ILL NINO Bassist: 'A Lot Of Times We Had To Compromise For ROADRUNNER'

Morley Seaver of CausticTruths.com recently conducted an interview with ILL NINO bassist Laz Pina. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

CausticTruths.com: So you're in the studio doing your fourth full length. We saw your studio report and looks like you guys are pretty excited about it. What can you tell us about it?

Laz: We're very, very excited about it. It's just the fact that this the first time we're recording away from the New York and New Jersey area so we're away from home. It's kinda like old home week. Together out here. We live together, you know. We're in the studio all the time, so the ideas just keep coming back and forth and it doesn't end until the time we go asleep. So I mean it's been very helpful. I think the band has really managed to express itself really cleverly on this one. You know we like to make every record different, but this is the first record that I can honestly say before it's been completed that I am so excited about. The last one I was excited about but I got excited about it after it was all done. This one I'm very excited about it in the writing process. It's been incredible.

CausticTruths.com: You've said on the studio report that the record is pretty experimental. Without giving anything away what do you mean? Is that in terms of direction or instrumentation?

Laz: Ah, well both. We've been experiment with different you know just a wider, broader percussion and bringing that tribal and you know, even you know, not just the Latin element but we experiment with world drums, you know. Drums from India. From Africa. I mean we definitely stepped it up, and wanted to bring a new sound to the record and present a new style, you know what I mean? This is a band that keeps growing. And on all our records we try to do…you know on every record, our goal is to keep growing. And give a new record every time out. You know I'm just so excited that the material prior to going into the studio just seemed so exciting. Just nothing like we've done in the past, but when you hear it you still know it's ILL NINO. I think that our fans are really going to really dig this one. It's a special record to us and I know it's going to be a special record to them as well. Just the content of the record, you know, the amount of time we've been spending on this is just more than we have in the past on any of our records. And just cool things have been coming up spontaneous, you know. I mean it's been very thought out, but from spontaneous ideas…that you hear it once and you say, wait a second, that's an angle, let's go after that. And I mean, we like to come out different every time. And it's definitely the most interesting by far.

CausticTruths.com: Considering Mike Gitter was the one that signed you guys and was so into you, what is your impression on what happened with Roadrunner?

Laz: Well, you know, I mean, what was going on with Roadrunner which is unfortunate. I'm very grateful to have been on Roadrunner and what they've done for us in the past. You know, they jumpstarted a career for us, worldwide, international career. Mike Gitter is still a friend of the band. He was actually here in L.A. and he came over to the studio. You know he just couldn't get away. Because we're still very close as friends and he's still very much into the band so he actually came down to the studio here in L.A. (laughs) And we got to spend some time with him, and played him some of the material, which he expressed he was so proud of. I mean he wants the best for us. After all he was responsible for discovering the band. So he'd like to see the band continue to do what it does and maybe even reach higher ground.

It got to the point at Roadrunner where, you know, not so much A&R, but the higher-ups were very content with the career as it was. And we needed to move forward. We didn't want to stay the same. We wanted to continue growing. They weren't really going to commit to our growth. They were very content with us selling what we sell, and doing what we do. There was a lot of change going on at Roadrunner, and we knew they were coming in advance. And it was just the opportunity that we could both part on good terms.

As you know, Roadrunner is now owned by Universal, which was completely the end of Roadrunner as we know it. Which is a shame, because is there going to be another label that's going to replace Roadrunner? 'Cuz once it goes corporate, you know what I mean? We can have wishful thinking and pretend like Roadrunner is still going to put that type of record. But when you go to a major label like Universal you might not get that. They might not be content with an underground metal band career. And that's unfortunate because there's going to be a lot of bands that are going to be looking for a label soon due to this whole change and transition. I mean, I hope a lot of these bands, hope this kind of music just keeps going and there'll be another outlet that can replace it. And maybe Universal can stick to the tradition of what made Roadrunner what it is today.

It was definitely us, we saw it coming and if we had stayed there we were going to get stuck in limbo somewhere.

We're a working band. We like to keep moving forward. We don't want to wait around.

I'm very happy with where I'm at right now. We are making the kind of record we want to make. Roadrunner would normally want us to produce certain kinds of records. And we always thought we were a little bit more than that, you know? We should have had the right to express ourselves a little bit differently if we chose to. But you know, they want a certain record and that's what they expect of us, and that's the type of record that we'd deliver. Not to take away from any other record. I love everything we've done in the past. That's just the way it was. But a lot of times we had to compromise for the label.

You can read the whole article at CausticTruths.com.