What can you say about Jason Newsted? The guy started out his career as a young Metal Blade Records artist in Flotsam and Jetsam, went on to be in possibly the most successful metal band the world has ever known (Metallica), and is now a member of Voivod, ironically enough, a band that also began as a Metal Blade artist. With Jason handing bass duties, Voivod will release their 13th album on March 4th. Without boring you with a long introduction, let?s move right into a rather long interview.
Before we get into the specifics of you joining the band, I wanted to get your perspective of Voivod as a fan and as a member of Flotsam and Jetsam. Do you recall your reaction when you first heard Voivod?
Absolutely. I?ve been a fan ever since man - way from the beginning. All of these bands that we?ll talk about in the interview - Metallica, Voivod, and Flotsam and Jetsam - all got their start, their initial exposure, on a Metal Massacre compilation from Metal Blade Records. Flotsam and Voivod were signed soon after that initial exposure. Metallica went on to Megaforce to do whatever they did, but we both stayed with Metal Blade. So I knew those guys from then in, shall we say, a competitive type of way. I was quite envious. I think all of us in Flotsam were quite envious of Voivod. They had a concept; they had a fantastic artist already; and they were ahead of their time in many ways, especially since we were doing the same thing they were doing. We were trying to rehearse, and write songs, and make an album, and do shows - you know, vying for the same attention a lot of the time and the same dollar, and that kind of stuff. They looked like they belonged together; they always did. Blacky?s vibe was great, and spikes and all that shit; and Snake had such an identity. They were ahead; they were steps ahead of Flotsam at least, and we thought we were the shit. So, that was a beginning thing of respect right there.
I remember first hearing them and not getting it for a while, just because it was so different than all the other thrash stuff I was listening to.
It is for seasoned listeners and practiced listeners, especially the earlier records. The ones we?re speaking of right now were hard to listen to - sonically, not that pleasing. You have to kind of take it with a grain. Even now to this day, as I?m going through this and making myself crazy learning these songs, some of that stuff is really hard to decipher. There are a lot more question marks on my composition sheets, my cheat sheets, on the old stuff than there is on the new stuff. I can?t hear what the hell is goin? on. That kind of thing was all created out of necessity for them. Back in the day when they were up above Montreal in the ice somewhere, looking for something to keep from being bored and to get in less trouble - and they did find some trouble together?. You know, Piggy was the only one that could play, out of any of them, and nobody wanted to sing. The reason they sounded the way it sounded? They had one guitar amp, a Marshal guitar amp, and that?s what they had; they played the bass through it, and the played the guitar through it, and that?s why the sound is the sound. It was created out of necessity - this beautiful, identifiable thing that they made that was eventually honed and just made so beautiful; Nothingface, Angel Rat? This necessity became their sound, became their way of getting through to people. That was really cool also; that they were different, always original. They?re still original.
As time went on, I always kept an eye on ?em. The first week that their album came out, I?d be in the store to get it - that type of thing. I?m still very much that kind of Voivod fan. When Nothingface came, that was just such leaps and bounds, as far as songwriting skills, recording skills, all that. Dimension was huge; it blew us out of the water. But when Nothingface came, for its refinement? that was really the most listenable record that they made to that date for sure.
Some consider it the band?s best work, others Killing Technology because it made that first experimental leap. I was wondering what you thought is their most definitive work.
They certainly have captured that moment in time, their mind space, with each record. You could still tell it was them, but they weren?t scared to take chances, and ?leap? is a great word - leap forward, big, big steps. Certain bands take big, big steps in between different eras. Metallica?s big step from Kill em All to Ride the Lightning - that?s probably the biggest step they ever took as a band. It was such a refinement in such a short time. Killing Technology was when more people could start listening to their music and were accepting it - not as confused because it was a little bit more, I don?t know, pleasing I guess. Snake really started coming into his own lyrically and those kinds of things. They had such a great team thing. They always seemed to enhance each other in that way. They?ve been through a lot of shit. ?But we should keep doing this through time; I like the way we?re doing this.
Sure.
We kept in contact. In ?88, when they were touring through San Francisco? They were playing at The Stone in San Francisco, which was a metal haven, and I invited them out to my place in the east bay. We played football and had a barbeque, and jammed a little bit in what was then the Chophouse - just a 10 x 12 bedroom with a bunch of guitars in it. We just got to be friends, like more than ever before. Blacky didn?t show up that day, it was the other three. Through time we just made sure to keep in contact. When I would go through Montreal on a tour with Metallica, we would hook up in a hotel room somewhere with a digital machine, a drum machine, and make noise. Piggy, and Michel, and myself always had the TARRAT project. That was our thing. It?s still really kind of our baby; we still make noise as that thing some times. ?95 and ?96 were really big years for those projects. We spent maybe a couple weeks out of each of those years creating TARRAT [music].
But you didn?t release anything as TARRAT.
No, the one song that we created in the Chophouse, called ?M-Body,? ended up on Phobos. Before that time, we had just put a microphone in the room and played, and whatever happened, happened. Now, in TARRAT in ?95 and ?96 we were starting to do multi-tracking, we were starting to get serious about the recording - separation of instruments [and] those kinds of things.
By the way, who came up with that name [TARRAT]?
That?s my thing. The same backwards as forwards. It?s a big deal to me, that kind of stuff. I?m a total word origin freak. The lyrics and that kind of stuff is just something I?ve always been drawn to. That came into play very well with Voivod when it came time to write lyrics. It was the first time I really got to express myself, since Flotsam days anyway.
We knew, I would say in the ?96 TARRAT sessions, that we were going to make a record together. It was always just that plan though. My initial thing, the very reason, at the beginning when we talked about stuff seven or eight years ago - and that I had the finances to be able to help them and to make this dream come true that we had talked about - it was completely to find a way for those guys to be able to earn a living and feed themselves by playing their instruments; not have to work for somebody else or answer to somebody else. They?d been doing it for too long, they stayed so true to their music and all that kind of thing? It gets such respect from me that I?m willing to lay my hard earned money and, more importantly, my time on the line to make sure that something does happen for them. So that was the beginning of the talks then. Now that it has materialized, it is still the same reason. That is, the first reason for me - for them to get some recognition.
So they were still keeping day jobs and all that.
Everything, all the way up until they signed to Chophouse Records, they had to work day jobs. Now they do not have to. They have one of the best contracts for musicians that there is - maybe better than 95 percent of musicians in this world. I?m making sure that they get money from the first record. I don?t see money unless they see money. It?s very much a brotherly type of thing. I wouldn?t have to do this; I?m not doing it to make a profit or any of that kinda shit. I?m doing it because I want to. I saved my bucks through time working for Metallica; I didn?t put it up my nose or stupid shit like that. I just invested it and made sure that I was always going to be able to make this music.
That?s something that a lot of people don?t do.
Yeah, with Echo Brain man, I put seven figures into that band just to make sure that that kid got a chance for people to see him sing. I felt it - I?d been jamming with him for seven years. He deserved it. It was the same with these guys. I?ve looked up to them for so long. Even back then in ?95, we knew we were gonna talk Snake into comin? back into the band; we were gonna get him back in. It just so happens that last year in Montreal, they were doing this thing of a 20-year anniversary of metal or something like that. Voivod were the honored guests. I?m not sure that Blacky played with them that day. I believe the band performed and Snake sang with them. That was like March or April of last year. At that time, he wanted to back in the band. Piggy said they were really excited to have him back. He had went about his business and been away for seven or eight years, and gone through what he had to go through, and now he was back in the camp.
So he really wanted to come back in.
He wanted to come back.
It didn?t take a lot coaxing?
No. When we started talking seriously about trading tapes and that we were gonna follow through with our discussions of years earlier, this was gonna be the year that we were gonna make the record, I started looking for studio time, and we started getting serious about a schedule. We talked to Snake and it ended up coming out on one of the songs you hear, ?If you?re in, I?m in.? Basically, that was the deal. ?Jay, if you?re gonna come in, and do all this stuff and give us this boost, a transfusion type of thing, then I?ll be there to be the voice; I am the real voice of Voivod and I?ll be there to do that.? Once that happened in July, or whatever, we started trading tapes and they sent me the first six songs I think it was; just Piggy jamming in his house and Away putting a drum track on it, and then Snake singing in Piggy?s bathroom [laughs] on his little four-tracker. Dude, I was jumping around the room. The first song that you hear on the record [?Gasmask Revival?] is the first song that I heard on the demo. It just had their tracks and it left everything open for me to compose and make the bass part, and then do the arrangements and stuff. As the fan of the original voice of Voivod? It was cool with Eric and great respect to Eric - [and] I like the slabs of music that they laid down with Negatron and Phobos, but like many real Voivod fans, I wanted Snake. Once I heard that he was back there, it was like a really great feeling; goose bumps on goose bumps.
Talk a little bit about your decision to leave Metallica and subsequently to join Voivod.
It?s been more than two years since I left Metallica, and I?ve had a hand in about eight albums since that time. I have to keep playing music every day. I live it and [I was] the only member of Metallica that was not married, and I?ve always been able to drop anything to play music. That?s one thing that really makes me happy bout Voivoid; we?re all the same age, we dress the same, we listen to the same music, we are a gang. None of us are married, none of us have kids, we can drop anything we?re doing at any second to play metal. That means a lot to me. In Metallica, I always came to play. I?m proud of my performances, I?m proud of the work I did with them, I?m proud of the help that I gave them to get to where they got. Way more good than bad feelings, certainly, in Metallica. I look back at the photos and things like that and I?m very, very pleased with what I see. It?s better than looking back and going, ?jesus dude, what were you thinking?? I look back and go, ?dude, you were tough! Look how strong!? Those kinds of things, and watching the videos and [I?m] banging like a madman, and kind of a little psychotic maybe? That makes me happy. I feel good about those things. I really, truly want to see them rise back up after all of the things that make it kinda questionable now; like the Napster things and different decisions that they?ve made, James? troubles, and whatever like that. I?m back to being a fan of Metallica again now. I want to see them be the leaders again. They are the ones that have the talent and the know-how to spearhead the next movement of our music, like they did with the first movement of our music. So why not have the kings in place? I think that would be very helpful for everybody that enjoys listening to and playing this music. It would be really great if they could get back on the throne and kick some ass in that way. I think that it was meant to be, absolutely.
Our time had come; that chemistry of those four people making music - that was that man. I had to be able to share music with people, my other music, and they weren?t really in favor of that. After being 20 years as a band, I thought that would be ok [laughs] and I couldn?t see how something as beautiful as Echo Brain could ever affect this huge monster of Metallica. It wouldn?t make less people come to the shows, or less people buy the albums, or anything like that. That kind of freaked me out. That?s why I stepped off. I had so many other things that I?d already told people I was gonna do. I knew I was gonna do Echo Brain, I knew I was gonna work with Speedealer, I knew I was gonna play with Voivod, I mean at least on the album and produce and stuff. There were so many other things that I had on my agenda,
my schedule, my goals list, so I had to chase after those. Those guys just didn?t want to spend as many hours in a day - hands on the instrument, amplifier turned on - and that had a lot to do with it as well. I wish them the best and I will be their business partner for the rest of my life, so we try to keep it real cool.
There is a segment of, what some may consider, metal purists that can?t listen to Metallica now. They [and me] talk about the old Metallica. Do you think they lost credibility with the core metal crowd?
There was such incredible, unpredictable success that came for that band, and money and all those kind of things, and, more importantly, the demand on your quality time; a demand on your person to be able to do what you wanna do. As many times that I had to set aside gatherings with my family or different things that I?d planned for months ahead to go on one-hour notice to do something for Metallica, those kind of things? People don?t realize that. They kind of see the glossy side only and they don?t see how much hard work and how much time that really goes into something that is that big, and how many thousands of people worked to make it happen. We?re the four faces of Metallica, but there are so many thousands of people that work to make it possible. With all those things weighing on you, it is difficult to keep focused on the reason you started playing, or the feeling you get when you play with other people or make a band, that thing that you keep chasing - it?s very hard to keep focused on that man. That?s kind what happened. We see it happen to a lot of bands through time. The fact still remains though that Metallica could play pretty fast and pretty heavy through time. Their live thing is their strength and it always will be their strength, so that?s gonna stay there. As far as hunger and those kinds of things, that might not be quite as evident. I?m not positive how ferocious it will be. James has had injuries and different things, so I?m not really sure about the performance and that kind of thing, but they?ll still have all those songs to play and still people will love ?em.
I do know, however, that Voivod is still hungry. The bands have been together equal amounts of time but Voivod never got nearly the recognition, so they still have something to prove. They still are seeking out this recognition and this success and that kind of thing. We could stay in the underground and kick ass, and if that?s just how it?s gonna be, then we will and we?ll just do it. But if this thing does explode at all and rise somewhere that it has never risen before, that would be fantastic. These guys are ready for it and they want that. We still think like 19 or 20 year old kids, like when we were first starting Flotsam, first starting Voivod. That way of just wanting to play all the time and wanting to live it and breathe it. I?m not sure that that is able to happen in Metallica, but not like by a choice. If those guys could do that and be alone by themselves, and the family thing is over here for a while and they could turn that off or whatever, but that?s not how it is and that?s not real life. Family is more important. There are different priorities. That?s really the bottom line, isn?t it, that priorities change. The Voivod priority is still taking the music to the people and living that thing, living that metal dream or whatever; for how corny that sounds, it really is still true for us.
What things did you have to adapt to with your bass playing in Voivod compared to Metallica? Clearly, there are some different styles there.
First of all, Piggy?s unorthodox style and some of his tunings are real wacky, so he had to show Blacky a lot of things that Blacky played through time because they are so upside down; Piggy tunings, Piggy chords, and stuff like that - he?s very innovative and influenced a lot of cats. Voivod playing has a lot of similarities to Flotsam and Jetsam playing - very busy, quick, double-picking bass. Metallica - everything that you can possibly down pick, you down pick, so it can have that chug. In Voivod, it is the sound that I kind of helped to create, a style that I helped to create for myself early on by worshipping Lemmy and Geezer Butler and Geddy Lee, the guys that play with overblown, punching, distorted bass. That?s my deal. You know, Lemmy, bass through a Marshall with a pick? That was my shit, and now it?s required of me to play that way, which is a huge blessing that I couldn?t have imagined something that makes me feel so good inside. It?s hard to explain. The first question that Piggy asked? We were in the studio in the morning setting up for the first day of recording; we had the Marshals in places, the microphones in place, and all this stuff. Those guys come in on an afternoon flight from Montreal, Piggy walks in the studio at 4:00, and says, ?ok, where is the bass amp for the distortion?? It was nothing to do with, ?hey, cool microphone, wow, nice Marshall stack,? nothing like that - where is the bass distortion? Do you know what that makes me feel like, man? They?re asking me to turn the bass up, they?re asking me that in a place in one song, instead of a guitar solo let?s have a bass solo? I mean that shit hasn?t happened in my career.
So you?re clearly more at home with this style of metal.
Oh, I think so. I think it?s where I invented my style with the Flotsam thing and writing those early songs of Flotsam - the busy and 14 different parts to remember in a song and many time changes. It?s kind of like ?And Justice for All style Metallica bass playing because I was coming directly from Flotsam at that time. You might not be able to hear it on Justice, but that was the style that I was playing behind all that. So that is definitely more me before I knew about other styles or could think about it and say, ?hey, that?s style, that?s that style;? that?s just what I played.
What about adapting to a situation with one less guitarist?
It?s great. Because of that, you have a different type of drummer. You have a different type of guitar player, and a different type of singer as well - the Snake sensibilities, man. It?s really good shit, the way that he weaves his words in and out of things. It?s not just, one, two, three, four. It?s not like that at all; it?s very much an instrument that enhances the music. And Michel?s drumming style is quite busy and quite musical, really cool in that way, not in any way a straight ahead 4/4 drummer. The feeling of the space type of thing, and knowing when not to play, which is usually important too - really, a lot more bass chording, playing the five-string bass, that?s become my forte. Having that extra string there for this band. I never had that before. It makes a big difference. On the song, ?Rebel Robot,? that you have on your album there, that?s basically on the fifth string almost the whole song, and it makes a big difference in depth and the sound that encompasses and envelopes the band.
And that [?Rebel Robot?] is a Voivod title if I?ve ever heard one.
Yeah, for sure, it is. The things that he [Snake] says in lyrics and those kind of things, this is the most proud I would be of any lyrics I?ve ever been able to play bass behind. The bass being the backbone, I can stand up real straight and real tall, with my chest pushed out - like, this shit means something to me. He?s singing about the band being back together and how happy he is about that, and saying things about what we?re pissed off about still. We?re still angry about a lot of things and we want to bring awareness. There was one cool thing that happened when we were shooting the video a couple weeks ago. Much Music came down and I was allowed to interview Voivod - me. I interviewed the other three guys in Voivod. That was a huge thing, man, and they were being so sincere and honest. Some of it was joking, but a lot of it was very serious. I asked some things I thought maybe fans would ask them, like where have you played that you liked the best, where would you like to go that you haven?t been yet. What are your favorite songs that you?ve written and played? What?s your favorite album? What is it that you would like a new a fan of Voivod to know about your back catalogue and/or to start researching your band? And Michel says very seriously, ? I want them to be aware of the serious danger of nuclear war, I want them to know about the earth and the damages...? I mean this is real shit. It?s not just talk. How many millions of metal bands have written about nuclear war? A lot. How many have really meant it? Not very many. This is really a deep concern for him. Like what?s happening in space, the explosion of the Columbia. He was freaking! For a couple of days, he was really down. That stuff means something to him.
Snake was writing a lot of the lyrics, but you had mentioned writing some lyrics and being able to express yourself. I assume you co-wrote some of those.
Yeah, I gave Snake about two dozen pages of my scribbling, some new and some old - a lot about environment and those kinds of things. Michel gave him a lot of his stuff - you know, worm holes and black holes and thin blue line, and alien stuff. And then Snake just pieced it all together. It?s another reason why I can stand very proudly behind it because it?s some of my words. It?s a great feeling to be able to have your stuff expressed. I didn?t get to do that much in Metallica. I?d give James a few words here and there that he?d use, but it would never be anything that was recognized.
This was a collaborative writing effort.
Absolutely! All the way around, music and lyrics! I was telling you about the tapes. They sent me those things early on. There were a lot of songs early on. I don?t even remember how many, but it got whittled down to 18. We knew we wanted to go after 13 for the 13th album and the whole concept of that number. By going through all those things, they encouraged me to make the song, change the song up, put the bass wherever it needed to be to make the song different, or go a different direction, slow down, speed up, or whatever. They were completely relying on me to do that stuff and that?s cool as hell. So it was full-on collaboration; another reason why everyone can get behind it so much.
One thing that jumped out at me is that the vocals are really high in the mix and decipherable, which wasn?t always the case. Was that something you consciously thought about?
Yeah, I actually fought for that. You always do a ton of reference mixes, right - guitar up, bass down, drums up, vocal up, blah, blah. When it came down to the final listen, on 10 of the 13 I went for the vocal-up mix. It was important to me that, being a little bit different and being able to hear what he says because the words are cool; to get across the message. Now I know how important it is to those guys, so I?m glad I did choose the vocal-up. There have been some things that have happened for Voivod in the last couple of weeks that I don?t think they would have ever expected. We got asked to do a radio edit for one of the songs. When people are asking for that it?s a pretty good sign. To be able to expose them to some people that maybe would have never ever known about ?em before. Not very many people do know about ?em, but the people that do know show incredible respect. If we can up the numbers a little bit on people that do show that respect, then that would be great.
I was curious about a couple of the songs, ?Gasmask Revival and ?Les Cigars Yolants.? What are those two about?
?Le Cigars Yolants? is the flying cigars. It started out because - I?m giving all the secrets away [laughs] - the riff, when we first started playing the riff, it sounded like John Bonham on drums and Led Zeppelin dude. It?s so much cool old Led Zeppelin feeling. I just thought immediately, I just thought it was about the flying cigar, and we started talking about space ships, UFOs, looking like flying cigars. And then our, how should we say, stance on legalization of marijuana -that is our choice, if we do choose something, that is what we do together, and that?s as hard as we go. It has something to do with that [in singing voice], ?it makes ya high? and that kind of thing. Flying cigar [is] the coolest name for UFOs. That?s how it came out, to have a little bit of the tongue-in-cheek, with never losing the Voivod alien thing. It comes down to the flying cigars, the UFOs, and then tying in with our flying cigars that keep us in space or whatever [laughs].
[?Gasmask Revival?] started out as being called, ?Citizen Gasmask? because he?s no more a good citizen. Snake witnessed first hand the WTO [World Trade Organization] gathering in Montreal and the throwing of rocks and the wearing of gasmasks and the tear gas in the streets. ?Tear gas won?t make us cry,? he says in the song. ?It?s time to wear this my friend, time to throw rocks again.? It?s addressing what?s happening in our world. September 13th of 2001, all of the army surplus stores were sold out of gasmasks. Once gain, on February 13th, as we speak in 2003, the army surplus stores are out of gasmasks. So that?s what it?s all about - the gasmask revival.
Why did you decide not to go with a formal album title?
Early on the working title was The Multiverse and then it just became a song. We had a huge concept going that we were going to follow with people going, [in funny voice] ?I don?t understand!? [laughs]. We were going to try to do that to ?em again. If you want to go on the ride with me, I?ll tell you for about 60 seconds what the deal was.
Sure man.
Our Milky Way galaxy in this universe is one of 13 universes that make up the multiverse. So it goes on and on. Each one of these universes is controlled by one spider, one great giant spider, and in our particular universe the constellations and the planets and everything are just hanging on the threads of the web of our spider. It?s just this giant creature that makes sure it?s all glued together and, if necessary, to make more web as the universe expands to the next universe and so on. So each song was going to be one of the universes to make up the multiverse. Each universe was gonna have different spider that Away was going to draw that would represent that song and that universe. But as the lyrics started coming out and we saw that they were more personal and more here and now than conceptual and philosophical, we decided to go with [the self title]. This was more of a direct lyric with a direct music. This is Voivod. Like we talked about before, the old fans are gonna always stay true to them because they stayed true to their music, but the new legions of fans that are gonna come because of my work in Metallica and because they hear this music and want something new, they don?t even know Voivod. So we?re trying to say this is a rebirth, this is a new starting gate, this is a new chance to show people what this band has, so let?s just call it Voivod, so there is no confusion. This is the band; this is the record. Just like that.
Something I?ve argued about with these guys since I joined band, and Michel would still get in my face about it, is that he says this is the best line-up the band has ever had. And I say, dude, how is that possible? I argue pretty sternly about it as a fan, like Blacky, you guys, the chemistry, what you created - that was Voivod, that was the best Voivod. How could you ever top that? That?s the original. And he goes, ?it was wonderful for what it was but the feelings between the people and the positive energy that?s created by the four of us far exceeds any kind of feelings or any or kind of positive thing or any kind of productivity and things that they ever had as those four people back in their day.? And I?d go, ?dude, goddamnit, no!? He doesn?t get upset, he?s the mellowest person in the world, but he?ll go [in French accent], ?no, you are wrong, I was there, I know, you are wrong; this is our best band right now, Voivod mark III.? That?s the way they feel about this and the album. They?ve all looked in my eyes sincerely and said this is the best record we?ve ever made together. That?s pretty huge to have that kind of sentiment expressed.
Is ?We Carry On? about the continuing journey of this band?
[Quoting lyrics] ?Now we?re ready for more adventures, no crystal ball to see the future, driven by a need to create.? That?s us right there. We carry on. We?re still gonna do it no matter what.
You shot the video for that song.
Yeah, and it?s gonna kick ass too!
Tell me about the video.
We saw the first draft of it last Saturday. These guys from Industrial Light and Magic. We were in the studio in Sausalito making the record, and we got this letter from these guys saying, ?we?re old time fans of Voivod and we would be honored if you would allow us to shoot a video for your new album.? I didn?t know these guys from Adam. I?m in my own little microcosm of music; I?m not too much into movies and stuff. So I said, well who are you and how would I know you. So they said, well we?ve worked on some films you might have heard of like Attack of the Clones, Phantom Menace, Harry Potter II, Spiderman, Minority Report?. I?m going, ?oh.? So you mean the Jimi Hendrix and shit of my world - you know, the best of the best. So each of them sent me five minutes of their own thing and you see on screen, dude, anything you can describe. I mean anything you can come up with in your mind or whatever, they can make happen on the screen and they gave me five minutes of all these movies I just talked about. They came down and they were talking about the old songs, etc. I?m going ok, these guys understand and they get it obviously, and they?re very capable obviously. So we chose that song and two weeks ago in San Francisco we got together with them. They called out a lot of favors from a lot of people that have worked on these big films. This is our best and this is my dime and every penny that takes place from that video to this phone call is coming out of my pocket right now to make sure it happens. They knew that and they understood where we were with that and they made this thing happen. It probably should have cost 20 times what it cost. Our next draft is Saturday at noon. It?s gonna be world premiered on Much Music on February 26th. Then we?re gonna try to follow with MTV and VH1 after that, but we?ll see what happens. There is no way that if somebody sees that they can?t understand the quality of the music and the conviction of the people involved in making the video and the music. It?s something that?s gonna be different; it?s pretty creepy. It?s a performance video and there is no question that there are these four pioneers of this music in a band together, like a gang. Old school, but very, very modern; the most state of the art graphic shit you could have. The spider is our mascot and the spider is in the film. Basically, you watch the band through the spider?s eyes. It?s pretty wicked.
Who came up with Jasonic as your nickname for Voivod?
My publishing company?s been called Jasonic for years. Those guys knew of me as Jasonic in all our projects and stuff like. That was my main thing the first two weeks I was in the band; I was hounding them - am I gonna be dumpy, strumpy, sparky?? They said, "we need to hang around with you for a couple weeks before we can know." When it finally came down to it, Michel says, ?Jasonic is so Voivodian; it sounds like Voivod [and] I can?t come up with anything better.? So I said ok, let?s go with that then.
Tell me about your label, Chophouse Records.
We?ve been making music in the Chophouse since ?92 and it?s been the place that many, many artists from around San Francisco, and around the country really, come to escape the business and escape the regimented things - music, agenda, etc., anything that makes you not like the business. That?s why you come to the Chophouse, to escape. You can play anything you want, nobody cares. We?ve had a lot of people come in here. All the guys from the coolest bay area bands certainly, with Exodus and Machine Head and Death Angel, the Melvins, and Kyuss. We recorded a song for Sepultura in the Chophouse for one of their albums. So we always just mix up the music. It?s a place where we make musical soup and make sure it?s recording all the time. I have hundreds and hundreds of hours of these sessions. I have about 13 or 15 projects where I multi-track and we did a pretty serious three or four songs over two days. We released one split disc last year of an old project - we?re releasing them chronologically. From October of ?94 is the Ir8 project, and it?s myself on bass and Tom Hunting of Exodus on drums and Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad when he was 22 years old playing guitar. That?s been traded in the underground for many years but now it?s available on a split CD with this thing called Sexoturica, which is Andreas Kisser of Sepultura on guitar and Tom Hunting of Exodus, and Jason from Metallica, so [that?s] how you get the name. We have quite a few more lined up to release as we go along with all these different people. You?ll get the original artwork that I did, like real cut and paste - exacto knife and glue stick, not computer cut and paste. We have a lot of things to share with people. It?s always done in just a collector?s printing, a thousand or 2,500 or whatever. There is another project I have called Pappa Wheelie that?s been going about seven or eight years where I play guitar, and scream and yell. A couple discs are available at www.chophouserecords.com. You can get all the Voivod stuff, all the newest merchandise that?s coming out very soon here.
You must get tons of demos, especially when people realize that it?s you with Chophouse.
Yeah. The answer is yes [laughs]. I can pretty much honestly say, I think I put everything on, whether we?re having a beer on the porch or whatever. We have this competition - actually it?s not very nice - of the worst demo. We?ve been doing it for about two years now and it?s pretty hilarious. There are some good things that show up, but I?m only going to work with bands that I?m in. That?s the only way I can put 110 percent into the whole thing.
What are your touring plans?
I just got the schedule. April 10 we start, first in the U.S. We go for one month and then we go over to Europe in June.
Any closing comments?
Voivod lives man. That is the word, right there.
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