Diriku Untuk Dijual zine interview with Brian - Malaysia 2/2002
Nearly 9 years MEATJACK been together. Any line-up changing since it existed? MEATJACK now consisted?
Yes, since that time we've been through a few drummers and a few bass players. The current MEATJACK lineup is Brian-guitar & vocals, Jason-bass & vocals and J.R.-visuals & creative collaborator. We're currently looking for a new drummer.
Through MEATJACK depressive poetic songs/lyrics, what's the intention being delivered generally?
The intention is just to write music that we like. I don't feel that our songs are particularly depressive. They deal with a lot of different topics, though they usually do deal with a lot of darker emotions and struggles, including depression. I find writing these lyrics and playing this music to be very cathartic and empowering. I can get something off of my chest and hopefully get over it sooner and get on with my life and not sit around being depressed.
Live in Baltimore quite nice isn't it? Any news from there generally?
Baltimore is an old industrial blue collar port city. I like it. I know many people who don't. It's like a lot of cities, some good parts, some bad parts. I don't live in the safest neighborhood but the rent is cheap enough that I can continue to devote a good amount of my time to making music and not be worrying about paying the bills. There's nothing too exiting going on right now.
On World Trade Center building attacked by 'Muslim Terrorist' and US retaliation on Afghanistan made it even worse. What's your view upon this matter?
The whole thing is very ugly. I don't subscribe to the "the U.S. had it coming" theory. A lot of completely innocent hard working people who were just trying to support their families and put food on the table died on September 11th. However, I think that the U.S. needs to look more closely at why some people may not like us very much instead of just thinking "How can people not like us? Why wouldn't they want to stand for everything that we stand for? They must be crazy." That's bullshit. I don't stand for most of the shit that a "good American" is supposed to stand for. Most of it is a load of shit. Positions of leadership tend to attract bad people no matter what the cause or what side of the fence they claim to sit on. My fear is that one day everything is going to go up in smoke over all of this stupidity.
How many releases out so far? Did you guys satisfied with it? Any project besides MEATJACK? SUCKPiG? What's that?
We've released a full length CD called "Trust" and the DAMAD/MEATJACK split CD and 10" vinyl. Those are the most recent. We've also released a bunch of 7"s and songs on compilation CD's throughout the years. We've got a video coming out real soon and we've been writing a lot of material for our next album plus some other releases. I'm proud of what we've done but I always feel that we can do even better or that we have new areas to explore. We're never completely satisfied, that's why we keep doing this.
SUCKPiG is my one man project of songs and sound-scapes including the occasional mutated obscure cover song. The sound is usually based around layers of guitars and can be calm & soothing or harsh & disturbing. There's other elements also, like percussion or unusual recordings of my neighborhood. There's a good amount of echo or tape loops of droning guitar parts. Most of the sounds are guitars, even a lot that don't sound like a guitar.
So far, mostly the artwork/layout of your releases was impressive. Who's the one responsible for that? Who's your favorite artist?
The artwork for the "Trust" CD was done by Stephen Kasner who is one of my favorite artists. I feel especially fortunate that he also happens to be a friend. The artwork for the DAMAD/MEATJACK split was done by Victoria Scalisi who was the singer for Damad. The layout was done by us and our label At A Loss Recordings. I really like the art of Anselm Keifer and H.R. Giger, but I like a lot different artists and styles.
Ok Brian, that's all for now. More power to MEATJACK and anything you do.
Thank you so much.