Albums of Purgatory Interview 7000 Dying Rats

Albums of Purgatory: Firstly, What’s the band up to?

Steve: Recording a new record this summer, touring, and knitting a sweater for Beck.

Josh: We just finished our new 7" called Forced Boat on Scenester Credentials. We are rehearsing 9 new songs to record for our new full length, and wrapping up details for our summer tour of the west coast.

AoP: How would you describe the 7000 Dying Rats sound?  What is the band about?

Josh: 7000 sound is anything and everything. We don't shy away from any type of music or style. We usually write a core of songs and then let ourselves run rampant trying things we think would be fun to experiment with.

Steve: It's not so much a sound, as it is an adventure. I call it a sonic noogie.

Toney: One part Slayer, Two parts Weird Al and a whisper of Downs Syndrome.

AoP: Who are your influences?

Josh: I can't say who our influences are as there are too many. Anything we have seen or heard gets absorbed, whether it's something we like or something we hate.

AoP: What is the story behind the formation of 7000 Dying Rats back in 92?

Josh: It started as three bored friends getting together to record on Easter 92'. It was all improvised in the studio, and we did that the next two years. As we had more fun, we decided to play live shows and so on like every other band. As we played more, more friends began to join bringing more twists to the sound and eventually we started challenging ourselves to play different shows (other than metal/punk shows). We would play with a cover band one night, Anal Cunt the next, as well as noise bands, jazz bands, etc... Anything we could get. The bigger the stretch the show was the more obnoxious we became as we were not pleasing to most of the audience, or the bands we played with anyway. At one point it degraded to just feeding back and running around in the crowd knocking over people.

AoP: What do you see as the highlights of your musical career so far?

Josh: Opening for Dio, touring with Anal Cunt, having thousands of people being very irritated with us all over the country.

Steve: While playing at the House of Blues in Chicago I asked someone for a fudge
sundae and they went and got it. That's power.

Toney: Pissing off unsmiling fans of one music genre.  Single-minded seriousness is always an easy target.  Hipsters of all stripes are ridiculous any way you look at it.

AoP: What are your favorite 7000 Dying Rats songs?

Josh: none of them.

AoP: What are your favorite all time songs?

Josh: Too many to list. All time favorite records are: Cro-Mags first one, Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions, anything from Sugar.

Steve: “Witch Doctor” by David Seville, “Ballad of Dorothy Parker” by Prince, and “Feast on Dismembered Carnage” by Carcass.

Toney: Lately I’ve been playing that instrumental number, “Overture” from the Dancer in the Dark Soundtrack.  My all time favorites seem to vary from week to week.  Last week I would have said anything by Cock Sparrer.

AoP: What was the first record you bought?

Josh: I can't recall. The first one I can think of now was ZZTop "Eliminator".

Steve: KISS Alive II

Toney: It might have been Macho Man by the Village People and I’m not trying to be funny either.  It may not count though because I think my mom paid for it.

AoP: What would be your dream band line-up?

Josh: Anyone but this

Steve: Mark St. John-Guitar, Alex St. Claire-Guitar, Juan St. Croucier-Bass, Reed St. Mark-Drums, and St. Joseph's Girl's Choir-Vocals

Toney: Steve is funny.

AoP: what do you think of the state of metal and music in general today?

Josh: Music is very disposable today; it seems not many bands are creating right now. Metal is doing fairly well considering no one buys metal records right now. Probably some of the most interesting new music is metal right now.

Toney: I’m sure there’s good metal being made I’m just too lazy to seek it out.  Send me some.

AoP: Can you tell us some funny stories about the band?

Josh: The meat cross tops my list.

Toney: We went to the local butcher and asked for anything he was going to toss.  He gave us this bag of chum and gristle and we nailed it to this cross we fabricated in my backyard.   We were doing a black metal theme for this show at a coffee shop in Detroit.  It was the middle of summer…hot as fuck…the thing smelled fucking horrible.  Anyway, after the show these kids took it any supposedly nailed it to a church door.  Desecrating holy sites is totally funny, dude.   

AoP: Finally, what do you see in the future for 7000 Dying Rats?

Josh: hopefully one of us will get laid on tour soon as most women hate us!

 Steve: One word: HUGE.

(here are the dates for 7000 Dying Rats gigs)

June 2002
Sun 16- Kansas City, MO  at El Torreon 
Mon 17- OK City, OK at The Green Door
Tue 18- Santa Fe, NM at The Paramount
Wed 19- Flagstaff, AZ at The Robot House w/ Japanther, and Voodoo Organist 
Thu 20- San Diego, CA at Scolari's w/ Cattle Decapitation 
Fri 21- Santa Barbara, CA  at Primo Boxing w/ Cattle Decapitation, Watch Me Burn, Radiation 4, and Eden in Flames
Sat 22- San Francisco, CA at The Covered Wagon w/ Cattle Decapitation, Vulgar Pigeons, Severed Savior, and Impaled 
Sun 23- Hollywood, CA at The Knitting Factory w/ Cattle Decapitation
Mon 24-San Francisco, CA at Galia w/ Burmese and The Mass 
Tue 25-Reno, NV at Stoney's Skate Park 
Wed 26- (the desert) 
Thu 27-Colorado Springs, CO at The High Life House 
Fri 28-Lincoln, NE at Knickerbockers w/ Wasteoid 
Sat 29-Chicago, IL at The Fireside Bowl w/ Kung Fu Rick and Artimus Pyle