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STONECUTTERS:
A&R People Get Your Heads
Out of Your Asses!!
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‘Get your
head out of your ass’.
That’s what I want to tell every single label that received a
copy of Christhammer and passed on it. Maybe these people
are too busy trying to snatch everything and anything metalcore,
deathcore and whatever other mélange is popular these days
and while doing so are ignoring a band as talented and ass
ripping as Louisville’s Stonecutters. So I contacted vocalist /
guitarist Brian Omer to see what’s up, where they are coming
from and where they’ve been all our lives. Read on and spread
the word...
 - The band is based in Louisville, KY. Can we speak of a scene in
the city?
Well, my favorite Louisville band has always been Kinghorse.
They released a self-titled album on Caroline Records in '90
that myself and just about everybody that was around at that
time holds at very high regard. Glenn Danzig is credited for
helping them but their music very much stands on its own and
they are still worshiped in the Louisville scene to this day.
They were this magical perfect 4-piece somewhat like Sabbath,
where each member carried his weight big time. The singer was
an insane poet with amazing vocals to back it up, one of the
greatest drummers ever out of Louisville and most important to
me was the creativity in guitarist Mark Abromavage. There’s
also an unreleased recordings cd called Too Far Gone that
is equally as good. They should have had the success of COC and
Soundgarden and others of their day. Thier shows were just a
sea of people going off!
- Stonecutters has been together since 2005. How does the band
form? Did you know each other before Stonecutters form?
The drummer
Johnny and myself have known each other since we were around 15
years old. We grew up in this small town called Danville, Ky.
Johnny had to quit school around the time we met but everyday
I'd get outta school I'd go to his house and we'd play Slayer,
Death, Metallica covers...as well as some originals. After I
moved to Louisville Johnny would drive up and play with me in
different bands I was doing. Including playing off and on in my
former hardcore band My Own Victim that released 9 cd's, 4 of
which on Century Media Records. Cliff and Kevin I've known
since the early 90's as well. Cliff was in a crazy metal band
called 'Kallus' that had some success and Kevin played bass and
guitar in various Louisville bands for years. My Own Victim and
Kallus broke up right around the same time in '04 so that’s when
Cliff and I decided to start Stonecutters. We somewhat hurried
an ep out with myself playing bass then Kevin joined soon after,
and Johnny joined with Christhammer. As far as
ex-members go Greg Stiltz played drums on the first ep and JR
Switzer on the first full-length. We're still good friends with
both of these drummers. They come out and see us play and love
it still. Sometimes people just don’t have the time or just
can't do it for whatever reason. But I have to admit this is
our strongest lineup and Christhammer is definitely our
greatest achievement so far!
- I assume the name of the band comes from The Simpsons. Am I
right?
Yes,
Stonecutters we took from the Simpsons episode. Our artist,
Dave Pollard, was the first to mention it to us. For a short
period we started out with the name 'The Death of Me', but
honestly I'm glad we changed it to Stonecutters, simple and
effective. Dave and myself are heavily into the mystery and
secrets of the Freemasons, Knights Templar, the book Holy Blood
Holy Grail, conspiracy theorys, The Hidden Hand... We're
constantly turning each other onto ideas, books, art, music to
deepen our knowledge of these secrets. With our music and art
we, the Louisville Illuminati, make our own codes and secrets.
We try not to have too many photos of us and make it more of a
mystery, Arcanum Arcanorum. Because there really are so many
secrets out there and the mysterys of the afterlife. I really
love the fact that we take everything so deeply in what we write
and produce, but it all comes back to a funny Simpsons episode.
- What got me the most about the record was how well you balanced
a nice variety of heavy riffs. The whole thing could have been a
ridiculous mélange, but Christhammer is instead a great
experience, always heavy, upbeat, thoroughly metal. Please tell
me something about the songwriting process?
Well, each release has been different and an experience. When I
first got this band together I was really into opposites.
Heaven and Hell is one of my favorite albums, “Lonely is the
Word” one of my favorite songs. And as crazy as it sounds I
wanted to mix a sound of GG Allin meets Jimi Hendrix. I'm
really into both artists and they are on completely different
spectrums. I love GG's vocals and his attitude ( I know most
will disagree) and I'm a big fan of Jimi's (at times) sloppy
playing and I always thought to myself 'What a match'! So
I had a few songs written, like “The Death of Me” and others.
Quickly got together with Cliff who helped me write “Our Mother
of Sorrows” and it just started rolling from there. Even with
the My Own Victim days, and before that Crawlspace and Human
Remains, one of my main goals was just to write music that’s as
heavy as possible. That kind of music just really grabs me.
- Regarding Christhammer, were the songs complete before
you recorded them or were there any arrangements while
recording?
Most of it
was ready to go. There were 3 we left off-Kinghorse cover of
“Red”, “Saint Sinner” and “F.Y.L.”. Kinghorse song is for a
tribute cd that’s coming out with all Louisville bands. “Saint
Sinner” we want to expand on and “F.Y.L.” we're keeping a
secret. “Muerta” wasn't really planned at all, just this doodly
little thing I wanted to throwdown to see if we could use it
somewhere, Cliff insisted on it opening the cd. “Black Zion”
was the last song we wrote for the cd and really weren't sure
how the whole “Legions Will Rise” thing was going to sound at
the end with the Louisville Illuminati doing backups, but I
think it turned out killer.
- Christhammer was recorded by Chris Owens. How do you
arrive to him?
Chris has
been recording a bunch of good bands at his studio, Kill Your
Momma Music. Akimbo (Neurot), Coliseum, Ed Gein. He was in a
bunch of Louisville bands like Red Sun, Slow Suicide, and now
Lords, who are touring Europe right now. He messed around with
the sounds quite a bit but the songs are definitely all ours.
His studio is only blocks from my house so it was super
convenient to commute. Funny story is...we are a pretty broke
band right, like most bands, so all we could afford to record
the whole album was 3 days. We tried to do the whole thing in a
freaking weekend! We listened back to it and could here quite
a bit of slop from rushing it and were getting frustrated. This
was around the time the icestorm of hurricane Ike hit Louisville
HARD!!! 2/3's or more of Louisville was out of power for weeks
and there was major damage. Anyway, I called my insurance
company (I hope State Farm isn't reading this, I'm sure they
aren't) and reported lots of damage that was done to my small
2-bedroom shotgun house. Well, I ended up getting $4000 for the
damage! I ended up fixing most of it myself and we used that
money to record and make the Christhammer cd's. I'm
still almost paid back and it worked out
perfectly.
- How
happy are you with the sound of Christhammer? Is it close
to how you envisioned it before the recording?
I think Chris did a good job. I'm pretty critical but after
having it in my hands I'm really proud of it and don't hear the
small things I was nitpicking before. I think the sequencing
turned out great, especially how the last 3 songs flow.
Actually, I think whole album flows well.
- Dave W Pollard provides the artwork for the record. But he is
also named the Taurean Warlord and Shadow Member of the band.
What kind of role does he have in the band?
Dave is a
big part of the band. Even though he doesn't travel with us he
tells us he's always with us in spirit. Dave used to sing for
another really popular Louisville band in the early '90's called
Evergreen. They were a bizarre cross between Bad Brains and
Voivod, really amazing band. Noise Pollution records recently
released a discography of their early material that people are
freaking over. Dave obviously does 99% of Stonecutters artwork,
all the artwork from our cd booklets. Posters, flyers, shirts,
buttons, stickers...Dave did the artwork. He has also helped me
with lyrics, more so on our latest Christhammer. I did
write all the lyrics for the ep. Then with the full-length I
wrote all but “On Stronger Winds” and “One and a Third” which
Dave wrote. Then with Christhammer Dave came up with the
title and wrote about half the lyrics with me, including “Christhammer”,
“Liar in Wait”, “X's for Eyes” and “Black Zion”. I'd like to
continue working with Dave with lyrics cause the guys is an
artistic poet machine. He's somewhat of a reclusive, bitter,
jaded soul that vents his anger into his art. And we love him
for it.
- I really like the artwork of the record. Is there a running
theme to the songs? Speak a little bit about the lyrics?
Man, I worked at the most amazing record store, ear x-tacy, for
6-7 years and I think all this downloading can be good and bad.
I personally still like going to the record store and buying
records, enjoying the whole packaging, reading the lyrics, and
checking out the artwork. That's what’s bumming me out about
the whole downloading thing is you don't get the whole
experience. But I think, especially with Stonecutters, the
artwork is a very important part. Dave's paintings do an
excellent job of describing the song visually. Or just any
artwork he's done for us sets a gruesome mood that is an
important part of the band. I think a lot of bands with
computer fonts for logos just don't come across as strong to
me. Doesn't have the same heart.
Our lyrics
and music definitely fit 'The Taurean Warlords'
paintings. A lot of the time Dave will paint something for the
song or already have something ready that fits it. Like I said,
he's constantly full of ideas. It's not something that’s come
over night for this guy, he's worked very hard and the arts is a
field that can be very unrewarding in your efforts but very
self-gratifying.
- How do
you think Christhammer fares in comparison to your EP and
first full-length?
Well, we
spent a lot less money on the first 2 and a lot more time on
Christhammer. I feel my vocals and solos have improved
drastically on Christhammer. Teaching guitar for a
living doesn't hurt! It's been such a struggle for me. After
MOV left Century Media around '99 we continued to release
full-lengths and ep's on our own, and man it gets crazy
expensive. So your heart has to be in it big time. I did feel
the last release MOV did, LeadHead, was our best. It's a
brutal fist-pounding record. But then, after all that I wanted
to go in a different direction. My top 3 favorite bands are
Iron Maiden, Neurosis, and Death...then Sabbath, Sick of It
all...so I really wanted to venture that way and kind of get
away from the hardcore/metal thing. Honestly, I hate the way
it's become with all these metalcore bands with no roots. I did
like the crossover that Agnostic Front, Backfire, Rykers and a
lot of the European bands were doing. But it's gotten shitty
and oversaturated the past few years in America and I just
really wanted to distance myself from that. Luckily
Stonecutters have gotten to open for some killer bands in the
last 3-4 years that I think we're similar too like Mastodon, The
Sword, Obituary...and even Madball and most recently Gwar. So
hopefully things are on the up for us.
- As you
commented and I’ve noticed, Christhammer is getting rave
reviews from those who dare ‘listen to it’. You commented
that labels don’t seem to give you the time of day. How does it
feel to realize that certain sectors of the underground are
appreciating your efforts?
When we first got the Christhammer cd's in I sent over
100 packages out to labels, magazines, friends...not one label
responded with anything, except for the usual exact same
rejection from Metal Blade. In their defense, like ear x-tacy,
I think they are struggling. Maybe you have to have a certain
number of profile views on MySpace or some other dumb shit
before they'll look at you? You can't just be a good band with
something to say anymore. But the webzines like yours and
magazines like Decibel that actually listen to us and see what
it's all about have been supportive.
- What albums are you listening to now?
GWAR-Lust
in Space, Thin Lizzy-Bad Reputation, Black Sabbath-Heaven
and Hell, Mastodon's-Crack the Skye, Billy Squire-Tale
of the Tape, Anvil, Witchcraft, Evergreen, Death, Nick Cave,
Kreator, Death, Neurosis, Maiden, Kinghorse, Priestess,
Bethlehem...
- What’s
next for Stonecutters?
Heading to
Somerset, Ky., bout a 2-3 hour drive, down by Tennessee to play
with thrashers Witness the Reckoning tonight. These little
small city shows have been great. We've been playing a lot in
the surrounding states like Ohio, WV, TN, Indiana...wherever
there's a crowd that'll have us to rock out. We just want to
stay busy.
- Last
words?
Thanks for the interview. I've been pretty much only doing
radio interviews here lately but this is good too. Help us
spread the word of Christhammer so we can do another cd/record
soon!
Watched the
Anvil movie again last night and man is it touching. I can so
relate to those guys. Stonecutters are all in our mid 30's (not
50's yet) but I can feel how frustrated Lips got. Really, just
like The Wrestler too, that's the story of every metal band and
wrestler. Even if you are signed, it's most of the time a
losing game that you have to literally throw money to. But
we'll continue to fight the good fight. We'll go down kicking
and screaming! And if anybody asks you anything else about us,
tell ‘em 'it's a secret'...
MySpace
Read the Deaf Sparrow review of
Christhammer here.
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