of those things where I’m sure someday we will meet but meeting your idols is always scary (laughs). We had Sebastian Bach stay with me and my wife for a few weeks one summer and that was pretty interesting. I loved Skid Row when I was a kid. Nikki Sixx is another one. Motley Crue hugely influenced me growing up. I remember one year when we were first starting out and we were at the NAMM show in Anaheim and we were walking into the convention and Gene Simmons walks right up to us and compliments us on how we look and that was pretty bizarre (laughs)
What would you say has been your most exciting memory about being in this band so far?
You know, there’re so many memories that are exciting. When I go back and I think about when it started, which wasn’t that long ago, it’s just been a quick ride for us. Our first tour we were traveling around in just an SUV and trailer and it was just the five of us in this car driving around the country. It’s just been such a quick ride since then that I never forget those memories of starting out and playing in small clubs and just starving basically but doing what we loved and it didn’t matter. And it’s still that way. We still have such camaraderie that we’re unfazed by any of our success. But it’s pretty cool when we hear things like, “Hey, your record just debuted number seven on the Billboard charts.” It’s like, wow, celebrate (laughs) It’s such a huge accolade. I think playing the Golden Gods was cool too and Jake and I won Best Guitarists. That was just a mindfuck (laughs)
What was your first concert?
My first concert would have been seeing Metallica at Lollapalooza, I believe it was. That was sometime in the 90s. I can’t remember the year but it was pretty huge for me because Metallica, I finally got to see them up close. I never got to go to the shows with my brother cause I was too young but it was my first real big one and that was pretty exciting for me.
So how did you get started?
Like I said, I always played guitar, that was my first instrument as a kid, and I just grew up in a musical family. My brother was always playing in bands. When we first moved to Des Moines, we lived in a smaller town before that, and my brother met up with these guys, Corey Taylor from Slipknot and Stone Sour, and they had a band together all through high school - and it was the band that would eventually become Stone Sour later. But I would be like nine or ten years old and stay up and jam with those guys in the living room at my mom’s house and one day I was like, “I got to start my own band with people my age” but nobody at the age of ten knew how to play an instrument so when I would try to start a band and I was the only one that knew how to play, it made it kind of hard until I at least got into high school and things changed after that. But I had a few bands in high school and nothing ever really came of anything. Nobody was ever really as motivated as I was and it wasn’t until I moved away to the west coast, California, that I found that’s where people are that are motivated. One thing led to another, played in a few bands, toured a lot, got a lot of experience under my belt and now this band is happening.
I was talking to Jake about this earlier, about how you have come so far so fast.
It is surreal. Like I said, we were driving around in a Durango our first tour. I just remember having dreams about going overseas to England and Europe and playing shows over there and that happened in less than a year and we were there. It’s just been a constant climb for us and it’s just surreal. We kind of live in a bubble where we don’t get to see ourselves from the outside and it’s weird. It’s hard for us to gage how well we are actually doing until we do hear things like you have a top ten record. Then it’s, “Oh shit, I guess we are doing ok.” (laughs). So no more living in a crappy apartment in Hollywood. I’ve got a house now with my wife and life is pretty good. I never get to see it but … (laughs)
What are your plans for this year?
Continue to take over the world (laughs) We want to grow, always growing, and we want more people to hear our music and overcome some of the obstacles where I think we’ve been so polarized in the past, where people judged us based on our make-up or our look or whatever and always judge us before even listening to our music. We want people to hear our music now and judge us based on the music not, “Oh, you guys look like a bunch of homos and your music must suck” or “You must be untalented because of that.” So it would be nice to be played on the radio, and I hear we’re getting picked up by a lot of stations around the country, so that’s nice to hear, that more people are willing to hear our songs before judging us. We’re just going to keep growing and gaining more fans and support
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Jinxx a Glide Magazine |
