Deadsy

Gigz with Exeter and Dr. Nner from Deadsy @ Mellon Arena

06/29/02



RC: I'm outside doing exercise laps around the Arena just 
     to hook up with these guys. I really dig the CD, it's
     called Comencement. I'm hanging out with Dr. Nner and
     Exeter. I wanted to say P. Exeter, is there a sexual 
     inuendo there?
Exeter: No, no sexual inuendo intended.
RC: You guys don't have the suits on, is that just on stage?
Exeter: The suits, that's usually formal gear. On stage we 
     got our stage wear which is a little more athletic for 
     stage activity.
RC: Kind of like Star Treck.
Exeter: There's an outfit for every ocasion.
Dr. Nner: We're in Deadsy street gear. I was just skating 
     from the bus to the Arena here.
RC: How good are you at boarding? As good as Tony Hawk?
Dr. Nner: I'll shred that guy (kiddingly).
RC: Maybe on the Playstation 2 game. You hooked up where and
     how did you hook up with Korn's label Elemteree?
Exeter: Dr. Nner and myself met back in school, prep school
     back in Maine. Everyone's kind of from all over. The 
     genius of the band started with Dr. Nner and myself, 
     meaning when we were young back in 1990. We started to 
     form the band around the mid-late 90s and we were on
     Sire/Elektra for a while and we had some dramas and 
     misfortunes there. We ended up with Jonathon Davis's 
     label and Dreamworks because we kind of found someone
     who really believed in what we were doing, and was will-
     ing to take a risk in how much this band goes against 
     the grain of whats going on out there. It always has and
     probably always will. So it's something that's really
     special and something that's artist driven so we need
     the support of someone like Jonathon to see this thing 
     through, out there in culture and in the industry.
     There's allot of politics, a lot of beaurocracy.
RC: Oh yeah, we hear a lot of that on this show. Actually
     we had Jonathon on, probably 8 years ago. How do you 
     feel about all of the turn of world events? Do you
     feel you're kind of bringing in a style or gearing 
     towards a new world?
Exeter: The bands all encompassing to be true to whatever 
     all realities are, the history of mankind and the 
     current. And that's kind of what the band is forged 
     for, almost like a sage. The band is going to stay 
     neutral in it's own opinions and just translate the
     realities. That's why as much as we're into current 
     things we're really into ancient structures, ancient
     philosophies, and ancient civilizations kind of still
     effect the current. How the humans can't escape the
     humaness of all these things and how the tumultuous-
     ness of all these are reflections of todays society.
     So we're just going to take a little bit more of a 
     well rounded approach and not just pigeon-hole our-
     selves into one specific genre. We're gonna be able
     to breathe and change with however we change as people
     and as a reflection of society as a whole. 
Dr. Nner: It's really out in the game yet. This albums real-
     ly kind of supposed to serve as like a Chapter 1.
RC: It's kind of like an ongoing saga. Now you hear the 
     first song "Key to Grammercy Park", which is completely
     different from the rest of the CD, was that song written 
     specifically to catch the markets ear?
Dr. Nner: Well it's a good jam, first off. It's a fun song. 
     I guess it does kind of serve as a kind of trojan horse.
Exeter: Every band has one of those man. Every band has some-
     thing, especially if you're really esoteric. You got to
     have something that's gonna imediately grab people's 
     attention, to then give them something...
Dr. Nner: The attention span of a listener, you gotta have a 
     simple hook just to grab them and reel them in.
Exeter: It's a challenge for us to just step back from being 
     too out there and make something that is simple. In it's
     simplicity it still has a lot of metaphysics, kind of 
     supernatural stuff brewing.
RC: Kind of like some of the 70s bands. Like you did a Rush 
     remake, like them every album was like this brilliant 
     work, up until a certain point I think.
Exeter: We were inspired by a lot of 70s prog. A lot of the 
     Brian Eno stuff, a lot of King Crimson, ElP. We're into
     synth-pioneers, Moroder and Wendy Carlos. So we're well
     diversed in all that classic stuff and so we almost 
     think of ourselves as preservationists because no one 
     else is showing the imporatance of the legacy of that
     stuff in their music, and keeping it alive. So we feel
     like we're making something new yet keeping the legacy
     of all that stuff alive as well.
Dr. Nner: I don't even know what you'd call what's out there
     now but everyone's definately riding the coattails of 
     it.
RC: Oh you hear that same thing, that drop down guitar tuning.
Exeter: It's also the record labels fault. When one thing 
     goes over everybody has to scury to get their version
     of that one thing. So it's all about the money and for
     the artists it's all about the glory. So we're lucky 
     to have the situation that we have. We have the support
     of all the right people, which we certainly didn't have 
     before, politically speaking, talentwise, and artist 
     speaking. So we got Dreamworks, which is on the cutting
     edge, and then we have someone like Jonathon in our 
     court, with the Elementeree situation, which is why we're
     on this tour. So we have a real good hybrid of all kind
     of things you need to have when you have something 
     that's really kind of against all formats. It's a chal-
     lenge, none the less, no matter how good of a team we
     have assembled to break this band. As we're seeing it 
     hasn't been the easiest at radio. So because I think 
     it's really against all formats, it's its own format, 
     people see that and it sends up red flags. 
Dr. Nner: There's still money to be made in new metal, rap/
     metal. We come to every city and we have to prove in 
     every single city that this stuff is going over live 
     and give everyone a reason to give us some spins. It's
     a battle in every town.
RC: It is, there's just so many bands out there and a lim-
     ited amount of money to advertise and revenues. Were 
     you guys in a fraternity or something? You kind of get
     the vibe (refering to the CD cover).
Dr. Nner: This is the actual boarding school that he and I 
     went to. That's the mansion.
RC: And you added the skulls?
Exeter: There's a bunch of lore behind there. 
Dr. Nner: That's called the sunken garden right there.
Exeter: It used to be a pond 100 years ago, because before
     it was a school it belonged to this man. There were all
     these legends about how haunted the place was.
RC: Was that the deal with the dude up there? (points to the
     figure in the attic window)
Exeter: That's the actual library/attic that was totally 
     haunted.
RC: I stared at this for a while trying to decipher what it
     was.
Dr. Nner: It's kind of like Mrs. Bates a little bit.
Exeter: We're just showing the classic pop culture, kind of 
     generic, of when somethings haunted. You know, the pro-
     file of somebody in the window.
RC: It's got a very Warholesque approach to it.
Exeter: We're very into a pop art kind of way of displaying
     what we look like.
RC: Now you guys all have symbols, we haven't seen that since 
     Led Zeppelin. What prompted you to come up with that?
Exeter: Sort of like Zeppelin, we wanted to carry on that idea
     and that legacy. It's also in kind of the comic book 
     sense of just showing each persons individually but yet
     they belong to something that's greater than them. So 
     it kind of just shows our alegiance to the one thing
     which is like the world of Deadsy.
Dr. Nner: It gives each of us an identity yet makes us all 
     equal.
RC: Sort of a little mysticism with it. You hooked up with 
     Fred Durst in the video. What's he like to work with as
     a director?
Exeter: We knew he'd respect the vision of the band, he's a 
     fan of the band. He'd let us do what we ultimately 
     wanted to do and we wouldn't have to deal with a director
     for our first video who thought he knew what it should be 
     like. Fred really respected our visions, so that's why we
     chose Fred. And he was an old friend. 
Dr. Nner: He's been around watching the evolution of this band 
     and he had a sense for what we were going for. He was 
     basically the technical expert.
Exeter: We've been friends with DJ Lethal way before the House
     of Pain days. I actually remember Limp Bizkit arriving to 
     LA for the first time like years ago.
RC: Well we'll let you go, thanks guys for coming on the show.

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