Ex-PANTERA Bassist REX BROWN: The World's A Far Less Beautiful Place Without DIMEBAG

Patrick Douglas of The Culture Shock recently conducted an interview with Rex Brown (DOWN, ex-PANTERA). A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

The Culture Shock: So, how good does it feel to be back on this ride with DOWN? You've got the touring you've already done and the upcoming record release.

Rex: It's really cool. It's taken two years to get the thing back together and kind of moving and getting everybody in the same head space. Shit a lot of stuff's happened in the last few years. You've got Katrina and we've lost a lot of loved ones. Trying to put all this together and keep it a really concise and very focused … what am I trying to say? You know when you listen to a record like "Back in Black"? It's a fuckin' record. You wanna hear the whole thing. You don't wanna stop at just one song. We consciously tried to do that with this one.

The Culture Shock: You can listen to the new album and realize that there's nothing out there that sounds like DOWN and there'll be nothing like it after. Basically you know when you're listening to it, that it's DOWN.

Rex: Yeah. It's kind of funny 'cause people will ask me, "Who's influencing you guys these days?" First of all, pretty much us. That's who's influencing us. We just wanted to put a record together that's real cohesive. A real positive message. Phil's singing his ass off. It's the best he's sang in twenty fuckin' years. I mean, the cat can sing and he can also bark like a dog. This record is what we've been striving for as a band for a long time and now it's finally coming to complete fruition to what this band needs to be.

The Culture Shock: It's cool that you mention that you don't try and sound like anyone else because you can tell. The great bands feed off each other and don't have to rely on another band's sound.

Rex: Right. And it's a process. I mean, the second record, we had some skeleton tracks that we had laid down and the whole bit. I'd gone down and jammed and we had some stuff. We kind of got in the mode of "let's go down to the fuckin' barn." For the second record. Just rent a shitload of fuckin' gear from Nashville, bring it down and just make a fuckin' record together. Well we did that in like twenty-eight fuckin' days and it was a hell of a ride. But, this is more focused and we really wanted, like I said before, to be really cohesive and just killer.

The Culture Shock: This band has become one of those bands that people get really excited about when you have tour announcements or rumors of songwriting and ultimately the album releases. I've already heard people talking about it as being one of the most anticipated albums in metal this year in rock and roll. Do you guys feel like you're sort of carrying a torch right now?

Rex: I've carried the torch before and it's cool to carry the torch but at the same time, at the end of the day, it's more about the songs and about going out and playing live and having the kids react to it. That's really what it's all about. As far as … Phil went through the "I'm the king of metal' and all that kind of shit and that was cool, but that was then and this is now. We've all matured a whole lot and gone through a lot of shit and basically tried to make the band now compared to five years ago is completely different. Even though it's the five of us, it's just more. It's hard to describe. It's more cohesive and just where we wanna be right now and keep this thing going. This isn't a side band anymore. This is the real deal and that's what it's gonna be.

The Culture Shock: How hard has it been to recover from Dimebag's passing? I know that's a difficult question to respond to.

Rex: I miss the dude every day. The world's a far less beautiful place without him. I remember the good times. I remember all the good times that we had. At first, it was such a shock that I didn't really wanna talk about it. And, I still really don't wanna delve real deep into it because this interview is about the DOWN music …

The Culture Shock: Right.

Rex: But I miss that dude terribly. Just a terrible waste of fucking … just the idiot. Sometimes I get to the point where I get really, really hateful. Just pissed off because of some asshole. Just some fuckin' lunatic that really changed … I really don't think that the guy really … I don't know. I really don't want to get into it, but I don't think he knew how many lives he fucking changed by doing that. I think it's a terrible waste of life and talent and breath and I miss, we all, Philip and I, we talk about him all the time. That's our way of getting through it. After he passed, we talked every day on the phone until Katrina. We've come to closure with that part of it. The mourning and stuff. There is a song called "Mourn" on the record and you should listen to it. That is about Dime.

Read the entire interview at The Culture Shock.