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Nevermore
(to me) is probably one of the best metal bands of this era, period.
Consistently making phenomenal records time after time and having one of the
best vocalists in the business with Warrel Dane. I had a chance recently to talk
to Warrel about their phenomenal record This Godless Endeavor amongst other
things and found Warrel to be crazy and very talented with conversation.
Jeffrey Easton interviewing Warrel Dane of Nevermore.
Warrel: Our dreams of world domination are coming together.
Jeff: With this new record, I am sure you will achieve that. Are you excited
about your new record?
Warrel: I do not know if that is the right word for it.
Jeff: Euphoric?
Warrel: Yeah, it is all sinking in slowly. It was a difficult record to make.
Jeff: Why was it difficult?
Warrel: First off it was the first one I did sober. For me it was challenging to
begin with but it turned out to be a great experience. Especially working with
Andy again.
Jeff: As far as the content, this is a brilliant record. There seems to be a
common theme throughout the songs, where was your head at while writing this?
Warrel: I am not really sure where my head was. There is a common theme of
control systems going through it. A lot of the lyrics I write in the studio
because I save a lot of stuff until right before I walk into the studio.
Spontaneity is really important to me because sometimes I come up with some
brilliant shit but sometimes it sucks. It is a crapshoot but on this record it
worked out really well. I was in a weird headspace obviously for this record and
I do go a bit psycho when I am in writing mood.
Jeff: Do you allow people to be around you?
Warrel: I am antisocial to begin with.
Jeff: Same here so I understand.
Warrel: I go a little bit crazy but every singer has a split personality, you
have your on stage personality and your off stage. I go into my on stage
personality when I write so I turn into a fucking freak. So the end result is
something beautiful hopefully.
Jeff: Well, I think it is. Final Product and Acid Words are two of my favorite
songs here. Where did Acid Words come from?
Warrel: I am not sure but I was really pissed of at someone at the time but I
cannot say whom it is because I do not want to hurt their feelings. It is
someone that I know really well though. I was really really angry at the time
and it shows.
Jeff: What is Final Product?
Warrel: The Final Product is the State Of The World as it is. We are all going
to hell in a hand basket and we cannot stop it. We are a world in slow decay but
by the same time we will all be dead by the time it is done and we will be
rotting in our grave.
Jeff: Sentient 6 is another song that stands out. How did you put yourself in
the part of the machine that wants to live and dream?
Warrel: There is also an undercurrent of religion in that to because the machine
studies the human’s religions. He then decides to play God by killing off the
human race because he views them as parasites after analyzing the situations.
Maybe not in our lifetime but in a few generations there will be thinking,
reasoning machines. It is kind of a dangerous thing when you give computers
complete control. We are about to enter into a big brother like era anyway with
all of the terrorism that is going on.
Jeff: With all of the cameras everywhere.
Warrel: It is getting closer and closer and it is a frightening thing but it is
a product of what is going on in this world.
Jeff: Terrorism aside, what do you think of people watching your every step?
Warrel: I think that the government has an angle on this thing and is running
with it. It is one more chance to watch every move that every person is doing.
Slowly your freedoms slip away under the guise of protecting you. It is
debatable whether you are benefiting 24/7.
Jeff: What are the benefits to being watched 24/7?
Warrel: I do not think there are any.
Jeff: I did not think so. As far as production goes, you have Andy back, how did
you get him again?
Warrel: We just called him and asked him to do it. This is the first album under
our contract so he was in our budget this time.
Jeff: Easy enough. The cover art is really striking and eerie, what is the
meaning behind it?
Warrel: After I saw the finished version, this is Lydia. She is done with the
killing and she has hung up her mask and retired. The posters will allow you to
see all of the little things in the cover. It really captures the bleakness of
the album.
Jeff: This album is bleak? Where, I thought it was happy.
Warrel: The day Nevermore starts writing happy metal. Wait, that will never
happen.
Jeff: This is a dark, bleak album but you have melodies for days, how did that
happen?
Warrel: It did not originally happen like that but that is the beauty of music
and that is when it is pure when it happens on its own. We went into it without
any preconceived ideas of how it was going to sound. We take a pure approach to
it, let the songs write themselves and develop naturally. When I am writing
songs, I sit in my room and beat my head against the wall for days over a part
but when I relax it will happen. They have minds of their own, these little
demon babies we call songs.
Jeff: Now that the record is done and out, what do you think of it?
Warrel: I think it is the best Nevermore album but it is not my favorite.
Jeff: What is your favorite?
Warrel: My favorite is Dreaming Neon Black. I can’t say that the new one is my
favorite but it does have our best writing on it.
Jeff: Why is that one your favorite?
Warrel: Because it is real, all of that stuff actually happened.
Jeff: That is cool.
Warrel: Not really, the girl is dead.
Jeff: Depends on your perspective.
Warrel: The girl told me I am evil and that she did not want to have anything to
do with me. She joined a cult and ended up getting murdered.
Jeff: Which cult?
Warrel: I have no idea. It is hard to talk about. It is just this girl I used to
see years ago and she just went over the deep end over religion.
Jeff: I just know that a few girls that I have been with if they were dead right
now I would not care.
Warrel: She was one of the good ones.
Jeff: As far as supporting the new album, do you have the full backing of
Century?
Warrel: We have a good album out, we are on a good tour and it seems like
everything is in place. We also have a video out right now.
Jeff: Which song?
Warrel: Final Product, it was the only song we could agree on. I wanted to do
Born.
Jeff: If you do another video?
Warrel: It will be that song.
Jeff: Why do you want to do one for Born?
Warrel: Because it is so brutal.
Jeff: Well, it is a heavy song and the whole album is brutal.
Warrel: The first time I listened to that album the whole way through I was
spent and I was involved in writing it.
Jeff: So you were thinking “Did I write that”?
Warrel: Some of the lyrics I was thinking did that come out of me? Apparently it
needed to. Especially Acid Words, they really are my acid words.
Jeff: Feel better now?
Warrel: YES. I do not know for how long though.
Jeff: You mention the media, what are your thoughts on the media.
Warrel: The media is the cause of a lot of problems in society today. They
glorify serial killers, they feed off of weak-minded people and they program you
to do what they want you to.
Jeff: Enemies Of Reality. Who in the hell let Kelly Gray near the mixing boards
for that record?
Warrel: Talk to our record company about that. We are blue in the face over that
CD. Kelly is a nice guy but he just should not be involved in anything to do
with metal.
Jeff: It has been remixed now by Andy Sneap and reissued.
Warrel: Thank God Any remixed it because he made it sound like what it should
have sounded like.
Jeff: Why did you do this?
Warrel: Century called us up and asked us if we wanted Andy to remix Enemies.
Fuck yes, no hesitation whatsoever. Will he do it? Fuck yes he will.
Jeff: What are your thoughts on Dead Heart now?
Warrel: I do not know, I do not remember most of the recording of that record.
Jeff: It was my record of the year for 2000.
Warrel: It was the record of the year for a lot of people.
Jeff: What are your touring plans for this record?
Warrel: We are not going home for a long time. We are going to Europe this fall
and trying to get a U.S. headlining gig after that. Next year South America,
Australia, Asia. We will see what happens after that.
Jeff: You have a great record to promote and I am sure it will do well.
Warrel: Thank you, I think we do to.
Jeff: Thank you for taking the time to talk.
Warrel: No problem.
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