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The first thing that’s apparent with Quirin is his laidback demeanour and overall friendly presence when engaging in what can only be a tedious process for him, seeing as he’s been in the business for an almost twenty-years and has had his fair share of conducting interviews.
OD – I’ve been keeping watch online and the tour seems to be going really well. For you personally, how has the reaction been to the shows?
SIN – It’s been great! The crowd response has been great. People seem to be digging the new stuff, which is kinda rare – people usually come to hear the old classics, which is understandable, but it has been going better than I anticipated.
OD – Obviously Al (Jourgensen) doesn’t hold back when it comes to speaking his mind. Have you encountered any negative reactions with regards to the production of the show?
SIN – Yes and no. For whatever reason, any time we release a record, we seem to hit a certain nerve with people and we always tend to get a certain amount of negative feedback. I don’t know if we’re just used to it now, or whether our skin has just become so thick that it doesn’t really phase us – but yeah, when we released the ‘Antifa‘ video, people were losing their shit over it.
I think that the videos we released after that, ‘Twilight Zone‘, ‘Victims of a Clown‘, seemed to have mellowed it out a bit. I personally haven’t encountered any real negative thing out here. It’s just the typical troll shit you see online.
OD – I was talking to Al just before the album came out and he was saying that the energy of the ‘live band’ was kind of overwhelming for him and was almost a catalyst for him to continue touring. Would you agree that the sound of the full live band has a deeper kind of
emotion to the music?
SIN – Definitely. I mean there is something about this live experience with this lineup, it really gets the point across to the people that have heard the record. After they come to see us, they’re like: “Holy shit…!” It takes on a whole different meaning. I think it’s a combination. The live experience is such a passionate, personal thing, mix that in with the visuals we got goin’ on… all of that, it adds so much more to the music, than when you’re just listening to it, which is also great in itself. But there’s something about this live show that gets the point across …
OD: Yeah, everyone that I have seen and known, that has seen this show has said that it’s fucking killer!
SIN (humbly chuckles): We’ve seen some reviews recently that have been extremely flattering and very complimentary. Not that we really pay attention to that stuff, but we tend to get more of negative shit, so when we get something positive, we’re like “God damn… who the hell did they see?!” (laughing)
OD – Excellent! As well as doing your day job, you also do some DJ’ing. Is this right?
SIN – Yeah, I do!
OD – Obviously, you have made a transition into EDM music with the DJ’ing stuff, do you find the crossover between genres is closer than it ever was?
© Down The Barrel Photography, exclusively for www.overdrive.ie 2018
SIN – I agree, I agree. And I’m seeing more and more of those crossover collaborations, or people that do remixes or guesting on each other’s albums. I’m seeing that way more than ever before. It’s awesome! I’ve been into electronic stuff since the late 80s, early 90s.
When I was first going to clubs in L.A., I was really getting into European Trance – way back! That was stuff that was not available in the states, but the DJs would get imports. So I would become friends with DJs in some of these clubs in Hollywood, there was one particular club called Sin-a-matic that I used to go to.
It was like the best music ever for that style. It was stuff I’d never heard before, I’d be hanging out with the DJ in the booth: “man, what is this, what is this…” So the guys would just show me their import records, and I was lucky enough to become friends with them. They would actually make these CDs for me, which I still have on my iPod.
OD – Oh wow! Fuck!
SIN – Yeah, it was like early Euro Trance. So I was into that stuff since way back then, so it’s cool to see that sort of enjoyment…
OD – … blending together, yeah!
OD – Your history in this business has been documented with your time in Revolting Cocks, Society 1, American Head Charge and Lords of Acid as well as Ministry, your Grammy nominations etc. My question is you have said before that you just knew that music was your life from a very young age, being in the marching band at school etc when you consider that most people struggle follow their dreams for what they really want to do in life, do you feel fulfilled?
SIN – You nailed it right on the head, man. Often, it happens more now that I’m getting a little older, I look back and I think I’ve been completely blessed in my life being able to do what I set out to do, what I’ve always loved to do. I was six years old when I made that decision. It was the first time I heard “KISS live” – it was 1975, my older cousin brought it over.
No joke, I remember it as if it had been yesterday; from the time he dropped the needle on the first song, which was ‘Douce‘, I was just like: “… What is this, man?!” I had already been into music because my parents always played music at home and my Dad was actually a singer in Mexico in the 60s. He released one album, he had a hit single. He just did that and then got out… It’s a long story, but he didn’t continue with music.
So, I think I had it in my blood, but hearing that [KISS Alive] triggered something else, since it was so different from anything I had heard. Up until that point, my parents had listened to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Animals… to hear something like KISS… I remember just sitting there and staring at this double live album, to a six-year-old back then…
OD – and the visual of course as well! It was fucking like real life comic book heroes!
SIN – that’s actually what I told him, when I first saw them I asked: “…are they, superheroes?” (laughing) It was blinders, since then. It was a complete focus on trying to do this and I feel extremely lucky to live that life because you know… there are millions and millions of guys out there that would give their fucking left arm to experience some of the things I’ve done, and I don’t forget that. I do realize that.
OD – I think its so much harder now. There was something about selling physical records; there was a connection, people invested in you. And then there was MTV, and now… it’s so vague.
SIN– It’s rough, I do think about that as well. Sometimes when I see young cats that are trying to do it – I feel lucky that I grew up in the time I grew up in, it’s a completely different scene now than how it was 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago… I still feel so fucking blessed that I was that kid that would run to the record store and couldn’t wait for that day of the new record coming out, holding it in your hand and fucking read every little thing. That’s what you did back then.
For us that have experience that, it’s weird to think that doesn’t exist anymore? It’s a nostalgic thing for us. And I always still try to push that on people, so they can kinda tap into that magic. But now, everything is so accessible, so instant. To me, there was something about that anticipation and that wait –
OD – well there was the mystery as well! You’d be only able to hear about Ozzy’s new record from one magazine and you’d have to buy that magazine to find out about it! Bring me back to those days.
SIN – Me, too.
OD – You responded to a question about Revolting Cocks last year saying that there might be some ideas floating around. When the ‘AmeriKKKaaant’ tour is complete, do you think that there might be a chance of something happening?
SIN – Absolutely. It’s already something where we’ve taken that next step. I have a handful of new ideas, real 70s vibe, that’s the shit I’m bringing to the table, and I’m sure more ideas will develop in the studio. It’s gonna be myself, Swamp, Al (Jourgensen), Chris Connelly and Phildo (Owen). Those are the five right now that are in the mix of this new album and it’s something that is going to happen.
As soon as we get off this run – as of right now, they’re building this studio at Al’s house in L.A. By the time we’re back, it should be close to being done, so we’re going right in! Myself, Swamp and Al are going to get it going before our US run in November/December, and once we finish, we’re going straight back in. Hopefully, we will have this done by the first quarter of 2019. It’s definitely gonna happen.
OD – That’s great news! I just wanted to talk about Society 1 for a moment, do you think that the band’s legacy is underestimated with regards to the level of media that most veteran bands are getting these days?
SIN – I do think that. I was in the band from ’99 until 2005. I really think that we did a little something that should have been and should be mentioned and talked about more than it does. It’s the classic: “we got fucked over big time, by every possible angle.” From our record label, agent to – everything! Every pitfall and all the stories you always hear, we fell into all of those. It’s a shame. Matt (“Lord Nexus” Zane) and I didn’t talk for many years, 2005 was the last time we worked together, 2006 I went into Revolting Cocks and I went right into Ministry after that, so he and I didn’t speak from 2005 until 2014.
OD – How was that first meeting?
SIN (laughing) – I’ll tell you how it happened, it was really strange. He was hearing shit from someone that was feeding him stuff, and I was hearing stuff as well. So, we went our separate ways, didn’t speak. It was bad for a while and a shame, I didn’t want it going down that way. Long story short, in 2014 I was at this adult awards thing – I had this internet radio thing for a while, and I was covering it – and I see his brother, Mark, who I also hadn’t seen in years.
I don’t know what the reaction was going to be like, so when I saw him I thought: “It’s been nine years… fuck this shit!”, so I walked up to him, greeted him and he said: “Hey man! How ya doin’?”, he was really friendly and I told him to tell Matt I said hello. Literally the next day, I got a message from Matt: “Hey man, heard you ran into my brother, that you were very friendly and that you were asking about me.” That’s what got us talking again, so after that, I did a couple of guest appearances.
He and I are in a great place now, and he’s got the band going again. I wish he had gotten a little more credit – like the suspension thing we did at Download Festival? Dude, nobody had done that! He was suspended the whole fucking show! Dave Navarro (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction) got that from Matt. Now Jane’s (Addiction) does that suspension act in their set. And the thing is, we get a lot of “Oh, you do that because of Jane’s?” and –
OD – and you’re like “No, Jane’s does that because of us!”
SIN – Yeah, unfortunately, it’s a lot of that kind of stuff. I wish them all the best. He actually just directed a music video for me. He’s an amazing director, he worked for John 5, Zack Wylde, Wednesday 13.
I have a side project called 3 Headed Snake, which is this old school power metal thing and he just shot. Caeser, Derek, Dirt (Von Karloff) from Society 1 on the bass and this guy Johnny Ray (Aionios). He sounds like Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) on steroids. A cross between Dickinson and Halford (Judas Priest). There is a three-song EP we’ve done. when we get back to L.A, I need to finish mixing and mastering it and I will show it to people. If they’re not interested, I’m just gonna put it out myself. The music video will be out in a month or so!
OD – I think that the new album is kind of reminiscent of ‘Filth Pig’, and for some who don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s a little slower but just as intense. Was this the desired approach when writing as I know Al did the lions share and you laid down guitars
and there was a collective contribution from the rest of the guys?
SIN – For me, there were two or three songs that I brought before we went into the studio, one of which later turned into ‘Twilight Zone’, and I had ‘Filth Pig’ in mind. I wanted a slow, dirty vibe to this one particular song, and that’s exactly where I got it from. I can’t say that we said to each other that it’s gonna be a slow record, or it’s gonna be a fast record. It’s just what happened.
Sometimes you set out to write stuff, and you think to yourself ‘Ok, I’m feeling like a fast song here’, but with this album, aside from the two or three we had prior to going in there, the others were written in the studio.
It was literally like this; we show up, nothing written and just riff it out. You go right with your gut instinct and a lot of times, that’s the best shit. It wasn’t a conscious decision, that we’re gonna make it slow, although I’m a firm believer that you can have something just as heavy without it being 200bpm.
OD – Oh, tell that to Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath)!
SIN (chuckles) – Exactly, exactly.
OD – Finally, from all of the things you experienced since doing this full-time, what is the most bizarre or memorable experience you’ve encountered, as I’m sure there are plenty?The first thing that pops into your head that really swells your heart when you think of it.
SIN – The thing would have to be – and this is going to sound extremely un-rock’n’roll – is how proud my Mom has been. To me, that’s everything. I’m extremely close to my Mom, my parents split when I was 13, so it was always my Mom and I.
She has always been my biggest fan, my biggest supporter through everything. From the first time I played a talent show, to the backyard party, to the first time at a club, to being on stage at the Hollywood Ball in front of 18.000 people, she has been there. And to see how happy and how proud she is, that’s my biggest thing.
OD – That’s probably the best answer that anyone has ever given me to that question. Just straight up. Thank you!
Ministry are currently finishing up their European dates before picking up the ‘AmeriKKKant‘ tour schedule in the US in October. ‘AmeriKKKant‘ is available now via Nuclear Blast store which you can visit by clicking this link.
© Down The Barrel Photography, exclusively for www.overdrive.ie 2018
Oran O’Beirne
www.overdrive.ie © 2018.
