AUTOPSY's REIFERT: We're Not Trying To Get Modern Or Appeal To A Different Crowd

Sweden's CriticalMass.se recently conducted an interview with drummer/vocalist Chris Reifert of U.S. gore legends AUTOPSY. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

CriticalMass.se: You said for years that AUTOPSY wouldn't be reanimated. What caused you to change your mind about it?

Reifert: Uh, I know, I'm kind of a liar now, aren't I! It's kind of a combination of things, I guess. We did record a couple of songs in 2008 and didn't think anything would come out of it, but it seemed to cause some kind of spark or something like that. Not only between us, but there were a lot of people out there who thought it was real nice and we started actually getting interest in the band reforming. And around that time, Clint (Bower),the guitar player from ABSCESS, was kind of losing interest, I guess, in the band, and so these things all kind of happened at the same time, so we decided to go ahead and make an agreement on a show, which was Maryland Deathfest. Right around that time, Clint was leaving ABSCESS, and seeing how we can't do the band without him, we decided to quit — and that's pretty much how it went. I think us recording those two songs a couple of years ago definitely had a bit to do with it, it kind of planted a little bit of a seed.

CriticalMass.se: How does it feel playing with the band again?

Reifert: We're definitely having a great time with it, just enjoying every minute of it. It kind of feels like the old days, in a way, and yet it's kind of fresh at the same time, so it's really great! We're inspired and writing lots of songs.

CriticalMass.se: How do you work; do you write the lyrics yourself or do you write them together?

Reifert: I've pretty much been writing the lyrics, but anyone is welcome to throw in ideas — Eric has thrown in lyrics before, so anyone is welcome to contribute, lyrics or music, as much as they want. I just usually end up doing the lyrics. As far as the music goes, the way it works is we normally write at home, individually, even though we always say we should get together and write, it rarely happens, ha ha! Everyone is so busy with their own personal lives and that, so everyone shows up and if someone has a new song he says, "Hey, I got a new song," and show it to everybody and we play it. Not a very exciting explanation, but that's how it works nonetheless.

CriticalMass.se: Where do you get your inspiration from?

Reifert: I don't really know. A long time ago we did a few songs when we would write about a certain horror film or such, but that didn't last too long. We just started kind of thinking about our own ideas. For me, all sorts of different things can happen: sometimes, there's just a cool sounding title that appears and I think, "Oh, I have to write something around that!" and I go running for a piece of paper; sometimes some random lyrics appear. I don't know how it works for the other guys but for me it's rare to sit down and try to come up with something. It's just made up stuff, really, I'm not inspired by anything specific.

CriticalMass.se: You'd think you watched a lot of gore movies.

Reifert: Oh yeah, we've definitely done a lot of gore watching! I guess it's OK to be inspired by things, but these days you don't really write about them — maybe there's some film, or if you read a really brutal horror novel, it might kind of put a little something in your head, and you mutate it into something else, inspired by it.

CriticalMass.se: How do you feel about today's music industry? So many people don't buy records anymore, they just download the music.

Reifert: A lot of people do that, that's for sure. I don't suppose it's anything wrong with that — it's not that much different from taping a record onto a cassette for a friend, just a quicker version of that, a little more convenient. But I still think it's important to have the actual record; to see the band picture, the lyrics, the thanks list… I still like to see all that stuff, I definitely prefer the full package, especially if there's a really cool album cover, that makes it even better. So I think people are missing out if they don't go full board and buy the actual album. But that's a lot of people's choice. Some people don't think that the rest of the stuff is important, but I question how important the music is to someone who doesn't care about the album cover and all that. But whatever gets you through the day, I guess...

CriticalMass.se: I've listened to your new EP "The Tomb Within" and I really like it! Could you tell us something about the upcoming album?

Reifert: It's going to be pretty much more of the same, more AUTOPSY music. We're not trying to get modern or change things or appeal to a different crowd or anything. We're just going to do the only thing we know how to do, and if we're still going to be named AUTOPSY we need to live up to that. I'd say it's along the lines of the EP, but I think we saved the best stuff for the album. We're always trying to get better, so we're working on it...

Read the entire interview from CriticalMass.se.