Peter: [Speaking of Bloody Kisses] "Actually, our goal is to give the bass, guitar, and keyboard almost the same sound. That way, in the end, you can't tell who's doing what, but it's very compact and more powerful."
You're once again responsible for producing your own album. Is this out of a refusal to work with an external producer or a lack of resources?
Peter: "Yes, Josh is indeed the producer..."
Josh: "Why would we pay someone to do what we know how to do ourselves? Especially since that person would necessarily have a worse understanding of the sound we need than we do. You're never better served than by yourself; you know the production you want. The few producers we'd agree to entrust the work to charge fabulous sums of money to make a record!"
However, many claim that a band's musicians are too invested in the songs to really notice their potential flaws, etc., which is also a producer's job.
Josh: "No, we completely disagree."
Peter: "The thing is, we're not seventeen anymore! I've been working with Josh for fifteen years, we know each other inside out and have a lot of experience. So we're able to step back from what we're doing, see things objectively, and make the necessary decisions."
Josh: "The record company tried to slap a producer on us because their only goal is to make money, and therefore sell our records. They wanted to put a guy on our back who would give us a cleaner sound, who would "fix" our songs to make them more commercial, etc. But we don't give a damn about that kind of talk..."
Peter: "Very few people really understand the meaning of this band; we barely understand it ourselves. We categorically refuse to let a guy show up and try to make us become something we're not."
Lyrically, you've mainly focused on a specific theme, it seems...
Peter: "Who, women? The eternal problem..."
What conclusion do you draw from this? Are things better with them, or worse than in your youth?
Peter: "Both! That's interesting. Take "Black N"1" for example, do you really want to know what that song says? Josh, do you think I should tell her?"
Peter: "Well... It's about this goth girl I dated. She was kind of crazy... After a while, when we were having sex, she would put a mirror between her head and mine so she could look at herself."
Josh: "Exactly! Just as we were about to start playing!"
During that tour, other European countries actually stopped you from playing. It was a real mess!
Peter: "No, we had a blast! We fought almost every day, and we even won some money! Indeed, our contracts stipulated, like all contracts, that if the show didn't happen through no fault of our own, we would still get paid!"
~Peter Steele and Josh Silver~
Metal Hammer 1993 [Translated from French to English, probably very badly. Sorry about that!]
