Tweaker Dad-Rock

“Oh, so I can get comfortable?” Andy Harrison asks as he lights up a smoke. He’s up in my studio space, and it’s cold AF. I’m laughing at everything he has to say as I get acquainted with my audio recorder, some out of nervous habit, some because Harrison is just an amusing kind of guy. I’ve asked him to come up and talk about how things are going with one of his bands, Peace Killers.

I’m able to come to some sort of compromise with my digital device where it allows me to record a conversation so long as I keep it hanging precariously off the table edge. We both continue smoking as I rattle on about some nonsense, organizing some notes.

(Subsequent to sitting down with Andy, I was able to get a few answers from bass player Alex Dorame via email).

Harrison and his bandmates are steady faces in the Sacramento music scene. They started Peace Killers in 2012 as a couple of their other projects at that time were winding down.

You’ve most likely seen Harrison if you walk around town or frequent bars. He is a face among the line at the bar, the line to the bathroom, on the stage, talking to ladies and making them smile, etc. I can guarantee you if Ground Chuck sees him, it’s hugs-on-sight. I’ve long admired his effortless charisma. Harrison’s other band, Celestions, have been engaging crowds with their straightforward, driving, soul-influenced rock ‘n’ roll for years. It stands to reason that this endeavor would also showcase Harrison’s knack for catchy hooks and melodies, albeit in a different tone.

Having some songs, a general idea and some bandmates, the band recorded some demos with Pat Hills at Earth Tone Studios in Rocklin. Hills and his Pepsi-sweet Midas touch have blessed some excellent recordings by artists like Tera Melos, King Woman, Number Station and the Hanover Saints to name a few.

Peace Killers garnered some Internet buzz and began looking at labels that might put out the record. After some deliberation, the band decided that heavy music label Svart felt like the most promising. Svart is known for putting together a solid roster of heavy, sludge-driven doom and metal artists, as well as straight-ahead ‘70s psyched-out occult metal and experimental, atmospheric black metal. From Jex Thoth to K-X-P, from Tahtiportti to Dakhmandal, Svart has put together a diverse roster of bands.

Fast-forward to now, Peace Killers have just finished a video for the song “Devil’s Daughter,” with the help of Kill The Precedent’s Jesse Mitchell. The freshly dressed and configured new vinyl LP will be out Jan. 22.

What were some of your influences writing the songs for this record?
Andy Harrison: I really wanted to emulate Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats as much as I could. There’s sort of the obvious Sabbath nods. I think a lot about Queen, Queens of the Stone Age, those are kinda my immediate influences. At least for me playing guitar, some of my influences go back to Frank Zappa, the Allman Brothers, sort of big rock sounding guitars that doesn’t necessarily suck its own dick too much. Definitely a lot of blues influence, but trying not to do a straight-up dad-rock influence. I don’t mind dad-rock. The other band, the Celestions is sort of a construction-dad, Springsteen influence, and this band is sort of a straight-up, dead-beat tweaker dad-rock sound.
Alex Dorame: I feel there’s a lot of everything you can hear on our record. The bands that stand out to myself as influences range from Thin Lizzy, early-Iron Maiden, Motorhead, Murder City Devils, the Doors, up to the Cult. Also, Black Sabbath, the Melvins and maybe even the Smut Peddlers.
What Sacramento bands would you get together or resurrect to play a show?
AH: Holy shit. Black Mackerel.
AD: Black Mackerel!
AH: They’re one of the reasons that I even thought “maybe I should try playing some heavier shit.” I thought “we’ll start a three-piece and tune down”. So maybe if they’re reading this they can get their shit together and play a show with us. I think our drummer would probably say FAR. Tales of Terror.
AD: I would love to see Hotel Pistol, the Diseptikons, Filibuster, the Union Hearts, Who Cares, and Pocket
for Corduroy.

Who did you get to do the album cover?
AH: Her name is Annie Hooker. I saw a print of the buffalo head in the home of Celestions drummer Gabe [van Dyke], and I loved it. It represents something heavy, and hard charging, and noble, and western. We just kinda decided it was a good spirit animal for the group.

Is there a concept for the album? Is there a theme?
AH: I think probably the most consistent subject matter throughout the record is party fatigue, or how it takes you to strange, dark places living a hedonistic lifestyle.

We cover “Spoonful,” a Willie Dixon song. You know it’s kinda about people trying to get their fill on lusts and desires. You know, I’m not an authority on the song, but that’s kind of what I gathered from it.

What about a rock album now grabs your attention more than an album would have when you were maybe 21?
AH: Definitely the sonic qualities of an album, the way a melody is constructed. I find it harder and harder to relate to someone’s really personal lyrics, I don’t so much write myself into those stories. I need a hook, some sort of balance, some sort of syncopation, some sort of danceable rhythm. Even in heavy music, you know, it’s still there.

But yeah, not so much the lyrical content anymore. You know, I used to get really into Elvis Costello’s lyrics when I was really young, and analyze the shit out of them, and I still appreciate that, but nowadays … like when I listen to a band like Fuzz, it’s just so balls-out, and free, and rockin’. Higher voices, higher, rougher sounding voices, somewhere between Alice Cooper’s rasp and Freddie Mercury’s range.

What’s one Fuzz song you would want people to hear?
AH: “Loose Sutures.”

Peace Killers’ self-titled debut album is out on Svart records on Jan. 22, 2016 you can preorder it now at Svartrecords.com. Their album release show is Jan. 30 at Harlow’s with Kill the Precedent, Psychosomatic and The Number Thirteen. Go to Harlows.com for more info or to purchase tickets.

Sexrat teams up with renowned producer Sylvia Massy on forthcoming album, Masters of Obscurity

Rock ‘n’ roll is alive and well.

It’s heard in the echoes of music from past greats and pulses between the new musicians of today. With seven years to their credit, Zach Goodin, Marc Kallweit and Devin Hurley of Sexrat look forward to releasing their second album, Masters of Obscurity this fall. A three-year labor of love in the making, the album was recorded at a 1900s vaudevillian theatre in Weed, Calif. that is now converted into Radiostar Studios by avid instrument and gear collector Sylvia Massy.

Not only is Massy known for collecting pieces of rock ‘n’ roll history, she’s also known for producing tracks for multi-platinum musicians such as Tool, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, R.E.M and more. What’s more is her collection of vintage gear and equipment, which, according to Sexrat guitarist and vocalist Goodin, all have a story behind them.

“She turned a 6,000-square-foot art deco movie theater, like a small version of the Crest [Theatre], into a recording studio with tons of vintage gear,” explains a smiling Goodin, his eyes gleaming with excitement behind a pair of dark shades. “Every piece of equipment has some crazy story like, ‘Oh, I got that from the Stones,’ or, ‘I got that from Led Zeppelin.’”

Strumming guitars held by respected rock ‘n’ roll pioneers and turning up the amplifiers created custom by companies like Marshall or Mesa Boogie for some of the biggest names in music history kept inspiration flowing during their time in Weed. Goodin says having access to Massy’s never ending collection of rock ‘n’ roll trinkets set the tone during Sexrat’s recording sessions.

“This place, just the vibe and the acoustics, makes for a way bigger sound,” says Goodin of Radiostar Studios. “We took our time doing it and [the album] sounds great. They’ve got great gear up there and they’ve got a good ear, so they really push you to do your best.”

The 12-song album, recorded by Massy and her main engineer, Rich Veltrop, features Bud Gaugh, drummer of Sublime and longtime friend of the band’s, and also Gaugh’s wife Nicole Hutcheson. Goodin met Gaugh while living in Southern California playing music for various bands and says Gaugh even hooked Sexrat up on tours with musicians like Matisyahu, Pepper and Fishbone.

Although Goodin says the band felt like “the redheaded stepchild” of that particular tour last summer because Sexrat sounded the least like Sublime, he feels shows with a fixed audience are perfect environments for his band, because it exposes them to a variety of listeners. At the end of the day, Goodin and the rest of Sexrat just want the opportunity to connect audiences to their music, despite genres.

“We get tied into the reggae rock scene, but that’s not really what we’re doing,” explains Goodin. “Maybe a little bit, but I would say we’re probably more psychedelic rock. We’re not really a reggae band.”

And they’re not.

Sexrat jam, intermingling neo-psychedelic organs with guitar solos, effects pedals and catchy lyrics prominently in their song, “Made in China.” The song features Gaugh on drums alongside Sexrat’s drummer, Hurley, who often plays keyboards simultaneously and is now adding backing vocals to his list of duties. But, at the moment, Goodin says his favorite track off their new album is “Walk of Shame,” a song he says is always fun to play. Packing a variety of sounds, the song starts off with surf rock-style guitars, mellowed out with the introduction of Goodin’s vocals resonating in ‘90s alternative rock, and then finished with hard-hitting drums.

“We’re all in our mid-30s, and we are a product of the ‘90s. That’s true to our sound,” says Goodin trying to pinpoint Sexrat’s genre. “We’re kind of hard to categorize. We cover a lot of ground. It’s all just music to me I guess, but we all have our own way of playing and together that’s what makes our sound.”

Photo by Marc Thomas Kallweit

When they’re not rocking stages up and down California, the guys of Sexrat spend time in town with friends and family and Goodin has even acted as musical teacher and coach to the girls of punk rock duo Dog Party. He says witnessing sisters Gwendolyn, or his preferred “Gwenny,” and Lucy Giles’ eagerness to just play music and learn is refreshing to see in the youth of today. Especially as he and his two band mates continue to perform after all these years.

“I’ve been playing since I was 10 years old,” remembers Goodin. “It’s the same old guys that play music [in Sacramento]. As we get older, we see who’s more dedicated–like all those guys from Kill the Precedent, we’ve all played the same backyard parties with the Filibuster guys; it’s cool to see everyone who’s still playing.”

Although their album isn’t set for release until later this fall for those outside of Sacramento, Sexrat will be performing at next week’s Concerts in the Park series alongside Relic 45, Reggie Ginn and more. The guys will also have fresh copies of Masters of Obscurity for sale at Cesar Chavez Park offering those in attendance first dibs for an early listen. After their performance at the park, the guys of Sexrat are off for a weekend of music in Goodin’s old stomping grounds, Long Beach. But, what they’re really looking forward to is performing at Massy’s annual 4and20 Blackbird Music Festival in Weed.

After spending a year getting to know Sexrat in her massive studio, Massy invited the guys to play the main stage at her event this August alongside bands like Forever Goldrush and Merle Jagger. The two-day festival boasts seven outdoor stages, five indoor stages and myriad genres, vendors and street performers.

“They have managed to capture something rare in today’s musical offerings–true honesty,” says Massy of Sexrat. “They are organic, gritty and melodic. They are fun, and yet they express deep emotion in their music with inspired performances coming directly from the heart.”

Photo by Photo by Marc Thomas Kallweit

Sexrat will play Friday Night Concerts in the Park at Cesar Chavez Park in Sacramento on June 15, 2012. To get up-to-date info, like the band on Facebook at http://Facebook.com/sexrat.

Sacramento rock band Killdevil is releasing a new five-song EP titled For Survival at a huge blowout at Ace of Spades on Saturday, April 14, 2012. Two of their new tracks, “Psychic Medium” and “Rusted Dream,” will be released on 7-inch vinyl available at the show. It will also come with a download card giving access to all five songs. Also on the bill will be Kill the Precedent, City of Vain, Giant Squid, The Secretions and Black Mackerel. That is a seriously rockin’ lineup. Doors open for this all ages show at 6:30 p.m. and it’s $8 in advance, $10 at the door. Go to http://aceofspadessac.com/ for more details. Advance tickets are available Phono Select Records in Midtown.

In 140 characters or less…

It’s probably trite by now to remind you that fans just don’t consume music the way they used to. That doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. We still enjoy putting on an album and ingesting it en masse, but it’s also fun to put the iTunes on shuffle and let fate decide, troll YouTube for new music videos or share play lists via Spotify. So for this year’s Top 20, we decided to mix things up a bit. Instead of just albums, we included a music video, EPs, live shows (even a comedy album snuck in there). Here’s our favorite music moments of this past year, in tweet-friendly format.

20. Jason Webley (live show)

Beatnik Studios, Sacramento
Oct. 30, 2011
When the man on stage thrusts his torso into a giant red balloon and gets the entire audience drunk enough to link arms and sway, you know it’s a good show.

Each song rocks, and it’s short and catchy enough to listen back to back, and back. They have mastered a sound, exemplified here. Loud fun.

Possibly the local comic’s best work to date, if this album/DVD doesn’t have you rolling on the floor, check your pulse, you might be dead.

Mastodon ditches spacey prog metal for gnarly bruising metal/rock hybrid and makes us wonder why they haven’t tried it sooner.

From dub to dusty breaks Mike earns the name Colossal.

Metal heads dose heavy riffs w/ stoner-core harmonies, crushing drums, subtly brilliant solos & bring serious balls back to rock ‘n’ roll.

The small porch in Davis provided the perfect environment to fall in love with every up-beat strum from The Generationals.

Hacksaw Ben Thuggin. Period. Fik is a rapper for real. From Halloween concepts, to catchy anthems, his words are precise and full of vigor.

Under-appreciated experimental rocker Ann Clark dropped the most schizophrenic, bipolar mélange of musical porridge ever stirred into a commercial triumph.

No one expected Oak Park to birth the ingenious production and vocal aggression of Death Grips. Nor expected it to tear down stages worldwide.

Eight tracks of chiming synths and fragile vox swelling into magical crescendos. Trevor Powers gives a taste of hibernation at its best.

Local country-tinged rockers spin 15 songs and something for every mood. Engaging, memorable songwriting at home in any genre.

Classic Sacto shots in this Faux Real Productions video. Light rail, top level on a parking garage, in front of downtown murals, real nice.

A solo debut that amalgamated the producer’s credentials with midnight recordings of glitch hop in the kitchen.

Appetite’s Teddy Briggs masterfully created this rich, dense album that’s nearly impossible to define. Weird pop-folk that dabbles all over.

Big band indie rock devoid of cloying twee impulses. Sprawling yet hauntingly intimate. A rare EP that doesn’t feel incomplete.

Irresistible neo-retro hip-hop from a fashionable Trinidad-born, Brooklyn-based MC. A “rap” album hipsters and indie-kids can agree on.

Take the gentle vocals of Feist, acoustic guitars, special guest Little Wings, and it might equal the most intimate show of the year.

Sacramento’s psych rockers produce yet another gem, keeping that Beach Boys sound meshed with unexpected twists, ballads and tribal rumbles.

KTP made Harlow’s feel like a house show! “Flight” theme featured hot stewardesses and (drunken) pilot outfits. Plenty of moshing ensued.

Grady Avenell Returns for first new Will Haven album in years

A calming flow of synthesizer builds gradually, luring in all curious listeners. And for the moment, everything’s serene–but secretly there are other intentions. The role of the antagonist for this song’s tale has become apparent and all are vulnerable; no one is safe. Unexpectedly, the once soothing hum is quickly ambushed by the constant, albeit macabre, pulse of keys chiming steadily like an old grandfather clock at a slightly higher pitch. The sound instantly signals the mood has now changed and there’s no turning back. Melodic guitar suddenly strolls by, equally not to be trusted as the composition is then met by shrieks grave enough to raise the hairs on one’s arms and neck. The screams forever burn images of neck veins into your psyche, and then the music fades. For now, you’ve survived this six-minute dark opus written by one of Sacramento’s most respected longtime metal veterans, Will Haven.

What should have been the perfect theme song to Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street had it been written 20 years ago, the track (“Lost” off of Will Haven’s newest full-length album, Voir Dire, translated as “Speak the truth”) is only a snippet of what’s to come from this band in the future. With original vocalist Grady Avenell back at the mic, the addition of keyboard and synthesizer courtesy of Adrien Contreras and a new bass player who happens to be the percussionist for a little band called Slipknot, Will Haven is back on the scene and in full force.

“This record is the starting point to what we can do,” explained Jeff Irwin, guitarist and founding member of Will Haven, at their practice space off of Marconi Avenue. “To me, this album is definitely deeper. When I listen to our old records, I see the skeleton of what we’re becoming. We’re getting older and we’re taking our time now. Before, we put out a record just because we knew we were going to go on tour, but now, recording days have slowed down, we don’t play as many shows and that energy is put into the music and we feel we have a deeper passion for it.”

According to Irwin, throughout what most might see as a four-year stint of silence since the band’s release of new material, the guys of Will Haven have never stopped playing music completely. Whether they were playing in alternate side project bands to fill their musical voids, or deciding to come together to play music in support of a close friend in a coma, Irwin credits the return of original vocalist Grady Avenell for ultimately fueling Will Haven’s passion to once again begin writing and rekindling the family vibe the band was built on.

“We played some of the Chi benefits and I just got the itch to do it again,” Avenell said of the shows developed to support Deftones bassist Chi Cheng, currently in a minimally conscious state after a 2008 car accident. “We talked about it and went forward from there. I’m excited. It’s been almost 10 years since I’ve put an album out and here we have an album coming out. I’m just looking forward to playing some shows and having a good time.”

Formed in ‘95 right after high school, Will Haven have since paved a hard road releasing countless albums and EPs, touring the world with the likes of Deftones, Earth Crisis and Slipknot, where they would find a new member to welcome into their family unit of pure metal: Chris Fehn, percussionist for Slipknot turned bassist for Will Haven.

“He’s been in the band since this record. We toured with Slipknot in 2000 and we just became good friends with him and we’ve been close ever since,” explained Irwin. “He’s really passionate about music, he’s not in it for anything else and that’s hard to find nowadays. With him, he’s like, ‘I don’t give a fuck who you guys are. I love the music. I love you guys. I just want to play.’ And that’s exactly what we want, someone who has passion, loves the band and is here for the right reasons.”

However, touring with world renowned bands such as Slipknot or Deftones kept the band grounded. And instead of rolling up to venues with tour buses and crews of roadies, Will Haven took the more punk rock approach, pulling up in an old van with one goal in mind–to share their music with a crowd of thousands.

“When we did tours like that, I think that made the band what it is. We’d go on tours with Deftones or Slipknot and there’d be thousands of people there, but for us, it would be almost like a punk rock show because they’re in buses and have crews, and we pull up in this crappy, little van and our goal is to try and kill everybody. We aren’t there to sell tickets. We’re there to show people that this opening band just kicked your ass even more than the headliner did. I think that’s what drove us and what kept us grounded; we’ve put in our work,” Irwin said.

With the band’s average age being in the mid-30s, Will Haven recall the days when self-promotion was solely up to the musicians. A time prior to social networks like MySpace or Facebook, where one didn’t just Google a band and decide whether or not they’re worthy, but actually visit a music store, purchase an album and research them at their own discretion. A time when tacking flyers to poles and actually speaking to people in person was prevalent–which later turned into inviting fans personally out to shows. Those days, go figure, are now gone. To the members of Will Haven, this has become a lost art form and they blame the ever-evolving monster that is social networking.

“Before, it was all about the music,” says Irwin. “We started before Myspace, and we’re kind of new to the whole Internet thing, but when we started, you made a demo tape and gave it to a record label and see what happens from there. At our age right now we’ve seen the decline of the ‘rockstar days.’ The labels and getting signed for a crap load of money doesn’t happen anymore. In the late ‘90s it just seemed like that took a shit. It’s a whole different world. So, we got to see the height of [the music industry] and we saw the crash of it, too.”

With more than 10 years of music behind them and an unwritten future ahead, the guys of Will Haven have become a well-respected entity within Sacramento’s tight-knit music scene. Whenever their name is mentioned, conversations of praise and an air of respect are present. Irwin said the band’s local popularity stems from the guys choosing to be true to themselves and to their music, but other local musicians say Will Haven have earned respect because they’ve always kept it real.

“These guys have been grinding it out since ’95, always doing their own thing,” explained Jesse Mitchell of Red Tape/Kill the Precedent and longtime friend of Will Haven. “Since the beginning, they have been following their own path, but still staying true and recognizing Sacto as being home base. We as fellow Sacto musicians respect what they have achieved, not just locally, but worldwide. They have always been good friends with my bands and are cute as buttons to boot. Will Haven will be sonically slapping your face for years to come.”

Will Haven’s Voir Dire will be released Oct. 11 on Bieler Bros. Records.

If there has ever been a show I’ve written about in the past that I thought was important and that I urged you to attend, it more than likely paled in comparison to this one. On Friday, Oct. 7 at Blue Lamp, there will be a benefit show for a young woman named Alicea Peet (Mikey Hood from the band HOODS’ lady), who recently suffered from a kidney failure and had to have a transplant. As you can imagine, the medical bills are insane, so the benefit show (which features some of Alicea’s favorite bands in Kill the Precedent, Black Mackerel, City of Vain and Muderlicious) is aimed to help take a chunk out of those bills, as well as to raise awareness of how important organ donors are. Doors open at 8 p.m., 21-and-over only and it’s $10 at the door.
There are also cool T-shirts available for $20 donations that say Peet’s name and the words “Love Life.” You can send donations via Paypal to Hoods916@hotmail.com. Include size, mailing address and mark the payment as a “gift,” but most of all, come to the show at Blue Lamp and support! You can also make a donation securely at Alicealoveslife.bbnow.org.

Kill the Precedent load up with a new EP

Industrial metal might conjure images of military-like precision with perhaps a totalitarian-style frontman at its controls. Kill the Precedent certainly evokes those images with their music. Thundering beats–both live and electronic–blast behind thrashing riffs and the two-pronged vocal attack of Twig the Exfoliator and The Ugly American. However, speaking with the two vocalists in a recent interview, the guys seemed jovial, bordering on jolly. For instance, if you were to call The Ugly American’s cell phone, you might hear The Dead Kennedys’ classic “California Uber Alles” playing while you waited for him to answer your phone. He said that since Jerry Brown was re-elected as governor, it seemed appropriate. “It’s such a fucking mess out here,” he quipped. “I thought it was pretty damn funny. At least it’s not an actor.” If KTP was indeed an army, in demeanor, they’d be more akin to the cool jokesters from Stripes than the cold-blooded killers of Full Metal Jacket.

Make no mistake, though; the band’s music is a no-holds-barred aural assault. KTP is ready to release a new EP, Stories of Science and Fantasy, which will consist of six original songs and two covers (The Smiths’ “Death of a Disco Dancer” and Jessica Lea Mayfield’s “We’ve Never Lied,” which Twig says was recorded in a hotel room in Oakland). Evoking the days when bands like Ministry and KMFDM crashed mainstream rock’s party, songs such as “Questions for Weapons” wield an imposing arsenal or metal riffs and huge beats, courtesy of electronic beatsmith/guitarist Hamburger, guitarist Killsbury and drummer Sgt. Pepper, while “Free Reign” is a throbbing, almost dance-y track highlighted by Jon the Jew’s pummeling bass line and an underlying, monolithic electronic groove.

Members of the band are no strangers to the Sacramento rock scene. They have played in bands such as Red Tape, Diseptikons and Rivithead in the past, but Kill the Precedent started as a side project of The Ugly American and Hamburger.

“Hamburger and I got together in 2006 and started screwing around with the drum machine,” The Ugly American explained. “We were kind of doing a little Big Black kind of deal, just having some fun. We recorded some music and got a hold of Twig, and I said, ‘I got to record some vocals, can you come down and help me out?’ We recorded vocals. Twig and I had been friends for many years, and he was giving me this blank stare, so I was like, ‘OK, you didn’t like it, but thanks for coming down and recording.’ And he said, ‘No, I want in. I’m fucking in.’ He took over from there.”

Twig’s introduction to the band was through the song “Cop Out,” which will appear on Stories of Science and Fantasy. More songs were started, but Twig said they were left unfinished. As each new member of the band became a permanent fixture, the songs began to flesh out.

“I wanted Killsbury to put a guitar riff over that–just that one song [“Cop Out”],” Twig said. “I’ve been in bands with all these other people in Red Tape and Diseptikons, and I was like just do this one song, but then it became do this song and that song…and eventually that’s how each member has come to be in the band.”

For The Ugly American, Kill the Precedent became a way of rediscovering the music he loved to make in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s with bands such as Rivithead and Battalion 53 after years of playing in punk bands.

“It dawned on me that I really missed that shit,” he said. “It was powerful, it was fun, it was endless. You could do whatever you want and get away with a hell of a lot more.”

In the following interview, KTP’s two vocalists fill us in on the making of the forthcoming EP and what draws them to making this kind of music. We find out that the reason why the harsh-sounding vocalists are so jovial is because they’re playing music they actually love.

It seems like industrial is a genre of music that’s gone back underground. Is that part of the excitement of revisiting it?
The Ugly American: Kind of, but not really. There’s no denying that those bands have had an influence. It’s obvious–and it should. It’s fucking awesome music… I can just say I missed the power of it.
Twig the Exfoliator: I liked the freedom of it. When we first started jamming around, with Jeremy from the Snobs, the bass player, was doing a bunch of electronic beats and me and [Ugly] would sing over it. It wasn’t hip-hop singing, but it was like a Fugazi overlay over dance music. I definitely wanted to not do just Ministry type stuff, but I wanted some melody in there to make it a bit different.

Listening to the music, you can definitely hear that sort of punk-type melodies.
Twig: Whatever [Hamburger] makes up beatwise and gives to us, half of them could be more on the dance side, some of them are more hard and fast, or slow and driving. If we hear something that we like, we’ll get working on that. Part of the reason why I wanted to do this was because I didn’t want to work with drummers anymore [laughs]. I was mad at all the drummers I’ve ever played with, and they take too long to set up. I was sick of loading all their shit into my van. That was the original idea, “Oh, we do whatever. We don’t need a drummer. Be like a hip-hop band, just plug in an iPod and do it like that.” That’s the way I wanted to do it. I wanted to put on a big production of a show, but within our budget.
Ugly: When Twig was on tour with Hoods–I think they were in Europe. He was adamant about it. He was like, “No drummers. I don’t want any fucking drummers.” Before we even put a drummer in there, I wanted one, because I wanted to add to the power and the beats and make it sound as large as we could. But he was all, “Hell no, we’re not doing it.” So, he goes to Europe and we grabbed our old buddy [Sgt.] Pepper. We brought him in to practice while Twig was gone. When he got back, he showed up for practice, and we were like, “Oh look, it’s…Pepper.” He was like, “You dick.” [Laughs.]
Twig: [Laughs] But it worked out.

Twig, you said you came in and did the middle section of “Cop Out,” but after doing that you wanted in. What drew you to this project?
Twig: I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do drum machines and just sample stuff by myself, but I’m completely computer illiterate. I don’t know how to do any of that stuff, and I couldn’t get anyone to do it. I talked to [Ugly], and they were already doing it for a couple of months, so I went in to record with them. The beats were big and huge, and it was something different. Since he let me even try something, and I could overlay a couple different vocal layers, and me and Sean could go back and forth instead of having to write a song’s lyrics all by ourselves–and you know, run out of breath–it made it better that we could share the vocal part. I liked that. I liked who he was working with, because I had known [Hamburger] from Rivithead and Battalion 53. We were also working with Evan at that point, Tha Fruitbat.

It seems like everyone who has come into the project has left their own stamp on it. Is that how the songwriting goes or do you start with the beats and go on from there?
Twig: Hamburger does all the beats and stuff. He’ll do two different parts with maybe some guitar, because he plays guitar too. He’ll just send us two-minute loops so we can get an idea about it. Then usually we will come up with singing structures, and then we’ll leave it alone. We won’t finish anything, and then we’ll bring it to practice and everyone else will listen to it and have their input. We start arranging the songs from there, cutting out parts, changing the drum beats, adding different parts, then we actually start writing the songs, the lyrics and stuff.
Ugly: It goes in reverse. It’s not the typical way you write a song, but it’s totally working for us.
Twig: Everyone’s really busy, so it’s all sent over the computer. Hamburger will send the beats to us, and we’ll pick the ones we like–the whole band will. And we’ll just work on it from there.

A lot of the bands we were talking about as influences before are largely associated with one guy, like Al Jourgensen for example, but it sounds like you guys actually play the songs to write them, which I think is kind of interesting for industrial music.
Twig: It’s like any other band. We’ll start arguing…but it all works out in the end as long as no one’s picky and tries to be the highlight of the song. Everyone knows their place.
Ugly: There are no egos, arrogance or bullshit. I know this sounds hokey, but it’s a completely collective effort. Everyone has their say. Like Twig says, we’ll argue to friggin’ death over it, but everybody’s got their two cents, and it just keeps piling things on without making it too much. It’s one cool idea after the other. It’s fun. I think the biggest thing is just that it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

I’ve seen that you guys have had girls in costume dancing at the shows, people covered in blood, synching up videos to your songs. Is that something you get together and collaborate on?
Twig: [Killsbury] handles most of the video stuff. He takes a while to get it with the beats and intros to every song. Except for [Hamburger], none of us are that great with computers. To do all that is a bit of a learning experience. And we don’t do it the way we should. We’re rolling into shows with DVD players and stuff, and a projector from like 1992.
Ugly: We try to change it up every time if we can. We did a good run, if you don’t mind me saying, at Blue Lamp. We called it “Cocaine Drug Dealers” or “Colombian Drug Dealers.” Everyone in the band was dressed up in cammo and we were dressed up in white suits. I filled up a bunch of baggies with flour. It was a great show, but it was the stupidest thing I ever did. Twig and I started throwing these bags of flour out into the audience and hit a fan. It went everywhere. Everyone was covered. I got off stage, and the guy was like, “It’s going to be $450 to clean up the place.”
Twig: It’s kind of like having sheet rock down or something. You can’t get rid of it… All the bottles were covered. We were like, “$450? No, we’ll come in tomorrow.” So we were hung-over as shit, and we had to be there at noon the next day. He was waiting for us with the mops, and he’s like, “Here you go.” Of course he opened the bar, and we got drunk and cleaned that place for four or five hours, and I can say it’s the cleanest it’s ever been [laughs]. It’s the cleanest club in Sacramento.

Kill the Precedent will play an EP release show at Harlow’s on Aug. 6, 2011 with Will Haven, The Snobs and City of Vain. Tickets are just $10 and can be purchased through Harlows.com. For more information on KTP, like them why don’t you at Facebook.com/killtheprecedent.