TYPE O NEGATIVE

-J : It’s a good question ! A lot of things had happened, it was just one of those records that take a long time to make, some of the songs had been written like a couple of years ago, it just took that long to do, we did go in and do demos, and then we work on the old ones, work on the new ones, it just took forever, or so it seems !

-Is there a general theme for it, or more your favorites like political correctness, sex and death, humanity and relationships ?

-J : Not really so much politics but more about our own experiences, not really connecting with the world around us like things we have seen on tv

-We can find a song about Pete’s mother (Nettie), his father (Above all things) and about the mistakes in love : they are very important subjects too ?

-J : Well yes, that are all the things that make the world go round, this is what we’re experiencing every day, and how the songs would ring about is our reflection of how we’ve gone through. So those subjects are for us easier to identify with !

-Did the news, the world situation or the events of last years inspire you or not at all ?

-J : Not really, and I ‘m not saying that we don’t, like staying away from it, but it’s just something that just didn’t make it to this record. A lot of records were written before September 11th ! So that’s why nothing really was reflected upon from that event.

(At this time arrives Pete Steele, showing us a proof the cover of the album...)

-Would you record a song for a cause that you think is right ?

-JB : If it did interest me, and if it did believe that writing a song actually had a positive impact on it, then I would do it, but I think that a lot of bands sometimes they get on that, they do that stuff just to get on the band wagon, rather than actually look at the cause itself and why you’re being a part of it. And I’m not about to start campaigning for every injustice that there’s in the world, because it’s too much going on ! I have too many things to worry about my own life to worry about what happen to other people, not that I’m selfish, but that’s how the time goes, I don’t have the time nor the energy.

-About the cover of Angry Sex Change from the musical Hedwig : and the song ‘I like girls’, is it a way to prove we can be fun, distance and ironic about it without remorse ?

-JB : I think one thing has always been misunderstood with Type O Negative : that we are very like clowns, we like the jokes, we laugh a lot. We always try to do stuff on the records that come across as being funny, and humorous, a lot of Type O are mixed up or whatever, and I think that with this song you can’t mix it up, now : somebody’s gonna get the joke, this time ! It’s light-hearted, sometimes music is supposed to be fun too !

-Are you a big Internet user ?

-JB : Yes, I’m a geek I’m a tech geek. And, for the band, it is a media that we’re using, not at his fullest potential, when it’s maximized, when we’re using it a lot, we’re doing a lot of announcements about Type O negative and you can interact with the band, as Josh and I are pretty involved in the message board and stuff like that. Peter is not a tech guy, he stays away from it, and Kenny uses a computer when he has one, but Josh and I are usually on it, I’m on it the most, the webmaster and I we’re trying to keep everything up to date as far as we can. But lots of websites post stuff before we do, a lot of times ! I go : ‘I didn’t know we were doing that! I didn’t know a record would be released that day !’ So we’re trying to be a little more on the top of that, we’re Type O negative and we are a reliable source.

-Do you think that one day it could be more important than the paper press ?

-JB : I think people work hand in hand, it’s a media like radio or television, but Internet makes the world a lot smaller : I was talking to my dad, yesterday on the Internet in my hotel room, we feel closer together so that New York is not that far away anymore

-If Type O were a movie ?

-JB : I haven’t been to the movies since my daughter is born, she’s almost two and a half ! If not, it would be a cross between ‘Frankenstein meet the wolfman’ and TV shows, ‘The honeymooners’, Jackie Gleason, and ‘The odd couple’ and ‘All in the family’ : those three TV shows, thrown in with cartoons, are Type O negative !

-Could you tell some records which changed your life ?

-JB : Kiss Alive 1, Led Zeppelin 2, ‘Shout at the devil’, ‘Master of puppets’, ‘Screaming for vengeance’ by Judas Priest, ‘Super unknown’ by Soundgarden, Pearl Jam’s first record, Temple of the dog, Alice in Chains. First Wasp record ! There’s so many ! I like Mister Bungle : listening to it is very intense, it gives me like an anxiety attack, I can’t stop shaking when I hear it, it’s so much to absorb, it’s too much to me ! What Mike Patton does is just such abstract art, what he’s doing is definitely an art form, but it’s fucking crazy ! I like Coldplay, too : the new record is phenomenal, I just told Peter about that, and he said he got to get this record, because it’s great. I love the Beatles, the Stones, Led Zep, Black Sab. I have to pick the Beatles box for my dad, he’s a big Beatles and Stones fan !

-And what do you listen today ? What have you discovered recently ?

-JB : I just bought the Hellacopters’ CD, I love them, and I saw a band last night called the Spiritual Beggars, they were great ; I like the new Audioslave. But I live under a rock, now, I really feel disconnected from what’s going on right now : my family and my band occupy my mind full time now !

-Type O is a very stable band : where do you think it comes from ?

-JB : No they aren’t ! (laugh) there’s nothing stable about Type O negative ! But, seriously, in a lot of ways it’s like a dysfunctional family, we’re brothers and sisters. When you live with them, you think you love them but you want to kill them all the time ! When you move out, you get along better.

It’s not a business venture, even if there are some aspects which have to be treated like business. There are things we like and dislike about each other, we don’t get along all the time, but we laugh a lot and we joke, we’re still clowning around !

-After ten years, how do you judge the career of Type O negative ? Are you satisfied with the way things evolved ?

-JB : First, I didn’t expect to go ten years, I didn’t expect to go this long, so everything exceeded my expectations ! And if anything, you always see things and you always think that you can do something better, so there’s some things I have done really well and other things I would have love to do differently, it’s not my band, it’s our band, everybody makes their own contribution in their own certain way and there are things, looking back, that we would have liked to do differently, but we’re still here, so I really can’t complain too much ! it has been some life, a hell of a life, so, let’s see where it goes, just keep going, see how it turns out.

-Next projects ?

-JB : Yes, we’re gonna tour and they want us to do a video for ‘I don’t wanna be me’, the first song of the record. I was pretty surprised of that, I didn’t know they would want to do it.