CRASHDIET INTERVIEW 2013 - SIMON CRUZ, PETER LONDON, ERIC YOUNG
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IN THE PAST WE'VE SPOKEN TO PETER, ERIC and SIMON from CRASHDIET INDIVIDUALLY THIS TIME TODD GETS THEM ALL TOGETHER ON THEIR US TOUR! |
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ToddStar: Well welcome to Pontiac, Michigan.
Eric: Thank you.
ToddStar: I want to thank you on behalf of our site for your time. We know you guys are busy getting everything going, so we appreciate your time out for us today.
Eric: That’s alright.
ToddStar: You guys don’t see much of the States as you don’t get to tour a whole lot here. What’s your first impression of the crowds, the feedback?
Eric: The American people are really true. They're really… they're a cool crowd. It’s a different crowd to what we’re used to, I guess. They're really into their metal when they really like it. It’s a cool crowd, different but it’s a fun crowd.
Simon: They show a lot of appreciation I find. When they like something they really show it. Like the Swedes, we are a little bit more reserved, we stand a little bit like that, but the Americans are expressive. I like that.
ToddStar: You guys are promoting an album which I personally dig, Savage Playground. I thought it really took you guys up a step from the last album. I think you guys kept true to what you believe in. A lot of people want to call you guys sleaze metal or whatever, but you took that kind of vibe but you also built on it, but you also brought the sound current without just rehashing everything. Is that something you did on purpose, is it something you say, you know, last time was okay but we can do better? Did you guys approach writing different?
Simon: It came naturally. Yeah, it was just a development of us as a group and as musicians together, and as songwriters writing together. We basically came home from the tour and started writing and just experimented with what we had and took the experiences that we had on tour and wrote about these things. It was not deliberate in that way, it just came out that way.
Eric: Yeah, same thing. I mean sound wise we wanted to be a bit more honest, raw and feeling to it and not so well polished and well produced for once, and I think that went quite well together with the material we got together this time. It was a bit more experimental and pointing in different directions influence wise. It went well.
ToddStar: Everybody has got their favorites. My personal favourite, I love “Circus.” I think there’s just something raw about it. Looking back on it are there songs you guys just look back on and say, now that is a good CrashDiet song? You hate to pick your favourite child but…
Eric: Overall?
ToddStar: From this album. Is there anything that just stands out, it’s still fun to hear, it’s still a kick in the ass to play it, are there any songs like that for you guys?
Simon: “Garden of Babylon” is always great to play. That’s my favourite on the album. It’s a great song to play live.
ToddStar: I’ve read interviews where you talk about “Cocaine Cowboys,” you talk about other songs, “Babylon,” where you take some of those road experiences and you put them into songs. Do you find that there are other things, like the arts, or other musicians, that also mould the way you guys write or perform, not just your road experiences per se?
Eric: I think we take in everything that happens in life, basically. You can probably speak better of your lyrics, but everything that happens in life, well it includes basically everything.
Simon: Some of the lyrics for “Circus” was inspired after I read a book by Richard Dawkins, he’s an atheist, and it’s kind of like, it’s a little bit of religion, into that whole thing – evolution of the world in terms of religious force and stuff like that. It’s a mix between our own Savage Playground and what we’re living in and what we experience on tour and what’s going on around us and what we see and feel.
ToddStar: I know you deferred to Simon when you talk about the lyrics, but going back to “Circus” again, I think it had, that song in itself had probably the best bass and drum lines, and the best rhythm section of the album. I think that’s what really turned me on. The rhythm section I think really anchored that song, as it does with a lot of the album.
[Laughter as the bass player Peter sits by idly and listens to the interview fist pumps, smiles and emits a muted “YES!”]
ToddStar: Is that something that when you guys grab the lyrics and you kind of get the groove of what Simon was shooting for, you guys say okay, we can turn this out, or do you guys do the music and then Simon moulds the lyrics around? How do you guys do that whole dynamic?
Simon: Usually they come up with a musical idea and then we write melodies and lyrics together. I’m trying to listen to what the song wants to say in itself, and then feel what it wants to say and bring the words to fit that.
ToddStar: Any songs on this album that you guys found were really hard to write or get the way you wanted it to be?
Simon: We worked on “Snakes in Paradise” for a long time. That was actually the first song I wrote with CrashDiet when we were auditioning. It was just a trial song. But it’s been with us for a long time and we reworked it a couple of times, but now I think we’ve got it right so it ended up on the album. It’s cool. That was a tough one, and “Damaged Kid” was another one from the first time. I think Martin wrote that riff in 2005 or something.
ToddStar: Now it’s seen the light of day. Any of the songs really easy to write?
Eric: I wouldn’t say any song is easy, but I guess some of the songs were easier than other ones.
Simon: Yeah actually, the bass for Garden of Babylon came together very fast. We had the riff, I started singing above it, then we did the chorus and then it was done. It was very cool. An hour or so.
ToddStar: Now touring, you guys are here in the States; what are the things you like about touring? Are there any likes about touring?
Eric: Seeing all the new places and meeting new people.
Simon: I don’t see shit. I’m always asleep. I’m trying to find a balance where I sometimes go to bed a little bit earlier and get up and see things, cities, otherwise I might as well be sitting in my own room partying. That’s usually what happens though, you come with a bus and you have all the bands here and you party with them.
ToddStar: What don’t you like about the road?
Simon: Lack of personal space.
Eric: Yeah, that would probably be one of the top issues. You seldom get the chance to have your own time. But you get used to it. After ten years of doing this you adapt to it. And once you get home it feels like whoa, what the hell is this, you know? You can wave your arms and not hit anybody. Just go and do nothing for a day.
ToddStar: When you guys come off the road and just getting that break, getting that little bit of breather. What’s the one thing you wish you could take from home on the road with you? Is there one physical thing that you wish you could just take with you all the time?
Simon: That would be great to have the motorcycle with me. Driving behind the bus or in front of it. That would be awesome. But in the other hand it might not be so awesome because I’d be driving through the night and drunk and stupid.
ToddStar: Drunk and stupid, I like that. That’s how I made it this far in life. As far as tours, you guys have done a lot of different tours, especially Europe, are there any bands that you’ve just loved touring with?
Eric: I guess Hardcore Superstar has always been a fun band to tour with. We’ve done a couple of Europe tours with them and it’s always been a blast.
ToddStar: Any bands that maybe didn’t treat you the way you wanted to, or didn’t pan out to be great tours like you thought they might?
Simon: Oh yeah, all the time, but the bands are usually cool, it’s mainly the tour managers or stuff like that.
ToddStar: So it’s normally the outside stuff.
Simon: Yeah, it’s all the promises, all the broken promises when you go to tour, we’re the headliner now, so I guess we’re fine, but it’s the same thing for the guys on the bus here, like for the support acts. You kind of feel for them because you’ve been there too. You’ve been promised so many things that doesn’t happen. It can be hard.
ToddStar: If you guys could pick ideal tour mates, what band or bands would you want to go out with that you think would well mesh with the sound, the feel, and the vibe of a CrashDiet show?
Eric: I don’t know….that’s a hard one. It feels a little bit too obvious to say like Motley Crue or Guns N Roses, or something. It would be fun to do that, to be on a tour with them, but I don’t know. We’ve been touring with Sister for quite some shows and that I think should be even better. We’re going to do an extensive Europe tour with them. So hopefully that’s going to be cool, and I really like the mix of our band with them. So that’s going to be a cool tour.
Simon: I haven’t really experienced any new great American bands. It’s difficult to say but Black Veil Brides, possibly, could be cool tour with them.
ToddStar: I would agree with that. They're one of my favourites of the newer bands. They're really young compared to you guys. You’ve been at this a long time. What was the last album or CD, or MP3 or whatever, that you listened to that wasn’t CrashDiet?
Simon: Actually the last one I brought was The Darkness. That was the latest concert I went to. I used to listen to them when they came out, so I’ve been a fan since then, and I brought their latest CD, Hot Cakes.
Eric: I was at a show in LA when we stopped there. It was a Clutch show, which really blew my mind.
Simon: Oh actually I was there too.
Eric: It was really cool. I’d heard of them but never heard them before. I knew what kind of music it was so I was kind of blown away there, and I bought some albums. It was really cool, cool music.
ToddStar: Well, let’s hit you hard on the way out; what’s the meaning of life?
Eric: Oooff. 42?
[Laughter]
Simon: There is none.
Eric: It feels cliché to say it but it’s so true, just do whatever you wanna do. Don’t listen to anybody else. Do what you want to do and it’s fully possible to do anything if you just set your mind to it.
Simon: Yeah, just have fun and respect others, and basically yeah, same thing.
ToddStar: Again, thank you so much for taking time out.
You can check out the full set of photos here:
By Todd Jolicoeur April 2013
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