A few years back I had my own website, where I practiced at becoming a writer. I whipped out as many reviews as I could, with my patented song by song method. I, of course, reviewed God Was Created, and loved it. The band caught wind of the review, and I exchanged some emails with John Chavez. One topic of discussion was doing an interview, and for whatever reason, it fell through. So, for all this time, I've had some pent up questions, just waiting to be asked. I asked about the debut album from them, God Was Created, and how the current one, Helping the World to See, is pleasing the fans. Despite some questions that could've been taken the wrong way, or considered "tough", John remains steady and calm, as per usual. I've truly enjoyed watching Vehemence grow, and expand their fan base. Sometimes, I even chat at them at their official forum.
These questions were done before we learned that Vehemence had lost their vocalist, Nathan Gearhart-- well, that just leaves another opening to talk to John after this roadblock has been hurdled.
Krista G.: Having heard many of the death metal releases this year, Suffocation, Decapitated, Cannibal Corpse, Kataklysm, plus a few that are slipping my mind, it's easy to say that Helping the World To See is quite possibly the finest for 2004 in my humble opinion. I know I'm not alone in that thought either, so congrats on that!
John Chavez: Thanks for enjoying our newest record. We really made sure that with this new release we were giving ourselves and our fans an uncompromising product in the same Vehemence fashion. The reaction of the album has been nothing but good feedback all around the metal media worldwide. Our last album God Was Created got some mixed reactions towards our lyrics. Media thought we would just write conceptual stories from that point on like another King Diamond. Little did the media know that we have always made each of our albums way different than the other.
Krista: This has been a huge year for Death Metal, and I know you're a fan of it. Deicide, Morbid Angel, Behemoth, Vader, Cannibal Corpse have all returned with huge offerings. Having dropped those big names, do you feel that Vehemence is a peer now of those bands? "Fan" to "Peer" can be tricky transition....
John: Vehemence has always been a peer of those older influence bands; we can only compare ourselves to the bands that came into the business since 2002, that’s kind of how we pace ourselves. It’s no game, it’s no competition but it is good to look around what your other label mates are accomplishing to see that your band is not lagging in accomplishments. This is where how you can tell your label is playing favorites or how to determine your next big move to make the band move forward. I have noticed also that we are in an era of change, and with that said it’s the death metal community suffering from a lack of people listening to it. Personally I listen to everything, rap, techno, hardcore, metal, death, black, and relating to what I do and the music I play, I am seeing the metal core scene spreading like wildfire. It isn’t negative, it’s a positive thing because metal is now being looked at more closely and I am seeing it getting just as big as it was in the early 90’s very soon. I would like to see what the religious fundamentalists would think now that the metal is back from the grave, haha. But this music, includes a bit of fashion and it’s a shame that its come back to that then again, one can argue that it is fun to dress up, pain your nails black, and wear eyeliner, and more interesting to see bands do cartwheels on stage while holding their guitars. Either way I have no beef with any musician that takes that to heart and is their persona for their career. As long as the music is hard, heavy, skilled, melodic, it is ok with me. My main point is that some of the bands that got signed a year after us, just blew up due to the fashion and that feed off other bands fame by touring with each other, if there is even a hint of that kind of certain look the band will most likely not have to have day jobs anymore. This could either work in a good way or bad way for many bands out there that do what they do without compromising to any of the marketable, in the eye of the media mainstream bands out there. The phrase “stick together” is what I see in most of the scenes in heavy music, and they do not listen to one thing unless it has a certain thing that portrays their own lifestyle. From all the metal tours we have been through, we are a band that is pretty acceptable from the death/black/metal core/ & hardcore scenes surprisingly.
Krista: Vehemence is still a young
band, do you have the feeling that
you still have something to prove, or
do you feel relaxed, in your stride so
to speak? Helping the World to See
seemed to be a supremely confident
offering...
John: Vehemence basically took on a
new lyrical theme and acceptable to
everyone since it was about realistic
life issues and our music was an
upgraded representation of what more is to come. We pretty much feel excited to release each album and push it as strong as we can because we know we don’t write bullshit. As long as we prove to ourselves by enjoying our own material that
we write, we feel that we have won over what we wanted to accomplish.
Krista: I've got my favorite songs off of Helping the World to See, but which song has the most significance to you personally? Which has been a fan favorite?
John: I enjoy our song "Spirit of the Soldier" because it has some personal significance to me in 2 ways. The first way deals with my departed friend Adam Gill who died of a heart condition, he was a metal head, came to my house with his Vehemence or Goatwhore t -shirt wanting to hear the progress of the song while I was writing it. Secondly it affects me as a citizen in my own country, the songs lyrics is about what a soldier goes through when he joins the governments war forces. The song is to pay respects to the still fighting or fallen war hero’s, and as a pledge of allegiance to what we all stand for.
Krista: The lyrical direction for HTWTS went to a more world aware position, at times political, other times ripped straight from the headlines. Sometimes reality is far more gruesome than anyones imagination, was this an intentional decision?
John: Well, we thought it was a good time to release a more realistic form of lyrics because of the past and recent events at the time. A lot has been going on in the world that we didn’t want to neglect in our lyrics. Some of the lyrics in this album contain songs about political struggle, the terminally ill, the terrorism, a true crime story, and drug abuse.
Krista: There's been a time or two where some of your guitar work reminded me of Chuck Schuldiner. Am I hallucinating again, or was he an influence on your guitar work?
John: He was a great influence on my guitar work, ill be a part of the Death Tribute that James Murphy is recording which will be released sometime in 2005. The song I am doing is Overactive Imagination. I have had a lot of influences, any guitar virtuoso that I see I basically sit down and dissect all the great parts that I would like to learn from their style. It an honor for me to play and record his material for the tribute along with musicians like Richard Christy (Death/Iced Earth), Mick Thompson (Slipknot), and of course James Murphy (Testament/Death/Obituary).
Krista: Who are your influences as songwriter? (not just a guitarist, but songwriter) There seems to be a certain sophistication to the songs....
John: I listen to a lot of everything, and I write what I want to hear. Most of the early 90’s melodic death metal, the hardcore from the mid 90’s that had very powerful rhythms and break downs, and some of the late 90’s death metal/black metal that all have way experienced guitarists with a layered hell of tracks on their albums. There is a lot of stuff that I add to my formula of song making. I collaborate sometimes with Bjorn our other guitarist and learn something new and he does the same back with me. Sometimes my songs flow and some are just off the wall and catch you off guard, but that’s what an artist is, to create art into certain type of order.
Krista: The drums on HTWTS have a really natural sound to them, can you tell me how that was achieved? (hey, I want to know! The snare sound is so organic)
John: Will Solares at Open Primary Productions who tracked and mixed the record achieved that natural drum sound by using a huge room, and a universal micing technique for the drums. There wasn’t much drum separation other than the toms, so it gave it a full natural all around sound. When you go into a studio it is vital the drum tracks are recorded as perfect as possible, and when you dump the tracks in a program like Pro Tools, you can sound replace and mix different drum sounds together to get the best result. So really it is a snare layered over another snare sound on each hit. The program somehow graphs each hit and replaces or layers the sound you want on each hit.
Krista: You're one of the most accessible musicians around. How rewarding or challenging is to have such a large fan interaction?
John: There is a lot more to come out of me, I can guarantee you that, when I’m not working on promotions for the band, or trying to get us on awesome tour packages I am writing up a storm of music. It is rewarding to go out on the road and meet other likeminded individuals that respect and appreciate the work and music as much ass the person who created it. The challenge for me is to try and do more of the music than the business, and to find that equilibrium between those two important jobs. I go to great lengths to keep in touch with our fans. Not a lot of bands do this but I actually have about over 20 screen names, that can be linked and remain online all at once to keep in touch with people who have interested in our band. Either if I am on a laptop, cell phone, or at home using my computer I always stay connected with our fans 24-7. As long as people are well-mannered, with it, I’m ok with that.
Krista: You've toured with big names, but so far who was a dream come true to tour with?
John: Touring with Deicide was pretty awesome, I remember back when the computer downloading wasn’t all popular, and my friend was sending out money to get VHS tapes of bootleg concerts, metal documentaries, I saw that Glen and Deicide had a big influence on the censorship worldwide. The extreme music developed a lot of anger from religious fundamentalists and I found it awesome that Decide was the main band challenging it. As crazy as Deicide was, I didn’t have to go along with any lyrics of the music, I just found it extremely cool that it broke all the barriers that surpassed all the radio music. We did a tour with Testament, just a small tour on the west coast and that was incredible! The rest of the bands we played with as big as they may be, I still view some of them to be just like us, around the same age, doing the same thing. I don’t get as star struck as I used to these days.
Krista: Who would be your personal favorites for Vehemence to tour with?
John: It would be awesome to play Ozzfest, Warped Tour, or any type of event were megabands like Slayer, Killswitch, Fear Factory, Terror, Dmmu Borgir, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Morbid Angel, Slipknot, Machine Head would play. Even though it’s for audience purposes, I have met people form most of those bands and they are cool with me. I can say the bands we have toured with though, have been some of the best company. The last tour that we did with Mortician and Akercocke in Sept 2004 was pretty awesome, the chemistry between all the bands was like we knew each other forever. It’s rare to bond with bands like that; they take you into their home and treat you like one of their own. Some pranks were pulled at the end of the tour where our drummer’s cymbals were taken off during the last song, while we kept playing. Touring with Decapitated in 2002 was pretty awesome we bonded with them like best friends even though they spoke very little English. Behemoth knew more English and we had a blast partying it up every night with them, they know how to party I can tell you that. Amon Amarth was our first Swedish band experience, and we learned some of the language which is surprising easy to catch on to. I watch a lot of foreign films so maybe I’m just speaking for myself here.
Krista: I've got a confession to make. While I really loved the music on God Was Created, I had to give it away due to the artwork. I regret that, but the artwork was so demented and twisted. Have others had such a gut level reaction to the artwork for God Was Created?
John: We have some fanatic fans that enjoy the artwork that was presented on that album. We didn’t really have a direction the way the artwork was going to go. The art was painted by Evil Dave a friend from Phoenix, AZ. We knew that his artwork was usually over the top and was gore induced. We basically gave him the lyrics and he came up with the 3 pieces of artwork. The inner artwork I took the liberty of making myself. The lyrics were so descriptive that I just had to make artwork for each song, and I did that digitally in the inner booklet.
Krista: Do you feel that artwork for God Was Created overshadowed the actual music, rather than complimenting it?
John: It complimented it. The front cover was a bit confusing for some, because all it was, it showed an alien Jesus crucified, and the underneath the CD artwork resembled to be something out of the true horror story of Ed Gein. The artwork was banned by SPV Germany, which carries our newer disc, but the inner artwork for GWC was just too gruesome to be sold.
Krista: God Was Created was an intense, honest, very saddening concept album. Now, as the years pass, do you feel that at some point it will be recognized as one of the greater concept albums, up there with say Dreaming Neon Black, or Operation Mindcrime? That would certainly be the hope, wouldn't it?
John: Well I can assure you from what the metal media said about God Was Created, it was just as powerful as those Nevermore and Queensryche albums. We did something with our debut album that no one else did at the time, besides King Diamond, but with our packaging and the musical atmosphere that it brought.
Krista: On the whole, do you feel that there's too much attention paid to the lyrics, rather than concentrating on the music, which is where it's really at?
John: I think with Vehemence both the music and the lyrics are appreciated, and it all depends who you ask really. We try hard to create the music and lyrics to its full potential.
Krista: One quote about Vehemence:
"savage beauty". How accurate do
you feel that statement is?
John: I guess we have a savage sound
and we look really good, just a bunch of
Fabio’s on stage.
Krista: Is Vehemence writing music for
the next release? If so, what can we
expect, something similar to Helping
the World to See?
John: For the new year expect
Vehemence to undergo the writing
process for our next album, and plan
for further touring for the spring and
summer. The next album will include
every godly skill from all your favorite
metal albums combined into a hybrid of diversity that we have not experienced with yet.
Krista: Historically Vehemence really zero's in on the "hook" or the "melody", is that something that the band will always incorporate? Do you have any plans on being heavier, or is this just a meandering road, wherever it takes you, you'll travel?
John: Well before some of our songs were pieced together and didn’t flow as well, although they still worked and are played live, but that’s the whole point of being an artist, doesn’t have to follow the rules. We will continue to write however we want to but we feel that we will be writing a lot more hook songs, and commercial length ones instead of every song being 5 to 7 min long. I think everyone has their own definition of what heavier is, and to us we think we will progress into all different kinds of heavy, just continuing to write stuff that floors us and the people.
Bonus questions!
-- What is your opinion of the Music Industry as a whole?
The music industry is what you make of it; the label is your bank. You want to take out loans that you can pay back in a short span of time. You want to use your record advance money properly and to keep the fire going so to speak. You have to keep a watchful eye around the other bands around you, and have good “ins” with the promoters and booking agents. Everyone is out to make a buck, and if the band can do that regardless without losing much of their own money, they you have a good formula going. We have learned a lot about the business, and I feel that we are prepared with any obstacle that comes toward us.
-- Will Vehemence ever re-issue "The Thougths from which I Hide?"
We have plans of re recording some of the tracks or all of the tracks. Nothing is final; we are still in the idea process. The album is completely sold out now.
-- Live CD or DVD in the works for Vehemence?
In the future, we will try and release something like that. So far we just released a CD-ROM hour long Windows Media file on our album of events between 2003 back to 1997 in the history timeline of Vehemence. We are only 3 albums in and to release something like that I feel it would be better to offer something a bit more after more material is made.
-- What totally and completely pisses you off?
Reviewers that don’t know what they are talking about when they review our band. There are too many of reviewers that give poor reviews and just get free cd’s without making the effort. I don’t care of they give our band a 0% as long as they have a basis and a reason with details. Spontaneous deadlines are the worst as well.
-- Is "METAL" a state of mind, a way of life, an alter ego, or none of that?
It is a way of life, a lot of people don’t understand being in this lifestyle. It is good to surrounding yourself with those that are a part of it. That will keep the positive in one’s life and astray from the negative. It varies between everyone how they perceive what they are. You could be straightedge, black metal, hooker, cheerleader, a 80’s thrasher or whatever, people have the right to be a part of any of those lifestyles but when it hinders another’s persons lifestyle or way of life, then your just being an asshole or bitch. Just be a good person in society, treat people the way you want to be treated.
And with that, I'd like to thank John for the amount of time he dedicated to all of us collectively at The Revenge.
You can catch John and the other guys at the official Vehemence forum, or check out their site.
All photo's courtesy of Vehemence, Metal Blade and the respective owners.
1/08/05
