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307 lines
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| | c o m m u n i c a t i o n s | |
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| |________________________________________________________________| |
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|____________________________________________________________________|
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...presents... Helmet Interview: July 17, 1992
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by G.A. Ellsworth
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>>> a cDc publication.......1993 <<<
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-cDc- CULT OF THE DEAD COW -cDc-
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____ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____ _ ____
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|____digital_media____digital_culture____digital_media____digital_culture____|
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Interview with Page Hamilton of Helmet on July 17, 1992 at St. Andrew's
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Hall in Detroit as conducted by G.A. Ellsworth.
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GA: What 7" singles are you guys going to do, and are they going to be on
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Amphetamine Reptile?
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PH: Well, we did "In the Meantime," and that came out this spring I think some
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time. "In the Meantime" was the last 7" we released and hopefully we will do
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more 7"s with AmRep.
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GA: Is there a plan?
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PH: No plan right now, we're just going to tour our butts off on this and enjoy
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ourselves. We're/I'm working on new stuff and we're going to slowly
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incorporate the new stuff into the set, hopefully record a few songs in the
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fall, record a few more in the winter or spring, and then mix something, have
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something out by next fall again.
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GA: You (Page) wrote most of the songs that you're doing right now.
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PH: I write all the music and lyrics, then bring in the band, and they turn it
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into something interesting by being really great players and stuff. And then
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we just sort of shape it like that.
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GA: Somebody told me that "No Nicky No" was written by the whole band.
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PH: "No Nicky No" was a group jam. I didn't feel like writing anything, and we
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got home from a tour and the next day had to go into the studio and come up
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with something the day after we got back. So we rehearsed that night, and I
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had a riff that had been bouncing around for a while; I threw it out at the
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guys, we played it, and then we just added on to it. And Henry came up with a
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riff and we all added different parts and just went in and refined it the next
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day in the studio and that was it. So it was a lot of fun. But the problem
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with that, we found, was jam tunes are not as satisfying in the long run - we
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played it twice live after that and then said, "let's retire this." It's more
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fun to play stuff where the structures are a little more interesting, and
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that's why I've been working on most of the stuff.
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GA: Have you retired many songs?
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PH: No, I still kind of think that we're gonna try to keep everything
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available, and eventually we'll go learn "Taken" again, that's something we
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haven't done for a long time. And then that B-side "No Nicky No" and "Murder,"
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we haven't played that in a very, very long time. But I hope to eventually
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pull that back. It's fun to keep everything at your disposal if you want to
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play it, but I think we tend to work towards new stuff, and if people request
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stuff it's kind of fun to play it for them. So, that's the only thing.
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"Impressionable" we pulled that out of our hat because we get lots of requests
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for that. And I completely forgot the lyrics and I was completely improvising
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nonsense.
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GA: I liked the opening band tonight.
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PH: Yeah, they've been around New York for a while, and I just love 'em. I
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think they're really great. I love Crawl Pappy a lot. This is the first
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opportunity we had to take somebody with us as openers and just bands that we
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think are really great in New York and want to expose to people. We're looking
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forward to this month.
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GA: Quicksand (the other band opening for Helmet) is on Interscope also, right?
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PH: No, they just sign to Polysomething, 'Dor, 'Gram, Polyville, Polytone,
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Polysomething.
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GA: What do you listen to that you think would surprise people?
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PH: A lot of people are becoming aware that I listen to a lot of jazz and that
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I studied jazz at Manhattan School of Music and University of Oregon. That's
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what my musical background is in. I also listen to classical music 'cause I
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studied at conservatories. I suppose you wouldn't hear those influences in
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Helmet, so that might be a shock. Probably things I listen to that would turn
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people's stomach - I don't own any country/western records, but I totally love
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it for a change on the radio when we're driving. I like the schlocko country
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stuff, and the old country stuff. I also really like Bob Dylan and some
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classic rock stuff that punkers seem to not be into. I love the Doors and
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Hendrix and all that stuff.
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GA: How do you feel about bands like the Grateful Dead that are still playing?
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PH: The Grateful Dead are a band that I don't like. They've lived a long time
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and done a lot of stuff. They're just not my cup of tea. I've seen them
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actually twice when I was at college in Oregon, every roommate I had was a
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Deadhead, yeah, dropping acid every five minutes and having flashbacks, pouring
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maple syrup on our shag rug, and watching Creature Features and listening to
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Dead bootlegs and stuff. And I guess that kind of ruined it for me. It wasn't
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my thing. At that time, I was really into jazz and they were giving me a lot
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of shit for having a hollow-body jazz guitar, and I didn't look like a rocker.
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GA: Are you done with college now?
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PH: Yeah. Finished in '87, actually. My Masters in '87.
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GA: How old are you?
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PH: 32. Yeah.
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GA: I thought you were younger.
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PH: Yeah, people say I look younger, I guess. It's that exercise regimen, I
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suppose.
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GA: So, Steve Albini produced just one song for you?
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PH: Yeah, Steve would look at it more like engineering. And same with Wharton
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(Tiers), I think. We've worked with Wharton in the past, and we really wanted
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to do something with Steve. We did some demos, and it worked out conveniently
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that we were in Chicago and could do demos. We wanted to do the album right
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then, but Steve couldn't do it. So we came back to New York and compared the
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demos and decided that they were so close that we could just stay in New York
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with Wharton and ride our bikes to the studio.
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GA: So it really wasn't that you had a preference between the tapes?
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PH: They're both fantastic. There's no question about it. They're both
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incredibly talented. Wharton had a little bit warmer guitar sound, Steve had a
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little crisper drum and vocal sound.
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GA: On the new single, "No Nicky No" seems to have a better sound to it than
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the A-side.
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PH: Yeah, that was mixed by Wharton. Punchy. I think the Jesus Lizard records
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sound phenomenal, and Steve does all those. As well as the Tar records.
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Wharton has done almost 70 albums, so he knows what the hell's going on too.
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GA: What about Don Fury?
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PH: Don Fury did our first 7", it was actually our first demo tape and we
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pulled the 7" off that. He's another very talented guy in New York City.
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GA: How many songs are on that?
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PH: First demo? Four. "Born Annoying," "Rumble," and then two songs that were
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never released called "Shirley MacLaine," and "Geisha to Go." Those were odd
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little ditties sort of influenced by Mission of Burma, Husker Du and Monk or
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something. They're very weird.
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GA: Have you played with any other bands recently that really impressed you?
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PH: Um there are a lot of New York bands that we like. Well, we're going to
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take Loudspeaker with us on the next tour, and I love 'em. There are a lot of
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great New York bands, the ones that everybody knows like Boss Hog and
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Surgery... we play with a lot of bands, and some of them I dig and some of them
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I don't dig. A lot of the names escape me. I have a bad memory when it comes
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to band names. I like the Jesus Lizard and Melvins a lot. But everybody loves
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them, I guess. The Jesus Lizard and the Melvins are doing something that's
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really fresh. You can see their roots and you can hear, I suppose, a Sabbathy
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influence in the Melvins and a Birthday Party influence in the Jesus Lizard.
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GA: I played you guys for my Mom tonight before I came to the show.
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PH: Oh, wow. Was she headbangin' or was she...?
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GA: She told me to bring earplugs. What was your reaction to that guy on MTV
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(Dave Kendall of 120 Minutes) referring to you as a woman?
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PH: I didn't see it. Everybody told me about it and said that they were
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laughing hysterically, then apparently he apologized three weeks later, two
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weeks later or something, I didn't see it, I don't really watch MTV. I don't
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have cable. I always knew the guy was a put-on anyway, he's just a guy that
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they put a stick up his ass and they show him how to move his hands and fill
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him in on cue cards. It's pretty obvious, and this pretty much revealed it, I
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suppose.
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GA: Never heard the band, never going to, and trying to save face on TV.
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PH: I have no desire to go out and do an interview with the guy, 'cause he's
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never heard of us. Ricky Rackman (host of Headbanger's Ball on MTV) has known
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about Helmet for two years, and he's a metal dude but he seems to have his ear
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to the ground, more informed. He was talking to our booking agent two years
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ago about having us play at his Cat House or something in L.A.
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GA: Your video that got a little play, do you think that...
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PH: I've seen a little bit of change, yeah, there's no question. The album
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came out three weeks ago and we toured in March and April, and before the album
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came out, the day after we finished recording it, we split out on tour. It was
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normal, the audience was building gradually. This time, they've doubled,
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tripled and quadrupled. We've sold out every show, so there has to be
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something. Either the album is getting exposure, or MTV, or something is
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happening. The label is doing their job, I don't know. It's all a mystery to
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me, I don't know how that works.
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GA: Where did the cover from the most recent 7" come from?
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PH: That was a Tom Hazelmyer creation. We left it completely up to Tom, and he
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sent it out to us and we immediately said, "yeah, that's great."
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GA: I thought that the picture itself might have come from a Christian pamphlet
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about people dying in car crashes and going to heaven.
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PH: Really? That's great. I have no idea where it came from. Tom came up
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with it, we just loved the way it looked. Tom does really great artwork. It's
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one of his strong points.
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GA: Did SubPop screw you over? I heard you saying something about that
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earlier.
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PH: Oh, well, no, they didn't screw us over. It was just one of those weird
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things where they... SubCop - Pop - could have had Helmet three years ago, they
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were somebody we had sent a demo to 'cause I had heard of them. I knew who
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they were because I had heard Mudhoney. They said, "Yeah, you guys are really
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great. We're into doing a new thing for SubPop, and we think you guys are it."
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And then they never got back to us. And then we opened for Tad and the guy
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came up to us and said, "Are we going to do a single together?" And I didn't
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know who he was, I had no idea. And then Tad said, "This is Jonathan from
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SubPop." And I said, "Oh yeah. Oh sure. That'd be great." And then they
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offered us a really low amount of money, and we told Hazelmyer, and he said,
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"Nah, just pass. We'll put out a single if you want." And I said ok. And
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then the other guy, Bruce, called back and said, "I'm sorry, how about if we
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give you this, that, and this?"
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GA: Was this your first single?
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PH: No, this was after STRAP IT ON was out, this was what eventually was
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"Oven." So, Tom worked out a deal with them, to do the AmRep compilation. And
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that's what we ended up doing. So they didn't screw us. They just kind of
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were a little bit fishy about the whole thing. They weren't very assertive or
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whatever, and we were very happy with AmRep. There was no reason for us to do
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anything unless we could make a little bit of money and get a little bit more
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exposure. So Tom said, "I've got this thing worked out, we have complete
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control of the artwork" They had originally Frank Koczig(sp?) did a porno-
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Flintstones thing for the cover of "Smells Like Smoked Sausage." It was going
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to be called something else. It was like Fred fucking Dino and Betty and
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Barney going at it. It was some really obscene thing. I said, "that's a
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little bit crass, isn't it?" So they came up with this smoked sausage thing.
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GA: So, it had to do with you saying...
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PH: No, no, no. I think SubPop turned it down. But I told Tom, "It's not
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really my cup of tea, as you know." He said, "It's great, it's great." I
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said, "Well, whatever." So I think SubPop said, "Well, come on."
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GA: So do you think this type of decision comes from being older?
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PH: Yeah, I suppose, having lived through more things than someone who's 21 as
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opposed to 31 or 32. You come into contact with a lot of things on the road,
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and I certainly have fairly developed opinions about things. A lot of bands
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will do anything to sell records and become rich and famous. We're not one of
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those bands. We don't consider signing to a major label being in the jaws of a
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Satanic Majesty, but we won't tour with Skid Row or fuckin' Poison. There are
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certain things, like last night they had flyers all over the club in Toronto.
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I wasn't aware of it. Like little Helmet mini-bios and stuff, and I saw them
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and that kind of stuff flips me out. It was just something the record company
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in Canada thought was a good thing and I suppose they meant well, but they
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didn't understand that we're about to play a show. If we can't win people over
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playing a show, then we're pretty fucked, you know? If we gotta put out some
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piece of literature - "Forget what you've heard about Helmet and focus on what
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you're hearing..." and some little bio - a bio is fine to introduce people at a
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record store or distributors. But at a show, you're there to play, and if you
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can't rock their butt, then you suck. So, give it up. That kind of stuff a
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major label isn't going to understand. The reason we went to Interscope is we
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feel we have complete control over the United States, anyway, to guide them and
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do stuff that we feel comfortable with.
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GA: What's Interscope a subsidiary of?
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PH: Atlantic. And they're distributed by WEA. Warner/Elektra/Atlantic.
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GA: That's it.
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PH: Cool.
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(Helmet was given $300 for their song on the Subpop release SMELLS LIKE SMOKED
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SAUSAGE)
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-)Special thanks to my man Reid Fleming for his help with this file.
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_______ __________________________________________________________________
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/ _ _ \|Demon Roach Undrgrnd.806/794-4362|Kingdom of Shit.....806/794-1842|
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[ x x ] |Ripco................312/528-5020|Moody Loners w/Guns.415/221-8608|
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\ / |The Works............617/861-8976|Finitopia...........916/673-8412|
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(' ') |Lunatic Labs.........213/655-0691|ftp - ftp.eff.org in pub/cud/cdc|
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(U) |==================================================================|
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.ooM |Copr. 1993 cDc communications by G.A. Ellsworth 01/01/93-#209|
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\_______/|All Rights Drooled Away. SIX GLORIOUS YEARS of cDc|
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