Bottom  |  Solarized

Evening girls, how's things?

Nila and Clementine: Stellar, thanks.

You've just finished your mammoth twice-a-day US tour. How was it to go through everything twice every day? I can only imagine you must be knackered right now.

Clementine: If knackered means fucking exhausted, then yes, that’s how it is! This one just about killed us. Playing the Warped Tour is meant for bands who live in air conditioned busses, not idiots like ourselves living in a van and playing shows at night too. We were like the warthogs of that tour… while the rest of them were at the barbeque, drinking margaritas and chatting up the 14-year old groupies, we were carrying bass amps over dirt and trash through 15,000 kids, getting 2 hours of sleep a night, sleeping in gas station parking lots in the van on top of the smelly gear… punk rock my ass!

Nila: I am just now getting used to sleeping straight and not curled up in weird positions...we've had our moments of utter empty-headedness due to lack of rest. Playing twice was great, but loading, driving and waiting gets to you.

And your upcoming European jaunt - there's not many bands these days that play virtually every night for 7 weeks. Is it because you love playing, or because it's cheaper to not have days off?

Nila: Days off are boring, once you go it takes away from the rush of the trip. And yeah I can't afford the amount of pizza I would eat on an off day.

Clementine: My opinion is, when you’re on tour, BE on tour. You have a chance to play every night, do it. I can sit around watching sitcoms and picking my nose when we’re not on tour. Right now we play every night because it’s cheaper, but I hope if we had money we’d be playing every night because we could.

Given the amount of touring you've done, you must have a few good stories to tell. Could you give us one or two?

Clementine: I’ve found that peoples’ imaginations about what goes on with BOTTOM on the road is always more exciting than actuality. The gossip and fables and just plain bullshit that gets back to us is really pretty astounding. I wouldn’t want to break the image and let everyone in on how nerdy we really are. So we’ll just say that sex, drugs, rock and roll… we’ve lived it all.

But to be a sport, one of my favorite stories from last year’s 10-month tour: we had a day off, driving down from Canada into North Dakota. We decided to take a detour through the beautiful lake country. I said, wouldn’t it be nice if there was some sort of roadhouse with cheap food, and we turned a corner and there was a sign that said, “The Roadhouse, $1 tacos.” Some things happened, and within two hours the three of us were in the back of a pickup truck, driving through the fields, parking in a little glen and watching the moon rise while 50 BUFFALO grazed 20 feet from us! To be that close to a herd of wild animals like that, feeling them watch us, that was just amazing. I love that about touring, and about life. One minute things are one way, and then you turn a corner and BAM! it's a whole new world.

Your recent album "Feels So Good When You're Gone" doesn't seem to have made much of a splash over here. You don't seem to have got much press at all. Is this all down to the unfortunate situation with Man's Ruin? How much has that affected you?

Nila: I clutch the one Kerrang review we've gotten to my heart and speak the press charm tree times in a scratchy voice while holding down a black rooster with my little toe.

Clementine: Nila’s voodoo often works wonders, too!! But really, considering that our record came out just about the time our label almost folded, we got no press support whatsoever. We’ve never had any press help… anything you’ve ever read about us has been due to our own efforts. We have gotten quite a lot of press in Europe via the internet, with reviews and interviews on close to 40 websites at this point, and we’re being played on radio in several countries across Europe now, granted they’re tiny stations or internet radio, but it’s something. We are hiring a press person to help out for our tour, so I think you’ll start to see us a little more. We have a Terrorizer article coming up too, which will help. Considering that we’re up against labels who can pay to get their bands press, I think we’re doing okay for ourselves.

From what I can tell you seem to have quite a following in the US. Do you think your popularity has anything to do with you being three girls, or is it all down to the music?

Nila: I think we've sold more CD's than pictures so far, but it could be our intense daily facial care regimen that gets them...

Clementine: Well, there will always be people who come to the shows solely because we’re women. But I think that number is probably outweighed by the number of people who think we’re going to suck because we’re women. I think people like us because we surprise them, they think we’re going to be the typical girl band talking about their pussies and playing their instruments with no sense of groove, and then we kick their ass. I’m not saying that doors don’t open for us because we’re women; we get shows easier than guy bands for the most part, for example. But there is a level of respect from other musicians that we have to fight tooth and nail for, and we work our asses off to gain that respect.

This summer on the Warped Tour, we played on the Ladies’ Lounge stage. It was a great opportunity for us to play this tour, because we could play in front of a lot of younger kids who can’t make it into rock clubs. Come to find out, the Ladies’ Lounge was one of the smallest stages on the tour, with the crappiest PA (big surprise). We almost didn’t do the tour because we don’t like the idea of being segregated like that because we have tits. We were also really worried that by playing that stage we’d lose the respect of the musicians around us whose respect we’ve worked so hard to gain in the past four years, people like Wino from Spirit Caravan. If we ever did anything to lower his opinion of us, I’d want to quit right then. So this is a big reason we did 69 shows in 46 days. We figured if we worked harder than anyone else, it wouldn’t reflect badly on us in our musical community that we were playing a stage like that.

See the stupid things we have to think about? I guess it’s true… we have to work harder for less. I’d so much rather be in a guy band…

And when you play live, do you take advantage of the fact that you are three girls by giving some sex appeal to the occasion?

Clementine: We always figured that the sexiest thing we could do would be to be accomplished musicians who kick ass and rock. Considering the attention we get after the shows, that seems to be the case. Women who can talk about gear and Pantera and wear concert t-shirts and are sweaty and who don’t get haircuts and have just made Big Mean Rock, from my experience, are dude-magnets. As far as thinking about it on stage, you try giving much thought to anything other than trying to be as big as possible when you’re a three-piece playing on stages with 5-piece bands. Sex appeal? We’re the type of people who think that it was a good show if we bled on our instrument, who aspire to be able to carry the Marshall cabinet across the room by ourselves, who aren’t afraid to look ugly if it means the rock sounds good. If you think that’s sexy, well get in line.

Nila: The beauty of being a female is that I can do things that a man would never dare.

I've read that you are fond of the odd drink. How much do you all get through, and what's your favourite tipple? Do you get Newcastle Brown Ale over there? Now that's a REAL drink...

Nila: I like milk with redbull.

Clementine: Whiskey, please. I don’t waste my time with beer. I like it short, neat and hard, thank you.

Well I must be off now I'm afraid, but thanks for your time and hopefully I'll get to see you when you hit the UK in November...

Clementine: Thanks Kevin! I’ll keep you updated as far as the dates. Looking forward to drinking with you!

Hey Hogan, how's it going, what you up to man?

Plenty of the same old crap.

Ok, since the last time Attitude spoke to you there has been a number of changes in the Solarized camp, so how about you tell us a bit about the new guys?

Mike Fiore is our bass player now. He used to be in Horschack '77. Dave Topolenski is our new guitarist and he used to be in Drag Pack.

You've got a new album, Driven, which is soon to be released, what can we expect?

It's sort of a transition for Solarized. Neanderthal Speedway was a bit more stoner rock in it's sound and had more of a psychedelic vibe. Driven is more of a pissed off, boot-to-the-head kind of album. It ventures toward some slightly different directions, has more of an angry feel to it, and, musically, relates the vibe of where we were at, as a band, when we recorded it. That's just my take on it. It'll be interesting to see how everyone else perceives it.

Are there any particular albums or bands that have strongly influenced Driven?

I tried to pull things from my own roots and inject some of the styles from my former bands like Daisycutter and Dirge. It's got some of everything I've ever done in it, not that I'd expect anyone to notice. Of course, that's just me, personally. I'm sure everyone in the band has certain influences that they draw things from.

I suppose the biggest influence for any of us is simply life itself. Every experience; every dream we've dared to dream, be they broken or otherwise; every song we've ever listened to and found some form of value in. Influence is always more than sonic or visual stuff. Besides, art and music are merely methods of drawing responses out of people. It's the emotions they invoke that make us who and what we are. It's an inherent part of any creative process.

For Dave and Mike it was sort of a handicap, as most of it was written before they really had a chance to find their place in Solarized. Both of them had to adjust their styles to accommodate the songs that Reg and I were throwing their way. At the same time, I think that they've got a better sense of fitting in, stylistically, because of it. We're working on some new stuff now and everyone is bringing something to the table, so it's a very positive vibe. Everyone's being creative and we're having fun, which is what it's really all about anyway.

You produced the album yourself, was this a financial decision or do you prefer to be in control of the recording?

"Control" is a very nebulous term. I think "control out of necessity" is more appropriate. I'd love to have someone else produce, but that has a price. Figure it this way: Money defines the limits of studio time, which, in turn, defines the breadth of creative control, which, in turn, defines the quality of the end product, and so on and so forth. What you end up with, at least on an independent level, is something that could always be better.

Every artist wants to create a masterpiece, but perfection is a myth. No one achieves it. You could spend a million dollars and there would still be things that, as an artist, you won't be satisfied with. That's just the way it is. Knowing things like this helps to keep things in perspective and keep every thing in check.

How is it been working with Meteorcity, especially in light of recent events with Man's Ruin?

We were originally going to do this record with Man's Ruin, but they had so many projects booked that we decided to give it to the folks at Meteorcity. It turned out to be a smart move on our part, although we didn't know it at the time. We knew that Man's Ruin had been burned by the new distribution deal they had tried, but we weren't aware of the amount of damage it had done to them. It's a goddamn shame.

As for Meteorcity, they have a true one-on-one approach to things and really go the distance with the amount of effort they put into the business. They don't just put out records. They cultivate relationships, develop strategies that focus on building the genre, develop their talent by immersing themselves in the creative process, at least as much as the bands will allow them to, and they follow through by creating a network of expanding relationships and maintaining them. That's more than merely smart business sense, that's a real passion for what they do and shows that these guys aren't just talk.

That's very rare. While bigger labels like Interscope are appointing guys like Fred Durst to VP status in a flagrant attempt to buy street credibility, guys like Jadd and Aaron at Meteorcity are commanding the same respect just by being true themselves and those around them. They have a cause worth fighting for and that is something we're damn proud to be a part of. They're good at listening, good at advising, and they became a part of our creative process because of it. We'll continue to work with them for as long as they'll have us on their team.

You also produced and played on the recent Scene Killer project, how did that all come about?

There are a lot of great bands from the genre here on the Jersey Shore. Jadd had this wacky, entrepreneurial idea to get some of the bands to do these insane jams with different line-ups on each song, so he pitched the idea at me and asked me to coordinate the chaos...which I did.

To tell you the truth, we didn't have enough singers and some of the jams seemed a little directionless, but I sent the masters out and Jadd got some guests from around the world doing overdubs and recruited Jack Endino to rework some of the mixes, which is especially awesome. I just got the finished copy a few days ago and I'm really impressed with the final product. Endino is the Mack.

I believe the Scene Killer stuff is similar to the Desert Session in the sense that it's all about musical experimentation, what was the weirdest stuff that you came up with?

I think all of the Desert Sessions stuff is way more organized than anything we did, but I think the Scene Killer CD is damn good too. It touches on a lot of different styles. It's got weird tunes like Island Zero, brutally heavy stuff like Pit of The Soul, killer psychedelic stuff such as Psychic Down, garage rock songs like Back of My Mind, and Hendrix-styled stuff such as Midnight Snack. It really moves in a lot of different directions which keeps things interesting and I think that's what really makes it work.

Has Solarized sorted out any tour plans yet?

Not at the moment. The free world is on the brink of war. I can see the New York skyline from the end of my street and when you see the giant cloud of smoke from where the World Trade Center towers once stood, you tend to get a real good idea of just how bad things are going to get. Then again, this might be a good time for a road trip, y'know?

How do you think the stoner scene has evolved since the release of Neanderthal Speedway?

Evolved? That's a laugh. The scene is, geographically, so spread out across the globe that it's still in its infancy. There is a very limited amount of radio exposure, which stagnates its growth. Music magazines are quickly becoming extinct, which leaves its promotion stilted. The major labels are all too aware of its existence, but they're busy cashing-in on what amounts to nothing more than formulated, soul-less, ball-less crap. They have the audacity to sell the public complete and utter garbage as a new and outrageous flavor of the year. So where does the "evolution" come from? I'm not sure the term even applies. Certainly, there are more and more bands in the scene every day, but that progression of the genre shouldn't be confused with the evolution of style.

Are you worried that it is becoming over populated?

Not so much worried, as I am dissatisfied. Things are starting to sound the same. Granted, new bands will sound like their predecessors, that's the nature of musical trends, but if too many bands are sounding the same, the genre will stagnate until the bands figure out a way to reinvent themselves and develop their own styles. That may sound like an easily obtainable solution, but not when you take into account that most bands only last about five years. That's a really short amount of time in terms of finding one's self, be it in a band or otherwise.

What do you think about the current rise of Nu Metal?

Actually I try not to because it really pisses me off. Everything is about "image" and the whole damn lot comes off like freaks doing a runway fashion show. They're wearing incredibly stupid masks, or scary face paint, or weird contact lenses. Just look at them. It's pathetic. It reminds me of Hollywood's portrayal of punk rockers in 80's sci-fi movies. They looked so futuristic, yet so bogus; so irrevocably lame. Now the music industry is doing the same thing, only they're dressing-up these poor bastards in cheap gimmicks and telling them they look good. It's all about bad fashion sensibilities. If I have to role up one pant leg, or paint my face and wear my pants under my butt like some kind of retarded mutant just to sell enough records to satisfy my major label owners...and I do mean "owners", then there's really no point.

As for the music behind the facade, I think the influence of hip-hop on modern rock has really put things in a rut. To my way of thinking, hip-hop peaked with the genius of Public Enemy, and that was quite some time ago. Today's flavors of the moment seem disposable, mostly because they're so indistinguishable from their peers. The same thing applies to any youth culture...especially rock. That seems to be what's happening now. The "Nu Metal", as you so aptly put it, isn't really interesting to me. It just seems too formulated to really have a lasting impact on me.

When I'm in my car, I spend more time listening to talk radio than any of the music stations. Talk radio is more entertaining, more dangerous, and more rebellious than anything that the music stations have offered in the last five years...and that's a shame. What we're left with is the choice of either screaming circus clown demon metal or crusty looking boy-bands with guitars. We're surrounded by designer bands with bad gimmicks.

Ok, stupid question, but you've got a song called Born of Fire on the new album, is this a cover of the Slayer song?

No, but there is a cover of The Damned's "Stab Yor Back" on the new disc. It's only about a minute long, but it's a fun song with good hooks.

What is the inspiration behind the artwork for Driven?

Well, I had come up with something based on this photo of a biker babe on a motorcycle, but someone just released a CD with that image on the cover. I ended up doing a new design at the last minute. It's a muscle car hauling' ass across a desert with the ruins of a city in the background and an American flag fading across the panel. The cover art has a very apocalyptic feel to it and looks real good, but I think we're all a little concerned about the reaction it gets, now that New York has been attacked by terrorists. The timing is mere coincidence, but the reactions to it may lead some people to think there's some deep meaning to it when there definitely isn't. It's just something that I thought looked cool and nothing more.

You were recently mentioned on MTV news, are you going to make a video to capitalize on this new interest?

Highly doubtful. Videos take an awful lot of money to make. Besides, until MTV gets the equivalent of "Headbanger's Ball" on their flagship network, then there's really no reason to pursue it. If your gonna spend that kind of bread, then you'd better have a good reason, y'know?

What would your ideal Solarized video contain?

Every element of B-movie culture: Outlaw bikers, masked wrestlers, monsters of every conceivable shape and size, sci-fi babes, pimps, gun molls, go-go dancers, spaceships, and the all mighty power of ROCK. There would be no story line, just a continuous barrage of weirdness.

It's not really such a far-fetched idea. I figure that if a video, with Christopher Walken dancing in a hotel, made with music by a DJ signed to a label that specializes in signing people who play other people's records, can contend and actually win prestigious awards, then this industry is so screwed-up that anything is possible. If someone released a three-minute video of a plastic bag blowing around in the wind, it would not surprise any of us if it got critical acclaim. That's how ass-backwards this industry is.

Ok, in the New Jersey heat of a celebrity death match who would you rather take on, Jon Bon Jovi or Bruce Springstein?

Both...and the sooner the better. Bring 'em on. On second thought, Reg can take on the pretty-boy. She'd trash the bastard.

What are your hopes for Solarized for 2002?

2003.

Well thanks to Hogan for once again gracing the Attitude pages. You should all now go and buy the album, not only because Solarized rule, but also because James Hogan not only knows the classic biker horror movie, Psychomania, but also sampled it in his previous band, Daisycutter. True genius.