BLABBERMOUTH HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING
So Borivoj Krgin eh? [Krgin runs Blabbermouth.- Ed.] Here’s my story about the man…
He signed SYL. Without Bori, there would be no current anything for me in terms of my metal career. He rocked me hard. And Nevermore, Stuck Mojo etc…
He let me sleep on his couch for three or four months while I was writing City. He was (is) a good friend.
Blabbermouth is a site I go to almost everyday. I would bet any metal musician who tells you they’ve never been is full of shit. It’s incredibly hard to resist reading things about yourself that are either flattering, or make you look like a total douchebag.
The thing is:
He doesn’t make the stuff up. Any jackassery that I have been quoted as saying, I really did say. Blabbermouth changed the way we do interviews by making us accountable.
Something came up there the other week about me wanted to get a bunch of metal singers for Deconstruction, and I was quoted as saying it was because I wanted singers with an established fanbase. As soon as I read that I was like… “Man, I’m a fucking douche… what, I want these kick ass singers to swoop in and help my lame record sales?” Yeah, it was a stupid way for me to phrase that, but the unfortunate thing is I FUCKING SAID IT. Just like Yngwie said that shit on the plane.
My argument is this: there are some weeks that I do about forty interviews, half hour each, while dealing with births, deaths, house falling apart, screaming baby, angry fans, obsessive folks, new bands, money problems, sore back, no sleep… you know, LIFE. And yeah, I’ve been sober for years and I exercise and all that, but, still, some mornings it’s hard to a) answer the same questions and b) vary your answers so they still get your point across in a way that doesn’t read the same in forty different articles.
On Addicted, the stories I repeat are: 1) How did you get in touch with Anneke? 2) Why are there exclamation points at the end of every title? 3) What are you currently addicted to? So some mornings, if I slip up in one interview, and say “I’d love to work with singers who have an established fanbase” rather than, say “I’d love to work with singers who have done this for enough time that they have honed their identity.” The difference in those semantics can be the difference between someone getting their audience excited or pissed off.
In closing, I love Borivoj. In many ways I think he’s a genius. And I love Blabbermouth. Sites like that and this one keep me informed about music I love, and keep our scene ALIVE. If you are in a band and you say something in an interview that is stupid or careless, no matter how hung over or frustrated you are, you had better be prepared to see it up there. It’s entertainment, and that site has changed everything.
But I do take some of the stuff with a grain of salt :)
-DT
