Foil in the Oven Special Feature: the Genghis Tron Interview

Left to Right: Hamilton, Mookie, and Michael


If you've been reading ROOMOFZEN from the start then you know that Genghis Tron is not only one of our favorite groups, but also the group we've seen live more than any other over the past year. We've seen them multiple times in both Boston and Philadelphia, and several places in between. Most recently, Babcock and I headed over to Worcester to see them play the Palladium with Baroness in March. Their shows are amazing and kick our ass every time. Needless to say, we were honored that they were willing to grant us this interview. Before you start, here is a video of them playing the title track to their most recent CD, Board Up the House (video from Metal Injection). If you haven't bought the album yet, you must not read this blog enough.




Hamilton Jordan, the guitarist you see above, was kind enough to answer our questions.



ROOMOFZEN: Thanks so much for agreeing to do this interview. If someone would have told me 6 months ago when this site started that we'd have a band of your caliber voluntarily being featured, I would have shat my pants. I'm not really sure what has changed, because I didn't shit my pants, but we're all really pumped.

Hamilton: No problem, man! We're happy to take part.


R: One thing that is really awesome about you guys is that it seems like you are constantly on the road. Every time we see you around Boston, we leave feeling excited because we already know that you're going to be back sometime in the next couple of months. Each time, the show is more dynamic and the lightshow that you added is sick. How much time do you guys actually spend on the road, and what have your experiences been like on the road this year with bands like DEP and Converge?

H: We do spend quite a lot of time on the road -- not as much as some bands out there, but that's because we all have lives and families and friends that matter to us, so we can only keep ourselves healthy and sane by making sure to balance our touring and home lives. In 2008, I think we will spend about 5 months on the road total. Our experiences this year have been amazing -- our best so far. Our 5-week U.S. tour with Converge was a complete blast, and it was followed immediately by two weeks in Europe, which was also amazing. We're about to take a break for a few months, but I'm already looking forward to booking more tours -- and that's something I wouldn't have ever imagined myself saying a year or two ago!


R: Have you managed to swing a bus yet or is it still the GT van? Which was a bigger priority, the lightshow or the bus?

H: Haha, I don't believe we'll ever get a bus. That's Mookie's favorite thing to joke about, and it will never happen.


R: How has it been working with Kurt Ballou on your last two records and how has he influenced the choices that you made in Dead Mountain Mouth and Board Up the House?

H: It was a great experience. It's very important for us to have an opinionated, talented, fourth head involved in the recording process. The three of us work so hard writing the songs and we often drive ourselves and each other to the edges of our sanity. Because our instrumentation and production style makes for limitless options, it's very hard for us to make songwriting and arranging decisions. Thus, it would be far too daunting for us to also spearhead the recording and engineering of our albums. Working with Kurt provides for a great balance, because we're still making the grand decisions as far as how the album is going to sound, but he's the one who is able to comprehend our goals and help us translate them into specific sounds and effects. Furthermore, he's a talented songwriter, so if we're stuck on revising a last-minute addition to the album, he's great at pushing us to make wise choices.



R: We saw you guys at the Middle East on the tour with DEP, and it was a great show. We came for you guys, but we were also really psyched because we had heard tell of how intense Dillinger is on stage. We were expecting to see Stolen Babies opening that show. Instead we got Shat. Now, I'm certainly not going to speak ill of any bands, but I was excited to see Stolen Babies and Shat left me feeling a little bit empty (particularly the occasional visible scrotum that their show entails). Did Stolen Babies ever join you guys on that tour and if so do you know why they weren't in Cambridge?


H: Stolen Babies were never on that tour; it was announced as such, but apparently was never true. We've never met them nor played any shows with them.


R: I have a question about etiquette. Every time we see you guys play, you are also very visible around the audience throughout the rest of the show. Obviously, it would be awesome to talk to you guys, but I never feel comfortable enough to do it. The closest I ever came was the show at Great Scott (album release tour) because we saw you guys outside the place before the show. But, in Worcester, I had you guys and Baroness, two of my favorite bands, standing right in front of me. I want to talk, but I don't want to end up like Wayne and Garth bowing down to Alice Cooper chanting "we're not worthy." Do you guys like to mingle with the fans at your shows, or would you rather just take the show in like everyone else?

H: As long as people aren't super crazy or obnoxious for some reason (which is rare), we love talking to fans at shows. I don't go out of my way to walk around the crowd and shake hands with people, but if someone approaches me and wants to talk, I'm always happy to do so. I did that all the time with bands I admired, and still do. So come say hi next time!



R: Genghis Tron and Baroness are our two favorite bands and the two that we have spent most of our time writing about. We didn't even stay in Worcester to see RC or Converge because we didn't want to change the energy we had from seeing you guys and Baroness play consecutive sets. What do you think of those guys and what other bands are you guys into right now?

H: You should have stayed for Converge! Baroness is a great band consisting of great dudes. We're hoping to do some more touring with them later this year. We're into tons of bands, too many to name -- but right now, as far as newer bands, we've been listening to a lot of Black Mountain, Nachtmystium, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Krallice, and the Chromatics!



R: I know you guys are heading to Europe with Nachmystium. What comes next? Can we expect you in the Boston area any time soon? (NOTE: THEY HAVE RETURNED FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WITH NACHMYSTIUM)

H: We're playing a single show in Brazil next month, then in July we return to Europe for one week to play a large festival in France and some other shows. Starting in September or October, we plan on doing another U.S. tour and probably back to Europe a third time after that!



R: Can you describe to us some of your musical influences, specifically in the punk / hardcore or metalcore realms? We are huge fans of cross-over bands like yours, and the unique combination of styles intrigues us since we fucking love newer bands like you guys and High on Fire and Hatebreed, yet retain our appreciation for older bands such as Megadeth. Also, do you have any thoughts you'd like to share about Neil Young?


H: Our influences are pretty diverse, as we all came from different musical backgrounds. Personally, I wasn't really a part of any "scene" growing up in Atlanta, so most of what I learned about music I found from books, magazines, and later the Internet. Between the three of us, I can confidently say that some of our biggest influences are Nine Inch Nails, Coil, Drive Like Jehu, Skinny Puppy, Slint, Philip Glass, Meshuggah, Autechre, Botch, Boards of Canada, and Tool.

R: Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with us and have a great time in Europe. (NOTE: THEY HAVE RETURNED FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR)

H: No problem, man! Thanks for the interview and I'm quite sorry it took so long to respond.

Sick.

Baroness

Obviously all of us here at Roomofzen are huge Baroness fans. That is why we talk about them all the time and have them linked up over on the right. I really do believe that the Red Album was the best album of 2007 and it's ashame that we are in this age of music where you really have to look hard to find good stuff. Anyways, Babcock and I saw them on Sunday night, as you can see in the Babcock report and I feel inspired to post this sick video. Play it loud, and maybe you can experience 1/10th of the intensity that this band puts out. Both times I have seen them I have left feeling like I just gained some profound insight into the way the world works.

Bad-Ass

Great recording of Genghis Tron playing "Board Up The House" live.

Odds and Ends

So, the Tuesday night show at the Middle East was scheduled to feature Stolen Babies as the first band, followed by Genghis Tron, A Life Once Lost, and the Dillinger Escape Plan. I was very pumped, as I have heard that all four of these bands are sick live. Well, Stolen Babies ended up having to drop the show for some reason. To the best of my knowledge, this was in no way similar to the incident when Axl Rose kept an entire arena waiting so that he could watch the rest of the New York Knicks game (now, if he really wanted to prove his fanhood, he could try pulling that this season.) Instead, a band called Shat kicked off the show. This band sucked. I don't know how else to put it. It was four guys who were stripped down to nothing but body armor that was totally covered by dildos. Their songs were each about one minute or so in length (their latest CD features 69 songs in 72 minutes), and they generally consisted of no more than one line that kept being repeated. An example of a song (this is one that is a little less graphic, for the kids out there) was a rendition of the BINGO song, but instead it was Fat ho (F-A-THO instead of B-I-NGO). This was probably the best piece musically, most likely because they ripped it off from whoever wrote the original bingo song. It was very awkward because they were making it clear that they were pissed and thought the audience sucked because they weren't into it (in fact the lead singer said "we may never play here again"......so there's reason to be hopeful), and the audience was upset because they had to watch this god-awful band for the first act. I was just upset because the lead singer's balls were hanging down below his strap-on. Riley hit the nail on the head when he compared the act to seeing Jack Black dress up crazy and play songs on stage, except if none of the jokes were funny. They are on youtube if you want to check them out. I refuse to include it in here.

So, the change in the first act was a huge downgrade. However, Genghis Tron, A Life Once Lost, and especially DEP more than made up for this unfortunate turn of events by blowing our faces off for the next three and a half hours. Genghis Tron (pictured) has a really cool and different sound, and the show is really cool because of their unique nature of music. Their lead singer has great stage presence, and his voice reminded my of Dennis Lyxzen during the Refused era (a huge compliment from me, I love refused.) I didn't really know much about A Life Once Lost other than that their sound is pretty typical for your run-of-the-mill metal band. Their show was outstanding and filled with energy. The Wanderer in particular stood out to me as a sick performance. So, by the time we got to the break between A Life Once Lost and Dillinger, I was feeling pretty good about the show. We were having a great time, and would have been perfectly happy if the show continued on the same wavelength for the rest of the night. I never could have imagined that Dillinger could have raised the intensity level the way that they did. The beginning of their first sounds hit me like a lightning bolt thrown from Zeus. I have heard that their shows are incredible, but I never imagined how sick it would be. What struck me most was how loud, fast, and crazy they were able to be on stage despite how technical their music is. I would recommend seeing any of these three bands live, I believe they are touring for the next few months. Hopefully you will get Stolen Babies instead of Shat.

There will be a lot of roomofzen material coming to you this weekend. I hear rumors that we may even hear from the oracle. However, I just want to hit on a few points quickly:

1) Can we all stop with the talk about how Tony Romo was cursed by the presence of Jessica Simpson at the Cowboys game. She goes to all of the Cowboys games! She just usually sits somewhere else. Now, maybe we can pin it to a seat, or a specific article of clothing (I hate pink jersies too), but how far can we go with this. She has literally probably been at over 50 per cent of his home games since last year.




2) I'm going for an unprecedented fantasy three-peat this weekend. Now that there are only two teams standing in the league, I want to share with the people out there a strategy that has served me well up until last week (when it backfired for the first time). Now, people always say that your defense doesn't really matter unless they suck. Well, last year I was very unhappy with my defense (Seattle). I was sitting on the playoff fence, and looking for a way to get over (how embarrassing, to win the championship and then not even make the playoffs). I was fortunate to have a solid lineup of starters, so I dropped all of my bench guys, and picked up the defenses that were playing the Raiders for the rest of the weeks (it was lucky that I was able to do this. We had an 8 person league ((now 12)) and most people only carried one DST at that point). Now, for those of you who may not remember, that Oakland offense was one of the worst as far as giving up sacks and turnovers. I won some close games for the rest of the way, always getting 25+ points from my defense. So, this year, I spent weeks 11, 12, 13, and 14 with the defense that played Miami. Again, this couldn't have worked out better. Miami's offense wasn't quite as bad as Oakland's last year, but they were certainly the worst out there. Unfortunately, last week I realized that Miami would be playing Baltimore and New England (both taken) and I had no defenses for the two most important weeks. So, last week I rolled the dice and took Denver against Houston. My strategy for playing the defensive matchup failed me for the first time. This week, for the championship, I have chosen Arizona, who takes on Atlanta. I'm confident in this choice, and so confident in this system that I don't believe it can fail me twice in a row. So, just remember, by paying attention to the details, you too can one day be a three-time fantasy champion.




3) The Celtics are going to face a huge test tonight against Detroit. They are going to be challenged a great deal over the next few weeks as they will soon be starting a West Coast road trip. Look, people are saying that this team has been playing an easy schedule so far and that they're too old to make it through the season healthy. But, honestly, I think that these arguments are being made by people who are just looking for reasons to knock this team down. True, they haven't played the other top four or five teams in the league. But, they have been blowing out their competition by 20 points pretty regularly. They did absolutely crush Denver. They are 20-2, which means that they must be doing something right. Next, any team is going to be decimated by multiple injuries to key players, so that argument is not specific to the Celtics. But, they won two tough games pretty convincingly without Ray Allen this weekend, and we've been saying on this site all year long that the best surprise about this team has been its bench. I think that given their record right now, they will be able to suffer minor injuries to key players and still win the Atlantic when it's all said and done. Listen, I really believe that we are witnessing one of the great seasons in recent memory. Until the Celtics actually prove me wrong, I refuse to believe otherwise.

4) The more I think about the matchup for the G-Men against Buffalo this weekend without Shockey and with a hobbled Plax, the more I feel this turning in my stomach as I imagine the Saints taking our playoff spot. We need this one bad.