2010-01-26
A guy who goes by the pseudonym "Gunface" carries a mighty mustache as an ornamental and whose music bears cryptic song titles reminiscent of 4chan memes, it's pretty difficult to see the serious musician, so the joke's on me when Mike "Gunface"McKenzie would rather discuss his amps and weird phobias than mustaches.
– No no, I’m not the one with the big mustache. It’s our bass player (Greg Weeks), I have just a little one.
Okay, my first question about the scandalously funny Youtube clip where Greg raps about his mustache gets a rather embarrassing answer, but to my comfort Mike just laughs.
– It's okay, but we could we perhaps discuss some more serious issues?
Your word is my command.
You only need to spend a few seconds with any album by The Red Chord to realize that it is some of the most technical music you've ever heard. For beginners, it can sound more reminiscent of a boar that’s being sexually assaulted by wheat thrasher, so how would you summarize The Red Chord with one sentence?
– Wow. This was really hard ... I would almost say that The Red Chord is really loud, fast and obnoxious. But, like, we play what we want to hear, so one can only assume that we have horrible taste and pretty strange ideas, but you have to think about what it is you really enjoy. It would never occur to me to play something I don’t like when music, especially metal, has been such a huge part of my life since I was nine years old.
Calling Mike something else than a dedicated metalhead would be pure folly, but in these Internet times, where bands can throw up a song on Myspace and get a record deal and one hundred thousand friends after a couple of days many of members of the metal community has decided to take a huge distance from everything that is popular and mainstream. Mike, however, is not of these people. – If you are trying to bundle me together with this group of people so I have to say that you are wrong, I'm a member in a popular band, and couldn’t give less of a piss about how many fans a band has. Iron Maiden and Voivod 's at least as good now as they were twenty years ago. However, I have a big problem with these "Myspace bands” that you mentioned, if you don’t have any passion about what you do, why even bother to do it? Groups like BrokenCYDE and ...
I fill in with the Ohio group, Attack Attack!, and I hear a deep sigh in the other end of the line.
– You hit the nail on the head.
Mike almost sounds depressed.
– It's really the bottom of the barrel, the music world’s black holes, the members can’t like what they are doing, it's physically impossible and I hate to see bands like this make music at all.
His feelings are definitely answered; I would advise anyone who is not already initiated into the world of Attack Attack! to click onto Youtube and endure their video "Stick Stickly" and carefully examine the members choreography.
– But… I have some sympathy for them. It’s not like these kinds of bands started out now. There have always been people who have been in it for money, sex and drugs. So I can’t exactly say that Attack Attack! are a pioneer of soulless and shitty music.
Don’t you think that your own intensive music listening may have influenced how you feel? A lot of people like this music, so they must be doing something right.
– I'm definitely a music snob, I reacted to grunge and nu metal the exact same way I reacted to Attack Attack!. But, who knows? I’m probably getting old, he laughs.
On "Fed Through the Teeth Machine" (2009) Mike has been the most active member. He has recorded all the guitar tracks by himself since the bands former guitarist Johnny Fay decided to leave the group. And he has also written several songs himself.
– To record the guitars wasn’t so hard, it felt awesome to have such control over the music and the fact to get the riffs and solos just the way you want them, he says cozily.
– However, it’s another story live. We have often been forced to use playback on the rhythm sections, but we have also experimented with having multiple amplifiers and echo-pedals.
This is only a temporary solution, though.
– I am, as I said, starting to get old, he giggles. We will definitely find a replacement until the next album, this is fun, but such a fucking hard job.
Mike continues and states that it’s always fun to be a bit cryptic, to see all the different interpretations of the lyrics because people may be one million light years away from what they’re really about. Something that’s certainly entertaining, according to Mike. The Red Chords’ lyrics in general, tend to be on a personal level, and Mike himself acknowledges, and reveals what one of his songs is about.
– The songs I've written are "Embarrassment Legacy", "Demoralizer" and "Mouthful of Precious Stones". "Stones" is about ... Well, myself. It is a parody of a ridiculous fear I have, namely oral hygiene. It's a bit embarrassing and weird, but it really just disgusts the shit out of me.
So after two decades of active metal listening, where subjects such as necrophilia, rape and murder are discussed, my interview victim is more afraid of the stuff you’ve had in your mouth.
– I don’t really know what you expected, he giggles. I'm just an ordinary average Joes who likes to drink a cold beer and watch Discovery Channel.
– The fact is that we actually got the title of the latest album from a program on Discovery Channel.
Really?
– Yeah! It was that program "How Do They Do It?", they have this machine called teeth machine which is designed to fix zippers so that they have those teeth-shaped things.
The expression “more than meets the eye” has probably never been more appropriate than in this particular occasion.
Current line-up:
Guy Kozowyk – Vocals
Mike "Gunface" McKenzie – Guitar
Gregory Weeks – Bass
Brad Fickeisen – Drums
Discography:
2009: Fed Through the Teeth Machine
2007: Prey for Eyes
2005: Clients
2002: Fused Together in Revolving Doors
Sam Nordmark
Photo: Jan Wuytack
