MESHUGGAH Guitarist: 'Chicks That Are Into Math Aren't Into The Type Of Music We Play'

Swedish metallers MESHUGGAH are featured on the cover of the March/April issue of Metal Maniacs magazine in an interview conducted by Liz Ciavarella and JJ Koczan, discussing their latest album, "obZen", and their participation in MINISTRY's upcoming "C U La Tour". Excerpts follow:

On practicing:

Tomas Haake {drums): "I'm shitty like that. I wish I had somewhat of a practice routine like I know some guys do, but I don't. As far as being a drummer, I'm really up and down. For example, right now I'm a really lousy drummer. [At press time] It's been since July since I actually played the drums. When we have these off periods, I usually don't play a lot of drums. Of course things get really intense prior to tours and recording and such. It's then that I regain my competence."

"As a kid, I took some classes and Mårten [Hagström, guitar] had a guitar teacher for a few years but that was classical guitar with the nylon strings; that doesn't have much to do with what we're doing so people are very surprised. They paint up this image of us as introverted weirdos who are professors in music but of course that's not the case. We're just lazy assholes who lucked out, really."

On touring with MINISTRY:

Mårten Hagström: “Most of the time, when you're onstage and in front of a crowd, it's a good time — even though there's a lot of hassle, a lot of waiting, a lot of shit that goes along with it. It still comes down to the fact that you're out there performing your own stuff in front of people who are hopefully enjoying what you're doing. That's a feeling you never grow tired of, regardless of whether it's in the States for this particular tour, or anywhere else. We're just anxious to get out on the road."

On the "obZen" sound:

Tomas Haake: "We're always kind of linear as far as having a certain sound; we have a certain kind of output and regardless if it's 'obZen' or 'Catch 33' or 'Nothing', which was kind of the trippy one, you can still hear that it's us. We wanted this record to be more direct as opposed to the more introverted kind of thing we had on 'Catch 33'. We wanted to have songs you could actually play live or that were at least easier to play live. We only played like 10 minutes off 'Catch 33' live from the middle. We could never play the full song."

On MESHUGGAH groupies:

Mårten Hagström: "[Laughs] To be honest, I'm one of those dudes who, after the show, I take a shower, grab a couple beers, go back to the bus and play videogames. I'm not the party guy in that respect, but I guess the chicks that are into math aren't into the type of music we play anyway. It doesn't mix."

The March/April issue of Metal Maniacs is on sale now.

For more information, visit www.metalmaniacs.com.