TYPE O NEGATIVE Drummer: 'We Have The Ability To Be Versatile'

March 29, 2007

Scott McLennan of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette recently conducted an interview with TYPE O NEGATIVE drummer Johnny Kelly. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On the band's diverse influences:

"We have the ability to be versatile. There are a whole lot of bands that can't do a lot. We can do a lot and it still always sounds like TYPE O. We're not making music that's like 'TYPE O trying to be THE CURE,' or 'TYPE O trying to be BLACK SABBATH.' It's like LED ZEPPELIN. They could do the heavy stuff or 'Going to California' and in either case it was instantly recognizable as LED ZEPPELIN."

On frontman Peter Steele's proclamation that he wanted to record a "hardcore" album with "Dead Again":

"'World Coming Down' (from 1999) was definitely not a hardcore record. And correct me if I'm wrong, but neither was 'Life Is Killing Me'. The closest thing to hardcore on that record was the campy horror tune 'I Like Goils'. Of course, Pete says, 'I want to do a hardcore record,' and the first song we recorded was 'September Sun', which is twice removed from anything even remotely hardcore."

On TYPE O's setlist for the current tour:

"With a 90-minute set, we could fill that with four songs if we wanted to. Pete wants everything symmetrical. We have six records, so he's thinking of doing two songs from every record. Me and Kenny want to do more of the new songs. Some of the older songs just don't come across as well live."

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