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Irving Plaza, 02.08.02 As good as their debut CD "Orphan" is, the heart of this band is their live show. With all five members reaching an almost trancelike state, it’s in the live performance that you really get the diversity of the players involved. Front men Grimm and Jabe don’t just play off of each other vocally (and there’s something special about the way they do) but physically as well. We had the distinct pleasure of sitting with emcee Grimm before the night's show. SHOW & TELL: Just a few questions and we’ll be out of your hair. GRIMM: You’re not in my hair at all. S&T: We know you have to eat. G: We don’t have dinner ‘til 7:15. They always make the interviews seem like you only have 10 minutes but me being the loquacious f**kin’ jabber jaw of the group my 10 minute interviews last an hour. I could talk for hours on end. I used to do radio, I’m used to talking. S&T: In Jersey? G: No, I did radio in Miami, University of Miami. I had a radio show there, and I interned for Howard (Stern) for a summer when he did the Private Parts book. My name’s actually in the book. S&T: You guys are pretty much on tour for what seems like forever. G: Nonstop. The album dropped July 24th of 2001 but we stared touring way before that in February. We did the Papa Roach/Alien Ant Farm tour. We started in a van; we’ve been in a van for the entire tour. This is the first tour we’ve had where we actually got a bus. The only reason we got a bus, MCA gave us a bus so we can start working on the new record. Other than that we’d be in a van. We’re road dogs, you know what I mean, like we don’t care. It’s all about touring for us whether it’s in a van, rv, bus, whatever it takes, we just wanna tour. Whatever way we can do it. S&T: This wraps up March 1st? G: I think it’s going a little big longer because the tour was postponed a week because Rob Quinn the guitarist and vocalist for Machine Head sprained his wrist or sprained his hand, snowboarding accident, before the tour started, so they pushed it back a week. So at the end of this tour we’re making up the Vancouver date and a handful of the California dates as well. S&T: And then stop and finish working on (the new album)? G: It’s really, it’s up in the air. We’re testing a new single out at radio so we’ll see how that goes. If that works out really well we won’t go in and record the new album yet we’ll wait and still promote and tour this record. We have plans to go back to Japan in the spring. We’re going to try to hit Europe also and we’re also trying to get on Ozzfest 2002. S&T: That’d be great. G: What we need is just a tour that’s going to expose us to a lot of people and let people see exactly who we are and what we’re about. I think our strength really is our live show. I think our live show is where we’re at our best and what makes us who we are. That's our real strength. S&T: The name of the band, a play on evolution, is that specifically because that’s the joke about down south? You’re from here (New Jersey) but you moved to Miami. G: Yeh, I went to school University of Miami, started there in 1990. The band started in 1995 but the lineup we have now didn’t come together until January 1st 2000. When we started the band it was just, y'know there’s a bad rap about the south, people think that people from the south are slow or stupid, they haven’t evolved yet. They’re waiting to evolve so they’re in Darwin’s waiting room. So being that we’re from Miami, y'know, we’re from the south, no one really considers Florida the south. S&T: That’s true. G: When you think the south you think deliverance, stuff like that, you don’t think of Miami, Florida. It really describes geographically where we're from but also the mentality and the mindset of the band, we are Darwin’s Waiting Room, we’re waiting to evolve, we’re waiting to change, we don't want to write the same rock and roll song over and over. We want to challenge ourselves, challenge the listeners with something new and something different, something intelligent and thought-provoking. We thought the name would fit that as well. S&T: There’s a lot of bands out now, it seems like we’re inundated with bands doing the whole rap/rock fusion. I liked your cd... G: Thank you. S&T: ...and I really like the vocals, the way they play off each other. The guttural (and) the angry and then the melodic. Talking about (evolution) where do you go next (musically)? G: The way we set up the first record, the way we set up "Orphan", was, um, because we’re just a different band, and everyone’s backgrounds are so different, and so unique, I think that kind of makes us what we are and that really distinguishes us from other bands. Because we’re all from different backgrounds, different styles, and we all come together something different has to come out because we’re all so different So the way we set up the first record is we just wanted it to be where we can go in any direction and do anything from that point on. So that people can’t say well you guys were heavy and you just did a metal album and all of sudden you guys have softer songs and this and that and you guys are selling out. We’re just a different band and we wanted to show that with the first record. I think with that first record we can go anywhere. I mean we have songs that have Shaggy on it or we’ll have a real slow tempo one and then we have ones that have a drummer based jungle feel, "DYIM", there’s songs that are heavier and softer so I mean we can really go anywhere and the stuff we're writing now is really kind of all over the place. But it’s cool that's what we like to do we don’t wanna get stuck with one label, one sound. People love to try to label us, "they’re like Linkin Park." No disrespect, I think Linkin Park’s a great band and their album’s phenomenal and they write great hooks and they've done really well for themselves and they’re super successful but I don't’ think we sound anything like them. It’s just the fact that we have two vocalists people equate us, "oh you have two vocalist, they have two vocalists you’re like Linkin Park." That doesn’t make any sense, know what I mean, our albums are totally different. Or we get compared to Limp Bizkit ‘cause there’s rapping with heavy music. I don’t get that. I think that’s the burden of all new bands. You’re a brand new band, they don’t know how to label you, they don’t know how to categorize you, describe you to other people so they just compare you to other bands. Through time I think we’ll be able to establish who we are. S&T: I don’t doubt it for a second. |
