Ex-Carcass Jeff Walker mentioned Michael in this interview, so I thought that it might be interesting…
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What’s up?
Jeff Walker
How on earth has a famous death metal musician ended up in Finland to record a country album?
- If I ever meet a famous death metal musician, I will ask him, laughs Jeff Walker who’ll always be remembered from Carcass.
- I happened to be in Finland when a man called Ville Valo introduced me to Gas (Lipstick), who promised to do the drums for my album. Gas then introduced me to Amorphis’ Nicu (Etelävuori) and Tomi (Koivusaari). Things just clicked and the snowball started rolling.
Did you not find musicians from your vicinity to create new music with?
- Actually the original idea was to record the drums in Helsinki, after which I would have recorded the rest in England with Anathema’s Danny Cavanagh and some other friends. Gas then introduced me to Nicu, Nicu invited Tomi there to play the guitars and Esa (Holopainen) also dropped by, while I tricked Bill Steer (Carcass) to come all the way from Paris. Everything happened very spontaneously.
You’ve worked with the Helsinkian grindcore band To Separate The Flesh From The Bones both on stage and in the studio. Does working with them bring back any memories?
- More like nightmares (laughs). It’s just fooling around drunk and embarassing yourself - just like in the old days.
How does it feel to wear pantyhose over your head with TSTFFTB?
- Arousing (laughs).
The legendary Carcass started out as a grindcore band, but evolved into a death metal group. How and why?
- We were always a death metal band but I believe that our raw, straightforward and primitive delivery gave the impression of a grindcore group. I believe we developed as musicians but we never made a conscious change. It was more about development.
How would you define the difference between grindcore and death metal?
- Based on what I know now, I’d say that grindcore is filthier and rawer, more hardcorepunk influenced, and the drums are blast beat. That’s what the encyclopedia would probably say.
How does it feel to be called a living metal legend?
- I don’t recall being called a legend, usually a dick. Rather that than to be a dead metal legend, don’t you think (laughs).
Numerous people have been asking about the comeback of Carcass after the band split up in the mid 90s. Because you have denied that Carcass would ever come back, I’ll ask you - what would it take to get Jeff Walker, Bill Steer and Ken Owen on the same stage together to play Carcass or possibly even to record a new album?
- I don’t think Ken will ever be able to play the drums like he used to. He’s still recovering from his sudden cerebral hemorrhage that happened in 1999. I’ve changed my opinion on this subject over the summer. After meeting numerous people I have realized that the only people who consider the idea of a one last tour bad are us, Therapy’s Michael and Ville Valo (laughs). At this point I am ready to do a tour because I’m sick and tired of groups copying us and At The Gates. It now depends on Bill basically. Ken hasn’t got a problem with it, his attitude is like “do it”. Bill’s is “never say never”.”
source: Suosikki 12/2005
Posted on Sat, 10 December 2005 at 20:08
