TYPE O NEGATIVE Guitarist On The Art Of (Not) Making Videos

Stephanie Stevens of The Daily Rock recently conducted an interview with TYPE O NEGATIVE guitarist Kenny Hickey. An excerpt from the chat follows.

The Daily Rock: How much emphasis does TYPE O NEGATIVE put on their videos?

Kenny: "We used to put a big emphasis on it but now there is no real media to push it on. You spend $100,000 to make a video which is expensive these days and it gets spun twice on 'Headbanger's Ball', and that's it and then you might get some local or cable stations, it's really not a big promotional tool anymore especially for our bands. Best video we made we made in Serbia because it's so damn cheap to shoot over there. We were already in Europe and they flew us there and it was a wild place. It was so war torn, there were holes blown into sides of buildings. You were able to buy a grenade on the street for a 100 euros (laughing)."

The Daily Rock: So do you have one now?

Kenny: "[Laughing] No I didn't get hooked up with the gypsies while I was over there."

The Daily Rock: Do you think labels still push for the mighty video?

Kenny: "Yeah, I think so, if you are a certain artist like MARIAH CAREY you can spend half a million on a video but for rock bands, I think if you look at heavy bands or like 'Headbanger's Ball' now it's guys making videos in garages, its horrible but that is what the standard has been lowered to."

The Daily Rock: I would think because of MySpace and YouTube you would still get the same kink of attendance watching your videos?

Kenny: Yeah, it does get that, but like I said we used to spend $15,000 on videos back in the day but now the average range is like 50 grand."

The Daily Rock: It's better to use that money on a new CD or DVD.

Kenny: "Yeah, that is good too 'cause if you release any kind of home video you can add it."

The Daily Rock: You guys are doing a metal festival in Montreal and playing with like old-school bands like IRON MAIDEN. Are you excited about this?

Kenny: "We were just playing with them a lot over in Europe for festivals so we can be thrown in the mix with them a lot. So we can hang out with Slash and be in KISS clothes (laughing). I've been on stage left for AEROSMITH which was awesome, so I have played and seen them a bunch of times, and OVERKILL I have known those guys since the beginning like 1997. We both started from the same place so. A funny story is that we got Bruce [Dickinson] from IRON MAIDEN drunk in Texas one time and we had him backstage and we had a grass skirt on him doing the hula backstage (laughing)."

The complete interview is available at The Daily Rock.