DOWN's KEENAN On New CD: I Think It's The Best PHILIP ANSELMO Has Sung In 20 Years

Australia's Tsunami Mag recently conducted an interview with DOWN guitarist Pepper Keenan. A few excerpts follow:

On DOWN's upcoming album:

"The album should be released September 25. That's what we're shooting for. It's called 'Over the Under'. Phil came up with the concept about all the things we've been through down here in New Orleans, with the hurricane and just getting over things that drag you down. When he said it, it made a hell of a lot of sense. Over the under, you know, just overcoming your obstacles and getting on with it. It's been one of our philosophies for a long time.

"We started demoing some stuff right before the hurricane came and that sent us all frantically in different directions for quite some time before we could get back together in the same city and start rebuilding everything. And then we kind of had a different outlook on what our goals were. We kind of took a lot of that negative energy and tried to remain positive. It's interesting trying to write very heavy music and not use negativity as a source to be heavy. So we really focused a lot on that and that's basically our whole mantra."

On the current situation in New Orleans:

"It could be better. Anybody who thinks George Bush would take care of them in the first place is a fool. I never relied on that son of a bitch to take care of me, I never thought he would. When the hurricane was coming and I saw the size of it, I got every person I knew and I got the hell out of there. I knew there wasn't going to be any resurgence of army people coming in and saving us. The rebuilding process is extremely slow and extremely full of bureaucratic red tape. It's basically everybody helping each other and that's basically the way it's gonna be."

On the new album's lyrical content:

"We had a little bit more ammunition for this album...it's a very heavy record. This record is pretty much to the point man. It's a solid, solid 12 songs — a very solid 12 songs. Like a 'Back in Black' kind of thing, where every song is just a stunner. We're happy with it and we spent a lot of time on it because we didn't want to put out no titties and beer bullshit. We had a lot to say and we've been through a lot and it's a heavy record man — lyrically and musically, and I think a lot of people will appreciate it. There's so much bullshit out there nowadays, not that we're the be all and end all, but we put a lot of effort and thought into what we're doing and don't just spit these things out. We think about DOWN when we're making these records as if it was a fucking classic band that we love - as if we weren't in the band. We think about what it would take to make us flip on the band."

On how singer Philip Anselmo (ex-PANTERA) is doing nowadays:

"He's fantastic. He's doing all this crazy stretching out, working out, core strengthening shit and he's in better shape than he probably was when he was 25 years old. I think it's the best he's sung in 20 years. He worked his ass off and his vocals are outstanding man. He focused and focused and he did some things I've never heard him do before, it's bad. Phil can sing his ass off if he wants to but you've got to write the songs that force him to do that, to keep him from barking like a dog — he can do that better than anybody. So we challenge each other a lot to push ourselves to create new songs."