MINISTRY Guitarist On New CD: 'We Would Still Be Recording If We Didn't Have A Deadline'

Sweden's Metalshrine recently conducted an interview with MINISTRY guitarist Sin Quirin. An excerpt from the chat follows:

Metalshrine: Since [the new MINISTRY CD "The Last Sucker"] is a very political album, do you all share the same political views or is anyone of you a die-hard Republican?

Sin: (laughs) You know, I can't speak for all the rest of the guys, but we pretty much share the same views. Obviously Al [Jourgensen] is a lot more vocal about it in his lyrics and in his interviews. I pretty much share the same views as Al does, but it's a not so much and it's not entirely a whole anti rebublican thing, it's a government thing. This administration happens to be who it is and the next administration, whoever that is, will come in and make things a little bit better at first or appear to be better. They'll lower some prices on some things and they'll make everybody feel a little bit better, but it all comes down to the same thing. Whoever is in office, Republican or Democrat, evetually it all comes down to the same thing.

Metalshrine: It's the same thing everywhere. Did you and the rest of the guys have any input on the album when it comes to lyrics and music or was it just all Al Jourgensen?

Sin: No, no absolutely. As far as lyrics go, they're 99% Al. On this album, "Die in a Crash" and "End of Days" have some lyrical input from like Burton C. Bell, but other than that the lyrics are all Al. Music, yeah! We all collaborated. I co-wrote four of the songs with Al and the same thing with Tommy (Victor) whatever split he did with them. Music we all collaborated on, lyrics for the most part is all him.

Metalshrine: Do you think an album like this one has any certain impact on people? That it will change people's views, because I was thinking that the people that buy MINISTRY albums are already kind of on your side?

Sin: As far as political views? You know, I don't know if it will convert anybody, so to speak. I agree with what you said. Most of the people that buy MINISTRY albums are already sort of on our team. It's tough to say whether it will change anybody's views or opinions. It might, you never know. You never know the impact that music has on some people. We get approached by people all the time that are saying that "This album changed my life!" or "Helped me get through this!" I know that I used to feel that way growing up listening to music and albums, so you never know. It's possible!

Metalshrine: When it comes to MINISTRY and the stuff that Al Jourgensen does, does it ever get to a point, since there are a lot of different sounds and stuff going on in the songs, does it ever get to a point where you have to say "Stop! That's it!"

Sin: Oh yeah! (laughs) We absolutely say that. It happens all the time. I mean, we just go crazy when we're in the studio. We would still be recording if we didn't have a deadline. We go in the studio and we just go completely overboard in there, so yeah, there has to be a time when you say, "OK, this is it! We've got to stop here, we can't go any further that this!" Otherwise we'd be recording all year long. But you're never completely satisfied or hapy with what you do. You come real close and I think we got real, real close with this one. To have it come out as perfectly as we want it to. We're always our own worst critics and we always listen back and go, "Ah, we should've done this or that and blah, blah, blah!" I think that's part of being a musician.

Read the entire interview at this location.