PASADENA NAPALM DIVISION (U.S.) interview by
http://www.examiner.comD.R.I.’s Kurt Brecht commands the PASADENA NAPALM DIVISION By Mark Morton
Some things just never go out of style. Take crossover metal, for example, which was rooted in the 1980s punk movement, before it broke into the metal stream and never looked back. The sound harnessed the irate rawness of punk rock and bled it into the furious crunch of metal, offering a “new” tone that cross-pollinated scenes and fans alike. The flagbearer of this sound was D.R.I., a rambunctious group of youths with mountains of energy and axes to grind.
Fast-forward nearly 30 years – D.R.I. is still kicking, still grinding, and still taking names. But now, vocalist Kurt Brecht has expanded his horizons and joined up with the remnants of Texas cult metallers Dead Horse. Using the name Pasadena Napalm Division, the group is stirring the mosh pit and keeping that old school spirit alive.
Read on, as we spend some time with Kurt Brecht and discuss the present of the past.
How do you view Pasadena Napalm Division? Is it a side-project; is it a real band? What does it mean to you?
Well, D.R.I. is my bread and butter, and I’m very busy with them touring right now. But PND is also really important to me. It did start out just as a little project, but hopefully, we’ll take it further. We want to play more shows out and around the world – not just in Houston and the Texas area.
How did PND come together? Did you round up the Dead Horse guys or did they come to you?
When Dead Horse broke up, they had already planned on returning with a new band at some point in the future. That time finally came around. They started working on new songs, but they had no singer. They heard that I was in town, in Houston, contacted me, and the rest is history.
Did you have a relationship with the Dead Horse guys prior to this?
No, D.R.I. had played one show with them years ago in Albuquerque, NM, but that was it.
So what was it about them that made you say “yes” to PND?
Just listening to the songs that they had and realizing that it wouldn’t be too hard to write some lyrics for them. The guys in the band all seemed really nice, too. I’d never jammed with anyone outside of D.R.I. before, except for the one song I did with Dave Grohl for his Probot project. D.R.I. was my first band, so I thought it would be fun to jump in there and try something else out.
We have other songs recorded already. In fact, we kept some of the better songs off of the first disc. We’re hoping to put out a full-length album or another EP by February of next year.
Tell me how “Spell It Out” came together. To me, it sounds like the world’s first text-message break-up song.
[Laughs] No, that was actually kind of weird, because I originally had different lyrics to that song right up until we went into the studio. I just hated the lyrics I had; I didn’t think the song sounded good at all. I was struggling to find something else, and I just sat there listening to the music over and over again, and it just emerged in my mind as a letter thing instead of a word thing. I jotted it down and presented it to the guys. It fit really well, with only a few minor tweaks, and that was it.
Are you ever afraid of screwing that song up live, because of the way the lyrics run?
I have actually screwed it up before, but we’ve practiced it more than any of the other songs, so now I never mess it up. It was really tough for me at first.
And it turned into a fun little game you played with the fans, forcing them to grab a pen and paper to figure out exactly what you’re saying.
[Laughs] Yeah, but I was wondering afterwards, “Why do I challenge myself and write these song lyrics that are impossible to remember or perform live?” But I guess I just enjoy the challenge. There’s one song on the CD that’s all in Italian. And that seems like one that I would really mess up on, but somehow, I’ve never messed it up. It always surprises me that I’m able to remember it.
With such a spontaneous, raw sound, are any of the songs based on inside jokes?
Well, the song “100 Beers with a Zombie” is based on our roadie, whose name is Zombie Ray. Our guitar player once stayed at his house in Pasadena and drank an amazing amount of beer and was really hungover the next day. He drank “100 Beers with Zombie” Ray.
And I’ve done it a couple times, too. That’s just what happens when you go over to Zombie Ray’s house. He’s got this big table out in the front yard, and by the end of the barbecue, it’s completely full of empty beer cans and everybody passes out on the couch…good times.
What were the D.R.I. guys’ reactions to the PND project?
They thought it sounded pretty good. They were surprised. [Laughs]
What is it about punk-infused metal that keeps it so close to your heart?
Oh, it’s because I like metal but I can’t sing. [Laughs] So when I sing a metal song, it always comes out sounding like punk rock vocals over metal, which makes for a nice crossover deal.
After all these years patrolling the trenches of the underground, what is your motivation to keep going?
Making people happy and not wanting to get a regular job. When Spike (guitarist from D.R.I.) was sick, we had to take a few years off and get a couple straight jobs for a while. I can do it, but just like anybody else, I don’t like it. I’d rather be on stage, travel around and meet people.
Do you have any theories about why this style of gritty crossover metal still holds a strong place in people’s hearts and why it is re-emerging in many contemporary metal bands?
That’s the kind of music that I always liked, so it doesn’t surprise me that other people are now starting to like it. I don’t know; it is kind of weird. When we started out, we wanted to be faster and harder than the other punk bands at the time, and I think we succeeded at that for a while. But then, other bands started cropping up that wanted to be faster and more extreme than D.R.I. And then a lot of the vocal styles changed things, with grindcore and death metal.
But it seems like you can only go so far before people start backing off and shift back down into a lower gear. And I think that’s what a lot of people have done. Either that or they are just going back to their roots. Say the first band you loved happened to be a grindcore band. Eventually, I would hope that you would become interested in how that sound evolved – what their roots were and what their favorite bands were. It’s almost like historical research.
The other thing that is weird happens when we play all-ages shows. We see parents bringing their kids, who are 10-12 years old. And it’s something we never fathomed would ever happen – that they would turn their kids onto it and that they would actually like it. I mean, in my generation, I would have NEVER liked my parents’ music.
But I guess because our generation listens to “cool” music, their kids instantly adapt to it and like it. I can’t imagine a kid saying, “No dad, I don’t wanna go thrash in the pit and stage-dive!” [Laughs] The kids are all over it; they’re singing all the lyrics and everything. It’s like there is a whole new generation of kids getting into this kind of music, and they were guided to it by their parents.
Interview link:
http://www.examiner.com/heavy-metal-in- ... m-divisionPasadena Napalm Division links:
Website:
http://pndrocks.com/Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/pasadenanapalmdivisionFacebook:
http://www.facebook.com/PasadenaNapalmDivisionAbyss Records links:
Online Label & Online Music Store:
http://www.officialabyssrecords.comMyspace:
http://www.myspace.com/abyssrecordsofficialFacebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Abyss-Rec ... 3050232055Other links:
To purchase PASADENA NAPALM DIVISION - P.N.D. EP CD and other P.N.D. merchandise go to:
http://www.officialabyssrecords.com/adv ... s=pasadenaTo preview a song go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IstqPmF_kE4