MASTER's PAUL SPECKMANN: I Found More Freedom In Czech Republic Than I Ever Found In The USA

By: Scott Alisoglu

MASTER's Paul Speckmann has been fighting metal's good fight since 1983. Considered one of death metal's originators, Speckmann has persevered through lineup changes, numerous record labels, and thousands of miles on the road on tours of varying success. One thing is for certain though; MASTER has influenced many bands over the years and as often happens, the recognition for it came years later, and as of late Paul Speckmann's trio seems to be getting a lot more of it. With the North American release of "Slaves to Society" on John McEntee's (INCANTATION) stalwart Ibex Moon label, MASTER embarked on an October tour of the States with label mates ESTUARY. I caught up with Paul by phone just after the tour ended and the day before he was to fly back to his home in the Czech Republic. Here is what he had to say.

Q: This was the first U.S. MASTER tour since 1996. So how was it?

Speckmann: Well, there were more people this time; let's put it that way [laughs]. Back in '96 there were 20 or 30 people at the shows and there was really no support in those days. We went all the way across the USA shaking our heads. This was MASTER and SADISTIC INTENT. SADISTIC INTENT were so wimpy that they quit on the third day and went home. Three days into the tour and went home, man; that was pretty embarrassing, I thought. It was a tough tour. I think we probably did 20 shows and most of the shows were Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The rest of the days we were camping in national parks around the U.S., which was actually cool. But this time around there was nearly a show every day. We had 13 shows; we cancelled the last one [in Kentucky]. It was much better this time. We were travelling around in a van, but that's OK, it was still underground. MASTER is an underground band and that's how we're treated over here [laughs]. In Europe I'm touring every year and I do about 100 shows a year. When we do the tours we're on a bus, so it's much easier.

Q: John McEntee [Ibex Moon Records] has been getting the word out about this tour for months.

Speckmann: He did a good job. Everybody did a really good job. Matt [Bishop, booking agent] did a good job as well.

Q: Good turnouts and people were excited to see you guys?

Speckmann: I would say that the best shows were probably Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York, San Francisco and, of course, the metal fest in Los Angeles as well. Even this last show in Urbana, Illinois was quite good too; I was surprised. Obviously, we didn't fill the place, but it was still a cool show anyway. It was all underground people. Like Mark from IMPETIGO was there. Good people showed up. A lot of diehard fans from 20-25 years ago showed up on this tour. I was happy to see these people again.

Q: Illinois is your home.

Speckmann: Yeah, so, of course, you expect a good show there. Kansas City was pretty cool too. Just like the Texas shows were small turnouts; I don't know if it was the promotion or what. Maybe Texas isn't good during the week. I was a little disappointed there, but we got our guarantees and we played our asses off anyway; you've got to be professional anyway.

Q: So what took you so long to come back and tour the States?

Speckmann: First of all, the scene is larger in Europe. These shows here in America, we were lucky if there were 70 people there during the week, sometimes even on the weekends. In Europe, I'm drawing 150-200 people Monday through Friday, every day, it doesn't matter. They just show you a lot more support there. That's really the reason I didn't come back. I was worried it was going to be 20 people again. Most of the time when I'm not touring with MASTER I'm working with other bands as a manager and a merchandiser, so I work throughout the year in Europe. I'm quite busy. But I like it; I'm supporting the underground, as well as supporting myself [laughs].

Q: Were you familiar with ESTUARY prior to the tour?

Speckmann: No, I had never heard them, but I think they're a fucking excellent band. I really enjoyed playing with them. Good people, good atmosphere, and Zdenka [Prado] is just a killer fuckin' growler. She fuckin' rules. She gets up there and just commands the audience. She takes the stage and just takes control. I like this.

Q: Your regular band members [guitarist Alex Nejezchleba and drummer Zdenek Pradlovsky] are both Czech, right?

Speckmann: Well, one's Czech and one is Slovak, but same difference, really, because it used to be one country, Czechoslovakia.

Q: And they couldn't make it because of visa issues?

Speckmann: Actually, that's a great question that I've been answering a lot lately. I actually brought it up on stage the other day and pissed everybody off. George Bush convinced the Czech Prime Minister into letting America put a missile radar system in the Czech Republic; they're building it now, I believe. He promised subsidies, money, to the Czech government and the Czech government, just like the American government, only cares about itself [laughs]. So they took the money and they're putting the missile radar system in there and one of the stipulations in this contract was that they would make things easier for the Czech people to come to the United States. The reality is that it's still difficult. I tried to get my wife years back to come visit my family in the U.S. before we were married. What happened is I went to the American embassy with her. They take the money and they decide if they're having good day or a bad day, depending on attitude, and they say yes or no, but they still take your money. This happened twice to my girlfriend at the time and it was a bunch of crap. They got a couple of hundred bucks each time and then they turn around and say no. It's like they're playing God and they can bullshit. I'm hoping that your next president, whomever that may be, really does honor what Bush promised to the Czech people. It would be helpful for me, let's put it that way. It would be nice to have the guys you've been playing with for five years playing with you. Not to say that the guys I toured with, Rustin [Grosse] and Alex [Bouks], weren't good; they were fantastic as well, no question there. But it's just more comfortable when you have your own lineup.

Q: So they were probably pretty disappointed.

Speckmann: Yeah, the drummer is in another band and works for other bands in Europe, so he didn't really come out and say it, but he was probably disappointed in the background. He's got work. I have to do what I have to do. I figured it was time to play America one more time and visit all the people here, so I had a great time.

Q: How did you find Alex and Rustin for the tour?

Speckmann: This was through John [McEntee]. Probably about eight months ago, I began talking to John about releasing this CD ["Slaves to Society"] in the U.S. and getting licensed with our label Twilight. Sure enough, they finally hooked it up after a couple of months and then I told John I'd like to come to the USA and do a tour and does he know anybody that might be interested. He called Alex and Alex signed on right away, and Alex found Rustin, a friend of his, and the rest is history. I sent them CDs about two months before I guess.

Q: Then you flew into Philadelphia prior to the tour and started practicing.

Speckmann: Yeah, just three days, it was really quick. There wasn't much time. Three days of rehearsals for maybe there hours a day and then, boom, we were on stage. They're professionals, no question about that.

Q: When is the last time you visited the States?

Speckmann: I was in the States in 2003; that was the last time. When I first moved over to Europe I joined KRABATHOR in 2000 after meeting them on the MALEVOLENT CREATION/MASTER/KRABATHOR tour. We got together and recorded an album in 2000, so I moved to the Czech Republic. What I was doing at that time was touring in the summertime and the fall, and then coming to Arizona and moving furniture, busting my ass, over the winter. It was obviously warm and comfortable in Arizona, so for me it was perfect. Then finally I joined a company and for the last six years I've been making the same money that I'd be making moving furniture; actually more some times, and maybe carrying a box or two and maybe an amplifier, and that's it. So I took that really hard work for metal [laughs]. It's better now.

Q: So when you moved overseas for the band was that the same time that you decided that you were leaving America for good?

Speckmann: Well, it was an opportunity to jam with the guys. Initially it was for the tour, as you were saying, and after that I decided to stay. We had to record some albums together and we had shows coming every year, festivals in the Czech Republic and Germany, so I decided I'd stay.

Q: Was it a tough decision?

Speckmann: Not at all. This was when Bush came into power and started making his funny decisions for the USA and he's always been that same way. I was ready for a change in life. What I decided was that if you believe in your music, you'll go anywhere. A lot of guys are afraid to leave their own backyard, but I'm the kind of guy that will travel anywhere for my music. Like in '98 we were touring South America and Europe of course and I realized that there is a big scene out there; more than 20 people are going to come and see us [laughs]. Obviously, there are festivals every year in Europe and I get to play a lot of them.

Q: That's dedication, man.

Speckmann: Yeah, well, if you believe in yourself and you believe in your music, you've got to push on. When I was living in the USA, I was just moving furniture and I was depressed and really had a hard time keeping a band together because everybody hears the name MASTER and they think they're gonna be rich or something. Obviously, I'm still in the underground and I'm not rich; 70 people aren't giving me a million dollars a show [laughs]. Granted, there are many fans out there from the beginning that know MASTER, but you still have to pay the bills. So I have to go out there and struggle and play wherever and do the best I can. For example, when our driver quit in New York, I've been driving ever since and that was a living fucking hell. There were a couple of drives that were 26 hours, but what were we going to do? Cancel the show? No. I'm the only one with a license, so I'm gonna drive it and I'm gonna get there, and we made every show.

Q: You certainly picked the right time to tour here again with gas prices falling so precipitously.

Speckmann: Yeah, I was so happy about that. Just a few weeks before gas was nearly four dollars and I was shocked about that. Thankfully, even in the last few days we saw some gas stations where it was at $1.99. Maybe it's just because of the election. Maybe after the presidential election it'll shoot back up again. I don't know. I hope not, but it might be a ploy to get the American vote. You know how these politicians are over here, in every country actually. Corruption, I know this [laughs].

Q: How was the adjustment after you moved to the Czech Republic, as far as living in a foreign country, the customs, the laws, etc? Did it take a while?

Speckmann: Well, obviously, a different language. [laughs] It did take a little bit of adjusting, but the strange thing that I found about this country is I found more freedom here than I ever found in the USA. It's a strong statement, but it's the truth. Many times in the USA years back when I was still living here and working, cops would pull me over in my van. For example, I'm driving, I'm completely sober, completely legal, and this cop pulls me over and talked to me. I was on the highway from New Mexico to Phoenix, driving by myself. I said to him after he ran everything and said it was fine, "Sir, excuse me, could you tell me why you pulled me over?" He said "Oh, I saw your beard flying out the window and you looked like a fuckin' crazed maniac." I said, "Ok, thank you sir" and drove off. My point is that when I walk around the streets in Europe the police don't even look at me twice with the hair and the tattoos. They don't care. I'm sorry to say, but there are many more freedoms in Europe now; it's a reality. I feel safer over there and I'm more comfortable. It's a disappointment because I grew up here, of course. I've watched over the years the strong arm of the law getting more aggressive and asking more questions. Like when I came to customs a few weeks back, the officer looked at my passport and said, "What are you doing in Germany?" I told him that actually I live in the Czech Republic, I'm married and have my family there. He said, "What do you do for a living, sir?" I said "Well, I teach English in the Czech Republic," which is true when I'm not touring. It's actually English conversation; I speak with the top executives in the companies in the town where I live. I mean the top brass and one-on-one conversations. I'm writing lessons and teaching them how to speak so they can communicate with the Americans. So anyway, finishing the customs story… So then the gentleman says to me, "Oh, that's frickin' fantastic." I said, "Why is that?" and he replied "Many of these frickin' people from Eastern countries can't even fill out the damn customs form." I smiled and he said, "Have a nice day," he stamped my passport and I left. But it was an interesting experience. This guy was clearly Hispanic; not that it matters, but I just thought, "Wow, that was kind of a racist comment the way that he said it to me." It made me smile, but I thought, wow, that was racist. I was a little surprised. Racism is what's killing America and here's this guy who works for the U.S. government and he's a racist right there. It's kind of uncool [laughs]. We're trying to get along here. That's the problem in the world today, everybody hates each other and the sooner we learn to get along the more productive our world will be.

Q: How did you go about learning the Czech language? Did you go to classes?

Speckmann: I only speak just enough to get by. I'm not very good. I really believe that people need to learn to speak English [laughs]. I've had some arguments with some of the Czech people and I always tell them that right now English is the second language in the Czech Republic. The kids in school are learning English. They'll so "Oh, well, you've been living here for nine or ten years and you still don't speak our language." I tell them "Well, your president speaks English; doesn't that tell you something?" I always say that it's not my fault that the English language is one of the most spoken languages in the entire world. Get with the program [laughs]. When I met my wife, she spoke English about 90 percent. It didn't make it much of a challenge for me to learn then. So it's really her fault I guess [laughs].

Q: You met your wife there too. It sounds like things have really worked out for you.

Speckmann: I met her in 1999 actually when I was recording with the KRABATHOR guys. We hooked up after that and I've been with her ever since.

Q: How is it living there with regard to social programs, like health care?

Speckmann: Well, I have free health care. I married my wife and actually had to report to a duty officer every month to continue my health care. They're tripping on you because you're an American, of course; it's not a perfect world over there either, don't get me wrong. I had to lie every time because I was going on tour and have the lady push the date up and then one time I missed it because I forgot one day and she canned me on the health care. And then I started teaching English and work maybe 18 hours a week; it's not very much, and it's 45-minute hours. This is only when I'm home. I'll be home for seven weeks coming up soon. So it's only when I'm home and I have time that I work for this guy, but he pays for my health care now. It's really cheap anyway; it's maybe $30 a month or something. So if anything happens I'm covered. I have a card in my pocket and if anything happens anywhere in the world I'm covered as well. It's a good thing. This health care issue is really important. Over there it works. Even when a woman is having a baby, they pay for the baby. They're taking care of the babies. It's expensive to have a child here in America, but over there society pays for it. It's quite different.

Q: As far as "Slaves to Society" goes, it is one easily one of my favorite albums of 2008.

Speckmann: It's an honest record. I wrote about society and what's going on today. It comes from my heart. Problems of the world affect my writing of course.

Q: It's interesting that you use the word "honest" because honest and genuine is exactly how I would describe it. You can't say that about a lot of albums. It's old school in spirit, but it is refreshing at the same time.

Speckmann: Obviously, it's old school because of me, but part of the reason why it's a little bit more updated in some ways is because of the young musicians in the band. The drummer is 30, the guitarist is 38, and obviously I'm 45. And they listen to different kinds of music. They listen to PANTERA and these other kinds of bands; these later bands that I didn't follow so much in my career. So they've got different influences coming in from different genres, which is a good thing for me actually because it adds a little bit of a fresher sound to the record.

Q: The album is full of great riffs.

Speckmann: The guitar player actually wrote two songs on the new CD; it was his first attempt at writing with me. So on the next CD he's going to write five or six and then I'll pick up the ones I like and write the rest. The two are "The Final Skull", which I think is one of the best, and "The Room with Views". He wrote the music and I wrote the lyrics for them both. We rearranged them a little bit. The point is that the last four or five records I've written everything myself. It's nice to get a fresh writer in there. I'm really happy that he had some ideas and I liked them right away.

Q: "The Room with Views" starts off with that memorable lyric of "I hate everyone and I hate everything."

Speckmann: Yeah, I wrote those lyrics on bus. I was on a bus to the dentist.

Q: I'd be singing that line too if I was going to the dentist [laughs].

Speckmann: I was writing the lyrics on my cell phone, so it was quite funny, but it worked.

Q: The album is one of those that you can listen to from start to finish without getting bored. It really comes down to songwriting. The choruses are memorable. I know that MOTÖRHEAD has been a big influence on you, the "Bronze" era specifically, and I can hear that influence in the music. I don't mean in a rip-off kind of way, but you can hear the thread running through it.

Speckmann: Growing up, I was listening to MOTÖRHEAD and VENOM and SLAYER, GBH, EXPLOITED, DISCHARGE, and I listened to these bands and said I needed to come up with my own system with all of this kind of stuff involved; this energy, this anger, this aggression, this political chaos. I just made it my own. I laugh today when some of these bigger bands that are clearly influenced by MASTER and they know it, some of them it took years for them to admit it. But they like to say they never heard of MASTER and I just kind of smile because there is nothing wrong with admitting your influences. I was influenced by Steve Harris in the early days too when I was in WAR CRY and I was influenced by Geezer Butler, of course! It's heard sometimes in the way I play. I'm not ashamed to say that these fucking guys were my influences. It's OK. But I wonder today why a lot of these bands that are millionaires and I'm still in the underground are afraid to say we were influenced by MASTER and I love that guy. They'd rather say that they never heard of the guy. NAPALM DEATH, on the other hand, covered the song "Master" as a tribute to me and they actually paid me for it. They showed their respect, but many of these other bands are afraid to admit the truth. That's a little scary sometimes.

Q: The drumming is the other quality on this album that I really enjoyed. It is so percussive and not blast-beaten, and it's full of feeling.

Speckmann: He comes from a long line of musicians. His father is a guitar player and has some small successes in Slovakia in the early days, 40 years ago. His sister is a soprano and sings in different places all the time; she's always on the road with touring companies. It's in his blood. He's a great player, he has a great attitude, and he's a young man. He is influenced by so many different kinds of music and you can hear it when he's playing. It's not just one speed and one style. I was never a blast beat guy [laughs]. That's another thing… And this is going to piss everyone off out there in the world, but let's get into the recording here. Today it's a big problem when every Tom, Dick, or Harry can go in and record an album and use the computer to fix all their mistakes. When I was recording the original MASTER stuff, the first seven or eight recordings, we used analog. You had to record on tape, so if the drummer fucked up we had to start all over again. It was very difficult in those days. You really had to be tight and really practice your ass off so you wouldn't be wasting so much money in the studio. Today mistakes are fixed and you can do a record in a few hours if you're a professional like me. On "Slaves to Society", the drums and the bass were completely finished on the album in six hours. The guitar took maybe two days because I was really picky about it and made him play stuff over and over and over. I had to dictate the leads to him sometimes. He's a professional, but he needs help sometimes. The point is that this whole record was recorded for maybe $800 and there are guys out there that are spending $50,000 on a record and I wonder why. So I guess I'm going to continue recording at Shark Studios. I recorded the last three albums with MASTER there. I'm living in a country where stuff is still cheap, thank goodness [laughs].

Q: That album art is not for the easily offended.

Speckmann: A lot of people didn't like the artwork. They said the cover was juvenile. I had to scratch my head because it's like you can go to any gas station in the U.S. or Europe and there is pornography everywhere. I just thought for "Slaves to Society" it would be a perfect cover just to really make that point.

Q: Have the critical and fan reactions to the U.S. release been positive so far?

Speckmann: The reactions are really good and the reviews are good. I just hope that the kids go out there and buy it and hear music from a true metal pioneer. Not these fuckin' bands that have copied 10 times over. You've got to go back to the roots. So I'm hoping the younger generation finds out maybe from their dads [laughs].

Q: Are you looking forward to flying home tomorrow?

Speckmann: Yeah, of course. I go home and stay home Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and then I have to hop on a train for Vienna because I have to do merchandise for the LOWBROW tour, Allen West's band that he's been doing for years. I'm only doing it for five days. It's like a 10-day tour, so I'm catching it at the end of the tour. They're cool guys and I've known them for years of being in the scene. I'll have a good time with them. It's a family atmosphere.

Q: Will you be returning to the States for another tour?

Speckmann: Yeah. But I've got 30 shows beginning on January 26 in Europe and I've got a Russian tour coming up, and then South and Central America and maybe Australia. John is talking about bringing me back next year for some of these festivals and then we'll put tour dates in between. I'll probably do it. Maybe for me the festival route will be a good thing to enlighten the younger people. We'll see. I'm underground, so of course I need to come back here again and play one more time.

Fan-filmed video footage of MASTER performing the song "Unknown Soldier" in Boston, Massachusetts on October 19, 2008 can be viewed below.