Recent news

Nate (Banner Pilot)

SPB: What is the hardest thing about touring in foreign countries? Last year (2 years ago?) you played in Russia…

Nate: I'm having a hard time answering this. Touring foreign countries is easy! I find it to be much easier than touring the States. You have someone driving for you, the language barrier is never that bad, they have a place set up for you to stay every night, the shows are incredible, the people are friendly...hell, I was going to say it's a little tricky being a vegetarian but then I remembered that half the shows *cook (awesome) vegan food for you*. 

I guess if I had to pick something, it would be the upfront prep work. Once you get there, it's great-- maybe we've been lucky, or maybe that's the norm, I don't know. But nothing really "bad" has happened to us. But it takes a lot longer, and requires more work, to get the whole thing set up than if you were just doing some dates in the US. I mean, in order to get into Russia we had to mail our passports to some place, and hope that they would send them back. Iowa never makes us do stuff like that.

These are minor things, though. Really, the hardest thing about touring foreign countries is coming home. (See what I did there?)

Chris Reifert (Autopsy/Violation Wound)

SPB: What’s the best movie you’ve seen this year?

Chris: The best movie ever made is The Dark Backward. It didn't come out this year, nor did I see it for the first time this year. But mark my words, it's warped, dark, weird and I love the hell out of it! A total fave for the ages.

Al Jourgensen (Ministry)

SPB: Is there a sample you’ve tried to get the rights to use but were denied?

Al: ALL OF THEM.... Just kidding. Actually the biggest sample pain in the ass was on Houses of the Molé with the use of Carmina Burana on “No W.” It was a nightmare. We'd reached out to the publisher via Sanctuary's contacts and had gotten an initial okay, but then the record came out and all of a sudden the publisher sent a Cease and Desist letter to Sanctuary about the sample after 30,000 units had been pressed. I had to go back in the studio and re-do the track and a second pressing was made. Then I found out later, it was ‘cause Capital One wanted an exclusive on the use of Carmina Burana and you KNOW they were paying the big bucks. And that fucking Capital One commercial played over and over. Every time I turned on the TV it was that Capital One commercial with Carmina Burana.

Clint (Organized Crime Records)

SPB: How much space in your house is dedicated to music storage (albums or instruments)?

Clint: I would say that overall about 60% of my place is consumed with music. I have been a long time avid collector.

Funny thing: I am dealing with music storage issues right now. Having a label means there are always boxes of records around which can make one feel very claustrophobic. I think that over the years I have been able to get that aspect under control. My biggest problem is housing my personal collection. I wanted to have some shelves made up to better fit in my place but the quotes came in at utterly absurd amounts. So my father, the mad genius that he is, came up with making shelves out of electrical conduit. So over the last few weekends we have been making it up and it has been a lot of fun. I hope to have it done over 4^th of July weekend. I have to thank my father. Instead of his response being [that] I could get rid of records he came up with a very cool plan. Thanks Dad.