UNEARTH Frontman Discusses The Death Of DIMEBAG DARRELL

In a recent interview with FourteenG.net, UNEARTH frontman Trevor Phipps spoke about the group's upcoming touring plans, their new video for "Zombie Autopilot", and the death of PANTERA/DAMAGEPLAN guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, among other topics. A couple of excerpts from the interview follow:

FourteenG.net: Let's talk about the new video that just came out, "Zombie Autopilot". Who directed it and who came up with the concept of the video?

Trevor: "Greg Kaplan is the director and the concept is based on actual lyrics of the song. A couple of years ago I saw a movie called 'Waking Life'. It's an independent film. It's about a guy who dies but actually doesn't know he dies, comes from dream state, and he's constantly searching through everyday life in his dreams. I mean, he's still going to work, doing the daily grind, he's not getting out of his rut. There's this one scene where he's coming out of the subway from work and a girl passes him and they look at each other and she's coming down, he's going up, they stop and she says, 'Why don't we at least say hi to each other?' because they just looked and that's how most people are. So she mentions, it seems like most people are in a state of a 'zombie autopilot'. I mean, you just go to work, you do the same shit every fuckin day because it's easy to get in that rut. We all have to work and we're lucky we're in a rock band and that's what we do but before that we all went to work and we're in our mid-to-late 20s, so we had real jobs for a long time. You need to break out of the everyday mold and do something fun to spice up your life because if you don't you're gonna live a boring life and what's the point [of that]? So just go up there and live your life and break out of it, do something fun. That the basics of the song."

FourteenG.net: In talking about the election, I interviewed Phil [LaBonte] from ALL THAT REMAINS again a couple of months ago, he said he was happy with the election and said he was a conservative. How about you, what are your thoughts?

Trevor: "Really? I didn't know that. Maybe he had a more fortunate upbringing then. I definitely sway more to the left, I'm a democratic supporter as you can tell with the lyrics on the record. America voted and Bush won by three million votes, it was really close, but apparently people think that he should be President. I don't agree with it, but I can't do anything about it now except sing the songs that I wrote. I mean, what's going on right now is wrong and will eventually lead to [but] hopefully not a devastating end. [I feel] it's something that is not as great as what was happening when Clinton was in office. Even swing music came back in the late '90s because Clinton was doing something right, almost everybody had money and the overall state of America was good because almost everyone was in a better mood. Now, metal has become big again because George Bush is in office. Metal was big when Reagan and the first Bush were in office because everyone was pissed off, angry, and wanted to change but enough people wanted that change."

FourteenG.net: The death of Dime shocked everybody, where we're you when that happened?

Trevor: "I was at my apartment and it happened about 10:30 at night and I didn't find out until about 12:30 am. . . I was in my bed and the phone was ringing a bunch of times, I was like, 'C'mon man I'm in my bed, it's 12:30, who the hell is callin' me right now?' Caller ID says it was Ken and then my cell phone started blowing up, then he texted me. I was like, 'What the hell is going on?' Then Ken called one more time and I was like, 'Fuck it I'll just answer the phone,' then he told me and I didn't believe him, 'cause about a year and a half ago, there was two pretty legit web sites that had Britney Spears committing suicide and Eminem dying in a car crash, but it was all untrue. So, I didn't believe it at first. Then, I just got more and more calls and then it was like on real news and...(pauses) I'm 27 and I've had relatives die, this was the most devastating thing to happen in my life other than when my cousin died in a car crash. I'm very fortunate that I haven't had to deal with much in my life. He was a friend, he was influence on me, my band, and the whole entire metal/hardcore community and it's something that we will never get over. He will definitely be missed."

Read Trevor Phipps' entire interview with FourteenG.net at this location.