MACHINE HEAD Guitarist: 'I Want People Humming My Solos'

Mike Bax of Lithium Magazine recently conducted an interview with guitarist Phil Demmel of San Francisco Bay Area metallers MACHINE HEAD. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Lithium Magazine: Do you get to hear stories about how your audience first encounters MACHINE HEAD? Here's the thing; I look at "The Blackening" and "Unto The Locust", where you're starting your albums off with an eight-to-a-ten-minute-long song. In this current ADD disposable music culture we live in, asking a new fan to start off their MACHINE HEAD experience by sucking down an eight-to-ten-minute-long song… well, that's kind of radical.

Phil: It is. It's not traditional. It's not conventional. We like to start our albums with a really relentless song, and "Clenching" and "I Am Hell" are not conventional songs. We throw all of those "expectations" you alluded to out the door. I think the band had tried that before and it just wasn't who they were and it didn't feel like it was being 100 percent genuine, like "Locust" is. So we're staying true to ourselves and also hoping people get that. If that doesn't happen... well, we're being true to ourselves and we genuinely enjoy it.

Lithium Magazine: For me, the first time I heard "The Blackening", I didn't completely get it. i knew it was good. I was intrigued. I needed a bit of time to really get behind what was happening on that record. I think it took me about a month… But when I actually got it, I was all in. And I feel like "Unto The Locust" went down a little easier somehow. My first impressions of "Locust" were that it was good. The more I played it, the more I could find some of the real intricacies that the seven songs on the album hold… but I liked "Locust" immediately.

Phil: I think "The Blackening" could have been a primer for "Locust". It certainly would get fans used to the longer arrangements. I think the thing about "Locust" is that the melodies are there and the hooks are there. One thing I did with the solos on this record, Robb [Flynn, guitar/vocals] and I both; was to try and slow them down a little bit. Go to the school of Randy Rhoads and Kirk Hammett a little bit and try writing a composition within other compositions. I want people humming my solos, you know? I go to a METALLICA concert and I'm humming the solos from "One" for days afterwards, you know? The whole crowd gets into it, and you remember shit like that. I want to achieve that. There are a thousand shredders out there, you know? And I'm not the quickest guy, but I feel like I am finding the right notes to put together now that people will retain and reflect on.

Lithium Magazine: How would you describe METALLICA as a band to open for? I've been in the crowd at METALLICA shows. METALLICA fans cross their arms and they watch the two bands opening with a stoic stance and don't really give the opening bands anything. It's a bit freakish. So I am assuming it must be cool to actually get the gig, but there is a whole other mindset you need to achieve to actually do the tours.

Phil: It's a hard gig. It is. You have to bring it every night. You're working; working hard! Headlining is still work, but it's more of the enjoyment and the energy of reciprocation. With a METALLICA show, it's not being reciprocated. (Laughs) You're pounding it one way until you get somebody and you shake them up, and that's what we did. We would pick out where to go. Robb can work a crowd like nobody's business, but we were in the round on that tour, right? So he's looking over the crowd in one direction and we were often looking off in another direction, and you have this whole quarter of the arena to deal with yourself, you know? It took some work. I think for the most part we did a pretty good job. We heard a lot of reviews along the lines of, "It's not easy to get through the opening bands, but those guys were entertaining." We played the "Hallowed Be Thy Name" [IRON MAIDEN] cover, so that helped us along a bit.

Lithium Magazine: It stands to reason that people may look over your history down the road and look to "The Blackening" as your "Master Of Puppets".

Phil: (Laughs) Bah! You know, there is only one "Master Of Puppets". Nothing is going to be on that magnitude for a metal band for a long time — if ever. I have a hard time with any comparisons to what METALLICA went through. They just trail-blazed everything, you know? It's their own trip and nobody is going to do that again.

Lithium Magazine: In your opinion, what makes a credible musician or band?

Phil: I think honesty — being genuine, having integrity and being honest with your music is what makes you credible. I don't think that how many people like you or how many radio stations you are on should matter. There has to be a quality factor in there as well, but I think if you involve those three elements in your material, that makes you credible.

Read the entire interview from Lithium Magazine.