CHIMAIRA

-M : Yes, basically, when we were recording the album, we had a lot of discussion, about the name of the album and stuff, and when the music came in, I felt that it sounded just like us, and the only way to describe it was that it didn't really have that vision of themes that wanna go with lyrically, I, and the band, were going all over the place, and I think that it's really the first time that that everyone came together as a unit and just made crazy music together. We went in many directions, and so we also have this crazy name that I think we couldn't have used on our first album, and people wouldn't have understood the significance, but now they do, just like the monster all of us forming together turning into this monster making a new album.

-Three heads, one entity!

-Mark : Yes, exactly!

-So, there's your third LP : what are for you the main differences with 'Impossibility of reason'?

-Rob : well there’s a natural progression for us as musicians, and the record is a reflection of that progression as we wanted to do something different. We didn’t even say that we wanted to do something different, it just came out with the writing, and working together all this time, we’ve been on the road for a while, so…

-Mark : And something that’s maybe unsaid, unspoken undertone like that we needed to make a great album that would stand out in a world where so many great other metal bands are happening right now. So we weren't really speaking, I think that everyone knows that we needed to make this album to be the best we possibly could to kick everyone’s asses!

-Chimaira have a new drummer now, Kevin Talley, from Dying Foetus and Misery Index : What does he bring to the band?

-Mark : Attitude, annoyance! Bored attitude in your face! He constantly plays with his middle finger while he’s playing, that’s his mentality anyway, ‘try to play this one, asshole, I’m better than you’! Even if he doesn’t act like that, you can sense it when he plays, just bad ass attitude.

-Rob : He loves to play, he has this passion to play, he constantly wants to jam, to practice, to look forward : it’s refreshing to us to have somebody who wants music as much as we do.

-Mark : we never had that before : I remember we asked our previous drummer if he has some fun when he played, and he said :’No’ ! So now it’s not like this!

-Does his coming gives a new direction for the band? More death metal?

-Mark : Well, we’ve always been influenced by death metal, and I think with this album we’ll be able to do more with it because Kevin actually plays like a proper death metal drummer at the school he came up with but he also had to really conform to our style, which, in the world where he comes from, seems really boring, and we say listen, just shut up, do it and wait till the end of the day : he understands after he hears the song and it would have been ridiculous for us to have those really slow parts with blast beats all over it, which he wanted to play!

-Rob : But he likes it now, he transformed all that energy that he wanted to use like this into power, and that’s great!

-About the lyrics, what themes can we find in this record, for example, ‘Nothing remains’, written the day Dimebag Darrell died…

-Mark : The lyrics are not about that, but the music is, for sure : when I heard all the music, I thought to myself that it was very refreshing, very dark, very harmonious and mature at the same time, and I thought that I needed to use the same direction, writing the lyrics ; so I used it all those aspects of our music which was very sporadic, one song this way, one song another, nothing really sounded the same, so I thought I had to use it as well. So I just listen to the music picture almost like a second movie going on, tapping into the movie but I wanted lyrics and vocals to make the song come alive into its own personality, and I tried to follow the theme that music made me feel about as a person.

-There are some almost religious themes, when you consider titles like ‘Salvation’, ‘Save Ourselves’, ‘Pray for all’ ?

-Mark : Not really, it’s more like a lot of our feelings are man made, as you think that something is coming out of your brain, I also feel the religion as well, I personally think that there’s a higher power, when you think of it, it’s a mental thing. The two work hand in hand, I’m not thinking about religion when I’m writing but that’s how I feel about the whole situation, and the same way you think about religion is the same way you’ll think about how you feel inside, either you have faith or you don’t, you have certain feelings or you don’t. My songs are more in the darkest side of things, the same way you’d think about how angry or depressed you feel, maybe you’re looking for something else, mentally, or maybe looking for a higher power or looking into yourself, I don’t know : I don’t really particularly care to push those special beliefs on people because I think that 99% of our fans are probably worshipping the Devil! And I’m not going to try to push, even if I feel some things, I don’t have that attitude, mine is more searching with your own soul and that type of thing, rather than Jesus, Buddha or whoever, more like that. Or…Lucifer! (Laughs)

-And would you be interested in more social or political subjects in your lyrics?

-Mark : Definitely not : I’m singing about the same things that our band is going through or has been going through, and I’ve never talked to any of our fans about fucking cocksucker Bush on CNN and what he did : no, instead, they call me up to say that they used to feel suicidal and now you saved my life, that's what they’re talking about. Again, as for religion, it’s a touchy subject and it’s not necessary I think. There’s some bands doing it, and doing it well, but I can’t identify with it. Metallica, in their older days, had songs that were very political, but I’ve never read their lyrics as much as I would have Nine Inch Nails or Alice In Chains, I like those type of lyrics a lot more, the effect those bands had on me as a person is the same effect that, I’m hoping, our fans are gaining.

-Talking about NIN, Trent Reznor makes almost everything on his records, as you do yourself, lyrics as well as the concept of the artwork and part of the production…

-Mark : Well, everyone in the band has a special purpose, their own job in the band, what they’re really good at doing. My own is, in a way, the Hitler of the band : over singing, I make sure that everything has been done. Chris is busy with merchandising, the Website, when Rob writes a lot of the music and Matt goes drinking with other bands! Everyone has his own special things and, all put together, we make it all work, and we have reached a point now where we don’t even have to say what’s going to happen and delegate, everybody knows what he has to do.

-Matt Schiegel produced again : an essential guy for Chimaira?

-Rob : We’ve been working with him for a very long time, we feel very comfortable with him, and that's a force, because everything we are recording with him will be a better product at the end. We've known him for more than ten years and he lives in our hometown, which is really perfect.

-Mark : Before we started to record this album, we kind of explored the idea of possibly working with someone different, just because musically we like to evolve, so we thought maybe, production wise, we would like to evolve too. But Matt did a great job on our last record, and we’ve gone with him again, because it seemed to be a difficult record to make, and we wanted somebody that we’re comfortable with, and we didn’t want to disagree with a new producer that we wouldn’t know. Things might be different with the next record if we want to try someone else, but Matt will certainly be the first on the line for this new record anyway.

-For this record, you worked with a legend, Colin Richardson…

-Mark : He did the last record as well, so hiring him the first time around was basically like thinking of all those records, Machine Head, Carcass, Cannibal corpse’s ‘Bloodthirst’ and all those great records that he mixed and made sound amazing, you want to sound like the best, you have to go to the best, and he’s the best. It’s funny because when we met him, we expected long hair, tattoos, leather jacket, heavy metal gear guy, but he's a normal guy, not Rick Rubin! Great personality, always joking around and talking non stop.

-Do you feel close to those two giant bands that are Pantera and Slayer? Do you share the same spirit?

-Rob : Yes, that’s a great way to name it, we share the same spirit, definitely. They know what they want to do, and they keep going to play great music and have fun, and that’s what we do too.

- Mark : We certainly don’t think that we are better than other bands, but those two bands sum up, and Metallica too, exactly where our definition of heavy metal is and what our lifestyle should be and the work should be. You never know, but I don’t think that we will have a ‘Load’ album soon, I don’t think it will work with us : we estimate heavy music too much for having that kind of thing come to our house!

-Tell me about this special project, this album with other Roadrunner artists…

-Mark : What I've heard so far is the Rob Flynn’s track, it’s so amazing, it’s the best thing that Rob Flynn did write for a long time, it’s really cool. It’s all new songs. It’s collaborations, like this one with Rob Flynn, Christian from Fear Factory on bass, Jeff guitars solos, and it will have different singers for each song. I’m doing a song with Andreas from Sepultura, Dino from Fear Factory, the drummer from Soulfly, Paul from Slipknot on bass, and I’m doing the vocals for it. Matt is collaborating with Joey from Slipknot on two songs as well as the Malevolent Creation guitarist : so it’s anyone from Roadrunner past to present is available to be a part of the CD. The bad thing is that a singer can only be on one song, and both Rob and Dino asked me to be on their song, so I had to choose the one who asked me first, which was Dino.

Interview by Jean-Paul Coillard.