Chapter Sixty-Two
Metal Psychos Magazine, Feb. 2005
Skot Stover has made a name for himself as the newest link in the evolution of metal music. The only problem is, nobody else knows it. "It's frustrating," he says, "like, everyone else gets all this attention. When is someone gonna give me some money?"
After a couple of self made albums, (1995's "Ten Faces" and 2002's "Windows To The Soul") and a few band ventures, (Explicit Form 1991-1993, M.O.E. 1993-1995, Krystal Cage 1997-1998 and Thinskull which was stillborn in 2002) Skot has just released "Metal For Idiots", a twelve song tour de force featuring such pummeling tunes as "The Plastic Ones", "Too Much Fuel" and "Last Revolution" with enough melody to go around. "I wanted the songs to be heavy enough that you could really jam out to them, but melodic enough you could whistle them while walking around in Kmart."
Some authors write under pseudonyms, such as Stephen King's stint as Richard Bachman back in the 80s. Musicians do it themselves. None of the Ramones was really a Ramone. However, we don't know of too many bands that have imaginary members. Skot's new band is one of them. He insists though, that that they are not entirely nonexistent, but are rather like an extension of himself. There's Jubil Foster, the lead guitarist, who talks like Ernest T. Bass from the Andy Griffith Show and cites one of his main inspirations as his guitar. Then there's Hester Freeman on bass guitar. Hester's a pretty normal kind of guy, laid back and reserved. He doesn't say much, but what he does say makes no sense. The drummer, Huey Packard only beeps once in a while and sits through most of the interview with a blank stare. "He doesn't have much in the way of personality," says Skot, "but he's the best drummer I've ever worked with."
Metal Psychos recently sat down one-on-one with Skot and his imaginary band members to discuss their individual roles on "Metal For Idiots". Here's what they had to say.
The Mastermind
METAL PSYCHOS: So, how did this project come about?
SKOT STOVER: Well, in September of 2004 I was looking into finding a decent drum program on the net, but they all sounded so fake until I found one that uses real drum samples instead of synthesized sounds. It only cost me $50 and it is so versatile and fully programmable. Then I needed a multi-track recording program that didn't cost $600 and I found the Audacity program for free. Some guy started it as a school project then made it available to the public. Other people started messing with it and adding features to it over a couple of years, and now it does pretty much the same thing as ProTools or whatever. Up until that point, I had been using an old Tascam 4 track that has seen much better days and everything sounded like shit. I recorded "Windows" with that thing, and once I got the new programs, I considered re-recording the whole thing. I did "Windows To The Soul" and "Last Revolution" and I decided I wanted to do other songs I hadn't recorded already. So that's why those two songs are on both CDs.
MP: Where did the other stuff come from?
SS: There's one of mine on there that's almost 9 years old. "Town" was written right after I moved away from home in 1996, and I never got a full band recording of it, so I finally did.
MP: I like that one.
SS: Thanks. I think it could be the 'radio hit' of the CD. 'The Plastic Ones" started out in '99 as a song called "PainDotCom", but I never wrote any lyrics other than the choruses. Then back in probably last November, my wife and I were watching a show on Mtv about these people who were getting plastic surgery to look like famous people. It's completely ludicrous. Why not write a song about it? (laughs). "Too Much Fuel" has been around since at least 1997. I saw a list of song titles my friend Robert had come up with, and that was one of them. At that time, there was a lot of music and stuff about fuel. Anthrax had a song called "Fuelled", Corrosion of Conformity had a song called "Fuel", Metallica had a song called "Fuel" and there was even a band called Fuel. I mean, good god! Nobody strike a match! (laughs) So that title, at least for me, says two things: There's too much 'fuel' around here and I've got so much energy and nothing to do with it, and that's what the song is about.
MP: That song has such a cool drive to it. It's like your accelerator pedal is stuck and there's only a tanker truck there to stop you.
SS: Yeah! WAY too much fuel! (laughs) "Stupid Human" is a song that I played with Robert in M.O.E., and I recorded it initially to show him how kick ass this software is, and that we didn't need anyone else but me and him to make music. I'm tired of drummers! (laughs)
MP: You mention your disenchantment with drummers in "Givin' Up". Was that you yelling 'I kick ass, dude!'?
SS: Yeah, that was me imitating a drummer. I like Huey though. He doesn't say much. He beeps and shit.
MP: There are some funny lyrics in that song. Any truth to them?
SS: Yeah, exaggerated as they may be. I hate radio and Mtv. You work every day to make money and it's gone to bills before you can even see how much you made. There have been all of these wars and stuff, like both World Wars were basically started by Germany, who thought that they, being white, were the superior race. That thinking really hasn't changed for a lot of people. I wanted to make it lighthearted though, so that's where the humor comes in. Besides, there's a fart in there. How seriously can you take that? (laughs)
MP: That one's also more straightforward rock than the others.
SS: Yep. I had been listening to The Donnas' 'Spend The Night' and I wanted something along those lines, just pure rock. So I just started jamming out and that's what happened. The most ironic thing is, that I normally dislike, and sometimes even hate 12-bar blues. After I wrote it and was listening back to it, I realized that's exactly what it is.
MP: What is "Call It Crucified" about? Anyone in particular?
SS: No, not really. I mean, everyone goes through a time in their lives where they feel like everyone is persecuting them, so the lyrics to me seem personal and universal as well. If I dug deep enough, I could probably find someone to dedicate it to, but the "I" in this song is just a character.
MP: Is that the case with "Nightmares" as well?
SS: Yes. I don't have nightmares. I usually dream about sex! (laughs) It's basically about this guy who is obsessed with insanity and death, which I am not. Most of the lyrics have been around for years, and they happened to fit in with what I had already written specifically for the song.
MP: What made you decide to cover Van Halen's "I'll Wait"?
SS: It's always been one of my favorite Van Halen songs. It has the groove, cool chords, and the subject matter is universal. I mean, what guy has never become infatuated with some girl in a magazine? Besides, it's one of the only VH solos that Jubil can play! (laughs)
MP: The song I've really wanted to ask you about is "Something Wicked". I love the dynamics in that song, how it goes from soft to heavy and back, then ends up in psycho-metal mode.
SS: That is, hands down, the most orchestrated thing I've ever done. Most of the songs have nine, maybe ten tracks, and this one has like, fifteen. You've got the clean guitars, then in the choruses there are four or five heavy guitars including one with a low B to give it more balls and another clean one with an octave doubler on it that makes it sound like a 12-string. I think the solo at the end is one of Jubil's best solos. Overall, it's one of my favorites on the CD.
MP: And it has a fart on it too.
SS: Yep. I wrote it so it would sound like it was about something really evil and vile coming to get you. It's all leading up to that golden moment at the end when the song stops and the fart happens. And I got the idea to tack on Mr. Slave from South Park saying "Oh, Jesusth Christh!" and I laugh my ass off every time.
MP: I knew I'd heard that somewhere!!
SS: It's one of my favorite South Park lines, next to Cartman's "Screw you guys. I'm goin' home!"
MP: There is one instrumental on here called "Battalions".
SS: Yeah. I wish now I'd done more with it, like putting marching in it or gunfire. Something to liven it up a bit. It's probably my least favorite at this point. It would be a better concert intro track than a CD track, ya know? Lights go down, roll intro tape of "Battalions" , then when the song ends. launch into something heavy like "The Plastic Ones" or "Too Much Fuel".
MP: What kind of equipment do you use?
SS: Guitar-wise, my main axe is an Ibanez RG370DX. I love that thing. Great sound, low action, floating tremolo. Sharktooth inlays. I have a couple others. One of them is an old Hondo that a friend of mine gave me a few years back. It was a black and white Strat copy. I threw in a humbucker, made a new pickguard, cut a handle in it like an Ibanez Jem, and routed it for a Floyd Rose. I gave it a swirled paint job and re-christened it "Rock Block Custom" Rockberry Swirl! (laughs) Then there's one I call TS2. It's basically a Rock Block Custom now. The only thing original about it is the holes where the neck bolts on! (laughs) It looks like a skull. It has the word "THINSKULL" inlaid on the fretboard. One humbucker, one knob. It's about as simple as you can get. I have a low B on that one. It's still a 6 string, tuned BEADF#B.
Effects-wise, I use a Zoom 606. You can get some killer sounds out of that thing.
MP: How long did the CD take to record?
SS: A little over two months.
MP: That's all?
SS: Yeah. Most of the songs I already knew exactly what I wanted, so I didn't have to do a whole lot of experimenting and shit once I got my sound dialed in. It probably would have been done sooner, but I like to have the house to myself when I sing because I get self conscious if there's anyone around. So the vocals took awhile.
MP: How do you write?
SS: Well, my songs are usually a pretty basic formula. I have a pretty short attention span when it comes to music, so if a song kinda wanders off for five minutes in the middle, I lose interest. Tool is a perfect example. Don't get me wrong, I like them and think they are fantastic musicians, but sometimes they just go off on a tangent and by the time they get back to the main song again, I don't give a shit anymore. It's cool live, but otherwise, I don't like that.
MP: It's kind of like overcompensation.
SS: Well, no. It's more like rather than have a song with two or three good riffs in it, people try to jam ten riffs in a song. It ends up being fifteen minutes long and you've lost me.
MP: Have you ever tried that?
SS: Yeah, a long time ago. I had this idea for a song that was going to be this epic story of a group of people going to hell to kill Satan. It was going to have all these parts and chapters. I wanted it to be like, thirty minutes long. So I started writing and had some lyrics and five or six different parts, which ended up amounting to about six minutes. I got bored with it and never finished it. If I get bored with my own shit, how the hell can I expect anyone else to like it
MP: Who are your favorite bands?
SS: My all time faves are Black Sabbath, Metallica and the Beatles.
MP: The Beatles?
SS: Hell yeah! They were so innovative, man! They made around fourteen albums in eight years, and every one was completely different from the one before it. Plus, they didn't succumb to the Old Rock Band Syndrome where a band keeps going for 40 years and people only buy the music because it says Rolling Stones or AC/DC on it. I mean, ask any rock fan what their favorite AC/DC album is, and I'll be that ninety percent will say "Back in Black". Don't get me wrong though. It's a great album, but they've done that album about twenty times now. Ask people what their favorite Beatles album is, and they'll have a harder time deciding because they were all great and very different from each other.
MP: So what's your favorite Beatles album?
SS: Abbey Road. It was the last album they recorded, and in my opinion, they were at the absolute top of their game. They quit while they were ahead.
MP: When are you going to quit?
SS: Me? I'm just getting started.
The Stringmaster
METAL PSYCHOS: Jubil, what’s it like working with Skot?
JUBIL FOSTER: We’re almost like the same person. We think a lot alike. Usually, if I’m jamming out a solo, we’ll both know whether there’s anything there to keep or not.
MP: How do you write your solos?
JF: Well, if it’s a fast song, I play a fast solo. If it’s a slow song, I play a slow solo.
MP: Okay. Are you a technical, theory-based player?
JF: Naw. My only theory is if it sounds good, use it. I never got into scales and modes…unless it’s a la mode, but puttin’ ice cream on a guitar don’t work too well.
MP: Who are your main influences?
JF: Kirk Hammett used to be God to me. Now he’s more like Gabriel. He can still play a pretty mean guitar when he wants to. I really like Steve Vai, but I can’t play like him. That guy Robert that Skot used to play with has probably had more influence on me than anybody.
MP: What’s your favorite solo on “Metal For Idiots”?
JF: I’d have to say the one in “Something Wicked”.
MP: Skot mentioned that as one of his favorites too. Why is it yours?
JF: Because it’s got all kinds of lead guitarist type stuff in it. Bends, picking, sliding and tapping. And it’s got this note at the end where I was just sliding up and down the low E string and this pick harmonic happened and made this awesome squeal.
MP: I noticed that! It sounds like Zakk Wylde.
JF: It’s only ever happened that one time. I’ve never been able to do it since. I’m glad I was recording that take.
MP: Do you usually plan out your solos ahead of time?
JF: Sometimes I have an idea where I want to start and where I want to end up. Then I’ll play a few leads, decide what to keep and what to work on some more.
MP: Are there any done in one take?
JF: The one in “Call It Crucified” was one take. It was like an angel came and moved my hands for me. I don’t think it was Gabriel though. It might have been Harold. He’s pretty good too.
MP: Alrighty then…Do you write any of the riffs?
JF: I wrote the choruses of “Nightmares” and the bridge of “Last Revolution” is based on something I wrote. That’s about it though.
MP: Let’s talk about your sound. What guitars and effects do you use?
JF: I basically use the same stuff Skot does. I just add a little reverb and chorus for the solos and use a wah every once in a while. It’s all in that little Zoom 606. I use Ibanez guitars mostly. I just play whatever Skot has because I don’t have anything of my own. I’m a bum.
MP: There’s a good bit of harmony guitars on the CD. Is that just part of your style?
JF: That’s my Metallica/Corrosion of Conformity influence shining through right there. I’ll be the first to admit it. I loved the way the little guitar parts would weave around each other like on Metallica’s “…And Justice For All” and Corrosion’s “Deliverance”. Especially the song “Seven Days” which is awesome and gives me goose bumps. It’s very musical and I like musical music.
MP: As opposed to…?
JF: As opposed to all this crap where people just beat the shit out of their guitars with baseball bats while the vocalist is screaming his head off and there’s no melody. Either that or somebody takes an old song, puts a hip-hop beat on it and talks a hundred miles an hour. It’s all just noise to me.
MP: Any advice for other guitarists out there?
JF: Yeah. Don’t get stuck in somebody else’s head.
The Bassman
METAL PSYCHOS: Hester, how do you like working with Skot?
HESTER FREEMAN: He doesn’t pay me much, but I like the music.
MP: What about it do you like?
HF: It has groove and feeling. There’s not much guesswork as to what he’s trying to say with these songs.
MP: What’s he trying to say?
HF: I don’t know. I just play the bass, man! (laughs)
MP: What do you feel is your role in the group?
HF: Bass player.
MP: Besides bass player…
HF: Um…I, uh, help keep the band together…you know, that bass and drum foundation thing that everyone talks about. We kind of work ass-backwards in that way though. I wait to see what the guitars are going to be doing before I record my parts.
MP: So you record pretty late in the process?
HF: Yeah. Usually right before Jubil lays down his lead stuff.
MP: How would you describe your style?
HF: I usually just try to hold down the bottom end. It is in my opinion that the bass should be more felt than heard, so I don’t need to ‘cut through the mix’ as they say. That’s what the fills are there for. You know, the little flourishes you hear every once in a while.
MP: You do have a couple of solo spots on the CD.
HF: Yeah, the intros to “Nightmares” and “Too much Fuel”
MP: Were you pushing for that?
HF: No. Skot makes all of the decisions. I just do what he tells me to. Except for the bass line in “Town”, which is very active. That one’s mine. But he told me to do that too, he just said I could claim it. (laughs)
MP: Okay…so you’re the Jason Newsted (former Metallica bassist – ed.) of the group?
HF: No, I’m the Hester Freeman of the group.
MP: Who is your biggest influence?
HF: Jason Newsted. (laughs)
MP: Seriously…
HF: I do like Jason’s style. I also like Geezer Butler from Sabbath, Paul McCartney from that one group…
MP: The Beatles.
HF: Yeah, that’s it. Uh, I guess I have to say Geddy Lee from Rush because that’s what bass players are supposed to say even though I’m not really into his style.
MP: Do you play with a pick or your fingers?
HF: Well, I hold the pick with my fingers, so both! (laughs) Nah, I use a pick most of the time because my finger style isn’t very even. I only do that on softer passages.
MP: What kind of bass do you play?
HF: It’s a Samick 4 string with one split pickup. I never got all fancy with my basses. To me, a bass is a bass, and as long as I can keep it in tune, I’m in business.
MP: What would you say to bass players just starting out?
HF: Learn how to play guitar first. If you can play guitar, you can play bass.
The Fucking Drummer
METAL PSYCHOS: Huey, how do you get such perfect sounding drum tracks? The drums sound amazing on the CD!
HUEY PACKARD: This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.
SKOT: Fuckin’ drummers!
Download Metal For Idiots!
The Plastic Ones
Call It Crucified
Windows To The Soul
Town
Something Wicked
Battalions
Givin' Up
I'll Wait* (Van Halen cover)
Last Revolution (Forced Evolution)
Nightmares
Too Much Fuel
Stupid Human** (M.O.E. song)
Hypocritical Mass (BONUS!!)
Home
