MACHINE HEAD Bassist: 'We're Not That Smart, We're A Handful Of Musicians'

Zach Shaw of MetalInsider.net recently conducted an interview with bassist Adam Duce of San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

MetalInsider.net: Even though it's been four years since "The Blackening" came out, MACHINE HEAD have been going nonstop on the road touring behind that album. Do you feel the nonstop touring helped or had any influence on the new album?

Adam: No, I don't really think so. I know that it had a detrimental effect on my beach body. [laughs]

MetalInsider.net: So is "Detrimental Effect On My Beach Body" what you wanted to call the album but the rest of the band turned it down? [laughs]

Adam: [laughs] No. I think we did what we had to do on that record ["The Blackening"] and then it was done. And we had to kind of move forward from that and just get that behind us. When you're so widely critically acclaimed, if you let any of that shit go to your head, it makes the next thing that you do harder. I ended up, after so many different things we've done, like from after "Burn My Eyes", we had huge success on that, then we all kind of freaked out, like "What the hell are we going to do now?" But then we wrote "The More Things Change", which was not that much of a departure from "Burn My Eyes". That was a product of feeling too much pressure, "The More Things Change". Then we tried to predict what the world was wanting at the time, and in comes "The Burning Red". And that reacted in a good way in the United States, but I think it alienated a lot of fans just because of the production, really. Had we had Terry Date [PANTERA, DEFTONES] record and mix the entire thing, I think it would have been looked at completely differently, but we didn't, and it is what it is. Then again we go trying to basically figure out what the world wants with "Supercharger", and we end up getting dropped. And we just decided, "Well, look, if this is the last fucking chance that we might have to make a record, then let's hoist our middle finger flag in the air as high as we can fucking get it and go down like that on our own fucking terms! This is how we're going out!" But as soon as we did that, of course, it reacted. And that was kind of a fucking hard pill to swallow, just to know that fucking the only thing the world wanted from us was whatever we wanted to do. It was like, "Jesus Christ, we just wasted how many fucking years?!" So it's been a giant learning process. Of course, after "Through The Ashes" came "The Blackening". We were calling the next one from "Through the Ashes" when we were sitting here doing this press and stuff, it was like, "Well, you know what? We're just jelling as a band right now. Wait until the next one. The next one is going to be the one!" And we hadn't written one fucking note for it, but we knew it. It's a basic continuation of just making music for the sake of it, because it's all that anybody wants out of us anyway. They don't want us trying to "figure out" what they want. We're not that fucking smart, we're a fucking handful of musicians. [laughs] We do one thing and we do it well. So I think that MACHINE HEAD fans, if you're a fan of our back catalog, then you're going to feel this one. It's undeniably MACHINE HEAD and there's new, fresh ideas and new, fresh songs that deliver what a MACHINE HEAD fan's looking for.

MetalInsider.net: For a majority of Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, MACHINE HEAD, IN FLAMES, and TRIVIUM have been rotating slots on the main stage and side stages. Having also played at Mayhem festival in 2008, do you personally prefer performing on the main stage or on the side stage?

Adam: I prefer playing in the parking lot just because it's crazier. You've got the fans that could only afford the lawn tickets and in the parking lot they can fight their way to the front. The people who want to be at the front are the ones that are at the front. The people who are in the pit want to be there. You've got the craziest fuckers down there responding to it, that's what they came for. And when you're on the main stage, these guys are about 100 yards away on the lawn up there and you're looking at a bunch of seats. Now over the years, and we've been doing this for 20 years, we've gotten good at being able to transition from one thing to the next and being able to work the seats people and stuff. It's just not the same. You don't see the visual response of what they're feeling. You go out into the parking lot and it's a goddamn hurricane in the middle of it and it's fucking awesome.

MetalInsider.net: With illegal downloading being so heavily done nowadays, did you ever feel hesitant to record a new album?

Adam: That's just what we do. The powers that be have not done a very good fucking job at being able to work within the new digital media. They've always had this fucking product that was a bag full of fucking something that they're selling, and now it's this cyber idea and they fucking failed miserably at being able to capitalize on that. So there's a huge breach in security there and there's no guard at the door. It's just, "Oh, there it is. Grab it!" You can steal shit in the privacy of your own home. If it's that easy to get, I can't really fucking blame some kid that doesn't have a job for fucking taking it. Does it suck for us? Fuck yeah, it does, but you gotta roll with it. When the record companies fail as miserably as they have been with selling records, then you gotta concentrate on making money in other places like tickets and t-shirts. And then fucking in comes the fucking record company again with a "360" deal. Are you fucking kidding me? Really? "We figured out how to continue to make money and you want more of ours? Fuck you! [laughs] 360 this, motherfuckers."

[According to Dan Goldberg, Senior Director of New Business Development at Roadrunner Records, An extended-rights, or 360, deal is a business relationship between an artist and recording company whereby the recording company is involved in every facet of the artist's business. Traditionally, most record companies only acquired rights to an artist's sound recordings. Under an extended-rights deal, the record company now also participates in an artist's merchandising, ticketing, touring, endorsements, publishing, sponsorships, name and likeness and other revenue streams. By doing so, the record company becomes more fully aligned with their artists' interests and more invested in their long-term career growth.]

MetalInsider.net: So I guess we know what MACHINE HEAD is NOT going to do once the contract is up. [laughs]

Adam: You know what?! I'm not saying that we're not going to do it because that seems to be the way that it's going. But it's going to have to be sweet as fuck to put my name on anything. I'd rather fucking put it out myself personally, but that's going to be another fucking MACHINE HEAD battle/war of attrition there. [laughs]

Read the entire interview at MetalInsider.net.