Interview with Brian Livoti of Watchmaker
by Nathan Pearce
Anybody new to Watchmaker should be advised of the bands violent music. Watchmaker is not for trend followers. Watchmaker is not for the weak and narrow minded masses. Watchmaker is one of the few bands out there truly trying to go against the grain. Isnt that what metal was originally supposed to do?
Watchmaker is from the Boston area. Do you feel a part of any scene in that area?
The only part that I will hopefully play in the Boston metal and hardcore scene is in its' destruction. Boston is very fashion and clique oriented. If you do not wear the right shirt or hang out in the right crowd you are not welcome here. Needless to say, the last thing on our minds is conforming to a bunch of teenybopper emo scene queens, so we are musical lepers here. Not only are we all old, ugly, balding guys who dont give a shit, but we are also as over-the-top-fucking-kill-crazy as you get, and the young scenesters around here bands and fans alike are just plain scared of us and our musical ferocity. The kids do not like Watchmaker, therefore the promoters do not like Watchmaker, and the promoters around here control everything. The metal and hardcore scene here in Boston is run by a supposedly elite group of people that do not care about us, nor anyone else, who does not suck their cocks or stroke their egos. I call that a monopoly and a racket, not a scene. There are very few people on the outside of this loop, but the number of malcontents is growing daily, so I do have some hope for the future. But, as of right now, the only sense of having any type of belonging to any type of scene around here, is with the Rock guys. Everyone in the Boston rock scene were at one time in a Boston heavy metal band during the 80s, so we go over surprisingly well in this environment. I honestly think that the Rock scene in Boston is the most honest, in that the bands and their followers seem to be about loving the music itself and having a good time. These people show up to a club to see something exciting and different, and not because they have some sort of socio-political agenda. Any time we play a mixed-bag type of rock show around here, it is always a pleasant and rewarding experience.
Who are some of the bands you have recently played shows with?
Due to the problems I have described in the previous answer, we have played with every terrible, rap-metal band in the New England area! However, we have played with some really good metal bands, believe it or not, such as Milligram, Today Is The Day, Burnt By The Sun and Cephalic Carnage. Weve also played with Grief, Sevendaycurse, and Toshiro Mifune (Deep Six Records) and this week we are going to play a show with the Backstabbers, Inc. (Trash Art Records). I think that is all of the metal name dropping I can do right now, as we rarely play with established acts. But, as far as the local Rock N Roll type of bands go, weve shared the stage with The Oxes, Destruct-A-thon, Black Helicopter, and the Medea Connection all of which are superb and worthy of your attention. One band that we played with that defies all descriptions was 4WayAnalTouchFight. You must check out their website and see for yourself: http://www.geocities.com/fourwayanaltouchfight/productions.html. They are nuts.
Do you feel any connection musically with these bands?
I think the bands that we have the most in common with from that list are the Backstabbers, Inc. and Toshiro Mifune. We are all a wall of crazed noise, who do not give a fuck about anyone or anything, and only wish to kill people with our music. These bands take the stage and they are ON. There is never any useless stage banter or interaction with the crowd. They are there to play, not to talk to their friends if that is, there were any of their friends in the crowd anyway, which is unlikely. This attitude is what connects us, and not only draws us together as people, but also as musicians. Whereas the other bands mentioned even a fantastic band like Cephalic Carnage likes to ham it up with the audience. And sweet fucking Jesus, I thought the singer for Burnt By The Sun would never shut his mouth! Although Today Is The Day share this Plug-In-And-Destroy philosophy, as anyone who has ever seen them can testify to, I could never claim there is a musical connection between us, because I would not even put us on the same musical planet as those guys. They are just an unstoppable force, and we have a long way to go before we can even think about approaching their level of insanity.
Are there any bands you'd like to tour or play shows with?
In a fantasy land situation, I of course would love to tour with Iron Maiden, Halford, or even a reformed Discharge, but that is a hard question to answer in the real world. We are all in our 30s, with wives, mortgages, and careers outside of the music world. Lets face it, if we had to do this for a living wed have starved to death by now! Just because a band has a record out, and appears in metal magazines, does not mean that they make any money doing this. The only way that you can make any money as a musician in this business is to be in a boy band like NSync or something. Any young kid that has never worked a day in his life, and then has the audacity to cry sellout about a band like Dimmu Borgnir is way the fuck off base. Sellout is a non-factor with any extreme metal band, because there is no payoff. So, I might as well just say Maiden, because I think that touring right now is an impossibility. However, Dreamcatcher records is a really good label as far as helping their bands tour, etc. so it is a good possibility that we may end up touring in the UK. If that is the case, I would love to play with Cathedral, Napalm Death, The Exploited, Lock-Up, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and oh yes, Iron Maiden, Halford, and a reformed Discharge. No a reformed Prophecy of Doom! I dont know man, it is so way out there for us right now that I just cant buckle down and give you a straight answer.
Watchmaker has gotten some pretty impressive press coverage lately (Terrorizer, Unrestrained!, Metal Maniacs). Did you expect this when you released Kill.Crush.Destroy.?
God no! That was the work of one very cool individual, Jerry Graham, of Warm Fuzzy Publicity. We owe him a lot. Besides being a comic nut, he is also a lover of all things musical. It doesnt matter what genre it is, if he thinks you rock, he is going to contact you. He just called me at work one day out of the blue, and said that he really liked us and wanted to represent us. He represents bands from the Hydra Head / Tortuga camp, who want absolutely nothing to do with us, so I was really impressed by his sincerity, and open praise. Given, his services are not cheap, and we couldnt afford his fee, so I had to do some graphic design work for him (letter heads, logo, business cards, mailing labels, etc.) and pay him a pittance in exchange for the amazing job he pulled for us. He even got us into Magnet magazine! Without him, I would have never been able to contact the journalists which have been overly detrimental to furthering our cause. Among these people, whom I cannot thank enough, are Nathan T. Birk, Jonathan Selzer of Terrorizer, Liz from Metal Maniacs, and Adrian from Unrestrained! All of these people put their careers and journalistic integrity at stake by being the first people to openly declare without shame in their well respected publications that We think Watchmaker kill, and we will never forget it. Shit, Nathan and Jon are our most zealous supporters! Because of their efforts, a lot of doors were open to us, and I am very, very grateful to them. But, Jerry Graham was where it all started.
Will Wonderdrug Records release the next Watchmaker album?
No. Although I have enjoyed working with Ken and Wonderdrug, and praise him for being the only record label on the planet with the balls to touch us, we will not be releasing another CD on Wonderdrug. Ken has agreed to release something new if we pay for it ourselves, but if we are going to self produce a recording, you better believe that we are going to release it ourselves. Ken has helped us out tremendously, and I will never have anything but good things to say about him or his label, but I think that we are too far along in our career right now to be pulling freebies. He is going to be re-releasing the Kill album, which will be re-recorded and contain some really cool extras on a piece of white vinyl. Were still working the bugs out of the package design and size of the vinyl, but I guarantee that it will be absolutely beautiful when we are done with it. Keep an eye out for it.
Are there any labels that appeal to you other than Wonderdrug Records?
Relapse has always appealed to us. They are like the Combat Records of the new millenium, and their entire roster is solid. HG Fact has always appealed to us, as well as the smaller noise labels like Trash Art, Deep Six, and Slap-A-Ham, but unfortunately, besides HG Fact, we are just way too metal for any of these guys, and that is just too fucking bad. Their loss. That is why Relapse is the perfect fit. We are without genre and so are they, and we both just want to level the planet. So, who knows what may happen in the future? Right now, no one is knocking on our door, so well probably just put out all future releases ourselves. I didnt want to become a record label owner or booking agent when I started Watchmaker, but that is just how it has to be. Until Emo girls flock to our show, which will never happen, record labels will never want to touch us. Did I mention that we are ugly and married? HA!
The album Kill.Crush.Destroy. is packaged about as simply as Ive ever seen. There is no booklet, no lyrics, no band pictures, nothing but a picture of a machine gun and the song titles. Was that done to add to the attitude of quick, precise violence that I hear throughout the album?
Yes, I am glad that you picked up on that! The quickest way between two points is a straight line, so why fool around? We are one-dimensional, musical violence, and I think the cover and packaging reflect this. Our packaging is skeletal and bare. I designed it to be functional in its content, with only the song titles and production credits represented; while at the same time giving it some kind of unique beauty. But, this may also be why people who do not usually listen to our type of sound have picked it up and given it a chance. In my attempt to clearly state our intention, I may have actually masked it with the minimalism. Some people thought it was a dub album when they first got it in the mail! Another reason for the bare layout was, of course, our hatred of the established ass-kissing features of most other CDs. Youd think it would stop outside of the club, but no. Open up any hardcore bands CD, and the longest thing in the booklet - with size 2 font - is their fucking thank you list. Do you really think all of the bands and friends on this list even played a part? Fuck no! It is nothing but shameless, name-dropping which makes you look better to shallow people who are easily impressed. If I see Metal Matt Pike on one more fucking thank you list I will vomit. I dont give a fuck if someones band played one show with Poison the Well, and then puts their name on the sleeve! It is not going to make shitty-emo-mosh sound any better to me. I love it when bands put big stickers on their albums declaring who produced it too! I fell for that shit once with the band King Horse back in 1988, so there is no way I am going to fall for that crap now! It said in huge letters Produced by Glen Danzig. It should have said Turd Polished by Glen Danzig. Bullshit.
Speaking of attitude, where did you get yours? Your vocals are some of the angriest, most hate-filled Ive ever heard?
Wow! There should be no mistaking where my attitude comes from after reading my answers to the previous questions! But, surprisingly, my attitude did not emerge from a hatred of scene politics, but mostly came as a result of the self loathing that I felt up until recently. It was like I had a mid-life crisis at age 24, instead of 50. I wasnt happy with the path that I put myself on in life. That is what the lyrics to Broken by Refraction (and all others) are about. The title and lyrics are based upon the Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov book, Bend Sinister. It has to do with the long term effects of making one wrong turn in your life, and the question of whether or not you can alter this course once it is set upon. I felt that I could not regain the once happy existence that I once had, and that made me frustrated and angry beyond belief. I have put my heart into these songs, and I think the vehement delivery of the vocals reflects this.
It seems to me that Watchmaker is trying to bring back some of the violence and rage found on older Punk, Hardcore, and Grind. Most of the music coming from the Boston scene is turning more toward melody. Is some of your anger directed at the music scene that surrounds you?
Absolutely. Expressing your feelings or emotions is one thing, but there is no a place for whining anywhere, especially within any genre of extreme music. Emo is just the rap-metal of hardcore. I do not need my pop music repackaged for me to feel safe about enjoying it. If I want to listen to melody or pop, I will put on a fucking ABBA record and rock the fuck out. The last thing I need is for ABBA to interject blast beats in their songs, so why should I want melody in my hardcore. Plus, it is just done so badly! The Gorilla Biscuits were a great fucking band who used some melodic elements, but they were able to pull it off because of the incredible song writing skills of Walter. They never lost the rage, it was all mixed in together.
The lyrics found at your website, www.watchmaker666.com, are actually a little less violent than the music. I get the feeling you know a thing or two about poetry. Do you feel its more important to portray Watchmakers emotion through the music or the lyrics?
For me, as the vocalist, it is more important to portray emotions with the lyrics, but if you asked any of the other guys in the band, they would tell you it is all about the music. They have no idea what the fuck I am screaming about! They dont even know the names of our songs! We never have a set list, but when we have to talk about our songs, everyone thinks the other person is talking about a different one. We have developed slang names for our songs to solve this problem. For example, the song Dummy Text is known as Bukka-Bukka, because that is the closest verbal equivalent to the main riff of the song. We used to call one of our songs Turkey, because we thought that the black-metal style riff that opened the song sounded like a turkeys gobble. So, who knows if the other guys feel anything, or if they just get a kick out of thrashing on their instruments? I am guessing a little bit of both.
Youve mentioned that Kill.Crush.Destroy. was recorded some time ago. How has your sound evolved since the original lineup and recording?
Right now, we are much more thick and heavy than we were on the Kill album. The new songs are still crazed and noisy, but there is a definite sludgy backdrop to this stuff. This is due to the addition of our second guitar player, Tim Donovan. Before, Paul used to write all of the riffs for himself, and would shift between high pitched black metal noodling and heavy grind. Paul is a very loose player, and can handle both, but he really excels at the heavier stuff. Although he is still all over the neck of his guitar like a swarm of angry bees, he is now able to concentrate much more on the heaviness of the song while Tim noodles around with the noisy, intricate riffs. Tim is incredible at what he does. You can also hear his guitar work in his other band, Decemberwolves. But he and Paul have got a really cool interaction going on between them right now that was clearly missing from the old stuff. The difference between the old CD and our next release will be night and day.
Whats the deal with all the weapons you use at your website?
As an artist and a designer, I am constantly finding beauty where others do not. I am just fascinated by the construction and purpose of any type of weapon, especially the primitive, almost barbaric things that man just cannot let go of guns included. The cold beauty found in rifles and other weapons attract me. I cannot say why. I am not a gun nut, nor do I own weapons of any kind. But, after I stumbled across the images in one of my stock photography books, I couldnt stop looking at them, and they ended up being used in anything that I designed at the time. I think it fits very nicely.
I hope this doesnt offend you, but I feel that if Death Metal is the equivalent of a hatchet to the head or a hammer to the face, Watchmaker is the equivalent of a suicide bomber. The violence combined with the quick repetitive riffs are somewhat related to early Black Metal, but the images you show on the album cover and at your website dont say worship Satan to me. Was this type of violent, angry atmosphere your intent?
No offense taken. As far as the music goes, we write all of our songs together and spontaneously. They are all results of jamming, so they become whatever someone brings to the table. So, essentially, we are an assimilation of all of the bands that we grew up listening to, all of the things we listen to now, and our feelings at the time of playing. We have never set out to belong to a certain genre, so we are not limited by a genres rules or regulations. This does not mean that we are going to get a DJ and start rapping, or use accoustic parts and start crying. It simply means that if something is working out, it is a gift from the gods of metal, and you should just roll with it and go wherever it takes you. It is like being in a life or death struggle, and frantically searching for anything you can find to kill with a fork, keys, a carrot peeler any instrument that you can jam into your attackers eye and end it.
I understand your live set is very aggressive. Do you feel Watchmaker can hold the attention of both the Hardcore crowd and the Metal crowd?
I dont know. Weve played every type of gig you can imagine, except for a wedding or Bar Mitzvah, to equal open mouths and indifference, so who can really say? We played for this crusty crowd of maybe ten people the other night, and they would just get rowdy at the end of each song and scream like Vikings. This was the best reaction weve ever gotten from any crowd. They were very appreciative of our musical expression! One time, we played a show with these two terrible rap-metal acts, and the crowd was nothing but young Mudvayne listeners. In the middle of Invert and Crush, where we just become awash with unbearable amounts of feedback, everyone just took off! One minute the place was packed, the next minute it was just us and the club owner. I do not know if youll ever get the opportunity to make a bunch of Slipknot fans run for their lives, but I can tell you that it feels really good. But, usually we are too metal for the hardcore kids, and too hardcore for the metal kids. Fuck them all.
Any favorite shows youve played?
The one that I just described for you was pretty cool!
Any upcoming shows youre looking forward to?
The first show that I book by myself with only the bands that I want to play with! As of right now, the line-up is going to be us, Backstabbers, Inc., Toshiro Mifune, and Malastor (a crazed, mohawked NH band that sounds like Cryptic Slaughter and has two singers). Toshiro is broken up now, so they might decide to play this, and make it their last official show. However, they may be replaced by the merciless, crust-band, Hirudinea, which we played with the other night. It was only their second time playing live, but they just killed me! I cannot wait to play another show with them. They sound like Logical Nonsense meets Terrorizer. Bananas.
Do you feel like Watchmaker, or at least music in general, is what you were born to do?
Yes, I was born to create things, which is contradictory to my somewhat destructive nature. I get just as much pleasure in building as I do in demolition. But, back to the question, I really do feel like I am fulfilling my purpose by putting on gauntlets and a bullet belt and screaming my fucking head off. I cant quite explain it, but nothing feels quite so good.
What do you hope to accomplish with Watchmaker, and what can we expect a few years down the road?
We do this because we love it, and because we need to. Plus, we are all really good friends who are too old to flake out on each other, so unless one of us dies, we will keep on getting heavier and crazier until we are just not physically able to thrash out any more. Hopefully, this will result in a legacy of brutal releases that will inspire a whole new generation of true misfits and outsiders to say fuck you and work against those that dare hold you back. But, well probably just end up being one of those total oddity bands that wont even end up in the cut-out bin, because we were never on the shelves to begin with! HA! Some legacy.
by Nathan Pearce
Anybody new to Watchmaker should be advised of the bands violent music. Watchmaker is not for trend followers. Watchmaker is not for the weak and narrow minded masses. Watchmaker is one of the few bands out there truly trying to go against the grain. Isnt that what metal was originally supposed to do?
Watchmaker is from the Boston area. Do you feel a part of any scene in that area?
The only part that I will hopefully play in the Boston metal and hardcore scene is in its' destruction. Boston is very fashion and clique oriented. If you do not wear the right shirt or hang out in the right crowd you are not welcome here. Needless to say, the last thing on our minds is conforming to a bunch of teenybopper emo scene queens, so we are musical lepers here. Not only are we all old, ugly, balding guys who dont give a shit, but we are also as over-the-top-fucking-kill-crazy as you get, and the young scenesters around here bands and fans alike are just plain scared of us and our musical ferocity. The kids do not like Watchmaker, therefore the promoters do not like Watchmaker, and the promoters around here control everything. The metal and hardcore scene here in Boston is run by a supposedly elite group of people that do not care about us, nor anyone else, who does not suck their cocks or stroke their egos. I call that a monopoly and a racket, not a scene. There are very few people on the outside of this loop, but the number of malcontents is growing daily, so I do have some hope for the future. But, as of right now, the only sense of having any type of belonging to any type of scene around here, is with the Rock guys. Everyone in the Boston rock scene were at one time in a Boston heavy metal band during the 80s, so we go over surprisingly well in this environment. I honestly think that the Rock scene in Boston is the most honest, in that the bands and their followers seem to be about loving the music itself and having a good time. These people show up to a club to see something exciting and different, and not because they have some sort of socio-political agenda. Any time we play a mixed-bag type of rock show around here, it is always a pleasant and rewarding experience.
Who are some of the bands you have recently played shows with?
Due to the problems I have described in the previous answer, we have played with every terrible, rap-metal band in the New England area! However, we have played with some really good metal bands, believe it or not, such as Milligram, Today Is The Day, Burnt By The Sun and Cephalic Carnage. Weve also played with Grief, Sevendaycurse, and Toshiro Mifune (Deep Six Records) and this week we are going to play a show with the Backstabbers, Inc. (Trash Art Records). I think that is all of the metal name dropping I can do right now, as we rarely play with established acts. But, as far as the local Rock N Roll type of bands go, weve shared the stage with The Oxes, Destruct-A-thon, Black Helicopter, and the Medea Connection all of which are superb and worthy of your attention. One band that we played with that defies all descriptions was 4WayAnalTouchFight. You must check out their website and see for yourself: http://www.geocities.com/fourwayanaltouchfight/productions.html. They are nuts.
Do you feel any connection musically with these bands?
I think the bands that we have the most in common with from that list are the Backstabbers, Inc. and Toshiro Mifune. We are all a wall of crazed noise, who do not give a fuck about anyone or anything, and only wish to kill people with our music. These bands take the stage and they are ON. There is never any useless stage banter or interaction with the crowd. They are there to play, not to talk to their friends if that is, there were any of their friends in the crowd anyway, which is unlikely. This attitude is what connects us, and not only draws us together as people, but also as musicians. Whereas the other bands mentioned even a fantastic band like Cephalic Carnage likes to ham it up with the audience. And sweet fucking Jesus, I thought the singer for Burnt By The Sun would never shut his mouth! Although Today Is The Day share this Plug-In-And-Destroy philosophy, as anyone who has ever seen them can testify to, I could never claim there is a musical connection between us, because I would not even put us on the same musical planet as those guys. They are just an unstoppable force, and we have a long way to go before we can even think about approaching their level of insanity.
Are there any bands you'd like to tour or play shows with?
In a fantasy land situation, I of course would love to tour with Iron Maiden, Halford, or even a reformed Discharge, but that is a hard question to answer in the real world. We are all in our 30s, with wives, mortgages, and careers outside of the music world. Lets face it, if we had to do this for a living wed have starved to death by now! Just because a band has a record out, and appears in metal magazines, does not mean that they make any money doing this. The only way that you can make any money as a musician in this business is to be in a boy band like NSync or something. Any young kid that has never worked a day in his life, and then has the audacity to cry sellout about a band like Dimmu Borgnir is way the fuck off base. Sellout is a non-factor with any extreme metal band, because there is no payoff. So, I might as well just say Maiden, because I think that touring right now is an impossibility. However, Dreamcatcher records is a really good label as far as helping their bands tour, etc. so it is a good possibility that we may end up touring in the UK. If that is the case, I would love to play with Cathedral, Napalm Death, The Exploited, Lock-Up, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and oh yes, Iron Maiden, Halford, and a reformed Discharge. No a reformed Prophecy of Doom! I dont know man, it is so way out there for us right now that I just cant buckle down and give you a straight answer.
Watchmaker has gotten some pretty impressive press coverage lately (Terrorizer, Unrestrained!, Metal Maniacs). Did you expect this when you released Kill.Crush.Destroy.?
God no! That was the work of one very cool individual, Jerry Graham, of Warm Fuzzy Publicity. We owe him a lot. Besides being a comic nut, he is also a lover of all things musical. It doesnt matter what genre it is, if he thinks you rock, he is going to contact you. He just called me at work one day out of the blue, and said that he really liked us and wanted to represent us. He represents bands from the Hydra Head / Tortuga camp, who want absolutely nothing to do with us, so I was really impressed by his sincerity, and open praise. Given, his services are not cheap, and we couldnt afford his fee, so I had to do some graphic design work for him (letter heads, logo, business cards, mailing labels, etc.) and pay him a pittance in exchange for the amazing job he pulled for us. He even got us into Magnet magazine! Without him, I would have never been able to contact the journalists which have been overly detrimental to furthering our cause. Among these people, whom I cannot thank enough, are Nathan T. Birk, Jonathan Selzer of Terrorizer, Liz from Metal Maniacs, and Adrian from Unrestrained! All of these people put their careers and journalistic integrity at stake by being the first people to openly declare without shame in their well respected publications that We think Watchmaker kill, and we will never forget it. Shit, Nathan and Jon are our most zealous supporters! Because of their efforts, a lot of doors were open to us, and I am very, very grateful to them. But, Jerry Graham was where it all started.
Will Wonderdrug Records release the next Watchmaker album?
No. Although I have enjoyed working with Ken and Wonderdrug, and praise him for being the only record label on the planet with the balls to touch us, we will not be releasing another CD on Wonderdrug. Ken has agreed to release something new if we pay for it ourselves, but if we are going to self produce a recording, you better believe that we are going to release it ourselves. Ken has helped us out tremendously, and I will never have anything but good things to say about him or his label, but I think that we are too far along in our career right now to be pulling freebies. He is going to be re-releasing the Kill album, which will be re-recorded and contain some really cool extras on a piece of white vinyl. Were still working the bugs out of the package design and size of the vinyl, but I guarantee that it will be absolutely beautiful when we are done with it. Keep an eye out for it.
Are there any labels that appeal to you other than Wonderdrug Records?
Relapse has always appealed to us. They are like the Combat Records of the new millenium, and their entire roster is solid. HG Fact has always appealed to us, as well as the smaller noise labels like Trash Art, Deep Six, and Slap-A-Ham, but unfortunately, besides HG Fact, we are just way too metal for any of these guys, and that is just too fucking bad. Their loss. That is why Relapse is the perfect fit. We are without genre and so are they, and we both just want to level the planet. So, who knows what may happen in the future? Right now, no one is knocking on our door, so well probably just put out all future releases ourselves. I didnt want to become a record label owner or booking agent when I started Watchmaker, but that is just how it has to be. Until Emo girls flock to our show, which will never happen, record labels will never want to touch us. Did I mention that we are ugly and married? HA!
The album Kill.Crush.Destroy. is packaged about as simply as Ive ever seen. There is no booklet, no lyrics, no band pictures, nothing but a picture of a machine gun and the song titles. Was that done to add to the attitude of quick, precise violence that I hear throughout the album?
Yes, I am glad that you picked up on that! The quickest way between two points is a straight line, so why fool around? We are one-dimensional, musical violence, and I think the cover and packaging reflect this. Our packaging is skeletal and bare. I designed it to be functional in its content, with only the song titles and production credits represented; while at the same time giving it some kind of unique beauty. But, this may also be why people who do not usually listen to our type of sound have picked it up and given it a chance. In my attempt to clearly state our intention, I may have actually masked it with the minimalism. Some people thought it was a dub album when they first got it in the mail! Another reason for the bare layout was, of course, our hatred of the established ass-kissing features of most other CDs. Youd think it would stop outside of the club, but no. Open up any hardcore bands CD, and the longest thing in the booklet - with size 2 font - is their fucking thank you list. Do you really think all of the bands and friends on this list even played a part? Fuck no! It is nothing but shameless, name-dropping which makes you look better to shallow people who are easily impressed. If I see Metal Matt Pike on one more fucking thank you list I will vomit. I dont give a fuck if someones band played one show with Poison the Well, and then puts their name on the sleeve! It is not going to make shitty-emo-mosh sound any better to me. I love it when bands put big stickers on their albums declaring who produced it too! I fell for that shit once with the band King Horse back in 1988, so there is no way I am going to fall for that crap now! It said in huge letters Produced by Glen Danzig. It should have said Turd Polished by Glen Danzig. Bullshit.
Speaking of attitude, where did you get yours? Your vocals are some of the angriest, most hate-filled Ive ever heard?
Wow! There should be no mistaking where my attitude comes from after reading my answers to the previous questions! But, surprisingly, my attitude did not emerge from a hatred of scene politics, but mostly came as a result of the self loathing that I felt up until recently. It was like I had a mid-life crisis at age 24, instead of 50. I wasnt happy with the path that I put myself on in life. That is what the lyrics to Broken by Refraction (and all others) are about. The title and lyrics are based upon the Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov book, Bend Sinister. It has to do with the long term effects of making one wrong turn in your life, and the question of whether or not you can alter this course once it is set upon. I felt that I could not regain the once happy existence that I once had, and that made me frustrated and angry beyond belief. I have put my heart into these songs, and I think the vehement delivery of the vocals reflects this.
It seems to me that Watchmaker is trying to bring back some of the violence and rage found on older Punk, Hardcore, and Grind. Most of the music coming from the Boston scene is turning more toward melody. Is some of your anger directed at the music scene that surrounds you?
Absolutely. Expressing your feelings or emotions is one thing, but there is no a place for whining anywhere, especially within any genre of extreme music. Emo is just the rap-metal of hardcore. I do not need my pop music repackaged for me to feel safe about enjoying it. If I want to listen to melody or pop, I will put on a fucking ABBA record and rock the fuck out. The last thing I need is for ABBA to interject blast beats in their songs, so why should I want melody in my hardcore. Plus, it is just done so badly! The Gorilla Biscuits were a great fucking band who used some melodic elements, but they were able to pull it off because of the incredible song writing skills of Walter. They never lost the rage, it was all mixed in together.
The lyrics found at your website, www.watchmaker666.com, are actually a little less violent than the music. I get the feeling you know a thing or two about poetry. Do you feel its more important to portray Watchmakers emotion through the music or the lyrics?
For me, as the vocalist, it is more important to portray emotions with the lyrics, but if you asked any of the other guys in the band, they would tell you it is all about the music. They have no idea what the fuck I am screaming about! They dont even know the names of our songs! We never have a set list, but when we have to talk about our songs, everyone thinks the other person is talking about a different one. We have developed slang names for our songs to solve this problem. For example, the song Dummy Text is known as Bukka-Bukka, because that is the closest verbal equivalent to the main riff of the song. We used to call one of our songs Turkey, because we thought that the black-metal style riff that opened the song sounded like a turkeys gobble. So, who knows if the other guys feel anything, or if they just get a kick out of thrashing on their instruments? I am guessing a little bit of both.
Youve mentioned that Kill.Crush.Destroy. was recorded some time ago. How has your sound evolved since the original lineup and recording?
Right now, we are much more thick and heavy than we were on the Kill album. The new songs are still crazed and noisy, but there is a definite sludgy backdrop to this stuff. This is due to the addition of our second guitar player, Tim Donovan. Before, Paul used to write all of the riffs for himself, and would shift between high pitched black metal noodling and heavy grind. Paul is a very loose player, and can handle both, but he really excels at the heavier stuff. Although he is still all over the neck of his guitar like a swarm of angry bees, he is now able to concentrate much more on the heaviness of the song while Tim noodles around with the noisy, intricate riffs. Tim is incredible at what he does. You can also hear his guitar work in his other band, Decemberwolves. But he and Paul have got a really cool interaction going on between them right now that was clearly missing from the old stuff. The difference between the old CD and our next release will be night and day.
Whats the deal with all the weapons you use at your website?
As an artist and a designer, I am constantly finding beauty where others do not. I am just fascinated by the construction and purpose of any type of weapon, especially the primitive, almost barbaric things that man just cannot let go of guns included. The cold beauty found in rifles and other weapons attract me. I cannot say why. I am not a gun nut, nor do I own weapons of any kind. But, after I stumbled across the images in one of my stock photography books, I couldnt stop looking at them, and they ended up being used in anything that I designed at the time. I think it fits very nicely.
I hope this doesnt offend you, but I feel that if Death Metal is the equivalent of a hatchet to the head or a hammer to the face, Watchmaker is the equivalent of a suicide bomber. The violence combined with the quick repetitive riffs are somewhat related to early Black Metal, but the images you show on the album cover and at your website dont say worship Satan to me. Was this type of violent, angry atmosphere your intent?
No offense taken. As far as the music goes, we write all of our songs together and spontaneously. They are all results of jamming, so they become whatever someone brings to the table. So, essentially, we are an assimilation of all of the bands that we grew up listening to, all of the things we listen to now, and our feelings at the time of playing. We have never set out to belong to a certain genre, so we are not limited by a genres rules or regulations. This does not mean that we are going to get a DJ and start rapping, or use accoustic parts and start crying. It simply means that if something is working out, it is a gift from the gods of metal, and you should just roll with it and go wherever it takes you. It is like being in a life or death struggle, and frantically searching for anything you can find to kill with a fork, keys, a carrot peeler any instrument that you can jam into your attackers eye and end it.
I understand your live set is very aggressive. Do you feel Watchmaker can hold the attention of both the Hardcore crowd and the Metal crowd?
I dont know. Weve played every type of gig you can imagine, except for a wedding or Bar Mitzvah, to equal open mouths and indifference, so who can really say? We played for this crusty crowd of maybe ten people the other night, and they would just get rowdy at the end of each song and scream like Vikings. This was the best reaction weve ever gotten from any crowd. They were very appreciative of our musical expression! One time, we played a show with these two terrible rap-metal acts, and the crowd was nothing but young Mudvayne listeners. In the middle of Invert and Crush, where we just become awash with unbearable amounts of feedback, everyone just took off! One minute the place was packed, the next minute it was just us and the club owner. I do not know if youll ever get the opportunity to make a bunch of Slipknot fans run for their lives, but I can tell you that it feels really good. But, usually we are too metal for the hardcore kids, and too hardcore for the metal kids. Fuck them all.
Any favorite shows youve played?
The one that I just described for you was pretty cool!
Any upcoming shows youre looking forward to?
The first show that I book by myself with only the bands that I want to play with! As of right now, the line-up is going to be us, Backstabbers, Inc., Toshiro Mifune, and Malastor (a crazed, mohawked NH band that sounds like Cryptic Slaughter and has two singers). Toshiro is broken up now, so they might decide to play this, and make it their last official show. However, they may be replaced by the merciless, crust-band, Hirudinea, which we played with the other night. It was only their second time playing live, but they just killed me! I cannot wait to play another show with them. They sound like Logical Nonsense meets Terrorizer. Bananas.
Do you feel like Watchmaker, or at least music in general, is what you were born to do?
Yes, I was born to create things, which is contradictory to my somewhat destructive nature. I get just as much pleasure in building as I do in demolition. But, back to the question, I really do feel like I am fulfilling my purpose by putting on gauntlets and a bullet belt and screaming my fucking head off. I cant quite explain it, but nothing feels quite so good.
What do you hope to accomplish with Watchmaker, and what can we expect a few years down the road?
We do this because we love it, and because we need to. Plus, we are all really good friends who are too old to flake out on each other, so unless one of us dies, we will keep on getting heavier and crazier until we are just not physically able to thrash out any more. Hopefully, this will result in a legacy of brutal releases that will inspire a whole new generation of true misfits and outsiders to say fuck you and work against those that dare hold you back. But, well probably just end up being one of those total oddity bands that wont even end up in the cut-out bin, because we were never on the shelves to begin with! HA! Some legacy.
