Ex-WHITE ZOMBIE Bassist SEAN YSEULT Discusses 'I'm In The Band' Book In New Interview

Tom Trakas of the None But My Own blog recently conducted an interview with former WHITE ZOMBIE bassist Sean Yseult about Sean's new book, "I'm In The Band - Backstage Notes From The Chick In White Zombie". A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

None But My Own: When you were working on "I'm In the Band", what type of response did you think you would get? Did you think it would be just the WHITE ZOMBIE fans? I think it's deserving of a broader scope because there's so much in here.

Sean: Well, I definitely knew the WHITE ZOMBIE fans would gravitate to it. Over the years I've definitely seen my share of Internet chatter and received emails regarding everything from why there wasn't more information in the box set to just about anything else related to the band. I just really wanted to get the story of the band out there because it's never really been told. So I knew the fans would be into it and I also thought it would appeal to a wider female audience as well. So outside of that I wasn't too sure who it would speak to.

None But My Own: When you started as a rock musician, were you a bass player first then a songwriter or vice versa?

Sean: Definitely a songwriter first. My classical music training goes back to when I was five or six, so I was trained to read, write, compose and improvise music…it was some hardcore training. By the time I was eight I was writing five page pieces on piano, some pretty intricate shit too (laughs)! Bass came later, it wasn't until high school and getting into hardcore bands like THE CRAMPS, BLACK FLAG and DEAD KENNEDYS and so on. That's when I knew I wanted to be in a band. As soon I got to New York, I met some hardcore kids at a BAD BRAINS show and they were like, "We're gonna start a band and we need a bass player!" So I got a bass for fifty dollars, Global was the brand and it was horrible but it was all I could afford. But I don't think we ever practiced, we just sat around and talked about having this "band!" So as soon as I started playing bass I was writing riffs, I practiced to build my strength but always was writing stuff.

None But My Own: I can't profess to being the biggest WHITE ZOMBIE fan, but from my point of view WHITE ZOMBIE always seemed to be Rob and then the band. All important in the public eye, but definitely an emphasis on him, especially, seemingly more when the band "broke." I liked reading just how important each of you were to the absolute foundation of the band.

Sean: That was definitely something Rob and I wanted from the start. It wasn't like the members of the band fighting for quality, he (Rob) was really into that. He was like "I only like bands where every member's important." So we really tried to stress that from the beginning on all our early records too. All members were prominently featured equally, that was important to us.

None But My Own: Not to bring up a bummer, but there's quite a few PANTERA tour mementos in the book. There are words and some great photos of two bands that seemed to really enjoy each others company. After the events of December 8, 2004 the tributes and memories were massive. Did you ever get a chance to release a statement, either something personal or on the part of WHITE ZOMBIE?

Sean: I went to ['Dimebag' Darrell Abbott's] funeral, and Rita had asked me to go up and tell a story or something… (long pause) but I didn't have the heart to. It was really, really upsetting… I don't know, just so senseless and so terrible. You know some people, when I think back about them like Kurt Cobain and others; I can't even listen to the music. But when I hear PANTERA it makes me happy, you know? Darrell was such a good soul [and a] great person with such good energy it feels like he's still here, not to sound corny. It's hard to put into words because it's not like he took his own life or OD'd or something, but it was sudden and I only think of good things when I think of Darrell.

None But My Own: How's the book tour going?

Sean: Great! It's been keeping me really busy and they keep selling out of books, so that's been telling me it's going good!

None But My Own: What type of reactions have you been receiving? Me, personally I can see people gravitating to a few different things with it, of course the visual stuff is fantastic. But I also really enjoyed the writing too.

Sean: It's funny; there are some people who thought it was going to be all writing and not all that visual, not a coffee table styled book. Then there's the other half who thought it was going to be all visual and were surprised at all the stories, so (laughing) it's this hybrid kind of book, but yeah the response has been great.

Read the entire interview from the None But My Own blog.