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Interview With Phil Rind of
Sacred Reich
at the London Scala on the 29th of July 2007 By Marco Gaminara
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I was privileged enough to get to interview Phil
Rind backstage at the London Scala 2 hours before their first show of
their four show European tour, culminating at Wacken on the 4th of
August.
After brief introductions we basically sat down and chatted, as my
main line of questioning had hit a Nicaraguan mine by the fourth
question.
I suppose I have a couple questions, it’s
obviously been quite some time since you’ve played London, so are you
looking forward to tonight?
Yes, quite a bit. I think it’ll be a lot of fun.
As I said, it’s been a while since you’ve done
anything, what have you guys been doing for the last 8-10 years?
Nothing.
Nothing?
Yup. Wiley’s been jamming with his band The Human Condition. Greg’s
played with a few bands…. Just working, just working and supporting my
family.
Yeah, I know that one. So you guys gonna record
anything new after touring?
No. We’re just getting together to play a few shows….
20th anniversary.
have some fun and go home.
Nothing planned for the future at all?
No plans at all…. Nothing… Absolutely nothing….
Cool, so that kills the rest of the questions
that I had, like are you going to continue having a political nature
to the lyrics and …
No, no, we’re not gonna do anything.Fair
enough.
And I like it that way.
No pressure, just go out and have fun.
Yip, enjoy it and realise that we know that nothing is going on. So we
really appreciate these 4 shows. Because, I’m not writing a record.
We’re not making a record. We’re probably not gonna be playing any
other shows. Who knows, maybe in 2 years someone might go “Listen I
have this deal and you guys can go to Greece and Italy and all these
cool places and we’ll pay for it, and all you gotta do is turn up and
play.” and we might go “That sounds good”. But I wouldn’t hold my
breath for it, if you know what I mean. Cos I don’t think those offers
are really coming. (Laughs) But if they do I’ll listen, but I don’t
think they’re happening. And it’s hard, we all have jobs and families
and it’s hard to get away. You work at a job in the States and you two
weeks off in a year. It’s not like in Europe where you get a month
off. |
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25 days.
Yeah, we don’t get that.
Wiley just got a pretty serious job. I just got a pretty
serious job. You know it’s like, “Guess what? That’s the
one that pays the bills, that takes care of my family.”
and when I leave it’s not like the work goes away it
just piles up until I get back. So I don’t have the
luxury of doing this. When we were in the band, we were
in the band and that was it. It was all we ever did. But
it takes too much energy to do that on top of everything
else that’s going on. Life’s too busy… Life’s different
now, you know.
Yeah, definitely. Like many things
have definitely changed over the last 20 years.
Oh yeah. It’s okay, it’s good. It’s gotta change. If it
stayed the same it would be very boring.
You know, it’s like I said, we wanna have fun, we wanna
play, have a good time and enjoy our company and enjoy
the people that come and …As
soon as it stops being fun, it starts becoming hard
work. |
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Well… It’s funny when I was sitting somewhere in Iowa and
it was like the last place I wanted to be. I didn’t want
to be sound checking. I didn’t want to play that night.
Yeah it’s fucking job. I mean, everybody comes to that
realisation when you’re in a band you do it for all…
whatever… I’m sure there’s guys that get in bands cos they
wanna get chicks. I’m sure there’s guys that get in bands
cos they wanna be famous or there’s guys that get in bands
cos they wanna get drugs or you know, whatever. But if you
get in a band cos you just wanna play music and stuff,
then it seems like it’ll be fun, well that’s cool, but one
day the reality is… when you’ve played 20 shows in a row
and you don’t wanna fucking be there or you don’t wanna,
you know, whatever it is. You don’t wanna sign the
contract or the people are fucking assholes, or whatever
it is. And you realise “Hey! This is a job”. Just like any
other job. There’s great things about it and there’s
fucking horrible things about it. And usually the better
things are, the higher things are, the worse things are
too. You know. I learnt that by watching Jason, when he
was in Metallica. You know, that’s the pinnacle, that’s as
big as you fucking get. And the good stuff is rather
obvious. You know, but talking to him there’s a lot of
other stuff that people never think about too. He goes
“Think about being on tour for a year and a half.” He goes
“Even when you’re travelling on a private jet, staying in
5 star hotels.” You know, how hard can it be? But
travelling’s still fucking hard. And playing all those
shows every week is still hard. And he goes “That kid,
wherever he is, in Iowa or Baton Rouge or New Mexico.
That’s his one opportunity to see you. If you got a cold,
or you don’t feel good, you don’t wanna be there. It don’t
fucking matter. Cos that’s his chance to see you and you
can’t let him down.” It’s a lot of pressure every fucking
night. A LOT. And I bet that standing on stage in front of
20 thousand people will make you forget a lot of these
little ills. You know, getting the energy back from the
crowd, but still man, it’s a grind.
Especially after the show.
I’m telling you it’s a grind. For a year and a half? To be
on the road?
Three weeks doesn’t seem so much
now.
Yeah. I’m telling your. A year and a half. They were
getting ready, I was hanging out with them, they were
getting ready to go on tour, I think it was for “…And
Justice For All”. And I went up to his house in San
Francisco and they played that Day on the Green at Oakland
Stadium, the next day he had to leave for Australia to do
interviews. I go “Don’t they know there’s a thing called a
phone? You can just fucking call me and I don’t have to
fly half way around the world.” “That’s the way it is,” he
goes, “I’d like nothing more than to sit on my couch for 2
weeks and do phoners, but I gotta go to Australia and then
we’re going to Michigan for rehearsals then I’m on the
road for 18 months… Solid.” Then he goes “Dude, I haven’t
had more than 2 weeks off in 13 years… At once.” You know
that’s crazy, and that’s the biggest band in the fucking
world. So I was like “Wow dude.” Is that what we’re all
working towards, to hopefully get like that? That’s like
being in the middle of a fucking tornado, just barely
holding on.
So that’s a very good point, what
we’re striving to do is be what we see on TV, like the big
bands are always on stage, always touring. And if we had
to get up there, it would probably kill most of us.
Well that’s why most people don’t make it. Or if they get
that big, a lot of people spin out. Because there’s
nothing in your life that’s ever going to prepare you for
that. You know what I mean. A lotta times, you look at
someone like Kurt Cobain, or like, you know or if look at
people that are really like artistic types, and they’re
super sensitive. They don’t have that coping mechanism, if
you know what I mean and they're just kinda out there and
they’re open. And... And they just get fucking torn apart
man. They can’t fucking take it. People turn to drugs and
… I can’t imagine being that big and not know who your
friends are and everyone wants to be around you and it’s
just a whole fucking mess. A celebrity. I would hate to be
that fucking famous, like that. It must be awful dude.
Rich. I’m with you. Famous. Fuck that!
I’d rather be rich than famous.
Yeah, famous is a drag. I mean imagine being someone like
Madonna or Arnold Schwarzenegger. Or like real mainstream
fame, where everywhere you fucking go people look at you
like a monkey in a cage. Argh. The fucking worst! That’ll
be the worst. That’s my ultimate nightmare. Just, just
leave me the fuck alone.
Not being able to get up in the
morning and just…
Yeah, and people, there’s people, photographers, you know,
outside your house waiting… It’s retarded. Leave those
kind of people alone. Why does anyone care? Do we care
because people make us care? Or do we care and that’s why
people take the pictures?
I don’t know, that’s a very good
point. It seems like we’re becoming a society of voyeurs
where …
Reality shows. |
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People are more interested in what
the hell other people are doing than living their own
lives and doing their own things. It’s more interesting
to sit at home, watch a box, watch people interacting,
instead of going out and doing it ourselves.
Yeah and is it because that’s what we’re being fed? Or
is that because that’s what we really want? I dunno. I
wish I knew the answer. I think it’s probably a little
of both. People… it’s the same reason why people when
they see a car accident they slow down. They can’t help
it. You wanna see bad shit. I had a teacher and he told
me, he goes “You know, a lot of the times when something
bad happens to someone. Inside we’re secretly a little
happy. Because we think there’s a limited amount of bad
things that can happen and if it happens to someone else
it lessens our chance. And when something good happens
to someone, then secretly we’re a little jealous cos
there’s only a limited amount of good things that can
happen, and if it happens to you then it might not
happen to me.” That’s just not true. There’s no limit to
the bad things that can happen and there’s no limit to
the good things that can happen. So there’s no reason to
feel good or bad either way. When things happen. But
that’s how our nature is. But that’s not how our true
nature is. It’s how we understand but not how it really
is. And we misunderstand a lot of things. That’s the way
it is. |
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Cool. Well, to just wrap things
up, what are the 31 Flavours of 2007?
Oh, I dunno. What do you mean?
What are you listening to these
days? That sort of thing.
Muse… A lot of Muse. Muse, U2, Amy Winehouse. What else?
Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin, Beatles… Yeah pretty much...
Bad Brains, oh yeah, a lot of Bad Brains. That’s pretty
much it. You know. Whatever.
Whatever you enjoy.
Yeah, I like Muse a lot. Like one of my most favourite
band for the last 10 years. I just think they are
incredible. I like what they do. Like Amy Winehouse,
she’s got a wonderful voice. Cool man. She’s got a great
voice. A lot of singers with good voices, like over
sing, she’s got a ready good vibe. I know she’s kinda a
mess, a kinda celebrity in a bad way here. You know, but
I dunno if it’s her fault once again or the people…
Around her…
Yeah, you know. But I don’t give a fuck about any of
that I just like the music. It’s the same thing with the
whole Metallica thing where people are like “They sold
out”. I’m like “Did you ever meet James Hetfield?” “No”
“Do you think that guy, I have, that guy isn’t doing
anything cos he thinks he’s going to make money off it.
He’s doing what he wants to do. If you don’t like it,
just say you don’t like it. But don’t question people’s
motives.” Some guy was trying to tell me that, you know
with all the older bands that are getting together, that
there’s some thing that people “oh they’re just trying
to make money to pay their tax bills” or whatever or
something retarded. Like I can’t believe anyone would
even say that in the first place. It’s just stupid.
Yeah, like most of those bands,
especially the whole Bay Area scene, they seem to have
scattered and done other things and then come back
together to reform bands that they were in in the 80’s.
And then they’ve gone back out and carried on, as they
are still in music or…
I don’t think anybody’s doing that shit for the money. I
think people are doing it because there’s an opportunity
and it’s just fun man. It was probably the best time of
their fucking lives and if you get an opportunity to do
that again, then you fucking do it. You know.
Yeah, and thank you very much.
Then Will of Metalblade piped up
as we all got up and starting walking out of the green
room:
There’s a lot of new thrash
bands coming out. People are getting interested in the
music. And then everyone’s “Oh I was into Thrash Metal
when I was younger” and they want to see it again.
Right.
Loads of my friends are coming
out tonight. Had a barbeque yesterday, all-thrash
barbeque.
Oh really? That’ll be interesting.
It’s great that Municipal Waste
do that. They’re really popular and they’re doing it
that old school way of being in a band for 300 days a
year. Playing anywhere that’ll have ‘em.
Yeah, they wrote me and said “we should do a split 7”.”
I’m like “That would be fun”.
That would, you should do
something like that.
I’d love to but we just don’t have anything to put on
there. But if we record something at Wacken, they should
put one song from their Wacken set and we should put 1
song from our Wacken set. Yeah, a split 7” is so
fucking… how punk rock of you? Let’s do it.
Do it.
I’m totally in. I’ll talk to those guys.
Yeah, they’re fucking amazing
man.
Yeah, they seem real nice.
At this point I turned off my
recording device and we chatted a little more about
enjoying the rest of the tour and tonight’s show. I
helped them stash their beer out of sight so that it
wouldn’t be finished before they got to drink it after
the show. I then wandered off to find a spot to watch
the gig and you can read all about that in the Live
Reviews Section.
www.metalblade.de/index.php?mod=artists&page=detail&id=106
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