In a recently published interview by Lucem Fero's Welsh interviewer Anthony Morgan, conducted in June 2008, 36 Crazyfists vocalist Brock Lindow discusses 36 Crazyfists's fourth studio album, "The Tide And Its Takers", its lyrical content and musical style, leaving Roadrunner, signing with Ferret, the music video for "We Gave It Hell", a planned live DVD, and a planned five-song EP. Several excerpts from the interview follow:
Lucem Fero: Could you provide an introduction to 'The Tide And Its Takers'?
Brock Lindow: 'The Tide And Its Takers' is another extension of 36 Crazyfists, in my opinion. The album boasts everything which our group is capable of achieving, whether it be Rock compositions or heavy jams. Lyrically, it concerns the world's current predicament, and in some respects, the world's current mental state. Wartime is prevalent, and that's an issue which the young generation are adapting to, myself included of course. The album concerns love in numerous respects, and how important a part of our lives I feel that love is. On some level or another, we all need to feel loved, and that's whether people actually realise that or not. For example, some tough guys would disagree with that statement. 'The Tide And Its Takers' touches upon victories, struggles and topics of that nature.
You made reference to Roadrunner Records, so how did 36 Crazyfists' relationship with the label come to an end?
I don't hold any ill will towards Roadrunner Records; by signing our group in the late nineties, they made my dreams come true. Signing to Roadrunner Records was pretty amazing, and for that, I'm forever grateful. Almost from thereon in though, raising our profile Stateside was just completely difficult for us. Whereas some groups sell X amount of records in the States, we don't. For that reason, they've received much more attention. To attain that stature, I felt we needed more attention. We needed promotion and greater tour slots, although both weren't forthcoming. We just became lost in the shuffle. Over the years, Roadrunner's staff has changed. I know that certain Roadrunner staff disliked us as individuals, and we felt the same way towards them. In the UK, it was very very difficult to leave Roadrunner. The staff from Roadrunner's UK arm are so dear to our hearts; since the beginning, they've been so amazing towards us. To improve 36 Crazyfists' global profile though, we had to improve our St ateside profile. For that reason, we had to sign with another record label. We've been friends with the staff at Ferret Records for quite some time, and couldn't be happier to be signed to that record label. Thus far, Ferret Records have been so amazing towards us. We're really happy to be a part of Ferret Records' roster in the United States, and the same can be said of the UK market as well. For sure though, it was difficult to leave Roadrunner Records in the UK market.
Was the Stateside situation a catch twenty-two? You mentioned that 36 Crazyfists doesn't enjoy as much notoriety in North America. If you wish to achieve notoriety though, then you obviously need to receive a push from the label.
You have to bend to Roadrunner Records' wants, and needs. They want the right haircuts, and the right tight jeans. 36 Crazyfists isn't about that shit, and never has been. If we attempted to adopt that style, then we would look ridiculous. The Stateside situation was difficult, as their attitude to marketing a group is; “How can we commercialise this? How can we build this group up like Metallica?”. To be honest, we're an underground group who's always had this real cool, little following. I'm not saying that I don't want 36 Crazyfists to be huge, though I really don't have the intention to make 36 Crazyfists huge. I'm very grateful for what we have, and that's cool. When I started as a vocalist, I never thought I would be conducting a tour of the20United Kingdom. Our career has surpassed what I thought could ever happen, and I'm thankful for that. I'm glad to be signed to a record label that's into the group's lifestyle, and doesn't try to model you into something that you're not.
36 Crazyfists signed with Ferret Records, and label founder / NORA mainman Carl Severson had contributed vocals to the track “One More Word” from 2002's Bitterness the Star. You said that 36 Crazyfists wished to sign to the label, so why did you feel that they would do the group's records justice in the States?
Ferret Records possesses a lot of street credibility, and boasts many cool underground groups amongst their roster. As far as breaking groups and so on is concerned, it seems as though Ferret is the label that Roadrunner actually used to be. Three guys run Ferret Records, and are all members of a group called Nora. Ferret Records has more of a group vibe as a result of that, and those three guys aren't sporting suits and seeking to make an X amount of dollars. Ferret Records is obviously a business, and the label is chasing financial success. Ferret just seems a little less financially inclined, and has more of a personal demeanour. I just knew that Ferret's staff would treat us right; they're fans of the group, whereas I knew that a lot of Roadrunner's US staff weren't. When only a handful of staff enjoys the group, and many don't, you know they're not going to work very hard to promote you. We really=2 0wanted to go where we felt generally liked, and Ferret expressed that to us. A lot of Ferret's current staff used to work on behalf of Roadrunner, so we've had past relationships with them. They were the really good people that worked on behalf of Roadrunner. I could go on and on about why I like Ferret - I like the people that work for the label as friends.
36 Crazyfists filmed a music video in support of “We Gave It Hell”. Can you shed light on that?
During either late January or early February, the video was filmed over two days in Alaska - where we're from. Many of our friends agreed to be a part of the video, and so did some professional snowmobilers. We all travelled to an area called Hatcher's Pass, located roughly an hour outside of where we're from. In short, Hatcher's Pass is a huge snowmobile national park. The performance part of the video was filmed back in town, and that was at a bar we grew up performing at. The concept is meant to insinuate that Alaska's residents attend live shows via snowmobiles, I think. Following that, we play in a cabin. Despite the fact that it wasn't a massive, well thought out concept or anything like that, it just somewhat showed the party aspect. Also, it showcased extreme sports and the beauty of what was there. Definitely, it was the most fun video we've ever recorded.
You mentioned that 36 Crazyfists likes an acoustic track to feature upon each album, so w ould the group eve r consider the option of an unplugged performance in the vein of MTV Unplugged?
Me and Steve love to take part in unplugged performances, and we've had fun in doing that. We haven't conducted many unplugged sets though. In the near future, we're hoping to compile a DVD, and cut a five-song EP to accompany that DVD. That five-song EP would be acoustically recorded. Actually, it's something that we recently discussed. I fully support the idea, and would love to do that. It would be a lot of fun, I think.
You mentioned discussions regarding a 36 Crazyfists DVD. At the moment, is a possible DVD just being discussed?
Yeah; actually, it's just been discussed. We've wanted to release a DVD package for years, and Ferret initialised the discussion regarding that. They asked us to think about releasing a DVD, and to begin filming in support of the DVD roughly when the holidays arrive. I'll definitely remind Ferret on a continual basis that it was them who suggested the idea. We have years and years of Pantera-esque party footage, and funny material. We own video footage of 36 Crazyfists first show, which is horrible. We could include cool clips though, and material of that nature. We definitely want to release a DVD, and would love to have one commercially available.
To access the entire interview go to Lucemfero.com.
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