| Title : | Thoughts of Phil Anselemo |
| Article Section : | user |
| Article Summary : On a laconic Friday afternoon, Absolute Underground gathered to quiz an icon - Phillip H. Anselmo. He is one of the few stars who have remained 'underground' while courting success with top-sellers Pantera and Down. Through smaller projects such as Superj | |
| Article Text : Now, with his Housecore label hitting stride in a complex business environment which sees many of metal's largest labels choking, Phil gives insight into what is real music, the perils of drug use, and the definition of extremity. Get learned, son. Like it or not, he is an undeniable metal force, year after year. AU: We told work that we had an AA meeting to go to... Phil Anselmo: Arson Anthem, that's my next AA meeting. The old body will tell you when it's had enough. AU: Where are you situated at the the moment? Anselmo: In my bedroom, looking at 2500 box copy horror films, smoking a cigarette, just got through working out – I know it's counterproductive - but my God, I do love the rich blend of tobacco. AU: Which bands have influenced you to play the 80's hardcore guitar sound? Anselmo: Discharge on "Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing " record. I love it. But we're not just another D-beat band. And when I say Black Flag – I mean it. There is a free style feel on "The Process of Weeding Out" where Greg Ginn and Kira were very irrelevant to each other, but it made sense in the end. Also, Agnostic Front, the anthems and energy. As far as influences with AA, I'd say Die Kreuzen and Voivod. AU: You've played over the years in many styles, black metal, southern, hardcore. Why did you want to write hardcore at this point in time versus, say black metal? Anselmo: Put it this way. Superjoint was originally suposed to be a hardcore effort. It turned out metalcore, it didn't really turn out the way I wanted. AA is stripped down. I'm catching your vibe – there's a shitload of American black metal right now. That's why I'm not doing it. I did it in '94 and '96. It's not boring, but I've done it before. Arson is stripped down, I don't want to compare it to Superjoint, the original ideas were similar but the results were night and day. The first EP, we wanted it to be loud and horrific. Love it or hate it, and most hate it. However, the full length makes the first one look like child's play. AU: We saw you playing guitar with EYEHATEGOD in France... Anselmo: It had to be 'Sisterfucker'. It's the only one I can remember. It's the "Smoke On The Water" of NOLA sludge. [laughs] AU: As far as guitar, who influences your style? Anselmo: Ah! Dude, it's like when someone asks me what my vocal influences are – they are fuckin' vast. I grew up a metal kid with punk friends. I was hooked up in the 80's with the tape trading and I heard every demo I could get my hands on. Put it this way – I've written riffs for Pantera, Down all these fuckin' bands. But Lord knows, when I wrote a riff for Pantera and Dimebag grabbed it, it sounded ten thousand times better. You can't leave out Greg Ginn. Agnostic Front. Tony Iommi. It's not so much the musicianship, it's the delivery! I'm not a guitar nerd, I don't know anything but the blues scale, bar chords, diminished chords. And I've got an SG from '66. You know? [laughs] Thanks. AU: In new music, people get way too carried away with the production and technicalities. Anselmo: I agree. Technical shit has been going on since the seventies with prog-rock. Right now, there is a rut. There is a lot of regurgitation out there, time for some new organic motherfuckin' sound! The fact is, I started a label, and as a musician I like to believe, not all the motherfuckin' notes have been hit! I'm looking for bands that are hitting those hidden notes. The growth in music is not going to come from more parts and trippier timings. Technicalities aside – it's not that impressive. Bands can be as technical as they fucking want. In the long run, it's more about what is your subject? What the fuck are you singing about? Is this really a song? You hear these bands, part after part after part – end. I get it. I've heard that all before. AU: Feel at the end of the day is the ticket. So, how do you want to deliver music to the new generation? In the age of the internet... what is underground? Anselmo: That's an interesting question, because there is no way around selling or not selling every fuckin' record. I'm guilty as anyone – you get a CD and load it onto the iTunes and throw the fucker away. I know for a fact I didn't do this to be a millionaire. This is a statement. I'm still finding my way. The more you dig, the more you find. Say a thousand submissions come in. Nine hundred sound like Pantera or Down. I'm not looking for that. It's been done, man! If you want to make something new, you have to throw tradition out the window! Think about the first time you heard Hellhammer, man, it was strange. Like fuckin' bizzare! And twenty years later, it's still a favourite band. I'm trying to bring out different shit. And to be extreme you don't have to play with distortion and a double kick. Extreme doesn't have to be metal. PhilAnselmo11 AU: As far as self-examination goes, do you see that in other formats, like writing? We saw Henry Rollins in town a few months ago, and he fully stepped away from music and stuffed his personality into speaking, writing, acting and hosting TV shows. Do you feel like you have some non-music outlets you want to explore? Anselmo: Yeah! I don't want to take it as far as him. I don't see myself acting. He is a great writer. I don't see myself doing a talking tour, but you know, I don't 'not' see it. And yesterday, I talked with Mike Williams. He did a poetry reading this past weekend. And he asked me if I wanted to join up on a future one. I've got hundreds of poems. And now I'm working on a book with artwork by Away from Voivod. It's gonna be nerve grating. Self-examination is an enlightening thing, sometimes it's brutal. I've been writing this proper book for a while. It's not just a Pantera book, a rock autobiography. It's a different kind of book. You talk about self-examination, and I look at the lyrics, a song like 'New Level' and you think, 'motherfucker!' you know? I was 23, in my strongest body, and I was a fuckin' maniac! I could walk through walls! In retrospect, 18 years later, wow, what I spot I was in. But when things get complicated, and every life, all mankind – there is not a perfect motherfuckin' being that does exist. No one has it figured out. And humans are cruel. Growing up in this spotlight where everything is documented in magazines... it's kinda easy to see where you went wrong, and figure why and where, and then you got a remedy to that certain dilemma, and that is what I need to share with the world: the remedy to pull you out of that particular human hole. And there are many pitfalls, trip-wires and landmines in life, you gotta be prepared. AU: We saw a film you put up, about 45 minutes, talking to Loyola University students about drug abuse and the mindset of addiction. It brings alot of authenticity to your work, when you've been down that road. Anselmo: I am a fountain of information. Why not just tell the truth. For a long time I wouldn't talk to the press. The best remedy of any type of rumour is tell the fuckin' truth. The human condition spouts all these emotions and one of them is shame. And fear. I'm not afraid, I'm not ashamed. I'm as human as you. It's something that has gone down in my life, and run it's course. If that story can help someone else, I'm gonna tell the fuckin' story. AU: We got one last question for you, what is extremity to you? Anselmo: Extremity... [long pause] extremity is the idea that overthrows all emotions and takes you over from the inside out, and turns into a tangible thing, when you take that one step forward and it spreads like wildfire. And the next thing you know, it's contagious and everyone is feeding off that particular energy. And that's the best way to describe it. | |
| Original Article Url : | http:// |
| Article Source : | absolute underground |
| Author : | ERIK LINDHOLM, CHRIS FINCH, HEATHER FURNEAUX |
| Submission Date : | 1348162010 |
| Article Category : | interview |
| Owner : | 11053 |
| Image Id : | 3637586 |
| Image Width : | 200 |
| Image Height : | 200 |
| Stored Original Image : | 3637585 |
| Listed By : | 11053 |
| Domain : | cloveandanchor.com |
| Allow Comments : | 1 |
| Comment Count : | -1 |
| Permission : | excerpt |
| Link Count : | 4 |
| Cat Ids : | 1 |
| Sort Order : | 99.00 |
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