Christmas Chimaira

-Mark : Basically, I heard from our manager that Dino wanted me to be on a song with him on this brand new idea that was coming out earlier in the year. I was very pleased to play with Dino and then, he phoned me saying he wanted to gather me, Andrea from Sepultura, Paul from Slipknot and Roy from Soulfly, and that could be awesome ! Without a doubt, no problems, send me the song, I’ll do it. He sent me the song, like two days later and I was really excited because I thought it would sound like Fear Factory, but no, so I had to rethink this one. Then, two days later, I got a phone call from Rob Flynn, who said he wanted me to sing on his song. I told him I couldn’t, because we were only allowed to do one. I was really annoyed because I’m a really good friend of Rob's as well, but Dino asked me first, so of course I stood with him. I spent a few hours working on it, in a hotel, the day before it was supposed to be recorded. I waited till the last minute, so there was a lot of pressure on me. But the next day, I went to Florida with Jason Sucoff, we worked together for the DVD, he’s really funny : I recorded a take, and he came asking something ridiculous like ‘how many people in the world today are still listening Cannibal Corpse ? Maybe just only five !’ I couldn’t even concentrate ! It was a very interesting recording session to say the least, and I was very happy when the vocals came out, because it’s one of the most brutal I have ever done and Dino said he wanted his track to be the heavier song, so you better make sure !

I think I nailed it, Glen Benton wins, because no-one is heavier than Glen Benton, but I think I’m second ! It was fun !

-I’ve read that there will be a special concert in New York, December 25th…

No chance to see it in Europe ?

-Mark : No, one event, one night, and I won't even be there, we’ll still be here, because I think it’s more exciting to be in Europe. We’re not coming very often, but it’s with Roadrunner anyway !

-Talking about Europe, you were touring England recently, for your new album : what was it like ?

-Mark : No problem ! I was worried in the beginning playing those songs because some are longer and I wondered how they were going to fit on the set lit, but sometimes they feel shorter than the older songs, which is very bizarre : the energy is still there, I think, if not even more so, and they work really well. The concerts in England were amazing, most of them were sold out, and we had our second best show ever in London, and it’s very rare to say it for me, because I find something wrong with every show : this night was a real warm up for you, guys !

-I guess now, Kevin Talley is totally integrated in the band : since he's coming from the death metal scene, do you feel a real change on stage with this new drummer ?

Mark : Believe it or not, I think it’s a change for the better : he’s really insisting on playing songs in their proper tempo, and that was very different for us in the beginning because our previous drummer didn’t play so fast. So we needed to slow down at first, and we felt that that wasn’t right, but we got used to it and when we watch the videos or record the shows or something, it just sounds good, tight, proper. He also gives an excellent stage performance and a lot of attitude, so it’s excellent on stage…even if I don’t like him for the remaining 23 hours of the day !!! (It’s a joke, of course).

-Just before that, you were touring the States with Danzig, for the blackest of the black tour…

-Mark : I wasn’t a huge fan, but enough to know the songs. It was a boring tour : we usually hang out with other bands on tour, but the Danzig guys felt older, he wasn’t so much for hanging out, and the other bands were in vans, so they had to leave the concert as soon as they played, so it’s super boring. Usually, we don’t do the same thing every night, but then we were every night in our bus by ourselves, just boring and dumb, we were drinking, it was a drinking mayhem. I don’t remember much of it, and I don’t even drink usually, but I was so bored that I did !

-Your new lp, ‘Chimaira’, has been reissued with a bonus CD, with live songs and two covers : can you tell us more about it ?

-Mark : The cover songs came about because we didn't want to have just a bunch of songs, we really worked hard on each song, and then at the end, Roadrunner said that they needed more songs, for video games or whatever they wanted to do with them. So they had to be covers because there was no time to write new songs. I thought about Matt DeVries's previous band, ‘Ascension’ had great songs, I enjoyed that and I asked if we could re-record it, ‘cause that’s sounds good. So we decided to do it that at the last minute, and I learned the songs in a day and didn’t record anything else. I don’t know if fans will like those songs, but I don’t care because they weren’t supposed to be heard anyway. It was fun for us to do and I hope people will like it, but if they don't, we don’t care !

-Beside Chimaira, it’s been a very busy year for you, since you’ve recorded one song with Years of Fire…

-Mark : Everybody knows everything over here ! It’s a new band from Cleveland : the guitarist that started with us, Jason Hagar, left us to raise his son . His son is old enough now, so he can start playing music again. He came to us and said that he knew I was home for a couple of weeks, would I mind coming and recording some vocals. I said yes, dropped by and did the song, and it was fun to hang out with them again, and we’ll have this band open for us on a Christmas tour at the end of the year. A good band, very heavy.

-And then, something with Stemm, for their e-card (’13 years’…)

-Mark : Yes, this band if good friends of ours, and their singer, PJ, used to be a roadie for us, and he started a band. We're still good friends and that was fun because the whole band was such huge fans of me it was kind of weird because one guy was almost crying in the studio when I was singing. It’s kind of weird, I’m not used to that. I thought it would be only hanging out and jamming, but it was quite emotional !

-Other participation projects in the pipeline ?

-Mark : No, not anything, except that Chris and I would like to do some kind of Rammstein-type band but I’m sure it would be really bad ! We’ll try. But I’m not gonna sing in German, I’ll be singing in French !

-I’ve read, on your website, that you were writing a score for a video game ?

-Mark : The one I’m in ? Yes, it’s called ‘Infected’, it’s a game about killing zombies in New

York City. The company wanted the song ‘Powertrip’ for it, and we said yes. We met the guy who made the game, started to have some drinks and the last thing he did was asking if I wanted to be in the game. Being the guy who kills zombies ? Ok. So I took a picture of myself and sent it to him. I thought the guy was drunk, he wouldn’t remember me and I would never be in the game, but, in the plane, on our way here, Chris showed me I was there indeed : I saw myself killing zombies with two guns ! It’s the first time I’m in a game, and I look pretty retarded, but it still looks like me, I guess !

-Are you a big video game player ?

-Mark : Oh yes, not as much as I'd like to ! I like games based on movies, ‘Matrix’, ‘Terminator’, ‘Star Wars’, everything based on movies. My all time favorite movie is a French one, ‘High Tension’, it’s fucking amazing. I have it with me right now. The video for ‘Nothing Remains’ is very influenced by this movie and we really enjoy it.

-How will your Christmas be, except for the two gig you’re planning at that time ? Are you a Christmas guy ? In family ? Do you have a favorite X-Mas movie ?

-Mark : Yes, ‘National Lampoon X-mas vacation’ : But, when I come to Europe, I watch ‘European vacation’, and it’s the same for Vegas and when I’m touring America I watch the regular one : it’s so…true ! We have two local gigs for Christmas, and then time off, spent with my family, before going back to work. In fact, we have all January and February off, without doing anything. We need to do some kind of break, finally. We’re been touring for such a long time this year, with only three weeks' break : but it’s not enough, it’s just time spent sleeping ! I used to be like, when we were touring, we had a break home and, after a week, we needed to go back on tour. Now, when I get on tour, I’m excited to be there but, the next week, I need to get home ! We've been doing this for seven years now, and when it’s tour/break/tour/break it’s easier, and that’s what we do now.

-Does it have something to do with the size of the venues, bigger now ?

-Mark : No, I enjoy to play in big venues, it’s less pressure for me, but it’s that the other 2O hours of the day, I’m bored. Today, it’s good because there’s no such pressure, so the day goes by. Tomorrow, we’ll go to Eurodisney, we have a day off.

-New songs already written ?

-Mark : We’ve been actually working on new stuff, and we’ll spend some time, in January and February, to work on new material and between August and September next year, we’ll see what happen, but we would like to get in the studio. But, before that, we’ll be back in Europe for some festivals.

Interview made in Paris, December 6th 2OO5.

Thanks to Karine and Emilie, from Roadrunner France.