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Interview
by SashaS
20-4-2005
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More on: American Head Charge
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| American Head Charge (pix: Slipknot #6) |
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Roiling ahead
American Heads Charge: Bryon Ottoson RIP
It is time for the sophomore helping, ‘The Feeding’ - your frustration, anger, rage, sense/lack of freedom, rebellious spirit with a primal, basic howl, mass of powerful sounds and riffs to give you an extra parting, at times darker than a Goth’s attire! The album arrives after a two-year-hiatus during which the band had to deal with a bunch of issues.
We round up guitarist Bryon Ottoson and keyboard manipulator Justin Fowler to fill in the missing period and bring us up to date on the outfit whose personnel includes vocalist Martin Cock, bassist Mr H. C. Banks III (bass), guitarist Karma Cheema and drummer Chris Emery.
“The main thing was that we had a basic problem with the American (label),” Fowler starts explaining, “we were writing bunches and bunches of songs but the label didn’t like the music we were making. We believed in our songs…”
“For some reason,” Ottoson interjects, “we stopped being a priority. They‘d give us this vague comments a lot of members took wrongly, negatively. We had to look for another deal.”
“During that period, of about 1½ years,” Fowler adds almost casually, “we all developed reasons to go into dark places and found ourselves with a lot of problems.”
“At this point, to all of us,” Ottoson continues, “is the thing in the past but we all had to leave through dark periods and it is this band that has kept us vital, it made us live again. But, for a while, there was a lot of crap going on.”
Isolated reloading
Perhaps not unusual as the origin of the band is not a typical place: the Minneapolis-based industrial metallists came into being after singer [then known as Cameron Heacock] and Chad Hanks [now known as Mr. H.C. B. III) crossed paths in a Minnesota rehab facility just over nine years ago. Following their debut album ‘The War of Art’ (2001), the band became known for their destructiveness on and off stage, in particular during that year’s OzzFest trek.
The AHC rap sheet - inclusive of getting into bloody brawls with their fans, smashing equipment they couldn’t afford to replace, reacquainting themselves with hard drugs and occasionally being locked up by the enraged pigs of law and augmented by firing shotguns onstage and throwing pigheads at the crowds - obscured the fact that these free spirits play the balls out of their instruments to produce brutally potent music of singular trait. Alas, via scaled-down shows from now on, no more effects to divert from the main point - the mighty sound of their music.
Still, such rueful period - that ended with Rick Ruben letting them get off the label without much fuss, to the AHC’s eternal gratitude - informed, infused and fuelled the new songs.
“Oh yeah, there was a lot of venom brewing among the members,” Ottoson confirms, “but it let us vent some grievances… It’s not a dark, an angry record but it is…”
“… Powerful and about relationships in the band,” Fowler continues, “and some other s**t but it is mainly about the state of our minds at the time. It is brutal, it is anthemic but also melodic…”
Sonic forays
There is a line in ‘Walk Away’ that perfectly encapsulates this tormented period that reinvigorated the band: “We’re dirty and hungry and bitter and tired and broke and bruised and battered,” and that should tell anyone about the band’s emotional make-up. They spill blood, sweat and guts over an album but is there a reason as new technology brings focus to one song rather than albums.
“Yes, it appears to be the trend right now,” Ottoson sighs, “but I don’t believe it would kill albums… I think there are different kinds of listeners out there and the ones who are one song listeners would buy just the one song but the rest would like to get the whole album. I heard stories that downloads would influence sales negatively but also positively, so I can’t make my mind up… Of course you can go out and record some piece of music on your computer but there’s something to say about a professionally made piece of music.”
‘Just So You Know’ and ‘Loyalty’ [the next single, due out on 21 March] are immense ass-kickers and testosterone-renovators on the album released on the Valentine’s Day. Appropriate gift for one’s girlfriend?
“It depends on your partner,” Fowler considers the matter seriously, “but I’d definitely say it ain’t a Valentine’s record. It is just a coincidence, it was supposed to come out last October. We finished recording the album last August and were due to support it with a Motorhead tour but Lemmy had some medical issues and had to fly back to England… We thought that without it, and just before Christmas, it wasn’t worth releasing the record and postponed the album‘s release.”
“We had very bad luck with ‘The Art’,” Ottoson remembers bitterly, “it came out 13 days after 9/11 and everything that wasn’t bland, non-offensive and poppy, got taken off the shelves and playlists. We could play live as much as we wanted but there was no way to get our music to a wider audience. We are part of an underground thing effort…”
Mr. Banks described his band’s dynamic as “a constant battle between Order and Chaos” and, fortunately for us, the latter lost the duel…
~
Tour dates:
19 March - Cavern, Exeter
20 March - Garage or Mean Fiddler, London
21 March - Wedgwood, Portsmouth
22 March - University, Liverpool
23 March - Barfly, London
25 March - Corporation, Sheffield
26 March - Civic, Wolverhampton
27 March - King Tuts, Glasgow
[Original publishing date: 14 February 2005]
SashaS
20-4-2005
American Head Charge album ‘The Feeding’ is released 14 February 2004 by Nitrus/DRT
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