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how are you feeling today, apart from cold? |
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i'm alright man. i've had a bad couple of days, i had a fever a while ago at the lowlands festival. just've been shaking that off for a few days. |
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you played in salzburg yesterday in a rather small club. today it is this festival. which do you like more? festival gigs or these club gigs? |
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it depends. it's all about the audience. the people are the unknown factor of any band, no matter how good it is. if a great band is playing in front of a shitty crowd it's still going to be a shitty show. but a shitty band in front of a great crowd can have a great show (deutet in richtung bühne, auf der gerade die wohlstandskinder spielen und grinst). you know what i mean? so, they're like another member of the band almost. so it really depends on the crowd. i've played festivals that were wonderful. like the day i was sick. i was throwing up backstage halfway through my show. i had to leave the stage and just vomit. i thought i was gonna be done but the crowd just sent so much energy up that i had to get out and finish the show. just because i had to. not because somebody made me to. i thought they brought it now i have to bring it to. |
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you've been in the music business a very long time now. is crowd reaction still something you are nervous about? or is there anything at all you are still nervous about? |
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no, not nervous man. i'm to the point that when we get on stage and the crowd ain't doing it for us the we just turn to each other and are like "fuck them". |
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so in that case it is just for you? |
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yeah. well, it is always for me. the fact that you can share it, that's great, but i do it for me first. cause i like to play live. if i wouldn't like to play live...i'm not making that much money on that show. i mean, it's ok, but i'm here because i like to play. to play live and show half of these computer bands that that's bullshit. come on, bring it. everlast is serving everybody on the bill today. i made that announcement out there when everybody was eating today. |
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i heard rumours you were doing some songs for iamx? |
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oh, we just heard they were having problems with their machine. so we are going to make them some backup tapes. it's easy man..takes 5 minutes. we already finished 3 songs. |
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do you think they will like it? |
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oh definitly. they are hits!
(keyboarder): they are hits!
everlast (fragend zum keyboarder): should we let him hear some gay german synth music?
(das angebot mir die tracks nachher vorzuspielen hat das interview leider nicht überlebt...) |
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you rather recently released your new album "white trash beautiful. how happy are you with the reactions on it so far? |
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the people seem to like the record. my dissatisfaction is with the record company.. |
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you are having problems with them? |
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yeah, i don't think they know what they got in their hands, you know what i'm saying? they ain't trying very hard to sell it. i mean it's doing ok, but it could do better. |
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what could be the reason for that? aren't they seeing the potential? |
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people are scared of spending money. they are scared of the business. also, to be perfectly honest, i signed with a record company that ain't even there anymore. i was signed by lyor cohen at def jam. he doesn't even have def jam anymore. the month after i got signed they offered him a job at warner brothers and he bounced, so..i mean i've been making records for almost 20 years and i'll always make records. it doesn't phase me if one doesn't go triple platinum. |
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have you ever thought about doing your own label? |
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yeah i just don't wanna work that hard, man. that's to much work, man. i ain't a business man. i'm smart enough to know that. if i found a guy i trusted enough to do my business i'd do it. |
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the title of the last album is "white trash beautiful". white trash normally has a rather negative conotation. where do you see the beauty in it? |
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uhm. it's the same to me as when mohamed ali was saying "black is beautiful". i'm saying white trash is just poor white people. that's all it is. i found some pretty fine white girls that didn't have any money. there's plenty of beauty in it. beauty is in yourself. beauty is where you find it. you know what i'm saying? and white trash beautiful was kind of a half joke too. cause half of hollywood is wearing trucker hats and bellbottom jeans and fucking chain wallets. they're dissing white trash but are dressing like it. i say fuck them. |
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on the new album you cover a lot of musical styles form rap to blues to country. did you feel that you had to prove yourself in these styles to anyone? |
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not rap man, i've proven myself in that. but everything else, yeah. it's a different art form, you gotta play that. i'll be able to rap till i'm dead. i've been doing this since '86. and i don't know to many cats that can do it better than me. fuck records and all that shit. not saying that i'm the best in the world, but i think that i'm pretty fucking good. and i made 5/6 records rapping so this is what i'm doing. i've proven myself, fuck styles, musically. any fuckin music. i may fuck around and make a jazz record one day like elvis costello. how many different things has he done? he's all over the place. that's the kind of shit i was talking about. just do whatever you fucking please. |
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what would it take for you to make a techno record or something like that? |
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oh man, that's one that won't happen. i just don't enjoy that kind of stuff. electronic music in general, and there's probably some exceptions to the rule, you know, i do like massive attack and i guess that's electronic music, but in general the whole trance or techno or anything that has this beat (klatscht monoton in die hände), makes me wanna stab people. that makes me violent. people talk about rap music or heavy metal making people violent, that shit makes me violent man. house, techno music. |
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how important is whitey ford for you today? |
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it's one of my alter egos, you know. and it depends if you are talking about me as whitey ford or about the real whitey ford, because whitey ford was a real person. |
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no, you as whitey ford. |
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i don't know, it's become part of my life. there's places i go where that's the only way people call me. it's good. the trick why rappers do it all the time is because it's new man, it's new. all that was old is now new, because i put a different label on it. it's still the same jar. it's still the same in it, but it has got a new label on it. it makes it more interesting. |
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can you still listen to your work with house of pain, and what do you feel when you hear "jump around"? |
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usually when i hear jump around i laugh. it amazes me that people still rock out to that song. 12 years later. a few years ago i didn't like it. i've gone through my phase of not liking it. now i'm just amazed by it. this song is probably going to get me in the rock'n'roll hall of fame some time. as far as other house of pain stuff goes, it just sounds dated to me because i think of where i was and i think "aw, i could have said that so much better". i think i'm a way better record producer now and i didn't get much involved with the production in house of pain. the others were making the beats, but producing is so much more than making the beats, and there could have been so much more interesting stuff. but overall i'm proud of it. it is what it is. |
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if you could name one artist or band you'd like to work with, who would it be? |
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i'd love to get in the studio with tom waits man, i'd love to see what happens. other than that, uhm, i could think of a thousand people i'd like to work with, but this would be amazing, because 'd be just like "wow..this is dope". i don't know if i'd even be able to work because i would just be like "what do you wanna do?" i'm in awe of that dude. neil young is another guy. i'd love to sit in the studio and write a song with him, just seeing what happens. timbaland is a guy i'd love to get in the studio with, just to see what happens. just him, me a drum machine and a guitar. or how about me, timbaland and tom waits. |
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there was a time when the media proclaimed a sort of "war" between you and eminem. |
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yeah, we were going at it for a minute... |
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so it wasn't just a media construction? |
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we had some words..i met him, and he was really rude, man. and i did what rappers do, i dissed him on a dilated peoples record. and then he made a record back, and then i made a record back. and that was about it. after that like cypress hill, who were managed by his manager and who are my best friends were "come on, you don't need this..". so, we aren't best friends, but we're doing our thing. and i'll always say, he's one of the baddest cats out there right now, as far as rapping is concerned. you can't fuck with that dude. |
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i'm getting down to my last question, which is: where do you see yourself and your music in 3 or 5 years? |
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uhm, you know what the thing is man, that's a hard call, because right now i'm not trying to figure out what i'm gonna do, but i know that i made 3 records that kind of played around in a certain style. i don't ever wanna spend to much time doing the same thing. not that the records are the same, but the style is kinda the same. so i don't know, but if i'm making records still in 3 years, that's just an amazing thing, because i look around and every year, wether i have a good year or i have a bad year, i'm still making music and i know a lot of cats that aren't. it's like the industry is done with them. it seems like even if i don't have hit records, there's still a lot of people in this industry that like everlast-music and will always be like "let's make a record". so, i always feel fortunate just for having the ability to make records and to come over here. you know there's cats that would cut off their left nut just to go on a tour. and i can do it whenever i want. |
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das interview führte severin am Two Days A Week Festival 2004 |
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