EVAN SEINFELD Says Last BIOHAZARD Album Was Lyrically 'Very Uninspired'

David E. Gehlke of Blistering.com recently conducted an interview with former BIOHAZARD and current ATTIKA 7 frontman Evan Seinfeld. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

Blistering.com: It's a tough thing to start a new band, especially in this climate, so, after you left BIOHAZARD, what led you to join ATTIKA 7?

Seinfeld: It was really Rusty [Coones, guitars], to tell you the truth. I decided I needed to do something different and I think a lot of artists struggle with that. I've actually been contacted by some friends in other bands who have been in their bands for too long who have given me encouragement like "Have faith in yourself. You built BIOHAZARD. You named the band, came up with the logo, found the guys." I know myself. I produce, I do projects. I work really hard and am really focused and it was really good to have support of other musicians. I didn't know what I was going to do. I did a BIOHAZARD record ["Reborn In Defiance"] that, obviously, is never going to come out in the U.S. It was a good BIOHAZARD record. It was better than the last two, but nowhere near our best. Musically, I thought it was really solid, but lyrically, I thought it was a little reaching. You can't always know what something is when you're in it, but looking back, it was very uninspired. Everyone wanted to make an album so bad, but it wasn't like there were burning messages in the album.

Blistering.com: You're coming from a much different place than when you did "Urban Discipline" or "State Of The World Address".

Seinfeld: Especially fans, they don't realize that. People grow, change, and evolve. I'll say this until I'm blue in the face: If I don't feel like I'm building or evolving with something…I don't do well with maintenance. There are guys who like to be on auto-pilot: "We can survive in this band, with these songs. We can put out a record every few years." But that's not me. A lot of bands are like that… they're not at fault. You start a band when you're 16 or 17 years old, then you're 30-something. When I started BIOHAZARD, I was addicted to drugs, I lived in a bad neighborhood in Brooklyn, I was poor, and you sell millions of albums, you go around the whole world, you meet all sorts of people, and you shit together… I went from being a boy to a man. Some of my beliefs are in line with how I felt back then, some things have changed since then. I live on a different coast; I live in a completely different tax bracket. My life is completely different. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew I needed a change, but I knew I had to be honest with myself and the fans. I don't have any personal problems with the guys; we never hung outside of the band, it was a business. And that's fine — people grow apart. I was on "That Metal Show" last week with the guys from AEROSMITH, and those guys hate each other. But those guys make millions of dollars every time they get onstage. But you suck it up, and get onstage, especially when you have songs that are bigger than you. [laughs] When "Dream On" is played, nobody gives a fuck who hates each other in the band; it gives you chills down your spine. BIOHAZARD was the single biggest part of my life and career for 20 years, but the one thing that was missing was the sing-a-long, melodic songs that I always wanted to write. It never came together, it never materialized. The concept of BIOHAZARD was a lot bigger than the band. A lot bigger than the sales, and a lot of people don't realize this, but BIOHAZARD hasn't toured the United States in over 10 years.

Blistering.com: You had the spare show here and there, which was the extent of it.

Seinfeld: Yeah. The band would play a couple of shows around the New York area, and one time in ten years, the band played in L.A.

Blistering.com: So you had to do all of your work in Europe.

Seinfeld: Even that had really shrunk. It wasn't the kind of thing that was inspiring. It wasn't making money and it wasn't that much fun. It was trying to resurrect something that already exists. What's the definition of insanity? Repeating the same thing over and over, expecting a different outcome. You can play in fucking Dortmund, Germany with the same exact songs and lineup, and you expect more people will show up? It was the law of diminishing return, and a little bit depressing.

Blistering.com: You were ahead of the game in the '90s when not many bands were combining metal with hardcore and rap. Now, there's tons of bands doing that.

Seinfeld: I know bands that did it better, if not more commercially. Bands like LINKIN PARK and KORN would mention BIOHAZARD as an influence. It’s great to be respected and looked as a pioneer, but that only lasts so long. Other people may be happy to live off the fame of 20 years ago, but not for Evan Seinfeld. Evan Seinfeld, for me, I'm always trying to live on what I'm doing right now.

Read the entire interview at Blistering.com.