In December 2003, TexasMetalUnderground.com had the honor and pleasure of conducting a lengthy interview with Solitude Aeturnus founder John Perez. John has been a fixture on the Texas metal scene since its inception in the early 1980's and his support and involvement within the scene continues to this day. Perez' earliest appearance on the Texas musical map was in the Dallas based Thrash Metal band Rotting Corpse. Regarded as one of the first Thrash bands to emerge from the Dallas area, Rotting Corpse would help create a scene that included such notable Texas acts as Rigor Mortis, Gammacide, Morbid Scream, and Arcane. Interestingly, former members of Rotting Corpse have recently announced their intentions to record an album and tour in 2004. See the press release regarding this reunion here. After releasing a three song demo in 1986, Perez began finding the Thrash scene too musically limiting. In 1987 he left Rotting Corpse and formed Solitude (later to become Solitude Aeturnus) with the intention of creating a style of metal with more 'passion and soul' than Thrash metal allowed. Five albums and sixteen years later, Solitude Aeturnus has become universally respected and praised in the Doom Metal arena for their consistently good songwriting and musicianship. With a new album promised for 2004, the metal world eagerly anticipates a new Epic-Doom masterpiece. If the demo for a new tune called 'Waiting For The Light' is any indication, they will definitely get one.
Visit our audio section for samples from the 1986 Rotting Corpse demo and listen to clips from the very first Solitude Aeturnus demo from1988 entitled 'Justice For All' with original vocalist Kris Gabeheardt. As an added bonus we've included a sample of 'opaque Divinity' from the 1989 demo featuring the first appearance of vocalist Robert Lowe.
Rotting Corpse 1986 Demo - Solitude Aeturnus 1987 Demo - Solitude Aeturnus 1989 Demo
TMU:
You grew up in
John
Perez:
I was fortunate enough to have grown up in
TMU: And he supported a lot of the local bands too…
John
Perez:
Oh yeah, it was absolutely cool to be able to grow up and be able to listen to
Joe Anthony and the early KISS-FM. I think Joe Anthony worked at another
station just prior to him going to KISS-FM, maybe KMAK or something like that.
But long winded answer, yeah, I’m from
TMU:
Wasn’t Joe Anthony known as 'The Godfather’ of Hard Rock and Metal in
John
Perez:
Yeah,
he was known as ‘The Godfather’. I guess because he was Italian.
(laughs) No, but really, he broke a lot of bands. If you look at some of
the early things from bands like Judas Priest, Scorpions, UFO, things like that,
he was the guy that played them when no one else would. So, that’s why
TMU:
That’s true. I know that
John Perez: Yeah, I mean, where the hell else could Budgie come and play a huge friggin’ show?
TMU:
San Antonio
still supports those same bands to this day. I know that Budgie played a
reunion show at the
John
Perez:
Yeah, I went to both of them actually. They played last year and they
played a year before that. We went down and saw both of them. It’s just
crazy because everyone in the audience knew the words to the songs and everyone
was totally getting into it. There were probably over a couple thousand
people there. It’s just insane. If Budgie played up here in
TMU:
That’s
a testament to
John
Perez:
Yeah,
TMU: You actually went to the (now legendary) Militia / S.A. Slayer / L.A. Slayer show. Can you give us some memories of that show?
John
Perez:
Oh, yeah! Sure man. I was reading your website and I was reading the
interview with Mike Soliz from Militia and the question you asked him was
“What was your most memorable show?” and he named that show. Mike and
I are friends and we’ve talked about that show too and I just have to say that
it probably was one of the greatest shows to see in terms of underground metal.
This would have been probably in 1984, I think, if not 1983. I think it
may have been 1983 because I was still in high school. I was a young pup,
and I had just moved up to Dallas
from
TMU: I didn’t know Syrus was on that bill.
John Perez: Yeah, it was a four band bill. All I can say is that the show was just total mayhem. It was exactly what you would expect the early to mid 80’s underground metal scene to be. Just packed with a bunch of screaming, hellish, satanic, black, thrashing metal maniacs. (laughs) It was just chaos, man. Of course both Slayer’s were just out of control. Militia was just a total speed power onslaught and Syrus were doing great traditional metal with some cover songs they did along with some originals. So it was just really an awesome show that I’m lucky to have been able to see.
TMU:
That
show has become legendary. It’s almost seen as a pivotal moment in
John
Perez:
You’re
right, man. It was a pivotal moment because it really showed that the
underground scene was about to explode and
TMU: I actually still have my original copies of both Death Tripper demos sitting right here.
John Perez: Yeah, I’ve got those too, man. I actually had the pleasure of going through those demos when I was trying to put together this Texas Metal compilation. So, yeah, I’ve been listening to some old Death Tripper within the past year.
TMU:
It’s not bad stuff. It shows the evolution of the metal scene here in
John Perez: Definitely. Death Tripper was one of the most outrageous bands. They were just chaotic.
TMU:
I
saw them live once at the Cameo Theater in
John
Perez:
They
were
TMU: Around this time had you already started playing guitar and having an interest in forming your own band?
John
Perez:
Yeah,
man I had been playing guitar since the 6th grade. It was kind of just as
a hobby: off and on. I was torn between being a high school jock and a
rocker or metalhead, whatever they were called at the time. So I was
interested in playing football and sports and also interested in playing guitar
but not really seriously or anything. I never seriously concentrated on
guitar until I started Solitude. That was when I decided to try to
actually become a good guitar player or a better guitar player. So really
up to that point, up to that Slayer show in 1983 and high school, I was kind of
just dabbling with guitar. A friend of mine that had moved from the Bay
Area of San Francisco around that time named Brad Kane was basically my metal
buddy. Brad would later start Solitude with me. We would hang out
and listen to metal constantly and drink copious amounts of alcohol and ale.
Brad brought a lot of the Bay Area stuff over to
TMU: Was Rotting Corpse your first ‘real’ band? I.e. performing shows, playing out of town, etc.
John Perez: Yeah, it was. It was a frustrating process up to that point because I had been trying to get a band together since 1983. It was with this guy Brad and we were fooling around trying to get a band together and jamming with some local guys here and there. Of course, I was just very much already into the heaviest of the heavy bands of the time and I really wanted our band to be something like Exciter or early Metallica meets early Venom and stuff like that. I really had a problem finding guys who were interested in doing something that heavy, naturally. At the time, nobody knew about these bands. So I couldn’t ever find anybody that wanted to play heavy enough. It took me two years to actually find the guys who would form Rotting Corpse with me. It was a long process to get Rotting Corpse going. A lot of metal and music and musical things happened between the time I started trying to form a band and the time Rotting Corpse actually formed.
TMU: Were you the primary songwriter in Rotting Corpse as you would be later in Solitude?
John Perez: No, actually I wasn’t. It’s funny because I actually put Rotting Corpse together for the most part but I pretty much just let Walter Trachsler, the other guitar player, handle the songwriting at the time because he was actually, at that time at least, a better rhythm guitar player than I was. He would just sit at home and figure out all these songs all day long. He would figure out early metal stuff like Motorhead riffs, Savatage riffs from their first album. We knew the whole Kill 'Em All album straight through and we could play it together. Walter was a great rhythm guitar player and I just let him take it. He wrote most of the songs that were in Rotting Corpse’s repertoire. He was the main songwriter. I was basically just the mouthpiece and the leader of mayhem for that period. (laughs) And I became a lead guitar player in the process because Walter refused to do it and I wanted to have lead guitars. So if I wanted leads I had to start trying to learn how to play them. (laughs) I didn’t really want to do it because I’m lazy and I hate practicing, but I had to learn how to play lead guitar. It was funny, I had never played lead and I had no idea what to do. I just started trying to copy Kerry King ‘Show No Mercy’ solos and do that in all the Rotting Corpse songs.
TMU:
Was
Rotting Corpse the first really heavy, Thrash band out of the
John
Perez:
Yeah,
and I’m quite proud of that. Just because it really makes me believe
that I try to do things differently than most people and really definitely try
to follow my own instincts and not run with the pack. I’m just proud to
know that I was an early part of the
TMU:
The
John Perez: Yeah! Well, the deal is this, man. I was really passionate about metal and still am to this day. Back then probably even more so. The thing that I’m proud of, and this probably sounds like some Greek or German metal fan who is militant about their metal (laughs), but I really saw it as a mission to spread the word of metal to as many fucking people as I possibly could at the time. Just spread the underground metal that I thought was great at the time. So, as it turned out, I just started spreading the word around here and found other guys scattered across the Metroplex that were into underground metal and we basically just formed a scene up here and supported each other. The scene just exploded and within a year after Rotting Corpse started playing some shows and people started hearing this ‘new shit’, you know this thrash metal shit, all of a sudden a bunch of bands started forming. Which was the agenda from the start. We wanted to create the scene. We wanted people to get into the heavier stuff and the attitude of what we thought the attitude should be, which was: fuck everybody, fuck the status quo, and here we are! (laughs) You know, just uncontained energy exploding for no reason.
TMU: And totally building it up from scratch and doing it yourselves.
John Perez: Right. I’m not trying to take credit for creating a scene. I’m just saying it was good to be a part of a scene when it was just literally coming together and you could see it grow. It was a very, very exciting time for me and people that I know. I’ve got to give credit though to another band from around here that actually started up pretty much within months of us which was Rigor Mortis. Along with Rotting Corpse they were definitely one of the first Thrash bands from this area.
TMU: Rigor Mortis was also doing something really unique for the time.
John Perez: Yes, technically speaking those guys were definitely a much better band than Rotting Corpse. Playing-wise those guys could just fucking tear it up, man. They were relatively unknown around this area until a little bit later, but we knew they were around. Those guys were all super veteran metalheads, you know. They were into the underground even before I was. These guys were some of the earliest metalheads in the scene from around here.
TMU:
I
wanted to talk a little bit about some of the other bands from the
John Perez: Gammacide was a little bit later on, actually. Gammacide came about in maybe late 1987. Somewhere around then, I guess.
TMU: And you had already moved on from Rotting Corpse at that point?
John Perez: Right, yeah I had moved on. Gammacide was a by-product of Rick Perry’s previous band called Warlock who did a bunch of gigs in the early days too. They were, in fact, one of the very, very early metal bands from around here that were doing more of a regular style of metal. Sometimes they would throw in some underground Priest style metal stuff. But anyway, Gammacide came a little bit after that. Gammacide was just Rick Perry wanting to get more Thrash oriented. They were easily one of the top Thrash Metal bands from here, period. Great, great band. Really talented. They could play their instruments. They really wanted to be precise and machine like and tight as hell. And they were. Definitely a great band, and very well respected.
TMU: Another one of my favorites from back then, and these guys probably came around a bit later as well, was Morbid Scream.
John Perez: Oh yeah!
TMU: I thought Morbid Scream was one of the best bands of the era in terms of originality and songwriting.
John Perez: I did too. The reason I loved Morbid Scream was because that was exactly what I wanted Rotting Corpse to sound like. But we didn’t. (laughs) I wanted to us to sound like Morbid Scream. They were doing sort of a Death Metal approach more than Thrash.
TMU: But they had a certain element of groove in their music too.
John Perez: Right. They had some slower Celtic Frost type groove stuff in their music which I thought was great. They were definitely a really good live band too. Great band, man. Great, great band.
TMU: So getting back to Rotting Corpse a little bit, you only played on the first demo from 1986, right?
John Perez: That’s right.
TMU: You didn’t play on the For Those Without Conscience demo?
John Perez: No. ‘For Those Without Conscience’ was the demo they did right after I left the band. I was in the band when we wrote that song. In fact, 'For Those Without Conscience' was actually one of the only songs that I wrote. I don’t even know if it was on that second demo. But, yeah, that was after I had already left.
TMU: Who was the singer on those later demos?
TMU: I always thought it sounded a lot like Turner Scott Van Blarcum of Sedition. Kind of similar in style.
John Perez: Yeah, well because it was coming from the same place. Turner was definitely influenced by punk rock a whole lot. His previous band was called Talon and they were straight up heavy metal. They played Saxon covers and things like that.
TMU: And Talon evolved into Sedition, right?
John Perez: Right, they became Sedition. They got a little more lean and mean. So yeah, Turner was heavily influenced by punk rock and so that became the direction they went in. And so was Walter. He was very heavily influenced by punk rock when it came into the picture. That’s kind of why I left the band. I was very much into punk rock for a while but I just didn’t want to play punk rock. So yeah, Walter and Turner had very similar styles. Shouted punk vocals.
TMU:
I
wanted to get some of your impressions of the
John
Perez:
I
loved the Ritz Theater, man. I just thought it was an awesome venue to
have shows and have metal bands play. Big stage, plenty of room.
Just a great place to see a band. It was just really cool. I
remember a few shows there. Some of the first people I met in the
TMU: I know you did a show with Syranax there that I went to in 1986.
John
Perez:
Yeah, we did. We played with Syranax. I definitely remember that. In
fact, I remember on that same bill was a
TMU:
I
have a couple of their demos here. They were a little different from most
of the other bands from
John
Perez:
Totally. And they could have all been thrash bands but they would have all
sounded different. You know, WatchTower sounded nothing like Wyzard
who sounded nothing like Syranax who sounded nothing like Rotting Corpse who
sounded nothing like
TMU:
Where
else did Rotting Corpse play shows besides
John
Perez:
We kept it basically to three cities. We played
TMU: Corpus Christi had a pretty rabid metal scene.
John
Perez:
Man, I remember one show…here’s a good recollection. We played one
show that
TMU: Rodney definitely has that passion for metal like you.
John Perez: Right! Totally. That’s why I’ve always loved Rodney. He’s a great guy. He has a passion for metal and he was the man with the plan. I mean, that guy had his shit together. He was inspiring to me. He put together one show that we played in a giant warehouse and there were over 600 people at the show. It was packed. It was complete fucking mayhem. I just thought how incredible it was that four local underground bands playing originals with a few covers could draw over 600 people. It was almost 700 people from what Rodney told me. It was just really exciting. So Corpus had a healthy scene for a while there.
TMU: Are you still in contact with any of the guys from the Rotting Corpse days?
John
Perez:
Sort of, off and on. Jim Mulqueen, the singer, and I have not spoken
in quite a few years. He kind of turned out to be a little bit of a prick
over the years. I can say that and feel good about it. He just kind
of was…he hung out with the Pantera guys for a while. He was a roadie
for them for a while and just kind of drifted off into his own world. I
don’t know. He just had a few problems. Walter owns his own bus
company right now. He owns tour buses. Which actually is
something that he started up only about a year or two ago when I was on tour
with Electric Wizard. He started up his bus company at that time and since
then has gone on to get a nice fleet of buses. He’s taken big bands out
on tour. He does Ozzfest and things like that.
TMU: Are they involved in the metal scene at all?
John Perez: Well, Randy is a drummer. And his passion is to play drums. So he’s been playing in local bands constantly. He still is, I assume. Playing local shows, you know. Doing local stuff. Walter’s not playing in a band and neither is Mulqueen.
Early Rotting Corpse promo photo
TMU: O.K., moving on a little bit here to the Solitude days. What made you decide to leave Rotting Corpse and start up something different? Was it just a total change in musical direction that you wanted to go in?
John Perez: Well, you know, it’s like…I suppose the easiest way to say it without sounding offensive is, I thought that Thrash Metal and Death Metal just had this limitation. And I thought that I had done everything that I could possibly do and feel good about playing that kind of music. I just didn’t see it as a lasting form of art, really. I thought it was cool and I liked the energy of Thrash Metal and I liked the power of Death Metal but I really did have to sit down and think, “O.K. I’m a musician, I play music. I like metal music, but what metal music to me just stands the test of time?”. And I just came up with these bands that created metal that sounds like real music that you would find in an archive ten centuries from now. I’d hear this killer music from some of these bands that are just playing real songs, real music, real melody, real heavy. And I just decided that Thrash Metal was limiting and I had to play something that had a little more passion and soul in it but still was metal. That’s exactly why I left Rotting Corpse.
TMU:
How
did the
John Perez: We were definitely different. (laughs) Back then I kind of had a little bit of an attitude problem, and I pretty much hated everybody and everything. I kind of went out with a defiant attitude about it. It was almost like I went out there with a chip on my shoulder, just saying, “You know, I know everybody wants to hear Thrash Metal and Death Metal and Mosh Metal and whatever the hell, but I’m gonna come out here and play doomy, slow metal. And if you don’t like it you can suck my dick and die!” (laughs) I was just really an asshole about it back then. I just was just stupid about it. But I was just that much into it. I couldn’t stand the status quo and I couldn’t stand what the Thrash Metal scene attracted. The whole underground Death / Thrash scene, to me, just attracted fans that seemed to be less concerned with the music and more concerned with slamming, fucking shit up, going crazy and being mayhemic. That’s cool and that has its place, but I had enough of that and I really just wanted to move on to better metal. Around here it was funny to play slow stuff because everybody hated it. And I liked that, actually. The hatred and disappointment that I got from people when they would see us play actually drove me. I think it’s funny to make people listen to stuff they don’t like. (laughs) I had a great time doing it! It was great challenging people’s listening habits and saying: Hey man, there’s more to metal than just thrashing and moshing. You should open your ears up to other kinds of metal.
TMU: What caused you to change the name of the band from Solitude to Solitude Aeturnus?
John Perez: What caused it was there was another band called Solitude from the East Coast. They sent us a letter from their lawyer and with me not knowing anything about legalities and legal things at the time, I just basically didn’t know what to do. Of course we couldn’t afford to hire a lawyer, so we just decided to change our name. We changed our name because of that. I never wanted to change the name. I liked Solitude because it represented everything I wanted the band to be. I mean, I definitely stole the name from Candlemass and Black Sabbath who had songs by that title, but I really wanted the name of the band to be Solitude because it reflected my idea of the band and our music. It totally fit. I purposely didn’t want it to sound like a metal band. I wanted to leave it open so that I didn’t have to stick to a strict diet of Power Metal and Heavy Metal all the time. I could do whatever I wanted to within the name. I hated calling ourselves Solitude Aeturnus for a long time. I hated the name. But it stuck, and some people seem to like it and now it just kind of rolls off the tongue. (laughs)
TMU:
In
the early days you often played at a legendary
John Perez: Yes!
TMU: Over the years I’ve heard some crazy stories about Joes Garage and I wanted to ask you, as someone who was there, was it really that crazy of a place to see shows?
John
Perez:
Yeah, it was man! It was. It was definitely a crazy place. I
missed out on Joe’s Garage in the early days. It was there for a good
year or two before I ever went out there. Some of the bands at the time that we
had played shows with had played out there. So I finally made my way out
there in ’87. It wasn’t until I had formed Solitude that I went to
Joe’s Garage. You have to understand, we live in Dallas-Ft. Worth.
It’s a huge, huge Metroplex. It’s like two
TMU: Was it really small? An actual garage?
John Perez: Yeah, it was a very small venue. I mean, it had an actual stage so it wasn’t totally small. And it wasn’t a total dump, it had all four walls, a roof, and running water. It did have toilets, even though they looked like hell. So yeah, I guess it was a dump, but I’ve seen worse.
TMU: It was a big breeding ground for the scene up there.
John
Perez:
Yeah, man. Solitude actually got a booking agent out of
TMU: I think Devastation was with them as well.
John Perez: Yep, Devastation was with them. In fact, that’s how I got the hookup was through those guys. So yeah, TCI basically booked all the Death Metal tours that came out in the late 80’s . Anyway, I remember the guy from TCI telling me that Joe’s Garage was within the top five spots in the nation for Death Metal bands to tour and play. It was that well known. That was how kick ass the scene was up here for a while at Joe’s Garage. It was nationally known as one of the top 5 drawing places for Death Metal.
TMU: Amazing!
John
Perez:
Yeah, it’s insane. I mean compared with cities like
TMU: I want to briefly mention Puncture which was a project of Rick Perry of Gammacide. What was your involvement with them? Did you appear on any of their demos?
John Perez: No, Puncture was really just Rick Perry from Gammacide. He basically wanted to break away from playing Thrash Metal too. He was really getting into stuff like Skinny Puppy and the Industrial Metal of the time or whatever you called it. Stuff like Ministy.
TMU:
Like
what Skrew was doing down here in
John Perez: Yeah, very much like that. That’s what Rick was into and he did these Puncture demos. Rick and I were really good friends and he played them for me and I thought they were great. I told him he should pursue that and release it. He eventually did. The demos he did all on his own with a drum machine. He came to me and said, “If I do this for real, will you play live with me?” I said sure, so that’s really the extent of my involvement with Puncture.
TMU: So you guys played live quite a bit?
John Perez: Oh, yeah. We played quite a lot. I played probably more shows with Puncture than I had played with Solitude at that point. I was with Puncture a good 2 ½ years before I left the band. We played a lot of live shows around town.
TMU: I didn’t realize you were with them for that long.
John Perez: Yeah, quite a while. I had a good time playing with them because it’s a completely different style. Very aggressive. Completely different than Solitude. Even though I play slow melodic Doom Metal, aggressiveness has always been a big factor with music that I’m involved in whether it’s writing or what I’m listening to or playing. So Puncture let me get that out.
TMU: Going back to Solitude Aeturnus. Did the band start getting attention for your music almost immediately with the release of your first demo, especially from the European fans? Or was it more of a slow buildup?
John
Perez:
Well, it was a little bit of both. It was a slow buildup, but I was
definitely always working to promote whatever band I was doing. I was
really diligent when it came to sending out promo tapes at the time, so I got us
in all the magazines. I was never content just to be a local musician in a
local band. I wanted the music that I played and was involved with to be
available to whoever the hell wanted to listen to it; whether they were in the
TMU: And your take on the 'Doom Metal' style was absolutely different from any of the other bands who had played something similar or in the same vein before.
John Perez: Very much so. I never minded being called Doom, but to me this was just what I wanted to call Metal. My idea was just to create metal music that was timeless. I wanted to put it all into a melting pot. I would take elements of Thrash Metal , elements of Power Metal, elements of Doom, elements of old school Priest, Sabbath , Scorpions and try to throw them into one big melting pot and make an interesting music to listen to. So definitely we did stand out because I think we were not strictly Doom. We weren’t like St. Vitus or even Trouble for that matter. We were trying to make metal music the way we saw it. I think that did bring some extra attention to us.
TMU: Could you give us a rundown of the touring history of Solitude Aeturnus up to this point?
John
Perez:
We haven’t toured a whole lot actually. Touring takes a lot to do,
mostly just in terms of being able to afford to do it and take time off of work
and stuff. The only way to survive being in a band is if you are
constantly touring. You can’t just tour once a year for a month and do
the same thing year after year. Because of that our tours have been few
and far between. We’ve completely toured the
TMU: Do you enjoy actually being on the road or is it something you could live without?
John Perez: I could definitely live without it. (laughs) I like playing live. I really like that, but touring has never really been a priority for me personally. The lifestyle doesn’t appeal to me. I’m not a rock-n-roller. I don’t like to party all night and rock-n-roll all day. (laughs) I do, but I don’t if you know what I mean. Just the lifestyle of being a ‘working’ band doesn’t appeal to me. I’m just not into the idea of living in a bus or living in a van. So it’s never been a priority for me.
TMU:
You
recorded the albums Through
The Darkest Hour and Adagio
at Rhythm Studios in
John Perez: Cathedral were responsible for that one, I suppose. I had been in touch with Lee Dorian from Cathedral for a long time prior to us recording there. Originally he had been talking to me about doing something for the label he had just started at the time. He suggested that we use this place called Rhythm where Cathedral had done their demos. I had the Cathedral demos and they sounded alright, and then I heard an album that Paul Johnston (the in-house producer) had done for a band called Cerebral Fix that was on RoadRunner which sounded awful. And so I decided not to go there. A year or so passed and we recorded our second album The Crimson Horizon and were getting ready to record the third album when I heard Cathedral’s Soul Sacrifice EP that they did at Rhythm. I was so blown away at how good it sounded and how heavy they sounded. I just couldn’t believe it. Also, the studio rates at Rhythm were really, really cheap so whatever costs we incurred by flying over there and spending money on transportation we could make up for because of the cheap studio rates. And then, most importantly, the studios are out in the middle of nowhere. They are out in the county. And so you’re just kind of away. You’re in solitude. You are away from everything. There are no phones ringing, there’s no girlfriends or wives calling you, no distractions. So, you can really focus on your album. That’s why I think that our best two records were the ones we did over there because I think we were able to stay more focused.
TMU: I would imagine being out in the English countryside with all the rain and mists would add to the atmosphere of creating a great Doom Metal record.
John Perez: Totally. Man, it’s true! You get into that mode. For three weeks you’re out there and for most of those days it’s cold and rainy and miserable and that’s exactly the kind of weather that I love. It’s inspiring to me, so it definitely helps to set the mood. You’re away from everything, no distractions, the band hangs together, you go to the pub and drink a few pints after your sessions, get sleep, go back and work again for eight hours on the album. It’s a very great way to record music. You’re focused. And I’ve got to give credit to Paul Johnston because he’s just a great engineer. He’s got a great ear for heavy music, so he was able to help us get what we wanted.
TMU: I’ve seen the Days Of Doom home video where you guys joke around about the living conditions over there. Were they really as spartan as on the video?
John
Perez:
No, man. (laughs) Yeah, we were trying to make people feel sorry for us!
(laughs) It’s important for us to have a sense of humor about everything we
do, man. So, maybe the living conditions were not that great, but then
again we were in
TMU: All in the name of metal.
John Perez: It is. We joke about it. You’ve got to keep a sense of humor or else you wouldn’t last.
TMU: What’s the status of the new record? Do you have all the music written?
John Perez: Yeah. We’re in a good state right now. We had some problems earlier this year. We were ready to record this record in the Spring music-wise. This record we put together a little bit differently in that we did all of the music first completely, and then we were going to add vocals, which is kind of funny because that’s exactly how we did the very first record. Right when we were ready to go into the studio Robert (Lowe-vocals) came into some problems, so he was basically not in operation for six months. We just started working with him again about a month ago. We’re nearly complete on finishing the vocal parts for all the songs. We’ve actually demo'd a song with vocals which may be available on the Brainticket website today. We’ve already circulated that around and that song is coming out on an Olympic Records compilation early next year. So the record is coming along. We hope to be in the studio in February to record. We’re basically ready. We just have to finish out a few songs with vocals and then record it.
TMU: What label will the new record be released on?
John
Perez:
We’re still signed to Massacre Records out of
TMU: What’s the status of the reissues of the first two Solitude Aeturnus records on Brainticket?
John Perez: By the time people read this they will be available. The first album will be here on January the 13th, and we’ll be putting out Into The Crimson Horizon shortly after that. Both of these will be on Brainticket.
TMU: Any bonus material?
John Perez: Yeah, actually I just decided to put an extra track on each of them. I was going to put two bonus tracks on each one, but I’ve decided to put three on each one. The first record is going to have demo versions of 'Opaque Divinity' and 'Mirror Of Sorrow' which were both on the first album. I have always felt, and all of us in the band agree, that the demo versions sound better than the album versions. So we were always pissed off that the album didn’t come out sounding as good as the demos. And then we have an unreleased song that would make Helstar proud. (laughs) I can’t believe we were playing that fast and complicated. It’s a song we played but never recorded. All I have is a rehearsal tape, but it doesn’t sound that bad. It’s fucking killer. I thought, “God damn, could I really play that good?” Because I don’t think I could play that now. (laughs) It sounds like some fucking Helstar on speed song or something. I really did wonder if I was playing on it because it’s been so long since we played fast, technical stuff with Solitude that I just listened to it and thought, “Man, that’s fucking cool.” So I put it on the CD.
TMU: Tell us a little about your label. You started Brainticket in 1994?
John Perez: Well, I had the idea I guess in 1994 and the first release came out in 1995. That was the Sorcerer CD. It would have been April of 1995.
TMU: Have you found running a label to be harder or easier than you expected?
John Perez: I’ve found it to be a little harder than I even expected. It’s harder simply because I haven’t made any money doing it. I’m definitely at a point now where I’m considering a different career option. (laughs) Don’t get me wrong, it’s made some money. It’s just not a comfortable amount of money to live on. And I don’t ask for much. It’s not like I’m trying to pay for some palace. Just a roof, some records, a turntable, some food, and I’m set. It’s just been more difficult than I thought it would be. I really thought that maybe some of the releases we’ve done in the past would’ve sold more, and it just hasn’t happened. We’re not giving up at all, but the reality is that it’s just a very tough business to make money at. It’s not a tough thing to do if you just want to do it as a hobby. You could always do it as a hobby and put out maybe one record a year and make your money back and reinvest it into another project, but doing it for a living has been very difficult.
TMU: How many releases has Brainticket put out to date?
John Perez: As soon as the Solitude reissue comes out we’ll have fourteen records. That’s all we’ve been able to put out in eight years. It’s ridiculous! (laughs) That just shows you the amount of cash flow we have. We put out records as we can do them. That’s just as many as we’ve been able to do. I would love to have done more.
TMU: The old adage applies, though. Quality over quantity.
John Perez: Well, thanks man. That’s the idea. The overall quality of the music is what’s important. We’re just trying to make sure these are good bands that we’re dealing with, that write good songs, and have good sounding records.
TMU: Do you have a favorite out of all the releases on Brainticket?
John Perez: I do. It’s not a metal one though. My favorite release that we’ve done was this band called the Virgineers. They’re more of a psychedelic pop band. They kind of sound like Sgt. Pepper’s era Beatles type of stuff. It’s one of my favorite albums of all time and definitely my favorite release on the label. I just love it. It’s a perfect record.
TMU: One of my favorites on Brainticket has got to be the first Dixie Witch CD.
John Perez: Dixie Witch is a great band!
TMU:
I’ve
seen them here in
John
Perez:
Yeah,
I think Clayton the guitar player was going to move down to
TMU: Going back to the subject of touring, Dixie Witch is a band that tours relentlessly.
John Perez: That’s right. And man, that’s what it takes to sell records and that’s why the Dixie Witch CD was the best selling release on our roster. We went through two pressings of it, which comes to 2000 copies. Now, I’m assuming their new record will do twice that because they’ve really built up a solid fan base. If they constantly tour and keep putting out good music they will be a band that will make a living out of it.
TMU: Has Brainticket put out any of its releases on vinyl?
John Perez: Not yet, but I’m a vinyl fanatic myself. I’ve tried to get some of our releases out on vinyl but I just haven’t been able to find anyone willing to do it. Even when I tell them, “We don’t want anything from it. Just give me a few copies of it on vinyl!” It’s very expensive to produce vinyl. It costs about three times as much as making a CD. And how many people are buying vinyl now days? You have a niche market, no doubt about it, but if it costs three times as much to produce it would take even longer to recoup what you put into it. It’s simply been a matter of economics. We haven’t been able to afford it.
TMU: It seems like a lot of current bands are starting to do more vinyl releases of their new material.
John Perez: Oh, yeah. That’s actually my preferred way to buy things. If I buy new records I check to see if it’s available on vinyl first and if it is I’ll wait until I can find it on vinyl. I’ve picked up everything from the new Foo Fighters on vinyl to underground Black Metal stuff.
TMU: About how many records would you estimate you have in your vinyl collection?
John Perez: Actually, that’s what I was doing right before this interview. I’m organizing and taking inventory because it’s been a long time. The last time I counted was probably eight years ago and at that time I had about 2000 records. I know people that have collections much, much bigger than mine, but now I probably have 3000 to 4000 records and 2000 CD’s or so. I’m not so much a collector as I am a music fan. I see these collector guys at record conventions and it’s just funny to me. I’m a collector, I suppose, when it comes to getting the music that I want by the bands that I like, but I could care less if it’s the original issue with the slightly different shade of blue on the cover. (laughs) Getting the original first pressing would be nice, but I don’t collect metal just to collect metal. I collect metal music that I want to hear and listen to. If I don’t like it then what’s the purpose of buying it?
TMU: Listening to the music is the whole point of owning records.
John Perez: It is! I’m not collecting it just for the sake of having it. It’s not like I’m just collecting it because it’s a rare record and everybody wants it and I’ve got one. No, it’s more like I bought this new Marduk on vinyl because I think it’s a great fucking record. No other reason. So I only collect what I want to hear. I don’t buy it and keep it sealed and put it on the shelf. You buy it for the music.
TMU: What’s the status of the long-delayed Texas Metal Archives CD you are putting out on Brainticket? Any closer to a release date?
John Perez: Oh my god! (laughs) It’s my own fucking fault for opening my mouth up before I could back it up.
TMU: I first heard about this project a couple of years ago.
John
Perez:
Here’s the deal on that, man. It all started literally about four or
five years ago. I was just sitting around being nostalgic one day, going
through some old magazines and reading about the
TMU: Keep us posted.
John Perez: I feel so bad because I’ve had to be in touch with the bands off and on and they were all excited to do it. I really thought that this would have been released a year or two ago. It’s disappointing because I want to do this for the guys that were there and I want to be able to have the music available for other people to hear.
TMU: What is your impression of the current state of metal in this country and abroad?
John Perez: The current state of metal to me is both good and bad. To me, the metal scene is probably better now than it’s ever been in terms of the amount of bands, the amount of touring bands, the amount of quality releases that are out there. I think that now there are more bands than ever doing it and there are more choices. Some of the Doom bands coming out today are doing it better than even the bands of the past have done. Some of the Black Metal bands coming out today are still pushing the limits a little further. That’s the good side. On the bad side, there’s a lot more crap to weed through now. With more good bands playing now there’s just as many bad bands or mediocre bands that you’ve got to weed though to get to the good stuff. That’s hard to do in terms of trying to sell CD’s and picking what CD’s you want to buy. In 1985 you were hit with a choice between ten albums a month to choose from. Now you get a choice of like a hundred records a month to choose from.
TMU: It makes it that much harder for the good bands to get noticed.
John
Perez:
Yeah, I think the scene is a little overcrowded. I also believe the scene
is divided. You don’t find people in
TMU:
John,
thanks for giving us the opportunity to talk to you. It’s great to talk
to somebody who was actually there and has lived the
John Perez: Yeah man! I’m 38. I’m still into metal. I still love metal. Metal to me is so much more than just about music. It’s about the attitude, strength, and the passion for something. It’s a whole lifestyle, man. Being a metaller to me is more than just growing my hair long, wearing a leather jacket and listening to metal. It’s about being an individual and standing up for yourself, not letting people get you down, and doing what needs to be done in life. That’s the whole metal philosophy to me.
Robert Lowe in Montreal 1992
(photo credit unknown)